Lancaster Green Chapter 3
Belinda had shared the rest of the information with Amelia while James was in the bathroom. She relayed it to him as they walked through the halls, putting up sensors throughout the wings. There were three separate residential wings: one standard, one more complex care, and one memory care. In that one, a nurse had to walk with them as they put up their equipment, since the ward was locked.
“I saw it,” she said as they passed the nurses’ station. “I thought maybe it was a strange shadow at first, like the curtains had fallen at a weird angle. That happened once at my old work and I nearly fainted.”
She laughed, a loud, brassy noise that James found immensely comforting. “And then I realized it was in the room, so my next thought was smoke. And obviously that’s a major emergency. A fire in a place like this, with so many locked doors, mobility problems, and oxygen? I was seconds from pulling the fire alarm when I realized I didn’t smell smoke and it was just hovering there, not really filling up the room or anything the way actual smoke would.”
James nodded, looking down the busy hallway. It looked like any hospital he’d ever been in, a sharp contrast to the cozy space in the front lobby. As they passed by open doorways, he heard a blend of TVs, conversation, and occasional beeping monitors.
“So I yelled for Damien, who was on with me that night,” the nurse continued, waving to a young man walking with an old lady. “And he comes up and tells me he doesn’t see anything. And it’s this motionless cloud in the center of the room, right? Directly over Mr. Huddle. And Mr. Huddle, he doesn’t see it, but he didn’t see anything, you know? And I’m pointing it out. I’m like Damien, how the hell don’t you see it? And he’s like, I don’t see it, Sherri, I’m sorry. So he starts saying maybe it’s my glasses. Or maybe his. He’s a nice guy, he’s not going to tell me outright that I need my eyes checked.”
James taped a sensor to the side of the empty room. They didn’t have permission to do a lot of the rooms with residents in them, though a couple of women were very intrigued by what they were doing and had said they’d be delighted to have these things in their space. Though they hadn’t seen the ghost themselves. And based on what they’d heard, they hoped they didn’t, because they were both busy this week and weren’t ready to die.
Finally, they had sensors up everywhere they could have them. The higher ups had agreed to give them access to the security cameras for the past few days as well, so Amelia was going to take that tomorrow while James was off of work. He’d been about to offer to come in, but it was apparently obvious because she glared at him and he shut up with the offer only halfway out.
“How are you feeling?” Amelia asked him as she pulled out of the parking lot.
James looked out over the lake as they passed it. His uncle had had a boat in that lake that he’d bring the kids out on sometimes. They’d go swimming there all the time. It wasn’t always great for the little ones since it got deep so quickly. So wading was tricky, especially on this side of the lake. But the older kids were down this way all the time in the summer, boating and diving. James was pretty sure it was actually Gabriella’s father who had taught him how to dive when he was ten, either on that dock or the one over Oak Street.
“I’m okay,” he said.
“Want to get coffee on the way back? That new place opened.”
“No, I’m good. But you can get one if you want.”
He still couldn’t shake that idea of something in the food. But apparently him being out of his house, sober, and attempting to lead a case was progress enough for now, because Amelia didn’t argue with him. “I’ll just get something back at headquarters,” she said.
When they got back to headquarters, Amelia went straight to the coffee maker. She looked tired and James was about to offer to make her some coffee so she could go sit down, but something about the way her back was set was familiar. He knew that feeling, could feel it in his own bones right now. She didn’t want to go back into the captain’s office and see what was next on the never-ending list of tasks, and the coffee was one of the few excuses she had to not do so. So instead, he went into the living room, where Graham had a library’s worth of resources scattered on the coffee table as Fang snoozed among the books.
“What are you doing?” James asked as he sat down across from Graham and scratched Fang’s ears. She opened her eyes just enough to acknowledge him, before closing them again.
She’d been terrified of him. He hadn’t realized it at the time (not that he had been capable of realizing much), but Fang could sense the control compound in his body and it scared her. She’d refused to be anywhere near him until it was gone.
She wasn’t leaving right now, so that was a good sign.
“Researching two or three potential creatures that could be walking around behind Walmart, and getting distracted by the sheer number of them out in the world,” Graham replied, biting the end of his pen thoughtfully. “Okay, so I understand that cryptids are just creatures that current science doesn’t have an explanation for-”
“Sometimes,” James interrupted. “Sometimes they’re just magic.”
“My brain is already struggling to contain this at all, thanks,” Graham said with a laugh. “But alright, look at these ones from a recent case. They don’t have an official name, so the Foundation calls them Cemetery Lifeforms, with complete disregard for the idea that there might be many lifeforms in a cemetery. But these ones in particular can pass through granite.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. Gabriella’s evidence is right there,” Graham said, pointing to a page filled with familiar neat handwriting. “And I couldn’t tell you the mechanisms behind this ability to save my life. And so I’m torn between wondering how anyone could ever achieve the title of Cryptid Expert, especially when all it requires is finishing those training modules, and being more excited about learning this than I’ve been about anything since I did my grad school research.”
James remembered how listless Graham had been before he joined the Foundation. He’d been coming up on thirty and clearly having some feelings about it, and his career, and everything else in his life. And now he was sitting here, poring over resources about the impossible, a glow of enthusiasm on his face.
“There’s things in here,” Graham continued, flipping through one of the books James recognized from the office, “that have an extraordinary impact on this world. There’s ones that old alchemists attempted to make medicinal. Hell, I’m pretty sure some of them could solve global warming if we could understand what was going on with them. This is the kind of thing the Foundation should be putting resources toward.”
James wasn’t sure how to respond. Everything Graham had said was correct and yes, he was intrigued. But James wasn’t sure if he could talk about medicinal cryptids without vomiting right now. And he was doing his absolute best to never vomit in this building again.
“Could they pass through the iron gates?” he asked.
“What?”
“The Cemetery Lifeforms, which yeah, need a way better name. Can they pass through the gates?”
“No,” Graham replied as Fang stretched leisurely, knocking a book onto the floor.
“Huh.”
“I’d rather not have this consume my whole life,” Graham said, looking down at a diagram containing more legs than James wanted to think about. “But it’s exciting.”
Amelia and Bradley had told James not to bother going back and reading up on the cases he’d missed. But of course he was going to, he just hadn’t had a chance yet. He’d catch up on the Cemetery Lifeforms soon.
“Oh, I’ll be gone all day tomorrow,” Graham said. “I picked up a shift at Cleary House.”
Cleary House was Graham’s part-time job that had nothing to do with ghosts at all, except for one ghost that rattled around the building and was decidedly not his problem. “Alright,” James said. “I’m off, so I’ll just be…”
He tried to think of a way to confidently end that sentence, but too much time passed and all he could do was shrug pathetically.
“There’s some cranberry-orange muffins in the fridge,” Graham said. “It’s a new recipe. If you want to try them, let me know how they are.”
Unlikely, but it was kind of him to offer. And apparently James’ thoughts were clear on his face, because Graham didn’t say anything.
“I’ll let you get back to whatever you’re doing,” he said after a moment, then returned his focus to the cryptids before him.
James was halfway out of his seat before he realized he didn’t know what he was doing next. Down the hall, he could see Madelyn and Bradley deep in conversation in the back bedroom. He wasn’t going to interrupt them and there was nothing he could do with Lancaster Green right now, but he had no other cases going.
He went over to what he was never going to think of as his office again and stood in the doorway. Amelia was at the desk, focused on something on the computer. She jumped when she saw him.
“Sorry,” she said, looking suddenly self-conscious. “What’s up?”
“Do you have anything you want me to start?”
“Honestly, no,” she said, sounding surprised. “No, you’ve got some time. I’ll find something, though.”
She smiled at him, but there was something a little unsure under it. “Yeah, sure,” James said. “I’ll be in the gym.”
