O’Toole House Chapter 8
Gabriella and Bradley were back at the O’Toole House. And just because it was the middle of the night did not mean that Gabriella was more freaked out by this place than she otherwise would be. She had to keep telling herself it was just an ordinary night case. But just like before, Bradley was clearly trying to swallow down nausea and between that and the smell of the basement, Gabriella was ready to throw up herself.
Basements weren’t supposed to be nice places to hang out in, she was aware of that. But the cigarette-mushroom-rot smell down here was more than even the grossest basement she’d been in before. And she’d been in some pretty rank basements, both on and off the clock. Right now, Saskia was on comms with them back at the house, a rare three person overnight that was only this way because they needed some late night observations and Amelia refused to let either of them stay here alone.
The walls were so gross. Gabriella was wearing gloves, but the cold, almost soft feeling on some of the stones was definitely not normal. Nor was the powdery residue it left on her gloves. Mold? Demon mold? She should have brought a respirator.
“We did tell the entire family to stay out of the house, right?” came Bradley’s voice from behind her.
Gabriella jumped and spun around to see him on the stairs leading up to the first floor. “Yeah,” she said. “They agreed to it too. At least, Sarah did. I don’t think I got any kind of confirmation paperwork from Nick.”
“No, he did,” Bradley said. “He bitched about it, but he did. I know he did.”
“What’s the problem?”
“He’s on the cameras last night.”
“Maybe he forgot to pack underwear.”
Bradley looked at her and she sighed. “He’s a dick,” she said. “He thinks he’s above the whole investigation, I’m not surprised that he came back. He probably did it just to feel big and important, I don’t know. Did he mess with any of the equipment?”
“No,” Bradley replied. “At least as far as I can tell. But-”
A whispering sound from the corner cut him off and they both turned. Gabriella reached into her pocket and felt for the tiny bottle of holy water in there. The whisper sounded human so there was no way she was just overreacting to mice. Bradley glared at the corner, then held up the sensor in his hand. It beeped wildly, just like it had every time they used one down here, no matter where the basement they were.
The whispering was almost understandable, just under Gabriella’s perception. It felt like an itch at the base of her skull and the scent of rot and cigarettes intensified. Beside her now, Bradley was pale and she knew that it had nothing to do with being afraid. “Head upstairs,” she said.
“Guys, what’s going on?” Saskia asked over comms.
“Can you hear that?” Gabriella asked her.
“No, but I got the readings. Wow.”
“We’re both hearing…whispers?” Gabriella said. “You hear whispers, right?”
He nodded. Gabriella stepped forward, poured a small amount of holy water on her fingers, and flicked the droplets into the corner. There was a slightly louder hiss.
“I’ll kill you, slut,” a voice whispered.
“Get the hell out of there,” Saskia ordered.
Bradley grabbed Gabriella’s arm and tugged her back toward the basement stairs before she could splash the darkness with holy water again. “I’ll kill you,” the demon whispered from the corner, sparks coming out of the darkness only to vanish before they hit the ground.
***
The next day, Gabriella had been downstairs in the medbay for about an hour, rearranging the mess so that an entire half of the space was clear, then scrubbing that space. Her shift was over. She’d been here about eleven hours on the clock, and now she was on hour twelve and the sun was going down.
And if she went home, she’d be less than three blocks away from that house. Where the demon said such horrible shit to and about a kid. And then to her. And maybe she was just feeling extra raw, but the idea of being so close to it after being steeped in this all day and last night just made her feel gross. Not quite in the same way as Bradley, puking anytime he was within ten feet of the house and denying there was any problem. But she couldn’t imagine relaxing when she got home tonight.
Graham had been at headquarters when Gabriella got to work at five o’clock the next morning. He looked worn out and scared as she came in the door.
“How is he?” she asked immediately.
Graham shrugged. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “It’s been a really long night.”
“Do you want to go home and sleep?” she asked. “I can take care of things here for a while. Bradley said that I’m basically the point person for the Foundation today.”
“I’ll check with the others first,” Graham asked. “But do you mind?”
“Not at all.”
He sighed. “I had no idea,” he admitted.
“Me neither.”
“He was acting weird,” Graham continued, looking past her. “I haven’t seen him much in the past few days, but I figured it was just because our work schedules were off. But he sent me twice the usual amount for rent. And just kind of stayed locked in his room when he was at home. But Madelyn-”
He cut off abruptly, his gaze moving toward the computer bank, where one of the computers was gone. “What happened to that?” Gabriella asked.
“James apparently, um…” Graham was at a loss for words and she didn’t know how much was exhaustion and how much was the impossibility of what was happening.
“It wasn’t him,” Graham finished finally, then stood up. “I’m going to see if either Amelia or Bradley wants to get out for a few minutes before I do.”
He walked down the hall and into the gray bedroom. Gabriella was tempted to follow, but if they were already in there, then that was going to be just too many people crammed into the room.
It definitely wasn’t that she was scared to see James. She would see him later, and maybe by then he’d be feeling better.
Graham came back out a moment later. “They’re both going to stay here and take turns staying in with him,” he said. “So yeah, I will go home and get a few hours of sleep. I’ll be back this afternoon.”
“How is he?” she asked again.
Graham shrugged again. “Asleep,” he replied. “I guess.”
She wanted to hug him and out of everyone here, he was the most likely to accept it. But instead, she just smiled at him as he picked up his bag and left.
She got her coffee and sat down at the computer bank. It was too quiet, though she could hear the low murmur of voices down in the bedroom. Then Amelia came tearing down the hall, horror on her face. “She has keys!” she exclaimed as Gabriella spilled her coffee. “Where’s Graham?”
“He just left.”
“She can get in their house.”
Her shirt dripping with hot coffee, Gabriella was up and down the stairs in one motion, running out the front door and leaping the small front stoop. Ignoring the thought that whoever did this to James could be anywhere right now, Gabriella ran after Graham.
He was walking in the front door as she got there. “GRAHAM!” Gabriella screamed.
He stopped, the door half-open. “She has a key to your apartment,” Gabriella said breathlessly as she reached him.
Graham dropped his bag and took a shuddering breath before letting the door slam shut behind him. Then Gabriella did give him a hug.
“What are you doing?”
Gabriella jumped and spun around, knocking a stack of boxes over with a clatter. Graham was standing in the doorway to the medbay, wearing his workout gear. “Cleaning,” she said.
“I thought you left an hour ago.”
“I want to get this done for Jolene, she explained. “She’s not going to have a chance to do it herself anytime soon.”
Graham nodded. “And I don’t want to go home,” Gabriella added.
“Yeah?”
“The house me and Bradley have been working at is right nearby. Maybe I’m being stupid, but-”
“I don’t blame you,” Graham said. “You should probably leave here though or you’ll end up working. Want to go stay on my couch?”
That was not at all what she’d expected. “Um..” she started.
“I’m here overnight with Madelyn,” he said. “James is home, but he hasn’t really left his room, at least this morning when I was there. But you can have the couch.”
“Are you sure?”
Graham laughed. “Why wouldn’t I be sure?” he said. “You’re in at nine tomorrow?”
“Yeah,” she said. “And I have my clothes upstairs in the pink bedroom.”
“Great,” he said. “Yeah, go sleep on the couch. Help yourself to anything in the fridge. There’s bread on the counter and if you wouldn’t mind feeding my sourdough starter, I’d appreciate it. Oh, and Madelyn made cookies. Regular cookies,” he added.
This was sounding better and better the more she thought about it. “Thanks,” she said, suddenly anxious to be out of her sweaty, bleach-scented clothes, in pajamas, curled up on the couch, and eating homemade sourdough bread.
About forty minutes later, she was doing exactly that. She had showered at headquarters, then gotten here and looked in on James, who was asleep. If he’d been awake, or just kind of napping, she might try to get him to eat something with her. But he’d been deeply asleep, not even stirring when she walked in the room. So instead, she left a little note beside him on the bed so he’d know she was out there if he woke up.
Graham had a stack of classic movies on DVD next to the TV, so she turned one on quietly while she ate. The sourdough reminded her of Elliot staying over the night before the gala, but Gabriella made herself stop thinking about it and watch whatever movie she was too tired to actually focus on.
She fell asleep before the movie ended, waking up sometime later to the home screen glowing and quiet violins playing over it. As she sat up to check the time, her foot bumped something on the floor beside her.
She glanced down. James was asleep on the carpet beside the couch, the TV lights flickering over his face. He had a blanket wrapped around himself and a throw pillow under his head. He was too old for that, his neck was going to hurt in the morning. But he’d left his room and come out to be with her, so she wasn’t going to disturb him.
Instead, Gabriella turned off the TV and laid back down, letting her hand dangle down beside him as she went back to sleep.
