Oleander House: Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Book 1

“I came over here last week, did some preliminary readings, talked to a few people. I didn’t experience anything out of the ordinary myself, but we all know that’s meaningless. We should all keep our wits about us. No one investigates alone, ever, for any reason. You see anything, hear anything, feel anything that says ‘danger’ to you, gather what information you safely can, vacate that area and report to Amy or me immediately. Understood?”
Nods and assenting noises all around. Bo smiled. “Great. I did want to mention one thing. The electromagnetic readings in this house are high at baseline, generally between two and three. I tried several different machines, to make sure it wasn’t just the equipment, and it did the same thing with every one. Keep that in mind when you’re investigating.”
“Excuse me.” Cecile crossed her arms, her voice icy. “But why are you downplaying that finding? It proves that this house is inhabited by spirits!”
“Not quite,” Bo said, ignoring Amy’s impatient grumbling. “The links between a strong electromagnetic field and paranormal activity are tenuous at best. Admittedly, I’ve never seen a place whose field is quite as high as this one at baseline, but the EMF readings don’t mean much by themselves.”
Cecile frowned and fell silent. Amy drew a deep breath. “Okay, folks, let’s get started.”
    Amy pulled Sam aside and quickly showed him how to operate the few pieces of equipment he wasn’t already familiar with. Afterward, the group split into two teams to begin their preliminary investigation. Bo took David and Cecile with him to cover the first floor, while the rest of the group headed upstairs.
    Sam wished he could’ve been in Bo’s group, but the excitement of beginning the investigation far outweighed that slight disappointment. His heart thudded as he switched on the video camera he’d been assigned and followed Amy and Andre up the wide staircase.
    “We’ll start with Bo’s room,” Amy said, pointing toward the room on the left as they reached the top of the stairs. “We’ll work our way clockwise. Equipment check first. Honey, you ready with the EMF detector?”
    Andre held up the electromagnetic field detector. “Yep. Got the thermometer too.”
“Great. Sam, you ready on video?”
“Rolling,” Sam answered, pointing the video camera at her. “Got the Polaroid too.”
“Okay, good. I’ll take notes. And I’ve got the thirty-five mm camera all loaded up and ready.” Amy fixed Sam with a bright blue gaze. “Sam, if we need to get simultaneous shots, I’ll let you know.”
“Cool.”
“All right, you boys got your two-way radios and flashlights?” Amy grinned as Sam and Andre dutifully nodded. “Okay, equipment check’s done. Let’s go find us a ghost.”
Sam found the next couple of hours almost unbearably exciting. The fact that nothing out of the ordinary happened didn’t matter. He was taking part in his first professional investigation of a possible haunting, and nothing could diminish the thrill that gave him. Even the sight of the bed where Bo would soon be sleeping didn’t distract him for long. For a few seconds, he let himself imagine Bo lying there naked, black satin hair strewn across the pillow, before turning his mind back to his work.
After taking video, some stills and EMF and temperature readings in Bo’s room, they went through the same process with each of the other upstairs rooms in turn. Cecile’s room, then Amy and Andre’s room, David’s room, the small parlor opposite the stairwell, the empty bedroom and Sam’s room. Other than the unusually high EMF readings, which they already knew about, nothing showed up.
They’d just finished the small bathroom tucked into the corner of what used to be a nursery, across the hall from Sam’s room, and were about to start taking readings in the nursery itself, when the radios crackled to life. The burst of static made Sam jump.
Bo’s voice came over the radio. “Amy, come in.”
Amy pulled her radio off the waistband of her shorts and held it to her mouth. “This is Amy.”
“We’re done and heading to the library. How’re y’all doing?”
“We’re starting the last room now. We should be down soon enough, if this one goes like the rest of this floor did.”
“Quiet, huh?”
“You could say that. Not a damn thing happening, other than Sam taking video of my ass.” She winked at Sam. He blushed. Andre burst out laughing.
Bo’s throaty