Where The Heart Is: A Bay City Paranormal Investigations story

Sommer in particular?”
She shrugged. “Sommer’s the one who sees it all the time. It just makes sense that it’s trying to tell him something.”
“Hm.” Dean picked up his mug and took a sip. “And Sommer said none of his employees have seen anything unless he was with them, which totally supports your theory.”
Kerry’s expression turned solemn. “Sommer never saw that ghost upstairs before, did he?”
“No. Of course he said he normally doesn’t go in that room.”
“Yeah, but still. I wonder…”
“What?” Dean prodded when Kerry trailed off.
“I don’t know. Just…” Her brow furrowed. “Okay, maybe this is dumb, but what if the ghost is, like, taking things to the next level?”
“I don’t understand.”
Chewing her lip, she studied the paused video on the laptop screen for a moment. “Sommer’s seen that thing in the kitchen lots of times, but he never followed it before the other day, right?”
“Right.”
“And y’all didn’t find anything in the woods.”
“Right again.”
“And now, all of a sudden, for the first time, this thing appears to Sommer upstairs and makes a drawer open.” She leaned against the back of her chair, picked up her mug and balanced it on her protruding belly. “It’s almost like since y’all didn’t find whatever it wanted you to in the woods, it decided to try something else.”
It made sense. All the hairs stood up on Dean’s arms. “Sommer’s arranging for me to talk to his employees who were working at Blue Skye when his parents still ran the place. I’ll have to make sure to ask them specifically about that room. Especially the housekeeper. Maybe he’ll know something that’ll help us figure out who or what this thing might be, and what it wants.”
“I hope so.” Kerry lifted her mug, took a long swallow and set it on the table. “Can I help you review stuff?”
Dean smiled. “I already promised you and Ron you could. Would you rather watch video or listen to audio?”
She pursed her lips. “Which one’s easier?”
He snickered. “Lazy.”
“Am not.” She kicked his shin with one sock-clad foot. “What I meant was, which one am I less likely to miss important stuff on?”
“I know, I know.” He thought about it. “Probably audio. Believe it or not, it’s really easy to lose focus on one of these videos when you’re watching them for more than a few minutes at a time.”
“Gotcha.” She gave him an eager smile. “So, what do I do?”
    To Dean’s surprise, Kerry took to evidence review like the proverbial duck to water. She had an impressive ability to pick out sounds which didn’t belong in the general background noise. Unfortunately, the couple of faint voices and myriad other things she found turned out on closer listen to be either the investigators themselves or the normal noises of an old house. The revelation disappointed her, but she perked up when Dean told her how common it was to make that mistake.
    When she nudged him for about the tenth time, he stifled a sigh and steeled himself for another mundane thump, squeak or entirely human voice. He paused his video and turned to Kerry. “Okay, what—?” He stopped when he saw her ashen face and wide, shocked eyes. “Kerry, what is it?”
    She shook her head. “I don’t know. But it isn’t us this time.”
Taking the headphones from around Kerry’s neck, Dean put them on, reversed the audio tape a bit and hit play. He heard his own voice, telling Sommer to question the entity in the upstairs room, followed by Sommer’s shaky whisper asking who the thing was and what it wanted. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, just before the rattle of the drawer opening, Dean heard it.
He stared at Kerry. “Oh shit.”
She nodded. “No kidding.”
His fingers trembling, Dean played it again. The voice wasn’t himself, wasn’t Kerry or Ron or Sommer, though the soft lilt reminded him of Sommer. He reversed and listened to those mournful words over and over, until he thought he’d hear it in his sleep.
“Sommer,” the voice breathed, an aching melancholy sigh. “Sommer…I’m here…”
Chapter Nine
    By the time Sommer finished listening to the audio clip for the fifth time, his face was gray and tremors shook his body. Worried, Dean took the recorder from Sommer’s unresisting hand, pulled the headphones off his ears and stared into his glassy eyes. “Sommer? Are you all right?”
    Sommer blinked and focused on Dean’s face. “Yeah. I’m okay,