All Chapters of Haunter: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

Brandon simply loved the study. He explored every corner of the large room, that took up the equivalent to half the second floor.“Man, this is awesome!” he murmured.Then he spotted the desk with my laptop on it. He approached it and rested his hands on the back of the armchair, a cushioned spinning piece that had nothing to do with the rest of the furniture. He leaned a little forward, looking out the window, and turned the armchair to sit down on it.I saw him there, an elbow on the armrest, his other hand resting on my laptop lid, his eyes out the window, on the Quabbin, and grabbed my phone, stepping back. He didn’t notice. I think he was too used to having cameras on him around the clock, and had learned to just ignore them and carry on.My camera didn’t quite capture the whole ambiance of the moment, the sun coming in to wrap him in a golden glow, the warm contrast of lights and shadows with the stuffed bookshelves behind. B

Monday morning.Lady Audrey showed up at nine sharp, her Mercedes followed by a big pickup truck with two big men on it. Two big men who, like Ann had anticipated, didn’t like women sticking their noses in their stuff, especially a short girl that looked hardly of age.The moment they set foot in the guesthouse, they started talking about tearing walls down and doing this or that. And when I tried to object, Lady Audrey patted my shoulder with a patronizing smile.“Let the experts decide, dear,” she said. “They know better.”I didn’t bother to reply. I just produced my phone and called Brandon, who picked up still in bed.“Hey, kid,” he said, eyes hardly open. “Any problem over there?”“What we expected.”“Okay. Call you back in five.”He disconnected and I turned to the big experts, forcing a smile. “Please, take a look around. We’l

The next days were busy and noisy, with the contractors getting everything ready to start working on Monday. And that next week was enough for me to know I would be counting down the days for them to finish their work and be gone. The worst wasn’t the constant noises and loud voices, or the mess they were doing on that side of the garden, or the dust that no closed window seemed able to stop from getting into the Manor whenever even the slightest breeze blew from the guesthouse. The worst of all was that those men considered Mike and me a nuisance, and tried to have their way the moment we looked away.I’d thought I could take a couple of days to go to Pennhurst. Changing the construction buzz for a night in the woods with Kujo looked like the deal of the century, but by the third day of work, it was already clear I would be stuck in the Manor from Monday to Saturday until they left.Despite all that, April was sort of a quiet month. I adjusted to the routi

“How long?” I asked Amy as we walked out of the ER.“Three to four weeks. I gotta check with my physician first thing tomorrow.”She let me help her into the car and buckle her seatbelt.“Shit, Fran! What the fuck’s going on?” she snarled when I got in behind the wheel.“You ask me?” I reversed out of the slot and drove onto the street. “Why did you ask to come to the Manor so out of the blue? We had breakfast together that morning and you said nothing about it.”She shook her head, frowning ahead. “I don’t know. When you came back to say goodbye, I just felt this strong impulse to go with you. I don’t question that kind of feeling when I get them, so I just played along.“Like something inside you knew we would need you here,” I muttered.My phone rang, because the Haunter Supreme didn’t dig waiting. I handed it to Amy, who

I was happy to find Lady Audrey up and awake. She was obviously surprised to hear from me again so soon, and she hesitated before giving me authorization to record the call. Brandon moved back to sit at the other end of the couch.“I’m sorry to bother you, but I’d need to ask you if there’s any kind of historic family record at the Foundation, or somewhere else.”“I’m sort of the official family historian.” Of course she would place herself in the center of the action. “What do you need?”“Does the name Cristine Gauthier ring a bell?”“No. Who is she?”“That’s what I need to find out. She lived in Amiens, France, over a hundred years ago, and died there in the Great War. That would put her in the third generation, give or take. Did any Blotter live in France about that time?”“I couldn’t say.” What kind of historian was she