Free 15 Amityville Horrible by Kelley Armstrong Page B

pretty.”
    I turned to Becky. “Get someone to grab Ricardo..

Eleven
     
    The final pre-show step was splitting the cast into two groups, one to be led by me, the other by Gregor. It was supposed to be a random draw, but I’d texted my picks to Mike, who’d asked for them. Another concession to keeping his star happy.
    I chose Rory, Cameron and Ricardo. Yes, Ricardo was pretty. Or I suppose he was, but I’ve reached that age where I see a hot twenty-year-old and a mental barrier leaps up in my brain, substituting cute for hot . As Rory said, though, he didn’t speak much English and seemed content to follow us around, listening intently. Kind of like a puppy. A cute puppy.
    Cameron was a student at MIT, which gave him his token geek status. He didn’t know much about ghost-hunting, but he obviously had a brain, and he was as quiet as Ricardo, so he seemed a safe choice.
    Rory had pulled off the science clips with aplomb and seemed shockingly normal for someone who’d sign up for a reality show. Yes, I suppose it’s ironic that the Goth girl was the most normal one of the bunch, but in my experience, they often are, which just might suggest that my normal is a little skewed.
    I did feel kind of bad leaving Gregor with the twins and the jock, whose combined IQ probably didn’t hit triple digits. But I figured if they asked stupid questions, he could always fake a language barrier and ignore them.
    It wasn’t yet dark when the show began. It would have been smarter to tape in the winter, when night stretches longer, so they’d get more footage. That’s why they’d pre-taped us meeting and entering the house last night. Now, though it wasn’t yet dark, they’d have us start in the basement and the attic, with the windows blocked out and we could pretend the sun wasn’t shining.
    The twins had a little trouble with that concept. “But it’s still light out,” they wailed. “Ghosts won’t come out when it’s light.”
    Gregor made the mistake of trying to explain that real ghosts don’t care if it’s day or night. That only made them start grumbling that he must not be a real ghost whisperer, if he didn’t know how spirits worked. Which made me feel even worse about pawning them off on him. But not enough to offer to take them myself.
    My team got the basement.
    “Good,” Cameron said as we headed toward the stairs. “The attic is bound to be dusty and I have asthma.”
    “Of course you do,” Rory muttered.
    “What’s that supposed to mean?” Cameron said.
    “Only that I really wish they’d make their tokens a little less token.” She plucked at her shirt. “I don’t even like Poe. Dude was a druggie boozer who married his thirteen-year-old cousin. I came dressed in a Scooby-Doo T-shirt, but they thought that was too cute for Goth Girl.”
    “Well, I do have asthma,” Cameron said. “These glasses aren’t prescription, though. They gave them to me.”
    “I rest my case.” She looked back at Ricardo. “If you do speak English, go ahead. We’ll just keep it off camera.”
    “¿Cómo dice? ” he said.
    She sighed and looked at me. “It was worth a shot.”
     
    …
     
    Frank, our cameraman, waited downstairs to film our descent into the gloomy, musty basement. With him was Sal, our assigned crew guy. As we went down, I could see signs that it hadn’t been so gloomy or so musty before they’d gotten to it. Judging by the fine scattering of drywall dust, it’d been a nicely finished basement. Reverse renovation. Because a basement with a big-screen TV and a pool table just isn’t all that chilling. Unless you add teenage boys and a full liquor cabinet.
     
    They’d gotten rid of most of the lighting, too, leaving us sickly yellow bulbs with dangling pull cords. I didn’t even know they made those anymore. Quite impressive, really. It did add to the atmosphere. Even Rory shivered a little.
    Ricardo pulled a light cord for us. It only made things worse, bringing the shadows to life.