Free Harvest by Steve Merrifield Page B

know how to believe,” she stumbled to
change her words, “don’t know how to understand it – how this could happen as you believe it has. But I feel
there is something more to this…” Rachel hesitated as if the words
were too difficult to speak. “Perhaps a malignant spirit or some
paranormal activity that I have not experienced or heard of
before.” She could not help sounding doubtful, but Claire didn’t
respond to her tone.
    “ If
something happened to Emily that’s related to the lights and
strange things that have been happening, then these things
are still happening. So where
does that leave Amy?”
    Rachel found the responsibility
was back firmly with her again, but couldn’t answer. There was so
much uncertainty, and so much she couldn’t accept. “I don’t know,”
she stated simply, once again relying on the truth in the face of
an awkward question. “I don’t have any explanations for you.”
Claire and Brian shared looks again over the same response they had
from the police. They didn’t need to hear it again.
    “ I am
uncomfortable with what I am going to suggest.” She
paused as she considered the enormous demand it made of their
family at an emotional time. “With what you have been through, I
don’t want to be intrusive on you –” she stepped around what she
wanted to suggest. “But what you have described warrants
investigation.”
    Rachel observed Claire search
Brian for his opinion and support but received a blank stare in
return. Rachel understood that this was being left for Claire to
deal with.
    “ I’m
going to lay my cards on the table.” Rachel made eye contact with
both of them and held their gazes a moment. “I have a friend at a
university; a technical boffin. He has access –
well , unofficial access – to
university equipment: cameras, motion detectors, temperature
sensors and lots of other things I couldn’t hope to explain to you
– I have to ask him to set the timer on my
video so don’t even get me started on what other things he may
have. ” She laughed flippantly. “Friends
have used him before to set up investigations on supposed
hauntings. However, this is a difficult time for you and I know
everyone values privacy. That’s where the investigation might be
unwelcome. It involves cameras being in nearly every room...” she paused allowing what she was
saying to sink in. “Usually everyone stays over in the place under
investigation, but the last thing you want at the moment is a group
of people sitting around your lounge. I think it can be done by
remote though; I will have to ask Dave about all the technical
side. It all tends to go over my head you see.” She passed a hand
over her head in a mime of her inability to
understand.
    Claire laughed and Rachel was
pleased to disarm any tension within her, but Claire’s laughter
subsided abruptly and her mood was abandoned in mid-air as if she
had forgotten what laughter was and its sound and presence startled
her. Rachel thought how lonely and empty that laughter had seemed
in the home where the family’s loss echoed so cavernously.
    Brian frowned and cut in. “Have
you ever seen anything on your investigations?”
    His question stumped her;
she was unsure if it was genuine interest or bare-faced
scepticism . “I see things all the time,
Brian. However, I doubt my experiences will convince you of the
spiritual world. I can be just as sceptical as you when I hear
second-hand accounts or see an unexplainable image in a photo that
I have had no part in taking. After all, you have to rely on
someone else’s word that it’s genuine. Even I have the sceptical voice inside me. The day
someone finds something that’s conclusive proof is the day it will
be on the news and front page of every paper. Even then there will
be doubt. I have seen film footage that has passed tests at photo
labs and been unexplainable, but is unlikely it will make it to the
attention of the general public or create a