Black Jack: A nail biting, hair-raising thriller (Jack Ryder Book 4) (3 page)

A
pril
1990

“Hello? I am looking for a Kimberly Milligan?”

“This is she,” Kimberly said. “Who’s this?”

“I’m sorry. This is Jonas Anderson, attorney-at-law in Savannah.”

Kimberly lifted an eyebrow while her husband Joseph looked at her from across the living room where he was doing homework with their daughter, Rosa.

“Savannah?” she asked puzzled.

“Yes ma’am. Savannah Georgia.”

Joseph shaped
a who is this?
With his lips and Kimberly shrugged visibly. She honestly didn’t know. She had never been to Savannah. She had never even been out of Wyoming.

“How may I help you?” she asked, thinking this was probably just someone trying to sell her something. Kimberly prepared herself to hang up.

“I think I might be the one who can help you,” he said with that heavy southern accent.

Here it comes. What is it this time? Insurance probably.

Kimberly rolled her eyes waiting for it to come, but it never did. No sales pitch, no This is exactly what you need …instead the man in the other end said something that would change Kimberly’s life.

“I am sorry to inform you that your aunt Agnes Vann, a long term client of ours, has passed away.”

Aunt Agnes? Who the heck is she?

“And you are mentioned in her will.”

“I am what?” Kimberly exclaimed. “But I never even met the woman?”

“Nevertheless, she has left you her home here in Savannah.”

Kimberly’s heart sank, she grabbed a chair leaned against the wall of their small rental apartment and sat down. “And you’re sure about this?”

“Positive,” the man said.

“But why? Why would she leave me anything?”

“I have no way of knowing my client’s intentions, but this is what she wanted. She wanted you to have the house.”

“I…” Kimberly clasped her mouth as the realization slowly sank in. She still couldn’t believe it. A house? Her aunt had left her a house?

“I am asking for you to come to my office and we’ll have all the paperwork done before you can take over the house,” he continued.

“I…we will be there.”

Kimberly hung up. She stared at the phone a long time before she finally lifted her eyes and looked at Joseph and Rosa. Her eyes filled with tears. For so many years they had struggled to make ends meet, for so many years they had wanted to get a house, a home they could call their own, but the banks always turned them down.

“Who was that, mommy?” asked Rosa.

Kimberly looked into her beautiful blue eyes. Her baby doll, as she liked to call her because she looked so much like a live doll with her blond curly hair. Only nine years old and already a heartbreaker.

“This…this was a man,” she said,” grabbed Rosa and pulled her into her lap. She removed a lock of hair from the girl’s face and pushed it behind her ear. “This was a very nice man who told us that we now own a house. A real house.”

Rosa let out a loud shriek. Kimberly looked up at her husband who was smiling widely.

“A house? But how?”

“Some aunt I never knew died and left it for me,” Kimberly said. “But there is one catch.”

“There always is, isn’t there. What is it?” he asked.

“It’s in Savannah, Georgia.”

Joseph threw out his hands. “That’s not a catch. I always wanted to go to Savannah. Now we own a house there? I can’t wait to go.”

“So you want to move there?” Kimberly asked.

“Yes! I can easily get work down there and so can you! Let’s do it. It would be a new start for us as a family. We would have a house. A real house!”

Joseph grabbed Kimberly and Rosa in his strong arms then lifted both of them in the air, with a loud laughter. The girls whined.

“We’re going to Savannah. We’re going to Savannah!”

M
ay
2016

Shannon looked at herself in the mirror.

“How does it feel up here over the chest?” the woman next to her asked pulling the dress in the sides. She was a very skilled tailor, hired by Sarah, standing right behind her, watching her every move.

Sarah was Shannon’s new personal assistant. It was Jack’s idea to get a PA once the baby arrived so Shannon didn’t have to take care of anything else but the child. Sarah could handle everything else along with Shannon’s manager. Sarah had only been in her life for four months, but Shannon already loved her dearly. Not only took she care of every detail, she also knew how to make Shannon look spectacular no matter what the occasion was. She couldn’t think of anyone better to have her take care of the details of the wedding.

“It’s a little tight,” Shannon said with a sigh. Losing the weight after giving birth the second time sure hadn’t been as easy as when she had Angela. Of course she was a lot younger then.

“Could you loosen it a little up there, then,” Sarah told the tailor.

Sarah looked at Shannon’s reflection over her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. It’s only natural that they’re a little big when you breastfeed. As soon as you stop they’ll get smaller and before you know it you’ll wish you had them back.” Sarah laughed.

Sarah was older than Shannon and her children had both gone off to college, when she applied for the job. Sarah was a big girl. She had a lot of authority and clout when she spoke and Shannon had noticed that people really listened when she opened her mouth. And she always got the job done, no matter what it was. Shannon liked that she was older and that she didn’t have a family waiting for her. Her husband had left her when the twins were just babies. She didn’t miss him one bit, though. He was more in the way than of help, she said laughing during her interview.

“I don’t mind the breasts,” Shannon said. “Jack loves them. No it’s more the stomach and the wider hips. I guess I just need to be more patient.”

Sarah shrugged. “Yeah and then maybe accept that your body has changed since you carried a second child. You’ve always been gorgeous. You still are. Look at yourself in that dress. Jack is going to pass out,” Sarah said and forced Shannon to look at herself. Shannon still thought she looked terrible, like a big pile of whipped cream. She missed her old body terribly.

“I need you to take it off so the tailor can correct it,” Sarah said and helped Shannon pull the dress off.

Shannon walked to the window and looked out into the yard of the house they had rented in Savannah for the week. It was many years since Shannon had last been in this town. None of them had any ties to it and that made it easier, Shannon believed. She had an aunt who once lived here, but that was all. Jack had no family here either. It was perfect.

The kids were playing hide and go seek in the funny yard that almost looked like a maze from where she was standing on the first floor. She spotted Angela hiding behind a statue and felt a pinch in her heart. How she hoped Angela was going to be happy with this new family. Everything was changing very fast right now and she wondered if it was rough on her firstborn.

Austin was done counting and Shannon watched as he started his search for the girls. Jack’s son was Shannon’s favorite of the twins. Abigail was sweet too but she had an attitude and a way that she would never have let her have had it been her own daughter. Of course she was Jack’s daughter and every time Shannon said something or even hinted something, Jack would get mad at her, so she tried to stay out of it.

Emily was another matter. Shannon spotted her sitting on a swing in the yard looking down at her feet. She wasn’t well. It had been a year now since she started losing weight. She was still very skinny and not eating much. Shannon had walked in on her one day when she was exercising in her room and caught a glimpse of her in a tank top where the bones in her back poked out. Usually she would wear big shirts and pants so no one could see how skinny she really was and it worried Shannon. She saw how she tried to pretend like she was eating when they had dinner together, but all she did was push her food around or even sometimes she would hide some of it in her napkin. Jack didn’t see it, but Shannon did. Shannon had carefully asked Jack one day if he thought maybe Emily needed some professional help, but he had told her that wasn’t necessary. Emily was fine.

“I’ll talk to her,” he said.

But once he did, all the girl told him was that she was fine and happy and looking forward to the wedding. But Shannon knew she wasn’t fine.

Shannon sighed and spotted Angela who had now been found by Austin and was giggling with joy. Shannon chuckled. It was so obvious how much she liked Austin, she only hoped it wouldn’t cause any problems for their little family.

Sarah approached her and stood next to her while both of them looked out the window just as Jack came out in the yard with a cup between his hands while looking at the kids. That meant Tyler had finally fallen asleep, Shannon thought with relief. Having a baby was a lot harder than she remembered. Or maybe it was just Tyler who was different than Angela. Shannon remembered Angela as the easiest child in the world. She hadn’t been quite prepared for this.

“Look at them. What a beautiful family. You’re a very lucky woman,” Sarah said. “Don’t you ever forget that.”

M
ay
2016

Everyone was crying at the house. It was nothing but misery. The Doctor looked at the girls sitting around the dinning table in the living room. They were all crying heavily, sobbing with tears, while they were being served their soup. Especially Millie was inconsolable. She was after all Betsy Sue’s best friend. The Doctor didn’t know how she was going to do without her at the house.

“There, there my little ones,” the Doctor said and walked up behind Millie. She kneeled next to the little girl. “I know you’re sad that Betsy Sue is gone, but do try and eat, will you?”

Still no one touched the soup. It annoyed the Doctor even if it was understandable. The Doctor felt sick as well, sick with longing and deprivation. At first she had believed the girl was just hiding, but after searching the entire house, the Doctor finally realized with terror, that Betsy Sue had done the unthinkable.

She had gone outside.

“I want her back too,” the Doctor cried when Millie burst into another loud bone piercing weep.

The Doctor walked to the window and carefully pulled back the curtain and looked outside. It was getting dark out there now in the street. Ravens were picking at the windows of the house and startled the Doctor. With a gasp she let go of the curtain and pulled back.

“Don’t let them see you. Don’t let them see you,” the Doctor whispered, arms hugging the chest, hands shaking.

The weeping from the girls grew stronger. It was alarmingly loud now and the Doctor felt like the head was about to explode. The Doctor lifted both hands and held them to the ears to try and block out the loud sounds.

“STOP IT! STOP IT!”

But the girls wouldn’t stop. Worst of them all were Millie. The Doctor couldn’t stand it anymore and grabbed the girl by the arm and pulled it hard.

“Go to your room!”

There was a loud sound, like a crack from the arm and the little girl screamed even louder, but now the screams were different, now they weren’t of sadness but screams of pain.

“You’re hurting her!” Daisy yelled and the Doctor let go of the arm that was twisted on the shoulder, completely dislocated. The Doctor gasped.

“Oh no! I am so sorry, Millie. I am so terribly sorry.”

The girls all surrounded Millie and helped her get up. The Doctor felt terrible. “I am so sorry.” The looks from the girls were of contempt and anger as they dragged their friend to her room. Only Miss Muffit was still sitting by the table when they had all left. Meanwhile a bus stopped outside the door in the street and the Doctor could hear the tourist guide’s loud yelling into the microphone.

The Doctor watched the tourists from behind the curtain as they were explained about the house, how it was rumored to be haunted. The Doctor sighed and looked back at Miss Muffit. Tears were streaming from her eyes.

This had gone too far.

“I’ll get her back. I promise you, all of you, I’ll get Betsy Sue back. Don’t you worry.”

M
ay
2016

“The Hampton Lillybridge House was built in 1797,” our tour guide Jessica said and pointed. I looked at the three-story house; it did look very creepy in the darkness. It was evening and Shannon and I had decided to take a haunted house bus tour around Savannah, while Sarah took care of the kids and especially Tyler. It was the first time Shannon was away from our son and I could tell she was troubled. Mostly by the way she kept checking her phone again and again.

“It’s beautiful, don’t you think?” I whispered to her.

She nodded distantly.

Our tour guide had started the trip by telling us that around seventy percent of all houses in Savannah were considered to be haunted. I didn’t believe in this type of stuff so I found the stories she told us quite amusing, but Shannon didn’t seem to take them as lightly as me. Maybe she was just worried about Tyler. I couldn’t figure out what it was, but she didn’t seem to enjoy this ride as much as I did. I was just thrilled to be alone with my bride-to-be for the first time in three months.

“This house was cursed from the start when a worker was killed during preparations to move the structure,” Jessica continued. She was dressed in an old-fashioned dress herself probably to create the right atmosphere for us. I thought it was quite funny how all houses simply had to have a haunted story to them, I had even read it made their value go up, if they did.

“A year after this when construction resumed, workers found a crypt on the property where the house was to be moved. Not wanting to delay any longer, the construction foreman went ahead with it anyway; the house got moved and to this day it still sits on an old unopened crypt.”

“Uh,” Shannon said shivering.

I saw it as an opportunity to put my arm around her and pull her closer. It was kind of chilly tonight, at least compared to what we were used to in Florida at this time of year. But it was still beautiful.

“It is told that weird things happen on a regular basis in this house; furniture gets moved around, items disappear and reappear, doors get mysteriously locked and lights go on and off at random. Some tenants have said this is the work of a small boy who sometimes appears in a green suit and that you can hear him giggling after one of his practical jokes.”

I chuckled at the last part thinking even ghosts have bad humor apparently. Shannon moved closer to me in the seat, then checked her phone again.

“He’s fine,” I whispered. “It’s only a few hours. He’s probably sleeping so he’ll be awake all night after we come home.”

“Don’t say that!” she said.

I laughed again and kissed her cheek. She smelled divine as always. She was wearing a big hat and a pair of fake glasses so no one would recognize her. I was getting used to that being the deal whenever we went out. She even sometimes wore a wig. I didn’t mind. As long as it gave us the privacy we wanted.

“Savannah’s history is rife with horror stories, including several major fires and a yellow fever plague that killed ten percent of the population at the time,” Jessica continued talking about this tragedy like it was the most exciting thing in the world. “It was a fire that claimed the lives of the girls at our next stop: The Old Orphanage located at 117 Houston St.”

I turned my head and looked at the old house. A three-story brick house with the traditional Savannah porches wrapped around it. It seemed peacefully enough, but then again, they all did.

“The building served as the female orphanage with seventeen girls living there. In 1827 tragedy struck. A fire broke out in the orphanage. Rescuers thought they had gotten all the girls out until they did a headcount and found out that some of the girls were missing. One spectator spotted two girls frantically trying to escape through an attic window while the place burned to the ground. Eleven girls died during the fire when the building’s roof collapsed. To this day, the people who live around here claim they can hear the sound of girls singing and playing. People living in the rebuild house have told stories of waking up in the middle of the night and two girls standing at the foot of their bed.”

“Ugh,” Shannon said and shuddered again.

I had to admit this story gave me the chills as well. The thought of these young girls trapped inside a burning building gave me goose bumps.

Because it was real.