And I’m supposed to just trust you. Her aunt said she hoped that she would. I don’t know. You are his sister.
Yes. And you’re his daughter, but that does not mean that either of us need to continue, as I have done, in his footsteps. I want to help you. I can help you all. Her aunt stood up. I’m sorry for everything, Vinnie. You have no idea how sorry I really am.
After she left, Vinnie went to find Mitch. She needed rest and to think. Telling Mitch she’d see him later, Vinnie moved to her rooms and lay on the bed. Sleep was hard in coming to her.
Chapter 8
Steele watched the doctor as he examined his wife. Kari was really glowing with health, and she was as happy as he was about the baby coming along. When a client came into the room with them, her body clad in an old nurse’s uniform from what he thought was the early part of the century, he wanted to tell her to go away for just a little while longer. But Kari touched his arm, and he looked at her.
“Go. Whatever she needs, you have to help her with it.” The doctor asked her what she’d said, and Kari told him she was saying Steele was a huge help. When she nodded to the door, he left the room and looked for the nurse. She was standing next to a small child and a very pregnant woman.
Steele’s powers, or whatever they were, had gotten a great deal stronger since he’d met and married Kari. He didn’t know if it was her or the fact that he was letting them shine through. Whatever it was, he could now speak to clients even if they weren’t for any reason able to speak verbally.
“I have something for your grandmother. She asked me to look into some things for her.” He nodded and smiled. Grandmother was forever having someone come to him with a bit of this or that. Last week it was a recipe for a Kentucky bourbon cake, which they’d made twice now and eaten every morsel. “It’s about young Mitch. And a few others that were at the house.”
That got his attention. Mitch had been having a parade of ghosts coming and going for the last several days. It was about his trial, he knew that, but it was scary to think how many of them had been hurt by the Bruce family. Some they had murdered, but quite a few of them had committed suicide rather than live with what had been done to them.
“I know where the files are at the old part of the hospital she said you’d need. Medical records on some of the boys were there. When the hospital turned things over to that new system, those boys that were dead—not just those from that horrid house, but all boys and girls from foster care that were just gone—weren’t put there. I guess they were thinking that if nobody claimed their little bodies, there was no reason to put them in the system now.” Steele asked her where they were. “There’s a back stairs to it from this area. It’s been closed off for some time I guess, but you can still get there though the doctor’s office. He knows it’s there, but never uses it. If you go, take a torch with you, as the power has long since been taken out.”
Nodding, he tried to think how he could get into the office without making a scene. But the nurse winked at him and made her way down the hall to the office. Steele followed but didn’t enter when she did. As she told him how to get to the doorway, Billy and Carlton showed up. He didn’t even wait for them to explain how they were going to distract everyone, but made his way into the office and the door when the first scream tore through the offices.
The stairwell was dark and quiet. Cobwebs decorated every inch of the wide wooden staircase, but he turned on the flashlight he always had with him and made his way down the steps, using his jacket as a sort of broom to sweep the cobwebs out of his face. At the bottom of the stairs, he paused and looked around. There were more than just files down here. Ghosts were everywhere.
The man that approached him smiled. He’d bet anything the man was from the thirties or thereabout. His mode of dress was a dead giveaway, and the hat he had on was a perfect foil for the pinstriped suit and smallish tie.
“You’d be Steele.” He nodded at him. “Been told to expect you. Come along then, we’ll get you put to rights with all this bullaballoo.” He moved with the man, careful not to let any of the others move through him. He hated that, the feeling he got when they walked through him. The man seemed to understand this and shooed the others back.
“Why haven’t they moved on to where they want to go?” The man stopped and looked around as if he just realized that they hadn’t moved on when they should have. “There should have been someone to come and help them when they passed away.”