10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I wiped my hands down my uniform pants and hurriedly grabbed my phone, shifting my eyes around the room in case the poltergeist came back. I wished I had time to talk with Sidnee but she was meeting with her team.

I pulled myself together, hurried down to join my squad and together we hit the ground running. We were now equipped with Satnav, should we need it; there were no express rules against it, so at least we’d know where we were going if we were somehow separated.

Jones, who was in our squad, was local and he knew where to find five of the closest totem poles. Over lunch he’d sketched out a route for us to take. Another of Blake’s golden nuggets was that having a local was a real advantage; one of our earliest lessons was about using local intel. There was a reason law enforcement often used confidential informants.

We set off under Jones’ direction. It was over a mile jog but we were relatively fresh; even so, I constantly had to remind myself to stay in the middle of the pack to avoid suspicion. My ego wouldn’t let me run at the back, but I happily kept pace with Danny. Jones, whose lanky build hid a competitive long-distance runner, took the lead easily. He was almost visibly increasing in confidence as we moved.

We had one of Thorsen’s besties in our squad, Frederick Miller, and I watched him doing his level best to keep up with Jones. Presumably he’d intended to be the front runner but Jones’ long strides stopped him. I kept a cynical eye on Miller; I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if Thorsen hadn’t given him instructions to sabotage our group. Hopefully Miller’s self-interest would win out, though I wouldn’t have bet on it.

As we trotted to our first totem pole, my phone vibrated with a text from Connor. I suppressed a girlish squeal of delight and checked it.

I emailed you what I could find about poltergeists. Most of the lore is vague, so not a lot of good info. I’m still digging into it. Love you.

Love you, I tapped back, keeping my response short since texting while jogging was surprisingly hard. I was salivating to check my emails and dive into the information, but this was one of the times where I needed to live in the moment. I was in the middle of a competition and pride wouldn’t allow me to give it less than a hundred percent.

I slipped my phone back into my pocket and pushed a little harder to catch up with Danny. He gave me an inquisitive look. ‘Boyfriend,’ I said.

‘Ah.’ Danny was a chatty soul.

It started to rain. It could rain here even in late autumn but that was better than ice or snow. I should have been better prepared: oh well, I wouldn’t melt.

We ran faster and soon saw the first totem pole. Jones arranged us and I asked a tourist to take our squad photo with my phone, then we were off to totem number two. Jones had taken us into the Sitka National Historic Park where there were a lot of totem poles, so luckily, it was close by.

We rushed through the park, successfully hitting pole after pole. With all five photos secured, we started back towards the academy at top speed – top human speed. As we were leaving the park we passed another squad that had evidently had the same idea, but the other two teams were nowhere to be seen. Fingers crossed they hadn’t got back before us; I could really use that extra hour to investigate what the fuck was going on with that damned poltergeist.

Happily, we beat Thorsen’s squad to win the contest by three whole minutes. I couldn’t restrain my victory dance; I was more than willing to shove our success in his face, one wild hip gyration at a time. Yes, I was provoking him but he did stupid things when provoked and getting him kicked out of the academy was almost as much a target of mine as finding out about poltergeists and successfully completing the programme.

We had won the extra hour in the morning and I intended to make the most of it in the academy library. My squad’s spirits were high and almost all the other recruits congratulated us on our victory when we ate together. I felt warm and fuzzy when people took the time and effort to speak to Jones personally and praise him for his leadership. Clearly I wasn’t the only one who had a soft spot for the timid guy.

Dinner ran over and evening study was cancelled. I should have been cheering, but losing another supernat lesson stung. I did my best to paste on a happy face and mingle. When we were finally released back to the dorm, I pulled out my phone. I had two options: read Connor’s email or speak to the man himself. A second later I was dialling his number.

The phone rang twice before he picked up. His warm voice sent all kinds of fluttering to my belly. ‘Bunny!’ he said, then a deeper, huskier, ‘I miss you.’

‘I miss you too.’ And I did. There was an ache in my stomach, a yearning I couldn’t shake. Our nascent bond didn’t like us being apart for long. Nor did I.

‘I have a surprise cooking up for you, Doe.’

My eyebrows shot up. What kind of surprise could he get to me while I was here? I considered the possibility that he might be sending me a care package since we were allowed those, but then it occurred to me that the Commander’s Weekend was fast approaching – a whole three days off. We had to stay on the island but there was no PT, no classes. A buzz of excitement hit me. If I was wrong with my deduction and all Connor was sending me were some more teabags, I’d be gutted.

‘Are you coming to see me?’ I squealed. Oops, I took a breath and tried to chill; squealing was unbecoming in a detective.

Connor’s chuckle rumbled through the tinny phone speaker and I pictured leaning against his chest as it against vibrated me. Yum. ‘I can’t fool a detective!’ he teased. ‘But there’s more to it than that, and there’s no way you’ll deduce this one so you’ll have to wait.’

Waiting was not my strong suit, though I’d got better at it during the last few weeks. ‘Hurry up and wait’ was not only a mantra in the British military but also in the Alaska State Troopers. Every morning after PT it felt like the next class was always deliberately held up to keep us waiting; standby to standby, indeed.

Still, if Connor wanted to surprise me I would let him. I did my best to relax and tried to ignore any changes in the timbre of his voice. ‘How are Fluffy and Shadow?’ I asked.

‘They’re fine,’ he reassured me. After a pause, he addressed the question I really wanted to ask. ‘Reggie is still struggling with holding his human form so he rarely shifts – he seems happier as Fluffy. Only Gunnar seems to make him comfortable enough to take on his human skin.’ He sounded mildly amused and a little exasperated. ‘And Shadow is Shadow. He does whatever he wants and gets mad if you don’t think he’s cute while he’s doing it.’

I laughed. No matter what kind of supernatural being he truly was, Shadow was most definitely a cat. ‘Thanks for that.’ I sighed. ‘I don’t have much time. I’m still trying to dig into the poltergeist thing and I haven’t even had a chance to read your email yet.’

‘No problem, I’ll give you the highlights – though I’ll start with the disclaimer that there is a lot of conflicting information out there. Some sources say you can get rid of a poltergeist –or at least calm one down – by cleansing the area it haunts. They are thought to be negative spirits so negative energy feeds them. Whatever you do, keep that sunny personality beaming.’

I laughed; I was a lot of things but sunny wasn’t one of them. Were the incidents somehow my fault? Was I feeding the poltergeist with my negative feelings towards Thorsen? God knows, I’d had plenty of them.

Connor continued, ‘I’ve emailed you a list of things to do for the cleansing. I won’t repeat them because there’s a bunch of steps and I’d definitely screw up the order. And don’t forget that I’m getting this info from dubious websites – there no guarantee any of it will work.’

My hopes diminished a little; I’d been hoping for a step-by-step, 100% effective solution that took only five minutes and totally obliterated the poltergeist. ‘No Liv?’ I asked softly.

He hesitated. ‘She’s not playing ball. I’ll keep trying.’

Despite myself, my stomach lurched. A non-compliant Liv was a tricky Liv. I bit my tongue before I could warn him to be careful; he knew Liv better than I did, and he knew he had to tread carefully. ‘Thanks for all of this. I know you’re busy,’ I said instead.

‘It was a quick read of a few books and a web search, not an international spying investigation,’ he teased. ‘It was no bother.’

‘Even so, I’m grateful.’ I smiled. ‘I’ll show you how grateful I am at the Commander’s Weekend.’

His voice was warm when he replied, ‘I’m counting down the hours.’

So was I.