Part 36 (1/2)

”We need to search for something,” Zach said. ”We've come to do that tonight.”

Miguel frowned and shook his head as if he tried to clear his thoughts. ”I do not understand.”

For the next few minutes, Zach patiently explained about the murder they believed might have taken place in the old house that used to sit on the spot where Miguel's newer house now sat. Zach told them how they had searched and found a child who had disappeared, a little girl who looked like the ghost Maria had seen in the house, and that a couple who lived in the old house might have killed her. He explained that they believed they might find her body buried in the ground underneath.

”Things are happening here, Miguel,” Elizabeth said gently. ”Things that can't be explained. Surely you have felt these things. Surely you have noticed there is something wrong in here.”

Miguel glanced away. ”I have never seen a ghost.”

”We think she comes to Maria because of the baby,” Zach said.

”The ghost is trying to warn her that your baby is in danger,” Elizabeth added.

Miguel seemed to be having trouble sorting all of this out.

Elizabeth reached over and caught his hand. ”Look at you, Miguel. You aren't yourself lately. You haven't been for some time. You're angry. You've been drinking way too much. It's the house, Miguel. Whatever is here is making you act this way. We have to find a way to stop it. We have to look for the little girl. If we find her, maybe all of this will end.”

For the first time, Miguel seemed to understand. ”My wife believes there is a ghost. And I am not myself at all.” He looked down at his wrinkled, dirty clothes as if seeing them for the first time. ”Do what you must.”

”Thank you,” Elizabeth said.

While Zach went to the door and motioned for the men to unload their gear and move the car out of sight down the road, Elizabeth said a few more quiet words to Miguel.

”Everything is going to be all right, Miguel. We just need to find out the truth.”

He nodded, seemed resigned, perhaps even relieved. ”How will you do it?”

Zach walked up just then. ”We'll go under the house through the access in the side. We've got lights so we can see and shovels to dig. We'll follow a pattern. That way we'll be sure to cover all of the ground. It may take more than one night.”

”There is a way in through a hole in the floor of the bedroom closet,” he said. ”I will show you.”

”Great.”

They used both entrances, bringing in the lighting gear and a number of long, heavy-duty extension cords. A big piece of cardboard was used to cover the access hole at the side of the house so the lights couldn't be seen. Then they lowered the shovels and buckets and Sam's metal detector through the hole in the floor.

Zach took the grid sheet and dropped down through the access hole beneath the closet floor, followed by Sam and Ben.

”I'm coming with you,” Elizabeth said. ”I know you have plenty of shovels.” Dropping down behind the men, bending over to fit beneath the floor, she picked up one of the shovels. The shorter handle made it lighter, she was happy to see, easier to use.

”You don't have to do this,” Zach said. ”I kind of figured you could just keep tabs on Miguel.”

”I'm fine. I want to help.”

He started to argue, but her warning look told him not to.

”Not much headroom under here,” Ben grumbled. ”Good thing the house isn't very big.”

Using his flashlight, Zach panned the area under the house. Being just four years old, its condition wasn't too badonly a few spiderwebs clinging to the floor joists and a cl.u.s.ter of bugs here and there, scurrying off into the shadows.

Elizabeth pulled up the collar of her blouse and refused to think what else might be lurking in the darkness. ”It's damp down here,” she said, noticing the moist earth beneath them for the first time. ”How can that be?”

Zach s.h.i.+ned the flashlight on the garden hose stuck in through the side access. He grinned. In the harsh light and dark shadows, his features were distorted, making him look like a demon.

”I came by early yesterday and started the water while Miguel was at work. Earlier today I moved the hose around so it covered a different area. I just turned it off. I figured the ground would be a whole lot easier to dig.”

Ben smiled. ”Good thinking.”

Sam turned on his metal detector, whose handle barely cleared the floor joists. Bent over, moving crablike, he began to make a sweep of the area under the house.

They had decided to dig down a couple of feet in each grid square, then run the metal detector again in that particular location. If they didn't find anything, and since there wasn't much room to stack the dirt, they would refill the square and dig the next. Sam finished his cursory sweep with the metal detector, turning up a few rusty nails and a quarter that read 1947 in the bank of lights that blazed under the house, then they started to dig.

Trying to decipher the placement of a possible grave, Ben and Sam worked the grid starting in the middle of the southwest quarter of the house, working outward, while Zach and Elizabeth started in the middle on the southeast quarter and did the same.

They'd only been digging for a very few minutes when Miguel jumped down through the opening. ”I have decided to help. If there is a body, I will help you find it.”

He seemed a little more himself, a little less distracted. He had even combed his wild mane of hair.

”Great.” Zach handed him a shovel. ”We can use all the help we can get.”

And it didn't take long to discover how true those words were. Elizabeth's back ached from working in the awkward bent position and her hands were already getting sore. Zach laid out the grid pattern with string, covering the ground inside the square concrete foundation of the house.

He fanned one of the lights around the perimeter of cement, lighting the area.

”Looks like they actually used the old foundation instead of pouring a new oneat least wherever they could. The old house was a little bigger, though, which means there's a chance the gravesite might actually be outside the existing house. But this would have been the main section for both. For now, let's hope we're in the right place.”

Though it was cooler under the house than it was outside, it didn't take long for all of them to break out in a sweat. Moving the damp soil around was extremely hard work, but everyone was determined.

They took a break after an hour, climbing out through the hole in the closet floor, making their way straight to the ice chest filled with soft drinks Elizabeth had fortunately thought to bring.

Gatorade and Diet c.o.kes, all she'd had in the fridge.

”Man, I'm glad you thought of this,” Sam said, guzzling half a bottle of Gatorade, wiping his shaved head with the cold moisture off the bottle. Zach popped the top on a Diet c.o.ke and held the can out to Elizabeth, who took a good long drink and pa.s.sed it back.

Zach finished the can. ”How are your hands holding up?”

She looked down at them and winced, noticing the first sign of blisters. ”Not as good as I'd hoped.”

”The rest of us all brought gloves. Maybe Miguel has an extra pair around somewhere.”

”Si, I have some gardening gloves that Maria likes to wear. She loves to garden. I will get them for you.” There was such a wistful note in the younger man's voice, a lump rose in Elizabeth's throat. This entire family needed help. She prayed that tonight they would get it.

Miguel returned with the gloves and they all went back to work. She and Zach had just cleared another square in the gridwithout any luckwhen a deep voice reached them from above.

Raul Santiago dropped down through the access hole. ”Do not be angry. Pete and I came to help if Sam says it's okay.”

Hunched over, Sam duck-walked forward to where the two boys crouched. ”Dammit, how did you know about this?”

”I heard you talking to Zach on the phone. We will go back if that is what you want, but this is my sister's house. We both have strong backs and we would like to help.”