CHAPTER TWO
WHEN PRESLEY WALKED into the Paranormal Investigations Unlimited offices the following afternoon, she found Brielle and Robert sitting at the table in the front room, an EMF meter and thermal scanner in front of them, along with a lot of other equipment she didn’t recognize.
Brielle smiled. “We were wondering where you were. Robert and I wanted to make sure we had a chance to go over this stuff with you before we leave.”
“I stopped at the café down the street to get something to eat.” Presley looked around. “Where are Logan and Mav?”
“They had to go on an emergency call,” Robert said. “They’ll be back in a little while.”
Presley wanted to ask what kind of emergency, but Brielle and Robert launched into an explanation of the equipment before she could say anything. Deciding that a real author writing a real book would want to know details about what kinds of tool ghost hunters, she pulled out her notebook and wrote down everything they said.
They went over the EMF meter they’d used the night before—in greater detail this time—as well as several other types of meters. Presley was surprised to learn the detectors ranged from the inexpensive hand-held kind to the top-of-the line tripod-mounted version. She had no idea that much thought went into the tools a ghost hunter used, or that there would a be a need for so many different kinds. She also realized this group of ghost hunters, at least, were serious about their work. The equipment on the table added up to more than a ten-thousand-dollar investment.
Next, they showed her the thermal scanners. Like the EMF meters, these came in various shapes and sizes, ranging from the cheap ten-dollar variety to the expensive one Presley had seen them use the night before. They even had a non-contact variety that could measure the temperature in a room from twenty feet away using an infrared beam.
After that, Brielle and Robert took her out to the garage to show her the rest of the equipment. There was one locker with nothing but different types of cameras in it. In addition to the regular high-speed digital camera she was familiar with, there was a motion-detection camera and an infrared camera, as well as a video camera.
“I thought ghosts couldn’t be captured on film,” she remarked.
“You’re thinking of vampires,” Brielle said.
The other woman shuddered a little as she said the word and Presley wondered what that was about. She shook her head. She wasn’t ready to even believe in ghosts, so she sure wasn’t going to worry about whether vampires existed.
“Do you have any footage of actual ghosts?” she asked.
“Some,” Robert said.
“Can I see it?”
He pushed his glasses up on his nose and gave her an apologetic look. “You’d have to ask Logan about that.”
Presley groaned inwardly. She could forget about it then. Mr. Big Bad Ghost Hunter was never going to give the okay for that.
She turned her attention to Robert as he opened the next locker. The shelves were filled with containers of salt, sage and garlic as well as bottles and bottles of holy water. While not as interesting as the other stuff they’d showed her, Presley jotted down a quick note about it anyway.
She expected them to give her a tour of the other storage lockers, too, but when they made no move to open them, she assumed they must hold personal gear.
While Brielle and Robert packed the things they’d need for that night’s excursion, Presley wandered back inside so she could look at the EMF meters and thermal scanners again. As she walked past Logan’s office, however, she found herself stopping in the doorway. She hoped it would give her some insight into the mysterious ghost hunter, but besides the desk and two chairs in front of it, there wasn’t much in the room, unless she counted the file cabinet in the corner. Logan was definitely a minimalist. Then she noticed the framed photos on the wall. The temptation to look at them was too great to resist. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure Brielle and Robert were still in the garage, she went into Logan’s office to take a closer look at the photos.
The first one was of a group of men standing in organized rows. From the uniforms and shiny badges they wore, she realized they were police officers. She read the caption along the bottom. New York City Police Academy, December 2004. She scanned the men’s faces and was surprised to find Logan among them. He was younger in the picture and just as handsome. There seemed to be an innocence about him then that wasn’t there now, though. That was to be expected, she supposed. He’d been a rookie and hadn’t seen all the atrocities and horrors of the street yet. As a cop, he’d probably seen and experienced things other people never had to.
Her gaze wandered to the next photo. In it, Logan was standing with another man in what looked like a bar. It was obviously taken several years after the first one and although Logan wasn’t wearing a uniform, the badge at his waist told her he was still a cop. She wondered why he’d traded in a detective’s badge for ghost hunting.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing in here?”
Presley whirled around at the sound of Logan’s voice, her heart racing. How the heck hadn’t she heard him come in? She felt her face go red as she frantically tried to think of something to say.
“I…um…I was just looking around,” she finally stammered.
He regarded her coldly. “Well, there isn’t anything in here that’s going to help you write a romance book, so you can leave.”
Not unless you counted a rude, arrogant jerk who could probably piss off Mother Teresa without even trying. If she was looking for hero material, it definitely wouldn’t be him, that was for damn sure.
But because she had to stay in his good graces for the next two days—well, as much as she could anyway—she didn’t say that out loud. Instead, she settled for giving him a glare, then brushed past him and walked out of the room.
* * * * *
Logan clenched his jaw as he watched Presley go. To say he was furious at finding her in his office was an understatement. He was damn pissed. What the hell had Brielle and Robert been thinking letting her wander around by herself? He was going to have a little discussion with both of them about security.
Swearing under his breath, he walked around the desk to check his laptop and was relieved to see it hadn’t been turned on. He was afraid Presley had gone through it looking for interesting information to add to that stupid book she was writing.
“Why do you have to give Presley such a hard time?”
Logan looked up to see Mav standing in the doorway. “What are you talking about?”
“You know damn well what I’m talking about. You haven’t said a civil word to her the whole time she’s been here.”
Logan scowled. “She was poking around my office and I told her to get the hell out. What’s wrong with that?”
Mav shook his head. “Your social skills suck, you know that?”
Logan ignored the insult. He could always count on Mav to give a blunt assessment of a situation, whether his opinion was wanted or not. “We don’t have time to entertain would-be romance writers who want an up close and personal look at our world. It’s bad enough Robert has us doing those damn dog and pony shows at the local colleges. Now we’re bringing civilians on our investigations. I don’t like it.”