Broken Heart 07 Cross Your Heart by Michele Bardsley Page B

a door—though it was long gone. It was obvious the entrance had been boarded up for a great while.
    We peered inside. Temporary lighting had been connected to the existing wiring. The room was much larger than I had imagined. In fact, it seemed to be several rooms.
    “It looks like a bunch of junk,” said Tez as he stepped through and wandered between two long tables piled with objects. Shelves lined the walls, filled with items I couldn’t believe had any meaning except to previous owners: rusted tins, glass bottles, moth-eaten clothes, gold-rimmed dishes, wooden trains, bolts of fabric… The amount of items was endless. And inane. It smelled musty, and, of course, dust coated everything. Unfortunately, there were no windows to open to clear out the stale air.
    “Maybe they stored items from the general store here,” I mused. “Jeremiah Silverstone owned it, after all.”
    “You’d think he’d put supplies in a more convenient location.” Tez had found a box filled with marbles. He put it down again and sniffed the air. “Something’s really wrong here.”
    I had to admit I felt the hair standing up on the back of my neck. I couldn’t put my finger on the source of my uneasiness. Even with the lights on, the place felt somehow murky. It was almost like it shouldn’t exist at all. I had the overwhelming feeling someone, probably my own ancestor, had invited evil into this house. Evil that had been trapped until Gabriel and Patsy’s zest for re-modeling opened it all up again.
    “Elizabeth.”
    I didn’t like the awful tone of Tez’s voice, or the fact he’d used my full name. I’d gotten quite used to his playful nicknames. I felt much like the misbehaving child whose irritated parent had called out my full name in reproach. Truly, there was no reproach in his tone, just a terrible dread.
    Tez stood at the far end of the main room, staring through another doorway. I knew I wouldn’t like what he wanted to show me. All the same, I joined him. The door had been propped open with a barrel that smelled like sour pickles. For all I knew those were the exact contents. It wasn’t as well lit as the main room, but that was a blessing.
    “It looks like a museum.” I didn’t want to go inside. I didn’t even want to breathe its fetid air. Somehow I knew the silver box had come from in there.
    “This smells like…” Tez took another whiff and frowned. “I don’t get it. The guy who attacked you in the forest—he smelled like this. He came from here. I don’t know how, but he did. Or spent a lot of time in this room.”
    “But… you said you didn’t catch his scent.”
    “It wasn’t enough of an imprint to track him. But I got up close and personal, and his flesh had this same smell.”
    I felt my knees buckle. “Oh, my God. Gabriel.”
    Tez’s arm went around my shoulder and he pulled me close. “You mean the dude pretending to be Gabriel.” He nodded. “Yeah. That makes sense.”
    “This ghost or shadow or bogeyman can take someone’s form.” The idea was terrifying. How would anyone know who was really who? “Gabriel was right. We’re dealing with a doppelganger.”
    “Seems so.”
    “Why would it encourage Patsy to come up here and go through everything?” I asked. “Surely his main goal had been freedom.”
    “Obviously not,” said Tez. “We don’t know his motivations. Maybe he’s pissed off about being trapped.” He frowned. “He’s gotta be looking for something. Why else would he keep returning?”
    The questions were piling up. “Why did he convince Patsy that Gabriel was cheating on her?” I asked. “Why did he push her to go crazy?”
    “Did he?” asked Tez. “Maybe she was already unstable. Maybe some part of her knew the doppelganger wasn’t her husband and she finally took action. She said he was trying to kill her—maybe he was. I bet it surprised the shit out of him when she stabbed him with her fancy blade.”
    I stared at Tez, foreboding twisting my