The Hysteria: Book 4, The Eddie McCloskey Paranormal Mystery Series (The Unearthed) by Evan Ronan

She was wearing khaki pants and a sleeveless top.
    “Who are you?” she said. A little nervous.
    “Mia, this is the man I told you about, Eddie McCloskey.”
    “I’m going to find your sister.” I smiled.
    She considered this and clearly wasn’t sure about me. “Dad, could I talk to you in private? I think someone was in my room again.”
    Turner gave me a sharp look.
    “Wasn’t me. I can’t even find the bathroom in this house.”
    Turner nodded. “Would you excuse us?”
    I excused myself, rather than them. I went around the first floor, still trying to familiarize myself with the layout. I was Theseus without his string. Eventually I came to the pool room. It looked out to the backyard. Strongbow was out there, captured in the flood lights.
    Speaking of target practice. The guy had a long bow and was shooting at a target quite a distance away. I watched as the great mass of muscles in his back rippled from the pull and loosing of the next arrow.
    I met him out there. “Nice night for a long bow.”
    He didn’t know if I was kidding. He didn’t care either. “Find Megan yet?”
    “Not quite. But I know how.”
    He untensed the bow and held the arrow away and looked at me. “How?”
    I didn’t trust anybody, not when there was a possibility of an MPI affecting anybody and everybody. “If I tell you, it won’t work.”
    He grunted and went back to long bowing. “Mr. Turner is under a lot of stress. If I find out you’re taking advantage…”
    Thwack . The arrow missed the bull’s eye about six inches to the right.
    “You getting ready, in case the French decide to wage war again?”
    “No. Just getting ready.”
    When no explanation came, I said, “For what?”
    Thwack . This arrow hit the bull’s eye. He leaned the bow against a metal stand next to him and turned dark eyes to me.
    “For anything.”
    “Define anything.”
    “Anything is pretty self-explanatory.”
    He went to retrieve his arrows and I left him alone.
    ***
    At 9:30 I went to Melanie’s door and knocked. There was no noise coming from the room but I could tell she was in there. The room hummed with that sense of being occupied.
    No answer.
    “Melanie?” I knocked again.
    A sound like somebody moving on a bed. “Come in.”
    “It’s Eddie. Are you decent?”
    “Decent enough.”
    Uh-oh.
    I went in. She was on the bed like I’d pictured. Wearing sorority shorts that probably had Greek letters across the ass and a diaphonous white t-shirt. In her lap was Megan’s empty roller skates box.
    She held up Megan’s drawing of people dancing in the ballroom. “I found this.”
    “What is it?”
    She saw through my acting. “She drew this recently.”
    “Oh yeah?”             
    “I think it can help us find her.”
    “I didn’t know you were actually looking.”
    “Of course I am.” She put the drawing down and came off the bed. She was ninety-percent legs. “What a thing to say.”
    “My mouth has a mind of its own.”
    “I’ll bet.”
    So we were back to this again.
    She approached and I could feel the animal heat coming off her. She tipped her head back to look up at me. “What do you think it means?”
    “It’s just a drawing.”
    “You don’t believe that for a second. A picture is never just a picture. So why are you lying to me?”
    My turn to be evasive. “You recognize the room? Looks like a dance hall or maybe somewhere you’d have a wedding. Any ideas?”
    “I thought it was just a drawing.”
    “In case it isn’t.”
    She shook her head. “I’ve never seen this place before in my life.”
    “Recognize any of the people in the scene?”
    She frowned like she hadn’t thought of that already. She went back to the bed, made a big show of bending at the waist to reach for the picture. I saw every square inch of her legs and a little of something else.
    She slinked back to standing position and surveyed the picture. “They look familiar. But I can’t place them.”
    “You think