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For right now?
It was enough.
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Kelsy George
Chapter Thirteen
 Yech!
I was busy pulling spider web out of my hair and off my face when I actually saw
the spider whose hard work I was destroying. Coming face-to-face with the poor,
hardworking little bug while I tore her home to shreds made me feel a little bit sad.
Then I remembered why I was here in the first place and went back to gritting my teeth.
 What? Ethan s voice came from behind a pile of old couches and chairs, possibly
the original home of some of the stuff piled in front of my door the day before and set
on fire.
 Spider web. Nothing serious.
 Good. We don t have time for serious. Those guys will be here with the lumber
order soon and we still haven t found anything down here. We were working our way
through an apartment at the rear of the building that had been turned into storage areas
for the tenants. The apartment was in such pathetic shape it wasn t habitable, so this
was the next best thing.
I stood up, looked around and wonder why we were here this early in the morning
looking for a trapdoor. Then I remembered poor Margaret s state when she d been with
me yesterday and my decision to help.
 Is it possible we re in the wrong part of the building, Ethan? There s definitely no
trapdoor here and this looks like the original hardwood flooring. Nothing has been
built over top of it. I was standing there, staring at the door in the dining room wall
and wondering if we d ever find this room Margaret had told us about.
I turned to Ethan and started toward him when something tweaked my brain.
Door. Dining room.
I turned where I stood and looked again. There really was a door in the dining
room.
 Ethan, look. In here. I waited until he joined me then remarked, as casually as I
could,  This door isn t in any of the other apartments. And I m not sure, but I don t
think this room is as big either.
By this time I d crossed to the door, skirting the stacks of old furniture. I was afraid
to open it. I heard Ethan coming up behind me and decided I d let him open the door. I
didn t want to be the one who found something. Like a body. The deceased and
probably well-deteriorated body of a woman.
Fascinated, I watched him reach for the doorknob, cringed slightly as he bent his
fingers to grasp the knob and then turned to open the door. When the knob didn t
move, I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe we could do this another day.
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Deja You
I still watched when he pulled Stan s keys from his pants pocket and looked
through them. There were nearly two dozen of them. Maybe none of them would fit
and we d be spared any further search.
Yeah, sure.
I don t know if it was beginner s luck or if he d found the only key for that kind of
lock by its name, but the first key in the hole worked.
The door obviously hadn t been opened for some years. The doorknob turned but
the door stuck. I looked to see if it had been painted over, but it seemed it was simply
the building s settling that made it stick. A couple of quick tugs and Ethan had it open.
He turned to me and I jumped.
 You coming?
As if he was going any place without me!
I clutched his arm as he started down the stairs. I didn t want to let go just in case
we found anything, although I really didn t think there would be anything to find.
I realized why we hadn t found a trapdoor or any indication of a pool when we
reached the bottom of the stairs. By the time we were in the basement we would have
been under the next apartment. We d started looking in the wrong apartment.
The smell assaulting us at the bottom of the stairs wasn t very pleasant, but it didn t
really concern me. It was the smell of stale air and dust with some animal odor,
probably mice and rats. Nothing you could describe as  a real bad stench .
We stopped and surveyed the space. It looked like it had been a furnace room, or
maybe the old boiler room. There were five large tanks standing along one wall, rusty,
covered in dust and spider webs. There was just enough fresh air coming from
someplace to make it bearable.
I saw the other door first and touched Ethan s shoulder.  Over there.
He turned and headed toward it with me still clinging to his arm. His hand came
up and covered mine and the warmth made me feel slightly more secure.  You ll be
fine. Even if we find her, it s not like it will be a surprise or anything.
I followed him blindly, knowing he was right. If we found her, we were actually
doing Margaret a favor. Her spirit would be free to leave.
The thought made me braver and I stepped around Ethan and headed for the other
door. Now I wanted to find her.
As I reached for the handle, I felt Ethan s hands on my shoulders.
 You sure about this? he asked.
 I m sure. I ve met Margaret s spirit. I want to help her.
He reached around me and covered my hand with his and we both pulled the door
open.
The stench of decay nearly knocked us over.
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Kelsy George
And it wasn t just the smell of a dead, decomposing body. It was something worse.
Ethan yanked me back and when we cleared the doorway, he spun and slammed the
door shut.
We were both taking deep breaths of what now smelled like fresh air, trying to rid
our minds and noses of the awful smell. Ethan recovered enough to talk.
 What was that? Are you okay?
 I m fine. And I don t know what it was. How come we never smelled it until the
door was open? The smell is so bad it should have been carrying throughout this
building.
While I d been talking, Ethan was on the phone. We d had so many visits from the
police lately they d given him a direct line to someone who would help if we called.
And I figured this was one time when we really needed them.
My eyes were still burning from the odor we d unleashed. The stink reminded me
of the smell of the neglected kennel runs on the next property over from where my
family lived in Bay View fecal matter and the overpowering ammonia smell of urine.
That s what this room smelled like.
I knew I wasn t going back in there. I couldn t. The smell was too strong for
someone without an oxygen mask. I guessed we d have the fire department as well as
the police, again. They might want to consider setting up a substation in this building
the way we were going.
 Let s go. We ll wait for them upstairs. Ethan took my arm and led me toward the
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