True believer - Nicholas Sparks [71]
Leaving the car idling, he popped the trunk. As she peered in, Lexie’s eyes widened.
“It looks like you’ve got the makings to build a bomb in there.”
“Nah,” he said. “Just a bunch of cool things. Guys love their toys, you know.”
“I thought you’d just have a video camera or something like that.”
“I do. I have four of them.”
“Why do you need four?”
“To film every angle, of course. For instance, what if the ghosts are walking in the wrong direction? I might not get their faces.”
She ignored the comment. “And what’s this thing?” she asked, pointing to an electronic box.
“A microwave radiation detector. And this over here,” he said, gesturing at another item, “sort of goes with it. It detects electromagnetic activity.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No,” he said. “It’s in the official ghostbuster’s handbook. You’ll often find increased spiritual activity in areas where there are high concentrations of energy, and this will help detect an abnormal energy field.”
“Have you ever recorded an abnormal energy field?”
“As a matter of fact, I have. In a supposedly haunted house, no less. Unfortunately, it had nothing to do with ghosts. The owner’s microwave oven wasn’t working properly.”
“Ah,” she said.
He looked at her. “Now you’re stealing my lines.”
“It’s all I could come up with. Sorry.”
“It’s okay. I’ll share.”
“Why do you have all this stuff?”
“Because,” he said, “when I debunk the possibility of ghosts, I have to use everything that paranormal investigators use. I don’t want to be accused of missing anything, and these people have their rules. Besides, it seems more impressive when someone reads that you’ve used an electromagnetic detector. They think you know what you’re doing.”
“And do you?”
“Sure. I told you, I have the official handbook.”
She laughed. “So what can I help you with? Do you need me to help carry any of this stuff?”
“We’ll be using all of it. But if you consider this to be manly work, I’m sure I can handle it on my own while you do your nails or something.”
She pulled out one of the camcorders, slung it over her shoulder, and grabbed another one.
“Okay, Mr. Manly, which way?”
“That depends. Where do you think we should set up? Since you’ve seen the lights, maybe you have some ideas.”
She nodded in the direction of the magnolia tree, where she’d been heading when he’d first seen her in the cemetery.
“Over there,” she said. “That’s where you’ll see the lights.”
It was the spot directly in front of Riker’s Hill, though the hill was hidden in the fog.
“Do they always appear in the same spot?”
“I have no idea. But that’s where they were when I saw them.”
Over the next hour, as Lexie filmed him with one of the camcorders, Jeremy set everything up. He arranged the other three video recorders in a large triangular pattern, mounting them on tripods, attaching special filtering lenses to two of them, and adjusting the zoom until the entire area was overlapped. He tested the laser remotes, then began setting up the audio equipment. Four microphones were attached to nearby trees, and a fifth was placed near the center, which was where he’d set the electromagnetic and radiation detectors, as well as the central recorder.
As he was making sure everything worked properly, he heard Lexie calling out to him.
“Hey, how do I look?”
He turned and saw her wearing the night-vision goggles and looking something like a bug.
“Very sexy,” he said. “I think you’ve definitely found your style.”
“These things are neat. I can see everything out here.”
“Anything I should be worried about?”
“Aside from a couple of hungry cougars and bears, you seem to be alone.”
“Well, I’m almost done here. All I still have to do is spread some flour and unwind the thread.”
“Flour? Like baking