“Fuck no,” she said through a sob.
Gabriel smiled and led Jenny to a chair. The rest of the room watched them with curiosity. Leonard Sickles wasn’t thrilled at all when Gabriel placed her next to him. And then to the surprise of all, Abe Feuerstein gently placed a cup of coffee in front of the small anthropology professor. No one had even noticed that he had stood. He smiled and quietly returned to his chair.
Lionel Peterson decided to forego the attack on the credibility of Professor Tilden for the moment — it seemed Mr. Feuerstein had taken a liking to the sad little woman.
Gabriel returned to the front of the conference room and cleared his throat as Jenny took her first sip of the coffee.
“John, Doctor Tilden, has a suite at the Waldorf Astoria, as do all of you. Would you take her to her room when this is over?”
Lonetree looked from Kennedy to the others around the table.
“I’ll take her,” Julie Reilly said before John could answer.
Kennedy looked into the reporter’s eyes, his accusation clear. She swallowed, and then lightly shook her head. She wouldn’t question the professor on her ghostly experiences — at least, not yet.
“All right. Everyone aside from the team I have invited, has their doubts as to the validity of the power of Summer Place,” Kennedy continued. Harris and Kelly started to say something simultaneously, but Kennedy held his hand up to stay their protests. “Yes, I know you had an experience at Summer Place. But that does not mean that you believe. Deep down inside, you are still looking for the rational explanation.” Kennedy leaned between John and Jennifer. “Let me tell you, there is no rationality as far as that house goes. I didn’t believe it at first. I sought out explanations, too. I looked for anything from underground waterways to old mining operations.” Kennedy straightened and looked purposely toward CEO Feuerstein, and then at Lionel Peterson. “I’ll say this — while you’re taking this as a joke that could possibly bring you ratings, I have learned through my research that Summer Place is insanity personified. Whatever lives in that house is real, and it is angry. It drove the wood, the plaster, the foundation of that house insane, and now the pretty yellow home is just as culpable as its unwanted guest.”
The room was silent, watching the conviction grow in Kennedy’s eyes.
“It devours people, and there has to be a reason for it. As I said before, those it doesn’t want, it will scare. Those that it does want, those whom it likes, or those who may cause it harm, or those who get a little too close to its secret…It will eat them alive.” Gabriel moved slowly around the table, looking off toward the distant Pocono Mountains. “Insanity is the closest I can get to describing what’s in there. Horror is just a word. Haunting is another. But whatever walks there, it wants mayhem and death. It’s as if it uses these to cover a purpose. Our job, before the thirty-first, is to find out what that purpose is.”
“Researching the family, the house?” Peterson asked. He pulled his notepad forward with a small roll of his eyes.
“Everything about the family, the house, and the grounds, all the way up to and through the live broadcast. Anyone who isn’t on assignment or going out live will report to the ballroom, where they will continue going over all the research that I have gathered about Summer Place. They will be connected to mainframes at NYU and Columbia here in the city. They will have computing power. They’ll be able to dig all the way past curtain time.” Gabriel he finally smiled down on Feuerstein, who returned it most uneasily.
“I assume that doesn’t mean you want technical people in the ballroom, Professor,” Peterson said with a smile.
Kennedy returned the smug look. “As far as I am concerned, Mr. Peterson, you do not exist. Anything outside of Summer Place is not my problem. My job will be to make sure those people inside the belly of the beast remain alive for the fourteen hours they are there. The control van, the producers, you’ll all be on your own, with the warning that Summer Place may not be able to be controlled.”
“We’ll risk it, Professor. Now, you say fourteen hours inside the house?”
Gabriel held Peterson’s glare, and then smiled.
“That’s right, fourteen hours. Everyone needs to get a feel for the physicality of the house. Remember, we’ll be mostly in the dark for the broadcast hours.”
“How many camera teams will there be all together?” Jason Sanborn asked, looking from the Kennedy and Peterson to Kelly and Harris Dalton.
“We’ll have six teams, fifteen static cameras, and the entire house rigged for viewing. Nothing will be able to move in that house without us knowing about it,” Kelly said proudly.
“It’s not you that will be watching the house; it will be the house watching us.”
Kennedy turned toward Jennifer.
“What was that honey?” he asked.
Professor Tilden placed her coffee cup down upon the table and then tried to smile.
“The house already knows you’re coming, Gabriel. It has a connection with more than you in this room. This little meeting has been observed from the moment it began.”
“What are you saying young lady?” CEO Feuerstein asked from his chair in the corner, leaning forward and placing his elbows on his aging knees.
“It’s like Gabriel’s Summer Place has been waiting for this moment since its existence began, long after it was built.”
“She’s right, Gabriel. I have been getting vibes ever since the professor’s performance this afternoon,” George Cordero said, looking very much concerned. “It’s like Miss Tilden’s presence has given me a boost of some kind, like I’m a battery that was once drained, but is now connected by jumper cables to a fresh one.”
“Oh come on, enough with the mysticism. Say what you mean,” Lionel Peterson interrupted.
“What I mean to say, Mr. Producer Man, is that Summer Place, or whatever is trapped there, is here right now, in this room.” George stood and moved around the table. “It’s like a tiger examining its prey, and let me tell you this: it’s not afraid of what its seeing. It’s anticipatory. I get the feeling that it believes we are there to harm it, to stop it from doing what it does best, what it feels it has the right to do.” He stopped and looked at Gabriel. “It’s there to protect something, just like the professor has surmised. Whether it’s the house itself, or a secret, it’s not afraid of us. It figures it has that right — at least that’s the way I figure it.”
“And that is?” Feuerstein asked, leaning forward in his chair. “I mean, what right is that?”
Kelly watched the old man. He was taking this in, hook, line and sinker. She could have kissed Cordero and Tilden for their performances.
“Why, the same as any living entity — the right to defend itself,” Jennifer answered for Cordero.
They all looked at Jenny and a chill filled the room.
“Do you feel it?” John Lonetree asked Gabriel.
Indeed he did. The room temperature had fallen by twenty degrees, just as it had before. Feuerstein watched his breath fog in the air in front of him.
“I think this is one little trip that you’ll have to make without old George, Gabe,” Cordero said as he moved away from the table.
At that moment, the double doors of the conference room creaked. They all looked that way as the sound repeated. Then came the cracking of wood. The doors were actually bending inward.