Author's Note: Okay, can you believe this? My computer crashed! AGAIN! And by 'again' I don't mean the same computer crashed twice. No. This was my *new* one. GAH! Anyway, so the only way to fix it was to reformat the hard drive. I lost *everything*. :-( Luckily, I had emailed this chapter and another to a friend, so I was able to have her email them back (about two weeks after I asked for them. ;-)) So I'm finally able to post this. Sorry for the delay. Honestly, this time it wasn't my fault. The shop had the computer for over a week, and then I had to get everything set up on it again. Ugh, what a pain. Anyway, here it is. I hope you like it!

shadowdreamer7598: I'm glad you liked it. Sorry for it being short. That happens sometimes in order for me to break up the chapters in the spots I want. I try to make them longer, but it doesn't always work.

Nestrik: Yay! Thanks! :-)

Silver Eyes Bright: I tried to put it up, but…. *points at author's note* yeah.. *sigh* But here it is! And hopefully I can get 11 up quickly, 'cause that's pretty much done.

Shez: Well, I wouldn't you to be cranky. Lol. I'm glad you like it and I hope it keeps creeping you out. (in a good way, of course)

Darkchild2010: I'm glad you liked it, and I hope you like this chapter too! :-)

Lady of Knight: Oh, good, glad to see I'm not being *too* predictable. :-P I know it's not an incredibly original story, but I am trying. I'm glad I made you laugh. :-)

Jules2206: I'm glad you're liking it! I hope you keep reading it!

fools-R-us: Thanks! Glad you like it!

Kendal: I wouldn't hold it against you for forgetting to review, though I'm glad you did. :-) Speaking of which… Did I ever review your latest chapter? I can't remember. I'll check when I'm done with this. Lol. Oh, and don't worry about babbling. I love babbling! Hehe. And I'm glad you think the pace is realistic. A lot of the times in stories like this, I feel like I'm cramming too much into too little time, without realizing it. So I'm glad to hear that.

Heavenonearth6: I'm gonna update now! :-) I'm glad you like it.

Chapter Ten: Questions

"I'm telling you, Luke. Something's not right here, and we need to find out what!"

Luke scuffed the carpet with his shoe and looked up at Danielle. She leaned forward in the chair in his room, while he sat on the end of his bed, across from her.

"I just don't know, Danielle. What could be going on? And how would we even find out anything?"

She sighed. "I don't know. But I almost died twice today. You think that's just a coincidence? And what about what you heard Mr. McKane say?"

He adjusted his glasses on his nose and frowned. He'd finally broken down and told her about that. He'd had to. It had been nagging at his mind for too long. "Maybe. They were totally unrelated. How could somebody both scare your horse and try to drown you? And I don't really know what he was talking about. It could have been anything."

She crossed her arms across her chest and glared at him. "Fine. I hope you die first."

Luke sighed. "Okay. Say I do believe you. Hypothetically." He stood and crossed over to the balcony doors. "What do we do about it?" Through the doors, he could see some of the group below in the pool.

Apparently Danielle's close call hadn't scared them out of going in the water.

Danielle flopped back in the chair, throwing her arms out. "I don't know. I just feel like we need to do something, before anyone else gets hurt."

Luke stared at the swimmers for a moment longer, then turned back to Danielle. "Alright. I'll help you. Let's start with the staff. They're always around. I'm sure they've seen or heard something."

Determination swept across Danielle's face. "Yeah. Good idea. And maybe we can look around in Mr. McKane's office. Maybe he's got some kind of clues. That always works in the movies."

Alarm washed through Luke's veins. "If we do that, we need to be very, very careful. If Mr. McKane catches us ..."

Danielle nodded, biting her lip. "I know. We could lose our chances at the scholarship."

"That's not it." He knelt down next to Danielle's chair and peered up at her intently. "I mean, that could happen. But I'm talking about if he really is dangerous and he catches us. We might not come back."

Her face paled. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Luke clenched his fists, steeling his nerves for what he was going to say next. "But don't worry about it. I've seen his office. I'll do it."

Danielle's eyes widened. "Are you sure? This was all my idea."

He nodded. "Yeah. I'm sure." I think.

"Okay," she said softly. She touched his arm and met his eyes. "But be careful."

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Luke grumbled to himself.

He slipped through the partially open door into McKane's office, pushing the door mostly closed behind him. If someone entered the room outside, he thought he should be able to hear their footsteps in time to hide.

He hurried over to the giant picture window. It looked out onto the gardens he'd been in earlier that day. Now, they were empty.

Good. He didn't want someone to see him through the window. He thought he was safe from McKane for a while; he'd left with his chauffeur earlier to pick up Brittany and Kristin from the hospital. But it would be just his luck to be spotted by a gardener.

His heart thudded against his rib cage as he turned finally to the enormous wooden desk. McKane must not care much for personalizing because the top of the desk was mostly bare, decorated only by a pen holder and a paper clip tray.

The middle drawer was locked, but Luke thought maybe he might find a key in one of the other drawers. The top left drawer contained only a stack of papers, something about real estate transactions. He didn't know much about real estate, so they didn't mean much to him.

The next drawer down revealed a slip of paper with writing scrawled on it. He took it out and stared at it for a minute before he finally realized what it was. A prescription for Valium, signed by some doctor whose name he couldn't make out. The paper didn't say who the drug was for, though, and Luke assumed it must be McKane's.

The bottom drawers on either side held file folders with little of interest to him. It was in the middle drawer on the right that he finally came across something intriguing. At the bottom, hidden under a basket of highlighters and rubber bands, he found a small stack of newspapers and photographs. The top photo was a Polaroid of a smiling woman leaning against a tree, her long brown hair blowing slightly in the breeze. She looked about 40 years old.

Luke set the picture aside and continued digging. Under four or five more pictures of the woman, he found a newspaper clipping that made him gasp. "Two killed in boating accident," the headline read. His eyes widened, and he started reading the article. "Two local women died Saturday morning on Lake Hope after debris pierced the fuel tank of their boat, causing an explosion, likely when one woman threw a lit cigarette overboard, police said. Anne McKane, 42, and her daughter, Nicole, 16, died instantly, according to reports."

Next to the type was a mug shot of the woman in the pictures, identified as Anne McKane.

"Oh my God," he breathed. He'd heard the rumors about McKane's wife being dead and haunting the place, but he didn't know she'd died like that. He'd just assumed it had been cancer or something. Ridiculous, now that he thought about it. And he didn't know there had been a daughter killed too. He skimmed the rest of the story, but it didn't say much, just that there would be an investigation and it looked like it would be ruled an accident. Luke couldn't help wondering where McKane was when it happened.

He was pawing farther down the pile, looking for more clippings, when a voice spoke up.

"Luke." He jerked his hand away from the drawer and jumped back. Nyah stood in the doorway, her face flushed.

"Nyah," he breathed, holding a hand to his heart. "You scared me to death."

She stepped into the room. "What are you doing?" She spoke quietly but quickly.

He opened his mouth and glanced around the room, trying to think of an excuse. "Uhh, I..."

Nyah shook her head. "It doesn't matter. I don't want to know. But you better get out of here. She's coming."

His heart took a plunge. "Who's coming?"

"Rachel."

The assistant. Great. He hadn't liked her since the moment he met her. She struck him as cold and callous, not to mention snobby. She would probably have him tossed in jail if she caught him in here. And Luke really didn't think he'd handle the slammer very well.

He slammed the drawer shut and strode to Nyah. Eyes wide, she grabbed his hand and pulled him to the doorway. They stood there a moment, listening. Luke gradually became aware of footsteps echoing in the hallway, growing louder.

"Which way?" he whispered.

She looked down the opposite hallway. "That way." He barely heard her over the roaring in his ears.

Nyah yanked on his hand and they took off sprinting down the hallway.

She's going to hear us, he kept thinking as they ran. She'll hear our footsteps and come after us. We're so caught.

But somehow they made it. They burst through a door at the end of the hallway into a glassed-in enclosure and collapsed next to the door. He listened down the hallway for a minute, his chest heaving. Nobody was following, and he let out a sigh of relief.

"We're safe," he said, no longer whispering, but keeping his voice low, just in case. He leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. Then he realized Nyah was still holding his hand, and he turned to look at her. She stared at him, the blue specks in her hazel eyes standing out in the sunlight coming through the glass walls. He felt his face warming under the intensity of her gaze, but he couldn't look away. Something about the way she was looking at him...

"How did you know I was in there?" he finally asked, forcing his eyes from hers and looking nervously around the room. He realized they were in some kind of greenhouse. Heat poured through the windows onto what had to be thousands of different plants. Some were big enough to be called trees, even. Exotic red and blue flowers dotted the greenery.

A small smile tugged at her lips. "I was looking for you. I saw you go into this wing after lunch."

He swallowed. God, she looked so beautiful in the sunlight. Reddish tints gleamed in her hair, and he felt the urge to run his hands through it. "Oh?" His voice came out sounding higher-pitched than usual, and he mentally kicked himself. "Why were you looking for me?"

She squeezed his hand and leaned toward him. For a split second, he thought she was going to kiss him, and his heart did a somersault. But her face stopped far from his, and she said, "You're in danger."

Luke blinked. "I'm sorry. I... what?" Not exactly what he'd been expecting.

Nyah shook her head, looking unhappy. "It's not safe here. You need to leave."

"What do you mean it's not safe here?"

"I can't explain, Luke." She stared at him, her eyes wide with dismay. "Please, just go."

He stared at her a moment, then a laugh escaped from him. "You're kidding, right?"

She said nothing, only pulled her hand from his and looked at the ground.

"You're... not kidding. Nyah, what's going to happen? Is Mr. McKane going to do something?"

She shook her head. "I can't tell you. But I know you know something's going on, or you wouldn't have been in the office." When she lifted her head, he was shocked to see tears shimmering in her eyes. "Just promise me you'll stop trying to find out what it is, and just go. Take your friends with you."

He pushed himself to his knees and grabbed her hands. "If something bad's going to happen, I'm not leaving without you."

"No. I can't go. I don't know how much time you have. You have to go now." She jumped to her feet, pulling her hands away from his and stepping toward the doorway.

"Nyah," he pleaded.

She turned back to him, her face hardening. "Just go, Luke. Forget about me."

"But ..." He took a step toward her, and she turned and ran back down the hallway. He sighed and leaned against the wall. Danger? What did she mean by that? And why did it make him feel sick to his stomach?

"Nyah," he called. "Come back." He stepped into the doorway, but the hallway was empty. He jogged down almost back to the office, but she was nowhere in sight.

"You guys do a great job here."

The maids beamed, and Danielle gave an inner cheer. It had taken her absolutely forever just to find a maid in this place, and then half of them didn't even speak English. When she finally found one that did speak English, she wouldn't talk to her.

These two, however, seemed more than willing to take a break and talk to her. One, an older woman who reminded Danielle of her aunt, had tossed her cleaning towel onto her cart and plopped down on one of the plush chairs. The second, probably only a little bit older than Danielle, with blond hair tied back in a bun, leaned against the wall and yawned.

"I mean, seriously," Danielle continued, motioning at the dimly lit hallway. Huge mirrors lined each side of the hallway, making it seem a lot bigger than it really was. She had never seen it before, and she hoped she could find her way back again, but it would be worth it if she got something out of these maids. Then again, Danielle sucked at getting people to talk. Not that she had much experience in the area; she just would never make a good police officer. "This place is spotless! Like my group's not even here. How do you do it?"

The older woman smiled and looked around. "Well, it's not very hard to keep clean, even though it's so big. Mr. McKane hardly ever has visitors."

Danielle raised an eyebrow. "Why is that?"

The younger maid piped up. "Nobody wants to come here because ..." She stopped mid-sentence when the other woman gave her a piercing look. The blonde cleared her throat. "I mean, Mr. McKane is just very busy all the time."

Danielle looked back and forth between the two of them, eyes narrowed. The blonde had been about to spill something, she just *knew* it! "Is it because of the ghost stories? Those aren't true, right?"

The two looked at each other, communicating something silently to each other.

"Well..." the blonde began.

"Because some strange things have been happening to me since I got here," Danielle admitted, hoping it would get them to open up. Apparently it worked, because the older woman pursed her lips and nodded to the blonde.

The blonde leaned toward Danielle and whispered, "People don't come here because bad things happen when they do."

Danielle gasped. "Bad things? What kind of bad things?"

"Well... the last visitors were the family of this woman Mr. McKane was seeing." The blonde hugged her arms around herself, looking nervous. "And there were... accidents."

Danielle felt the blood draining from her face. A shiver rushed through her veins. "Accidents?"

The older maid crossed herself and looked at the ceiling. The blonde nodded. "The woman he was seeing... She fell down the stairs and broke her back. She's paralyzed now. She said somebody pushed her. And her daughter almost drowned in the pool."

Danielle felt sick to her stomach. Maybe she didn't want to hear what the maids had to say after all. But the blonde, now that she'd opened up, kept going.

"Two years ago, one of A.J.'s girlfriends was here, and one of these mirrors fell on her."

The three looked warily at the mirrors, but they looked solidly attached to the wall.

"What causes it?" Danielle asked, her voice weak.

The older woman shrugged. "People just die in this house. They said Mrs. McKane's death was an accident, but a lot of people say otherwise."

"You think Mr. McKane killed her?"

The maids looked at each other again. The older woman grabbed Danielle's hand and gazed at her intently.

"Somebody did."