“I know it was,” James responded. “He was a Captain in the Marines, and you can see his rank right on his collar there.” He walked toward the picture and focused the light on the man’s collar.
Lenora waggled her light on James’ chest. “Don’t go too far away. How do you know this stuff?”
“I, uh, did some digging and it was pretty interesting,” James continued. “He was missing in action at the Battle of Belleau Wood. That’s in France. It was really intense. And this famous Marine, Sergeant Major Dan Daly, led his Marines into the fighting with, ‘Come on you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?’”
“No!” Lenora said with such intensity that her light jumped.
James raised an eyebrow. “No…what?”
Lenora lowered her flashlight to the floor. “I’m sorry, that just…came out.”
“Because…?”
“Because I don’t want to live forever.”
James blinked. “Oh. Well. Glad we got that cleared up.”
“I didn’t quote anyone about living forever,” she commented in a huffy tone, and she swiftly moved toward the door so James followed. “You sure are interested in this place.”
As they walked back into the hall, James muttered, “You sure like to yell out of the blue.”
They spied one more door at the end of the hall, but it was locked.
“So something is locked in this house,” James observed.
“Maybe it’s always been locked. Maybe no one has ever been able to open it because…” her voice trailed away.
James made a disgusted sound in his throat.