The weather changed while they were sleeping. Clouds clustered on the edge of the sky and the breeze blew cold. Michaela stood on the driveway looking up at the northern hemisphere stars, realising she could recognise none of them.

Trisha was sitting on the front step, smoking. ‘I’ve got a headache,’ she said, sending the cigarette butt flying in a shower of red sparks. ‘This whole thing’s a bloody headache. What’s going to happen tonight?’

Michaela looked over at Trisha. She buried her hands in the pockets of her jeans to keep them warm. ‘Maybe nothing,’ she said. ‘I’m just going to see what I can see. Nothing more.’

Trisha scowled. ‘That’s fine as far as it goes. But can’t we just get this whole shitty scenario over and done with?  She rolled her shoulders. ‘I so need a good night out. Something to drink, a bit of dancing.’ She smiled. ‘A whole lot of sex.’

Michaela sighed. ‘I’m with you there, babe. Not exactly the best circumstances for a reunion.’

Trisha fished out another cigarette and lit it. ‘Yeah, but you wouldn’t have come except for this.’

‘You wouldn’t have asked me except for this.’

‘Touché. You reckon Caro’s going to be all right? She’s looking pretty stressed.’

Michaela came and sat down next to Trisha. She plucked the cigarette from Trisha’s fingers and took a drag, blowing the smoke out in a grimace.

‘I keep forgetting how bloody foul these things are.’ 

‘Quit fucking pinching them then.’

Michaela took a second lungful and passed it back. ‘Caro will be fine,’ she said.

‘How do you know that?’

She put her arm around her girlfriend. ‘Because we will make sure she is, okay?’

Trisha sighed. ‘Yeah.’

They stared out at the clouds erasing the stars from the sky.

‘I never knew the world was so full of weird shit,’ Trisha said after a moment.

Michaela nodded. ‘Hell of a wake-up call isn’t it?’

‘Yeah. How the fuck are you supposed to carry on all like normal afterwards though?’

A shrug. ‘Maybe you’re not.’

Trisha finished the cigarette. ‘Come on babe. It’s cold out here.’

They went up the steps and inside, closing the door behind them. Caro was poking around the bags on the kitchen table.

‘You must have spent a fortune on all this stuff,’ she said.

Michaela shrugged and took out the digital video camera. ‘None of it will go to waste.’

Caro stared at her and held up the EMF meter. ‘You’re going to use this again?’ she asked. ‘For what?’

Michaela laughed and looked at the item in her hand. ‘How do you know what that even is?’

Caro tuned it over in her hands. ‘I watched that English program ‘Britian’s Most Haunted’ or something like that. It was such a stupid program, you never got to see anything except some woman who screamed all the way through it.’ Caro started giggling. ‘She swore a lot too, this woman. Could almost put Trisha to shame.’ She stopped laughing. ‘Anyway, they used these to measure some sort of ghost shit.’

‘Electromagnetic field detector. Used to measure differences in the electromagnetic fields. Apparently, small fluctuations from no apparent sources is supposed to be evidence of spirit activity,’ Michaela filled in.

‘You’re really keen on all this ghost buster stuff, aren’t you?’ said Caro.

Michaela looked at the bags of electronic equipment. ‘Sure looks like it, doesn’t it? I think I went a little crazy in the electronics shop.’

Caro handed over the EMF meter. ‘A little? You think?’ she shook her head. ‘What’s it all going to do though?’

This was a more difficult question. Michaela sat down at the table and looked over the gear. Trisha came over and sat a coffee in front of her.

‘Thanks sweetheart,’ Michaela said. She picked up the digital thermometer and took it out of its box. Fortunately it measured temps in both Fahrenheit and Celsius. The most she knew about Fahrenheit was that 30 degrees was zero in Celsius. She’d never got the hang of American measurements. But she was hedging.

‘Well,’ she finally said. ‘The cameras are so we can record whatever is happening. We know these shadows can be captured on film now, and it will be useful to watch them when we can’t be everywhere.’

Trisha interrupted her. ‘I don’t think you’re getting the big picture, babe. The idea is simply to get rid of the fuckers. Not to make a scientific study of them.’

Michaela ran her fingers through her hair. She had gone a little overboard. Most of the stuff she’d bought would never be used again. Unless she set up work as a ghost hunter.

‘You’re right,’ she conceded. ‘I got a bit carried away. This business just fascinates me, is all.’ She looked at Trisha then Caro. They both had identical frowns. ‘Priority one is to get rid of them, okay?’

Trisha nodded. ‘As long as we have that understood.’ She gestured at the bags of gear. ‘This stuff is just a side line because you’re interested, right?’

‘Right.’

‘Okay then. Why don’t the two of you get all that shit set up and stuff while I make us something to eat?’ She checked her watch. ‘Damn it’s late. How did we forget to eat, for fucks sakes? Omelettes okay with you guys?’

Michaela and Caro both nodded and Trisha disappeared into the kitchen and began to bang the pots and pans around.

‘You want to help?’ Michaela asked Caro.

‘You bet. Just tell me what we need to do.’

There were two video cameras. One they set up in Caro’s bedroom.

‘How will it film in the dark?’ Caro asked.

Michaela blushed. ‘I bought ones with night vision.’

Besides the cameras, there was the EMF detector and thermometer, a tiny digital recorder and a really cool little gadget that worked not only as a motion sensor, but actually filmed whatever tripped the sensor. Michaela had been secretly delighted with that one – buying all this stuff had been kind of fun. She set up the motion sensor and looked around Caro’s room again, wondering if she’d forgotten anything. She put the voice recorder down on Caro’s bookcase. When she came in later she would switch it to record automatically at sound. She sat down a moment in the armchair beside the bed and gazed idly at the books on the shelf, going over her mental checklist.

One of the titles caught her attention. Then the couple next to it. She pulled out the first and stared at the cover then flipped it over and read the back. She realised she was holding her breath and let it out in a whoosh of air.

Had she just found the trigger?