The witching hours, p.17
The Witching Hours, page 17
He gave her a mirthless smile and indicated the interrogation room, where Zach was questioning Nick, and they were all silent as they observed them.
“No!” Nick was saying passionately. “You don’t understand. I was trying to save that girl!”
“She almost died. If we hadn’t gotten her to the hospital when we did, she’d be dead now. No good to you for whatever you planned for her. What was in those pills?”
“Just a little happy juice. It’s not my fault she took too many!”
“Where did you get the pills?” Zach asked.
Nick just sighed and looked at his hands. “Listen, I’m not going to answer anything. You’re damned. You will reside in hell forever. That’s what happens when you join with an evil conspiracy—when you dance with the devil in the woods!”
“I haven’t done any dancing with the devil—in the woods or otherwise,” Zach said without emotion. “I think you’ve been dancing in the woods with the devil. Only the devil would nearly kill a girl.”
“We’re trying to save her soul!” Nick announced indignantly.
“Well, let’s see. You failed. So, who are you working for?”
Nick sat back, shaking his head. “The master will know all, see all. And if you hang me by the neck until dead right now, it will not matter because I will rise above all this. I will live in eternal bliss as one of the master’s chosen few!”
Zach groaned. “No one is hanging you by the neck—or otherwise. Just locking you up for attempted kidnapping; and you’ll get a trial date—and you can get an attorney. Those are the things that the people who formed this country knew to be important, not falling prey to the wacko preaching of any would-be messiah!”
Skye watched as Nick stared at Zach; for a moment, he had to wonder if Zach was telling him the truth.
But then Nick gave his head a serious shake.
“No! I will not fall to the lies of the devil!” he proclaimed.
“Others may die,” Zach said quietly. “And if you’re listening to a false messiah, their deaths will be on you. So, how about this—who killed Mike Bolton?”
“He was sent to his demise, lest he ruin the future grace of those who might see the true way,” Nick told him. Then he suddenly said, “Oh, yeah, right! Lawyer!”
Zach stood immediately. “Your choice. You sure? I could maybe help you.”
“No. You dance with the devil.”
Zach nodded, clenching his jaw. The words seemed to be something of a motto for those in a mind warp around here.
He walked out into the hall, where Skye, Gavin, and Captain Claybourne met him.
“Brainwashed and beyond,” Zach said. He looked at Gavin. “I didn’t know you and Skye had gotten here. It might have been good if you’d gotten into him before he’d said the ‘lawyer’ word. What’s scary, though, is that it seems he believes everything that he’s saying; and that, at least, gives us a better idea of what’s going on here.”
“I admit, I’m still baffled!” Claybourne said. “‘The master’? What the hell?”
“From what I’ve seen and heard, sir,” Zach told him, “someone is planning something big in which they need a little army to help them. They’re taking children, teens, and those they think they can force to be pliable.”
“You think it’s a cult—” Claybourne began.
“No, sir,” Zach said. “I think they’re planning on a heist or an attack, one in which they need obedient servants who believe that they’re helping a great messiah. And everything about Salem that was suspected in the past was true—people were witches, they made pacts with the devil, and they must be the ones to fight against all the witches out here.”
“That’s so crazy,” Claybourne moaned. “How do we know what they plan to attack, or what they think they will rob? And how does a five-year-old or any child help in a heist?”
“Shields. No one is going to want to hurt a child. He—or they, from what we’ve come to believe—will use the children to keep others from reaching them,” Zach said. He looked at Gavin. “You want to have a go at the driver?”
Skye knew Zach hoped Gavin would see into the man’s mind—and through him, find out what the depth of the plan had been.
“Right. Going in,” Gavin said, looking at his captain for acknowledgment.
Captain Claybourne nodded. But as Gavin stepped out of the observation room, they all saw a young policewoman who had been about to tap on the door. “They’re here, sir. The tour company owners. They’re waiting in reception.”
For a moment, they were silent. Gavin, Zach, and Skye looked at one another.
Skye felt she was useless in what they were doing here. There was nothing that she could “see” at the station that would help.
But maybe …
“Where is the trolley now?” she asked.
“Out back, in our lot,” Captain Claybourne said.
“I may see if there is anything we missed with the trolley,” she murmured, heading out the back quickly. Gavin, Zach, and the captain might glean more from the couple who owned the company, or from the man who had driven the trolley.
The trolley was lined up right behind the station, along with several patrol cars. Skye did wonder what she thought she might get from it, but there was no way to find out until she tried. She climbed onto the driver’s seat and closed her eyes and then opened them. Nothing. She set her hands on the wheel and tried again.
And then she saw an event unfold. A recent event.
A different man from the driver they had known, sitting at the wheel, checking his watch, just waiting.
Then …
There was the green witch again, the damned green witch, striking the man hard over the head.
He fell forward instantly, and the green witch dragged him out and away, and then the driver they had met appeared, sliding into the driver’s seat.
Skye leapt out of the seat; they needed to find the man who was supposed to have been driving the trolley on the tour.
He’d been hit hard, but maybe …
She rushed back into the station; glad she was coming through the back. She hurried to the observation room, hoping that Zach would be there with Gavin.
They were both there, and they were alone.
She rushed in.
“He’s out there, somewhere. Wherever the trolley parks before it’s time to come in and sweep people up for the part of the tour that isn’t on foot. I mean, I think he was just thrown aside after he was attacked, but he might be alive and …”
“Near dead,” Zach said quickly. “Gavin—”
“You two go. I’ll cover it with Captain Claybourne,” Gavin promised. “We just talked to Claybourne—apparently, Laurie and Ted Sizemore are beside themselves, worried about their regular driver and grateful that nothing happened to that poor girl, who is in the hospital now. If you—”
“You believed them?” Skye asked Gavin.
He nodded solemnly. “I was watching from here, but … yes. Anyway, head out of town to the road that borders the heavily forested road out toward the Rebecca Nurse Homestead. Ted Sizemore said the trolley driver watches the time and waits off to the side of the road there until the guide calls to tell him to head into town. It’s not that big a thing, but it has about four little cars, so it needs a bit of space without messing with Salem central traffic.”
“We’re done—we don’t have a car!” Skye said.
“I’ve got Gavin’s keys,” Zach said. “We’re borrowing his unmarked car. Let’s move!”
They headed out, Skye worried they didn’t have much to go on. “I know you can drive,” Zach said, trying to put a tiny bit of levity on the situation. “But you know what we’re looking for—I know where we might find it.”
“Sure. Whatever,” Skye murmured.
They were quiet as they headed out, but it wasn’t long before Zach said, “Just ahead. You can see where the trolley has flattened all the grass there. I’ll pull off; we’ll start looking behind the closest trees!”
“Maybe they dumped him farther, maybe—”
“Let’s be optimistic—I doubt if they bothered. I don’t think this guy who took over knew he might be part of a murder plot. If what he is blubbering about is true, he thought he was hired as an actor. He thought the whole thing was kind of a show and that when the cops and ambulance came … he panicked? True or not, I have no idea, and I don’t think Gavin was even sure. Thing is, I don’t think there was time for anyone to do anything other than throw a body quickly in the woods.”
“Then where did the green witch go?” Skye asked.
But Zach had parked the car and was already getting out. Skye followed, pulling out her phone flashlight to cast a glow over the trees. Zach did the same, looking at the scene for a minute, then frowning and stepping back behind a row of trees.
“Call Gavin; he has an ambulance waiting with coordinates!”
She called immediately, rushing back to find Zach.
He was on his knees in the brush, behind a large tree and a tangle of bushes. He was there with a man who was flat on his back, almost hidden by the foliage.
But she could see the bloodstain on his forehead, and she wondered desperately if an ambulance was going to happen or not.
But while not a mind reader, Zach was coming to know her. And he looked up at her and said, “He has a pulse! Skye, you might have just saved a second life in just one night!”
CHAPTER 12
Zach watched Skye at the police station, concerned.
She was thoughtful when they had finally returned to the precinct, and when Gavin drove them back to their quarters.
They were all tired, of course. Exhausted.
But while they hadn’t solved the mystery of what the hell the perpetrators were up to, they had stopped a girl from dying and had gotten a man to the hospital, when a few more hours of lying in the brush without help might have cost him his life.
And there were the very cryptic things they were learning from Nick Sandoval, the tour guide.
“Gavin, were you able to get in to speak with the tour guide yet?” Skye asked when they parked in front of the house.
He nodded. “I did. And here’s what is truly horrible—and not in the least helpful. He believes everything he’s saying to us. Evil is really alive and well in Salem; it was real back in 1692; and most of us—including the couple who owns the tour company—are in league with the devil. In his mind, it started with the witch trials—and it was the devil who tamped it all down. The devil was furious that his reign on earth was being stopped; and since then, he’s been turning people in this area so that they do his bidding.”
Skye shook her head. “How does someone ever become that gullible, that twisted?”
“Well, you can take a stab at him tomorrow,” Gavin said. “We’re holding him as long as we legally can before arraignment—he won’t be getting back out there.”
“Thanks, yeah, I would like to try talking to him tomorrow,” Skye said.
Zach thanked Gavin and headed for the house, holding the door open when Skye exited the car and came up behind him.
“Okay,” he said, once they were in and the alarm was keyed in on the door. “What? What is bothering you so much?”
“Nothing.”
“You can’t lie to me.”
“No, no, it’s just that … my mind is really being torn apart. I know that it’s a good thing we kept Cathy alive. It was the right thing. It’s just if she hadn’t taken too many of those pills, and if we’d just been able to go wherever Nick was taking her, we might have had a chance to break the whole thing sky high!”
“But we did the right thing. And seriously, Skye! The real driver owes his life to you. So be glad, be happy, that we managed something good—especially because of you,” Zach told her.
She smiled at him. “Thanks for that. Logically, I know everything you’re saying is right. It’s not the logic that’s driving me so crazy.”
Zach was not sure what he was thinking now; he had always behaved in a perfectly professional manner with all co-workers. He stepped forward, drawing her into his arms. He looked down into her eyes, speaking softly. “It’s frustrating. Cases will be frustrating. It’s amazing to work with the truth between both of us regarding the, um, special things we can see and do sometimes; but even with three people now, each having a bit of a different sixth sense, cases don’t just solve immediately. Ask Jackson, ask Angela, or ask any of their other agents. Cases can take time. But we may just solve this one, when others couldn’t, before a real catastrophe does take place.”
She looked up into his eyes, listened, and smiled slowly, leaning her head against his chest for a moment.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“You’ll be there for me, too,” he told her.
She drew back at last, nodding. “You know,” she said lightly, “I actually like you! Hadn’t been sure that I was going to!”
“Well, I can beat that,” he told her. “I like you and admire you a whole lot, and I wasn’t sure at all that I was going to.”
She laughed at that and said, “Okay, thanks. So … bed. No. After today, a shower and bed. And then sleep and breakfast! I do want to talk to Nick Sandoval tomorrow.”
He nodded, heading into the kitchen for a bottle of water to take to bed.
“Water! A gallon of something stronger might be good right now,” Skye called after him.
“I can go out and get you—”
She laughed. “No, no, not tonight. I’m joking. But you can grab me a bottle, too.”
He did so, tossing it to her, grinning, and saying good night as she turned to walk into her own room.
She was right about one thing: He had a lot of forest to wash off!
Hot water was good. He stood under it a long time, feeling the heat steam away the tension that had built up in his muscles.
But the events of the night kept playing out before his eyes. It was good that they had been on the tour. If they hadn’t been, Nick Sandoval would have taken the girl through the forest. No one would have known the driver’s distress hadn’t been bought and paid for—and no one would have realized that the guide and the girl were gone until it was too late.
And yet …
It was true. If only they’d been able to follow the pair, they might have truly gotten to the bottom of what was going on.
He exited the shower and dried off, then realized that he had finished his bottle of water already; perhaps because of the steam in the shower, he wanted another one.
He walked out into the hall between the rooms.
And there was Skye, coming from her room as he was coming from his. She, too, was wearing a towel.
“Um, sorry, I was just going for more water,” he said.
“Oh, yeah, sorry. I was just going for more water, too!” she said.
They were barely a foot from one another. She smelled like the clean scent of her soap; something that wasn’t too sweet, far more perfect, like the beauty of a summer day when the sun was casting down on grass and flowers. Her hair streamed somewhat wildly around her face, washed and dried, but still a halo of stunning color falling around her shoulders.
“Water,” she murmured.
“Honestly, water,” he said.
“Yeah, me too, but …”
She took the single step that separated them, placing a hand on his chest. She looked up into his eyes.
“Providence?” she asked softly.
“The most stunning coincidence known to man!” he agreed. And that was it; it was all that he needed. He’d learned to read her eyes in the pursuit of their case, and he knew that he was reading her right at that moment.
And from there … it was the most natural thing in the world.
His arms slipped around her. Their mouths met, a touch of exploration; then something deepened passionately and, in that passion, their towels fell to the floor; the lengths of their bodies touched and a fire, which was like eternal lightning, streamed into his body.
He broke away from the hunger of their kisses long enough to whisper, “My room or yours?”
And she laughed softly. “Who the hell cares?” she answered lightly. “Whichever is closer!”
And it was amazing, so natural, so sweet and easy; the hunger and the urgency mixed with laughter and ease and maybe more … maybe caring, respect …
“Okay, I’m bigger!” he said, sweeping her off her feet and into his arms. “My room is at least six inches closer!”
Her eyes. He could lose himself entirely in her eyes.
They fell to the bed together and there was an incredible moment when he lay over her, his weight hiked on his arms, when they just looked at each other and knew—knew that they had both felt it, something building, unexpected, but forming between them.
Then their lips met again, passionately, hungrily, and then they moved … Kisses, whispers, touches—the sweetest foreplay. Intimate, incredible. And at last, they were together; and as it seemed in all things, they could soar together until the best conclusion joined with all else. And then they lay, side by side, panting, smiling, with no regrets touching either soul.
Skye adjusted comfortably against him.
They lay together, her head rested upon his chest, an arm around him as he stared at the ceiling and threaded his fingers through her hair.
“I’m sorry. This is so crazy,” she murmured. “You know, I didn’t mean to take advantage of you. I swear, I was just going for water!”
He laughed softly. “I could repeat that, word for word. Or I could point out that what is happening between us is not crazy at all; it’s rather perfectly normal,” Zach said softly.
He felt her smile. “Weirdos attract?” she asked.
“Healthy young human beings attract,” he told her. “And the attraction is enhanced even beyond the natural physical desire, because honesty is a beautiful thing; and enjoying something that is beautiful and natural, without worrying about the lies you may tell in the future, is exceptionally”—he eased himself down and around so that he could look at her for a moment—“sexy and sensual and,” he added softly, meeting her eyes, “wonderful.”
