by Bobbi Holmes
“That’s not important. I’m telling you this so you can understand why we believe the Parker sisters are not what they seem. They are not blood witches, but they say they are to lend credibility to their website and to sell more merchandise from their store. And to be honest, I think they have convinced themselves it’s all true. Their website, it’s littered with half-truths. Dangerous information that in the wrong hands could cause harm.”
“What do you mean half-truths?” Danielle asked.
Finola considered the question a moment and then said, “They claim a blood witch can’t be killed. Which is true.”
Danielle arched her brow. “Are you saying you never die?”
Finola laughed. “Not exactly. If someone walked in here and shot me through the heart, for those around me it would appear that I died. But my essence and magic would take another form.”
“I suppose some might say that is true for all of us,” Danielle suggested.
“No. It’s not the same thing,” Finola insisted. “During the witch trials, many people were falsely accused of being witches, and they were brutally murdered for the imaginary crime. But there were some genuine witches, like my ancestor, who they burned at the stake. Do you know why they were burned?”
“To kill them?” Danielle suggested.
Finola shook her head and said, “Many were already dead when burned. But people believed the only way to destroy a witch’s power was to burn her body. That was not true. And the Parkers are correct when they say that.”
“Um…if witches never die, then what happens to them? Your ancestor, for example. If they burned her at the stake, what happened to her?”
Finola smiled. “A witch can return in many forms. After Gavenia’s arrest, her daughter, Blair, just a child, hid in the forest for days, waiting for her mother, until they killed Gavenia and burned her body. Gavenia returned to her daughter in human form, and she helped Blair escape the village, and stayed with her, teaching her the magic of our ancestors.”
“So you’re saying Blair was a witch like her mother?”
“Yes.”
“If they never really die, where are they now?” Danielle asked.
“I don’t know. The last one to see Gavenia was my grandmother’s great-grandmother,” Finola explained.
“You are getting off topic,” Ina told her sister.
Finola glanced to her sister back to Danielle while saying, “She’s right. I was just pointing out an example of something that they get right on their website. However, there are other things, such as spells they include, which are dangerous and ridiculous.”
“How so?” Danielle asked.
“One spell caught my attention. It’s a spell on how to vanquish a blood witch. Utter nonsense. Of course, they claim it is one of the more powerful and dangerous spells. They don’t include the incantation the spell requires; instead they talk in general terms.”
“It’s all fake,” Kenzy said. “You can’t destroy a blood witch with a spell.”
When Danielle returned to the table with Chris, her hamburger was already waiting for her and getting cold. As she sat down, she glanced over to the Baird sisters and watched as they walked from their table to the exit door.
“Did you learn anything?” Chris asked.
“A little.” Danielle’s eyes still on the sisters, she noticed someone by the door, the hippy woman she had seen earlier by the Baird house. The woman stood by the door, as if waiting for the Bairds, and then left with them.
“I thought she didn’t know them,” Danielle said as the four went outside.
“Who?” Chris asked, looking in the same direction as Danielle.
“Did you see that woman following them out the door?” Danielle asked.
“Yeah, what about her?” Chris looked back to Danielle.
“That’s who I ran into at their house. She’s the one who told me where they were. And she claimed not to know them.”
“Then how did she know where they were?” Chris asked. Danielle told him about her two encounters with the woman. After the telling, he said, “It didn’t really look as if she was with them. It looked more like she just happened to be leaving out the door at the same time. They didn’t even look at her when they got to the door.”
“I suppose. But still, it is weird. Why was she here?” Danielle turned her attention back to her plate and looked down at the burger. Using the tip of her right index finger, she gave the burger a poke, testing its warmth.
“So what did you learn?” Chris asked.
“This witch thing of theirs is really out there. They claim blood witches—which they profess to be—never really die. I guess they die, but then they come back in some other form.”
“Like a black cat?” Chris asked.
Danielle frowned. “Didn’t there used to be a TV show like that once?”
Chris shrugged. “Not that I remember.”
Danielle picked up her burger. “Yes. Sabrina the Teenage Witch, or something like that. I think it was a comic series too.”
“Sounds vaguely familiar. So you’re saying they come back as cats?”
“They didn’t mention cats.” Danielle then shared what she had learned about the history of the Bairds’ ancestor, burned as a witch, yet who reportedly returned in human form to her daughter.
“Does any of this help us?” Chris asked.
“The takeaway from my conversation, the Parker sisters are a little strange. Although the Baird sisters are pretty strange themselves, considering what they told me.” Danielle took a bite of her burger. A moment later she continued. “The Bairds claim they are the real deal, but the Parkers aren’t. Witch wise. They believe the Parkers want to be them.”
“Like in take over their lives want to be them? Or just copy them?”
“I’m not really sure. But they believe it all started when they first moved next door. I think it was in California. On one hand, they practically call the Parkers charlatans, but in the next minute they talk as if they feel the Parkers actually believe they’re witches. Although Finola never really explained how the Parkers knew she and her sisters were witches. According to Finola, they never met, and back then they didn’t discuss their family’s history with strangers.”
“And what does it mean for us?”
“Nothing specific. Just that the Bairds believe the Parkers are not above doing something that might hurt someone, if they feel if benefits them.”
“And how would it benefit them? I haven’t even received a ransom note,” Chris said.
“I know. But the Baird sisters also said they don’t believe the Parkers’ motivation is money.”
“Then what is it?”
“I have no idea.” Danielle finished eating her burger while Chris considered all that she had told him.
Finally, Chris said, “That woman leaving with them, didn’t you say she was wearing the same necklace as Finola?”
“Yeah. I’m sure she got it at Pagan Oils.”
“Maybe not. Maybe she’s a ghost,” Chris suggested.
“Whose ghost?” Danielle asked.
“The ghost of this ancestor burned as a witch. The necklace was originally hers, and if she came back to help her daughter, maybe it was her ghost that came back.”
“And her daughter was like us, a medium?” Danielle asked.
Chris nodded. “Yes.”
Danielle considered the suggestion for a moment and then shook her head. “No. I don’t believe she is this Gavenia’s ghost.”
“Why not?”
“I talked to her. Gavenia died in Scotland—some four hundred years ago. The woman I spoke to didn’t have an accent. And Scotland four hundred years ago, I don’t think they spoke English. And even if they did, well, I worked with a woman from Scotland once, and it was very difficult for me to understand her. No. She isn’t a ghost. Remember Saint Nicholas? His ghost still had his accent, and he died over fifteen hundred years ago.”
Twenty-Eight
“They’ve been missing almost twenty-four hours now,” Danielle said after she and Chris walked into the kitchen at Marlow House late Sunday afternoon. Hunny greeted them while Max and Bella stood by the door to the hallway, meowing.
“I wish there was something more we could do,” Chris said, leaning down and scratching Hunny behind the ears.
Danielle opened a can of cat food. The next moment snow fell from the ceiling, and both Danielle and Chris stopped what they were doing and called out, “Eva!”
The falling snow swirled and then faded. In its place, the apparition of Eva Thorndike appeared. “What a friendly welcome,” Eva said, waving her hands in a flourish.
“Where’s Marie?” Danielle asked, quickly abandoning the open can of cat food on the counter.
“I thought you were happy to see me,” Eva said with a pout. In the next moment Max let out a meow, and Eva looked to the cat. A second later, she looked to Hunny and then back to Max and then to Bella.
“We are happy to see you,” Danielle said.
Eva looked up to Danielle with a frown and asked, “Where is Walt? Heather? Is something wrong?”
“First, where is Marie?” Danielle asked.
“I imagine at Adam’s. She was stopping over there for a little while, and then she’s meeting me here. We’ve been in Portland at a film festival. What is going on?” Eva asked. “Hunny and the cats are quite concerned.”
Several minutes later, the three sat at the kitchen table while Danielle and Chris filled Eva in on what had been going on. Eva conveyed the information to Hunny, Bella and Max, who wondered where Walt and Heather had gone.
“Do you have any idea where they might be?” Danielle asked when they finished with the telling.
“No more than you,” Eva said. “As you know, being a ghost doesn’t mean I know everything that’s going on in the living world. Or with the dead, for that matter. But if you haven’t seen their spirits, we can be fairly certain they are still alive. I can’t imagine Walt or Heather not coming back here.”
“That’s what we think too,” Danielle said. “But Walt’s not defenseless. Which makes us wonder, has he been knocked out? Is he unconscious somewhere? Or is it something like when Walt and I were trapped in the tunnel, and his powers were practically useless?”
“How can I help?” Eva asked.
“We were hoping you or Marie might hang out at the Parkers’ house and see if they say anything that might lead us to where they are,” Danielle said.
“You believe those women are responsible for the disappearance?” Eva asked.
“Maybe not responsible directly, but they might know something,” Danielle said. “Something they don’t want to tell the police.”
“It might also be a good idea to do some ghost sleuthing with other shops along that strip,” Chris suggested. “See if they know something they aren’t telling the police. Someone had to have seen something.”
“Which do you want me to do first?” Eva asked.
“Go to the Parkers’,” Danielle said. “And when Marie gets here, I’ll have her check on you, and then maybe one of you can stay with the Parkers, and the other one can do some sleuthing like Chris suggested.”
Eva arrived at the Parkers’ in time to see the three women getting into their van.
“Where are you going?” Eva called out to deaf ears. The next moment she sat in the back of the van with one of the Parker sisters while the other two sisters sat up front.
“Aren’t any of you concerned about what the police asked us this morning?” the sister sitting next to Eva asked.
“What was that?” Eva wondered aloud, knowing they could not hear her.
“Calm down, Davina. The only reason they spoke of Heather is because the spell wasn’t finished. You’ll see, when we get there, Heather and the others will be gone, and when we return to Frederickport, no one will even remember she existed,” the sister sitting in the driver’s seat said. She then slipped a key in the ignition and turned on the engine.
“What do you mean no one will know who Heather is? You know where they are!” Eva said. She wanted to tell Danielle and Chris what she had just overheard, yet she also wanted to continue listening. Looking out the car window, she hoped to see Marie, who could relay a message to Danielle and Chris, but she was nowhere in sight. Eva didn’t know if Marie was still with Adam, or had she arrived at Marlow House? Even if she had, Eva imagined it would take her a while before she made it to the Parkers’, assuming Danielle and Chris would need to fill her in first on all that had happened in the last day.
“Are you sure, Bridget?” Davina asked.
“Yes, that has to be it. We know the spells work. They brought us the ruby and Heather. This one will work too. We did everything right. In a couple of hours, we’ll get to where we left them and then be able to start back home before it gets dark,” Bridget promised.
“What did you do?” Eva asked. “What spell?”
Danielle sat in the living room with Chris, watching television, neither of them able to focus on the program, when Danielle’s cellphone rang. She picked up her phone from the coffee table while Chris muted the television. Before answering, she looked to see who was calling.
“Hey, Lily,” Danielle greeted her.
“By your tone of voice, doesn’t sound like you have any news,” Lily said.
“No. But Eva showed up, and she went over to the Parkers’ to do some eavesdropping. Marie’s at Adam’s, but I expect her to be here soon.”
“Then would it be okay if I take the note for Marie off the dry-erase board?” Lily asked. “Joe and Kelly are coming over in about an hour, and I really don’t want them to see it.”
“No problem. Think maybe you can wait until they get there before you take it down? Just in case she goes there first?”
“Sure.”
The next moment Danielle said, “Never mind. Marie, don’t move!”
“I take it Marie just showed up?” Lily asked.
“Yes. Talk to you later.” Danielle hung up the phone.
“Goodness, what is this all about?” Marie glanced around. “Where’s Eva? She was going to meet me here.”
“Something’s happened,” Danielle began. She and Chris then told Marie the events of the last twenty-four hours.
“Oh my!” Marie said after hearing what had happened. “Let me pop over there now and see if Eva has learned anything.”
“I know this is the right house,” Marie muttered as she wandered through the rooms of the Parker house. Danielle had mentioned they owned a van. While there was a Volkswagen parked in their garage, along with a Jeep, there was no van.
The house appeared to be empty, and there was no Eva in sight. She wondered if she was at the wrong house, but when she walked by the desk in the family room a moment later, she spied a stack of bills addressed to Bridget Parker.
“I’m at the right house,” Marie said aloud. She continued through the rest of the rooms, calling for Eva, but there was no answer. She returned to Marlow House.
“No one is there,” Marie announced when she appeared again before Chris and Danielle. Chris immediately turned off the television.
“Not even Eva?” Danielle asked.
“No one,” Marie said. “I went through the entire house. There were two cars in the garage, but I didn’t see the van you mentioned.”
“Maybe you were at the wrong house,” Chris suggested. He started to tell her the directions to the house again, but Marie stopped him.
“I was at the right house. I found mail addressed to a Bridget Parker.”
“That’s one sister,” Danielle said.
“They must have gone somewhere, and Eva went with them,” Chris said.
Eva didn’t know how long they had been driving or where they were going. Not long after their cryptic discussion of Heather, the sister in the passenger seat had turned on the car radio, and since then the three had been merrily humming along to the music.
In her boredo
m, Eva looked around the back of the van, when something caught her attention. A fingernail—one painted dark purple. Eva remembered Heather’s nails had been painted the same color the last time she had seen her—just the day before she had disappeared. Unable to pick up the broken nail, as Marie might with her energy, Eva looked closer at the nail and then turned her attention to the hands of the women in the van. None wore nail polish.
“Heather was in this van,” Eva murmured.
Later, Eva would regret not paying attention to where the Parkers drove or when they turned off the highway. At some point they turned onto a dirt road, and it was then she realized her error. While she would be able to will herself back to Marlow House, and from Marlow House will herself back to her current location, giving directions to Danielle was another matter.
Eventually the van parked along the side of the road, and the Parker sisters got out from the vehicle. Eva joined them.
“We need to hurry. I want to get back before dark,” Bridget said. “I hate driving over this dirt road after nightfall.”
“At least we don’t have to drag anyone along with us,” Davina said. They all laughed.
“You had Heather. That cop, he was a big dude,” Bridget said.
“What did you do?” Eva demanded. With unease, she followed the sisters as they made their way down a footpath. They walked for about twenty minutes and then came to a clearing.
The minute they stepped into the clearing, Davina squealed, “It worked! It really worked.”
“I told you,” Bridget said smugly.
Twenty-Nine
While the Parker sisters listened to music and sang along during the ride from Frederickport to the middle of the forest, they had engaged in some conversation, which enabled Eva to figure out the sisters’ names. Keeping those names straight had nothing to do with physical or facial differences. If Eva didn’t know better, the pale-skinned, green-eyed, twenty-something women with long curly red hair could be triplets. On closer inspection, she could tell a slight difference between each one.
