The Ghost and the Witches' Coven

by Bobbi Holmes

  “What do you mean by that?” Danielle asked uneasily as she reluctantly took a seat on the sofa. After she did, Davina ordered Danielle to hold up her wrists, which she promptly tied.

  “When this spell is complete, it will take you away, like it did with your husband and the others,” Bridget said smugly, watching her sister tighten the ropes around Danielle’s wrists. She then showed Danielle the ruby ring, clutching it in one hand while holding the gun in the other.

  “With this I won’t need to shoot the gun in order to make you disappear,” Bridget said.

  Danielle looked at the ruby ring and arched her brows. “I assume that’s the ring Kathy Stewart stole from her mother?”

  Bridget quickly closed her hand around the ring, concealing it. She frowned at Danielle. “Did Kathy Stewart tell you that?”

  “No. Kathy’s mother told the police chief when she reported it stolen. They know you have it,” Danielle said.

  “It doesn’t matter. Not when we’re finished here,” Bridget said.

  “Oh, and about Walt and Brian and Heather, they all made it out of the forest. They’re fine, currently filing charges against you for kidnapping and leaving them each tied up to a tree.”

  “You are lying!” Bridget shouted.

  “So far, they won’t charge you with murder. But if you kill Finola or me, you will face the death penalty,” Danielle warned.

  “They also have Finola’s sisters tied up in their bedrooms,” Gavenia told her. “But they are unharmed.”

  “Oh, and Gavenia just told me you have Finola’s sisters tied up in their bedrooms. I was getting a little worried about them, if you want to know the truth. I thought maybe you had already killed them. But if they are okay, and if Finola and I stay alive, then you can avoid the death penalty.”

  “No!” Davina cried. “This can’t be true!” She snatched the ruby ring from Bridget’s hand and looked at it. “Are you saying the ruby hasn’t absorbed Heather’s magic?”

  “About Heather. She isn’t a witch. Sorry.” Danielle shrugged.

  “What are you talking about? We saw her flying on a broom!” Bridget said, grabbing the ring back from her sister.

  “Ahh…those cameras. We wondered if you put them in Heather’s house.” Danielle smiled. She wondered how long she could keep them talking before Eva returned with the cavalry. “That was a little trick. Heck, I’ve even done it. But I can’t really fly on a broom, and neither can Heather.”

  “I don’t know where they got these notions about a ruby and witches’ magic,” Gavenia said.

  Danielle looked to her. “Really? Nothing about magic rubies passed down in your family?”

  Gavenia shook her head. “I can help cure a case of gout, and I’ve a wonderful salve for poison ivy—uses a pinch of eye of newt—but no rubies.”

  “Eye of newt?” Danielle asked. “There really is such a thing?”

  Gavenia shrugged. “It’s just mustard seed.”

  “Who are you talking to?” the Parker sisters all screeched at once.

  Danielle let out a sigh and looked to them. “I was talking to Gavenia’s spirit—or ghost. And I suspect that she was in fact killed when they burned her at the stake…”

  “No,” Gavenia interrupted.

  Danielle turned to Gavenia. “Are you saying they didn’t kill you?”

  “Yes, they killed me. But by hanging. Then they burned my body.”

  Danielle looked back to the others. “I stand corrected. You were right, they didn’t kill her when they burned her at the stake. She was already dead, hanged. And then they burned her body. She wasn’t still alive when she went to her daughter. It was her spirit that went to Blair, not her mother reborn. I suspect Blair was like me—a medium.”

  “Medium?” Finola asked.

  “Yes. Medium. I can see spirits. I imagine, over the years others in your family had the gift, and they could see Gavenia, like me. It had nothing to do with some special powers of a White Hawk. Sounds to me like it’s been a few generations since there was a medium in your family able to communicate with Gavenia, so those stories passed down in your family veered off into the fantasy realm.”

  “And seeing ghosts is not in the fantasy realm?” Finola asked.

  “It’s simply part of my reality,” Danielle said.

  “I don’t believe any of this!” Bridget yelled.

  “But you believe a ruby can suck out Heather’s imaginary powers and make her disappear?” Danielle asked. “By the way, Heather is a medium, not a witch. And I’m happy to say, she is very much alive.”

  “Tell her I can prove who I am,” Gavenia said.

  Danielle glanced from Gavenia to the others. “Gavenia wants to prove she is really here, and I’m talking for her.”

  “How do you expect to do that?” Bridget asked.

  Danielle shrugged. “I have no idea.”

  “Tell them I know why Bridget, Davina and Aileana are here.”

  “Gavenia said she knows why the Parkers are here,” Danielle said.

  “I would like to know that myself,” Finola said.

  “They want the Leabar,” Gavenia said.

  “What’s a Leabar?” Danielle asked with a frown.

  “What do you know about the Leabar?” Davina asked.

  “I don’t even know what it is,” Danielle said. “But according to Gavenia, that’s why you’re here.”

  “I knew you wanted it, but that can’t be the only reason you’re here!” Finola said incredulously.

  “Isn’t that enough reason?” Bridget asked.

  “You have stalked us for years. And what’s with those knockoff White Hawk necklaces?” Finola asked.

  “We found an artist who made necklaces similar to Gavenia’s, so we showed him a picture of the one you wear,” Bridget explained.

  “How did you get a picture of it?” Finola demanded.

  “It wasn’t so hard for me to get a good one with my telephoto lens,” Aileana said.

  “He agreed to replicate it if we agreed to carry his necklaces in our shop. We needed you to come to us willingly for the spell to work,” Bridget said.

  “You needed us to come to you willingly for the spell to work?” Finola seethed. “Does it look like I came to you willingly? If you haven’t noticed, you’re in my house uninvited!”

  “That was before this,” Bridget said, hysterically waving the ruby ring in Finola’s face.

  “But it didn’t work!” Davina cried out.

  “Stop saying that.” Bridget pointed at Danielle and said, “She lied. She is lying about all of it! I know it worked. Walt Marlow is gone. Heather Donovan is gone. Brian Henderson is gone! Gavenia is not talking to Danielle Marlow! She is lying. Can’t you see that? She just wants it to be true because we’ve taken her husband from her. But soon she’ll see him again!”

  The next moment Bridget’s last words proved true. Yet it was not what she expected. Danielle saw Walt again, the very next minute, when he and Brian Henderson walked into the house, following Eva.

  Thirty-Eight

  Danielle saw Eva first, when she had walked through the wall and looked around, noting where everyone stood and who currently held the gun. She had disappeared back through the front wall, and a moment later walked in when the door opened. She led Walt and Brian into the house.

  Later they would speculate: what had surprised Bridget more? The fact the gun in her hand flew into the air and landed in Brian Henderson’s hand, or the fact Walt Marlow and Brian Henderson had somehow magically appeared.

  Chaos ensued when Davina and Aileana took off running toward the rear exit while Bridget stood waving the ruby ring while loudly chanting a string of nonsensical words. It didn’t sound like a foreign language, more like she was making it up as she went along—which she wasn’t.

  Danielle immediately got up from the sofa, her wrists still bound, yet she didn’t ask Walt or Brian to untie her. They were busy. She watched as Walt’s energy pulled the escaping Parker si
sters towards the sofa, dropping them there, and then adding Bridget to the mix. He held the three to the sofa while Brian unloaded the gun and placed it on a top shelf and then untied Finola, who looked far more uncomfortable in her bindings than did Danielle.

  The minute Brian untied her, she thanked him and then raced to check on her sisters. Brian went along with her while Walt continued to focus his energy, keeping the three women restrained.

  Danielle stood by Eva and Gavenia, a distance from the sofa. She glanced down at her bound wrists. “Brian could have untied me first.”

  “Sorry, I can’t help,” Eva said.

  “I think I’ll see how Finola and her sisters are doing,” Gavenia said before disappearing.

  “I sort of thought you would come back with Marie as the cavalry,” Danielle said.

  “I tried Marie first. But Adam was not at his office, and he wasn’t at home. I considered checking some local restaurants, assuming she was tagging along with him. But I was afraid that would take too much time, so I went straight to the police station from Adam’s house,” Eva explained.

  “What is going on?” Davina sobbed. She tried to stand up from the sofa, but each time she did, an invisible hand threw her back on the cushion.

  Bridget continued to chant while clutching the ruby ring. Next to her sat Aileana, and on the other side of Aileana, a sobbing Davina.

  “Shut up, Bridget!” Aileana snapped. The next moment she grabbed the ruby ring out of her sister’s grasp and flung it across the room. Bridget tried to stand up to retrieve it, but Walt’s energy pushed her back down again. She began to sob.

  A few minutes later Brian returned from the bedrooms with the Baird sisters. Danielle assumed he must have told them to restrain their anger, for while they each glared at the Parkers, the three huddled together by the door leading to the kitchen, waiting for the police to arrive and take the Parkers away.

  Brian walked over to Danielle and began untying her wrists.

  “I think you should know there is another ghost in this room with us,” Danielle whispered as she watched Brian work to free a knot.

  “Yes, I know. Eva. She came into the station, told Walt what was going on. Walt told the chief, insisting he had to leave to rescue you. He didn’t want the police to show up with their sirens blaring. The chief agreed, but wanted me to come along too,” Brian explained as he finally undid the stubborn knot.

  “No, I’m not talking about Eva. I mean Gavenia Tolmach,” Danielle said.

  “Who is Gavenia Tolmach?” Brian asked with a frown.

  “Someone burned as a witch about four hundred years ago, in Scotland.”

  Brian stared at Danielle for a moment and then shook his head. “Just another day in Frederickport?”

  “You know, you might start a support group with the chief,” Danielle teased. She rubbed her now free wrists.

  “Support group?”

  “Yeah, for non-mediums in our circle. I’m sure Ian would join,” Danielle said.

  “What about Lily? She’s not a medium,” Brian reminded her.

  Danielle shrugged. “Lily is different. She had that out-of-body experience. So, in a way, she has visited the other side. You know, personal experience with the spirit world.”

  “What out-of-body experience?” Brian frowned.

  “When her body was being held by Stoddard, and he was telling everyone she was his niece? Sheesh, how do you think I knew that wasn’t Isabella? Lily told me, silly.”

  Brian groaned and shook his head. She chuckled as he left her side to retrieve the gun. He then walked to the sofa to address the Parkers, telling them they were all under arrest. Eva now stood by Walt’s side as he continued to keep the Parkers restrained.

  “It’s all my fault,” Gavenia said, now standing by Danielle.

  “What do you mean?” Danielle asked in a whisper.

  “They are my grandchildren too, every bit as much as Finola and her sisters.” Gavenia nodded toward the Parkers.

  “Well, I wouldn’t say grandchildren per se. More like great-great-great-great—however many greats—grandchildren.”

  “I still think of them as my grandchildren. And if I had never stayed, perhaps none of this would have happened.”

  Together Danielle and Gavenia stood in the far corner of the living room while the Bairds huddled together on the opposite side of the room, and the Parkers remained on the sofa, Walt, Eva and Brian standing over them, waiting for the police to arrive.

  “Why did you stay?” Danielle asked.

  “At first, it was because Blair was so young. Too young to be alone.”

  “That was your daughter?” Danielle asked.

  “Yes. I couldn’t believe she could see me—hear me. I stayed with her, taught her. And when she had children, her oldest daughter could see me too.”

  “So you stayed?” Danielle asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Why do your—” Danielle paused a moment and looked over to the Parkers and then the Bairds. “Why do your granddaughters believe you’re a witch?”

  Gavenia considered the question for a moment and then said, “In the beginning, I never thought of myself as a witch. I never believed I had some inherent powers different from other women. But I had faith in nature and its gifts of healing. I understood herbs and their healing powers.”

  “But the Parkers and Bairds both claim you were a witch,” Danielle reminded her.

  Gavenia let out a sigh and said, “Over time, and I can’t even recall which century, I began calling myself a witch. But not meaning I possessed some supernatural powers or worshiped anything other than nature. In some way it was said out of respect—and defiance—for those other women like me, who were unjustly accused and brutally murdered.”

  Police cars pulling up to the front of the house interrupted their conversation. Danielle drew open the front curtain, peeked out the window, and spied Joe Morelli getting out of one car.

  “Brian, this might be a good time to come up with your cover story,” Danielle called out as she let the curtain fall back into place.

  “What are you talking about?” Brian asked from across the room.

  Danielle stood with Walt on the sidewalk, watching as the police put the Parker sisters in the back of a police car. The Baird sisters stood on the front porch, watching. They had promised to come down to the station to make statements, but first they wanted to get dressed and have something to eat. It had been a long morning. Inside, several officers took photographs of the crime scene.

  Eva and Gavenia stood together some distance away, chatting. Danielle wondered what the two ghosts discussed.

  “Here come Brian and Joe,” Danielle whispered to Walt when the pair approached.

  “You’re going back to the station with Danielle?” Brian asked Walt when they reached them.

  “He is.” Danielle spoke up. “But we have to stop at Marlow House first and feed the animals.”

  “That’s what I don’t understand,” Joe said. He looked to Brian and asked, “Why did you bring Walt here? I thought the chief said you were taking Walt home to change his clothes. How did you end up here?”

  Danielle smiled and leaned toward Brian. In his ear she whispered, “Told you so. Cover story time.” She pulled back from him and flashed a grin at Joe, who hadn’t heard what she had whispered yet looked confused.

  “And why were you here?” Joe asked Danielle.

  Brian looked to Danielle and cocked his brow.

  “Oh, I just stopped by to tell the Baird sisters that Walt was safe,” Danielle explained.

  “Why would you do that?” Joe asked.

  “I always felt the Parkers had something to do with the disappearance. And when I heard about the Bairds being arrested for breaking into Pagan Oils right after Walt and the others went missing, I hoped they might have seen something—something they failed to tell the police, maybe because they didn’t feel comfortable saying anything, so I went to talk to them. They were very nice, and wh
ile they saw nothing, they told me they thought the Parkers could be involved—which they were. I just thought, since the Bairds were open with me and seemed sincerely concerned, that I would let them know Walt was okay.”

  Joe stared at Danielle a moment and then asked, “But why did you park your car around the corner?”

  Danielle met Joe’s gaze and then shrugged. “I wanted to walk?”

  On the front porch, the Baird sisters moved to one side as the officers who had been taking photographs stepped outside. One officer called out to Joe.

  When Joe stepped away to talk to the officer, Brian looked to Danielle and said, “You are good at this. Coming up with a believable story.”

  Danielle shrugged. “The key is to keep as close to the truth as possible. Much of what I said was true. I just left out the part about the ghost of a woman burned at the stake over four hundred years ago jumping in front of my car and me running her over.”

  Brian chuckled and shook his head.

  “I have a feeling Joe is going to ask you that question again,” Walt said as he watched Joe, who stood out of earshot near the front porch, talking to the two officers who had just come outside.

  “Yeah, he’s going to want to know why you brought Walt here,” Danielle said, her eyes still on Joe.

  “What should I say?” Brian asked.

  Danielle looked at him and grinned. “Ahh, with this new knowledge comes responsibility. You’ll think of something.”

  Walt laughed and then said, “Come on, help him out, Danielle.”

  Danielle let out a sigh and said, “You guys were on the way to Marlow House, spotted my car on the side of the road, and assumed I had car trouble. When you drove around the corner looking for me, Walt noticed the Baird house and remembered how I told him, after we picked you up today, how I went to them for help, and he wondered if I stopped by their house to use their phone. You should probably say you tried calling me on my cell, but I didn’t answer, so you figured I forgot to charge it.”

  Brian smiled at Danielle. “You are good at this.”

  “Consider that your freebie cover story,” Danielle said. “The next one, you’re on your own.”