Krewe of Hunters, Volume 1: Phantom Evil ; Heart of Evil ; Sacred Evil ; The Evil Inside

by Heather Graham

  He imagined the questions he would ask if he’d put himself on the stand. Nothing in his testimony—sworn under oath—could possibly testify to Malachi’s innocence. John Alden had found the bodies of Malachi’s family; he had seen the house and the pile of Malachi’s clothing.

  Everything pointed to Malachi. So the trick was to find someone else who hated the boy’s father, a case of reasonable doubt. Of course, it wasn’t going to be hard to find someone like that; everyone had hated Abraham Smith.

  Except, perhaps, for the old believers who had met in Beverly, at the Old Meeting House.

  Sam turned and started walking toward his car. He called his assistant, Evan Richardson, back at his offices in Boston, and asked him to do research on any legal actions against the church.

  It was time to head out to see the elders.

  * * *

  Jenna walked back through the crowd of Halloween locals and visitors—always entertaining. In Salem, some were in business attire, some were in the more day-to-day Gothic attire chosen by many of the modern Wiccans and some were in costumes of all varieties. A giant Count Chocula was walking around with a Barbie doll. A fantastic and perfectly realistic vampire was strolling the streets with two little Toy Story 3 characters.

  It was fun to walk Salem’s streets. She loved the city, especially during Haunted Happenings.

  All she had to do now was forget that her uncle was probably giving himself an ulcer regarding Malachi Smith’s innocence, and that Sam Hall was a major-league ass.

  She tried to remind herself that she and her group were often greeted that way. People found it hard to believe that other people had talents they did not, though she wasn’t sure why. Jake Mallory, their computer expert, played a mean guitar, and she couldn’t play to save her life. She saw ghosts. Not everyone did.

  It was often difficult to believe in what couldn’t be seen. And, sometimes, it was too easy to believe in it. The “witches” of Salem had been prosecuted and condemned because of “spectral” evidence. The people of the time had believed that their friends could leave their bodies—even when they were jailed and in chains!—to pinch and torment others. Sometimes, belief could cause irreparable harm; sometimes, it was impossible to summon any at all.

  Which was better?

  Sam Hall was no worse than many other doubters they had come to know.

  Yes, he was.

  He should be getting to know her, if only a bit. There were times when they looked at each other that she was fascinated with him physically, when the light in his eyes made her think that he’d just reach out and touch her….

  Frankly, that she could just about fall into his arms and explore his…mind. In all honesty, she liked his mind. He was definitely walking around with a few extra chips on his shoulders, but the concept of a pro bono case had come easily to him.

  She might have been wrong to walk away in a huff. No, it had been a dignified retreat. Okay, at least a dignified huff.

  She paused, wondering where Sam might be headed at that moment. She didn’t want to bump into him just yet. Up until now, she’d been out to see the site where Peter Andres had been killed, and she was certain that her postcognition had given her a good first step. Whoever had killed Peter Andres had done so in costume, playing on the area’s past fear of the devil as a horned demon. That made her think that the murderer was local; of course, someone could have come here and played off the past, but since the murders had been so brutal without being ritualistic, she didn’t think that they were random or serial-killerish. The first two had been committed to make people believe that Malachi Smith was crazy and capable of murder; only the testimony of the grocery clerk had kept the boy from arrest.

  She found a little café just off Essex, sat down and ordered coffee.

  Once she’d been served, she put through a call to Jake Mallory. When he began to barrage her with questions, she promised that she would call Jackson, their team head, with a full report soon—even though the team wasn’t officially on this case.

  “Jake, I just need some information right now. Can you help me?” she asked.

  “I’m at my keyboard.”

  “A Mr. Earnest Covington of Salem was murdered last week. Some kids said that they saw Malachi running from the house. A grocer said that was impossible unless Malachi could astral-project, since he’d been in the store buying meat at the time. I need the names of the grocer and the kids.”

  “Sam doesn’t have that information on hand?”

  “Sam is… Sam isn’t into ghost investigations,” she said tightly.

  “Most people do mock what they don’t understand—especially when we’re all taught to be brave, that ghosts don’t exist and there’s nothing hiding under the bed,” Jake reminded her.

  “Will you just get me the information?” she asked.

  “Call you right back,” Jake said. “And be careful up there, young woman.”

  “Hey, I’m from Massachusetts,” she told him.

  “Hey, you’re from Ireland.”

  “Okay!” she said, and laughed. “But the Commonwealth became my home. I’m okay.”

  “You’d better give Jackson a call soon,” Jake warned her. “He tends to read the papers, you know, and he knows you’re up there with your uncle, and he knows you went because Jamie asked you to, so when he starts reading about everything that’s going on there right now—and Jamie’s name winds up in the papers since he’s the kid’s guardian—he’s not going to be happy that you haven’t yet spoken to him about the situation.”

  “I’ll call him now,” she promised. “But this isn’t official. It can’t be official.”

  “I know. So, if you want to be able to get in there and see what you can find out, remember to play nice and disappear when you need to.”

  “Yes, sir,” she promised. “I’ll call boss man right now, while you’re looking up the stories in the newspaper and wherever else you find your computer information for me.”

  When they hung up, Jenna realized that she’d been wandering down toward the museum. She applauded the Peabody Essex museum—the area was given a complete history there. Pirates had ranged the coast here, too; whalers had gone to sea. Pilgrims had fought off the Indians, and Massachusetts had given the country Thanksgiving Day. It wasn’t all witches!

  But, equally, what had happened here had helped change the future of a country. While there had been a time when superstition had reigned over the rich, the poor, the noble and the castoffs of society, the tragedy of the executions here in line with the “legal” system that convicted its victims might have been the beginning of the end for judgment without due process, heralding a true legal system in which a jury would decide on the facts, and not on hearsay or passionate words. Had there been malice involved? Surely, though many of the people had not been aware of it. It was far easier to see evil in someone if you believed that they had wronged you. But then, at the time of the Salem witchcraft trials, much worse had gone on elsewhere in the “civilized” Western worlds. Thousands had been burned in a day in Germany. The Native Americans hadn’t even known that such a creature as Satan existed, but the Pilgrims’ fear of Indian attack had certainly fueled their belief in that evil. It had been a hard world, and it was easy to blame cultural differences, death, starvation and other ill fortune on the devil.

  And, of course, those who consorted with him.

  She put through a call to Jackson Crow just as she had promised. Jackson listened gravely, assuring her that, at the moment, nothing big was going on; he was still in NYC and a few people were just settling into their new field offices in Arlington, Virginia, but could help her out in their limited background capacity. The Krewe of Hunters would always have her back.

  “Thanks, Jackson,” Jenna said. “For now, I’m just a niece visiting her uncle and serving as an ‘amateur’ assistant to the defense attorney, who does have the right to question the prosecution’s case and witnesses.”

  “Well, we can always co
me up to enjoy Haunted Happenings. You know, if you just want to ‘show us around,’” Jackson told her.

  “I’ve thought of that,” she assured him.

  “Keep me posted.”

  When they hung up, she drummed her fingers on the table, impatiently waiting for Jake to call her back. He did so quickly—before she had to ask for a second refill to keep her seat.

  “The grocer, Milton Sedge, works at a local market, Sedge’s—do you know it?”

  “Yes, thanks, it’s near the Lexington house.”

  “He works from about six in the morning until closing, every day, according to the woman who answered the phone when I called. He closes at around nine. Hard worker.”

  “Hey, he comes from good Puritan stock,” Jenna said casually. “Did you say that I was coming by to talk with him?”

  “I mentioned that someone assisting in Smith’s defense would be by—I didn’t give your name. She was sure that Mr. Sedge would be happy to see you. I think it’s going to be dicier to talk to the boys who claimed he was seen at the cliff.”

  “Who are they?”

  “One was Joshua Abbott. Have you heard of him?”

  “No.”

  “The other is a kid named David Yates.”

  “Ah.”

  “Ah?”

  “He’s the kid who believed that Malachi Smith gave him the evil eye,” Jenna said. “His father is Andy Yates, a councilman.”

  “Good luck, kid,” Jake said. “And, hey, be careful up there.”

  “People here are really good people, Jake.”

  He laughed. “Oh, Jenna, no doubt. But it doesn’t matter where you are—people come in good, and in bad. You’re trying to prove that Malachi Smith didn’t commit horrible murders. If he didn’t, someone else very violent did. Be careful.”

  “Always, Jake,” she promised him.

  Jenna hung up, walked back to her uncle’s and got into her car. She was off to talk to Milton Sedge. While she was talking to him, she just might be able to figure out a way to get to the boys who claimed to have seen Malachi after Earnest Covington was murdered. She grinned at herself. She hadn’t met them yet, but she was sure they were pretentious little liars.

  People judged so easily!

  * * *

  The Old Meeting House was a whitewashed building a little ways down the highway.

  Sam estimated that it held a couple hundred people, tops, during meetings. There were no crosses or other symbols on the outside of the structure, and a carved wooden sign announced simply, Worship With Us. All Are Welcome.

  He opened a picket fence to follow the brick walk to the front door. There was nothing ornate about the columns of the single-story structure. When he opened the door, he saw that there was simply a podium at the end, with a red runner leading to it. The pews were simple hardwood, and the kneelers were wooden as well, with no cushioning.

  The room was shadowed in darkness, the plain, paneled windows allowing just a few streaks of light into the simple space. Sam thought that he had entered into an empty building at first, but as he stood near the entry, blinking against the murky shadows, he heard a voice.

  “Hello, and welcome.”

  A tall man with long gray hair, his face covered in a long beard and mustache, walked toward him. He was clad simply in a white dress shirt and ill-fitting black suit; his arms were too long for his sleeves and the pants were short.

  “How do you do,” Sam said, offering his hand. “I’m Sam Hall, attorney, and I’m defending Malachi Smith.”

  “Oh,” the man said, looking at him gravely. “I’m Goodman Wilson, pastor and elder of our little congregation. How can I help you?”

  “Well, frankly, I wanted to know what you thought about the whole situation. You must be aware that many people believe that your religion is unorthodox. Do you think that Abraham Smith was so strict that his son—aware of other choices in society—might have thought that he was too strict?”

  Sam was blunt and to the point on purpose: he wanted to see Goodman Wilson’s immediate reaction to such questions. He had half suspected that the pastor would immediately be on the defensive and show him the door.

  He did not.

  “We’re not quite as fanatic as many believe,” Wilson told him. He smiled. “We don’t believe in idols of any kind, and nor do we drink, swear, gamble or imbibe drugs. Actually, we have a number of ex-addicts in our fold, those who need guidance to stay on the straight and narrow. We welcome them, we welcome all.”

  “But Abraham was a hard man, or have I been misinformed?” Sam pressed.

  “Sit down, sit down,” Wilson offered. “Our chairs are hard, but…”

  “A hard chair is fine by me.”

  They sat together on the rear hard pew, staring up toward the simple podium.

  “Thank you for your help,” Sam said.

  Wilson gave a somewhat pained smile. “We do believe in justice. Not vengeance, justice. I knew Abraham Smith, of course. I knew the family, and I knew Malachi. The boy is quite amazing, really. He has a deep and fundamental belief in God. But he wasn’t among our fold.”

  “No?”

  “We don’t have music,” Wilson said. “No music, no dancing. Our faith is really simple—God requires that we appreciate what he has given us. The earth, the sky, the air we breathe. We work, because society demands that we pay for our living—and that we all pay taxes too, right?”

  Sam smiled. Wilson seemed to think his words very entertaining.

  “Jesus believed in simplicity. He didn’t need ornate clothing, and he didn’t need a mansion. He taught us to love one another. He didn’t sing to the masses—he spoke to them.”

  “And Malachi needed music?” Sam asked.

  The pastor nodded gravely. “I’m afraid I can’t help you if you need me to testify that the boy might have been crazy. He wasn’t crazy. He was honest—he had been taught not to lie. He came to me, though he did so in confidence, and he told me that he couldn’t see anything evil in the piano, and therefore, he had to leave our fold. I suggested that he think about it long and hard. I disagreed with his decision, but his deliberations were honest, thoughtful, competent.”

  “He left the church because of the piano? Because of music?” Sam said.

  “That surprises you?”

  “I’d have thought that it might be something more…”

  Goodman Wilson laughed. “You thought we might be slaughtering goats or chickens, and the boy was appalled by blood? No. Malachi told me he couldn’t comprehend a faith that didn’t see God’s beauty in music, and I explained the very basic nature of our beliefs. Malachi told me that he was sorry—he saw God in music. Do you have any religion in your life, Mr. Hall?”

  “I believe in God, Pastor. But I don’t know who among us really knows what he wants,” Sam said. After what seemed to him like a respectful pause, he continued on. “Did Malachi ever offer any violence toward his family?”

  “Never. In our congregation, children honor their parents. They pray, they reflect. They take the time to care for the elderly. They don’t steal, and they don’t fornicate. There is no bodily punishment that we offer them—just excommunication, if it comes to that. We are a family here, and that is a terrible punishment when you love your family.”

  “How did Abraham discipline Malachi? As a good church member, he was said to beat him for infractions, but did he?”

  Goodman Wilson was quiet for a minute. Then he said, “I worried, sometimes. Not that Malachi was beaten, but…parents can speak to a child in a way that is totally demoralizing. They can make a child feel as if they can’t do anything right, as if they’re worthless. I believe that Abraham could be verbally abusive at times, but, Mr. Hall, I don’t think that’s particular to members of our church. Sadly, I’ve seen many a father rip a child apart, and too often, that child can grow to believe himself worthless and incapable of doing anything right.”

  “So, you would describe your church as a strict group, but cer
tainly not fanatical,” Sam said.

  Wilson laughed. “We are different. The Mormons are seen as different, as are the Amish. But we are Christians. We do believe in God in His Heaven, and we believe, equally, that there are evil forces. We believe in sin, but as Christ stated, true remorse brings us to the forgiveness of sins. We don’t seek to harm anyone else, and we don’t punish those who leave the church. We are all creatures of free choice.”

  “All right, it’s true that we all have a tendency to mistrust each other, to be suspicious of what we don’t understand. You don’t believe that Malachi is a killer, so I’m going to assume that Abraham Smith had enemies.”

  Wilson was quiet for a minute. “I’m curious that you’ve come here. I do read the papers, though I don’t have a television. The police say that Malachi is the alleged killer of Mr. Andres of Andover and Mr. Covington, as well. What enemies would they have had that they shared with Abraham Smith?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to find out,” Sam said.

  Wilson let out a long sigh. “Do I believe that Malachi is a killer? No. Might there be something in him that I never saw? Possibly. Did Abraham have enemies? Most definitely. Only two other families with children in that area belong to our congregation, and they keep very quiet. The rest of those people…they tolerate the Wiccans in the community, thinking of them as actors, really, drawing in the tourists. They tolerate Catholic, Jewish, agnostic, atheistic, Baptist and probably Buddhist. But us? We live too simply for them. They don’t understand that we honestly believe that we are judged daily, that God will come again, and that we can choose to lead pure lives, or we can choose to sin. If Abraham did have real enemies, they did not come from this church. We are of a like mind and, if anyone had a serious problem with him, they would have had a problem with all of us probably, and would have come to me.”

  “Did he ever seem to be afraid of anyone? Did he have comments about the murders of his neighbor, or Mr. Andres?”

  Wilson shrugged. “Well, he believed that God himself determined that Peter Andres should be killed. He told me he wouldn’t have been surprised to see the Grim Reaper himself or an avenging angel come down to kill Peter Andres. Then again, Peter Andres had said that Abraham was a wart not just on the community, but on the world, and that he was ruining his one and only child. I believe Andres intended to look into social services and see if he could get the boy taken away from Abraham, but to my knowledge, nothing was ever done. Andres was a big, scary man, and I’d believe more easily that he would have offered violence to the Smiths. But since he died first, he can hardly be suspected of Abraham’s murder.”