Freaky Rites (A Mystic Caravan Mystery Book 6)

by Amanda M. Lee

  I told him about my walk in the woods and running into Caroline Olsen. When I was done, he was flabbergasted … and not in a good way.

  “Why didn’t you ask me to walk with you?”

  I balked at his tone. “Because you were busy with the office.”

  “I would’ve put that off.”

  “I didn’t want you to have to put it off,” I argued. “You were excited to organize. In fact, I’ve never seen a man – or woman, for that matter – more excited to organize than you were today. I didn’t want to drag you away from that because I had a hunch that turned out to be nothing.”

  Kade was hardly placated by my tone. “I still don’t like the idea of you running around the woods by yourself.”

  “I had Luke and Melissa with me.”

  “Two people you would have to protect in case of attack.”

  “That’s not true. Luke has fought by my side many times. He’s good in a battle. You don’t have to worry about that.”

  Even though I could tell he remained agitated, Kade grudgingly nodded in acceptance. “So this woman just lives out there all by herself, huh?”

  “And warns about things like shadow hunters.”

  “Have you considered that she might be a little nutty because she’s isolated from society and she’s simply telling tall tales?”

  “Yes.”

  “And?”

  “And I’m still irritated … and a little uneasy,” I admitted. “She seemed to know things about Melissa.”

  “Or she picked up on the dynamic of the group and tried to use it to her advantage.” Kade ran a hand over his short-cropped hair. “I agree it’s weird. I’ll see if I can run her information and find out anything. It will have to be after we go to town for supplies, though.”

  Right. Supplies. That was part of our normal ritual on the first day of set-up. “We should probably get going if we expect to get back at a decent time.”

  “You mean before the fog rolls in, right?”

  He knew me too well … especially for a guy who was relatively new to my life. “Let’s just head to town.” I opted not to dwell on my fog fear. It seemed ridiculous, especially with the sun so high in the sky. “I was thinking we might make barbecued chicken for dinner tonight.”

  “Yum.”

  I MADE SURE MELISSA was tucked up safe with Naida and Nixie, our resident pixie twins, before snagging Luke and dragging him with us to town. Even though Luke made a big show of appearing annoyed about shopping, I knew the opposite was true. He enjoyed shopping and would melt down if I didn’t invite him.

  Kade plugged the coordinates of the closest shopping center into his GPS, and when we arrived at the store I couldn’t help being impressed at the rather large produce market on the sidewalk in front of the building. “That looks promising.”

  “There’s nothing better than fresh fruit,” Kade agreed. He waited for me to join him at the front of the truck and linked our fingers as we crossed the parking lot. Luke trailed behind, his eyes trained on the ground rather than the market. Kade didn’t miss my best friend’s rather obvious performance. “What’s wrong with you?”

  The question caught Luke off guard. “Nothing is wrong with me. Why do you think something is wrong with me?”

  “Because you’re quiet,” Kade replied without hesitation. “The only time I remember you being quiet is when you caught that cold and went to bed for two days.”

  “That wasn’t quiet from where I was sitting,” I reminded him. “I had to act as his nurse, wear one of those masks so he didn’t catch any additional germs, and make him chicken noodle soup.”

  “That’s what best friends are for,” Luke pointed out primly. “You’re supposed to take care of your beloved when illness strikes.”

  “Technically I think I would be her beloved in that scenario,” Kade argued.

  “Oh, no.” Luke was hearing none of that. “I’ll always be her beloved. You’re simply her love monkey. There’s a difference.”

  Instead of being offended, Kade laughed. “That’s good to know.” He squeezed my hand once as we stepped up on the sidewalk in front of the store and then released it, arching his eyebrows as he surveyed the offerings. “I definitely think we should get our vegetables here. This stuff looks great.”

  It actually did look pretty good, although I couldn’t figure out if the women in matching cargo pants and “Holy Eureka Organic Market” T-shirts were associated with the store or a separate operation. It didn’t make much sense for the store to allow competitors to sell wares in front of its entry.

  “Are you with the store?” I asked one of the women, flicking a quick look to the nametag on her shirt. It read “Liz.” She looked like a Liz, her short hair perfectly coiffed and smoothed to within an inch of its life. Her outfit was completely put together, not a stray wrinkle or errant pet hair in sight. She wore no makeup (or bra, for that matter), and her smile was a little too ready and fake for my liking.

  “We have a co-op agreement with the store,” Liz replied, her voice unnaturally perky. “We supply fresh, organic produce to them year-round, and twice a year they allow us to have a mini-event, so to speak.”

  That sounded reasonable. “Well, the stuff looks great.”

  “It is, and great for you.” Liz was so prim and proper in her delivery she immediately got on my last nerve. “You should always eat organic when it’s an option.”

  I managed to maintain my cool, but just barely. “I totally agree.”

  Perhaps sensing the tension rolling through me, Kade lightly ran his hand over my back and offered Liz his megawatt smile, the one that brought women everywhere to their knees. That’s not an exaggeration, by the way. That smile has brought me to my knees a time or two … not that I would ever admit it out loud or anything.

  “We’re with Mystic Caravan Circus,” Kade volunteered. “We need a lot of produce. Do you have crates or boxes around that we can use to transport some of the goods?”

  “You’re with the circus?” Liz’s lips curved down. “You don’t look like you’re with the circus.”

  Kade kept his smile in place. “And what do people with the circus look like?”

  Liz extended her finger and pointed directly at me. “Her. She looks like the circus sort. You don’t.”

  “That’s possibly very flattering,” Kade deadpanned, widening the soothing circles he traced on my back to keep me in check. “It just so happens we’re both the circus sort.”

  Luke was annoyed at being cut out of the statement. “Me, too.” He slapped Kade with a dark look before focusing on the tomato display. “This stuff does look really good.”

  Liz beamed as she wiggled her hips a bit and focused on Luke, pushing out her boobs so he could get a better look. She obviously hadn’t figured out he was not her target audience for those particular melons. “Organic is best. You should definitely put non-pesticides to the test.”

  I touched the tip of my tongue to my top lip to keep from laughing and turned so I was facing a variety of artichokes, determined not to let Liz see my mirth. She didn’t strike me as the type to simply accept being the butt of a joke.

  “Do you see anything you like?” Another woman, this one a brunette with a more snarky demeanor, stood on the other side of the artichokes and gave me an amused look. Her nametag read “Jenn” and I immediately liked her more than Liz. That wasn’t much of a scale, though.

  I recovered from my mirth burst quickly and sobered. “It all looks good. Do you guys have a farm around here?”

  Jenn nodded. I heard Kade and Luke talking to Liz behind me, but I did my best to tune them out. Liz was the sort of woman who set my teeth on edge, so it was best to give her a wide berth. “We’re a little southeast of town. Only about fifteen minutes.”

  I pictured the area map in my head. “That puts you close to us.”

  Jenn furrowed her brow. “Where are you located?”

  “The fairgrounds off Elk River Road.”

  “Oh.”
Jenn brightened. “Yeah. You’re about five minutes from us. You’re with the circus?”

  “I would’ve thought you heard that.” I glanced over my shoulder and found Liz still yapping away, Kade and Luke acting as something akin to conversational hostages. “Your buddy just told me that I look like I belong in the circus, but my friends don’t.”

  Jenn barked out a laugh. “Yes, well, I wouldn’t put much effort into getting offended by anything she says. She can’t help herself from blurting out whatever comes to mind.”

  “I have that problem, too.” That was the truth. “She seems somehow more annoying with her affliction than I picture myself, though.”

  Jenn’s smile was quick and easy. It was also a little snarky. “Yes, well, she is what she is. Sometimes I admire her for it because she doesn’t care. Other times I want to shove a dirty sock in her mouth to shut her up.”

  “I think the dirty sock idea is grand.” I moved to the next display and grabbed a baggie so I could start shoving ears of corn inside. “Have you lived in this area your entire life?”

  Jenn nodded as she watched me stow vegetables, her eyes widening when I reached for another bag. “How many people are you feeding?”

  “Quite a few.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning it’s quite a few,” I said. “We have a rather large group that travels with us. We usually split into three factions for food.”

  “Do you have clowns?”

  The way Jenn wrinkled her nose told me exactly what she thought about the prospect. “We do. I don’t feed them, though. Er, well, technically I feed one of them, but only because he’s dating the woman who runs the House of Mirrors. Otherwise he’d be banished to the other side of the grounds with the rest of the red-nose brigade.”

  Jenn’s eyes sparked with humor as she choked out a laugh so raucous that it caused me to jolt. “Oh, that is the funniest thing I’ve heard all day.” She swiped at her leaking eyes as she straightened. “The red-nose brigade. I’m not sure I’ll ever look at clowns the same way.”

  “I try not to look at them at all.” I moved to the next display and grabbed another baggie so I could start collecting oranges. “If you’re local to the area, does that mean you know most of the people who live around here?”

  “I guess.” If Jenn was surprised by the question, she didn’t show it. “Is there someone specific you want information about?”

  “Actually, yes.” I saw no reason to lie or attempt subterfuge. Jenn would either tell me what she knew or tell me to mind my own business. “What do you know about Caroline Olsen?”

  Jenn’s eyebrows migrated so far north they almost disappeared into her hairline. “Caroline Olsen? Are you talking about the nutty woman who lives out in the woods?”

  “That would be the one.”

  “Why are you asking about her?”

  “Because we went for a walk today and she surprised us,” I replied, debating how much of the story I wanted to share. “She caught us off guard. She was also walking a goat on a leash.”

  Jenn snickered. “That sounds just like her. She has a reputation of sorts.”

  “I can see that. My friend Luke likened her to Crazy Ralph in the Friday the 13th movies. She said a few creepy things to us.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like … she said the woods belonged to the shadow hunters and we shouldn’t risk going out after dark,” I answered. “Now, I’m not the type to get worked up about something like that, but the fog that came through last night was completely creepy and it almost did feel like someone was watching us through the haze.”

  “Oh, I didn’t think about that,” Jenn said. “You’re not familiar with the area, so the fog would’ve caught you off guard.”

  “Are you saying it doesn’t catch you off guard?”

  “I guess I’m just used to it. The entire area suffers from coastal fog, which is different than the fog people inland deal with.”

  I hadn’t come for a weather lesson yet I was intrigued. “What does that mean?”

  “Well, our temperature around here stays pretty consistent year-round,” Jenn explained. “We get warm days, but on average it’s always sixty-five degrees here. That’s in the summer and winter.

  “The Pacific breezes also keep Eureka cooler,” she continued. “Only a few miles inland – and I’m not exaggerating – temperatures jump really high a lot of the time. It could be sixty degrees in Eureka and ninety degrees twenty miles east. I’ve seen it happen.”

  “How does that explain the fog?”

  “Well, the proximity to the coast is the main reason for the fog.”

  I’d never lived on an ocean – or any body of water, for that matter – so I couldn’t claim knowledge about coastal weather patterns. “So, basically you’re saying that I’m overreacting about the fog,” I mused. “You probably think I’m a big baby.”

  “On the contrary.” Jenn grinned. “I think that the fog is probably jarring for people who aren’t used to it. It’s like one of those things you see in horror movies and naturally associate with killing and death.”

  She wasn’t far off. “I’m not all that worried about killing and death.” I’d seen more than my fair share of both and I didn’t exactly live in fear. “It’s just the fog last night seemed … like it actually had a mind of its own or something.”

  “Really?” Jenn’s expression was hard to read.

  “What are you two talking about?” Luke ambled to my side and slung his arm around my neck. “I had to get away from that other one. She refused to shut her mouth and it was getting absolutely ridiculous. I mean … who can come up with that many puns about organic fruit?”

  Jenn chuckled. “Yes, well, Liz is a person all her own. She doesn’t conform.”

  “I’m a big proponent of nonconformance,” Luke said, “but she’s weird.”

  “Speaking of weird, I asked Jenn about Caroline Olsen,” I volunteered. “She thinks I’m being an alarmist and there’s nothing wrong with her.”

  “Then you clearly didn’t tell the story right,” Luke argued. “That woman is ten sticks of gum short of a pack.”

  “I didn’t say there was nothing wrong with her,” Jenn clarified. “I don’t remember saying anything either way on that topic. We discussed the fog, not Caroline.”

  To be fair, she wasn’t wrong. “So what do you think about Caroline?” I asked.

  “Wait … what do you know about the fog?” Luke challenged. “It’s creepy and people have gone missing in it, right? It’s like that Stephen King movie where the creatures trapped everyone in the grocery store. That’s going to happen to us, isn’t it?”

  I furrowed my brow. “We’re not trapped in The Mist.” I lightly smacked his arm. “As for the fog, it’s normal. She says we have to stop being babies and suck it up.”

  “I don’t believe I used those words,” Jenn said dryly. “The fog is naturally occurring, and you’re going to see a lot of it. It feels as if we see it almost every day in the summer.”

  “That’s disappointing.” Luke rolled his neck. “What about Caroline Olsen? She’s probably an ax killer or something, isn’t she? Have a lot of people gone missing in the woods by her house? I bet she’s cooking and eating them.”

  “Hey!” I extended a warning finger. “Let’s not take things too far.”

  “Caroline is mostly harmless,” Jenn volunteered, seemingly eager to keep us from getting into an argument. “She’s odd and isolated. She doesn’t come into town much. She has a menagerie of animals out there and spends all her time with them. She’s not dangerous.”

  I didn’t bring up the fact that Caroline seemed to have a psychic flash in our presence because there was no way I could explain it. I remained convinced there was more to the woman than was readily apparent. “And the shadow hunters?”

  Jenn held her hands palms out and shrugged. “Maybe she sees things in the mist that aren’t really there. It wouldn’t surprise me. She is alone a lot. Plus, wel
l, you said it yourself, the fog is really thick. It unnerves people.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. “I guess.”

  “Listen, I wouldn’t worry too much about Caroline,” Jenn said. “She really is harmless and I guarantee she’s not eating people out there. As for you guys, I’m going to grab two crates from the truck because you’re buying so much. Look around and grab what you want. I’ll help you load it.”

  “Sure.” I forced a smile as I watched her jog toward a truck in the parking lot, my heart momentarily clenching when I thought for sure there was a ghost hanging close to the vehicle and Jenn actually ran through it. I felt like an idiot for my reaction when I realized it was simply the way the sun was bouncing off the truck hood. A glare, not a ghost – or shadow hunter – waiting to take out the amiable vegetable seller.

  “I think we should get stuff for pasta salad, too,” Luke suggested, oblivious. “I want to take advantage of these vegetables while we can. They look amazing.”

  I dragged my eyes from the glare, which still looked like a woman in a floor-length skirt for some reason, and nodded. “That sounds like a plan. Let’s get it done.”

  7

  Seven

  I eventually managed to drag my attention from the odd reflection and finish shopping. Kade had a harder time extricating himself from Liz – I think she developed something of a crush on him – but we managed to collect our supplies and load them without too much trouble.

  “Now, if you need anything else, don’t hesitate to give me a call and I’m sure I can work something out for delivery.” Liz offered Kade a business card and a wink. “I would love to see the circus.”

  I stared at the back of her head for a long beat, debating whether I wanted to let the overture go or smack her around. Kade made the decision for me. Apparently he recognized my conundrum and didn’t want to take any chances.

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” Kade pocketed the business card with one hand while grabbing my elbow with the other. “Doesn’t that sound good, sweetheart? Liz might deliver groceries to us.”