They clambered up the stairs, careful to avoid the missing and rotted boards. The upstairs hallway had three doors, all leading to rooms with rough pine flooring and paint-chipped walls.
“Mew!” Belladonna appeared in the doorway of one of the rooms.
“Might as well start in there.” Morgan was the first to cross into the small room. It was empty aside from a tattered remnant of a dirty curtain that fluttered listlessly in an open window. The walls, which had once been white, were now tinged green with mold. Below the window, a deep brown water stain covered what was left of the horsehair plaster. Moss clung to the windowsill where a small sapling had taken root. The cracked and water-stained ceilings bulged alarmingly in the corner.
The floorboards creaked as the five of them stood looking around the room.
“Meurffp.” Raven paced back and forth in the corner that abutted the stairs.
“Where would someone hide a crystal ball in here?” Fiona spun slowly around. “There’s no place to hide anything. It’s just an empty room.”
“Breeee!” Belladonna and Raven trotted to the corner of the room and rubbed their cheeks on the doorjamb.
“Looks like Belladonna found a friend,” Celeste said. “That looks like Sarah’s cat. I wonder if she’s around here and if she's helping Belladonna escape for whatever reason.”
“If Sarah is near here, I hope she has an idea of where Sam might have hidden the crystal ball.” Jolene walked over to a section of wall where the plaster had fallen off, exposing the studs underneath. She peered down inside the wall. “Because the only idea I have is to tear off the plaster and look inside the walls.”
“And under the floorboards.” Morgan pried up a loose board in the corner.
Fiona aimed the alexandrite around the room. It sparked when she pointed it toward the front corner of the room, where Belladonna and Raven where sitting, leisurely cleaning themselves.
“Well, at least that narrows it down. Let’s focus over here.” Fiona shoved the stone back in her pocket as they all went toward the corner.
“Merow!”
“Hiss!”
The two cats swatted at each other, rolling on the ground and then leaping to the side. Then they ran out of the room and down the stairs.
Jolene stared after them. “I guess they've done their job. I suppose we should get to work.”
“Right.” Celeste squatted and tapped on a floorboard. “Let’s see if we can find an obvious hollow area before we start ripping the place up.”
The sisters got to work, tapping on the walls and searching the floors for variation in the wood planks that might indicate some sort of trap door or hidden compartment.
Mateo stayed by Jolene’s side, helping her pry up the dry floorboards. Then he showed her what to listen for when tapping the wall, where to hold her ear and the type of thud she should be listening for. They didn’t find a secret compartment, but Jolene realized she liked having him by her side... more than she wanted to admit.
Over an hour later, they’d demolished a good part of the room with nothing to show for it. The temperature had climbed to unbearable levels and Jolene pushed damp tendrils of hair out of her eyes as she sat back on her haunches to rest. She was shamelessly admiring the way Mateo’s damp t-shirt clung to his muscular chest when she noticed that Morgan was acting a bit edgy.
“What’s wrong?” Fiona wiped sweat from her brow.
“I sense something … like we might not be alone,” Morgan said.
Jolene stood. “I thought Sarah took care of Bly’s men.”
Moran shrugged. “Maybe they weren’t the only ones looking for the crystal ball.”
Jolene crossed to the window and scanned the woods. “I feel something, too. I don’t see anyone, and this place has a weird energy vibe. Probably something to do with that energy shield Sam Gooding put around it. Maybe we're just imagining it.”
“Maybe,” Morgan said. “I’m not imagining that there’s no scrying ball here.”
“I know. Now I wonder if coming up here was a mistake,” Jolene said.
“But the crystal lit up when I pointed upstairs and it is now lighting up when I point it at this corner.” Fiona pointed to the corner which was now bare studs.
“Sure, that’s the direction the crystal is pointed in, but does that mean it’s in this room?” Celeste asked.
“Merow!” A dual cat cry echoed from the stairwell just outside the room.
“No, it could be pointing at what’s beyond the room on the other side of the wall,” Mateo said.
“The stairs! We should have thought of that before.” Jolene slapped her hand against her thigh. “The stairs are in Sam’s sketch. They were the clue all along, not the fireplace.”
They scrambled out into the stairwell. Belladonna and Raven sat at the bottom, staring up at them expectantly.
“The cats were trying to lead us here the whole time.” Jolene joined the cats perched on the second step. The one below it was missing the tread and she looked down into the dark hole below the stairs.
Celeste looked over her shoulder. “Maybe it’s down in there, below the planks.”
Jolene felt a shiver of energy. “In the basement? Does this place even have a basement?”
“They didn’t have basements as we know it three hundred years ago, but there might be a root cellar or a low cellar hole. Probably a dirt floor. Maybe he buried it down there. I’m not sure if there's access to it from in here, though,” Morgan said. “Maybe there's a bulkhead outside.”
“But look at the stairs.” Fiona gestured toward the broken boards. “Maybe someone else already came here and figured it out. They crawled into the basement through the stairs and dug up the scrying ball.”
“We did see that someone had been at the invisible wall,” Celeste said.
“Yeah, but they didn’t get in,” Morgan pointed out.
“That doesn’t mean that someone else didn’t get in here. If this was Sam’s house, then it’s been here for three-hundred years,” Jolene said. “That’s a long time for the crystal ball to be sitting here. There would have been plenty of opportunities for someone to try to snag it.”
“Then why is the gemstone glowing?” Fiona asked.
“And why do I feel like a threat is here?” Morgan said uneasily.
“Are you sure there’s a threat?” Jolene asked.
Morgan paused and closed her eyes. “No, I’m not sure. Maybe you’re right and it’s just the funky energy here.”
Jolene went back to the top of the stairs and looked out the window at the end of the hall. The sun was low in the sky now. It would be setting soon and then it would be dark. The house had no electricity and the thought of being out there in the middle of the woods in the dark didn’t appeal to her.
“I don’t see anyone out there—” Was that the flapping edge of something black disappearing behind a tree? “Unless that’s a familiar black tunic flapping like a cape out there.”
“Sarah?” Mateo asked. “She might be here watching over us. Protecting you.”
“I guess that would make sense.” Morgan didn’t look convinced.
Celeste pointed at the fluffy black cat. “Her cat is here, so it does make sense. Hopefully, that’s the presence you’re feeling.”
“It’s going to be getting dark soon. I think we should either pick up the pace or come back tomorrow.” Jolene pulled her hair up off her neck and exhaled heavily.
“Meow.” Belladonna trotted up the steps and head-butted Jolene’s leg. She turned and trotted down the bottom of the stairs where the black cat was staring up at them with unwavering, golden eyes.
“Merophh!”
“I think she’s trying to tell us something, as usual.” Morgan descended the stairs and stood in the middle of the room. “This is where Sam made the sketch, but I don’t remember the exact perspectives.”
Jolene and the others came down to stand beside Morgan. “I do.” She anchored herself in the middle of the room where she could se
e the edge of the fireplace and the stairway. “This is the exact perspective. That’s why I thought it was in the fireplace.”
“Okay, so then we’ve been on the wrong—” Morgan’s eyes drifted out the window, her expression taking ominous.
“Is everything okay?” The hair on the back of Jolene’s neck prickled and she looked out the window, too.
Morgan’s attention snapped back to the room. “Yeah. Fine. I just thought … never mind. Anyway, you were saying this is the perspective. But somehow we’re off. We’ve tried the fireplace and the room upstairs. It must be in the chimney.”
Fiona got out the alexandrite stone and aimed it around the room, walking slowly, using it like a Geiger counter to ferret out the crystal ball. She walked past the fireplace and the stone turned yellow. At the edge of the stairs, the stone glowed a yellow-orange. Just past the stairs, the crystal exploded into a fiery ball of orangey-red. “It’s got to be somewhere around here. Look at the crystal!”
“Merow!” Belladonna jumped up onto the baluster, sliding down comically and landing in a heap at the bottom of the newel post.
Scratch.
“What’s that?” Celeste turned toward the front door.
“I don’t know, but look at the stone now.” Fiona’s attention was focused on the alexandrite whose beams of light glowed brighter as she pointed it toward the stairs.
Everyone turned from the front door to the stone.
“But we already looked at the stairs,” Jolene said.
“Not the stairs.” Fiona walked slowly toward them. “It’s the—”
“Merow!” Belladonna leaped up onto the newel post.
“Hiss!” Raven leaped up there, too. The two cats hissed and meowed as they grappled for position on the post. Their razor sharp claws scrambled for purchase on the rounded top, but they kept slipping off.
Jolene stared in amazement as the resulting scratches on the globe at the top of the newel post emitted shards of silvery light as if something inside was glowing.
The cats catapulted off the top, running around the room in a noisy, mewling frenzy.
Jolene’s attention was riveted on the top of the post. She walked slowly over to it. “Do you think this is…” She touched the ball atop the post. Electricity lit up her nerves all the way from her finger to her elbow. Flakes of paint flew off the top of the globe, revealing what was inside: a crystal ball.
Jolene placed both her hands on the ball and pulled it from the post. Holding it in front of her face, she peered inside it. It was like watching a movie, a movie of the outside of the very house they were now in. A man was skulking around the perimeter, dragging something heavy behind him, making his way to the front door.
“Hey, this looks like the guy from the Ephemera Museum and he’s right outside the—”
Crash!
The door flew open, smashing against the wall.
“Hand over the crystal ball or the witch gets it!”
21
Jolene's heart somersaulted in her chest. Henry Oaks stood in the doorway. He no longer looked like a meek museum curator, especially considering the way he was dragging an unconscious Sarah behind him.
The sight of Sarah—unconscious … or worse—was disturbing enough, but what really struck an icicle of fear into Jolene's heart was the unusual looking gun he held in one hand.
It wasn't a regular gun, though Jolene could see he had one of those tucked in his waistband. This was a gun that could shoot paranormal energy. Jolene and her sisters had had to fight off men with guns like that before. If the gun was filled with dark energy, it could be deadly.
Jolene's heart sank as she remembered the dark energy she'd felt at the museum when looking through the photocopies on Sam Gooding. The energy hadn't been from Sam, it had been from Henry. Henry had handled those papers before giving them to Jolene.
If only she'd been a little more on the ball instead of mooning over Mateo, she might have figured out what he was up to in time to avoid this mess.
Fighting this guy was going to take all of her concentration. Jolene slid her eyes to Celeste, holding the ball out so her sister would take it while she turned up her energy awareness.
Henry's eyes followed the ball like a turkey vulture tracking a wounded baby rabbit. "Oh, no. You give that to me." He jerked the gun in Jolene's direction just as she handed the scrying ball off to Celeste.
"So, you were the one following us!" Morgan said, distracting Henry from the ball.
A sly smile spread across Henry's face. "You detected me? I didn't think you guys would notice, especially when you seemed so oblivious when I ran into you on the street near your hotel."
"You were onto us all along," Fiona said.
"Not all along. I've been looking for the scrying ball for my entire career." Henry's eyes slid to the ball, then back to Morgan. "But I never knew who'd hidden it back in 1692. When you came in asking about Sam Gooding, I didn't think anything about it at first. But then I did some research and I realized you were on to something."
"And you sent us to the vortex on purpose to get rid of us so you could come here to Sam's house," Morgan said.
Henry laughed. "Yes. When you came with the map, I realized the same thing you did. Sam's house wasn't in modern day Salem. And I knew exactly where West Great River Road was. But I couldn't let you come here … so I made up that story about the road being to the west and sent you to the vortex. It was supposed to swallow you up and leave me free to come here and get the crystal ball."
"But Sarah saved us, and you couldn't get near the house." Jolene wanted to keep him talking while she focused on her gifts. She needed to figure out a way to zap him with an energy stream that would knock him out without harming Sarah.
"That's right! The darn house was protected by an energy field charm. And my warlock abilities aren't quite up to snuff … so I couldn't get in. But then it all worked out for the best because you came and unlocked the energy charm."
Henry's eyes shifted to the alexandrite in Fiona's hand. "I would have needed that to unlock it and to find the scrying ball. I knew the keystone existed. Too bad I couldn't find it in your hotel room."
"It was you who broke in?" Morgan said. "I suppose you also killed Nancy and Opal."
"And maybe even Amity," Jolene added.
Henry gestured with the gun, his eyes narrowing. "I didn't kill anybody. Not yet, anyway."
Everyone's eyes flicked to Sarah's limp body that he was still holding by the back of her tunic.
Henry looked down. "She's not dead. But she's gonna be if you don't hand over that crystal ball."
Jolene couldn't believe that the whole time she'd been thinking some bad guy paranormal was following them it had been this little old guy from the museum.
But that couldn't be right, because he didn't catch on to them until they went into the Ephemera Museum, which meant someone else must have been following them, too.
Jolene looked down at his energy trail. It wasn't the same as the one she'd seen at Amity Jones’ house. Maybe the paranormals who killed Nancy and Opal really were the ones Sarah had gotten rid of.
Henry narrowed his eyes at Celeste. "Are you going to hand over the crystal ball, Blondie, or shall I fry the witch?" He pressed the paranormal gun to Sarah's head.
Jolene saw Mateo flinch next to her. They couldn't let Henry hurt Sarah. She'd save them from the vortex. They owed her everything.
Celeste cried out, "Wait!" She held the crystal ball out toward Henry. "Don't hurt her."
Henry let go of Sarah and she slumped to the floor. He turned the paranormal gun on Celeste "That's right. You come right over here and give it to me."
Celeste inched forward toward Henry.
Jolene glanced at Mateo. She really wanted to send a jolt of energy in Henry's direction, but he had that gun pointed at Celeste and she was afraid he'd shoot before she could take him out. But she and Mateo had proven before that they had strong energy together. Maybe if they combined their
energy, they could hit Henry before he had a chance to react.
It was as if Mateo knew what she was thinking. He reached out and took Jolene's hand.
The movement caught Henry's eye. He whipped the real gun out from his waistband and pointed it at them.
"What are you doing over there?" Henry's eyes wavered from Celeste to Jolene and Mateo. "No monkey business or I'll send an energy jolt through the blonde that will cook her from the inside out like a TV dinner in a microwave."
Mateo held up the palm of his free hand. "Sorry."
With his other hand, he squeezed Jolene's in a silent signal. She took a deep breath focusing all her energy—and some of Mateo's—on her fingertips, which she flung out toward Henry.
Everything happened in slow motion.
Henry jerked the paranormal gun over to meet the stream of purple energy coming from Jolene.
"Meow!" Belladonna and Raven launched themselves at Henry.
Henry's eyes jerked from the energy stream to the cats. Still aiming the paranormal gun at the energy stream he pulled the trigger. A glob of red energy lurched out, meeting the purple energy and exploding into a white arc.
He aimed the real gun at the cats.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
In her heightened paranormal state, with everything slowed down, Jolene could see the trajectory of the bullets. One of them was heading straight for Belladonna's heart.
"No!" Jolene dived for Belladonna, pushing her out of the way of the bullet, but unfortunately forgetting that, as she was pushing the cat out of the bullet's path, she was putting herself straight in it.
"Look out!" Jolene heard Mateo yell the words at the same time she saw his body lurch in between her and the bullets.
They struck him dead center in the chest and he collapsed to the floor.
* * *
Jolene’s heart crashed as she stared down at Mateo. Unaware of anything that was going on around her, her attention was riveted on Mateo, who lay on his back on the ground. Blood bubbled out of the three holes in his chest. So much blood.
She forgot all about Henry and the scrying ball as panic jolted her out of her trance. She had to do something to save him. Fiona’s healing carnelians. She’d experienced their healing power herself, although not with such a life-threatening wound.
Spell Found (Blackmoore Sisters Cozy Mysteries Book 7) Page 12
