06 Hauntin' After Midnight

by Rose Pressey

  Just then Tammy rammed the car again. My body flew forward and then back, hitting the seat. She did realize I was in here, right? Was she trying to kill me too? Officer Ellison tried to steer the car back into the lane, but he couldn’t control the wheel.

  The tires squealed and my body flew to the other side of the car, hitting the door. Erin screamed and glass shattered. The car came to a rest, but I was still stuck in the backseat. I looked back to see if Tammy was still back there. I didn’t see her car. My captors opened the car doors and got out. They seemed to be in a daze. I supposed I was a bit in shock too.

  “Let me out of here,” I yelled.

  They moved to the front of the car, inspecting the damage. It was obvious that they wouldn’t be able to drive the car any more.

  Now what would they do? They couldn’t kill me right here on the side of the road. Well, I supposed they could, but it would definitely go against their original plan. After a few more seconds Officer Ellison came back to my door.

  The door released a loud groan when he opened it. “Get out.”

  He looked even angrier than before. I did as I was told and climbed out of the car. My whole body hurt already. I hoped that I would be able to take off. With the two of them they’d probably be able to catch me.

  I got out of the car. My mind raced as I tried to come up with a plan for escaping these two lunatics. Officer Ellison grabbed my arm and led me toward the front of the car. He limped along beside me.

  “Are you injured?” I asked, trying to sound concerned.

  Like I really cared what happened to this psycho. Erin was already at the front of the car, rubbing her head.

  “What does it look like?” he snapped. “Of course I’m injured because of your crazy friend.”

  So he knew it was Tammy.

  “Yeah, she’s the crazy one,” I said.

  They both seemed to be injured. I thought the only reason I was mostly uninjured was because I had been in the back. This meant they probably wouldn’t be able to catch up to me if I ran. As soon as he let go of my arm I would take off. I wasn’t sure where I was headed, but I would take a chance and go back toward the road. Where had Tammy gone? I thought for sure she would come back. She had to have seen the car go off the road. Plus the car she’d been driving was damaged too.

  “What the hell are we going to do now?” Erin asked.

  We stopped at the front of the car and Officer Ellison stared at the wrecked car.

  “We have to get out of here. They will be looking for us soon,” he said.

  “They also know we have her now. Oh, I know, why don’t you shoot her now and we can pretend that she attacked us?”

  Uh-oh. I hadn’t thought of that.

  “Brannon will know that never happened,” I said.

  Now was the time I had to run. Officer Ellison had a gun though. How would I outrun the bullets? This was my only shot.

  I turned and ran toward the road. There were a few trees along the way and I hoped that I could use them for cover. I hadn’t gotten far when a bullet whizzed past my head. I zigzagged toward the road, hoping that he wouldn’t be able to hit a moving target. Erin barked orders to Officer Ellison.

  “How did you ever pass the academy in order to become an officer?” she said.

  I reached the road, but Tammy wasn’t there. I had told myself maybe she would be there waiting.

  Would someone else come down the road and see me? That was doubtful since the road was so deserted. Officer Ellison fired another bullet. I had to hide. My side was hurting. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the running or an injury from the wreck. I glanced over my shoulder and spotted Officer Ellison and Erin coming after me. From out of nowhere the roar of an engine caught my attention. Tammy was barreling down the road in the other direction. How had she gotten back there?

  Just when Officer Ellison and Erin looked back Tammy hit them with the car.

  She had slowed down, but the impact took them down. They hit the hood of the car. The gun flew from Officer Ellison’s hand. He was no longer armed. I ran over and grabbed the gun. They were on the pavement. Somehow they were both sitting up, so she hadn’t hit them that hard. I pointed the gun at them as Tammy got out of the car. Another car’s tires screeching made me spin around. Brannon had arrived. He jumped out of his car with his gun drawn and ran over to me. I lowered my arm, no longer aiming at the criminals.

  More police cars arrived and they handcuffed Officer Ellison and Erin while they waited for an ambulance to arrive. Tammy ran over and hugged me.

  I looked her in the eyes. “That was some crazy driving back there. Where did you learn to do that?”

  She shrugged. “I guess when you have to you just instinctually do things.”

  “Whose car is that?”

  “My neighbors.” Tammy grimaced when she looked over at the wrecked vehicle.

  “They won’t be happy to see that,” I said.

  The ambulance arrived and put Officer Ellison and Erin onto stretchers and then loaded them into the back of the ambulance.

  “I’m so thankful to see those two in handcuffs,” I said.

  “They’ll be where they belong soon enough,” Tammy said.

  Brannon came back over after making sure they were into the ambulance and secure. “You need to be checked out.”

  “I’m fine.” I waved my arm and let out a groan.

  He quirked an eyebrow.

  “Just a little bruising,” I said.

  Of course he insisted that I let the technicians look at me. After a few minutes of me refusing to go to the hospital they let me go.

  “How did you know I was here?” I asked.

  “Tammy called me when she was chasing you all.”

  I turned my attention to Tammy. “How did you know where to find me?”

  “I told you I would come looking for you. I just had a bad vibe about the whole thing. When I pulled up I noticed the car driving away and I thought you were in it. Turns out that one of the neighbors saw the cop take you and put you in the car. Once I heard that I knew that something was wrong so I hauled butt down that road until I caught up with you.” She looked sheepishly at Brannon. “Yes, I was speeding.”

  “I think both of you broke a few laws today, but I can’t prove it.” He winked.

  “You all have no idea what even happened,” I said.

  “I know that Officer Ellison killed Officer Jones,” Brannon said.

  My mouth dropped open. “How do you know that?”

  “He killed him?” Tammy asked.

  “We finally got surveillance video from the scene of the crime. A shop across the way was able to show just a clip of the scene. The camera had panned to the location.”

  Wow, and I’d thought I had solved the crime first.

  “Erin and Officer Ellison were in on this together,” I said.

  “How did you find this out?” Brannon asked.

  “Erin called me and asked me to come to see her. When I got there Officer Ellison and Erin turned on me.”

  “They won’t be able to do that again.” Brannon waved as the ambulances pulled away with the two criminals in the back.

  ***

  It was eerily strange how things had aligned for bad. At the age of eighteen, Officer Ellison’s father had murdered Cattie. At first it had been listed as an accident, but that turned out to be false. Elle Martin’s husband had witnessed the murder. He had written down the event and what he’d seen in the back of the book. He had hoped that someday someone would find it and he wouldn’t have to be the one who told on the murderer. Officer Ellison’s father had threatened this man and his family, so for that reason he had kept it secret for all those years.

  Katrina had found the book. In an odd twist of fate Officer Ellison and Katrina’s niece had hit it off and had a mutual reason for killing Katrina—Erin because she wanted to inherit all of the properties that she thought were going to be hers, and Officer Ellison so that his father wouldn’t go to ja
il. It had backfired on them though, because now they were all going to jail. Officer Ellison’s father had murdered Cattie, his girlfriend at the time. She happened to live right next door to the house on Edman Street. That was why Cattie’s spirit had told me about the book. She was the one at the library.

  Cattie had been killed by the rose bush. Ironically, that was the same location where Katrina had ended up after being shot. Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence though. I suppose that explained the rose scent that followed the ghost. I’d smelled it in the library and in Katrina’s car. I guess the ghost had been following Katrina until she was killed. Then she’d moved on to me. Cattie had probably realized how bad Erin was right away. I was just glad I could help her.

  Katrina and the murdered officer had used the Ouija board at the house. That had conjured up bad spirits. Officer Jones had been close to solving the crime so for that reason they killed him too. When I’d seen the black shadow behind Cattie at the library it had been the evil spirit. It wasn’t Cattie who had pushed me down the stairs. The dark shadow hadn’t been Cattie at all.

  It had been up to Brannon and me to get rid of the evil in the house. More like it had been Brannon and one of his awesome paranormal fighting inventions.

  All that time Cattie had been trying to give me the message. At least she’d tried to help me. If only she had had the energy to rely a complete message—instead, only bits and pieces got through. It amazed me that Annie was so capable of communicating, and yet other spirits had such a difficult time getting the message through. Mrs. Clatterbuck never had a problem complaining. I heard her messages loud and clear, except I tried to block them out. Hers wasn’t the message I wanted to hear. Maybe I should leave the cemetery like she asked. I loved it there though. I knew how Mrs. Clatterbuck felt, but I thought I was doing well for the cemetery I kept it up and it was always cared for. People could appreciate the beauty of it.

  As it turned out, Erin hadn’t owned the house after all. She’d been mistaken when she thought that Katrina had left the house to her. Katrina had another niece who had inherited the house. When the ‘for sale’ sign showed up in the front lawn, I did it… I bought the house. This was like a new beginning for me. Or maybe it was just a continuation of some of the great things that had happened since I’d returned to Devil’s Moon. Sure, there had been terrible things, but in order to move forward I chose to focus on the positive.

  Melinda Middlesome hadn’t been innocent either. More like Meddlesome. She had sent the letters to Katrina, but only to scare her because Katrina had cheated on Scott Lynwood, Melinda’s son. Melinda had panicked when she thought we would find the letters and arrest her for a murder she hadn’t committed. She’d sent the guy to the house to look for the letters. Not to mention she’d sent him on the tour to scare me. He’d taken the job a little too seriously and pushed me down the stairs.

  Now I stood in the sidewalk in front of the house staring at my new place. Sun shone brightly around me and birds sang a pretty melody. I’d only signed the paperwork and gotten the keys an hour earlier. I’d come straight over after I’d finished. Brannon was supposed to be over as soon as he got off work. Tammy was finishing up a client’s hair and then she’d be over. I didn’t have a lot of stuff to move. A house like this would require quite a bit of furniture that I didn’t have. Living in an apartment, there hadn’t been room. That would come eventually.

  It would take a long time to get over the fact that Katrina had been murdered in my yard. Though she’d wanted to tear the house down, now that it was safe from evil haunting I figured she’d be happy with the way things had turned out. She’d obviously loved the house at some point. Now it could remain in this spot for a long time to come. Clutching the keys in my hand, I headed up the front path toward the front door. My front door. I couldn’t wait for the fun to be had behind these walls.

  Spring was quickly turning to summer. Flowers had popped up around the yard and the trees were full of green leaves. The lawn needed to be mowed. I didn’t even own a lawnmower yet. That would be another thing for my list. I stepped onto the porch and to the front door. I’d have to add a couple of rocking chairs. I’d always wanted rocking chairs. In the evening I could sit outside and enjoy a glass of iced tea.

  My anticipation mounted as I shoved the key into the lock and turned. I twisted the knob and opened the door. Soft rays of sunshine filled the foyer, coming from the window at the top of the staircase. The hardwood floors needed a good polish, but they were in great shape. I’d already started picking out colors for the walls, a shiny yellow for the hallway and soft beige for the parlor.

  I stepped over to the staircase and peered up. This brought back memories of the night I’d come here with Katrina. Things seemed lighter now that I thought about it. A heaviness had hung in the air back then and I hadn’t really picked up on it until later. The house had a way of drawing you in. I turned around so that I could take it all in, the dining room on the left and the parlor on the right. Both rooms had a fireplace with lovely mantels. The kitchen was at the back. Upstairs had three bedrooms. Plus the small back porch which I could sit on and enjoy the view of the setting sun in the evenings. Yes, this place was home now. I had to admit I didn’t feel alone as I stood there. If a ghost wanted to hang around I was fine with that as long as they were nice.

  The end

  About the Author

  Rose Pressey is a USA Today bestselling author. She enjoys writing quirky and fun novels with a paranormal twist. The paranormal has always captured her interest. The thought of finding answers to the unexplained fascinates her.

  When she’s not writing about werewolves, vampires and every other supernatural creature, she loves eating cupcakes with sprinkles, reading, spending time with family, and listening to oldies from the fifties.

  Rose suffers from Psoriatic Arthritis and has knee replacements. She might just set the world record for joint replacements. She’s soon having her hips replaced, elbows, and at least one shoulder.

  Rose lives in the beautiful commonwealth of Kentucky with her husband, son, and two sassy Chihuahuas.

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