“Yours?” Maggie pointed at Max as came closer.
I glance down at him. “Maybe. We’re not sure yet.”
Maggie popped off a glove and reached out to me. “Maggie Helena, Medical Examiner.”
I shook her hand. “Ginger Blackstone. This is my granny—”
“Maggie and I know each other,” Mama D said in a tight voice.
“Oh. Sorry.”
Maggie nodded. “Mama D and I met a few years ago when Melody and Carmine first opened this place up. I buy all my herbs from her shop.” She leaned in close. “Did you say someone shot David? You mean David Flanagan?”
I realized at that moment this was the doctor who did the autopsy. The one David spent the day with. “Yes. Do you know him well?”
“Well enough to know a silver bullet could do some damage to him,” She gestured to the shining bullet on the floor. “That makes two bullets that aren’t in him. If they passed through him, he could heal pretty quickly, but if there’s one still inside of him…”
I put my hand on her arm. “He’s not answering his phone and the last time we heard from him, he was in this store.”
“Why would he be in here?” Maggie said. “The last time I saw him was at the morgue. I gave him Mr. Willmington’s personal possessions and he was going to take that and the preliminary report over to Danvers.”
That was a good question. Why would David have come here? “Was there something in those possessions that would bring him to Melody’s?”
Maggie pulled out her phone and started thumbing through it. “I always keep copies of my work in Evernote, so it syncs with my computer and my phone. Ah, here we are.” She skimmed her phone. “There was a Past & Future business card in Willmington’s things.”
“So Charles Willmington visited my sister too?” I glanced at Mama D.
“Too?” Danvers said. I forgot he was still nearby.
“I guess he did,” Maggie said.
“Hey,” Danvers stepped up. “Ginger…who else visited Melody? It’s more important now since we found Carmine dead.”
He was right. But I really didn’t want to hand over the briefcase to him. I knew once he had it, he’d want to cut me out. Yet, I had to let him do his job. Forget giving him anything of Hardin’s. That stuff was Craft, and it belonged with Hardin’s ashes. “Follow me,” I said and led he and Maggie and Mama D back outside.
It was well past four o’clock in the afternoon and the temperature was dropping. I unlocked the back of the Mercedes and pointed at the briefcase. I knew the lockbox wouldn’t be important to the M.E. or the Sheriff. It was just a lockbox. “That’s Charles Willmington’s briefcase.”
“How—” Danvers’ color changed. “Ginger—”
“Don’t get all explody,” I said and held up a hand. “Mr. Willmington and Mavis Mulroney were seeing each other. He was with her before he died.” I told him what Mavis told me and watched Danvers turn redder.
“And just how did you know to ask her?”
I shrugged. “I saw his business card on her board, asked her about him, and watched her reaction.” I shrugged. “And well…he also told David and me during our meeting with him. Sorry, I didn’t tell you but that just felt private. And you know how well Mavis and Mama D get along.”
Danvers held up a finger.
“Sheriff,” I said hastily. “You can scream at me all you want. But right now, we need to find David and Melody. I think it would be a good idea to see if there’s a cell phone or computer in that briefcase. Find out where Willmington was before he died. And find out who Cerysera is.” I searched his face. “Before someone else goes missing…or dies.”
THIRTEEN
Returning to consciousness was like trying to climb up a steep, muddy bank in the dark. David heard moaning and realized it was himself making the noise. He took in a deep breath and choked on dirt. He hacked and coughed as he fought to move his arms and legs and clear out his lungs.
He realized as every movement brought with it a deep, agonizing pain, that he’d been buried.
Alive.
It took time and patience, fueled by panic, but he finally freed himself from his shallow grave. David crawled out of the hole, spitting and hacking up the dirt and debris he’d inhaled. He tasted blood and made a pitiful cry as something sharp raked over his chest.
With a sigh, he heaved himself over onto his back and coughed even more. Grit scratched at his eyes as he forced himself to make tears. He’d been buried before, half a century ago. And the surprise, horror, and shock were no less terrifying now than they had been all those decades ago.
He blinked several times until he could make out dim shapes. It was still daylight, but the sun was already setting. Trees bent over him and swayed in the wind. He steadied his breathing, concentrated on the surrounding area. He had to find out where he was. He had to remember what happened to him. The last time he’d woken up in a grave, two years had passed.
David prayed to the Heavens that was not what happened this time.
He closed his eyes and saw Ginger’s face. He focused on her beautiful green eyes; her upturned nose, her full lips… She became his inspiration to overcome the paralyzing effects of the vampire’s Sleep. It was a state of being all vampires both welcomed and shunned.
Those with great age, unable to overcome grief and loss, welcomed the deep Sleep of the vampire and allowed themselves to enter that state of near death for as long as it took to move those emotions aside.
It didn’t always work that easy.
But the Sleep was shunned when it came at the cost of great injury. Many vampires had died a true death when those around them believed there was no life left in the body. They were cremated, decapitated, or tossed into the ocean.
David knew he’d been gravely wounded—it was the only explanation for his condition as he fought to move away from that sleep. He put his hand on his chest, felt the hole in his shirt, and painfully felt the hole in his flesh. He was still losing blood. The bullet hurt inside of him and he couldn’t expel it.
That could only mean it was a silver bullet. And it was poisoning him.
He’d been shot while in Melody Blackstone’s shop. That much he remembered. He’s seen a shadow, sensed a human heartbeat. And then…nothing.
It worried him that his attacker had used silver. It spoke of someone who understood the unique nature of Castle Falls’ residents. But waking up in a shallow grave also revealed to him that his would-be killer did not know he’d fired on a vampire. Whoever it was, believed they had killed a human.
And that would be the bastard’s undoing.
With Ginger’s face in his mind, he concentrated on the surrounding sounds. He heard the rush of wind in the trees, the call of an owl, the hiss of…
Water?
Constant churning. Falling endlessly.
And when he dared take in another breath, he could smell and taste the water in the air. There was a lot of it. Was he near the lake? Possibly. But the sound suggested he was further north toward the falls.
David knew he needed help removing the bullet. If he didn’t, he’d fall into the deep sleep whether he wanted to or not. And if it happened out here, the Earth would work to protect him by hiding him. And he did not want to be hidden away, unable to see Ginger again. That thought fueled his muscles and his will as he pushed himself up on his hands and knees. Blood dripped to the ground in regular taps but he struggled to stand.
When David finally made it to his feet, he nearly collapsed again. Dizziness made the trees and ground around him tilt at the wrong angle so he stumbled and collided with a tree.
Thank goodness. Something stable and solid.
Breathing heavy, he reached into his pockets, hoping to find his phone—
And it was there!
He stared at it in his palm for a good minute before he realized it was dead. No!
Well, that wasn’t going to work. He was going to have to stumble out of the woods on his own. He had no idea
how long he’d be able to remain upright at the rate he was losing blood. The silver in the bullet prevented his vampire powers from healing.
“Ginger,” he muttered out loud as he tried to zero in on which way to start. Finally, he closed his eyes and thought of her. He imagined her beautiful red hair, green eyes, her perky smile and that cat—
The cat! Familiars could track people, couldn’t they?
Or was that dogs?
Were dogs used as familiars?
David put his hand on his face. He wasn’t thinking coherently. This wasn’t good. He decided to rely on his hearing and listened for anything that wasn’t woodland sounds. In the distance he thought he heard the motors of cars and trucks, and the roar of their passing. Seeing a strange man on the side of the road might be more frightening than seeing an injured animal.
If I shifted now, there’s no guarantee I’d be able to shift back until the bullet was removed. But shifting could help me heal. My shifter form healed faster on its own because it was magical.
What do I have to lose?
He slipped his phone back into his pocket, took two steps forward and released his animal within…
Mama D and I had just stepped into the Sheriff’s office when I had a very vivid image of David in my mind. I stopped and grabbed the doorframe.
“Ginger?” Danvers said as he put his hand on my shoulder. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I just,” Is stopped, not sure if what I’d just experienced was real, or me just stressing out over what happened to David.
“I felt it too,” Max said as he moved between my legs and sat in front of me. “He’s alive. And he needs help.”
“But I don’t know where to find him.”
“Who—” Danvers stepped back and looked at me, the cat, then at me. “Don’t tell me you’re talking to the cat the way Mama D talks to her bat.”
“Don’t knock it, Billy,” Mama D said as she squeezed past me and took up a position in front of me next to Danvers. “Did you just see him? Sense him?”
“I thought I heard him say my name,” I said and then wrapped my arms around my chest. “It was cold.”
“That’s a clue,” Mama D said.
The briefcase was already on its way to the forensics lab in Westminster and Danvers actually had a few contacts he claimed could trace an email address. He called them and gave them the information on the drive back to the station. Mama D and I were there to write up a missing person report on Melody so we could officially get her into the system.
My phone buzzed in my bag and my momentary freak-out took a backseat as I ran to the front desk where Mrs. Rosepurse usually sat, plopped my bag on top and grabbed the phone
It was Kevin’s number. “Kev?”
“Hey, it’s Evie,” his wife said. Evie and I had bonded almost immediately when Kevin met her in college. Her being a witch helped a lot. She was someone I could talk to about anything, and everything. And I could always give her the skinny on my brother. And often did. She was gifted with magic in ways I envied.
“Evie!” I closed my eyes. “Did you find Melody?”
“I’m afraid yes, and no.”
“Well, that’s vaguing it up a bit.”
“It’s not so easy sometimes. The crystal I’m using as a pendulum just keeps circling around Castle Falls. The whole town. I thought maybe something was wacky, so I decided to ask it a different question to test, and the thing zeroed in on a place near the falls, but that didn’t make sense either.”
“What did you ask?” I was worried now. I hadn’t realized how much faith I’d put into Evie’s gift when it came to finding my sister.
“Well, Kevin said you and he used to visit the falls all the time as kids, and that you two actually buried a time capsule up there.”
“Yeeeah. We did.”
“He said you’d put a picture of your high school true love in the capsule—”
“It was a cigar box!” Kevin’s voice echoed in the background.
“Eh. Ignore him. He’s had pasta, so he’s wired. What I asked it to find was your true love. And the stupid thing kept straight-arrowing on the opposite side of the falls, near the bed-and-breakfast. Well, it’s really a huge hotel if you ask me and not so much as a bed-and-breakfast—”
Evie kept talking, but I wasn’t listening. Find my true love? Honestly, I hadn’t thought about that cigar box in years, and my true love back then was married now with three kids and living happily in New York. We send Christmas cards and Birthday wishes every year. But I also knew Evie used the words straight-arrowing when the pendulum crystal literally tugged at the chain with force in a certain direction, making it and the chain look like an arrow. I’d seen it happen.
And when it did that—it was time to pay attention. But what did it mean by my true love?
“I can tell I’ve lost you. My point is that Kevin said it wasn’t pointing where you buried the capsule. Sorry that I can’t really help with Melody. Unless I interpret what I’m getting as Melody is still in Castle Falls. The circling can also indicate some kind of spell or protection.”
I perked up. “You mean someone’s trying to throw off anyone looking for her?”
“Could be. Or she is. You know Melody’s a pretty powerful witch when she wants to be. I’m taking a picture of the map I used. I marked off those places for you.”
My phone pinged, so I looked at it and pulled up the image she’d sent. I had to enlarge it to see where she used a red pen to draw a circle around the town.
There was a pentagram to the southeast of the falls, like she said, near the bed-and-breakfast. I put the phone on speaker. Danvers had gone to his office to grab the paperwork, but Max and Mama D were right there with me, listening. “This other mark is where you asked the test question?”
“Yep. I did five readings to find Melody and kept getting the same circle. When I asked about your true love,” I cringed, “The stupid thing started pointing sideways. Looked like a dog on a leash. So I did three more on that and the crystal attached itself to that same spot. So whatever is there, it’s your true love.”
I needed a big screen. “Let me put this up on a computer, okay? Can you hold?”
“Sure.”
“True love?” Max turned his head sideways. Looked like he was examining a bug.
I forwarded the image to my email account, then jumped on Mrs. Rosepurse’s computer. I already knew her password so that wasn’t a problem. But once she found out I’d been on it, I was sure she was not only change the password but exorcise the whole desk to get my witch’s cooties off of it.
I pulled the image up and then used an online mapping website I’d found a year ago. Well, one of my clients, a private investigator, showed it to me. It was really cool. I could upload a map and the thing scanned in the town names and then super-imposed a satellite image over it. I adjusted the transparency so I could pinpoint where the pentagrams were. I grabbed the phone off the desk and sat back. “I don’t understand why it wanted to show you that.”
“I have no idea. Ginger, Kevin wants to talk to you.”
“Yeah put him on. I need to talk to him. Thanks, Evie.”
“Sorry I couldn’t be more help.”
Once Kevin got on the line I updated him with everything that had happened. He listened quietly, only interrupting to clarify things. When I finished he said. “We’re on our way.”
“Kevin—”
But he’d already hung up.
“You know he’s not going to sit around and do nothing if the family’s in trouble, Ginger,” Mama D said. “He’s too much like your father.”
“I know.” I put the phone back on the desk and stared at the area.
Danvers came up behind us and looked at the map. “What’s this?”
Mama D filled him in as I enlarged the photo as big as I could. There were a few secondary roads that went through that area.
“Look, Mama Donahue. I can’t spare people to go all the way out there, shut the falls d
own and look for Ginger’s true love on the word of a…” He paused.
“A witch?” I said and turned the chair and looked at him. “Evie’s worked with the Atlanta Police Department, Billy. You know that. She’s got a hundred percent find rate. Something is there. And my true love could be my sister. You got three dead bodies now.”
I thought he would give in. But after a few quiet seconds, he shook his head. “I need more, Ginger. Let’s wait and see if something comes up off of Willmington’s computer and phone.”
“And what about David?”
“I don’t know, Ginger. We’ve got men out looking. That’s all we can do.”
And that was that. Mama D and I drove the cars back to her house. I made coffee, and we sat in the living area. The TV was on but I wasn’t looking at it. I was looking on my phone, wishing I had a computer I could stare at instead of the tiny screen. I needed to know what was in the woods. What was the pendulum was telling Evie?
“Ginger,” Mama D stood. “Come with me.” She walked into the kitchen to the shop.
I followed her. Burt flew in right before I did and Max was at my feet.
Mama D shuffled to the counter and disappeared behind it. When she came up again she had a thick book in her hands. I recognized it as a Book of Shadows. She opened it and flipped around a bit. Then she said, “Go to that vine you brought back to life yesterday. The one in the huge terra-cotta pot by the window.”
I did as she said.
“Now put your hands in the dirt.”
“Why?”
“Do it.”
So I did. It was warm and damp, still filled with water from the day before. And as I moved my fingers in the soil, a few other blades of grass or something popped up around my hands. I heard whispers from far away and started to pull back.
“No,” Mama D stood beside me. “Close your eyes and think of David.”
“David?” I gave her a funny look, but I closed them, and I pictured David in my head.
Almost immediately David’s image blurred, and it felt as if I were traveling forward. I hissed as I grabbed at the soil and held on for dear life! I passed cars along the side of the road—no—I was running along the side of the road. It was as if I were Tarzan, jumping from tree to tree, bush to bush, leaf to leaf until finally, I landed as a water drop on top of a flower stem. The petals had all blown away in the September wind.
The Book Of Ill Deeds_A Paranormal Cozy Mystery Page 11
