Cherilyn still sat at the kitchen table tapping away on the computer. “Tali, look at this. Our Lyn the helpful really does have a split personality. She grew up in Seattle, moved farther and farther south. She reached LA before she moved east into Texas. We lucked out because she never changed the spelling of her name. It’s unusual enough to track.”
“But a lot of people move around. That doesn’t tell us anything. She’s weird and travels a lot. That doesn’t mean anything.”
Cherilyn shrugged. “Brush it off if you want but every time she moved, the place she left had something happen—rumors of witchcraft, small animal deaths, mysterious fires, unexpected injuries, often among school children.”
“You’re saying one woman is cutting a swath of destruction across the country, single-handed. That doesn’t sound reasonable.”
“You are the one who believes in magic and ghosts. Why not someone with powerful skills who wasn’t using those gifts responsibly? Look at this pattern, she was in the area each time.”
“It could be coincidence. Maybe she left those towns because of the murders, afraid for her children.” I heard myself echoing the same arguments JT had used on me.
“The woman you described in that driveway doesn’t sound like one who would be driven away by fear of being killed as much as being found out.”
“Well. Okay. Maybe she really is the cause of everything, but we have no evidence, nothing we can take to JT and say, ‘See this, arrest her, she’s evil.’ I really don’t think a reputation for wickedness is an offence anyone can prosecute. Besides, she may be a scary bitch, but that doesn’t mean she murdered anyone. She has kids, for God’s sake.”
“Tali, half the serial killers out there have families who never knew they were evil on the inside. It’s not always the ones who look like monsters who are malevolent.”
“I know, it’s the mild-mannered guy-next-door, which—guess what—points to Aiden.”
Cherilyn tilted her head. “I don’t know. Most killers aren’t hunks.”
“Did you forget about Ted Bundy?”
“Oh. Well, most of the time, they aren’t hunks.”
“Back to coincidence, I came back to Love, Texas and we’ve had, count them, a total of four murders since my arrival. Two last summer, two now. I was at, or close to, the murder scene each time. Doesn’t that make me a prime suspect? Plus I found the bodies.”
“Damn, Tali. You aren’t evil, she is, end of story. You wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose. You take spiders out of the house rather than kill them.”
“Yeah, but I’d kill a snake in a heartbeat.”
“So the hell would I. Does that make me a suspect? This is getting us nowhere.” Cherilyn shut down the computer. “We need real evidence. Maybe when this Masked Ball is done, we can do something more. It’s not that I don’t like the woman—even though I don’t—it’s a feeling when I’m around her, and I haven’t been around her that much. Have you talked to Joe Wolfheart? He has good people instincts.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I can’t go up to the deputy mayor and ask him if he thinks Lyn is a witch. He’s president of the savings and loan and as straight arrow as they come. He wouldn’t gossip or believe in witches.”
“He’d probably say skin-walker. I can ask him. He’s bringing some ad copy over to the office Monday—doesn’t believe in computers but likes tall blondes. I’ll see what I can worm out of him.”
“Poor guy, he’s toast. Hey, what are you wearing tonight and don’t you need to go change soon?”
“Trying to get rid of me?”
“I know you. You take longer to get dressed than I do.”
She glanced at her watch. “Oops. You’re right, I’d better get ready. Wait until you see my outfit.”
“You’re not going to tell me about it?”
“It’s a surprise. Don’t you confront Lyn until I get there, okay? I don’t want to miss out on the fireworks.”
I stared at her. “What makes you think I’m going to confront anyone? I don’t know if I believe she’s the problem. I think I just want to go to the party tonight and have a good time. Monday will be soon enough to sort things out. Right now, my brain is tired.”
Cherilyn left to get dressed but promised to beat me to the Civic Center.
When I changed purses, I found the scrap of paper I’d written the license number on that Aiden had given me after the car incident. I called JT with it and, while I was on with him, call-waiting beeped.
“Mom.” Sean’s excited voice rang through phone’s speaker. “Guess what? Rusty and I were right. Not about the vampires but about werewolves.”
“What are you talking about, Sean?”
“The people in Shamrock are werewolves. That’s probably who jumped through our window and got Cass, don’t you think? It might even be Chase.”
“Now who is filling your head with nonsense?”
“It’s not nonsense. Rusty’s mom had a friend over who works for the sheriff’s department. He said he saw one and it was real. I swear, I think Cass’s boyfriend is one of them. Okay. Gotta go and get ready. We are going to be so scary.”
I heard a click and the dial tone. Damn, it made sense, at least if I believed in the whole supernatural being thing.
But I didn’t, did I? Did I?
Chapter Twenty-four
I ate, got dressed, and stepped outside. A giant pumpkin of a full moon shone in the sky, perched on the edge of the horizon. I shivered, thinking about the conversation with Sean and how he’d be out trick-or-treating in the dark. Mumsie still wouldn’t show me what she was going to wear if she came at all and insisted she might come on her own, later.
The scent of honeysuckle still lingered even though fall had officially arrived. I clutched my red shawl a little more tightly, feeling unseen eyes crawl over me. Sean had put ideas in my head. The dress made me feel vulnerable. Maybe that’s why so many women in the vintage period became repressed or timid. The long skirts restricted movement, the light clothing offered little protection compared to jeans and a jacket.
I heard horses’ hooves and carriage wheels. How ridiculous. Now I knew the last week or so had driven me around the bend. I heard bells, smelled an animal smell. A horse-drawn carriage drew up in front of the driveway with a driver dressed in green livery.
“Madam. Your carriage.”
I laughed out loud. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
Aiden drove. “Do I look as if I’m amused? I’m delivering you to the ball. Now let me assist you into the carriage.”
“Oh, very well. It’s not so far I can’t walk home if I don’t take my car. To the dance, James.”
“The name is Aiden, Madame.”
Every instinct told me not to get into the carriage, but I did anyway. Once I was settled in, he climbed up on the seat and clucked the horses forward.
The sound of the hooves on the road was comforting, transporting me to a simpler time—no computers, no rush, no divorce. I closed my eyes to better imagine a time when extraneous concerns didn’t overwhelm simply living. My eyes sprang open. But those simpler times believed in vampires and werewolves. They knew they were vulnerable to evil. In this day of science and man’s superiority over everything, we didn’t believe anymore. Maybe I’d been foolish to cling to my perception of reality. Mother and Aiden were smart, savvy people. I’d been ignoring the people I should trust the most because of my need to take care of myself.
“Did you forgive me for being so nasty?”
“That was uncalled for but you’re forgiven, for the moment.”
The little carriage stopped and Aiden leaped down to assist me out among the stares of people walking from the parking lot toward the door to queue up outside. Some of them burst into applause, as if they thought it was part of the show when he reached up to help me down. Maybe it was. The tingle I felt through my entire body when he touched me wasn’t make-believe.
On the seat again, Aiden saluted me and drove off around back. I w
atched until I couldn’t see him.
I entered the door to another time. Candles flickered everywhere. Oil lamps on the food tables lent a quiet glow to the surroundings. Renée had her crew carrying in food, putting last-minute touches to platters. The ice-sculptured mask on the wine table shown with reflected light.
The Classical Gas band tuned up. I looked around, aware that I wanted to see Aiden. If he was truly a vampire—which I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around—so be it. I was more attracted to him than I ever thought possible. One part of me, the part I kept pushing away, screamed at me to stay away, to not be foolish. What if he was the killer and came after me and the kids?
The other part of me insisted I wouldn’t be attracted to evil, I’d recognize it. I felt things for him I couldn’t explain but I was willing to find out the truth of our feelings, if he had some for me. I had to know. But now I had to act like a hostess instead of an empty-headed teenager with her first crush.
I pulled my mask out of my beaded bag and fastened it in place before I threw open the double doors to let in the crowd. Ladies acting as hostesses, masks in place, checked the reservation list. Much of the town of Love turned out for the ball, as it was the social event of the year, open to anyone who bought a ticket. Some came for dancing, some for chocolates and wine, some to see who they could see or be seen by.
I made the rounds of the room, straightened a couple of masks on one wall and a spray on another. I spotted Mumsie as she came in, very Katherine Hepburn, not bothering with a mask. With her was a goth girl who had to be Cass. It touched my heart that she agreed to come with her grandmother, knowing how much it would mean to her, even though Cass was not a fan of social occasions, especially with family. Not that this was the usual. Everyone picked this year to go the extra mile or ten when putting together costumes and we had everything from vampires to Donald Trump look-alikes.
As I watched families arrive together, I had to wonder how Sean and Rusty were doing with their vampire/werewolf search and trick-or-treat quest. At least everyone else was here and safe, although I hadn’t seen Aiden, or at least if I had, I didn’t recognize him.
Would I ever feel safe again? I didn’t know who had broken through the window—or what. It could be someone who was here tonight, same with the near-miss at the highway with Aiden. Was one of these people, most of whom I’d known for years, the one willing to murder two women for no apparent reason? My mind turned in time to the music.
A caped, masked man snatched me around the waist and spun me across the dance floor. Aiden had changed from the footman’s livery. The mask didn’t fool me. I knew who it was immediately. No one else made me feel the same way in his arms, whether or not music played.
“Aiden,” I murmured into his ear. “About time you got here. Did you forgive me yet, for my rude remark?”
“I would forgive you anything.”
We danced until I was dizzy, then danced some more. The band finally played a slower number and we swayed to the sound. I surrendered to the currents of music and desire surrounding me.
Suddenly I was jarred by the stench of evil once again. The room took on a red glow. The glow engulfed me before I fell into a room, small and dark. A red figure crouched in the middle of the room, drawing symbols in a circle on the wooden floor, chanting, lighting candles. I reached out to extinguish the candles and the figure stared into my eyes before thrusting me out of her mind and back into the dance.
I continued to whirl in Aiden’s arms except we were standing still.
“Tali, what’s wrong? Are you dizzy? Do you need to sit down? Did you sense something? You’re pale as I am.”
I explained what I’d seen the best I could.
“But you have no idea who it was?”
“The room was dark. I couldn’t see the face clearly or the room. I have no idea where it was, who was in it, except it was female and saw me.”
“That doesn’t give us much help.”
It felt like an accusation. “It’s not like I control the visions.”
“Maybe you can learn to control them before they begin to control you.”
“I never asked for any of this and I don’t know how to make visions do what I want or if I can.”
We stood still in the middle of the dance floor glaring at each other. What had happened? One minute I was swallowed up with the desire his presence evoked, and the next, enough anger flooded me that I could have heated the entire room by myself.
At that moment Laurel came up and grabbed me by the arm to pull me to the front of the room. “It’s time for the Queen’s Court to be introduced. The girls are all ready and waiting. We have about five minutes.”
I looked around at the stage and saw them standing in the wings—Kimmie, the Queen, SueAnn Peacock, runner-up, and the rest of the girls who were winners or runners-up from the Duchess and Princess contests. All of them had red and black costumes and masks.
Something fell into place then. I knew who was behind the murders and why. I knew where the room filled with evil was. It wasn’t some grand plan to take over the world, or this town. Nope, it was all in the name of the contest. I searched the crowd and found JT and Aiden. They both looked startled when I seized them each by an arm and dragged them toward stage right.
* * * *
“What the Hell?” JT gasped. Laurel glared as I dragged him away.
“Hey.” Aiden came without a fuss.
“There’s a room behind the stage. We have to get back there now.”
“Why, what’s going on?” JT pulled back. “The kids are on stage. We can’t interrupt. Laurel would kill me.”
I pulled harder. “Come on, we might not have much time.”
JT gave in and came with me. I pulled them toward the door on the left of the stage. “Do you know where you’re going? You need to be more careful. That license plate number you gave me belongs to Lyn.”
“Well, go figure. She hates me. But right now, I need to find a small room back of the stage. We have to get to it. I’m sure something bad will happen if we don’t get there in time.”
JT stopped again. “What are you talking about here? What sort of bad thing?”
I glared at him. “Damn it, JT, can’t you trust me? I think we have to stop what’s going on back there or we’ll have another dead girl on our hands. But, ignore me as usual. Come on, Aiden. Let’s move it.”
Mumsie ran up. “Tali, what are you doing? You have to be here when the girls are introduced, and the judges. Laurel just told me.”
I told her what I’d seen in the vision. She dropped the mask she’d held. “Tali. Don’t do it. I know I said you needed to fight but this is a magic stronger than you, stronger than any of us. It’s not someone dabbling. You’ve got a serious practitioner here. She’s using black magic, and you could get killed.”
Fear flashed through me, pictures of my own kids. “Well, if this is what’s killing people, I can’t simply ignore it, pretend it isn’t happening, especially if it’s aimed at the girls like I think it is.” I thrust my stole at Mumsie. “Here, hold my shawl. I have to try and stop it.”
I turned my back on an open-mouthed JT. Aiden and I crashed through the door. I heard Mumsie yelling to me to use my protection but dismissed it. I stopped. Pitch black. “I can’t see a damn thing.”
Aiden grabbed my arm. “I can, this way.” We picked our way past what must have been backdrops or stage sets until we reached a wall.
“Follow along this wall,” he said. “Can you see that glow up ahead yet?”
“No. Wait—yes, I think so, faintly.” I heard a voice and felt as if I’d run into a wall. Nothing but darkness was in front of me. It was the same feeling of evil pushing against me I’d felt in the dressing room, at the library.
“The area’s warded to allow privacy,” Aiden whispered. “But since it’s not a true threshold, we can push past it. It won’t be pleasant. Ready?”
I started to say no but before the words came out of my mouth, he h
urtled me forward. Something passed through me, filling me with horror and fear so strong I felt as if I’d die in my tracks. Before my brain could register the fact that I had been literally frightened to death, the fear passed and we were in front of a flight of stairs.
“What was that?”
“A spell to slow us down. Nothing to worry about.”
“Maybe not for you, but it seems pretty potent to me.”
At the head of the stairs stood a wooden door. Light too bright to be natural shown around the edges, and through the cracks in the door’s wood, harsh chanting came from behind it.
As they say in the movies, “This is a fine mess you’ve gotten me into, Tali Cates.”
Chapter Twenty-five
I grabbed for the doorknob but Aiden reached it first. “Let me. The door’s warded but the magic won’t hurt me.”
“How do you know? Are you immune to all magic?”
“No, but I have a better defense system. It might hurt me but it won’t kill me.” He hesitated before he grabbed the knob in his hand. “Ouch, ouch, ouch. Shit, that was strong,” he said, twisting off the metal handle and kicking the door. The door flew into the room and slammed into the opposite wall, narrowly missing the room’s occupant.
Lyn Peacock stood in the middle of the room. She wore a red queen costume like the one her youngest daughter had worn. On Lyn, the dress looked powerful, not childlike. She stood next to a glowing circle of the same writing we’d seen in the abandoned house. In her hand she held the large stone she usually wore around her neck.
She stopped chanting and stared at the two people who had dared interrupt her.
“Hi, Lyn. Love the dress. What’s going on?”
She ignored my questions. “Are you really so stupid you think you can meddle with me, interfere? Haven’t you done enough? If you hadn’t shoved your nose in where you had no business and insisted Kimmie Baker compete, we wouldn’t have this problem now. We all could have gone on with our lives. But now I have to take matters in my own hands, again.”
I moved closer to the opposite side of the circle. I saw Aiden move away, around the other side of the circle. If I kept her attention on me, maybe he could grab her. “Did you kill Marcia and Karin?”
Carol Shenold - Tali Cates 02 - Bloody Murder Page 18
