by Blythe Baker
“Why don’t you just move out of town?” the military guy in my row said with a shrug. “Take your families and leave if you’re so afraid.”
John’s face hardened somewhat, his smile fading. “I am not going to let these creatures scare me out of my own hometown. Why should I have to be the one to leave? I have just as much right to be here, if not more, since they are all unnatural, and shouldn’t even exist in the first place.”
That hit squarely between my eyes. He was right. This place was their home, and a lot of magical beings just happened to end up here because of the magical sources. I was just as much of an alien in this place as anyone else who’d been drawn here.
My heart saddened. It wasn’t fair for us to come barging into their lives and expect them to change for us. We brought this suffering upon them, and their families, whether intentionally or not.
“This place used to be a safe place for families,” John said. “We used to have no fear about our kids going out and playing. Now there are kidnappings and crime, murders and suicides…what happened to this quaint little town?”
I looked away, feeling responsible for these people’s sorrow. I may not have been the one to harm that woman’s daughter, but I had seen the looks on the faces of those who had suffered because of the Gifted influences in their lives. Like Mrs. Bickford, losing her daughter. And Lauren’s parents when they discovered their daughter had killed her group leader. I’d seen the look on Ruth Cunningham’s fiancé’s face at her funeral. I’d even seen the sorrow and anger in Lucan’s groundkeeper’s eyes when he told me about how those human hunters had so mercilessly killed his friend.
Neither side was innocent. Not completely.
Maybe the Gifted and Ungifted together isn’t ever going to work…I said to Athena. I think we will just hurt them too much.
…You might have a point there, she said. The tension only seems to be increasing.
“This is all assuming that these creatures even exist in the first place,” the husband I’d first seen said.
“Haven’t you been listening to anything we’ve been saying?” the man with the flat hat asked.
“If you had seen my daughter’s body, you wouldn’t be saying – ” the dark-haired, sharp-eyed woman said.
Suddenly, there was a scream from outside the saw mill.
I turned my head, my heart jumping into my throat.
“She’s – she’s dead!” the voice shrieked.
It was like I’d been doused in cold water.
No one moved. No one seemed to breathe. Eyes were wide, mouths hanging open.
I gripped the side of my chair, staring out toward the open door, my heart pounding inside my skull.
“Dead!” the voice screamed again.
I was up out of my chair and out the door before her voice had completely faded away.
5
The sirens had died away long ago, but the red and blue lights still flashed. They bounced off the side of the sawmill, casting flickering light through the old boards.
The people that had attended the meeting were all huddled together in small groups out in the dirt drive outside the sawmill, answering the police officers’ questions.
I heard the same answers.
“Yeah, we were just sitting there talking, and – and we just heard this scream, like – I don’t know, something out of a movie?” the woman who’d lost her daughter said.
“I didn’t think I’d heard right,” said the man in the flat hat. “A dead body? I mean…that doesn’t happen. It’s not normal.”
The military guy, who I’d found out was named Mitch, was standing off to the side with me, watching the others.
“You were pretty brave back there,” he said, looking down at me. His shoulders were easily twice the width of my own, and he stood almost a head taller than me. “I’ve never seen someone move so fast toward danger like that.”
“Yeah, well…I’ve had my fair share of experience with it,” I said. “Unfortunately.”
“Really?” he asked. “Did you work on the police force? Or were you special forces?”
I let out a snort of disbelief. “Special forces? Me? No. No way. I’m so not anywhere near good enough to be anything like that.” I sighed, glancing over my shoulder. The yellow caution tape had been tied between some trees just around the back of the sawmill where the body had been discovered. “No, just someone who is way too frequently at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“I gotcha,” Mitch said. “I’m sort of the same way, which is why I decided to embrace it and just tackle it all head on. Joined the marines right out of high school.”
“Wow,” I said. “That’s really amazing. Thank you for your service to our country, sir.”
Mitch nodded. “You don’t need to sir me. I’m not in uniform or anything. But I appreciate it all the same.” He smirked at me. “But you should think about joining up. You’ve got almost no fear. They could use someone like you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said. I knew that I had an unfair advantage, with my magical abilities. And if he’d known that I was one of those people that everyone in the meeting had been so frightened of, he probably wouldn’t have said anything like that to me.
Athena? You doing okay? I asked with my thoughts as I saw one of the police officers walking back around the building.
His hands were covered in pale blue examination gloves. He walked over toward one of the cars. I didn’t recognize him.
Sheriff Garland was also absent, which surprised me. He always came to crime scenes like this, especially when a death was involved. Part of me was relieved that he couldn’t stack any more suspicion against me, but all the same…I wondered where he was.
I’m fine, Athena responded, but there was a definite annoyance in her words. It’s stuffy underneath this seat. I can’t come out yet, can I?
Not yet, I’m sorry, I said. There are still too many people around. And if they see a fox in a car after everything they’d talked about…they’re going to just add it to their list of suspicions.
Fair enough, she said. Just keep me posted.
Mitch was staring at a woman who was all on her own, away from the others. She was sitting in the back of the ambulance with a bright orange shock blanket wrapped around her shoulders.
Her auburn hair had lost some of its smoothness in the back, and her eyeliner had run down her cheeks, making her look like a melting raccoon. Her gaze was distant and large.
She’d showed up to the meeting late. In her words, she’d said that she saw something bright pink behind the saw mill, and had gone to peek at it…when she saw Harriet’s body, and then screamed.
“I hope she’s going to be okay…” I said, staring sympathetically at her.
“The first time seeing a dead body is the hardest,” Mitch said. “That one always stays with you. Something about it sears itself into your memory, no matter what you try to do to forget about it.” He looked over at me. “I take it you’ve seen your fair share, since you didn’t freak out when we ran out back together.”
I suppressed a shiver. “Yeah…I’ve seen more than I ever wanted to,” I said.
I glanced back over my shoulder at the man who’d just left the site of the body. For some reason, he hadn’t let me get near the spot. I’d only seen it briefly before both Mitch and I moved away to call the police. We didn’t want to tamper with it in any way.
“I still can’t believe it was the woman who started this whole group to begin with,” Mitch said. “You know there’s something fishy about that.”
The lump in my throat became as hard as steel. “I know, I was thinking the same thing,” I said.
The body had been that of none other than Harriet Bennet. When my eyes had fallen on her face, there was a part of me that felt as if I should have expected it to be her. She was the one who’d set up the meeting in the first place, and was the one running around town flapping her gums about all this paranormal stuff…
&nbs
p; The question that kept passing through my mind was who would want to kill her? Someone who thought she was getting too close to the truth? Or someone who was just as crazy as she was?
“It’s all too weird,” Mitch said, shaking his head.
“I wish I could have looked at the body more closely,” I said. “I should have done it while I had the chance.”
“You know, maybe I was wrong,” Mitch said. “You’d probably do great in forensics.”
“Sheriff Garland has said something similar,” I said. “I’ve helped him solve a few cases.”
“Well, nothing seemed all that out of place,” Mitch said. “She had all her limbs, and there didn’t seem to be a lot of blood…”
“The weird thing was, I couldn’t really see any footprints,” he continued. “Well, not any more than those of the poor woman who found the body.”
“Yeah, I guess all the overgrowth of the forest behind the mill didn’t help either, though,” I said.
“Marianne Huffler?”
I looked up and saw the officer I didn’t recognize staring at me. He was pulling his gloves off his hands, and there was a stern look on his face.
“Your turn,” Mitch said, nodding toward him.
I gave Mitch one last glance before turning and heading toward the officer.
“Yeah?” I asked, sliding my hands into the pockets of my sweatshirt. The clouds overhead had returned, cooling the air, forcing me to bundle up again.
“I’ve heard a lot about you from Sheriff Garland,” the officer said.
He was handsome enough, with a wide jaw, eyes the color of a rich, hot cup of tea, and a goatee. But his gaze was a lot harder than Sheriff Garland’s ever was, and it unsettled me a little.
“…is that a good thing?” I asked, unsure since his tone was so flat.
“Not really,” he said, taking his hat off and tucking it underneath his arm. “My name is Deputy Morris, and I’m the one in charge of this investigation.”
“Oh,” I said. “Where’s Sheriff Garland? He’s usually the one who – ”
“That’s none of your business,” Deputy Morris said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small pad of paper with a pencil tucked inside the spiral binding. He popped the pencil out. “He warned me that you might be here, though, and if I saw you, that I could tell you to get lost.”
I flinched. That didn’t seem like Sheriff Garland. “Look, I know he doesn’t like that I always happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, but – ”
“You and I both know that’s not the truth,” Deputy Morris said, scratching something down on his pad. “That sort of coincidence doesn’t exist.”
“Yes, I realize how it looks, but I’m telling the truth – ” I said.
“No, you’re not,” he said, snapping his pad shut and tucking it back into his front pocket. His eyes met mine again. “Which is why I am going to get your statement and tell you to keep your nose out of my investigation. Are we clear?”
I could only stare at him.
His gaze was as hard as ice.
“Look, all I want to do is help, and – ” I said.
“You can pretend all you want, but I’m convinced you’re behind this in some way,” he said. “Maybe not directly, but you’ve been involved with almost every death that’s happened here in the last six months or so.”
“Sheriff Garland asks for my help, though,” I said. “He trusts me.”
“I know he does,” Deputy Morris said. “And he’s a fool for doing that.”
I gaped at him.
“Now, give me your statement,” he said. “What did you see? What did you hear?”
I felt like he’d slapped me in the face. “I…was sitting in the meeting, listening to them argue, when we heard a scream from outside,” I said.
“Is that it?” Deputy Morris asked flatly.
“After she screamed there was a body outside, both Mitch and I ran out here to see. I stood with her while Mitch called you,” I said.
“And you didn’t touch the body? Didn’t tamper with it in any way?” Deputy Morris asked.
“No, of course not,” I said, my eyebrows knitting together.
“And Mitch didn’t touch the body?” Deputy Morris asked, his gaze flicking over toward Mitch.
“No,” I said. “You guys got here less than ten minutes after we’d found it.”
“Mhmm,” he said. “Well, if we have any questions about anything that looks like tampering, then you’ll be the first one we call.”
“Why does it feel like I’m being interrogated as a suspect?” I asked.
Deputy Morris shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe because you are?” he asked. “You and everyone else here is a suspect. So don’t leave town. Got it? Or we’ll arrest you on the spot.”
I glared at him. I wondered if Sheriff Garland knew that Deputy Morris was like this.
“Have a good day, Miss Huffler,” Deputy Morris said sarcastically, putting his hat back on his head. “I’d better not hear of you saying the name Harriet Bennet ever again. I meant it when I said that you’ll stay out of my investigation.”
My nostrils flared as I stared after him. He was making his way toward Mitch to question him, next.
A few seconds later, from the look on Mitch’s face, it seemed that Deputy Morris was being as hard on Mitch as he’d been on me. Maybe even more so.
I turned on my heel and stormed off toward my car. Sheriff Garland was going to hear about this.
As I opened the door and slammed it shut behind me, my anger subsided somewhat as I realized that Deputy Morris really had every reason to be suspicious of me. If I was in his shoes, I’d definitely suspect the woman that somehow showed up at every crime scene, and was involved in every murder in some way.
He was reacting in a completely sensible way.
I just wished there was a way I could convince him like I’d somehow convinced Sheriff Garland that it really, truly, wasn’t my fault, and that I wasn’t involved at all.
“Well, I agree with him about one thing…” I said as Athena dragged herself out from underneath the passenger seat. “There aren’t any coincidences, and Harriet Bennet being murdered today is definitely no coincidence.”
6
If I wasn’t going to be able to examine the body at the crime scene, then I was going to need another way to look at it. And there was only one way that I could think to do that.
Are you sure you need to see the body? Athena asked. This is just like a lot of the other cases, where you could step out and it wouldn’t make any difference. You know that, right?
“I do,” I said, leaning back from the mirror in the bathroom where I stood putting on some makeup. I was checking to make sure my eyeliner was even on both sides. “But this time, it feels personal. She was attacked when she was trying to tell the Ungifted of Faerywood Falls about us Gifted being present. John Garven already seemed to be convinced of the same things, so why hadn’t he been killed?”
We don’t know if her death has anything to do with the fact that she was looking into the Gifted, Athena said.
“I guess you’re right…” I said.
Besides, I don’t think that group is going to be meeting again any time soon, Athena said. They’ll be too scared.
“I was thinking the same thing,” I said. “But I need to rule that possibility out first.”
I ran my fingers through my long, chestnut hair again. It had grown a lot since moving to Faerywood Falls, and I realized I’d need to get it cut sooner or later. But it looked nice, and that’s what I’d been hoping for.
“I just hope I can convince him to help me,” I said. “Maybe he’ll forgive me.”
My throat tightened as I thought about what I was planning to do.
“Besides, he and his clan have already proven that they’ll go to any lengths to protect themselves. They may not care about the other Gifted, but they wouldn’t want the truth of who they are to spread,” I said.
I s
uppose you’re right…Athena said.
I picked up the small, diamond stud earrings on the side of the sink, and slid them easily through my ears. “There,” I said, looking at myself. “How do I look?” I asked, turning to look at Athena.
Very nice, Athena said. And you think dressing like this will help Cain forgive you?
I blushed, and glanced at myself in the mirror. Was this being manipulative? Going all dressed up, hoping to use his own feelings against him?
“I don’t know…” I said. “But I’m not happy with the way things ended between us anyways. I’m not groveling, but…I want him to forgive me. I…miss talking with him.”
You care about him more than you realized, don’t you? She asked.
“Yeah…” I said, somewhat disheartened. “I was always wary of him, but that night that he saved me from the river…I don’t know, things were different after that. I really felt like I could trust him. And then everything with Rebecca happened, and I lost my head, and…”
There, Athena said, her tail swishing back and forth. Say that to him exactly, and he’ll understand. I’m sure of it.
“You’re sure you want to come with me tonight?” I asked, picking up a sweater off the back of the kitchen chair. While my bare legs beneath my dress were sure to be cold, I didn’t want to freeze by letting my upper half be exposed to the elements, too. “You’re not too tired from being out earlier today?”
I’m back to normal, Marianne, Athena said. You can stop treating me like I’m at death’s door.
“But you were, as far as I know,” I said. “You can’t blame me for wanting to be cautious.”
No…and I appreciate it all the same, she said. Are you ready to go?
I glanced out the window; the last deep reds of the setting sun were nestled along the horizon. “Yes,” I said. “It should be alright for us to visit. And he’s probably on his way home from the mortuary by now.”
My stomach was full of butterflies as we climbed into the SUV Cain had given me. I had no idea what to expect, but I just knew this was something I had to do.
