Cades Cove: A Novel of Terror (Cades Cove Series #1)

by Aiden James

  Rather than search for additional damage, she guided him to their bedroom. Nothing in this room had been disturbed since last night. The strange circle remained on the floor next to the dresser, and the leaves’ pungent odor filled the air. The little bag sat on top of the dresser where Miriam carelessly threw it, its leather strap dangling over the dresser’s front edge.

  Until now he hadn’t noticed the padded white envelope she carried under her arm. She set it next to the bag on the dresser.

  “Go ahead and get ready for work so we can talk about your project.”

  She took a pair of plastic sandwich bags from her coat pocket and moved over to the circle, bending down to carefully lift some of the leaves and twigs from the shrine and put them inside the bags. Then she stood up, grimacing while she rubbed her fingers together and sniffed the leaves’ residue.

  “God, this shit stinks!”

  David gingerly gathered his wardrobe and moved into the master bathroom. Once naked, he stepped over to the sink to brush his teeth. The bruise above his eye drew his immediate attention. The skin around it tender to the touch, there would be no way to hide it. He noticed four other bruises above his right shoulder.

  Each bruise roughly four inches long and an inch wide, they formed a slight arc beneath the right side of his neck. He leaned in toward the mirror to get a better look. The arc resembled the fingertips of an unusually large hand grabbing him from behind. He couldn’t picture the ghost of some girl doing it.

  “David, we haven’t got all day!” Miriam called from the bedroom. “There’s a lot that needs to be done before either of us go on to work, so get a move on it!”

  “I’m about to step in the shower!”David shouted back to her.

  He stepped under the jets before the water warmed up. Gasping from the initial cold spray, he regretted not having time for the eventual heat to soothe his wounded flesh. He hurriedly dressed and rejoined her in the bedroom, his hair still damp.

  “So, what’s this project about?” he asked, approaching the bed where she sat waiting for him.

  Holding the envelope, she opened it and pulled out a typed letter from inside.

  “This is our apology to the tourist department of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park,” she explained, holding the letter out to him.

  He quickly scanned its contents, noting it omitted the paranormal experiences they endured. Instead, it positioned the bag as something that inexplicably ended up with their belongings. He handed the letter back to her and she slid it back inside the envelope along with the bag and the kids’ arrowhead and pyrite souvenirs. She then sealed the mailer and stood up from the bed.

  “Why are we sending the other stuff back with the bag?” he asked.

  “It’s actually Jan’s idea, but I think it makes sense. We don’t know for sure what’s causing the problems around here, so sending everything we picked up from the park back to Tennessee will hopefully do the trick,” she explained.

  David’s brow furrowed and he started to say something else, but she stopped him, pressing her index fingers against his lips.

  “You’ve got a few minutes to grab a bite downstairs, and then it’s off to the post office for you, Mister.”

  Her smile demur, she brushed her hand down his bearded chin and then his neck, allowing it to rest upon his chest. He reached up and gathered her hand in his, kissing it sweetly. He squeezed her hand again and led her out of the bedroom. David glanced behind him a couple of times on the way downstairs, but didn’t notice anything unusual. Like Monday night when he threw the bag in the trash, there were no feelings of being watched or followed. He silently prayed that sending “Allie Mae’s Treasures” back to its rightful home in Tennessee would bring peace to their lives.

  “How did you find out where to send it?” he asked, noticing the Gatlinburg address on the mailer.

  “Jan helped me locate it on the web last night.” She paused to straighten the portraits nearest the bottom of the staircase. “Once you mail it, we can hope and pray Allie finally finds peace. In the meantime, Jan is going to find out what plant or tree these leaves come from, and what they might represent. I told her about the circle upstairs. She immediately called that friend of hers who’s supposed to be good at dealing with this sort of thing. Jan says she’s willing to help.”

  More open-minded than before, David assured her he’d do whatever she asked, regardless of where the advice came from.

  “Well, she told Jan whatever it is that followed us home from Tennessee might not be your everyday kind of ghost,” said Miriam. “There could be something else involved as well.”

  They had just moved through the dining room on the way to the kitchen, and his stomach growled noticeably.

  “Why don’t you eat something, and I’ll tell you more about what Jan learned later on...maybe tonight.”

  “All right,” he agreed, grabbing a bowl from a cupboard and a box of cereal from the pantry. “I’ll mail the package on the way to the office this morning.”

  “I want you to send it by Priority Mail with a delivery confirmation to ensure it actually gets there, David,” she advised, pouring him a glass of orange juice from the refrigerator and bringing a jug of milk over to the kitchen table.

  He picked up two of the chairs for them to sit on.

  “I’ll make sure I do that,” he said, sitting down while motioning for her to join him.

  “If we had more time, I’d make you a cup of coffee. I know how much you hate anything instant,” she said, moving her chair to where she could face him. She watched him while he ate quickly. “I hope to God this works. If you ever pull a stunt like that again….”

  She didn’t need to finish for him to know there would be no more clemency. Divorce had never been mentioned between them—not even during the most trying times of their marriage a few years back. But it would be a foregone certainty should the malevolent spirit visit further harm on his family because of him.

  “I swear upon my very soul I’ll never be dishonest to you again, Miriam,” he told her, pausing to reach over to where she sat and offer his hand. She clasped it within her own and this time she squeezed tightly. “The package will be on its way back to Gatlinburg this morning.”

  He finished eating his breakfast just before seven o’clock. His briefcase and laptop already in the car, he put on his coat and took the sealed mailer from her. After resetting the alarm system they exited the house.

  “Please call me when you’re done,” she asked after he walked her over to the minivan, where they kissed and embraced. “Okay?”

  Her eyes misty, it seemed to him she had something else say, but wouldn’t…at least not right now.

  “I’m on my way to the post office,” he assured her. “I’ll pick up some hot coffee from ‘Micky-D’s’ and be the first one in line.”

  “Be careful not to spill anything on the envelope,” she said worriedly.

  “So I guess it’s okay if I spill it on my lap, huh? Thanks!” He laughed, hoping this would cheer her up. “I guess we could sue them for a million bucks if that happened!”

  “Just protect the mailer.” Her grin a weak one, she climbed up into the minivan. She started the engine, letting it idle. “As long as it reaches the park service in Gatlinburg, I’ll be happy.”

  “Me, too,” he told her, leaning in the doorway to kiss her one last time. “I’ll call you once the deed is done. That reminds me, I better call Ned and let him know I might be a little late this morning.”

  “Okay. I better get going so you can get all of this taken care of. I love you.”

  “I love you, too, babe.”

  He stepped away from the Chrysler, watching her pull the vehicle out of the driveway and back onto their street. He then got in the BMW, letting it warm up while he placed a call on his mobile phone to Ned, who reminded him about a staff meeting he needed to attend at nine o’clock sharp. David prayed he didn’t encounter unforeseen traffic on his way to the local post office i
n Littleton.

  ***

  “So, how did it go this morning?”

  Janice was on the other end of the line.

  “All in all, it went fine,” Miriam told her. She had just reached the parking lot of Littleton Children’s Clinic. “Hang on a sec while I park the van.”

  She pulled around the building to the employee section, pleased to find that her partner Dr. James Phillips hadn’t double-parked his prized Viper in her space, which he had done twice during the past week.

  “Okay, I can talk now.”

  “I know you’ve only got a moment, Mir. Is David all right?”

  “Yeah, he’s fine,” said Miriam. “But something attacked him last night. I found him sleeping in his car, and he was completely disoriented when I woke him. You should have seen him, Jan. He’s got one hell of a bruise above his right eye, and his shirt was torn.”

  “Really? I truly think what Sara told me on the phone last night fits the stuff that’s going on in your home. Was it still freezing inside?”

  “No, it wasn’t,” said Miriam, her tone solemn. The excitement in Jan’s voice bothered her a little. “The house felt a lot like it used to before all of this started happening. But the place is a wreck right now, with knocked-over furniture everywhere. One of the kitchen chairs is broken. I don’t know if the ghost or David did it. He said something chased him last night….” She started to cry.

  “Mir, I know this is hard for you,” said Janice. Her tone compassionate, tempering her enthusiasm from a moment ago. “Did you remember to pick up the leaves and twigs you told me about last night?”

  “I did,” she said between sobs.

  “Did David see you do this?”

  “I’m sure he did, but he never asked about it,” said Miriam. “I did my best to not let him know how upset I am…. I should’ve gone back there after midnight when I couldn’t get a hold of him!”

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself, Mir. None of what happened last night was your fault,” Janice assured her. “You had no idea he’d be there, and didn’t David tell you he would get a hotel if he couldn’t stay with Norm?”

  “Yeah, he did,” she confirmed. “But if anything worse had happened to him last night, I don’t think I could ever forgive myself for it. I’m still so scared!” She cried harder.

  “Mir, everything’s going to be all right—I’m sure of it!” said Janice, her words delivered lovingly. “Sara’s coming over this afternoon to meet with us. Will four o’clock still be okay?”

  “It should be,” said Miriam. Her tears slowed, buoyed by the hope that this friend of Janice might finally end the torment visited upon her family. “I’ll call you if I’m going to be later than that.”

  “All right, I’ll see you then. You will get through this, Mir, and I’ll be there with you, every step of the way.”

  “I know…Thanks, Jan,” she said, sounding more like a doctor as she continued to pull herself together before going inside the clinic. She gathered her purse and attaché case and stepped out of the van. “I’ll see you later on today.”

  Miriam took a deep breath just outside the employee entrance to the clinic. She knew her eyes were red, which would be remedied as soon as she retrieved the Visine from her desk. In the meantime, she pulled down her sunglasses over her eyes and forced the warmest smile she could muster. She then stepped inside the entrance, uttering a silent prayer the day would go by quickly.

  Chapter Seventeen

  David hurried to his desk, throwing his notepad and briefcase next to his laptop. The staff meeting had just ended at eleven. If he’d known the meeting would take so long, he would’ve taken whatever flack from Ned for being late and remained in the line that stretched from the postal counter out through the glass double-doors of the Littleton post office. Everyone, it seemed, wished to get their postal business done before the weekend.

  Thinking he could sneak out of the meeting and mail the package from the main post office in downtown Denver before ten o’clock, he decided not to wait in line. The mere thought he might’ve arrived at work on time anyway made him feel more remorseful. Worse, Miriam had tried to call him a couple of times.

  “I got here as quick as I could, man.” Norm peered over the cubicle’s wall while David hastily organized his workload for that afternoon.

  “You okay with going to lunch early, so I can run a very important errand?” he asked, looking over the top of his eyeglasses that had slid down to the end of his nose.

  Norm shrugged his shoulders and walked around the corner into David’s work area.

  “Sure.”

  “Do we need to stop at your office so you can get your coat?” David reached inside the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out the mailer, and grabbed his coat.

  “It’s in my car, bro,” said Norm, stepping aside to let him lead the way to the landing. “The forecast said it’s going to be in the low 60s by this afternoon.”

  “Well, if you don’t think you’ll need it let’s get going!”

  David trotted down the stairs to the lobby with Norm right behind him, nearly knocking over one of the newest interns carrying a stack of folders up the stairs. Norm apologized after David scolded the guy for not using the elevator. From there they cut across the lobby to the main entrance, drizzled with light water spray from the fountain as they passed by. David sent a halfhearted wave to Nancy and her assistants on his way out of the building.

  “Hey, wait up, man!” Norm called to him, after he stopped to briefly flirt with a new girl manning the switchboard. “Why are you in such a big friggin’ hurry?”

  David’s only response was to point at the mailer. He waited impatiently while Norm hurried to catch up to him.

  “I’ve never known you to be in such a hurry to mail a package before,” said Norm, frowning. “Not even at Christ-mas. For that matter, I’ve never seen you in such a hurry for anything! It must be pretty important.”

  “It is!” he confirmed. “I was supposed to mail it this morning for Miriam, and I didn’t get it done after I promised I would.”

  He jogged to his car parked less than 30 feet away, taking his coat off since it felt like sixty already. Norm didn’t need any more prodding to keep up. He jumped into the passenger seat once David unlocked the doors.

  “Here, hold this,” said David, handing the envelope to him.

  Unlike his normal habit of babying his prized automobile, David raced through the parking lot to the alley behind their office. He continued his frenetic pace as they pulled onto Pearl Street.

  “It’s been awhile since I’ve seen the wild side of Mr. Hobbs,” observed Norm. He smiled wryly while David maneuvered through traffic, taking a couple of side streets to get closer to 16th Avenue, where the post office sat. “If you would’ve asked me for directions, I know a shortcut better than this one.”

  “Yeah, I bet you do,” David agreed, tersely, for the moment focused on the road ahead. “I promised Miriam I’d get this in the mail first thing this morning, and she’s left me messages trying to find out if I’ve done it yet.”

  “What did you tell her?”

  “I haven’t returned her calls.” He sighed. “That’s why I’ve got to get the package mailed ASAP, so I can let her know it’s done.”

  “The Great Smoky Mountains National Park…107 Park Headquarters Road…Gatlinburg, Tennessee… 37738…Hmm,” mused Norm. He shook the package up and down, which immediately jingled as the bag’s contents and the other items clinked together inside. “Sounds like coins and some rocks.”

  “Be careful with that, man!” scolded David.

  “Ooh, you’re quite touchy today!” Norm grimaced, but the glint in his eyes revealed his amusement. “Where did you spend last night anyway?”

  “In my car,” he said, shaking his head. “Miriam found me parked in front of the house this morning. I don’t remember much after I quit trying to call you last night.”

  He looked over at Norm, who studied the bruise on his f
orehead.

  “So, I take it that’s where the shiner above your right eye came from?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  He sped through the last intersection and veered over to a lone parking spot near the post office’s main entrance, thankful he didn’t have to park further away in one of the garages.

  “Is it safe to assume what’s inside this package is related somehow to your bruise, the calls to me last night, and the strange conversation we had yesterday?” Norm turned in his seat to face David, who had just cut the ignition. “Maybe it’s related to what happened to Ty, too, huh? Sorry to hear about his broken collarbone and all. Miriam told me last night he’s going to be okay.”

  “Yeah, it’s all related. I appreciate your concern about Ty.” David removed his seatbelt and reached for the mailer.

  “Not so fast, hot shot!” said Norm, pulling it out of reach. “First, I want to know what’s inside here and why you think it’s going to help matters by sending it to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.” He shook it again, bringing it close to his ear while he listened to the jingling.

  “We don’t have time to discuss this right now!” said David, irritated since Miriam could call again at any moment, super pissed he hadn’t kept his promise to mail it first thing that morning. When Norm kept the package away from him, he realized he wouldn’t get it back until he answered his question. “The stuff inside that envelope belongs to a girl, along with a couple of arrowheads and some fool’s gold I found along the path to the ravine I told you about.”

  “A girl, huh?” Norm examined the width of the package. “Is it something she’d wear?”

  “It’s more like keepsakes,” David explained. “Stuff that mattered to a teenager growing up in Cades Cove.”

  “So, it’s not something like panties with bells attached to them?”

  David glared meanly.

  “I’m just kidding, man,” Norm assured him. “You’ve got to allow me my sordid fantasies.”