Tonight, it just wasn’t going to happen that way.
Hours after Riley had closed his eyes and started gently snoring, she was still awake and staring at the ceiling of their bedroom. Her brain just wouldn’t shut off.
The room was dark, and warm with the radiator turned up, and the comforter tucked up to her chest. Riley’s arm thrown over her chest was so comfortable. For a moment the touch of his bare skin against hers began to excite her, and she thought about waking him up by exploring his more sensitive spots with her fingertips. Maybe with her mouth...
In the end, she gave up her fantasies of using Riley and letting him use her and just got out of bed, carefully extracting herself from under his amazing body. She padded to their en-suite bathroom in her bare feet and pajama top. She wanted a glass of water. What she really wanted was sleep, but since she couldn’t have that, she was going to settle for some water.
Opening the door to the bathroom she reached in, first, to flick the light on. She hated dark bathrooms. Almost as much as she hated dark basements. She flicked the switch up. Then down and up again. And again.
The light stayed off.
With bleary, tired eyes, Katie peered into the bathroom. The faint light from the bedroom, from the digital clock and the teddy bear nightlight that she made Riley keep in the far outlet, gave everything around her a faint silvery outline. It was enough for her to see the sink and the faucet and her plastic drinking cup. She would replace the bulb tomorrow. She wasn’t going to worry about it now.
She stepped into the bathroom, reaching for the cup on the sink. The linoleum was cold against her bare feet.
The lights turned on.
Katie stopped where she was, her eyes snapping up reflexively to look at herself in the mirror. What was it that made people turn to their own reflection when they were scared? This was her bathroom, in her own room in her own Inn. There was no reason to be scared.
Only, this wasn’t her bathroom.
That wasn’t her mirror.
And it wasn’t her reflection.
The dark paneling all around her soaked up most of the dim lighting and refused to give it back. The mirror went nearly floor to ceiling, narrow and tall, beveled on all four sides. Under her feet, the thin carpet was small comfort.
In the reflection, her face was angular and scared and pale. Her curly red hair was a mess, coils snaking down her forehead and over her one ear. She was definitely scared. No. More than that.
She was terrified.
The reflection leaned forward abruptly and dragged Katie along with it. She slammed the palm of one hand against the glass and put her face right up to it as if it was a window instead of a mirror. It was like she was reaching out to...herself. Desperately, hopelessly, she screamed out just two words.
“Help me!”
The sound of it was loud in her ears. She blinked, and stared at herself, her reflection, her face.
In the bathroom mirror.
Gulping in shallow, hot breaths, Katie found herself in her own bathroom again, leaning against the mirror with one hand on the glass. The lights were on, and the reflection that met her gaze was her own again.
But...it had been her saying those words. That shout of help me had come from her lips. She’d spoken them out loud.
Help me.
Help me...
A hand on her shoulder made her scream again and whirl around to face the person who had snuck up behind her. Riley. It was only Riley, and he hadn’t snuck up on her. He was barely awake, his eyes narrowed from interrupted sleep, and a yawn barely held back behind his fist.
“What is it?” he said to her. “I heard you yelling. What happened? Are you okay?”
Help me...
No one else would have heard her scream. The walls in the Heritage Inn weren’t exactly soundproof, but they were thick enough that at most the nearest rooms would have heard a muffled something. She was glad of that.
“Um. I’m fine,” she stuttered, knowing the words were anything but true and knowing, too, that she couldn’t keep this hidden from him. Not from Riley. He was the only one who truly understood her, and everything about her. From the beautiful to the ugly, he was always there for her.
Folding herself into his bare arms, leaning against his naked chest, she sighed out a long breath into his shoulder, and told him the truth. “No. I want to be okay, but I’m not. I’m not okay, Riley.”
He helped her back to bed, and they sat on the edge of the mattress while she talked, and he listened. She began with the vision from the brooch again, and as she told the story, she started swinging her feet back and forth, left then right, left then right. If it was a little childish, then she figured she had a right to feel a little childish tonight. They talked about Pastor Sutter’s family too, and the connection to the Norstroms that he’d revealed.
“I don’t think I understand,” Riley said, just like he had earlier when they talked about this same thing. “How is it that Amber Norstrom, this girl you see in your visions, has White skin if her mother was Emmaline Sutter, a Black woman?”
She gave him a look because that was in no way the point. “When parents of mixed race have children, they can be one race, or the other, or a mix of the two. They used to use the term ‘mulatto’ to describe kids of White and Black parents, but I think that term’s fallen out of favor.”
“So, like Barak Obama.”
“Riley!”
“Right. Sure, I guess I knew that. So what did Jim Sutter have to say about all of that?”
“Just, like I told you before.”
His aunt had died peacefully years ago. The kids inherited the house. Connor moved back after being away for a long time, and they shared the place, and then a few months ago Amber died. Now Connor Norstrom was the last of the Norstrom clan living here in Twilight Ridge.
Amber Norstrom was dead, and she was the person pleading for help in the vision. The same vision Katie had seen again, just now, in the bathroom.
“That was what happened when I heard you screaming?” Riley asked her. “You saw that girl again?”
“She’s not exactly a girl,” Katie said. “She’s maybe a few years younger than me.”
“You’re still young,” he smiled at her, leaning over to kiss the slope of her shoulder.
“Flattery...” She hummed pleasantly from his touch. “Flattery will get you everywhere. Later. Right now I just want this to be over. I think we should bring the brooch to Connor Norstrom and let him have it.”
“What? Why?”
“He’s Emmaline’s family. Her son. If we return the brooch to his family then won’t that make everything all right?”
“I think you’ve seen too many movies.”
Katie glared at him. “I’m serious. This was Emmaline’s favorite piece of jewelry, apparently. Her ghost might just want it back in the family.”
“Does that fit with your vision?” he asked.
Not really, she had to admit. Not at all, actually, but she could hope for it to be that simple.
Riley didn’t make her say any of that out loud. Instead, he asked, “Why not just give it to Jim Sutter, then? He’s the one who went all gaga over it when he saw the thing.”
“Because Connor is Emmaline’s son, that’s why. It’s a much closer connection. I would have said give it to her daughter, but since Amber is dead now, that leaves Connor as Emmaline’s only living child.” There. Now that she’d said it out loud, she was kind of sure that she was right. “It makes sense, doesn’t it?”
Riley pursed his lips, but not in the cute way he sometimes did when he was trying to turn her on. She watched the muscles in his chest and arms cord and relax rhythmically as he considered everything she had said. Then he shook his head.
“I’ve got a better idea.”
Getting up from the bed he went around to the dresser on her side of the room. That was where she had deposited the handkerchief bundle with its unassuming piece of jewelry tucked inside. Now he scoop
ed it up in his hand, not daring to unwrap it.
“What are you doing?” Katie asked him.
“Getting rid of this. That’s what I’m doing. There’s no reason for it to haunt you, or mess with our lives. There’s no reason for us to even get involved. Haven’t we had enough of that already?”
“Yes,” she said immediately because after all, it was true. “Yes, we have, but I don’t understand what you’re going to do.”
“Then follow me, and I’ll show you.”
He put slippers on but didn’t bother with a shirt. The guests very rarely went walking around the Inn at this hour, but for guys, it wasn’t as big a deal to be half naked, especially inside.
Things were different for women, of course, and since she was only in a pajama top, she had to quickly throw her jeans on over her bare ass and a pair of short socks for her feet. Then she rushed out after him.
Their room was at the end of the hall on the second floor. Riley was already downstairs by the time she got the door closed behind her. What was he doing? She slipped down step by step as quick as she could. Most of the lights were off to save on their power bill, so she made sure to hold onto the handrail as she went.
She found him at the check-in counter. The red handkerchief was in front of him, still wrapped around the brooch.
In his hand, he held a hammer.
“Riley wait...!”
She didn’t have time to stop him. With as much force as he could he swung the hammer up, and then down again. He was a professional contractor who had worked with his hands for years, long enough that he could wield his tools with a precision that would be the envy of any marksman on a rifle range. He didn’t miss.
The hammer struck against the shroud of cloth with the sound of a thunderclap.
Katie covered her ears with her hands.
The second attack was just as brutal as the first.
Katie winced and pressed her hands tighter.
SMACK...SMACK...SMACK!
“Riley, stop!” she said, unnerved by what he was doing without really understanding why it should affect her as much as it did. “Please, stop. You...you’ll break the counter!”
That was not her real concern, but at least it got his attention. He’d refurbished that counter himself, and he didn’t want to destroy his own handiwork. He just wanted to obliterate the brooch and get it out of their lives before whatever influence it had over Katie got worse.
From experience, Katie knew it could always get worse.
Riley was actually breathing heavily as he dropped the hammer sideways onto the counter, next to the computer monitor. He used a hand to push away the hair that had fallen across his forehead, nearly into his eyes, then he tapped the flattened handkerchief with one index finger.
“There. Problem solved. We throw it out and...what the hell is this?”
That exclamation came when he pulled back his finger, staring at it closely. Now that the noise and the intensity of his destructive frenzy were over, Katie stepped closer. What was he looking at? She couldn’t tell. Not until she got closer.
Then she saw the tip of his finger. It was coated in a thick, red, liquidy substance.
Blood.
At the same time, they both looked down at the mangled handkerchief. It was made of red cloth, and that had masked the little pool of blood seeping out. Now that Riley had put his finger in it, literally, blood was oozing from the smashed remains of the brooch.
Riley picked the hammer back up. Katie thought he was about to resume his attack, but instead, he flipped it around and used the claw end to carefully pull back the edges of the handkerchief.
Inside, cracked metal and broken bits of white ivory were stained red with blood. Impossibly, the broken woman was bleeding. Blood was seeping from the ivory everywhere that it had been shattered. Katie moved closer, drawn to the sight of it, and when she got close enough, she could make out parts of the carving. A hand. The frill of a dress.
The woman’s face... That part had remained intact, cracked unevenly at the neck and displaced from its metal backing, but still there.
Only, it wasn’t the same. Before, when she’d seen the brooch, the woman had been demurely smiling as if she knew a secret that she would never tell a soul. It was a classic image of a woman who would hold onto her virginity until marriage and maybe even after that because she was just so pure. That woman loved life and had her whole future to look forward to.
Now, her mouth was open in a scream, and her hand-carved eyes somehow projected the terror of a sudden, horrifying death.
Chapter 7
Katie did finally fall asleep somewhere toward dawn. Once asleep, she stayed asleep much longer than she had meant to. When she woke and cracked one eye open to look at the clock, she saw that it was almost lunchtime.
Throwing back the top blankets in a panic she dropped her feet to the floor, and then stopped, waiting for her head to stop spinning. She wasn’t dizzy, just still fuzzy and blurry from sleep. Why had Riley let her sleep so long? She yawned and scratched her side where her nightshirt was tickling her. There were things to take care of, and she couldn’t waste the whole day here in her room. This place didn’t run itself.
Katie rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, and when she did, she could focus on the small sheet of yellow paper on her dresser. It was a note from Riley. It was close enough to reach without her having to get up. Which was good, because the bed was calling her back for a few more hours of rest. Or more. Or a whole day. Dear God, she was tired. Maybe Riley had the right idea by leaving her asleep.
The note wasn’t long. “I’ll wake you up this afternoon,” it said, in Riley’s handwriting. “I’m taking care of everything. That’s how much I love you.”
There was a crudely drawn heart at the bottom, uneven at the top, the bottom not quite connecting. It was his signature mark whenever he left her a note. She cherished each one of them. She wondered sometimes what he might think if she took one of them to a tattoo parlor and had the image inked on her hip. Not that he needed any incentive in the lovemaking department, but it never hurt a girl to shake things up from time to time.
That thought was enough to get her up and going. Now she wanted to find him and entice him back up here with her to wake her up properly. Lunch could wait. Assuming Riley had already fed the guests, of course. The Heritage Inn offered breakfast and lunch to the people renting their rooms as part of the package. Usually, it wasn’t anything special, but it was an important part of her business plan.
Thankfully Riley was a pretty good cook. She could do more than just open a can of stew herself, but he’d proven to be better at the whole cooking thing than she was.
She decided to get dressed and check on things downstairs, then use her feminine wiles to draw him back up here. Already unbuttoning her shirt, she reached for the top drawer of her dresser. What to wear, what to wear...
She stopped.
The handkerchief was there, on her dresser.
It was folded just like it had been yesterday before Riley’s violent outburst with the hammer. They had spent a good half hour cleaning and sanitizing the countertop after brushing the remains of everything into the garbage. Bleach and a heavy dose of Formula 409 spray had gotten the stain out. If anything, it had left a super clean area behind.
After throwing away the mess, Katie could almost convince herself that there never had been any blood there, to begin with. That it was just a trick of the light or her tired brain.
Except it wasn’t any kind of trick. There had been blood. The brooch had been destroyed, and the broken carving of a woman had bled all over the counter because of it.
And yet, here was the handkerchief it was sitting right in front of her.
Was the brooch inside?
It couldn’t be. It must be just the handkerchief, she told herself. Riley must have saved the handkerchief and thought for some reason that she wanted it. Tentatively, with unsteady fingers, she reached for the red cloth.
&
nbsp; She peeled back one corner.
Then another
The handkerchief fell flat across the top of the dresser. In the middle of it sat the brooch, whole and complete, with the carved ivory figure of the woman in its place just like it had been before.
Only...not like before. The yellowed lady was staring straight at her now, where it had been looking off to the side before. Those blank eyes were hateful.
Katie threw the cloth back over the whole thing and grabbed it up in her fist. She stuffed it into the pocket of her jeans before throwing them back on and exchanging her sleepshirt for a loose fitting sweater. She ran her fingers through her hair to comb it reasonably into place. A shower would have to wait.
Any thought of screwing Riley’s brains out vanished. That mood was gone.
Down in the dining area on the main floor, she found Riley cleaning up, picking up plates and silverware as he exchanged chitchat with the guests. They were already on their way out, and they nodded to Katie as they departed, leaving her and Riley alone.
“There’s my sleepy girl,” he said, a bright smile on his face as he balanced the dishes all the way to the sink in the kitchen. “The guests really liked the corned beef sandwiches today. I think we should add that to our regular menu. Did you sleep better? I’m betting you did, with that thing gone.”
Almost angrily, she tugged the little bundle out of her pocket and smacked it down on the top of the stove. “Is this some kind of joke?”
Plates and cups and silverware clattered into the sink as Riley all but dropped them there. He was staring at the handkerchief, one hand gripping the edge of the counter as he took an involuntary step backward. “Katie,” he asked slowly. “Where did you get that?”
“It was upstairs, Riley. Right next to my bed, Riley. That’s where I got it from, Riley. Right where you...” She blinked at him. “You did put it there, didn’t you?”
“Did I put it there? Katie, you watched me smash the thing last night!” He looked around them, checking to make sure the guests weren’t still hanging around, and then lowered his voice anyway. “We threw it out. Why would I pick it back out of the garbage? I mean, I have a strange sense of humor, I’ll grant you, but I wouldn’t ever pull a prank like that. There’s nothing funny in that.”
Sight Unseen Complete Series Box Set Page 75
