Jax leaned over and threw her arms around Alba excitedly. “Oh! How can I ever thank you! You girls are the best friends I’ve ever had. Just ever! I love you all so much,” she gushed.
Despite the fact that I wasn’t into gooey mushy love stuff, Jax’s bubbly energy made me smile. I finally felt like the old Jax had returned. Alba patted Jax’s arm, rolling her eyes lightly. It was obvious that she was uncomfortable with the very public display of affection from Jax, but just like we all felt, Jax was growing on us.
{ Chapter Twenty-One}
By 8:00 we were standing in the center of the Aspen Falls street dance. There was a live band on stage, playing a mix of rock and roll and country music. Under other circumstances, I could have listened to it all night long; it was totally my type of music. The air had gotten cooler as the sun finally dipped below the horizon. The downtown was lit by colorful hanging pumpkin lights and lanterns and the scent of street vendors selling a variety of delicious items like funnel cakes and walking tacos filled the air. The lights on the waterfall in the center of town had been turned on, illuminating the falling water into brilliant fall colors.
Walking between Jax and Alba, I pulled my sweater around me tighter to keep out the cool night air. It seemed it was going to be cooler than I had originally intended as a shiver crawled down either side of my legs, pebbling my skin. Our string of pretty young women, caught the attention of several male admirers as we moved through the crowds towards the stage area. Holly nodded at each admirer in turn and shot the cute ones interested winks, hoping that one would come ask her to dance.
Suddenly a pair of figures working a fundraiser next to the police station caught my eye. “Girls, I’ll be back in a minute,” I hollered to my friends and then motioned for Morgan to follow me.
“Where are we going?” Morgan asked, floating carefully through the crowd, as if she were going to accidentally bump elbows with a mortal.
“You’ll see,” I said with a light smile.
Once the crowd parted slightly and Morgan was able to see up ahead, she sucked in her breath. “Mom! Dad!” she said excitedly. “Oh, Mercy, that’s my mom and dad!”
“I know,” I said just loud enough to be heard over the music. “I saw them. I thought maybe you’d like to stay with them for awhile?”
Surprisingly, Morgan’s ghostly face flushed at the sight of her family and I knew she’d easily cry if she had any tears to cry. I thought it important that she have an opportunity to say goodbye to her parents before her time as a ghost expired. Which, in my experience, was when her duties on Earth were resolved. And I was very hopeful that by having Oliver Bushwhack in police custody and having recovered Morgan’s body, we’d have given Morgan’s spirit an opportunity to be at peace, finally. I still wasn’t sure why she hadn’t disappeared already.
“Thanks Mercy,” she said. “You’re amazing. I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for me.”
It was a rare thing that anyone thanked me for anything. Anywhere else, my gifts were looked at as a curse. I was finally starting to appreciate Aspen Falls for the accepting place that it was.
“They won’t be able to see you, you know,” I warned her as she approached them.
She turned around and gave me a broad smile. “I know. But I’m able to see them. That’s enough for me.”
I waved goodbye to her and wandered back through the crowd to find the girls. As I did, one man in particular caught my eye.
“Detective Whitman!” I called loudly over the booming of the speakers not far away.
“Mercy,” he said with a little nod and an ever so slight grin. “Enjoying a night out?”
I tilted my head to the side with a mischievous little smile. “The girls and I will enjoy it better when we know that you got our gift,” I hollered over the music.
“Your gift?” The confusion in his face didn’t sit right with me and I immediately felt my stomach drop.
“The anonymous tip about Morgan’s killer? You got it right?”
“That was you that called in the anonymous tip?” he asked with shock.
I nodded. “Yeah, the girls and I figured out the murderer. And we recovered Morgan’s body!” I said triumphantly.
“Mercy, why wouldn’t you come to me yourself? Why call it in as an anonymous tip?” His body language changed so dramatically that I knew something was up. If everything was wrapped up and in the bag, why would he be so suddenly jumpy?
“I don’t know. Maybe because you tell Stone every time we so much as breath? And maybe because Stone has promised to expel us from The Institute if we continued to investigate Morgan’s death or spoke to you regarding the case in any way. And really, you’re not very receptive to leads anyway, so why would we tell you it was us that solved the case?” What other reason do we need? I wondered. “Now, who cares about all of that. We served Oliver Bushwhack up to you on a platter. How about a thank you?”
Detective Whitman’s face paled. I looked at him curiously.
“You’ve put all of the students in his youth group under surveillance for the evening right?” I asked nervously.
“I didn’t know that tip came from you,” he stuttered.
“You’re freaking me out here, Detective! Tell me you’ve got Oliver Bushwhack under arrest! Tell me those girls are all safe and accounted for!” I hollered, my face filling with blood.
“We had no evidence to arrest him,” he finally stammered out. “And Morgan Hartford’s body was discovered in Evan Lancaster’s dorm room.”
“Evan Lancaster didn’t kill Morgan Hartford!”
“So he said. We are still investigating,” said Detective Whitman.
“Investigating what? There’s nothing to investigate! We solved the case for you. We called in the killer!”
“I was sure Evan was lying,” he admitted.
“But you’ve got the girls under surveillance?” I asked.
“There’s no proof that he’s going to harm those girls!”
I face palmed myself and then looked up at Detective Whitman and I decided to take a chance, taking into account everything that Jax had taught me and everything this town was teaching me. I decided to use my gift. If it didn’t work and a mortal tried to lock me away in a mental institution somewhere again, well, then I’d never speak of my gifts again and I guess I’d learn to love white coats. But in this moment, I didn’t hesitate to put the youth group girls’ lives above mine. “Detective Whitman. I’m going to share something with you. Something that few people know and few people approve of. And I want you to trust me. Because I’m going to tell you the God’s honest truth. Also, I’m going to need to trust you. Trust isn’t something that I’ve been able to give many people in my life. Can I trust you?”
His eyes squinted as he peered at me closely. Perhaps he was considering whether or not I was crazy, or whether or not he should tell Stone that I was having this conversation with him, maybe he was even regretting coming to the celebration, but strangely enough, he nodded at me. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll trust you Mercy. And you can trust me. Ok?”
I took a deep breath and shook the nerves out of my wound up body. “Detective Whitman. I have a gift. I can see ghosts. I’ve been able to see ghosts since I was a toddler, maybe younger. And Morgan Hartford’s ghost is here tonight. She’s standing right over there,” I said and pointed towards her parents at the school fundraiser next to the police department. “She’s seeing her parents for the first time since she was killed. And she clearly remembers who killed her. She told me it was Oliver, Detective.”
I saw him flinch momentarily.
“In addition, my friends and I, found an old Institute yearbook from 1936. Oliver Bushwhack was in that yearbook. He was in his early 20’s. That was eighty years ago. Eighty years ago, he was 20, which would mean that right now, he is over one hundred years old. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I met Mr. Bushwhack the day of the murder, he didn’t look a day older than fifty. How does a 100 year old man, loo
k younger than 50? Either he’s got some amazing face cream, or we can safely assume that Oliver Bushwhack is of the paranormal persuasion. But wait, there’s more!” I said, holding up my pointer finger, “Morgan told us that he gave her that purity ring and he gave all the other girls in his youth group a purity ring too. Now why would he do that, Detective?”
Detective Whitman looked down at the ground, suddenly he was interested in the paved road he was standing on.
“I’ll tell you why. Because he was preserving virgins. He wasn’t supposed to kill Morgan Hartford on the side of the road that day. He was only supposed to abduct her and keep her until tonight, the Autumnal Equinox when he could sacrifice a virgin for whatever spell he’s trying to perform. But guess what? He didn’t get to keep Morgan Hartford. So I promise you, Detective. He will get another girl.”
Finally the detective pulled himself up straight and met my eyes head on. “I’m sorry I gave you so many reasons not to trust me, Mercy. But I trust you and I’ll take care of this. We will keep those girls safe,” he promised.
“Good, there’s no time to lose. It’s going to happen tonight.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it,” he assured and quickly got out his cell phone, and rushed off towards the police department. “Mercy, thank you!”
I was stunned. He believed me. And I wasn’t being led away in handcuffs – that was a welcome change from my life back home. Now, on to find the rest of the Witch Squad and fill them in on what was happening. I turned around and suddenly a big gust of wind swept through the streets. “Brr,” I chattered aloud. “The weather’s really changing quickly.” I pulled my sweater around me even tighter and walked off in search of the girls.
I found Alba, standing alone in the crowd, with her arms crossed and an annoyed look cast upon her face. “What’s wrong, Alba?” I asked.
She tipped her head in the direction of the stage. I turned and watched as Jax, Sweets, and Holly cut loose. “Why haven’t you joined them?” I asked Alba with a little smile.
She only rolled her eyes at me. The wind whipped past us both again. “Boy, it’s really getting chilly out,” I said, looking up at the dark clouds rolling in. “Looks like a storm is coming.”
“Took you long enough,” Alba growled at me.
“I just got done talking to Detective Whitman. I wanted to make sure that the Aspen Falls PD had arrested Oliver. They haven’t,” I said angrily.
Alba’s disinterested eyes suddenly lit up. “Oliver is still free? But they have those girls somewhere safe, right?”
I shook my head. “He didn’t take the anonymous tip seriously. They thought Evan did it and was lying about murdering Morgan.”
“So now what?” she asked.
“He believes us now. He just went back to the station. They are going to find Oliver.”
“Good, time to put that creep away!” Alba looked up at the sky. “I think you’re right, Red. I think there might be a storm rolling in. Maybe we should get the girls and head home before it catches us in the middle of it.”
We could hear a rumbling off in the distance. The wind whipped around us again, throwing a torrent of dead leaves into the sky, they spun around our ankles as if they were caught in a twister.
“Yeah, the wind is really coming up!” I hollered. “Let’s go.”
Alba and I pulled the girls out of the mosh pit dance floor. “What?” Holly asked, slightly perturbed.
“It’s going to storm, we need to get out of here!” I hollered.
“We just got here!” she whined.
Then a big fat rain drop, splatted on her nose. She looked up to the sky and before she could say rain, the sky cracked and popped over our head and burst loose into a torrential downpour.
People everywhere began screaming and running for shelter. The band frantically began trying to cover their equipment from the onslaught of rain and the people from the food trucks emerged to pull their awnings in and cover their open windows.
“Come on!” Alba hollered, through the thunder and lightning and crazy wind. “We’ve got to go!”
We had gotten to the event so late in the evening, that our car was parked a million miles away on a side street, so by the time we got there, our clothes were completely soaking wet.
“That storm came out of nowhere!” Jax cried as she pulled the last car door shut, slamming us all inside.
The goosebumps that had plagued me earlier were back and I shivered like I was coming down with pneumonia. “Sweets! P-p-put the h-h-heater on p-p-please! I’m f-f-freezing,” I chattered.
“Heat, coming up!” she called as she maneuvered us off of the side street without hitting any of the hundreds of pedestrians that were racing to their cars.
“Something feels unnatural about this storm,” Alba commented as she stared up at the dark storm clouds. “They are moving so quickly.”
I looked up too. She was right, they were all moving swiftly towards what appeared to be the epicenter of the storm, which happened to be right above the Black Witch’s private abode.
Holly noticed it immediately too. “The clouds all seem to be gathering over the Black Witch’s house. Maybe she is the one responsible for this storm!”
“Could be,” Alba agreed. “Let’s check it out!”
Sweets watched the sky ahead as she drove. “I see black smoke up there, too. I definitely don’t think this is nature’s storm we’re dealing with. It’s got to be a paranormal storm. Someone is behind this.”
“Are you going to be alright, Mercy?” Jax asked me, rubbing at my arms and legs with her hands.
I nodded my head as best as I could, but my chills were only magnified the closer we got to the Black Witch. As we watched the rolling thunderheads gathering over her house, it became only too obvious that it wasn’t pneumonia I was dealing with. Evil was near.
{ Chapter Twenty-Two}
The rain stopped as we pulled into the Black Witch’s long, dark, winding driveway. Though we could hear the storm rumbling back in town, it was eerily quiet the minute our tires pulled onto the gravel path to her house. The five us shared several long moments of silence as Sweets stopped the car. Knowing very little about the Black Witch, I was sure we were all thinking the same thing, Should we really be here right now?
“I’m just gonna say it. I’m slightly freaked out right now,” Sweets said nervously, turning to Alba in the front seat with fearful eyes.
“I think we’re all a little freaked out right now,” Holly assured her as she peered out her closed window towards the billowing smoke up ahead.
I reached out, putting a clammy hand on Sweets’ shoulder. “Just drive, Sweets. We’re all together. We’ll be fine. Turn off your headlights.”
She nodded vigorously, as if trying to convince herself, and then let her foot off of the brake while flipping the lights off. We rolled ahead slowly, inches at a time. Alba slowly turned to eye Sweets. “Gas, Sweets!” Alba barked.
“Gas, yeah,” she repeated nervously and the car surged forward faster. The closer we got to the black billowing smoke, the harder Holly squeezed my hand in the back seat. I threw her a quick glance and noticed that her blue eyes were frantic.
“Holly, we’re going to be ok,” I assured her.
“I’m not getting a good feeling about this,” she admitted.
“Oh really? You’ve got a bad feeling? What was it Holly?” I asked her sarcastically. “Was it that freak storm we just went through? Perhaps it’s the killer on the loose? Or maybe the fact that we’re on the Black Witch’s property? Or could you possibly be worried that Stone is going to kick us out of the Institute?”
Jax shot me the stink eye. “Mercy Habernackle! I thought you were going to start being nice!”
I threw my hands up. “Sorry, sorry. Sarcasm comes naturally to me. I’m working on it.” I looked at Holly apologetically. “Sorry Holly. You’re right. None of us have a good feeling about this.”
The car finally pulled up to a tall count
ry cottage style castle, with twin towers that rose high into the sky and were covered with twisted layers of overgrown branches from a climbing plant of some sort. The windows were dark and I silently wondered if the Black Witch was even home.
“The smoke isn’t even coming from above her house like we thought,” Alba observed. “It’s coming from behind her house. Can we drive back that way?”
“We can try,” Sweets said and followed a narrow dirt path that seemed to wrap around her house and lead towards the field just beyond it.
As the house moved out of our line of sight, we were able to see an enormous bonfire roaring in the field behind the Black Witch’s castle. A dark figure loomed in front of us facing the fire, fanning the flames higher, despite the fact that the flames were already two stories over their head.
“Who is that?” Jax asked trepidatiously.
“I can’t tell,” I said. “I wonder if it’s the Black Witch. Sweets, we can’t get too close with the car. Whoever that is will hear us. Park here. We’re walking the rest of the way,” I told everyone.
Holly’s grip on my hand intensified. “We’re getting out?”
“How are we supposed to know what’s going on if we don’t get out?” I asked her.
“Red’s right. We can’t drive any closer. We’ve got to get out,” Alba agreed.
Sweets pulled the car over to the side of the road. “No slamming car doors,” I hissed, gently easing my back passenger door open I shoved Holly’s unwilling frame out the door first. Jax lurched out behind me and the two of them clung to my arms like two children on their mother’s leg. Sweets and Alba got out too and the five us made our way towards the roaring fire.
As we approached, I could hear the sound of a man’s voice chanting near the fire, invoking the spirits. He had set up an outline around the perimeter of the fire made of sticks and twigs and when his body turned slightly, we could immediately see that it was Oliver.
The Witch Squad: A Witch Squad Cozy Mystery #1 Page 16
