by Mae Clair
Gathering the blanket, she huddled more deeply beneath the folds. A vision of the Mothman’s burning red eyes flashed into her mental vision.
No face.
She’d seen the creature up close but couldn’t recall a single facial feature other than those horrible blood-red eyes. Caden had said he’d felt a flood of emotion from the Mothman when he’d come across it in the TNT on that Halloween night so long ago, but she experienced nothing of the sort. In her fear, she’d probably been too focused on Roger’s blood-curdling screams, a memory that made her stomach clench even now. Thankfully, movement outside drew her attention to the window. In the next instant, Caden opened the door and bent down.
“Hey.” His voice was soft, accompanied by an equally gentle smile. “How are you holding up?”
“Fine.” She managed a weak turn of her lips. “Just tired. How’s your arm?”
“Better.” He moved it somewhat experimentally to show her. “I’ll probably have a hell of a bruise.”
Far better than the alternative, a frightening reality she didn’t want to contemplate. “Can we go soon?”
He nodded. The blood on his cheek had dried, the cut superficial. “The search is going to continue through the night, but we’re clear to leave. Ryan got in touch with Katie at the hotel and brought her up to date on everything that’s happened. She’s anxious to see you and said you can spend the night with her if you’d like.”
Katie.
The thought of her friend sent a new ribbon of grief unfurling in Eve’s stomach. Traumatized by the arrival of the Mothman and the manner of Roger’s death, she’d forgotten why the banker had dragged her to the TNT in the first place.
“Caden, I completely forgot about what Roger told me earlier. Maggie wasn’t his only victim. Wendy Lynch was pregnant with his child and threatened to tell Aunt Rosie. Roger killed her to keep her quiet, and Maggie caught him in the act of burying her body. It’s why he had to kill Maggie.”
All trace of softness left his face, his features settling into a grim mask. “It seems to me the true monster here tonight wasn’t the Mothman.”
Mention of the towering birdlike creature made her flinch. With a cautious glance for the deputies milling beyond the car, she lowered her voice. “Do they know he was here?”
Caden shook his head. “But I’ll make sure they know about Roger’s crimes. All of them.” The rigid control in his voice was painful to hear. “His confession to you will make identifying the bones we found in the woods that much easier. Right now, I want to get you out of here.”
She nodded tiredly. “Right now, there’s nothing I’d like better.”
* * * *
Katie swept Eve into her embrace the moment she stepped through the door of the hotel.
“I was so worried,” her friend said. “I can’t believe that creep abducted you.”
Eve cast a glance over her shoulder to Caden. She needed time alone with Katie to tell her about Wendy and hoped he’d understand.
“I’ll go up to the banquet room,” he said as if reading her mind.
“No one is up there.” Katie stepped back, looking between them. “You don’t seriously think I was going to let a party continue with everything that happened tonight? Someone got wind of the APB for Roger, and the whole thing turned into a mess.”
“What about Lillian?” Caden asked.
“She hustled Jeremy home the minute things started to go sour.”
He nodded. Eve suspected he’d want to talk to Roger’s wife again and suggested he leave to handle the situation. “I’ll be fine here with Katie.” He appeared ready to object, reluctant to leave her, but she deflected the protest before he could voice it. “I’ll stay put this time, I promise. When I’m done talking to Katie, I’ll go upstairs and crash in one of the guest suites.”
“I don’t know,” he hedged. “You’ve been through a lot tonight. Maybe I should hang around.”
“Caden.” When she sent him a stern glance, he finally pulled her close and kissed her. “I’ll be back in a little while to check on you. Call if you need me.”
“I will.”
After he left, Eve collapsed onto the sofa in the lobby. “I can’t believe how tired I am.” Kicking off her shoes, she stretched her legs. The hem of her dressy slacks were ruined, ripped and shredded where briars had snarled them. She’d probably end up tossing the shoes, too.
Katie sat beside her and leaned forward to grip her hand. “Tell me what happened. Do you have any idea how frantic I’ve been?”
Eve lowered her gaze, chagrined to have put Katie through so much worry. “Roger was waiting for me when I got to Aunt Rosie’s house.”
“Why did you go there in the first place?”
Eve recalled the phone call that had triggered her ordeal. It was quiet in the lobby, the stillness of the hotel like a clinging shroud. The heavy silence made her think of ghosts and hauntings. “I thought Aunt Rosie wanted me to go.” She shook her head, too tired to explain the eerie call. “It doesn’t matter. I think I was supposed to send Caden and Ryan to the house, not go myself. When I got there, Roger—” She swallowed hard, shaken by the memory of how Roger had taunted her. “He told me he’d overheard our discussion with Lillian. He’d been in the lobby.”
Katie blanched. “The whole time?”
“Most of it. He thought I had the negative, and when he realized I didn’t…” Closing her eyes, she pinched the bridge of her nose. The memory of Roger’s ugly confession made her stomach roil. “Katie, there’s something I have to tell you. Something that won’t be easy to hear.”
Her friend drew back as if steeling herself. She regarded Eve warily. “It’s about Wendy, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” She wished there were an easier way to break the news. “Roger said she was pregnant.”
Katie’s face contorted. “Not by him. Please, not by him.”
“I’m sorry.”
With a strangled cry, Katie lurched to her feet. “Why would she do something so stupid?”
The anguished sound of her voice made Eve tear up in sympathy. “Wendy was only sixteen, Katie. Roger was a predator, in his thirties. He seduced her. You can’t blame her.”
“I don’t.” Bowing her face into her hands, she wept softly. “I just wish I could have done something to stop her. He killed her, didn’t he?”
“Yes.” Eve pulled the sobbing girl down beside her, wrapping her arms around her friend. She pressed her cheek to the crown of Katie’s head, and let the grisly memory of Roger’s death wash over her. “If it’s any consolation,” she whispered. “I promise he’ll never hurt anyone again.”
* * * *
Three days later a sheriff’s deputy found Roger’s body while scouring the TNT. The decomposing remains surfaced in a pond, the public cause of death listed as drowning after blunt force trauma. Secretly, Eve suspected the coroner had uncovered much more. According to Caden, most of the bones in Roger’s body had shattered. Deep gashes consistent with knife wounds were found on his arms and head, an ugly detail that made Eve recall the Mothman’s sickle-like claws.
By the end of the week, Wendy Lynch’s remains were buried in the local cemetery. Eve attended the service along with Caden, Ryan, Mrs. Flynn, and most of the staff from the hotel. As she stood at the graveside, offering silent support to Katie and Doreen Sue, she couldn’t help thinking of what Maggie had witnessed that day in the woods. When she crawled into bed that night and closed her eyes, she dreamed of her friend.
Eve sat on a grassy slope that slanted down to the creek behind Aunt Rosie’s house. The property belonged to her now. She’d made her decision to stay. Perhaps that was why she appeared as an adult in this dream, and Maggie was still a child. Her friend had never been given the chance to grow up.
Tilting her face to the sky, Eve drank in the fragrant scent of the honeysuckle and sweet clover that grew wild along the bank. The sun warmed her skin and danced upon the water
in a flickering shower of gold. In that moment, the carefree innocence of summer felt like it might never end.
“You shouldn’t feel sorry for me,” Maggie said. She wore jean shorts and a pink T-shirt with a picture of Scooby Doo on the front. Her ginger-colored hair was caught up in a ponytail but several strands had wormed free, contouring the curve of her face. She tucked a loose curl behind her ear. “I’m glad the truth came out. About Wendy and why I was so scared.”
Eve understood. “You couldn’t talk about it then.”
Maggie shook her head, rifling her fingers through the grass. She found a pebble and tossed it into the creek where it landed with a plop. “It was easier to pretend I saw the Mothman.” A ring of ripples fanned outward, kissing the reeds huddled at the bank’s edge.
“But the night the bridge collapsed…” Eve swallowed hard, unable to continue. Dear God, how her friend must have suffered.
Maggie glanced at her hands. “If I’d told someone the truth, maybe I’d still be alive.”
“You can’t blame yourself. You did nothing wrong.” Tears burned Eve’s eyes. “I don’t understand why my Aunt Rosie didn’t go to the police when she realized what happened.”
“I think she blocked it from her head. Like someone who goes into shock after seeing something awful. I can sense her on this side, and she’s sad she kept silent. She tried to tell you about the negative.”
“The phone calls?” Eve sat straighter. “They were from her, weren’t they?”
Maggie nodded. “She tried to communicate with Mr. Layton, too, hoping he’d confess.”
“He was a wretched man, caring only for himself.” She swallowed hard. “Can you talk to Aunt Rosie? Can you tell her it will take time, but that I’ll try to forgive her?”
“That will make her happy.”
Smiling a little, Eve gripped her friend’s arm. Maggie felt frail and insubstantial, a wraith who might be whisked away in the wind. Was she truly a ghost?
“I don’t have much substance in this world,” Maggie said as if reading her thoughts. “I’ve stayed here too long. It’s why I told my mom I can’t talk to her anymore. I have to let go, and so does she. Now that the truth has come out, it’s time for me to move on. Even if others can’t.”
Eve didn’t understand. She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand, then shifted to face Maggie. Still seated, she clutched her friend’s thin fingers. “What others? Who are you talking about?”
For a time, Maggie said nothing, her gaze steady. Finally, she wet her lips. “They’ve lived here for a thousand yesteryears. There’s only one left now, the last of his kind.”
“The Mothman.” Despite the warmth of the sun, Eve was wracked by a sudden chill. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear more.
“His species thrived when the world was new. Long before the dinosaurs roamed the Earth or land masses were formed. The world was old then.” Maggie’s voice had taken on a formal cadence, her words like the stilted speech of an antiquarian. “He and Caden are connected.” She slipped her hands from Eve’s and turned away.
“Wait!” Eve scrambled to her feet, “What do you mean connected?”
“You’ve seen the marks on his arm. A life for a life. It’s a bond between them.”
“I don’t understand.”
Maggie’s form dwindled, swallowed in a waning shower of sunlight. In another moment, she was gone.
Fresh tears spilled from Eve’s eyes. A thousand yesteryears.
Caden.
The Mothman.
Sinking to her knees on the sun-warmed grass, she prayed for an answer to the riddle.
Epilogue
August, 1982
Point Pleasant, West Virginia
Eve took a deep breath and surveyed the freshly decorated living room. At first she’d felt guilty about removing Aunt Rosie’s things, but the furnishing, particularly the embroidered drapes, reminded her too much of the past. All that had been dark and ugly when she’d first arrived in Point Pleasant.
She’d replaced the paisley rugs with fawn-colored carpet, the heavy furnishings with sleeker contemporary pieces in shades of parsley and mint. Caden had painted the walls for her, agreeing the soft cream she’d chosen complemented the maple-stained trim, and the potted plants she’d transported from Harrisburg. Well…he’d transported them, renting a U-Haul for the trip. He’d helped her pack her belongings and made time to reintroduce himself to her mother.
Her mom still wasn’t happy with Eve’s decision to relocate, but at least she’d stopped calling the move “a heartbreaking, crazy idea.” Perhaps in time, she’d even visit. Eve would love to have her opinion on the changes she’d made to the house.
The living room was the first of several she intended to redecorate. Caden had already finished most of the repairs to the other rooms. The few remaining, he’d subcontracted to a friend. As a full-time sergeant with the sheriff’s office, he preferred to spend his free hours with Eve, not hanging drywall or refitting plumbing. She’d even convinced him to take up the guitar again. He’d been reluctant at first, but within a short while, his new six-string became a cherished friend. His friends, Glen and Wyatt, were trying to talk him in to performing with them, but so far he’d been reluctant.
Perhaps with time.
Even Mrs. Flynn was doing better, seemingly having put her connection to Maggie behind her. She was no longer obsessed with her daughter and hadn’t been surprised to learn how Maggie had died. According to Caden, Maggie had told her mother in a dream shortly before Eve arrived in town. That dream had been the catalyst to propel Mrs. Flynn into a renewed bond with Maggie’s ghost. A link that had gradually intensified, ending only when the truth about Maggie’s death was brought to light.
Exposing Roger Layton’s guilt had allowed Mrs. Flynn and Caden to start over, both free of guilt.
Smiling, Eve adjusted a small speckled plant on the windowsill for better light. This one hadn’t come from Harrisburg, but was newly purchased two days ago in Point Pleasant. She hadn’t been able to resist the yellow freckles peppered like sunlight on the dark green leaves. It would grow here, in her new home, joining the collection transported from Pennsylvania. Perhaps she’d even take a few to her office at the hotel, now that she was fully settled and business continued to grow.
She had the Mothman to thank for that. Although the creature had not been seen since the night it carted Roger’s body into the sky, curiosity-seekers continued to flock to Point Pleasant where her hotel was the establishment of choice—the only lodging within town limits. She’d framed the front page of the Point Pleasant Herald with Glenda Whitmore’s photo of the Mothman. Glenda and George had autographed it for her, and she proudly displayed the newspaper in the lobby. As soon as someone stepped through the front doors, they immediately knew they stood in the famed hotel where the Mothman photographer had stayed. With the boom in business, Eve told Glenda she and George were welcome back any time—free of charge.
Even Katie agreed. Her friend was quieter these days, but tended to smile whenever Ryan was near. Maybe one day soon, Caden’s brother would work up the nerve and ask her out.
If it weren’t for the troubling memory that still awakened her during the night, Eve would label life close to perfect. But in the back of her mind, she couldn’t forget the disturbing dream about Maggie, or her friend’s words concerning the Mothman.
He and Caden are connected.
She wondered if it had become a protector to the man who’d once saved it when everyone else was intent on killing it.
“Hey.” Her boyfriend suddenly appeared behind her, balancing a pizza take-out box on his palm, a six pack of Miller in his free hand. “I see there’s a new addition to the jungle.” He nodded to the speckled plant on the windowsill. “What is it?”
Engrossed in her thoughts, she’d forgotten he’d left to pick up dinner and hadn’t heard him come through the front door. “I don’t know. It had a tag on it,
but I didn’t pay attention. I just liked the looks of it.” She took the Miller from him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “It’s cute, isn’t it?”
“Eve, you say all of these things are cute.” He swept his hand to encompass the collection of ferns, vines, and potted greenery ensconced in the living room. “I can’t imagine the amount of time it must take to water them.”
“It’s not that bad.” She nudged him toward the kitchen, the odors wafting from the pizza box making her mouth water as she followed behind. Hot melted cheese, marinara sauce, and… “You got sausage, didn’t you? I can smell it.”
“What’s wrong with sausage?”
“I wanted pepperoni.”
He set the box on the kitchen table, then turned to take the beer from her, popping a can from the white plastic ring. “I got half each. I call that compromise.”
“Do you?”
His satisfied grin coaxed a smile from her. As he stashed the remaining beer in the refrigerator, she rounded up plates and napkins. He poured her a glass of Pinot, and she located a bottle of hot sauce, knowing he liked the added flavor.
“I ran into Doreen Sue at the pizza parlor,” Caden said as he pulled out a chair and sat down. He flipped open the cardboard box, then drew the nearest slice topped with crumbled sausage onto his plate. “She was with Martin Ward.”
“From the Amoco station?” Eve joined him, pausing to sip her wine. “That relationship seems to be going well.” She slid a slice of pepperoni onto her plate. “Katie likes him.”
“Yeah.” Folding his pizza lengthwise, Caden bit off the end. “It’s about time Doreen Sue hooked up with a guy who isn’t an ass—jerk.” He offered a half-hearted shrug at the quick correction. “You haven’t lived here long enough to see some of the winners she’s had.”
Eve couldn’t argue. Given what Katie told her about her mom’s taste in men, Doreen Sue had a bad habit of scraping the bottom of the barrel. Finally, she’d met someone who treated her with respect. In Eve’s opinion, Doreen Sue and Katie would probably continue to suffer ups and downs in their relationship, but at least the discovery of Wendy’s remains and the truth about why she’d been killed had brought them closer. Add Martin Ward—a man Katie clearly approved of—and the road to healing spanned invitingly between them.
