A Grave Mistake

by Leighann Dobbs

  “Yes,” Morgan said dryly, then added, “Is the museum terribly damaged? Can we go inside? I’d like to talk to the staff.”

  “If you weren’t practically married to my brother, I’d be suspicious, but as it is, I’ll let you go inside. The area is cleared and they want to open for business, anyway.”

  “Thanks.” Morgan pinched his cheek and Fiona saw him turn pink before shaking his head and walking away.

  “This can’t be a coincidence,” Jolene said as Morgan opened the glass doors for them to enter the foyer of the museum.

  The large foyer had an oversized, oak desk at one end. Bernadette Mayhew stood in front of the desk in a light brown cardigan and pink and brown plaid skirt. The four foot tall senior citizen had to be ninety if she was a day, but she was feisty as all get out. Fiona didn’t know who to feel more sorry for—Bernadette, or the thieves that might have tangled with her.

  “What happened?” Celeste asked.

  Bernadette pressed her lips together and said in a startlingly loud and clear voice, “Vandals, that’s what happened. They broke right in at the noon lunch break and messed up the displays. Hooligans, that’s what they are.”

  “In broad daylight? Was anyone hurt?” Fiona asked.

  “No. We run on a skeleton staff in the off-season. I was the only one here today and I closed up for my noon break. Had to go pick up some new orthopedic shoes. When I came back, the door was open and it was a mess out back.” Bernadette waved her hand toward the back of the museum.

  “Can we see?” Morgan ventured.

  “Sure. I’ll show you. Thankfully, they only messed with one display.” Bernadette turned and started toward the back. She looked over her shoulder at the girls. “I must have scared them off when I came back.”

  “Did you see them?” Jolene asked.

  “Not really. I think they ran out the back when I came in the front. I thought I heard the door back here bang shut.”

  The museum was just two rooms. The old grange hall had been divided into the front foyer, with a tall divider wall and openings on either side leading to the large back room which was sectioned off into the various museum displays. Along the back wall were bathrooms and a small kitchen, which looked to Fiona like it could be the original from the grange days.

  The building still had the original, wide, pine-plank flooring that groaned as they walked, adding an eerie feeling to the quiet building. Bernadette stopped in front of a display with smashed glass and empty spaces where the stolen items must have been.

  “Is this the only display that was messed with?” Morgan turned to look around the museum, the rest of which seemed to be in place.

  Bernadette nodded her gray head vigorously. “Yes. They took old apothecary jars, and mortars and pestles. She leaned toward them and lowered her voice. “Probably for one of those mess labs.”

  “Mess lab?” Celeste asked.

  “I think she means meth lab,” Jolene said.

  “Yeah, whatever … you know how young kids are these days.” Bernadette looked at Jolene and flushed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean you, Jolene. Anyway, these items were priceless, from the early days of Maine. We had one of the very first pharmacists here—Ezra Finch. His family donated the things in this display.”

  Fiona looked at Bernadette. “Did you say Ezra Finch?”

  Bernadette’s face lit up at a chance to talk about Noquitt history. “Why, yes. He was an herbalist just like Morgan, and one of the first to produce medicine using chemicals. Of course, that was before they even had pharmacists, but that’s what the discipline evolved to. Back then, pharmacists made their medicines in an apothecary and Ezra had one right on the Finch farm. It was the only one in Maine and people came from all over to get his medicine.”

  Fiona’s brows knit together. “I didn’t see an apothecary on the Finch farm.”

  “It burned down many years ago.” Bernadette shook her head. “Anyway, I must have scared the vandals off before they could loot any of the other displays.”

  “Well, it’s a good thing you weren’t hurt,” Morgan said.

  “I admit, it was a bit disturbing, but it takes a lot more than some young yahoos to hurt an old bat like me.” Bernadette cocked her ear toward the foyer. “I think I hear more visitors. I best go greet them and explain about the mess. You girls take as long as you want to look at the displays.”

  Fiona watched her bustle off, then turned back to look at the damaged display, her stomach sinking. “So, it looks like they got to the relic before us.”

  “I don’t think so,” Morgan said.

  “What do you mean? This stuff was from Ezra Finch and something is missing. The relic is obviously one of the things they took.”

  “No. That doesn’t make sense. Ezra hid the relic, so how could it be in the museum? He was already dead when they turned the grange hall into a museum.”

  “The relic was probably in the stuff his family donated,” Celeste offered.

  Morgan twisted her lips. “Maybe, but my gut tells me otherwise. Plus Ezra told Celeste he’d hidden it.”

  “Well, I know enough by now to trust your gut feelings,” Fiona looked around the room. “So, if the relic wasn’t in the display, where did he put it?”

  “It would have to be somewhere in the building that a lot of people didn’t know about. A secret hiding place,” Celeste said.

  “Probably not on the main floor.” Morgan lowered her voice so the new visitors who had wandered into the room couldn’t hear her. “I wonder if we can slip into the basement or attic to search.”

  Celeste leaned back to look out into the lobby. “That could get tricky. We might have to come up with some sort of story for Bernadette.”

  “Maybe we won’t have to.” Jolene looked up from her smartphone where she’d been typing. “I think that if whoever broke in was looking for the relic, they got confused about the clues. The pattern on the obelisk matches the pattern on the cement on the corners of this building, right?”

  “Right. That’s why we’re in the building.” Fiona said. “Because Ezra hid the relic in here, or at least that’s what he implied.”

  “Not in here,” Jolene said. “Outside.”

  “Outside?” Celeste looked incredulous. “I’m sure someone would have noticed it just sitting around outside by now.”

  “Not if it were hidden in a secret compartment inside a cornerstone.” Jolene held the phone out for them to look at the screen. “Cornerstones are common in buildings and some of them have been used as time capsules. This building was built in Ezra’s day … maybe he had something to do with the construction and made a secret compartment.”

  The screen showed the corner of a building with small concrete slabs like those on the Oblate Museum. One of the slabs was slid open, revealing a small compartment inside. “This building has similar construction. It could have one of these.”

  Morgan was already halfway to the door. “Let’s check it out.”

  The concrete and brick construction was unusual for an old, New England grange hall, which were typically built from wood. Fiona couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Ezra did have something to do with its construction and chose the materials and style on purpose so he could have a place to stash the relic.

  “I think it would be one of the bottom corners,” Jolene said as they walked slowly around the building. She bent down to touch one of them, pressing and pulling. The piece didn’t budge. “I’m not sure if one can just open them by pressing. It seems like that would be too easy.”

  “Right, but what other option do we have? Let’s check out all four corners and see if Morgan gets a vibe,” Celeste said.

  “No pressure there.” Morgan rolled her eyes and the others laughed, but she continued around the building to the back and focused her attention on the corners of the building.

  The back was a small alley-like area with another building behind it—which was good, because no one could see what they were doing. If they were about to retrie
ve an important paranormal relic, Fiona figured it was probably better if there were no witnesses.

  She scooped up a few stones anyway, just in case. Not that her shotgun stones trick was working, but she figured it couldn’t hurt.

  Morgan homed in on the east corner. She bent down and touched the cornerstone with the tips of her fingers. She pressed, then pulled, then pried, but the stone did not budge.

  She looked up at the others. “I think this might be it, but it seems to be stuck or sealed.”

  Jolene squinted at the stone, then fished in her pocketbook coming up with a pocket knife. She squatted beside Morgan and started prying at the corner of the stone. Fiona heard the sound of concrete scraping on concrete.

  “It's coming. It just takes a little wiggling." Jolene pried at the edge of the stone and it slid back, revealing a dark, black hole.

  “Holy heck.” Celeste turned to Jolene. “You were right.”

  “Yeah, now let’s see what’s in there.”

  All four girls bent down to peer into the black hole. Fiona couldn’t see a thing in there. The opening was about six inches wide by four inches tall, but since it was black inside, Fiona couldn’t tell how far back it went. Jolene fiddled with her cell phone to activate the flashlight app, then aimed it into the hole.

  Fiona’s stomach sank. “It’s empty.”

  “Wait a minute.” Jolene stuck her arm inside up to the elbow, twisting this way and that to feel all around the inside. Her eyes narrowed and her face scrunched.

  “There’s something, but I can’t quite grab it … got it!” A look of triumph spread across Jolene’s face as she slowly pulled her arm out, revealing her clenched fist.

  The girls huddled around in a circle, watching as Jolene unclenched her fist to reveal … a Black Crow licorice.

  “What the heck?” Morgan said as they stared at the round confection.

  Fiona was so focused on the candy in Jolene’s hand that she hadn’t paid attention to her surroundings. A scraping sound behind her caught her attention and she whirled around to see three large, bearded men.

  “Well, well. What have you got there?” The largest gestured toward Jolene’s hand which she quickly closed. “Don’t bother hiding it from me, because you’re going to hand it to me right now … or we’ll kill you on the spot.”

  Chapter Seven

  Fiona’s heart froze. The three men were a lot bigger than her and her sisters. The largest one, the one who had spoken, sneered at them. To his left, a man with a red beard stood in a fighting stance, mirrored by another man with a black beard on his right.

  “Okay. Here you go! Jolene’s fingers flew open and she thrust her hand out at red-beard. A stream of black goo ringed in glowing orange poured out of her hand like molten lava and hit red-beard in the face.

  Red-beard screamed. His hands flew up and he staggered backward just as black beard pulled a weird-looking rock out of his pocket and aimed it at Jolene.

  “Jo, Lookout!” Morgan tied to jump in between the rock and Jolene. The momentum caused her to crash into black beard. They tumbled to the ground and the rock smashed into a million pieces. Each of the pieces glowed a bright white, giving the appearance of a string of Christmas lights piled on the ground. Their glow winked out and the rocks disappeared. Black beard threw Morgan off and she stumbled backward, her shoulders slumping as she fell to the ground.

  “What the heck was tha—” Fiona didn’t have time to finish her sentence. Large-beard threw a glowing, white rope toward her and she had to duck out of the way to keep from getting hit. She watched in horror as the rope hit the ground, sparks flew in the air and she hopped around to avoid them.

  Beside her, Jolene hopped around, too. Her wounded hand was cradled against her chest, her face contorted in pain. Morgan was coming awake in the corner, but still looked dazed.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Fiona saw Celeste gearing up for one of her karate moves. She shot her leg up, her heel connecting with black beard’s jaw.

  Were they winning or losing?

  Fiona had no idea. She could see that red-beard was out of commission with the black goo, black beard was busy fighting off Celeste, but Morgan was slumped in a stupor and large-beard was advancing on her and Jolene.

  Fiona’s heart pounded in her chest, since Jolene was still holding her hand in pain—it was up to her to fight off large-beard. She tightened her fist against the rocks she’d picked up earlier and focused her energy on them with all her might. She thought back to what her father had always told her when she was a little girl—if you wanted something bad enough, you could make it happen if you believed.

  But did she believe?

  As a child, it seemed so simple. But now as an adult, sometimes she felt like all that magical belief had disappeared. She didn’t have much of a choice right now, though, so she flung the rocks at large-beard and jumped back.

  Fiona felt a glimmer of triumph as an ember of red glow surrounded the rocks. They hit large-beard in the chest, bounced off and fell to the ground, leaving small burn marks in his blue nylon jacket. Too bad it wasn’t enough to stop him. He merely looked down at the rocks, then back at Fiona.

  “Is that all you got?” He laughed as he lunged toward her, the rope in his hand. She backed up until the cold bricks of the wall stopped her. He raised the rope as if to slip it around her neck. She squeezed her eyes shut.

  “Leave her alone!” Jolene yelled. Fiona opened her eyes in time to see a purple ball of energy sear large-beard's forehead. He staggered backward, bumping into black beard, who had just been kicked in the jaw by Celeste for the second time.

  Jolene didn’t wait for them to recover. She thrust her fingers out, pummeling all three men with tiny energy balls.

  “Retreat!” large-beard yelled. The other two didn’t need any encouragement. They had already turned and were running back down the alley.

  Celeste rushed to Morgan, helping her up.

  “Are you okay?” Jolene asked Fiona.

  “Yes,” Fiona answered. She was fine physically, but mentally she felt like crap. Her stupid rocks hadn’t worked and she hadn't been able to do anything to defend herself or her sisters. Instead, she’d had to depend on Jolene, who was already injured. The other sisters all had defensive skills. Fiona felt like a boat anchor.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, indicating Jolene’s hand.

  “I’m fine.” Jolene held her hand up. “It’s just a little burn from the melted licorice. You can fix that up right away with one of your carnelian healing stones.”

  That cheered Fiona up. Maybe she couldn’t help fight off bad guys, but in the past, her carnelian stones had been able to speed up healing dramatically. At least she could help out with the aftermath of a paranormal encounter.

  “You guys okay?” Jolene and Fiona walked over to join Celeste, who was helping Morgan get steady on her feet.

  “Yeah. What was that thing?” Morgan asked. “It felt like it drained all the energy out of me.”

  “I think that’s one of those geodes that Bly used on me before.” Jolene glanced down at the ground to make sure all the pieces were gone. “That’s exactly what it does.”

  “I’m glad he didn’t get a chance to use it on all of us,” Celeste said. “Who knows what might have happened if we were all incapacitated.”

  “Yeah,” Jolene frowned. “I guess they wanted something that was in that cornerstone, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the licorice.”

  “Good point. What were they after?” Celeste asked.

  “My guess is they were after the relic,” Morgan answered. “Which they thought was in the cornerstone.”

  Fiona’s brow creased. “But the cornerstone was empty.”

  “Right,” Morgan said. “Which brings up the question … if the attackers were Bly’s guys and they didn’t know the cornerstone was empty, then who took the relic?”

  Chapter Eight

  “It’s simple.” Jolene slipped a k-cup into the coffee machi
ne, then turned and leaned her backside against the counter. “The licorice killer must have taken the relic.”

  Morgan pressed her lips together. “But why would he leave a licorice in the cornerstone?”

  Celeste backed out of the fridge with an armful of leafy greens and headed toward the juicer. “Maybe he was taunting us.”

  “Mew.” Belladonna appeared in the doorway to the butler’s pantry, and rubbed the side of her face against the corner of the door jamb before snaking her paw under the cabinet and batting a small object across the kitchen floor.

  “But if the licorice killer took the relic, then who broke into the museum?” Johanna asked, her eyes tracking the object as it skittered in front of her, then disappeared under the lip of the cabinet near the sink.

  “Maybe there are two different parties looking for the relic,” Morgan suggested. “One group broke into the museum and the other—the licorice killer—got into the cornerstone.”

  “That would make sense.” Celeste pulled spinach out of a bag and piled it into a bowl already loaded with wheat grass and kale. “Maybe the bearded guys were the ones that broke in. They realized the relic wasn’t among any of the items they stole, but they found a clue to look in the cornerstone and came back only to discover us looking in there first.”

  “That’s an interesting theory.” Morgan tapped a fingernail against her coffee mug. “But don’t you guys think it’s strange that they took several items? I mean, why not just take one item—the relic?”

  Jolene took her full coffee mug to the island and slid into one of the stools. “It’s obvious. They don’t know what the relic is, so they took everything they thought might be the relic.”

  Johanna nodded. “That could very well be. After all, we don’t know what it is, either.”

  “Merow!” Belladonna scooted across the room and swiped her paw under the cabinet near the sink, extracting the object and batting it over toward the back door like a hockey player testing out his slap shot.