High Priestess

by Wendy Hewlett

  “Did that include my cell phone number and home address?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you realize that releasing that information to the public could put me in grave danger?”

  “We didn’t release it, Detective. Yes, we used it to try to contact you and to come here, but we didn’t give out your number or your address to anyone, including other members of the media.”

  So, whoever called NNN also called other news media. “Thank you.” Raven began to walk away and the woman grabbed her by the forearm.

  “Wait. Would you give me a comment? Did Paigo molest you all those years ago?”

  Raven turned her head to look over her shoulder and gave the reporter an icy glare.

  “Take your hand off me before I arrest you for assaulting an officer.” When the woman released her grip, Raven went to the car, grabbed the gift bag bin and the envelope from the lawyer and rushed into her cottage. She dropped everything on the kitchen counter and went to look out the living room window over Fairy Lake, letting the rippling surface calm her.

  A few minutes passed before the front door opened and Mick’s grunts echoed from the foyer. Raven turned to see Mick’s face beetroot red as she carried the big box Kiran had placed in her trunk. The strap of her black duffel bag began to slide down from her shoulder and she wobbled with the box.

  “Help,” she squeaked.

  Raven crossed the room and took the box from her. “Why the hell did you bring this in?” She placed it on the coffee table as Mick took several gulps of air then plopped herself onto the couch.

  “It was in your trunk. I figured you might want it.”

  “So, now you’re going to be on national TV lugging that big box into my house and the whole world will see my damn address.”

  Mick’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. “Oh, crap. You don’t think they would have actually filmed that, do you?”

  Raven wanted to laugh. She knew it was petty to enjoy putting that little bit of fear into Mick, but damn it felt good.

  “No, I doubt it. Your ass is not exactly breaking news.”

  “Not funny,” Mick said with a pout.

  At the sound of knocking on the door, Mick was on her feet with her hand on the weapon at her hip.

  “Jesus, Mick. Chill. It’s just someone knocking at the door.” Raven moved to the door, but she had her hand resting on the butt of her gun, too. Peering through the peep hole, she saw Kelsey St. Germaine standing there and eased the door open about six inches.

  “I called the station and talked to the operator who took the call. He said it was a woman and he could probably recognize her voice if he heard it again.”

  Was this some sort of trick to get Raven to talk to her? An idea struck and Raven told Kelsey to wait there. She closed the door and went into the kitchen for a pad of note paper and wrote down Adara’s phone number. She opened the door just enough to pass the paper through to Kelsey. Tell him to call this number and see if he recognizes her voice.” Since Adara was screening her calls, he’d probably get her voice mail and that should be a good enough sample for him to be able to identify her as the caller or rule her out. As she closed the door, Raven said a silent prayer it hadn’t been Adara.

  She went back into the living room, hefted the box off the coffee table and carried it through to the sitting area in her bedroom. Then she retrieved the bin and the envelope and set them on the top of the box before joining Mick in the living room again. Except Mick wasn’t in the living room. Raven found her in the kitchen making dinner. Hell, she could get used to someone cooking for her. “What are you making?”

  “Oh, I’m just throwing together a salad and I thought we could eat some of the leftover pizza.”

  Raven didn’t have the makings for a salad in her fridge, so Mick had to have brought them with her. Instead of getting in the way, Raven headed back to her perch at the living room window. She was almost there when there was a knock at the door again. She changed directions and peeked out again to be sure it was Kelsey, then she opened the door a crack, not sure she wanted to hear what Kelsey had to say because she had a sinking feeling in her gut.

  “Yeah?”

  “He got an answering machine, but it was definitely the woman who called in the tip.”

  Shit. This couldn’t be happening. Adara simply wasn’t capable of doing any of this. Had someone impersonated Adara’s voice? Someone who could get into her head and the heads of the people working at the hospital when Ena was brought in? That gave her another idea. She started to close the door.

  “Wait.” Kelsey’s toe edged past the door. “Please. Just answer a few questions and then I won’t bother you anymore.”

  “It’s an ongoing investigation. I can’t make any comments.”

  “Is he being charged with molesting you then?”

  “No comment. Now or ever.”

  “If he molested you, Detective, there may be other young women out there he hurt, too.”

  She’d known that she probably wasn’t the only one he’d hurt. She’d wondered for the past fifteen years if he was out there hurting another innocent child.

  “Don’t you think he should pay for his crimes?” Kelsey asked.

  Ouch. That was below the belt. Of course, she did. She just hadn’t been able to file a report while Ena was still alive and at risk. “You need to leave now.”

  Kelsey let out a long sigh then slid her foot back so Raven could close the door. As she did, Kelsey said, “Contact me if you change your mind. There’s going to be more, Detective.” Her card slid through the mail slot in the door.

  * * *

  Raven ate quickly then excused herself and escaped to her room. The large box sitting on the table called to her. She set the gift bag bin and the manila envelope from the lawyer aside and circled the box. What the heck could be in there? She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Instead of giving in to the temptation to open it, she picked up the manila envelope and pulled out the legal papers.

  A DVD case dropped onto the floor at her feet. She stared down at it for a moment before bending over to pick it up. Ena’s elegant scroll across its surface matched the one on the box. Exactly. It also read ‘For Raven’. So, the box was probably put together around the same time Ena recorded the DVDs.

  Which one did she start with – the papers, the box, or the DVD? She reached up and turned the reading light on and began to scan the papers. She couldn’t muster any interest in reading through all of the legalese for a bunch of stuff and money she didn’t want, so she tossed them aside and put the DVD on.

  When Ena’s image appeared on the screen, it was like she was sitting down with her, as if they were just having a normal conversation. Too weird.

  Ena sat at her kitchen island. By the look of the sun shining in the windows, it was taped in the morning.

  “Hello, darling angel. Please don’t turn this off. Give me a chance to try to explain myself. I know I was a terrible mother and I’ll never forgive myself for that. I love you with all my heart, Rave. I always have and I always will. I have so many great memories of the first fifteen years of your life, right up until that horrible night when you became so enraged with me.” She spoke quietly, wheezing between words. “I’ve tried several times to record this video, angel. After all these years, I’m not sure how to talk to you anymore. It almost feels like you’re a stranger to me. And I suppose that’s my fault. I don’t know how many times I watched you leaving school or coming out of the police station. I even followed you home several times, but I never got up the nerve to approach you. I suppose what stopped me was the memory of your words on the night you left home. I’m still not sure what, exactly, I did to make you hate me so much, but I’m so sorry, darling. I’m so sorry.”

  Ena’s frail hand covered her mouth as she coughed. She reminded Raven of pictures she’d seen of holocaust victims, reduced to skin and bone. If Adara had done this, how could she have watched her wither away day after day? How could she endure watc
hing her best friend suffer like that? It couldn’t have been Adara. She just didn’t have that in her.

  Ena pulled a tissue from a box on the counter, but instead of using it, she balled it in her fist. Raven paused the video. Sitting on the island next to the box of tissues was a beautiful silver chalice.

  “Bingo.” She punched the air. “There’s a big, fat piece of evidence right there.” She tried to settle into watching the rest of the video, but her blood was racing through her veins. Ena had been right about someone stealing the chalice and she finally had evidence it existed.

  “I have so many regrets, my angel. So many. I should have told you about your father from the very beginning. I should have done everything in my power to track Kiran down to tell him he was a father. He would have been an incredible daddy and you look just like him, Rave. I’m so sorry I robbed you of that chance to know him, but I need you to know I did it for your own safety. If the wrong people learn your parentage, you’ll be in grave danger. For years I’ve been surrounding you with protection spells. Now that I won’t be there to protect you, Rave, you must remember everything I taught you. It’s all there in your dreams.”

  Ena held the tissue to her mouth as she coughed. It took the breath from her lungs and she wheezed while she recuperated. When she finally looked back up at the camera, her eyes had sunken deeper and her skin was a pasty grey.

  “Kiran came back into my life about two years after you left home. He proposed to me that same night. I know I had a lot of lovers over the years and I think that may have something to do with our issues, but I’ve never loved a man the way I’ve always loved your father. I know you hated me bringing lovers home, but we’re such sexual creatures, you and I. That’s one thing you got from me and I swear to the Goddess that everything else about you is all Kiran.” Although Ena seemed very weak a moment ago, she lit up when she talked of Kiran, lit up in a way Raven had never seen before.

  “We left the next day, got married in Scotland, and then we spent two weeks in the south of France. When we returned to Solstice, I debated with myself whether to tell you about each other or not. I couldn’t do it, angel. I’m so sorry, but your safety –” Ena’s hand came up to cover her mouth again, her whole body convulsing as she coughed, wheezing with every intake of breath.

  “Oh, dear. Deep breaths now, honey.” Adara’s voice boomed after Ena’s soft words.

  Raven turned the volume down and watched as Adara entered the frame and rubbed Ena’s back while she tried to get her breath back.

  “I’ve brought you something for the nausea.” Adara set her purse on the island and took out a white and pink box of Gravol. She removed the small bottle from the box, opened the lid and removed the seal, all on camera, then she walked out of the frame and returned several moments later with a pitcher of water and poured it into the chalice.

  Didn’t prove anything, Raven thought as she watched Adara hold the chalice up to Ena’s lips.

  Ena began coughing again. “Easy now,” Adara said.

  When Ena had taken both pills, Adara put the chalice back on the island and walked out of the frame again with the water pitcher. A chill ran down Raven’s spine as she pulled out her cell phone and dialed Ena’s home number. When there was no answer, she didn’t leave a message. She pushed play again, focusing in on the time and date stamp on the video. If it was correct, it was the day before Ena’s death.

  “There you go. Rest now, sweetie.” Adara perched on a stool and took Ena’s hand in both of hers.

  Ena’s voice sounded like a whisper on the wind and Raven wasn’t sure what she said, so she hit rewind and turned up the volume.

  “Raven?”

  “I’m sorry,” Adara said and patted Ena’s hand. “I tried, Ena, but she just won’t listen to reason, I’m afraid.”

  Ena responded by tilting her head back slightly and squeezing her eyes shut, releasing fat tears that slid silently down the sharp angles of her cheeks. Then the screen went black. Raven hit rewind again and replayed the last bit. She was sure Adara was unaware of the camera and Ena didn’t look like she was in any shape to turn the camera off, so what happened to the rest of the video? Who turned it off or edited whatever else had been on there out? Or had the camera battery simply died?

  She grabbed the papers from the lawyer then pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed the number on the letterhead. As it began to ring, she checked the time on her watch. Six o’clock on a Friday. There wasn’t much chance of anyone still being in the office. She was surprised when a cheery female voice answered and put her through to Kiara Pfeiffer.

  “This is Detective Constable Bowen. I have some questions regarding the DVD Ena left for me.”

  Kiara made a noise that sounded like a frustrated sigh. “You haven’t read the papers I gave you.”

  “What does that have to do with –”

  “Read the papers.”

  Raven was about to respond, and not too kindly after being cut off, when she realized the call had ended. Did Kiara just hang up on her? Wow. This woman had a hell of a lot of nerve. Raven grabbed the papers again and sifted through them, scanning the documents until she came across a sheet that didn’t appear to be part of the legal package. It was an email from Ena to Kiara, dated the day of Ena’s death.

  Kiara,

  I have packed the evidence in a box for Raven and left it in the back of my bedroom closet. So, that’s it. Everything is done and now it’s just a matter of time. Thank you, again, for all you’ve done for me over these past few weeks.

  Blessed be.

  See you in the afterlife,

  Ena

  Raven set the papers on the desk, pulled the utility knife out of her pocket and sliced through the tape on the top of the box. Opening the flap, she peered into the box. Everything was wrapped in newsprint and before she could start to unwrap it, she needed gloves and her evidence kit.

  CHAPTER 13

  RAVEN CAME OUT of her room to find Mick sunk into her couch with her feet up on the coffee table and a big bowl of popcorn on her lap. She was watching some stupid reality show which, to Raven’s mind, was a total waste of time.

  Raven headed for the door, then detoured into the bathroom to look out the window. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw all of the media vehicles had departed. Thank God. Hell, she’d even thank the Goddess for that one. As she headed for the front door again, Mick’s voice called out like she had her mouth full of popcorn. “Where are you going?”

  “Don’t stress your pretty little ass. I’m just grabbing something from the car.” She barely got the door open before Mick was at her side, wiping her greasy fingers on the thighs of her jeans. Raven stopped in her tracks, her fists landing on her hips.

  “I think you’re taking LaCroix’s orders a little too literally.”

  “He said joined at the hip, we’re joined at the hip. I couldn’t forgive myself if anything happened to you and I was sitting on my pretty little ass watching TV.”

  “Fine.” Raven hit the remote and the Charger’s trunk popped open. Despite her anger at being babysat, her eyes continuously swept from the woods at her left, across the front of the house to the woods on the other side and then back again. Her ears were tuned into the wind and the soft waves hitting the shore behind her. She listened for the crack of a stick or the crunching of leaves that would tell her something was moving in the woods, but she heard none of those signs. Mick just had her paranoid, that’s all. She grabbed her evidence kit, all of her senses still on alert, and breathed a sigh of relief when she shut the door behind her, locked it, and set the alarm.

  Mick followed her through the living room.

  “What do you need your kit for?”

  “That box that you carried in?”

  Mick nodded.

  “Ena left it for me. Apparently, it contains evidence.” She set the kit on the floor next to the table the box was sitting on, opened it, and grabbed a pair of purple nitrile gloves, snapping them on. “Grab
some paper and a pen. You’re going to document everything we pull out of this box.”

  Mick patted the front pockets of her jeans, as if she would find a pen and paper in them.

  Raven nodded towards the bedside table. “Check the drawer.” Crouching down, she pulled the tray up in her evidence kit to reveal the deeper compartment. She was running low on evidence bags. If she’d been on her game instead of the emotional roller coaster ride with all of her personal crap, she’d have restocked it. She unfolded a large piece of paper and laid it out over the table.

  Paper and pen in hand, Mick pulled one of the chairs closer to the box and made herself comfortable. Raven instructed her to write the date and time and a brief description of how they came into possession of the box. Then she used a digital SLR camera to photograph the box. With that done, Raven pulled out the first object her hand found and carefully removed the newsprint over the paper on the table.

  “Bingo,” she said when the chalice was revealed. Why the hell would Ena tell her it was missing if she knew where it was this whole time? It looked like a wine glass except it was silver and had the three moons engraved on the outside of the cup. The stem had a band at the top which was intricately carved with a Celtic design. Below it, the stem curved then met the base, carved to match the band. Raven set it on the paper and photographed it before sealing it into an evidence bag.

  The next item Raven pulled out of the box required two hands. She knew what it was before she attempted to lift it out. She circled her hands around the heavy base and lifted the large object, placing it gently onto the paper on the table. The paper wrapped around the top of the object fell away, revealing a flower arrangement that had definitely seen better days. Raven wasn’t good with flowers, but she recognized the gerbera daisies and carnations. She wasn’t sure what the others were, but the lab would figure it out. There was a stick protruding from the faded flowers that still held the card. “Why did you lie about this stuff?” She whispered.