“I’m not accusing you of anything,” I said. “I’m just worried that something drove Kurt to hurt himself.” I didn’t believe he’d hurt himself, but I wanted to diffuse the situation.
“Yeah, a ghost drove him to kill himself. One of those witches that was hung at your house. It was revenge for us poking around.”
“You have no way of knowing that,” I said. “Besides, have you ever heard of a case of a ghost possessing someone and pushing them to suicide?”
“Yes, of course I’ve heard of it before. In my line of work, it’s not even that unusual. We get calls all of the time from people who think a loved one was possessed before they killed themselves.”
It was a sad thought, and for a moment it took my breath away. But I didn’t believe it was ghosts possessing people. Maybe those people had been afflicted by dark spirits, but I didn’t think there was an epidemic of angry ghosts walking around making people off themselves.
“How did they know?” I asked.
Rachel looked at me stunned for a moment. I could tell she wasn’t used to anyone questioning her.
“They knew that something wasn’t right because of the way the person started to behave. They’d become nervous and jumpy, and then their physical health would start to fail. Most of them said it wasn’t anything serious, but a sort of low-level malaise that the person couldn’t shake. Some of them complained about hearing or seeing things right before the end, and a few even began experiencing phenomenon like waking up with bites or scratches.”
“I’m no expert in the occult or anything, but I’ve seen plenty of horror movies,” I said. “That sounds like demons, not ghosts.”
“You’re really going to suggest that you know more than me about this stuff because you’ve seen some horror movies?” she scoffed and then walked away to join Bobby before I could say anything else.
I wanted to tell her that I thought I knew more than her because I was a witch and had control of the forces of nature and magic. But that would have been a bit of a stretch. Oh, and I would have been violating the norms that said I couldn’t tell random humans about the Coventry witches.
“You think it was her?” Remy asked when he joined me.
“I don’t know. She’s pretty dark and also arrogant. But how could she have done it? Rachel’s got a big mouth, but she’s kind of small. I can’t see how she could have gotten him into that tree and killed him without magic, and she’s definitely not a witch.”
The rest of their investigation was completely uneventful until we went outside. The ghoulish specter that haunted the top floor of the courthouse remained hidden while we were inside, but per her usual routine, she showed up when we were outside in front of the courthouse.
Chris was talking about the locations of the town’s whipping post when I saw her. Of course, I wasn’t subtle about it. How could you blame me? She startled me even though I knew to expect her. Just before I turned my head to see if anyone else had noticed, what I thought had to be a contemptuous smile, it was hard to tell from that distance for sure, spread across her face.
The Ghost Seekers all looked where I was looking, and Chris let out an audible gasp. “Get that on camera.”
She disappeared nearly as soon as Toto swung the camera away from Chris and pointed it at the courthouse. “She’s gone,” Toto said.
“Did you get her? Did you get anything at all? Even one frame of her would be something. That’s all we need,” Chris said.
“I don’t know. Let me look,” Toto said.
I held my breath as everyone gathered around for the playback. He did catch a glimpse of her just before she vanished, but it wasn’t anything too convincing. More importantly, it wasn’t proof of magic.
“Let’s go back up there,” Chris said. “Do we have time?”
I looked at my phone. “We have about a half hour before they said we have to be out. You want to drag everything back up there?”
“Of course, I do,” Chris said with a laugh. “You saw that too. I know you did.”
“All right. Let’s go,” I said with a sigh.
I was nervous the whole time that the specter was going to appear in plain sight or worse. She did not. There was nothing more than a rattling sound that could have been a secretary opening a stuck file cabinet drawer and some cold spots that could have been the building’s air conditioning kicking on.
Still, when we left, the Ghost Seekers seemed happy. “So that hunt was successful?” I asked Chris as we walked out to our parked vehicles.
“Oh, yeah, totally. You might not have thought it was much because you live in a place where that kind of activity is commonplace, but for us, Coventry has been a boon.” He suddenly lost his excited edge and grew sullen. “For a second, I forgot he was gone.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “I’m sure that’s going to happen a lot.”
“He’d be proud of what we did today. Kurt would have been so excited to see this.”
“I mean, I’m sure he probably can, right?” I asked.
“You know, I hadn’t thought about it that way,” Chris said. “I hope he’s not hanging around to see the show. I hope he moved on to heaven or whatever. Do you believe in heaven? I guess I never asked what your thoughts are on all this ghost stuff.”
For the briefest moment, I wondered if I could get away with holding a séance to communicate with Kurt’s spirit. The last one hadn’t gone so well, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t possible. Perhaps if I’d let the Ghost Seekers get a room at Mother Hattie’s Inn, Annika, Remy, and I could have done it with Meri’s help. As it stood, I’d have to shelve the thought. There was no way I could do it with them around. We’d have to wipe their memories and their equipment.
“I do believe there is something else,” I said as noncommittally as I could. “More importantly, I believe you’ll see your friend again someday.” I just hoped that someday wasn’t while they were in Coventry with their cameras rolling.
Chapter Seven
I was about to get into Remy’s car to leave when someone shouted, “Hey, you.”
Most of the Ghost Seekers weren’t in their van yet. Everyone but Toto was standing outside putting equipment in the back. Toto sat in the passenger seat reviewing the footage on his camera again.
We all turned to see who was calling out to us. At first, I just thought it was Annika. It wasn’t quite time for Annika to close up yet, but perhaps she’d decided to lock up the shop and head over to my house early.
But it wasn’t Annika. It was a woman I’d seen around town, but I hadn’t met. She had a furious look on her face as she crossed the square in our direction.
“Can I help you?” Remy called out and took a step in front of me.
I didn’t know if he picked up on danger from her or if he was just being protective. Either way, it was an interesting gesture.
“I want to talk to her,” she said and pointed a thin finger at me.
“What?”
“Everyone knows about what happened at that house this morning. You shouldn’t be allowed to live there. No one should have access to that place. The town should have torn it down when your crazy aunt was hauled off to the asylum. Or we should have burned it down,” she spat.
“Helen, stop it,” Remy said. “You need to go, or I’m going to call the sheriff. You are skirting the line of threatening my friend, and I won’t allow it.”
Helen, her name according to Remy, recoiled for a second, but then she narrowed her eyes at him. “You,” she said and pointed at Remy. “I know what you are. I know what all of you are. You don’t scare me!”
“Helen,” a voice rang out from the other side of the square.
It was Amelda. She’d come out of the library and was quickly making her way down the stone steps. If Helen recoiled when Remy rebuked her, she looked absolutely stricken at the sight of Amelda heading her way.
“Helen,” Amelda said as she approached. “If you have a problem with my family, you need to take it up wi
th me.”
“Amelda, I don’t have a problem with anyone in your family. I’m addressing her,” she said and pointed at me.
“Really, because I see a member of my family standing there,” Amelda said.
“I’m not talking to Remy,” Helen said softly.
“Are you arguing with me?” Amelda asked calmly.
“No. I mean. No, Amelda. I’m sorry,” Helen said and turned to walk away.
As soon as Helen was leaving, Amelda turned and retreated to the library without another word. Remy offered a shrug, and I shrugged back.
“Looks like someone else buys into your story,” Bobby said to Rachel.
I turned around and caught her glaring at him. “It’s not a story, stupid. There’s something about this place.”
“We’re going to head over to that pizza place and grab some dinner. You’re invited,” Chris said, “But I also wanted to give you some breathing room before the investigation begins if you want. We’re not going to do any ghost hunting, so I think we can manage without you for a while.”
“Thanks for the invite,” I said. “I think I will just go home for a bit. Thorn is supposed to be coming over for a while after work.”
“Cool, see you in a couple of hours then.”
When Remy was halfway back to my house, he said, “I can just drop you off.”
“No,” I said. “Thorn’s supposed to be coming over, but you don’t have to leave. Just eat with us. I need you there tonight for their investigation.”
“Really, Brighton. I can make myself scarce for a couple of hours if you want alone time with him.”
“Do you want to leave? Is that why you’re pushing, because if you’ve got somewhere else you’d rather be, just say it.”
“No, that’s not it,” he said, and I saw the slightest hint of blush color his cheeks.
It took me back to when we met.
“Good, then you’re coming in and we’re all having dinner together. I’m sure Annika will show up anyway, and Brody is there unless he wandered off somewhere.”
As soon as we walked through the front door, Meri appeared. “Really? You turned them into goats without me?”
“No. They’re at the pizza place getting dinner. They’ll be here to do their investigation when they’re done.”
“And they didn’t invite you? That’s rude. We should turn them into something worse than goats… Spam maybe.”
“They did invite me, but I wanted to come home and be with you,” I said in sing-song voice.
“Oh, shut up,” Meri said as he turned to sashay out of the room.
“Wait, don’t go. I want to give you all the hugsy wugsies,” I said and chased after him.
Meri hissed and darted off to find one of his wall holes. I laughed and went to the kitchen to get a Diet Coke.
“That wasn’t very nice,” Remy teased.
“Oh, he’s fine,” I said.
“But he hissed at you. I’ve never seen him do that before.”
“Me neither, but he didn’t try to turn me into an animal or a canned lunch meat product. I assume we’ll have made up by dinner.”
“You turned them into goats without me?” Meri walked through the kitchen doorway.
Remy and I looked at each other. “Meri? Are you okay?”
“I mean, I’m a little miffed that you turned the Ghost Squeakers into goats without me, but other than that, I’m right as rain.”
“Um, we just had this conversation ten seconds ago,” I said.
“Well, now, that’s impossible because I was upstairs in the library with your brother,” he said. “So what’s for dinner?”
“Meri, we just had a conversation with a cat that looked just like you,” I said and waited for it to sink in.
“Crap,” he said. “Where did it go?”
“Into one of your wall holes,” I said. “I think that one.”
“You guys hang out. I’ve got this,” Meri said. “You might want to go outside.”
“Okay, but what about Brody?”
“He’s in the attic. I’m sure it’s fine.”
While we were outside, I found myself wandering over to the tree. I looked up into its branches as I looked for… Actually, I wasn’t sure what I was looking for.
“Hold still,” Remy said. “Don’t move.”
“What’s wrong?” I said, but I froze.
“Look down at the ground,” he said.
I looked down, and I wasn’t sure what I was seeing at first. “Oh, there are so many footprints,” I said. “But they could have just been from Thorn and the coroner.”
“That could be, but look,” Remy said. “They go all the way around the tree.”
“That is odd. It could have been Thorn or the coroner, but I don’t know why they would have walked all the way around the tree.”
“It’s not proof, but it is evidence that someone might have… assisted him in getting up in that tree.”
“Well, if the coroner believes he hanged himself, then what? Someone either strangled him or broke his neck. I need to find out which,” I said.
“Why?”
“Because we need to know if he was strangled with the rope or if we have to be on the lookout for someone strong enough to break his neck.”
“You could try asking Thorn if he could find out from the coroner,” Remy said.
“He’s supposed to come for dinner. I can ask him then.”
“What are we going to do about the Ghost Seekers and their investigation of Hangman’s House if Thorn is here?” Remy asked. “You think he’ll be okay hanging out and watching them work?”
“I don’t think he’ll stay after dinner,” I said. “He’ll probably have to get back to his daughter. Perhaps if he doesn’t, I’ll gently make that suggestion.”
“You’re going to tell him to leave?” Remy seemed surprised.
“In another couple of days, this will all be over. I’m sure things will get straightened out then. For now, I’m just going to keep my head up and manage everything as best I can.”
It turned out that I wouldn’t have to worry about it after all. We saw Meri in the widow and assumed we could go back in.
“How do we know it’s him?” Remy asked as he closed the front door behind us.
“Isn’t there some sort of witchy test we can do? Like, we can just use magic, right?”
“I’m right here,” Meri said.
“Sorry, we just want to make sure it’s you. That thing mimicking you was pretty convincing.”
“Whatever,” Meri said and jumped up on the sofa.
“Yeah, I think that’s him,” I said.
“Just one second,” Remy said.
Remy waved his hands in front of him, muttered some incantation that I couldn’t really understand, and Meri began to glow blue. My familiar flicked his tail a few times in annoyance.
“Hey, can you turn this off? I’m trying to get a nap in before the Ghost Squeakers come back.”
“It’s him,” Remy said. “One hundred percent.”
Just then, Thorn called. Something had come up with Dani, and he wasn’t going to be able to make it to dinner.
“That’s okay,” I said. “Hey, before you go. You can answer one question for me. Um… Do you know, or can you find out, if Kurt died because of strangulation or a broken neck?”
“Why do you need to know that?” he asked, and I could almost hear his eyebrow shoot up.
“I just do. I think there are more footprints outside around the tree than can be explained,” I said.
“I don’t know that, Brighton, because the coroner ruled it a suicide. I didn’t get any further information.”
“Can you ask her? Could you maybe call her and just ask?”
“I’m not going to do that, Brighton. She ruled it a suicide. I know it’s probably traumatic because it happened at your house, but you’ve got to drop this.”
“I just….”
“Look, Dani needs me right now. I’ve
got to go. I love you, and I’ll call you as soon as I can.”
Thorn hung up before I could get another word in. He didn’t even wait for me to say I love you too. Maybe it was because he knew, or maybe it was because it didn’t matter.
“You all right?” Remy asked.
“I’m fine.”
“Whoa,” he said.
“Hey, we’ve probably got an hour or so before the Ghost Seekers get here to do the investigation. You want to get into some trouble with me?”
“Yeah, of course,” Remy said with a smile.
“You don’t even know what it is.”
“Doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, I’m here for it,” he said.
Chapter Eight
It took us about fifteen minutes to drive to the coroner’s office. That gave us a half hour inside and then fifteen minutes to get back to Hangman’s House if I wanted to stay on the hour timeline.
“You sure you want to don this?” Remy asked as I pulled my car into the parking spot furthest from the back of the building.
“Are you chickening out now?” I teased.
“Not at all,” he said. “But you should have let me drive.”
“We’re not going to get caught,” I said. “But if we did, I don’t want you taking the fall for this. It was my idea.”
“Okay,” he said. “When we get out, I’ll put a cloaking spell over the car. We go in, we find the information we need, and then we come back out. The farther away I get from your car and the longer I have to hold the spell, the harder it will be.”
There were no other cars in the coroner’s office parking lot. As I’d suspected, everyone else had gone home for the day. There were no security cameras on the outside of the building, and I suspected there wouldn’t be any inside either.
Maybe in the big city they had all kinds of technology, but we were in a fairly rural area. The coroner’s office was one town over from Coventry, but Langdon was an even smaller town that Coventry. It had been the county seat at one time, hence why the office was located there.
Wicked Witches of Coventry- The Collection Page 43
