Chapter 15
J amie and the other adults sat on the front deck of Neamh amongst the shadows of the flickering candles and lanterns. The flagstone path to the deck was lighted with pumpkins. Grotesque turnip heads the kids had painted green were hanging from the rafters of the deck above them and on the porch posts. Leaves scattered and swirled on the lawn in the middle of the circle drive as the naked black limbs of trees dipped and swayed in the moonlight like faceless, sinuous, figures.
There were little tables scattered around the immediate area and on the front deck for easy reach. They were filled with snacks and pastries Corey had insisted on helping Lucerne bake for his parents visit.
Delilah was Corey’s almost constant companion during the evening, helping to refill trays and bringing drinks outside. Jamie thought more than once that the kids seemed to be up to something. Just what that would be, he didn’t have a clue.
Darro had declared adamantly that the front door would remain closed this year, and no amount of persuasion from Corey would change his mind. If their relatives wanted to visit and have a bite to eat, they could do it on the front porch with the rest of the family. No one needed to be inside where three greats Uncle Albert, known for his crazy mischief, might do something strange. Corey had accepted that with wide eyes.
Some of the hands had been kept around overnight and the station was still on a yellow alert status. The men would take turns coming in pairs for something to snack on and to drink while they kept Neamh under guard.
Pauley leaned over and whispered to Jamie. “Does it seem like yer grandchildren are up to mischief?” she asked. “I’ve had three bairns and I know that I’ve-got-a-secret look if I’ve ever seen one.”
“Ye noticed it too?” Jamie asked with a grin. “I’ve only got Lucerne, but I’ve seen her with her cousins a time or two. The outcome was usually a prank on someone.”
“Why do these trays keep going empty?” Lucerne suddenly complained after reaching for a biccie on the small table between her and Angus’s chair and found nothing but crumbs. She eyed Angus. “Are ye hoarding biccies for the barn, Angus? Because I can always make more for ye tomorrow.”
Angus’s eyebrows shot up. “Nay, lass, I’ve only eaten two biccies and a slice of apple pie,” he protested. “And they weren’t from this tray.” He waved his hand at the tray between them.
“I’ve got some over here, Lucerne,” Darro inserted, reaching for the table beside him without looking. He suddenly stilled, frowned, then looked to his right in disbelief. “There were six chocolate biccies here just seconds ago,” he said, scratching his head. He too, stared at Angus. “Even Angus doesn’t have arms that long, and it’s been ten minutes since any of the hands have been in.”
Little Corey looked around from his seat on the first deck step, his eyes shining in the moonlight. “It must be Papa Darro,” Corey toned in a low spooky voice. “Ye said he loved chocolate biccies, right, Mum? We baked some just for him.”
Lucerne cleared her throat uneasily. “Uh...aye...we did, Corey.” She glanced at Darro and shrugged her shoulders.
“Hey, what happened to the lemon frosted sugar biccies?” Dal complained from the dimly lit area on the right side below the deck. “I came to get some fer me, Luca and Belton and there’s nothing left.”
Lucerne tried to stand up. “I’ll go get some more from the kitchen,” she replied, holding her belly with one hand.
Darro put his hand on her forearm. “Nay, lass. Dal can go in and get some biccies. And while he’s there, he can put some more on this tray. It’s a good thing we are only staying out here until midnight. I don’t think we have much food left. I’ve had about enough of All Hallow’s Eve for one year.”
Jamie knew Darro had only done the whole leaving food out thing for Corey. His nephew had agreed, in compromise, that the doors and windows would stay closed. After what they had all been through this evening, and what they had seen in the woods, none of the adults were really interested in celebrating anything, especially spirits visiting their progeny. If not for the childish laughter of the kids, it would indeed be a morose, edgy evening.
“It is a puzzle,” Poppy agreed, peeking around Angus to look at Lucerne. “I went in a few minutes ago to get some cherry pie and it was half eaten already. I didn’t think we’d cut it yet. Ye don’t suppose...”
Her words drifted off and all the adults looked at each other and shivered. No one wanted to put into words what they were thinking.
Darro glanced back at the front door with a frown.
Jamie knew it had opened once on its own. Rather mysterious, but they had put it down to the wind and someone not getting it shut good when they went in and out. He couldn’t help the goosebumps raising on his skin and glanced at his watch. Only 15 more minutes until midnight.
He and Pauley were spending the night at Neamh. Pauley didn’t want to leave Luca, a situation he could fully understand, but he didn’t want to sit out here with the spirits for much longer either.
Henry and Pete were coming up the main driveway and making their way around to the left side of the deck to the fruit table, but when they got there, Henry frowned. He looked up at Lucerne and Darro. “What happened to the melons? There are several slices that look half eaten and dropped on the ground.”
“At least there are some strawberries and blackberries left,” Pete replied, grabbing a handful in one hand and shoving them in his mouth.
Darro frowned and walked over to the side of the deck to look down. “Now that’s a waste of food,” he growled, looking around suspiciously. “I know for a fact that my ancestors would no waste food. Anyone else’s that might?” He looked around at everyone and Jamie shook his head along with the rest of them. Darro’s gaze narrowed and finally settled on Corey, who was staring out into the darkness and ignoring Henry and Pete.
“Corey? Do ye know where Delilah is? She’s usually right next to ye, but I haven’t seen her since she went to the loo over 15 minutes ago. Maybe ye had best go check on her.”
“Aye, sir,” Corey replied a little too eagerly and raced into the house, slamming the door behind him.
Darro motioned to Henry and Pete. “Ye lads get those tables up here onto the deck. All hands are welcome to anything left, but most of us are going into the house. I’ll be out later to make rounds and check on ye. Keep me informed if anything unusual happens.”
“Aye, sir,” Henry and Pete both chorused together. “Dibs on the chocolate biccies, Pete,” Henry enthused. “I haven’t had one yet.”
“Well, good luck with that,” Darro replied, disgruntled as he helped Lucerne out of her chair. “At the rate things are disappearing, the spirits must be hungry this year, or this strange evening just keeps getting weirder.”
Jamie glanced uneasily at Pauley. Could the kids be messing with the food? And if so, why?
Then the hair on the back of his neck shot straight up when the sudden sound of banshee wails erupted into the night air. Everyone on the deck froze. Jamie’s heart caught in his throat as the wails and following maniacal laughter slowly died off.
All the women shrieked and Lucerne’s hand flew to her throat. “W-what was that?” she stuttered, turning as pale as a sheet. Her knees started to buckle under her and Darro cursed and picked her up.
“Angus, the door please,” he nodded towards the door and Angus rushed to open it so Darro could take Lucerne in and lay her on the sofa while everyone else rushed in behind them and slammed the door shut.
“Cripes,” Angus swore, taking Poppy, who appeared to be hyperventilating, into his arms. “Easy breaths, lass. Deep breath in, let it out slowly. Do ye need yer spare inhaler from the kitchen.”
Poppy shook her head and held her hand up as she steadied her breathing. “I-I’ll be alright...just s-scared the living crap out of me,” she gasped.
“Aye, it set my hair on end too,” he agreed.
“Are ye alright, honey?” Darro’s dark eyes caressed Lucerne while his big hand gently rubbed her tummy in soothing motions.
“I-I think so,” Lucerne was trembling and taking deep breaths. “The baby was kicking pretty rough, but he seems to have calmed down some now. What was that scream, honey? It was terrifying, especially on a night like tonight. Is that what ye heard in the barn earlier?”
“Nay, not quite the same,” Darro growled. “Someone’s been up to mischief tonight, I’m thinking, and I intend to find out who the culprit is. If Dal has been playing tricks again, I’ll flay him alive for this one.”
The fact that no one objected to his threats with the horsewhip was a true measure of how spooked they had all become on this crazy evening.
***
S EEING THE LORD OF the manor on his knees beside his wife caused a lump in Pauley’s throat. The expression of concern on Darro’s face was very touching. She turned in Jamie’s protective arms and her eyes narrowed as she took a flashlight out of her bag and motioned him to follow her.
“Are ye thinking what I’m thinking?” she asked once they were outside.
Jamie nodded with a frown. “Aye. I can see Darro is thinking it too, but in this case, I don’t believe Dal is the culprit. Come on.”
They made their way outside and around the house to Delilah’s bedroom window. It was still slightly open, as if the would-be saboteur failed to get it completely closed. The filmy curtains were moving gently in the breeze and Pauley slowly lifted the window. The argument of the children became loud enough for them to hear what they were saying.
“Dee, ye are ruining everything,” Corey complained to Delilah, who was unbuttoning a dark cloak from around her. “I wanted to see Mum and Dad tonight, but they never visited. And now we’ll have to go to bed.”
“Don’t be such a whiney baby, Corey,” Delilah scolded, pulling the cloak off and taking off her black cap. “The spirits don’t really visit on All Hallow’s Eve,” she informed him loftily. “That’s just an old fairy tale passed down through the years. Scotland is full of them. Even the Ghillie Dhu isn’t real. They just say that so we won’t go into the woods at night,” she scoffed.
“Well, ye made Mum scream, and the others too. What if it hurts the baby?” he wailed plaintively. “Uncle Darro looked really mad when I peeked around the corner of the hallway before ye climbed back in the window.”
“I don’t care,” Delilah replied, her face sullen as she flopped back on the bed.
“What if he finds out we did it?” Corey sniffled. “We’ll be in so much trouble. We might be grounded forever.”
“Ye better not tell him,” Delilah yelped fiercely, sitting up and shaking her fist at Corey.
“But...”
“Go on, Corey, just go to yer own room,” she demanded, jumping off the bed and opening the bedroom door. “Just leave me alone and keep quiet. No one will ever know.”
Pauley studied her small, unhappy face. Something was certainly up with the normally sweet-tempered child. They both started when Dal’s excited voice drifted out of the gloomy darkness from the direction of the front deck.
“Hey, Luca, look what I found.”
Dal sounded so excited that Pauley eased the window down quickly and they hurried towards the front to see the lad crawling out from beneath the crawlspace of the deck.
“It’s a recording of the banshee, right?” Luca replied, taking the small cassette player from Dal and inspecting it in the moonlight. “I knew it had to be something like that.”
“Don’t play that again,” Pauley instructed fiercely, watching them jump as she and Jamie materialized out of the shadows of the house.
Luca frowned. “Are ye kidding, Mum? None of us are in the mood for pranks after what happened earlier. And after what ye found in the woods, we are even more on edge. Me and Dal keep moving around just to make sure no one is sneaking up on us,” he confessed. “I don’t think I’ll be getting much sleep tonight. I just hope it will all be over with by tomorrow.”
“May I see that?” Jamie asked Luca, holding his hand out.
Luca handed the player over to Jaimie. “I was going to give it to Darro, but I guess ye can do that.”
“I think I know who this belongs to, so don’t say anything yet, please,” Jamie replied, slipping it into his jacket pocket.
Luca and Dal glanced at each other and shrugged. “Whatever ye say,” Dal replied.
They all looked up when the front door suddenly opened and Angus and Darro came striding out, their faces like thunder.
“Dal,” Darro barked, “I want to speak to ye, young man.”
“Aye, sir,” Dal replied smartly, jogging around to the deck steps as the two men thumped down them with an intimidating tread.
“Have ye been up to pranks tonight?” Darro thundered, his hands on his hips.
Dal’s eyes opened wide and he held his hands up as if warding him off. “Me? Of course not, sir. This night has been bad enough, no one is in the mood for pranks.”
“Do ye know anyone who has?” Angus growled. “This last one brought on an asthma attack fer Poppy and scared Lucerne’s baby, and we ain’t taking that kindly.”
The two young lads glanced sideways at Jamie and shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other.
Pauley took pity on them. “The lads are nae involved in these pranks, Darro, but we believe we know who is.”
Jamie took the recorder out of his pocket and handed it to Darro. “Dal found this under the deck, and I asked him to give it to me. I know who the culprit is, but I didn’t want to explain until everyone had a chance to cool off. Ye and Angus are both very angry right now and that’s completely understandable. But ye need a chance to settle down.”
Angus’s eyes narrowed at the cassette player and his lips thinned, but Pauley could see the steam drifting away. He knew who it was too.
Darro’s anger seemed to cool as well as he studied the cassette player. Finally, he sighed deeply. “Aye, ye are right. I know exactly who this belongs to, and I do need to take a few minutes before I confront the culprit.”
Luca shot Dal a side eye. “Well, we are headed for the bunkhouse to join Belton. Joe and Bubs are on guard and might play some cards with us.”
“Aye, lads,” Darro murmured. “Watch yerselves now. Stay out of sight as much as possible.” He headed back into the house with Angus following.
Pauley watched as the two young men moved furtively away, keeping to the shadows. Her lips tightened as she glanced at her watch. Six hours until dawn.
Jamie reached for her hand and took her back to the deck where he sat down in one of the stuffed rockers and pulled her down into his lap to snuggle with her.
She looked at her watch. “No word from Mica. I wonder if Brodie is out of surgery yet?”
“Now that we are alone, care to tell me what really happened between ye and Brodie Macalister?” he murmured in her ear. “From the way ye speak of him, ye’d just as soon he didn’t wake up.”
Pauley sat up straight. “I’ll tell ye if ye tell me what ye were staring at just before we left Kelly Woods.”
Jamie was silent for a moment, then he ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “It was my brother. He said if I’d leave the house open on All Hallow’s Eve, he wouldn’t have to visit me in haunted places.”
Pauley’s mouth dropped open. “For real?” she finally asked, tucking her hair behind her ear on one side.
“I know it sounds like I’ve lost my mind, but ye asked.”
Pauley studied the sincerity and the grim humor in his eyes. “There is obviously much more to this story, but given the circumstances in which we find ourselves, I don’t want to know right now.” She shivered and looked around.
It was very still except for the tree frogs chittering in the brush and trees. They gave off a low rhythmic trill in the night air. The lights on the deck had been turned off. Not to discourage insects or trick-or-treaters, of which there weren’t many of either at Neamh for different reasons, but to make it harder for anyone to find a shot unless they had night vision binoculars. The moon was almost full though, giving everything an unearthly glow in the moonlight. In this type of atmosphere, a person could almost believe in anything they saw. And be more likely to believe they saw things that weren’t really there.
“It’s yer turn, lass.”
Pauley settled back down into the curve of Jamie’s arm and rested her cheek on his chest. It was warm with his arms around her and she felt safe and at home. “Brodie didn’t want me for a partner from the beginning,” she confessed. “He was the senior officer by time, but not by rank, and it made him angry when I questioned his decisions. We were only partners for a year, but I knew from the beginning that he had lofty goals.”
She was silent for a moment as she thought back to that time. “One night we were chasing a young thug, a possible gas station thief, into an alley. We finally stopped him when he reached the end and there was no place left to run. He couldn’t have been more than about seventeen or so. Brodie made me go back to the car and get his handcuffs. I offered mine, but he said no, he wanted his because it was his collar.
By the time I got back, the young thug was bent over gasping for air, and blood was running down his face from a cut on his cheek. He gasped in pain when Brodie grasped his arm and swung him around to cuff him.
“He beat the kid?” Jamie asked, his eyebrows climbing.
“I asked what happened, and Brodie said the kid tried to escape and he had to subdue him. The lad called him a liar and spat in Brodie’s face, so he backhanded him and gave him a black eye. I was also furious because I thought I had seen the flash of brass knuckles just as I rounded the corner of the alley. He had no marks on his hands, so how did he beat the kid up like that?”
“Good question.”
“I found out later that the kid had been transferred from jail to the hospital with broken ribs, and that he wasn’t the thief. I was furious, imagining if one of my kids were to get into trouble and run into a cop like Brodie. I reported him to Quinn, but I didn’t have any proof. It was the kid’s word against Brodie’s.”
“At least ye reported him so Quinn could keep an eye on him,” Jamie growled.
“He didn’t like that I reported him,” Pauley mused. “We were on a stakeout a few days later in a part of town that isn’t the safest, and he came on to me. Told me how much he liked me and wanted us to work together against the low-life punks who were selling drugs in Inverness. I told him in no uncertain terms that I was no interested in a man like him, and we didn’t have the same ethics in our style of police-work. He called me soft and told me that women in the police force were only good for one thing, and that was being the supportive part of the partnership, and the entertainment on boring stakeouts.
It didn’t take a genius to figure that one out when he tried to kiss me,” she added dryly. “I said no and shoved him away. Then I got out of the car and the bastert drove away and left me alone in that part of town.”
“Cripes, Pauley,” Jamie swore.
She grinned. “Not that I couldn’t handle myself, but the odds were against me when the house we were staking out suddenly spit out three young gang members and they surrounded me on all sides.”
“Did ye call fer help?”
“I did. I called Mica while they stood there and just watched me. It was weird that they didn’t try to stop me. I was sweating bullets, trust me.
Then the biggest man I think I’ve ever seen walked out and asked me if I was Brodie Macalister’s partner. I said aye, although I was shaking in my boots. Then he thanked me for reporting Brodie’s abuse of his younger brother. He told me to find another partner or I might end up in a dark alley dumpster someday.”
“The hell ye say,” Jamie exclaimed. “The man threatened ye?”
“Nay, he was warning me about Brodie. Conan, that was his name, asked me why I was staking them out which led to him telling me who the real perpetrators were. Mica and I were able to get information on the rival gang who were trying to set Conan up for the burglaries of some warehouses at the time. Which really irritated Brodie to no end.”
“So, yer good deed was rewarded and Brodie ended up with egg on his face. I like it,” Jamie declared. “But I don’t like it that he left ye there alone. It could have been a completely different ending.”
“True,” she confessed. “But as ye can see, I’m no wasting tears on him at the moment. I never trusted him after that night, and even though I reported him to Quinn, it was still my word against his. Especially since he never actually touched me. Quinn wrote him up for leaving his partner in a known dangerous area, but it was just a slap on the hand. It did however, bring unwanted attention to Brodie and his activities which he wasn’t happy about. He was much more careful around me, and was always slipping away on his own. Most of us were glad to see the back of him when he left.”
Jamie grunted. “Which is why ye were so angry when ye found out he’d recruited Luca for his CI. Knowing Luca was being used by a man like that would be infuriating.”
Pauley nodded. “Exactly. I wouldn’t put anything past him at this point. I’m just shocked that Juice and Florence were involved. Especially Juice. How much Florence actually knows remains to be seen.”
Angus and Darro walked out of the door at that moment. “Still spooning on the front deck?” Angus teased.
“Just talking,” Jamie replied with good humor. “What are ye two doing?”
“Heading out on rounds,” Darro replied. “Checking on the teams to make sure everything is as it should be. I don’t know if this uneasy feeling I have is just from this whole night’s events, or something else is brewing in the air.”
“Aye,” Pauley said. “All Hallow’s Eve is a tough night fer law enforcement. It’s a time when instinct and atmosphere collide, and ye can’t be sure which is causing yer suspicious nature to go into overdrive.”
After the men left, Pauley shot Jamie a side eye. “How would ye like to go on a stakeout with me?” she asked, her eyes gleaming.
Jamie’s eyebrows started their usual ascent. “Sounds interesting. What did ye have in mind?”
Her fingers tiptoed across his chest. “How about the hayloft?”
“The hayloft? It’s been a long time since I had a lass in the hayloft,” he teased. “Do we need to bring anything on a stake out? I think we’ve been cleaned out of biccies and pastries unless we could find Delilah’s stash. For all I know though, she may have thrown it away.”
Pauley chuckled and stood up. “Just a thermos of coffee, a blanket, and some high-powered night vision binoculars.”
Jamie grabbed her hand and pulled himself up. “The hot coffee and a blanket I can get my hands on, not sure about the binoculars.”
“I’ve got the binoculars covered, I always carry a mini pair in my bag,” she replied, digging in her shoulder bag and producing them.
Jamie inspected them. “Is this standard issue? It looks too professional to be, but ye never know.”
“Nay, of course not,” she scoffed. “I just like to be prepared, especially since most stakeouts are at night.”
“Is yer gut still telling ye more trouble is coming?” Jamie asked, looking around.
Pauley considered his question. “Not exactly,” she hedged. “I guess I’m like Darro at the moment. I don’t feel a sense of urgency, just uneasy. It’s hard to identify exactly where it’s coming from on a night like tonight. Ye wouldn’t believe the stories that come in from the road constables on All Hallow’s Eve. The streets are like a different world, and the citizens are completely crazy with all kinds of reports. It can be very difficult to discern what’s real and what isn’t when they report some of the things they’ve seen.”
Jamie nodded. “I can believe that. It’s been crazy around here, and I’m already wondering if my senses haven’t been playing tricks on me. But since ye are obviously in no mood to sleep, and neither am I, let’s get yer stakeout going. Mayhap we can find something to pass the time in between surveying the landscape.”
“Like what?”
“How long has it been since ye had a tumble in the hayloft?” he teased, waggling his eyebrows.
Pauley’s chin lifted and sparks lit up her eyes. “If it was any night but tonight, I’d take ye up on that, Mr. MacNamara.”
He waggled his finger at her and tsked. “I already know one activity we’ll be engaged in. Ye forgot my name again so ye’ll need a reminder.”
“I deny that,” she protested. “Don’t ye remember that when someone uses yer full name ye might be in trouble? When my dad used to call me Pauley Sueann MacBride, I knew I was in fer a lecture, or maybe more.”
“Ye didn’t use my whole name though,” Jamie pointed out with his evil grinchy grin. “Ye just wanted to see if I was paying attention.”
Pauley huffed, but her lady parts were already warming up. She didn’t know whether to be glad he knew that, or be forewarned.
She could do with a bit of slap and tickle, anything besides this suspended in the macabre feeling. It was as if everything, human, animal, and nature alike, were all holding their collective breath.
Just waiting.