Chapter 20
It turned out Bonaventure Bluff just happened to be on the back end of Bonaventure Cemetery.
Wonderful.
It’s exactly what I needed. Not only was I somewhere far away from our rental after promising Reed I wouldn’t leave, but the location of my demise was a cemetery at night. Perfect. Just perfect. When they found my dead body in the morning, it would be the cherry on top of Delaney’s podcast segment.
The Bonaventure Bluff was so famous it had its own destination marker in Google Maps. Hopefully, that meant it was teeming with tourists even at the late hour. It wasn’t that late, but in April the sun left us all in darkness unreasonably early.
My Uber crossed between the two stone pillars that welcomed visitors to Bonaventure Cemetery, and the car turned right. I held my breath as we drove deeper into the cemetery.
Tall, white gravestones that shone with an eerie gray tint in the dark passed as we drove by. The metal iron gates wrapped around certain plots cast weird shadows on the narrow lanes. I had my nose to the glass window, checking out the areas for any signs of life.
“You’ll take me all the way back?” I asked as the car slowed before we reached the dot for the bluff on Google Maps.
My driver kept his foot on the brake but didn’t put the car in park. “Nope, this is as far as we’re headed. My map says we’re here.”
Here was a single row surrounded by grave plots on one side and tall trees on the other.
“This can’t be right.” I glanced through the car window and watched the Spanish moss sway in the evening’s wind.
“I can only go where the map takes me, lady,” he said, and I hesitated in the backseat.
Fine. “Thanks a lot. I guess,” I said as I stepped out of the car, and he drove forward before I had the door closed.
Great.
Now I was stranded in a deserted, haunted cemetery at night alone. I wasn’t sure the cemetery had ghosts, but it was old, famous, and in the South. Odds were in the ghosts’ favor.
The Google Map icon for Bonaventure Bluff lay straight ahead, and I took a few steps in that direction, watching myself get closer on my phone’s screen. Why couldn’t tonight be the night the locals had a cemetery festival? Where were the tourists everyone complained about?
What about all those groups of people we did paranormal investigations with? Why weren’t they here on the hunt for ghosts?
A text lit up my screen and vibrated my phone. I read it through the preview while keeping the map open—you know, just in case the bluff moved.
REED: Do not go to that cemetery!
Oops.
Now he texted. It was way too late to help me make good choices at this point. A bird screamed about something overhead, and I flinched like it might come for me.
Great, an old cemetery with ghosts and angry crows.
The night continued to get better.
My stomach twisted with stress. Maybe coming here alone wasn’t an excellent decision. I turned around, ready to walk to the front of the cemetery and call an Uber home. What a failure. I’d have to buy a new laptop, and Delaney wasn’t getting her groundbreaking case, but at least I’d be alive.
I’d pulled up the phone app to call Reed and ask for a rescue when my name came from behind me.
“Elenore?” I spun around in time to see Samantha walk around the corner. It looked like she almost magically appeared on the pebbled stone pathway. “What are you doing here? Is everything okay?”
Everything was certainly not okay, but I didn’t know how to explain that to her. I released my breath and unclenched my jaw, lowering the phone to my side.
“Hey,” I said, sounding as confused as she did. “I’m here with a tour,” I lied and pointed behind me like a group of people were waiting for me.
My phone vibrated again, and I checked for a text from Reed, but it was a call instead.
I silenced it to stay on my game. Something about Samantha looked weird, but it had to be the shadows formed from the trees as the moonlight filtered through the leaves.
If Selene didn’t kill Casey, then Samantha didn’t either.
“Oh, I saw a note at Selene’s to come here.” She glanced behind her and to the side. “I thought it was from my sister. Is she with you?”
Samantha walked to her left toward the trees on the edge of the walkway, and I followed her in that direction.
No cars were coming, but it seemed like a good idea to get off the side of the road.
My phone rang again, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Samantha.
My stomach tightened, and my throat felt clogged.
“No, I just saw your sister earlier tonight. She had luggage and said she was headed to your place,” I said.
We were under the cover of the trees now, our bodies blending in with the shadows in the night. The cemetery went creepily silent. Even the angry murder crows stopped squawking.
Samantha shook her head. “No, that’s not right. I’m at her place until she decides what she wants to do after the funeral.”
“This whole thing is weird,” I mumbled, searching the sky for the crows. Did they just leave?
She scanned the sky with me and then moved a tree branch out of the way. “Have you seen the river view from this side of the cemetery? It’s gorgeous during the day or sunsets.”
“No, but my grandma always used to say, ‘They give the best spots to the dead.’” She had a lot of hard feelings about a cemetery in our hometown that stretched out over miles of riverfront property. She also bought a plot right on top of a hill so she’d spend eternity looking out at the water.
I stepped toward Samantha with those thoughts in my head, even as alarm bells sounded in my chest. Samantha had been nothing but friendly, but as I got closer, I stopped. My legs wouldn’t force me another step and instead wanted me to run.
Samantha raised an eyebrow at me as if she read the panic in my eyes. “What’s wrong, Elenore?”
“Nothing,” I said and forced the step.
She moved out of the way, letting me peek through the trees at the rushing waters of a river below us. Maybe the killer wanted to get both of us here. If that was the case, we were in real danger. She needed to hear about the note I’d found, too.
I stepped between Samantha and the tree, no longer worried about the view. “Samantha, I have to be honest. I lied.”
“I know,” she said with an evil tilt to her smile, like it didn’t fit quite right on her face.
Her hands shot out, and she hit me in the chest. My feet slipped on the pebbled dirt, my knees hitting the ground first, and as the rocks gave way, I tumbled over the bluff’s edge. A quick scream flew from my lips, and my hands scrambled to find anything to grab.
I latched on to a deep root from one of the nearby trees to stop my fall. My body jerked against the side of the cliff, the rocks and other growth sticking me in the stomach. Small rocks fell down around me as I struggled to find another handhold.
My arm ached from the scratches of the nearby brush, but I found a small tree and held on. Wrapping my arm around the tree root, I tried to hoist myself up but only had enough strength to get my elbow over the side.
“Help me,” I called, my voice getting lost in the water’s rush below me.
“No.” Samantha laughed, the sound scratchy and cruel. “I wrote the note to get you here.”
“You killed Lisa and Casey?” I yelled.
“No! I didn’t kill Casey.” She slammed her foot on the ground near the drop, sending more rocks and dirt at me. “Lisa’s death was an accident. I had to keep her quiet before she ruined everything for Selene.”
My hand ached from holding on to the scruffy brush and the bark from the tree cut into the underside of my arm. “Because she knew?”
“Yes!” Samantha obviously wasn’t worried about being heard.
That didn’t bode well for my rescue chances.
“She found out about our father. I saw Lisa in the bathroom that night and she gloated to me about how she planned to tell Casey everything. She didn’t know my sister’s story. Who was she to judge?”
“She didn’t deserve to die over it,” I yelled, my feet slipping on the overhang as the weight from my body threatened to give me the final push over the rocks.
Samantha slammed her foot again, coming dangerously close to my arm against the tree roots. “Selene loved him. They deserved to be together, and I wasn’t letting Lisa ruin that. My big sister always took care of me, and it was my chance to repay the favor.”
“But then you killed Casey.” That was a weird way to repay your sister.
Samantha released a shrill yell and hit the ground by my hand three times with the heel of her tennis shoe. “I did not kill Casey!”
Her shoe connected with her fourth kick, striking my knuckles. I jerked my hand away from the tree, and swung it free. My feet skidded against the rock face, looking for any way to keep me up as I grabbed for something near me.
Rocks scattered around my head, the dirt sticking in my hair, but I heard his voice through it all. Like a miracle come to save me. “Put your hands up!”
“Fuck you!” Samantha screamed, turning her attention to her right. She twisted her body at the same time two shots rang out, echoing off the ridge.
Her eyes flashed with anger and in another second, her body came flying over mine as she jumped off the rocky edge and plunged into the dark waters below. The loud rush of water drowned out the sound of her splash.
“Reed!” I yelled, as I caught hold of the tree root again. “Help me!”
His stern face—he definitely didn’t look happy about this situation—peeked out over the edge and he fumbled a few inches over, reaching out for me. “Help me, Torin.”
The rocks scratched against my legs as he latched on to my upper arms and pulled me back onto solid ground. I was breathing hard as I hit the pathway, tangled up in his arms, but the tears didn’t come until he hugged me tightly to his chest.
“It was Samantha,” I said between the heavy pants.
“Yeah, we figured out that much when she tried to kill you.” He nodded and brushed a few strands of hair from my face. He helped me stand, but kept me close to him. “I can’t believe you ran off to a cemetery in the middle of the night. What were you thinking?”
My tears started fresh again as he began a much-deserved yelling session, but with one glance at my expression, he stopped mid-sentence. His stern look turned to one of concern and he all but had a smile when he leaned down and crushed his lips to mine.
“I’m not going in the drink after her,” Torin said, removing the phone from his ear as he stood next to the cliff looking over at where Samantha jumped. And completely interrupted our mind-blowing kiss.
I stepped away from Reed, but he grabbed my hand, lacing our fingers together to keep me close. “We’ll leave it to the locals.”
Two quick beeps sounded from the pocket of my spring jacket.
“Is that your phone?” Torin asked. His blond hair blew freely in the now chilly evening breeze, emphasizing his surfer appeal.
I shook my head. “No, I dropped my phone when she pushed me.”
Torin searched the ground for it as I rummaged through my pocket, finding the recorder I stashed there when I went to stop Selene from fleeing the house. “It’s the recorder’s battery dying. It’s been on this whole time.”
That meant I had her confession.
“Good job, Elenore. We might make an agent out of you,” Torin said, handing me my purple sparkly cellphone.
Reed glared at him. “Don’t encourage her.”
* At least 4 hours later. *
“You know the drill,” the detective said as he closed his notebook. He had to be tired of seeing our faces. “Don’t leave the area without talking to me first.”
I tightened the blanket wrapped around my shoulders and yawned as he walked away. “We’ll have to find a new rental.”
Reed nodded. “We can stay with Torin tonight. He’ll love the house guests.”
The second SEAL nodded. “Just don’t expect there to be food in the fridge.”
Samantha survived her jump into the river. The police picked her up further down and she’d gone to the hospital for treatment with possible hypothermia.
I smoothed out the bandage on my hand as Reed watched. He took it, brought my palm to his lips, and gave me a quick kiss. My phone beeped, and he dropped my hand so I could check it.
“I’m turning this thing off tomorrow,” I said, pulling it from my pocket. The police confiscated my digital recorder, but not before we’d gotten a download sent to my email with the last remaining remnants of the battery. “It’s from Delaney.”
I turned the phone toward Reed so he could read the email with our updated flight information for tomorrow afternoon.
He chuckled. “You’re going to have to call and let her know we’re staying in Savannah for a while.”
She would not like that.
Torin’s phone gave off a series of three beeps beside us. We turned toward him as he read it and shook his head. “Not me. I’ve got to go save that doctor in Philly.”