Chapter 11 #3
“That’s so crazy,” Claybourne moaned. “How do we know what they plan to attack, or what they think they will rob? And how does a five-year-old or any child help in a heist?”
“Shields. No one is going to want to hurt a child. He—or they, from what we’ve come to believe—will use the children to keep others from reaching them,” Zach said. He looked at Gavin. “You want to have a go at the driver?”
Skye knew Zach hoped Gavin would see into the man’s mind—and through him, find out what the depth of the plan had been.
“Right. Going in,” Gavin said, looking at his captain for acknowledgment.
Captain Claybourne nodded. But as Gavin stepped out of the observation room, they all saw a young policewoman who had been about to tap on the door. “They’re here, sir. The tour company owners. They’re waiting in reception.”
For a moment, they were silent. Gavin, Zach, and Skye looked at one another.
Skye felt she was useless in what they were doing here. There was nothing that she could “see” at the station that would help.
But maybe …
“Where is the trolley now?” she asked.
“Out back, in our lot,” Captain Claybourne said.
“I may see if there is anything we missed with the trolley,” she murmured, heading out the back quickly. Gavin, Zach, and the captain might glean more from the couple who owned the company, or from the man who had driven the trolley.
The trolley was lined up right behind the station, along with several patrol cars.
Skye did wonder what she thought she might get from it, but there was no way to find out until she tried.
She climbed onto the driver’s seat and closed her eyes and then opened them.
Nothing. She set her hands on the wheel and tried again.
And then she saw an event unfold. A recent event.
A different man from the driver they had known, sitting at the wheel, checking his watch, just waiting.
Then …
There was the green witch again, the damned green witch, striking the man hard over the head.
He fell forward instantly, and the green witch dragged him out and away, and then the driver they had met appeared, sliding into the driver’s seat.
Skye leapt out of the seat; they needed to find the man who was supposed to have been driving the trolley on the tour.
He’d been hit hard, but maybe …
She rushed back into the station; glad she was coming through the back. She hurried to the observation room, hoping that Zach would be there with Gavin.
They were both there, and they were alone.
She rushed in.
“He’s out there, somewhere. Wherever the trolley parks before it’s time to come in and sweep people up for the part of the tour that isn’t on foot. I mean, I think he was just thrown aside after he was attacked, but he might be alive and …”
“Near dead,” Zach said quickly. “Gavin—”
“You two go. I’ll cover it with Captain Claybourne,” Gavin promised. “We just talked to Claybourne—apparently, Laurie and Ted Sizemore are beside themselves, worried about their regular driver and grateful that nothing happened to that poor girl, who is in the hospital now. If you—”
“You believed them?” Skye asked Gavin.
He nodded solemnly. “I was watching from here, but … yes. Anyway, head out of town to the road that borders the heavily forested road out toward the Rebecca Nurse Homestead. Ted Sizemore said the trolley driver watches the time and waits off to the side of the road there until the guide calls to tell him to head into town. It’s not that big a thing, but it has about four little cars, so it needs a bit of space without messing with Salem central traffic. ”
“We’re done—we don’t have a car!” Skye said.
“I’ve got Gavin’s keys,” Zach said. “We’re borrowing his unmarked car. Let’s move!”
They headed out, Skye worried they didn’t have much to go on. “I know you can drive,” Zach said, trying to put a tiny bit of levity on the situation. “But you know what we’re looking for—I know where we might find it.”
“Sure. Whatever,” Skye murmured.
They were quiet as they headed out, but it wasn’t long before Zach said, “Just ahead. You can see where the trolley has flattened all the grass there. I’ll pull off; we’ll start looking behind the closest trees!”
“Maybe they dumped him farther, maybe—”
“Let’s be optimistic—I doubt if they bothered.
I don’t think this guy who took over knew he might be part of a murder plot.
If what he is blubbering about is true, he thought he was hired as an actor.
He thought the whole thing was kind of a show and that when the cops and ambulance came …
he panicked? True or not, I have no idea, and I don’t think Gavin was even sure.
Thing is, I don’t think there was time for anyone to do anything other than throw a body quickly in the woods. ”
“Then where did the green witch go?” Skye asked.
But Zach had parked the car and was already getting out. Skye followed, pulling out her phone flashlight to cast a glow over the trees. Zach did the same, looking at the scene for a minute, then frowning and stepping back behind a row of trees.
“Call Gavin; he has an ambulance waiting with coordinates!”
She called immediately, rushing back to find Zach.
He was on his knees in the brush, behind a large tree and a tangle of bushes. He was there with a man who was flat on his back, almost hidden by the foliage.
But she could see the bloodstain on his forehead, and she wondered desperately if an ambulance was going to happen or not.
But while not a mind reader, Zach was coming to know her. And he looked up at her and said, “He has a pulse! Skye, you might have just saved a second life in just one night!”