Chapter 13 #2
“Hey,” Zach said softly. “More quotes. Not sure where it came from but ‘a few bad eggs’ doesn’t mean your force—”
“If I’m right, it is corrupted,” Gavin told them. “And it means you might be right on several points, too. As in whoever this master is, he and his co-conspirators are planning something big. We need to figure out what it is. Okay, did Cathy give you something that we didn’t have before?” he asked.
“Cathy O’Hara went on that tour with two other girls, Sheryl Dunn and Melinda Seymour. We just discovered that Sheryl has a sister who was at a rehab, probably among those your cousin discovered that had missing people, or people who disappeared after they checked out,” Skye said.
“Makes sense,” Zach added. “If you’re creating an army of shields using pills and darkness to control them, where better to start than with a few addicts?”
“So, did you want to head out to any of the rehabs? Which one was Bella Dunn at?” Gavin asked.
“We didn’t push our luck with the O’Hara family. They were helpful enough; and when Mrs. O’Hara was on the phone with Loretta Dunn, Sheryl and Bella’s mother, the other was so distraught that … Well, she ended the call when she ended it. But—”
“I can find out,” Gavin said. “So, should we head there—”
“Here’s where we divide and conquer,” Skye said.
“You get the information on the rehab and go talk to whoever is in charge, find out anything you can about Bella Dunn—and make sure they’re telling the truth.
Zach and I will head out to the areas where we believe the witch brought Jeremy and Patricia to be picked up, and then to the place in the road where we believe Nick Sandoval was headed with Cathy and see … ” Skye trailed off, wincing.
“See if she can see the past and get a make on a car so that we can trace a person or maybe at least make a discovery on the vehicle through a traffic cam,” Zach said flatly.
Gavin smiled. “Great, all right, attacking it all from different positions. We have Vince and Connie still working with rangers; you’re on the possible escape routes; and I’ll find out if there was anyone who came to see Bella, or if she said or did anything that would point to someplace she might have gone, or someone she might have wanted to see.
Among all of us, we may get something, somewhere, that gives us a clue. ”
“Keep in touch,” Skye said, turning to head for the car.
“Will do!” Gavin called, heading for his own vehicle.
Then they were off again.
“You’ve said a couple of times you wanted to get back to the costume shop,” Zach said as he revved the car into gear.
“First, we’ll head to the road where Jeremy and Patricia were probably picked up.
Going the other way, we’ll be closer to the costume shop, and we can get more done in the least amount of time. ”
“Sounds good,” Skye said. She grimaced. “And then again, maybe I’ll see a face nice and clearly, and we won’t need to go anywhere else!”
“That’s a great ‘maybe,’” Zach told her.
She shrugged and said, “It’s beginning to make sense in an odd way.
Steal people and make them believe that even if they die, it’s going to be for a wonderful reason.
The only problem being that reason is not the great wonder and reward they’ve been led to believe exists when you battle a world that’s been tainted and controlled by the devil in the woods, but rather making a few people incredibly rich or powerful or both. ”
“And,” Zach told her, “they’ve gotten too full of themselves, pushed it too far. In all of this, there’s a mistake. And we’re going to find it.”
“Oh, speaking of which, I’m going to call Angela. Somewhere there will be a better notion if there’s going to be a huge event or a massive money exchange, or anything like that, in the Salem area,” Skye said.
“Good plan,” Zach said. “And … we’re on the road, and I believe that orange tie on the tree ahead marks the spot the rang ers and detectives determined to be the exit through the trees from the Bolton house.”
“Right. Okay, and …”
“And?”
“I was just wondering. Why kill Mike Bolton? He wasn’t even in the main house. He was too old to put up much of a fight—”
“Don’t kid yourself. I know a few people about that age who could still flatten many a younger person,” Zach said.
“But you’re right. He was in the back apartment, the in-law quarters, or whatever you call it.
The witch could have gone in the main house and gotten away with Patricia and Jeremy without Mike ever having known about it. So—”
“Maybe—despite the green makeup and costume, hat, et cetera—Mike might have recognized the person if he would have looked out a window, opened a door … done something. He was killed with drugs forced into his system, not a gun, not with a knife, not even with strangulation or suffocation,” Skye said.
“I think he might have known what was going on—and that he did what he was told to protect his grandchildren.”
“So now to add to the mix, we need to find out who was in town that Mike Bolton knew,” Zach said flatly, pulling the car over onto the embankment.
“Half of Salem, probably. He was eighty!” Skye said.
Zach nodded. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Well, we’re here. Time for you to pop out and rise and shine.”
She groaned. “Quotes and expressions! ‘Rise and shine’ is a good expression when you’re waking someone up.”
“But you must rise out of the car and let your strange talent shine.”
Still groaning, she exited the car. He did so, too, letting her sit on the hood of the car; then he stepped back and stood at a supportive distance.
The day was beautiful, and the sun shone down on the trees and the road …
She closed her eyes. She willed it to be night.
At first … she just saw cars.
She opened her eyes, closed them again, and concentrated on what she knew about little Jeremy and Patricia.
She saw the green witch in her mind’s eye …
The witch was emerging from the woods. Pushing Jeremy and Patricia ahead, toward …
A dark SUV. The automobile was coming toward her.
It was being driven by …
A witch. Someone also facially painted green, a prosthetic nose added on and wearing a pointed black hat.
The vehicle …
She needed to see the plate and the make and model of the vehicle!
She turned, trying to see as the SUV took off with its burden of people and raced past her heading toward town.
The license plate! It had been covered by mud; it was impossible to read.
Not a natural spray of mud from going through mushy ground …
No. Whoever owned the SUV had very purposely seen to it that the license plate couldn’t be read.
Her eyes flew open and she turned to Zach.
He waited for her to speak. “This was the place, all right. And I’m beginning to believe more and more that someone in law enforcement—maybe a cop, an attorney, or even a judge—might be involved. They knew to completely cover the license plate in mud.”
Zach nodded. “Of course. What kind of a vehicle?”
“Black SUV.”
“That will help on the traffic cams. Anything else. What about the driver?”
“You’re going to love it. Another wicked witch.”
“Of course. Once you turn green and have prosthetics on your face …”
“Still, if we could get a picture, a close-up of a face, maybe the facial structure could give us a person, a name—a suspect at the least.”
“Possibly. Let’s get to our next destination and see if you see the same thing, the same vehicle waiting on the road.
If it’s there waiting for any length of time, the person might have stepped out of the car—and that will give us a better idea.
In the meantime, we’ll get Angela on a search for black SUVs,” Zach said.
“Maybe we’ll add ‘dark’ to the description,” Skye said thoughtfully. “A dark car in the dark … I thought black, but maybe something in a deep, dark blue or green.”
“All right. You drive this time. I’ll call.”
She slid into the driver’s seat; the keys were in Zach’s pocket, but the car’s sensor knew they were near, and their vehicle started right up when she hit the ignition button.
She listened as he made the call, explaining to Angela what they were doing and sharing the bits of information they had gleaned.
“Can you do some deep dives on people up here, too? As in, people that Gavin works with,” Zach added on the call.
When Angela had all the information that she needed and Zach had ended the call, Skye mused, “‘A few bad eggs.’ But here is what I don’t understand—if Gavin can read minds, why hasn’t he—”
“Okay, think about it. Just because I’m holding an object, I don’t get an automatic read. Every once in a while, something just pops in, yes. But that’s rare. Usually, I need to concentrate; and from what I’ve seen, it’s the same with you.”
Skye nodded. “But, still—”
“He can’t go around to everyone in the department—and every prosecutor and defense attorney and judge—in the area and stare at them and do what he can to get a real read on them.”
“But he’s watched people from the observation room and—”
“Skye, it’s not Gavin.”
“Because you don’t want it to be Gavin?” she asked.
“Do you really think that it could be Gavin?”
She sighed, staring at the GPS in the car’s dash, following the directions Zach had fed into it.
“Skye?”
“No. No, I don’t. Because he’s been with us when a few things were happening—or, I should say, we have verified information on where he’s been at certain times. And I like him; he seems to be decent, and he’s done amazingly well without getting himself into an uncomfortable position or …”
“Being committed?”
Skye laughed softly. “Exactly. Anyway …”
“Right now, let’s keep going on what we can do that others can’t,” Zach said.
“Right. Okay … this area is bigger than one might think. When you want to be somewhere in a hurry, anyway.”
“Okay, trivia as we drive. What now-deceased but incredibly popular animator and creator was related to someone hanged as a witch?”
“What?”
“Sorry, hanged during the Salem Witch Trials.”
“Uh, which witch?” she asked.