Chapter 14 #3
“We’re hoping to save their lives, sir,” Zach said.
Claybourne looked down and mumbled, “I’m sorry. This has … this has gone beyond anything anyone might expect. But Cason and Berkley? No. They’re stable. Neither is married—or divorced. Neither is a gambler. There would be no reason for either to be involved. I’m afraid that—”
“We don’t believe that they’re dead, Captain. But we’re afraid they might be in deep hiding, and they’ve ditched their phones, lest someone manage to trace their movements,” Zach said.
That seemed to calm the man down a bit. “Please. Find them. Safely,” he said.
“Yes, Captain,” Skye said. “And thank you. We feel it’s incredibly important that the people of Salem be warned, and they not try to be heroes and accost any witches they might see on the street, but rather they should report any sightings when it is safe to do so.”
“We’ll get out of your way,” Zach said, nodding at Gavin.
Out of the captain’s office, Skye told Gavin, “We still need to talk to you.”
“Talk, please.”
“Your office?” Zach suggested.
Gavin nodded and they followed him. Once they were in his office and the door was closed, Zach asked, “What did you find out at the rehab—or the rehabs? Did you get out to them?”
Gavin nodded. “I found out that a young man named Charles Durbin managed to leave the place where he had been ordered by the courts to finish a program. They believe he hid himself in dirty sheets and escaped via a laundry vehicle. They did, of course, report it; and if Charles is found, he will go to jail. Possibly had nothing to do with the occult. The other two places—including the one where Sheryl’s sister, Bella Dunn, was working on getting and staying clean—are based on voluntary admissions.
Apparently, Bella just disappeared from the lawn one day, but they weren’t overly concerned because she’d been telling her counselor she was feeling great, and she just wanted to get out and start living her own life.
Bella did some paperwork, and probably thought that she was done, and so she walked out on the grounds and was gone. ”
“But no one has seen or heard about her since she left the rehab? What about visitors?” Skye asked.
“Yes, they were allowed visitors. But no, no one was visited by a witch with green flesh.”
“You got a list of visitors?” Zach asked.
“I did. But I’m sorry to say—it doesn’t mean much. They don’t exactly do background checks at these places. If someone had an ID, they got in with that ID,” Gavin said. “The people in charge reminded me that she was an adult with rights—and when she chose to leave, they had no right to stop her.”
“They lose someone, and it doesn’t bother them at all?” Skye asked.
“She had told her counselor she wanted to live her own life—and as much as she loved her family, there were things that she needed to do on her own. They shared her words with Bella’s parents, but … well, of course, her sister was extremely upset.”
“Do you know if Connie or Vince meant to go by any of the rehabs?” Zach asked.
Gavin shook his head. “They’ve been on the forest connection. You’re the ones who first led into the forests. Of course, we know the forests are being used as disappearing byways, but still …”
“The darkness. Yeah. Someone is dancing with the devil in the darkness,” Skye murmured. “All right, then, do you know where they were last meeting with a ranger?”
“Yeah. There’s a coffee shop, truck stop in a way, but nice, clean, even charming, really, across from an area where the state forest runs into unincorporated land. They were meeting a fellow there … Let me get my notes and I’ll give you his name.”
Gavin delved through scratch papers on his desk.
“Don’t worry, you two. I know how to use a computer.
I just jot things down when I’m not at mine.
There. They were meeting with Ranger Reggie Woodson.
Good name for a ranger, I guess. I wonder if that came into his decision to go into the woods.
Anyway, I’ll text you the name and address of the place. ”
Zach and Skye smiled grimly. “Okay, we’re going to head out there. But we will be on cell phones.”
“I’ll be attending the press conference with Captain Claybourne. Don’t worry about him. He’s a good man. This has just been … Well, he’s dealt with robberies, even a murder or two over the years, but he hasn’t dealt with anything like this. None of us have.”
“Not sure we’ve ever dealt with anything like this, either,” Zach told him.
“Nope,” Skye agreed.
“Anyway, I promise you, Claybourne will get the right things into the press conference,” Gavin said.
“Thanks,” Zach said lightly. “All right, you know how to reach us.”
“And vice versa,” Gavin said, nodding grimly.
Zach and Skye headed out.
He looked at his phone after they’d gotten into the car and found the texted address and name of the coffee shop—one that made a play on words as well: Out of the Woods Café.
“Twenty minutes in light traffic,” he told Skye.
She nodded, looking thoughtfully out the window.
“What?”
She shrugged. “I’m just curious. Connie was waiting for someone.
She saw something, or heard something, from the back of the shop that I didn’t.
The witch, I guess. And maybe she was expecting Vince, or maybe even someone else.
But maybe not someone who had dressed up in a witch costume.
Could she have been involved—and then her partner or partners started to worry we’d be onto her, and she had to be taken out? ”
“Either that or she saw the assault rifle and knew she had little chance of beating it if the witch came close enough for her to try to get off a shot.”
“Too aggravating,” Skye murmured. She was looking out the window.
“How about another quote—‘a penny for your thoughts’?”
She grinned and answered without turning to him. “Trees. Trees, trees, and more trees. And bushes. I must admit that while we live in an age that came after the Enlightenment, and we supposedly know so much more, I can see how darkness and the endless woods might influence people.”
“But now that we know that germs and bacteria and viruses cause a lot of sicknesses, we know that TB victims aren’t vampires—”
“But we still know instinctive fear,” Skye said softly.
“There’s the café—ahead on the left,” Zach pointed out, seeing its sign.
“Let’s hope it’s a café that serves good coffee,” she said lightly.
Then she frowned suddenly, closed her eyes, and blinked.
“Zach!”
“What?”
“Pull over!”
“Why? What? Did you—”
“I just saw her! I just saw Berkley run into the woods!”
“In a vision—”
“No, no, in the flesh! Zach, pull over. We must catch her!”