RAVEN'S HOLLOW (11 page)

Chapter Fourteen

“Word has it the fights at Joe’s bar got out of hand last night.” Molly picked up and shook the bottle of Tylenol on Sadie’s kitchen counter. “When all was said and done—long after midnight, I’m told—Rooney called Ty, who never showed, and reamed him out. Ty called Brady, also a no-show, and on down a twisty, turny path, until sometime around 2:00 a.m., our great-grandfather called me from the north woods. Among other things, he wants you to listen to your landline and cell phone messages more often. Same memo to Eli.... Er, where was I?”

“You lost me after ‘the fights at Joe’s bar got out of hand.’” At the table, Sadie raised her forehead from her arms. Molly had invaded her kitchen at 6:00 a.m., on her one and only day off after a night of pure hell that had not resulted in her and Eli having hot sex or even a reasonable facsimile thereof. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because Rooney’s upset that you weren’t there wearing your journalist’s hat. Your only saving grace is that he’s miffed at several of us for doing other life things when he believes we should have been drinking Joe’s gross beer and throwing up in the bathroom between bouts. Do you want coffee?’

Sadie propped her chin in her palms. “Do ravens have feathers? My guess is Joe’s was packed to the rafters, and everyone in attendance snapped a dozen or more photos with his or her phone. My assistant—” she emphasized the word “—will have plenty to choose from when she opens her morning emails.”

“I noticed you didn’t get home until close to midnight.” Molly measured out the ground beans. “Would that be Eli’s doing?”

How much should she reveal? Sadie wondered. “Eli and I had an incident on the Hollow Road. By the time we got to the Cove, we were wet and muddy and not very happy. We spent close to an hour trying to locate Ty, only to be told he was still in Raven’s Hollow. So, back we went. At a snail’s pace, though, because Eli wanted to see if he could locate his truck.”

Molly stopped her measuring spoon halfway to the machine. “Eli lost his truck?”

“Long story. Short answer? Yes. With it went my camera bag and all the pictures I’d taken of Ben Leamer’s corn maze—which I flatly refuse to walk through again after discovering a wolf spider the size of Solomon on my coat sleeve yesterday afternoon.”

“I have shots of the maze,” Molly told her. “Lots of them. In a way, you could say I helped design it.”

Sadie slid her eyes sideways and up. “Say what?”

“More accurately, I helped Brady, who helped Ben design it.” She returned to her task. “Think, Sadie. Brady’s a vet. He takes care of Ben Leamer’s livestock and pets. He spends a lot of time at the farm. Ben asked for help, Brady made suggestions and when we—Brady and I—drove into Bangor together for medical supplies, I did a little tweaking for him.” Her mouth tipped up into a rare smile. “I remember Orley smoldering over that trip, because it left her alone at the clinic. According to her, hell broke loose that afternoon, and being a complete putz at channeling her emotions, she blamed me for taking Brady away. Put another X in the ‘I hate Molly’ column. Did Eli find his truck?”

“What? No. It’s in the bog somewhere, though, has to be.”

She glanced up to find Molly gaping at her. “Why is Eli’s truck in the bog?”

“Have you ever heard of a spike strip?”

“No.”

“Picture spikes on a chain meeting tires on a road. Going back to Ben’s maze for a minute—who designed the layout of the paths?”

“I imagine Ben did. Ty warned him to keep things on the low side of terrifying, but I think Ben added a few more figures after he—Ty—did his walk-through.”

“Ty did a walk-through?”

“You sound like a broken record, Sadie.”

“I know. Why didn’t Ben tell me any of this?”

Molly’s eyebrows came together. “Because it wasn’t important?”

“Right.” Sadie regarded the hissing coffeemaker. “Right. It wasn’t—isn’t.” Was it? “I need to wake up more.” And sift and sort and process. She opted to change the subject. “Do you need help with the séance?”

“Not on the inside. You know what they say about too many cooks. But you should probably know Ty will be there. Ty—Eli.” She made a spacing motion with her hands. “I’ll seat them far apart. I was going to invite Cal Kilgore, too, but I don’t know how to reach him, do you?”

“Not without dodging bullets.” Sadie grinned. “Rooney might know.”

“Why would Rooney know how to contact a metal maker from the north woods?”

“Because being so tied up with his maze, one or two of Ben Leamer’s other ventures have been shunted to the back burner lately.”

“Are you being cryptic on purpose?”

“At six in the morning, absolutely not. Talk to Rooney.” Pushing away from the table, Sadie headed for the now-spitting machine. “Why do you want Cal at the séance, Molly?” It struck her as she reached for the pot. “Oh, damn. Tell me you’re not going to do what I suddenly have a horrible feeling you’re going to do.”

Her cousin linked and twisted her fingers. “I have to do it, don’t I? I saw the writing on your entry wall. I also heard you and Eli talking. I know what you’re thinking. What’s happening to you is a lot like what happened to Laura.” She worked up a smile. “Think of it this way. We’re making a phone call. A very long distance phone call.”

* * *

I
T
ONLY
TOOK
from predawn until noon to get his truck out of the hellhole that was Raven’s Bog. Cursing and snarling by turns, Eli inspected the scraped and dented body. But when he saw the shredded tires, it hit him what he could have lost if even one small part of last night’s horror show had gone down differently.

“I have to say, this is much worse than the tree.” Brady circled while Eli crouched to inspect the rear axle. “Is Ty looking into what happened, or are you taking it on yourself?”

“What, you think he’ll stay out of it if I ask nicely?”

“I think I don’t want to wind up in the middle of things.”

“In that case—” Ty slid down the gentlest portion of the embankment “—you should consider removing yourself right now. Arrows, Eli? Someone shot arrows at Sadie last night?”

Eli regarded him from the ground. “That was act two, Ty. The first was even more fun.”

“Right, the spike line.” He made a show of searching the ground. “Funny, I don’t see one lying around anywhere, but your tires are screwed, I’ll give you that.”

Shaking his head in mild amusement, Brady leaned on the banged-up box. “Don’t mind me. I’ll just stand here and try to figure out what I’m going to tell Rooney when he blasts me again for not showing up at the fights last night.”

In spite of everything, Eli could still chuckle. “Consider yourself lucky. I got my encore blast before I was fully awake.”

Ty’s eyes shot hot spikes. “And just where were you, cousin, when this encore blasting occurred?”

“Where you probably think,” Eli returned. “Or close to it.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Oh, come on, Ty,” Brady called out. “You’re not dense. He was at Bellam Manor, but not in Sadie’s bed. At least not when he talked to Rooney.”

Eli wiped his hands on an old rag. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

Brady shrugged. “Fair’s fair. I had to euthanize a sixteen-year-old Lab late yesterday afternoon. I need some enjoyment. Having said that, I’ll do what I can to make Brick’s tow truck work for me. Just remember, hauling’s not my strong suit.”

Ty’s scowl became a sneer. “Couldn’t get either one of the Majerki brothers to help you, huh?”

Eli tossed the rag. “Is that the burning question, or would you rather have the details on my night at Bellam Manor?”

Ty’s neck went red. “I don’t see a tail and long ears, so neither of the resident witches turned you into a donkey. Sadie’d say anything else was between you and her. Speaking of, is she someplace safe?”

“She’s at the manor with Molly.”

“Who’s not exactly a ninja. Do you ever think of anyone but yourself?”

“About as much as you do. It’s covered,” he said before his cousin could protest further. “She’s safe.”

“Guess I’ll have to take that on faith.”

“Guess you will.”

Ty showed his teeth. “Where’s the spike chain?”

“Long gone, unless whoever planted it is a complete fool. Not very likely.”

“Sloppy’s been known to happen in cases like this.”

“Yeah? How many cases like this have you known?”

His cousin moved a shoulder. “I poked into Laura’s death some after I came to the office.”

“And?”

Ty’s grin fell just short of feral. “If I told you that, you’d have nothing to challenge your slick investigative skills, would you?”

“Sounds like he turned up a big fat zero to me.” Brady used the heavy lift chain to get Eli’s vehicle airborne. “Is a spike line what it sounds like?”

“Pretty much.” Eli’s stomach clenched when the hoist bobbled and almost dropped his truck back into the bog. “Know anybody who has one?”

“No, but Ben Leamer’s got a long, spiky, rake-like thing out at his farm.”

Ty snorted. “Why would old Ben want to wreck Eli’s truck?”

“Just answering the question.” Brady disengaged the safety chain. “Ben’s whatever-it-is is the only object I can think of that’s got the potential for a wicked bite.”

“Unless you count Rooney’s signature tea.” Eli hopped onto the flatbed. “Let’s get this done, okay?”

Leaving Brady to secure the front of the vehicle, he worked on the back while Ty strode around and did his best to be a complete ass.

Would he be an ass if their situations were reversed? Eli wondered. And he had to admit that, yeah, he might.

“Is this Sadie’s?” Fighting the door open, his cousin reached for a mud-encrusted black leather bag. “Unless I’m wrong and it’s yours, I hope there was nothing important inside.” He unzipped it to rummage through the contents. “Camera, lenses, iPad, shorthand notes—all dry and unbroken.” His smile could have cut glass. “Lucky her.” He kicked the dented door as closed as it would go. “Not so lucky you. Go long, Lieutenant.”

Eli nabbed the bag halfway to the slimy water. “Nice of you to zip it back up.”

“Nice isn’t what I’m feeling at the moment. In fact, what I’m feeling is in the mood to participate in one of those borderline legal fights Rooney is forever arranging behind my back. Problem is, we’re nowhere near Two Toes Joe’s bar.”

Eli glanced into the camera bag. “Mud works for me.” He rezipped as he spoke and only looked down again when the teeth snagged. The corner of a folded paper stuck out, but it wasn’t until he drew the pull tab back and spied the red lettering that his blood ran cold.

Ty’s voice faded to an irritating buzz. Freeing the caught corner, Eli removed a sheet of paper that ran a full two feet in length. The words slashed across it were like acid in his system.

While the man’s away

The monster can play.

* * *

“W
HY
DOES
THIS
monster hate me so much? Or at all? Because it can’t control the side of itself that’s got a weird obsession with me?” Sadie dipped under a low branch in the woods near Bellam Manor. “We need to find hawthorn leaves.”

“Let me know when we do.” Eli held the branch up. “Jealousy’s not uncommon with a split personality, Sadie. One side often wants what the other side has.”

“Yes, but that’s not the case here, is it? The nonmonster doesn’t actually have. He only wants.”

“And the monster doesn’t want the nonmonster to get. Simple solution? Eliminate the prize.”

Sadie studied Molly’s wish list for the séance. Bendable willow branches, wild lavender, fennel, thyme and rosemary from the old garden. “The writing didn’t change, Eli. The paper was long and folded, like the one Laura found in her gym bag, but the writing in my message was consistent. Creepy, but consistent. Theory?”

“Cal’s trying to throw us off track.”

Stepping into an overgrown herb garden outside the original Bellam graveyard, she snipped some thyme, sniffed the leaves and dropped them into a paper bag. “Then why did Cal tell us he was ambidextrous? He didn’t have to. Obviously, the police missed that fact during their investigation into Laura’s death.”

“Obviously, the police were out of their depth and received very little peripheral help when it came to Laura’s case.”

She tilted her head. “Hate to point this out, Lieutenant, but you’re not receiving any peripheral help, either. Or looking to bring any in as far as I can tell.”

The gleam in his eyes made her breath hitch in a ridiculously exciting way.

“One click of a computer key, and I have a wealth of information at my fingertips. The trick is to sort through the clutter until you hit pay dirt. The coroner’s report on Laura’s homicide said she was struck from behind by a left-handed person.”

“Meaning she felt comfortable enough to turn her back on the killer?”

“Or she was forced to turn it. Left-handed’s the gold, Sadie.”

“Yes, I got that.” She sighed. “And now you’re going to ask me how many of the men I’ve interacted with between the Hollow and the Cove are left-handed. My answer is, not Ty.”

“Not Brady, either.”

She laughed. “Well, hell, Eli, I can hardly read what Brady writes with his right hand.” She paused midsnip. “Wait a second. Rewind. You think Brady could have a monster living inside him?”

“Brady, Two Toes Joe, Brick from the tow yard, his brother, one of Ty’s deputies.”

She cut a sprig of lavender, but instead of bagging it, she stood, twirled the stem in her fingers and strolled slowly toward him. “That’s quite the voice you have there, Lieutenant Blume. Of experience, I mean.” Touching her tongue to her upper lip, she dropped her gaze for a meaningful second. “It’s very—sexy.”

His eyes caught and held hers. “You had to know my last relationship didn’t work out well on either side.”

She hooked a finger in his waistband. “Gathered that.”

“I almost hurt someone I cared about.”

And tugged. “Almost being the operative word.”

“I’m not going to do the same thing to you.”

“I’m not going to let you do the same thing to me—whatever it is or was.” Reaching for his oh-so-tempting mouth, she asked, “Any more pointless objections?”