RAVEN'S HOLLOW (6 page)

Orley stabbed a finger. “That is a gonna-get-you threat, Sadie.”

“I know what it is.”

She also knew—though she wasn’t sure how she heard it over the roar of blood in her head—that her phone was ringing.

With the card and envelope in one hand, she slid the fingers of her other into her jeans pocket.

Orley read the screen over her shoulder. “Bob’s Cleaning Service?”

Eyes still fixed on the effigy, Sadie hit Speaker. “What is it, Bobby?”

“So sorry, my love, but I borrowed your janitor’s phone.”

The computer voice hit her like a physical blow—until she pictured the gray-haired cleaning man who’d given her gumdrops as a child. “Where’s Bobby?” she demanded, ignoring Orley’s attempts to mime a message. “What have you done to him?”

“I don’t hurt old men, Sadie. I simply borrowed—well, stole—his phone.” A long pause preceded a raspy “I know you got my message.”

Sadie executed a warier circle this time. “Which one?”

“The card with the heart.”

He was here, she realized. He was watching.

A sudden horrible thought occurred. “Where’s Ben Leamer?”

“Sleeping. Soundly.”

“You knew I’d go into the maze when he didn’t show.”

“Hoped,” the caller replied. “Saw. Used the opportunity.”

“How long have you been following me?”

“Long enough to know you’re not...alone.”

Orley’s fingernails bit into her arm. “We need to get out of here.”

Still searching the stalks, Sadie managed a steady “What do you want me to do?”

Even disguised, the unexpected pain came through. “I want you not to break my heart. I want you to care. I want you to please, please not wake the monster!”

Chapter Nine

By Eli’s estimation, less than a quarter of his attention was focused on the task at hand. Not the ideal scenario for someone using a chain saw to cut up a fallen tree.

His cousin Brady, who operated the Raven’s Hollow Veterinary Clinic, had come and gone three times in the past two hours. Each time he reappeared, he had a more powerful saw in the back of his battered Ford truck.

“This could be the best cutter in the county.” Hopping up into the box, he shifted the tool so Eli could view the massive blade. “Problem is, Paul Bunyan’s not here to operate it, and I’ve never used anything this big before.”

The tow truck driver, a beefy man with nervous eyes, slapped his gloves on his thigh. “Might be two could lift the thing. Eli?”

“Pass. I’m not eager to hack off a foot. Midsized version works for me.”

Brady hunkered down. “What we need is a plow horse.”

“What we need is an ox.” With all four of his wheels intact, Eli tossed a chain around a freshly cut section of pine and fastened it to his winch. “All we have to do until the road crew arrives is make an opening wide enough for an emergency vehicle to get through.”

The driver from Cove Towing made an anxious sweep of the woods. “Not sure I wanna picture emergency vehicles when I’m standing in the middle of the hollow. Lots of folks hereabouts swear this is a haunted place, and near the bog most of all.”

Eli tugged on the chain to secure it. “You’re letting Rooney’s wild stories get to you, Brick.”

“Nothing wild about your stepsister’s death. A believer would say there’s possession involved. The guy she dumped two weeks before had Blume blood.”

Brady glanced at Eli. “The guy she dumped also had an alibi for the time of the murder.”

“Yeah, but who gave him that alibi? His own ma, that’s who.”

Rain began to spit from a nasty-looking sky. Eli figured they’d be soaked in a minute whether he pursued this or not. “Her ex’s name was Cal Kilgore, Brick.” He turned to his cousin. “Is Cal still in the Cove?”

“More out than in,” Brady told him. “He built a cabin in the north woods and got himself a forge. Last I heard, he was making specialized metal products and selling them to a wholesale outfit in Bangor.”

“How often do you see him?”

“Three times in the last fifteen years. And not much more than that before he left town. He was older than Laura by about five years, so that’d put him around forty-two these days.”

Interesting, Eli reflected. Not necessarily relevant, but worth a back-check.

He heard a squawk from the tow truck, which signified an incoming call, and noted the instant expression of relief on Brick’s face. “Looks like we’re about to lose some of our muscle.”

Dragging on a rumpled jacket, Brady grinned. “Happens a lot in this spot.” He nodded at the tree. “You can tell me to mind my own, but seeing as your truck was stuck on the Cove side, how is it you wound up spending the night in the Hollow?”

Eli drew off his work gloves. “It’s a long story. Short version, I hitched a ride with Sadie.”

His cousin’s brown eyes registered surprise. “Sadie was out on this spit-slick road in last night’s storm? Why?”

“She got a crank call at the newspaper. It pissed her off.”

“That’d make sense if Ty’s office wasn’t in exactly the opposite direction from the one she must have been taking.”

“Think it through, Brady.”

“Just did. Clever avoidance of an ex.” He sighed when Brick waved an arm out his window and roared off. “As predicted, there goes a third of our muscle. Do you hear a siren?”

“Yep.”

Brady tucked his wire-rimmed reading glasses inside the jacket and murmured a semi-amused “Let the fireworks begin.”

With his more ornery cousin still a good distance away, Eli returned to his truck and used its mechanical muscle to drag a large branch off the road.

The prospect of a second confrontation with Ty didn’t bother him. But spending the better part of the morning with his mind caught between a threat and a kiss? That just plain sucked. It also irritated him that not one but both things scared the hell out of him.

He’d tried for a relationship once, with an entertainment journalist...and where in hell had that disaster of a memory crawled in from? She’d messed up; then he’d messed up, and they’d both paid the price for it. End of nightmare.

Eli squeezed his truck through the new opening and was prepping the chain again when Ty squealed to a halt. Surly and spoiling, he strode over to plant his booted feet less than eighteen inches from where his cousin crouched.

“Problem?” Eli asked, not looking up.

“You didn’t leave the damn bird.”

“Yeah? Where was I supposed to leave the damn bird, Ty? On your desk in an unlocked police station?”

“Raven’s Hollow isn’t the back of beyond. We have an evidence room with an automatic lock.”

“Right.” Now he looked up. “Did you expect me to shoot out the lock to gain access to the room? You left before us, Chief, and street-entrance dead bolts only work with keys—which I didn’t have. Next accusation?”

Ty widened his stance. “Do you want it in the face or the stomach?”

Perfect, Eli thought, and stood. “You want to fight me? Here? Now?”

“What he wants,” Brady put in from a wise distance, “is a free shot. My advice? Take it in the stomach. He’s got a tricky uppercut.”

Rain had begun to dribble past the collar of Eli’s jacket. That, combined with a petulant wind and his deteriorating mood, made the prospect of a good fistfight more appealing than it might otherwise have been.

Still, he was a cop, and trained to defuse volatile situations rather than encourage them. “Do you really think physical’s the way to go here, Ty?”

“What I think,” his cousin snapped, “is that you’ve messed with Sadie’s head the same way you did with Lisa Johnson’s.”

“Who’s Lisa Johnson?”

“Twelfth grade biology. You dissected a frog together.”

“Well, Jesus.” But his cousin was dead serious and slammed the heel of his hand into the side of Eli’s truck.

“I was engaged to Sadie until you came along.”

Brady stepped between them. “Don’t you think this is a bit counterproductive? Also, if we’re keeping score, I’m the one who took Lisa Johnson to the prom. Spiked the punch, too.”

One of Eli’s eyebrows winged up. “That was you?”

“It was watered-down vodka—which is neither here nor there. Lisa Johnson’s not the point. Sadie is.”

“The point,” Ty retorted thin-lipped, “is that someone threatened Sadie’s life yesterday. Yet here you are, Eli, on the Hollow Road—and where the hell is she? I’ll tell you where. She’s out at the farm of a man who’s a taxidermist and who also has a corn maze big enough to swallow Rhode Island.”

Eli controlled his expression and his temper. “You know all that, and yet here you are, as well, accusing me, among other things, of being a crappy cop.”

“Sadie’s—”

“Got a mind of her own.” Despite the assertion, guilt began to slither in his stomach. “She’s also not alone. Orley’s with her. And Leamer’s expecting her.”

“I guess that’s just one of the many difference between us, cousin. I wouldn’t have delegated the responsibility.”

“You see Sadie as a responsibility? Not sure she’ll appreciate that.”

“I’m sure,” Brady murmured.

“You’re deflecting the blame,” Ty ground out.

“No, I’m being reasonable. You’re suggesting I should glue myself to her side whether she wants me there or not, to which I repeat, she’s got a mind of her own.”

“You always have an answer, don’t you, a way to twist what you don’t want to hear?”

“It’s a Blume trait. Sadie’s her own woman, Ty, Orley’s a former kickboxing champion and Ben Leamer’s a staple in the community.”

“So, nothing to worry about.”

The guilt tangled into slippery knots. Eli kept the curses inside and his features neutral, but dammit, his cousin wasn’t wrong. And both the cop in him and the man who’d allowed Sadie to become a fever in his brain had managed to miss it.

“Doing things by the book never suited you, did it?” Ty set his jaw. “You just rewrite it to suit your purpose.”

“I don’t see how—” Brady began.

“Shut up. I’m talking to Eli—who showed up oh so conveniently on the heels of the first threat Sadie received. How do I know it wasn’t you who killed the stupid bird and issued those threats?”

“If you believe I’m deranged, you don’t. Not sure how a roll in the mud’ll change anything, but I’m game.” Holding his hands out to the side, Eli fixed his gaze on his cousin’s face. “Go for it.”

He knew Ty would have accepted the invitation in a heartbeat if an approaching vehicle hadn’t diverted everyone’s attention.

“Sadie?” Like a switch flipped in his head, Eli’s focus shifted. “What the hell did she do with Orley?”

“She looks pissed,” Brady noted. “If she’s also got contusions, I’d say you probably shouldn’t have left them alone together.”

Eli heard him, but he’d already covered half the distance to the Land Rover. When she shoved the door open and hopped out, she did look angry. But what made his blood run cold was that she looked even more agitated.

He caught her arms before she took two steps. And only vaguely questioned the wisdom of doing so when her eyes flashed a warning.

“I need to move,” she said through her teeth. “Nothing personal, Eli, but if I don’t walk this off, I’m liable to kick something. Or someone.”

He studied her face for a moment, then stepped back, hands raised. “Talk to me,” he told her. “Straight, no side trips, or I’m liable to go all cop on you.”

A half smile appeared. “You’ll do that anyway.” She sent the black clouds a smoldering look. “I said—stop raining! Here.” She shoved a white envelope at him. “My sick wall writer left this for me in Ben Leamer’s corn maze. And I say ‘left,’ but I really mean ‘planted.’ He was in the maze with me, Eli. With us. With Orley and me. Orley stayed at the Leamer Farm because the guy who gave me the card also drugged old Ben. Between Orley and me and his hired hand, we managed to get two cups of coffee into Ben’s system. He’s fuzzy but otherwise okay.”

Calling himself every foul name he could think of, Eli handed the card to Ty and concentrated on Sadie. “How do you know the guy was in the maze?”

A tremor rippled through her. “He phoned me. He said he’d hoped I’d go in. He attached the envelope to an effigy of Hezekiah Blume as a raven.”

Ty scowled. “Did you or Orley see anything suspicious?”

“Only the ghosts our minds invented.” Calmer now, Sadie breathed out. “I think we panicked a little.”

Eli cycled through the possibilities. “Are you sure the caller was actually in the maze when he contacted you, though?”

“I’m...not sure, no.” Her anger faded as her curiosity grew. “Is that significant?”

“Hardly.” Ty examined the card from several angles.

“Possibly,” Eli said.

“Why?” Brady offered an apologetic shrug. “Sorry, Eli, but if I’m following this, I have to wonder why it would matter whether or not some guy who gave Sadie a strange card and an equally strange phone call was watching her while they talked.”

Eli saw Sadie’s eyes flick from him to Ty and back. Yeah, she felt it, he thought, the charge in the air that was more electric than last night’s storm.

“It’s a detail,” he said. “Maybe important, maybe not, but a piece of the puzzle one way or the other.”

Watchful herself now, Sadie motioned at the squad car. “Ty, your two-way just went off.”

“What?” He surfaced as if from a deep fog.

“Two-way?” She pointed. “Someone needs you.”

“Right.” He blinked. “Right. Damn. Okay, my jurisdiction here, people. Card stays with me while I deal with whatever problem’s on the other end of my radio. Much as I hate to say it, Eli, you and Brady need to head out to the Leamer Farm. Sadie?”

She retracted her finger. “Sorry, but I need to go back to Ben’s place.”

“Right,” he said again.

“I’ve covered stories like this before, Ty. The solution’s always in the details.” Walking over, she placed her hands on his shoulders and kissed his cheek. “If Eli’s right, what’s happening to me goes back twenty years to my cousin Laura’s death.

“And if he’s wrong?”

She stepped back, as much from the envelope as her former fiancé, Eli suspected.

“A monster’s a monster. If that’s what we’re dealing with, it might be a good idea to remember that nothing and no one sleeps forever.”

* * *

B
EN
L
EAMER
WAS
still groggy when they reached the farm. The doctor hadn’t arrived yet, but with the infusion of a little fear of God from a still-rattled Orley, he was happy enough to let Brady examine him.

While Brady obliged, Sadie led Eli through the corn maze. Hezekiah, minus envelope, put in an encore appearance. Eli noted the time of the call she’d received, asked her and Orley a thousand questions and was doing something on his iPhone when Brady emerged from the house.

“Regular doctor should give Ben a once-over, but he’s a tough old guy. He was chloroformed. You’d have smelled it right off,” he said to Eli. “Orley didn’t, but then she was pretty freaked, and, bottom line, there’s no real reason for her or Sadie to have recognized it.”

Pressing on the tension knots in her neck, Sadie wandered around the farmyard. “All I smelled was his sister-in-law’s sauerkraut.”

“Why didn’t you call Eli from the house?” Brady asked her.

“I tried, but Ben’s line is down.”

“And the bog’s a notorious dead zone for cell phones.” Eli leaned against the Land Rover. “Two-ways work, but that’s it.”

“Be glad anything works on the Hollow Road.” Shouldering his instrument bag, Brady glanced at Orley, who was marching toward them, grim faced and hugging her arms across her chest. “Hard to believe it’s only eleven o’clock. That being said, I have three pointy teeth to extract and a batch of anesthetic to pick up. Take care, Sadie. Watch for stray uppercuts, Eli.”

“I am not doing favors for anyone ever again,” Orley muttered in passing. “Later, people.”

Sadie willed the stabbing pain in her skull down to a manageable level before dropping her hands. “At the risk of sounding like a whiny child, Eli, why are we still here? Shouldn’t you and Ty be punching each other out or something?”