The Seekers, page 23
“Well, the devil lives in the woods out back there, you know,” Milo said, amused. “I wasn’t allowed to play there or at the old church. My mother said that they were tainted—hexed.”
“Have you ever seen anything like this?” Joe asked, showing them the insignia.
“Creepy,” Milo said, frowning. “Maybe. I think I have, maybe when I was a kid. But I don’t remember where, or what it is.”
“If you do remember, tell me?” Joe asked.
“Sure,” Milo said.
“Henry?”
“It’s kind of cool and very creepy, but I’ve never seen it before. But hey, I’m from Jersey,” Henry said. “We just had the old Jersey Devil, real or not, who the hell knows. He doesn’t travel into Pennsylvania that I know about.”
“Jersey Devil, pretty cool. Have you ever seen it?” Brad asked.
“No, I haven’t,” Henry told him.
“The pictures that I’ve seen look just as creepy as that devil’s sign Joe keeps showing around. Ugh.” Brad shuddered.
“And you look for ghosts,” Milo said.
“Ghosts are just people. Not creepy at all,” Brad explained.
Henry and Milo finished and went out, and Belinda and Jamie came in. Brad was anxious to get back to room 207, and Dallas agreed that he and Serena could have the room another hour or so. Then they’d have to get out. People were going to be getting tired, and they’d have to settle in for the night.
Keri enjoyed seeing Belinda again. Joe showed her the picture of the insignia, as well.
“I do think I’ve seen that somewhere,” Belinda said, frowning as she studied it. She gasped suddenly and then stared around, looking guilty.
“What?” Joe asked.
She glanced over at Jamie, and he looked as sick as she did.
“What? Please, it’s crucial,” Joe said.
“I—we—I—”
“Belinda,” Joe said quietly.
“We—we have to say something,” Jamie told her.
Belinda inhaled deeply. “I saw it as a medallion. I thought it meant something like ‘really tough cop.’” She hesitated again.
“We saw it once on Detective Billings’s key chain,” Jamie said. “She pushed her keys into the drawer really quickly, but—”
“I guess she took it off her key chain. I never saw it again,” Belinda said.
Joe stood up and started to leave the kitchen, then came back. “Please, you two, don’t leave here until I’m back down,” he said. Then he was gone.
“Oh, man, we’re in trouble,” Belinda said.
“No, don’t worry. Joe and Dallas won’t let this fall on you,” Keri assured them.
Carl reached across the table and took Belinda’s hand. “Hey, if Detective Billings is involved, well, you don’t want a bad rap for your whole station, right? You guys are good cops.”
Belinda nodded. “I mean, she’s a bitch. She’s always been a bitch. But this...” She winced. “She’s given us explicit directions on guarding the inn, too. We were supposed to report to her any time you all came and went, where you went. All that.”
Keri sat back, still not believing what she was hearing.
Joe was back in a minute. “Thank you,” he told the two of them.
“What’s going to happen?” Belinda asked.
“It won’t come down on you—the federal government is just going to be asking her a few questions,” Joe said. “There’s an APB out on her now.”
“I can call her,” Belinda said, pulling out her phone. “I could tell her you took off somewhere, and I’m sure she’ll come and check on you.”
“Do it, please,” Joe said.
She dialed.
Detective Billings didn’t answer.
* * *
Joe really couldn’t have slept that night, no matter what.
“We really don’t have a damned thing on her,” Dallas told him.
They were upstairs. Brad and Serena had gone to their rooms and locked their doors, as Dallas had instructed them. Serena decided she wasn’t going to stay alone, and now, they were both locked in Brad’s room. Joe was going to take the chair between Carl’s and Keri’s rooms for the first watch while Dallas was going to try to get some sleep.
No one as yet had heard from Detective Billings, and the ABP had not brought about any sightings, either.
“She must have known that we suspected her of something,” Joe said.
“We still only suspect her,” Dallas reminded him. “But suspicious behavior isn’t evidence of any kind. If we could place her in New York, if we could place her out here the day that Julie was murdered, it would help. We have nothing but a possible sighting of an insignia that might have to do with a Satanic cult or a weird club. Thankfully, Jackson Crow pulled some government strings. We can call her in for questioning, and she might be held for a few hours, but that’s it.”
“She’s been controlling the cops she’s had in front of the inn,” Joe protested. “They all answer to her beck and call.”
“That could just be a concern for us. It’s still not evidence.”
“Oh, bull.”
“It’s certainly something she could argue. She’s no fool.”
“And where the hell is she?”
“Afraid, maybe. Running. Or hiding.”
“Or worse. Setting up a plan to kill someone else,” Joe said.
“Possibly. Now, I’m going to get some sleep. Take your post. Wake me when it’s my turn.”
Dallas headed for his bed. Joe headed for the chair. Carl was already asleep, curled up in his clothing on the bed—he’d either fallen asleep that way by accident, or he’d stayed dressed just in case—just in case he needed to be up quickly.
Joe walked through Carl’s room and over to Keri’s. She was lying there awake.
“Dreaming?” he asked her. “Afraid of nightmares?”
She laughed. “Fantasies. Go away. I won’t sleep with you staring at me. I’ll be imagining things.”
He lingered a minute, smiling. “Things you liked, I hope?”
“Things that were decent,” she said.
“Decent. Great. I didn’t intend to be decent.”
“Okay, well, I was imagining... Ugh, it’s too frustrating. Go away, please?”
He grinned and went to his chair. It was going to be a long night.
He tried to get interested in reading again. Sitting in the chair, watching words blur in front of him, he realized that he was exhausted. The days were very long. He rose and grabbed a bottle of water from the dresser, thinking that they really needed a little coffeepot up here.
He sat again and began reading about the area, how hex signs and various artworks featuring them had gained popularity when tourism began flourishing. He read about the Mennonites and the Amish and the Anabaptists. He respected their religions, just as he respected all religions.
But what was going on here had nothing to do with any religion that held human life sacred.
He must have become more absorbed than he knew; he heard Dallas come through Carl’s room to where Joe sat.
“My watch,” Dallas said.
“Thanks, yeah, I’ll try to get some sleep,” Joe said.
He left the chair to Dallas and crawled into bed next to Keri, keeping his distance, smiling when he remembered the night—and early morning—that they had shared.
He willed himself to close his eyes and rest. He couldn’t be useful without rest.
He had finally fallen asleep when he felt Keri moving at his side. He quickly sat up, looking from Keri to Dallas, who was already standing from the chair.
Keri was beginning to rise, her eyes open but glazed, as if unseeing.
Joe started to reach for her, to wake her.
“No,” Dallas said softly.
“But...”
“Let’s see what she does. We’ll be right with her. Grab your gun.”
Joe leaped out of bed, making it shake, but Keri, seated, didn’t seem to notice. She got out of bed and started walking to the door to the hall.
“Follow her,” Dallas ordered. “I’m right behind you. I’m going to tell Brad and Serena to stay locked in and I’m going to get Carl. I’m not going to leave him alone here.”
“Gotcha,” Joe told him.
Keri was moving slowly, opening the door to the hallway, heedless when he fell into step right behind her.
She went down the stairs. He thought she was going to the basement at first, but she didn’t; she headed toward the front door. She opened it and walked out.
The officers at their posts were all out of their patrol cars the minute the door opened. Joe waved a hand to them.
“It’s all right. I’m with her,” he called.
“All right,” Belinda called back to them. “If you want us—”
“Two of you stay here and keep watch and two follow Dallas and Carl when they come out,” Joe said, thinking, what the hell, if there was nothing, they’d get a little exercise. And if there was something...
It never hurt to have backup he believed in.
Keri kept walking around the side of the tavern. She was heading to the graveyard and the little church, he realized. The remnants of the old stone wall didn’t deter her. She crawled over it and started making her way through the overgrown weeds and broken stones.
Dallas and Carl were soon behind him, along with Belinda and Jamie.
Keri walked into the church. Joe drew out his penlight. It was nearly pitch-dark inside, only a bit of moonlight filtering in. She walked to the altar and he followed, keeping his distance. It seemed she was certain she was going to find something there.
The altar was empty. Keri just stood there, staring at it.
Dallas caught up with Joe. Carl lingered back with Belinda and Jamie.
“I think she’s sleepwalking,” Belinda whispered to Jamie. “Perhaps they should wake her up. She’s going to cut up her feet out here.”
Dallas lifted a hand.
Keri turned suddenly, still not seeing them, walking down the aisle towards the front of the church. Now, she walked around the side.
It was there, on top of an old tomb, that they found Detective Catrina Billings.
Or what remained of her.
* * *
Keri sat in the tavern along with the others.
Carl had spent the last hour being ill, and Brad and Serena had asked so many questions that Dallas had finally lost patience and snapped that they really needed to just shut up.
Keri wasn’t quite sick herself, though she was shocked; the full impact of what had happened was just sinking in. Joe had whisked her away from the body before she was even fully conscious. Dallas had called for the medical examiner and Belinda had reported back to her headquarters, radioing in that they’d found a body.
Now, the medical examiner was out with the body, and a forensic team was combing the entire area of the graveyard.
This time, it was a local police captain who came out—Captain William Dickey, head of the whole department. He was decent enough, a tall, bald man of about fifty.
Dallas was out at the church with the forensic team, and Joe sat with Keri as she tried to explain to the captain what had happened.
“I wish I could tell you. I don’t know. I was sleepwalking,” Keri said.
“You sleepwalk often?” Dickey asked.
“Never before in my life, that I know of,” Keri said.
“How the hell did you find her—unless you knew where to look?” he demanded.
“Sir,” she said, leaning forward, her hands folded on the tavern table, “I haven’t the faintest idea. But I can tell you I have been in front of someone every minute of the day. I have been with FBI Special Agent Dallas Wicker and an FBI consultant all day long. I was not in the graveyard today.”
Dickey looked at Joe.
“She has not been out of our sight,” Joe assured him.
Dickey sat back, shaking his head. “So, tonight I get a call from your field director, asking me to bring Detective Billings in. Then later, I get a call that she’s found here, dead.” He glared across the room. “Catrina is dead.”
Even Brad was quiet now. Serena slunk at his side, obviously afraid.
At the next table, the four cops on duty sat in silence, wide-eyed as they looked at the captain, waiting for whatever came next.
“And you!” he barked. “You four. What the hell were you doing?”
“We weren’t in the graveyard, sir. Detective Billings gave us strict instructions to watch the front of the inn, not to leave it. We were ordered to watch over the lives of the people in the inn, sir,” Belinda said.
“She told you that you couldn’t move?” Dickey asked.
“Sir, yes, sir,” Milo said.
The four of them nodded in unison.
“What the hell is going on here?” Dickey wondered aloud, his tone hard and irritated. “An FBI agent... One of my own officers. What the hell?”
Keri sat silent; Joe pulled out his phone. “I believe this image was emailed to you, sir, and that it was explained to you that we do believe there’s an active cult or deviant club.”
He glanced over at the cops for a minute, but as promised, he didn’t give Belinda and Jamie away. “We have a witness who saw Catrina Billings with this image on her. A medallion, attached to her key chain. We believe that the same people who kidnapped Barbara Chrome from New York are the ones involved in the cult here. Because of the sizable reward offered, someone called the FBI agent on the kidnapping case, Julie Castro. She and her partner, Ed Newel, came to Philadelphia where, we believe, Ed was purposely struck down so that Julie could be lured out here.”
Joe paused. “We believe that Detective Billings was murdered by the cult. She might have been the one to murder Julie herself, but we also believe that her fellow cult members realized that she was the one who had betrayed them and brought an FBI agent out here. The punishment for that betrayal was death.”
Dickey stared back at him. “When this young lady stood up and started sleepwalking, you just followed her?” he asked, gesturing at Keri.
“Yes, sir. That was Special Agent Wicker’s call. He has worked strange cases where the past intrudes on the present before.”
Dickey nodded. Then he stood.
“Well, hell, I’m going to say it. I’m glad as hell that the FBI has taken the lead on this case. This mess is yours. Solve it, and make sure you do.”
He started to walk out, but swung around, staring at his officers. “You four. You’re on here until I tell you that you’re off, you understand? The FBI has the investigation, but we will be watching. You do understand that, Mr. Dunhill, right? You’ll make sure that Special Agent Wicker knows that we’re watching—and of course, ready to assist in any way, if and when you need us.”
“Yes, Captain. Thank you.”
Dickey hesitated, looking around the inn, shaking his head again. “No, thank you. But solve this. Quickly.”
He walked out of the tavern, closing the door behind him.
“Well, hmm. He didn’t seem terribly upset,” Carl said.
“And he didn’t drag us all down to the station,” Brad agreed. “Hey, I don’t know. Detective Billings wasn’t so nice. Maybe none of them liked her.”
“We didn’t particularly like her,” Belinda said. “But that doesn’t mean she should have died the way she did.”
“Unless she got just what she gave to Julie Castro,” Milo said.
Dallas walked back into the tavern then, sliding into the chair that Captain Dickey had just vacated.
“The medical examiner has taken Detective Billings?” Keri asked.
Dallas nodded.
“The same as...Julie Castro?” she asked.
“Not quite,” Dallas said. “She looked quite a bit the same, except, in this case, the killers went into the stabbing frenzy before they slit her throat.”
“Oh, God,” Carl said. Leaping up, he hurried into the kitchen, clearly going to be sick again. Keri just felt empty.
They watched him go. They could see him from the tavern area, and so, no one jumped up to go with him.
Everyone was silent. Then Belinda spoke softly.
“This is...so bad. We worked with her almost every day,” she said. “She was in on this, and we don’t know who else...” She stood suddenly, her stance straight. “I know these guys—Jamie, Milo and Henry. We’re good cops, I swear it. We should have been walking this whole area, watching the graveyard and the woods, probably. I mean, that’s where the devil lives, isn’t it—in the woods?
“Well, Captain Dickey ordered us to stay on patrol. So I’m going back out to my car, and I’m going to watch this place, and if I even think that anyone is out in the church, the graveyard or the forest, we’re going to split duties and keep anything like this from happening again.”
Jamie, Milo and Henry looked at one another; they, too, stood.
“We’re on,” Jamie told them all. “We’re going to be good cops now, not just lackeys at anyone’s command. We’ll be watching.”
“Thank you,” Keri said, standing and looking at Joe. “I’m going back in the museum. I know that there’s more in there. I just have to find it.”
Serena rose, still looking scared and stricken, and Brad followed suit.
“I can’t solve anything,” Serena whispered. “I’m—I’m so tired. I’m going back to sleep. Brad, please, come with me. I can’t be up there alone.”
Brad turned to Dallas. “Is it all right?”
“Yes,” Dallas said. “Go ahead.”
Keri started to head for the museum with Joe following behind her. Carl came rushing out of the kitchen. “Hey, hey! Where is everyone going? You all are leaving me?”
“We’re right here, buddy,” Dallas assured him.
“You can follow Dallas, or come to the museum with Keri and me,” Joe said.
