Kneeling down, she realized to the left of the vent, tucked against the wall, one of the wooden panels seemed to peel away from the rest. Something red was pinched behind it, hiding away.
She pulled at the panel, which came away from the wall easily, and inside was a pocket-size, red spiral notebook.
Now suddenly wide awake, and her interest piqued, Lacey combed through its pages.
It was some sort of journal, with random thoughts jotted down, just like the page she had found in the Davidson forest before being knocked unconscious.
These were Brian’s notes—the writing style matching the words in the journal.
Heart pounding, Lacey realized she had just stumbled on Brian’s hidden notebook, proving yet again that not only he had been here in Raven Hills, but had even stayed in the same room as her.
She thought back to Brian’s scribbles on the page buried in mud and dirt in the woods. It was his note that had urged her to visit Mary Sue Collins’ home, her address being the one he had noted. But there was something else she remembered on that scribbled page:
Hiding…and cannot leave. Faded pink dot.
Lacey jumped to her feet.
“Pink dot?…Pink dot, pink dot…,” she chanted as she paced the room. She stopped suddenly. “A pink mark. A spot. A bug bite!”
She looked back down at the notebook in her hand, nearly dropping it as she shook with fear. She flipped through the pages, desperately trying to find more pieces of the puzzle. At first, she ran into incomprehensible notes, things that didn’t really make sense. Other pages included some sort of short diary entries, like one in particular.
At first I thought I was just being paranoid. Now, I believe I’m being followed. I’m not sure if it’s who I think it is, but then again…how could it be? It doesn’t make any sense. Still…I think I need to check out the area tomorrow. I tried to call Pert, but the damn DSL connection didn’t work, and I have no phone reception. It’s like I’m stuck in the eighteen hundreds. I had to have Diddie mail a letter to Pert this morning. She was heading downtown and said she’d drop off the letter at the post office. I just hope snail mail gets to him soon…I need him to send some type of backup here. Maybe another coworker to help me through this damn confusing case…or perhaps even the police. At this point, I don’t even know what kind of danger I’m in.
Lacey finished reading Brian’s entry, taking notice that the date showed it was written about two weeks ago—and that it was the last one he had written. She thumbed through the previous ones again, but still couldn’t figure out any other clues.
Taking a deep breath, she thought for a long moment. It was early dawn, and everyone in Raven Hills still slumbered.
Too bad for Diddie. She was about to get a rude wake-up call.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“What in God’s name is going on?”
Diddie shot up in her bed, then glanced at her alarm clock on the night stand.
“It’s barely past six in the morning, girl. Have you lost your mind?” She looked up at Lacey, who stood over her bed with both hands on her hips.
“I’m sorry, Diddie, but the jig is up.” She hoped her audacious tone would show the woman she meant business.
“Shouldn’t you be in jail? What in the world…?” Diddie rubbed her eyes, trying to make sense of the situation as she was startled out of her sleep by Lacey barging in.
“That’s not the point,” Lacey said. “We need to talk.”
“I’m calling Bennett.” Diddie reached for the old phone on her nightstand.
“Did Brian know you have a landline here at the hotel?” Lacey accused.
Diddie thought for a long moment. “Yes, of course. We use it for our dial-up connection.”
“Did he try to use it to call our boss?”
“It’s spotty…maybe he has, maybe he hasn’t. I didn’t pay close attention to him.”
“Enough, Diddie!” Lacey shouted, reaching the point of exasperation. “I think you watched Brian like a hawk.”
The woman sighed and returned the receiver on the phone base.
“I need you to tell me what happened to Brian,” Lacey urged.
Diddie rose from her bed and then reached for the pink robe draped over a nearby chair. She took her time in wrapping herself in it, making Lacey more impatient.
“Where is Brian?” Lacey asked, her tone harsh.
“I don’t know.”
“But he was here.”
Tying the robe tightly across her abdomen, Diddie looked up at Lacey. “Yes, he was here.”
“Then why lie about it?” Lacey asked. “Why tell me he was never Raven Hills?”
“Can we get some coffee first?” Diddie wondered, then released a yawn.
“Make it quick,” Lacey barked. “I don’t have much time. Brian might not have enough time, either. ” Lacey didn’t even want to think about the possibility that time had already run out for her coworker.
“Fine, but I don’t think you’ll find the answers you want, dear,” Diddie commented, and with that, she left the room, followed by Lacey and the dread that had filled the entire inn.
“Brian was indeed here for a little over a week,” Diddie began as she set a steaming mug of coffee on the table. “He did the same things you’re doing: poked around, asked questions, and tried to ruin our way of life.”
“That’s not true,” Lacey argued, slamming her own mug down and spilling some of the contents. “We’re trying to cover a story in hopes of saving Raven Hills! Somehow it seems we are the ones paying the price for coming here, too.”
The woman scoffed, then took a sip of her coffee. “There’s no saving Raven Hills.”
“I’ve connected some dots,” Lacey explained. “Jane Dearing is somehow connected with Joann Derby. But how?”
The woman shrugged. “We don’t ask questions here in Raven Hills. We just…live and let things happen.”
Lacey’s brow pinched together. “That’s insane. You must know something terrible has been going on for years. Why not stop it?”
Diddie took in a deep breath and stared down at her mug. “We just don’t know what to do.”
“Well, first things first. Where is Brian?”
“I already told you,” Diddie replied, frustrated. “I don’t know. He just disappeared.”
“That happens a lot around here,” Lacey accused, remembering how Jane Dearing had vanished the night of Ginny’s murder, and how Joann had also disappeared one day. “When did he go missing?”
“Nearly two weeks ago. I was heading to town one morning and he asked me to send a letter to his employer at Crestwater Press. I took it and then he headed out for the day, saying he had some important research to conduct. He never returned to the inn.”
“And did you send that letter?”
Diddie didn’t reply and Lacey took her silence as an admittance she did not. Besides, Pert never did hear back from Brian, or he would have mentioned a letter.
Lacey thought for a long moment. “How was his demeanor that morning? Did he seem scared or frazzled?”
Diddie nodded. “More like…determined.”
“That’s it? Nothing strange about him? Did he say where he was going?” Lacey pressed.
“He did not. But, he did tell me to be very careful ‘out there’. Like he worried something dangerous lurked in town.”
“He wasn’t exactly wrong, was he?” Lacey asked, her tone rigid.
Diddie held her gaze, the wrinkles around her eyes deepening. Lacey wondered how many years the woman had held the town’s secrets.
“No, he wasn’t,” she finally relied.
“I need to find Brian,” Lacey implored. “I need any help you can give me.”
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Diddie said and took a swig of her coffee.
Lacey shook her head, frustrated at the woman’s stubbornness. “Diddie, do you speak German?”
“Enough to get by. Why?”
“I need you to tra
nslate something for me.” Lacey opened the leather journal waiting on the table and flipped to the page she had scribbled after visiting Libby Kline. “Here,” she pointed at the page and turned the journal upside down so Diddie could see it.
Diddie appraised the words for a long moment, growing pale as the blood drained from her face.
“Diddie, what does it say?” Lacey demanded.
Diddie looked up at her and pushed the journal back toward Lacey. A glimmer of fear crossed her eyes as she spoke.
“It means, I live inside her.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Lacey rushed outside Saddle Inn, the intense, ominous feeling stirring inside her veins. She couldn’t stop thinking about Libby Kline’s last words to her, the ones Diddie had translated.
I live inside her.
Four words that had cast a dark shadow over Lacey, and no matter where she looked, she couldn’t fight the sense of dread.
She wandered down the long dirt road leading away from the inn, leather journal in hand. A myriad of thoughts swarmed in her head. She needed to figure out who lived in what—or vice versa.
The rattling motor of a truck startled her and she stopped. Looking over her shoulder, she spotted William parking on the side of the road.
He hurried out of the driver’s seat and ran over to her. “What are you doing?” he barked, then looked over his shoulders and all around. “You escaped from jail. Are you insane? Someone could see you and report you!”
“William, I need help,” Lacey said, walking toward him.
“Yeah, no kidding,” he muttered.
“Listen to me. Diddie admitted Brian was here.”
William gave her a confused gaze. “What happened to him?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out, William.” She opened her journal. “Diddie also translated something Libby told me when I visited her at Hope Sanitarium.”
“Libby Kline?”
Lacey nodded. “She said, ‘I live inside her.’”
“What does?” William rubbed his neck, clearly perplexed.
“I don’t know, but I think Brian was scared for his life. I found a journal he hid in the room at Saddle Inn, the same one I’m staying in. He thought someone was following him.”
William brought both hands up. “Wait a minute…so Brian thought someone was after him here in Raven Hills?”
Lacey took a deep inhale. “William, don’t you understand? He was onto something. There’s an evil swarming the town, and Diddie knows it too. Everyone does. Even you admitted there are some things off with Raven Hills.”
William bit his lip. “Yes, but…”
“Then help me,” Lacey begged, inching closer to him. “Please.”
William shook his head, clearly baffled by her determination. “What should we do? Like you said, Lieutenant Bennett is turning a blind eye.”
“We have to figure it out on our own,” Lacey determined. “Now, give me a lift to Mary Sue Collins’ home.”
She walked to his truck, William trailing behind her.
“Are you going to break in again?” Clearly William wasn’t keen on the idea.
“This time we will knock politely,” Lacey answered, climbing into the front passenger’s seat. “Or barge in. One or the other.”
William was now in the driver’s seat, putting the truck in gear and puffing out his cheeks.
“You don’t give up, do you?”
“No,” she replied. “Not when lives are at stake, and one of those lives belongs to my coworker.”
“Are you more than colleagues?” he wondered, a grin on his face.
She chuckled. “What? Brian and me? No. I exchanged a few words with him, but he works in a different department. I just don’t want him to be hurt…or worse, dead.”
The truck sped down the town roads toward the Collins’ residence. “How did you get out of jail anyway?”
Lacey’s brows drew high in her head. “Oh that. Well, I told you I wasn’t crazy.”
“Debatable,” William countered, a little smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “But go ahead, explain.”
“Ginny helped me.”
William did a double take, his wide-eyed stare burying into her. “The little girl that doesn’t exist?”
“Oh, she exists, William.” Lacey gave him a knowing look. “Just not in this realm.”
Ten minutes later, William’s truck parked outside Mary Sue Collins’ home. With his hands stuck to the wheel, and knuckles turning white, he stared straight ahead.
“A ghost?” he muttered, as if more to himself than to Lacey.
“I know,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “It sounds insane, and I wouldn’t believe it either. Except, I saw her with my own two eyes, William. She’s a ghost.”
Finally dropping his hands onto his lap, William looked at her. “This is just…too much.”
“I think it’s about to get crazier.”
He nodded, then his gaze moved passed her and fell on the Collins home, just waiting on the other side of the curb. “You really think we’ll find something here?”
“We found Jane Dearing’s shawl in Mary Sue’s shed,” Lacey determined. “The same one Joann Derby, an orphaned girl turned lunatic, had been wrapped in when found in the woods. Somehow this home connects them.”
“So, are we checking if they’re home? Are we going to chat?” William asked, almost resigned.
“Let’s try knocking this time,” Lacey said with a smile, then climbed out of the truck.
The sun was high by now, but a thick patch of dark clouds threatened to spoil the day. They walked down the driveway, then reached the front door.
With her heart in her throat, Lacey knocked and waited. Met with nothing but silence, she knocked again.
“Maybe no one is home,” William said, hovering behind Lacey.
“Or hiding,” Lacey replied, sensing a dark energy emanating from the home.
She tried the front door lock, and found it open. The two of them inched inside, slowly.
“Mrs. Collins?” Lacey called out. The shutters and curtains were draped closed across each window, rendering the home much darker. “It’s Lacey Shaw and William…William…” Lacey looked over her shoulder, questioningly.
“Casini.”
“What? Is that Italian or something?” she pondered.
“Yes, it is, Miss Shaw. Is that okay?”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s Lacey Shaw and William Casini. Is anyone home?” she called out again.
They drifted from room to room, passing through the living room, then the kitchen. Piles of dirty dishes filled the sink, thick layers of food caked on the plates.
“There’s mold on these dishes,” Lacey revealed as she peeked inside the sink.
“I guess they’re bad housekeepers,” William agreed, his gaze taking in the darkened kitchen.
“They’ve been sitting here for weeks, maybe months.” Lacey appraised the rest of the kitchen, noticing stained counters and several bottles of prescription medications, all empty. She took a couple in her hands, examining them close.
“Temazepam and zaleplon.” She thought for a few moments, the names ringing a bell. “They are sedatives or sleep inducers. I remember covering a story for Crestwater Press where an eighty-year-old woman accidentally took one of these prescriptions with an interacting drug, causing an accidental death.
“Maybe Mary Sue Collins suffers from insomnia,” William said, shrugging.
“Maybe, or Julie needs her nice and quiet. Out of the way.” Lacey headed toward the fridge.
“You really don’t like Julie, do you?”
She shrugged. “There’s something odd about her. I don’t think she really cares for her mother.”
She opened the fridge, her eyes growing wide.
“There’s no real sign of neglect, though,” William’s voice echoed somewhere behind her as he rummaged through piles of mail on the table.
“Uhm, this proves other
wise.” Lacey moved aside to show him the insides of the fridge. It was empty, except for a plate with what appeared to be a moldy piece of chicken, white and green fuzz spread across it. A few flies hovered around the leftovers, and Lacey stifled a gag.
“What is she feeding her mother?” She looked at William, whose own face twisted in disgust.
“I think we need to find Mary Sue,” he announced.
No longer walking on eggshells, the both of them dashed through the home calling Mary Sue’s name. Their voices thundered in the home, but were always met with silence.
The bathroom was empty, and so was the first bedroom they encountered. Lacey stumbled inside the next one, which appeared to be the master bedroom.
“William, look,” she said.
William appeared at her side. They both noticed Mary Sue’s wheelchair, the one Lacey had fixed just the other day. It sat next to Mary Sue’s bed, yet the woman was nowhere to be found.
“I don’t have a good feeling,” Lacey muttered and swallowed a knot. “Did you check the third bedroom?”
“The door is locked,” William replied.
“Well, looks like we’re picking locks again, William,” she warned him. They both left Mary Sue’s room and headed for the other one, when a strange muffled sound caught their attention. They stopped in their tracks, and looked down the narrow hallway.
“We haven’t checked there,” William whispered. “Maybe we should try there first.”
Lacey followed his gaze down the hallway where the door to the basement waited.
“After you,” Lacey breathed, the thought of going down there sending shivers down her spine.
William walked slowly toward the basement door, Lacey close behind him. The silence around them was thick, and she wondered if William could hear the heavy drumming of her heart.
He opened the door, met with complete darkness. Inching inside carefully, he felt the descending wall with a tentative hand. “Should be a light around here.”
Not able to find a switch, he continued ahead. They climbed down the wooden stairs, each step creaking under their feet.
Raven Hills- Unraveling Evil Page 13