“Nice wine,” she said to Terry. “I may have to get some of this for the baby shower.”
“I think we need details,” Maeva said.
“I’m fine. I didn’t mean to ruin your evening. I’m staying with Dawn, so maybe I should just head over there now before your night is a total loss.” Sadie looked around for her bunny, who was no doubt noshing on designer arugula in the kitchen.
“You can’t leave us hanging after you blurt out part of a story about bikers, ghosts, and bracelets,” Maeva said.
“Wait a second.” Louise held up a hand. “I’m getting a name.” She tapped her temple with a long fingernail and muttered. “Z-Z-Zamir? No!” She tapped some more. “Zedekiah? No, that’s not it.” More tapping. “Zack! That’s it. Maeva, you’re thinking about someone named Zack.” She pointed to Maeva, and Maeva in turn stared at Sadie.
“If anyone’s thinking of Zack, it would be Sadie here. She’s got the hots for one of her employees, an ex-cop named Zack Bowman. He has a gorgeous olive complexion, thick dark hair, and an ass that you just want to take a bite out of.”
Sadie rolled her eyes. She should be used to Maeva’s psychic friends by now, but truthfully, she had a hard time separating those to be taken seriously from those you’d hire for party tricks.
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“Actually, I wasn’t thinking of Zack,” Sadie said mildly.
“Oh, come on.” Maeva rolled her eyes. “You’re always thinking about Zack. Well, I guess except for those times you have your tongue down Scott Reed’s throat.”
“I’d rather not talk about the love life you imagine that I have,” Sadie said.
Maeva shrugged and downed what remained of her wine.
“How well do you know Tim and Joy?” Sadie asked Louise.
“They’ve had me do sessions at Onyx House a couple times. They seem nice enough, why?”
“Joy used to be engaged to my brother. Before he died,” Sadie explained. “I discovered a brochure for Onyx House in Brian’s things and went to check the place out because I was curious.”
“You’re finally going through some of his stuff?” Maeva asked. “Good for you. It’s about time.” She rubbed her hands together. “I think we should move our conversation in another direction. We’ve got bigger fish—or should I say goats?—to fry.” She put her empty glass on the coffee table and leaned toward Sadie. “Spill, my friend,” Maeva said to Sadie. “Why did bikers trash your place and give your brother’s ID bracelet to some kid?”
“Um, those are two separate incidents. Maybe we should talk about this later,” Sadie said. “I’m sure Louise doesn’t want to sit here and hear all about my problems.”
“On the contrary,” Louise said, wagging a finger at Sadie. “I sense you are the friend whose identity Maeva has kept carefully hidden this evening during our discussions.”
“What?” Sadie asked with a frown.
“Maeva called me over to pick my brain about satanic rituals involving babies and goats, because she was concerned about a friend who’d interrupted a ritual. Given all that you’ve said so far, I can’t help but assume that friend was you?”
“You’re a regular Nancy Drew,” Maeva said to Louise.
“Thank you.”
Sadie glared at Maeva. “So if I tell you something in private, you call up the psychic hotline to discuss it?”
Maeva shrugged. “Don’t get your Victoria’s Secrets all in a knot. I didn’t use your real name, so it wasn’t an invasion of your privacy. There’s no way Louise would’ve known you were the subject of our discussions if you hadn’t shown up out of blue.”
“Yeah, don’t be angry with Maeva,” Louise said. “She only talked to me about it because she was worried and thought I could help. This situation you’re in with Satanists could be quite serious.”
“There is no situation,” Sadie said seriously. “It was a biker dude who ended up killing a couple women who he probably first got hooked on crack. Come to think of it, he’d probably have to be on drugs himself to cut the baby from the woman’s stomach, and it’s a good thing Zack and I showed up when we did, because he’s obviously a few fries short of a meal if he was planning on putting a baby in a goat. I was lucky we got there when we did.” Sadie blew out a breath.
“Oh, stop feeding us such a line of bullshit,” Maeva said, but her voice held no anger, only concern. “You act like it was no big deal a satanic force nearly burned you to death at that scene.”
“It only felt like I was being burned,” Sadie said.
“But Zack had to pull you away. You couldn’t move,” Maeva pointed out.
Louise got up and walked over to sit on an ottoman near Sadie’s feet. She reached out and tenderly put a hand on Sadie’s arm.
“Ewww!” Louise cried out. She shuddered violently, shrank away from Sadie, and wiped her hand on her pants as if it were covered with something vile. “I’m sorry, but you are just disgusting.”
Startled and embarrassed, Sadie shrank back against the sofa.
“Sorry, I should’ve warned you not to touch her,” Maeva said with a bark of laughter. “Since your psychic skills are touch sensitive like mine, you’ll want to keep your hands away from Sadie. The first time we ever touched, she came in for a reading with her sister.”
“It wasn’t pretty,” Sadie said drily. “She puked her guts out. Said it was because I walk with the dead.” Sadie said the last with a small forced laugh. “Look, I don’t mind hearing your opinion about . . .” Weirdos and freaks. “. . . Satanists who get off on baptizing babies by putting them inside dead goats, but I don’t see what difference any of this makes. The baby is fine.”
“Knowledge is power,” Louise said. “You talk like this encounter with evil was a onetime thing. Of course, you could be right. But there’s also a very real possibility that was just the beginning.”
“I don’t know that the spirit was evil . . . ,” Sadie said, but remembered the glowing red eyes. “Then again she did donate her baby ‘willingly.’ ” Sadie drew quotes in the air around the words and rolled her eyes. “Still, she was Jake the Snake’s woman and most likely a crack-head whore.”
“Drugs weren’t necessarily involved,” Maeva said.
“I’m sure it was coincidence all this happened in a shed behind a clandestine meth lab,” Sadie said sarcastically.
“The meth could’ve been a cover-up for what was really happening on the property,” Louise said. She got to her feet with her glass in hand and began pacing.
“But wouldn’t that just bring more people around?” Sadie said. “I mean, if we’re talking about some kind of woo-woo secret society of Satanists holding freaky meetings and sacrificing goats, you’d think they wouldn’t want every drug addict in town traipsing through their location.”
“She’s got a point,” Maeva agreed.
“Unless . . .” Louise tapped a long fingernail on her chin.
“Unless what?” Sadie asked.
“Who better to recruit to the dark side than those you already have some kind of power over?” Louise asked.
“I don’t know. Sounds to me like this whole Witigo thing is nonsense.”
“Witigo?” Louise asked sharply.
Her glass of wine slipped from her fingers and crashed to the floor.
12
At Louise’s insistence, Sadie repeated numerous times what happened to her inside the garden shed and everything she both saw and felt. Terry had given up on the women and gone off to bed after helping to clean up Louise’s broken wineglass and pouring everyone a refill. Sadie’s wine remained untouched.
“How much longer do we have to go over this?” Sadie asked, stifling a yawn. “It’s nearly midnight.”
“Good thing you called Dawn a couple hours ago and told her not to wait up or she’d’ve called the cavalry out for you,” Maeva said.
“I’m sorry, but I just need a couple
more things,” Louise said. She downed a gulp from her new glass of wine and leaned forward to focus her bleary eyes on Sadie. “After you ‘fell through’ ”—she drew air quotes around fell through and continued—“and you experienced the ‘burning’ sensation”—air quotes around burning—“did you do a protection ritual in the area and cleanse yourself spiritually?”
“Did I what on my what?” Sadie asked.
Louise sat back.
“Oh my God, Maeva, she doesn’t know a thing about the dark forces? Have you taught her nothing?”
“Lay off,” Sadie warned, feeling a prickle of annoyance at the way Louise talked to her friend. “I haven’t wanted Maeva to teach me any of that metaphysical mumbo jumbo.”
“Our relationship has not been one of teacher and student,” Maeva explained. “We’re only friends that share a basic understanding of each other’s ability.”
“Still, to leave your friend so ill prepared . . . especially knowing her occupation. Surely you must’ve understood that in her dealings with the other side it was just a matter of time before she could be in over her head and accosted by a dark force?”
Sadie snorted and Maeva shot her a warning look.
“It’s true that Sadie’s work puts her in the position of helping wayward souls find their way over to the other side, but from everything Sadie tells me, it seems she is only called to help those who truly want to go over. That has been her place in the spiritual plane and I respect it.”
“Thanks,” Sadie said.
“You’re welcome.” Maeva smiled at Sadie, but then she sighed deeply and spoke to Louise. “But you’re right. By not educating her even a little on the dangers that are out there, I’ve left her vulnerable. She had no skills to deal with the spirit of Penny Torrez, so she couldn’t deflect the spirit’s malevolent powers.” She turned to Sadie. “Sorry. You could’ve done more in that situation if you knew in advance it might happen.”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” Sadie said with exasperation. “I walked away from Penny Torrez’s ghost. There was nothing else I could do.”
“Not true,” Louise said. “At the very least, you should’ve left a form of protection banishing the darker side from that area. Now Penny Torrez’s spirit is hanging out there. Probably up to no good and—”
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Maeva asked, a small smirk playing on her lips.
“Field trip?” Louise asked.
“Field trip,” Maeva confirmed.
Both women simultaneously turned mischievous grins on Sadie.
“Oh, this can’t be good,” Sadie mumbled, feeling a quick flood of dread.
Since Maeva and Louise had consumed a couple drinks, Sadie was chosen designated driver for their little escapade. Louise rode in the back of Sadie’s Honda, while Maeva rode shotgun. They left Hairy with Terry at Maeva’s house. It was with trepidation that Sadie steered her Honda into the Kenmore area. She slowed down and took the gravel road that led them behind the acreage where the meth lab was located. She opted to take the road behind the tree line and not park near the house.
“Don’t know why we have to go stomping around a crime scene in the middle of the night,” Sadie grumbled as she made a hard left turn onto the back road.
“I’ve already explained it twice,” Maeva said simply. “You can’t just bring a spirit like Penny Torrez out into the open and leave her. She has to be dealt with and, hopefully, driven back.”
“You make it sound like I sent out engraved invitations and asked her to pay me a visit,” Sadie said, barely keeping the whine from her voice. “She just showed up when we found her baby. I wasn’t looking for, or expecting, a ghost of any kind that day. Even the dog was a surprise.”
“You summoned her when you interrupted the ritual,” Louise pointed out, sounding sober after the drive. “Most likely her spirit would’ve moved on after the baby’s baptism and whoever killed her would’ve made sure of that. But when you scared off the perpetrator and the ritual was left incomplete, well, Penny Torrez was left in a kind of limbo.”
“Don’t forget,” Maeva pointed out, “that she willingly gave her life and her own baby for this cause. She believed that baby was going on to be something great because of her sacrifice. You took that away from her.”
“Couldn’t all of this just be about a really crazy thing that happened because of drugs?” Sadie asked.
“No,” came the reply from Maeva and Louise simultaneously.
Sadie drove a few more feet before veering the car onto the shoulder. She cut the ignition and turned off the headlights, plunging them into complete darkness.
“So we’re just going to confront a supposedly evil force in the dead of night and tell her to go to hell. Literally.” Sadie shook her head. “Why am I the only one who thinks this is a very bad idea?”
“Because you don’t know what I’ve got in my little bag,” Louise said, holding up an oversized purse.
“Appetizers?” Sadie joked.
“No. My smudging supplies.”
Sadie looked over at Maeva questioningly.
“Smudging is the burning of herbs. It’s a cleansing ritual that helps to spiritually cleanse an area and it’s been used for centuries to drive away evil spirits.”
“So Louise is really a ghost buster with an oversized purse?” Sadie asked Maeva.
“Yes.” Maeva wiggled her eyebrows. “Isn’t this exciting?”
“Oh, it’s great. Just great,” Sadie mumbled. “Please remember that this is a crime scene, ladies. And not just the spot where Penny Torrez was killed. Remember, they dug up Bambi today after she was buried under a tree on the other side of the yard. Let’s try not to do anything that’ll destroy evidence or get our asses thrown in jail, okay?”
They agreed and climbed out of the car. Sadie felt immediately vulnerable as the inky blackness surrounded them in a thick, warm blanket. She felt her way around to the back of her car, opened the trunk, and snagged a couple of flashlights.
Sadie flicked hers on under her chin.
“Be afraid. Be very, very afraid,” she joked as the beam eerily lit her face.
“Knock it off,” Maeva hissed. She snagged the second flashlight and shone it back in the car. “Hang on. I’m getting the holy water.”
Maeva retrieved a small clear vial from her purse and stuffed it in her pocket. Then she pointed the light across the field beside them. “Show us which direction to go in.”
Sadie used her light to point to a path between the tall cedars a few feet away and across the field of tall grass beyond to the shed.
“That’s the shed where the baby and goat were found,” Sadie said as they walked, her voice low. When they got to the cedar tree line, Sadie shone her light over to the left. “Penny Torrez’s body was found over there.”
Sadie swung the beam of light to the left, illuminating shrubs and blackberry bramble, to stop at a ribbon of yellow a dozen yards away. “The crime-scene tape is still up.” Sadie swallowed thickly. “We shouldn’t be here.”
“We aren’t going to do anything that’ll disturb the crime scene,” Louise said, sounding confident and strangely enthusiastic about their venture. “We’ll burn some sage and a little bay leaf while I mumble a few chosen words and then we’re out of here.”
“All rightie, then,” Sadie said. “You two go ahead and I’ll be right behind you.”
“Like hell,” Maeva grumbled. “Stand next to us. We’re a united front, remember?”
“Sure, but you two had a couple cups of wine for courage.”
The tall grass rasped against the legs of Sadie’s jeans as she walked shoulder to shoulder with Maeva and Louise. Beyond their own rustling movement through the field, the only other sound was a chorus of crickets.
“This is far enough,” Louise said once they were a few feet from the crime-scene tape. “I’ll just get my smudging supplies ready.”
She slipped her bag off her shoulder and Maeva shon
e her flashlight inside the tote so that Louise could see what she was doing. She removed a couple of clear Ziploc bags.
“Huh. Look at all those little Baggies of green stuff. Don’t suppose you brought rolling papers too?” Sadie asked.
But nobody responded to her nervous humor.
“I’ve got the herbs and my bowl, but I seem to be missing . . . ,” Louise murmured. “Could you keep the light shining straight inside my bag? You keep shaking the flashlight and I can’t find what I need.”
“Sorry,” Maeva replied, her voice trembling.
Sadie realized she wasn’t the only one who was nervous.
“Could you tell me again what we’re going to do?” Sadie asked.
“It’s really simple. We’ll be out of here in five minutes. Ten tops,” Louise said, still routing around in the bottom of her bag. “I’ll mix the sage and bay leaves and set them on fire. The smoke will billow around and—” She blew out an exasperated breath and stomped her foot. “Damn!”
“What?” Maeva and Sadie asked.
“Matches.”
“Oh, c’mon, you mean we came all the way out here to have your minibonfire and you don’t have anything to light it with?” Sadie said, feeling at once annoyed and relieved.
“Well, don’t look at me,” Maeva said. “Since I quit smoking a couple months ago, I’ve stopped carrying a lighter.”
“A lighter!” Louise exclaimed. “That’s it. I’ll just run back to the car and use the cigarette lighter.”
She snatched Maeva’s flashlight from her hands, took Sadie’s keys, and hustled back across the field toward the car.
“And then there were two,” Sadie whispered. “It’s like one of those bad slasher flicks where—”
“Don’t you dare start telling scary stories!” Maeva hissed.
“You’re scared,” Sadie said. A smile played on her lips. “You act like you’re the big mighty clairvoyant who’ll solve all my ghostie problems, but you’re really just as shit scared as I am.”
Sadie lifted her flashlight a little. The beam of light played on something behind Maeva, and Sadie’s blood ran cold.
Devil May Ride Page 14