Murder, Ye Bones

by Rachael Stapleton

  “Hey,” I said stepping outside. “Is everything all right?”

  “Yeah—it’s all good. They kicked me out too so I’m on my way to join you guys. I hit up the cabana room for some crabmeat po’boys and a bottle of wine. Thought we’d need sustenance to make it through the night. Oh, and I forgot to tell you earlier—I have some books on the Plantation in my car. I ran into the local librarian. She said you were asking about this stuff. Anyway, I’m kind of sketched out. Is the ghost hunter there yet? I wouldn’t mind a big, strong man around right about now.”

  I laughed. “Daemon? No, I’m assuming he’s part of whatever plan they got going down.”

  “Boo! Okay, fine I’ll come anyway. Oh, actually can I speak to Yasmin for a minute?” Izzy asked.

  “What do you mean? Yasmin didn’t come with us.”

  “She didn’t?” Izzy questioned.

  “Weird. She’s disappeared. Okay, then. See you soon.”

  I’d just stepped back inside the foyer when across the room, a huge—and I do mean huge, old grim portrait caught my eye.

  It was lit by a direct beam of moonlight from the window on the opposite wall. I walked closer and realized it was Nellie, her father and the housekeeper. No one smiled but the housekeeper really was a beauty. She looked nothing like what I’d imagined. As a matter of fact, she almost looked angelic.

  Nellie was tall and blonde just as I’d pictured but the artist had painted her in a most unflattering way, she was unnaturally pale with deep, dark circles under her eyes and a look in her eyes that chilled my blood, either that or it was the moon that shone on her that made her look so eerie.

  “Danior? Does that painting look off to you?

  “It’s ugly as sin?” She said as she fixed her eyes on it from the couch. “Don’t look at it.” She said and plumped the pillow beside her.

  “I can’t help it. I think it’s watching us.

  My phone rang again and I jumped. Daemon.

  “What’s going on?” I asked him, turning away from the creepy painting.

  “I’ve been to see Wesley, and he’s still waiting on results. But Maman Bridgett’s DNA is a match for Francisca’s. Are you and Danior inside the carriage house, now?”

  I turned back and peeked at the painting. Yep. She was still staring. “We’ve got Adriano here for protection.” I answered.

  “Okay, good. Cody or I will get there as soon we can. Don’t leave Danior’s side and do not go anywhere else. I just got a call back on the testing of Danior’s blood.”

  “And?” I asked.

  “She had Ayahuasca in her bloodstream.”

  So, she was an intended victim! I thought. Before he could say anything else, I heard a knocking noise from the door behind me.

  “Oh, hell, that’s Izzy at the door,” I said. “I’d better go let her in. Hurry up and get here, would ya?”

  I turned my head slightly, and I swore I saw Nellie’s eyes turn with it. No way. I blinked hard then looked again. Nothing.

  Chapter Forty-One

  _____________

  D aemon zipped up his leather jacket after he hung up the phone with Penny and hurried down a side street just off Rua do Meio. There was a chill in the air tonight or maybe he just had a case of the shudders.

  Either way he was eager to get back to the Plantation, especially after getting Danior’s test results back. He most definitely wanted to be there when the Inspector took Willie in for questioning. Something didn’t feel quite right about the whole situation. His bullcrap meter was going off bigtime and he needed to speak to one more bartender. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he realized Cat, the InstaModel—oh, damn that nickname was sticking—was sitting on a stool at the bar.

  And she was wiping tears from her cheeks.

  “Cat?” he said cautiously, approaching her. “What’s shakin’?”

  “I was just…” Cat trailed off, took in a choppy breath, and made a strangled sound. Tears welled and rolled out of her eyes.

  “Oh, whoops,” Daemon said. “Was it something I said?” He had three sisters so emotional outbursts were not completely foreign to him but he only knew how to handle them with humor. This would have been another good moment to have Penny with him. Or maybe even Cody, he seemed like a sensitive dude.

  Cat’s tears doubled in speed down her cheeks. “I’ve just been dumped.”

  He sat down on the stool next to her and asked, genuinely puzzled, “Dumped by who?”

  “Don’t play dumb, Wraith. I know you know. Everyone knew. That’s the problem.”

  “The Inspector?”

  She nodded, “He broke up with me.” The sobbing ceased, “He said you accused him of being the killer because of the mud on his shoes. The mud was my fault ‘cause we have to sneak around. And then…Then he broke up with me—over the phone! —because he said being with me so much was getting in the way of his career, plus people were starting to talk about us and his wife was starting to suspect. So, I left and went to find him to try to get him to change his mind, but he wouldn’t listen, and when I got back to the house, an ambulance was there, because Maman Brigette had taken a bad spell—she’s fine but now my family is furious with me for neglecting her!”

  “Cat, I’m sorry to hear about Maman, and Oliviera shouldn’t be passing all the blame off on you, but let’s be real girl, dating a married man doesn’t seem like a very nice thing to do, and you seem like a nice girl. It’s certainly a poor excuse for shirking your responsibilities with Maman,” Daemon pointed out calmly.

  “I know,” Cat said, shaking her head. “I haven’t been a very good person since I came here, but I’m not the only one. You know, there are plenty of bad. Take Adriano’s girlfriend for example.”

  “Yasmin? What about her?” Daemon asked.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  _____________

  “D o you think the Voodoo Queen and the undertaker really were the killers?” I asked, sipping my wine. Part of me wanted to down the glass of wine Izzy had brought to calm my nerves but given that there was a maniac on the loose and alcohol slowed the senses, I thought it prudent to take it easy.

  The book the librarian had given Izzy turned out to be a grim record of the mortuary’s activities. It listed the dead and which room they were in, and, often, how they had died. Yada, yada. Not the most exciting piece of reading material.

  I wandered over to the painting of the Rigdon family. The housekeeper had truly been stunning. Nellie’s father was actually quite handsome too. “They just don’t look like killers to me.”

  “Well, if it wasn’t them then why would they have lynched the woman?” Izzy asked, excited. “And who else could it have been?”

  “I don’t know.” My gut just tells me that it wasn’t them. Silly, I know.” I ran my fingers across the painting.

  “It’s amazing isn’t it.” Izzy said. “I wish it hung in my house.”

  “It is something. You know, from this angle Nellie kind of looks like you. I guess if it was Leo, then her father was killing girls that looked like his daughter.” Absently, I took another swallow of my wine and stared at the picture. “All of a sudden, it seemed to move.

  “Penny? Pen, are you all right?” Danior asked, as if from a great distance.

  No, I wasn’t all right, I thought, but I couldn’t seem to get the words out. Everything in the room was spinning, and my limbs were growing heavy, my vision narrowing, as I slid to the floor.

  All I could see was Izzy, smiling. “Somebody get me off this merry-go-round, please?” I mumbled.

  “Pen?” Danior was leaning over me, looking worried. I tried to answer her, and then I tried—and failed—to warn her when, to my absolute disbelief, the painting opened like a door and a ghost stepped from it. Was that Lise Trix or was I hallucinating?

  At the same time I saw Adriano pick up the fireplace poker and slam it against Danior’s head.

  Danior fell to the ground.

  Adriano. No. Yasmin’s boyfriend, Adriano
was the killer?

  And not just him.

  Izzy. And whoa, what was happening?

  It was Lise. She sat down beside me and took my hand, “I’m really sorry, Pen.” Her voice sounded distorted. That wine was definitely drugged. “I appreciate how hard you’ve been looking for me. I wish we could let you go. Honestly, it’s nothing personal. As a matter of fact, I didn’t want you to get hurt at all. I tried to scare you off. I only came here for a love potion but Isadora says it’s not possible with Danior alive. If I’m ever going to have Emilion to myself, I need Danior out of the way. And you and Daemon are so ridiculously good at finding bodies and figuring out the truth. I’m sure it wouldn’t have been long before you realized Isadora and I were old friends from back home.” She sighed sadly and went on. “Now, when Cody and Daemon come looking for you—and we both know they will, they’ll die, too.”

  Izzy leaned in, “But we’ll make sure Daemon looks guilty of killing you, Danior and your boyfriend first, and if we’re lucky, maybe he’ll take the fall for Bianca, too. Now, get up off your butt, Lise, and get your act together. Don’t make me regret my decision to help you.”

  “What do we do now?” Adriano asked.

  “We take them out to your truck in burlap bags and then we dump them in the cemetery—the Voodoo Queen’s final resting place. Now get moving,” Izzy snapped. “We have to move quickly. And we’ve got to be on our game tonight. It has to look as if Lise and I barely escaped Daemon before I managed to kill him. You have the knife—and a gun, right?”

  Adriano nodded, and then they left the room, presumably in search of burlap bags and God only knew what else.

  Paralyzed on the floor, I tried desperately to think of a way out, a way to at least leave a clue for Cody or anyone who came looking for me. A way to warn Cody and Daemon and save their lives, even if it were at the expense of my own.

  I couldn’t move or speak, but I could still see.

  And what I saw was a pale ghostly looking girl in bell bottoms.

  Help me, I thought.

  The floor was coated in dust. If I could just move a finger, I could write a message, but try as I might, my muscles remained stubbornly paralyzed.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  _____________

  “T

  here’s only one word for that woman, no matter how sweet as pie she acts!” Cat exploded. “She was at the bar that night, too, sneaking around and watching us. She’s always watching.”

  “Cat…are you talking about Yasmin?”

  “No. Izzy.”

  “Izzy Carr was at the bar the night Danior was attacked?”

  “I was lurking in the back, but yeah, I saw her. Just like I saw her kissing Yasmin’s boyfriend, Adriano. And she had the weirdest contacts in. Halloween contacts—her eyes were glowing,” Cat said.

  “You know she’s crazy, right? Adriano’s sister told me she grew up in some cult or something and her mother is a total nutjob. The leader of the cult, Adolpho Carr, her father was sent to prison and her mother’s been institutionalized for the last twenty-four years or something. Adriano pays for Isadora to fly home to see her twice a year.”

  “What did you call her?”

  “Isadora. That’s her full name. If it hadn’t been for Adriano’s family, she would have lived on the streets. They can’t stand her but Adriano’s got a blind spot. Even her adopted parents, the Whitakers, can hardly stand her—that’s why they travel so much—to keep her from clinging.”

  He was off his bar stool before she’d even finished speaking.

  He called the resort as he drove, but the kid who answered told him that Penny and Danior had gone home.

  He tried Penny’s cell, which only rang and rang before going to voice mail.

  A group of girls stood on the porch of Penny’s cabin as he pulled up. It was as if they’d been waiting for him forever. Their clothing ranged from bell bottoms and maxi dresses to modern jumpers and their eyes were sad.

  The missing girls.

  One stepped forward and directed his attention to the inside of the cabin. He walked closer and the bathroom door swung open under an invisible hand, and the light and shower switched on.

  “Bianca! I know Penny’s in trouble. Do you know where they took her?”

  Water thundered into the shower basin, drowning out his grumbles. “Where is Penny?”

  All too soon curls of steam gamboled around his ankles. Wobbly letters cut through the condensation fogging the window above the sink.

  He leaned forward…and examined a series of smudges, realizing that they spelled out the word cemetery.

  He raced for his car, his phone already to his ear.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  _____________

  I slowly came to under the gentle glow of the moon. I was lying on an old stone sarcophagus shaded by trees. A low ground fog swirled and seemed to carry with it the whisper of voices. No, wait, there really were voices droning in the background. I tested my muscles and realized that I could move—just a little bit, but at least I was no longer totally paralyzed.

  I managed to turn my head toward the voices and blinked, sure I must be hallucinating. Then, I realized that this was all too real. I saw three figures in hooded capes.

  The words they were chanting were a mixture of English, French and something else I didn’t recognize. Maybe Spanish. Maybe Creole.

  “For blood is life!” one of them cried as they lifted a bowl and knife toward the sky.

  Where was Danior? I wondered. Had they already killed her?

  Suddenly one of the figures moved closer and loomed over me. From the size, I realized it was Adriano.

  “Let’s do it,” Izzy said impatiently. I had to look hard to figure out what was different about her. Her usual light eyes were now a deep golden orange with an enlarged vertical cat-shaped pupil.

  “No. Not yet. Let’s have some fun first,” Adriano said, tossing back his hood as he leaned down, staring at me in fascination. He smiled cruelly. “Her eyes are open. She sees me. Or maybe a dragon. Or a monster. Maybe the shadow man.”

  “Adriano, be serious.”

  Adriano flashed Izzy an angry look. “I always play with the girls first.”

  “We don’t have the time,” Izzy insisted.

  “We can make the time,” Adriano said. “We’re supernatural. We can do whatever the hell we want.”

  “Stop horsing around. We have to hurry. What’s the matter with you? Kill her already, we have to be ready when Daemon and Cody get here—we have to kill him and then mess me up so it looks like he tried to kill me, too. Get smart, Adriano, come on,” Izzy urged.

  “Shut up! Give me a minute.”

  He touched my face and I tried not to twitch. I couldn’t let him know that I was starting to be able to move.

  I would only get one chance to save myself and make them pay, and that would require the element of surprise.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  _____________

  D aemon found Cody hanging back in the shelter of the trees outside the cemetery wall. Cody had realized Willie Whitaker was simply the patsy after confronting him and discovering that Izzy had actually invited him on the tour. The girl had set up her own father. Adopted or not—scratch that—dweeb or not, that was cold.

  She knew he was a suspect and she’d invited him there to the Haunted Plantation Tour to divert attention. She had to know she’d get caught, and that had both him and Cody worried.

  Daemon looked out over the cemetery. He could see Adriano pacing off in the distance. A mass of undulating robes whipped in the breeze. Lise and Izzy were under a tree and he had no idea where Danior was being kept, but he thought he could make out Penny’s unconscious form on the sacrificial alter. After much debate, they decided to flank the group from either side.

  Heading away from Cody, Daemon hopped over the short white wall, keeping low and moving carefully between the old headstones until he had them in his sight. He could see Cody in his
peripheral moving around the outside of the cemetery’s wall. He was going to come in from the back. Damon would distract and Cody would attempt to rescue.

  Adriano was bending down over a weathered sarcophagus, with a knife in his hand as he stared intently at Penny.

  Or her body.

  No.

  Izzy was standing beneath a tree just steps away. Where was Danior? He looked around and he saw a burlap bag bulging with what he could only assume was…

  Danior. Dead or alive. That was the question.

  He held still for a long moment, watching, judging the distance, wondering how far behind him the police cars were. Both he and Cody had called them prior to meeting up. Lise stood off to the side, leaning against the tree by Izzy. Her arms were crossed like she was upset. He had a feeling they’d been arguing.

  Then, out of the corner of his eye he caught glimmers of energy in the shape of bodies. They sparkled and moved, leaving a shimmering slug-like trail of color visible only to him.

  To his amazement, they became solid. The dead girls sprinted by him, they vaulted the headstones like action heroes and were headed straight for Adriano and Izzy. Daemon just stood there frozen in place, wondering what to do.

  “They’re alive!” Izzy shrieked as she ran toward Adriano and Penny. “Oh God, it worked. We made zombies! We did it, Adriano!” She was elated at their supposed success.

  Adriano straightened, dropping the knife as he pulled a gun from under his robe.

  “What are you doing,” Izzy screamed. “Don’t kill them. They’ll obey us.”

  Daemon watched as they argued, meanwhile Cody snuck in from behind. Isadora and Adriano were so preoccupied, they didn’t even notice him. He’d knocked Lise unconscious and now pulled Danior from the sack.

  The ghostly girls were almost there now but they were flickering, and Adriano panicked and started to fire while Izzy freaked out, grabbing for the gun. His aim was good.

  But there was no way to shoot a ghost.

  A panicked chirrup caused Daemon’s heartbeat to skip as he thought of them turning the gun on Penny. He counted the shots, then leapt to his feet and made a beeline toward the action.