by Raven Snow
“This seems important.” Rowen dialed.
Ben picked up after a few rings. “Rowen?”
“Yeah, sorry to call you this late, but I found something. I didn’t wake you up, did I?”
“No, you’re fine,” Ben said quickly, sounding much more interested in the other thing she had just said. “What did you find out?”
“Well, to be fair, it was Eric,” she explained. “I sketched down some of the symbols from memory. He looked at them and recognized one from this album cover. I saved the picture. I’ll send it to you after I hang up.”
“What does it mean?” asked Ben.
“It doesn’t mean anything, as far as I can tell. I really think your killer was just trying to make the crime scene look like something related to the occult.” That was very good news for Rowen and her family. “I think he killed her for way more mundane reasons.”
Ben was silent for several long seconds. “Can you come down to the station tomorrow?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“And do me another favor?”
Rowen hesitated. “What?”
“Don’t publish this until I give you the go ahead?”
Rowen had been afraid of that, but she understood. “Yeah, of course. I won’t.” Maybe that didn’t make her the best journalist, but she couldn’t, in good conscience, damage an investigation just to get a scoop. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Rowen.” Ben hung up.
Rowen turned to Eric. “Well, I can’t get a story out of it.”
“Maybe you can solve a murder, though. That’s nearly as good, right?”
Rowen laughed and went to join Eric on the bed. “If I can help, I will.”
“Do you want me to come with you to the police station tomorrow?” asked Eric, pulling the covers up over both of them. He moved in the bed, trying to situate himself comfortably and still allow them both to fit.
Rowen finished sending the picture of the album cover to Ben, and then put her phone on the nightstand. “It was your discovery, so I suppose you better.” She laid back. “I wouldn’t mind the company, either.”
Eric leaned over and kissed Rowen before she got the light. “I’m glad to be back,” he said. “I forgot how exciting things get around here.”
Chapter Six
The next morning, they took two different cars. The cousins went with David to the office. Rowen, meanwhile, rode with Eric to the police station. She was still half asleep, but looking at the comments on their paper’s website, she wished more than ever that she could release the story. It was more than a little likely that the crime hadn’t involved the occult. That seemed like a helpful bit of information that could take the heat off her family before anything bad actually happened. She had given her word, though.
The police station wasn’t exactly brimming with life. There weren’t many people around there at this hour. Either they were all convening around the coffee pot in the break room, or they hadn’t arrived yet.
Fortunately, Ben was an exception. He was there and waiting for her. “I appreciate you coming,” he said, though he didn’t much sound like he meant it. His clothes were a bit disheveled, and his posture was poor.
“What happened?” Rowen asked. She had the feeling something had gone wrong, though she couldn’t quite be sure what.
“It’s no big deal,” Ben assured her, though he made a face after he had said it. “And I guess that really is the problem, too. This is no big deal.” He motioned Rowen and Eric on over to his desk. “Take a seat,” he said. His eyes lingered on Eric for a moment.
“Eric,” Eric said in way of introduction, extending a hand. “I’m Rowen’s boyfriend. I’m also the one who recognized the symbol.”
“Nice to meet you.” Ben shook the proffered hand before sitting. “And good eye. I appreciate the help.”
Rowen sat down across from Ben. Eric did the same. “So, what’s up?” asked Rowen, waiting for him to get to the point. She wasn’t sure how these things were supposed to go. She imagined they would need to take a statement from her.
“Well, the Chief doesn’t want you spreading your theory outside of this station,” said Ben, getting that out of the way first.
Rowen was a little frustrated, but unsurprised. She had hoped they would decide to release that information to the public. That way, there was a chance she might still be the first to get the story. “That won’t be a problem,” she assured him.
Ben nodded like he trusted Rowen on that. “Unfortunately, I’m not sure he’ll really be pursuing that line of thinking, either.”
“What?” Rowen couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Surely, she had misunderstood. “What do you mean?”
“He’s keeping all his options open. Technically speaking, the investigation is considering every possibility,” Ben assured them. “Between us, he’s not giving this information the attention it deserves.”
Rowen exchanged looks with Eric. They were both more than a little disappointed to hear this. “So, what now?” asked Rowen.
“Now, you write and sign a statement for me, and it gets shut away in a filing cabinet forever.” Ben pulled a couple of forms from his desk and passed them over.
“I should have figured this was all this would come down to,” Rowen said with a sigh, pulling out a pen to get started. She felt silly for having had fantasies about being integral to the investigation. It would be nice to be a hero in this town for once.
“Unofficially, I’d like you to keep an eye out,” said Ben, lowering his voice. “Keep looking into this. If you find anything out, contact me directly.”
Rowen wasn’t sure how legal that was, but she nodded anyway. Whatever problems she had had in the past with Ben, she could tell that he did care about the truth. This murder was eating at him. It seemed to genuinely bother him that the people he worked for weren’t investigating it quite as thoroughly as they probably should. If she could help in any way, she was going to do it.
It took a while to fill out the statements. Afterward, she said her goodbyes to Ben and left with Eric.
“I was thinking,” began Eric, once they were outside. He glanced around as he spoke, making sure no one was near enough to overhear. “The last time there was a murder, we did a séance, right? Why don’t we do that again?”
Rowen nodded. “I was thinking about that, actually,” she said, leading the way to the car. “I mean, I hate how we had some pretty aggressive experiences with a ghost last time… But it does seem like the most obvious course of action.” That settled the idea for her. “We’ll do it back at the office.”
Eric laughed. “I’m sure David will get a kick out of that.”
David was absolutely horrified.
He hadn’t said much, but it seemed implied. Most people probably hadn’t even seen a Ouija board since they last went to a sleepover in high school. Rose pulled one out of the supply closet like it was the most normal thing in the world to have on hand.
“I’d rather we used this than have a regular séance,” said Rose, indicating the board. “That way, I can participate.” She cleared a space in the storage room. “I’m adopted, so I don’t have any innate skill when it comes to witchy things,” she told David when he stared at her.
Rowen didn’t think that was why he was staring. He was the one who had offered to help at the office. He hadn’t known what helping at the office would entail, but this was hardly the strangest thing they had ever done inside these walls.
“I was weirded out at first, too,” Eric assured his brother, clapping him on the shoulder. Rowen caught the warning look Eric tacked on to the touch. He was silently telling his brother not to be openly skeptical or insulting. Rowen appreciated that. She knew they must seem awfully strange to outsiders.
Margo gathered up candles and a lighter. Willow and Peony helped her arrange them in a circle. The storage closet would be plenty dark when they closed the door. Soft, dim light was always good for this sort of thing.
> “I’ll wait out here,” David offered, when they all headed inside to get started.
“It’s best if everyone is in the same place,” Margo told him with a smile. “Come on. You can sit next to me.”
David didn’t go at first, but he was forced to when Eric gave him a shove in that direction. “Get over it,” said Eric. Those were big words from a guy who had been pretty insulting when Rowen had first shown him similar things. She didn’t mention that, though. He was plenty accepting now. Of course, he had also seen quite a bit of evidence for himself that they weren’t making this stuff up.
With the door closed, the storage room was eerily dark, but the candles lit up the board plenty.
“All right,” began Rose, sitting down cross-legged at one side of the board. “We don’t need everyone to have their fingers on the planchette. At least four people should, though.”
Rowen put her fingers on it, then Willow, then Peony. Eric tried to convince David to put his fingers on it, but he wouldn’t budge. Margo put her fingers on instead. Rose picked up a notepad, ready to write down the letters as they came to them.
“Is everyone ready?” asked Rose.
Everyone, except David, answered in the affirmative.
“All right.” Rose took a deep breath. “Everybody, breathe deep. Clear your minds, and try to relax.”
David was, very clearly, not relaxing. That was all right. As long as most of them were open to the experience, it had a good chance of working. Rowen was amused by how smug Eric looked, though. He seemed pretty confident this was going to work. Never mind that he had been in David’s shoes not so long ago.
“Lindsay Martel,” Rose began. “We seek to communicate with you today.”
Margo made a disgusted noise. When everyone looked at her, she just shrugged. “Sorry. A little resentful we’re going to all this trouble, I guess. I really hated her.”
“She got murdered,” Rose reminded her, frowning. “Have some respect for the deceased.”
Margo shrugged. “It’s sad that she died, but that doesn’t mean she was a good person in life.”
“She has a point,” Peony ventured.
“No, she doesn’t,” said Rowen, shutting them both down before everyone got sidetracked. “Now, all of you hush and concentrate.”
“We seek to communicate with you today,” Rose began again, frowning at both Margo and Peony. “We want to help. If you are with us right now, please−” Rose stopped speaking. The planchette had begun to move. She raised her pen to her notebook.
Rowen and her cousins read the letters aloud, “I-D-I-D-N-” They continued on until Rose had spelled out a complete message.
Rose laughed. “I didn’t like you either, Margo.”
Margo rolled her eyes. The planchette began to move again.
“You are all terrible people,” Rose amended, less amused by the second message.
“If you don’t want your murder to be solved, you can go ahead and just rot,” snapped Margo.
“Margo!” Rowen glared at her. “Shh. We’re solving the murder, regardless. Lindsay, if you know who murdered you, please just tell us. We want to bring them to justice.”
The planchette was still for some time. Everyone got a bit antsy. It seemed like Lindsay was giving them the silent treatment. The silence was punctuated by a complaint from David. “This is ridiculous.”
“Quiet,” hissed Eric, before any of the Greensmith girls could beat him to it.
The planchette started to move again; it spelled out a new message.
“I don’t remember,” read Rose.
“Do you remember any details?” asked Rowen, already disappointed. This wasn’t terribly uncommon. When ghosts had been through something traumatic, they didn’t always remember the details— not even the important ones, like who murdered them. “What were you doing the night of the murder?”
The planchette began to move once more. “P-A-R-T-Y.”
That was a lead, at least. Rowen followed up on it with another question. “Where was the party at?”
“J-U-S-T-I-N L-A-W-S-O-N.”
“I remember him,” said Margo. “We dated in high school.”
“Did you spend time with anyone there?” asked Rowen. “Do you remember anyone specific?”
The planchette spelled out something strange: “H-I-M.”
“Him?” repeated Rowen. She and her cousins all exchanged puzzled looks.
“This is ridiculous,” David said again. This time he stood and went to the door.
The cousins called for him to wait, but it was too late. He left, disrupting the circle.
“Are you still there?” asked Rowen.
They all waited. The planchette didn’t move again. They tried several more times. Lindsay just wasn’t answering anymore.
“We’ll have to try it again later, I guess,” Rose complained, setting her notebook aside. Willow switched the lights on.
“At least we got some information,” said Rowen, before leaving to go look for David. She found him in the main office, seated on the sofa. “What’s your problem?” asked Rowen, going right up to him. She had been forgiving with him so far, but she wasn’t shy about confronting people when they crossed her. David had certainly done that. “You said you were going to help out at the office.”
David was leaning back on the sofa. His arms were crossed over his chest. “I didn’t realize helping at the office meant this nonsense.”
“Helping at the office means whatever I say it means,” Rowen said, keeping her tone stern. “I’m the boss. If you say you want to help, you need to be prepared to do whatever that entails. And all it entailed this time was sitting in a room for a few minutes.”
“Rowen,” Eric said softly, coming up behind her. “I’ll take care of this.”
Rowen glanced back at him. “Fine,” she said with a sigh, assuming that meant he would take his brother home.
Eric did. He had a few choice words to say to his brother on the way out the door. Rowen didn’t feel at all sorry for him this time. He had pushed her entirely too far. After the stunt he had pulled the night before last, it hadn’t taken much. She went back to confer with her cousins about the information they had found out before David ruined things.
Rowen’s cousins were all still crowded in the storage closet. They had all been too nervous to leave, it seemed. They’d heard the arguing going on and hadn’t dared venture outside during it. Rowen didn’t blame them.
“Willow, Peony, and I can keep trying the Ouija board while you do your own investigating,” Rose offered, trying to put a positive spin on things. “We did find out some good leads.”
Rowen nodded. She could agree with her there. “I’ll go talk with this Justin guy. Margo will come with me.”
Margo made a face at that. “He hates me. We didn’t… Our breakup was a pretty rough one.”
“Margo will still go with me,” said Rowen, offering Margo what she hoped was her most convincing smile. “Please.”
Margo rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she sighed.
“What about the other thing she said,” Rose prompted, meaning of course, the the word, ‘Him.’
Rowen had her own ideas about that. She imagined her cousins did, as well. ‘Him’ might have implied someone in the room. Since Eric had been out of town that night, that only left one other, ‘him.’ Rowen didn’t want to jump the gun, though. She might not care for the guy, but it was a pretty strong accusation to make that he was involved in a murder.
Chapter Seven
After lunch, Rowen loaded Margo into the car and drove her toward Justin’s house.
Rowen remembered Justin, if only vaguely. In high school, he’d been a goth kid with bad acne and braces. She’d never really understood what Margo saw in him. Then again, not many boys would give the Greensmith girls the time of day back then.
Justin lived on the edge of town now. He was a bit out of the way in the country. It was a great place for parties. No one was around to comp
lain about the noise for miles.
The wreckage of a party was still there when Rowen drove up. Toilet paper draped an oak out front. Beer cans littered the front lawn. There was a jeep parked out front. That likely meant someone was home. That same someone was peeking at them through the blinds by the time they were getting out of the car.
Margo had brushed her hair and applied more lipstick. She needn’t have bothered. The man who opened the door wasn’t particularly charming. Justin had outgrown his goth phase and entered a bum one, it seemed. His t-shirt had food stains on it. His dark hair was unkempt. He had outgrown the acne and his teeth were nice, but that was the most generous thing you could say about him. Rowen was pretty unimpressed.