The Beastly Trees
Page 21
One by one the folk of Blackthorn came out of their homes and the shops along the street as the cops marched the doctor to the cruiser. He had his shoulders huddled as though he was trying to hide while he walked.
Julian stroked Katie’s cheek then nodded at the doctor. “I never gave his phone back to him.” There was a hint of pleasant surprise in his voice.
Katie’s attention to him became electric. “I should think it has a lot of the Readers’ phone numbers in it, maybe even Dr Marquez’s. We should keep it in case we need to do something about them.”
“What are we going to do, turn them into trees?”
“Exactly.” Katie waited until the doctor was secured inside the police car, then walked toward Officer Donovan.
“We got here just in time. He was planning to flee the island. That’s why he had a suitcase with him,” Donovan told her.
“I’m not sure if you’re allowed to tell me this, but what are you arresting him for?”
“He was involved in some crimes. Child kidnappings.”
“How did you—?”
“Mr Hollingsworth mentioned him.”
On the way back home from Elvina’s house the next afternoon, Julian moved his hand toward Katie’s.
“Here.”
They were in a hurry to sell the place and had to hack through the ivy chains to get inside. A truck had collected the things they were donating to charity.
The heavy book Julian tossed landed in Katie’s lap.
“Where did you find this?” She wiped the dust off the front cover.
“After I found the key in her room, I went into the wine cellar and grabbed it.”
The book felt cold through Katie’s skirt. She put her hand on the worn, soft leather cover, indented in the places Elvina’s hands had grasped. A Reader’s Sourcebook was written on the front in golden, raised, flowing script. The book contained everything Katie needed to become as skilled as Elvina had been. She began to open the front cover. Everything that could make her as wicked as Elvina had been was in there too.
Julian rolled down his window, and a breeze sneaked in and fluttered the pages. Katie slapped the book closed and threw it on the floor near her seat. It opened and a few of the pages flapped. She kicked it shut.
“Let’s get rid of it before we get home.”
****
Katie woke up to the sound of a chainsaw blaring outside very early the following day. They had tossed Katie’s necklace and the sourcebook into a dumpster at a construction site in town on their way home yesterday. Turning in bed, she reached for Julian in the spot next to hers and touched the sheet – warm but empty. She got up and peeked out the window. Julian stood in the woods at the edge of the yard, cutting down a tree.
Katie put on her bathrobe and opened the window. The sawing noise stopped, and she called down to him, “What are you doing?”
Julian removed his safety goggles and peered up at her.
“Cutting down my mother’s tree.” He put the goggles back on and resumed cutting.
The walls and floor shook when the trunk and branches hit the ground. “Mum, what’s that noise?” Molly asked outside the bedroom door. Katie stepped away from the window and opened the door.
“Katie,” Julian cried from outside.
Katie hurried back to the window. Deep, red-black pools had formed around the stump of the tree he had cut down. Julian turned off the chainsaw and dropped it on the ground.
Molly stood behind Katie.
“Don’t look,” Katie said. She closed the window and pulled down the shade. She took Molly by the shoulders. “Wait here.”
Katie ran downstairs and out the door to the lawn. She leaped across the fallen tree trunk, its bark, black once, now was white and peeling like delicate paper ribbons. Julian reached for her and she held him, the hem of her nightgown lifting a little in the wind.
Molly ran toward them from the house in her pyjamas. The black-red pools had disappeared from around the tree.
“Look!” she said, twirling through the white and red rose petals falling all around them.
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About the author
Sam Logue is an author of mysteries and thrillers.
Praise for The Beastly Trees
“Bewitching darkness laces every chapter, every word.” – The New York Times bestselling author Da Chen