“No,” Erika shook her head defiantly. I felt my heart drop. “We weren’t slaves, but my mamaa was worried that someone would mistake us for slaves. She was always saying that there were bad people that thought we should all be sold.”
“So, you were free,” I said carefully. “But there were slaves by you?”
“Not really by us,” Erika said. I could tell she was fighting to remember. “They were other places. We lived in a small cabin. My papa worked at a local plantation, but he wasn’t a slave. He worked in the house, not in the fields.”
“Did your parents decide to send you away?”
“Yes,” Erika said excitedly. “I remember now. They sent me and Solomon with the people.”
“Solomon,” I said. “Your brother?”
“Yes, we were too little, my mama said,” Erika explained. “She was worried that someone would just take us. So they sent us with the people. We were supposed to stay up there with some other people until they could come be with us. My mama said it would only be a little while until we were all together again.”
“So, how did you leave?”
“We were put on a wagon,” Erika said. “It seemed like we were on it forever. Every day, though, it got colder and colder. Then, one day we stopped. I thought we were where we were supposed to be. They put us on a boat then, though, and we were on the boat even longer than we were on the wagons.”
“Was Solomon with you on the boat?”
“Yes.”
“Did Solomon get sick, too?”
“No,” Erika replied quietly. “He was there with me but he wasn’t sick. When I got sick, he used to sing to me – like my mama would – and he would try to make me better. He would put a cloth on my head and sing. He would tell me that it wouldn’t be long before we were off the boat and we would be safe. He told me to wish on a star, like we did at home, even though we couldn’t see the stars. He told me to wish and I would get better.”
“Did you wish?” Thistle asked sadly.
“I wished really hard,” Erika said. “I don’t think it works without the stars, though.”
“And then what happened?” I asked around the lump in my throat.
“Then I went to sleep,” Erika said, her voice barely a whisper. “And when I woke up, Solomon was gone.”
“It’s going to be okay, Erika,” I promised. “We’re going to find a way to get you to . . . we’re going to find a way to get you to a better place.”
“Will my mama be there? And Solomon?”
“I really hope so,” I said honestly. “I’m just glad that the boat you were talking about is gone now. That other little kids aren’t getting sick on it.”
“It’s not gone,” Erika said. “The boat I was on is gone but the other one is back.”
I froze, fear tingling in my fingertips. “What do you mean? What other boat?”
“The other boat that’s out there now,” Erika said simply. “I found it again. You have to help those children.”
“What children?” Clove asked worriedly.
“The ones that want their mommies and daddies,” Erika said. “They keep crying for them.”
“What do the children look like?” I asked desperately. “Do they look like you?” I was desperately hoping that she was just getting the present confused with the past.
“No,” Erika shook her head. “They’re lighter, like you. They just want to go home. You have to save them so they can go home, like I never did.”
Twenty-One
I strode out of Hypnotic and headed straight for the police department across the street. Landon had said he wanted to check things out and I had a feeling he hadn’t gone too far to do it.
I went in through the back entrance, greeting Chief Terry’s secretary and adjusting my trajectory for the hallway that led to Chief Terry’s office. I could hear voices inside the office, so I slowed my approach. I paused outside to listen. Okay, I was technically eavesdropping.
“What do you think?” The voice belonged to Chief Terry.
“I don’t know what to think. I’m still new to all of this. My brain tells me it’s not rational and yet . . .” Landon broke off.
“You’ve actually seen some of the things they can do,” Chief Terry filled in for him. “I know. It’s an adjustment.”
“How long have you known?”
“A long time,” Chief Terry said. “The family has always been off – and I’m not just talking about Tillie. I was a few years ahead of Winnie, Marnie and Twila in school, and yet even then people were talking about them, and it wasn’t just because they were all cute.”
“Cute?” Landon laughed.
“Look at the younger girls and you’ll see what the older ones looked like when they were their age,” Chief Terry said. “It’s not like they’re clones – well, except for Clove, she and Marnie could have been twins – but Thistle and Bay both resemble their mothers, in more ways than one.”
“When did you first know there was something different about them?”
“There were always whispers that they could do things,” Chief Terry admitted. “It started with the aunts. They kept saying that the Winchesters were hexing all the boys in class to only pay attention to them. I always thought that was jealousy. You know how girls that age are. Although, I wouldn’t put it past Marnie to do something like that just for some afternoon amusement.”
“When did you know for sure?” Landon sounded curious.
“My first year on the job as a police officer, there was a fire at the high school gym,” Chief Terry said. “The call we got is that there were a lot of kids trapped inside and that there was no way to get them out. We all went to the gym expecting mass casualties and . . .well, you can imagine, burned bodies.”
“What happened?”
“When we got there all the kids were outside and safe,” Chief Terry said. “Every single one of them was accounted for. We didn’t understand how. All the kids would say is that Winnie and Marnie managed to open the door and walk through the fire to get them out. Literally walked through the fire.”
“And what did you think?”
“I thought they were suffering from smoke inhalation,” Chief Terry responded honestly. “That they were seeing things. That in the confusion of what was happening, they just didn’t realize what they really saw and that there was a path through there and they just couldn’t see it because of the smoke.”
“So you still didn’t believe?”
“I don’t know,” Chief Terry said. “I pushed it out of my mind for years. Sure, people still talked. You know, people were convinced that Tillie was evil incarnate.”
“She might be,” Landon said.
“And then you’d hear whisperings about certain things going on up on the property, séances and stuff,” Chief Terry continued. “Old Lenny Franz said that he saw them dancing naked under the full moon.”
“Yeah, I think that one is true,” Landon said grimly.
“You’ve seen it?” Chief Terry asked interestedly.
“Maybe,” Landon hedged. “I really don’t want to talk about it.”
“I bet,” Chief Terry chuckled. “Anyway, I wasn’t sure – really sure – until the girls started growing up. I got a call from Winnie one day. She was panicked. Bay had gotten in a fight with Thistle and ran away from home. I figured she hadn’t gone far, so I had everyone out looking for her.”
Landon remained silent.
“I was out looking for her myself – this was before she started going to the tree house when she was upset – so I wasn’t sure where to look for her,” Chief Terry went on. “I happened to be driving by the cemetery – and that’s when I saw her.”
A memory jogged in my mind, one I had long since forgotten.
“She couldn’t have been more than eight years old,” Chief Terry said. “She was all wild blonde hair and sad blue eyes and the minute I saw her I wanted to just . . . I don’t know . . . hug her or something. She looked so sad. She wasn’t
alone, though. Well, actually, I thought she was alone. She was talking out loud and I thought she was talking to herself. When I approached her, though, it was like she was having a conversation with someone, only I couldn’t see who she was talking to.”
“She was talking to a ghost?” Landon asked. “She could do it way back then?”
“I think she could probably always do it,” Chief Terry said. “The family covered by saying Bay had an active imagination and an imaginary friend for a long time. Although, if I’m being honest, any kid in the neighborhood that hassled Bay either got beat up by Clove and Thistle or had something else unfortunate happen to them.”
“Like they died?” Landon sound horrified.
“No,” Chief Terry said quickly. “More like they had certain inconveniences happen to them. Chicken pox for little Bobby Briggs. A wart right on the end of the nose for little Clementine Baker. And, for little Lila Stevens – a particularly nasty little thing – her hair all fell out for no apparent reason.”
“Tillie,” Landon breathed.
“I can’t prove that,” Chief Terry said. “But, yeah. After a while, everyone in town seemed to put two and two together so no one picked on Bay anymore. At least most people didn’t. Lila Stevens never seemed to learn her lesson and there were a few more problems when the girls hit their teens.”
“How did you know that Bay wasn’t talking to herself in the cemetery?” Landon asked curiously.
“Because, when I asked her who she was talking to, she told me she was talking to my mother,” Chief Terry said. “My mom had died a decade before. A car accident. It had been really sudden.”
“What did she say she was talking about with your mom?”
“Nothing big really,” Chief Terry said. “Mostly just inane chatter. It was just this one thing that she said that made me know she wasn’t making it up.”
“What?” Landon asked curiously.
“I told him his mother knew he kept the locket,” I said, stepping in the doorway to reveal myself.
Landon jumped up in surprise, but Chief Terry merely smiled when he saw me. “That’s exactly what you told me.”
Landon looked embarrassed to have been caught talking about me, but he asked the obvious question anyway. “And what was the deal with the locket?”
“It was my mom’s favorite piece of jewelry, a necklace her mother had given her when she died,” Chief Terry said. “My mom always said she wanted to be buried with it, but I couldn’t bear to do that. I wanted to hold on to it because it reminded me of her. So, right before they closed the casket, I took the necklace and kept it. No one knew that. No one could know that. And yet Bay knew it.”
I smiled at Chief Terry. “She was glad you took it.”
“I hope so,” Chief Terry said, his voice cracking slightly.
“I had forgotten about that,” I admitted. “I had forgotten until I heard you telling Landon.”
“We weren’t gossiping about you,” Landon said hurriedly, sitting back down in his chair nervously. “We were just talking.”
“It’s fine,” I waved it off. “It’s not a big deal. It’s human nature.”
Landon looked like he wanted to say something else but instead he changed his mind. “Did you find Erika?”
“I did,” I said, turning back to him. “You told Chief Terry?”
“Yeah, I needed his help,” Landon said. “I wanted to run a search on missing girls, but I didn’t want to go all the way to Traverse City to do it.”
“What does your office think you’re doing anyway?” I asked.
“Working on cold cases, which I have been,” Landon replied. “Just not necessarily the cold cases they think I am.”
“Is that wise?”
“It will be fine,” Landon said distractedly. “So, what did she say?”
“She confirmed what we thought, that she was on a ship that was supposed to be taking her to a better place – which I assume was some place in Canada – and that she died en route. Her family was supposed to meet her there and one of her brother was with her.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” Chief Terry said. “We’ve been through the missing children in Michigan and the surrounding states and there were no files that matched her description.”
“So, what happens now?” Landon asked.
“Can’t you help her move on, like you did my mother?” Chief Terry asked.
“Your mom was easy to help move on,” I said quietly. “Her unfinished business was fairly simple. She just wanted you to know that everything was okay. That you were going to be okay.”
Chief Terry smiled. “And once she told you that, she passed on?”
“She did,” I nodded.
“Passed on where?” Landon asked curiously.
“To whatever is waiting for us all when we’re gone,” I shrugged. “I don’t know. I think Heaven is too simplistic. It’s a whole other world, though. I know that.”
“Why don’t you look happier?” Landon asked.
“That’s not all she told us,” I hedged, biting my lower lip and glancing between Landon and Chief Terry.
“What else did she tell you?” Chief Terry leaned forward in his desk chair.
“She said there’s another boat out there,” I said carefully. “A boat that has different children on it. Children that are crying for their mommies and daddies.”
Chief Terry’s face drained of color. “Do you think she’s telling the truth?”
“I don’t think she knows how to lie,” I admitted.
“But you said yourself that she was confusing time periods,” Landon said. “Maybe she’s still doing that.”
“Maybe,” I nodded. “And maybe there really are two boats. The one she died on and another one with a whole different group of children on it.”
“How are we supposed to explain to the Coast Guard that a ghost told us there’s a boat out there with a bunch of kids on it?” Landon asked irritably.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “Can’t you just say you got an anonymous tip or something?”
“We can,” Chief Terry said. “That’s just going to get them to do a cursory search, though. We’re going to need more to get a full search.”
“How much more?”
“A lot more than the ramblings of a ghost that has been dead for a hundred and sixty years,” Landon grumbled.
“Well, I’m sorry I don’t have all the evidence lined up for you in a neat little row,” I snapped. “I don’t know how to give you anymore than I’ve already given you. Give me a flipping break!”
Chief Terry looked surprised by my outburst. Landon’s face switched from hurt to astonished anger in mere seconds.
“Well, there’s only so much we can do, too,” he said firmly. “Acting like a child and stomping your foot and pouting isn’t going to help.”
“Is that what you think I’m doing?”
“That’s exactly what I think you’re doing,” Landon said bitterly. “I’m trying to help you here. Why don’t you try helping instead of sitting there and just expecting everything to magically fall into place? You regress to this childish little foot-stomping thing whenever things get even slightly hard and it’s . . . well, it’s annoying. Grow up.”
I felt my mouth drop open and there was a nasty retort on the tip of my tongue. Instead of letting it loose, though, I whirled on my heel and stormed out of the office. I was fighting to hold back the tears as I stalked down the hallway.
I heard a chair slide on the floor in Chief Terry’s office.
“Let her go, son. She just needs to blow off some steam. You’re just going to make things worse if you go after her now. Trust me. They’re complicated women. Did you guys have BLT’s for lunch or something? It smells like bacon.”
I didn’t look back to see if Landon had followed me into the hallway.
Once I was outside of the police station, I found myself at a loss. I wanted to drive somewhere – anywhere, really -- but my car was still out
at the inn. I could have asked Clove or Thistle to drive me back home – but I didn’t really want to talk to either one of them – so I decided to walk. It took me about fifteen minutes to get back home. Once I was in my car I took off without a clear destination in mind. Instead, I rolled the window down and just let the chilly spring air wash over me. I needed to think.
Landon’s accusations had hurt me – more than I was willing to admit, even to myself. The truth was, I had been waiting for him to get sick of everything and walk away – so it wasn’t a big shock. Sure, I was the one that had fed the fight, but everything I had been worrying about was starting to come into fruition – and I couldn’t help but feel somewhat vindicated by it.
For the next hour, I just rode up and down area roads until I found myself on Wetzel Road and not far from the Dandridge. On a whim, I parked my car and climbed out. I wandered to the Dandridge, glancing around to make sure Dean wasn’t present, and then walked past the building until I was on the end of the old dock and could see the expanse of the water beyond it.
Then I just stood there and stared.
The water was empty. Open tableaus of rolling waves kept moving, but there was nothing else. There was no other boat in sight and yet, still, Erika’s words haunted me. I took in a long, shaky breath. Landon was right. I had to figure this out. Being a baby wasn’t going to solve this problem.
I turned to move back towards my car but froze when I heard a door shut. Instinctively, I dropped to my knees on the dock and waited. I wasn’t sure if I had heard the door of the Dandridge or of a car. After a second, I realized it had to be the door of the Dandridge – because there was a no way a car could get into this immediate area until some of the trees were cleared out.
After a few seconds of not being able to see – or hear – anything, I stood up. I figured it was probably Dean, and he wouldn’t mind if I was looking around. The figure I saw moving away from the Dandridge, though – the one that didn’t bother to turn around and scan the area to make sure no one else was present – was not Dean.
4 Witching On A Star Page 15