“We think they took a jar with a dead baby inside. You know all the rumors going around about that place.”
“I never put much stock in all that shit. The old woman was said to be performing abortions on girls around the county. Hell, if she was doing that all the years she was said to, she’d have to be over a hundred years old.”
“Would you like to see the evidence?”
“I’ll wait and see it in court.”
He glanced down at the signed and dated paper, and then picked it up to fold it and stick it in his jacket pocket. “Now if I could ask one more thing of you, I’ll get out of here.”
“What do you need?”
“I need you to get Judge Roister to sign a search warrant for me to go over the Prescott Mansion with a fine tooth comb.”
For a moment, Bragg sat silent, then nodded. “When do you need it?”
“Tomorrow at noon should be fine. By then, I should be able to get the parents to bring in their boys to tell us for sure where they got the jar and if they saw any more when they found that one.”
Bragg punched in some numbers then listened patiently as the call was answered. “This is Prosecuting Attorney Bragg. Please inform Judge Roister that I’ll be at his office at noon to get a search warrant signed. I appreciate it.” He hung up the phone. “Is there anything else you need while you’re here?”
Jenkins got to his feet to hold out his hand. “No, that will take care of it. Thanks, Bragg. If we’re lucky, this could wrap up a case that’s been going on way too long.”
“If you find anything, be sure and let me know. That old bitch has snubbed her nose at this county for many years. I’d like to be a part of bringing her down.”
“Want me to give you a call when we’re ready to head out?”
“Naw, I’ll let you handle the dirty work. I’ll sit back and take the credit.”
With a cocky grin, Jenkins headed out the door.
***
“First off, I want you to know we’re not playing games with you, Father Hannity. Our parents brought us up to behave better than that,” Willie said, a little anger creeping into his voice at the insinuation.
“All right, all right,” he waved his explanation away, “just tell me what you have come here to ask my help with.”
The three sat together in the office of Father Hannity as Willie and Butch filled him in on all that had gone on since the first day they stepped foot on the grounds of the Prescott Mansion.
“And now my parents and sister and me are being haunted just like the family down the road from us.
The priest sat forward in his chair. “Where do you live, Butch?”
“Down in the valley on Rusty Lane.” Something in the man’s voice had both boys feeling uneasy.
“Then you would be neighbors with Fran and Eddie Reesher?”
“Yeah, why?” Butch whispered.
“Boys I’m going to need to talk with your parents about this.” He reached into his desk drawer to pull out a small note pad. “Here, write your phone numbers on here.”
“Are we in trouble, Father?” Willie asked, not sure he could take one more problem. “I thought it was always all right to come talk with you if we had a problem.”
The priest got up from his chair as Willie jotted down his name and number.
“Of course you’re not in trouble, Willie. I want you and Butch to come to me any time you need someone to talk with.” He patted Willie’s thin shoulders.
“I’m really glad to hear you say that, Father, because I have something else I need to ask you.”
“And what is that?” he said relighting his pipe and needing to calm his jangled nerves.
“I told the ghost kids at the mansion that I would find someone who could send them to the light. They don’t want to be surrounded by all that evil. Will you go and say a blessing and send them home to God?”
Father Hannity felt the hand holding his pipe tremble slightly. “I can certainly give it a try, Willie. I’m not sure how receptive the owner of the estate would be to my coming on her property to do a blessing though.”
“She wouldn’t be,” Butch spoke up. “She’s an evil old…bit…witch.” He corrected himself quickly.
“Then I don’t know how I can be of help to the children. In order to do a blessing I would need the permission of the owner.”
As though someone whispered in his ear, Willie heard: “Tell him to come when she is not there, for if he does not, the children will be trapped there until she is gone.” Even though he had not heard this voice before, he knew instinctively it was his guide talking to him.
“Father Hannity, maybe you could come when the owner ain’t there.”
“No, that would be trespassing, and I can’t be a part of that.”
“Then what you’re saying is you’d rather let a lot of innocent little kids, who have already been hurt and suffered unheard of abuse, continue to be forgotten!”
“Now you just hold on there, young man.” The priest got to his feet. “I do not stand for insolence. You will apologize right now, or I will be putting in a call to your parents.”
“I don’t really give a shit what you do. You just showed me you’re nothing but a yellow coward who can’t spare a moment of caring for a bunch of kids who really need you. Let’s get the hell outta here, Butch.”
“Well this is great!” Butch hastened his steps to catch up to Willie, who was already bounding for the door. “Not only do we have an evil old bitch wanting to kill us, now we have a man of God fixing to call our parents about what wicked little bastards we are! Is there anyone else we…can…piss…off?”
“Man of God!” Willie scoffed, kicking a rock up the sidewalk. “He don’t care jack shit about them kids. For all we know, he could be a child abuser himself. The ones the church keeps moving around so they don’t get caught.” He nodded giving emphasis to his words. “Probably why he was so happy when he thought we were signing up to take lessons to be altar boys.”
Butch stepped off the curb, looking both ways before crossing the street.
“Where the hell you going?” Willie stopped walking.
“Out of firing range. At the rate you’re pissing people off, the angels are probably sighting their crosshairs on you right now.”
“Yeah, well, let ‘em. Then they can get down here and protect those kids! I ain’t breaking my word. I said I’d find someone to help them, and by damn, I intend to do it!”
“So, who ya gonna get?” Butch called to him. “Priests are the only ones God gave the power to cast out evil demons!”
“Damn it, Butch,” Willie motioned him back across the street. “You don’t need to tell the whole goddamn neighborhood our business! Get your ass back over here!”
Stomping across the street, Butch stopped in front of his angry cousin. “All right, I’ll walk with you, but if you say one more word that’s gonna piss God off, I’m going somewhere else to live until all this creepy shit’s over!”
“Oh shut the fuck up, I’m trying to think. Since we know we can’t get any help from Father Chickenshit, what do you think about our taking a bus and going to another church downtown?”
“Why don’t we just call the other church downtown? That way, if we find that all the priests are afraid to go up against the old bitch and her demons, we won’t waste our money on the bus.”
“Good idea. You know, Butch, sometimes you make a lot of sense.”
Chapter Eighteen
She walked through the house until she came to the hidden room. Pulling the door open, she descended the stairs into the basement, all the way through the narrow hallway leading outside and down to the lake. There she saw the boat tied up to the dock. One by one, she lifted the sacks of food and drink out of the boat to place them in the small buggy she had waiting nearby to transport them into the house. When she had finished her task, she sat down to rest before putting it all away. While she sat there, she did something she had not done in years: she twist
ed the cap off a bottle of brandy.
“Might as well not let it go to waste. He ain’t here to enjoy it anymore, but I am.” She lifted the bottle to her lips, taking a drink and swallowing deeply.
“Since when do you dull your senses with liquor?”
Without turning, she spoke into the quiet. “What I do in my house is my business.”
A hand encircled her throat,squeezing until she slumped to the floor.
“You know better than to disrespect me.”
She stood glaring at him and then looked to the floor where the body of an old woman lay crumpled and still.
“NOOOOOOOOOO!” She ran her hands over her body, trying to tell herself the woman could not be her—but she knew it was.
He stood watching her a smile widening across his face.
“You have destroyed me. And now you have destroyed all he stood for. There is no one else to carry on his dream.”
“His dream ended when he left this house all those years ago. You only continued your destruction of the unborn to give yourself a reason to exist. He had no more need of them or you.”
“No, he needed me because we loved each other. He told me he loved me!”
“You stupid cow! Have you looked at yourself lately? He might have enjoyed fornicating with you when you looked like a human being, but he would throw up if he had to use you now.”
“I hate you! I have always hated you!” She started toward him, then stopped as she saw him straighten up.
“You know you are no match for me. My power is such I can send you to suffer the burning fires of hell. My powers were given to me by the master. Do you want to suffer? Or do you want to stay on this plane to continue the master’s work?”
She watched him, trying to decide how much truth was in his words. Then she hung her head in assent.
“You have made a wise decision, Janine. Now that you are no longer needed to bring the children forth to use in the lab, your services can be put to a different use. As long as you gather souls for the master, you will be allowed to remain here where you can be of use, but only as long as you are of use.”
She was silent for a moment, wanting to hear in her mind the sound of her name being spoken for the first time in years. It sounded foreign, even to her ears. Then, not wanting to anger the one standing before her, she turned back. “How can I be of any use now? I have no body.”
“You are a spirit. You can come and go much easier.”
She looked at him as he stood gazing at her and tried not to back away. Dressed in his black shirt and jeans and boots, his wide brimmed hat pulled down to hide his face he looked very menacing.
She glided over to the door and moved through it with no problem. Laughing aloud, she twirled about.
The children stood back, watching her, and she felt their presence.
“Do you see what has happened to me? I am just like you now. I am a spirit too. Now you will never know when I am here watching you.”
“How did you die,” Jason asked her, trying not to turn and run.
“The Man in Black killed me. He thinks I can do more good without my body. And I agree. Such freedom!” She moved into the air and eventually brought herself back to the ground with little effort.
“Now that you no longer have any use for us, does this mean we can go home to the light?” Jason ventured further.
“Whether you stay or go is not for me to say. Why don’t you ask the man watching you?” A giggle crept into her voice.
The Man in Black stepped outside, eying the children as they gathered around the old lady’s spirit.
“Why don’t you ask the children what they are willing to trade to be set free?” He moved over to stand beside her. “This is your chance to show me that you are still needed on this plane.”
Her newfound freedom had her feeling so giddy that, for a moment, his meaning escaped her. Then she understood and felt filled with a richness of power she had never felt before.
“Yes, what are you willing to trade for me to set you free from staying here any longer?”
Still the spokesman, Jason looked at the others and stepped forward. “We have nothing you would want. We are only children.”
“Oh, but you do have something I want. Would you be willing to trade your very souls for the chance to leave this house of darkness?”
***
Willie and Butch walked into the house expecting the worst and were surprised when all seemed quiet.
“So far so good,” Butch said, nudging Willie a big smile lighting up his dark brown eyes.
“Don’t get too comfortable.” He reached out unplugged the phone. “I like a sure thing,” he said as he continued on his mission.
As they came back downstairs and were just turning into Dave and Julie’s room, the door bell rang, stopping them in mid-stride.
“Aw shit!” Willie whispered.
“More like holy shit with our luck.” Butch tried to see around Willie as they saw Julie walking to the door.
“Detective Jenkins, this is a surprise. Come in.” She motioned him into the house.
“What the hell? What is he doing here?”
“Aw man this can’t be good,” Butch said, following Willie back up the stairs. “We might have been better off with Father Hannity.”
Running into his room, Willie went over to his register and dropped to the floor.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Shut up. I want to hear what they’re saying.” He put his head down on the register.
Butch dropped down beside him.
“Have a seat, Detective. And I’ll go get you a cup of coffee. What do you take in it?”
“Just black, thanks.”
“To what do we owe this visit, Jenkins? Last time you and I spoke, we were on a different page,” Bill said not bothering to temper the anger in his voice.
“I want to apologize for that, Mr. Coby.” He got to his feet holding out his hand.
“Has anything changed since the two of you talked?” Dave came to stand beside his brother.
“As a matter of fact, yes it has.” He reached into his jacket pocket to withdraw a paper. “The prosecuting attorney okayed my request to waive any charges for stealing or trespassing if that’s what went down.”
The three men looked at one another for a long moment and then at the same time Dave and Bill held out their hand to the detective.
Jenkins shook their hands then folded the paper back up to put it back in his pocket.
“Hold up there, Jenkins,” Dave told him, “I’d like to take a look at that if I could.”
“Sure thing.” He handed the paper into Coby’s outstretched hand.
Both men read the paper carefully then shook their heads as Dave handed the paper back.
“Were you wanting to speak with the boys here at the house, or did you want to go to the station so someone could take their statement?”
“Here will be fine.” Jenkins nodded, taking the cup of coffee Julie held out to him. “I brought my trusty little recorder.” A wry grin split the corners of his wide mouth.
“Do you want me to call the boys, or do you have more to tell us before they come in?” Rita asked, starting to get up from the couch.
“Before we get to anything more, I want to apologize for just dropping in on you folks like this. I tried to call on the way over to let you know to expect me, but your phone has been tied up.”
Julie walked over to the phone in the hall. “Hmm, that’s odd. There’s no dial tone. She looked down to see the phone had been disconnected. “Someone disconnected it.” She quickly plugged it back in.
“I’ll check the rest of the phones,” Bill told her, walking out of the room. Within moments he was back. “They were all unplugged.”
Walking to the landing, Dave called up the stairs. “Willie, Butch, you need to get down here. There’s someone here to talk to you.”
“Yep, it’s about us all right,” Willie said, getting up off the
floor.
“You don’t think Father Hannity called the police over what you said to him, do you?”
“I doubt it. Besides I have a right to say whatever I want. This is still a free country.”
“What did you hear through the register? I couldn’t hear anything with the heater on.”
“Naw, you can’t when the furnace fan’s running.”
“Willie, Butch, I said you need to get down here. I don’t want to have to come up there.”
“Uh-oh, sounds like we better go see what’s going on. It’s my guess this has something to do with the jars.”
“Which means we can also expect a visit from the old bitch too.”
“Let’s hope she’s still lingering over at your house with her demon.”
As they walked out into the hall, Donna came out of the guestroom. “What’s going on? I heard Uncle Dave yelling for you two to come downstairs.”
“That’s what we’re about to go and find out,” Willie said. “Since that detective we talked to at the school is here, we’re betting it has something to do with the jars we took from the Prescott Mansion.”
Donna stopped walking, and with a hand on each of their shoulders, she declared, “I was going out, but I have a feeling you two are gonna need some backup.”
“I wish you would stay, sis. You have more faith in us about what’s going on than anyone else.”
“I saw the bitch in action,” she laughed, giving them a hearty squeeze.
Willie felt better than he had all day now that he knew Donna was still in his corner. “I don’t think she’ll want to tangle with you again, Donna. You showed her what was what.”
They were still laughing as all three of them walked down the stairs.
Dave pulled Willie off to the side. “Did you unplug the phones?”
Willie’s face paled as he hung his head.
“What the hell did you do that for?”
“I’ll explain it to you later, Dad. Right now, I think we better go see what else we’re gonna have to answer for.”
“Boys,” Julie spoke up as they walked into the room, “Detective Jenkins is here to talk with you about what all happened on the day you found the jar.”
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