He led the way out of the room. As soon as the door was closed he let out a low whistle. “She’s certainly scared of someone.”
“You think? We have to get her to tell us who.”
“Let’s grab a picture of Kyle and see if we can’t shake a name loose from her with that,” he said.
They walked out into the main room. Desks piled high with paperwork were crammed into much of the space. Usually there were half a dozen officers bent over filling out forms, but instead everyone was at the far end of the room, huddled around a television. That was never a good sign.
They walked over and Samantha tapped one of the officers standing on the fringe of the crowd on the shoulder. “What’s going on?”
“Witch hunt.”
“You’re kidding me,” she said, praying he was speaking euphemistically.
“See for yourself. Hey, people, clear a path,” he boomed.
Several people shuffled a step or two to the side. There, on the television, was a picture of Katie in full Goth regalia.
“How did they—”
She stopped and stared in horror at live images of Katie’s room, including a close-up of the pentagram drawn on the floor under her bed. Ed shoved his way over to her, saw what she saw, and immediately began barking orders.
“Martinez, Johnson, and Sparks, get your asses over to that apartment now. Secure the crime scene and arrest every newsperson there who just crossed the police tape. Move!”
Officers began scrambling while Samantha pushed closer to the television to hear what was being said.
“—a self-professed witch who has been linked to the murders of at least three people. The suspect is in police custody now, but no word as yet from the authorities on charges.”
“How the hell did they know?” Ed asked.
Samantha shook her head. “Someone called them.”
“The real killer?”
She pointed to the screen. There in the background was a familiar blond figure standing in front of a fraternity house. “No. Distraught girlfriend.”
“Please tell me we’re going to be able to solve this quickly,” Captain Roberts said as he walked out of his office.
“We’re working on it,” Ed said.
“Work faster. I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I think it’s going to turn on us.”
“What do you mean?” Samantha asked, studying his face closely. He looked grim. A shadow hung about him unlike any she had seen there before.
He gestured to the television. “That reporter is crying ‘witch’ and no one is calling her a liar. Last time something like that happened anywhere around here, a lot of innocent people died.”
“This is hardly the sixteen hundreds,” Ed said.
“No, but times are tough and people are on edge. And two things never change. People will always blame other people for their problems, and the worse things are, the more zealous people get. That means trouble in any century.”
“We’re going to have to put her in protective custody,” Samantha said.
“Let’s hope she gives us something that makes it all worth it,” Ed said with a sigh.
“If the real killer doesn’t come after her, someone else might.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” he said with a weak smile.
“I think she’s a lonely, mixed-up girl who’s gotten in way over her head. She doesn’t deserve to be in the line of fire.”
They walked over to his desk and found a stack of photos from the three crime scenes. They grabbed pictures of each of the three victims and headed back to the interrogation room.
They reclaimed their seats and Ed placed the photos facedown on the table.
“Do you know what’s going on out there?” Ed asked, jerking his head toward the outside.
“A cop convention?” Katie asked.
The girl was trying so hard to be tough, but she just couldn’t pull it off. Samantha almost felt sorry for her. Still, it was a good thing that Katie wasn’t the seasoned hard case she pretended to be.
“The press is stirring up an angry mob that wants to hunt you down and burn you at the stake, old school.”
Katie’s jaw dropped open. “What?”
“You heard me. There’s a witch hunt going on out there, and by the looks of things, they’re going to skip the whole witch trial and go straight to the execution.”
“People would do that?” The bewildered look on Katie’s face was both sad and comical. “But I’m not a witch, not really.”
“You’ve cried witch so many times that people are starting to believe you, and trust me, they’re pissed,” Ed interjected.
“They’re not going to believe that you didn’t have anything to do with all of this,” Samantha said.
“But I didn’t!”
“But you know who did. You know something. Talk to me, Katie, and we can help you.”
Katie shivered and seemed to fold in upon herself. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” she whispered.
“Tell us what you did do,” Ed said, pushing her.
“Look, all I know is I get paid to have a roommate, as long as I screen them special,” Katie said, whimpering. “None of them have ever died before.”
“Do you know that for certain?” Ed demanded. “Where’s your last roommate?”
“I don’t know. She just split, and she stiffed me for the rent.”
Samantha was watching Katie, a quiet horror creeping over her as Katie’s earlier words sank in.
“What are you screening them for?” she asked.
Katie turned to look at her and the girl’s eyes were dilated wide with fear. “Purity.”
“You mean you’re targeting virgins?” Ed asked.
“That’s just part of it,” Samantha whispered and Katie nodded.
“Total purity. No sex, no drugs, no drinking, no smoking, no tattoos, no piercings, not even ears,” Katie said.
“Anything else?” Ed asked, his face turning ash white.
“They have to be religious.”
4
“You get paid cash to screen your roommates?” Ed repeated.
“Sort of. Just a little bit. There’s other stuff mostly.”
“Who? Who pays you to screen your roommates?” Ed asked Katie.
“They’re witches. Honest, real live witches,” Katie said.
“And how do you know that?” Ed asked sarcastically.
“I met them through a friend of a friend. They’re the real thing. They can do all kinds of stuff.”
“Did they promise to teach you?” Samantha asked.
“No. I asked, but they said they wouldn’t.”
“And you didn’t think that was strange?” Ed asked.
“No. I’m a nothing, a nobody. I don’t have any powers like them.”
And since she doesn’t have any natural power, there’s nothing they could teach her, Samantha realized grimly. All they can do is use her.
“You’re dealing with scary people,” Samantha told Katie. “What did you hope to gain from it?”
“Nothing.”
“What was it? Sex, drugs, an adrenaline rush? What?” Ed demanded.
“It was nothing like that!”
Samantha leaned forward. “Look at me, Katie,” she said, lowering her voice slightly and putting as much authority and conviction into her words as possible.
Katie turned and looked her in the eye. “What was it they promised you?” Samantha asked.
“They told me that they would put… put…” Katie burst into tears.
Samantha studied her for a long minute while the girl cried. Katie had wanted something badly enough that she was willing not to ask questions and to do whatever was asked of her to get it. What could dark practitioners have offered her that she couldn’t get elsewhere?
“What spell did they promise to cast for you?” Samantha asked.
“They said they’d curse Kyle for me.”
“Kyle?” Ed asked, shooting a sideways gl
ance at Samantha.
“My ex-boyfriend. He dumped me on our one-year anniversary. He was cheating on me with this total skank. She said they could put a curse on him, make it so he couldn’t… you know.”
“Make it so he couldn’t what?” Ed asked.
“Make him impotent,” Samantha guessed. When Katie nodded she continued. “Start from the beginning. Tell me who this person was, where and how you met her, and exactly what you agreed to do.”
“Am I in trouble?” Katie asked. She looked at Samantha with wide eyes, and for a moment it was easy to see the confused, scared girl, barely more than a child, and not the defiant young adult who wanted to embrace the darker side of life.
“Yes, you are. And we’re the only ones who can help you,” Samantha said.
Katie whimpered. “They wouldn’t hurt me, would they?”
“What do you think?”
Katie slunk farther down in her chair and wrapped her arms closer around herself. Samantha wanted to reassure her, but it was false hope and she wasn’t in the habit of giving that. Instead she took a deep breath and offered the only comfort she had.
“Katie, if you help us, tell us everything you know, we’ll put you in protective custody.”
Katie shook her head fiercely. “I don’t want to talk anymore.”
“It’s either talk to us now or talk to the jury later,” Ed said roughly.
Katie’s eyes widened. “I haven’t done anything wrong!”
Samantha cleared her throat. “Your ex, Kyle—is his last name Nelson?”
“Yeah, why?”
Samantha grabbed the picture. “He was murdered last night, killed by magic,” she said, tossing the photo on the table in front of Katie.
Katie took one look at it, screamed, and then dissolved into hysterical tears. Samantha sat unmoving, making sure Katie got a good look at what her friends had done.
“How could they do this to Kyle?” she finally managed to ask. “I just wanted him to not be able to sleep with that skank. I didn’t want him dead.”
“But someone wants to see you get blamed for these deaths,” Samantha said. “One of your love letters to him was in the room.”
“What? He kept them?” Katie asked. The look of hope that flickered briefly in her eyes was painful to see.
“Somebody did. Somebody who wanted you to take the fall for his death and the others.”
“But I didn’t even know the nun! How could anyone possibly blame me for that?”
“Who was your last roommate? The one who stiffed you for rent?” Ed broke in.
“Jane. Jane Daniels.”
Samantha and Ed shared a glance. “When was the last time you heard from her?” Ed asked.
“Four months ago.”
“Do you know where she is now?”
Katie shook her head. “No. I tried calling her cell, but it was disconnected. I got some of her mail.”
“Did you keep it?” Ed asked.
“I sent it back.”
“Did the witches ask you about Jane?”
“Yes. Just like the others.”
“Did Jane ever talk about her family?” Samantha asked.
Katie shrugged. “She wasn’t much of a talker. I think she had a sister, but I’m not sure.”
“So you never met the sister?”
“No.”
“Katie, her sister was the nun that was killed today,” Ed said.
“Are you kidding me?” the girl asked, her eyes bulging.
“No, we’re not,” Samantha said. She put the photo of the nun faceup in front of Katie. The girl took one look at it and then squeezed her eyes shut, as if wishing would make it go away.
“I didn’t know.”
“Four months ago Jane was attacked by witches who tried to sacrifice her. They stabbed her, left her for dead. She survived by a miracle, but she’s locked up in a mental hospital.”
Katie began to cry again.
Samantha thought of Jane, remembered the scars on her ears. It had looked like someone had ripped off one of her earrings. Her ears were pierced—that’s why they couldn’t use her. She wasn’t completely pure. They didn’t know until they started the ritual, Samantha realized. That meant that whatever this was had started months before.
“You have to help us catch these people,” Samantha said.
“They’re going to kill me!”
“Not if we can help it, but you have to work with us.”
“Is there some kind of witness protection program? You know—change my name and everything.”
“That will depend on a great many things. If you help us catch these people you might not have to go into hiding.”
Katie bit her lower lip and twisted a silver dagger ring round and round her finger, staring at it as though it would somehow give her the answers she was seeking. “Okay,” she finally agreed in a very quiet voice. “I don’t know how much I can help, but I’ll try.”
“You’re doing the right thing,” Ed said suddenly. “If these people want to hurt you, the only way to be safe is to make sure that they’re behind bars.”
Katie nodded, clearly wanting to believe him.
Samantha knew better. If the people Katie was involved with were into the things she thought they were, there was no way a prison cell would stand between them and vengeance.
“I don’t know how many of them there are. I only ever met the one girl,” Katie said.
“Do you know her name?” Ed asked.
“Bridget. I don’t know her last name.”
“Do you have any pictures?”
“Yeah, we’re best friends. We got professional portraits done together,” Katie said, her sarcasm returning in full force.
Ed raised an eyebrow. “You can’t tell me you didn’t snap a pic with your cell, just once?”
Katie looked away. “I tried to and she caught me. She was pretty mad and I was too scared to try again.”
“What does she look like?” Samantha asked.
“She has really pale blond hair, like almost white, and it hangs straight down her back to her waist. She has these freaky amber eyes that seem to stare right through you, you know?”
Samantha nodded but didn’t say anything.
“She’s about an inch taller than me, so she’s got to be about five-six. She’s thin, but not like skeletal. I think she’s my age.”
“Where did you meet her?” Samantha asked.
“I met her at a party at this haunted house in Salem a few months ago. I don’t know who she knew there; she just sort of showed up. Kyle had just dumped me and I was a mess. I couldn’t stop crying. She said that she could help me.”
“For a price,” Samantha finished.
Katie nodded.
“So how did you contact her?” Ed asked.
“She called me. Her number was always blocked.”
“What else do you know about her?”
“I think she lives in Salem. At the party she said she was just a couple of minutes from home.”
Samantha blinked. Real witches in Salem? There hadn’t been any for years. At least as far as she knew. Most practitioners gave Salem a wide berth. It was one giant tourist trap focused on witchcraft and the town’s history. It could get to be a little irritating, but if a person could stand it, it was also a perfect place to hide.
“Do you know where in Salem the party was?” Samantha asked.
Katie nodded. “I don’t remember the address, but I could tell you how to get there.”
Ed tore off a piece of paper from his notepad and offered it to her along with a pen.
Katie shook her head. “I would have to take you there. I remember what the turns look like, but not well enough to describe them.”
“So we’ll have to see if we can schedule a little field trip,” Ed said.
“Better do it fast,” Samantha muttered, thinking about the news broadcast going on. Another couple of hours and it was going to be impossible to take Katie anywhere without someone
noticing.
An hour later they were on the road, Katie sitting in the back of Ed’s car with an officer on either side of her. They passed Marblehead and into Salem and Samantha felt the hair on her arms stand on end. For years she had avoided Salem like the plague and she had been prepared to never go back.
“Turn left at that light,” Katie said.
Ed followed her directions. Katie’s memory was a little fuzzy in places, but eventually they turned onto a tree-lined street that Samantha knew well. She reached for her missing cross as panic flared inside her. Please let me be wrong, she prayed silently.
“There, that one!” Katie exclaimed. Ed pulled up in front of an old run-down mansion that Samantha recognized from her nightmares.
“You were at a party here?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
“Yeah. Amazing, huh? It’s creepy even in the daylight,” Katie said. “Some guys in one of the fraternities put on a party here. It was like Halloween in April. It made a great haunted house.”
Probably because it is a haunted house, Samantha thought. At least it is for me.
“Bridget said a lot of people died here years ago. Some kind of group suicide, I think. Isn’t that freaky? Can you believe stuff like that actually happens?”
“It wasn’t a suicide,” Samantha said through gritted teeth. Sweat popped out on her forehead and ran down to sting her eyes.
“Are you okay?” Ed asked, so low she was pretty sure she alone heard it.
She shook her head as she began to tremble.
“Katie, you stay in the car with Officer Grant and Detective Ryan. We’ll go see if anyone’s home,” Ed instructed.
Samantha worked to control her breathing as Ed and Oliver got out of the car and approached the front door.
“We’re probably going to have to come back with a warrant,” Grant said from the backseat.
“I don’t think anyone lives there,” Katie said.
“Still need a warrant,” he said.
Samantha felt like something was trying to crawl its way out of her chest as she watched Ed and Oliver walk up the eight steps to the front door. Ed pressed the doorbell and even though she was too far away to hear it, the sound of it echoed in her memory until it seemed to fill the air around her.
Nothing happened. A minute later she watched as Ed knocked hard on the door. She barely stifled a scream as it swung open. She threw open her car door and sprinted up the steps. She grabbed both men and pulled them away from the door.
The Thirteenth Sacrifice Page 5