“Shhh,” she hissed with a finger to her lips.
“Sorry. You literally just about gave me a heart attack.”
“Do you hear that?” she asked me quietly.
I nodded my head. “I’ve been following the sound, sounds like a man is chanting. And check out the light show.”
“Yeah, it’s coming from in here,” she said and pointed towards the fenced in area.
“We can’t go in there,” I told her nervously.
“We have to, that’s probably Jax’s kidnapper. We’ve got to find her.”
My head lowered. I knew she was right. I took a deep breath and sucked up as much moxie as I could muster and unlatched the gate. Alba went through first and I followed closely on her heels, holding her arm for protection.
“Stop being such a baby,” she shot at me quietly.
“I can’t help it, this is freaking me out,” I told her as we walked through the cool grass which led down into a valley. As the trees cleared and the moon lit the wide expanse of space that we’d just wandered into, it was immediately evident where we were.
“It’s a graveyard!” I whispered in surprise. Who would have thought the campus would have a graveyard right here?
“Shh,” Alba said again. “The lights are coming from over here.”
We followed the lights, winding our way through a row of tombstones. The man’s voice became clearer the closer we got and the energy that rode on the wind grew stronger. “Can you feel the energy circling the light show?” I whispered to Alba as my hair danced around my shoulders.
She nodded and squeezed my arm, silencing me. When we got close enough, our two darkened figures slid down behind a large headstone. We peered off to the side of the tombstone. There was a small garden shed or perhaps a mausoleum at the base of the valley. A man was standing on a short altar in front of it with his arms wide open to the heavens, chanting in a foreign tongue.
“What’s he saying?” I asked her.
“It sounds like Latin,” she whispered back.
“I can’t see his face,” I murmured. “If only he’d turn around.”
As if on command, the man suddenly stopped chanting. He lowered his arms and the swirling colorful lights disintegrated into the night sky, leaving only the illumination of the moon behind. My hair dropped to my shoulders as the wind let it out of its grasp and silence filled the air around us, making me almost scared to breath. Alba and I froze, afraid to move, lest we give away our positions.
The man dropped his head and turned around. I couldn’t see his face, but his body was distinctively familiar – he was short and round and oddly cartoonish. As he lifted his head, the moon glared off his balding scalp and finally I got a good luck at his face. I sucked in my breath. I knew who it was!
{ Chapter Thirteen}
The mysterious man summoning the spirits was none other than Seymour, the janitor that I had seen on the first day on campus. I had all but forgotten about him. And then it hit me. I had spent the last week trying to figure out who Morgan’s father resembled and now here it was, it was Seymour. The two men both had the same dark curly hair and dark eyes. Morgan’s father was quite a bit taller than Seymour, but their faces bore a striking resemblance to each other.
I squeezed Alba’s arm, and then clapped a hand over my mouth, forcing myself to stay silent. I was afraid to talk. Afraid he’d hear us.
Seymour lifted his arms up high above his head and stretched them. He moved his head from side to side as if he were cracking his neck. Finally he leaned over and picked up a shovel and a big tarp that were lying next to his feet and carried them inside the little building he was standing in front of. My eyes grew huge. This man was a wizard of some sort and he had a shovel. Immediately I wondered if that was where he was holding Jax.
“That’s the janitor! We’ve got to get in that building Alba, that could be where Jax is!” I whispered to her when I was sure Seymour was out of earshot in the building.
“You think he’s the kidnapper?”
“He’s obviously some sort of wizard. He’s summoning the spirits. He’s definitely up to something.”
“Yeah, for sure he’s up to something,” Alba agreed.
“Do you think that Morgan’s father and him look alike? Makes me wonder if they are related.”
Alba nodded. “It’s dark, but I can sort of see the resemblance.”
“We’ve got to get into that shed,” I told Alba. “I’m almost positive that Jax is in there.”
She shook her head. “No way. This is as far as we go. We need to report Jax missing and we need to tell Detective Whitman our suspicions about this guy.”
“Yeah, we need to get out of here before he comes back,” I said.
“Come on,” she whispered, leading me back into the darkness.
The race back to Winston Hall was a blur. Once we passed through the cemetery gate, we took off like shots in the night, firing through the pitch black sky back to the safety of our dormitory. Sweets and Holly were waiting for us in the lobby. Holly was nervously chewing on her finger nails and Sweets was devouring another sugary snack from the vending machine.
“Did you see anything?” Holly asked the minute we entered the building.
Alba and I bent over, gasping for breath. The intense sprint had kicked my butt and I was suddenly wishing I’d brought my inhaler with me to college as my mom had reminded me. Gosh I hated it when she was right.
Alba sucked in a deep breath and then looked at Sweets, who was still dressed in her robe and house slippers. “Sweets, we are going to need you to drive us to the police station. Now.”
***
The ride to the station was just as intense as the stakeout had been. We described in detail everything we had seen and my suspicions about Seymour. As Sweets drove, I pulled out my phone and clicked on my Google app.
“What are you doing?” Alba asked me curiously.
“I’m looking up Morgan’s obituary in the paper. I’ve got to know if there is any relationship between Seymour and Morgan’s father.”
I typed ‘Morgan Hartford Aspen Falls obituary’ into the search engine and clicked on the link from the Aspen Falls Observer. I scanned the obituary until I got to the list of people she was survived by. There in black and white, my suspicions were confirmed.
“Says here that Morgan Hartford is survived by her parents, Roger and Mary Hartford and her Uncle, Seymour Hartford. Knew it!”
“Good call, Mercy,” Holly cheered while we drove the short distance into Aspen Falls.
“The custodian is Morgan’s uncle? Why would her uncle kill her?” Sweets asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t know, but you’ve got to admit it’s awful suspicious that Seymour is a dead girl’s uncle and he’s the custodian of the school where another girl was just abducted.”
Sweets nodded as she drove through the darkness, her eyes widened frightfully. “I just can’t believe Jax has been abducted. I’m so worried about her, I hope she’s alright.”
“Me too,” Holly lamented.
“We all do,” I agreed. “But we’re going to find her, don’t worry.”
The Aspen Falls Police Department was quiet when we arrived shortly after one o’clock in the morning. The front desk clerk looked more than a little surprised to see a group of women in their pajamas come rushing in at such an odd hour.
“May I help you?” he asked blandly, his bushy eyebrows slid together as he peered at us through the bullet proof glass in the lobby.
“We have an emergency situation. Is Detective Whitman around?” I asked.
“No, Detective Whitman will be back tomorrow morning. What kind of emergency situation are we dealing with ladies?”
Holly threw herself at the glass in her little baby doll nightgown. “Oh officer, it’s just terrible. Our friend has been abducted.”
The officer paid Holly’s flair for the dramatic no mind, but instead focused on what she’d said. “Someone’s been abducted?”
>
We all nodded.
“My roommate,” I added.
“You witnessed her being taken?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No, not exactly. She stormed off early tonight really, but Holly here, had a dream, and…”
“So you don’t know that she’s been taken?” he asked, attempting to clarify the situation.
“No, I do know she’s been taken,” I stated firmly.
“How do you know she’s been taken?” he asked.
“Because Holly here, had a dream, and…” I repeated.
“Ok, stop. How long has your friend been missing?” he asked.
“Since about 8 o’clock,” I said with a nod.
“She’s only been gone about 5 hours?” he asked, looking at his watch.
I nodded. “Yes, but…”
“Ok, she’s only been gone for 5 hours, you saw her walk off, I don’t think this is an abduction case,” the officer said, looking down at the paperwork he was working on. It was obvious he wanted to get back to whatever mundane drudgery he had been working on before we got there.
“You don’t understand, officer. We also have information regarding Morgan Hartford’s killer,” Alba added pointedly.
That caused the office to look up sharply. “What did you just say?”
“We know who Morgan Hartford’s killer is,” Alba repeated.
“Can you give me a moment?” he asked and then quickly walked into an office out of our range of vision.
“What are we going to do? They don’t even care that Jax has been abducted,” Sweets asked, ringing her hands.
“Our only hope is for Detective Whitman to get down here. He’ll believe us.” I was sure that it was true. He was our only hope for getting Jax back.
The officer returned to the window. “Ok, you can come on back,” he said and buzzed us into the door on our right.
He met us inside and guided us to an office with an empty desk and office chair and two cushioned chairs in front of the desk. “I’ll get a few more chairs.” He brought in two more chairs and the four of us took a seat. “I’ve called Detective Whitman. He’s on his way down to the station. Can I get you ladies anything to drink or eat?”
“I’d take one of those donuts I saw when we came in,” Sweets said with a little smile. We all looked at her. She’d just had a honey bun and a bear claw back in the lobby. “What? I’m a stress eater.”
The officer brought Sweets a donut and the rest of us accepted a cup of coffee while we waited for Detective Whitman to arrive.
Finally, almost a half hour later, he made an appearance. “Girls, you’re back. I should have known. What’s going on?” he asked, as he took a seat behind the desk.
“My roommate has been abducted,” I told him. I knew he’d believe us.
“Your roommate has been abducted? Who is your roommate?”
“Jax,” I said and then suddenly realized I didn’t even know my roommate’s last name.
“Jax who?” he asked, taking notes on a yellow steno pad.
I looked from girl to girl for help and was met with blank stares. “Gosh, I honestly don’t know that I’ve ever asked Jax her last name,” I replied honestly. “It’s only the first week of school.”
“Uh-huh,” he said. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
I went through the whole scenario of the social event and how Freddy had been manhandling Jax, causing her to get upset. I even told him that Jax and I had gotten into an argument and she’d stormed off and she’d never come back.
“So, really, you don’t know that your roommate has been abducted,” he said, trying to lead me into admitting that it was possible that Jax was just hiding somewhere.
“No, Detective Whitman, we know that Jax has been abducted,” Holly told him pointedly.
“How do you know this?”
“You know that we’re, uh-hum, witches, right?” Holly began nervously.
A smile crept across the detective’s face. “Yes, I do,” he strung out slowly.
“Ok, well, sometimes witches know things that others don’t,” she said. “I had a vision. Jax was abducted by a man. That’s all I know.”
“Not much to go on,” he chided her. “Can’t your vision be a little more specific?”
“We know who has her,” I finally spat out. I was getting frustrated by the lack of eminency that Detective Whitman and the other officer had shown us. “It’s the same guy who killed Morgan.”
“So you know who killed Morgan?” he asked in surprise.
We all nodded.
“I’m all ears,” he said, leaning back in his chair.
“Well, after Jax went missing and Holly had her vision that she was stolen, we went downstairs to try and find Sorceress –er, Miss Stone, to report Jax missing, but we had no idea where to look for her. It was late, about midnight and we were in the Winston Hall lobby, we saw a suspicious figure walk past the courtyard window. So Alba and I snuck outside and followed the figure into a graveyard,” I rambled.
“A graveyard,” he repeated.
“Yeah, did you know that our campus had a graveyard on site?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “I don’t think that I did,” he admitted.
“Well, it does. And we followed this suspicious character to this graveyard and he was performing some type of ritual, but it was in a different language, so I don’t know what kind of spell it was, but there was a light show and wind and chanting, and well, it was super creepy,” I said and then took a deep breath.
“Ok, then what?” I was shocked that he didn’t seem surprised about the light show and the chanting. I guess Libby and Cinder were right, this town was used to paranormal things happening on a frequent basis.
“Ok, so then he stopped chanting and he picked up a shovel and a tarp and put them inside this like garden shed that was in the middle of the cemetery.”
“Did you get a good look at him?” the detective asked.
I nodded. “I know exactly who it was. I did a little digging on the internet and found out that the man Alba and I saw tonight is Morgan Hartford’s uncle, Seymour Hartford. He’s the custodian at The Institute,” I revealed.
“Seymour Hartford?” Detective Whitman looked at us skeptically.
We all nodded.
“You think Seymour Hartford killed his niece?”
We all nodded again. We were beginning to look like a dashboard full of bobbleheads by this point.
“You can’t be serious. Why would Seymour Hartford kill his brother’s only daughter?”
I leaned forward, splaying my hands out in front of me. “What? You want us to do everything for you? Want me to go out and apprehend him for you too?” I asked snarkily.
“Well, typically when you accuse someone of murder you have a reasonable idea of a motive for the crime,” he said, ignoring my sarcasm.
“I just told you that he was in the cemetery of our school, at midnight, performing a magical ritual with a shovel and a tarp and that he’s related to a girl that just died and another girl from the school where he works disappeared in the same night. For crying out loud, do you need me to draw you a map to Morgan’s body for you to believe me?”
“It would be nice to have her body back, as a matter of fact,” the detective said with a little chuckle.
“You think this is funny?” Alba asked with flaring nostrils, her temper had finally been ignited. “Our friend is missing and you think we’re playing games here?”
“Settle down, I know this is serious stuff. But you have no proof that your friend has been abducted and only some weird happenings around The Institute. That doesn’t exactly constitute a murder. And on top of that, you’re accusing Roger Hartford’s brother of murdering his niece. I find it highly improbable that Morgan’s uncle would want to kill her.”
“Isn’t it true, Detective, that most violent crimes are committed by people that the victim knew?” Sweets asked.
Detective Whitman looked down. “Yeah, th
at’s true.”
“And you don’t have Morgan’s body, and Seymour Hartford was seen with a shovel and a tarp. He was also seen performing a spell. What else do you need to know? This needs to be investigated.”
“Ok, fine. I’ll investigate Seymour Hartford,” Detective Whitman promised. “Are we done here?” He stood up to leave, slamming the file shut as if that were it.
“What about my roommate?” I demanded.
“Call me when she’s been missing for 24 hours.” He started towards the door.
Holly stood up and put her hands on her hips angrily. “But she could be dead in 24 hours!”
“I’m sorry girls. She was last seen walking away on her own. You have no evidence that she’s been taken. When she’s been gone for 24 hours then I can do something about it. Until then, I’m sorry, my hands are tied.”
“So what are we supposed to do?” Alba demanded.
“Might I suggest alerting Miss Stone. She has an obligation to know the whereabouts of her students. If one is missing, I’m sure she can perform a campus wide search. I’d start there.”
“But we don’t know how to get a hold of her before morning. It’s late. I have no idea where her room is and I don’t have her number,” I complained.
“How about this, I’ll let Miss Stone know about your concerns for your roommate. Now, if you don’t mind, ladies, I need to go home and catch a few winks before I start that investigation on Seymour Hartford.” He held a hand out and waited for the four of us to file out of the office. “Officer Vargas here will let you out. Good night.”
The officer who had let us in buzzed us out and we spilled out onto the quiet street in front of the police station.
“What do we do now?” Sweets asked sadly.
I shrugged. “We go back to campus. In the morning, we’re going back to that cemetery and we’re going to find Jax and hopefully, Morgan’s body!”
{ Chapter Fourteen}
The Witch Squad: A Witch Squad Cozy Mystery #1 Page 10