by Catie Rhodes
“That’s the only silver lining. They didn’t get the laptop, which I had in my office safe, or the overnight case. It was an outdated little thing, didn’t match the other piece of luggage. I guess the thieves didn’t realize it was Barbie’s.”
Ugly, having finished his meal, came into the breakfast area wagging his stump of a tail. Rainey smiled at him and patted her leg. He gave his bowl a pointed glance. Rainey shook her head. He lay down between her and the bowl and stared at her with sad eyes.
“We’ve danced around this long enough.” I tapped Rainey to get her attention off the dog. “You said we were going to talk about Hannah. This is just a story about how somebody outsmarted you.”
Rainey watched me through hooded eyes. “You’ve changed. You know that?”
I shrugged. Maybe so. It hadn’t made me a nicer or more patient person. “Tell me about Hannah.”
“Same time all this happened, Hannah had just gotten home from the trauma survivor’s hospital in Florida. I went by to see her, all shook up Barbie’s stuff got stolen, and—”
I cut her off. “She wanted to help.” Hannah always wanted some excitement. Had it bitten her in the ass this time? I thought so.
“I gave her the computer and the overnight bag. That was one of my weekends to visit Jesse at the prison, and it was Friday.” Rainey’s dark eyes softened and got that faraway look they always did when she talked about my uncle.
Jesse was serving life without the possibility of parole, the result of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, for killing my father twenty-some-odd years ago. Jesse didn’t kill my daddy, but Rainey and I had found no way to prove it and free him. The real murderer was buried in an unmarked grave after trying to take my life. The case file documenting the crime was missing, which made me think it held a clue. I suspected the former sheriff of Burns County of taking it. If he had, it was long gone. He’d probably turned the file, and whatever clue it held, into ashes.
The situation with Uncle Jesse frustrated me. He was my closest living relative now that Memaw was dead. I loved my uncle. He met me with a smile every visit and acted more concerned over my welfare than his own. His insight on life, love, and spirituality inspired me.
But Jesse was wrong for Rainey in about six million ways. For one, he was the same age as her father. For two, he was serving a life sentence in prison. Those two cancelled out the need for a third reason. Especially for a smart woman like Rainey.
She slitted her eyes at me, as though she knew exactly what was on my mind. “I left town from Hannah’s. Most of the drive has spotty cell service. When I got to the motel that evening, I had a message from her saying she may have found something in Barbie’s overnight bag. The message was already several hours old, and I was exhausted. I fell asleep without answering her.” Her brows crinkled, and her mouth turned down at the same time. We’d known each other since the first day of Head Start. This was what her face did when she felt guilty. “The next morning I went to visitation. I was with Jesse, and I honestly forgot about Hannah.”
I couldn’t help raising my eyebrows. Rainey had always treated men like living condiments. Nice, possibly tasty. But completely unnecessary. Evidently this thing with Jesse had changed the landscape of her life.
She doubled up one fist, something I’d rarely seen her do. “Wipe that look off your face, girl, or I’ll do it for you.” I made an effort to keep from laughing. She gave me another warning scowl before continuing. “So it was the evening of the next day before I called Hannah. She answered, and two things were obvious. One: she was at a bar. Loud talking, loud music. Two: she’d been drinking.” Rainey gave me a meaningful look. I nodded. We never discussed it out loud, but even before this drunken spree, Hannah had teetered on the edge of drinking too much. “She managed to slur that she was at Long Time Gone for an open mic night to play her guitar and sing. She pretty much hung up on me.” Rainey sat back in her chair and stared at the wall.
Ugly stood from his post and came and laid his head in his mistress’s lap. She absently stroked it. The dog closed the one eye his abusers had left him.
“What then?” It had become clear Rainey wasn’t going to say more without prompting.
She blew out a sigh. “The week after I visit Jesse is always hectic. Once I caught up, I tried to call Hannah a few times. No response. By the time I tracked her to her permanent barstool in Long Time Gone, she was so drunk she could barely speak. She didn’t even know what I was talking about.” Rainey clung to her dog as though it somehow made the memory less sharp. I knew how she felt because I had failed Hannah too.
“You never had any idea what she found in Barbie’s things?”
Rainey shook her head at my question.
“I might not know what she found, but I think I know where it led her.” I told Rainey about seeing the jumbo-eared monster riding Hannah’s back.
Rainey flinched. “W-wh-what is it?”
I shook my head. “Wade called it a hag and said it would eventually kill Hannah. But that’s not all.” I told Rainey what King said would happen to Hannah if I didn’t stay away.
She moaned and put her hand over her face. “And Wade just stood there.” She rolled her eyes.
I sprung to Wade’s defense, even though his behavior confused and irritated me. “King’s somehow exerting control over him.” Picturing Wade’s black eye, I told her what King threatened as I stood in the parking lot of Long Time Gone. The idea of King making me watch while he killed Wade sparked a mixture of horror and fury strong enough to create a breeze in Rainey’s house. I fought for control.
Rainey rubbed a shaking hand over her mouth and muttered, “But wait a minute. That fits because Wade…” Her lips moved but no sound came out.
“Fits what? What did Wade do?” I tapped the table to get her attention.
Rainey broke out of her reverie. “Wade signed his cut of the Mace Treasure over to King.”
“What?” My voice rose.
“Hannah did too.” Rainey and I stared at each other in pissed off silence.
“What the fuck is going on?” I whispered. King had never hidden his inner asshole, but this went above and beyond. And it seemed directed at hurting people I loved and bullying me out of doing anything to help them. Something had changed between King and me, and I had missed it.
Rainey sat with her shoulders bent inward. “I don’t know. I can’t put it together. See, there’s one last thing I haven’t told you.” She sat very still, her eyes wide and scared.
I began straightening the piles of paper on her table to keep my nerves from going cannibal. “What haven’t you told me?”
Rainey watched me, eyes flicking nervously to the door every once in a while. Finally she got up to check and make sure it was locked. She spoke with her back still to me. “King Tolliver has threatened to kill your Uncle Jesse.”
My body heated, and sweat broke out all over me. It took me several seconds to make my mouth work. Even then, all I could do was say, “Wha…wha…wha?”
Rainey didn't seem to hear me. She sat back down at the table and folded her hands in front of her. She raised one shaking hand to smooth down her perfect hair. “I told you I went out to Long Time Gone to try get Hannah to tell me what she was investigating that weekend I was gone.” She raised her eyebrows, silently asking if I remembered. I nodded. She said, “That day, King Tolliver told me that if he heard another word of me investigating your father’s murder, he’d make sure Jesse didn’t survive another day in prison. And I’d be sorry I was ever born.” She sat back in her chair.
I did a slow burn. King had now threatened four people I loved. My heart kicked a few times, and heat flooded my face. King and I had business. By the end of it, he’d never threaten anybody I loved again, or I’d be dead.
“It gets better.” She snapped her fingers to get me out of my head. “You remember me mentioning that Wade didn’t want you to know about Hannah. I need to tell you why.”
Heart thundering
in my chest, I waited for the next bit of awful news.
“Wade came to see me at my office right after King threatened Jesse and me.” She watched my face, anger and fear flickering in the depths of her eyes. “He’s an intimidating son of a bitch when you get the business end of him.”
Cold sweat popped out on my scalp. “He didn’t threaten you, did he?”
She made a face. “Not at all. He asked—no, begged—me not to involve you in Hannah’s situation. He said King is just looking for a reason to put a hit on you. And now you know why I kept my mouth shut.”
Sharp knives stabbed at my nervous system. My mind went into overdrive. King now hated me for some reason I couldn’t fathom. He was taking this into death-match level, and I couldn’t see why.
Rainey yawned, turning her face away from me. “I’m sorry. I can’t believe I’m this tired. I’m going to have to go bed, or I’ll fall asleep right here.” She stood from the table.
Once she’d left the room, and I heard her bedroom door shut, I hurried for the French doors to the backyard, nicotine demons screeching in my head. Cigarettes. The answer to every stressor in my life.
The wind, which had been bearable with the hot sun to combat its chill, infiltrated my clothes and made my worn-out bones ache. I sat at a concrete table, the coldness seeping through my jeans and freezing my butt. I tried to ignore it and lit the first cigarette. The poisonous smoke burned my lungs. I tried to convince myself it made me warmer and went back over Rainey’s story.
Hannah’s voicemail said she’d found something of note in Barbie’s luggage. A clue. Hannah, who couldn’t resist a mystery, followed it. Somewhere along the way, she’d gotten mixed up with the hag. Where?
The clue could have taken Hannah to Long Time Gone, but I didn’t see it. Hannah’s ordeal with Michael Gage and Nash Redmond probably made her cautious, and rightfully so, about walking into a backwoods honkytonk all by her lonesome. She’d have waited and asked Rainey to go in with her. Which meant Hannah picked up the hag when she found whatever my mother had hidden.
That hypocritical bitch. Though my mother had pretended to hate anything paranormal, she’d worked with a witch to hide her atrocities. Barbie’s pet witch could have easily used the hag to booby trap the clue Hannah chased down. It made a sick kind of sense.
Then how did Hannah end up at Long Time Gone? King didn’t fit anywhere in the equation. Or did he? The email about the tape could have been from King. That whole setup fit his style. But it still didn’t make sense. I drew hard on my cigarette as though that would break loose the answers I wanted.
A stray memory popped into my head. It had been the last week I worked at Long Time Gone before I went to live with Griff and Mysti. Wade and I had been talking about my father’s murder and how to prove Uncle Jesse didn’t do it. King overheard and screamed at both of us to get back to work or go home.
I’d thought he was just being his usual asshole self. But now I wondered if that’s where it all started between King and me. That still didn’t tell me why he even gave a shit about my father’s murder.
I remembered the day of my father’s murder in vivid detail. Full color with surround sound. King wasn’t there, had nothing to do with any of it. The real killers were dead. The man who helped them cover it up was no longer sheriff of Burns County and now lived several hours away. No matter how I tried, I couldn’t figure out King’s place in it all.
Another gust of wind whipped through Rainey’s backyard. My teeth rattled together, and a shiver ripped through my body. The answers weren’t out here in the cold. I got up and went back inside.
Rainey had left a few lamps burning to guide me to the guest room. A pair of silky soft pajamas with the tags still on them lay on the bed. Bright red with maroon piping. Good grief. Did Rainey sit around this big house dressed up and all alone like the ghost of some out-of-date movie star? No wonder she’d fallen in love with my poor uncle.
I picked up the pajamas and rubbed the smooth material over my cheek. Oh well. Beggars couldn’t be choosers. At least Rainey paid for luxury. I cut off the tags and dressed in the ridiculous getup, rolling up the too-long sleeves and legs.
I slid between the high-end sheets with an appreciative groan. Rainey spared no expense, not even in her guest room. The exhaustion from the day settled into my bones. My eyelids drooped, but my mind kept racing.
I came to the conclusion I might never know how or why King decided to turn on me, or what he had to do with the day my father was murdered. The focus needed to be on his threats against my friends and family.
King’s violent threats scared me just as much as they made me see red. He’d carry them out in a second. No question there. The obvious solution was to put King down, but I had to get Hannah and Wade to safety first. I imagined and rejected plan after plan. Sleep came without me knowing it.
The creak of the bedroom door jerked me into awareness. I stared into the darkness, heart picking up speed. The bedside lamp was off. Had I turned off the light? I couldn’t remember. Moonlight beamed into the window and lent the room a silver glow. The sound of footsteps whispered over the carpet. The black opal heated. I tried to sit up and found I couldn’t move. My mouth went dry. Panic fluttered in my chest.
A voice said, "There you are.” Fingers tipped with sharp, black nails appeared over the edge of the bed, and a sloped head with big, ugly ears came into view. The hag from Long Time Gone. The one I last saw riding Hannah’s shoulders.
I strained to lift an arm, but I was unable to do more than moan in fear. Childish thoughts raced through my head. If I could turn on the bedside lamp, everything would be okay. The room would be empty. My body shook with effort, sweat trickling from my hairline and racing down my scalp.
I couldn’t move a muscle. Fear swelled in my heart, stacking higher with each beat. My black opal still burned my chest, responding to the magic of Hannah’s malevolent passenger. The power of the mantle, crippled by an old spell but still strong enough to steam milk, bounced around inside me. It, too, was trapped.
Cold eyes rose over the edge of the bed followed by a long nose and a sinister grin. The thing climbed onto the bed and straddled me, our noses nearly touching. Its fetid breath found my nose. “Barbara Mace left specific instructions if I ever encountered you.”
Blood roared in my head. My mother left this thing waiting for me, knowing I’d eventually stumble on whatever evidence of her part in my father’s murder she had squirreled away. That hypocrite. That bitch. I doubled my efforts to get away but nothing happened.
The hag’s cold fingers closed around my neck. It choked off my air supply, and I tried to cough. I couldn’t even do that.
“Oh, how I wish I could have ridden one so full of power as yourself.” Its humid breath puffed against my skin.
My lungs screamed for oxygen. So this was how it ended, with neither a whimper nor a bang. Nothing more than a hoarse hiss from me.
The thing chuckled and leaned forward. “Oh, the atrocities I could have made you commit. How rich your sorrow would have tasted. Mmmm-mmmm.”
The thing sounded like it was about to slurp its fingers. Disgust and fear churned in my guts. My thoughts slowed, and my vision darkened. I hadn’t thought it would end like this—me in fancy pajamas lying on nice sheets. I’d always imagined myself dying in battle. The darkness spread over my vision.
Light flooded the room. Rainey rushed in brandishing a crucifix.
“In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I command you to leave my home.” Her courtroom voice woke me from oblivion.
The thing let go of my neck. I sucked in a lungful of sweet oxygen. Rainey rushed forward and slapped the crucifix against my would-be murderer. It hissed and swiped a handful of claws at her.
“In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, get out,” Rainey screamed.
Once the thing took its focus off me, my ability to move came back. I shoved the monster away and scrambled out of the bed. I c
lamped onto a current of magic inside me and channeled it. The black opal burned on my chest. Power pulsed through it.
My voice came out of my tortured throat even scratchier than usual. I sounded like an alley cat coming off a bender. “Evil spirit, I repel you from this house.” My fingertips tingled with the magic gathering there. I threw some of it at the hideous little creature.
It turned to me, teeth bared. “You can’t send me away like one your ghosts, little witch. I am a higher being. And I have orders. You must die.”
I gathered the power again. “No. You’ll die.” I sounded more confident than I felt. If this thing wasn’t a ghost, what was it? Wade had called it a hag. I had assumed that meant it was the ghost of an evil witch. Maybe not.
Rainey rushed forward. She stabbed the thing with her crucifix. The metal bounced off the hag’s skin and clunked on the floor. A livid burn mark where it had hit formed and began to smoke. The thing screamed and ran for the window. A foot or so before it hit the wall, it leapt up and passed through the glass as though it wasn’t even there.
My knees went rubbery, and I sank down on my ass and rubbed at my sore throat. “How’d you know what was going on?”
Rainey knelt beside me, breathing hard, and smoothed my hair off my face. “I didn’t. Not at first. I came to apologize.” She snorted. “Why am I bothering to lie? I came to talk about Jesse, how much I love him, and how scared I am for him. But I got here just in time to hear that thing say your mother sent him.”
The rest fell into place for me. She’d gone to get her crucifix and came back to help. “You’re in love with my uncle?”
“Oh, shut the hell up. I’m going to have nightmares about that thing. I can’t even believe it was real.” She clasped her arms over her chest and rocked.
My phone dinged with a text message. I crawled to the nightstand and picked it up, ignoring Rainey’s disgusted groan. “It’s a text message from Hannah.”
“What?” Rainey crowded near.
I read it aloud. “‘Sorry for today. Please come get me in the morning. King’s house in the Six Gun Compound.’”