A Grave Mistake

by Leighann Dobbs

  ***

  Sheriff Overton?” Morgan’s voice rose in disbelief. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m here for the relic.” Overton stepped closer, hitching up his pants over his generous stomach with his free hand, a toothpick dangling out of the right side of his mouth.

  “What makes you think we have it?” Morgan asked, and Fiona breathed a sigh of relief that they’d given the mortar to Gordy to take back to the house.

  Overton snorted. Do you girls think I’m stupid? I know what you’ve been up to. I’ve been checking up on you.”

  “What makes you think we’d just give it to you?” Jolene asked.

  “First of all, it’s no good without this.” A spark of light from the open doorway glinted off the pestle and threw a shard of green light across the room as Overton dangled it in the air. “And second of all, I have something you want to trade for it.” He jerked his head toward the corner.

  Something stumbled forward out of the darkness as if it was pushed. Fiona’s heart clenched when she saw it was Swain, tied up with rope.

  “I’ll trade you Mr. Swain, here, for the mortar,” Overton said.

  “What?” No way. We’re not giving up the mortar for him. We don’t even know him that well.” Jolene’s eyes slid over to Swain, who looked cool as a cucumber even though he was tied up like a sack of potatoes. Fiona’s eyes locked on his and she noticed his widen, then he dipped his head and extended his hip slightly.

  Was he trying to tell her something?

  “There’s only one mortar and one pestle. We can’t both have them, so why not just give the mortar to me?” Overton switched the toothpick from the right side of his mouth to the left. “I’ll keep it out of Bly’s hands and hand over Swain in exchange—after you get the mortar for me. But I’d decide quickly, or it could get ugly.”

  Fiona glanced at her sisters. Sure, Overton would keep the relic away from Bly, but his plan for it might be just as objectionable. But they had to get Swain out of his clutches somehow.

  Overton shifted his weight impatiently. “You have one minute before I unleash my secret weapon.”

  Morgan’s brows shot up. “Secret weapon?”

  A wind gusted from the back of the mausoleum, kicking up a patch of dried leaves that chased each other around in a circle. The wind got stronger and then someone stepped out from behind Swain.

  “Wendy!” Morgan gasped.

  Wendy smiled, her hair flying out as if caught in the wind. The obsidian pendant dangling from her neck twisted and swirled against her chest.

  “You were working with Overton this whole time?” Jolene asked.

  Wendy nodded.

  “You’re not Finch’s health aide?” Celeste asked.

  “No.” Wendy laughed. “You actually fell for that?”

  “But why?” Morgan looked from Overton to Wendy and back again.

  “I planted her there to keep track of what you girls were up to,” Overton said. “At first, it was because we wanted to ask Finch questions, but when we saw that you girls kept coming to see him, we figured you must think he had important information, so we stuck around to find out what it was you were asking.”

  “So, you were the one who stole the pestle from the police evidence,” Jolene said.

  “Yep. It’s pretty easy to appropriate evidence for your own private collection when you are the sheriff.” Overton looked at the pestle. “I’ve had this darn thing for years now, just waiting on the mortar.”

  “Why wait until now?” Celeste asked. Fiona noticed her sister was inching her way over toward Swain one tiny half-step at a time when Overton’s attention was on someone else.

  Overton’s face flushed. “I didn’t know it was in town until recently.”

  “Where did you think it was?” Jolene had moved an inch toward Swain, too.

  “I thought someone had taken it way back when the fire happened. It was assumed that’s why the pharmacy was burned in the first place. I thought it was just dumb luck that they didn’t get the pestle.”

  “You never noticed the mortar in the rubble from the pharmacy?” Morgan looked at Overton incredulously. “I thought the police went through it thoroughly.”

  Overton made a disgusted face. “No. Apparently my deputies weren’t very swift back then. Last week, I heard it was in town but didn’t know where. The last place I thought it would be was in the rubble from the fire. My boys were supposed to have gone over that with a fine-tooth comb. But once I heard you girls were looking for it, I figured you’d lead the way.”

  “So you followed us,” Fiona said.

  “Yep. And I had Wendy here keep you girls in line.”

  Morgan’s brow creased. “Keep us in line? What do you mean? And why did you say she is your secret weapon?”

  Wendy laughed and puffed out her cheeks.

  A sharp wind ruffled Fiona's hair. It picked up quickly, almost knocking her off balance. Her hair whipped around her face, the ends stinging her cheeks. She grabbed onto the wall and leaned into the wind to steady herself.

  “What the heck?” Fiona yelled, but the wind whipped her words away and all she could hear was a roar in her ears and the pounding of her own heart.

  The wind stopped abruptly and Fiona stumbled, before correcting herself.

  “See?” Overton said smugly. “My friend Wendy here has a way with wind and I amped up her powers with that locket you girls were so nice to give me the last time we crossed paths.”

  Wendy held up the obsidian amulet. “And thanks to you girls, I have my gifts with the wind to strike out at whoever I want to stop and this amulet to defend me against others’ energy.”

  Fiona almost laughed. Even though Overton had used the meteorite locket to amplify Wendy's powers, the obsidian stones could not be boosted the same way. Wendy might try to use the amulet against them, but she wouldn't get the result she expected.

  Morgan turned to Wendy. “So, it was you in the graveyard?”

  Wendy nodded, inspecting her fingernails nonchalantly.

  “But why? Why destroy the gravestone? And why knock Jolene out with the tree limb?”

  “I had her destroy the stone to stop you girls from figuring out the last line and beating us to the mortar. I appreciate you girls leading us to it, but we couldn't have you figuring out the last line before we did.” Overton frowned. “We couldn’t decipher it, though.” His face turned happy again. “Knocking Jolene out was just an unexpected benefit.”

  Jolene scowled at Overton, her hands fisted on her hips. “I don’t get it. If you already knew the clue, why go back to see Finch. Why didn’t you just go get the mortar?”

  Overton’s face darkened. “We knew the epitaph was the clue and we knew the last line, but we misinterpreted it.”

  “We needed Finch to tell us what that darn line meant,” Wendy added.

  “And did he?” Fiona asked. She noticed Jolene, Morgan and Celeste seemed to be slowly positioning themselves. The subtle looks they were giving each other told her they were probably trying to send out signals to one another regarding a plan of attack. The sisters weren’t telepathic, but they’d been together long enough that they could communicate pretty well with glances and gestures.

  Fiona’s heart twisted. She felt left out, but since she had no defensive skills, she couldn't really blame them. She was useless. Instinctively, her hand slipped into her pocket and tightened around the stones.

  “He didn’t,” Wendy said. “I tried to coax it out of him medicinally.”

  “Medicinally?” Morgan looked at her sharply. “You mean that pill you gave him was some kind of truth pill or something?”

  Wendy shrugged. “Or something.”

  “Wait a minute.” Celeste narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t…”

  “Kill him? No. Mr. Finch left us of his own accord.” Wendy’s eyes darkened. “Unfortunately, that was before he could tell us what we wanted to know. That’s why I had to lead you girls here.”

  “So, th
is whole time, you’ve been following our lead,” Jolene said. “Letting us do the work and then acting on the clues we found?”

  “Yes.” Overton puffed up proudly. “Clever, wouldn’t you say?”

  “So, it was you who broke into the museum, then?” Morgan glanced at Swain and Fiona followed her glance. Swain seemed awfully fidgety. Fiona realized that Morgan was keeping Overton talking on purpose to buy them time.

  Overton’s brows mashed together. “Broke into the museum?”

  “Yes. To steal the items from the Finch display. You thought the mortar would be there,” Celeste said.

  Overton shook his head. “No, that wasn’t me. I’d already checked that out when I was sheriff in town, so I knew the mortar wasn’t in there.”

  “If it wasn’t you … then who was it?” Celeste asked.

  Bang!

  The door flew open. Two large bodies appeared, blocking almost all the light. They stepped slowly aside, revealing a much smaller body which made its way into the mausoleum unhurriedly.

  At first, the person was just a dark shadow, but as he moved inside, the light from the door caught the side of his face and Fiona’s heart froze as she recognized who it was.

  Dr. Mortimer Bly.

  “Well, I guess that answers the question,” Jolene mumbled.

  Not long ago, Dr. Bly had tried to kill her mother and Jolene by draining their energy. Fiona and her sisters, along with Luke, Cal and Jake, had undertaken a mission to rescue the captive Jolene and Johanna and bring them back home. It was no easy task—Bly was powerful and influential with an army of paranormals. The girls had put up quite a fight with their paranormal powers and Fiona felt a momentary triumph to see that Bly still wore an eye patch—the eye had been damaged by their aunt during their earlier run-in. Fiona was glad it had lasting effects. Then again, maybe that wasn’t such a good thing because he looked like he was still really pissed at them. And she was sure he was the type to hold a grudge.

  Her gaze shifted from Bly to Overton. Ironically, Overton had helped them escape from Bly’s headquarters on Fury Rock. Not because of any love for the Blackmoores, though. He did it for his own selfish purposes. Bly was probably pretty mad at him, too.

  “Well, well, well. It’s great that you’re all here.” Dr. Bly looked around the room with a satisfied smirk on his face, his glance lingering on Jolene. “It will make it easier to dispose of the bodies after I get what I want.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “And to answer your question … yes, it was my guys that broke into the museum,” Bly continued, indicating the two behemoths on either side of him which Fiona now recognized as two of the bearded guys they’d fought with outside the museum. She didn’t dare ask where the third bearded paranormal was. “But the items were worthless! We did, however, find a clue to the cornerstone from one of the items. Too bad when we got there you girls had already been into it … and … well … we all know what happened after that.”

  The man to the left of Bly—the red-bearded man who Jolene had shot the black goo at—rubbed his scarred face. Bly gave him a quick glance. “I know Raoul here won’t forget. And I also know you girls won’t be so lucky this time!”

  Raoul glared at Jolene and Fiona saw her little sister flex her fingers. Would Jolene’s energy gifts work? If not, what chance did they have?

  Bly turned his attention to Overton. “And you! I should have dealt with you long ago.”

  “I’m surprised you’re still around. I heard the girls here did a number on your headquarters and your little army of paranormals,” Overton taunted Bly.

  A sour look crossed Bly’s face. He glared at Fiona and her sisters. “There was some damage. My forces were a bit reduced, but, as you can see, I still have much of my army.”

  Bly snapped his fingers and two more large figures appeared in the doorway behind him. Fiona’s heart swooped. She had been thinking they might be able to beat out the two beards, but with four paranormals on Bly’s side, the odds were not in the girls’ favor.

  Bly continued. “And I will rebuild. Especially once I have the relic.” He touched the patch on his eye. “In fact, I could use it to heal myself. If you hand over the mortar and pestle now, I might spare some of you.”

  Bly looked at Overton.

  Overton looked at Morgan.

  Morgan looked at Jolene.

  Jolene looked at Swain.

  Fiona’s hand tightened around the rocks in her pocket. Her nerves tingled.

  “We don’t have the mortar here,” Morgan said.

  “Really? But you have it and you can get it, right? I’ll just hold one of you hostage to assure it gets to me.” Bly turned to Overton. “You, on the other hand—I see you have the pestle. Hand it over now and I’ll make your death less painful.”

  Overton glanced at Wendy. “I don’t think so, Bly. I’m done taking orders from you … Wendy—get them!”

  Wendy stepped toward the first two beards, who looked momentarily confused. She pursed her lips and a breeze brushed Fiona’s cheek.

  The beards looked at each other, then at Bly, then at the two paranormals behind them. The five of them started laughing. “What’s that about? You gonna kill us with a breeze?”

  Wendy’s face grew as dark as storm clouds and she flung her hands out at the laughing paranormals. A roar of wind knocked them backwards, but they regained their footing quickly.

  Red-beard fought the wind, advancing slowly on Wendy while large-beard turned his attention toward the Blackmoores, who were busy trying to remain standing and not succumb to the gale-force winds mounting inside the mausoleum. He steadied himself against the concrete wall and pulled something out of his pocket. Fiona recognized it as a small energy laser and her heart clenched when he aimed it directly at Jolene.

  Morgan was watching him, too, and jumped in front of Jolene. Her jet-black hair whipped around them like a shroud as she held her amulet out to absorb the energy stream.

  Jolene thrust her fingers out. Fiona held her breath. A small bead of yellow energy appeared at the tip of Jolene’s index finger. The bead was whipped away harmlessly by the wind. Fiona’s stomach sank. Jolene wouldn’t be able to help them get out of this.

  The wind started to die down. Fiona jerked her head in Wendy’s direction and saw red-beard pointing a geode at Wendy. It was zapping her energy. Wendy clutched the obsidian amulet in front of her protectively to ward off the effects of the geode, but Fiona knew it wouldn’t work. Fiona would have been happy about this if it wasn’t for the other two paranormals—she could see now they didn’t have beards—who were advancing on her sisters with some sort of gun held out.

  In the corner, Overton’s eyes widened as he saw Wendy slumping. “Use the amulet!” he shouted to her, even though she was clearly already using it. Realization dawned on Overton’s face and he glared at Fiona. “You gave her a dud!”

  She didn’t have time to answer him. One of the paranormals aimed his laser at her and fired. She had barely enough time to duck and push her amulet out to ward off the light blue energy stream.

  “My pocket!” Swain yelled across the room and Fiona saw Celeste was already running for him. She reached into his pocket and pulled out the mica refractor, just as a stream of purple energy shot toward her from the gun the second non-beard held. She jerked the refractor up into its path. The purple energy hit the mica, then reversed its destination, searing the non-beard in the chest.

  “Argh!” He clutched his chest. The laser clattered to the floor as the non-beard's body slumped into a heap.

  “Grab the end of the rope,” Swain yelled at Celeste, indicating the end of rope sticking out by his hands. She grabbed it and Swain shimmied his body, then the rope unraveled and fell to the ground. Fiona realized he’d been quietly working on getting out of the ropes the whole time.

  Fiona looked back toward Overton in time to see him backing slowly into one of the niches. Did he have an escape route? She didn’t have much time to think about it
before the mausoleum burst into a chaotic frenzy of activity.

  Red-beard lunged toward Swain with his geode, but Celeste caught him in the elbow with a round-house kick, causing him to drop the geode which rolled along the floor toward the back of the room.

  “Get it!” Bly yelled and red-beard dove toward it while still holding his injured elbow. Morgan stuck her foot out, catching him at the ankles. The forward momentum sent him headfirst into the concrete wall and he slumped dazed in the corner.

  “Over here!” Morgan called to Fiona, indicating for her to move toward the door where Jolene was warding off a stream of energy from the other non-beard with her amulet. In the back, Celeste kicked out at large-beard before he could aim his geode at Morgan, and Fiona noticed Swain making a beeline for Overton’s corner.

  Fiona made her way over to Morgan’s side, watching Bly out of the corner of her eye. She noticed he wasn’t doing much besides barking out orders and a realization hit her. Bly didn’t have any paranormal powers of his own.

  Somehow during the fight, they’d gone clockwise in a circle. Now, Fiona and her sisters were standing with their backs to the door and Bly and his minions were near the back wall. Wendy was still slumped in the corner. Overton was nowhere to be seen. Fiona was not surprised—it was just like him to sneak off.

  Bly’s men were starting to recover. The non-beards aimed their lasers at the sisters and Fiona noticed the amulets absorption powers were waning. The stones could only absorb so much energy before they needed to be drained and they were reaching their limit.

  Swain had appeared at her side and was using the refractor, but the surface area of the refractor was small and could only be used to defend against one threat … soon there would be four threats and the power of their amulets would be depleted.

  Red-beard had recovered. He picked up the geode and the four paranormals advanced on the sisters. Fiona felt a jolt of panic. They were losing the fight!