The Phantom Queen: A Whisper Hollow Novel, Book 3

by Yasmine Galenorn

  “When do we need to be there? I really have to finish shopping. We have nothing in the house and Nathan needs lunch.”

  I held up my phone. “I’ll call Sophia and see if we can go over this afternoon. Will that work for you?”

  “Any time after one thirty is fine.” Tonya turned back to the shelves and began stacking jars of spaghetti sauce in her cart, along with various forms of pasta.

  I moved away again and called Sophia back. “Hey, Tonya will do what she can. Any chance we can meet you at around two o’clock?”

  “That will work. I’ll text you the directions, but it’s not far from where we found Rosemary and Emmet. Either he’s establishing a dump site, or he found them easy pickings in that area.”

  After I got off the phone and established that I’d pick up Tonya at around 1:45 at her house, I went back to my shopping.

  Carter’s Market was the main grocer in town, and his store had a wide selection of both organic produce and regular fare. He even had a local farmers section in the produce and meat aisles, and carried locally grown honey from the beekeepers.

  I paused in front of the candle selection to pick out several pairs of hand-dipped beeswax tapers, and then headed for produce. Eggplant and onions, garlic, broccoli, salad fixings, tomatoes, and Swiss chard all went in the basket. After adding enough apples of various kinds for a crumble, a pie—Bryan liked to bake—and some just for eating, I picked out some bananas, tossed in a bag of tangerines, and some grapes. Then, I hit the meat aisle, and after that, I tackled the junk food. I tried to eat healthy for the most part, but I couldn’t go without my Oreos or my Fritos. I loved both. And Bryan loved mint-chocolate chip ice cream, so I added a half-gallon of that along with a half-gallon of French vanilla and a half-gallon of neapolitan, rationalizing that we had a lot of company and could use the extra.

  Finally done, I added a bouquet of white roses to the cart, along with some blue carnations. Proper winter colors, I figured. By the time I finished checking out, I was ready for lunch. Grocery shopping always made me hungry, so I drove through the Burger Shack on the way home and picked up cheeseburgers, Totties—a crisp potato puff—and shakes.

  Bryan was in the kitchen when I got home. I carried in the takeout and flowers first.

  “Groceries are in the car. Show me your muscles, Adonis. Flaunt those bad boys!” I fluttered my lashes at him and blew him a kiss.

  He laughed. “Only if I get some of whatever smells so good.”

  “Of course I bought enough for you. I figured you might be over for lunch. Now, hurry up before our lunch gets cold.” I shooed him out and he made quick work of carrying in the groceries and helping me put them away. When we were done, we sat down with our lunch. I told him, over the cheeseburgers, that Sophia had found Nancy’s body.

  “I’m going to swing by Tonya Pajari’s house in an hour and pick her up. We’re going out to the crime scene to see if she can pick up any psychic impressions. Since Nancy crossed over, I’m doubting if I’ll be able to find any spirits around the area.”

  “What about the forest Fae? Remember how you talked to one near Yule?” Bryan reached for one of my Totties and I swatted his hand lightly.

  “Hey, those are mine. You finished yours, but I love you, so go ahead. And that’s an interesting idea. I hadn’t thought of that. There might be someone out there in the woods who saw what went down. I know Ivy’s good at contacting them. I’ll ask her. By the way, Starlight’s pulling together an emergency meeting of the CMS tomorrow night, so don’t make any plans. We’ll need to attend.”

  Once we finished lunch, Bryan went back to work and I decided to go out in the yard. The snow covered everything, and it was so cold that it wasn’t melting off. But I needed to be outside. I needed the fresh air to clear my head. Part of me felt that we should be focusing on Magda, given she was targeting the town. But we couldn’t spend every moment going after Cú Chulainn’s Hounds, especially since I had no idea what our next move would be against them.

  I thrust my hands in my pockets, wandering around the gardens. Now that Bryan had taken down the fence dividing our yards, we had a tremendous amount of space.

  I looked over at his estate. It was huge, a true mansion, but we had decided to live in my house after we got married and he would use his house for business. Now, though, given he was selling most of his businesses, it occurred to me that he wouldn’t need it for that. I hated seeing the house stand empty, and I wondered what it would be like to live in such a gigantic place. I loved my grandparents’ house, but it had a lot of baggage that came with it…a lot of bad memories surrounding Duvall. Maybe I should think about moving in with Bryan. I could rent out my house, or we could use it as a guesthouse.

  “I just don’t know,” I said aloud, shattering the silence.

  Overhead, in one of the trees, a crow let out a loud call. I looked up, half expecting to see the Crow Man sitting there in the branch beside it. But the crow was alone, staring down at me.

  “What are you trying to tell me?” I asked, staring back at the bird.

  But the crow wasn’t giving up any secrets. I waited for a moment. Usually, when the crows spoke to me, they were bringing me messages. But I had the feeling that this one was simply saying hello. I waved at it, slowly so as not to frighten it, and watched as it fluttered its wings and then took off into the air, soaring high overhead toward a tall cedar.

  Scuffing through the snow, I pulled out my phone and glanced at the time. I’d have to leave in a few minutes to pick up Tonya, so I turned back to the house. At that moment, I thought I saw something behind one of the huckleberry bushes in the corner. I paused as the hairs on my arms stood up. Usually, I didn’t notice the dead as much during the day unless I tried to focus on them. Oh, they were there, but they had a better chance of making themselves known at night.

  I headed in that direction, hoping that it wasn’t something dangerous. Diago, the Scuffler Under the Bed, hung around the hospitals and he was only interested in those who were hanging between death and life. The Girl in the Window only appeared in windows. And the Grey Man, and Bigfoot, and all the other spirits had their own place in Whisper Hollow, and none of them lived in my yard.

  With a frown, I steeled myself. After all, I was the spirit shaman. It was up to me to handle the spirits of the town.

  As I reached the patch of ferns and huckleberries, there was another rustle, and I froze. Spirits didn’t usually affect their surroundings, and I could see the branches of the huckleberry trembling. Whatever this was, it was manipulating physical reality.

  “All right, who’s there?” I waited, steeling myself for one of the Unliving to come bouncing out of the bushes. There was a brief pause in the motion, and the next moment, I heard a very loud mew.

  “What the hell?” I cautiously walked over to the patch of ferns and knelt, parting the fronds. There, huddled against the base of the tree, was a kitten.

  The little cat was a bluish gray, with long hair, and it had the greenest eyes I’d ever seen. It looked up at me and let out a squeak that sounded both ferocious and pathetic at the same time. I looked around but couldn’t see signs of any other kittens, or of a mother cat, for that matter. Reaching down, I scooped up the kitten out of the snow where it was trying to huddle for warmth, and slid it inside my jacket, thinking only that I needed to keep it warm before it froze to death.

  “Let’s go inside and have a look at you,” I said, hurrying back to the house.

  Once inside, I carried the kitten into the hall bathroom, where I shut the door so that my cats couldn’t get in. You couldn’t be too careful with diseases in the feline community. Some of the more dangerous ones spread like wildfire. I shrugged out of my coat and set the kitten on the vanity. Then I sat down on the bench next to the sink, and had a long look at my new little friend.

  As I held the cat up, I could see that it was a little boy. And by the fact that he was trying to nurse on my finger I had a pretty good idea that he hadn’
t eaten for a while. I had a quick look through his fur, looking for any fleas, but didn’t see any. But his tummy rumbled, and he mewed at me again, so loud that it vibrated in the room.

  “So where did you come from?” I asked, wrapping him in a towel to help keep him warm. The poor little thing was shivering now, and I realized that if I hadn’t come along, this little boy wouldn’t have lasted that long.

  “Let me get you some food.” I looked around, and then I decided to set him in the bathtub so he couldn’t hide. I put him down into the tub, curling up a towel for him to lie on. Then I hurried into the kitchen, where I washed my hands and opened a can of cat food. Gabby immediately came running, looking for her share, and I laughed as she sat down at my feet, staring at me with intent eyes.

  “I’m sorry, you had your breakfast. This is for our guest. I don’t want to let you meet him right now because I don’t know if he’s contagious with anything. But rest assured, you’ll get dinner as usual.” Having said that, I mixed some hot water into the food to make a gruel of sorts, found an empty bowl for water, then headed back to the bathroom. I filled the water bowl and set the food down next to it. The kitten cocked his head at the food, so I dipped my index finger in it and spread it on his face. He quickly licked it off, and then followed my finger over to the bowl, where he fell to eating like he was starved. By his size, I guess he had to be at least six weeks old, but I didn’t think he was much older than that.

  “I suppose I better call Tomás,” I said out loud. I pulled out my phone, punching in Bryan’s number. “Hey,” I said when he came on the line. “We have a new visitor. Is there any chance you could come over and keep an eye on him while I’m gone? I don’t want to leave him alone, and we need to call the veterinarian to make an appointment. I don’t want to let him out, either, until he’s been checked through.”

  “I take it you found a cat?” Bryan said.

  “A kitten, yes. In our backyard. I have no idea where he came from, but I was also wondering if you could take a look outside for any other stray kittens that might be hanging around. I’d hate to think of them freezing because we didn’t look.” I glanced at my watch. “I’ve got to get going, so you’ll find him in the downstairs bathroom.”

  “I’m on my way over. Go ahead and leave. I’ll just be about five minutes.”

  Reluctantly, I gave the kitten one last pat, made sure that a couple towels were curled up on the floor for it to nestle in, and then quickly texted Bryan. “You’ll also need to fix up a litter box, if you would.”

  Then I washed my hands again and headed out to meet Tonya.

  Chapter Ten

  Tonya was waiting for me. As she slid into the car, I murmured a hello and then headed toward the copse across from Raven Tree Farms, on Katega Way. The thicket was, like all thickets and copses in Whisper Hollow, rife with oddball activity. There had been several suicides over the years in the shaded glen, and while it looked like a pleasant place for a picnic, or to lean up against a tree and read a book, when you sat down and just let your mind drift, an uncomfortable energy rose from the makeshift park.

  “We haven’t really gotten a chance to talk much,” Tonya said after a few moments, startling me out of my thoughts. “You don’t have any children, do you?”

  I shook my head. “Not yet. I took off from Whisper Hollow a couple days after graduation, and I kept to myself in Seattle. I didn’t date much. The men there weren’t quite as blasé about my abilities as the men in Whisper Hollow are.” Then, because her question seemed to require some sort of reciprocal inquiry, I asked, “You and Nathan have been married awhile? And you have a daughter?”

  Tonya seemed to relax. “Yes, her name is Yasha. She’s thirteen. Nathan and I were married while he was still in the Special Forces, fifteen years ago. He grew up in Whisper Hollow, but I moved here after he retired and decided to come home, ten years ago.”

  I glanced at her, then back at the road. It was starting to snow again and I slowed down to twenty-five miles an hour as the massive flakes began to cover the windshield. Turning on the wipers, I also turned on my headlights, given we were nearing late afternoon, and the sun was still setting around four thirty.

  “Do you like Whisper Hollow?” I asked.

  She gave a little shrug. “It feels like home, yes. I’m surprised by how well I fit in here. I guess the sayings are right. If Whisper Hollow wants you, you’ll know it. When we came here after he retired, I realized I’d found the home I was always looking for. I’m originally from Finland, you know.”

  I hadn’t known. “Were you born there?”

  “Yes, actually. I was born in the municipality of Inari. My family moved to Helsinki when I was fourteen, and then my mother decided we would move to the US when my father died, to be near her sister who moved to Seattle early on. So we immigrated to Seattle, and I began working as a civilian in the military, where I met Nathan.” She shrugged. “It was all fate from there on.”

  “You’re a carpenter as well as a fortune-teller,” I said with a laugh. “That’s quite a combination.”

  Again, she smiled and I realized how pretty she was. Tonya had wheat-colored hair that hung mid-back, and she was tall and sturdy.

  “Yes, I am. I knew early on that I was good with a hammer. My father taught me how to work with wood. When I went to work for the military, I was a carpentry and masonry specialist. I also have had the gift of reading the cards and telling fortunes since I was small. That skill I inherited from my mother. Now, I take care of the renovations on our home and I hire myself out as a handywoman as needed.”

  I eased off into the turnout leading to Raven Tree Park. “I may have some work for you, then. But we should get this over with first.” As I stepped out of the car into the heavy snowfall, Sophia was waiting in her patrol car. Tonya joined me and we hurried over to talk to the chief of police.

  Raven Tree Park was across from Raven Tree Farms, the largest farming conglomerate in Whisper Hollow. It wasn’t really a conglomerate, although several people had come together to invest in it, but they liked to think of themselves as magnates of the produce world. Raven Tree Farms produced apples, pears, cherries, honey, hazelnuts, and sunflower seed butter, all grown on their farms.

  The farm covered a large patch of land and they hired at least fifty people from Whisper Hollow, so they were a major employer in the area. They never hired outside labor, preferring to encourage local sustainability.

  The park, on the other hand, was deeply bathed in shadows most of the year. There were a few picnic tables scattered through the dense thicket, but most people left the park alone. I wasn’t sure what about it gave them the creeps, but it definitely had a wary edge to it, and the few times I’d driven past it, I felt the need to hurry past it.

  The snow was tumbling down, flake over flake, piling up so fast that my car windshield was already covered. Tonya and I trudged through the nearly shin-deep snow that had built up on the park lawn. We couldn’t even see the sidewalks, but that didn’t matter at this point. Sophia was out of her car and waving for us to follow her.

  “We’re due for at least a five-inch accumulation tonight,” Tonya said, her breath fogging the air. “Though I think it’s supposed to drop down to the mid-twenties tonight, and that means a deep freeze.”

  “It should stop snowing if it’s that cold,” I said, not at all sure if I was right. “There’s Sophia, over by that picnic table.”

  We hastened our pace. The snow wasn’t slick, not yet, and while it was a pain to scuff through, we managed to reach Sophia without either one of us landing on our butts.

  “Tonya, I don’t know if you’ve met Sophia—”

  “Our girls hang out together in school, I know that much,” Sophia said. “Maria talks about Yasha a lot. The third member of their clique is Kimberly, Corbin’s daughter.”

  Tonya gave her a nod. “Right. So what did you need me to do?” She wasn’t being rude. It was so cold out that I could see she was shivering. As was I.<
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  “Are you any good with psychometry? I have Nancy’s purse. We found it near her body.” Sophia held out a delicate clutch with a bright blue butterfly embroidered on it. It looked like a teenager’s purse, hopeful, colorful…and a little threadbare in places from having been used so much.

  Tonya shrugged. “I have some talent with it. But it’s so cold that I don’t know how much I’ll be able to focus.” She glanced around. “Where was Nancy’s body found?”

  “About three hundred yards into that stand of fir trees.” Sophia glanced at me. “Would you two like to sit in my cruiser while we do this? I don’t think that distance will make that much difference.”

  I nodded, herding Tonya toward the police car. She and I slid into the backseat while Sophia sat up front and turned on the ignition. The heater started and I realized just how cold even a few minutes outside could make me.

  Tonya took the purse, turning it over in her hands. She winced. “Have you talked to Nancy’s mom yet? I gather she’s a handful.”

  “Who, Nancy or her mother? Because when we went out there, her mom was drunk. I gather there’s a reason Nancy tends—or rather, tended—to run wild. Eileen Westerford wasn’t losing any sleep over her daughter’s disappearance. Granted, Nancy regularly runs away, but after looking around the house a little, I don’t blame her.” Sophia’s eyes flashed. She was pissed, and I didn’t think it was at Nancy.

  “All right. So she knows? I just want a little information to go on.” Tonya settled back in the seat, leaning her head back and closing her eyes. “Give me a moment.”

  I tried to rein in my own curiosity on this, because I had learned the hard way that you could have too many cooks in the kitchen. My own energy was strong enough to disrupt Tonya’s concentration if I wasn’t careful. I kept my focus and curiosity to myself.

  A few minutes later, Tonya’s face went from guarded to crestfallen. She held the purse to her chest, wrapping her arms around it. “I see…darkness. I see a faint sliver of light coming from the side, just out of reach. I can hear a rumbling, like a car idling. I sense fear—fear and something else…regret. Yes, I feel a strong sense of regret mingled with sadness.”