A Grave Mistake (11 page)

Jolene bent down to pet the cat and soft purrs echoed off the walls. “Well, we can’t do anything now. She’s already here. We’ll just make sure to load her in the car when we leave.”

They crawled around on the altar, tapping and pressing on the wood, looking for something hollow that might indicate a compartment under the floor.

“Hey, maybe it’s under here.” Celeste moved a pile of debris and a mouse skittered out from underneath. “Ack!”

“
Merrrp!
” Belladonna took off after it like a shot. The mouse let out a tiny squeak as it raced to the wall and flattened itself to fit under the molding. Belladonna hit the wall a split-second later, then jumped back and glared at the place the mouse had disappeared into.

“Tough luck, Belladonna,” Fiona said to the cat, who continued to stare intently at the piece of wall.

“I’m glad she didn’t catch it.” Celeste gingerly poked at the debris, then moved it aside to see if the floor held a secret compartment. “I don’t need her leaving another mouse head in front of me.”

“Mew.” Scratch. Scratch.

“Give it a rest, Belladonna. That mouse is not going to be stupid enough to come back out,” Jolene called over her shoulder as the girls resumed their search.

But Belladonna didn’t give it a rest. She continued to meow and scratch in the most annoying manner as the girls continued to search for a secret compartment.

“I don’t think there’s any secret compartment with a hidden relic here. We must have gotten the clue wrong again.” Morgan’s heart sank. She looked around the altar. Had they covered every inch? She stood and brushed the dirt off the knees of her jeans. “Let’s go home. I’ll get Belladonna.”

Morgan walked over to the wall and attempted to pick Belladonna up.

“
Breee!
” Belladonna jumped away and swatted at Morgan angrily.

“Hey, cut that out.” Morgan made another grab for her.

“
Merow!
” Belladonna scratched frantically at the wall.

Morgan squatted next to her. “What’s this?”

The tile next to the wall had several cracks. Morgan picked at the edge with her nail, lifting a section up. It looked like there was something underneath. Slowly, she pried up the rest of the tile, her heartbeat picking up speed as she saw a copper ring underneath it.

Fiona, Celeste and Jolene had come over and were standing behind her.

“Check this out.” Morgan pointed to the ring.

“What’s that?” Fiona asked.

“It looks like there’s something under there.” Celeste curled her finger under the ring and pulled, but it didn’t budge. “Maybe this is where the relic is hidden.”

“I think we need to pull up more tiles.”

The girls got busy pulling up the next tile. Belladonna sat a foot away, licking her paw and running it behind her ear.

“I just hope that mouse doesn’t come out,” Celeste said as they pried up another marble tile.

They pried up another tile and now Morgan could see that the ring was attached to some sort of trap door or cover, about eight inches square. She held her breath, grabbed the ring and pulled.

It creaked open, revealing a shallow, dark compartment. Morgan practically laid on the floor to peer in, but it was too dark. Without saying a word, she extended her hand and Celeste slapped a flashlight into it. Morgan aimed the light into the compartment.

“Hey, there’s—”

Something skidded across the floor, spinning to a stop in front of Morgan. Her heart froze when she recognized it as a licorice. A Black Crow licorice. She heard a hollow click and the words:

“Hand over the relic or die.”

Chapter Thirteen

Morgan couldn’t see the intruder’s face, only his dark silhouette against the thin, sliver of light from the open window in the back of the church.

She glanced down at the licorice. She didn’t need to see his face to know what he was—a cold-blooded killer.

Beside her, Jolene fisted her hands on her hips. “Who the heck are you?”

“You don’t know who I am?” the intruder said in a subdued baritone. “That’s funny, because I know who you girls are. You’re the ones who killed my brother and I won’t have his death be in vain. Hand over the relic. Now.”

Morgan’s brow furrowed. “Killed your brother? What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play coy with me.” The intruder took a menacing step forward.

Morgan’s stomach clenched. She glanced down into the hidden compartment, then slammed the lid and stepped in front of it. Thoughts whirled through her brain. Clearly this man was the licorice killer and he’d been following them to find the relic. But was he aligned with Bly or just in it for himself?

And who was his brother?

She didn’t have time to contemplate that, though. They needed to get out of the situation. Her eyes slid over to Jolene, who was flexing her hand as if to summon her paranormal powers. Morgan wondered if she would be successful or if they would have to fight the man off without Jolene’s skills. She shifted her gaze back to the intruder, and wondered what kind of paranormal powers he would unleash on them and how they could combat him.

“Now!” The intruder jerked the gun toward the box and for the first time, Morgan noticed that he held his left hand slightly behind his back. Was he holding some sort of paranormal contraption? She hoped it wasn’t one of those energy-draining geodes the bearded guys behind the museum had used on her.

Morgan let her attention slide to her sisters. Fiona had scooped up some small pebbles in her hand and Celeste was inching her way to the right. The tension in her body told Morgan she was ready to launch into one of her karate kicks at any time.

“Why do you want the relic so bad, anyway?” Morgan figured it was best to keep him talking while her sisters fanned out around him.

“I have my reasons,” The intruder ground out. “Now, move aside.”

He took another step toward Morgan.

Jolene flexed her hand faster.

Morgan glanced down at the compartment. “Well, I don’t know what all the fuss is. What are you going to do with a little thing like this?”

She could see the intruders face now and he wasn’t nearly as menacing as she would have expected. He didn’t have a beard, for one, and his tanned face had a look of sincerity. In fact, he seemed almost sad, like he didn’t want to be holding a gun on her. She hoped her intuition wasn’t failing her because from what it was telling her, the man was no threat at all.

“I don’t know what you’re playing at.” He took another step and she noticed he was chewing something—a Black Crow licorice, no doubt. “You know right well what to do with that. You killed for it.”

Morgan’s brows mashed together.
Who did he think they’d killed?
“Why do you keep saying that? We didn’t kill anyone.”

The intruder laughed. “I know all about you girls. You’re cold-blooded, paranormal killers. You’ll do anything to enhance your powers, including killing an innocent man.”

“What are you talking about? You’re the one who is a killer,” Morgan said.

His eyes narrowed. “What are
you
talking about? I didn’t kill anyone.”

“Sure, you did. Right in downtown, on Beach street. He had a paranormal energy burn, and I know it was you because I saw the licorice beside his body.” Morgan gestured toward the man’s licorice-chewing mouth.

Confusion washed across his face. “You’re trying to trick me.
You’re
the paranormal killers.”

“We are not killers!” Jolene punctuated the last word by thrusting her fingers out toward the man. Normally, a stream of potent energy would fly from them, but now, only a small dribble of dots slowly floated out toward him.

He reacted by bringing his left hand out from behind his back, revealing some sort of reflective mirror gizmo. The dots of energy bounced off the mirror and shot straight back at Jolene.

“Ouch!” Jolene grabbed her arm where she’d been hit with the ricochet of her own energy.

Fiona had reacted quickly. Before the energy could bounce back at Jolene, she flung the stones in her hand toward the man. But he was quicker. He pivoted, holding the mirror in her direction, and the stones bounced off it and sped back toward Fiona. They hit her jacket, making little singe marks. Down feathers poked out of two of them and fluttered into the air.

Morgan felt relieved that Fiona’s attempts to use the stones as weapons hadn’t been too successful. Otherwise, she might have been badly hurt. But now it was up to Morgan and Celeste, and neither of them had any paranormal fighting abilities. Morgan did have one thing, though—her intuition. And she used it now to sense which direction the man would strike. He came toward her and she jumped to the left while at the same time, Celeste kicked out toward his gun hand, connecting with it and sending the gun flying.

“Hey!” He turned toward Celeste, his fists up as if to hit her. Then he hesitated. Morgan could see emotions warring on his face as he stared at Celeste. The hesitation gave her the advantage and she lowered her shoulder, then plowed into him like a linebacker and knocked him to the floor.

Fiona ran for the gun.

Morgan leapt on the man’s chest, Celeste on his legs.

Jolene grabbed a length of rope from the pile of debris Celeste had moved earlier. They turned him over on his stomach and then secured his hands behind his back. Morgan was surprised, and suspicious, that he didn’t offer much resistance. They flipped him back over. Surprisingly, he didn’t struggle.

“Okay. You girls win.”

Something in the man’s voice niggled at Morgan. He sounded resigned. Too resigned. And then she realized something odd. The man hadn’t used any paranormal moves on them aside from the mirror. Morgan suspected he didn’t have any paranormal skills. So, just who was he?

“I suppose you’ll kill me too, now,” he said as they moved him to a sitting position. He screwed his eyes shut and hung his head. “Go ahead and get it over with.”

The girls exchanged confused looks. He was acting very odd for a killer. Did he really think
they
had killed someone?

“I told you. We’re not killers,” Morgan said.

“Well, not unless we have to in order to defend ourselves,” Jolene added.

The man looked up at Morgan and she noticed his clear, green eyes were shiny with tears. What kind of a killer started crying upon being captured by girls? Was this some kind of trick? But Morgan’s gut instinct told her the man was sincere.

“I’m sure you didn’t have to defend yourselves from my brother. He wasn’t a violent man. I saw the burn mark on him and I know that’s the sort of mark paranormal killers make,” the man said.

Morgan’s brows shot up. “Your brother? You mean to tell me Hale Swain was your brother?”

The man hung his head and nodded.

“Then you must be Gunner Swain … the archaeologist,” Celeste said.

Another sad nod.

“But your brother had a map to the Finch Farm. Why would an archeologist and his brother be interested in that if it wasn’t to find the relic?” Jolene asked.

“And why follow us around?” Fiona added.

“You just don’t get it!” Swain’s voice was pitched with anger. “All you care about is using the relic for your own evil purposes. Didn’t you ever think it might be used for good? To help people?”

The sisters stared at him, surprised by his outburst.

“No, I didn’t think so,” he continued. “Well, what does it matter now? You’ll kill me just like you killed Hale, and Mom will die all alone. I’ve failed her.” Swain’s voice cracked and he hung his head. Morgan’s heart softened as she watched a fat tear drop onto his lap.

“Oh, for crying out loud, cut the whining.” Jolene rolled her eyes. “We aren’t going to kill you.”

“You aren’t? But you killed Hale.” Swain looked at them skeptically.

“For the umpteenth time, we didn’t kill your brother.” Morgan felt sorry for him and her intuition was telling her he wasn’t the enemy. She didn’t know how far she could trust her intuition, but she doubted he’d killed his own brother. “But I saw his body … and a black licorice beside it, just like those in your pocket.”

Swain looked down at the Black Crow licorice box peeking out of his top pocket. “Yeah, I was there. Hale had taken off … he was always so impetuous. Anyway, he rushed off with the map and I went out to find him. I found him, all right, but not before someone else got him first. I must have dropped the licorice. I wasn’t really paying much attention after I saw what had been done to him.”

“Someone killed him, either to keep him from getting to the relic or to find out what he knew about it,” Celeste suggested. “But why did you think it was us?”

Swain shrugged. “I’d heard about you girls through some of my underground contacts and when I saw the burn on him, I knew no normal person could have done that, so I just assumed it was you. I knew you lived here and I figured you’d be after the relic. So I followed you around figuring you’d know where it is.”

“We are,” Jolene said. “But we wouldn’t kill for it. That doesn’t explain why you and your brother are so hot for it, though. Were you that eager to make a big discovery and get in the papers?”