A Thousand Yesteryears (19 page)

Eve hitched down a startled breath. “Caden?”

Doreen Sue’s gaze flicked to her face. “You know he used to be a sergeant with the sheriff’s department, right?”

“I didn’t realize he was a sergeant. He told me he quit because of a bad call.”

“Hank Jeffries,” Doreen Sue confirmed. “When Caden got to his place, Hank was outside, wailing his head off, Tim Kline in his lap like some broken doll. I heard the boy’s face was gone. Real grisly, if you know what I mean. And there’s Hank screaming he’s gonna end it all, that he can’t live knowing he killed the kid. Caden tried to talk him out of it, but by that time, Parker Kline came back. The sheriff figures he ran to his truck about a mile down the road.”

Doreen Sue cocked her head, visibly rethinking the matter. “Well, actually, his daddy’s truck. Apparently, the boys had grabbed it for the night without telling their father. I know for a fact Floyd kept a gun under the seat. Not legal, but he did it anyway. I dated him for a while after his wife died, and he told me ‘You never know when you’ll be forced to shoot a snake.’” She shook her head. “I didn’t think he was talking about a reptile, so I broke it off. My men aren’t always gentle, but I won’t put myself in harm’s way of a bullet.”

“That’s smart, Doreen Sue.” Eve tried to move the story along. She admired the woman for setting standards—even if they could be considerably higher—but wanted her to get back to Caden and Hank. “What happened when Parker got there?”

“Can’t you guess? The boy was all torn up with grief. Caden said he kept shouting it was a prank, just a stupid prank. He blew Hank away, and poor Caden had to shoot him. He didn’t kill the kid, but it was touch and go for a while. Enough to make Caden turn in his badge.”

Eve’s stomach had congealed into a mass of tightly constricted knots. No wonder Caden had walked away from a job with the sheriff’s department. “What happened to Parker?”

“He recovered.” Doreen Sue shrugged. “Physically, but not in the head. Turns out the whole prank was his idea. Knowing he was responsible for getting his twin brother killed reduced him to a nutcase.” She tapped a tapered pink fingernail against her temple. “The last I heard, he was in the state mental hospital for criminals. He thinks he can talk to UFOs now.”

“What a dreadful story.”

“That’s why kids shouldn’t play pranks.” Doreen Sue finished off her soda and glanced at her watch. “Do you mind if I use your phone? Martin Ward asked me and Sam to meet him for ice cream after the movie, and I haven’t had a chance to get back to him.”

“The phone’s on the wall.” Eve pointed toward the rear of the kitchen by the screened porch, dazed from the story she’d heard. Caden would have known Hank, maybe even had an occasional beer with him at the Riverside Café. And he would have watched the Kline brothers grow up, probably saw them every Sunday in church along with their parents, or at local baseball and football games. After all the grief he’d experienced—the Silver Bridge tragedy, losing Maggie, his mother’s unstable state of mind—it was unfair he should suffer this, too.

“Martin’s such a sweet guy,” Doreen Sue offered pulling Eve from her thoughts. “He’s been checking in on me now and again ever since Amos died.”

“That’s nice.” It obviously hadn’t taken long for Martin to come calling, but according to Katie, Martin Ward was a hard worker with good ethics. Unlike most of the men Doreen Sue dated in the past, Katie actually approved of him.

“The phone might be on the fritz,” Eve said as she carried Doreen Sue’s glass to the sink. “I’ve been getting a lot of strange calls with screeches and clicks. I had the phone company check it out, but they couldn’t find anything wrong with the line.” Whatever their verdict, she still wasn’t convinced the odd calls weren’t the fault of an electronic malfunction.

“Screeches and clicks?” Doreen Sue paused mid-dial, pressing the receiver to her chest. “I’ve heard that happens sometimes when a family member dies.”

Eve rinsed the glass with water, then set it in the drain board to be washed later. Something cold slithered down her back. “Excuse me?”

“Your Aunt Rosie.” Doreen Sue bobbed her head as if the answer was obvious. “She might be trying to communicate with you.”

Eve started to laugh, then quelled the instinctive reaction when she noted Doreen Sue’s expression. The woman wasn’t joking.

“Spirits often try to converse through electricity and everyday instruments like TVs, lights, and phones. I know it sounds silly, but I follow all of that stuff…horoscopes, psychics, UFO theories.” A wave of her hand said she took only half of it seriously. “I’ve seen some strange things around here, especially by the TNT. I’ve never seen the Mothman, but I remember reading an article about a medium who was convinced her dead husband tried to communicate with her through phone calls. She heard things like amplifier feedback, insect noises, and strange clicks whenever she answered the phone.”

Eve felt her face drain of color. After talking to a disembodied “thing” in an igloo at the TNT, she should have no problem believing her dead aunt was reaching out to her. She’d sat in the living room only days after arriving and voiced that wish aloud.
Aunt Rosie, I wish I understood what was going on. I wish there was some way you could talk to me.
The phone calls had started not long afterward. Fluke or answer to her request?

“It could just be a problem on the line,” she said at last.

“Probably.” Doreen Sue pressed the hang-up button and redialed. A second later her voice turned playful and sultry. “Hi, Martin. It’s Doreen Sue. Sam and I would love to have ice cream with you after the movie.”

Listening to the purr of her voice, Eve turned and gazed out the rear window. She thought of Hank Jeffries, Caden, the Kline brothers, and pranks. The dead crow was still in her yard. If the bird had been intended as a sick prank to scare her away, then the culprit must be the same person who’d left the notes on her windshield. In all likelihood, her personal ghoul was letting her know he’d moved past written threats.

She wouldn’t be surprised to see someone lurking beneath the trees in the distance. A shiver of fear swept through her despite the frivolous play of sunlight on the grass, a lightly cloud-scaped sky overhead. What happened when her stalker decided slaughtering birds wasn’t enough? When he came after her?

Closing her eyes, she listened to Doreen Sue prattle on in the background. Aunt Rosie had hidden something in her house. The being in the igloo had told her the item—whatever it was—was still here. Somehow, the unknown thing and her stalker were tied to Wendy Lynch, Maggie, and Aunt Rosie.

At all costs, she and Katie needed to convince Caden and Ryan of that critical truth.

Eve slid a shovel beneath the dead crow and wriggled it to the center of the spade.

“That is so gross.” Katie held a black plastic trash bag as far away from her as she could, her face twisted in revulsion. “I want you to know I’m doing this under protest.”

“So you said.”

“I still think we should tell Caden and Ryan about that thing the moment they get here.” Katie made a gagging sound, more than a little green as Eve dropped the mutilated bird into the bag. “Why do you have to bury it anyway?”

Setting the shovel aside, Eve took the bag from her, careful to hold the revolting thing at arm’s length. Drawing a breath of clean air, she tried to banish the stench of carrion. “It deserves that much.”

“It’s evidence. Evidence shouldn’t be buried.”

“We don’t know that it was left deliberately. It could have been mauled by a cat.”

“You don’t believe that any more than I do.”

Now wasn’t the time to argue the point. Caden and Ryan would be arriving any moment. Fortunately, Katie had shown up early, shortly after her mother left, giving her the chance to talk to her friend alone. Eve had led Katie outside and shown her the butchered crow. Horrified, Katie insisted she leave the bird where it was and show it to Ryan when he arrived.

But Eve wouldn’t hear of it. She needed Ryan
and
Caden focused solely on Wendy Lynch tonight. A discussion about the crow would send them all off track. Enlisting her friend’s help, Eve decided to dispose of the crow temporarily, bagging it and hiding it behind the shed until she could bury it later.

Katie picked up the shovel and followed her. “I can’t believe anyone could be so sick,” she said after Eve deposited the bag out of sight behind the small gardening shack.

Eve pulled off her gardening gloves. “I’ll try to bury it tonight after everyone leaves. Otherwise it’s going to stink and attract animals.”

“You should show it to Ryan after we’ve told him about Wendy,” Katie countered. “He’s a cop. Don’t discount this. It isn’t a kid’s prank.”

She was right. The vicious mutilation of the bird was far more sinister than the usual end-of-school-year shenanigans. “Let’s just see how things go,” she said as the two walked back to the house.

Inside, they both scrubbed their hands thoroughly with hot water and soap, then Eve poured them each a glass of Pinot Grigio. Standing with her back to the sink, she swiped a hand across her brow. “I should probably go freshen up. I’m sure I look a mess.” If nothing else, she felt grimy and sweaty after toiling with the bird.

“You look fine,” Katie assured her, “but go ahead.” She sipped her wine, then set it on the kitchen table. “I can take care of whatever you need done down here.”

Eve had already set the dining room table with Aunt Rosie’s fine china and crystal stemware. She hoped she wasn’t being too ostentatious for the guys, but had wanted to make the table look pretty. Another time she’d have everyone over for pizza or hamburgers on the grill, but tonight was all about presentation—right down to what she and Katie planned to share with them.

“Would you?” She smiled at her friend, realizing how much she’d miss her if she ever went back to Harrisburg.

If?

In the past it had always been
when
. Lately, she seemed to be thinking as though she planned to remain in Point Pleasant.

Eve pulled two boxes of flavored crackers from the cupboard and pointed out a few serving platters. “I was going to set out some cheeses and dips before dinner,” she explained. “Everything is on the center shelf in the fridge. The cheese just needs to be cut up.”

“Go freshen up.” Katie shooed her toward the doorway. “I’ll take care of it.”

By the time she returned ten minutes later wearing a fresh blouse, her hair neatly brushed, Katie had the cheese, crackers, and dips arranged on two platters. When Caden and Ryan arrived a short time later, she gave Caden a kiss and Ryan a hug.

“Will your mother be all right by herself, or do you have someone staying with her?” she asked.

“She’ll be fine.” Caden kept his arm linked around her waist with casual familiarity. “We try to make sure she isn’t alone overnight, but don’t always worry so much during the day. Sometimes Mrs. Alderidge stays with her, other times she’s on her own. She told me to say hello.”

Eve smiled, remembering her last conversation with Mrs. Flynn. Everything the woman said had been reiterated by the being in the igloo. She was starting to think Mrs. Flynn was in full control of her faculties and Maggie really was speaking to her through dreams. “I’ll have to take a dinner plate over to her later.”

“She’d like that,” Ryan said, appearing relaxed.

Initially, she’d been worried how he might view the dinner invitation, fearing he would think she was trying to set him up with Katie. But her childhood friend seemed happy to be included and had already stolen more than a few glances in Katie’s direction. Maybe that hadn’t been such a farfetched idea after all.

After some chit-chat over drinks and appetizers—the guys opting for Miller Genuine Draft instead of wine—she served dinner in the dining room. Cranberry chicken and wild rice with a green salad and corn muffins. She was far from a gourmet cook, but the meal was a hit. Afterward, they had Katie’s homemade dessert, a decadent chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. Eve made a full plate with a little of everything, including dessert, and ran it next door to Mrs. Flynn. By the time she returned, the guys were relaxing on the screened porch and Katie had cleaned up the kitchen.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Eve told her friend, finding her finishing up at the sink. Katie had put away all of the dishes, a sign she had probably been a regular dinner guest of Aunt Rosie’s and was intimately familiar with the house.

“I know, but I wanted to expend some nervous energy.” Drying her hands on a dishtowel, Katie shook her head. “I can’t believe we’re going to tell a sheriff’s sergeant and an ex- sheriff’s sergeant that we need their help to dig up a body.”

It sounded absurd when voiced that way, but Eve knew however anxious she felt, the sensation had to be magnified tenfold for Katie. Not only had her friend recently learned her sister had been murdered, her body buried somewhere in Point Pleasant, but a killer had taken Wendy’s life and gotten away with the crime.

“Come on, let’s do this.” Steering her friend outside, Eve led Katie onto the porch. It was almost nine in the evening, but the sky remained light, brushed with the first tentative strokes of twilight. The days had lengthened, creeping toward evening as the official start of summer loomed near and fireflies shyly materialized for the first time.

Eve joined Caden on the glider, their usual seat on the porch, while Katie and Ryan reclined in matching wicker chairs across from them. For a while they talked casually, the discussion ranging from the Challenger shuttle launch with Sally Ride, the first woman in space, to Reagan’s Star Wars plan, and how much everyone missed
M*A*S*H
. Sooner or later, Eve knew she would have to broach the topic simmering at the back of her mind. It was the reason she’d orchestrated the dinner, craving a laidback environment when she and Katie outlined their recent experiences. Sending her friend a measured glance, she guided the conversation to the TNT. It took only a few minutes to explain how she and Katie had poked around the igloo, though she purposefully neglected mentioning Mrs. Flynn had directed them there.