The Witch's Ladder (32 page)

“
Look at her,” said Carlos. “You think she knows? Maybe someone tipped her off that we’re out here.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. She hasn’t tried to look out the window to see for herself. It’s the first thing she’d do if she thought we were watching.”

“
Well, if she’s getting ready for bed she sure is in a big rush about it.”

“
She’s not getting ready for bed. She’s closing up shop to leave again.”

Minutes later, as I suspected, Jean hurried from the house with her coat and handbag over her arm. She jumped into the Cadillac, backed out of her drive and pulled away without ever noticing us.

“
That’s interesting,” Carlos noted. “What do we do now?”

“
I don’t know,” I admitted. “I can’t imagine where she’s going. Maybe we were wrong. Maybe she’s holding Leona someplace else and now she’s going to finish her off.”

“
Maybe in the trunk of her car.”

“
Maybe.”

Carlos glanced out the passenger side window, skyward toward the full moon. “We better do something quick. Whatever’s going to happen is going to happen soon.”

I fired up the engine and dropped the car into gear, keeping one foot on the brake. “Carlos, listen to me. You have to get out. I want you to break into Jean’s house and see if Leona is in there. I’m going to follow her.”

“
Tony. That’s breaking and entering. Cops can’t do that.”

He held a serious face for as long as he could before we both broke out laughing. “All right, go on now. Get out.” I reached across his lap, yanked the door handle and pushed him out to the curb. As I sped away, I shouted, “Call me as soon as you’re in.”

It didn’t take me long to catch up with Jean’s Cadillac. I followed her across town, passing the New Castle Savings and Loan where the time and temperature clock displayed the hour of midnight exactly. I reached into my jacket and patted down the inside pocket where the witch’s ladder resided, realizing it had become both a lucky charm and a trusted weapon for me. I tried to imagine where I might be without it and wondered if I entrusted too much confidence in the ladder to bail me out of dangerous situations. In the end, I decided it was just another tool, no more no less. I removed the ladder from my pocket and slung it over the rearview mirror for the rest of the ride.

Ten minutes in, I was still tailing Jean from a safe distance, far enough back not to alert her of my presence, but close enough that I needed only to run a stoplight or two to keep from losing her. As the ride continued, my eyes fell transfixed on her glowing taillights peeking in and out around every turn. My mind drifted deeper in complex thoughts of conspiracy, lies and duplicity. I still believed that something about this case just didn’t add up. It was not the possible motive, for that I could accept. In my days as a police officer and detective, I had seen stranger motives for murder than attraction of blood. It also was not the mysterious death of the twins, Akasha and Shekina. For whatever reason they were killed, I had seen dozens more where killers betrayed killers. Discounting that and the mystery of Leona, something else still didn’t sit right. One missing piece to the puzzle remained.

I was still consumed in thought when my phone rang, snapping me back to attention.

“
I’m sorry, Tony. Leona’s not here and there’s no sign she ever was.”

Somehow I knew Carlos would say that. “Don’t ask me why, Carlos, but I’m not surprised.”

“
You’re not? Then why did you have me break in here in the first place?”

“
We had to know for sure. Is there anything there at all that seems unusual?”

“
No, nothing. Where are you now?”

“
I’m still following Jean. I think she’s heading for the research center. Why don’t you call a couple of black-and whites and meet me there as soon as you can?”

“
You got it, Tony.” He paused and came back, “Hey.”

“
Yeah?”

“
Be careful.”

“
I will,” I said. “But hurry.”

Another twenty minutes into the drive I found myself, as predicted, following Jean up the country road leading to the Institute for Research of Paranormal and Unexplained Phenomena. It seemed ironic that Jean would lead me to the place where it all began, and only fitting it should end there.

She swung her Cadillac onto the lot. I stayed back, holding shy within the shadows of the main building. Barely a minute later Michael Dietrich barreled through from the other entrance in his SUV, whipping into the space next to Jean’s Cadillac and coming only inches from taking out her entire rear quarter panel. Further down the lot about ten spaces, I spotted Lilith’s car, but I didn’t see Lilith. The only one missing was Valerie. Jean and Michael got out of their cars, but surprisingly, instead of going into the building they headed for the woods behind the parking lot. They slipped through the brush and disappeared in a thin veil of fog that seemed to swallow them whole. I contemplated following, but anticipating Valerie Spencer’s imminent arrival, I thought it best to hold back and wait for her. What happened in the minutes following, I could only speculate, although later Lilith filled me in as best she could on the moments before I got there.

In the woods beyond the burned-out gazebo, there stood a clearing of trees some thirty feet around in a dish-like pattern. The site remained heavily shrouded by a compliment of tall pines and a number of old-growth oaks. Michael and Jean forged through the brush along a narrow dirt trail carved out in serpentine fashion. As they neared the clearing, they could see Valerie Spencer—dead, her insides spilled out over the ground like twisted strings of catgut and sausage. Over Valerie’s corpse stood Lilith Adams. She said nothing to the new arrivals, her face void of expression, her hands stained in blood. Around Valerie’s feet and neck lay a rope of considerable length, enough to tie her from head to toe with plenty left over for three more victims.

“
Lilith!” Michael cried. “What have you done?”

Lilith glanced at the ground. At her feet lay organs and entrails steeping in still warm gaseous steam.

“
I thought we were all in this together,” he said. “I don’t understand.”

Jean pushed Michael aside. “I’ll tell you what she’s done. She’s killed Valerie. She’s the Surgeon Stalker.”

“
No. I don’t believe it. We killed the Stalker. The twins, Shekina and Akasha, that’s who the killers were.”

“
We were wrong. Look at her. She killed Valerie and the others. She used us, forced us to kill Doctor Lieberman, the twins and Detective Marcella. She’s the evil entity, Michael, the one Valerie warned us about. She’s the one who moves freely among us. It’s time we stop her. It’s up to us. We have to put an end to her carnage.” She pointed to the rope. “Grab that. We’ll tie her up.”

“
Wait,” said Lilith. “What am I doing here? How did I get here? I don’t…. I don’t understand.”

Michael gathered the rope without comment. He unraveled a section from around Valerie’s hands and feet and used it to tie Lilith to a tree. All the while, Lilith remained remarkably submissive, neither fighting nor protesting Michael’s attempts to restrain her.

“
That’s it,” Jean cooed from a distance. “Tie her up good. We’ll burn her at the stake like in old times.”

“
Look at her,” said Michael. “Why is she so docile? I’ve never seen her like this before.”

“
She’s acting,” Jean insisted. “Hurry before it wears off.”

“
Before what wears off?”

He barely finished securing the last knot when Lilith seemed to thaw from her traumatized state. “What the hell’s going on here?” she squalled, yanking on the ropes until her wrists began to bleed. “Michael, untie me this instant. Do you hear?”

“
No,” said Jean. “Your day has come, Ms. Lilith Adams, or Miss Sonya Stewart, whatever your real name is. Or do you prefer we call you Ms. Stalker?”

“
What are you talking about? How did I…. Did you drug me? Sons-a-bitches. You drugged me, didn’t you? Is this because I wouldn’t help you kill Marcella?”

“
Are you going to stand there and deny you killed Valerie Spencer?” Jean looked down and gestured at Valerie’s mutilated body.

Lilith’s eyes followed. “Is that Valerie? What have you done to her?”

Michael said, “What have YOU done? We just got here and found you standing over her. How do you explain that?”

“
I don’t know. I…wait. I remember. I drove here with Valerie because she said she got a call asking her to come here. She said the caller had news about the Stalker.”

“
Who called her?”

“
I don’t know. She didn’t recognize the voice. We came here together and then…. I don’t know. Something hit me from behind. Next thing I knew I woke up and found myself here.”

“
A likely story,” said Jean. She strolled around the blood-drenched carcass, its stomach, lungs and intestines splayed out in a sprawling heap. “Tell me, Lilith, how is it you can commit all those murders without creating an ounce of suspicion, and now you can’t even fabricate a decent lie to save your own skin?”

“
I didn’t kill anyone. Michael, you have to believe me. Why would I kill anybody?”

“
Why?” Michael answered. “I think I know. Maybe you kill for the very reason you would have us believe that Shekina and Akasha killed. It’s the attraction of blood. Only the attraction was yours.”

“
No. You’re wrong. Come on, think about it. Why would I provide the motive for a crime I committed?”

“
To throw suspicion away from you,” said Jean. “Until your theory about attraction of blood, we were all leaning toward Detective Marcella’s theory of pagan ritual sacrifice, something that would put your name on the top of a very short list of suspects, seeing you’re a pagan witch and all.”

“
No. You’re wrong and you know it. You too, Michael. Look around. Where’s the knife? If I killed Valerie, what did I do with the knife?”

“
You tossed it into the woods,” said Michael, and he began collecting dried branches and stacking them around the tree at Lilith’s feet. “You heard us coming so you tossed it. I should have trusted my instincts. I knew Doctor Lieberman wasn’t the Surgeon Stalker, but you were so convincing. You’re an evil, wicked woman, Lilith. You taught me to kill, and so now it’s your turn to die.”

He turned to Jean and handed her a book of matches. “You’re in this, too,” he said, apologetically. “We both need to do this, for Gordon, for Valerie—Jesus, for everyone in our lives we ever cared for. She took them away from us. It’s time she pays.”

Jean took the matches and lit one. She handed the book back to Michael and waited for him to do the same.

I think it’s fair to say that Lilith stood within moments of becoming the first witch in three hundred years to burn at the stake when I emerged from the woods into the clearing with my weapon drawn.

“
That’s enough,” I ordered. “Drop the match, Michael. You too, Jean. Put it down.”

Almost comically, the three uttered in surprise, “Detective, you’re alive!”

Michael and Jean blew out the matches and surrendered with hands in the air. I moved in, believing I had successfully secured the scene, but I had woefully underestimated Michael’s resolve. Just as he had done with Doctor Lieberman and Officer Burke, he sent out a wave of thought energy, which crippled me instantly. I hit the ground holding my head and temples in a futile effort to squelch the intense pain. As I lay in agony, Jean ran up and seized my weapon.

“
Grab that rope,” she hollered. “Tie him up with Lilith. We’ll finish this thing once and for all.”

Michael moved in with another piece of rope and soon had Lilith and me bound back-to-back to the tree. “I’m sorry we have to do this, Detective,” he said, rearranging the scattered kindling into a neat pile. “But you just keep getting in the way. I suppose you can thank your friend, Lilith, here.”

“
Michael, you’re wrong,” I said, as my crippling migraine began subsiding. “Lilith’s not the Stalker.”

“
Sure she is. She’s a witch. See, she even fooled you.”

“
Don’t talk to him, Michael,” Jean barked. “He’ll try to confuse you. He’s the last person standing in our way. We must put the evil entity down tonight while the moon is full, and Detective Marcella must die with her.”

“
Do you hear that, Michael? Have you ever known Jean to talk like that, to act so cold? The entity has possessed her, not Lilith. She’s your Surgeon Stalker. Just ask her about the beads.”

“
What beads?”

“
The beads we found at the site of every Stalker killing, including Doctor Lieberman’s. They’re from a witch’s ladder. Go ahead and ask her.”