Witch's Awakening (11 page)

Some investigation
, Jake thought wryly. What was there to see?

He should have ignored Fred's instruction and come out here right away, but Brian took the initial call this morning, so Jake knew evidence was collected while it was fresh. That's why Brian was along for the follow-up chat with Fred.

Jake and Brian walked to the brick sign that faced the road. Fred had it covered in canvas, but Brian pulled it off. The sign usually contained a Bible verse or pithy message. Today all the plastic letters were on the ground. Someone had used black paint to write, “From the world of darkness I did loose demons and devils.”

Once again the quote sounded familiar to Jake.

“Charles Manson,” Brian said.

“Huh?”

“Those are Manson's words. I looked it up when I got back to the office.”

“Just like that other graffiti on the Dollar General was Gary Gilmore. Another killer.” A shiver ran through Jake as he studied the words. He expected them to start running and bubbling like those on the store, and was relieved when they didn't. They were still ominous, however. “There's something wrong in this town, Brian.”

“I know,” the younger man responded. “Supernaturally wrong.”

Jake heard footsteps and turned to see Fred coming toward him. Handsome and muscular at fifty, the pastor had the perfect amount of gray at the temples and filled out his tailored slate-gray suit with broad shoulders. His face held just the right amount of concern.

At his side was his wife, Ginny. Thin and blond, Ginny was beautiful in a remote way achieved through careful grooming and exquisite makeup. She wore an ice-blue dress that matched the coldness in her blue eyes.

Jake took off his hat and nodded to both of them. “Afternoon.”

“This is a travesty,” Ginny replied. “Deputy Tyler, you have to do something about what's going on around here.”

Fred put an arm around her. “Ginny, it's Sheriff Tyler now, not deputy.”

“Sorry,” she murmured with an expression that was anything but apologetic. “Sheriff Tyler, what are you going to do about all of this?”

Jake did his best to ignore the couple as he walked around the sign. Just as Brian had reported, there was little to see. Someone had broken the locked glass panel to get at the sign and write their message.

“You know it's most likely the same boys who messed up that wall downtown,” Fred said. “Now they've moved their pranks to my church.”

“I checked on those boys first thing this morning,” Brian said. “They left yesterday afternoon for a weekend trip to Atlanta, right after the sheriff talked to them again about the other graffiti.” The young deputy tried, but he couldn't quite keep the satisfaction out of his tone. Jake sent him a warning frown.

Fred sputtered, “Then who is it? Who in the…” He caught himself, straightened and calmed his voice. “How about some of their friends? This kind of activity has infected the entire county this summer, so I'm sure there are plenty of other little imps out there.”

“We're talking to known troublemakers,” Jake assured him. “If we find evidence, we'll deal with whoever did this.”

“You might want to talk to the Connellys,” Ginny said.

Brian's expression turned stony. “Excuse me?”

Jake raised his hand to silence the deputy. “What do you think the Connellys have to do with this?”

Ignoring her husband's frown, Ginny touched manicured fingers to her stylish blond hairdo. “Sheriff Tyler, I've lived here my entire life. When trouble happens in Mourne County, you can always trace it back to the Connellys.”

“Which Connellys?” Brian asked. The green in his eyes flashed his temper.

“They're all the same.” Ginny shrugged, then her gaze latched with laser intensity onto Brian. “You're one of them, aren't you?”

“Yes, ma'am. Doris Connelly is my grandmother.” His voice deepened. “You think my grandmother had something to do with this sign?”

“Brian,” Jake said quietly. “I'm sure that's not what Mrs. Williams is saying.”

Ginny's reply was an arched eyebrow.

Fred stepped in. “Now let's not go getting all riled up. Ginny is just frustrated and worried. She didn't mean any disrespect to Doris.” He sent his wife a sharp glance. “Did you, Ginny?”

“Of course not,” she declared, though Jake could tell she was lying. “I'm sorry if I upset you, but I'm very disturbed by what is happening to our county. I don't want the law to overlook any possibilities.”

“I can assure you we won't,” Jake said with elaborate politeness. “I think we have all of the photos and evidence we need on the sign.” He turned to survey the front of the church. “You guys don't have any security cameras out here, do you?”

“That may be our next step if something isn't done about the troubles soon.” Ginny turned without another word and stalked back toward the sanctuary.

Fred sighed. “Please excuse Ginny. She's distraught.”

“Of course,” Jake said before Brian could speak. He shot another warning look at the younger man. “Fred, you might as well report this damage to your insurance company and get it fixed.”

“I have a maintenance man waiting to do that right now,” Fred said. “We don't want this blasphemy on display any longer than necessary.” He gave Jake a hard look. “You better take this seriously, Tyler. You're sheriff now, but that's only temporary.”

Fred could be subtle, but not today.

“I'm taking all of this very seriously. We've stepped up patrols. We have officers working overtime. We're doing all we can with the manpower and budget we have.”

The pastor kicked at a couple of the sign's letters on the ground. “I hope you find the miscreants who did this and make the punishment fit the crime.” He grabbed the canvas and began putting it back over the sign.

Jake reached to help him. “It's graffiti, Fred, not breaking and entering.”

“Nevertheless, this is God's house and I expect it to be respected as such,” Fred said. “If you don't make an example of these delinquents, it could happen again.”

Resting his hands on his hips, Jake said, “I'm sure you're just like me and want to do what's right. I'll call you later, Fred.”

Brian said little during the ride back into town. Behind the courthouse, Jake pulled into his space. He turned to the deputy before they went into headquarters on the second floor. “Please don't take what Ginny Williams said too personally.”

“I know better, but it's hard to take that shit when you know your family has done nothing but try to protect this county.”

“Garth's death stirred up a lot of worry. Then, with the other troubles—”

“Which could be from the new people moving into the county,” Brian interjected. “But of course Mrs. Williams would never think her friends in their big houses with their big checkbooks could have anyone who wanted to stir things up. This could all be political, you know. Everything planned to prove how much we need a private police force out at The Enclave.”

Jake nodded. “It could, but that explanation doesn't cover everything. You know what happened yesterday to Brenna at Frances's place?”

“My cousin Maggie says it's the Woman in White. Maggie's really scared. The whole family is.”

“It could be the Woman.” More and more, Jake was sure the Connelly family's curse fit into everything else that was happening in his county.

“What else could it be?”

“Does the Woman in White always create this much chaos before she comes for one of the witches?”

Brian shrugged. “I don't know.”

Beside them another cruiser slid into place. A passenger was in the back seat. Jake and Brian got out of their vehicle and greeted their fellow deputy.

“What's up?” Jake said, nodding to the passenger.

The deputy said, “A farmer who lives out south. He wrung the necks of his wife's eight prized laying hens. His wife said he went out to the barn right after church to check on an ailing mule. He was washing off at the water hose beside the back door and he threw the hose down, went to the chicken coop and started killing chickens. His wife's upset. Those were her hens, and she uses the money for her yarn so she can knit baby blankets for all the newborns at the hospital.”

“What does he say?” Brian asked.

“He said he felt like he had to kill something and he figured the hens were better targets than his wife and boys. The wife says her husband wouldn't normally hurt a fly, but she's still scared, so I decided to bring him in.”

“Get him processed,” Jake instructed. “We'll need to make sure he's not a danger to himself or others before we let him go.”

Shaking his head, the deputy took the farmer out of his cruiser and headed into the office.

Brian sighed. “This doesn't make sense. I know that family, and they've never had a lick of trouble.”

Jake agreed. The incidents all over the county ran the gamut. From the egging of the front door of a couple who ran a retreat, to the number of church-going people who walked out of the local convenience store with pockets full of stolen candy bars. A hunter who'd never broken any rules killed three deer and the ducks in the park pond. People who never had a problem were locked up for assault.

The common factor was confusion. No one knew what they'd done or why they did it.

Jake stopped Brian before he reached the door. “Do me a favor. Put together a report for me. I want a summary of every call we've been on, every incident that's been reported since Garth died.”

“I can do that.”

“And I'm going to go through the old records and see what was happening around here the last few times the Woman in White was due.”

Brian grimaced. “You know, of course, that the old records are buried in the basement of the courthouse in about an inch of dust and cobwebs.”

“I'm not afraid of spiders.”

“But you'll need some help.”

With his deputies already stretched to the max, Jake felt he couldn't ask one of them. There was someone, however, who had the same interest he did in getting to bottom of all of this.

He pulled out his cell. He wasn't sure if calling Brenna to help was a good or bad thing. He only knew he felt instant warmth when she answered.

“I need you,” he said.

There was a short pause. “I've had some interesting offers in my time, but this is a little abrupt.”

He rubbed a hand over his face, aware of Brian's speculative gaze. “I didn't mean that the way it sounded.” But he did, of course.

“Then what can I do for you?”

“Can you get to the courthouse? We need to do some research.”

“I would love to get out of the house this afternoon. I'll have Fiona take me to get my car and then I'll be right there.”

Jake was grinning as he hung up the phone. He looked up to find Brian studying him. “Something you need, deputy?”

Brian just smiled and walked up the steps to the department.

Hours later, Jake stared at Brenna across a table set up in a far corner of the dusty courthouse basement. “Your Woman in White is apparently one mean bitch.”

Brenna swiped at a streak of dirt on her cheek. Her green eyes were somber. “Every time she's come for one of us, she has punished the town as well.”

Around them on the table and floor were incident logs, dispatch records and arrest files. They began their search with files dated in the months before her Aunt Celia's death more than twenty-eight years ago. Then they moved twenty-two years before that to the death of Rose Connelly. So far, they had located archives from four generations of deaths in the Connelly family attributed to the Woman in White. This was all the history Brenna knew as fact since she still hadn't been allowed to study
The Connelly Book of Magic
. But it was enough evidence to prove the Connelly's tragedy always came with a sharp spike in crime.

“It's the same kind of thing we're dealing with now.” Jake was careful as he stacked fragile papers from early in the twentieth century back into a box. “People with no criminal record were suddenly shooting each other.”

“Or stabbing their mothers to death,” Brenna said with a shudder.

Jake nodded. One crime from near the time of Rose's death had disturbed them both. A young man killed his mother with a butcher knife. He never denied the murder. He just said he couldn't remember what happened. He didn't know why he stabbed his mother to death. Declared insane, he was sent to the state hospital for the criminally insane in Milledgeville, Georgia.

The next time his name came up was more than twenty years later. His doctors and a crusading attorney managed to get him released. In his forties, he came home to Mourne County and lived for several years with his sister's family, working on his brother-in-law's dairy farm.

Just days before Celia Connelly was claimed by the Woman in White, the man hung himself from a tree in the New Mourne town park.

“According to the officer that interviewed the family, he lived a quiet life after his release. He was never any trouble. The report says he sang like an angel in the church choir.” Jake ran a hand through his hair. “There was no reason for him to kill himself.”

“Just like there was no reason for a peaceful farmer to kill his wife's hens today,” Brenna added. She'd been stunned when Jake related what happened earlier.

Other similarities between the two men chilled Jake. The farmer brought in today sang in the choir at the Methodist church this morning. “I guess it's a good thing he was able to get his murderous impulse out on chickens.”

“You know what's weird?” Brenna frowned down at the files in front of her. “No one talks about this in New Mourne. I've never heard about the man who killed his mother and hung himself.”