Grave Echoes: A Kate Waters Mystery (29 page)

***

Flipping his siren and lights on, Wells sped down the freeway toward the other side of town. He radioed into the station for back up and quickly determined his destination—Tryon Creek Cemetery. It was the one location that Jev and Adam had in common, besides Walter Biddy’s. He didn’t know where Kate was, but her greatest danger was with Adam, and Adam’s most opportune location to kill someone, if he were planning to do so, would be the cemetery where he worked.

With any luck, officers would arrive before him, so he warned them that the suspect, Adam Thatcher, the night manager, was potentially armed and dangerous, as new evidence indicated him as the number one suspect in a first-degree murder and attempted murder. He’d told the dispatcher that two other individuals might be at the cemetery and would need assistance, Kate Waters and David Bradshaw.

Weaving in and out of congested traffic as he approached the city, the wide-open front door at Kate and David’s house still baffled him, along with the flowers he’d seen strewn across the floor, that were then later, neatly arranged. Adrenaline sometimes caused one to overlook certain details, but he considered that a feature more than a detail.

What concerned him about the front door was that in most assault/kidnap situations, the offender normally went to great lengths to evade capture, buy as much time as possible before authorities suspected a crime in action. Leaving the front door open would be like setting off an alarm, telling anyone in the area that something out of the ordinary has taken place. Plus, nobody leaves the front door open in the winter.

Wells thought about Adam Thatcher and his job as an undertaker, a position in the community that people trusted their loved ones to, to be taken care of in the utmost respected manner. An axiom his brother used to say popped into his mind: A person who trusts no one, can’t be trusted. Wells sounded the sirens again—this time, it was his lack of trust in Adam that he trusted most.

***

The corridors seemed to grow and arch, as though they were caving in around Kate, as she ran through the mausoleum. The mysterious key she’d fretted over the last week was now back in Adam’s possession, but she knew he wouldn’t stop chasing her, not until she was dead like her sister. Kate felt intimately connected to Jev as her last moments alive paralleled her sister’s—the nightmare manifested, the hallucination was real. She and Jev had always wanted to be close, but Kate never imagined that they would die even closer.

She rounded another corner, gasping for more breath. Blood oozed from her lip and knee. She expected a gunshot at any second would kick her feet out from beneath her, pulling her to the ground. Yet, even in her panic, Kate kept watch for David. He’d promised her he wouldn’t leave, and she trusted him now more than ever. If he’d suffered only minor injuries, together, they might be able to escape.

With a spark of new hope, Kate charged forward, attempting to lose Adam in the maze of marbled casket bins. Though, in the back of her mind, she knew that he’d walked those hallways every day. He knew them better than anyone. Still, she kept running.

Kate turned and headed towards the back entrance, believing that Adam would search for her in the front. She could see grass and trees beyond the steps, but Adam’s boots clapped on the hard floor behind her. Then a ping zipped in front of her, shattering splinters of marble along the wall. Another zing punched a hole in the floor. With a sickening recognition, Kate realized they were bullets, muted by a silencer. The loud bang of the gun was no longer an issue. Adam could shoot as many times as he wanted without alerting anyone.

Past the light of vintage lampposts at the bottom of the steps, shadows reigned, and it was there in the graveyard where Kate believed she had the best chance for survival, if she could make it that far. The steps came up fast, and when Kate bended her knee, it gave out beneath her, twisting her ankle on its side. She groaned and grasped for the railing, pulling herself back up. Sobs threatened to surface, but the cold air numbed her pain. A stitch burned in her side, but she didn’t slow. Before she knew it, her feet contacted grass. Her hands fumbled through the brush, nudging limbs from her face and neck.

She quickly stopped behind a large trunk, trying to quiet her breathing. The stillness implied Adam wasn’t near. But she knew he was. Maybe even at the top of the steps waiting for her to move. Maybe he was looking right at her, she panicked. A need to peek around the trunk pulled at her, but she didn’t dare move.

Opaque clouds darkened the moonlit night, but the glow of city lights off the haze outlined surrounding hills, giving her a sense of direction. To her left, the path through the cemetery wound, where she’d followed David. She searched for his form in the shadows, or anyone else’s, not surprised she could only see dark headstones. Escape now depended on her wits, and she felt like a pawn jumping across a giant chessboard. One wrong move would catapult her into checkmate. But in this game, her defeat would be death.

There was nothing but silence and death in the cemetery. Kate decided to make a move. Aiming for a large block gravestone, she rushed from the trees and dove behind it, expecting Adam to pounce out of nowhere. His silence unnerved her. He wouldn’t have turned around, giving her the chance to escape, not after everything she knew. He was planning something. Warmth dribbled down her shin, and Kate pressed her palm against the cut on her knee where it had slit open further. She wondered if David had been shot or hurt. What if Adam had gone back to finish him off? The thought terrified her, and Kate steadied her breathing, planning to make another run for the path below. She scanned the grounds and then broke away from the headstone. It seemed like a good plan.

Adam stepped into view from behind a large gravestone. He knew exactly where she’d been planning to flee to, probably from having watched her and David walk into the cemetery earlier tonight.

A flashlight blinded her. “Nice try Kate,” Adam said. “You and I are more alike than you think. Tenacity and optimism are the ingredients for success.”

Kate felt the grip of desperation around her neck, choking the last few seconds of her life away. Is this how it was for Jev, she thought soberly, remembering the terror in her sister’s screams from her hallucinations? Alone and fighting for her life?

“Thanks for the key. I’ve gone to great lengths to get this back, having followed you all over this goddamn state. I should have just broke into your cabin and ripped it from your slender, fucking throat.”

Kate shivered—the cabin. He’d been on the mountain. She remembered the cigarette filter she had found, now learning it was Adam’s, and not Sean’s.

“But obviously…I can’t let you live.”

“Obviously, you can do anything you want, Adam,” Kate said. Her anger startled her, and she knew it came from a part of her who believed it was all over.

Adam chuckled at her response.

“Wells already knows someone tried to kill my sister and Donna,” she continued. “And if you kill me, he will stop at nothing to find you.” She tried to mimic the resolve in his voice, but it came out hoarse and desperate.

“He never found his brother’s murderer,” Adam smiled. “I think my odds are pretty good.”

Surprised by his knowledge of Wells’ history, Kate felt defeat break over her. Her shaking slowed and her shallow breath deepened—acceptance of her fate had seeped into her heart and bones, like a cold fog.

“I appreciate your worries about my capture,” Adam said, “but I think that is really the least of your concerns right now. Donna will die tomorrow after a nurse accidentally flushes too much Demerol into her IV, and David’s body will never be found,” he paused. “But yours will look like a suicide.”

He reached into his jacket, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and lit one. His smile no longer curled upwards with triumph. He has to get dirty now, Kate thought. Death was never neat or easy.

“My father will never believe in my suicide and neither will Detective Wells.”

He exhaled a stream of smoke. “They can disbelieve all they want, but facts are facts.”

Just when things seemed they couldn’t be worse, a shrill howl resonated over the hill. Both Kate and Adam turned their heads toward the direction of the animal’s call, echoing beyond the mausoleum. It might have sounded like a dog to anyone else, but Kate knew better and it seemed Adam did too. His stance stiffened and he glanced nervously at the surrounding trees. The wicked grin that had dominated his face faded behind his widened eyes.

He kept the gun aimed at her. “Company is coming. Sorry, but I’m going to have to end our little chat,” he said, turning his cold gaze back to her.

This was it, Kate thought, unless some miracle happened. Unless David came charging out of nowhere, or Wells mysteriously appeared behind Adam with that gun she’d seen on his waist earlier today. But miracles weren’t real. Magic wasn’t real. She recollected her protection spell with Thea, and their foolishness stabbed at her gut. A sob surfaced in her throat. Look where it had her—look where it got Jev, she thought.

She still had the piece of paper in her pocket.
When you need protection, burn it
, Thea had said,
and you will receive shelter from the Gods and Goddesses
.

But how could she burn it now? It was too late. Adam took another drag off his cigarette.

“Could I have one?” Kate asked. “It is the least you can do.”

He smirked and flipped his cigarette at her. She picked it up off the ground, took a drag, and then doubled over coughing. Adam mocked her, just as she’d planned, in order to distract him while she retrieved the note from her pocket. She held the tip of the cigarette to the corner. Her breath sparked the embers and it started to smolder.

“What are you doing?” Adam said.

The parchment caught fire and a flame grew higher.

“Put that out,” he snapped, but the wind caught the flame and fueled it higher, and brighter. Soon, flames engulfed the entire sheet of paper, and Kate let go of it. A light wind picked it up, furling it into the air towards Adam. He swiped at it, and it broke apart into tiny, red sparks and ashes.

Then, something swelled around Kate, like a current…like the lagoon she’d envisioned during her spell with Thea. The vision of her mother on the cliff, burning something in her hand, had now become Kate’s present actions—the memory turned into her current reality. And the wolf she’d seen stalking up behind her mother, Kate now sensed it behind her. At that moment, she understood the vision. The wolf wasn’t after Kate. Not at the cabin. Not in her dreams. And not now. It had been hunting Adam, all along.

“What the hell was that?” Adam snapped. Then, his eyes quickly averted behind Kate, and he took a step back.

Kate knew he stared at the wolf behind her. “A spell,” she replied.

A pressure swirled around Kate, as if a giant magnet were nearby, bending and twisting the air. With the stealth of a predator’s instincts, the wolf leapt out from behind her and straight for Adam, shockingly fast, as time seemed to bound forward. Adam had stalled to long and failed to fire the gun at the wolf before it pummeled him in mid-air. He staggered back with the wolf on top of him. His head collided into a gravestone with a brutal thud. Its hunger still unsatisfied, the wolf snapped its enormous jaws around his throat. Adam hollered in agony and then it was quiet.

The wolf turned towards Kate. She was still kneeling on the ground. Under the dog’s enormous stance, she felt vulnerable and wondered if she’d made an error in judgment, an error regarding the dog’s intention. The wolf stood still. Its ears were erect, and a soft tongue panted between massive jaws, abandoning the threatening crouch she’d expected it to engage in. Golden amber flecks reflected in its eyes as it gazed at her, a setting vaguely familiar to Kate…like she’d seen it before—above Jev’s fireplace. Jev and her wolves. She stared at the wolf…Jev?

Something rustled nearby, and the wolf jerked its vision to the path below. Somebody was coming. The wolf turned back to her and yapped softly, then it disappeared into fir and pines. Kate looked down the hill where she spotted a moving shadow. A woman’s shape. Thea. Relief hit Kate with a stream of tears. She’d never been happier to see a witch in all her life. She turned back in the direction where the wolf had disappeared, but it was gone. Jev was gone again.

***

Kate stood doubled over, still in shock over the wolf’s attack. Adam lay motionless in the grass, his head bent unnaturally at the bottom of a gravestone. Blood stained the grass by his ear. Kate turned away, toward Thea who made the call to 911. She overheard her say that officers were already on their way to the cemetery.

As soon as she hung up the phone, Kate said, “We have to find David, Thea. I lost him in the mausoleum, and I think he’s hurt.”

Thea wasted no time, and hurried to the front steps. Kate followed as close as she could, limping heavily from the wound on her knee.

“I should have come with you,” Thea said, helping Kate up the steps.

“He had a gun Thea. He would have shot you,” she said, panting heavily. “I think he shot David,” her voice trailed off. She couldn’t think of him dead, didn’t want to think it—not him too.

Thea paused, turning to her. “We’re going to find him.”

Kate nodded.

“Where’d you last see David?” Thea asked her when they reached the top steps.

“I think he was in row C. We split up in row B.”

They made their way through the corridors, but row C was empty. “Maybe he’s in D.” She couldn’t remember now. Her memory skipped around blank spots.

Thea ran to the end of the hall and stopped abruptly. “He’s here!” she yelled, disappearing around the corner. Kate followed her, limping as fast as she could. David lied on the floor, leaning up against the wall, a ring of blood seeping from under his jacket. His eyes closed.

Thea placed her fingers on his neck. “He’s alive, but he’s lost a lot of blood.”

Kate kneeled beside him. Her tears splashed on his coat. She cradled his head in her lap. “I’m so sorry, David. I’m here now.”

Three minutes later, the ambulance pulled up in front of the mausoleum. Wells came in behind them. They brought a stretcher out for David, strapped him on, administered IVs, and checked his vitals, all within the span of seconds. He came to slight consciousness and Kate stayed at his side. One of the officers pulled Kate back so paramedics could lift David into the medical van.

“I want to go with him,” Kate said. She still had a firm hold of David’s hand.

“I got her,” Wells said to the officer holding Kate. “C’mon, Kate. You can’t go with him.”

“Please,” she begged. “I have to be with him.”

Thea came over to Kate. “You’ve got to let him go, Kate. He’s in good hands.”

David gave a faint nod, and squeezed Kate’s hand before letting go of hers. As soon as she let go, the paramedic team hoisted him into the van. It sped away with the lights on. Not far below them, lights and activity bustled around Adam’s lifeless body, as forensics recorded the details of his death.

Wells led Kate to one of the patrol cars and gave her a gray flannel to drape over her shoulders. “I’m afraid to even ask what you and David were doing out here, Kate,” he said to her.

Kate tried her best to explain it. “David thought he’d found something about Jev’s visit to the cemetery…,” she paused, remembering she’d never discussed the key with Wells. “We found a strange key in Jev’s purse and David thought it belonged to a crypt.”

“A crypt?” Wells said. “Where is it now?”

“I gave it to Adam after he pulled the gun on me.”

Wells instructed one of the officers to look for a key on the deceased. “Do you know where it is located?” he asked Kate.

She pointed down the hill, to her left. “I think David said it was back behind the mausoleum.”

Wells had two officers scour the ravine for the crypt and try the key on all that they found.

He turned back to Kate. “Did you know that Adam Thatcher is the one who ran your sister off the road?”

“Not until he confronted me, after David and I split up to search the corridors.”

“So the three of you came here together?”

“No,” Thea said. “Kate came alone.”

“David and I met up,” she explained, licking at the corner of her lip. The crusted blood made it difficult to talk.

“I overheard Kate talking with David about meeting him here,” Thea said. “I didn’t want her to go alone, and after more thought, I decided to come anyway. I had a bad feeling.”

Wells studied Thea for a moment, and then looked to Kate. “So did the key open a crypt?”

“We never made it that far.”

Wells rubbed his chin, pondering on his next statement. “Kate, how did you manage to push Adam back into a headstone if he had a gun on you?”