Grave Echoes: A Kate Waters Mystery (30 page)

“I didn’t. The wolf jumped on him. He fell back onto the headstone, and then the wolf bit him in the neck.”

“The wolf?” Wells frowned.

“Yes. A wolf came from the woods and attacked him.” She pointed in the direction where the wolf had emerged from the woods. As the words came from her mouth, she knew how absurd they sounded. It was no secret that Wells thought the same. His eyes averted, his brow deepened, and his mouth twisted as he tried to piece together her story.

“So you’re saying a dog attacked and killed Adam?” he reiterated.

“No, it was a wolf,” Kate corrected him. “A large grey wolf, with amber eyes.”

Wells nodded, though his expression hinted at disbelief. A flash lit up the side of his face as investigators took pictures of Adam in the background. A woman with a long black ponytail examined his head. Wells called out to her.

“Cindy, do you see any dog bites on his neck?”

“It was a wolf,” Kate stated again.

Wells raised an eyebrow at her before turning his attention back to the forensic team.

The examiner pulled Adam’s jacket down around both sides of his neck. “Not that I can see,” she replied shaking her head.

“I swear I saw it bite him,” Kate said.

“I’m not doubting you, but maybe the…,” Wells paused. “Maybe the wolf didn’t actually bite him. We’ll have the medical examiner inspect more closely.” He turned to Thea. “Did you happen to see the animal?” he asked, seemingly to be more comfortable with a vague description of the canine.

“No, I didn’t,” Thea replied. She shrugged her shoulders at Kate.

“Look, Kate, this cemetery is in the middle of a metropolis. I can guarantee you that what you saw wasn’t a wolf. Probably just an overly large husky, escaped from somebody’s backyard.”

“Pet huskies are groomed and domesticated, Detective…This thing was ragged and wild. It was the same wolf I saw on the mountain.” She dropped her head and sighed. “I know you don’t believe me, but I am just telling you what I know, what I saw.”

Wells moved on. “So you and David came to the cemetery believing the key opened a crypt that held information regarding your sister’s accident?”

“We thought Jev found something she wasn’t supposed to.” Kate remembered how she and David had actually suspected that the crypt involved Mary Stephens, the woman who had died in their home, but her death must have just been a coincidence, since her name didn’t belong to one of the seven bins Jev had written down.

A police officer carrying a black bag walked over to where they stood.

Unless her head was in the bag, Kate thought again.

“Detective, we found the crypt and something inside you might want to take a look at.”

The officer handed Wells a pair of gloves, and Wells put them on before opening the bag. He tilted it away from Kate and Thea, who both leaned toward the duffel bag with curious looks.

“Looks like stolen jewelry,” he said, pulling out a watch fashioned with diamonds around the clock. He looked inside again. “There must be close to a quarter million dollars in here. You found this in the crypt?”

“Yes sir.” The officer eyed Thea and Kate cautiously. “There are more bags.”

Wells twisted the watch in his hand and read an inscription along the inside band. “To my beloved, Thomas Jones.”

“Thomas Jones,” Kate repeated.

“You know him?”

“No, but he’s one of the people on the list of grave bins Jev had written down.”

The detective studied the watch for a moment. “So he stole jewelry from the deceased and kept it in a hidden vault. Then your sister comes along, possibly collecting dirt for her spell, sees him doing something strange, and somehow gets a hold of his key. When he discovers her following him, she tries to flee in her car, and he chases her off the road.” It seamlessly answered questions Kate had been asking herself for days.

Wells crossed his arms, one hand scratching on stubble on his chin. “Why didn’t you tell me about the key?”

“I didn’t know if it even had anything to do with Jev’s accident.”

Wells dropped the watch back into the bag. Turning to the officer, he said, “Give those items to Mitchell. They’ll need to be dusted.”

The man nodded and walked back into the arena of lights, tape, and officers.

“I think that’s all for now,” he said to Kate and Thea. “I’ll come by the hospital tomorrow to check on David. Maybe you can meet me there, and then we can complete an official report?”

“Is Kate in trouble?” Thea asked.

“No. Thatcher’s wound is typical for a contusion caused by a blunt object…such as a gravestone, but we need to verify with forensics what actually made the contusion to corroborate your story.”

“You do believe me?”

“Yes. I believe you, Kate.” Wells stepped closer to her, laying his hand on her shoulder. “Even if evidence finds that he was hit in the head and the finger gets pointed to you, we know it would have been self-defense. It’s over. You’re safe now.”

Relief was not an emotion Kate felt at the moment. Yes, the danger was over, but the damage was fresh, and she still felt vulnerable from all that had happened. She felt victimized—the man who’d killed her sister and shot her boyfriend was dead, and she was glad, but grief and anger were still ripe.

Wells headed toward the other officers. “Detective,” Kate called to him. He looked back at her. “We found justice tonight. We made a difference.”

His eyes and mouth bent into a smile that hinted of deeper emotions. “Yes we did, Kate.” He saluted her and then disappeared into the crowd.

Twelve weeks later.

Brown moving boxes piled in the corners of the freshly sand-painted rooms and the hardwood floors gleamed warm amber despite the gray day outside. Prolonged vacancy had left a mustiness in the new house, which Kate had attempted to air out by opening the windows and cranking the vents on high. Outside the living-room window, two large cherry trees in the front yard budded with tight knobs along the stems, soon to be splayed with pink blossoms.

Kate sat on the couch making a list of grocery items when David roamed into the living room. He held a lamp in one hand, a FedEx box and a large, manila envelope in the other. He set the lamp down on the end table next to her.

“Here, these came for you.”

Kate reached for the mail. “Our first packages in the new place.”

“Yeah, we’ve owned it for a whole eight hours and you’ve already got mail,” he said, leaning in to kiss her.

His lips were dry and cracked, but softened at the touch of hers. “Don’t overdo yourself,” Kate said, referring to the wound in his side, still healing from Adam’s bullet. It had only grazed major organs and arteries, but had exited through a portion of his spleen. He hadn’t been in the hospital more than a week, but doctors had warned him that he would continue recovering for the next couple of months.

“I’m feeling great,” he replied, “but I promise to take a break here in a minute.”

“Good.” She looked at the return address on the manila envelope—Portland Police Department. She frowned and then checked the other package. Only the name T. Wright topped the left corner, with no return address.

“What’s in the packages?” Jack asked, walking into the living room, his arms loaded with a box of kitchen items.

“One is from Wells’ office,” she said.

Jack set the boxes down on the kitchen island and walked over to the couch, sitting down next to her.

“I’m afraid to look in Thea’s,” David replied. “Probably hair of goat and dragon’s blood.”

Kate laughed. He had become acquainted with Thea over the last few weeks, and though he admired her mystic beliefs, he could appreciate Kate’s skepticism just the same.

“We’ve just got the plants to unload and then we’re finished,” he said, heading back out the door.

“I’ll be ready to leave soon too,” Kate replied, turning her attention back to the packages.

“You want me to open it?” Jack asked.

“Sure.” She handed the envelope to her dad. He bent open the metal hook and broke the seal. Inside, Wells had written a letter, “To Kate and Family,” and enclosed a large plastic bag filled with objects. Jack gave Kate a weary glance as he handed her the bag. She could vaguely see candles and what looked like a corn doll—obviously possessions of Jev’s. Then at the bottom, she saw an ornament, a wolf statue that Jev kept in her car. There are no coincidences, she remembered Thea saying and Kate found herself agreeing, that Jev really had transcended her spirit into the wolf.

Jack read the letter aloud.

Dear Katlyn Waters and Family,

Inside are items retrieved from the scene of Jevanna Waters’ car accident. They were held for investigative purposes and since the official closing of the case on December 6th, 2010, we now return them to the Waters’ family. Hope you are feeling better. My best to you and your family.

Detective Orwin Wells

Jack put the letter back in the envelope. “You can have whatever is in the bag,” he commented, giving her a smirk.

“Gee, thanks,” she returned.

He laid his hand on her shoulder. “Are you doing all right?”

“Yeah. The move feels right, with David and I starting over again in our own place, and you, living in town now. How’s the house?” she asked, referring to her sister’s house, since her Dad and Louise had moved in.

“All is well. As long as I let Louise do all the decorating, she’s happy as can be.” He gave her a wink.

“Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate it.”

“That’s what I’m here for.”

“I know I already told you this,” she said, twisting to face him better, “but I just want to tell you I’m sorry again, for taking my feelings about mom’s wishes out on you. I didn’t know how to accept what had happened.”

“I never took it personally, Kate,” he replied, looking out the window. She noticed wetness in his eyes. “I know you were struggling with something I couldn’t fix,” he continued. He turned back to her. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” Kate said.

“What brought you to forgiveness?”

Kate wasn’t sure it was really any one thing, just that several wrongs in her life forced her to make one right. “After I found out that Jev’s accident was a homicide, I realized that not all battles can be fought alone.” Jack met her eyes. “I needed you,” Kate continued, “and I didn’t want to make the same mistake Mom made. She’d needed us too, but was determined to fight her battle alone. I think she would regret that. You did the right thing, Dad. I know that now.”

“I’ve doubted myself every day, before I go to sleep and again when I wake.”

She hugged him, and they cried until they laughed again. An hour later, he and David drove back to the old house to get the last load.

Kate decided to stay behind and unpack. She’d forgotten about the box from Thea until she noticed it on the couch in the living room.

She picked it up and set it on the table, cutting the folds with an Exacto knife. Tucked inside purple tissue was a white candle, a bag of sea salt in a green ceramic bowl, a bundle of sage, and a note written on parchment paper.

Dear Kate,

Glad you’re living closer. I’ve been enjoying my dull life since our recent rendezvous.

Don’t be a stranger…if you want to drink whisky in the park again, you know

where to reach me. Blessed be & congrats on your new home.

Thea

At the bottom of the note was the heading, A House Cleansing Rite, with directions on conducting a house cleansing ritual. Kate smiled. She couldn’t imagine herself doing anything more than lighting the candle. Maybe the smudge sticks.

She set the box next to the envelope from Wells. The plastic bag stuck out of the top. Kate pulled it from the envelope again, presuming it was part of Jev’s binding spell, the one thing about Jev’s death she could never fully explain—what had brought her to the cemetery that night in the first place.

She unzipped the bag and poured the contents out onto the counter. There were three black candles; a white candle; a brown vial of oil; a smudge stick; and a corn doll with red thread wrapped around the middle. The candles were new. As Wells had assumed, Jev never did perform the spell. She went to the cemetery to collect dirt for the spell, when she happened upon Adam’s operation. Authorities had found a button from Jev’s coat near the vault, further confirming her struggle there with Adam.

Though she and Wells had originally suspected Sean was involved with Jev’s accident, nothing ever connected him to Jev’s death. He moved to McMinnville a few weeks after Kate’s run-in with Adam at the cemetery, and she hadn’t heard from him since. Activity on Mt. Hood had started dropping off, temporarily going dormant again, for an unknown period, so Sean found a government job with Oregon Land and Property Management. It seemed to be better for everyone, and though Kate had some regrets and unanswered questions, she was happy to shed the awkward feelings in the office. There were just too many difficult memories and complicated dynamics for her and Sean to continue working together.

Kate held the poppet doll in her hand. It gave her the creeps—someone had twisted stalks of cornhusk into primitive human characteristics. Cheesecloth material balled up to form the head. He or she drew eyes, a nose, and a mouth in black ink. The red thread bound around the midriff of the doll made an X.

Kate pulled on the end of it, unraveling the corn doll, so she could dispose of it undone. She thought it better to dismantle the doll before she threw it away, in case someone had cursed it. Under the thread, a piece of natural cotton held the doll together in the middle. Across the poppet’s chest was a symbol. A Maltese cross.

Kate held the doll up for a closer look. She had seen that symbol before. Sean’s bag… and the ornament hanging from the rearview mirror in his car. The binding spell was meant for Sean? She questioned. Why did Jev want to bind Sean? Kate recollected their fight with a surge of unease. Shuffling through the contents of the bag again, she searched for anything else she might have missed. Then she noticed something written on the bottom of the white candle. Letters had been carved into the wax. She tilted the candle to see it more clearly, RIP Cernunnos.

“Cernunnos,” she said aloud. Thea had called her dog Cernunnos, the one who recently died of poisoning. Sean had never liked Thea. If Sean had killed Thea’s dog, and Jev had found out, the binding spell made perfect sense. Even though Sean had proved his innocence to her by saving her life on the mountain, Kate could never get over the gut feeling that he hid something from her—killing Thea’s dog. Jev must have wanted to correct the situation, without too much of a stir, and felt awkward turning to Kate because she worked with him.

***

Shutting the car door lightly, Kate walked quietly to a fir tree where she stood under its cover for a moment to make sure she was alone. Never in a million years did she expect to return to the cemetery where she’d almost lost her life trying to solve the death of her sister. But she was a different person now, with new beliefs, and new goals.

Kate crossed the path leading to the mausoleum, pausing shortly to look over her shoulder. Nobody was there. Tonight, she was alone. The night held a certain air about it, the feeling of something good. Satisfied with the silence around her, she draped her head with a dark hood, and paced quickly through the shadows. In her hand, she held a black bag filled with items she wouldn’t bring to a church. In her other, a shovel.

Continuing on, she stopped in front of a great oak tree and dropped her bag. Then, she cut at the grass with the shovel, carefully leaving the top intact for future discretion. The moist ground was easy to uplift and soon the hole was deep enough to hold a cornstalk poppet. Surrounding the hole were three black candles, connected by a ring of sea salt. A bowl of water and a smudge stick lay on each side.

Then a bell chimed,

Aradia bound

Thy circle round

On sacred ground….

Somewhere in the distance, the sound of a wolf’s call bellowed through the night. A long, harmonic howl. “Jev’s back,” Kate whispered with a smile.

END

Thank you for reading my book. If you enjoyed it, won’t you please take a moment to leave a review at your favorite retailer?