Hacienda Moon (The Path Seekers) (22 page)

The dirt turned into water dripping down on Tandie; and the hole changed back to a ceiling and a shower head.

“They buried her alive.” Tandie gasped and slid down to a sitting position, sobbing for the loss of a girl’s life and her unborn child, and she ached for someone to understand how she felt about losing her own.
 

21

Sitting in her study, Tandie glanced over the recovered twenty pages of her manuscript as the burial scene played over and over in her head.

Tandie’s thoughts raced, and her heart ran a marathon inside her chest. She made plans to head out and find Eric Fontalvo herself if he didn’t show up within the next couple of days.

She glanced outside the study’s window and inhaled sharply. About fifty men and women stood along the edges of the forest on either side of Chelby Rose’s driveway. A strange glow surrounded their bodies; and it sure wasn’t moonlight that caused it. The people belonged to many different races and genders, tortured souls brought together against their will by an entity with a power that could cross human barriers. Tandie had never seen so many spirits at one time. All the psychic training in the world hadn’t prepared her for this task.

“Poor souls,” Tandie whispered.
 

A whack-ker plunk came from the left side of the house, the part where the rose bushes grew, an area she couldn’t see from her window.

Tandie walked out of her writing room, moved back the curtains on the window beside the front door, and scanned the yard. A manic Ella hacked at the rose bushes as if Tandie had given her permission to do so. The girl held an ax high above her head and chopped the rose petals off with enough skill to rival Jason Voorhees. She swung at the bushes about three more times and then froze with the ax poised above her head. The tool thudded to the ground behind her; but Ella stood there with her arms extended as if she were still holding the ax. 

After a few more moments, Ella dropped her arms down by her sides. She turned around in slow motion and faced Chelby Rose. Tandie moved beside the window, out of sight, but in a spot where she could still see the girl.

The implications behind what Tandie had witnessed in her visions rang inside her head, filling her with courage and anger over what happened to Alice Chelby and her children, Eric’s ancestors. If she were truly a path seeker the way Grandma Zee and Norma Atwater had said, then that meant she was destined to cross paths with a soul unable to find peace in their afterlife. And that soul was without a doubt Alice Chelby.
Watching Ella mutilate the roses, a vital part of Chelby Rose’s history, fueled the flame inside her. She’d been afraid of the world for almost an entire year, and she no longer cared to hide like a little girl running from a shadow demon in the woods. She pressed her lips together, picked up Alice Chelby’s necklace, cupping it in her palm, and stepped outside.

“I told you to stay off my property,” Tandie said, her voice rising, and her palms already sweaty from clutching the necklace so hard.

Peels of high-pitched girlish laughter echoed through the woods. The souls had floated back to whatever void they existed in. Ella took a step forward and picked up her discarded ax. She gave Tandie one last grin, turned around, and resumed her horror-movie chopping, paying no mind to a fuming, but shaky Tandie.

“I know what you did, Ella.” The girl stopped moving as if contemplating whether to listen or not, and then started back chopping the rosebush, its delicate red petals flying in the air around her.

A large bucket, the one Tandie and Eric had used to hold the paint for the house, sat behind Ella. Lifting a handful of roses and branches as if she couldn’t feel a thing, Ella pulled each rose petal off and dumped them in the bucket. She then used the ax to chop up the remains, sloshing around in what appeared to be water. The crazed way the girl chopped along with Tandie’s new knowledge of what she might be almost took away her courage to confront the girl. This was going to be her house, not Ella’s or even the Chelby’s, and this girl was no longer welcome on her property.

Tandie spoke in a raspy voice. “I know who you are. What you are. And you’re not welcome here anymore.”

Ella stopped as if Tandie had cast a spell with her words.

She whirled around, and said, “You think you can stop me? Ha! You couldn’t even keep death’s fetcher from taking your daughter.” Peals of laughter filled the air.

“Don’t you dare talk about my daughter! You’re not welcome here anymore, Ella.”
 
Tandie recalled the day that she heard Grandma Zee’s voice in the slave cabin, and the way it said,
“
Tell that demon to get behind you.
”
 
She inhaled deeply. “I’m taking away your position. In other words, you’re fired, for good, Ella. Now get off my property. Chelby Rose belongs to me now.”
 

“Just what are you going to do if I don’t leave? You don’t deserve all my hard work, these flowers I bled to raise. I’m taking them back.” She spun around, lifted the bucket of crushed red petals, pouring the contents over her dress. The petals stuck to her dress in various places so she looked like a doll created by a madman.

Going inside and calling for help was probably the most logical thing to do. But Tandie tasted revenge’s bittersweet juices, and good sense wasn’t in the recipe. She stepped away from the porch and gathered strength from both Alice’s necklace and Breena’s ring; the one burning with life at her throat’s hollow area and the other in her hand.

“Demon, if you don’t get off my property, I will send you back to the hell you charmed your way out of.”

“You can’t be calling me no demon. You’re the witch girl who came back first!” Ella growled and charged at Tandie, grasping her around the neck. The two women toppled over, and Tandie was pinned underneath Ella.

“Not so brave, now, huh?” Ella hissed through gritted teeth, her hands firmly wrapped around Tandie’s neck.

Her gaze moved toward Breena’s ring hanging around Tandie’s neck and then to Alice’s necklace. Her body tensed and her face twisted. Ella released Tandie and scooted backward, her eyes fearful. The girl stood up and took off screaming through the woods, leaving Tandie gasping and shaking as she lay on the ground. The girl was crazier than Tandie ever imagined.

A car pulled into the driveway, its bright lights blinding Tandie. The man who got out of the driver’s seat was average height, medium build, and wore a trench coat over gray slacks. He reminded her of Inspector Gadget for some odd reason. In light of the insane moment she’d just experienced with Ella, she struggled to hold back a laugh.

“Good evening, Mrs. Harrison,” the man said, approaching her. Right away, she figured he must be the detective Eric had told her about. “Why are you lying on the ground? Are you hurt?”

Boy was that the understated question of the month.

He held out a hand for her; but he also glanced at the rose petal water Ella had splashed everywhere. “Detective Leroy Newman.”

Tandie stood up without his assistance and said,” It’s Ms. Harrison, Detective Newman; and soon to be Ms. Jacobson, thanks for making a note of that.”

“Quite the lady, you are. Those folks up north taught you how to kill every bit of southern charm you had left in you, I see,” he said behind the large mustache on his face.

“Am I under arrest, Detective? I don’t recall seeing a subpoena or any type of formal document.”

“I have a few questions for you, if you have the time. You lost your daughter about eight months ago, right?” he asked, ignoring Tandie’s question. She was dirty, annoyed, and still shaken up from Ella’s display of insanity. Entertaining a detective who suddenly found her interesting enough to harass almost two months after Virgil McKinnon’s death wasn’t helping matters.

“Everyone knows my situation. Your point?”

“Breena was her name, right?” He held her gaze; but Tandie stayed silent. She had spent enough time around his type to understand that he had already come to a conclusion about something. “She had a nickname. What was it, if I may ask?”

“That’s none of your business,” Tandie said, her breaths increasing.

He moved closer to her so only a foot of space was between them. “Don’t make this any tougher on yourself. Two more people were killed last night, their throats ripped out by some maniac. That makes three dead bodies on my beat.
I already have two witnesses that placed you at the scene where one of those poor folks died. We have no leads. The higher ups are coming down on my ass about that. I’m feeling just a tad desperate,
Ms. Jacobson
.” He paused and inhaled a shaking, angry breath before he continued.

“As a former police medium, I’m sure you understand how things deteriorate for suspects when that happens. The only reason I didn’t have you brought in for questioning was because of Shania McKinnon. Poor woman. She literally lost everything in one night. And still, she tells me not to harass the local celebrity—something about her tourists associating the Aeneid with negative publicity. Apparently the two of you have become good friends, lucky you. I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about female bonding, though. I’m willing to bet my entire monthly wages that you know something.”

Tandie frowned. Not only was the detective hyped up about this case, but he was also right. Shania’s desire to protect her identity was mainly because of Frieda and their new friendship.

Shaking his head and grinning, he stepped back.  “Was your daughter’s nickname, Baby B?” Tandie’s heart made a small leap. “My nose never steers me wrong when it comes to my leads, Ms. Harrison. For some reason, the words Baby B are written near each body. A little tidbit we kept out of the papers. You know how that works don’t you?”

“I need to call my lawyer,” Tandie whispered, shaken by this new information.

“No. First, you’ll answer my questions. Second, you call your attorney,” the detective snapped, stepping closer to Tandie.

From beside the pair, a male’s familiar confident voice broke through. “Detective, you shouldn’t be rude. You’ll either allow Ms. Harrison that one opportunity for council or provide a warrant saying that she’s to be arrested. Or, you can feel free to choose a third option,” Saul stated, coming to stand tall in front of Detective Newman. Dressed in a white knit shirt that was opened at the collar and beige khakis that almost matched his messy sun-kissed hair, he sent Tandie’s mind whirling just as much as he probably did to the detective’s.

Where the hell did he come from? First a screaming Ella, and now a ghostly Saul? This is all too much.

“Saul Chelby. Where’s your car? Last I checked your company squandered enough money out of its clients to buy an island. It seems kind of strange to see you walking around out here without wheels,” the detective said, fidgeting more than he did before Saul appeared. “And just who the hell are you to be giving me orders?”

Detective Newman was right about the missing car issue; but Tandie was relieved to see Saul. If anybody could handle domineering and rude, then that would be Mr. Alpha-Male Chelby.

“This is still my house, and I don’t really like it when misguided detectives come around harassing my tenants without due cause,” Saul said.

Detective Newman stepped toward him. Saul didn’t flinch or appear the slightest bit intimidated. Instead, he stood there, glaring at the detective with an expression somewhere between savage and school-boy mischievous.

“Who the fuck do you think you are, Saul Chelby?” the detective spat at him.

“Watch the language, Detective. We’re in a lady’s presence.” A school-boy smile spread across Saul’s face. The wickedness in it, the insanity behind those eyes made Tandie want to step back and toward him all at the same time.

The detective kept going. “You and your family left enough scandals behind to see us all through the next hundred generations. And you have the nerve to step up on my beat like some kind of king and start bossing me around? What is she? One of your bondage girls?”