The Scariest Tail (A Wonder Cats Mystery Book 4) (7 page)

“
S
he was terrified
,” Min said. “I didn’t know what could have scared her so much, but I ran back into the kitchen. She had tears in her eyes and was pointing at the window, still yelling.”

The tea kettle began to whistle, and both of us nearly jumped out of our own skin. I stood up, looking toward the window that I’d let Treacle in, remembering Min had locked it tightly behind me.

“Here,” I said, pouring the hot liquid into our cups along with a splash of milk and a handful of mini marshmallows each. “A spoon full of sugar,” I said before setting the kettle back on the stove and taking my seat again.

Min wrapped his hands around the mug and continued his story.

His mother had begun to back out of the kitchen when Min tried desperately to get her to tell him what was the matter. Finally, he looked where she was pointing, and there in the window, staring in at them, had been two pale-faced children with jet-black eyes.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Min said. “That they were children with contact lenses. They were playing a joke and just causing mischief.” He swallowed hard and looked at me. “They were not children.”

He went on to say that he’d had a strange sensation spread over him. Never in his life had a terror settled so deep into his bones that he was afraid it might never come out. “There was something in their eyes, Cath. It was like a vacuum. It sucked me in, and the terror was so intense, it was crippling.”

He could no longer hear his mother, who had still been crying and screaming. Instead, he said his head was filled with whispers—childlike hissing whispers that didn’t sound like children talking quietly, but rather how one would imagine conspiring demons sounded.

With a snap in his brain like a mousetrap being set off, he remembered the front door.

As if reading his mind, the children disappeared from the window with insane speed. In his gut, Min felt they were headed back around to the open door. He had left it wide open when he’d heard his mother scream.

“I turned and ran from the kitchen to the front door, and I saw one of them,” he said. “You know how spiders run back and forth when you’re trying to swat them with a broom?” The image gave me shivers. “Well, that is how one of them was moving. It was a little boy around ten years old, and he was hunched over, crawling on the tips of his fingers and the balls of his feet, back and forth on the porch like there was some invisible thing in the way of him getting into the house.”

Then Min said it had stopped and looked at him, hissing. But he couldn’t be sure if it had really been making noise or if it had just been in his head.

“Then, as clear as I’m talking to you, I heard it say ‘let me in.’ Except it was in my head. It was in my head, Cath.”

I patted Min’s arm. He looked like Jake had looked when he’d spilled his guts about the same two brats showing up at Blake’s place.

“And even though no words came out of my mouth, at least I’m pretty sure that none did, that thing was slowly reaching into the house. As if I were slowly giving it permission to do so. I don’t know where I got the strength, but I tore my feet loose, squeezed my eyes closed, and charged the door, slamming it shut. I was sure when I finally opened my eyes, I was going to see a severed child’s arm lying on the floor, but I didn’t. I looked out the peephole and saw nothing on the porch. But I heard it scream. At least, I think it was a scream.”

I couldn’t believe this. I didn’t know what to do.

“I locked the front door and hurried to my mom, who had calmed down a good bit but was shaking at the table.”

“Did you ask her what she thought they were?”

“Yeah. I asked her. And her reply was Korean for ‘demon.’”

Min and I sat there for a few minutes, letting it all sink in. Treacle rubbed along Min’s leg as if to say
there, there
. The kind gesture brought Treacle a gentle scratching on the top of his head from Min and a little taste of marshmallow from the tip of Min’s finger. That was all it took, and my favorite beast was up on the table, sitting like royalty, waiting for more scratches behind the ear to commence. He purred contentedly as Min petted him gently.

“Min, you left your mom alone. Do you think she’s all right?”

“She called my father and told him what had happened.”

My face must have looked shocked because Min clarified that quickly.

“She told him someone was looking in the windows and knocking on the doors. He was on his way home when I left.”

“Are you going to tell him the truth?”

“I’ll leave that up to my mom. My father is a reasonable man. When something strange or out of the ordinary happens, he will find the source, and if he can’t do that, he’ll pretend the whole thing never happened.”

I smiled and nodded at Min. I was torn. I wasn’t sure if I should tell him about Jake and John Roy or if it would be best to keep the information to myself. One thing I found interesting was that these creatures preferred to scare men, and that was not how the universe usually worked. Mrs. Park seemed to be an afterthought or perhaps an unexpected guest.

Now before I ruffle any feathers, I didn’t mean to say women are weak. But there is no denying biology that dictates men are physically stronger than women. Through history men have been the warriors and protectors. How much more intense would an experience have to be to instill this kind of fear in a man?

It wasn’t easy, but I knew I had to tell Aunt Astrid and Bea about Min’s experience sooner rather than later. But I didn’t know what to do with Min right then.

“Hey, if you’re that shaken, you can stay overnight here,” I said.

Min looked at me as if he had been thinking the same thing but was afraid to say anything. “Are you sure?”

“My gosh, Min, of course. Do you want to call Amalia? Let her know where you are in case she’s looking for you?” I thought that would be a good way to keep things friendly and dispel any rumors that would inevitably have taken root if not tended to right away.

“She’s pulling a double shift again,” he said. “I can’t talk to her when she’s doing that because she’s either busy working, or she’s getting forty winks.”

I nodded in understanding.

“I know it sounds crazy, Cath.” Min’s voice was low and embarrassed. “The truth is I’m scared to even walk to my car. And the idea of driving alone right now is just too much. Isn’t this stupid? If I didn’t have my mother to corroborate my story, I’d think I was losing my mind.”

“Well, you know, Min, the world is filled with all kinds of anomalies. And depending on what you’re willing to open your mind to, there can be all kinds of dimensions and realms. It’s a real possibility that there are ghosts and demons and angels and vampires and… witches. They could all be real. They probably are real because those stories came from somewhere, right?”

I looked at him, waiting for him to agree.

He paused for a moment as if he were seriously considering the possibilities. But then a determined look crossed his face. “No, that’s not how it is. There has to be an explanation. You know, Cath, maybe I am just overreacting. They were probably kids pulling a mean, cruel joke, thinking my mom was home alone.”

I could tell he was really trying to convince himself of that—that it had to be a prank, and there was no such thing as ghosts or vampires or witches.

“I’m sorry, Cath. You have got to think I am the biggest baby. I appreciate your offering to let me stay, but I’m okay now. I’m going to go home and check on my mom.”

“Okay,” I said, a little let down. Min was such a good guy, and we had such a history together. But after his experience that day, if I were to reveal I was a bona fide witch, I thought he would never speak to me again. Because if I were a real witch, then those children could have really been demons, and if they existed, what other nightmares were out there, just waiting to jump out at Min? No, I couldn’t say anything.

“Hey,” Min said. “Let’s get together soon and catch a movie or something.”

“Yes, and please tell Amalia I need to make a trip to the art supply store soon, and I’d like her to come with.”

Min nodded as he got up from his seat at the kitchen table and went to the foyer. While slipping on his shoes, he looked at me a bit awkwardly. “Cath, what do you think it was? Do you think they were kids playing a joke?”

No, Min. I think they’re demons looking to steal your soul and drive you to kill yourself. That is what I think.

“Probably, Min. What else could it be, right?”

What else was I supposed say?

We hugged goodnight, and I watched from the door as he got safely into his car. The fog had lifted, and the street was slick but clear. Min flashed his high beams at me as he backed out of the drive, and I waved. I shut the door tightly and snapped the deadbolt into place, then I went and checked all the windows, making sure they were securely locked. Better safe than sorry.

Aunt Astrid’s spell of protection was pretty strong, but she had said something had used a corner of it as a chew toy. Something wanted in but wasn’t able to break through.

Treacle watched me make the rounds, his green eyes following me everywhere, his ears twisting and twitching as he listened for mice in the walls, sirens outside, or the furnace kicking on.

“If only I knew where they’d show up next
,” I said to him as I scooped him up in my arms and carried him to the bed. “
But they seem to just be popping up at random. Figures the little monsters wouldn’t play fair
.”

“I stay away from children of all kinds whether they have black eyes or not
.” Treacle purred as I got under the covers.

“Why is that?”

“They smell funny,” he said.

I looked at him as if to say he was Mr. Pot calling Miss Kettle black.
“Well, that might be,”
I said.
“Have you heard anything around town about black-eyed kids making house calls?”

“No. Nothing at all.”

“You’ll let me know if you do?”

“Of course, Cath.”
Then Treacle licked my nose with his rough, scratchy tongue and gave me a head butt of affection before curling up and lying down next to me.

We slept through the rest of the night, and I didn’t dream.

T
he next day
, my aunt came shuffling into the café with a stack of papers stuffed underneath one arm and a very unhappy-looking Marshmallow in the other. Her hair was wild, pointing in all directions as if she had gotten caught in a wind tunnel, and she was wearing the same pretty purple outfit she’d worn the day before. Except it was more wrinkled.

“Good morning, Mom. I was starting to worry.” Bea looked her mother up and down just like I was doing. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” she said excitedly, handing Marshmallow to me.

“What’s this all about?”
I asked the pug-nosed cat.

“Something about maps. She was up all night. Every time I found some crinkly, comfy spot to sit on her books, she’d move them. It was very annoying
.”

“What’s all that, Aunt Astrid?” I asked, stroking Marshmallow as she purred contentedly in my arms.

“A break. The one we’ve been looking for.” Her bright eyes twinkled. She walked around the counter to the larger table in the back of the café where she normally did her palm readings for customers.

I walked over to an empty table for two and set Marshmallow on top of it, underneath the painting of a noble cat that hung on the wall. I got her a small saucer of cream and told her I hoped it made up for the inconvenience.

“It’ll do for now
,” she purred.

While Bea and I tended to the dwindling morning crowd, Aunt Astrid spread out her papers and mumbled to herself.

Finally, Bea and I made our way to the back table and saw a dozen old pages of text, a few weird charts that only Albert Einstein might have been able to decipher, and three old maps of Wonder Falls in various stages of development over the past couple of decades.

“So, as I was researching our dark-eyed intruders, I became very frustrated at the lack of information on them,” Aunt Astrid said. “It seems no one knows anything more than we do. They’re creepy. They scare the living heck out of everyone who encounters them. Their appearance and the words they speak change only slightly. But that’s it.” She shuffled some of the pages then sat down.

“But I found a pattern,” she said proudly.

“Let me guess. They only visit men. I thought of that last night. Remind me to tell you that Min saw them too. At his mother’s house.” I just blurted it out. Heaven knew I wanted to keep Min’s secret, but this was too important. “That just narrows it down to half of Wonder Falls. What are you looking at?” I asked both Bea and my aunt.

“Yes, you’ll have to tell us about Min,” Aunt Astrid said. “But can I finish first?”

“Please. I’m waiting,” I said sarcastically, bumping Bea with my hip as she shook her head, giggling.

“I found that for the past seven years, there has been at least one suicide every year, all at this time of year.”

I wasn’t prepared for that. That wasn’t at all what I was thinking, and it made my stomach queasy. A rash of suicides around Halloween? That was so sad. I clutched my throat and listened.

“Suicides?” Bea asked.

“Yes. Now, I won’t bore you both with the long-drawn-out details, but it’s what we’ve been hearing for the past couple of days, repeating itself. At the same time people claimed to see these children, someone would end their own life.”

“You mean anyone who saw these black-eyed children killed themselves?” Bea asked as her face went as white as a ghost. I knew she was thinking about Jake.

“No. No, Bea. That isn’t what I mean,” my aunt said. “If everyone who saw these children killed themselves, we wouldn’t know about them, correct? Because all the people they visited would be dead. No. People saw them. People reported seeing them. But what I think, what I’m guessing, is that anyone who let them in like Lisa Roy said John Roy had done, those are the ones that end their lives.”

“But you can’t be sure, can you?” Bea asked nervously.

“I can’t be sure,” Aunt Astrid said. “But what I am sure of is that no one—whether they saw these creatures, let them in the house, or didn’t—they didn’t have you there to nurse them back to health. Remember that, Bea. Remember your gift and how you used it for Jake.”

Bea nodded, trying to put on a brave face that said she believed her mother. But the glint of tears in her eyes said otherwise.

“Do you have any idea why they seem to focus on men?” I asked.

“Well, I’ve read some stories about women being terrified by them, but all I can think is that if these creatures feed off of fear… well, let’s face it. Cath, you’d be just as terrified of a spider in the shower as you would these things.”

I nodded in agreement looking at Aunt Astrid and then Bea. “Probably.”

“So, my theory is that men are harder to scare. They’re just hardwired to be brave in certain instances. They will automatically look for a reason or answer to something abnormal.” Aunt Astrid wiped her hands on her skirt. “If you can scare them to the point of ending their own lives, well, I just think there must be a bigger payoff, more food or more energy.”

“Is it just me, or does everyone in this room feel a little superior right now?” I asked.

Bea nodded, squaring her shoulders. “I do. Yes.”

“Calm down, you two. It doesn’t mean we can’t be attacked too. It just means they prefer machismo. And it’s machismo in a certain area.”

“Okay. You’ve found a pattern in these suicides. What does that tell us?” I asked, hoping that if we let Aunt Astrid continue, there would be some shred of hope that those things weren’t messengers of imminent death.

“It just turned out that the first two deaths recorded were on streets that still exist today. So I marked them on the first map. The others were on streets that have since been renamed, but look at this.” She pulled out all three maps. They were of the same areas in Wonder Falls, but each map became more and more detailed.

More streets were illustrated. The district lines were changed. But the odd thing was that all Aunt Astrid’s little red ticks where a suicide was reported to have happened were all in the same vicinity.

“It’s like a coup of circles,” I said. “And they don’t seem to vary too much.”

“Exactly,” my aunt said. “There is something strange about this area, and I haven’t yet figured it out.”

“Wait.” Bea looked at the maps. “What’s this?” She pointed to an area on each of the maps that was wide open. “It looks like the system has a nucleus.”

Did I ever mention that Bea is smart? She was really smart. And at that moment, I was shocked by her brilliance as we stared
at a perfect starting point.

“That is a place in Prestwick,” I said. “See, Darla lives in Prestwick, and so all kinds of evil is attracted to the place. We ought to just run her out of town.” I didn’t mean for the words to just fall out of my mouth.

Bea chuckled and rolled her eyes.

“What?” I asked.

“Why do you hate her again?”

I shook my head. “How much time have you got?”

“We need to find out that address and pay the owner a visit,” Aunt Astrid said. “Perhaps they’re conjuring something they can’t control anymore.”

As I studied the map, I realized that the place we were looking for used to be on Davis Street. But after a couple of years of renovation and reconstruction, the street was changed to Butternut Drive. I knew that place. With all my heart, I knew it was the place with the long driveway and the For Sale and Keep Out signs posted along the way.

But how could I tell Bea and Aunt Astrid without letting them know I went snooping and that it led to time alone in the car with Detective Samberg? It was just too humiliating for me to say. And yet, it could be helpful. The lives of innocent people could be at stake.

“So I think that I know where…”

“Oh my gosh!” Bea cried out, slapping her forehead as if she had just dropped her keys down a manhole. “Butternut Drive. That is where that Shawn Eshelman said he lived when he had gotten off his meds. It was the six-hundred-dollar-a-month mansion for one bachelor to live in. I knew that looked familiar. Jake had said that was where Shawn said he lived.”

“He also said he was renting it from someone he never met, right?” I asked. “And now that house is condemned, right?”

Bea shrugged. “That’s what Jake said. We need to go check that place out.”

“All of us?” I asked.

“Well, what were you thinking, honey?” Aunt Astrid asked.

“Oh, well, I was just thinking that it might be better if we, you know, leave this investigating to the experts. I could tell Detective Samberg that it might be worth checking out, and I could go with him so you guys could…”

“Could what? Could wait and see if we never hear from you again? No way, girlie.” Bea folded her arms across her chest and shook her head. “You know how much stronger we are together. I have the feeling we are all going to need to stick together from now on if we’re going to get into this any deeper.”

I shrugged. “Sure. Yeah, you’re right. I was just thinking out loud.”

“Just thinking out loud?” Aunt Astrid eyeballed me as if she were a teacher who had caught a student passing a note.

Just then the bell over the door jingled, and I left my two relatives to talk amongst themselves.

The customer stepped around the corner, and my breath caught in my chest. It was none other than Detective Samberg. He looked very serious, and I realized there was no Jake with him.

“Hi. Is everything okay? Is Jake all right?” I asked, getting ready to scream for Bea.

“Yeah, he’s back at the station doing some paperwork.”

I let my breath out and put my hands on my hips. “Then what can I do for you? Would you like a hot tea or maybe a slice of Dutch apple pie?”

“No. I’m actually here to see you.”

“Me?” So yes, I was a little surprised and almost giggled. “What about?”

“Last night. Min Park was at your place, right?”

I blinked at him and tilted my head. “How do you know that?”

“His father, Mr. Park, had called the police station to say that his wife and son had seen someone trying to get into their house. Mrs. Park said Min had chased them off. But he didn’t stick around to give a statement. I just find that odd.”

“I don’t know what’s so odd about that?”

“Would you leave your aunt alone like that after witnessing someone trying to get into her house?”

Pal, you have no idea how my aunt could squeeze the stuffing right out of you before you could say “freeze, hands up.”

“If my aunt said she was okay and didn’t need me,” I said.

“And then Min shows up at your house and stays…”

“How do you know he was at my house?” My blood was starting to boil. I couldn’t believe I thought it would be a good idea to ride to Butternut Drive with this guy. What had I been thinking?

“I dropped Jake off after our shift at eleven o’clock. I saw Min’s car there.”

“And so what did you do?” I asked. “Just sit there and watch how long he hung out at my house?”

“I just observed something I thought was a little interesting. That’s all.”

I swore Blake was enjoying this. He loved to make people squirm. It was going to be one of those days that he put a gold star on his calendar.
Made that smarty pants Cath Greenstone really uncomfortable. Yay for me! Gold star!

“Well, I was unaware that a grown woman my age had to clear it with the Wonder Falls P.D. if I wanted to have a friend come visit.”

“What did you and Mr. Park talk about?” he asked.

“Nothing. We’ve been friends since grade school. We talk about anything and everything, if you must know.”

“You mean he didn’t mention anything about being with his mother and some kids with black eyes trying to get into their house?”

“Well, I don’t really remember. I mean we talked about a lot of stuff and…” I was rambling, and I knew it. And I knew Blake knew it too. But how could I tell him that Min had told me this bizarre story and that I believed him one hundred percent? Blake obviously didn’t know that his own partner saw these same things and practically took a bullet for Blake by answering his door.

Blake Samberg was never going to know that he might have died that night had it not been for Jake. He would never know that Min was telling the truth and so was his mother.

But I’d promised. I’d promised not to tell Min’s story, and I’d also said I would keep a lid on it for Jake too.

“You don’t remember him saying anything about children with black eyes showing up to peek in their windows?” Blake asked, looking down at his pocket notebook.

“I remember him saying some kids were playing a joke. Halloween is right around the corner. He did say it scared his mom, and he was a little nervous.” I watched Blake’s face and thought I had pulled off. I thought he wouldn’t ask me anything else.

But I couldn’t stop talking. “If I could make one suggestion? The next time you decide it’s necessary to spy on my house, just come knock on the door. Don’t stand out there lurking around like some transient.”

He looked as if I had just told him to shut up and get out. For a second, I felt guilty. But it passed.

“Hello, Blake,” Aunt Astrid said as if he were her long-lost son. “Can we help you with anything?”

“No, ma’am. I’ve got what I came for.” And yes, he looked at me with a smirk when he said that.

“You look a little pale. Let me give you something for the drive back to the station.” Aunt Astrid turned around and not only gave him a huge slice of Dutch apple pie, but also a gourmet salad filled with all kinds of healthy, crunchy greens, dried berries, and stuff I’d never eat but that looked delicious. She dropped it all in a bag and handed to him.

“Thanks, ma’am. I appreciate it.” Then, he did the unthinkable. He looked me up and down. As if that weren’t embarrassing enough, my aunt saw it and giggled. Then he turned and walked out as if he hadn’t even spoken to me.

I felt eyes on me, and for a split second, I hoped it was some black-eyed children, but it wasn’t. It was my aunt, smiling.

“What?” I asked.

She shook her head back and forth but said nothing as she went back to the table around the counter where Bea was still studying all the maps and notes.