Deadly Harvest (36 page)

Mary Johnstone?

But then she heard a low, sobbing moan, and it was very close, but outside her line of sight.

She strained to hear past it to what Dan and the woman were saying.

“You'll ruin everything,” the woman said. “You have to kill the first one now—quickly—or they'll find you before you finish. You cannot be the true king of kings, Satan on earth, unless you complete the ritual perfectly.”

That voice…

As Rowenna tried to shift into a more comfortable position, she realized that she was dressed in her harvest queen costume.

And she recognized the female voice.

Ginny MacElroy.

Her mind fought against such an absurd possibility, but she knew Ginny's voice too well to be mistaken, and she knew what she was wearing, knew that the nearby sobbing had to be coming from Mary Johnstone.

She began to test the ropes that were binding her. How long did she have? Minutes?

No, longer. Because Mary…

Mary had to die first.

Desperation and hopelessness nearly overcame her as she realized that the ropes binding her were too tight for her to slip free.

Then she went dead still, terrified, certain she was losing her mind.

There was a little boy standing by her feet. Just a regular little boy in jeans and a T-shirt, looking at her so sadly.

She started to say something to him, but he raised a finger to his lips to warn her to be silent.

And then he faded away.

 

Rowenna was nowhere to be found. Joe and the police had torn the place apart, a tearful June hovering nearby and trying to help.

Finally Jeremy had explored the library and found the shelf that was really a false door, opening into a tunnel.

He didn't know how Eve had managed to follow him, how she had gotten past Joe and the other policemen. But she was next to him.

“Go back and tell Joe I'm checking this out,” he said.

Zach had already gone to pick up Brad and then head out to the old Brisbin land.

Eric had gone with him, because he knew the area and had the best chance of finding the foundation of the old house.

“I'm going with you,” Eve insisted.

“No! Go back and tell Joe.”

She nodded unhappily and left, and he bent low, following the tunnel. They had checked out the cemetery, Joe had told him, and there were no hidden tunnels there.

And this tunnel didn't lead to the cemetery. It led to a sewer line.

And the sewer line led to the street adjacent to the cemetery.

He clambered up the ladder to the street and stared at the cemetery.

He jumped when Eve climbed out behind him. “I told Joe,” she hurried to say before he had a chance to get mad at her. “But there's something there,” she breathed, staring at the old graveyard.

“Go back. Tell Joe that Dan took her out through here and is probably already back at the property. Zach is on his way, but they have to get the cops out there right away.”

“All right. But remember this. Love is stronger than evil, and there is more than you know in this world….”

She left, and he started running for his car.

But then he paused.

The boy was in the cemetery. Billy. And he was beckoning him closer.

Despite his panic for Rowenna, Jeremy walked into the cemetery. He couldn't help himself. There were people around, but he didn't bother to ask them if they had seen a man trying to kidnap a woman. He walked straight to Billy.

And this time Billy didn't disappear.

The boy took his hand and mouthed the same word he had spoken from the stony ground near where the five women had been found.

Hurry.

Jeremy felt the rush of the wind. He was no longer in the cemetery. He was on a hill, corpses hanging from a nearby gallows, and the sound of mocking laughter came to his ears. Somehow he knew that the corpses swaying in the wind belonged to innocents who had died so that evil might rule.

The hill faded away, and he found himself in the cornfields, fields that seemed to stretch forever.

He started running, his feet hitting solid ground. He smashed through the stalks as he ran, until finally he burst out of the corn and into the field of bracken granite.

Billy was still there, holding his hand, and now the boy tugged until he started running again.

Because Billy knew where they were going.

 

Rowenna managed to find a sharp stone and run the rope holding her hands back and forth over the edge until she had cut through it. As soon as her hands were free, she untied the rope binding her ankles and rose as quietly as she could, then inched her way through the murky darkness to the wall. The place was filled with debris, littered with the dirt of centuries, and the only light came from the direction from which the voices had come earlier. On the far side of the room, she could see another woman lying, bound hand and foot as she had been bound.

Ginny's voice. Because Ginny was part of this. She still couldn't believe it.
Why?

“Mary?” she dared to whisper.

For a moment, there was silence. Then a whimper, as if Mary had tried to keep silent but hadn't been able to control her fear.

Mary was probably afraid to speak, Rowenna thought. No doubt she had long ago realized that Ginny was not a kindly old lady there to rescue her, and now she was frightened of all new voices.

Rowenna felt her way along the wall, which was damp and covered with algae, toward Mary, moving carefully to avoid making any noise that would alert Dan and Ginny that she had gotten free.

She passed a chink in the stone of the wall, which she recognized as the foundation of an old house, and the pale glimmer of light reaching through illuminated a tray of food that was currently giving sustenance to a large rat.

Finally she reached Mary and saw that the rope around her ankles was anchored to an iron ring hanging attached to a beam overhead. She swore under her breath, then prayed that Mary wouldn't cry out.

“Mary, please don't scream,” she whispered. “I'm a friend of Jeremy Flynn's. My name is Rowenna.”

She heard a gasp and moved closer. Mary was pale and gaunt. Her face was dirt-streaked, the look in her eyes tortured. She was decked out like a doll—or a scarecrow. There were even tufts of straw sticking out from the cuffs of the denim pants she wore. Beneath the grime, her face was painted up to look like a harlequin.

Mary just stared at her, eyes huge and wide, as if she had no strength left at all.

Rowenna felt her nails break as she worked frantically at the knots of Mary's bonds, but they had been well-tied and pulled tighter by Mary's struggles. At last she freed Mary from the ropes.

But they still had to get out.

And she didn't even know how they had gotten in.

Plus it looked as if she would have to carry Mary, who lacked the strength to stand. And the other woman looked as if she weighed practically nothing, but she would still be a burden.

She had just heaved the unprotesting other woman over her shoulder when she heard footsteps.

Ginny and Dan were coming.

The blinding light of a storm lantern suddenly illuminated the room.

“Rowenna Cavanaugh!” Ginny said, distressed. “What are you doing? You're going to ruin your lovely costume.”

“Put her down, Rowenna. She's half-dead already,” Dan said patiently. “Put her down or else I'll make you.”

She shook her head. “No, Dan. You can't make me.”

“Of course I can. I can make you see or do whatever I want you to.”

“I see and do what
I
choose to,” she said with far more confidence than she felt. “I saw your crimes before you wanted me to,” she told him.

He stared at her and began to frown as she stared back without flinching. He was trying to make her see something, she realized. He was trying to make her envision herself putting Mary back down on the ground. But she knew what he was up to, and she wouldn't do it.

He swore and strode toward her, and she had to put Mary down then, so she could protect herself. She struggled, using everything she had ever heard about self-defense—knee to the groin, elbow in the ribs. She threw him off finally, but then Ginny rushed her.

To her amazement, she had no difficulty at all in sending the old woman who had fed her cookies all her life flying right across the room and into the wall.

But then Dan was on her again. She fought him wildly until…

She felt the knife against her throat.

“You have a few minutes left. A few minutes of precious life. So use them wisely,” he whispered, the blade cold and sharp against her flesh.

 

There were no cars around, but Jeremy saw tire tracks in the dirt, faint but perceptible, as Billy pulled him along.

Without Billy's help, he never would have seen the trap door, which had probably led to a storm cellar but was now covered with leaves and refuse. He pulled the door open and stared down into the darkness.

But there was a ladder; as his eyes adjusted, he could see it. He turned to Billy for guidance, but the boy was gone again. He inched down the ladder….

And heard voices.

“You might as well slit my throat now, Dan Mie, because I will never stand here quietly and let you strangle that woman. Besides,
he
won't let you.”

Thank God! It was Rowenna's voice. She was alive.

“Who? Your hotshot investigator boyfriend?” Dan mocked. “It will take him forever to get here—if he even figures it out. He should be out looking for the good Doctor MacElroy right now.”

Jeremy inched closer until he could see what was going on, could see that Dan was holding a knife to Rowenna's throat.

“No, I'm not talking about Jeremy, actually. I'm talking about that little boy right there,” Rowenna said.

My God, Jeremy thought. Billy
was
there—and Rowenna could see him, too.

“There's no little boy,” Dan said.

He heard a woman's faint gasp. Someone else was there. Mary?

“There
…is
something….”

It was Ginny. Ginny MacElroy. She sounded weak and hurt.

“I think he's here to protect Mary and me,” Rowenna was saying. “See how he's glowing? He's from a very good place, I think. And he's here to send you to burn in hell forever. Isn't that what you want? To be with Satan?”

“I will
be
Satan. I will have my seven!” Dan Mie roared.

Enough was enough, Jeremy thought, and strode forward, heedless of how much noise he made. He had his gun drawn, and he aimed it at Mie.

“Billy can't shoot you, Dan. But I can,” he promised grimly.

But the knife was still at Rowenna's throat. He was a crack shot, but…

All it would take would be a twitch.

Her eyes met his. Amber gleaming gold, and strong, so strong.

“Dan, watch out for Billy,” she said. “Don't you see him? He's right there beside you.”

Dan twisted slightly, but Jeremy decided not to chance the shot. Instead he dove for the man, yanking him away from Rowenna, and together they tumbled to the floor.

The knife glittered in the light as Dan tried to drive it into Jeremy's chest, but Jeremy sat up, head-butting Mie.

The knife flew out of the other man's hand just as Jeremy heard a shrill cry, like the cawing of a crow, and looked up to see Ginny MacElroy rushing him.

Rowenna tackled her just as he slammed a fist into Mie's jaw, driving him back against the wall.

Suddenly gunfire split the air, freezing them all in place.

His brother had arrived at last, and Brad was right behind him.

On the floor, Ginny started sobbing and swearing at Dan. “I told you to hurry up and kill the first one, that you had to complete the ritual before they caught you. You don't deserve to be the Prince of Darkness!”

Brad let out a deep, harsh sound and ran past everyone to where Mary lay.

“Mary, Mary,” he sobbed, cradling her in his arms.

“Took you long enough,” Jeremy told Zach with a grin.

“I broke every speed limit known to man,” Zach said. “How the hell did you get here so fast?”

“You wouldn't believe me if I told you,” Jeremy said. And then he stood and helped Rowenna to her feet.

“It was Billy,” she said softly, and then fell against him, shaking.

“I
swear, I'll never understand it,” Joe said, shaking his head and frowning. “Why?”

“Well,” Jeremy said, helping himself to a slice of turkey, “Ginny had heard the legends all her life. She believed that if she was Satan's handmaiden, she would be restored to youth and beauty and live forever, so she was more than happy to help Mie become Satan. She was the one who planted the idea in his mind.

“It probably started years ago—when he was eating cookies and milk in her kitchen. They're both completely crazy, of course, but their delusions fed each other, and five women died.” And two more almost did, he thought, looking gratefully at the woman sitting by his side.

“It's still so creepy to think that people we've known our whole lives are killers,” Eve said, then smiled tentatively at her husband. He hadn't had another blackout since starting his medication, so the two of them had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

He smiled in return. “I'm still trying to piece it all together.”

“I have it figured,” Rowenna said. “Dan targeted tourists, women just passing through. He met them in bars or at the museum. He picked women who wouldn't be missed for a while. Until it got close to Halloween. Then he had to speed it up, so he took a chance and grabbed Mary, even though Brad was right there to call in the cops. He knew about Adam's blackouts—he'd been watching you,” she said to Adam. “So he got one of your cards and stuck some of your gum to the back, and planted it by one of the bodies. That way, if someone looked suspicious, it would be you. Ginny tried to make Doc look guilty. Poor guy. He's still in shock.”

“Okay, I understand all that,” Joe said. “And I get Dan could come and go from the museum at will through the tunnel, while anyone working the desk would swear he'd never left, because as far as they knew, he never had. But…Mary said she was on a hill, and then in a cornfield and then tied up in the basement—and she didn't know how she got to any of those places or even if she was really there.”

“Dan studied hypnotism,” Jeremy explained.

“But can anyone be that good?” Joe demanded.

“He was very good,” Rowenna said quietly. “He could plant things in your mind. Mary and I even saw our names on a tombstone. But…there are some things we'll probably never really know or understand. Maybe that's what life and death are about.”

She was thinking about her dreams, he knew. And about Billy. How could anyone explain those things?

He still had questions, too. Questions he could never ask, because most people would think he was insane.

Not Rowenna, though. She smiled at him, and he remembered arguing with her about the possibility of the paranormal really existing. He had been convinced that the world was whatever you could see and touch, hear and taste and smell. Earth and sky and sea. Evil was flesh and blood. Goodness was the same.

And that was true, as far as it went. Dan and Ginny were flesh and blood, certainly. But at the same time, he couldn't help believing that some evil from the past had slipped into their souls. The Devil? Maybe.

So did that make Billy an angel? He didn't know and didn't care. He was just grateful for the boy's help in saving the only woman he would ever love.

Did the paranormal exist? He couldn't prove it, not the way his cop training insisted things needed to be proven, but he sure as hell couldn't discount the possibility.

Rowenna had always known, of course.

“There's another question,” Joe said. “How the hell did you get out there so fast? You were in the museum, then in the tunnel. How the hell did you beat us out there?”

“Without a car,” Zach said beneath his breath, then looked at Jeremy and shrugged.

“I don't know,” Jeremy said. “I honestly don't know.”

“I do,” Eve told them, gripping Adam's hand tightly. “It was the power of love. Evil can be strong, but love is stronger than any other power on earth.”

Jeremy was pretty sure he was blushing.

“So what about it?” Joe demanded.

“Pardon?”

“She
is
practically my child,” Joe said. “So I think I have a right to know.”

“He wants to know your intentions, bro,” Zach said, laughing.

Joe looked into Rowenna's eyes. Magic. There were so many facets to the human mind, the human heart, and she had touched him on every one of them. She was more important to him than life itself. She believed they could touch the unknown.

And she was right. They could.

If she suddenly decided to wear long green robes and chant to the sea gods, he simply wouldn't give a damn.

“My intentions—if she'll have me, of course—are to love and cherish her until death do us part…and beyond,” he said softly.

He saw the amber in her eyes sparkle to a magnificent gold. Then she leaned over and kissed him.

He was pretty sure he had his answer.