All Hallows Eve: A Krewe of Hunters Novella (1001 Dark Nights) Read Online Free Page B

Jamie, took a breath and began. “Mom says I’m crazy. Dad is looking into ‘trauma doctors.’ I’m pretty sure he means shrinks.” She paused. “Uncle Jamie came to the house. Mom thinks he’s almost a priest—and he was almost—so she let me come here and she even said it was okay to talk to you because you’re with the FBI. She thinks you’ll make me understand the difference between a suicide and a murder. And Uncle Jamie has been the best person in the world for me because he doesn’t think that I’m crazy. He seems to believe in...whatever it is.”
    Jenna thought about how much she really loved her uncle. He told her once that he believed deeply in his faith, so he had to accept that there was life after death. And who was he to declare that departed souls might not linger, trying to help others.
    “What makes the police think it was suicide?” Sam asked.
    Elyssa flushed uncomfortably. “There was a kicked over stool found near where he was hanging, right in the niche.”
    Sam shrugged. “Could have been planted.”
    “Why don’t you tell us what happened exactly, from beginning to end?” Jenna said.
    “We’re open to hearing everything you have to say,” Sam added.
    Elyssa looked at Sam and nodded. She seemed to have taken an instant liking to him. Unlike Jenna, who’d admired Sam’s stature and reputation from the beginning, but had not been all that enamored. It had been Uncle Jamie who’d known that Sam would come around to their way of thinking, and their determination to find the truth about the Lexington House murders. And then she’d been lucky. Sam had fallen in love with her, while she was falling hard for him. And now she couldn’t imagine her life without him. It didn’t hurt that he really was a gorgeous man, rugged, tall, smooth and dignified, with a rock hard jaw and a steely determination when he made up his mind to get something done.
    Elyssa launched into her story. She’d just been out for a night of fun and heard a strange voice in her head, which she ignored. She’d tried to connect with John Bradbury when they’d reached the mortuary, but he’d not been around.
    Then she found him.
    Hanging dead.
    The haunted attraction had been closed down and she’d answered questions over and over again. Back home, her mom had actually made her tea with whiskey in it so that she could sleep. But then she’d opened her eyes and John Bradbury had been sitting at the foot of her bed, telling her that he was grateful, but that she had to stop what was happening or other people would die.
    “He didn’t by any chance tell you what was happening, did he?” Sam asked.
    “He doesn’t really know. He was working downstairs in the embalming room when someone slipped a noose around his neck. He heard people talking, two people, he thinks. Then someone said something about the witch trials and wacky cults. Another voice said something about that person needing to shut up. And then the person who’d spoken first said what the hell did it matter? Bradbury would be dead. Who cares.”
    “The witch trials ?” Jenna asked, adding, “Not Wiccans today?”
    Elyssa nodded. “The witch trials, that’s what he said. Someone was talking about the witch trials and cults. But, what they said exactly, I don’t know.” She looked hopeful. “Maybe now that you’re here, John will come and talk to you instead of me. I can’t remember all that he said. I’m not sure he knows exactly what he heard.”
    “We’ll look into whatever new groups are in town,” Sam said. “And, of course check out the older covens and groups too. Most of the Wiccans in town are good and peaceful people. They practice their faith like any religion.”
    “Good people come in all faiths,” Uncle Jamie said. “Elyssa knows that.”
    “I mean, that’s the thing. I couldn’t figure out why he appeared to me. I’m in my last year of high school,” Elyssa said. “I have midterms coming up. I’m not the