“What’s on the agenda for today?” Angela asked him.
“I’m going to pair you and Jane up to reinterview Carly Henderson’s family and see if we can trace her movements. It made sense that Barbara Benton and Hermione Robicheaux were anxious to take a tour. They had roots here but didn’t really know the area,” Rocky said. “But Carly lived here, so I can’t see her paying to walk around town with a bunch of tourists and listen to a lecture on history. We need to find out where she was before she was killed, and so far no one has come up with anything. I’m not saying the police didn’t try and try hard, but I’m hoping you guys can come up with a new angle. Her family and friends were used to her going to work and coming home, or maybe going out with friends first, but something different happened that night, and I’m counting on the two of you to figure it out.
“Sam, you and Jenna need to hit the local streets again—you may have better luck than the police finding out what happened to Beth yesterday.”
“Gotcha,” Sam said.
Once their assignments were settled, Rocky told them about the book he had been reading.
“Would someone really have dared to practice black magic here in the middle of the witch trials?” Jane wondered.
“I’m pretty sure someone did,” Devin said. “I’m not a hundred percent sure how I know that, I just know I do. And if there was a member of the Strega of Satan here at the time and they needed their six victims...” She looked around the table, then started counting. “One—Margaret Nottingham. Two—Melissa Wilson. Three—Carly Henderson. Four—Barbara Benton. And five—Hermione Robicheaux.”
“So...one more to go,” Rocky said. “We have to find out what’s going on before there’s a sixth victim. I started thinking last night that our killer began with Margaret Nottingham but didn’t get any further. Maybe he was arrested, maybe he fled to avoid arrest. Maybe he just chickened out when he discovered killing someone wasn’t as easy as he thought. Then, years later, someone decided the world wasn’t going well for them—someone seriously warped, obviously—decided that he could have power and riches in hell if he finished the sacrificial cycle.”
“So he killed Melissa,” Devin said. “But that was thirteen years ago. And then he stopped. Why?”
“Maybe he was afraid of being caught. Or things changed. He got sick or something. And then recently everything fell back into place,” Rocky said. “Or maybe we’re looking at Theo. I’m going to ask Jack for more help on that angle.”
“We do know our killer knows his history,” Jane said.
“So where do we find you?” Sam asked Rocky.
“I’d like to stop by the hospital,” Devin told Rocky. “See if Beth needs a ride home or anything.”
“Of course.” He turned to Sam. “After that, we’ll be hanging around Essex Street, just watching and listening. Let’s pray that one of us finds something tangible today.”
*
They never made it to the hospital. Rocky was driving and Devin was next to him when her phone rang. It was Beth sounding cheerful and completely recovered.
“I’m out! They let me go first thing this morning.”
“That’s great, Beth,” Devin said, looking at Rocky and waving a hand in the air to signify that they were no longer going to the hospital. “But you were hit pretty hard. You have to take care of yourself.”
“I’m fine.”
“And don’t be alone!”
“I’m not alone. I’m with Gayle and Theo at the store.”
“I’m not so sure you should be at work so soon,” Devin said.
“You want me to be alone at home? Gayle has to be here. I don’t want to go broke on top of this—I have to keep the store open. So just come by and see me, why don’t you?”
Rocky must have heard Beth speaking, because he smiled at her and nodded.
“We’ll be there soon,” Devin told her.
A few minutes later they reached the parking garage, and as they got out of the car, Devin asked, “Explain to me exactly what we’re doing today?”
“Just keeping our eyes and ears open, stopping in to see people just to read how they’re doing. And if you don’t mind, at some point I want to visit a cemetery,” he said. “I’d like to bring flowers to Melissa.”
“Of course.”
They walked along the street—busy by day—glancing into the shop and museum windows. When he laughed at the cheesiness of some of the gorier museums, she pointed out that they did a booming business with teenagers. And while some of the others might not have a lot of money behind them, they still did a great job at accurately presenting the area’s history.
When they walked into Beth’s shop, she was sitting in a chair behind the counter. Theo was nearby arranging dried herbs in a display case. Devin tried not to stare at him suspiciously—or to shout, “Dammit! Are you the killer?”
She managed to call a quick hello to Theo, then hurried over to give Beth a hug.
“Look at me,” Beth said. “I look good, right?”