But then, thanks to Aunt Mina, she’d thought she’d seen the dead before. That was because she really did owe everything to Auntie Mina, who’d been the best storyteller ever. When she had taken Devin to the Howard Street Cemetery where old Giles Corey had been pressed to death and told his story, Devin could have sworn that she saw the old man standing among the tombs, leaning on a cane, his expression thoughtful as the breeze rushed through his thin gray hair.
Auntie Mina had often told her with a wink that it was possible to speak with the dead—but only when the dead wished to speak. And of course, she’d added, with another wink, only special people received the talent to see through time and space, and hear the dead when they spoke.
“The books are doing so well, Auntie Mina,” she said aloud. “They’re really your books, you know.”
It helped, of course, that she worked with a wonderful artist, Drew Wicker, who lived in nearby Marblehead.
She sat back down at her computer, but just as she got comfortable, the sound came again. It was a woman crying. Definitely.
“Poe, is that you?” she demanded aloud, even though she knew the crying was coming from somewhere farther away.
The bird, as if indignant, looked up, cocked his head and squawked in protest.
“Okay, that’s it—no way I can concentrate now,” she murmured to herself.
She started out of the house again and then remembered that while she considered her neighborhood safe, bad things did happen. They’d found a murdered woman just two weeks ago in Swampscott.
Most of the details had been kept out of the paper, but she knew the woman had been young. Maybe in her early twenties.
Something itched at her memory. And then she recalled the incident that had been nagging at her.
It had taken place a little more than a decade ago. And it hadn’t been in Salem; it had been in Peabody or Marblehead or somewhere. A high school girl had been found murdered in the woods.
The details had been kept out of the paper then just as they had been now—the newest victim’s name hadn’t been revealed yet—but she knew one factor both women had in common.
Both women’s throats had been slit.
Surely, it was impossible that the two incidents could be related, not with so many years in between.
“Okay, Poe, freaking myself out here, huh?” she said aloud.
It was only about nine at night, and since they were on daylight savings time, there was still a little glow of light in the sky.
“It’s still light out, for heaven’s sake,” she said.
Poe squawked.
“Maybe I do need a dog. A large one,” she murmured.
Poe protested again.
“Okay...”
She looked around and then headed into the bedroom and grabbed one of her old hockey sticks out of the closet and started out. “No sense in being stupid. I can wield a wicked hockey stick.”
She heard the sobbing again. It was coming from the trees to the west of her house, from the little stand of trees that separated her from her neighbor.
“Please, I’m trying to help you,” she said softly. “Hello? Are you lost? Are you hurt? If you’ll just let me help you...”
She walked into the trees, then began to question her own wisdom.
The sky was darkening. Beneath the trees the light was all but gone.
She tightened her grip on her hockey stick.
And then she saw her.
She was young, a slight blond woman, wearing a black dress and a shawl that looked to be of the Puritan period. She was peeking out from between two trees.
There was nothing unusual about her outfit. This was, after all, Salem.
“Hey, there you are. I don’t know what’s wrong, but you can come in and we can call someone—someone to come get you. Someone who can help,” Devin said.
The young woman looked at her with enormous brown eyes. She shook her head and began to sob again.
And then she disappeared into the trees.
The woman might have been twenty or twenty-one—or she might have been a teenager—but she certainly didn’t look dangerous. Determined to help her, Devin headed back to her cottage and swept the electric lantern off the mantel. She hurried back out, turning the light on as she went.
“I’m not leaving you out here!” she called. “Come on, speak to me, please.”
She headed toward the spot where she had first seen the woman. She didn’t hear sobbing anymore, but the woman couldn’t have gone far.
Maybe she was a foreign tourist who didn’t speak any English and had gotten lost.
Maybe she’d been on a date or gone out with friends who had decided it would be fun to explore the old cemetery down the road from Devin’s cottage, and she had gotten lost and ended up terrified.
Maybe some jerk had just driven her out here and dumped her.
Or maybe...
Devin let out a shocked, ear-piercing scream.
The woman lay in a tiny open area between several large trees with gnarled branches. She was faceup, arms and legs outstretched, so her body resembled the design of a pentagram.
Her sightless eyes stared up into the darkness of the night. On her chest was a silver chain with a medallion.
Much like the silver pentagram she herself had just purchased.
But that seemed like nothing.
Because...
Around her throat...
There was a ribbon of blood.