Hawk looked out the window. “I can see them, Hope,” he said. “I can see them and they’re way past the barn now.”
Gretchen stood and looked out the window too. There was indeed a group of people congregating in the field beneath a tall maple.
Hope looked at her brother, concerned and skeptical. “There’s nobody out there. It’s not the anniversary yet. The only thing we got to worry ourselves with is making sure no accidents happen.”
Hawk and Gretchen watched what looked like an ethereal picnic beneath the stars. People sat in rows as if they were watching a play. And finally they scattered, screaming.
“You can see it,” Hawk said.
“This can’t be real,” Gretchen said, scared but utterly transfixed. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
He rested his forehead on the windowpane. “Neither have I,” he said.
Hope looked up, her eyes dark with terror. And Hawk nodded at her. “Not like this.”
Hope picked up her phone from the coffee table and dialed 911.
“I’d like to report a death at the Axton mansion,” she said quickly. “Yes, Axton Road just past where it intersects with County Road 89. Yes. Past the old grange.”
Dear James,
I am thrilled about your graduation and homecoming. Pastor Axton has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? According to your mother they have already hired some Amish to start construction on a church next to the estate. I imagine that was your idea as the church can so easily be used as a safe haven. The house and offices of Axton Cotton and the trade route from Georgia to New York have been very convenient. I only hope you are right in your convictions about a new congregation. I know of no other integrated church—though admittedly my education is lacking.
You are inspiring, James, realizing your own convictions and dreams even as you help those around you. You are in my thoughts constantly, your smile, your wit. And your courage. I long to be beside you. And hope that it will be soon.
Because I have news: I have been accepted at Troy Female Seminary! This is still a secret as I am working up the courage to show my father the acceptance letter. You are the only one I have told! You were right about all of it. And I cannot thank you enough. I will be sad to be away at school while you are home in Mayville. But Troy is close to Canada, and close to other stops on the route. We should be able to get even more done. Help even more people, as we will both be living on strategic points.
Know that we are together always. And that when I come home with my education it will be as we have always dreamed.
Your friend eternally,
Fidelia
THIRTEEN
AROUND FOUR THIRTY IN THE MORNING THE MEDICAL examiner arrived at the Greens’ house. He’d been to the scene and determined Esther’s death to be suicide. Gretchen noted that he looked tired and a little unsettled, but not like he’d walked through a gauntlet of ghosts or strange creatures with hooves. He said that her body would be taken to the Palmer Funeral Home downtown. The next of kin would have to go make arrangements.
Gretchen couldn’t believe he’d just gone into the house by himself. Maybe she really had been hallucinating. Too open to Esther’s crazy suggestions about ghosts? Too hungry or drunk, too willing to see the kinds of things her mother believed in? But Hawk was seeing these things too. There had to be more to the story.
“Suicide’s not as rare in the elderly as you might think,” the medical examiner said somberly. “Someone like your aunt, tough old lady, lived on her own for so long. The idea of not being able to care for herself . . . well, people like that often make their own decisions about when it’s time to go.”
It was only when his car pulled out of the drive and the taillights faded into the night that Gretchen realized there were no other adults around. Esther had mentioned something about the Greens having a famous mother, but besides this visit from a haggard man in a dark suit, they seemed to be on their own.
“Where are your parents?” she asked Hope.
The siblings looked at one another.
“Gone,” they said in unison.
The word resonated, cold and familiar in Gretchen’s head.
“They passed just before I turned seventeen,” Hawk said. “Car accident.”
“I’m so sorry,” Gretchen said, thinking about Esther’s admonishments to be careful, saying accidents were the number-one cause of death around there.
“We are too,” said Hope, nodding her head. “They swerved off the road to avoid hitting a little boy.”
“What was the little boy doing out in the road all by himself?” Gretchen asked.
“Playing with a rope,” Hope said. “That’s what the only witnesses said.”
“They didn’t find him at the scene,” Hawk said. “He must have run off.”
Gretchen thought of the photograph Esther had shown her just an hour ago, of her mother, with Piper running through. She wanted to say something about it but thought she would sound crazy.