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“Once. The last time I was there.” She shivered and looked out the window as her gaze went soft and unfocused. “I went with a group of friends and we walked out into the woods. We saw an old woman dressed all in white. She shouted at us to get out of there and not come back. Scared us all out of our minds. We hightailed it away from there and never went back.” She shook her head and seemed to come back to the present, dropping the crucifix back to the hollow of her throat and adjusting the tray under her arm. “You should go to the police. Stay away from that motel and go right to the police.”
“They’ve never found any of the other missing people?” Demetrius asked. “Not even a body?”
“Well, a few years ago they thought they might have found one body,” Christine said then made a face. “I never heard if they were able to identify it or not. But I did hear the body had been really thin, like he hadn’t had food or water for a long time and just collapsed where he stood.” She looked out the window a moment and shivered before speaking to Oliver again. “You need to stay away from that place. It’s not safe.”
An older couple at another table got her attention and Christine excused herself. Oliver looked between Cody and Demetrius. “I don’t think the police are going to be able to help us with this.”
“I think you’re right,” Cody said, pushing his plate away. “I’m not hungry anymore. Let’s get this stuff to go and get back to the motel.”
“Good idea,” Demetrius said, waving to get Christine’s attention and ask for boxes.
Cody got up and approached the cash register to pay for their meals and Oliver helped Demetrius pack up the food. He waved to Christine as he followed Cody and Demetrius out to the truck then climbed onto the back bench seat.
“There’s a general store a little farther down the road,” Oliver said. “We should get some more salt and see if they have anything made of iron.”
“If it’s not silver bullets, it’s some other kind of metal,” Cody grumbled as he pulled out into the road and turned toward the store. “Maybe they’ll sell mustard seed in bulk.”
“We’re going to need some kind of storage bin in the back of the truck dedicated to these kinds of things,” Demetrius said, trying to keep his tone light.
Oliver heard Cody’s grunt of acknowledgement, but it wasn’t at all a happy agreement.
* * *
There was no more salt at the general store, and the old man behind the register just squinted one eye at them when Oliver asked about mustard seed. They wandered the aisles and grabbed extra batteries for the flashlights, and then Cody found some iron fire pit pokers that were on clearance. After they’d paid for their items, enduring a hard stare down from the old man, they returned to the truck. Demetrius and Cody talked quietly in the front seat about some messages Darnell “Jugs” Perramon had left for Demetrius about some jobs he’d covered for their animal control business called Critter Catchers back in Parson’s Hollow, and Oliver took advantage of the stronger cell signal to do a number of different searches. He let their voices fade into the background and followed links deeper into the history of the Morelock Motel. When Cody slowed the truck to turn into the rough drive leading to the motel, something Oliver read just before he tapped yet another link flipped a small switch in the back of his mind. He tried to go back to the site, but the browser app showed a spinning wheel because he’d lost the cell signal.
“Stop!” he shouted, his heart racing and his face feeling hot.
The truck lurched to a stop, and Cody said, “Fucking hell, Ollie, you nearly gave me a heart attack.”
“Back up,” Oliver said. “Go back to the road.”
“What is it?” Demetrius said.
“I need a signal. Back up.”
“Here? Can I turn around and drive out—“
“For fuck’s sake, back up the fucking truck!” Oliver shouted.
Cody jammed the truck into reverse and threw gravel as he backed out to the road. He’d turned to look through the back window and Oliver could see anger and frustration etched clearly in the set of his jaw, tight line to his mouth and hard shine in his eyes. Cody Bower did not like being told what to do.
And Oliver didn’t give a flying fuck about it. He watched his phone until two bars flickered to life in the upper corner. “Here! Good!”
He tapped the back arrow and scrolled through the page, hoping it was the right one.
“What is it?” Demetrius asked again.
“Hold on, I’m reading.”
“Couldn’t tell,” Cody muttered. “Your lips weren’t moving.”
Demetrius smacked Cody’s arm, but Oliver ignored them both as he read through the missing persons cases related to the Morelock Motel. Then he found what had caught his attention.
“There it is,” he said, tapping the name which was an active link to a page with more information. “This is important. This is really important.” He looked up at them. “I think this is the answer.”
“Would you mind sharing the question with us?” Cody said.
Oliver took a breath and collected his thoughts. “All of the people who’ve gone missing at the Morelock Motel have had one thing in common.”
