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Darla let out a sigh. “Can I talk to you privately?”
Sheriff Parker motioned for her to step aside as the deputies carted Kevin away. The coroner and his team were headed into the house, and Georgie silently followed.
“I’ll show you where to go, but I’m not coming down with you,” she said.
I turned to Bree.
“I don’t think they should be left alone with Kevin if he gets out. He’s still entangled by the energy and frankly, I’m afraid for Darla and Georgie.” I didn’t want to think about what he could do to them under the influence of those two spirits.
“I’ll talk to them and try to convince them to stay elsewhere. I have a feeling that’s not going to be too difficult, given everything that’s happened, and then seeing him deck you. You press charges, you hear?” Bree caught my gaze.
I nodded. “Yeah, I will. Maybe that will keep him locked up until we can exorcise whatever’s in there.” I glanced up at the ceiling of the porch. “I kind of wish this place would burn to the ground and take the skeletons with it. Purge them with flame.”
“That’s one way to solve it, but not possible. The skeletons will be headed to the morgue soon and so will all the evidence we found.” Bree glanced back at Darla. The woman was still talking to the sheriff. “She looks so lost.”
“I would be too. She’s had her foundation ripped out from under her. Evil spirits—and they are evil—are controlling her husband, and they’ve taken over her home. Now, he’s headed to jail for assault, and where’s she supposed to go? I don’t have any answers.”
Bree patted me on the shoulder. “Let’s take some pictures of your face for the cops and court. That should be enough to hold him for a few days, and maybe we can figure out how to exorcise the ghosts from the house and from him.”
I sighed, but let her lead me over to better light, where she took pictures of my face. By that time, the coroner and his team were thoroughly enmeshed in their investigation. I gave the sheriff an account of what had happened, then—hugging Bree—I drove down to the station to sign the report pressing charges against Kevin. I’d given a subdued goodbye to Darla and her daughter, but I couldn’t help but wonder if we had made things worse by finding the skeletons. If I’d only found the trunk, I would have burned the spell, but unfortunately, we found the bones that went with it, and that had changed everything.
CHAPTERTEN
By the timeI unlocked my door and happily kicked off my shoes, it was nearing tenp.m. and dark. I pulled into my driveway and stared at my house, grateful that I wasn’t dealing with the house from hell that Darla had stumbled into. As I carried my things to the house, I looked up at the sky. There were clouds streaking the surface, but I couldn’t sense any rain nearby. Content that the weather gods were quiet for the moment, I closed the door behind me.
May was reading a magazine, curled in the oversized recliner. She looked up as I dropped my purse on the coffee table and fell onto the sofa, sighing.
“Rough time?”
“That’s an understatement.” I stared at the ceiling for a moment, then sat up and pulled off my boots before crossing my legs beneath me. “Tonight has to be one of the spookiest nights I’ve ever had—well, barring…you know.” I winced, gingerly touching the top of my cheekbone, where Kevin had hit me.
“What happened to you? You look like somebody punched you.” May unwound herself from the chair and hurried over, cupping my chin and tilting my face up to get a better look. “Who did this? A ghost?”
I shook my head. “No, this is thanks to Darla’s husband, who came home at an inopportune time and decided that he didn’t like what was going on.” I grimaced as she touched the wound. “That stings.”
“Do you have a first-aid kit? Or at least Neosporin and bandages?”
“Yeah, in the bathroom. In the vanity—top left drawer.”
She excused herself and within minutes, was back with the kit I always kept ready. “Come into the kitchen where I can get a better look of it.”
I followed her into the kitchen and obediently sat at the table. “How’s Fancypants? Where is he?”
“Sleeping off his dinner, and he’s fine. He’s going to be a spitfire, I tell you.”
I laughed. “Good. I need a spitfire in my life.”
May washed the injury and began poking around. “Does this hurt?”
“No,” I said, as she pressed across where my sinuses were. Then she came to the edge of the wound. “Youch—now that hurts.”
“I don’t think he broke anything. But your eye is beginning to bruise up, so you’re going to have a shiner. It looks like he caught you with a ring, to cause a gash like this. But you won’t need stitches.” She smoothed some of the antibiotic cream on it, then covered it with a bandage. “Let me get you some ice. Do you have an ice pack?”
“No, but I have a bag of frozen peas,” I said, motioning to the fridge. “In the freezer.”
She found the bag. Then, first putting a light tea towel over my cheek, she pressed the peas against it. “Here, hold this on your face for ten minutes.”
I held the bag of peas against my cheek as I told her what had happened. “You’ve lived in Starlight Hollow all your life, right?”
