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“I can’t think of much,” I said after a minute.
Bran nodded. He started to withdraw, then stopped. “I’ll be back Monday to work on the parking lot,” he said, his hand on the door frame. “On the weekend, I spend mornings taking care of our books and bills, and planning out the week.”
I had the feeling he wanted to say something else. “What is it?”
“So, what’s your status with Faron?” he finally said.
I frowned. “I’m not sure I know what you mean by ‘status.’ ”
“I mean, are you dating? Or are you…”
With a sudden flash of understanding, I realized what he meant. “Oh, that. Well, we’ve had one date. I enjoyed it but I said goodbye at the door, Bran, and he hasn’t called. I’m not pining by the phone,” I added, grinning. “I’m not nineteen.”
“Good,” he said, looking relieved. “Because I was wondering if you’d like to go on a picnic with me on Sunday? We can take Fancypants with us—I know a beautiful, shaded spot that’s secluded.”
I hesitated. “What about the murderer who’s running around? Daisy says it’s not safe to be out right now.” While a picnic with Bran would be comfortable enough to manage, I’d seen the result of the serial killer’s work.
His expression fell. “Crap, I didn’t even think about that.”
I didn’t want to disappoint him, so I scrambled for an alternative. “What about if we have a picnic in your backyard? I love your flower gardens, and you do have a pond that’s good for swimming in, from what I understand. I’ll bring my bathing suit. May could join us.”
In fact, from what I understood, Bran had installed a pump to keep the water circulating so that it didn’t invite mosquitos, and the pond was as wide as a good-size house.
Bran flashed me a grateful look. “Sunday at four? Our backyard? You bring Fancypants—I’ll take care of everything else.” He glanced at the clock on my wall. “I need to get a move on for today. See you Sunday!”
He headed out, a spring in his step. I could feel the relief flooding off him, and I realized he’d been worried about my answer. I paused to mark the picnic down in my calendar on my phone, then went back to finishing up the herb packets. I wanted to be done for the day before I headed out to salt the bones and put the spirits to rest.
* * *
At one forty-five,I pulled up to Hatfield Cemetery. Daisy was already there, waiting. I parked next to her car and stepped out, gazing over the wide field in front of me. It wasn’t meticulously groomed, yet it felt cared for and cherished. I closed my eyes and reached out, sensing a number of spirits wandering the graveyard. But none of them seemed inclined to bother me. They kept to themselves, and while I was curious why they hadn’t passed through the Veil, I didn’t feel any angst or desperation coming from the ghosts.
Daisy waved to me and stepped out of her car as I approached. “Hey there.”
“Hi,” I said, holding up a bag of spell supplies. “I brought everything I need.”
I’d gathered graveyard dust mixed with black salt, then added a full five pounds of kosher salt and Exorcism oil. I was taking no chances. I wanted to put those two old broads to rest and make certain they were unable to return. I had texted Darla to meet me at her house afterward so we could destroy the material components of the spell. The possibility of recovering her husband from the clutches of the spirits had her scrambling to agree.
“So, what do you need to do?” Daisy asked as the gravediggers drove up in a hearse. They opened the back and began to unload two simple pine coffins. The city didn’t spend more than they had to when it came to burying Jane Does, which was fine with me given I detested the heavy caskets designed to defy time.
“I need to open the coffins and cover the bones with the salt mixture. The salt’s enchanted, so it’s simple enough, and it should break the connection of the skeletons to the items that were in that trunk. The skeletons were the anchors for the demons, and this will return them to the bones they’re supposed to be.”
Daisy frowned. “So, were the spirits not attached to the skeletons? As in, the spirits of the women who—I’m not sure what I’m asking here.”
“I hear you. What you’re asking is if the spirits haunting the attic were the spirits of the women who the skeletons belonged to. And to answer you: I don’t think so. I believe that whoever set up this spell brought in two demonic spirits and tied them to the skeletons, creating a blend that created a new form of entity. The demons took on the persona of these two women. They essentially hijacked the women’s spirits and tainted them with their own energy. The spell components—the knitting needles and hand mirror—opened the portal to invoke the demons.”
As the gravediggers dug the graves, Daisy escorted me over to the coffins. She motioned to one of the gravediggers, who put down his shovel and came over to us.
“I need you to open these coffins,” she said.
The man gave her an odd look, but did as she asked.
As the lids came off the coffins, the aged ivory of the bones glimmered starkly against the dark wood. Bare, stripped of the clothes we had found them in, I suddenly felt sorry for whomever the women had been. They had been disturbed in the grave—or never properly laid to rest—and used as a means to an end. It was possible they had been murdered, but we’d never know. And if they’d been murdered and never laid to rest, then their loved ones hadn’t had a chance to say goodbye. If they’d already been dead and buried and stolen out of the grave, then their rest had been desecrated.
I approached the skeletons. I could still feel the energy surrounding them, but things were discombobulated and the demons weren’t here in the cemetery. Bringing out my large box of the salt mixture, I stopped to say a quick prayer over the bones.
“We don’t know who you were, or who you worshipped, but may this salting lay you to rest finally, breaking any attachments so you can move on. If your spirits can hear me, may you fly free and find your ancestors.”
As I poured the salt over the bones, I could feel a stretching, as though the spirits were struggling to separate from the bones and the pull of the demons. The salt sizzled and popped as the grains touched the bones. I had no sooner poured all of the salt into the two coffins when there was a bright flash as smoke rose from the coffins and dissipated into the air.
