Cades Cove 01 - Cades Cove: A Novel of Terror (17 page)

“
I did,” she said between sobs.

“
Did David see you do this?”

“
I’m sure he did, but he never asked about it,” said Miriam. “I did my best to not let him know how upset I am…. I should’ve gone back there after midnight when I couldn’t get a hold of him!”

“
Don’t be so hard on yourself, Mir. None of what happened last night was your fault,” Janice assured her. “You had no idea he’d be there, and didn’t David tell you he would get a hotel if he couldn’t stay with Norm?”

“
Yeah, he did,” she confirmed. “But if anything worse had happened to him last night, I don’t think I could ever forgive myself for it. I’m still so scared!” She cried harder.

“
Mir, everything’s going to be all right—I’m sure of it!” said Janice, her words delivered lovingly. “Sara’s coming over this afternoon to meet with us. Will four o’clock still be okay?”

“
It should be,” said Miriam. Her tears slowed, buoyed by the hope that this friend of Janice might finally end the torment visited upon her family. “I’ll call you if I’m going to be later than that.”

“
All right, I’ll see you then. You will get through this, Mir, and I’ll be there with you, every step of the way.”

“
I know…Thanks, Jan,” she said, sounding more like a doctor as she continued to pull herself together before going inside the clinic. She gathered her purse and attaché case and stepped out of the van. “I’ll see you later on today.”

Miriam took a deep breath just outside the employee entrance to the clinic. She knew her eyes were red, which would be remedied as soon as she retrieved the Visine from her desk. In the meantime, she pulled down her sunglasses over her eyes and forced the warmest smile she could muster. She then stepped inside the entrance, uttering a silent prayer the day would go by quickly.

Chapter Seventeen

David hurried to his desk, throwing his notepad and briefcase next to his laptop. The staff meeting had just ended at eleven. If he’d known the meeting would take so long, he would’ve taken whatever flack from Ned for being late and remained in the line that stretched from the postal counter out through the glass double-doors of the Littleton post office. Everyone, it seemed, wished to get their postal business done before the weekend.

Thinking he could sneak out of the meeting and mail the package from the main post office in downtown Denver before ten o’clock, he decided not to wait in line. The mere thought he might’ve arrived at work on time anyway made him feel more remorseful. Worse, Miriam had tried to call him a couple of times.

“
I got here as quick as I could, man.” Norm peered over the cubicle’s wall while David hastily organized his workload for that afternoon.

“
You okay with going to lunch early, so I can run a very important errand?” he asked, looking over the top of his eyeglasses that had slid down to the end of his nose.

Norm shrugged his shoulders and walked around the corner into David’s work area.

“
Sure.”

“
Do we need to stop at your office so you can get your coat?” David reached inside the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out the mailer, and grabbed his coat.

“
It’s in my car, bro,” said Norm, stepping aside to let him lead the way to the landing. “The forecast said it’s going to be in the low 60s by this afternoon.”

“
Well, if you don’t think you’ll need it let’s get going!”

David trotted down the stairs to the lobby with Norm right behind him, nearly knocking over one of the newest interns carrying a stack of folders up the stairs. Norm apologized after David scolded the guy for not using the elevator. From there they cut across the lobby to the main entrance, drizzled with light water spray from the fountain as they passed by. David sent a halfhearted wave to Nancy and her assistants on his way out of the building.

“
Hey, wait up, man!” Norm called to him, after he stopped to briefly flirt with a new girl manning the switchboard. “Why are you in such a big friggin’ hurry?”

David’s only response was to point at the mailer. He waited impatiently while Norm hurried to catch up to him.

“
I’ve never known you to be in such a hurry to mail a package before,” said Norm, frowning. “Not even at Christ-mas. For that matter, I’ve never seen you in such a hurry for anything! It must be pretty important.”

“
It is!” he confirmed. “I was supposed to mail it this morning for Miriam, and I didn’t get it done after I promised I would.”

He jogged to his car parked less than 30 feet away, taking his coat off since it felt like sixty already. Norm didn’t need any more prodding to keep up. He jumped into the passenger seat once David unlocked the doors.

“
Here, hold this,” said David, handing the envelope to him.

Unlike his normal habit of babying his prized automobile, David raced through the parking lot to the alley behind their office. He continued his frenetic pace as they pulled onto Pearl Street.

“
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen the wild side of Mr. Hobbs,” observed Norm. He smiled wryly while David maneuvered through traffic, taking a couple of side streets to get closer to 16
^th
Avenue, where the post office sat. “If you would’ve asked me for directions, I know a shortcut better than this one.”

“
Yeah, I bet you do,” David agreed, tersely, for the moment focused on the road ahead. “I promised Miriam I’d get this in the mail first thing this morning, and she’s left me messages trying to find out if I’ve done it yet.”

“
What did you tell her?”

“
I haven’t returned her calls.” He sighed. “That’s why I’ve got to get the package mailed ASAP, so I can let her know it’s done.”

“
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park…107 Park Headquarters Road…Gatlinburg, Tennessee… 37738…Hmm,” mused Norm. He shook the package up and down, which immediately jingled as the bag’s contents and the other items clinked together inside. “Sounds like coins and some rocks.”

“
Be careful with that, man!” scolded David.

“
Ooh, you’re quite touchy today!” Norm grimaced, but the glint in his eyes revealed his amusement. “Where did you spend last night anyway?”

“
In my car,” he said, shaking his head. “Miriam found me parked in front of the house this morning. I don’t remember much after I quit trying to call you last night.”

He looked over at Norm, who studied the bruise on his forehead.

“
So, I take it that’s where the shiner above your right eye came from?”

“
Yeah, I think so.”

He sped through the last intersection and veered over to a lone parking spot near the post office’s main entrance, thankful he didn’t have to park further away in one of the garages.

“
Is it safe to assume what’s inside this package is related somehow to your bruise, the calls to me last night, and the strange conversation we had yesterday?” Norm turned in his seat to face David, who had just cut the ignition. “Maybe it’s related to what happened to Ty, too, huh? Sorry to hear about his broken collarbone and all. Miriam told me last night he’s going to be okay.”

“
Yeah, it’s all related. I appreciate your concern about Ty.” David removed his seatbelt and reached for the mailer.

“
Not so fast, hot shot!” said Norm, pulling it out of reach. “First, I want to know what’s inside here and why you think it’s going to help matters by sending it to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.” He shook it again, bringing it close to his ear while he listened to the jingling.

“
We don’t have time to discuss this right now!” said David, irritated since Miriam could call again at any moment, super pissed he hadn’t kept his promise to mail it first thing that morning. When Norm kept the package away from him, he realized he wouldn’t get it back until he answered his question. “The stuff inside that envelope belongs to a girl, along with a couple of arrowheads and some fool’s gold I found along the path to the ravine I told you about.”

“
A girl, huh?” Norm examined the width of the package. “Is it something she’d wear?”

“
It’s more like keepsakes,” David explained. “Stuff that mattered to a teenager growing up in Cades Cove.”

“
So, it’s not something like panties with bells attached to them?”

David glared meanly.

“
I’m just kidding, man,” Norm assured him. “You’ve got to allow me my sordid fantasies.”

“
The items in question are around a hundred years old, Norm,” said David, hoping this provided the mental image of a once lovely young female now either dead and rotting or existing as a century old woman in a nursing home. Judging by the grimace on Norm’s face, it worked. “We’re hoping the park service will know what to do with this stuff, maybe find a way to get the bag to the girl’s family.”

“
Man, I must confess there are times I wish I was a young man growing up in Appalachia, say a hundred to a hundred and fifty years ago,” said Norm, handing the package to him.

“
How so?” David asked, surprised by this statement. He wondered what in old Appalachia would be so interesting for a man who seemed to possess everything in the modern age: money, a sense of prestige, and a steady supply of willing females to help satisfy his unquenchable thirst for sexual conquest.

“
Did you ever see the movie ‘Cold Mountain’?”

“
No, I can’t say I have,” said David, unlocking his door as he prepared to get out of the car.

“
It came out a few years back. There’s this one scene where Jude Law’s character and another guy are staying the night with this hillbilly family during the Civil War,” said Norm. “Everyone got drunk and then they left Jude Law’s character and the most attractive female in the house together by themselves. He gets up to leave, and she pulls out her leg to stop him from walking by, ripping open her blouse to offer herself to him. He doesn’t go for it, but then she lifts up her dress and bends over, shoving her naked ass high in the air and begging him to screw her. He almost goes for it, but his character’s noble—sort of like you, and so he doesn’t do it. But, if it were me…. Let’s just say I’ve purchased long Victorian dresses that remind me of that scene and had a woman or two wear them—sans panties, of course. Just stockings or nothin’ at all.”

He grabbed a slim silver box from his breast pocket and tapped out a cigarette, another amused grin in response to David’s look of pained tolerance.

“
Please don’t smoke in here until we’re on the road again,” said David as he stepped out of the car.

“
For your information, I planned on waiting for you on that bench over there by the steps,” he advised, perturbed by David’s lack of affinity for either of his addictions. He stepped out of the car and David locked the doors. “Might as well enjoy a day like this while it lasts!”

“
There could be a line inside, but I’ll try to be quick.” David deposited enough quarters in the parking meter to cover a lengthy wait inside the post office.

“
Lighten up, bro!” Norm told him, placing his arm on his shoulder as they walked toward the post office’s entrance. “It’s been years since I’ve seen you this uptight. Go on in there and mail your package, and then forget about it, man. I’m expecting my good ole buddy to be the guy that comes out of there when you’re done!”

He smiled, nodding to him before sitting down on the bench.

“
Lunch is on me today,” said David. He turned and ran up the steps to the post office entrance.

“
That’ll work for me!” Norm called after him, taking a long drag from his cigarette and exhaling a string of smoke rings into the air above where he sat. “See you in a few!”

Chapter Eighteen

Janice’s Subaru pulled up to the Hobbs’ house just before 5 p.m. The Colorado sun already leaned into the lower peaks of the Rocky Mountains, signaling darkness would soon follow. She finished parking the sedan near the steps to the front door. Along with Miriam and Janice’s friend, Sara Palmer, she got out of the car and all three stood in the driveway and surveyed the front of the house.

“
I’m ready to go inside,” Sara announced after she gathered her duffel bag from the car.

A stoutly built blond in her early forty’s, she wore a colorful smock beneath her brown leather coat that hung just below her knees. An amethyst crystal necklace adorned her neck and matched a pair of long earrings. Possessing an easy smile and soft voice, Miriam liked her the moment she met her, less than an hour ago at Janice’s townhouse. At first glance, she wouldn’t have guessed Sara’s vocation as a certified Wicca witch.

“
Are you girls going to join me, or would you prefer to wait outside?” Sara’s emerald eyes flashed for a moment. She pushed aside her shoulder length hair and adjusted the strap on her duffel.

“
I’d like to join you,” said Miriam. “But I want to stay out of your way while you perform the rituals we discussed earlier.”

“
I’ll hang out with Mir downstairs,” said Janice. “From what she’s told me, it needs to be cleaned up after what happened last night. Once you’re done with the main floor, she and I can work on that while you’re upstairs.”

“
All right, then. I prefer to follow both of you inside, a step behind the normal energy flow here at the house.”