The Secret of Spruce Knoll (22 page)

Chapter 38

Fury boiled within Eren as she watched her aunt and uncle walk down the driveway. It was idiotic that she wasn’t allowed to attend the meeting just because she was a kid and therefore didn’t belong to any of the Societies in town yet. Her anger was so intense that she couldn’t pull her energy back completely, so she quit trying. This was so frustrating! She and Aiden were the ones with all the proof and they couldn’t go!

Aiden and Fane stood beside her, looking out the huge picture window. Their presence helped, but even they couldn’t calm her down. Besides, she wasn’t just feeling her own anger, Aiden was pissed too. She was starting to notice that whenever he felt some strong emotion she could pick up on it through his energy. But truthfully, it was a bit different than that. It was more like she had a close connection with him that allowed her to feel his feelings. The connection made her realize she had nothing to fear from him. No matter how bad his temper got, he would never hurt her. She could feel that in his energy.

The moment the adults were out of sight Fane headed for the door. Hand on the knob, he turned and looked at them expectantly. “Aren’t you two coming?” he asked.

“But your mom said we can’t go,” Eren protested.

Fane grinned and Eren feared that whatever he had planned was going to get them in trouble. That was the last thing she wanted right now. It was only out of false guilt that Sylvia hadn’t already grounded her for the party incident.

“She said we can’t attend the meeting, she didn’t say we couldn’t watch it,” he said.

While he had a point, it still sounded a bit like trouble.

“I like the way you think. Come on, let’s go,” Aiden urged as he grabbed Eren’s hand and pulled her after him.

She couldn’t argue with the two of them—nor did she really want to—so she let herself be led outside. It was a cloudless evening which meant while their way would be well lit it was also going to be very cold. Even channelers got uncomfortable when it dropped below thirty degrees and the bite in the air promised just that. The ground was solid and unforgiving beneath her thin running shoes. It had already frozen before the sun had even gone completely down. She let go of Aiden’s hand for a moment to zip her black sweatshirt up.

They followed Fane as he veered off into the forest and headed in the general direction of town. He walked as though he’d been in these woods many times, which was puzzling because Eren thought this was his first trip to Spruce Knoll. Even in the dim light of dusk he had no trouble skirting around gulleys and deep rock crevices. Eren and Aiden had explored a lot of these woods and even she hadn’t been this deep into them.

Twenty minutes later, they emerged onto a side street that wound its way through the Mayan part of town. Fane picked the pace up to a jog and led them down a maze of side streets that went from the residential part of town to the business area. They passed a Mayan restaurant and turned down a side road where the recycling center was. Just down an alley off that road Fane stopped at the back door of a massive adobe building.

The place looked familiar and from the location Eren figured it was probably her grandfather’s bookstore. Pulling a key out of his pocket, Fane winked at her as he unlocked the door and ushered them inside.

This was a part of the store Eren had never been in. They walked into a large foyer where a huge shoe bench and an ornately carved table with the day’s mail on it sat. The ambiance of the room was very cozy, with tan walls, subdued lighting, and the enticing scent of homemade tortillas and refried beans.

Aiden closed the door and locked it behind them. Eren cast him a curious look but he just shrugged. He knew less than she did apparently.

She grabbed Fane by the shoulder and bent to whisper in his ear. “What are we doing here and how did you even know where it was?”

Fane grinned and pocketed the key. “The rooftop has a great view of the turnabout, and I’ve been here before,” he said.   

Worried that they’d be overheard, she gave him a chastising look and held her finger to her lips. Fane just shook his head.

“This place is built out of real adobe. Even if someone were standing just on the other side of the wall, they wouldn’t hear us,” he said.

Eren relaxed a bit but she still wasn’t satisfied with the second answer. With the Moldovans to worry about how could he possibly have been here before?

“You’ve been here?” she asked as she followed him through a winding hallway with several doors off it.

They reached the end of the hallway. An archway to the left revealed a large kitchen. A door stood before them, and a staircase wound up to the right. Fane started up the staircase.

“I’ve visited Grandfather several times. Mother sends me when the Moldovans are out of town,” he explained.

“So has anyone else in town seen you?” Aiden asked in a hushed voice.

“No way, we couldn’t risk that. I stay indoors when I visit,” Fane said.

That was just one more way Virgil and Camilia had hurt the people she loved. It was completely unfair that Fane and Alin had to stay away from Spruce Knoll, but the fact that Fane had to hide when he did visit was insane! An end to the madness was long overdue.

“That sounds boring,” Aiden commented.

Fane laughed as they reached the second story and headed down another hallway. He stopped in the middle of the hall and his blue/purple energy pulsed around him. Using it to push off the floor, he easily jumped up to the ten foot high ceiling and grabbed a pull cord that brought down a ladder. Eren shook her head in amazement. She knew she could make that jump too, but having such ability—and being surround by others who did—was still hard to get used to.

“Not for me. I love to read and grandfather has no shortage of books,” he said as he unfolded the ladder.

Eren followed Fane up the ladder, eager to see what awaited them. It was a large, finished attic. They entered into a reading area a little too big to be called a nook. A hallway off it took them into a living area filled with cozy furniture, but missing a television. Just beyond it through an archway, was a bedroom. Halfway between these two rooms was a ladder mounted on the wall which led up to a hatch in the ceiling. With a polished hardwood floor, textured sheetrock walls, and art hung everywhere, it looked more like an artist’s retreat than an attic.

“Wow. Was this where you stayed?” Eren asked.

“Yeah, Mother did the designing,” he said as he started up the second ladder.

Eren shook her head as she followed him.

“I’ve got to admit, this is a lot nicer than the attic I’m staying in,” Aiden said.

“Maybe the Murphys should hire my mom!” Fane laughed.

He reached the hatch, threw the bolt open, and pushed it up. Snowflakes fluttered down past him and landed on Eren’s shoulders. When Fane stepped up out of the way she stared for a moment at the mesmerizing sight of all the flakes falling toward her. Having grown up in California, snow was a rare treat. Every winter she had gone up to the Sierras at least a few times to go skiing, but it never lost its magic for her.

Eager to see what lay above, she hurried the rest of the way up the ladder and let Fane help her out onto the roof. Calling it a roof seemed so wrong. It was more like a sanctuary, and it was huge! It was about a hundred feet by a hundred feet, cut in half by a four foot high brick wall that was a few feet to the left of the hatch. The top of the wall was lined with painted pots, most of which had succulents in them. On the other side of the wall, Eren could see a huge greenhouse.

Pointing at it, Fane whispered to her, “Grandfather’s greenhouse. That’s his secret to such great salsa.”

The walls on this side of the roof were lined with raised beds that held evergreen bushes. It gave the place a very private feel. Hidden on the other side of the shrubs solar panels stretched along the border of the roof. Benches lined the wall in front of the bushes. It looked like you could seat nearly a hundred people just on the benches! A few chairs were gathered around an elevated fire pit that sat beneath a pergola. To the right of that was another grouping of lawn furniture hidden beneath covers. From the shape Eren guessed it was a pair of loungers. A slight dusting of snow was starting to cover the orange terracotta tiles on the ground.

“Wow, this is beautiful,” Eren murmured.

She spun in a circle to take it all in. The surrounding buildings were all either the same height as this one, or shorter. With the evergreen shrubs and solar panels lining the edge of the roof, it was completely private. Fane could have lounged up here all he wanted and never been seen by anyone.

“Yes, beautiful,” Aiden whispered, his eyes glued to her.

She blushed and turned away. Considering the cool breeze, the rush of heat to her cheeks felt good. Aiden came up and put his arms around her, shielding her from the wind. With that strange connection of theirs he had probably known she was chilly almost the moment she had. Eren had never had a boyfriend quite like him. She couldn’t help but wonder if this was part of having a close relationship, or if it had more to do with their channeler side. 

“Over here,” Fane whispered so quietly that Eren barely heard him.

He led them to the edge of the building where a shape was covered by a heavy duty cloth. Removing the cloth revealed a large telescope that was positioned just in front of the bench.

“Grandfather loves stars,” he whispered.

That was yet another thing she hadn’t known about her grandfather. Sometimes it felt like it would take a lifetime—well a normal person’s lifetime at least—to catch up. She really had to spend more time with him.

Fane spun the telescope around and parted the bushes so it poked through them. After making a few adjustments, he put his eye to it then made a few more. Eren and Aiden knelt on the bench to either side of him and leaned forward to peer through the bushes.

Fane was right. The view of the turnabout was excellent. It didn’t hurt that it was ringed by torches that gave the circle a warm glow. Though it was three stories down, it was only thirty feet away.  They were going to have to be very quiet.

It looked like every adult in town had shown up. With four Societies within each race and about twenty couples per Society, that made for somewhere between six and seven hundred people. They milled about, finding their seats on the tiered benches of the meeting place. Mayans, Tibetans, Romanians, and Irish all had turned out supposedly to discuss the nearly disastrous party their teenagers had held. Little did they know they were about to discuss something much more serious and far more sinister.

Everyone settled into their seats and fell quiet when a Tibetan man and woman walked into the center of the circle. Eren recognized them. They ran the tiny jail in town and served as the local law enforcement. The positions were mostly so the town looked ‘normal’ to outsiders. Breaking the law in Spruce Knoll wasn’t exactly handled in the traditional way.

“Welcome all Societies. We’ve gathered here tonight to discuss the misconduct of several of our children. However, in light of these events a much more serious problem has arisen,” the Tibetan man and woman announced.

It was a very strange way of speaking. The man spoke the first sentence and the woman spoke the second, yet it flowed together without a break as though only one person had spoke. Zolin had explained to Eren that the Rector couple in a Society ran it together, as equals. It was a strange sight to see and hear, strange and inspiring.

Despite their heavy, almost Chinese-like accent, Eren understood every word they said. There was a power in their voices that made them carry and she was pretty sure that even without the still night, she would have heard them. Eagerly she leaned forward, the heady scent of the evergreen bush flooding her senses as her nose pushed into it.

“Zolin Yaretz, the floor is yours,” the man and woman spoke as one.

They both nodded their heads low in what looked like a show of respect as they walked backwards toward where the Tibetans sat. Zolin stood from his place on the Mayan benches and walked to the center of the circle with a commanding air.

“My daughter and her husband, Lillian and Duncan Donovan, were murdered. The police wrote it up as an animal attack. Wolf DNA was found on the bodies. We all know wolves couldn’t kill channelers so easily, not even healer channelers like my daughter and son in law. The wolves were under the control of the killers, who are sitting within this very circle,” Zolin said.

He held up a thick packet of paper for all to see and then handed it to the Tibetan sheriff. The sheriff’s eyes widened as he perused it.

“That is the coroner’s report. This,” he held up a glossy piece of paper, “is a picture that was on my daughter’s cell phone,” he finished before passing it around as well.

Eren leaned against Fane and whispered in his ear, “Can you see it?”

Gasps and a few curses erupted from those looking at the picture. It took all of Eren’s self control not to shove Fane from the telescope so she could look. Finally, he shook his head and moved to let her try. People were holding the picture the wrong direction. She couldn’t make sense of it from the glimpses she caught.

“So what? It’s a picture of Virgil Moldovan. There’s no proof that was on her phone,” a Romanian man said.

“Take note of the time stamp on the back of the photo. It was taken by my daughter’s cell phone within the hour that she was killed! You’ll find that time on the coroner’s report!” Zolin snapped.

There was movement on the Romanian benches as people parted to let Virgil through. He nodded politely to Zolin and even managed a bit of a tight smile.

“It is true that Camilia and I came across Lillian and Duncan that day. Though for a while I had no idea that was the day they died. Most of you here like to hike in the Sierras to renew their connection with the Earth. We go up there often, just as many of you do. The coroner’s time of death is likely not even close as our bodies cool far slower than normals do. This evidence hardly means that I’m the killer,” he said in an incredulous tone.