Under the Moon's Shadow (12 page)

Chapter Fifteen

Sunday afternoon found Jason and Beth in the kitchen at their parents’ farm, cleaning up after the family dinner. Beth was at the sink, loading the dishwasher without speaking. She had been in a mood for days now, and just couldn’t seem to shake it.

 Jason’s face was serious as he scraped down plates and handed them to her. “Are you okay? Something’s been eating at you for days now.”

“It’s just been a long, long week. Hand me the platter?” He did as she asked and waited patiently while she closed the door to the dishwasher and turned the unit on.

“I got into it with Ethan again,” she finally said. “Jason, I don’t understand him. It’s almost like he’s two different people. Sometimes he’s so nice to me, and I think maybe… But then he’ll turn around and just say something hateful.” Her eyes reflected the hurt she felt. “Why does he do that?”

“Ethan’s complicated, Beth,” he said as he filled the sink with hot, soapy water. “As long as we’ve been friends, there’s still a lot about him that I don’t know. He doesn’t share very much of himself.”

“Why is that?”

He took his time in answering her. “I’m not sure. He’s been teased a lot because his dad was Mexican, and I believe he keeps to himself to keep from being hurt. Even when he was engaged a few years ago, I don’t think that changed.”

Beth’s gaze fell to the small pan she was drying, not wanting Jason to see her reaction to his words. Though the engagement had ended well before the wedding was scheduled to take place, she still didn’t like thinking about that period of time.

“I suppose I get what you’re saying. I just don’t know why he’s like that with me, though. I thought we were friends, and I’ve never given him any reason to distrust me. Monday night when he stayed with me? He was so sweet. He even let me give him a partial manicure,” she told Jason with a brief smile. “But then he turned sullen, and things got ugly.”

Jason shot her a look. “How ugly? You never did tell me what happened.”

She leaned against the counter. “Not menacing ugly, just… remember our discussion about how people think we have it so easy because of who we are?”

“Yeah. Don’t tell me Ethan thinks that?”

“Maybe not about you, but about me? Yes. Yes, he does. And Jason, he’s drinking a lot more than I thought he was.”

Drying his hands, Jason frowned. “How much?”

She lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “Enough that when I prank called him a few months ago? He thought he imagined it.”

Her brother rubbed a hand across his face, clearly upset. “I wonder if Chase knows.”

“No, or at least he didn’t tell me if he does. And I talked to him about it when he stayed with me last week.” She looked down at her bare feet, feeling completely lost. “How much of Ethan’s attitude toward me do you think is real?”

“And how much is alcohol induced?” he asked. When she nodded, he sighed. “I don’t know, sis. Like I said, he’s hard to read. But I can’t believe he thinks badly of you.”

Clearing her throat, she felt her cheeks flush. “Stacy thinks he’s attracted to me.”

Jason leaned back against the sink and crossed his arms. “I’ve had the same thought. That’s part of why I sent him to you last week.”

Beth was floored. “You were playing Cupid?”

“If you want to call it that, yeah. Obviously, it didn’t work. I’m sorry.”

She just stared at him. “Oh, Jason. That’s so sweet.”

He scowled. “Sweet? I am not sweet. I’m a cop.”

With a wide smile, she wrapped her arms around him in a bear hug. “I love you, big brother.”

After a minute, Jason sighed and returned the hug. “Love you, too, sis. And if you tell anyone what I did, I’ll arrest you.”

Beth just laughed, knowing he wouldn’t do any such thing. “Whatever you say.”

Chapter Sixteen

 The Monday morning meeting at the paper had gone well, Beth thought, as she walked back to her desk. Public feedback had been very positive toward the article that had run Saturday regarding the rumors about devil worshippers operating in Olman County. She hoped it would help calm the mild panic that was starting to creep in, and allow the real purpose of the altars and trespassing to be revealed. She pulled up short as she approached her desk, where a striking bouquet of red, white, and black flowers sat waiting for her.

Julius Lowe, the paper’s other senior reporter, saw her expression and walked over to look at the arrangement. “There’s a card. You want me to take a look at it?”

She shook her head, her footsteps heavy as she came up beside him. Laying her notebook down, she called the front desk.

“Van, I have flowers on my desk.” Her face relaxed as the receptionist spoke.  “It’s okay,” she told Julius, who patted her on the shoulder awkwardly and returned to his own desk. She hung up and reached for the card. When she turned the small envelope over and opened it, she caught the faint scent of expensive cologne. After glancing around to see if anyone else was watching, she brought the card to her face and inhaled deeply, letting her eyes close for a moment. She quickly scanned the note’s contents, the words causing a smile to play about her lips.

“Nice article in Saturday’s paper, Ms. Hudson. Your unbiased reporting is much appreciated. Hope you enjoy the flowers. Call me. G.”

Gordon’s phone number was written below the brief words. With a sigh, she dropped the card into her purse and made sure it was tucked inside firmly. She’d grilled Chase about the man, but her brother had been surprisingly closed-mouthed.

“We went to law school together. He’s a good guy, and we’ve kind of lost touch over the past few years. Other than that, if you want to know more about him, I suggest you call him.”

“Ooh! Do you have any idea how frustrating you are at times? Why can’t you tell me more about him? Unless he has something to hide, and you don’t want me to know about it.”

Chase, who had met her for coffee at the Brown Bag, was puzzled. “I’m not trying to frustrate you, I just don’t know what it is you want me to say.”

She rolled her eyes. “Is he dangerous? Is he crazy? Should I be afraid to be alone with him?”

“No, no, and I’d say no,” he answered. “We were pretty close in school, and then life happened and we went our separate ways. Unless he’s changed drastically, you can trust Gordon.” That was pretty much all her brother had to say on the subject, and attempts to get more information out of him had been futile.

Despite her feelings for Ethan, Beth had to admit that Gordon’s apparent interest in her was flattering. After the rocky interactions she’d had with Ethan in the last couple of weeks, plain, undisguised attraction was almost soothing.

Resisting temptation, she grabbed her bag and left for her next appointment, an interview with one of the local school board members. She waved at Vanessa as she hurried out the door, glad the other woman was on the phone and couldn’t ask questions about the tall, dark stranger who had delivered the flowers. Beth had a feeling those would be questions she wasn’t quite ready to answer just yet.

~ * * * ~

By nine o’clock Monday evening, the newspaper building had fallen silent. The only people left in the building were the cleaning crew and Beth, who was working upstairs in the boardroom. Barefoot, with her hair down around her shoulders, she paced back and forth in front of the large dry-erase board that covered the wall at the end of the room. She was using the board to lay out her thoughts, get them all in front of her in one place. Another altar had been found on an outlying farm this afternoon, and it had her instincts screaming.

She had decided to do a timeline, using all the incidents she thought might be related, including several mysterious disappearances. As she stood back and stared at the results of her research, her hands started shaking. The dates of the disappearances fit exactly with the other reports. Though it was circumstantial, this was the sort of proof she had been looking for all along to back up her instincts. She picked up her camera and took snapshots of the board before erasing what she had written. She didn’t want someone else to stumble upon her notes before she had time to do deeper research. A call to Stacy Kirchner was definitely in order, and perhaps to Gordon, as well.

As she started gathering her belongings, there was a soft knock on the door. She turned and saw Maria Gonzales, one of the two-person crew who cleaned the offices.

“Ms. Hudson, we’re ready to leave. Do you need anything before we go?”

“No, Maria, I’m good. I will walk out with you and Rosa, though, if you don’t mind.” With a glance around the room to make sure she had not left anything behind, Beth slipped back into her shoes and headed for the door, turning the lights out as she went.

“I need to ask you a question. Is Juan still the go-to person for new immigrants around here?” she asked, referring to Maria’s brother-in-law, a community advocate for both legal and illegal immigrants in the Olman County area.

“Yes, Juan is still helping the community. Is something wrong?”

Beth shook her head. “I’m not sure. That’s why I’d like to talk to him.”

“Juan has seemed a little troubled lately,” Maria told Beth in a low voice as they reached the door that led to the newsroom, where her sister waited. “He won’t even talk to Rosa about it, and it has her worried.”

The sisters waited as Beth set the alarm and locked the door, and as they walked across the parking lot to their respective vehicles, there was a rustle in the bushes next to the road. Beth and Rosa both jumped, startled, and Maria turned to eye them with concern.

“You’re both as nervous as cats tonight. Why is that?”

“Too much coffee, I think,” Beth answered. Rosa quickly agreed, shooting a grateful look in Beth’s direction. With a wave, they got in their vehicle, and waited for Beth to get safely in hers before they drove off.

As she started the vehicle, Beth couldn’t shake the unsettled feeling that she was being watched. With her headlights on ‘high’, she wheeled the Beast in a slow circle, watching as the bushes and dark areas surrounding the newspaper were illuminated by the beams. When she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, she chided herself and headed toward home, a headache starting in her temples.

A quick glance at the clock told her that it was only ten o’clock. Beth was surprised. Today had been a really long day, and tomorrow promised to be just as long. She was itching to keep going on the research into the missing people, but as she stepped into the hall outside her apartment, the pull of her bed and the sleep it promised was nearly overwhelming.

Her head was throbbing by the time she locked the door behind her, and the decision was made. She grabbed a cold glass of milk, downed some ibuprofen, and headed to the bedroom. After setting her alarm clock to go off two hours earlier than usual, she undressed and climbed between the sheets. The research would wait a few more hours, but sleep wouldn’t.

~ * * * ~

As the vehicles left the parking lot and headed in opposite directions, the woman straightened from where she had been crouching in the shadowed doorway of the church across the street. No longer concerned with being seen, she stretched her cramped muscles. An intense satisfaction with her accomplishments sending an exhilarating rush through her body. Seeing Beth acting skittish as she came out of the paper had been very gratifying, and it let the woman know her plan was working beautifully.

With the darkness solid all around, the sound of traffic from the other side of the river carried across to Leroy. Keeping an ear open for any approaching vehicles on this side of the river, she slipped down the sidewalk alongside the church, then through the old cemetery behind it. Making her way to where she had parked her car, she got in and started the vehicle. The motor purred quietly, and she pulled away from the curb. She left the headlights off for a couple of blocks until she had cleared the darkened residential streets. The light from the dashboard was muted, purposefully turned as low as possible to reduce the chances of the vehicle’s driver being seen and identified. As she came upon the intersection of Highway 7 and the new bypass, she flipped the lights on and merged into what little traffic there was without a hitch.

As she drove out of Leroy toward her home, the woman smiled. Her mouth moved into a twisted grimace that she never let other people see, as it revealed too much about who she truly was. Thinking about the next present Beth would be receiving, her expression turned feral, and a low growl escaped her throat as her arousal built. With any luck, the latest present would be enough to get people thinking, and the questions would start. She wondered how Ms. Hudson would like having the tables turned on her, and she laughed out loud at the thought. Imagining her reaction was a very pleasurable experience for the stalker, and with some detachment, she decided to call her lover and ask him to come over later. He was nothing more than a means to an end, much as Beth was, but the woman was glad to make use of him while she could. By the time the stalker was finished, Beth Hudson and her family would have more than paid for their sins, and the stalker would have it no other way.

Chapter Seventeen

 As she came in from her morning run on Thursday, Beth’s mind was full of the list of tasks she needed to accomplish that day. She glanced at her cell phone and saw that it was just shy of eight o’clock. She wondered if it was too early in the day to call Gordon, who she had been playing phone tag with since the day before. Deciding to wait until she was out of the shower, she unlocked her front door and stepped inside, nearly tripping over the thick envelope lying on the floor.