Page 16 of Girl, Haunted

Ella tapped a glossy photo with her pen. ‘Far from it. Haunted houses. Halloween. Coincidence?’

‘What’s the time of year got to do with anything? Don’t these placesonlyopen around Halloween time?’

‘No idea. I wish I knew.’

‘Get researching then,’ Luca said. ‘We’ve still got three hours on this damn plane. What’s our allowance again?’

‘Hundred dollars a day.’

Luca eyeballed the stewardess coming down the aisle with a cart full of drinks. ‘If you don’t use it, does it roll over?’

‘No. Ripley tried that once. Saved up all week and got a five-hundred dollar bottle of scotch from the airport on the way home.’

‘Did it work?’

‘Nope. The director billed her for four-hundred.’ Ella's eyes drifted to the window, watching the clouds roll by like tumbleweed. For a moment, the only sound was the dull roar of the engine and the distant voice of a stewardess.

‘You missing her?’ Luca’s tone cut through the white noise.

Ella thought about it. Ripley was like her thumb. You didn’t realize how much you depended on it until you couldn’t use it.‘I do miss her, but I’m just happy she’s out there somewhere. Besides, you’re the best replacement I could ask for.’

‘Shucks,’ Luca said.

Ella went back to her paperwork. ‘Now, enough reflection, let’s put our heads together and figure this son of a bitch out.’

Ripley or no Ripley, the world kept turning, and psychopaths didn’t catch themselves.

CHAPTER SIX

Ella rolled the rental car to a stop and kicked up a cloud of dust that hung like Oregon's version of L.A. smog. Ella stepped out in front of Shadowland and surveyed the scene. Cruisers dotted the lot, and two officers stood guard outside the entrance.

‘Doesn’t look like much,’ Luca said.

He was right. Shadowland was less of a building and more of a huge, grey container. More warehouse than haunted house. If not for the Gothic font above the door, Ella would think this place had pallets and forklifts inside.

They’d been in Oregon for all of an hour, and the place was pretty in a postcard kind of way. Towering pines, rugged coastlines, views that could make a city slicker weep. But there was something off, at least in Yamhill. Something simmering beneath the surface, like a maggot in an apple pie. Maybe it was the altitude.

They reached the entrance, where a cop who looked fresh out of the academy eyed them warily. Ella flashed her badge and said, ‘Feds. We were called in to assist.’

The cop glanced at her credentials. 'Yes, ma'am. Just a second.' He fumbled for his radio and muttered something Ella didn't catch. 'Sheriff will be here in a second.'

A moment later, the door creaked open, and out stepped a man who looked like he’d been carved from the mountains that surrounded them. Tall, broad-shouldered, with a salt-and-pepper beard that reached his chest. His eyes, sharp as a hawk's, sized them up in an instant.

‘Sheriff Hank Redmond,’ he drawled, extending a beefy hand that could probably crush walnuts. ‘Welcome to Yamhill. Wish I could say it’s a pleasure.’

Ella matched his grip. No limp fish handshakes for her, not in this town. ‘Happy to help out. I’m Agent Ella Dark and this is Agent Luca Hawkins.’

‘Appreciate you folks coming out. This is, well, new territory for us.’

Luca asked, ‘Not much violent crime around here, Sheriff?’

‘Hardly. Most homicides we get involve bears. But two murders in two days? Unheard of. Portland might be fifty miles away but it might as well be an ocean apart for how different we are.’

Ella took it all in. 'Understood. What are we working with? We've been briefed on the details in the police reports, but that's all.'

‘That’s all we got right now,’ Sheriff Redmond said. ‘Just waiting on the morgue. We’re basically just waiting here to keep this place safe from… undesirables. Lots of dark tourism around here.’

Ella looked off into the distance. The sun was setting behind the Coast Range Mountains and the sky had turned a shade of purple Ella had never once seen in D.C. It was the kind of scene that made you want to breathe deeply and forget about the ugliness in the world.

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