Page 16 of Signs and Wonders

I bet the cops write it off as teenagers leaving town on their own. Either they don’t want to bother, or they know who’s behind it and don’t want to cross him.

They left the library and drove around the area to get the lay of the land. The entrance drive to the Mountain Laurel Lodge was marked with an unassuming sign, indicating that the retreat itself was several miles from the main road.

“They weren’t kidding about ‘remote,’” Evan observed. They were well outside of Buckhannon and had driven a while without even passing a gas station.

“Pretty countryside,” Seth noted. “I did a search on the observatory at the heart of the Quiet Zone. They’re doing some interesting research, reading signals from deep space. I can understand why they want to keep the human noise to a minimum.”

“I usually like to avoid human noise whenever possible,” Evan replied. “And it’s not that people aren’t allowed to live in the area—there are just restrictions they have to follow if they do. For off-the-grid types, I don’t imagine that’s a problem.”

Despite the ominous overtones of the hunt for the witch disciple, Evan had to admit that the mountains and valleys were gorgeous. The trees were losing their leaves, past their prime for color but not yet bare. He tried to imagine what the slopes and gorges looked like in the lush green of summer.

“It would be nice to come back this way when we’re not tracking a psychotic killer,” Evan said. “Not necessarilyhere, but somewhere in the mountains. Get a cabin with a hot tub, sit on the porch with a good book when it rains, maybe get a look at Sasquatch.”

“If we see him, do we have to shoot him? Because I’m not cool with that,” Seth joked. “Live and let live when we’re off the clock unless he’s a were-squatch, and then all bets are off.”

Once night fell, they stopped at a Waffle House for dinner. The steak and hash browns weren’t fancy, but they were filling, and with bottomless coffee refills. Stopping at the chain was a guilty pleasure when they traveled through the South.

“You boys here for the retreat?” Lisa, their server, asked. Evan guessed she was about his mom’s age, with short blond hair and a red lipstick smile.

“You mean at the lodge?” Seth played along.

“Yeah, the old resort that got fixed up and turned fancy,” she replied.

Evan shook his head. “No. We’re just passing through. What kind of retreat?”

Lisa refilled their coffee while she talked. “Some sort of New Age-y meditation yoga thing, I think. Don’t know more than that. They don’t really advertise to the locals. I guess people come in from all over. I hope they spiffed the place up, because I remember going to a wedding before the old lodge closed and it wasn’t much to write home about.”

“Is it a church thing?” Seth knew that answer, but Evan figured his partner wanted to find out what the locals thought.

“Not that I’ve heard tell. Local folks worried when it opened that it might be some kind of cult, but it seems to be a hipster thing, sit around and watch the clouds,” Lisa replied.

Evan suspected there was a lot more involved, but Lisa—and probably others in the area—had come up with an explanation that appeased them, and they didn’t seem inclined to look into the matter more deeply.

“Do you know who runs it? They must be someone pretty famous to have a place like that.” Evan finished his coffee, and Lisa poured a refill.

“Nobody I’ve heard of,” she replied, unconcerned. “I imagine there’re records at the courthouse about who bought it, but the retreat people keep to themselves, and we don’t bother them.”

Evan thought he heard a warning in her tone for them to steer clear. “Thanks for the info. You never know what you’ll come across when you travel.”

“That’s the truth. You boys ever seen the World’s Largest Ball of Twine? Who comes up with these things?” She walked away, shaking her head.

“I think we’ve just had the most Waffle House conversation ever,” Seth said, watching her go.

Evan laughed. “I was thinking the same thing.” He finished the rest of his coffee, and they paid the bill.

Once they were back in the truck, Evan continued. “Did you notice how it seems like people are going out of their way to not pay attention to the resort? If a fancy place that might pay well opened up in a small town, you’d think people would be lining up for jobs, or at least to get a peek at goings-on.”

“Yeah. My bet is that even though they don’t know the whole truth about Swain, they know enough to stay out of his way,” Seth replied. “Makes me real curious to scope it out—once we make sure Cameron’s safe.”

They headed back to Lacey’s Bar and parked just beyond the lot where they could keep an eye on the door without being obvious.

“This could be a waste of time,” Evan pointed out as they sat in the darkened truck. “We don’t know when Swain intends to strike.”

Seth shook his head. “No, Travis is right. We set things in motion by coming here. Even if Swain hated his coven brothers by now, he’d know that six of them have been destroyed. The other witch disciples know who we are. So Swain has to weigh moving up his timetable for the sacrifice or risk Cameron getting spooked and running away.”

Lacey’s lot stayed full until almost closing time. Evan figured the gambling had a lot to do with the popularity, along with the lack of competition. One by one, the cars finally began to leave and the light-up sign went dark. Seth and Evan waited until Cameron and the kitchen staff came out the back door beneath the glow of the security light.

Cameron and the others walked to their cars, and Evan watched their quarry get into a Honda CRV.

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