Page 25 of Shattered Sanctuary

“I thought you said she hated the cabin, and that Mr. Watcher came here because he knew she wouldn’t join him,” Erin said. “I guess she changed her mind?”

Adrian chuckled. “At his inquest, William said that she had decided to follow him every time he came here. She intended to take away the pleasure the cabin gave him.”

“Whoops,” Kaely said. “Guess he shouldn’t have upset her.”

“I guess so.”

“You seem to know a lot about William Watcher and his wife” Erin said. “Mind if I ask why?”

Adrian turned red and coughed. “It’s not something I share with many people, but I discovered I’m indirectly related to William Watcher. I’d appreciate it if this didn’t goany further. People around here take the story about Watcher Woods very seriously.”

“So why did Steve Tremont act so weird about this place the first day I arrived?” Erin asked. “I mean, this stuff happened so long ago.”

“Even though the ghost is said to roam the woods since the incident,” he replied, “no one ever said they saw it except a few children trying to frighten people. But recently, according to some of our citizens, it’s been seen several times. Steve sunk a lot of money into this place, hoping to make money on it by renting it out to tourists. Now, he’s terrified that people won’t want to come if they think a ghost is haunting the place.”

Erin’s stomach tightened. Although she didn’t say it, she completely understood. At that moment, she wasn’t thrilled about being stuck in an isolated cabin in the woods with a serial killer on the loose and a frightening specter hiding behind the trees that surrounded them like prison guards, determined they would never leave this place alive.

NINETEEN

Adrian noticed the look in Erin’s eyes. She was spooked. Kaely seemed okay, though. More focused on the murders than on the ghostly apparition supposedly haunting Watcher Woods. She was the one who made him believe they’d actually seen something. Erin was smart, yet he sensed some instability. Not that she was weak. She wasn’t. He was convinced that the haunted look in her eyes came from something more personal. Her pain was deep and not as easily vanquished as a mere ghost. He might have suspected that the murders in the woods were too much for her if he hadn’t noticed that she seemed calmer and more focused when her concentration was directed toward helping him find the person responsible. She was a hunter, intent on capturing her prey, and she had no plans to back down before the quest was at an end.

“So, describe to me what you saw.” He nodded at Kaely, wanting to hear her version of their sighting first.

“We heard someone wailing,” she said.”

“Miss Delaney said she heardcrying,”

“Kaely’s right,” Erin interjected. “It was more of a wail.”

“We both heard it,” Kaely said. “It was loud enough for usto pick it up from inside. At first, I wasn’t certain what it was, but as we moved closer to the window, I could hear it more clearly. I’m certain it wasn’t an animal. It was human. That’s when we saw it.” She took a deep breath and met Adrian’s eyes. “The person was tall and hidden beneath a dark cloak or covering of some kind. I couldn’t see it very well.”

“Then how could you tell that he was tall and that he wore a cloak?”

“There are lights outside, in the front,” Kaely said. “They illuminated him enough that we could make him out. But then we noticed an eerie glow coming from the figure. As if the light were inside the cloak.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry. It’s the only way I can describe it.”

“Did you see a face?”

“No,” Erin said. She looked at Kaely. “Anyway, I didn’t. Did you?”

Kaely shook her head. “I specifically looked. The face was either covered by the cloak or... something else. It was just black... or, I should say it was dark. In that kind of lighting, I can’t definitively tell you what color it was.”

Adrian paused for a moment before asking, “Did the... figure make any sound while you were looking at it?”

Both women nodded at the same time. “Yes, it let out a really loud moan.”

“You keep referring to the figure as him, yet you hinted that the sound you heard was female?”

“Yes,” Erin said quickly, but Kaely didn’t look as convinced.

“I’m not sure. I think we’re referring to the person we saw as ‘he’ because we’re not certain if it was a man or a woman,”she said. She looked at Erin. “Couldn’t a man have made that sound? I mean, if he was trying to sound like a woman?”

Erin’s confident expression slipped a little. She looked down at the floor for a few seconds, but then shook her head. “Maybe, but I don’t think so. It definitely sounded like a woman to me.”

“Did this... person notice you?” Adrian asked. He was trying to sound professional, but the truth was, he was dog-tired and stressed out. This felt silly and unnecessary, yet even a small chance that what these women saw had something to do with the bodies in the woods made it important for him to take them seriously.

“She was looking right at us,” Erin said.

“But after he—or she—made that... noise,” Kaely said, “she kind of... disappeared.” She blushed slightly. “Look, Chief—Adrian—again, I know how this sounds, but every word of it is true. I spent several years in the FBI. I’m not prone to fantasies or high imaginations. We definitely saw something, and we’re describing it as succinctly as we can. I’m certainly not telling you it was a real ghost. I don’t believe it was. But it was... something.”

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