Page 6 of Starry with a Chance of Nightshade

Confusion coated Rachael’s expression. She glanced at Drest. “Is he new to the area?”

Drest smiled weakly. “No. He’s my cousin, Rachael. The one I told you about.”

“The one who doesn’t likethisside of the job?” she asked, clearly having had long talks with Drest at some point about him. “Or us?”

Stratton would have commented but the little girl peeked out at him again. He made another funny face.

She darted behind the plant so fast that she bumped into the piano with a loud thud. She cried out softly.

Stratton made an attempt to go to her, only to have Rachael touch his arm. “No. She’s never been great with strangers. The fact she’s even shown herself while you’re here is a big deal. It took Drest months to get her to venture out when he was here. Losing her mother the way she did, and seeing it happen, made everything worse.”

“She watched her mother pass away?” asked Stratton.

Drest lowered his voice. “The family I mentioned that went off the road in their vehicle…nearthebridge here in town.”

It had been just over a month since Drest had told him about the freak accident. The one that happened near the bridge forever burned into the public’s mind in Irving’s tale of the headless horseman. Drest had never once mentioned the family involved in it all had been one of his charges. All he’d said was that he was taking a weekend off to attend a memorial service. Then he’d spoken no more of the incident.

Rachael choked back a small sob. “Henry hasn’t been himself since it happened.”

“She still having nightmares?” asked Drest, looking pained. It was clear he more than cared about the little girl as well.

Rachael nodded. “She wakes up screaming about—” she glanced toward the child and winced, “youknowwhat being on the road, at the bridge. Henry told me she started screaming in the backseat of the car—that Amice was worried about her and insisted Henry pull over, but that he kept going, trying to calm her down as he drove. He took his eyes off the road for a second and, well, you know the rest.”

Stratton had a funny feeling they were going out of their way to avoid saying anything about a man on a horse who was missing his head. Stratton didn’t believe for a second the stories of the headless horseman were true. Some things were simply too preposterous even for him to swallow without a grain of salt. “Are you trying to tell me she thinks she saw the headless horseman?”

Drest stared at him a second, his lips in a thin line.

Rachael sucked in a big breath and nodded. “Yes, and she’s been scared every night since.”

That left Stratton falling silent.

“You did a good thing by calling me, Rachael,” said Drest. “We’ll handle Henry and we can even look at getting his daughter the help she needs to be able to sleep at night again. Trauma is a serious thing.”

She shook her head. “It gets worse.”

“How so?” questioned Drest.

Stratton was all ears, curious to hear more.

“Uncle Nile called the house two days after Amice’s memorial service,” stressed Rachael. “He called a lot over the next three weeks. Most of the times, Henry took the calls downstairs.”

Drest flinched. “Shit.”

“Mouth,” warned Rachael with a nod toward the child in the other room.

“Sorry,” said Drest. “Did you check on what he was doing down there?”

Rachael stiffened. “No. I don’t go down there. You know that.”

Drest drew Rachael into his arms. “I know, hon.”

The child picked then to ease out again from her not-so-hidden hiding spot. This time she crawled on her hands and knees in their direction as if that might keep her from being seen.

Stratton had to admit it was adorable. Children normally annoyed him.

Greatly.

This one wasn’t so bad. She was in a black dress, with white lilies all over it, and white tights that were dingy and tattered more than likely from heavy play. Around her neck was a black pendant hanging from an equally black cord. Stratton had seen pendants like that before and recognized what it was at once.

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