Page 35 of In the Pursuit of Haven
Jude returned. I pulled my hand back so fast, I almost knocked over one of the tin baker lights. The top of the cane’s handle spun back in place. He gave me the stink eye. “No touching the artifacts.”
My heart wouldn’t stop racing after finding that clue. “Sorry, I was trying to…” I gulped, deciding to throw out all my excuses. “Uh, let me buy something.”
Hurrying into the gift store, I found some magnets of miniature winged skulls that Puritans carved on their gravestones. I pushed three of them under the plastic that protected the workers from me. “These are cool.”
“Ah yes, funerary art,” Jude said. “Puritans never thought they were scary when they decorated their headstones with them. The people were just very pragmatic about death. They considered the skulls uplifting.”
I knew all this, but no use making him hate me more by admitting that I was more knowledgeable than I looked. “Yeah, totally.”
Ruth snorted from the corner at my ignorance.
Taking my headstone magnets, I pushed out of the building.
Chapter Ten
La Concepcion? What on earth did that mean?
I skipped over the iconic compass painted elaborately over the red brick sidewalk in front of Bowditch’s house and found a place to cross the busy street. As soon as I was a safe enough distance away from the Witch House, I looked up “La Concepcion” on my phone, and got a bunch of cities in Spanish-speaking countries.
Not helpful.
I typed in “La Concepcion” and “Salem” next. Scanning through the search results, I knew I found it just halfway down the page. William Phips! That just happened to be our pirate governor of the colonies. I was thrilled—Jessie had mentioned he’d been bosom friends with his pirate ancestor. He had to be my lead!
Thank you internet, just two searches this time!
Splatters of snowflakes fell on my phone. Glancing back at the Witch House under the murky, growling clouds across the way, I shuddered at how that magistrate and his cronies had almost ruined America before it even began. Phips was made to be a brute soldier, not a governor. He left the leadership of this place in what he thought was capable hands, and by the time he’d returned from hisgloriouswars, countless souls had been accused of witchcraft, including his beloved wife.
Now thatwasa love story… actually!
But that didn’t answer what any of this meant. Matthew had set sail for somewhere, and it had something to do with Phips and La Concepcion.
I lowered my phone before I could read what that was.
My shadow was back.
The old man stared at me from the graveyard where I was heading to get out to the docks. Not anymore. I switched directions, hearing the thunder sound above me as I took the cobbled road on the back way to the museum.
Glancing behind me, I saw the guy had broken into a run. He’d catch up to me any second.
I knocked loudly on the glass doors. The security guard on the other side stared at me, and I pulled out my badge and waved it at him. He opened the door.
I scrambled inside. “Where’s Luther?” I asked. Pressing the door behind me, I shook the white powder from my hair and coat.
“The director is just over there at the—”
“Roxy!” Luther caught sight of me and came for me.
With difficulty I kept myself back from clasping onto the familiar man.
He grasped my forearms in that enthusiastic way of his. The man didn’t know what a personal bubble was, but I didn’t mind a bit. He was like the father I always wanted, but never had. “The exhibit you gave us is fantastic,” he said. “The Lady is in good hands.”
“I’m so happy to hear that.” My eyes veered to the door, and I jumped when the man walked past the glass. He’d at least had enough sense to button up that shirt. Was he really coming after me, or was I hyped up after everything that had happened? I turned back to Luther, not sure I was ready to admit I was running from shadows. Salem was a small town. A person could bump into someone multiple times. What if this guy was just out for a stroll?
I wasn’t sure how reliable my instincts were sometimes. After all, why would this guy be after me all of a sudden?
“That Bible, however?” Luther laughed as if I’d been paying attention to him the whole time. “Those broken off fingers don’t match up with The Lady’s, at all.”
“Oh yes.” I nodded. “We noticed. Someone was desperate to make them fit, weren’t they? It’s all part of the history of it though. I actually would love to know how that happened.”
