Page 10 of Their Haunted Hearts
“From what the witnesses told us, I figure we can narrow it down to one or two models.” He stared at the screen. “There’s something else. He’s not wearing boots. This time of year, I rarely see anyone not wearing leather boots of some description. Most in town wear cowboy boots, the miners wear steel-toe boots, the hikers have insulated hiking boots, and the forestry workers wear logger boots. I’m not seeing any of these here, I’m seeing sneakers. That’s unusual, so I figure he’s not from around these parts.”
A knock on the door signaled the arrival of Rowley. Jenna waved him inside. “What have you got for me, Jake?”
“It seems as if the Helena detectives followed up.” Rowley leaned against the doorframe. “Darlene Travis is the daughter of Malcolm Travis, a lawyer in Helena. She has been a wild child since leaving high school. She refused to go to college, deciding to take a few years of study to find herself. She had an argument with her parents as she maxed out her credit card and this was becoming a bad habit. Her dad cut up her credit card and grounded her, which at twenty she didn’t take too kindly. She packed her bags and left in the dead of night but forgot her phone. They said she was complaining about having no money, so we must assume she used everything she had on the bus tickets. They discovered she’d made an appointment for an interview for a job in Blackwater. She had also made inquiries about bus timetables. They assumed she was heading to Blackwater for an appointment on Monday.” He blew out a long sigh. “I checked the passengers on the bus from Helena and her name wasn’t there. I did find a bus that went to Butte and there she was on the list. I figure she took the wrong bus and likely got a ride in a truck.”
“We need to check out the Triple Z Roadhouse.” Kane pushed to his feet. “What time did the bus get to Butte?”
“A little after ten.” Rowley scratched his chin. “So, she must have made it to the roadhouse by midnight if she picked up a ride right away. A woman alone, nicely dressed. I have the description of what she was wearing. I’ll send it to your phone. She’d be noticed for sure.”
Standing, Jenna walked around her desk to grab her jacket. “We must assume that the killer scoped out Aunt Betty’s Café sometime in the week prior to dumping the body.” She stared at Rowley. “Rio can handle the office. Head down to the diner and check out their CCTV footage for inside the café. We’re looking for someone who wears sneakers.” She gave him the general description they’d discussed. “If you find anyone that matches, ask Susie Hartwig, the manager, to give you a copy. Take a thumb drive with you.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Rowley headed downstairs, his boots clattering on the steps.
“Come on, Duke.” Kane whistled and Duke’s eyes opened. He stood in his basket, shook from head to tail, and then did his happy dance. Kane bent to attach the dog’s leash. “Walkies.”
Ten
Deciding to get an early start on the finishing touches of the Halloween house display on Main, Deb Meyer and Mary Milbourne took the alleyway to the back door. Mary pulled the key from her purse, but to her surprise, she found the door unlocked. She looked at Deb. “I can’t believe they left this place unlocked. I hope no one got in last night and damaged any of the displays.”
They stepped inside and went to the kitchen, where the boxes of bunting and other odds and ends had been left. Nothing had been touched. They removed their coats and collected a few items. “The workers were in here until late. They should have finished the heavy work. We just need to add a few things to make sure it looks okay. We’ll start from the first room along the hallway and work our way around.” Mary handed Deb a box of cobwebs. “Unless you want to work alone?”
“Nope, it’s creepy in here with all the mannequins.” Deb cracked open the door and peered into the gloom. “I’ll turn on the lights. The owner said by today there would be two switches, one to light up the entire house and another to control the automatons.” She indicated to the kitchen wall. “There they are.” She went and pulled down the switch.
Immediately, the house filled with blue light. Mary frowned. “I’m guessing the individual room lights still function. I’ll turn them on as we go, then it won’t be so spooky.”
“Wait for me.” Deb followed close behind.
The moment Mary stepped into the hallway the smell of decay crawled up her nostrils. She ducked thick sticky strands of fake cobwebs hanging all around the doorways and stared at the peeling wallpaper and rotting wood. Large brown water stains were everywhere, and where the wallpaper remained, gouges covered the walls as if something had clawed them. She swallowed the unease crawling up her spine as she turned into the first room. She found the light switch but the bulb hanging from a long cord in the middle of the ceiling offered little light. Long shadows cloaked the corners of the dust covered room. Decaying furniture sat around a fireplace. In the two cobweb-covered chairs were two skeletons. As Mary walked inside, the walls moved in and out as if breathing, and in the portraits of people from long ago, the eyes followed them. The next second, maniacal laughter filled the room, the fireplace burst into flames, and the skeletons turned their heads to look at them, red eyes pulsating. Startled, Mary stepped back, bumping into Deb. “Oh, my goodness. I know it’s not real but it still scares me.”
“Oh, don’t be silly.” Deb chuckled and then sobered. “The thing is, this shouldn’t be happening. I didn’t switch on the displays, just the lights. Maybe they’re triggered by pressure plates or something?” She stared around the room as the sounds turned from laughter to moans. “Look at this. The walls look as if they’re actually breathing.” She went and touched the surface as it moved in and out. “Yuck, it feels like damp clammy skin.” She added a few cobwebs to the mantel and stepped back to admire her work.
Mary added a handful of plastic spiders and turned to go. As she stepped out into the hallway the floorboards creaked and a closet door swung open. She shrieked as a witch jumped out, barring their way. Loud cackling echoed through the house and she shrank back to avoid the groping hands. “I can’t work in here like this. Leave the boxes. We’ll need to go back and make sure the automatons are switched off.”
As the witch slid back inside the closet Mary took a deep breath and headed back to the kitchen, but before she reached the hallway, the door slammed and everything went black. Underfoot the floor shifted and soft whispers whirled around them as if someone was close by. Terrified, Mary grabbed Deb’s arm. “Now what?”
“Do you have your phone? I left mine in my purse in the kitchen.” Deb’s voice was just above a whisper.
Mary shook her head as darkness closed in around her. “Same. We need to get out of here and call the owner. Something has gone wrong.”
“We’ll go to the front door.” Deb led the way. “Stay close.” She stopped abruptly. “I just walked into a wall. It wasn’t there before.” She shoved Mary in front of her. “You go first.”
A carnival tune played softly and then louder as they moved along the hallway searching for the front door. The house plan had changed and Mary didn’t know which way to go. She ran her hands along the wall and found a door. The doorknob turned and the door creaked open. Cobwebs hit her in the face and her feet stuck to something sticky underfoot. Her imagination was running wild imagining pools of blood, and heart pounding, she took small steps, one hand outstretched. The door slammed behind them and the temperature dropped as if they’d just stepped inside a freezer. “Go back. I don’t like it in here.”
“The door won’t open.” Deb let out a yelp. “Did you just touch me?”
Mary hadn’t moved. “No. It wasn’t me.”
“I can’t see a thing but we must keep moving forward.” Deb grabbed the back of Mary’s sweater. “That’s me. There must be another doorway.”
A light over a mirror flickered and came on and Mary made out another door across the room. “I see it.” Behind her, Deb gasped. She stopped walking and pulled on Mary’s sweater. “What?”
“Look! There are three people in the mirror.” Deb pointed with a shaking hand and then turned slowly to look behind them. “There’s nobody there.”
Fear had Mary by the throat. She moved fast across the room and grasped the doorknob. The door opened into pitch black. “Which way?”
“Left.” Deb was right behind her, breathing heavily. “There was only one hallway in this house when we first came here. I don’t know where this one leads.”
A child sung nursery rhymes in a disturbing loop as they shuffled along. Unknown things brushed their hair. Hands reached out to grab them. The floor suddenly dipped and Mary almost fell through a gap into another open space. Behind her, Deb slid down the slope and landed at her feet. The next moment, candles burst into flames around an altar-like table covered with a long white cloth. On the table, laid out was the mannequin of a young woman dressed in white. Her skin was the color of white porcelain, her lips blue, and a stake protruded from her chest. Dark hair cascaded down one side of the table, and then the smell of death crept toward them.
