Page 34 of Halloween Haunting
And even though Caroline and the ladies were full of giggles, trying to get Grace to laugh along with them, she hardly could, not even for a split second. Once they were on the other side ofthe street, Grace stepped on the tips of her toes to get a look back at the killer. He was collecting money from the next group of players.
“Who’s the guy manning the booth?” she finally asked.
Caroline raised her shoulders. “The big bad – and delightfully handsome – Beau Redding, of course.” She raised a suspicious brow. “Why?”
“Beau?” Grace repeated, her heart almost stopping. She fished through her pockets for her phone, quickly unlocking it and retrieving Bryant’s number before pressing it to her ear. The ladies were still asking her questions, but by the time they peered into her face, they were quick to silence themselves.
Something was wrong.
The phone clicked as Bryant picked up on his end. “Grace Baker.”
“Bryant,” she breathed, her voice trembling with adrenaline. Her mind stuttered at the sound of him saying her name as a greeting, feeling as though there was something about that that felt oddly personal. “I-I had another vision.”
“What happened?”
“I touched this guy’s phone and I saw myself as Tommy, Bryant. I saw myself as Tommy when…whenBeau Reddingstabbed him to death.”
“It was Beau? You’re sure?” He sounded like he was moving on the other end.
“I swear it,” she blurted. “We were at the dart booth, and –”
“You’re at the festival?”
“All of us are.”
“I’m on the other side of it,” Bryant said. The sound of chatter around him made harsh static through the speaker. “Stay there – I’m coming.”
Grace breathed a sigh of relief, one hand pressed against her chest. She turned back toward the booth, peering over the sea ofheads another time. The exact moment that she did, Beau madeinstanteye contact with her. His eyes glanced toward the phone pressed to her ear and wasted no time before leaping over the counter, and running into the crowd.
“No!” she exclaimed.
“What is it?”
“He’s running, Bryant! He’s running –”
“Where?”
Her eyes squinted as she followed his steps. “Away from downtown,” she shouted. “Toward main street!”
The phone clicked on the other line, just as Grace started to run. Much to her surprise, the sound of the three ladies keeping up at her heels quickly echoed all around her. She flung a look over her shoulder at them. Women who were strangers to her only days ago were suddenly running toward danger alongside her, not daring to let her go alone for even a split second. Their loyalty was unwavering and firm, and Grace was determined to make sure that it hadn’t gone misplaced.
They ducked and weaved through the crowds as they began to thin out the closer they came to main street. The decorations set the ambience as Grace spotted Beau sprinting a few yards up ahead. He threw a look over his shoulder at them before twisting around another corner, and disappearing from sight.
“Come on!” Grace bellowed as she pushed herself further.
Never before had she felt such an insistence on doing something, on seeing justice rightfully executed. But the town of Holiday Hollow had given her so much in so little time, without question, without asking for anything in return. She was blessed with a family of friends, with feelings she never thought she would have the chance to experience again, with a home that was just hers, with a newfound ability that made her belong. That made her feelneeded.
There was no way that she was going to let anything happen to Holiday Hollow.
Grace twisted around the alleyway that Beau was last seen in front of. She skidded to a stop at the sight of him in front of a brick wall, his hands flattened against it helplessly. Behind her, the three ladies come to a halt all around her. With the rest of them at her side, she barely felt an ounce of fear as she met the killer, face-to-face.
“Beau Redding,” she called out to him.
He whirled around, eyes wild and wide with an unmistakable fear.
“You killed Tommy Briggs,” Grace said. “Why?”
“I-I –” Beau’s chest rose and fell rapidly as he struggled to maintain a regular breath, beginning to croak and gasp with hyperventilation. His hands flew up to the sides of his face, grasping at his cheeks and smearing his skeletal face paint till there was nothing recognizable about it left. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. No one was supposed to know.No one was supposed to know!”
