Page 6 of Chasing Ghosts
“Oh, hey boss, I was just telling the girls how good they look on camera.”
“She’s not one of the investigators so…it doesn’t really matter how good she looks on camera, now does it?”
Cori’s smile melts off her face, and she goes back to typing. Could I have said it better? Probably. And Roxie lets me know about it.
“Wow, Mac, that was…a dick thing to say.”
I open my mouth to tell her she’s absolutely right, but I am too late.
“No, he’s right. I’m not really great with people looking at me. I much prefer to stay behind the scenes and just do my research and history.”
“It’s still dickish.” Roxie gives me a death stare before scooting closer to Cori and bumping knees. “What have you found out for us so far?”
“Oh, this place is magnificent…and terrifying.” She just lights up when she starts talking, and I can understand why themuseum hated to see her go and why Tray would want to point his camera at her. “The earliest known inhabitants of the island were the dead. The Native Americans used the island to bring their dead here for air burials. They left them on the beaches and in the trees, and the first white settlers were more than horrified about it; they thought the whole island was cursed from the very beginning. It was rumored to be a pirates’ refuge during the early days of the nation and has seen three shipwrecks just off its coast. There have been yellow fever epidemics and a slave uprising in the 1800s, too.”
“Is any of this verifiable?”
“Well, I’m not there just yet. I’ve started with the most recent murders. The 1998 murder/suicide was the most documented case. It was in all the newspapers, on several news channels, and on a multitude of podcasts since then. In the early 2000s, a hurricane came through and washed some remains up on the shore. They couldn’t tell if they were recently dead or had been washed out of graves nearby because of the storm. And going back to the 1950’s there was a serial killer who used this island as a body dump.”
“Randell Simon Karlson. That should be easy to look for.”
I step up behind her chair and lean forward to see what she’s pulled up.
“It is. Apparently, he…got creative with his victims. Most of the bodies were found around the waterfall.”
Roxie makes a face, and I see a shiver work through her. “That place already freaks me out.”
Cori nods in agreement.
“The one I’m really trying to verify is this one. The 1930s cult that led to teenagers using the island in the late 70s as the site of some devil worship, but I can’t find anything about it.”
“What kind of cult was it?”
“The typical one where you had to sacrifice your wives and daughters to the leader,” I tell Roxie.
Cori picks up where I leave off. “They performed certain ‘rites’ centering around sex magic, but something pissed off the leader, Jebidiah Anders, and he ended up killing all his members one night. But I can’t find anything, and I know something is there just out of my reach.”
Chapter Six
Cori
“Have you tried court records?”
I can feel him behind me, so close that his clothes are brushing against my hair. And if I turned my face, I would be close enough to press my lips to his cheek. Not that I would.
“The cult was in what…’35?”
I nod. He knows his history.
“Look all the way back to ’33. Maybe even 1931 or ‘32. There’s no way those guys could keep out of trouble that long, and I’m betting there was a reason Jebidiah wanted to move here away from everyone else. This place already had a gnarly reputation even then.”
My face lights up at his suggestion, “Oh, you think he was running?” I pull back enough to turn safely so I can look at him. He nods, and our eyes meet for a moment.
A loud thud directly overhead has both of us looking up. “What was that?”
“I'm not sure, but I want to find out. Roxie, come with me.”
“Yep.” Roxie stands up beside us, ready to follow Mac anywhere.
