6
Since I’d discussed it with Quinn, I had a good idea of how to answer her question. “Mayor, honestly, half of our team is still coming in. We’ve got four on the road and another two down at the moment. One of ours came from Scotland, and no one thought to warn her to avoid the taco trucks.”
Mayor Hernandez winced in full sympathy. “They are tasty but dangerous. Poor woman. I hope she’s recovering?”
“Should be back on her feet in two days or so, but you can see why we’re going to ease into this.”
“Absolutely, and I’m thrilled to hear you’ve got more coming. No offense to you, it’s just a lot of area to cover.”
“Trust me, we’re aware. We’d like to go around Black Rock and Miner’s Creek over the next two days and get a feel for places. How much prep it’s going to take, what kind of dangers there are. Then split the tasks up and tackle them, each to our strengths. I realize it’s a bit of delay in active work—”
She held up a hand, expression calm and filled with understanding. “I’d prefer you go in with a plan. That said, if there’s an emergency?”
“Call us,” Eli said without hesitation. “I’ll make sure you have everyone’s numbers before we leave.”
“Thank you. We’re at a loss on what to do sometimes.”
Made perfect sense to me. It wasn’t like anyone here was trained to exorcise ghosts or even had the right talent for it.
“Maybe with them clearing out the ghosts, people will relax,” Sheriff Parker said to the mayor.
Say what now? “Something going on?”
“Local business has taken a major hit,” Sheriff Parker explained on a long groan. “Mostly because people don’t feel safe walking the town’s square. They’re being hassled, scratched, chased by things they can barely see. It’s gotten worse this past month, for some reason.”
“Samhain,” Eli said with a resigned shrug. “The veil gets very thin this time of year. It’s easier to sense ghosts, and the ghosts get something of a power boost.”
A power boost in a town with this geographical setup was the very last thing any of us needed but, unfortunately, Eli was correct.
Both the mayor and sheriff looked at her with open dismay.
“Sorry.” Eli shrugged again. “That’s just reality.”
“It does explain why we’re getting sightings and reports in previously calm areas.” The mayor rubbed her temples, clearlywishing to down a full bottle of aspirin. “Fuck. All right, so this is going to get worse before it gets better. Noted. What else can I offer to help you?”
Booker lifted a hand. “A local historian who could tell us the history of the location, and who died there, also helps us.”
“I can call on two who can help you there.”
“What’s your worst cases?” I prompted her. “We’ll tackle those first, if we can.”
“There’s a few spots that are just trouble, no matter what day or time.” She sighed wearily and nodded to the sheriff sitting next to her. “Lila, you want to explain this part? You’re more informed than I am.”
Sheriff Parker spoke, her tone steady, almost grim. “There’s a few historical spots in the town. We have the old movie theater, which was once a brothel with a stage, that has been nothing but trouble. Stage accidents resulting in broken bones—”
“Yikes,” Gwyn muttered, sounding horrified.
“—and sexual harassment by some of the ghosts. We’ve had visitors scratched as well. Sadly, things have escalated to the point where the movie theater has been temporarily shut down. It’s just not safe to be in the building.”
Booker’s hands flew across the keyboard, and I saw Gwyn lean a little sideways, eyeing what he’d written. I’d have taken notes too if they weren’t here, but having three sets of notes would be overkill.
“Then there’s the park. We’ve had this shadowy figure show up several times at night. No one will cross through there in anything but broad daylight. They’ll go the long way and skirt it rather than risk it.”
Mack piped up, brows furrowed in deep thought. “Is every major location in the town bad?”
“Almost.” Sheriff Parker made a face, nose wrinkling in aggravation. “Even this building has lights turning on at night when the place is locked up.”
Every Medium snorted as if to sayyeah, no surprise there. Gwyn rolled her eyes a little. They’d clearly seen something because this building being haunted was news to me.
