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“What do you mean another incident? Did someone else get hurt at the Witch Board Museum?” Christ, that was the last thing Salem needed during their busiest time of year.
Ten sat up beside Ronan and tapped the speaker button on Ronan’s phone.
“Not at the museum, at Omen. I need you, Ten, and Everly to come down here.” Cisco sounded worried.
“You want Everly?” Ten asked. “What’s going on Cisco?”
“Apparently a man dressed in a Civil War uniform was attacked by an unseen force. He’s got a black eye and several broken ribs. He’s claiming that something invisible attacked him.”
“How much did he have to drink?” Ronan asked, feeling annoyed. If Cisco was going to wake him up over every drunk lunatic’s claims then it was going to be a long October in Salem.
“That’s just it, he’s stone-cold sober and there’s video of what happened.”
“Video?” Ronan shot Ten a surprised look, although he didn’t know why. The first thing people did nowadays was grab their phone and start recording.
“Yeah, there’s security video from inside and outside the shop, not to mention several bystander cell phone videos that are all the rage right now on social media. I’m sure you and Ten can find them if you look.”
“What do you think happened, Cisco?” Ten asked.
“I think it’s the spirit who was trapped in the Ouija board. Ronan told me she’d been kidnapped by confederate soldiers and had died at the Battle of Gettysburg. The man was wearing a Confederate grey uniform. You know I’m not one to believe in coincidences, Ten. This seems connected.”
“I hate to admit it, but I think so too.” Ten sighed.
“Me too,” Everly said from the bedroom door. “Uncle Cisco, are all the lookey-loos gone or is it still busy on Essex Street?”
“It’s mostly emptied out now. Why?” Ronan heard the smile in the chief’s voice.
“We had a chance to meet Delilah today when Aurora channeled her. The spirit spoke through her. If that happens again tonight, I don’t want it captured on video.”
“Good point,” Cisco said. “I’ll make sure only essential people are here when you arrive. My next call is to Fitz, are you sure he’s back to his old self? He said so, but I’d feel better hearing it from you.”
“Fitz asked Jude to punch him in the mouth and Jude did it. After that, all was forgiven.” Ronan sighed. “Don’t bother asking, it makes no sense to me either.”
“Okay, I’ll see you all in a bit.” The phone beeped three times and Cisco was gone.
“Everyone get dressed,” Ten said. “I’ll take Ezra to Cope’s house. It’s starting to feel like he’s there more than he’s here.”
Fifteen minutes later, everyone was settled into Fitzgibbon’s SUV with the girls sitting in the third row seats. Ronan could hear them whispering together. “Before we get there, Aurora, we need to talk about something, okay?”
“It’s about Delilah, right, Uncle Ronan?”
“Right. Cisco thinks Delilah hurt someone tonight, just like she hurt that boy at the museum. If you ask her to stop doing that do you think she’ll listen to you?” Ronan asked, not holding out a lot of hope.
“Umm,” Aurora said, before going silent for several seconds. “I think she might, but first we need to find out why she’s hurting people. I know that hurt people hurt people, but if we don’t fix that hurt, then we haven’t helped her at all.”
“Good point,” Fitz said from the driver’s seat. “Will Delilah open up to you if you ask her questions about her past?”
“I think she’ll talk to me and Everly, but she doesn’t really trust you guys so much.”
“That makes sense,” Ronan said. “You’re in charge of Delilah, Aurora. Everly, you’re her assistant. Ten, you’re their captain. Fitz, Jude, and I will speak to the victim and witnesses and watch the film of the attack.”
“There’s a bigger question here,” Fitz said.
“What the victim has to say.” Ronan knew this was going to be a problem, one he hadn’t yet figured out how to solve.
“Right,” Fitz agreed. “I’m guessing that the people who recorded what happened to this man will think he was either acting out a scene or was drunk or otherwise impaired. I don’t imagine a lot of people outside the paranormal community will believe his story. If this incident had happened in Boston or Worcester, the cops would have locked the guy in the drunk tank for the night and maybe sent him for a psych evaluation.”
“Agreed,” Jude said, as Fitz parked the SUV. “Okay, everyone, let’s do this.”