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Dark shadows surrounded Freya Richardson as she left the beauty parlor and headed down Main. The cold night air penetrated her coat, sending a shiver crawling down her spine. Cleaning the beauty parlor after closing had seemed like a good idea at the time, well, before her truck had died. Walking home alone at night was fast becoming a nightmare. On her way to work, Main was usually busy with people dropping by for meals or takeout from the local diners, but now it was after eleven. Silence surrounded her and her footsteps echoed as she passed by each alleyway. Nerves on edge, she slowed to check each one before moving forward. The sensation of being watched had started last week and continued—first, a prickling of neck hairs and the sense that someone was right behind her, followed by turning to find nobody there—but the week before Halloween always put her on edge. The town of Black Rock Falls went all out over the festival. It was total immersion, with displays in every storefront and spilling onto the sidewalk. Moving cautiously, she made it past Aunt Betty’s Café and the giant spider making an archway of its legs over the entrance, and then as if on cue, the mist from the river bubbled over the riverbank and spread through town like the steam from a witch’s cauldron. As she walked by, the gruesome displays lit up with red eyes flashing in cackling corpses or with grinning skulls, as if taunting her every step.
A noise from behind had her spinning around and her heart pounding. She searched the puddles of yellow from the streetlights for any signs of movement. Nothing stirred in the shadows, but above, an owl flew soundlessly from tree to tree with a mouse dangling lifeless in its beak. As the bird dived across Main, the streetlight illuminated its outstretched wings against the dark sky for a second. Freya wrapped her coat tighter across her chest and kept going. She passed the town hall and then the sheriff’s office and turned left. She walked faster. Here the streetlights spread out, leaving dark spaces in between, but she reached Maple, and ahead, light streamed from the medical examiner’s building. It now took up the entire block, incorporating two large old red-brick buildings. She hurried on, glad of the light splashing across the sidewalk and turned onto Elm. Ahead, two more empty buildings, with for sale signs in the windows, and then she’d arrive at her building. It was an old fire station converted into six apartments. Beyond, a line of old red-brick buildings were currently being sold for renovation. This block of old industrial buildings had become a gold mine. As the population increased, the need for more local housing had exploded into small apartments.
Freya slowed her pace as she neared her building and swallowed hard. The light over the front entrance was out. The foyer was in darkness and yet she’d turned on the lights when she’d left earlier. Fear gripped her as she looked around, fumbling in her purse for her keys. Sighing with relief as her fingers closed around the cold metal, she ran up the steps and pressed in the code for the main door. Her footsteps sounded deafening as she dashed through the foyer and down the passageway to her apartment. Glad she’d chosen one on the ground floor, she fumbled getting the key into the lock. At last, the door flew open and she fell inside panting. One
hand went to turn on the lights, the other to lock the door behind her. She leaned against the door, looking around the room. Seeing it was just as she’d left it, she took a deep breath and kicked off her shoes. She dropped her purse and phone on the counter and headed for the bedroom. She bent to look under the bed and, feeling stupid, straightened, shaking her head. “You’re getting the Halloween spooks again.”
She removed her coat, undressed, and went into the bathroom. A long hot shower and a glass of milk and she’d sleep like a baby. Tomorrow she had a few job interviews. Anything would be better than walking home in the dark each night. She didn’t own a weapon for protection and had planned to buy one before her truck died. Right now, the repairs had become a priority. Ten minutes later, she stepped out of the shower and reached for a towel. Drying swiftly, she went to the mirror to brush her hair and froze. A message written in the condensation chilled her to the bone:
I’m going to kill you.
As the letters dripped down the glass, and her reflection cleared, a scream caught in Freya’s throat. Behind her, a man in a grotesque Halloween mask was holding a knife and twisting it as if showing her. Terrified, she gaped at him, frozen with fear. Her head jerked back, and the cold blade sliced across her throat. Brilliant red blood splashed across the mirror and the bright bathroom light faded.
“Happy Halloween, Freya."
Cold seeped through every seam of Sheriff Jenna Alton’s clothes as she scanned the partially exposed gravesites. It was a typical late October morning in Black Rock Falls, Montana. Deep in the forest, the constant spill of water vapor rising from the river crept through the trees, making all around her damp and cold. The watery sun and the stiff breeze from the mountains would eventually blow away the mist, but right now, it just added to the level of creepy she’d come to expect for the week or so before Halloween. Any plans she’d made for the festival might as well be tossed into the wind, because as sure as the sun would rise in the morning, something would happen to spoil them. It was her first Halloween with her adopted son, Tauri, an inquisitive four-year-old with the eye color of an eagle. Her ex-special forces husband and deputy, Dave Kane, had wanted to make it a special family occasion.
In the five years or so since she fought her way to sheriff, life had been a little crazy. The sleepy town that witness protection had settled her in was far from it. In fact, her past life as DEA Agent Avril Parker had been tame in comparison, but there was no going back. With a new name and face, like her off-the-grid husband, this reality had become their new lives and she liked it just fine. She’d gathered a first-rate team around her. Dr. Shane Wolfe, the medical examiner and Kane’s handler, had become like a brother. Same with Deputy Jake Rowley, who’d come to her as a rookie, and former gold shield detective Zac Rio, who was an asset with his retentive memory, especially at crime scenes. She glanced around the small clearing at the faces she knew so well. The newest addition, Dr. Norrell Larson, had joined Wolfe’s team. A forensic anthropologist, she and her team were currently examining graves found throughout Stanton Forest by good friend and Native American tracker Atohi Blackhawk.
This was the second gravesite they’d visited, but only this one at the top of Bear Peak had been excavated. It was a slow process, Norrell and her team on their knees all day brushing away soil and sieving it, looking for evidence. Blackhawk had insisted these graves were not known as ancient Native American burial sites. Someone had disposed of bodies and Norell needed to know when this occurred. Who they were would come later. The idea of digging up dead bodies this close to Halloween sent chills down Jenna’s spine. She turned to Kane. “Both burial sites are in threes.” She pulled up the hood of her jacket and shivered. “That’s strange, don’t you think? All within fifty yards of each other and buried in sets of three, and then there’s that partially dug grave in another direction, but the same fifty yards away as if he’d planned another three and something happened to stop him.” She pushed a hand through her hair. “At least this means he stopped killing. I wonder what happened to him?”
“With luck a grizzly got him.” Rio grinned.
“I have an idea.” Kane pulled out his satellite phone and looked at the maps. “Ah well, this will probably freak you out as it’s Halloween.” His mouth twitched at the corners. “All the graves’ coordinates form a perfect triangle.”
Frowning Jenna stared at him. “What does that have to do with anything?"
“Folklore.” Rio was standing on the other side of her. “You know, they have so many weird beliefs about the number three and triangles. For instance, some say bad things happen in threes. Others say it’s a perfect number. Greek mythology says one thing, Chinese folklore says another. Christians have the Holy Trinity.” He shrugged. “I’m guessing Dave is thinking outside the box, as in these graves might be connected to a cult or a person with certain beliefs.”
Jenna turned to Kane. “Is that what you think?”
“I’m looking at all angles.” Kane’s attention was fixed on the gravesite. “We don’t know if there are human remains in the graves.” He frowned. “Ah, Norrell has uncovered something.”
The pink blanket was in remarkably good shape and Jenna held her breath as Norrell gently uncovered it. A tuft of blonde hair poked out from a rounded skull. As Norrell and her team lifted it into a body bag, she took a step closer. “What do we have, Norrell?”
“Give me a minute.” With almost reverence, Norrell unwrapped the blanket. “It’s female, from the teeth and size, I’d say around fourteen to eighteen. There are no remnants of clothing.” She peered closer and shook her head. “There’s something here, wrapped in plastic.” She took a small package from the blanket and dropped it into an evidence bag. She held it out to Wolfe. “Shane, this is more in your line of expertise. I’ll check out the grave again for any evidence, but in my opinion, this young woman was just wrapped in a blanket and buried. There was no sign of any ritual or marker on the grave. This is just a means of disposal.”
“I know y’all are anxious to get to uncovering the graves.” Wolfe turned to look at them. “We need to allow Norrell time to give each one her complete attention. It’s a long process and she can only examine one body at a time.”
“It’s better to leave the others undisturbed until I can give them my full attention.” Norrell smiled. “One small piece of lost evidence could be the missing part of the puzzle you’ll need to solve the case.”
Jenna nodded. “Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.” She stared at the grave. “Any idea how long they’ve been here?”
“As the graves are in relatively close proximity and we don’t know how old they are right now, you might need to consider they died during an epidemic.” Norrell frowned. “Long ago, it
would be considered normal for people living in the mountains to bury their loved ones close to home.” She sighed. “Murder, of course, is always a consideration, but there will be signs.”
Jenna understood the long process of exhumation, especially when it might be a murder. “Okay, if you are able to give me some idea of when this person was buried, we’ll start hunting down what information is available.”
“As soon as I’ve made that determination, I’ll call you.” Norrell smiled. “I am aware that winter is fast approaching and the ground will be frozen anytime soon. I can assure you I want to have these people in my lab as soon as possible.” She glanced at Wolfe. “The cause of death might take time if it’s by illness or poison, so if it’s not obvious, I’ll leave that part of the investigation to a later date and keep on exhuming the bodies.”
Nodding, Jenna smiled at her. “Thanks. Please call my office when you intend to come back again. It’s really not safe to be here without backup. I’d like at least two of my deputies with you at any time.” As a cool breeze whispered through the pines, she scanned the forest. “It’s not just the bears. We don’t know if this girl was murdered, and if she was, the killer could drop by to visit the graves. They often do and I wouldn’t want you and your team at risk.”
“I’ll be sure to call.” Norrell indicated to her team to move out with the body bag and evidence bags filled with soil samples from the grave.
Relieved to be heading back to the office and the warm, Jenna spun around to her deputies. “Take a break and then head back to the office. We’re done here for now.” She ducked under the crime scene tape and followed Kane and their bloodhound, Duke, back through the forest. “I sure hope we get all those bodies to the surface before the first snow or it’s going to be April before we know what’s happened here.” ...
