Noon
“We definitely have a serial killer on our hands,” Mayor Hopkins announced from a podium in front of a massive crowd of media. “So far, three innocent people have lost their lives to this maniac, and the threat for more carnage is still there. The first two victims were distant relatives to the Lores family. The third victim was one of our officers, Dawn Coldwell. As we work to catch this killer, I ask you all to report any suspicious activity you see. If you see someone you know acting strange, report them. If you hear someone talking excessively about the Blood Coven, report them. Every lead will be followed up on.
“We are in this together, as we have been for the past few years. We’ve made it through this before, and we’ll make it through again.”
The press conference was being held at the Sheriff’s Department, and was being aired on all of the local news stations. Tom Parsons sat in the living room of his one bedroom apartment, and turned off the TV, which was airing the breaking news, seemingly numb to the announcement.
His cell phone started to ring, and he saw it was Eric calling. He hit ignore just as there was a knock at his door. He walked over to it and looked through the peephole. Seeing Renee on the other side calmed him, and he opened the door.
“Renee, what’s going on?” Tom asked.
“I was hoping we could talk for a bit,” she said.
“Come in.”
Renee walked in, and took off her jacket.
“Is it still raining out there?” Tom asked.
“Yeah, but not too hard right now.”
They sat down on the couch next to one another and Tom’s cell phone rang again. He pulled it out of his pocket and Renee saw that it was Eric calling again. He hit ignore and set the phone down on the coffee table.
“You’re not going to answer that?” She asked.
“I’ll call him back later.” Tom sat back in the couch and waiting for Renee to initiate the conversation. She didn’t disappoint:
“I want to apologize for the way I acted towards you. I know you were only trying to protect me. I was just completely overwhelmed in the moment and my frustration got the best of me. I’m sorry, Tom.”
Tom nodded. “I was looking out for you and Milo. Believe it or not, over these past few weeks, you guys have really grown on me. I hope we can arrange for me to hang out with Milo again soon.”
Renee smiled, “I’d like that.” She then squinted as she caught a whiff of something in the air. She sniffed and tried to make it out. “What’s that smell?”
Tom smelled the air too, but didn’t catch anything odd. “I don’t know. What’s it smell like?”
“Smoke,” Renee said.
“I burned my toast this morning. Maybe that’s it,” Tom said.
Renee hesitatingly agreed with him. Tom stood up and walked into the kitchen. “Can I get you something to drink, Renee?”
She couldn’t help but notice that when he walked away, the odor of smoke disappeared as well.
Jamie Dart sat in his office with his elbow on the desk and his head resting in the palm of his hand. He was staring at his computer screen.
A knock at his door jerked him out of his daydream. He saw Dana, his young receptionist, standing in the doorframe holding a thick, black covered book.
“Deputy,” she said in a quiet, feminine voice.
“Dana, what is it?”
“First of all, I’m sorry about Dawn. She was a great officer.”
“She’ll be missed, that’s for sure,” Dart sighed. “What can I do for you?”
“Well,” Dana began, focusing her attention on the book she was carrying, “I was reading about the Blood Coven, and I’m starting to get a little worried.”
“About what?”
“Well, according to this book, the Blood Coven returns every fifty years to torture the town.”
“They’re all just stories, Dana. The coven is long gone, and obviously you know what’s happened to the distant relatives.”
“I know, but it says here that fifty years ago, there were a rash of unsolved fires. A barn just outside of town was burned to the ground, and several people spotting random fires in the woods nearby. Also, I looked into the archives just out of curiosity, and there are three unsolved missing persons cases from then.”
“What are you getting at?”
“What if the stories are real? What if whoever is doing this was around fifty years ago?” Dana said, genuinely concerned.
“They’re not real,” Dart chuckled. “Someone just wants us to believe the legend. Someone in town is killing people again. Carol Lindon had her throat slashed and was burned directly with a blowtorch – the coroner confirmed it. Vivian Lowder was intentionally crucified to the cross in the woods and set on fire. And as far as the Ferguson house goes, we got a call from someone – a man – claiming to be at the house moments before it was set on fire. He made his motive perfectly clear.”
Dart sat there for a moment and waited for a response from Dana. She was quiet.
“Also, if someone was around fifty years ago to start those fires, they’d be too old now to physically move bodies or hang them from a ceiling fan.”
“Maybe he had help. Maybe it’s like his son or something helping him?” Dana added, Dart just shook his head.
“Dana,” Dart grabbed her attention. “I appreciate the concern, but you just have to realize that there are really sick people out there.”
Dana stood there and let Dart’s words sink in. Feeling uneasy, she left his office.
No sooner than Dana left, Agent Mark Boyd trotted into the office with paperwork in one hand and a smile on his face.
“Good news, Deputy.” Boyd was unusually cheerful.
Dart grabbed the paperwork from the Agent and studied it. He saw black and white scans of fingerprints. “What’s this?”
“Believe it or not, even with the rain, we found partial fingerprints on one of the rocks that circled the burning cross and full fingerprints on a blow torch that was found at the Ferguson house.” Boyd was eager. “They’re running the prints now – we should know in about ten minutes who left them there.”
“This is great news!” Dart had a smile on his face for the first time in days.
Sean and Jessica stood outside of an old colonial style house on the south side of Stewart Hollow. Sean knocked on the door and waited for his parents to answer.
Jessica held her jacket over her head, protecting her hair from the steady drizzle. “We can’t be any longer than an hour, Sean. Darnell was pretty insistent on what he wants.”
“I know. I just want to see my mom and dad while I’m in town. They’ll understand if we can’t stay,” Sean explained.
The door opened up and Sean’s seventy-year old parents stood before them, excited to see their son.
“Come in!” his mother cried out with a tear. His father had a big smile on his face too, and hugged Sean as he and Jessica walked into their home.
A few minutes later, they were all sitting around the living room. Sean’s mother had made hot chocolate, and everyone was enjoying it.
“You must be Jessica,” Sean’s mother said. “I’m Mary and this is my husband, Ronald.”
“It’s nice to meet you both,” Jessica said. “How long have you lived in Stewart Hollow?”
“All of our lives,” Ronald said, wheezing as he spoke. “Born here, retired here, and we’ll die here. Stewart Hollow is all we know.”
Jessica smiled and sipped her hot chocolate.
“It’s good to see you guys,” Sean said. “I was excited when they wanted to send us here.”
Jessica rolled her eyes, but kept a polite smile on her face.
“I take it these murders have made it to the national news, if you guys are here,” Ronald said.
“Well, they actually sent us here before the murders happened to try and get a follow-up piece on your town. My boss wanted interviews with people, their theories, fears, etc,” Jessica said.
“Well, everyone is scared, that’s for sure,” Mary said. “Including me.”
“There’s nothing to be scared of, honey,” Ronald said, trying to comfort his wife. “The guy was only trying to kill the blood relatives of the coven. I’m pretty sure everyone else is safe.”
Mary looked at her husband. “Yeah, but which blood line?”
Sean and Jessica’s interest was sparked. What did she mean, which bloodline? “What are you talking about?” Jessica asked.
Mary turned back to the young reporter. “There were three families involved in the original Blood Coven. There were the Lores, which were a horrible, horrible family. They were the one’s guilty of all the deadly witchcraft; fires, murder, torture…Then there were two other families, the Kohns and the Farmers. Even though the other two families were still guilty of some horrific things, they ended up in a feud with the Lores, and most of them were killed.”
“I had no idea. Could we possibly interview you guys about this? It would make a great story,” Jessica asked, eagerly putting her mug on the coffee table.
“Jess…” Sean said, shaking his head. “These are my parents.”
“Oh we don’t mind, darling,” Mary said to her son, fluffing up her hair with her hand. “Do we, Ron?”
“I guess not.”
Sean shrugged his shoulders and headed out to the SUV to get his camera gear.
“You know, sweetie,” Mary addressed Jessica, “It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if there were still blood relatives of all of the families out there.”