A knock sounded at the door.
“See what you can find out about Ezekiel’s first wife’s death. Find out if he knew Mary before his first wife died,” Jon said, walking to the door.
“Uh, sure. Just like that. Pity they aren’t walking around. We could just ask them,” Kylie said.
He arched a brow and headed to the door. “You’re right. Obadiah would know if Mary or the first wife—”
“Her name was Teresa.”
“He would know if one of them had remained, and he would have said so. But he might know more about what happened. He would have been long gone himself, but…”
“We need to see him again.”
“I think he’ll see us. He’s spying on the neighbors, remember?”
“Right. Get the door. I’ll get back to research.”
Kylie quickly returned to the kitchen. She was listening as he talked to the neighbors. And she was curious. She didn’t want to be drawn from her computer out to the interviews, but she did like seeing the people before they left.
She keyed in her first search—her effort to discover the timing of Ezekiel’s first wife’s death.
She half-listened as Jon spoke with the widower, Ned Olsen. He sounded like a tired and very sad man. She peeked out before he left and saw him stooped and weary. She found herself feeling sorry for him. Wishing there were something someone could do for him.
The Matheson family came next—not the little girls, just Mr. and Mrs.—Joe and Darleen. They gave the same report that Calvin had given. A truck came with two men who brought up the new bed. They had also seen the cleaning crew—and noted the realtor dutifully locking the door before leaving.
Kylie didn’t go out to see the Mathesons. Her search had turned up the records she needed.
Teresa Johnson had died in 1685.
Mary Abbott had become Mary Johnson in 1686.
Of course, the records didn’t show whether the two women had known one another or not, but they had both lived in Salem Village.
Kylie stood up quickly, ready to tell Jon what she had discovered. She wobbled slightly as she stood and realized she’d only gotten about two hours of sleep in the last two days. And they had been busy—the afternoon wove into the night.
She stood for a minute and then walked out to the parlor. Jon was just closing the door.
“Well, I don’t know if this is our answer or not, but the Widower Johnson married a year after his first wife died,” she told him.
“Okay, we may have discovered a motive. Bizarre, but a motive. Now, we have to get back to tracing who might feel that some slight—perceived or real—from hundreds of years ago needs to be avenged.”
“Or it might just be a way for a very sick murderer to choose his victims.”
“That’s possible, too.”
“Are more people coming?”
“I spoke with the cleaning crew, the delivery men, and the workers who came to assess what needed to be done earlier today. None were here alone. And according to everyone, Mandy Nichols was religious about locking the door.”
“Well, keys can be copied.”
“That they can. There is also a back door, but it was bolted, so no one went out that way.”
“One thing we know is that a clown brought her in here,” Kylie said.
“And Obadiah saw a werewolf put a corpse in a jack-o’-lantern. I was thinking…”
“That we’re both about to keel over?”
“Yeah.” He smiled. “Let’s call it a night. I think we’ll be better if we start bright and early. I’m going to give Angela a call. Update her and the tech team doing what they can to trace the family trees—no easy task. They must have thousands of branches by now.”
Kylie found herself glancing toward the den.
Jon walked over to her, taking her by the shoulders. “Hey. Are you going to be okay here?”
She smiled at him. “I don’t think anything could keep me awake all night.”
“Okay. I won’t try. I promise.”
She laughed and escaped his hold.
“I’ll see you up there,” she told him.
She thought she would reach the second floor and the room with the brand-new bed, and its clean, semi-modern bathroom, then crash and fall fast asleep.
But she couldn’t.
The shower was too tempting.
And that’s where Jon found her. The house didn’t matter. The world disappeared when he held her close. Because he became her world—with soap and steam making their flesh slick. And, as always, the warmth emanating from him. Nothing mattered but the fact that she was in love with him.
Of course, the shower wasn’t that big. And when they were together, they laughed, and laughter could easily become passion. When passion culminated, they still lay entwined, and Kylie knew that she would be all right anywhere as long as she felt his arms around her.
She fell asleep quickly.
And it was a deep sleep, one where she didn’t dream—if what she did was dream—or where she entered a different world.
Because she did enter that strange stage…
She was looking at the house. At Brim House. Staring up at it, at the windows to the bedroom where she currently slept with Jon. Watching…
Her thoughts were not hers.
FBI. FBI, so tough! Not so tough. Everyone has a weakness.
Close, so close…
Then, the fog swirled, darkness, and…
Kylie woke on a gasp. Jon held her, but even as he did, she heard his telephone ringing. He eased himself from behind her and dug his cell phone out of his jeans.
He answered it quickly and was up in a flash, stepping into his pants.
“On the street? Ran back behind the house? Brim House? Your house?” he asked.
Kylie was up just as quickly. Her overnight bag was on the floor, and she dug into it for a knit maxi dress she could throw on quickly. Jon shook his head at her.
“You are not leaving me alone here,” she told him. He’d ended the call and was making another. She realized that he had a direct line to a police officer who had been assigned to keep an eye on the street.
“What is it?”
“I need to move. Fast.”
“I can run just as fast.”
“Not after this guy.”
“He was watching us. From the street. Thinking about you, Jon. Not me. He was thinking that an FBI guy wasn’t so tough.”
“You saw him?”
“I didn’t see him. I saw what he saw. Who called?”
“The guy next door. Kenny. He was getting a drink out of his refrigerator, heard a noise, and saw someone running through the space between the yards and into the back. There’s a small park out that way, filled with trees, and then you get back to the main street.”
Jon was dressed now and tearing down the stairs. Kylie followed him, and he didn’t stop her. She quickly realized why. He’d called the officer. And he was already outside, as were the neighbors to the right, Kenny Innes and Ginger Radisson. Kenny wore a robe over his jeans. Ginger looked barely awake and confused as she watched Jon race from the house with the police officer.
“Watch her!” Jon told the guy, catching hold of Kylie’s shoulders and pushing her in the officer’s direction.
He raced off behind the house.