Chapter 28

Empty.

Theroom was empty but for an ancient closet and a few folded chairs stacked on the opposite wall.

Deflating, I stepped back into the hallway. I’d have to figure out a way to open the metal doors.

Unless…

Ileaned back into the room, giving the closet a second look. How did the story go? She dragged the man into a closet in the room and left him to rot?

Ieyed the old closet doors.

No. No way. Surely someone would’ve boarded up the thing if they’d found a corpse inside? Then again, rich people got rich by being stingy, didn’t they? Why get rid of a perfectly fine storage space just because someone had been horribly murdered inside?

“Brace yourself, Fluffy,” I warned, stepping up to the closet. I grabbed both handles and tugged. The wood groaned, moved a bit, then got stuck. Time had warped the edges and they didn’t quite fit. Pulling harder, I got the doors to move, and they sprung open.

“Hah,” I whispered triumphantly, scanning the insides greedily with the flashlight app of my phone.

Itcontained no shelves, no bulky items. No pentagrams. NoDesmondCrane.

ThenI glanced down and almost dropped my phone.

Someonehad drawn a pentagram in dark red, then added a thick ring of dark brown soil around it. Depressions corresponding to each point of the pentagram marked where crystals had likely been placed. The faint scent of herbs and rust reached my nose as I crouched to examine it closer, very much against my will.

Becausein the middle of the pentagram laid a bloodless finger.

Oh, GoodMotherEarth.

Iswallowed hard, then stopped Fluffy from sniffing the pentagram and soil.

“We don’t sniff evil spells,” I told her weakly.

Ihad been right. Someone was trying to get Bagley out of Crane. A smart someone—why drag a body along when you can simply carry pieces around?

Theidea made me feel faint, and I sat down with a thump.

Hadthe transfer been successful or had they gone off to try somewhere else with another piece of Crane?

Whatif there were pieces of Crane all over town? If a non-paranormal found them, would they think it was a Halloween prank or create chaos?

Reachingout, I placed a fingertip against the bloody pentagram and awakened my magic.

Detect.

Theresponse was powerful and immediate. I snapped back my hand, my fingertip tingling as if I had been stung with an electric current. Someone had performed a powerful spell here.

Butwhy leave all the items behind? The finger? If the transfer had been successful, why not wipe all traces?

Theymust’ve been in a hurry not to get discovered. Or had a grim sense of humor and wanted these things to be discovered, to laugh in my face because I’d been too late.

Orthey didn’t care and wanted this transfer done as soon as possible so they could skip town.

Stumblingto my feet, I called Ian.

“I found the remains of a spell with Crane’s finger in it,” I said as soon as the call clicked open and background noise filled my ear.

“At the haunted house?” Ian asked, all reassuring business. As a bounty hunter, he’d probably come across his share of paranormal body pieces.

“Yes. In a closet in the basement.”

“You think the perpetrator is still there?”

Achill went down my spine. “No.” Right? Careful not to make any noise, I closed the room’s door. It didn’t have any kind of locking mechanism, so I put my back against it. But wait, what if the maniac had an ax with them? I stepped sideways and eyed the door warily. Fluffy panted and pawed at my leg again, excited about this new game, bee wings flapping wildly.

Thewhiplash of cute was almost too much for my poor heart.

“Hope?” Ian asked in a curt tone. “Are you all right?”

“Yes?”

“I’m going over there. Wait for me outside.”

Itwas so temping but… “No.” I breathed in deep and reminded myself this wasn’t a horror movie. No murderer was going to break through the door with an ax. The witch was long gone. Firmly, I said, “We need to check if the witch tried other places to transfer Bagley out of Crane. We don’t know if they were successful here, or if this was the first place they tried.”

“We can check together.”

“It’s better if we divide and conquer. We need to check all the shops where they drew the pentagrams, then the creepy houses.”

“All right,” he said reluctantly. “Which do you want me to check?”

“CheckBosko’s first, then the flower shop. I’ll go to the Cabinet.” IfVicky had been right about the old basement closet, there had to be some truth about the mythical secret room at the Cabinet. “I’ll ask a couple of the people here if they’ve noticed anyone strange.” AfterI wiped my fingerprints off every handle in the basement.

“You got it, boss.”

Ismiled at that, then my gaze fell to the pentagram and the smile disappeared. “ShouldI, uh, take the finger with me? Remove all traces of the spell?” I wouldn’t be able to wipe the blood, but any non-paranormal would just assume it was someone’s idea of a prank.

“That might be a good idea,” Ian said. “Text me when you’re on the way to the Cabinet.”

“I will.”

“And be careful.”

Theseriousness in his tone made me regret I’d told him to go check Bosko’s shop instead of getting him over here. Attaching myself to his solid presence sounded like a great idea right now. “I’ll try my very best.”

Iended the call and stared at the finger for a few long moments before shaking myself out of my stupor. Evidence to hide, evil witches to catch.

“Stay. Donot lick the blood or the finger,” I told Fluffy sternly. I slipped into the staff room and tore off a square of kitchen paper towel to mask my fingerprints as I rummaged around for plastic bags. AfterI found one and a freezer bag, I made sure to wipe all the handles I’d touched in the hallway, then returned to the closet of horrors. Fluffy was still sitting where I’d left her, so I gave her a fast scritch for being such a good girl.

Crouchingby the bottom of the closet, I studied the white-grayish finger. For a morbid second, I wondered if it was part of Crane’s right hand, the one I’d shaken a couple of weeks back.

Fluffy, deciding that maybe this was a delicious sausage from the way I was staring at it, attempted to sniffle closer.

“No, Fluffy.” I gently moved her head away. “No eating the dead man’s finger with possible vestige of evil dark witch. It’ll cause you indigestion.”

Usingthe paper towel again, I went for the appendage.

GoodMotherEarth but this was Weird, capital W intended.

Squirming, I picked up the finger and all but threw it into the freezer bag. There. Done.

Relievedthat was dealt with, I closed the bag and went to put it in… Where? Ian’s jacket pocket? No, that was weird. My skirt’s pocket? That sounded awful. The dog walking bag, then.

Silentlyapologizing to Fluffy and Rufus, I unzipped the bag and dropped the finger inside.

I’dhave to wash that with bleach and double cycle in the washing machine back home.

Therest of the spell was much easier to dispose of. I scraped everything into the other plastic bag, then tied it up tightly. This one wouldn’t fit in my pockets or the dog walking bag, so I’d drop it in a trashcan outside. The important bit was to get the finger out—nobody would think twice about some dirt.

Carefully, I made it back upstairs and back to the front door. A new group was gathered there, and another guide was going through the introduction speech, so I waited until they’d advanced into the first parlor before approaching the guy on duty at the door.

“Leaving already?” he asked.

“Yeah, I only needed to check something.”

“Cool.”

“You see anyone weird come in tonight?”

Hegave me a look over. “Weird how?”

“Anyone acting shifty?”

Hisexpression cleared. “Nah, not yet. We usually get a couple of those late at night when they get drunk and think they’re going to pull a prank on us.”

Sincethe witch had turned Crane into portable pieces, they probably had bought a ticket and come inside with a group, then slipped away to do the spell with none the wiser. It was a busy day; nobody had likely gone into the staff room or the office for hours.

Ithanked the man and hurried toward the guardian at the gates. The sky was fully dark now, making the house all the more creepy. Or maybe it was the fact that I was carrying a finger in my dog walking bag.

Thewoman at the gates didn’t have much information to give me, either. Nobody extra weird, and shifty types usually came later at night. Tickets were all sold online, even for spur-of-the-moment visitors.

Icould’ve tried to talk to the guides, but I didn’t want to waste their time. Jim would never allow me to stop the tour to ask questions, and I had a dark witch to catch.

Timeto break into the Cabinet of Curiosities’ secret room.