Chapter 4

S everal days later, Cameron was at the hospital, completing yet another back-to-back shift, when he caught one of the orderlies looking at him hesitantly. Frowning, Cameron motioned the employee over. “Hey, Diego. How are you doing?” Cameron inquired. The orderly just shrugged. “Something bothering you?”

Diego just shrugged again.

It was a common phenomenon with employees. They didn’t always speak up, and sometimes it took time for them to get comfortable, especially with a new doctor. “Is the job going okay for you?” Cameron asked. Diego nodded. “You seem to have something to say to me. If you do, please just speak up.”

Diego shook his head but still grinned.

“Meaning that you do have something to say, but you don’t want to speak up?” Cameron tried to clarify.

Diego choked out a smile and shrugged.

“Look, Diego. I won’t be offended, if you need to say something, even if it’s something I won’t like, I would rather you share it,” Cameron explained. “Particularly when we deal with emergencies in a small town, where you probably know a lot of people. I was born and raised here, but I didn’t stick around for all those years afterward because I had to go off and do my schooling.”

The orderly frowned and then slowly nodded. “That makes sense. I thought I recognized you from before.”

“You did?” Cameron asked cheerfully. “My family lived on the outskirts of town,” he added, “but I was bound and determined to be a doctor. So sticking around was never part of my plan. And honestly, coming back home again wasn’t really part of my plan either,” he said, with a laugh. “Yet, at the end of the day, family is family.”

Diego smiled, and this time it was a real smile. “Ain’t that the truth.”

“Of course, since coming back, I realized that I haven’t really reconnected fully because I haven’t had time,” Cameron shared. “It’s been a surprise to see how things have changed.”

The orderly nodded, intently studying Cameron, as if weighing his words and wondering if Diego should speak up or not.

“So, what is this about?” Cameron asked, looking at Diego carefully. “Does it have anything to do with Danica, who was here recently?”

At that, the orderly frowned.

Cameron continued. “Apparently everybody already knows she was here. No, she’s not sick or anything, in case you were worried.” But Cameron knew that no way was Diego worried about Danica. This was about something else. When the orderly still hesitated, Cameron just decided to blurt it out. “Are you trying to warn me about her?”

Diego’s eyes lit up with relief, and he nodded.

“It’s okay,” Cameron replied. “I’ve known her for a long time.”

“But it ain’t her,” Diego said suddenly.

At that, Cameron stopped. “What do you mean, it isn’t her ? It isn’t her I should be careful of? Or it isn’t her—as in she’s not who I thought she was?”

Although old and seemingly on his last legs, Diego’s mind was still sharp. He slowly nodded. “That’s a good way to put it, and I guess both would be true.”

“If it’s not her I’m supposed to be worried about, who is it then?” Cameron asked, looking around to ensure nobody could hear them. He leaned in. “I would really appreciate your telling me.”

The elderly orderly hesitated and then whispered, “You should be worried about her mother.”

Cameron straightened. “You mean her dead mother?”

He nodded, obviously relieved that his message had been delivered and understood by the doctor.

“Is she haunting this place?” Cameron asked. He didn’t believe in ghosts, but he knew this town had taken on an eerie superstitious overtone that he would do well not to knock or to ignore.

Again Diego nodded. “She’s still haunting this place.” His tone was low, as he glanced around. “Everybody knows it.”

“Do you know why?”

“Daisy was murdered,” he whispered. “Also something everybody knows.”

Cameron straightened and eyed him carefully. “I thought Daisy committed suicide, after trying to kill her daughter.”

The old man shrugged. “That’s what they say, but what if it’s not true?”

“So, if it’s not true, who killed her then?”

The old man looked at him steadily. “The rumors say the daughter did it.”

Cameron froze. “I heard that mentioned. Can’t say I believe it though.”

He nodded. “They say that she was the one who killed her mom, then made it look like her mom had attacked her.”

“Good God,” Cameron said in shock. “I’ve never heard anything like that.”

Diego shrugged. “That’s what they say.”

“And what do you say?” Cameron asked Diego, looking for any signs of lying or subterfuge, but the old man stared back at him steadily.

“I think she’s innocent,” Diego stated. “I don’t know what happened back then, but, because Danica doesn’t know either, Daisy still haunts the place, has for years, since she died.”

“And how often does she haunt it?”

Diego glanced around, as somebody walked behind them, yet appeared to be completely uninterested in their conversation. “Every once in a while, and we don’t know why, she comes through our ER or the one in the next county, as if she’s dying. She’s covered in blood, but it’s not her blood. She grabs a doctor’s lab coat, leaves her bloody handprint, and then she’s taken up for X-rays or whatever else you send her for, only she disappears along the way. And then the lab coat where she grabbed is clean, as if she had never touched it. What’s even worse is something happens to the person she grabs onto.”

The hairs on the back of Cameron’s neck rose. “Are you serious?”

Diego nodded, his gaze steady. “In case nobody warned you,” he began, “if a young woman who looks like Danica comes through here, step away or else.”

“All those years of these hauntings and nobody’s investigated?”

Diego gave him a half-cracked smile. “Who’ll investigate it? Nobody wants to get close to those hands, just in case they’re next.”

Cameron let out his breath with a whoosh . “So people believe that Danica killed her own mother and made this look like, what, an accident?”

Diego shrugged. “I don’t know about an accident. I just know that most of the people here believe that her mother, who was disturbed, didn’t kill herself, and that the most likely candidate who did it would be Danica.”

“You say Danica as if you know her.”

Diego hesitated.

Cameron just waited. It was often the best technique with people to remain silent until they fessed up to whatever they were trying to hold back.

Finally the old man replied, “I know the grandmother.”

“Ah.” Cameron smiled. “Harriet’s my neighbor, you know.”

He looked at him and then slowly nodded. “That makes sense.”

“Why does it make sense?” he asked in confusion.

“Because you’re connected.” He glanced around. “So, watch yourself, Doc. The last doctor who saw Daisy’s ghost died.”

*

Jace wandered through his brother’s house, hating the chill that had set in since finding out that the witchy Danica was back. He had a little history with her, not anywhere near enough, yet still way the hell too much. As soon as she’d had her accident, he knew something was different about her, something was wrong. And not just the facial scar but everything else. She’d haunted Jace’s dreams ever since, and he was sure something was off about her.

He didn’t know how to make his brother understand that Cameron needed to stay away from her. The fact that he’d been away when so much of it had happened here blew Jace away because, although it was old knowledge, it was still something that everybody knew and that nobody liked to talk about.

When his phone rang, he glanced down to see his buddy calling him. He answered it, happy to have a distraction, only to hear the first question out of his friend’s mouth.

“Hey, did you hear that Danica’s back?”

“I heard,” he snapped, “and I can’t say I’m happy about it.”

Colby laughed. “Yeah, I didn’t think you would be. You tend to go off on a rant every time you find out the conversation’s heading in her direction.”

“She’s a witch,” he declared.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. That’s pretty strong language. I know you don’t like the chick, but I surely will not give her that power.”

“You might not, but it’s the power she has.”

His friend chuckled. “That’s because you don’t understand why you were attracted to her in the first place.”

“It’s not about that . She was young and pretty… and available. Like, what the hell? I was hormone-driven, so that’s not hard to believe.”

“Yeah, but then what happened afterward?”

“I’m pretty-damn sure she killed her mother. That’s what happened, and you know it.”

“I know that’s what you keep saying, but do you really believe that? Because, if so, then she’s back again, and maybe this is a good time to make her pay for it.”

“Make her pay how?” Jace asked hesitantly.

“Go to the sheriff and his deputies. Come on. That’s what they’re here for. If Danica murdered her mother, then she should go down for murder. It’s pretty damn simple. Stop your caterwauling or do something about it.”

At that, Jace started to get angry at his friend.

Finally, after a few minutes of Jace’s ranting, Colby stated, “I’ll just leave it there. You go talk to whoever you want to talk to, but right now you need to chill. Either have a couple beers and relax, or do some exercise or something, but I don’t need to listen to this shit.” And, with that, he rang off.

Jace stared down at his phone in consternation. He hadn’t meant to go off so hard, but just something about knowing Danica was back hit him in an ugly way.

It wasn’t desire. That’s for sure. To be honest, it was fear.