Jenny Plague-Bringer(35)

“Two hundred miles! We’ll be gone for days.” Juliana shook her head.

“That’s what you might think, but I have a Ford Model 18. It has eight cylinders, can you imagine that? If we set out tomorrow at sunrise, we can be in Fallen Oak by lunchtime, you can be back to the carnival by dusk. Twenty dollars richer.”

Sebastian and Juliana shared a look. It was a difficult offer to turn down.

“Personally, I don’t know whether you two are ‘supernormal’ or whether you’re just plain old hucksters,” the detective added. “The man’s made up his mind to see you. If I were you, I’d take the cash.”

“What’s his name?” Sebastian asked. “This man who wants to see us?”

“Jonathan Barrett. He’s a big-timing banker around here. This association I mentioned, it involves a lot of men like that, bankers, businessmen, politicians...You could do well for yourself with them, if you’re sharp.” The detective stopped walking. They’d reached the end of the midway, and he looked over the padlocked sugar shack with its peeling painted clowns. “I’d say there’s room for improvement in your future. These days, we all gotta watch for any chance we can get.”

“Ten dollars is a lot of money...” Sebastian said. He gave Juliana a questioning look. She hesitated, then nodded.

“We’ll go,” he told the detective.

“Sunrise tomorrow,” the detective said. “I’ll meet you right here.”

Filip was waiting by the locked front gate to let the detective out. Juliana watched him climb into a long black automobile with running boards beneath the doors. He cranked it up. The round headlights flared to life, like the glowing eyes of some demonic creature opening in the night, and the engine growled as the Model 18 pulled away from the fairgrounds and drove off down the dirt road.

“Fallen Oak,” Juliana said. “That sounds like a creepy place.”

“All of it sounds creepy,” Sebastian said. “Whatever this banker guy says, we just say ‘no’ and pocket the money. Agree?”

“I agree,” Juliana said, watching the lights of the car disappear through the trees.

“Wise choice,” Filip said.

“Have a good night, Filip,” Juliana said. She walked back into the fairgrounds, Sebastian at her side.

“Ah, Sebastian,” Filip called after him. “I can see you’ve forgotten, but you did not help close down the house for the night. We still have work to do.”

“Oh, sorry, Filip.” Sebastian turned to Juliana and kissed her cheek. “Good night,” he whispered in her ear.

“Good night,” she whispered back. She watched the two of them return to the haunted house.

She glowed as she walked back to her tent, still feeling his lips on her face.





Chapter Twelve




“Oh, come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant...sing it, Nevaeh!” Darcy said, bobbing her head to the Casting Crowns CD as she strung lights on the tree in her apartment. Nevaeh, almost fourteen months old, rose onto her feet, giggling, and grabbed onto the strand of glowing, teardrop-shaped electric bulbs. She yanked them from the tree and tried to stuff the bright bulbs into her mouth.

“Nevaeh, stop that!” Darcy knelt and pulled the string of lights away from her.

The little girl screamed, her face turned red, and she grabbed insistently for the lights.

“Nevaeh, no! You’ll shock yourself!” Darcy held the lights even farther away, and Nevaeh shrieked again, slapping Darcy in the face. “Nevaeh!” Darcy gasped.

Decorating the apartment for the holiday had been a struggle all along, from Nevaeh trying to eat the cotton lambs from the nativity scene to Darcy trying to figure just what in Juniper she was supposed to do with all the Catholic stuff Ramon’s mom had given them, like statues and candles of saints.

She was Darcy Espinoza now, a clerk at Patterns & Pins in Columbia, but she thought she could make assistant manager in a few months if she played her cards right, and if Bernice retired when everyone expected her to. Her husband Ramon was a cook at a MexiCarolina fusion place. Ramon’s mother lived here in Columbia, too, and she watched the baby a lot, which gave Ramon time to study culinary arts during the day. It also gave Darcy time to attend praise-based Christian aerobics class four times a week.

Darcy liked their little apartment in the city. Life felt like an adventure here, far away from all the misery of Fallen Oak. It was a pretty safe little adventure, and she liked that, too.

Darcy picked up Nevaeh and touched their noses together, looking into her baby’s flat brown little eyes. They were just like her father’s, Bret Daniels from Fallen Oak. Ramon wanted to have more babies, and Darcy hoped for a little boy next time, one she could give a pretty Spanish name.