Tommy Nightmare(20)
“Why do you think that is?”
“I…I’m not sure,” Darcy said. “All I know is, I went on a date with Bret Daniels when I should have been studying for finals. And God punished me.”
“Oh, no, sweetie,” Heather said. “It’s not a punishment. It’s natural. It happens. Don’t think of it like that.”
“It shouldn’t happen if you’re not married.”
“The important thing is to take care of yourself now,” Heather said. “Are you seeing an Ob/Gyn?”
Darcy hesitated, then nodded. She kept looking back at the green curtain door.
“Are you all right?” Heather asked.
Darcy bit her lip.
“Is there something you want to tell me?”
“Well,” Darcy whispered. “I don’t know who else to tell. But listen…” Her voice dropped to an even lower whisper. “Jenny Mittens is alive. She is. I saw her riding in Seth’s convertible.”
“Who?”
“Jenny Mittens. Morton. Jenny Morton. Everyone saw her go into the pond at Ashleigh’s house. People were there for like an hour after, and she never came back out. And people were watching, too, to see if her body floated up. But it never did.”
“Jenny…Morton? How do you spell it?”
“Like the salt.”
Heather looked it up. A Jenny Morton, and her father Darrell, were listed at a Fallen Oak address. Neither of them had come in for a screening, according to the database.
“She hasn’t been in,” Heather said, not sure why she was sharing that information.
“She won’t be, I bet,” Darcy said.
“Why not?”
Darcy frowned.
“You say she drowned in a pond?”
“At Ashleigh Goodling’s house.” Darcy nodded. She was actually shaking with fear now. “I should go.”
“Wait!” Heather said. “Please. Just one minute.” She searched for the surname Goodling, and found three people listed at a Fallen Oak address. Father, mother, one child. Ashleigh was the child. None of them had been in for testing, either.
“Are we done?” Darcy asked.
“I still have to take a few little things.” Heather brought out a test tube. “I need to clip a hair sample.”
Darcy sighed.
“Don’t worry, I won’t mess up your style.” Heather clipped samples from the back of Darcy’s head. Then she swabbed the inside of Darcy’s cheek. She dabbed Darcy’s fingertip with alcohol. “This will only hurt for a second,” Heather said, and Darcy hissed as Heather pulled blood from her. Heather applied a small bandage to Darcy’s finger.
“One more question,” Heather said. “Why did you think it was so important to tell me about this Jenny girl?”
“Because she’s at the middle of everything,” Darcy said.
“At the middle of what, specifically?”
“All this!” Darcy pointed at the green curtains around them. “The terrible things happening around here.”
“How is she at the middle of them?”
Darcy gave her a long, scrutinizing look. Then she spoke in a low whisper again: “Because she’s into witchcraft.”
“I can barely hear you. Did you say ‘witchcraft’?”
“Yes!”
“What does that mean?”
“You know.” Darcy made clawing motions in the air with her hands, and gave an exaggerated scowl. “Witchy. Witchy witchcraft. Her boyfriend Seth, too. They’re both in league with Satan. People know. Ashleigh knew.”
“Okay.” Heather smiled a little. “And she casts spells, or what?”
“Oh, sure. Of course.”
“What kind of spells?”
“I don’t know,” Darcy said. “Like all the girls getting pregnant. That was maybe one of Jenny’s black magic spells.”
“You said it was because you went on a date with a boy.”
Darcy hung her head. “And I drank.”
“This happens to a lot of people,” Heather said. “It’s very normal. The thing to do is focus on your future decisions. Nobody controls you with witchcraft, Darcy. You’re in charge of your own life.”
“Don’t tell my dad I drank, okay? He’d get so P.O.’d.”
“I won’t. Everything you tell me is confidential, Darcy. In fact...” Heather gave Darcy one of her cards. She had plenty of them, in case she found chatty townsfolk who might actually help her investigation. “You give me a call if you think of anything else. Or just want to talk. I’ll be in town for a while. I know the phones around here aren’t working too well, but the Homeland Security guys say that should be fixed in a few days.”