Free All Hallows Eve: A Krewe of Hunters Novella (1001 Dark Nights) by Heather Graham Page A

basement.”
    “The winged-death’s-head is the most popular art on tombstones around here,” Martin called, pausing at one of the graves. “The Puritans didn’t want anything to do with icons that might suggest Catholicism. ‘Life is uncertain, Death is for Sure, Sin is the Wound, and Christ is the Cure,’” he read to them. “Pretty succinct.”
    “That’s a common epitaph in this area,” Sam called back.
    He looked over at Jenna, waiting for more information.
     “It was bizarre,” she told him, her green eyes intense. “I followed a costumed figure in there.”
    “But?”
    “I came into the woods and didn’t see a soul, except the woman hanged from the tree.”
    “Cigarette butt,” Martin yelled.
    “Great. Bag it,” Sam called back. “Jenna, what happened to the person you were chasing? You think that they might have done this, or do you think it was a spirit?”
    “No, nothing like that. And I don’t know if they were a possible suspect or not. The guy in costume might have headed straight for the road, while I cut into the woods deeper. And it’s Halloween. Finding someone in costume is going to be ridiculously hard. Half the world around here is going to be dressed up.”
    “What costume, Jenna?” he asked, holding her shoulders and trying not to grip too hard.
    “It was a boo-hag.”
     

Chapter 6
    They were sitting in a meeting room at the police station when Craig Rockwell called Sam to say that he and Devin Lyle had landed and were on their way. Sam had seldom been more grateful to have other Krewe members around.
    Lt. Bickford P. Huntington, Supervisor for the Criminal Investigations Unit, had called a meeting to inform a task force from Salem and the surrounding areas about the two murders and bring them up to speed on what was known. He had Gary Martin speak and introduced Sam and Jenna as representatives from the federal government. Some there were old friends, some on the force new, not around four years ago when the murders had taken place at Lexington House, which Jenna and Sam had worked.
    Sam thought Huntington seemed competent as he laid out all of the information they knew. He also provided a good assessment for what they might be looking for. Someone with a deranged historical sense of revenge, or someone with a contemporary sense of it, or someone who just wanted to kill people. Huntington looked over at Sam and suggested that he provide the group his thoughts. Before he could speak one of the officers spoke up.
    “This woman you found today, she was a major commercial-style star Wiccan. Does that mean that we’re really looking for someone in a coven?”
    The answer was probably yes, but Sam was careful with his reply. He couldn’t say that a ghost had told a young woman that his killer had been talking about the witch trials and cults.
    “It’s my understanding that a feud has been ongoing. So I think it’s going to be important to discover if there’s someone in some kind of an offshoot cult that might be doing this, not necessarily Wiccan. We all know that today’s pagan religions, especially here in Salem, believe in treating everyone with love and respect. Murder would be a terrible sin to anyone truly practicing the Wiccan religion. There are many ways to look at this without stereotyping anyone.”
    “But, the two victims were killed in the same manner as those executed during the witchcraft trials,” another officer said.
    “You all know your history here. Anything was witchcraft. If you looked into the future, silly girls playing at love potions, even goodwives trying medicinal herbs, all of that was considered witchcraft. Of course, none of those executed was a witch. It was hysteria, fueled over petty squabbles and simple hatred among the people who lived here then. The pagans, or Wiccans, we have in Salem today have nothing to do with all that. Should we look at strange cults and fundamentalism of any kind, be it Wiccans or another group? Absolutely.