Free Grave Echoes: A Kate Waters Mystery by Erin Cole Page A

found in Jev’s closet. Maybe the stress of the day was breaking her down. Still, she continued creeping toward the kitchen where the crash had sounded.
    She rounded the corner. On the floor, shards from a broken ceramic bowl scattered across the beige linoleum floor and the sliding glass door in the dining room leading out to the backyard was open. The light green curtain blew gently out the window, as if pointing to the direction of somebody’s escape.
    Kate stepped over the ceramic pieces on the floor and looked out the door. A fence surrounded the perimeter of the backyard. It was empty. She didn’t think someone could jump the tall fence, and even if they’d tried, she thought she would have at least glimpsed the last of a leg springing over the top or a fleeting shadow through the slats of the fence.
    How could that be? The wind might have blown the front door open, she concluded…but not the sliding glass door, and she hadn’t seen anyone open the door earlier.
    Suddenly, Kate remembered the conversation she’d had with David this morning, just before her dad called, about the open window upstairs. David had suggested ghosts were opening it. Kate didn’t believe in ghosts, or witchcraft, but she knew certain people enjoyed playing games.
    Closing the door, she stepped back into the kitchen. A shadow drifted across the wall in front of her. Panic shot through her and Kate wheeled around, swinging the stick up high and almost batting David in the face. He flinched, throwing his arms up in defense, and dropped the bag of lunch on the floor.
    “What’s wrong?” His eyes widened at the weapon Kate gripped in her hands.
    Kate halted and let the stick drop to her side. “I think somebody was just in the house.” She pointed to the door. David stepped over the lunch bag on the floor and rushed over to the sliding glass door.
    “I heard a crash on the floor when I was in the bedroom, and when I came out, I found both the front and sliding doors open and a broken bowl on the floor.”
    “Did you see anybody?”
    “No.”
    David stepped through the door into Jev’s backyard. He scanned the small space and shook his head. “I don’t see anybody.” He came back inside and locked the door. “I’m going to check the rest of the house—stay here.”
    Kate picked up the stick and waited anxiously in the kitchen until he came back.
    “Everything looks all right,” he said.
    “Maybe Louise left the door open?”
    “Maybe?” David reached for the beach stick in her hands. “Are you doing okay?”
    A memory of Kate’s last moments with Jev suddenly came to her—they were at a coffee shop getting breakfast and Jev had said something to her about Sean.
    Kate shook her head. “No.” Tears breached her eyes again, and she leaned into David’s open arms, burying her face in the crisp, mint smell of his jacket.
    “It’s alright. I’m here.”
    She finally remembered what Jev had tried to tell her the last time she saw her.
    “What is it?”
    “I remember now.” She looked up at him. “Jev told me Sean had a temper. I didn’t think anything of it because I’d never seen Sean lose his temper at work. Not even with Stewart.” She moved away from David and leaned against the counter. “I neglected her feelings.”
    “I’m not following you.”
    Kate dried her face with some nearby tissue. “Yesterday, Sean confronted me about a fight he and Jev had. He hadn’t seen her and wondered if I’d talked to her.”
    “Every couple fights.”
    She shook her head. “No, I think this was different. I think Jev was afraid of Sean.” As soon as the words escaped, the magnitude of her realization brought chills to her skin. Why else would Jev resort to witchcraft? She thought. Jev must have been desperate.
    “What good does all this do now? I don’t understand why it matters anymore?”
    Another tear spilled down Kate’s cheek and disappeared into the cleft of her lip. “It does matter. Jev’s state of mind