He pressed his lips together as he fingered the edge of one of the files. “No. That’s the strange part. Two of them never even left their houses. Two went to the hospital. One died on the way; the other died in the ER.” He opened one of the folders, exposing a photo of the naked body of a little boy.
I gasped, choking back a sob. “A kid?”
“Yeah, a kid.” He pushed the file closer to me. “Notice anything?”
“Are they all kids?”
“No. Just this one. One was a middle-aged woman and the other two were elderly.”
I looked away. “I don’t want to look at that, Tom.”
Tom banged the table and I jumped.
“Look at it, Ellie. This kid’s heart is missing. Gone. Do you notice anything strange?”
I forced myself to look at the five-by-seven photo, trying not to focus on the boy’s face. I couldn’t stop myself. He was seven or eight at most, with dark brown hair and freckles scattered across his face. He had a tan line at his waist and his lower thighs, most likely from a swimming suit. “What am I looking for?” I started to cry. “I don’t know, Tom.”
His voice softened. “Ellie, I’m sorry. But look at the photo. His heart is gone.” He asked again: “Do you notice anything strange?”
I forced myself to look again, which is when it hit me. “There’s no wound where it was removed. Is there one on the back?”
“No.”
I shook my head, my tears drying up. “But how . . . ?”
“Exactly. How.”
I lifted my face and stared into his eyes. “Tom, I swear to you. I have no idea what’s going on. I didn’t even know anything about it until you just told me.” But if something evil was killing children, I didn’t know what it was or how to stop it.
He closed the file. “It’s okay, Ellie. I believe you.”
The image of the little boy was burned into my brain, and I knew I was about to lose it. “Can I go now?”
“In a minute. I want to ask you a few more things.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
“One of the deaths, the elderly woman, happened two blocks from your house.”
“Two nights ago?” I asked.
Tom jerked upright. “Yeah, how did you know?”
Crap. I couldn’t tell him about the old woman who’d told me my future. Was she the one who had died? Could she have been a ghost rather than a demon? “I was walking home from work. I saw the ambulance.”
He sighed in disappointment. I’d guessed about the ambulance.
“What else do you want to know?”
His voice lowered. “Ellie, I’m begging you. If you have any idea what might be doing this or how to stop it, either tell me what to do or make sure it’s taken care of.”
My head jerked up in surprise. “What?”
“Whatever was ripping out people’s hearts before suddenly stopped, the exact same night when we found some strange things out at Festival Park. There were circles with candles, salt, and markings very much like the ones you make on your doors. We also found gigantic claw marks on a tree that had been knocked over, along with extensive damage to the Elizabeth II.”
We’d been sloppy to leave so many signs of our fight in Festival Park, the re-creation of the first English settlement in Roanoke, that night. We’d been sloppy about a lot of things. David had been certain I was a conjurer and could send the demons back to hell on my own. We’d made a temple of sorts for me, creating seven circles consisting of tribal markings, candles, and salt. I had stood inside the circles and recited the Cherokee chant David had been so sure would end the lives of the badgers. He had been mistaken. I had lured the demons away from David and onto the replica ship. We would probably both be dead if Collin hadn’t shown up to save us.
“I think you did something that night. I don’t know how you managed it, but I think you made that wild animal go away. I’d prefer if you would tell me what’s going on so trained professionals can deal with the situation. But I also know how stubborn you are. So if you refuse to tell me, but you can make this thing go away, please do what you can.”
My mouth dropped open in shock.
He gave me a wry smile. “Not what you expected?”
I took a deep breath and released it. “No.”
“I have to warn you, this isn’t officially sanctioned by the Manteo Police Department. It’s off the books.”
I shook my head, wiping the tears from my cheeks. I was both shocked by his change of attitude and grateful for it, but there was one problem. “I swear to you, Tom. I have no idea what this thing is.”
He leaned across the table, his eyes piercing mine. “Then find out. And take care of it.”
CHAPTER SIX
Tom insisted on driving me home. I considered refusing, but I was still shaken from seeing the photo of the little boy. Besides, I suspected that the air-conditioning in his squad car got cool pretty quickly. It was better than walking in the heat.
“Are you going to let me ride in front?” I asked as we walked across the parking lot.
“This time,” he said, opening his car door. He glanced over the top of the car and winked at me. “Don’t get too used to it.”
I slid in the passenger seat. It occurred to me that I’d been in this exact car a month and a half ago when Tom found me in the botanical gardens shouting at Okeus. “Who says I plan to?”