The Pumpkin Man

CHAPTER

TWENTY-TWO

The day that Brian died never seemed to end. After watching cops march back and forth through the house for a couple hours, their numbers slowly growing, an ambulance team arrived. Two burly men disappeared into the back bedroom and reappeared a short time later with Brian’s body on a stretcher. He was covered in a white sheet.

Captain Jones took Jenn, Kirstin and Nick back to the station to get formal statements, and so they all relived the night and morning yet again. He took them one by one into his office while the others waited in a small room with an older woman named Edie. She appeared to be the captain’s secretary as well as the station’s dispatcher, receptionist and barista. She kept coming out from behind her desk to refill their cups from a coffeepot kept on a warmer next to her.

They were still at the station when Officer Barkiewicz returned. The captain excused himself so that he and his subordinate could talk. The two stepped into a conference room with a window facing the reception area, and Jenn watched Barkiewicz gesturing animatedly behind the glass. The captain only nodded. At last, the captain opened his mouth to speak, patted Officer Barkiewicz’s shoulder and then reopened the conference room door.

“We’re going to need a day or two to comb the house,” he announced to Jenn. “I’d like you to stay someplace accessible, in case we need to talk.”

“Are we suspects now?” Kirstin asked, her forehead lined from frustration or exhaustion.

The captain shook his head. “Given what I told you about earlier, you’re not very high on my list. But I need to know where you are.”

“We don’t really know anyone—” Jenn began, but Nick cut her off.

“They can stay with me for a couple days, if it’s okay for us to go back to San Francisco. I need to get back to work. I can give you my contact and my bosses, if that helps.”

The captain thought a minute and then nodded. “Let Edie know where you’ll be and how I can reach you.”

The woman seemed to appear out of nowhere with a clipboard, and Nick wrote down his address and phone number. Then he passed the clipboard to the girls, who added their cell phone numbers.

“We’ll need to get some clothes and things from the house,” Jenn said. “Will they let us in?”

The captain nodded. “I’ll let them know on the radio that you’re coming.” He handed Jenn a business card with his name and RIVER’S END POLICE DEPARTMENT typed on it in neat, nondescript lettering. “Check in with me tomorrow, if you would. Officer Barkiewicz will drive you back.”

The trio followed the younger cop out into the bright sunshine of midafternoon, squinting. The day seemed distant, surreal. They had just spent the last couple hours in a police station talking about a murder, about the headless body of the man Kirstin had slept with the night before. About Nick’s best friend. About a killer who took heads and left pumpkins. It didn’t seem possible. At the same time, it was.

The three smooshed into the backseat of Officer Barkiewicz’s squad car. The policeman didn’t say anything as he got them onto Route 1 and then drove up the hill through the town.

When they arrived, the surreal feeling of their situation increased. The place looked innocent despite the squad cars parked in the driveway, just a quiet little brick home overlooking heaven. The fields of grass sloped away and down toward a quiet town. The Russian River shimmered from blue to white in the distance, rays from the setting sun touching the water and setting it afire. Jenn blinked away a tear and looked back at the house, at the brown hills speckled with the emerald highlights of trees.

How could this happen here? she wondered. What exactly had her aunt wrought? Somehow, she had to find out. Because clearly the Pumpkin Man was not confined to River’s End. It was confusing, really. Mostly the murder spree had been confined to a very specific group of people, but the killer had taken her father’s life in Chicago. And it had taken Brian, another innocent. Would she be next? The thought of its shadow looming across her bed as she slept made her shiver.

The house was quiet as Barkiewicz walked them to Kirstin’s room to get her things. Jenn put her arm around her friend’s shoulders as they stopped in the doorway. The room looked cold. All that had changed since the morning was that the bed had been stripped and the body removed, but still their surroundings seemed . . . unfriendly. Jenn squeezed Kirstin’s shoulder in sympathy. The stains of Brian’s blood were still visible on the mattress.

“Go get your stuff,” Kirstin said. “I’ll be okay.” She pulled away from Jenn and got a suitcase from the closet.

Nick, Jenn and Officer Barkiewicz went to Jenn’s room, and she pulled out her own case as Nick sat on the bed.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” Officer Barkiewicz said. “I just want to go down to the basement and let the others know we’re here.”

Jenn piled a couple pairs of pants, a few shirts, some underwear and socks into the suitcase, and then she laid her long white bookworm nightshirt over the top. She closed the case and went into the bathroom to gather her toothbrush, hairbrush and other necessities, which she slipped into the outside compartment; then she stood in the center of the room, surveying her dresser and bed. It was strange to pack when she didn’t know exactly when she was coming back or what she might need in the meantime.

She pulled a jacket from her closet, reopened her case and threw it in. Then she zipped up her luggage and started to carry it to the front room.

“Let me,” Nick said. He deftly removed it from her grip. The gesture made Jenn’s chest feel warm, though she knew it was stupid. But, he really did care. His best friend was dead because of her, but instead of running he had decided to help.

“Thanks,” she said, and watched his back and shoulders as he rounded the corner and stooped to set the bag down near the front door. She liked watching him move.

He turned and caught her gaze. She felt her face flush, but he didn’t react to that. He just bent to kiss her and put his arms around her in a tight squeeze.

“You all right?” she whispered.

He nodded against her shoulder. “But I’ll be better after I hit the head,” he declared, and he broke the embrace, kissing her once on the forehead before he stepped off down the hall.

Jenn stood alone in her aunt’s front room, staring at the shelves of books on the occult. Somewhere in all of that there had to be an answer to what was happening here. But damned if she knew where to look.

She wished that Meredith were around to ask. She’d never really known her aunt. She hadn’t even gone to the funeral, since Holy Name was in the midst of finals at the time. She remembered meeting the woman long ago, and she remembered her aunt as a bit quirky and quiet. But she also remembered a sense of humor. A sense of compassion. If only she could go back in time and talk to her. Get to know her better. Maybe she’d understand some of this.

Jenn walked over to the fireplace. After a glance behind her to confirm that she was still alone in the room, she removed the stone, set it on the floor and slipped her hand into the darkness. From the hole she withdrew the Ouija board and its planchette; then she replaced the rock.

She stared at the simple graven alphabet and doubted herself for a moment. Could it really be this simple?

The sound of Jenn’s suitcase zipper closing cut the air just as Nick and Kirstin both reappeared. Nick was carrying Kirstin’s suitcase. Apparently he practiced equal opportunity chivalry.

“I wanted to be prepared and pack some pretzels and beer, but Nick promised he had plenty,” Kirstin said.

“It’s a bachelor pad,” he agreed. “Brian has a good stash of pornos, too.” Then he realized what he’d said and his face fell.

Jenn rolled her eyes, but for an instant her mind flashed on the stash of magazines she’d thrown away at her dad’s. Men really were all the same.

“Ready to go?” she asked.

“Just give the word,” Nick promised.

“Word,” she answered. If only it were that easy for everything.

Nick deftly removed the suitcase from her hand as soon as she picked it up and shouldered the door open with both hers and Kirstin’s cases in his hands. She stifled a laugh as he stumbled his way forward, determined to muscle all their luggage to the car at once. Kirstin didn’t leave home without three sets of shoes, a barrage of aerosols and a hair dryer that made stylists at her spa jealous.