The Evil Inside

“The children, the children hear the words of their elders. Leave! Leave now!”

Jenna hadn’t come unarmed this time. She started to reach beneath her jacket from her weapon.

And that’s when the entire world seemed to come down on her head, and she whirled only quickly enough to see who had come upon her.

The horned god, once again…

Andy Yates and his son were seated in uncomfortable chairs; Jackson had purposely found those that had uneven legs for reasons of interrogation strategy. The light was made as bright as possible, and John Alden faced the table while Jackson and Sam took chairs at each end.

“I don’t understand,” Andy Yates said, bewildered. “A costume was taken from this school and used when Peter Andres was killed? And so you’re questioning all the students-not just David, right?”

“That’s right, Mr. Yates,” John Alden said.

“We were at a football game when Andres was killed,” he said. “I know you can check that out-you’ve probably checked that out. So-”

“So, we also know that David has lied to us,” Sam interrupted.

Andy frowned, looking at his son.

“I didn’t lie!” David said.

“Your friend, Joshua, admitted that he didn’t see Malachi Smith on the day that Earnest Covington was killed,” Jackson said.

“What?” David protested. “Joshua wouldn’t say that.”

“He did,” John Alden said. They’d agreed to keep the questions coming from around the table. Like uncomfortable chairs, question being shot from all directions helped confuse a person who was lying.

“Wait! What does the costume used when Andres was killed have to do with the day Covington was killed?” Yates demanded.

“You see, we’re not looking for one killer. We believe there were two, working in unison to make sure they could provide alibis for the murders,” Sam said.

“Wait, wait,” Andy Yates protested. “You think that-”

“Yes, Mr. Yates. We think your boy might be guilty,” Jackson said.

“We think he’s in a conspiracy with someone else,” John Alden said.

David gasped. “Me! I didn’t murder anyone!”

“But you lied!” Sam told him.

“I didn’t kill anyone!”

“But you did lie!” his father said, looking at his son with a sick expression.

“I lied to protect you!” David Yates said.

“Me!” Yates sounded astounded.

“I saw-I saw-” David said. “You saw what?”

“I saw… I thought it was you…heading into the costume shop after the play last spring. You and mom were there, and then you weren’t, and I thought you just went to speak to the drama teacher, ask her why I didn’t have a better role.”

“I never!” Andy protested, staring at his son.

“Mr. Yates, are you having an affair with your business partner, Samantha Yeager?” John demanded. “You hated Malachi Smith. You blamed him for every problem your son ever had.”

“You blamed him for the stigma of having to see a shrink,” Jackson said.

“And you’d have done anything for Samantha Yeager!” Sam said.

“Wait-what? No! No!” Andy protested. “We were in business, yes, and if Abraham Smith had agreed to sell the place, we would have opened it together. Yes, yes! That’s true. But I-I wasn’t sleeping with her. I swear it.”

“You hired a hit man to kill Jenna Duffy just last night!” Sam said.

“No, no! That wasn’t me-it wasn’t me-” Andy Yates’s protest broke off in a moment of pained silence.

“Dad-” David Yates began.

“Shut up! Shut up!” Yates said. “I want a lawyer. We won’t say another word until we get a lawyer.”

Sam looked at Yates, the way he pulled back, and suddenly he knew. They’d been wrong. They’d been close, but they’d been wrong.

He jerked out of his chair and headed into the hallway. He hadn’t wanted Jenna here today; somehow, he’d just felt she was in danger. He’d been worried sick last night.

But she should be at Jamie’s house-safe. Unless someone called on her.

He dialed quickly. The phone rang and rang, and her voice mail came on. He tried calling Angela, but got her voice mail, too.

Jackson came out to the hallway.

By the time he tried Jamie’s house phone, Sam was already running out of the school. He reached his car, and he didn’t know where he was going. Jackson slid in beside him. He started to jerk the car into gear, and stopped.

There was an old woman standing in front of him. An old woman in costume. Hell, it was Halloween.

“Get out of the way, get out of the way, get out of the way-”

“Who are you talking to? Where are you going?” Jackson demanded.

“The woman! That old hag in the road. Jackson, get her out of the way before I run her down!”

“There’s no one-” Jackson said. “What does she look like?”

“Old. Dressed to the throat. In a cap-what are you talking about? She’s right there!”

“No. She’s just there for you. Start the car. She’ll move.”

“What?”

“Tell me again, who does she look like?”

“An old Puritan woman!” Sam exploded. “Damn you, Jackson, no one is answering a phone. I can’t reach either Angela or Jenna. And it’s not Andy Yates who’s a killer-it’s his wife! ”

“Drive!” Jackson said. “And follow her-she’s here to lead you.”

“To what?”

“Life for the innocent.”

Jenna came to slowly and saw a horned god hovering over her. She tried to move, but couldn’t. She realized that she’d been tied to the sofa downstairs, that she was lying in the chalk outline that denoted the place Abraham Smith had been killed.

“Why couldn’t you have let well enough be?” the horned god asked her. “I never wanted to hurt you…I didn’t want more dead.”

“Shut up, Cindy!” someone behind her said. Jenna knew the voice.

It was that of Samantha Yeager.

“Why? We both came in from the back,” Cindy Yates said, impatient. She pulled off the mask of the horned god and looked at Jenna, serious anxiety in her eyes. “He really is evil, you know. Malachi Smith is evil. His father was evil. This house makes everyone in it evil, you have to understand that.”

“Cindy, come on!” Samantha said. She was wearing the horned god’s cape, like Cindy, but she hadn’t bothered with a mask. “Get a grip! We need to get this over with. I have to get back to the shop or I won’t have an alibi.”

“Well, we’re not going to chop her up,” Cindy said. “It has to be an accident.”

“It won’t be an accident. My partner’s on the cliff right now, watching the house,” Jenna said. Her head hurt. Her mouth seemed to be working only with great effort.

Samantha Yeager chuckled and leaned over her. “No, honey, she’s not watching anything right now.”

“You better pray that you didn’t kill Angela,” Jenna said, trying to keep calm. Except that she had panicked at first and jerked against her binding.

It was loose. And they hadn’t bothered to tie her legs.

“If you hurt her, you’ll have to watch out for Jackson Crow. He’s part Native American, you know. He learned all