Cross Trail Middle School Chapter 23
Edward Clayborne had been cremated and his ashes scattered into the sea just off of the coast of Salem. James didn’t know if it was an occult thing or his hometown or what, but it was a lead that made things that much harder. And he was calling in favors with every branch, so he might as well call Essex County too.
James put the thought that the captain of that branch knew what had happened in Providence and how it had messed up her night out as well, out of his mind and called their main line. “Thank you for calling the Essex County Branch,” a young, cheerful voice greeted him. “This is Melodie, how can I help you?”
So apparently it wasn’t a branch characteristic. “Hi,” he said to Melodie. “This is Captain McManus of the North Worcester County Branch. Could I speak to your captain, please?”
His heart was hammering as he looked at the time on his phone. Seven oh five. Lacey had been missing for about five hours now.
“Just a moment,” Melodie said.
She put him on hold as he waited impatiently outside of his car, which was parked in the Cross Trail Middle School parking lot. Bradley hadn’t said anything about finding anything inside the school yet, but James didn’t figure it was likely the girl was there. If anything, the school was only necessary in case there was a whole wardrobe in there that needed to be burned.
He drummed his fingers on the hood of his car, trying to ignore the rain coming down on his hair and jacket. There wasn’t much he could do at the moment that the others weren’t already doing. He’d look through the creek and around the school for now while he waited for more information from Gabs. If there were signs of Lacey anywhere around here, he’d find them. But that felt as unlikely as the school itself
It was the house. It had to be his house. If that was where Clayborne left the original kid, then that was where Lacey was going to be. But for all James knew, the guy had lived off-grid in a cabin that collapsed down the side of a cliff in New Hampshire seventeen years ago.
“Captain Fournier speaking.”
“It’s James McManus,” he said. “I’m sorry to ask, but I need a huge favor.”
“Yeah, anything.”
That almost stopped James short. He was always willing to work with other branches, but “anything” was a hard sell. “We’re dealing with a case with a girl that went missing about five hours ago,” he said. “It’s connected with a spirit that she and two other kids summoned in a local middle school.”
“Oh no.”
“The spirit they summoned was the ghost of a man who kidnapped a child back in the eighties,” James continued. “We’re looking for the location he left the original child at, but while we’re searching, I was also considering his burial place. He was scattered off the coast of Salem.”
“We’ve had cases like that before,” Captain Fournier – Roxanne – said. “One man had his ashes scattered here too. They all do, I swear. In that case, it was an exorcism that got rid of him because there was nothing left to burn. There was one eight or nine years ago too, where the spirit was haunting a nearby home and the ashes were scattered. Destroying a necklace was what did it. I don’t remember all the details on that one, but Bradley might. Check with him.”
That was a relief, they were on the right track with the items. “I have Bradley digging through a school drama club prop closet right now, looking for things to burn,” James said.
“You’re too good to him.”
Despite everything, James laughed. “What I really need to ask though, is if you have someone to spare to search for the missing girl in Salem,” he said. “On the off chance that she’s holed up there somewhere. She’s been missing for five hours now, so it’s possible.”
A kid couldn’t walk to Salem on her own from Leominster in that time, but if magic was involved, she could. Or someone could drive her. It’d be simple enough to get a kid as small as Lacey out of Leominster, especially if she wasn’t moving of her own volition.
James swallowed hard and continued. “I don’t know this guy’s connection to the city. It could be that he’s got family there, or it could be that he’s a creepy occultist and Salem just sounded nice to him.”
“Yeah, we’ve gotten plenty of those too,” Roxanne said. “There’s three of us on right now and I’ve got the other two already assigned to things that have to happen tonight.”
James’s heart fell. “But I can head over there,” Roxanne continued. “It’ll take me about fifteen minutes to get into the city, as long as it isn’t too busy. I can start over at Salem Willows and work my way around the coastline.”
That was too much to ask, to have the captain of another team out shining flashlights into holes on the beach for him. “Captain-” James started, but she cut him off as she spoke to someone else.
“I’ll stay on comms,” she said away from the receiver. “Yeah, tell him I’ll talk to him tomorrow instead. Do you know where the flashlights went? Great. Alright, Captain,” she said back into the receiver. “I’ll leave now. Is this your cell?”
“Y-yeah.”
“I’ll update you.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
He’d address that little flare of guilt he felt at his strange feelings toward Bradley still being so happy to spend time with her instead of his current team later. And also keep in mind the fact that he now owed her an enormous professional favor.
Gabriella still hadn’t called, so James headed into the woods. There was a large field between the parking lot and the street. Toward the side of that was a long stretch of woods that connected to the Leominster State Forest. This meant that the entire forest was at play. Should he get Graham out here too?
Not yet. He’d start here and see. Chances were good that the cops were already out here as well, so they probably had the woods covered better than James and his team ever could.
He was completely soaked about ten minutes later. He wasn’t sure if it was his body shivering or his phone buzzing in his pocket several times, so he kept pulling it out to see. Thankfully it wasn’t cold outside and his battery was still high, so he was in good shape overall except for the fact that he was wet. The patch of woods was also smaller than he’d anticipated, with homes cut out of the trees, their neat yards also a potential hiding place for a small kid.
He searched for an hour, staying on comms with Madelyn, who had no updates to offer. Roxanne texted a few times to update him on her search. So did Bradley. And when his phone finally rang, he grabbed it.
“I found an address,” Gabriella said as soon as he answered. “It’s in Leominster. Eight-Twelve Union Drive.”
“I’m going there now,” James said as a thin tree branch scraped across his face. “Any information on the property?”
“Not really,” she said. “It’s big and wooded and it looks like there’s a couple structures on it. I can’t tell how old. But it doesn’t look occupied.”
“Thanks.”
James hung up and turned to head back toward the school. For a heart-stopping second, he thought he was lost. The parking lot was long out of sight and the trees all looked the same as the rain weighed down their leaves. But as he got his bearings, he could see the path again and he ran down it, relieved as the scenery remained familiar.
“Hey, Madelyn?” he said over comms.
“I’m here, what’s up?”
“I’m heading to Union Drive now, so I’ll keep the comms on. I have no idea what to expect when I get there.”
He was about a quarter of a mile down the path when something knocked him off his feet and he landed hard in the mud. At first he thought maybe he’d tripped on a root he’d missed in the rain, but as he looked up, he could see the shimmering outline of a man in the raindrops. While he couldn’t see anything except the outline, that was so clear that James could see the brim of a hat.
“Edward?” he said, getting to his feet.
And then he was gone. “Guys,” James said as he adjusted his comms. “Did you see that?”
“There was someone there, wasn’t there?” Madelyn asked. “I didn’t see it clearly, but there was something.”
“I’m just going to keep moving,” James said. “Bradley, how are you doing?”
“I’m still backstage,” Bradley said, his voice slightly muffled. “But I’m-”
He swore violently, suddenly, then went silent. “What is it?” James demanded. “What’s going on?”
“Bradley, get out of there!” Madelyn yelled.
“Guys, what the fuck is happening?”
James was running down the path now, his feet sinking into the mud as the school came into sight. He could hear the creaking sound loudly over comms, louder than it should have been. “He hanged himself back here,” Bradley said.
“I know,” James said. “Get out, like she said.”
“I just watched him hang himself.”
“Get out!”
More creaking and James realized with dread that he knew that sound from Penny’s EVP. “He’s swinging between me and the goddamn door,” Bradley whispered.
Just like the kids. James swore. “Alright,” he said. “Is he aware of you? He was definitely aware of me on the trail.”
“Yeah, he is,” Madelyn said.
“He’s smiling at me.”
James was running full-tilt toward the school. “I’m on the grounds,” he said breathlessly, mentally running through his options here.
There weren’t many. If this spirit had Bradley pinned backstage, James could try to cast him out. Or Bradley could make a run for it. From personal experience, he knew that having a spirit move through your body was uncomfortable, but not harmful. At least if you weren’t psychic, which apparently came with its own vague rules for everything.
Likely why Bradley hadn’t done it yet.
He could see Bradley’s car parked by the auditorium entrance. “I’m on my way, I promise,” James said.
“I’ve got it.”
There was a burst of pissed off Latin over comms, then static interference that had James wanting to cover his ears. Then the side door of the auditorium burst open and Bradley was running out.
“I couldn’t get rid of him,” he said, teeth chattering as James got closer. “I just ran through him. Fuck, goddammit, it’s cold.”
James shrugged off his soaked jacket and handed it to him, for all the good it would do. Bradley took it. “There wasn’t a ton, but there were artifacts back there,” he said, his whole body shaking with violent shivers as they walked toward James’s car. “An old jacket, a shoe, and a pair of pants. He had a fucking go bag backstage under a goddamn floorboard. And I ran through him and I could see, just for a second. There was a little boy in a tiny room. I think that’s where he took her, but I didn’t see anything else.”
“We have an address,” James said. “I’m going to go there.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“No, we need to get anything that was in there burned. I’ll go to the house, you burn the clothes.”
“I burned it all already.”
“You burned the props closet?” Mr. Lopez was going to kick them out of drama club next.
“No, j-jackass, just the things that were clearly not middle school props,” Bradley said as he followed James into his car. “I went behind the school and burned them. Then I went back in to double check and that’s when he got me.”
“You’re sure that’s everything?”
“Yeah. I burned a few extra things for good measure.”
“And the fire’s out?”
“It is.”
“And you’re okay?”
He seemed like it, so James didn’t argue when he nodded, his teeth chattering.
“I’ll stay on comms the whole time,” Madelyn said. “Graham’s taking over triaging the stuff that’s coming in.”
They couldn’t completely ignore what was going on beyond this, but James found himself about to tell Graham not to bother. Instead, he just said, “Thanks.”
James started the car and turned the heat up as far as it would go. He was dripping sweat almost immediately, but Bradley’s lips were slightly blue as he shivered in the passenger seat. He shrugged off James’s jacket and replaced it with a worn, but dry, towel from the back seat.
“Gabriella found his address,” James explained as he started driving. “I don’t know for sure that this is where the first kid was, but it’s the most likely place. The other option is Salem, since his ashes were scattered there.”
Bradley scoffed. “Of f-fucking course,” he said.
“Captain Fournier is checking there,” James said as he reached over to briskly rub Bradley’s back through the towel. “She said she’ll call and let me know how it goes.”
He expected Bradley to be as surprised as he was that the captain of another branch would drop everything to be the one out searching in the rain. But Bradley just nodded as he shifted closer to the heating vent. “She texted me,” he said. “I doubt Lacey’s in Salem though, that would involve getting her there. He’d have to have a human accomplice to kidnap her and drive her there, or maybe use some kind of…”
Bradley faltered. “Mind control,” James finished. “I thought of that too. But it was the second most likely location and I didn’t have anything from Gabs yet. Can you text Captain Fournier and tell her we’re checking the first location now?”
He didn’t want to think about a defenseless kid being mind-controlled to get herself across the state. Or how that would even work. That would probably require a human accomplice too, wouldn’t it?
They needed to find Lacey, and fast.
