Chapter 19
Walker
After talking to Nick, he’d confirmed my worst fear after reading the Banshee’s mind. That was his talent. He’d always been able to extract information from latent memories. It was what made him so good at being a shrink.
The Banshee had been living for some time down in the Devil’s Pit and no matter how hard Nick had tried, he still didn’t know her name. After promising to look for her things, he’d eventually agreed to leave and lead the camera crew away. His only goal now was to help his patient figure out who she is and why she’d been in the Pit to begin with.
I lowered myself inch by inch down into the Devil’s Pit toward the flares lighting the bottom. My brother Hugh was the daredevil of our bunch on the pulley next to me. My feet touched, and I unhooked.
“Find anything,” Destiny called from above. Her voice bounced off the rock and dirt walls.
“Give me a few minutes,” I answered. My mouth fell open, my blinking slowed, and I remained completely still while the realization of what I was looking at sank in. Skulls and bones littered the ground like trash. How had I not known they were here?
I swallowed hard as my stomach twisted in knots, and I finally let my gaze wander over the other items. Ripped and dirty clothing, old backpacks with outdated designs, empty cans and jars, all of it a forensic tech’s wet dream.
“This is unbelievable,” I whispered, unable to hold it in.
One of the walls was scored with what looked like claw marks in it. I ran my finger down one of the indentions before I could stop myself. My heart tightened. “At least one was alive when they were either left for dead or fell in.”
“Maybe it was the Banshee.” My brother joined me at the scratches on the wall. “It’s more than that. Someone was living down here. Come look.”
I followed him toward the other wall, where scratch marks covered the stone and where a tree root was hanging down. He pointed to an area where water dripped from a root, with a patch of fabric attached. “I think that might be how the Banshee got out. I can’t even imagine…”
His words trailed off. He didn’t need to finish his thought. That woman was living down here at one time. It was evident. How long and how she’d survived was unthinkable.
I took out my phone and snapped pictures of the area, sending them to Sheriff Weller before my brother and I reattached to the pulley and worked our way back up.
“Well?” Destiny asked as I was climbing out of the hole.
“There’s no need to dig. Everything is lying on the surface.” My stomach twisted as I showed her the pictures I’d taken.
Blood drained from Destiny’s face and she fell to her knees. She stared at the phone as if it held her own death sentence.
“Oh my God. How could he do this?”
“Who?” my brother asked.
“You don’t know he did anything yet,” I said, ignoring my brother. “Forensics will tell us what happened to those people.”
My phone rang, and she handed me back the phone. I answered. It was Sheriff Weller. “Are you freaking serious? God damn it, Walker.”
I knew the feeling. This was my mountain. “Judging by the looks of some of the items down there, some of this had to be here since we were kids. I know the ghosts have been here that long.”
Sheriff Weller sighed. “Secure the area as best you can until I can get a deputy to you.”
“You’re going to need to call in reinforcements. The reporter, Putnam, from our search, has already been up here with a film crew, but we ran them off before we went down. I’m sure they’ll try and sneak back before long,” I said.
“Film crew. Well now, how exactly would he even have any idea the bones were in the Pit?”
“He didn’t. He says he was there to get the Banshee’s belongings.”
“You’re kidding me.”
I shrugged even though he couldn’t see me and stepped away from the others and lowered my voice. Not everyone knew my brother Nick could pull memories out of minds. “Apparently Nick believes she’s been living there. Stop by the cabin when you get things situated, and I’ll bring you up to speed on the Banshee.”
“You can’t tell him the real reason we were up here.” Destiny’s voice had me spinning around. How much of that had she heard?
“I’ll call you later,” I said before hanging up. I held out my hand to Destiny. “He’s a cop. He needs to know what we know about all of this. Otherwise, more people could get hurt.”
There was something in her eyes I’d yet to be able to read. It was more like a resigned understanding. The hysteria was gone, replaced with something akin to grief.
