Monday
The next day after school they met with Officer Bishop and he gave them the files. He told them they were copies and they wouldn’t be missed. He reminded them that he could get in trouble if the files were found so he wanted them shredded or burned. He trusted the kids and told them to call him if they felt they were in danger or needed him for anything. They thanked him and then they went to the library.
At the library Miss. Simon took them to the back room. They put all the research on the table. Erin worked on her map, marking the location of
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each death. Teddy read the backgrounds of the victims. Erin told Miss. Simon about the potion. She told her that she would like to have it and asked if she knew someone that could make it. Miss. Simon said there were some witches in the group. She called a member of the group who knew one of the witches.
Erin finished her map and called the others to have a look.
“Do you think we have a pattern? It looks like a circle to me,” said Erin.
“Yeah I see it. It’s a circle. Lets connect the points. Start with the first death draw a line to the second and so on,” said Teddy.
Erin used a ruler and started connecting the points. At the fifth point she stopped.
“Look at that. If I connect the fifth point with the first point we’d have a star like we used to make when we were little,” said Erin.
“Wait a minute Erin. Don’t connect any more points. I know that symbol. It’s a double pentagram,” said Miss. Simon.
Miss. Simon pulled one of her old books off a shelf. She opened it and pointed to the symbol in the book. She slowly flipped the pages until she found what she was looking for. She read a passage to the kids,
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“...And when the blood of the last victim is spilled a gateway will open and unleash an army of evil to punish innocent...”
“Something is using the girl’s spirit to open a portal. You can’t let her kill the tenth victim or the portal will open. At least we know where it will happen,” said Miss. Simon.
Miss. Simon looked at the map. She moved the ruler and marked an X.
“Right here. Saturday,” said Miss. Simon.
“We have where, when and why. We need who and what. I think I can help with who. The backgrounds of the victims have something in common. Each of them has a police record. Shoplifting, forgeries, disturbing the peace, nothing major but they all have been convicted of a crime. Maybe someone at that location has a record,” said Teddy.
“It’s worth looking into. Write down the address and we’ll check it out,” said Erin.
Miss. Simon wrote down the address and gave it to Erin. She said the witch would make the vanquishing potion but it would take a couple of days. The witch needed at least a day to make the concoction and then she would express mail it to the library. The kids thanked her for helping and packed up their research and went home.
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At home Teddy was curious about the address. He asked Erin for it and they went into his room. He looked it up on the computer through the city property records. Erin recognized the name.
“That’s Alyssa’s house. She lives with her grandparents. I’ve been there before,” said Erin.
“Do you know if they have ever been in trouble with the law?” asked Teddy.
“I doubt it, their really nice people, but I don’t know for sure,” said Erin.
“I’ll look it up,” said Teddy.
“Don’t do it now. Wait until tomorrow or something. I don’t want to know,” said Erin.
“Alright but we can’t put it off for long. We’re down to five days,” said Teddy.
Teddy was about to call it a day when he remembered the chart. He recalled that the ’05 case was closed but the file wasn’t posted. He pulled out the files Officer Bishop had provided. He got the ’05 file and started reading the incident report.
It said that a car left the road and hit a telephone pole. The pole struck a pedestrian who was killed instantly. The car left the scene and wasn’t located. It said that CSI gathered glass and paint samples of the vehicle. They knew the make,
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model and year or the vehicle. It stated the case was open and active.
Teddy realized the ’05 death was classified wrong. It wasn’t a car accident it was a hit and run. He took out his chart and moved the ’05 death to the hit and run column.
Now the chart made sense to him. It was a pattern and if it continued the next death would be a murder. He had found the what. Who was the only question remaining. Who would be murdered?
A murder at Alyssa’s house on Saturday by a poltergeist that’s controlled by something that wants to release an army of evil on earth.
Hard to believe he though but he had seen things before that were hard to believe. He told Erin he would wait to check into Alyssa’s family so he packed up and called it a day.