Page 69 of Magic Betrayed

“Why would someone build a Victorian mansion down a dirt road in the middle of the woods?”

“Ah, but they didn’t.” Seamus’s whole face brightened. “The house originally stood here in the city, near where Deep Deuce is now. It was built right after the turn of the twentieth century, by an immigrant who made his fortune selling lumber and was a crucial part of the push to move the state capital from Guthrie to Oklahoma City.”

The wolf shifter clearly loved history, and I wished we had time to explore it. But now that we had a location, we needed to hurry.

“So it’s close by?” I prompted.

“Ah, but that’s the ironic thing. When Abner Haversmith died, his daughter lived in the house for years, but she had no children, and after her own death, it started falling apart. There was a push by the city to restore and preserve it as an important piece of Oklahoma History, but there weren’t enough investors. Until the Williams family decided to make it into a museum and moved it out to their property… just outside of Guthrie.”

That was odd. “Then this can’t be the right place,” I pointed out. “Why would anyone be kidnapping people to a museum?”

“It never actually opened as a museum. Before the restoration was fully complete, the project had to be stopped for lack of funds. The last of the Williams family moved away about forty years ago, and the property has been technically abandoned ever since.”

“Then how is it still standing?”

“For twenty years or so, it was pretty well known among squatters as a place to hole up,” Seamus admitted with a grimace. “There were a number of high-profile drug busts out there until it was used as a location for shooting a horror film around fifteen years ago. Since the renaissance of the film industry in OKC, the Williams’ heirs have put up a fence and tried to raise interest in the house as an atmospheric location for period films, but that fizzled out, and last I heard, they were planning to have it torn down to prevent lawsuits by injured trespassers.”

All of this would have been interesting if my brain hadn’t been racing ahead to the logistics of a rescue.

“Given the house’s history, do we think local law enforcement will intervene if they see or hear anything odd in that area?”

The bartender hesitated. “Hard to say. If there’s any reason to believe magic is involved, my guess is they’ll stay well away, but that doesn’t guarantee they won’t show up to check things out.”

And possibly get hurt in the process. So we needed to keep it quiet.

“Anything else we should be aware of? Many neighbors close by?”

“The house is on a thirty acre plot outside of Guthrie proper, and pretty much everyone in town thinks it’s haunted. So on a summer weekend, we might have a handful of teens or tourists out there climbing fences and poking around, but less likely in January.”

“Haunted?” I raised an eyebrow. First Bigfoot and now ghosts. “Do that many people actually believe in that stuff?”

“It’s Guthrie.” Seamus shrugged wryly. “The most haunted town in Oklahoma. Whether the residents truly believe in it or not, there’s nothing they love better than a good ghost story.”

A good ghost story…

The glimmer of an idea began to form.

“Seamus, what do you think the kidnappers would do if a crew of ghost hunters showed up at the house looking for a story?”

From the way his eyes narrowed, I was pretty sure he caught my drift.

“They’d want to be as quiet as possible. Give the hunters any hint of an actual haunting and they’ll be relentless. Plus, they’re always trying to catch things on film, so their video cameras will have night vision. Would probably result in a lockdown.”

“So if they’re locked down and watching the ghost hunters, someone really quiet might be able to sneak in.”

The wolf shifter began to look thoughtful.

“We could tip someone off,” I continued. “Find some amateur hunters just begging for a break and hope they make as big a fuss as possible.” Given what I’d seen on that Bigfoot forum, there was no shortage of candidates for the job.

But Seamus shook his head. “Too dangerous. Can’t afford for a couple of reckless idiots to get hurt if things go sideways. But I think I can do better than that.”

“No.” Kira was beginning to look horrified. “You wouldn’t.”

Wouldn’t what?

“Two of our people are missing,” Seamus reminded her grimly. “So yes, I would. I’d do it for you, I’d do it for any of us.”

“Hold on—what are we talking about?” There was no way I wanted Seamus paying some hideous personal price for my half-baked plan.

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