Page 59 of The Executioners Three
“Great. Then let’s all meet at the Friedmans’ dry cleaners in ten minutes. Does that work?”
“Sure thing. See you in ten.” The call went dead (oh, the wonders of technology!) and after slipping Sabrina into her pocket and checking that Xena was safely attached, Freddie set off once more into the autumn morning.
13
It was seven o’clock, and Freddie’s eyes were crossing. She’d come home after prepping for tomorrow’s prank with her friends, and since then, she’d done nothing but readThe Curse of Allard Fortin: How Murder Shaped His Legacy.In other words, she hadn’t opened her English or APUSH homework.
Unfortunately, she doubted her teachers would accept “saving Berm from a potential murderer” as an excuse for not turning in essays.
InThe Curse of Allard Fortin,Edgar Fabre (yes, Freddie had, in fact, remembered the name correctly) described a diary from his blacksmith ancestor—thesameblacksmith ancestor whose journals on bellfounding had allowed Mom to re-create the Allard Fortin mausoleum bell. Fabre claimed there’d been one more diary, and this one described a dark curse that José Allard Fortin had cast over three of his servants. And it was through this curse that he had murdered his way into being the most powerful man in the region.
Real penny-dreadful-worthy stuff. Definitely good source material for anX-Filesepisode, complete with blood oaths and unkillable Executioners to boot.
Unfortunately, also impossible, since—ya know—spirits and blood oaths and curses weren’t real.
All the same, that didn’t mean someone very real couldn’t be inspired by such tales. And Freddie was really starting to think that she might have found the key connective tissue for her killer here.
The sound of a car door slamming drew Freddie out of her frowning thoughts. She blinked. Rubbed her eyes. Then scrabbled from bed toward her window, where, like a total creep, she peeled back her blinds and squinted at Sheriff Bowman’s house.
Theo Porter was standing outside his car. He wasn’t walking toward his aunt’s front door, but he was instead staring at Freddie’s house. Even from here, Freddie could see the bruises marring his Romeo face.
A scrub of his hair. A shift of his weight. A glance toward Bowman’s door. A glance toward Freddie’s house. Thenfinally,he slid his hands into his pockets and loped toward the front porch.
Freddie’s lungs loosened. Distantly, she noticed her room had gotten hot.
“What are we looking at?” Mom whispered.
Freddie jumped halfway to the ceiling. “Oh mygod,where did you come from?”
“Oh, I see,” Mom said, pressing in close to the window. “We’re looking at the sheriff’s nephew.”
Jeez, dideveryoneknow Theo was related to Bowman? Freddie’s heart thundered in her ears. She glanced at her bed, where her archives contraband sat in plain view.
“You should go see him,” Mom murmured, still gazing out the window.
“Huh?” Freddie laughed a bit too forcefully. “Why would I do that?”
“Because you like him.”
“I like Kyle Friedman.”
“Really?” Mom snorted. “So you just made out with Theo onstage because…?”
“To prove a point!” Freddie’s hands flew to her burning cheeks.
“Wow.” Mom shot her a flat-eyed stare. “If that’s how you kiss to prove a point, I can’t wait to see how you kiss someone you like.”
“Can we please stop talking about this?” Freddie grabbed her mom’s elbow, hoping to lead her from the room. “I like Kyle Friedman, and that’s the end of the story. He’s nice, he’s beautiful, he’s popular—”
“And maybe if you say it enough, you’ll start believing it.”
Freddie glared. Mom grinned.
But then she caught sight of the archives book on Freddie’s bed. “The Curse of Allard Fortin,” she read. Then she flipped free from Freddie’s grasp and hurried to the bed. “Where did you get this? I thought all copies of this book had been pulped.”
Freddie blinked. This wasnotwhat she’d expected Mom to say. Andif Mom didn’t realize it had come from the archives… then there was no reason for Freddie to implicate herself now.
“The library,” Freddie half squeaked. “I got it from… the library. What do you mean it was pulped?”
