Page 67 of A Curse On Black Lake
“Come on, this way,” Killian says, leading me to a back corner.
He pulls out a chair at a small table in the corner, and gestures for me to sit. “Stay right here. I’ll be back.” I nod and look around, feeling significantly out of place. It’s been a while since I’ve been here. Looking over my shoulder at the shelf, I see Lisa Cordreaux and Betty Templeton whispering and pointing at me.
I shoot a glare at them and flip them off.
Lisa gasps, pressing her hand to her chest.
I face the table again, and my hand goes through my hair self-consciously. Every bit of me wants to get up and storm out of here, maybe throw a fake curse at them. But all of that feels wrong now, especially because there is a real curse over Black Lake, and for some reason I have something to do with it. Regardless, Killian is right. I need to stop egging them on. I’m not helping myself.
Killian returns with a stack of newspapers. “I got the past two years from the dates I could remember off the top of my head. If we don’t find anything here, we might have to go back close to ten years.”
My eyes bug out. “Ten years? They aren’t going to tolerate me being here that long,” I whisper to him, while throwing my thumb behind me.
He looks up, spotting the two women, and glares at them. I don’t check behind me to see if they left, but he seems satisfied enough.
“You take these. I’ll go through these,” he says.
“Shhh!” Old man Thomas glares at both of us and especially Killian before he goes back to his book.
I purse my lips trying to keep the laugh in, but I snort anyway. Killian winks at me, and I laugh as silently as I can. But not quiet enough because Thomas is shooting fire from his eyes at me.
We go through the newspapers Killian found, and I don’t see anything of note. No articles about a woman who was killed in Black Lake like the one Killian explained. But there are many mentions of body dumps along Route 96 by the shore of the lake.
“Anything?” Killian asks.
“I’m not sure. There’s a woman they found along Route 96 who was strangled. But that’s it,” I whisper.
Killian grabs the paper and reads the small article. It doesn’t have much, but it might jog his memory. He tilts his head and rubs his beard, trying to remember.
“Did it shake anything loose?” I ask him.
He curses under his breath and folds up the newspapers. “Unfortunately, strangulation isn’t an uncommon cause of death, and I saw it too many times. Plus, it would be hard to link to the killer, but I’ll keep it in the back of my mind.”
“Don’t they have fingerprints or a way to look it up?” I ask him.
“That’s sort of a misnomer because if we were to get fingerprints and run them, the database would have to have the prints already on file. If this guy hasn’t ever been arrested, then he likely won’t be in there.”
“Oh, back to square one, I guess”.
Killian puffs out a breath and shakes his head, starting to gather the newspapers.
“I shouldn’t be surprised. We were very careful with details, especially when the Sentinel came sniffing around. Let’s get going,” he says, taking the newspapers to where they belong.
When he comes back for me, his hand slides to my lower back, leading me out of the library. Charlotte Redding glares at me andthen her features immediately soften when she sees Killian. He doesn’t pay her a lick of attention as he looks forward, while his large hand is spread across my back. I can’t help myself and toss her a wink as Killian holds the door open for me.
Before the door closes, she huffs, and I smile to myself.
“You’re just making it worse, little witch,” he murmurs.
“And you’re giving people something to talk about, cowboy,” I tell him.
He glances at me, and the corner of his mouth tips up. “Might as well make it good. They were going to talk anyway.”
My lips split into a smile, and he helps me back into the truck.
“I find it interesting how some people —womendon’t seem to care about what you’ve done.”
Kilian shrugs.
