Page 52 of The Girl on Hallow's Eve

I wait for a few moments before Keilan answers.

“Agent Griffin. This is a pleasant surprise. What can I do for you?” he asks.

“I was hoping you’d be able to get me some information about the mall’s development plans,” I say.

“The development plans?” he asks. “What do you mean?”

“I spoke to Cary Rainey about the land that was purchased for the mall. I think it could be critically important to understanding what happened. Somebody told me recently people are keeping secrets, and I think some of those secrets have to do with ownership of the land and how it is being used. But I can’t test my theory. Cary said you would be able to show me some previews of expansion plans that are underway.”

“Oh,” Keilan says with a laugh. “Yes. Of course. I’m sorry. I wasn’t understanding you. Of course, I can show those to you. I think you’ll agree they are very exciting.”

“Can I meet you at your office in an hour?” I ask.

“Absolutely. I’ll see you then.”

I rush for a fast shower and am back on the road in ten minutes. Beside me in the passenger seat is a stack of papers and pictures Elias Carver gave me. Scans of them are back with Sam at the library, where George is helping him research each of the images and the documents. I’m hoping the plans Keilan has to show me will confirm my suspicion about the large plot of land they bought from Elias and the tunnels beneath the mall.

When I arrive at the office, the plans are already spread out on a conference table.

“Thank you so much for doing this at the last second,” I say.

Keilan shrugs and waves his hand like he’s pushing away the thanks. “It’s not a problem. I look forward to sharing them with you. From the very beginning, the plan for Village Square was multi-phase. We want to be able to offer our guests enhancements for years to come. That’s why we purchased all this land. It ensures we have all of the resources we need to move rapidly and adjust to demands in the marketplace as we see them. To maximize that, much of the crucial infrastructure for the future expansion was completed with the first phase.”

We walk over to the map and he shows me the future plans. I watch him point out the outlines of the future expansion and possible further uses of the space now used only for landscaping. I thank him for all the information and head back to Sam and George. The hour drive feels shorter with my brain churning as fast as it is. I’m not there yet. There are still questions, still pieces missing. But I feel like I’m getting close.

“What did you find out?” I ask as I rush into the room with the guys.

“Look at this,” Sam says, gesturing over pieces of paper organized across the table. “All of these things are lining up. You said Elias told you the land hadn’t been any benefit to him in a long time.”

“Which means it was at one point. I know he had a working farm. He told me my grandparents used to bring me to his pumpkin patch in the fall. I don’t remember it. But he said I would sit on an old horse. Which means that the pumpkin patch had to be close to the barn, right?”

“Right. But probably not the one you’re thinking about,” George says.

“What do you mean?”

“Briar Hill used to be part of the larger piece of land. If you look at the main farm and then the piece that everyone considers abandoned, there’s a small section of woods. The reason it’s not identified as either part of the larger farm that was sold to the developers or the abandoned plot is because that is where the original house stood. It isn’t land, it was a structure.

“There are cemeteries on Briar Hill because the family would have been buried close to the home. Colby was killed by his own horse, not one of the ones used for farm work. Those horses were kept in a different stable on the larger part of the land. But the farm only took up a small portion of that land. The rest was used for various businesses that were extremely successful in their day, long before you would have gone there to pick your Halloween pumpkin.”

He points out some of the pictures on the table.“Probably the oldest business that stood on the land was a tavern. Travelers would come by here, tired, and would stop for a bite to eat and a drink. Maybe a place to spend the night. From there, they opened a small brewery. A grocery store. A bakery. Even a small shop that sold yarn made from the fleece of the sheep raised here.”

“They were doing a lot,” I say. Something is tickling the back of my mind and I’m waiting for it to come to the surface. “What are all the documents?”

George and Sam exchange glances.

“Evidence I collected when I was researching the missing people linked to the area,” George explains. “Some of it is also public record. There are letters, diary entries, notes in datebooks, and even a few letters that indicate the specific locations those people were visiting. They have several different addresses and reference points. It wasn’t really all that uncommon a long time ago for there not to be a specific postal address but a common location, like the church in a town or the local hotel.

“I was never able to make the connections before, but every one of these is something that once stood on this land. The tavern. One family received a letter mentioning it, another sent me a diary entry saying their loved one had heard about the tavern and planned to stop there, and another used it as where they were going for work. The brewery, the apple orchard, the mill, the general store. All points that are mentioned using either their old addresses which have changed over and over due to rezoning and renaming of locations, landmarks, or references that can be assumed to mean these locations.”

“So, dozens of people have gone missing over the years and many of them have direct links to this land,” I say.

“That’s right,” George nods.

“Elias said the rest of his family separated. That they haven’t been a part of each other’s lives in a long time. Do we know anything about the rest of the family? Or even his son Colby’s child? Elias said right after Colby died, his girlfriend took their child and left, and he hasn’t heard from them since. How about his oldest son?”

“Do you think that old man and his boy could have done this?” Sam asks.

“No. Elias was relieved to leave the land. He said it’s too full of bad memories. He wants a new life.”

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