The Suicide Forest (The River Book 5) by Michael Richan Read Free Book Online Page A

be here?”
    June looked worried. “Well, she’s here in the mornings until
10. If you come before then, you should run into her. Should I tell her you’re
coming?”
    “No,” Roy said. “I’ll explain everything to her when we
arrive. Let’s go, Steven.”
    “Are you sure you need to involve her?” June asked. “I was
hoping we could keep her out of this.”
    “I’m sure,” Roy said.
    He must not want to explain in front of June , Steven thought. He rose from the
sofa and followed Roy as they made their way out the front door, said their
goodbyes to June, and got in Steven’s car.
    “So?” Steven asked. “Did you find it?”
    “The only thing I saw,” Roy said. “Was the daughter. And I
have a hard time believing I needed to be naked to see that.”
    “She’s the opening?” Steven asked. “She’s the Ouija board?”
    “Don’t know,” Roy said. “But I can tell you I don’t care for
the vibe I got. The trance was very uncomfortable, just like the last one.”
    “Now you know how I feel,” Steven said. “That’s the vibe I
get whenever we’re in there. So I’m guessing the token worked – no threat to
June’s life this time?”
    “None,” Roy said. “But this trance Judith had me do was very
specific. I might have seen more had I just conducted a regular trance. I would
have tried one, after I was done with hers, but like I said, the vibe was very
bad. I just wanted to get out.”
    “What now?” Steven asked. “Go back tomorrow and pick up that
lantern, then back out to Gig Harbor?”
    “And meet with her daughter tomorrow,” Roy said. “See what
she knows.”
     
    ◊
     
    “I’d like to talk to you, but I’m in a hurry,” Evelyn
Williamson said after shaking both Roy and Steven’s hands. She turned to go
into the kitchen.
    “We need a moment of your time,” Roy said. “In the interest
of the safety of your mother and your son.”
    Evie walked back from the kitchen. “What is this?” she asked.
“Some kind of threat?”
    “We’re not the threat,” Steven said. “Something in the house
is.”
    Evie rolled her eyes and walked back into the kitchen.
“You’re both wasting your time, and I have to be somewhere in ten minutes.”
    “Evie,” June said, following her back into the kitchen, “please
listen to them. They know what they’re doing.”
    “Why are you holding your hands like that?” Edie asked her
mother.
    Steven and Roy followed June into the kitchen. Edie was
pulling leftovers from the refrigerator and placing them in a padded lunch bag.
She saw them enter the room and stopped.
    “Really?” she asked them. “Now?”
    “It’s important,” Steven said. “People have already been
hurt.”
    “Whatever,” she said, resuming her packing, “Talk while I get
ready. I’m going to be late.”
    “You don’t work until 10,” June said. “Why are you packing up
so early?”
    “I have appointments,” Evie said, grabbing a briefcase from
off the floor and placing it on the kitchen island. She opened it and began
ruffling through folders inside.
    “Your mother asked for our help,” Roy said. “We’ve been
looking into the bangings.”
    “What bangings?” she said, her focus on the briefcase and the
papers she was shuffling.
    “We’ve heard them,” Roy said, “and your mother has heard
them. So has your son. They were both attacked the other day, you can still see
the bruises on your mother. Your son’s room was ransacked. There’s something
wrong here.”
    “There’s nothing wrong here,” Evie said, continuing to move
papers around in her briefcase. “My mother fell, and Robbie needs to clean his
room.”
    “We know you have the gift,” Steven said. “Both Roy and I
have it too.”
    She turned to her mother. “Why did you invite them here? You
know how I feel about these things.”
    “We need the help, Evie,” June said. “I know you don’t want
to see it, but there’s something wrong here. Your father would have known