Under the Full Moon (Crimson Romance) by Bobbi Romans Read Free Book Online Page A

place.”
    How would she explain the unexplainable? People would need to hear what happened, but hell, she wasn’t even sure. Only knew magic played a large role. Grace supposed she could blame the coffee pot. Say the machine acted faulty and pray the good ole boys who volunteered with the fire department wouldn’t be able to prove otherwise. As big as the fire had appeared in her rear view mirror, she doubted much would be left to check at all.
    After warning Beth and getting the assurance her niece sensed no trouble and would head straight to the library, Grace tossed out her feeble story to Faith about the coffee pot and began pushing Faith whether she’d found out anything about the Society. She hated to involve her friend anymore than she already had and hoped Faith bought her second lie about needing the information for an article she was working on about the town.
    Yah, Faith had pulled up information about some of the town’s elders. How rumor spoke many were close to the brink of financial ruin back in the thirties during the Great Depression, but out of the blue became prosperous. Many believed they’d made some pact with the devil as no one else during the time became as well off.
    “Does it mention how many had this run of good fortune?” Grace studied Faith’s expression, which turned serious as she recounted what she’d uncovered.
    “Not specifically. Only that over and over, select members of the town recruited their own to hold office in major areas of the town council. Of those recruited, they, too, would prosper seemingly overnight.”
    “But why would anyone even write that without some sort of proof? I mean, damn, I wouldn’t even begin an article about anyone in the same town I lived in without some sort of hard evidence.”
    “That’s what’s so mind boggling. I dug these out of a box I discovered the other day. The articles never ran. I researched the journalist who wrote them, and the only thing I came up with was how he vanished one day out in the swamps. His articles were buried and never taken to print.”
    “Where did you find the box?”
    “That’s the weirdest part. The box jutted out from behind one of the big wall cabinets down in the older part of the archives. I’ve been down there before, but not often. No one asks for the really old articles anymore. But here’s the thing. I would have run across the box before now. I’m telling you, it didn’t previously sit where I found it.
    “Maybe someone donated the articles recently?”
    “I wondered the same at first, but the box was covered in inches of dust. Enough that had anyone touched the edges at all recently, the smudges would have been visible. There weren’t any. From all appearances, the thing had been sitting there for years, and I know for a fact it wasn’t. Those articles wanted to be found.”
    Grace had to agree. The timing of discovery was rather odd. Maybe the voice who warned her maneuvered the thing out into the open? Stranger things were occurring by the second.
    “How old would the members be now? Eighty? Ninety?” Grace asked, running the numbers through her head. “Could any of them still be around?”
    “Well, there’s weirdness number two. Or are we on three now?” Faith tossed her hands in the air swirling them in circles.”Whatever. Several members just seemingly fell off the planet.”
    “What do you mean fell off?”
    “Well, records reflect them in office. All is well, then poof! — gone. Not another word about them. Or at least a few of them. Originally, thirteen are listed. Of the thirteen, all but three simply stopped being mentioned. The names of those replacing them are written in articles, but nothing else. No retirement information, death notices, nothing.”
    Faith reached for her coffee mug, drew it to her mouth and wrinkled her nose when her lips touched the edge. “Cold,” she muttered, setting the cup down disappointed.
    “Yeah I agree,” she said with a slow nod.