Penned In - Lynn Cahoon Page 0,21
to wake you in five minutes. How’d you sleep?”
When Felicia didn’t answer, Angie looked up and saw Nancy staring at her. “Go back to bed. You have another hour to sleep.”
“I didn’t mean for this to happen. The one that acted is not acting in my name.” Nancy said.
Frowning, Angie looked up from her cards. Nancy looked pale under the low light. “What are you talking about? You feeling okay?”
“The first murder was my fault. I was angry. He got me pregnant then promised I’d be able to keep the baby. You heard the story.” Nancy laughed, but there was no humor in the laugh. “Then when she was gone, I broke. My heart broke. You have to believe me. I didn’t want this. This is an abomination.”
A chill ran down Angie’s spine. “Wait, you’re not Nancy, are you? Lyda? Is that you?”
“You are wise beyond your years. I watch. I see.” Nancy reached down to Dom who was watching her from under the table. “You are kind to animals and feed others. You have to step in and stop him. I’m afraid if he gets away with this, the madness will keep him killing.”
Angie glanced down at Dom. He was not growling at the “not Nancy” person, but he wasn’t wagging his tail in welcome either. He seemed as confused as she felt. “Okay. So you killed the original guard way back when. Why did someone kill Pat? Was it because of the first murder?”
Not Nancy shook her head slowly. “No. This was just blood lust. You must stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him.”
Chapter 7
With each sentence, Nancy’s voice got louder and louder. “Stop him.”
Finally, Tad yelled from the other side of the room. “Shut up. It’s bad enough we’re stuck in here without someone yelling about some dog.”
Apparently, Tad misinterpreted Lyda’s intended target for the words, but his voice silenced her. When Angie looked up, Nancy was standing in front of her, looking dazed and tired.
“Is it time for me to watch now? I feel like I just barely laid down.” She glanced around the room, confusion on her face.
“Go back to bed. You’re about an hour early.” Angie put a hand on Nancy’s back and led her back to her bunk. Then she woke up Felicia.
When she joined Felicia at the table, Angie told her about what happened with Nancy.
“And you’re sure she wasn’t just messing with you, right?” Felicia sipped the fresh coffee she’d just poured into a Styrofoam cup. “They really need better coffee. Maybe I’ll send them a bag of ours once we get out of here.”
“Seriously? A ghost possesses one of our friends to talk to me about a murder, and all you can think about is coffee?” Angie leaned back and watched Felicia. “What exactly would excite you? A nuclear bomb blast?”
“Give me a break. It’s early. I tend to sleep in, especially since I’m so wound up when we finish service it’s hard for me to relax right away.” She sipped her coffee. “I don’t think she gave you any information that we didn’t have already.”
“She said he thought he was working for her. Why would anyone try to defend the honor of a long dead woman?”
They sat quietly for a while. Finally, Felicia spoke. “You wouldn’t. Unless you were freaking crazy. Or…”
Angie nodded, following Felicia’s trail. “Or you were related to her. Hatfield’s and McCoy’s type of feud. She said the baby was a girl. And we know the baby was taken away from her just after birth. Would that baby still be alive?”
“Possibly. According to the poster, Lyda was released in 1941. Depending on when this happened, the baby might be in her early eighties?”
Angie pursed her lips together, thinking. “Well we don’t have any eighty-year-olds on the tour, so a kid would be in their what? Sixties?”
“And that we do have on the tour. Thaddeus. He’s got to be in his sixties or older.”
They looked over at the old man who was still playing with the cards, ignoring everything around him. Felicia shook her head. “I don’t know. He doesn’t look strong enough to stick someone with a knife.”
“Go down a generation. Maybe Tad is doing his uncle a favor by defending great grandma’s honor?” Angie watched the still pacing Tad cross the room.
“Doesn’t quite fit somehow. Tamera’s still asleep. She’d have to be awfully cold to sleep like that next to the dead body.” Felicia yawned. “Well, the good thing is that the police