The Reckoning. Jana DeLeon

in the swamp.”

      “Was it, really?” Sarah locked her gaze on Alex. “Do you know that for certain? You saw the same thing on that island as I did. Are you going to deny that?”

      A chill passed over Alex and she crossed her arms and leaned on the table. “I’m not denying what we saw, nor that it scared the life out of me. But the police never found any proof that the woman who lived there took those kids.”

      “The witch that lived there,” Sarah corrected. “The police didn’t want to believe.”

      “Believe what?” Alex blew out a breath. “That a witch on an island in a swamp kidnapped children and used them as sacrifices in a voodoo ritual? Of course, they didn’t want to believe something like that, but it wouldn’t stop them from investigating. There was never any evidence that those kids had been on the island.”

      “The evidence was burned in the ceremony. You know something about the old ways, Alex, even if your current life has you locked into science. You know the swamps of Mystere Parish are full of people who practice black arts and have for hundreds of years.”

      Alex threw up her hands. “Even if it were all true, what makes you think Erika is on the island?”

      “Because.” Sarah rose from the table and walked into the kitchen. She climbed onto a step stool to open a cabinet above the refrigerator and pulled out something in a brown paper bag. “I found this in her room, hidden under her bed.”

      She opened the bag and pulled out a doll with blond hair and blue eyes and placed it on the table. The blood rushed to Alex’s head and she gripped the edge of the table to steady herself as a wave of dizziness washed over her.

      It couldn’t be. Not after all this time.

      “Where did she get this?” she asked, struggling to maintain a calm tone.

      “Not in any store, that’s for sure. I looked it up online. That doll hasn’t been manufactured in over thirty years.”

      “Did you ask her?”

      “Of course I asked. After I had a heart attack and then managed to regain control. She said she found it in the backyard at the edge of the swamp, but she was lying.”

      Alex stared. “How do you know?”

      Sarah shrugged. “She’s my kid. I know when she’s lying. I pushed the issue, but she stuck to her story.”

      “Have you told her about … I mean warned her in a way she could understand?”

      “I told her an old, evil woman lived in the swamp and that it wasn’t safe for little girls to go into the swamp without an adult. She’s always stayed away before. I checked all her shoes and her rubber boots, but there was no sign she’d been in the swamp or tried to wash away the evidence.”

      Alex’s mind raced, trying to absorb everything Sarah said … trying to make sense of all of it. “When did you find the doll?”

      “Three days ago.” Sarah slumped back into her chair. “And then there was the crow.”

      “What crow?”

      “It was on the clothesline outside Erika’s bedroom window every morning for the last week when I went in to wake her. I closed the blinds and went outside to shoo it away, but every morning, it was right back in place.”

      Sarah shivered. “Last night, I heard a noise out back. I looked out the kitchen window and could make out the outline of the crow just sitting there. Like it was watching her, even though the blinds were closed.” She looked straight at Alex. “You know it’s an omen.”

      “No.” Alex shook her head. “I don’t know any such thing.”

      “What about those birds that fell from the sky last week? It was all over the news. Hundreds of them, Alex, lying everywhere in Mystere Parish.”

      “There are theories—”

      Sarah waved a hand, cutting her off. “I know all about the theories, and I know what Sam LeBlanc down at Animal Control told me—that the vet couldn’t find anything wrong with any of the birds he autopsied. They’re lying so they don’t cause a panic.”

      “They just haven’t figured out the reason, yet,” Alex said, forbidding her mind to wander into Sarah’s realm of thinking.

      “We have to go out there,” Sarah whispered.

      “No!”

      “Why not?” Sarah challenged. “If there’s really no danger, as you suggest, then what’s the harm?”

      “Because the swamp contains all sorts of dangers that aren’t mystical. You know that as well as anyone. Don’t play stupid now. I won’t listen to it.”

      “So you think an alligator or two should keep me from looking for my baby?”

      Alex took one look at the determined look on Sarah’s face and knew she’d never win this argument. “You can’t just go tromping around the swamp without a plan. Neither one of us owns a boat, and we haven’t fired a weapon since we were kids. We’re not equipped for this.”

      “So we rent a boat, and I know plenty of people who’d loan us rifles. It’s not like you forget how to use one altogether, you know.”

      “No. We went to that island twenty years ago. I don’t even know if we could find it, and even if we did, we could be arrested for being there.” A thought flashed through her mind and as hard as she tried to shut it down, it was the only thing that made sense.

      “What?” Sarah asked. “You have that look like you thought of something. I’m desperate. I’ll do anything to get my baby back.”

      Alex nodded, her mind made up. “We don’t have the authority or the equipment to get to the island, but I know someone who does.”

      “Holt?” Sarah shook her head. “His uncle will never let him do that … not for me.”

      Alex clicked off the recorder and stuffed it in her purse along with her notebook. “So I’ll ask him to do it for me.”

      Sarah bit her lower lip, but a tiny bit of hope flickered in her eyes. “What if he says no?”

      “He won’t say no.” Alex rose from the table and bent over to kiss Sarah’s cheek. “He owes me.”

      HOLT WAS JUST CLOSING UP his office at the sheriff’s department when Alex strode in the front door. He took one look at the determined look on her face and knew he was in for it. He’d seen that look many times before, and it always ended with Alex getting her way or getting angry. Given the situation between Sarah and his uncle, he didn’t see how this was going to end well for him at all.

      “I need to speak to you,” she said, her voice clipped and professional. She glanced over at the dispatcher, then back at him. “Alone.”

      He opened the office door and waved her inside. “Did you learn anything more from Sarah?”

      “Yes, but you’re not going to like it.” She recounted Sarah’s story about the doll and the crow.

      Holt leaned back in his chair, trying to ignore the overwhelming feeling that he was on shaky ground. Sarah’s fears were outrageous, but what didn’t compute was why Alex had brought them to him.

      “You can’t possibly think that a six-year-old managed to find that island, steal a doll and get back home without her mother noticing she was missing.”

      “No, but I also don’t think she ordered a thirty-year-old doll off eBay and paid for it with animal crackers, either. What if someone left the doll for her to find? What if someone gave it to her? All I know is what Sarah told me. Everything started happening after Erika brought the doll into the house.”

      “You know I don’t believe in that stuff,” he said finally, but even then, that niggle