A Witch's Tale by Maralee Lowder Page B

needed to be prodded, but not Cassie. Cassie would tell him everything because she trusted him. He had never wanted the responsibil i ty or commitment being trusted required. Was he ready for this?
    He fought the urge to run from these new emotions as far and as fast he could go. The trust in her eyes was shattering. The ache in his heart terrified him.
    It was at that instant that the most startling revelation of his life hit him. He had fallen head over hee ls in love with this beautiful woman.
    “Cassie … ” he had to stop and clear his throat.
    “They’ve arrested Mom again.”
    “What?”
    “And this time they’ve arrested Mary Beth, Norma and Edith. The only reason they didn’t hold me was because you’d been with me all night. You were my alibi.” Her sad little smile nearly broke his heart.
    “What about Shelly?”
    “I don’t know , hopefuly being at home with her husband and son saved her from being accused too.”
    Cassie shuddered. He could tell by looking into her eyes that she had left him for a moment and was reliving that awful scene in the sheriff’s office. She started to speak, paused, then spoke in a voice so tight with emotion that Mac had to strain to hear her.
    “It ... it happened again. And it was another preacher.”
    Suddenly Mac was in the iron grip of his professional instincts. His heart did a rapid tattoo in his chest as he realized that the story had suddenly leaped into headline proportions. He couldn’t believe his luck at being smack dab in the middle of the action.
    She sat on the bench facing him, tears streaming down her cheeks. Guilt stabbed Mac a vicious blow as he realized that, if only for a split second, he had put Cassie in an all too familiar category - just another source.
    “It was Luke Osborne, pastor of the First Untied Baptist Church. He ... he had two little boys, Mac, and his wife is pregnant.” Fresh tears welled up, spilling over to join the torrent that had flowed before.
    “Was it like the last?” Mac felt like a real creep pushing Cassie for more facts, but his journalist’s instincts would not be denied.
    “It was worse. From what I overheard, everything that had been done to Reverend Elkins was done to Luke, but this time whoever did it left a burn mark on his forehead, just like you’d brand cattle.” She closed her eyes for a moment, visualizing the horrible scene. Her next words were spoken in a horrified whisper. “It was the sign of a pentagram.”
    Her fingers involuntarily reached for the small gold charm she wore from a chain around her neck. A pentagram.
    They were both silent for a moment, Cassie locked in the horror of what she had heard, Mac’s thoughts working frantically for a solution to the crime that would not include this woman who had managed to find a way into a heart he had believed to be impregnable.
    Mac was the first to break the silence.               “It’s bull shit. Anyone could have killed the guy and put that brand on him to throw the cops off his own trail. It wouldn’t take a genius to come up with a plan like that.”
    “They found his blood on my mother.”
    The words, spoken with absolutely no emotion, floated in the air between them. She couldn’t have said what he thought she said.
    Her eyes were dry now. No emotion showed on her face as she turned her gaze to the vast ocean. It was as if she could escape a reality too horrible to contemplate by letting her mind join the cold, heaving water.
    “It was in her caldron, beside her bed. And ... and it was on her lips.”
    Mat sat in stunned silence. What could he possibly say?
    “Well, that is they think it’s Luke’s blood. They still have to test it, but ...” Her voice trailed off as if her mind was too exhausted to deal with her problems.
    “Caldron?” What the hell was Myra doing with a caldron, Mac wondered. “Your mother has a caldron? ”
    “We use it for ceremonies.” She turned to him and what she saw in his eyes turned