All Hallows Eve: A Krewe of Hunters Novella (1001 Dark Nights) Read Free Page A

here to see a relative but, somehow, I never met her when you and I first got together, back with the murders at Lexington House. And, a relative I also haven’t met since.”
    Then again, they hadn’t been back to Salem that many times over the past few years. Jenna’s parents lived in Boston—when they weren’t visiting friends and family in Ireland—so they’d only made it that far when they popped up for a weekend. Her uncle, Jamie O’Neill, her next-favorite relative, often came down to Boston when they were there.
    Jenna didn’t look at him. She was gnawing her lower lip, staring out the window. She’d grown more and more withdrawn since they’d left Boston’s Logan Airport and started driving up US 1 toward Salem. He wasn’t sure if she had even heard him.
    Salem.
    His home.
    And while Jenna had come from Ireland as a child and grown up in Boston, her ties with Salem were deep. Her Uncle Jamie lived here, and she’d spent a tremendous amount of time, while growing up, with him. Salem was where he’d fallen in love with Jenna. And when they’d left, he’d assumed he’d open a law practice in northern Virginia. Instead, he’d found himself in the FBI academy.
    And then part of the Krewe.
    Thing was, though, until the call came, he’d never expected to be heading here. And he’d never expected that she’d close down. Jenna was an experienced agent. She dealt with a lot of bad things. She had a tremendous compassion for others and a stern work ethic. She’d been almost silent as they’d ridden to work, explaining only that they were going to have to change things up. No vacation right now. She’d gotten a call from an Elyssa Adair, someone he’d never heard her mention before. She was sorry, so sorry, about the trip, and she wanted to wait until they saw Jackson before explaining why this was so important. As soon as they’d arrived at work, he’d arranged for them both to speak with Jackson Crow at the Krewe of Hunters special unit headquarters.
    He wasn’t surprised that Jenna had so quickly been given permission for the two of them to travel to Salem. Krewe cases were often accepted on instinct, or because there was a particular reason a Krewe member should be involved. He was surprised, though, by Jenna, who was usually open and frank and outgoing, especially with him. They’d been together nearly five years. He’d changed his entire life to work with her and, of course, to deal with the fact that the dead seemed to like to speak with him.
    And he loved her.
    With all of his heart, with everything in him.
    He knew that she felt the same way about him, which made it so strange that she’d seemed to shut him out, even while asking that he accompany her and assist on the case. At the moment, however, there wasn’t a case. Not one that they’d been invited to join in on at least. A man was dead. He’d been associated with the old Mayberry Mortuary Halloween Horrors. Police were suggesting that he might have killed himself over financial matters. There was an ongoing local investigation. But, so far, the death was being considered a possible-suicide.
    That much, he knew.
    The minute Jenna had begun to talk about a cousin he’d never met, Elyssa Adair, and the fact that Elyssa had discovered the dead man in the haunted horror attraction, he’d probed for background.
    John Bradbury, born in Salem, schooled in Boston, had returned to Salem to operate the mortuary under the business umbrella Hauntings and Hallucinations, Inc. The company was doing fine. However, the year before, Bradbury had gone through a tough divorce, and, apparently, due to past substance abuse problems, had lost all but supervised visitation rights with his three children. His ex-wife—while crying on a newscast—had told the world that it had been John’s mental instability that had led to his self-medicating with drugs and alcohol and their subsequent divorce.
    This was still New England, and while Sam held his own