Darkest Journey (Krewe of Hunters #20)(36)

A round of “okay” and “sure” answered her.

Ethan looked at Charlie and found her looking at him.

“Yeah,” she said. “I’d like to walk over to the graveyard first, though.”

“Charlie, you’re obsessed with that place,” Luke said. “If you ask me, you should stay away.”

“Hey, my mom is buried there,” she reminded them.

“Leave her alone,” Jennie said. “How does two hours sound? That gives everyone time to clean up, and hopefully, the café will still be open.”

“They serve until ten,” Luke offered. “We should be fine.”

The group began to split up, actors heading over to the “dressing rooms” to change or down the road to their cars, crew gathering equipment. Ethan and Charlie both left to change. He asked her not to head out to the graveyard without him.

“Nope. Don’t intend to,” she assured him.

She looked almost wild, he thought, her chestnut hair tousled, her eyes so dark they were almost indigo.

He was ready before her, his Glock tucked into the back of his jeans.

She appeared a few minutes later, and they headed for the graveyard. In place of her stilettos, Charlie now wore sneakers as they moved through the tangle of high grass, brush and weeds.

She still didn’t seem like herself, so when she didn’t say anything he demanded, “What happened?”

He’d expected her to dodge the question, but instead she answered honestly right away.

“Someone threw a knife at me,” she said.

He paused, staring at her. “What? Who?”

“I don’t know—if I knew, I would tell you.”

“You’re sure? Where did it happen? When?”

She inhaled deeply, then let her breath out in a rush. “No, I’m not sure, but... I went to Anson McKee’s grave. And then he appeared and kept telling me to go. I tried to ask him what he was talking about, but he just kept telling me to go, so I went. I ran. And then I could swear I saw a knife go flying past my head.”

“What kind of a knife?”

“I don’t know! I was running. I barely saw it,” Charlie said.

“Okay, so where were you exactly when it happened?”

“That’s where I’m trying to take you now,” she said, exasperated.

“All right, all right, let’s retrace your footsteps.”

“I think I know almost exactly where it happened,” Charlie murmured, walking ahead of him.

He followed closely, unwilling to let her get too far away.

She paused. “I was right about there,” she said. “I’d left the grave, which is over there.” She pointed. “Whoever threw the knife had to have been standing in the trees, those oaks right there.”

“So the knife would have landed in the unhallowed section of the graveyard, right?”

She nodded. “I think so.”

They headed that way and started examining the ground, looking for the weapon. Ethan could tell from Charlie’s tense expression that she was uncomfortably reminded of the night she’d found a body while searching for a missing prop.

“Hey!” called a friendly masculine voice from behind them.

Ethan turned and saw Jimmy Smith heading toward them, a broad grin on his face. Ethan was used to sizing up suspects, and the first thing he noticed was that Jimmy wasn’t particularly tall or well built, not that those were requirements for knife throwing, nor was he particularly handsome. On the other hand, his thatch of brown hair, hazel eyes, freckles and lopsided grin added up to the kind of cheerful manner that probably helped him deal with the vicissitudes of an actor’s life.

“Hey, there. What are you doing over here?” Charlie asked him.

“It looked like you two were searching for something, and I thought maybe I could help. We always seem to be missing stuff. Charlie, you didn’t lose one of your ‘fuck me’ shoes, did you?”

“No, I didn’t lose a shoe,” she said.

“I hope to hell you don’t find another body.” Jimmy turned to Ethan. “You haven’t gotten any further on figuring out who the killer is, have you? I sure hope you catch him soon. It’s spooking everyone out, knowing a murderer was so close.”

“I think we’re all handling it just fine,” Charlie said.

“Yeah? Well, I’m sure as hell spooked out,” Jimmy said. “I look at everyone—some of them friends I’ve known practically forever—and can’t help wondering if one of them has blood on their hands.”

“We’re following every lead,” Ethan said.

Jimmy looked worried, but he nodded. “I hope one of them leads somewhere soon. Anyway, sorry—I thought I could help, but to tell you the truth, I don’t really like being out here when it’s getting dark. Catch y’all at dinner.”

He waved and left them.

“Are you following every lead?” Charlie asked Ethan.

“At the moment we don’t really have any leads,” he admitted.

“Except that the cops think my father might be involved,” Charlie said.

“Let’s see if we can find that knife, okay?” Ethan said.

“What if Jimmy’s right and we are all spooked, and I just imagined the knife?” Charlie whispered.