Krewe of Hunters The Evil Inside 4 by Heather Graham Page A

something strange about Malachi Smith. Maybe the devil actually lived up at Lexington House and had gotten into him. But, anyway, old Abraham took his son out of school without a word, and people stopped talking about it so much.”
    “Until Peter Andres was murdered?” Jenna asked.
    Cecilia hesitated. A group had just walked into the shop. The three women were wearing beautiful velvet capes, and Jenna had the feeling that they’d just been purchased. One of the men was dressed in similar fashion, but his hooded cape was brown wool.
    “A mortar and pestle, Johnny!” one of the women said. “Ooh, in marble, how pretty—I bet I could cook up some spells with that!”
    “Excuse me,” Cecilia said, and walked over to the group.
    Jenna could see that the newcomers seemed both fascinated and amused by the fact that they were in “Witch City.” She could also see that Cecilia was accustomed to the attitude and seemed entirely unperturbed. She suggested to the woman that the mortar and pestle were also quite useful for crushing garlic and herbs.
    “She’s a good kid,” Sam said softly.
    “And a talker…but a lot of help,” she replied. She couldn’t help watching the man in the brown cape. There was really nothing out of the ordinary about him; people were dressed up all around the city. But his outfit reminded her of her vision— the caped, hooded and masked person who had rushed in on Peter Andres, felling him where he stood.
    “What’s the matter?” Sam asked her.
    She shook her head. She wasn’t ready to tell him what she’d seen. He’d mocked her at the Lexington House, and she could only imagine what he would have to say if she told him a dressed-up and horned demon had killed Peter Andres.
    “It’s Halloween. People like to play at being many things,” she said.
    “People always like to play at being many things,” he told her. “I’ll let Cecilia know we’re leaving.”
    Cecilia excused herself to her customers, hugged Sam and waved to Jenna, and the two left her shop. They walked along the pedestrian street by the museums and other shops. All around them, they could hear the delighted squeals of children as they watched jugglers or paused at various stations to take part in drawing, pumpkin carving or face painting.
    Jenna wasn’t sure where they were going, but Sam was thoughtful.
    “Assuming Malachi is innocent, what’s going on is calculated,” he said. “First murder a teacher, assuming that everyone would think that Malachi hated that teacher and would easily be suspected—which he was. And then a neighbor. But why the neighbor?”
    “According to Cecilia, everyone hated the Smith family,” Jenna said. “So, we can assume that the neighbor hated them a lot.”
    “So, it all looks like a series of events, with the killer, Malachi, having lost all hold on reality, and perhaps killing others before lashing out at his restrictive family. The question is…was there a real reason for the neighbor and the teacher, or were they just there, random victims in a plan against the family?”
    “Or was there a plan, and they fit right into it?” Jenna asked.
    “Well, the fact that Malachi and Peter Andres actually got on well together will help our case,” Sam said.
    Jenna heard him speak, but she didn’t reply. She stopped walking.
    Just ahead of them, moving through the crowd, was someone in a long brown cape, a monk’s cape with a hood. She couldn’t see the person’s face and she didn’t know if it was a man or a woman—or if they wore a mask or not.
    She reminded herself that she had just seen a man in Cecilia’s shop in such a cape.
    It was Halloween season, Haunted Happenings. People would be in costumes daily, participating in all the events, and dressing up because it was fun to dress up!
    The person paused—almost as if they had felt they were being watched.
    He or she turned and looked back.
    Jenna froze.
    The person was wearing the mask.
    The same mask she had seen in