Page 105 of The Haunting of Paynes Hollow

I glance over at Smits, but he’s disappeared into the bushes, not noticing I’d stopped.

Me: You said you wouldn’t penalize him. What’s that mean?

Ms. Jimenez: According to the will, he needs to have his phone on, ready for alerts, at all times. If it’s down more than ten minutes, he loses the money for his father. Obviously, I’m not going to be that much of a stickler. But over two hours is very concerning

Me: Yes

Ms. Jimenez: You do realize I also have access, yes? I can see that you are out on the property. The west side. Just over half a mile from the cottage

I frown. I figured she had access, but this sounds like a warning.

Me: I’m well within the boundary

Ms. Jimenez: I know. I wanted to be clear that just because Ben’s phone is off doesn’t mean you aren’t being monitored. He receives the alerts, but now that I am aware of the situation, I have turned on my own alerts

Me: Okay

Silence. I read back through her texts.

Me: Hold on. Do you think I have something to do with his phone being off?

Ms. Jimenez: I said no such thing. But if you did think that was a way to get a few hours off of the property, it is not. I will see you if you leave, and you would be jeopardizing Ben’s reward

Me: I wouldn’t do that

Ms. Jimenez: Good. I know he can be difficult, but I think we can agree he has been doing his job

I pocket my phone and rub my face, sloughing off my anger. I’ve been here despite dead animals being left on my steps, despite my auntdisappearing.Now she thinks, what? That I’d steal Ben’s phone so I can traipse off to the nearest city for a latte?

“Sam?”

I look up to see Smits on the edge of the bushes, frowning at me, and I realize I haven’t moved from where he left me ten minutes ago.

“The lawyer texted me,” I say. “I didn’t dare ignore her.”

“Texting about what?”

I shrug. “Lawyer stuff? She needed some financial details. I didn’t mention any of this. Not her concern.”

He visibly relaxes, and I don’t miss that. I’m already on alert for it, ever since Ms. Jimenez told me what time Ben’s phone went off. Ben wasn’t just “not answering” his phone earlier. It’s been off since before Smits returned to the cottage, saying Ben was missing.

Imagine Ben does stalk off. Smits calls him. Ben’s pissy and shuts off his phone. That fits. However, he is never doing that if ten minutes of phone downtime means his family suffers.

Ben did not shut off his phone. Yet it went off shortly after he allegedly walked away to check something. He leaves Smits’s sight and is grabbed by a rare daylight nekker… who shuts off his phone?

We’d started at the spot where Ben supposedly disappeared. It was at least a ten-minute walk from the water. Even if a nekker grabbed him and dragged him to the lake, it would take time for his phone to become waterlogged and shut down.

That is not what happened. A human being turned off Ben’s phone.

I can blame my cousin or whatever mystery person we suspected had been behind this, but after reading that journal, I no longer really harbor “human staging” as a possibility. And if it was, how did someone silently grab Ben with the sheriff close by?

“Sam?”

I jerk from my thoughts.

Don’t do that, Sam. Don’t let him see you thinking, wondering, questioning.

Because I suspect Smits of hurting Ben? I don’t know. Part of me screams that I’m losing my mind, seeing the drowned dead and the headless horseman and believing they’re real and my ancestors created them and I’m bound to them. And now I think Sheriff Smits is… Doing what? And why?