Many Blessings

Chapter Twenty-Four

Thursday morning, Mandaline awoke to find a man between her legs.

Specifically, Brad. More specifically, he eagerly licked and sucked her clit.

She buried her fingers in his hair and closed her eyes again. When she reached out to find Ellis, she realized he wasn’t in bed with them.

“Where’s Ellis?”

Brad paused, making her wish she hadn’t asked. “Office. Went in early.” His lips closed around her clit again.

She was happy to lie there and let him make her come, but before she could find release, he sat up and reached for a condom.

He looked down at her with a smile as he rolled it on. “Don’t worry, babe. I’ll take care of you.”

He rolled onto his back and made her straddle him, his fingers laced through his. “Okay, baby,” he said. “You ride me. Take your time.”

She couldn’t get over how well their cocks fit inside her, seemingly hitting every perfect spot inside her. Before them, she’d rarely been able to come just from penetration, usually needing to get over another way. But with them they’d made it the norm, not the exception.

Rocking slowly, she focused on his sweet brown gaze as she tried to find the perfect angle and position for his cock to rub against the inside of her pussy. Her clit throbbed, her need only stoked by his earlier ministrations.

When she found the exact spot, his cock deliciously hitting her inside as well as along her clit, she squeezed his hands and moved faster, harder.

“That’s it, baby,” he softly encouraged. “Ride me. Do what you need to do.”

She felt his energy reaching out to her, embracing her, dancing with hers the way their bodies moved together. A playful smile curved his lips.

“I feel it, too,” he said. “You just keep doing what you’re doing.”

How had two perfect men walked into her life like this?

Her ass slapped against his thighs as he picked up her tempo and began arching up into her at the bottom of every stroke so his cock bottomed out inside her pussy. She gasped, the extra friction enough to finally send her tumbling over the edge.

She squeezed his hands harder and let out a soft cry as it started.

“There you go,” he whispered. “Ride it out.”

She did, harder, faster, Brad matching her pace perfectly, a series of smaller orgasms all blending together into one longer, sweeter release she couldn’t believe she’d never felt before. She’d had multiple orgasms in one session before, but never like this, never the way their bodies pulled them from her, rolling and multiplying and feeling like her clit had been supercharged with erotic heat.

Only when she felt it waning did he take over, thrusting up into her at his pace now, harder, faster, his gaze burning right through her very core.

“This is for you, baby, what you do to me.” He clamped down on her hands and his back arched. Inside her, she felt his cock go rigid before it started throbbing, and he fell still beneath her.

Winded, she collapsed on top of him, draped over his chest.

He wrapped his arms around her and stroked her back. With his lips pressed against her forehead, he said, “And that’s what love feels like, inside and out, physically and mentally.”

She nuzzled her face against his throat. “I felt it,” she whispered. “I feel it with both of you, but I can’t believe you feel it, too.”

“He feels it. He just doesn’t understand it or recognize it. But you can bet he feels it.” He made her look him in the eye. “Do you realize how happy you’ve made him? And me, too, but I haven’t seen him this happy in years.”

She didn’t know what to say to that.

He stroked her cheek. “I only hope we can heal you the way you’ve healed us.”

She nodded, leaning her face into his touch. “You have.”

When Ellis left early for the office, he suspected Brad would have his way with Mandaline, but he didn’t mind or feel the slightest bit jealous over it.

It surprised him how easy it was to fall into a familiar, comfortable daily routine with them both.

Maybe this was meant to be.

Frankly, he’d wanted to get up and out of bed and have some alone time. He’d had another disturbing dream about Julie and the shotgun. Only this time, they’d been standing in the kitchen at the house, and the shotgun appeared out of nowhere on the table. She’d handed him the .38 and pointed a finger at him.

“Believe.”

Behind her, a dark, ominous shape took form in the open doorway leading outside.

“Believe!” Julie had admonished one more time before he startled awake.

He wasn’t usually one to put much stock in dreams. But considering everything that had happened over the past couple of days, he wasn’t delusional enough to ignore them, either.

And before he left for work, he’d made sure he wore the .38 under his blazer.

Ellis returned from the office a few minutes after noon. “Is there anything specific I need to wear, or will jeans suffice?” he asked Mandaline.

“Jeans are fine. Listen, you don’t have to do this.”

He put his hands on her shoulders. “Last time. I’m going, or you aren’t. Period.” He still couldn’t get the weird dream with Julie out of his head.

No way would he let Mandaline go to the Corey house alone.

Brad laughed from where he was lounging on the couch with a sketch pad in hand. “Quit arguing with him. You should know better by now.”

“It’s just that I don’t know how long I’m going to be or what I might or might not find.”

“I know you won’t be going at all if I’m not with you.”

While Ellis knew where the Croom park was, he’d never been there. Mandaline carefully bumped the SUV over the cattle guard at the gate before stopping at the small gatehouse.

The park ranger wore a frown as Ellis rolled down the passenger window. “Can I help you folks?”

Mandaline leaned forward to see past Ellis. “I have an appointment with Samantha Corey today.”

The ranger slowly nodded. “You worked with Julie Prescott?”

Ellis glanced over at Mandaline. He didn’t miss the momentary flash of grief on her face. “Yes. I’m Mandaline Royce.”

The ranger slowly nodded again. “Sorry about your loss. Main road was just graded yesterday, so you shouldn’t have any trouble there. Not sure what condition their driveway’s in. It’s marked. You know how to get there?”

“Yes, she drew me a map.”

He stepped back from the car. “Have a nice day.”

Ellis rolled up the window as Mandaline pulled forward. “He was certainly chipper,” he snarked.

“I can’t imagine they’re happy about what happened, either,” she said. “The whole park’s been crawling with press and the morbidly curious.”

Immediately to the east of the main road lay I-75. To the west, various trails wound through thick oak and pine trees. He knew there were also day-use areas and a large campground in the park. As they made their way up the main road, he noted the frown on Mandaline’s face.

“Are you sure you’re up for this?” he asked.

She nodded. “I have to,” she quietly said.

They found the driveway and she slowed even more as they bumped down the deeply rutted dirt track that wound through the trees. After several minutes, they emerged at a fence line, where a locked metal gate stood guard.

“She told me to honk.” She tapped the horn twice.

An old, two-story house stood roughly in the center of the property. Next to it sat a large construction Dumpster.

A small, older-looking barn was overshadowed by a large, brand-new travel trailer parked next to it. Two horses, which had been grazing in a fenced-off pasture, raised their heads at the sound of the horn.

A moment later, the front door opened and a man waved at them before he started down the porch and across the property toward them.

As they waited, a woman appeared in the front door. She walked to the edge of the porch, where she stood, waiting on them.

Mandaline rolled down her window as the man reached the gate. “Matt, this is Ellis Fargo. He’s…my boyfriend. I hope it’s okay that he came with me.”

Ellis inwardly smiled at how she’d announced his status. It was the first time he’d ever heard her call him that.

Matt unlocked the gate. “No problem. I suspect he insisted on coming.” Matt gave them a good-humored smile. “After what happened, I sure as hell wouldn’t blame him.”

Ellis gave him a thumbs-up and they waited while Matt opened the gate for them to drive in. He glanced behind them and watched Matt lock it behind them.

When they parked by the house, the woman walked down to greet them. Somewhere, a dog barked. It sounded like it was coming from the travel trailer, barely audible over the whirr of the trailer’s air-conditioner unit.

The woman gave Mandaline a warm hug. “Thank you for doing this,” she told Mandaline. “We really appreciate it.”

“It’s okay. Samantha Corey, this is Ellis Fargo.”

The woman looked sad, grieving every bit as deeply as Mandaline. “Please, call me Sami,” she said as she extended her hand.

He shook with her. “Ellis is fine. I…I’m sorry about your husband.”

She nodded. “Thank you. I think we all wish things had ended differently.”

The man walked up. “Matt Barry.” He stuck out his hand as well. “Thanks for coming.”

After shaking with him, Ellis adjusted the back of his shirt, which concealed the comforting weight of the holstered gun against the small of his back. In the humid heat, sweat had already begun pooling behind the holster. “No problem.”

Relief washed through Mandaline that they didn’t mind Ellis’ presence. And now faced with the house for the first time, a chill blasted through her soul, even in the oppressive heat.

She’d avoided media coverage of what happened, hadn’t seen pictures of the house’s exterior in Julie’s notes.

The outside of the house looked exactly as Julie had presented it in her dream the other night.

“Where did you want to start?” Sami asked.

She still wore her grief as thick as the sultry Florida humidity against her skin. “Are you ready to do the service, or did you want to wait and do it last?” She hoped they wanted to do the service first, because now faced with the reality, she wasn’t sure she wanted to see where Julie had died.

Sami glanced up at Matt, who protectively draped an arm around her shoulders. “Let’s do it now, please. Before the afternoon rains start.”

Mandaline took a messenger bag from the SUV before locking it and putting the keys in her pocket. She wouldn’t take any chances despite not feeling the slightest bit of apprehension or fear about the place.

It might have had a history of horrors, but now, it was a place of healing grief.

They waited while Sami went to the house and returned with a plain box about the size of an urn.

She looked a little embarrassed. “I…I told them I didn’t want an urn,” she told them, the box securely wrapped by her arms. “I wanted to scatter them anyway. Is…is that horrible?”

Mandaline gave her what she hoped looked like a kind smile. “No, you did what you needed to do.”

“The cemetery is this way,” Matt pointed as he started off. “We picked up a small paver stone to use to mark the spot. I left it over by the other gate.”

They headed south through the pasture as the horses came over to follow them. A fresh lock on a shiny chain had to be opened by another key on Matt’s ring of them. He let them out, locking it behind them. The horses whinnied by the gate, one of them throwing his head up and down.

Sami turned with a sad smile. “It’s okay, boys. I’ll try to take you out later.”

Matt picked up the small paver stone and took the lead again. “They’re antsy because I’ve made her stay here and not go out riding. Fucking asshole paparazzi all over the goddamned place.” He glanced at them. “Excuse my language. I have no use for them. I’d file restraining orders against every damn last one of them if I could, but it’s public land around here. If there’s a ranger on duty, they try to call us with a heads-up. Unless they break park rules, there’s not a lot they can do to legally keep them out.”

“Ellis is a lawyer, too,” Mandaline offered, more to keep conversation going than anything.

Matt glanced back. “In town?”

Ellis nodded. “Family law, mostly.”

“Ah. I turned a law degree into being a literary agent,” Matt said as they continued walking. “Helps a lot with the contracts. I’ll get your card before you leave, if you have one with you. We’ll need a local attorney.”

They trudged along a soft, loamy dirt trail. The trail ran south along the property line, eventually curving off to the east, passing under trees until the land sloped up a small hill into a thick stand of pine trees. They entered a small clearing where a thick bed of pine needles carpeted the ground. Matt and Sami stopped at the edge of the clearing.

“Here it is,” Sami softly said.

Mandaline, followed by Ellis, slowly walked forward. She knew from pictures and sketches in Julie’s notebook that the small stone marker in the center of the clearing was George Simpson’s grave marker. Mandaline also noticed the several piles of stones scattered around the clearing.

“Those are the Spaniards’ graves?” Mandaline asked, pointing at the cairns.

Sami nodded. “Yeah. Julie had sketched the layout of the other graves. And…” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “She thought George Simpson probably murdered his wife and kids and burned the bodies here. When the family disappeared, searchers found signs of an old fire and some bone fragments.” She looked down at the box in her arms. “I think she was right.”

Mandaline walked the periphery of the clearing, but felt nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing creepy, nothing spooky.

Nothing dangerous.

Mandaline put her bag down. From inside, she pulled out the recreated drawing of the clearing Julie had with her that day. The original copy had been found in the pocket of the clothes she’d had on that day and returned with her other personal possessions.

“Do you have a specific place you’d like to put him?” Mandaline asked as she quickly oriented herself.

“No,” Sami quietly said as she stroked the box. “Wherever you think is best.”

Mandaline nodded. From her bag she pulled out a small, purple velvet sack of items. Walking around the clearing, drawing in hand, she finally settled on a place. “This would be good. No one is here.”

Sami and Matt walked over while Mandaline cleared the pine needles from the space, exposing the dirt underneath. She didn’t miss how Ellis hung back, quietly watching but not speaking.

“Go ahead and sit,” she told them. They did, and she used salt to cast a circle around them. “Please don’t leave the circle until I say.”

They nodded without question.

She produced a piece of rose quartz she’d brought from the store with her. She’d saged it and let it sit overnight in a bowl of sea salt. After digging a small hole in the soft dirt with her bare hands, she put the piece of rose quartz in the bottom. “Goddess above, Goddess below. Goddess within, Goddess without. We come to you today with prayer. We release a soul back to your care.”

She pulled out a bottle of rosemary oil and sprinkled some on the piece of quartz. “In this ground lay peace and love. As below, so above.” She sprinkled some crumbled sage leaves. “Air and fire, water and earth. This soul was loved, this soul had worth.”

She fought the emotions rising within her to continue the ceremony. She’d opted to totally wing it, knowing whatever she’d said from the heart would be more true than anything she could plan. From a plastic baggy she sprinkled an aromatic mix she’d prepared that morning of valerian, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, angelica, basil, and black pepper. She lined the hole with part of the mixture. “In peace and love may this soul go. As above, so below.”

Mandaline nodded to Sami, indicating she could put his ashes in. With trembling hands, she removed the top from the box. Inside, a twist tie closed the plastic bag holding the cremains. Matt reached over to help her untie the bag as tears rolled down Sami’s face. Together, they lovingly emptied the bag into the hole before sitting back.

Mandaline spread the rest of the herb mix on top of the cremains. “Your soul today we do release. We forgive and remember and wish you peace.” She took a deep breath. “We hold on to our love, but our anger we lose. Forgiveness and healing is the path we choose.” Hot tears rolled down her cheeks and she hoped she could hold it together long enough to finish.

“Today, we all do set you free. As we speak it, so mote it be.” She scooped dirt over the cremains and motioned for Matt to put the paver stone into place. Then she closed her eyes. “Namaste. Aho.”

She opened her eyes when she heard Sami let out a soft sob. Mandaline turned her back on them as Matt held her in his arms while she cried. Mandaline took a deep breath of her own. Picking up a handful of pine needles from inside the circle, she used that to open and sweep away the circle.

Matt whispered to Sami as he held her and together they sat there, slowly rocking as she cried in his arms. Mandaline picked up her things and took them back to her messenger bag. Ellis walked over.

With blue eyes full of concern, he looked down at her and opened his arms. She didn’t hesitate to go to him, her own soft sobs obscuring the sound of Sami crying in the background.

Mandaline’s soul felt about fifty pounds lighter as they all left the clearing in silence. The two horses were still waiting at the gate when they emerged from the woods. More than ever, Mandaline was convinced she’d absolutely made the right decision.

When they got back to the house, Mandaline stared at it. In her mind’s eye, she envisioned the peeling, sun-damaged paint as fresh and new, the house looking loved instead of neglected.

She felt love there and knew it centered around Matt and Sami.

Julie hadn’t revealed everything to Mandaline during the investigation, but she’d been able to put the pieces together herself without any assistance.

She also knew what she would—or rather, wouldn’t—find in the house.

No traces of George Simpson’s negative energy remained.

“Did you want to do the walk-through now?” Matt asked.

“That’d be fine.”

Sami only nodded in reply. They led Mandaline and Ellis into the house through the kitchen door.

The large room looked barren.

“We’ve already started getting rid of all the furniture,” Sami said. “The…” She swallowed hard. “The bed upstairs, but so far that’s all we’ve done upstairs. I wanted to clear this all out first.” A doorway led into another room, which had, presumably, been either the living or dining room. It, too, lay empty.

“We had a lot of stuff to get rid of in the basement,” she continued walking toward another door and opening it. “Took us a few days to clear that out.” Her faint smile faded. “Matt’s still healing from…the incident. I don’t want anyone in the house yet until we get it emptied out.”

“How are you doing?” Mandaline asked.

He shrugged. “I’m healing. Ribs are still a little tender.” During the attack, Steve had drugged everyone with doctored iced tea to disable them, then knocked Matt out with a frying pan before dumping him down the basement stairs and locking him in.

“Why don’t we start with the basement,” Mandaline suggested. “Work from the bottom up.”

She led the way downstairs. A bookcase lay open, revealing a hidden room behind it.

“We found cases of old whiskey in there,” Matt said. “And George Simpson’s papers, and his stash of money. He didn’t tell his wife about the room.”

Mandaline walked in, waving Ellis back when he wanted to go in with her.

She turned, eyes closed and mind open.

Nothing.

She looked at Sami. “I don’t sense anything.”

“That’s good, right?”

She smiled. “In this case, extremely.”

They worked their way through the first floor. At the bottom of the stairs, Sami stopped. “How much do you want to know?” she quietly asked. “Matt was locked in the basement for a lot of it.”

Mandaline took her hand. “As much as you want or need to tell me. I can handle it.”

She took a deep breath and pointed to the bottom of the stairs. “Julie was sitting right about here when the tea started hitting her. He’d dumped nearly a whole bottle of Valium into the pitcher, from what police were able to figure.” She stared at the place for a moment. “We didn’t know he’d disabled the cars. She’d tried to leave when she first felt the drugs hitting her, but her car wouldn’t start. She came in and dug her AAA card out of her purse. George…I mean Steve pretended to call them until he realized how out of it we were.”

She looked up the stairs. “I passed out on the couch after I saw him hit Matt. I thought he’d killed him. At some point, George…” She looked down before meeting Mandaline’s gaze. “I dealt with both of them that afternoon. Steve couldn’t keep fighting against George. George was too strong. Before…before George went into the lake, Steve came out a couple of times. I know it’s crazy, but that’s what happened. I couldn’t tell the police about that part of it. But to my dying day, I will always know in my heart it was George Simpson who committed those acts, not Steve.”

She slowly started up the stairs and walked to the right to a bedroom door. “This,” she quietly said, “was the master bedroom. I didn’t realize until that afternoon, before everything happened, while we were going through the house again with Julie, that the iron bedframe was likely the same one from the Simpsons. I saw a vision of a woman tied to the frame and being raped. I know from the pictures I saw that it was Evelyn Simpson.” She leaned into Matt’s embrace when he draped his arm around her shoulders. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “He tied Julie up the same way Evelyn Simpson had been tied up.”

The bed was noticeably missing from the room. Alone, Mandaline walked in. She made a beeline for the nightstand on the right side of the bed, closest to the bathroom. Nothing.

She walked over to the left nightstand and knelt down again. There, underneath it and all the way behind it, in the shadows by the baseboard, Mandaline found Julie’s crystal pouch, the black leather cord broken from where George Simpson had yanked it from around her neck.

She sat back on her knees and held it up. “This was hers,” she softly said.

Sami’s hand flew to her mouth. “I’m so sorry! I never saw it.” Behind Sami, Matt, and Ellis, who’d all walked into the room, she saw a woman standing in the doorway. Dressed in clothes from early in the last century, she wore a smile. In front of her stood three smiling children, two girls and a boy.

Mandaline could see through them to the end of the upstairs hallway.

She chose not to mention them to Sami right at that moment.

“It’s okay,” Mandaline assured her. She stood and walked over to Sami. Mandaline put the pouch in Sami’s hand and closed her fingers around it. “She would want you to have it,” she said.

“No, I couldn’t.”

“Consider it a housewarming present.” She looked around and took a deep breath. “The bad history is all that remains of the evil that once lived here. A small part of Julie’s spirit will always be here, just like Evelyn and the children. And the others.”

“Not George?” Sami asked.

“No, not George. He’s gone. Only good energies remain.”

They continued up to the attic. Mandaline walked over to the window seat in the cupola. Evelyn Simpson sat on the window seat and stared out at the yard. She looked up as Mandaline approached.

Mandaline couldn’t hear her speak, but it looked like she said, “Thank you.” Before she faded from Mandaline’s view, she noticed Evelyn held a journal and a pencil.

“You know,” Mandaline said, knowing she was the only one who could see the ghosts, “maybe leave a journal and pencil here for Evelyn. And a couple of toys for the children.” She turned to look at Matt and Sami. Both of them wore knowing smiles. Behind them, Ellis remained silent but looked confused.

“We will,” Matt said. “So, all clear?”

She hugged them. “All clear. Let me know when you get all the demolition completed, and I’ll come in and do a house cleansing for you. Another one before you move in, once construction’s complete.”

“It…that won’t hurt…them, will it?” Sami nervously asked.

Mandaline knew she meant Evelyn and the children. “No. We’ll ask that only positive energies remain of their own free will, or move on if they choose, but we’ll welcome them if they wish to stay.”

They both looked relieved.

Ten minutes later, with their good-byes said, Matt was letting them out of the gate.

As the house disappeared behind them, Ellis finally broke his silence.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

He seemed to chew on it for a while. “In the attic.”

“Yes?”

He turned to face her. “I didn’t want to say anything and freak out Matt and Sami. But am I the only one who saw the woman sitting in the window? She was only there for a minute, and then she was gone. Or am I losing my mind?”

Mandaline let out a long, deep, belly laugh. “You should have said something. I would have introduced you to Evelyn Simpson.”