The Murders of Cozy Hollow

Chapter 18 - Fresh Kill

Both Ed and Frank felt it. Things were escalating in Cozy Hollow. Things were literally coming out of the woods. Things from long ago. The discovered remains of the Hill girls and Amanda George solidified the undeniable fact that a killer had resurfaced. But a very alive Diane Tomlinson in her eight-year-old body from 1981 defied any logic and brought the paranormal element of Cozy Hollow to light. Frank Ross had spent his life telling himself there was no such thing as ghosts, but he could hide his head in the sand no longer. In truth, he'd always known deep down the things that happened in Cozy Hollow could not be explained away by conventional logic.

First order of business was what to do with Diane herself. She was not physically hurt but had not spoken a word, not even her name. Frank was steadfast in his conviction that it was her. The lost little girl from long ago. Ed and Frank decided to keep the girl's identity to themselves for the time being. She'd be reported as a Jane Doe until the Sheriff and his detective figured out what to do. They needed to devise a plan to positively identify her through DNA or dental records without drawing any attention. They'd also need to find out who of her parents or siblings were still alive. Frank recalled her family losing hope and eventually moving far away from Cozy Hollow a few years after Diane's disappearance. Frank's number one concern was the online media. If word got out about Diane, every media outlet, ghost hunter and amateur sleuth would descend upon Cozy Hollow with a fervor. It would be an uncontrollable circus.

As luck would have it, Sally Salt at the Sheriff's Office was a licensed foster parent. She'd been unable to conceive children and unlucky in love so Sally recently completed her foster parent training with the state. Frank was able to arrange with Child Protective Services for Diane to temporarily stay with Sally once released from the hospital. Of course, Sally only knew Diane as an unidentified Jane Doe who needed a safe place to stay.

***

Ed hunkered down in his office late into the night going through Diane's cold case. Sure enough, Diane had been next in chronological order of disappearances after the Hill and George girls. Diane had gone missing during recess in the third grade at Cozy Hollow Elementary School. Her file had a transcript from an interview with her parents not long after she vanished. Her mother stated that Diane had been scared to go out to the playground during recess for about a week prior. Diane had said she saw a scary man watching her from the schoolhouse. Sometimes he stood in a window. Sometimes he stood outside and peeked at her around a corner. Diane drew pictures of him in class, which were also in the file. The drawings were obvious. It was Skullman. Even more bizarre, there was also a photo of Diane's third grade class. Circled in red marker on the photo was a bald man in the background wearing a suite. His image was blurry, but again it looked like the infamous boogeyman.

How could the community doubt Skullman's existence even with photographic evidence? Or had someone masterfully doctored photos to perpetuate the hoax?

Frank walked into Ed's office and parked his wide load in a chair across from Ed's desk.

"Sally's picking up our Jane Doe from the hospital as we speak," said Frank.

"You're sure it's her?" Ed asked.

"Yes, I'm sure."

"The girl is certainly a dead ringer for the girl in this cold case file. A lookalike relative is the only other explanation. Maybe she has a niece who's her doppelgänger. I don't know."

"I'm gonna suspend my disbelief as they say. If Skull truly exists and Cozy Hollow has a ghost problem, which many folks believe to be the case, what's happening here? Why now? Where's all this heading? Are all our cold cases coming out of the woodwork? Are you that damn good of a detective? I need an objective non-local take on this."

Frank seemed desperate for answers and willing to listen. Ed sensed Frank wanted to finally solve the mystery of Cozy Hollow before he retired or worse, kicked the bucket. Ed was Frank's last hope and the right man for the job.

"The honest answer is that I have no clue. That said, it's an odd coincidence that it started after I rolled into town and bought the old Beaumont house. Maybe that upset someone or something."

"You still think Thaddeus Beaumont is our guy."

"Maybe."

"Like I said, I'm gonna open up my old tired mind and consider any possibility."

"That's a start, but I need to confess something myself."

"Oh shit, do I want to hear this?"

"I think I saw a ghost in my house."

"Please tell me you're fucking with me."

"No, the first night I slept there. I'm pretty sure the ghost of Charlotte Beaumont was in my bed."

"What?"

"I thought it may have been all in my head but now I'm not so sure. I only saw her that once but she seemed very real. I smelt her on my pillow the next morning."

"I told you to get out of that house."

"I know this's gonna sound like complete supernatural horseshit, but maybe she knows something."

"You think the ghost in your bed is gonna help us crack the case?"

"Why not? Maybe she wants to tell me something."

"Go for it, kid. By the way, did Charlotte look as beautiful as I remember?"

"I'm willing to bet even better."

"Well, if I had my pick of ghosts to see, Charlotte would be my first choice. She was one amazing creature back in the day."

Suddenly, a flustered deputy knocked and abruptly opened the door to Ed's office.

"Sheriff!" said the deputy. "Sorry to interrupt but you need to come see this now!"

"What is it?" asked Frank, annoyed.

"Now! Detective Stone too!"

The two men did as they were asked. Ed and Frank hurried to the front foyer of the Sheriff's Office. It was almost one o'clock in the morning and the attending deputy working the night shift had a frozen stare out the floor-to-ceiling windows that faced Main Street. The other deputy who fetched Ed and Frank pointed across the street.

"You see him?" said the deputy.

Ed and Frank could not believe their eyes. Standing in the center of Main Street facing the Sheriff's Office with his empty eye sockets was none other than Skullman. He was slender and decrepit, wearing an old suite, tie and all. He just stood there as if waiting for someone to engage with him. Ed made sure he had a hand on his .357.

"Skull," said Frank almost to himself. "It's been a longtime."

Ed realized in that moment Frank had seen Skullman before, maybe more than once.

"I'm going out there," said Ed.

The deputies wanted no part in confronting Skullman. Frank seemed to be catatonic. Ed opened the front door to the station and walked outside. He stood face-to-face with Skullman about fifteen yards apart. Skullman gave Ed an inquisitive look and started to briskly walk up Main Street. Ed ran after him. While it didn't look like Skullman was running, he kept a fast pace ahead of Ed's strides. There were no cars on the road at that late hour. When Skullman arrived at Saint Mary's, he darted into the cemetery and disappeared from Ed's line of sight. Ed followed his suspect into the graveyard.

Ed noticed everything go quiet like a vacuum had sucked the sound up from the night. Skullman was nowhere to be seen but he thought he heard footsteps further into the cemetery. Ed drew his firearm and progressed deeper into the sea of headstones guided only by the moonlight.

Soon the massive Beaumont headstone came into view. As Ed drew closer, he made the gruesome find. There lying motionless at the foot of the Beaumont monument was the beheaded body of Chrissy Swanson. Still in her red lifeguard swimsuit, her head been cut clean off at mid-neck. There was no sign off her skull. While there was a small puddle of blood on the ground at her shoulders, it did not appear she had been murdered at that spot. There would most likely have been far more blood and some spatter.

"Oh no," said Ed. "Oh no, no, no."