No one in Solitude could remain indifferent to Stilgarth Manor and the ghost that haunted it after all the chaos that followed in the wake of the discovery. It wasn’t just the reporters from the local papers who soon converged on the manor, eager to ferret out information. Zane saw a CNN van parked by the grounds. The missing children had finally gone beyond just local lore, and it felt like everyone in the world was sitting up and paying attention for the first time.
Zane was hounded for interviews, too, having been one of the two boys to find the bones. Fortunately, his father had put a stop to that, having hobbled briefly out of the hospital so he could yell at reporters about how he hadn’t given any of them permission to interview his kid, who was a minor, and that they had no permission from the Sevillas to interview their kid, also a minor, and if their names ever found their way into their reports he would sue the crap out of them, don’t think that he wouldn’t.
They were taking him seriously so far.
Zane did learn more about the remains from the papers that he wouldn’t have known otherwise. The bones had been analyzed and matched to the same time period as when the Traithes had lived and when the children had gone missing. Some of the interest from the public waned after that. “They’re more grotesque about it when it’s newer cases,” Mr. Sevilla said with a sigh.
Attempts had been made to find the descendants of anyone related to the children, which was a really bonkers idea to Zane, because the kids were infamously orphans to begin with. “Timothy and John?” Emma asked Zane curiously. “Didn’t you say their names were Timothy and Jack?”
“Jack is a fairly common nickname for John,” their father said.
“None of my friends are named Timothy,” Emma said. “It sounds like a name you’d give a grandpa, not a baby.”
The news also said that there were only two skeletal remains found inside the monument, despite there having been three kids missing.
The discovery had made Zane and Garrett—and by association, Emma—something of celebrities in town. Every time Zane set foot outside, he was immediately accosted by eager residents who wanted him to tell the story a hundredth time because the last ninety-nine didn’t cut it.
It all left a foul taste in his mouth. The curiosity felt ghoulish to him. Sure, no one actually knew the missing kids personally, so it’s not like they had to be sad about their passing, but still . . .
The Sevillas volunteered to house Emma and Zane until the reporters went away and until their father was able to leave the hospital, much to the Kincaids’ gratitude. Zane felt bad for imposing so much on the family’s generosity, but everyone had been insistent.
“Of course we would never throw you out for those wolves to find,” Mr. Sevilla said, sounding like he’d never had a good experience with a reporter in his life. “And I’m glad Garrett has someone to help him through this mess, too. Don’t worry. They’ll lose interest after a few days.”
Zane wasn’t quite sure Garrett’s parents could protect them from the Gravemother, though. He’d biked to school the next day and had accidentally run into more journalists waiting by the parking lot. He’d also caught sight of the Gravemother. She’d stood behind most of the crowd but was tall enough that she could stare out at him over their heads, eyes listless and lower mouth still missing. Zane had stared at her and she had stared back, but this time something had changed between them. It no longer felt like she was there to haunt him. It felt like finding the missing children had earned Zane some goodwill . . . at least for now.
And as he looked on, she had disappeared quietly, without a trace.
They’d been given leave by the principal to skip classes for the rest of the day because of the media chaos, so Zane, Emma, and Garrett barricaded themselves at the Sevillas’, where they played board games, did homework (Zane and Garrett had finally finished their budget project and sent it over to Mrs. Robertson via email), and mostly lazed around. Emma complained of being sleepy after dinner and headed for a nap in the guest room, while Zane stayed in Garrett’s room to plot out their next move. Zane sprawled on his covers and cheerfully messed up the duvet, ignoring Garrett’s annoyed sigh.
“So maybe she really just wanted people to know the truth about what happened,” Garrett suggested, after Zane had told him about his last run-in with the Gravemother. “And maybe she was mad at your father for trying to move the monument because it was disturbing their rest, but now she’s happy that they’ve finally been found and will be given a proper burial.”
“Do you know where they’re gonna bury the bones?” Zane asked, worried. “I figured your folks might know.”
“They volunteered to keep them in our storage until we figure out what to do with them,” Garrett confirmed.
“What?” Zane sat up. “Are you saying they’re here?”
“Well, yeah. The coroner didn’t want to keep the bones ’cause they didn’t have much space. It made more sense than having them sent out of town, and I don’t think the people would want the grocers putting them in their freezers. Your dad technically owns them, though, so it’s really up to him what happens next.”
“Yeah, I bet they’re pestering Dad about it at the hospital. He told us not to visit.” Zane frowned. “I think he’d want them interred properly on the grounds,” he said slowly. “But that’s only if he doesn’t sell. I’m not even sure Stilgarth can be sold anymore, after everything. I don’t think property developers are big on finding bones in the places they wanna buy up.”
“You’d be surprised,” Garrett said darkly. “Although yeah, they probably don’t want this kind of attention. But this must mean the last kid’s still somewhere in Stilgarth, right?”
“But where, though? I can understand why they didn’t find the first two because the monument wasn’t where anyone was looking to begin with, but the other surveyors didn’t find anything else.” Zane paused, struck by an idea. “Do you think the third kid’s inside one of the walls of the manor?”
“Why hide him in a different place from the other two?”
“Maybe if we knew who commissioned the monument in the first place, we’d find more clues.”
Garrett leaned back in his beanbag chair and frowned. “Harrison Traithe did. After Ginevra disappeared and people said they were being haunted by her supposed ghost. He put it up as a way to appease her spirit, but that didn’t work.”
“He was one of the town’s founding members and also the mayor when the kids and Ginevra disappeared,” Zane said slowly. “He wouldn’t have been able to bury the bodies if he was being scrutinized, too. People would have noticed if he’d started digging up his own property, right?”
“So he pretended to create a monument to honor his dead wife, but it was really just a way for him to hide the bodies!” Garrett said excitedly. “That’s why it looked so unfinished—he just couldn’t be bothered to make a better statue, and it must have been cheap. But that doesn’t explain why the third boy isn’t there. Or Ginevra! They said she left town, but what if she didn’t?”
“The monument must not have been big enough to hide all of them. He had to have hidden one of the bodies in the manor. Let me ask Dad.”
The reporters must have finally left his father alone, because his text back to Zane was quicker than he expected. Yeah, it’s on record that it was Harrison Traithe who commissioned the monument. Al has some penetrative radar on hand that can spot foreign objects inside walls, but where in the world did you come up with this theory?
“Dad thinks it’s possible,” Zane said. “He would have flat-out told me no if he didn’t. I think this whole business is worrying him a lot more than he lets on. But then what? Will the Gravemother leave us alone once we find her remains?”
“I don’t know, but it’s worth a try. We’ve already gotten this far.”
A low cry caught their attention, and it sounded a lot like Emma.
Zane and Garrett stared at each other. Both leaped to their feet and raced for the guest bedroom.
The Gravemother stood beside the bed where Emma lay, body stooped over her smaller form. A hand was stretched out as if to touch the young girl’s head.
With an angry yell, Zane charged forward.
The Gravemother turned toward him. Her eyes blazed—
—and instead of disappearing, she caught Zane by the collar and lifted him effortlessly. Zane gasped, straining unsuccessfully to break free from her grip, the spindly fingers and arms strong despite how fragile and twisted they seemed from afar.
Up close, the Gravemother was as horrifying as before, with her rotting teeth and her vile breath. Her upper jaw lifted up and down, and it was all the more grotesque because it had no opposing jaw to clamp down against, but it made grating clicking noises against the air all the same.
Where is my Emmy? the Gravemother hissed into his face.
Garrett barreled into them. The Gravemother’s hold loosened, sending Zane tumbling to the floor, accidentally taking Garrett along with him.
“Garrett?” Mr. Sevilla burst through the door, alarmed. He relaxed at the sight of both boys sprawled beside the bed, then frowned. “What’s going on here?”
There was no Gravemother in sight. Zane scrambled hurriedly to his feet. “Sorry, Mr. Sevilla,” he huffed, as Garrett hurried to do the same.
Garrett’s father glanced at each of them in turn, then focused his attention to the now peacefully sleeping Emma on the bed. “Nightmares?” he asked sympathetically.
“She did, but we’ve got everything under control,” Zane said. “Just looking out for her and kinda tripped.”
“You two ought to get a good night’s sleep as well. After all the weirdness that’s been happening lately regarding Stilgarth, I can only assume how tired you must be. Are you sure you’re both all right?”
“We’re fine, Dad,” Garrett said. “We’ll look after Emma.”
His father finally nodded, satisfied, and made his retreat. As his footsteps faded away, Zane and Garrett stared at each other and then back at Emma, who had fully relaxed in her sleep, no longer tossing and turning.
“We’ve been trying to help her,” Zane said, unable to stop his spurt of anger. “We found two of her kids. Why is she still haunting us? And why is she haunting Emma?”
Garrett looked helplessly at him. Neither had an answer.