As long as I kept thoughts of Mike’s zucchini to myself, all should be fine.
Sydney
A half hour later, Mike and I walked into Salem’s unofficial welcome center. All the locals called it the Welcome Center because Beatrice knew more than the people hired at the official one. Many years ago, Beatrice had converted a private home into a place that held all sorts of historical information about Salem.
I waved at the older lady behind the counter. She was busy reading something, the glasses perched on her nose connected to a chain around her neck, and she looked every bit like the historian she was. Beatrice had been a friend of the family for as long as I could remember. Mike kept his hand on my lower back, which I loved.
I called, “Hey, Beatrice.”
The sweet lady looked up and gave me a huge smile. “Oh my, my, Sydney. You came to visit me. I was hoping I’d get to see you soon. I have missed you.”
I went around the counter and gave her a hug. “It’s so good to see you. Sorry it’s taken me a bit to get over here. It’s been a little hectic getting settled after Grandpa died.”
Beatrice held me closer. “I know, punkin pie. We miss him so much. He was such a special man.”
“Yes, he was. Thank you. It’s so good to see you.” That was all I could get out before I started to get a little choked up. So far, I had been doing fairly well dealing with Grandpa’s death. Moments like this made it hard.
She pushed me back as if to get a good look at me. “It’s so good to see you, too. I saw Peggy and Gladys and Patricia Nelson when we were meeting about to plan our Red Hat Society luncheon this weekend.” She leaned in close to me and loudly whispered, “I heard about your admirer. He’s quite the looker.”
Of course, Mike heard every word and gave me a wink. I whispered back, “Hopefully good things.”
“They were, dear.” She turned to Mike and spoke normally. “Officer Murphy, I’ve heard some rumors about you from Lou. I hear you’re sweet on our girl.”
Mike smiled as I walked back around the corner. He put his arm around me and said, “Sometimes, rumors are true.”
My heart skipped a few beats in my chest. He’s sweet on me.
“Well, what can I do for the sweet couple?”
I felt the heat in my cheeks. Don’t say something stupid. No word vomit. Focus. We’re here to see if Beatrice has answers. “Well, I was curious if you’d ever heard of the word alchemist in relation to the witch trials.”
Beatrice’s face went pale. “What word was that?”
“Alchemist.”
She shook her head. “That was the word I couldn’t remember. That was the word.”
; The way she said it was concerning. Mike raised his eyebrow as he watched Beatrice. I asked, “Why couldn’t you remember that word?”
Her eyes became unfocused as if she’d gotten lost in a memory. “The night Vickie disappeared. She’d come in here asking me basically the same thing—if I knew about a secret society named the Alchemists. There was a man she mentioned. Let me think… it was Sala something. I told Doug she’d asked about a secret society and that name, but I was never able to remember that word—alchemist.”
Soloman. Oh my gosh.
Vickie.
For a second, I couldn’t move. Vickie. She’d been here talking about the Alchemists on the night she disappeared. A knot formed in my stomach. And she had asked about the name Soloman. I’d never heard Vickie mention the name. My muscles tightened. Mike touched my lower back, signifying he’d caught it, too. I felt like I had a mouth full of cotton, unable to speak. Mike picked up where I left off as my thoughts kept shifting to Vickie.