Read Online The Sign of Seven Trilogy by Nora Roberts - Free Book Online

direct eye contact.
    â€œInitial reports indicated the three of you were originally suspected of starting the fire, but it was proven Miss Lister herself was responsible. She suffered second-degree burns on nearly thirty percent of her body as well as a concussion. You and your friends, three ten-year-old boys, dragged her out and called the fire department. Miss Lister was, at that time, a twenty-five-year-old fourth-grade teacher with no history of criminal behavior or mental illness. Is that all correct information?”
    She got her facts in order, Cal noted. Such as the facts were known. They fell far short of the abject terror of entering that burning school, of finding the pretty Miss Lister cackling madly as she ran through the flames. Of how it felt to chase her through those hallways as her clothes burned.
    â€œShe had a breakdown.”
    â€œObviously.” Smile in place, Quinn lifted her eyebrows. “There were also over a dozen nine-one-one calls on domestic abuse during that single week, more than previously had been reported in Hawkins Hollow in the six preceding months. There were two suicides and four attempted suicides, numerous accounts of assault, three reported rapes, and a hit-and-run. Several homes and businesses were vandalized. None—virtually none—of the people involved in any of the reported crimes or incidents has a clear memory of the events. Some speculate the town suffered from mass hysteria or hallucinations or an unknown infection taken through food or water. What do you think?”
    â€œI think I was ten years old and pretty much scared shitless.”
    She offered that brief, sunny smile. “I bet.” Then it was gone. “You were seventeen in nineteen ninety-four when during the week of July seventh another—let’s say outbreak—occurred. Three people were murdered, one of them apparently hanged in the town park, but no one came forward as a witness or to admit participation. There were more rapes, more beatings, more suicides, two houses burned to the ground. There were reports that you, O’Dell, and Turner were able to get some of the wounded and traumatized onto a school bus and transport them to the hospital. Is that accurate?”
    â€œAs far as it goes.”
    â€œI’m looking to go further. In two thousand one—”
    â€œI know the pattern,” Cal interrupted.
    â€œEvery seven years,” Quinn said with a nod. “For seven nights. Days—according again to what I can ascertain—little happens. But from sundown to sunset, all hell breaks loose. It’s hard to believe that it’s a coincidence this anomaly happens every seven years, with its start on your birthday. Seven’s considered a magickal number by those who profess to magicks, black and white. You were born on the seventh day of the seventh month of nineteen seventy-seven.”
    â€œIf I knew the answers, I’d stop it from happening. If I knew the answers, I wouldn’t be talking to you. I’m talking to you because maybe, just maybe, you’ll find them, or help find them.”
    â€œThen tell me what happened, tell me what you do know, even what you think or sense.”
    Cal set his coffee aside, leaned forward to look deep into her eyes. “Not on a first date.”
    Smart-ass, she thought with considerable approval. “Fine. Next time I’ll buy you dinner first. But now, how about playing guide and taking me to the Pagan Stone.”
    â€œIt’s too late in the day. It’s a two-hour hike from here. We wouldn’t make it there and back before dark.”
    â€œI’m not afraid of the dark.”
    His eyes went very cool. “You would be. I’ll tell you this, there are places in these woods no one goes after dark, not any time of the year.”
    She felt the prick of ice at the base of her spine. “Have you ever seen a boy, about the age you’d have been in eighty-seven. A