Formidophobia
Although the initial plans for Puritan Falls' annual harvest festival, which was to run from October 11 until October 14 (Columbus Day), were made back at the March meeting of the Town Team (the nickname given to the group of dedicated citizens who met each month to raise money for various civic improvements in the small Massachusetts seaside village), Patience Scudder, the town librarian and the current chairperson, held regular progress meetings to make sure the various committees were on track. In the last week of September, she met with the committee leaders at the Green Man Pub.
"I'm sure everything is running according to schedule," she declared confidently, "but since we're almost down to the wire, I want to touch base with all of you. Who wants to begin?"
Shawn and Penny McMurtry, who were in charge of pumpkin carving, spoke first.
"We've got more than three dozen people at work," Penny announced.
"Our garage is full of carved pumpkins!" Officer McMurtry laughed. "We have to park our cars in the driveway."
"The high school kids have been doing an incredible job!" his wife continued. "We've also had non-committee members drop carved pumpkins off at our house. We're carving extra ones just in case some of them go rotten. I estimate that by the time the festival starts, we'll have roughly two hundred pumpkins to light."
"Good. And you have enough volunteers to help you put the completed pumpkins around town?"
"More than enough," Shawn replied.
Shannon Devlin, who along with her husband, Liam, owned the Green Man Pub, and Rebecca Coffin, owner of The Quill and Dagger bookshop, were in charge of the food stands. They happily updated the group on their progress.
Shannon beamed with pride when she reported, "The members of our committee, as always, have been giving one hundred percent! Josiah and Eliza"—referring to Josiah Barnard, owner of the Sons of Liberty Tavern, and his wife—"and Liam and I are in charge of the savory foods, including hot dogs, burgers, chicken wings, fish and chips, tacos and gourmet grilled cheese."
Rebecca was also upbeat when she announced, "Not only have Victoria"—referring to Victorian Broadbent, owner of Victoria's Tea Shoppe—"and I planned on an incredible array of cakes and cookies, and Desiree LeFleur is going to set up a candy stand and not just to sell her gourmet chocolate. She wants to include traditional holiday favorites as well. We'll have something to please everyone's sweet tooth!"
Several other committee leaders spoke before Abigail Cantwell and Ezra Graves took their turn. Abigail, owner of the Bell Book and Candle New Age shop, and Ezra, owner and editor of The Puritan Falls Gazette, were heading the effort to organize the featured event of the year's four-day festival: a scarecrow contest.
"Ezra and I," Abigail said, "have things well under control. In addition to all the business owners along Essex and Gloucester Streets, more than eighty scarecrows will be entered in the noncommercial category of the contest. I need not go into detail about the rules and guidelines since I've already given each of you copies. There is something that has come up since our last progress meeting, however. We've had many requests from parents to include children's entries as well. So, we're opening up the competition to two additional age groups: five through ten years and eleven through sixteen. Anyone seventeen or over will be considered an adult."
"Where will the scarecrows be put on display?" asked Martha Prescott, who once hosted the Classic Horror Movies series on Thriller TV Network under the name Belladonna Nightshade.
"The commercial entries will be placed outside the appropriate store or business," Ezra answered. "We'll place the individual and family scarecrows on the Common. We'll arrange them in groups with cornstalks, hay bales and pumpkins."
"That's a great idea!" exclaimed Sarah Ryerson, an emergency room physician at Puritan Falls Hospital. "Some of the doctors and nurses are going to put up a small scarecrow display outside the main entrance of the hospital. I think we'll include the cornstalks, hay and pumpkins, too."
"Are there any more issues we need to discuss?" Patience asked. Since there were none, she announced, "Then this meeting is adjourned."
With official business over, Liam Devlin brought out liquid refreshments for the attendees: cups of Irish coffee, glasses of wine and a pitcher of Guinness.
* * *
For the next week, volunteers throughout the village stepped up their efforts to complete their given assignments. The McMurtry house was filled with teenagers busily carving pumpkins. The couple's son, Adam, and daughter, Brittany, struggled to find room for them all in the two-car garage.
"Maybe I can bring a few dozen down the station," Shawn suggested. "I don't imagine Chief Bergen will object to us keeping them in the basement. After all, it's for the good of the village."
As the carved pumpkin count continued to rise, people around Puritan Falls were digging through their attics or shopping at thrift stores, looking for old clothes to put on their scarecrows. While some were in favor of traditional Halloween men and women made from straw, others were more creative in their designs. Judy Stanfield, administrative assistant to psychiatrist Lionel Penn, cleverly chose to create a scarecrow that suffered from arachnophobia by covering it with fake webs and rubber spiders. April Brower, Dr. Penn's sister who was an English teacher at the high school, made her scarecrow look like Nathaniel Hawthorne's Hester Prynne by dressing her in a Puritan outfit, complete with a scarlet A. Her husband, Tom, a die-hard Red Sox fan, decided nothing was scarier than the New York Yankees, so he dressed his scarecrow in pinstripes with the familiar NY logo.
The themes chosen by those who submitted commercial entries tended to advertise the shop or business they represented. Rebecca Coffin's scarecrow, placed beside the front door of The Quill and Dagger, was dressed like Sherlock Holmes, complete with a deerstalker hat and calabash pipe. Abigail Cantwell's entry was dressed like a modern Wiccan priestess rather than a stereotypical Halloween witch. Josiah Barnard's scarecrow wore the uniform of an American Revolutionary War patriot and proudly stood at attention outside the Sons of Liberty Tavern.
"Aren't you going to put up a scarecrow in front of the Gazette's office?" Abigail asked Ezra, her co-leader and significant other.
"I'd like to, but I haven't come up with a clever idea for one yet."
"Well, you'd better hurry up. Half of the shops on Essex Street have already put theirs out on display. You should see the one Desiree LeFleur made. Since she's from New Orleans, her scarecrow is dressed in a Mardi Gras costume. It's beautiful! I would imagine she'll be in the running for the grand prize."
"I don't suppose I could make a scarecrow look like William Randolph Hurst or Joseph Pulitzer," Ezra mused.
"Do you think most people would recognize either of those men if you did?" Abigail laughed.
"No. I don't suppose they would."
Eventually, the editor chose to create a generic newspaper reporter. He put a PRESS pass on the scarecrow's fedora, hung an old camera around its neck and tucked a pad and pencil in its breast pocket.
"I'll never win with this one—not even an honorable mention—but at least it's something. After all, I am running the scarecrow competition with you. I ought to enter one."
By late Friday night, the day before the harvest festival was to begin, all the scarecrows were placed in the Common, either suspended from wooden stakes or seated on hay bales.
"That was the last of them," Lionel Penn announced after placing a scarecrow dressed like the Mad Hatter next to one who was supposed to be Hannibal Lecter.
"Good job, everyone!" Ezra told the men who had helped him with the time-consuming job. "Thank you one and all."
Dylan Osborne (Rebecca Coffin's husband), Liam Devlin, Shawn McMurtry and his partner Officer Greg Pierson, Douglas Pemberley and Michael Whitby (owners of Treasure Hunt Antiques), Josiah Barnard, Dr. Noah Prestwick and even Mayor Ernie Lawson were all tired and thirsty after their labors. Many of the men were picking pieces of straw from their clothing.
"Anyone up for a glass of beer?" Liam asked.
"Oh, yeah!" Dylan and Lionel replied in unison.
"Let's head on down to the Green Man. Drinks are on the house."
* * *
When Corinne Mellon saw Evelyn Verek's Honda Accord pull up in front of her apartment building, she rolled her suitcase out the front door and locked it behind her. The two women, both of whom worked for the same insurance company, planned on spending Columbus Day weekend in Salem, Massachusetts. Evelyn's aunt was on a two-week cruise and suggested her niece stay at her home in nearby Beverly since lodgings in Salem during October were hard to come by.
"I've always wanted to attend Salem's Haunted Happenings," Corinne said as she buckled her seatbelt. "Thanks for asking me to go with you."
"My pleasure."
The reason Evelyn had invited her coworker along was that Corinne was the only unmarried woman she knew. All of her good friends were married with families and would not be willing to abandon them for the three-day holiday weekend.
Not having a travel companion is one of the drawbacks of being divorced, she thought.
"I've got to warn you," she said, heading toward I-95 North. "Salem is extremely crowded this time of year. Be prepared to wait in long lines to get into all the attractions. And don't count on getting a table at a restaurant right away."
"Don't worry about me. I'm a fairly patient person."
Although they left New Jersey before nine in the morning, the women hit heavy traffic going through Connecticut. It was nearly one o'clock when they neared Boston.
"I don't know about you, but I'm starving," Evelyn announced. "All I had for breakfast was a cup of coffee."
"Why don't we stop and get something to eat?"
"There must be a McDonalds or Burger King around here somewhere," the driver said, taking the next exit off the interstate.
Seeing no road markers indicating gas, food or lodging locations, she turned right. She drove several miles along Route 692 before encountering a sign that welcomed them to Puritan Falls. They stopped at the mall; and although it lacked a traditional food court, it did have a Starbucks and a Burger Barn.
"This place looks as good as any other," Evelyn declared and pulled into a parking spot near the entrance.
"I would have thought a shopping mall would be more crowded than this," Corinne observed. "Stores usually have Columbus Day sales."
"We're not too far from Salem. Maybe everyone headed there for Haunted Happenings."
Both the mall and Burger Bar were decorated for Halloween. When the two women from New Jersey stepped up to the counter to place their order, they both commented on the festive atmosphere.
"The whole village gets into the holiday spirit," the teenager behind the counter explained. "Are you here for the harvest festival?"
"No," Evelyn replied. "We're on our way to Salem."
"And you figured you'd check out our scarecrow competition first, huh?"
"Scarecrow competition?" Corinne echoed.
"It's the festival's featured event this year. We've got more than two hundred scarecrows competing for prizes. Essex Street is lined with straw people; however, the majority of them are in the Common."
"Maybe we ought to check them out before going to Salem," Evelyn suggested.
"Sounds good to me. I love everything having to do with Halloween: witches, pumpkins, scarecrows, haunted houses—you name it."
Thus, once the two women from New Jersey finished their lunch, they drove into the center of Puritan Falls to attend the harvest festival.
* * *
Evelyn was directed to St. Michael's Church since its parking lot was being used to handle the influx of tourists' cars. It was a short walk from the church to the heart of the village's business district, which consisted mainly of mom-and-pop stores along Essex and Gloucester Streets.
"Isn't this an adorable town! Look! It's got a bookshop, a candy store, an antique shop and whatever kind of store that is," she said, pointing to the Bell, Book and Candle New Age shop.
Rebecca Coffin, who stood by the front door of her mystery-themed bookstore, was handing out ballots for the scarecrow competition.
"Are you ladies planning on voting?" she asked.
"Sure. We'd love to," Corinne quickly agreed.
"Here's a complete list of the entries," Rebecca explained, handing them a four-page document.
"There are so many!" Evelyn observed. "I'm not sure we have time to see them all."
Although her friend seemed uncertain about participating, Corinne was determined to see each and every scarecrow on the list.
"Come on! It'll be fun," she urged.
Twenty minutes later, they had seen all the scarecrows on Essex and Gloucester and were heading toward the Common.
"So far, my favorites are the Sherlock Holmes in front of the bookstore and the Mardi Gras one by the candy store," Corinne announced.
"Sweet Indulgence," Evelyn said. "I liked that one, too. And I absolutely loved the chocolate we got there."
Both women were delighted to see that the scarecrows were not the only attraction at the harvest festival. They enjoyed seeing the many jack-o'-lanterns on display as well as the refreshment and craft stands in the Common.
"I'm glad we stopped here for lunch," Corinne opined.
"So am I. This is like a mini-Haunted Happenings."
"But not nearly as ...."
Suddenly, Corinne stopped speaking. However, her silence did not last long. She raised her arm, pointed a finger in the direction of one of the scarecrows and let out a blood-curdling scream.
"What's wrong?" Evelyn asked, worried by her friend's outburst.
"That ... that ... scarecrow!"
A moment later, Corinne's irises rolled up and she collapsed on the ground.
* * *
Dr. Sarah Ryerson was about to go off duty when the ambulance pulled into the emergency room parking lot.
Damn! she thought. Lionel and I are supposed to go to the harvest festival.
The EMTs rolled a gurney through the door. An unknown woman followed close behind.
"What have we got here?" Sarah asked.
"Woman fainted at the harvest festival. This," the EMT said, introducing the woman who accompanied them on the drive to the hospital, "is her friend. She was with the patient when she passed out."
"Does your friend have any known medical condition I should be aware of?"
"Not that I know," Evelyn replied.
"Is she pregnant?"
"No."
"Had she been drinking?"
"Just a Coke at the Burger Barn."
"Do you know if she is on any medication?"
"I have no idea."
As she continued to ask Evelyn questions, Sarah performed a rudimentary examination of the patient. Moments after sending the still unconscious Corinne to radiology for a CAT scan, Lionel Penn entered the hospital to pick up his fiancée.
"I'm afraid it'll be a while before I can leave," Sarah told him. "The EMTs just brought a patient in. Seems she passed out at the harvest festival."
"Should I wait?" the psychiatrist asked.
"If you don't mind."
"All right. I'll go down to the cafeteria and get a cup of coffee. Can I get you anything?"
"No. I'm holding out for a spiced cider at the festival."
Lionel was on his second cup of coffee when Corinne came to.
"Where am I?" the patient asked.
"At the hospital," Sarah answered and explained the circumstances.
"I've never fainted in my life!" the patient exclaimed.
"You looked up at one of the scarecrows and began screaming," Evelyn told her. "It was as though you were afraid of it."
A smile briefly crossed Dr. Ryerson's face. So far, she had not found anything physically wrong with the woman. Perhaps what had caused her to faint was in her mind, not her body. And it just so happened that Lionel, a gifted psychiatrist, was in the hospital cafeteria.
* * *
"It might be formidophobia," Dr. Penn suggested after hearing about the events leading up to Corinne's collapse.
"What's that?" the patient asked.
"The fear of scarecrows."
"Is that really such a thing?" Evelyn asked.
"Yes."
"But she seemed to enjoy seeing them all. We walked up and down Essex and Gloucester without any incident."
"I said it might be formidophobia," Lionel declared. "It's extremely hard to provide a diagnosis after only a brief meeting."
"Well, whatever it was that made me swoon, I'm fine now," Corinne insisted. "If you could just release me now, Doctor, my friend and I can get to Salem before dinnertime."
Sarah was reluctant to discharge the patient. What if the woman were to get into an accident? Only after ascertaining that her friend would be doing all the driving, did she comply with the request.
"Damn!" Corinne swore as she opened the Honda's passenger door. "My phone is gone. It must still be at the hospital."
"You didn't have your phone on you when they brought you in. Maybe you dropped it at the festival," her friend suggested.
The two women headed back to the Common. They inquired at several food and crafts stands, but no one had turned in a cell phone.
"Let's retrace our steps and look for it," Evelyn suggested. "Do you recall the last time you used it?"
"Yes. I used it to take a photo of the pirate scarecrow, which was right after we stopped for pumpkin spice lattes," Corinne answered and immediately headed toward the coffee stand.
From there, she followed the same route she had taken earlier, passing by scarecrows dressed like Jason Voorhees, Santa Claus, a mermaid, Raggedy Ann and Mr. Spock from Star Trek. As she walked, she kept her head down, her eyes scanned the grass and paved walkway.
"There it is!" she cried, seeing the iPhone resting on a small pile of autumn leaves. "Good! It doesn't appear to be ...."
Then she pointed to the same scarecrow and shrieked.
"Not again!" Evelyn groaned when her friend swooned and fell.
Lionel Penn and Sarah Ryerson, who were talking to Martha Prescott about her entry into the competition, heard the screams and rushed to offer their assistance. Both doctors recognized Corinne Mellon and her friend.
"Did it happen the same way as before?" Sarah asked Evelyn.
"Yes. She took one look at the scarecrow, and the next thing I knew, she was passed out on the ground."
"I don't think we need an ambulance," Lionel suggested. "We can take her to the hospital in our car."
Sara drove while Evelyn sat in the front passenger seat beside her and the psychiatrist sat in the back seat with the unconscious woman. Moments after the Subaru pulled out of the church parking lot, Corinne began to speak.
"It's him," she moaned. "I know it is."
"It's who?" the psychiatrist asked.
"I recognize the shirt."
"Who did you see? Is it a person who frightened you and not a scarecrow?"
"But it can't be him! It's not possible!"
Asking any more questions was pointless since the woman did not seem to comprehend what the psychiatrist was saying.
"She sounds like she's still out of it," Sarah observed. "Maybe once we get to the hospital, she'll be more lucid. Then you can question her further."
"But if the trauma that's tormenting her is in her subconscious mind, she most likely won't be able to answer me."
As Lionel had predicted, once Corinne was fully awake, she had no memory of the incident.
"I passed out again?" she asked with disbelief.
"According to your friend, you saw the same scarecrow as before and reacted in the same way," Sarah answered.
"Do you still think I suffer from that phobia you mentioned?" she asked Dr. Penn.
"Formidophobia. And, yes, it's possible."
"But I've never been frightened of scarecrows."
"It could be just a coincidence that you passed out in front of a scarecrow. You said something on the way to the hospital. You claimed you saw someone, a man, and recognized him by the shirt he was wearing. Who were you referring to?"
"I don't know. My last memory is of finding my cell phone on the ground."
"Did you see any familiar faces before then?"
"No."
"What do we do now?" Evelyn asked, eager to leave Puritan Falls and continue their journey to Salem.
"Medically, there doesn't appear to be anything wrong," Sarah replied, "so there's no reason to admit her to the hospital."
"And there's very little I can do in such a short time," Lionel added.
"We can go then?"
"I don't see why not," the psychiatrist said.
"But if I do have this formidophobia, the same thing could happen to me in Salem. There's bound to be a few scarecrows there," Corinne assumed.
"Honestly, I don't think it's scarecrows in general that brought about the incident. I think it was either seeing one scarecrow in particular or someone you recognized in the crowd that frightened you."
"Isn't there any way you can tell for sure?"
"I've sometimes had success questioning patients under hypnosis."
"Then, by all means, put me under."
"Just don't get your hopes up. It doesn't always work. If the cause of your fear is deeply rooted, it could take months or even years to bring it to the surface."
"We can try, can't we?"
Sarah closed the drapes and dimmed the lights in the hospital room as Dr. Penn placed a lit candle on the table in front of the patient. He then instructed her to relax and stare into the flame. Evelyn and Sarah took seats in the corner of the room where they would quietly observe the interview.
"Can you hear me, Miss Mellon?" Lionel asked when he confirmed that the woman was deep in a hypnotic state.
"Yes," she replied in a dull monotone.
"Let's go back to earlier today. You and your friend were walking in the Common. Tell me what happened."
"We were following the list that the bookstore owner gave us, evaluating each of the entries in the competition. I put stars next to the scarecrows we really like and crossed off those we didn't think deserved to win."
"And none of the ones you saw frightened you?"
"No."
"Did you see anyone you thought you recognized?"
"The only person I knew was Evelyn."
"What about the man in the shirt?" Lionel asked, referring to the comment she had made while on the way to the hospital.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Corinne snapped angrily.
"You claimed it was 'the same shirt.' The same shirt as what?"
The patient suddenly exhibited the symptoms of a panic attack: shortness of breath, trembling, rapid heartbeat and sweating.
"It was the same shirt as he wore!" she cried.
"Who?" Lionel pressed.
"I don't know his name," Corinne answered. "He was drunk. He came out of the bar and stepped off the curb and into the road."
The psychiatrist looked at Sarah and nodded his head, believing he had unlocked the buried memory that tormented the patient.
"It was dark. I don't think I really saw him. I just heard a thump and felt my car ride over something. I thought I had hit a dog or maybe a deer. I never realized ...."
"It wasn't an animal though, was it?"
"I pulled over and got out of the car. He was wearing a costume. He was dressed like a scarecrow. He had on torn jeans and a T-shirt. I didn't want to look at his face, so I stared at the T-shirt. Beneath the blood, I saw the picture on the front of the shirt. It was of a local band, The Cavemen. It was the same shirt the scarecrow in the competition wore."
"That explains why you reacted as you did. Seeing the shirt reminded you of the accident."
Now that he had the key to her trauma, he had to unlock the door to the painful memory and throw it wide open.
"What happened to the man you hit?"
Tears came down Corinne's face, and she said softly, "I assume he died."
"You didn't contact the hospital and check on his condition?"
"I ... I ... drove away."
"You left the scene of the accident?"
"I'd gone to a Halloween party and had a few drinks. I wasn't drunk! No, he was the one who was smashed. But I was afraid my blood alcohol level might have been a little high."
"Didn't you check the newspapers or listen to the radio to see if they mentioned the hit and run?"
"No."
"When did this happen?"
"Ten years ago."
"And you never thought in all that time to see if the young man survived?"
"Frankly, if he was dead, I didn't want to know."
Realizing he was not going to gain any additional information from the patient, he woke her from the trance and relayed to her the account as she had told it to him.
* * *
Even though Evelyn confirmed what the psychiatrist had told her about the accident, Corinne refused to accept her guilt.
"I must have been lying under hypnosis. I never hit anyone with my car."
"I don't suppose it matters now," her friend said. "After all, that was ten years ago."
"Didn't you hear me? It never happened. I don't care what I said when I was in a trance. I never had an accident."
"Okay. Calm down. You don't want to wind up back in the hospital," Evelyn warned.
"Let's just go. I can't wait to get out of the creepy little village."
Why on earth did I invite her to come along with me? Evelyn wondered, regretting having done so.
She turned the key in the ignition, and the Honda's engine came to life.
"How much further is it to Salem?" Corinne asked.
"About half an hour, assuming there's no traffic."
Evelyn pulled out of the church parking lot and headed toward Route 692. As she drove down Essex Street, she saw the Common straight ahead. The statue of village founder Stephen Prescott, dressed in Puritan garb, looked like a refugee from the Salem Witch Trials. However, it was not the weathered statue that captured Corinne's attention. It was the scarecrows that somehow had all turned their heads to face the two women from New Jersey.
"What the hell is happening?" she cried.
"What are you talking about?" Evelyn asked.
"The scarecrows! Look at them!"
Oh, Christ! Don't tell me she's having another episode. What a nightmare this trip has turned out to be!
Corinne tried to ignore the scene on the Common, but her gaze was drawn to the scarecrow that stood on wobbly straw legs and walked on the grass toward the paved roadway.
"Turn the car around!" she screamed.
"I can't. The road is too narrow."
Terrified of the scarecrow in The Cavemen T-shirt who was headed in their direction, she grabbed for the steering wheel.
"Are you crazy? Do you want to get us killed?" Evelyn yelled, trying to maintain control of the vehicle.
She succeeded in bringing the car to a stop, thus avoiding a collision with both the SUV in the oncoming lane and the cars parked along Essex Street. Corinne, eyes still on the approaching scarecrow, opened the passenger door, got out of the car and began to run away from the Common.
"Where are you going?" her travel companion called. "Come back."
But the frightened woman kept running. Evelyn did not see the straw man in The Cavemen T-shirt following in her friend's footsteps, gaining ground with each stride he took. As Corinne neared The Quill and Dagger bookstore, she turned to see if the scarecrow was still in pursuit.
He's gone. Thank God!
Closing her eyes with relief, she put her hands on her knees, leaned forward and tried to catch her breath. Once her breathing and heartbeat returned to normal, she opened her eyes. There were no longer scarecrows leering at her from the Common.
It must have been my imagination. I probably do have that phobia Dr. Penn mentioned. When I get back to Jersey, I'll ask my doctor to prescribe an anti-anxiety medication.
But first, she would go to Salem with Evelyn. As she took her first step back toward the Accord, she heard a swish from behind her. She turned and saw, standing less than a foot away, the scarecrow with The Cavemen T-shirt.
"No!" she whimpered.
The T-shirt, which had been clean when she saw it on the Common, was now covered in blood. Far more horrifying, the straw-filled burlap head was replaced with a human skull. The scarecrow's white cotton gloved hand reached out and grabbed her by the arm. With great difficulty, she wrenched free. Faced with a flight-or-fight situation, she chose to flee. Unfortunately, she ran out into the road and in front of an oncoming car. In the brief moment before death claimed her, she realized it was a 2010 sangria red Ford Focus, the same year, color, make and model of the car she had been driving when she struck and killed a nineteen-year-old college student back in New Jersey in October 2014.
* * *
Shawn McMurtry, who had been at the festival with Penny and the kids, was the first person to arrive at the scene. The driver of the Toyota Camry, Sylvana Buys, a tourist visiting from New Hampshire, was sobbing hysterically.
"I swear I didn't hit her!" she cried. "She ran out in the road, and I hit my brakes."
The MTs arrived and although it was clear that Corinne Mellon was already dead, they gave it their best effort to revive her. It was Dr. Noah Prestwick, who was filling in for Sarah Ryerson, who eventually pronounced the patient dead.
Although Officer McMurtry gave the Camry's driver a breathalyzer test, it was a matter of routine only. After speaking on the phone with Dr. Prestwick, he let Sylvana go without so much as a warning.
"I don't understand," the New Hampshire tourist said. "Why aren't you taking me in for questioning?"
"Apparently, you had nothing to do with her death," Shawn explained. "The doctor who examined her claims she had no physical injuries. No doubt an autopsy will be performed, but he believes she died of natural causes."
Once the Camry drove away, Shawn headed back to the Common to join his family and friends at the harvest festival. While he accepted Noah's medical opinion without question, what neither he nor the doctor could understand were the small stalks of straw that clung to the victim's hair and clothing.
Two years ago, I attended the annual Scarecrows in the Village event at Peddler's Village in Lahaska, PA. I highly recommend not only the unique scarecrows on display but also the incredible shopping experience. Several years ago, I also enjoyed the Street of Scarecrows in Falmouth, Massachusetts.
Salem once took a part-time job as a scarecrow. However, he found the job too labor intensive and quit after one day.
