Page 84 of Stay Buried

“You actually saw him?”

Mini nodded. “I hid in the bushes and spied. I… needed to know. I wasn’t sure he was even real. I thought maybe hewasjust a story, like the tooth fairy? But he’s real all right.”

“What did he look like?”

Mini didn’t answer, just stared down at the toy horse in her hands, squeezing it hard.

“Mini, if what you’re saying is true, if he’s really coming for you, and for me, then we’ve got to help each other.”

Mini thought for a minute. Her whole family was doomed because of her one stupid act.

“I saw the knackerman too,” Ashley said.

“You did?”

“Last night. I opened the door when I heard him there, and saw him right in front of me. He had a white horse skull where his head should be. A long patchwork leather coat with a hood.”

Mini’s whole body went cold and she shivered. “Was he on a white horse?”

“No, just standing there. God, I slammed that door so quick,” Ashley said, laughing even though it wasn’t funny. “Was he on a horse when you saw him?”

Mini nodded.

“You said in your note that you knew a secret about him. And that you had something of his. Can you tell me?”

Mini frowned. Felt the watch in her pocket. “The horse he rode when he came to my house, it was a horse I know. Her name is Stella, and she belongs to Mr. Holland. I know it’s her, not some other white horse, because I saw the red paint on her yesterday.”

Ashley nodded. “Do you think Mr. Holland is the knackerman?”

Mini giggled. “No way! He uses a cane and is all bent over. People have to help him with everything.”

Ashley nodded again. Mini reached into her pocket, pulled out the watch, and showed it to Ashley. “He dropped this. The night I saw him.”

Ashley took the watch from her, studied it. “I know who this belonged to,” she said.

“Who?”

“Frankie O’Massey.”

There was that name again. The name Mini didn’t know. “But the initials are all wrong.”

“It was Dr. Endicott’s. See,Tfor Thomas,Cfor Christopher, and the big fancyEin the middle is for Endicott. He gave it to her. She treasured it, carried it everywhere she went.”

Mini bit her lip. Why did the knackerman have this lady Frankie’s watch?

Ashley handed the watch back. “You know what, Mini? I know a secret about the knackerman too.”

Mini’s eyes widened. “You do?”

“The knackerman was real once. He was a real man who lived up on Saw Meadow Hill. And he was the first person who got sick the spring of 1919. I think—I think maybe people in town did something bad to him.”

Mini said nothing. Her head was spinning again.

She reached inside her shirt, pulled out the little charm she kept on a string. It was supposed to protect her, to keep her safe. But it hadn’t done Mini a whole lot of good, had it?

She rubbed the cloth bag between her fingers.

“What’s that?” Ashley asked, leaning toward it.