Chapter 3
Diana wasn't the only one looking at the stone memorial. There were about five other people. Three she could tell were a family of tourists. She saw the dad lean over, talking to the little girl of about eight or nine, and say to her, "Look, Tina, it says 'Sarah Goode.' She died because people thought she was a witch." Diana noted how the word rolled off of his tongue as if it were something he didn't use often.
The little girl, brunette curls swinging down her back, smiled up at her father. "That's silly daddy. Witches don't exist."
Diana bit her lip to keep from laughing. She shook her head, moving down the line, looking through all of the names. The words echoed in her head as she traced the engravings of the names.
These poor people, she thought. They all died for crimes they didn't even commit. By time the first one was executed, our families were already gone . . .
She drove down to Salem Commons. Whenever she wanted alone time anymore, she went to Salem. None of the group would be here. Here, she could think.
She had already been to the Witch Dungeon Museum. Nothing new there. She still got the same chills she always did, still thought she could hear people in the dungeons. She had also walked through the wax museum. As usual, she only went through the witch area, not the pirate side. A voice tried to say something inside her head, but she pushed it aside. She wanted complete clarity on this outing.
She walked up to a large statue in the middle of the Commons. The man stood in a cloak and a tall hat, almost looking windblown. Diana smirked again when she read the plaque: Roger Conant, Founder of Salem, 1592-1687. Had they only known about their own founder . . .
Melanie and Diana had tried to trace back Adam's ancestry line first. It had been the most obvious, and, of course, they had gotten their hopes up. They couldn't trace it back that far at all. The Conant family that had stayed in England had vanished without a trace.
So had all of the other family lines they had found. Diana sighed deeply. She didn't want to be the last of her line. Sitting down on a bench, she began making mental notes of all of the families they had traced. They had checked everyone's parents' names, Melanie, Laurel, Chris and Doug, Adam, Deborah, Nick, Faye, Suzan, Sean, herself, and Cassie. She specifically remembered Cassie's family line. There were many of the previous coven leaders in the Howard line . . .
Diana stood up quickly. The evidence was right in front of her. She made a sprint for her car, hoping she'd get to the library with enough time to look before it closed.