FIVE

"Grams died of a heart condition," said Prue. "We didn't know just how serious it was until after her death and the doctor told us about it. What makes you think she might have been murdered?"

"Let me put on some coffee and I'll try to explain," said Jessica. "This might take a bit of time."

"Okay," said Prue. "It will be nice to talk to someone who knew Grams as a witch. She never said anything to us about it."

"I'm not surprised," said Jessica. "She used to tell me you three would never be able to work together. You fought like cats and dogs."

"Still do," said Phoebe.

"But we pull together when it's necessary," said Piper.

"I was really sorry to hear about Penny," said Jessica as she prepared the coffee. "She was a very special person. And a very good friend. She taught me a great deal about the Craft."

"You two knew each other a long time, didn't you?" Piper asked.

"Most of our lives," said Jessica. "We met in high school. It was quite a shock to learn that there was another witch in the school. Back then the Craft wasn't as accepted as it is now. We had to practice in secret most of the time."

"I can understand," said Prue. "You said something about someone killing the descendents of the prosecutors from the Salem witch trials."

"Yes," said Jessica. "How much do you know about those trials, anyway?"

"Oh, believe me," said Phoebe, "after we got our powers I sort of went on research overload. I learned everything I could about those trials."

"And she insisted on telling us every little detail," said Piper.

"Good," said Jessica. "That will help save on some of the explanations. As you probably know, a total of twenty people were executed for being witches, including Melinda Warren, your ancestor. She was the last one to be executed and despite popular opinion, the only one who was actually burned."

"That's right," said Phoebe. "The rest were hanged."

"Yes," said Jessica. "That's because Melinda was the only true witch they executed. Most of the others were just innocents caught up in the hysteria of the time."

"Some of those accused died in prison, didn't they?" Piper asked.

"Yes," said Jessica. "At least four. As many as thirteen others may have died in prison, but the records conflict on a lot of them. But they died without being convicted. And two others were pressed to death for refusing to submit to the court."

"They were allowed to do that?" Phoebe asked.

"They did a lot of things back then," said Jessica. "For example, Bridget Bishop was the first convicted witch hung on June 10, 1692. She was a direct ancestor of mine. Ironically, she wasn't a true witch. Her mother was and so was her daughter but it seemed to jump past her."

"That happens some times," said Leo. "Even in the girls' family there are descendents of Melinda Warren who didn't inherit her power. It seems to occasionally skip a generation."

"Yes," said Jessica. "Ordinarily, women weren't hanged back then. It wasn't considered proper to hang a woman. But they made an exception for the convicted witches. Especially since most of them refused to confess."

"That must have been a hard life," said Piper.

"It was," said Jessica. "In our coven in San Francisco, one of our duties was to teach new witches about their heritage, especially that of Salem. And your grandmother was by far the most knowledgeable expert of all of us."

"She always was," said Leo. "She had a particular dislike for the prosecutors and those who accused others of witchcraft. She often called them narrow-minded bigots and some other things I won't bother to repeat."

"That sounds like Grams," said Prue. "But what has that to do with someone killing their descendents?"

"A couple of years ago," said Jessica, "Penny wrote me. She said she had read a newspaper article that told about a man named Phillip Putnam who died mysteriously and they couldn't discover the cause of death. She recognized the man. Phillip Putnam was a direct descendent of Edward Putnam, one of the men who swore out a complaint against accused witches Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne. Sarah Good was eventually hanged as a witch and Sarah Osborne was one of those who died in prison."

"What about this Tituba?" Phoebe asked.

"She was eventually pardoned by Governor Phips," said Jessica. "She actually confessed and they spared her life. I don't know why, but Penny suspected a demon or a warlock is behind the current murders. So she asked me to see what I could find out about the current descendents of the prosecutors."

"Why you?" Prue asked.

"Because I live in Salem," said Jessica. "The witch trials are a major business in Salem. We have access to nearly all the original records. It was easy enough for me to track down nearly all of the descendents. I run a small shop in town that sells souvenirs including books about the witch trials."

"What did you find out?" Piper asked.

"Of the thirty-one descendents from the original thirty-one people," said Jessica, "seven have either died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances or without any identifiable cause of death."

"Seven out of thirty-one?" questioned Prue. "That could just be coincidence."

"Maybe," said Jessica. "But that's not all. Penny discovered that each of them died on the same day. September 19th. Beginning in 1991, at least one of the descendents died every September 19th for each successive year."

"That's a little too coincidental," said Piper.

"Especially when you factor in another thing that connects them," said Jessica. "Each of the descendents is dying in the order in which their ancestors became involved in the witch hunt."

"That's definitely not a coincidence," said Prue.

"Not, it's not," said Jessica. "And now that Penny's dead, we have no way of knowing who the murderer is. But it's very possible he or she may have known Penny was on to them. If that's true, and if it's the warlock that attacked you, he might think Penny told you. Which means he may be out to kill you so you don't stop him from taking his revenge on the descendents."