Then I suggest you run to the other side of the island. Fast. Stay away from him, Josie. He's dangerous.
It wasn't the response I wanted. Carter thought me in trouble of some kind, but I disagreed. If Taylor meant to do me harm, he'd had plenty of opportunities alone with me. There was something about him that made me uneasy, but it wasn't this - mortal danger like that which threatened the others.
I hesitated before replying. What happened to the fifth girl? There are three in the well, me and … ?
What if she died in the house, in the room at the end of the hallway?
"They are your friends?" Fighting Badger's voice startled me, and I jumped.
Twisting to see him, I couldn't help the flare of fear that warmed my breast and made my heart race. He squatted a short distance away, dressed in breeches and vest, his long black hair down.
"No," I answered. Sudden interest replaced the unsettled feeling I always got when he was around. "Can you hear them?"
He cocked his head to the side, listening. "Some. They are very faint. Very unhappy."
"The girls in the well are … were … like me. From the future. Someone killed them," I explained. "They've been trying to tell me who hurt them, and I just can't see it." I hesitated then motioned him forward. "Sometimes if you touch something, the memories are stronger." I flattened my palms on the stones.
Fighting Badger took the invitation and sat down beside me, mirroring my movements. We were quiet for a moment. I watched the shadowy images of his twisted mind morph into the memories of the girls at the bottom of the well.
"I see me," he voiced after a moment. "I heard two spirits one night. I did not know the third was alive."
"She suffered a lot," I whispered, stricken by the idea of such a slow death. "Can you see the man who did this?"
Fighting Badger was quiet for a moment. He stood, the bone necklace he wore clinking with his movements. He leaned over the well, straightened then did it again. "A child," he said finally.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Look." He took my arm and pulled me to my feet. "Lean over." Uncertain what he was doing, I mirrored his movement. He bent with me over the edge. "A man has a longer shadow." He pointed to me. "A child or woman much smaller. She saw two shadows: mine and one your size."
"A woman," I whispered. My eyes went to the boards beneath my torso. I straightened, pensive. The fifth girl sent back by Carter, someone who might be able to identify other time travelers on the spot.