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One of whom had been murdered last week

And now today…

Jenna Duffy had heard about nothing but the Lexington House on the radio since she’d started for Sale Uncle Ja that she co

She’d pulled to the side of the road and parked to stare at the place

A patrol car sat near the house; crime-scene tape cordoned off the entire house There were no onlookers, though The house was at a little distance from the historic section of tohere h the Old Burial Ground, visited the House of the Seven Gables or sought out history at any one of the witch museums or the Peabody Essex Museu, the real-life contehost stories that were already being told around town

She stared at the house awhile longer, wondering about its history What happened at Lexington House would prove to be another horrible case of ed to actually see the property that brought about such gruesolanced at her watch and pulled back onto the road With Halloween tourists clogging the city, it

Somehow she was still early

She parked her car at the Hawthorne Hotel’s parking lot, and wandered across the street to the coenta and yellow colorings, rustled beneath Jenna’s feet as she strolled Before her and around her, the leaves swirled and lifted inches into the air as the breeze picked thehter of schoolchildren as theyhome but not too quickly Autuland, and schoolchildren, raised with all the colors as they may have been, still loved to stop and lift the leaves, toss them about and roll in them

Jenna had loved Salem since she’d first come to the States and her parents had chosen nearby Boston, Massachusetts, as the place to begin their new lives They had come up here weekends, in the summers and for the Halloween festivity, and also for the fall leaves and to see Uncle Jamie

But this was a difficult visit She was about to meet Uncle Jamie at the Hawthorne Hotel, and she orried about him He’d been so anxious when he’d asked her to co her in a professional capacity, but he didn’t want her bringing "your tearoup" hich she worked, not yet

As she walked across the coroup of five-to seven-year-olds were holding hands, running in a circle and playing a ga the old rhyme repeated not just in this area, but around the country

Oh, Lexington, he loved his wife,

So much he kept her near

Close as his sons, dear as his life;

He chopped her up;