“Thistle has stuff she needs to get done,” I started with the truth and then swiftly changed tactics. “And I want you guys close to me in case you remember something.” I figured that, if I told them Thistle would rather choke them than chatter with them, I’d get a teenage meltdown of epic proportions. This way, I was placating their egos – and soothing Thistle’s frazzled nerves at the same time.
“Oh,” Sophie said sagely. “That’s probably a good idea.” Like a typical teenager, she was trying to appear older than she actually was.
I led Sophie and Shane out to my car and ushered them both toward the backseat. As I was driving up the cobblestone driveway, I noticed that Chief Terry’s car was still parked at the inn and smiled to myself. I could just picture the three little dope fiends fawning all over him.
When we got to the office, I led Shane and Sophie in through the back door. They both looked around dubiously – with the disdain that only teenagers can muster. There wasn’t nearly as much to look at – or as many people to watch – in the newspaper offices as Hypnotic. I could already tell it was going to be a long day.
“Do you guys want me to turn the television on for you?”
“Yeah,” Sophie said. “I want to see if I’m on the news.”
Of course she did. I led them into the records room, which was empty, and flicked on the television. I turned it to one of the local news stations and sat down on the couch to watch it with them for a few minutes.
The slim newscaster – with her perfect brown pageboy and flawless Chanel suit – had a fake look of concern plastered on her face when she came back from the commercial break. “Now for the story that seems to be all everyone across the region is talking about.”
“See, I knew everyone would be talking about me,” Sophie said brightly.
“The small hamlet of Hemlock Cove has been shocked not once, but twice this week with the gruesome discovery of two teenagers in different corn mazes within the confines of the small town. The bodies of Shane Haskell and Sophie Maxwell were found less than ten miles from one another – but the two teenagers were much farther apart in life than they were in death.
“Shane Haskell was a seventeen-year-old who came from Beulah, a small farming community. He and his mother lived a comfortable, but quiet life.
“Sophie Maxwell, though, she came from an upper-middle-class home. The daughter of a city councilman, Maxwell was actively involved with her church and community.”
I turned to Sophie in surprise. “Your father is a councilman?”
“Shhh.” She waved me off. She was engrossed with watching the steady stream of pictures flashing across the television. Apparently she was voted queen of a few dances.
“No one can know what these two young people went through in their final minutes, the terror they must have felt. Police aren’t releasing a lot of details. Shane Haskell’s autopsy is expected to be released this afternoon. Sophie Maxwell’s autopsy might not be available for days.
“The only thing we do know is that the hearts of both teens were removed – and they weren’t found at the scenes of the crimes. We also know that they both disappeared from the same mall – just a few days apart.
“Many people in the area are pointing a finger at Hemlock Cove – a town that has been known for absolutely nothing in decades – which turned itself into a haunted town years ago as a way to brand itself as a tourist destination.
“I know I’m not alone when I wonder: Did Hemlock Cove want something like this to happen? Is that why they embraced the occult?”
I jumped to my feet in angry determination and switched the television off. “That is just ridiculous.”
“Hey! I was watching that!” Sophie’s whine was going to get old pretty quickly.
“You’ll get over it,” I grumbled.
“They got me on television quick,” Sophie said proudly.
“You had your identification with you,” I said. “Shane didn’t.”
“My dad probably sent out a press release, too,” Sophie said bitterly. She was back to being petulant and pouty. Man, she could turn it on when she wanted to.
“Why would he do that?”
“He sends out a press release when he crosses the road and looks both ways.”
I looked at her, sympathy welling. I kept reminding myself that she was just a teenage girl. She didn’t mean to be annoying. It is just part of the teenage DNA makeup. They can’t help it. “He likes attention, huh?”
“I’m sure that this just sealed his re-election.”
“I’m sure he misses you, Sophie.”
“Oh, I’m sure he does, too. I was his biggest tax write-off.”
I didn’t know what to say to Sophie. Not only had she been brutally murdered, but she apparently had parental issues, as well. And these aren’t the normal parental issues people have – you know, like when your mom drops you off for kindergarten without putting on a bra – but actual, serious issues.
“Well, your Aunt Tillie has totally let herself go.” Another voice just joined the conversation.
I turned to see Edith had entered the building. I was actually relieved to see her. I was worried she would disappear forever once I helped her rediscover the town. “You went and saw Aunt Tillie?”
“I did. She wasn’t very happy to see me.”
“I bet.”
“She started accusing me of trying to sleep with your Uncle Calvin.”
“I know. She thinks you were hot for him.”
“Do you remember your Uncle Calvin?” Edith had a dubious look on her pinched white face.
“No, he died before I was born.”
“Well, he was no prize.”
“From all the stories I heard, he was a great man.” I actually had heard that. No one I had ever met had a bad thing to say about Uncle Calvin. Most people actually used the term “angel” when referring to him, in fact.
“Oh, he was very nice, but you have to question the sanity of anyone who would marry your Aunt Tillie.”
She had a point.
“So, what did you and Aunt Tillie talk about?” I was guessing it wasn’t warm memories from the past.
“Not much. She wasn’t in a very good mood, like I said. You were right, though, haunting her is fun.”
Uh-oh. “You didn’t tell her that I sent you up there did you?” I heard a slight hitch in my voice when I asked the question. Was that fear?
Edith looked uncomfortable. “I might have mentioned you thought it would be a good idea.”
Crap. “She’s going to curse me now, I just know it.” Yup, that was fear coursing through my veins.
“Curse you?” Edith looked confused. I couldn’t blame her.
“It wouldn’t be the first time. When I was ten, she made it so my shoes were incapable of staying tied. I spent three straight days tripping. I ruined two pairs of jeans and three pairs of tights. I had to wear sandals for a month straight – even when it snowed. It was terrible ... and cold.”
“Maybe you just didn’t know how to tie your shoes right?” Shane offered helpfully. “I didn’t learn until I was seven.”
“I learned how to tie my shoes when I was five,” I protested. “Plus, she made me weed the garden every weekend – for free – to lift the curse.”
“She always was a mean old witch.” Edith was back on the Aunt Tillie hate train. I was glad I wasn’t traveling alone.
“I don’t think being a witch has anything to do with it,” I said breezily. “I think it’s more that she’s a bitch.”
“I can’t wait to meet her,” Sophie said excitedly. Her blues eyes were sparkling with undisguised anticipation.
I turned to her and looked her up and down. “She’s going to hate that sweater.”
“She would make fun of a dead person because of what they were wearing? I doubt that.” Sophie obviously thought I was exaggerating. Aunt Tillie needed no exaggeration, though.
“Ask Shane.”
Sophie turned to Shane ex
pectantly. He looked her up and down a second. “She’ll make fun of your outfit,” he said finally. “I don’t think she means for it to be hurtful. It is, though. Just prepare yourself.”
Edith seemed to have suddenly noticed Sophie, who was helplessly trying to smooth a sweater she couldn’t physically touch. “Who is this?”
“This is Sophie. She was found in the Johnson corn maze this morning. I mean her body was found.”
Edith didn’t seem surprised at the news. “I heard Chief Terry telling your aunts about that this morning when he stopped by for breakfast. He obviously didn’t know you found a ghost.”
“Of course not. I can’t tell him that. He’ll think I’m crazy.”
“I think he already knows, he just doesn’t know how to bring it up,” Edith said knowingly.
“Knows that I see ghosts? Why do you think that?”
Edith shrugged. “It’s just the way he was acting. He knows you’re all abnormal. He just seems to find it attractive instead of repulsive.”
“We’re not abnormal – that makes it sound like we belong in that asylum on American Horror Story,” I countered.
“Honey, there’s no shame in not being normal,” Edith said, surprising me with her tone. “The shame is fighting what you are. You know what you are and what you do. Why do you care what other people think about you?”
“She’s right,” Shane said, smiling at Edith for the first time since he’d met her. “I’m starting to like you. You’re old school.”
Edith pursed her lips. I could tell she was trying to decide if she had been insulted or not.
“That was a compliment,” I supplied.
Edith smiled at Shane. It was still a little forced, but she was definitely warming up to him too.
I couldn’t help but smile at Edith in turn. Getting out of the office was having a positive effect on her. If I knew that she was capable of softening, I would have forced her out of the office years ago.
Edith seemed uncomfortable by the sudden warmth being directed toward her. “Have they remembered how they died?” She swiftly changed the subject, gesturing toward Shane and Sophie.
“No,” I said, my mind returning to the problem at hand. “You still don’t have any ideas on how to jog their memories do you? We’re kind of stuck until they start remembering stuff.”
“If I knew that, I’d be using it on myself,” Edith chided me.
“We’ll remember when we remember,” Sophie said haphazardly. “There’s no hurry. It’s not like we can die again.”
“No hurry? What if they kill someone else?” I met her gaze solidly.
“They don’t want to kill anyone else,” Sophie said simply. “They only wanted two. One boy and one girl.”
“How do you know that?”
Sophie paused. “I don’t know,” she said slowly. “It just ... it just came to me.”
“Do you remember anything else?”
“It’s like a dream at the edge of my memory more than anything else,” she admitted. “I can’t see faces, but I’m starting to remember feelings. There were two people there. A man and a woman.”
“Were they old? Young?”
“I can’t be sure,” Sophie bit her lower lip. “I don’t think they’re old. Younger than forty for sure. I just don’t have a clear picture.”
“You will,” I encouraged her.
“I hope so,” she said. “It had better be soon, though. Whatever they have planned, it’s going to happen in the next few days.”
“You’re sure?”
“I remember the man saying that it has to happen the night of the next full moon,” Sophie said. “That’s like two days away, isn’t it?”
The full moon. I had forgotten. If it was ritualistic, then of course they would try and tie it to the full moon. Even novices knew that. Thistle had said something about the full moon when she’d been in her trance, too. We should have paid more attention to that little detail.
“So, if we don’t catch them then what happens?” Shane asked.
“I think, if we don’t catch them soon, then we’ll never catch them,” I admitted truthfully. This was a feeling I couldn’t shake. We were running out of time.
“Well, that’s just not acceptable,” Sophie huffed. “I refuse to die for nothing. Someone has to pay for killing me – especially before I got to wear my new sweater.”
Seventeen
I remained at the office – Googling similar cases throughout the United States until lunch – and then excused myself to go down to Hypnotic to eat with Thistle and Clove. While I had found numerous cases that involved killing teenagers and cutting out their hearts – sick, I know – I could only find a handful that involved killing both a boy and a girl. Either the cases involved a lot more victims or the killer picked one gender and stuck with it.
I expected Shane to put up a fight to come with me. He hardly noticed, though. He was deep in conversation with Sophie and Edith, with the latter imparting her ghostly wisdom on her younger students.
When I got to Hypnotic, Thistle looked around wildly for a second. “You didn’t bring them here, did you?”
“I left them at the newspaper office,” I answered. “They’re bonding with Edith. She’s giving some sort of ghost lesson.”
“That sounds like a fun afternoon,” Clove said sarcastically.
“I don’t know. Edith seems to have loosened up since I introduced her to the world she was missing.”
“Yeah, we heard.”
“You heard what?”
“Your mom called and asked us if we knew anything about Edith paying a visit to Aunt Tillie.” Clove delivered the statement in her typical absent-minded nature, but that didn’t stop the pang of fear from rushing through me. Uh-oh.
“What did you tell her?”
Thistle must have caught on to my panic because I saw a sly grin track across her face. “Why? Are you worried she knows that you encouraged Edith to go up there and haunt her?”
“No.” Yes, absolutely. “Besides, you were the one who told Edith to go up there. It wasn’t me.”
“She’s going to come after you. You know that, don’t you?” Clove cautioned. She ignored the part about Thistle actually being the guilty party in this particular situation.
“I’m not scared of her.” What? I’m not. I’m terrified of her.
Clove smiled at me knowingly. “This will at least be entertaining for us. You’re not going to have a good night. We will, though.”
Crap, crap, crap.
I ate lunch with Clove and Thistle – but my heart wasn’t really in it. I was worried this would be my last meal – and it wasn’t very good.
After lunch, I made my way over to the police department. Shane’s autopsy results were supposed to be in and I wanted to see if they revealed anything that we didn’t already know. I also needed a distraction. Obsessing about whatever punishment Aunt Tillie was going to mete out to me wasn’t going to lead to a very productive afternoon.
Chief Terry looked up when he saw me come in. He didn’t look surprised to see me. “I figured you would show up.”
“How was your breakfast?”
“How did you know I went up for breakfast?”
“I saw your car there when I left for work.”
“I just figured a solid breakfast couldn’t hurt,” Chief Terry explained.
“You don’t have to make excuses,” I countered. “I’m the one who sent you up there, remember?”
I could see Chief Terry redden slightly. I figured the ego boost he received while he had been up there had done him a world of good. “I’m sure they were happy to see you,” I added.
“They seemed to be.” He seemed a little too pleased with himself. “Well, all except your Aunt Tillie,” he amended.
“I wouldn’t take it personally,” I said. “She’s never happy to see me either.”
“Yeah, but she was persnickety – even for her.”
“What do you mean?”
&n
bsp; “She kept running around and yelling that she was being haunted by an angry stick figure from hell.”
Edith.
“Did she seem angry about it?” I tried to act nonchalant, but I don’t think it was working.
Chief Terry looked puzzled. “No, more perplexed than anything else. Your mom kept trying to force her to sit down and have a cup of tea. I think they put a shot of bourbon in it to finally convince her. She calmed down some after that.”
My guess would be three shots.
“You didn’t hear her mention my name, did you?”
“Why would she mention your name?”
“No reason.”
“I only heard her mention you once,” Chief Terry said. I think he thought he was placating me, but my heart clenched up in fear when he said the words.
“What did she say? What did she say exactly?”
“Just that she was looking forward to seeing you.” I doubt that. “And that she couldn’t wait until the next family dinner.” That was probably the truth.
I could feel the blood drain from my face. God, what hell had she dreamt up for me this time?
“Your mom told her you would be there for dinner tonight, not to worry.”
“Family dinner night,” I gritted out through clenched teeth.
“There’s something I’m missing here,” Chief Terry said.
“It’s nothing important,” I swallowed hard. “Just the normal family drama.” With a hint of vindictive old lady mixed in for good measure.
“Sounds fun.” Chief Terry was angling for an invitation. I guess he hadn’t gotten enough Winchester attention to satiate him today. He might make a good buffer.
“Why don’t you come with me?”
“Oh, I don’t know, it’s a family thing.”
It wouldn’t take much cajoling to convince him. “All the inn guests will be there, too. I’m sure, given what’s going on, everyone would be thrilled to have someone from law enforcement in attendance,” I lied. “It will be comforting.” She couldn’t openly curse me in front of him. Even she wouldn’t go that far. Would she?
“Well, if you’re sure …. “
“I’m sure.”
“Well, okay then.” He looked genuinely happy. “I guess you’re here to find out what the autopsy results said?”
Witchy Dreams Page 13
