Witchy Dreams

by Amanda M. Lee

  “Do I ever?”

  “At least three times since I moved back to town.”

  “So you’re due.”

  BAY PARKED in front of the newspaper office, barely spared a glance for Tillie as she scampered across the parking lot, and then pointed herself in the direction of the diner. I followed her for lack of something better to do but I had no idea what we were doing.

  “What now?”

  “I need lunch,” Bay replied. “Landon is at the diner.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because his Explorer is at the police station and it’s noon,” Bay replied. “He and Chief Terry like to eat lunch and talk about the case at noon whenever possible. They’re creatures of habit.”

  “Do you think they’re alike?”

  Bay nodded. “In a lot of ways they are. Why do you ask?”

  “Because they say that girls marry their fathers, and Mrs. Gunderson said the chief was essentially your father.”

  Bay’s shoulders were stiff as she swiveled and my heart sank at the expression on her face.

  “I’m sorry,” I offered lamely. “I didn’t mean it.”

  “I think you did mean it, and that’s the problem.” Bay wet her lips. “I think you’re nice … and smart … and funny. I need you to know that.”

  My stomach twisted but I managed to nod. “Thank you.”

  “I also think you’re young and impulsive,” Bay added. “You need to think before you speak. I know it’s hard. I’m a Winchester so … trust me. I know it’s freaking hard. You still need to do it. You won’t make it far in this line of work if you don’t take other people’s feelings into consideration.”

  “Did you take Phyllis Grimes’ feelings into consideration when you went after her today?”

  Bay’s expression was unreadable as she tilted her head to the side. “I’m looking for a killer. What are you doing?”

  “I … um … .”

  “That’s what I thought.” Bay ran her hands through her hair as we approached the diner. “Take it from someone who does and says stupid things every single day, there’s going to come a time when you want to take something back. You won’t be able to, and it will eat at you.”

  “That happens on a regular basis with me,” I admitted. “You, too?”

  Bay nodded. “Because I’m related to Aunt Tillie and Thistle, people rarely notice when I say stupid things. That doesn’t mean I don’t say them. It also doesn’t mean I don’t regret them.”

  “I’m sorry. I … that wasn’t a smart thing to say.”

  Bay snorted, the inelegant display causing my discomfort to ratchet up a notch. “I notice that you said it wasn’t a smart thing to say, but you’re not exactly taking it back.”

  “Should I take it back?” The question came out as something of a challenge even though I wasn’t looking for a fight. I have tone issues sometimes that I can’t explain. People think I’m trying to goad them when in reality I only want to learn.

  “You’re not wrong,” Bay said. “Chief Terry is my father in all the ways that count. That doesn’t change the fact that I do have a father. It also doesn’t change the fact that my relationship with Chief Terry and my father is none of your business.”

  “I … I really am sorry.”

  “I know you are.” Bay’s lips curved and she turned back to the diner. “That doesn’t mean you don’t need to think before you speak. You don’t want to grow up to be Aunt Tillie. I can pretty much guarantee that.”

  Bay didn’t wait to see if I had a response, instead disappearing inside of the diner. Perhaps she realized that I couldn’t stop talking until someone else ended the conversation and was doing me a favor. It’s one of my weaknesses.

  She was right about Landon being inside, of course. He brightened when she breezed in, accepting her proffered kiss and making room for her between himself and the chief. I didn’t immediately notice that they weren’t alone. Jack and Bernard sat with them, and they seemed to be involved in a serious conversation. I didn’t have many options, so I joined them.

  “You should order something to eat,” Jack said, moving so I could sit between him and Bernard. “I was starting to get worried, you were gone so long. What did you find out at the resort?”

  “Well, Bay approached the wife of the bartender right away and basically accused her of knowing about her husband’s affair. We didn’t get much further than that,” I answered.

  “You did what?” Landon rarely raised his voice to Bay, but he looked furious now.

  “This would be another instance where you should think before you speak,” Bay said, pressing the heel of her hand to her forehead and avoiding Landon’s accusatory eyes. “I have a headache.”

  “You do not have a headache,” Landon countered. “What did you say to the Grimes woman? I told you that we were going to question her. Why did you take it upon yourself to do it first?”

  “I spent the entire day with Aunt Tillie and another woman who has no filter,” Bay countered. “I have a huge headache. I think my head might even fall off it hurts so much.”

  “Don’t yell at her,” Chief Davenport ordered. “We need to give her some aspirin.”

  “Oh, you’re playing to your audience,” Landon muttered. “You know Terry won’t yell at you and you’re counting on that. Just because he’s a softie doesn’t mean I won’t yell at you. Now that woman knows we’re coming, Bay. She’ll have time to think of a story.”

  “Did you honestly think she wouldn’t have time to think of one?” Bay challenged. “I wanted to see her face when I mentioned Penny. Sue me.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She melted down, threatened me and then hid in the back office for two hours,” Bay replied, unruffled. “She clearly knows something.”

  “Does she really know something or is this like when you were convinced Clove was keeping something from you and you got thrown from a horse because you were distracted?” Landon challenged.

  Bay scalded him with a dark look. “Clove was hiding something. And you know darned well that’s not why I fell off the horse.”

  “Why did you fall off the horse?” I asked.

  “Never mind,” Bay and Landon answered in unison, their eyes zeroed in on each other.

  “I think that they want you to mind your own business,” Jack cautioned, his voice low. “I’m guessing that you don’t want to get into the middle of whatever they’re about to fight about.”

  “They’re not going to fight,” the chief said, handing Bay one of his onion rings and grinning when he saw Landon’s scowl. “This is just how they interact occasionally. When two dominant personalities share space in the same relationship things like this happen.”

  “Don’t eat that onion ring,” Landon ordered. “I won’t be able to kiss you when it’s time to make up if you do.”

  “You could eat half of it and then we’d both smell,” Bay suggested.

  Landon took his half of the onion ring and wordlessly popped it into his mouth. He muttered something, which sounded suspiciously like “you’re still in trouble,” but I couldn’t be sure because he turned back to his burger and fries, the argument seemingly forgotten.

  “What did you guys find today?” Bay asked, grabbing another onion ring from the chief’s plate.

  “We found out that Penny had bruises on her body but definitely bled out from the wound in her throat,” Landon replied.

  “So an animal did kill her?” I couldn’t help but be surprised.

  “We were just talking about that,” Jack countered. “The medical examiner can’t say with any certainty that a weapon wasn’t used. If it was a weapon, she’s not sure what it was. She hasn’t ruled out teeth, though.”

  “There were also multiple strains of animal DNA in the wound,” Landon added. “The medical examiner can’t identify it. She came up with, like, three animals instead of one. It’s … odd … and a little gross when you add in the teeth ripping the flesh.”

>   Huh. And there went my appetite. “So … it was Bigfoot?” I had trouble wrapping my head around the sentence, but that seemed the obvious choice now despite Penny’s personal life.

  “We honestly have no idea,” Landon admitted. “We either have to find a weapon that could make that wound pattern or start searching the woods for a predator big enough to kill a grown woman.”

  “And we’ve ruled out a bear, right?” I pressed.

  “Bears are big and clumsy,” Terry supplied. “Whatever killed Penny was cunning and it boasted the ability to use thought.”

  “And move a body,” Bay added.

  “There is that, too,” Terry conceded. “There wasn’t enough blood at the scene to account for the volume missing from Penny’s body. That means she wasn’t killed where we found her.”

  “Maybe someone cut her throat in one location and didn’t realize that she wasn’t dead until they transported her someplace else,” Bay suggested. “Maybe half of her blood volume was lost in the original spot, but she really did bleed out and die in the woods.”

  “We’re not ruling anything out, but we can’t rule anything in either,” Chief Davenport said. “All I can say with any certainty is that no one should take anything for granted … and that includes you and your cousins. No running around the woods without proper supervision.”

  “I’m not nine,” Bay argued. “I can take care of myself.”

  “Were you in the woods with your mother and aunts last night?” the chief challenged. “I got a complaint that there was some naked dancing.”

  Bay shot an accusatory look in my direction, causing me to instinctively raise my hands in protest. “It wasn’t me.”

  “It was Margaret Little,” Landon said, handing Bay a french fry. “You know she complains every time she thinks you guys are dancing. She calls in four times a month, even though you guys are only out there one night a month. He’s messing with you.”

  “Do I even want to know how you know that?” Chief Davenport challenged.

  Landon shrugged. “I can promise there’s always wine involved.”

  “And bacon poems,” Bay teased.

  Their earlier skirmish forgotten, Landon wrinkled his nose as he kissed the corner of Bay’s mouth. “I’ll recite that for you again tonight.”

  “Don’t do that.” The chief reached around Bay and flicked Landon’s ear. “I’m not joking about wandering around in the woods, Bay. If there is an animal out there … well … I don’t want you coming up against it.”

  “I’m not worried about an animal,’ Bay said. “I’m worried about a human that acts like an animal.”

  “Either way, everyone needs to be careful,” the chief warned. “We have no idea if this was a one-time thing or just the beginning.”

  And that right there was a terrifying thought.

  Sixteen

  Landon and Chief Davenport agreed to allow Jack to accompany them on their second search of Penny’s house. I was understandably surprised by their easygoing attitudes, but given the shift in the investigation they were open to new ideas and felt Jack fit better into their world than ours given his doubts about man-eating monsters right from the start.

  Landon insisted Bay tag along – which I found equally weird – and that left me to decide what I wanted do. Ultimately it wasn’t difficult. I was keen to see Penny’s home base. I’m a busybody by nature. Even though it looked likely that our expertise might be needed to track an animal rather than a human after all, I couldn’t shake the suspicion that an important clue remained overlooked.

  I rode with Jack as we followed Landon along the streets leading out of town. We were alone, so I took the opportunity to study Jack’s features. He didn’t look happy.

  “Do you wish I hadn’t come?”

  “Huh? What?” Jack jerked his head to me, seemingly ripped out of some reverie. “No. It’s fine. Just don’t touch anything when we get there.”

  “Are you angry with me?”

  “I’m not happy with you for taking off with Bay this morning without asking whether it was a good idea. But you came back in one piece, so I guess I don’t have anything to complain about.”

  “But … why were you angry in the first place?”

  “Good grief.” Jack kept his right hand on the steering wheel and rubbed his forehead with the left. “You never stop asking questions, do you? It’s as if you can’t just sit there and be quiet for five minutes.”

  “Is that what you want?”

  “Is that really another question?”

  I opened my mouth, something snarky on the tip of my tongue, and then snapped it shut. I didn’t need him or his stupid attitude. I crossed my arms over my chest and stared out the window, the foliage blurring as I let my mind wander. The only problem I had is that my mind refused to drift very far. It kept circling back to Jack and his stupid comment, like a shark scenting blood in the water.

  “I don’t ask a lot of questions,” I exploded, after what felt like at least fifteen minutes of insufferable silence.

  “Two minutes and forty-five seconds,” Jack noted, glancing at his watch. “Is that a new record?”

  If I could have kicked him in his naughty bits without risking a car accident I would have done it. “Whatever!”

  Jack heaved a weary sigh, dragging a hand through his hair as he kept his eyes on Landon’s tail lights. “Can I ask you something?”

  “That’s rich coming from the guy who doesn’t like questions.”

  Jack ignored the sarcasm. “Where do you think Chris is today?”

  Despite my determination to pretend Jack fell into a black hole and I couldn’t see or hear him, the question caught me off guard, and I jerked my head in his direction. “What do you mean?”

  “Where is Chris today?” Jack repeated.

  “I … don’t know.” Hmm. Where was he headed with this line of questioning? It couldn’t be good.

  “Why don’t you know?”

  “Is this some sort of game?” I tugged on my limited patience to keep from exploding. “I don’t know what you’re getting at, so why don’t you just tell me.”

  “Well, you’re an employee of the foundation, which means you should be doing what your boss says, right?”

  My heart twisted as I bit down on the inside of my cheek. “Did Chris say something to you?”

  “No, because I told him I had you running errands,” Jack replied.

  “You did?”

  “I did. Charlie, I get that you’re enthusiastic and this is the first time that you’ve been in the thick of things, but you need to remember that you’re an employee. You can’t just do whatever you want to do whenever the mood strikes. We have a chain of command, and you, my dear, are at the bottom of it right now.”

  “But … I went with Bay,” I protested, immediately realizing how lame the argument sounded. That didn’t stop me from piling on. “I was trying to help her.”

  “And Bay is her own boss – er, at least from what I can tell – and she was doing the work she needed to do,” Jack argued. “Landon and the chief spent the morning investigating and talking to the medical examiner because that’s part of their job description. Hannah did the same because that’s part of her job description.

  “Millie spent the morning nursing a hangover because she can pretty much do whatever she wants,” he continued. “That left Laura and Chris to go back to the scene. They set up cameras so they could record the area and they made plans for potential overnight visits to that spot – which I really don’t want to think about right now. They did the work, though. They were there. Did you know that?”

  “I … no.” I swallowed hard, shame washing over me.

  “I didn’t think so,” Jack said. “Chris came looking for you this morning to help him go through the footage. He thought you would be excited.”

  “I would’ve been happy to do that,” I said.

  “Yes, but you weren’t around,” Jack pointed out. “This was after you stole one of
the rental vehicles and took off with Millie last night. This was after you watched the Winchesters dance naked under the moon.”

  “You did that, too,” I protested.

  Jack’s grin lit up his handsome face at the same time it made me want to punch him. “I like your enthusiasm and I think you’re competent … when you want to be. You still have a boss, Charlie.”

  “I know. I just … when Bay said she was going back I thought I could offer her some help. I wasn’t trying to shirk work. Honestly, that’s not who I am.”

  Jack’s expression softened, although only marginally. “I get that. I think you are a hard worker. I think your biggest problem is that you get distracted and abandon important tasks because you see something shiny and new to focus on. That said, you’re lying about why you went with Bay this morning.”

  “I am not.” The words were out of my mouth before I took the time to ascertain whether or not they were true.

  “You went with Bay because you’re fascinated with the Winchesters,” Jack said, ignoring the tinny quality of my voice. “You think there’s something off about them – and I don’t disagree – but they’re not why we’re here. I think they have a few secrets too, but I don’t think one of them is that they’re hiding Bigfoot in Tillie’s greenhouse.”

  I swallowed the ball of self-doubt pooling in my throat. “I don’t think they had anything to do with Penny Schilling’s death. I just … thought I would offer my help. It was a mistake. It won’t happen again.”

  “Good. See that it doesn’t.” Jack tapped his fingers on the steering wheel as he followed Landon’s Explorer into a condominium development. From what I remembered of my drive to the resort, it was located about halfway between Hemlock Cove and the main resort building.

  “Just out of curiosity, what did you tell Chris I was doing?” I asked, my voice low as I unfastened my seatbelt.

  “I told him you were conducting research at the newspaper,” Jack replied. “He thought that was a good idea.”

  “I did that yesterday.”

  “He doesn’t know that.”

  “Okay, well, thank you … I guess.” I reached for the door handle, but Jack stilled me with a hand on my arm.