Witch Way Box Set

by Jane Hinchey

  “They wouldn’t have left the trailer like this. Mom is a neat freak,” I explained, sinking down onto the end of the bed, dropping the linens by my side.

  “But they left in a hurry, remember? Packed in a rush to get home to you and Gran.”

  “Even more reason to stow this.” I thumped the side of the chest, drawing Blake’s attention. “They keep important stuff in here. Like those maps? They go in here. And the notebooks and stuff. Plus, Dad’s tools. He would never leave the chest out, let alone open like this.”

  Blake studied the trailer silently for a moment. “It looks like someone has searched the place. Pretty sure your parents wouldn’t have been intending to pack crockery for the flight home.” He shut the cupboard doors in the kitchen area.

  I watched, still stunned to find the trailer in such a state. “All I know is that they wouldn’t have left it like this.”

  “No signs of a struggle though. They weren’t here when it happened.”

  The sound of the Land Rover interrupted our musings. Remy kept the engine running while she hopped out and opened the back.

  “Everything okay?” she asked when Blake and I joined her.

  “Someone has been through the Jones’s trailer,” Blake said solemnly, lifting out my suitcase, then the box of Archie’s supplies.

  “Seriously?” Remy looked at me and rubbed her hand up and down my arm. “You okay, Harper?”

  I smiled wanly. “I’m fine.” Liar. Truth was I found little comfort in my parents’ trailer, being amongst their belongings. I guess I'd been expecting an instant connection and when it hadn't happened... I was a little stunned. But I still had my astral walking ability, and I fully intended to put it to good use tonight. For now, I needed to sort out the mess and get Archie fed and watered.

  “Let me clean this up, settle Archie and then maybe we can go find something to eat?” I suggested, glancing at my phone. Traveling across so many time zones had messed with my body clock and while the setting sun told me it was time for dinner, my body told me it was ready for breakfast.

  “I gave your Gran and Jenna their keys,” Remy said. “And I'm just about to drop off their luggage. Your Gran said something about a nap.”

  “How about we all meet up in an hour?” Blake suggested. “Enough time for us to refresh, nap, shower, whatever. Andi said the hotel in town serves a good meal.”

  “Should we book a table?” I asked and Remy laughed.

  “No need, not in a town this size. Would you mind if I brought Bandit over to hang with Archie when we go out? He's just going to scratch at the door and howl if I leave him on his own knowing his new furry buddy is over here.”

  “That's fine. Drop him over when you're ready.”

  After they’d gone I set up Archie’s litter tray, spooned his daily ration of wet food into a bowl and stroked along his back as he scarfed down his dinner, purring the entire time. “I don’t know how you do that without your food going down the wrong hole.”

  While he ate, I tidied the trailer, made up the bed with fresh sheets, splashed water on my face in the tiny bathroom before lying on the bed and staring up at the ceiling. Archie finished eating, then jumped up by my side and busied himself grooming. The only sound was the birds outside and Archie licking. I must have dozed off because the next thing I knew Remy was banging on the door. It was time for dinner.

  One other car was parked out front of the Arrowstrand Hotel when we pulled up. The rest of the main strip was deserted except for a lone dog wandering down the middle of the street. A gust of wind blew a tumbleweed past, and I immediately thought of the old western movies Gran used to watch with Pop when I was a child. Inside, however, was a different story. The place was bustling. A juke box was blaring out pop music, there was a pool table with half a dozen guys watching the two men playing, a young couple with two small children sat at a table, trying to wrangle their kids into eating the food they'd ordered rather than drop it on the table and floor.

  We'd followed Gran in, who'd busted through the doors full of vigor and pep. Clearly her nap had done the trick. She'd changed outfits from the hot pink velour leisure suit she'd worn on the plane to a spaghetti strap summer dress that hit just above her sagging knees. Around her neck she'd wrapped a red and white bandanna that clashed impossibly with the purple flower print of her dress. And on her head, the pièce de résistance. A baseball cap. A grin pulled at my lips as I followed her inside. Gran had always had eclectic fashion sense—these poor Australians would have no idea what hit them.

  Along the side wall was a bar, behind it, a slim woman with her back toward us, her long purple curls cascading down her back. She glanced over her shoulder when she heard the door close and gave us a big smile. It wasn't until we got closer I realized she wasn't the young woman I thought she was. She'd have to be sixty, at least, with laugh lines deeply ingrained and yet there was a youthful sparkle to her eyes. She reminded me of Gran—could have been the purple hair—and I immediately liked her.

  “Welcome to Arrowstrand Hotel.” She flipped a tea towel over one shoulder and turned to face us, resting her palms on the bar. “What can I get you?”

  “We were told you serve meals?” Remy said, and the woman nodded.

  “Sure do. Help yourself to the menus at the end there.” She pointed to the far end of the bar where a sign hung down from the ceiling that read order here. “Then just come back here when you're ready to order. Sit anywhere.”

  “Thanks,” we said in unison. Jenna grabbed some menus while Remy headed toward a table that would comfortably seat us all. It wasn't until I was nearly at the table that I realized Gran wasn't with us and I swiveled to find her still at the bar, chatting up a storm with the woman who’d welcomed us. I headed back to join them.

  Gran introduced us. “Harper, this here is Petrina. She and her husband own this place. This is my granddaughter Harper.”

  Petrina leaned forward to shake my hand, her grip firm. “Pleased to meet you, Harper. I see it now; you look a lot like your mom.”

  That caught my attention. “You've met her?” I asked.

  Petrina nodded. “Several times. They ate here a bit. Most of the folks from the caravan park do.” She glanced at the big white watch on her wrist. “In fact they'll probably dribble in anytime now.”

  “When was the last time you saw my mom and dad?” I asked.

  Petrina cocked her head, studying me. “I heard rumors they were missing.” She looked around and leaned forward as if to whisper something and I automatically leaned in to hear. “But I wasn't sure if that was another tall tale being bandied about to drum up tourism.”

  “Oh?”

  “A lot of things get exaggerated in these parts. Copper pyramids anyone?” She scoffed, leaned back and focused on tucking her tank back into her jeans. “I mean, seriously. If there were a pyramid made of copper here, we'd have found it by now.”

  “Did my parents talk to you about that? The copper pyramid?”

  She shrugged. “Sure, a time or two. I warned them you have to take a lot of those sorts of tales with a pinch of salt. That whole story started because someone figured the ABC range—that rock formation you see on the horizon—looks like the tail of a dragon and those spikes are the tail and that last one is the copper pyramid. But your folks seemed pretty smart. Your dad told me they were archeologists, so I figured they had their heads on straight.”

  “And you last saw them…?” I prompted again, for Petrina hadn't answered my initial question.

  She tapped her chin, eyes focusing on something above my head. “Oh, let me see. A few days ago at least. They came in for dinner one day last week.”

  “Did they mention they were returning home?” I asked.

  She shook her head, purple curls dancing over her shoulders. “Nope.”

  “And they didn't seem stressed or rushed or anything out of the ordinary?”

  “Nope. They sat just over there.” She pointed to a table by the window. “And had their
heads real close together and whispered to each other all evening. They looked so sweet, obviously they still like each other.” She winked and my lips twitched in a weak smile. Petrina continued, “So unusual to see that these days, more mature folks being sweet on each other. They are clearly in love, that's for sure. Even Kaylee noticed it and to get that girl to notice anything that doesn't revolve around taking her own photo and putting it up on Instagram is amazing.”

  Before I could ask who Kaylee was, a man called out from the pool table. “Hey, Petrina, two pale ales when you've got a minute!”

  “Coming right up, Bluey,” Petrina yelled back. “You two want to order any drinks while you sort out what you want to eat?” she said to us.

  I shrugged. “Sure. How about a round of beers?”

  “Tap’s dry so it'll have to be a stubbie.” Petrina nodded at the beer taps that had a cloth draped over them.

  “That's fine.” I had no idea what a stubbie was but figured I was about to find out.

  “Any preference?” She jerked her thumb at the fridge behind her where an array of brown bottles was displayed. Ah. A stubbie was a bottle of beer. “Surprise us.”

  Petrina lined up five bottles of beer on the bar—the labels said Toohey’s—and expertly popped the lids. “I'll start a tab for you. You can pay when you order your food.”

  “Thank you.” Gran had already picked up two bottles and was heading back to the table when the front door opened and four people walked in.

  “Here they come,” Petrina said, nodding towards the newcomers, “These are your folks from Arrowstrand Caravan Park. That skinny piece of work at the front, that old man’s name is Nigel. He's the guide for the caves. Those two strapping young fellas behind him are a couple of tourists he's been touting around for a week or so, and that…” She nodded at the young woman wearing daisy dukes, a low-cut tank that displayed her impressive double D's and cut off to display her flat abdomen, a spray tan you didn't get out of a bottle, long fake lashes and equally long fake nails. “That is Kaylee Webb, Andi and Colin's daughter. She helps behind the bar a few nights a week.”

  I watched the newcomers with interest. I was relatively sure one of these people had been responsible for breaking into my parents’ trailer—because whoever it was, had used a key. There had been no signs of forced entry. Which meant they knew where the key was kept and had borrowed it, but then returned it; otherwise Andi would have noticed it missing. Unless it was Andi herself. And I hadn't ruled that out.

  “The husband, Colin, he'll probably turn up later. He does a lot of sunset tours.”

  “Really?” That surprised me. There didn't seem to be that many visitors to warrant it. Petrina twigged straight away. “There's another town about fifty clicks down the road. He gets a lot of business there 'cos it's on the main highway. Arrowstrand is a destination type place. We don't get many visitors passing through. The caves are a big draw card, but the Webb’s only started promoting the place as a tourism destination about three years ago, after the farm went belly up.”

  “Belly up?”

  “Bankrupt. Well almost. Price of sheep dropped, getting next to nothing for the wool and the meat, they were struggling, but hanging in there. The fire was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

  “A fire?”

  Petrina nodded. “The original homestead burned down a few years ago. Unsalvageable. They auctioned off what farm equipment they could, the government offered them some decent money for the land—with the plan to add it to the national forest around Wilpena Pound—and they agreed with the proviso they kept the land where the caves are. They've got about twenty acres. Enough money to build a new place, setup a caravan park, run the tours to the caves.”

  Kaylee, who'd tied an apron around her hips and joined Petrina behind the bar, interrupted us. “Who's this?” she asked, looking at me with interest.

  “Rude much?” Petrina sighed shaking her head. “This is Harper. She's a guest at the caravan park, along with her friends over there.” Petrina nodded toward the table where the others were watching us with interest. And that's when I realized I still had three bottles of beer in front of me.

  “Lovely to meet you both.” I smiled, scooping up the bottles by the neck. “I'd love to chat more later if that's okay?”

  “Sure thing.” Petrina smiled, wiping down the bar. “Anytime at all.”

  “You shouldn't listen to her,” Kaylee snapped. “She's nothing but an old gossip and a busybody.”

  “Says you who's constantly listening in to everyone around her and posting about it on Instagram,” Petrina snapped back, face tight. “Those tables need clearing.” She nodded to the back of the room where the guys who were playing pool had set their empty glasses on a nearby table. Kaylee flounced away, an attitude in every step she took.

  “I swear,” Petrina muttered. “The older that girl gets the more the devil comes out in her. I don't know where she gets it from, not her mom, that's for sure. Andi is the sweetest, kindest person I've ever met. She deserves better than that brat of a daughter.”

  Raising one shoulder in an apologetic shrug I returned to the table, depositing the beers on the table.

  “What was that all about?” Jenna asked, her eyes following Kaylee.

  “Well, that is Kaylee, the daughter of the folks who run the trailer park,” I explained. “And there's a wee bit of tension between her and the bartender, Petrina, by the looks of things.”

  Remy chuckled. “I remember being that young and thinking I knew everything there was to know. And that my elders were a bunch of idiots.”

  “Me too,” Jenna said sheepishly. “I was so mean to my mom when I was a teenager.”

  I thought about my relationship with my mother, the days I would snap at her because I thought she was being unfair, uncool. Now I'd give anything to have her sitting at the table with us where I could tell her how much I love her. I’d thought I had all the time in the world but now I had an ominous feeling time was running out.

  Chapter Four

  “Set ‘em up, hot stuff!”

  I rubbed a weary hand over my eyes, resigned to the fact that Gran was at it again. Hustling the men at pool. So far, she was fifty dollars up. To be fair, she had an unfair advantage, in that these poor unsuspecting country folk were not expecting the eyeful they got when Gran draped herself over the table. Those in front got the cleavage shot, those behind, the rear end shot where her dress rode up to indecent heights.

  “Come on, Gran,” I interrupted before she could fleece them of even more of their hard-earned money. “It's been a long day. Aren't you tired?”

  “Where's your stamina, girl?” Gran beamed at me, cheeks flushed. “It's morning in Whitefall Cove and I'm on Whitefall Cove time.” So was I, which was why I felt like I'd been awake for twenty-four hours and my eyeballs had been rolled in sand. By all intents and purposes Gran should be sound asleep by now. I couldn't fathom how the brief nap she'd had this afternoon had revived her so much. I narrowed my eyes, studying the rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes. Oh, that little sneak. She'd cast a spell. I wish I'd thought of it!

  My attention was diverted from Gran when one of the men Petrina had pointed out earlier as staying at the trailer park stepped up to the table, placing a twenty-dollar bill down. “I'm game,” he said, his voice carrying a thick accent.

  “Sure thing, sugar.” Gran winked at him, spent an inordinate amount of time chalking the end of her queue before suggestively blowing the excess blue powder off. “What's your name, honey?”

  “I'm Tamir.” He grinned in return, his teeth white against his tanned skin.

  “Tamir. Interesting name.” Gran nodded. “Where you from, Tamir?”

  “Croatia, ma'am.” Tamir set up the billiard balls and grabbed a cue.

  “Pft, none of that ma'am stuff, thank you very much. Call me Alice.” Gran popped a hip against the table and eyeballed the young man who had to be late twenties, maybe thirty.

  Tamir laughed and
nodded his head. “Okay... Alice. I've been watching you. Your winning streak is about to end.”

  Gran barked a laugh. “Is it now, young whippersnapper?” Tapping her fingers against her pool cue, she narrowed her eyes at him. “I love a challenge. Let's see what you've got.”

  Tamir gave Gran a run for her money, but in the end gracefully admitted defeat. Throughout the game, Gran had grilled him on his life story. He had traveled to Australia with his friend Omar two weeks ago. They'd spent time in Sydney, before traveling to Adelaide then out to Arrowstrand. The pair of them were treasure hunters. Gran had flicked a quick glance my way when Tamir had revealed that bit of information. His friend Omar was sitting opposite, watching the game. He had the same olive skin and dark eyes as Tamir, but instead of a head full of thick black hair that Tamir sported, Omar's hair was cropped close to his skull. Nigel, the wiry tour guide, stopped by a time or two and he and Omar disappeared into the beer garden at the rear of the hotel to smoke, coming back reeking of nicotine.

  Kaylee sashayed over, a tray balanced against her hip as she collected empty glasses. My eyes narrowed when she passed by Tamir and her hand trailed over his thigh. His dark eyes followed her every move.

  “Do you work here every night?” I asked her.

  “Nope,” she replied without looking at me. “Three, maybe four nights, depending on how busy they get and what other plans I have on.”

  “You wouldn't be hinting at your birthday, would you?” Tamir teased her, and she fluttered her lashes at him.

  “Now why would you think that, handsome?”

  “Oh, because you've dropped about a billion hints this week.” He chuckled, then told us, “Kaylee turns twenty-one this week.”

  “In three days, actually. The twenty-sixth.”

  “That's a blood moon,” Gran said. I looked at her in surprise. I hadn't known that.

  “What's that?” Kaylee asked, head tilted.

  “It's a lunar eclipse,” Gran answered. “It can have a significant impact on your spiritual and astrological sides.”