“I’m not with the press,” Hannah reassured her quickly. She’d already worked out exactly what she was going to say. “I was here the night your husband attacked Sheriff Boone. We were trying to track him down for another reason – Boone I mean – and it was just dumb luck that we arrived when we did. Otherwise ... .” Hannah offered up a shrug. She didn’t have to explain what sort of trouble Carl would be in if she hadn’t shown up when she did. Of course, he’d killed a gas station clerk. He’d managed to find that trouble regardless.
“You’re the woman who saved the sheriff?” Helene gave Hannah a long look before pushing open the door. “I guess you can come in. I have questions regarding your appearance, too. The sheriff didn’t want to answer them.”
“The sheriff was shaken up by what happened,” Hannah replied, giving the living room an extended look as she sat in the chair Helene gestured toward. “This looks different than it did the other night.”
“That’s because I’ve been cleaning nonstop,” Helene replied as she sat on the couch directly underneath the framed photographs that Hannah had fixated on the night of the attack. They were straight now ... and Carl was no longer featured in any of them. Helene had switched out some of the images.
“You had quite the mess left for you,” Hannah noted. “You did a good job.”
“I can’t tell you how much I needed validation from an absolute stranger regarding my housekeeping skills,” Helene drawled.
Hannah balked. “I didn’t mean it that way.”
“How did you mean it? More importantly, what were you doing in my house that evening?”
Hannah recognized that Helene was a woman suffering from the breakdown of a marriage and a shift in the life she thought she was going to live. She’d already cut Carl out of her life. That didn’t mean she wasn’t struggling to understand what happened to her husband ... and what it would mean for her future.
“I work at Casper Creek,” Hannah explained. “We had an incident and couldn’t raise the sheriff on the phone. The dispatcher told us where he was. We needed to report a break-in and I was upset enough my boyfriend drove me into town to do it.
“When we arrived here, the door was open,” she continued. “We walked in to talk to Boone, assuming everything was already handled, but your husband was in the middle of attacking the sheriff when we arrived. I intervened.”
“You intervened?”
“I hit him.”
Helene blinked several times and then sighed. “It sounds like you did him a favor. The sheriff didn’t mince words when he told us what happened. He said an outsider came in and helped him. I couldn’t figure out what that meant. I guess he just didn’t want to drag your name into things.”
“He’s a good man,” Hannah said. “I feel terrible about what almost happened to him.”
“Join the club.” Helene was morose as she slouched on the couch. “At least it wasn’t your husband who almost killed him. Everyone in the neighborhood is looking at me as if I’m the one who almost killed a police officer. Do you have any idea how horrible that is?”
Hannah shook her head. “No, but I do have questions. Ever since it happened, I’ve been plagued by nightmares. Do you have any idea why your husband would’ve attacked the sheriff like he did?”
“Carl? He’s never been what you would call a good man. He wasn’t always evil, though. He kind of ... slipped ... over recent years.”
Hannah had been anticipating an opening like this and she opted to use it. “I asked Sheriff Boone about your husband’s criminal record. He said there wasn’t anything in the records that caused him to be concerned about responding to a domestic violence call on his own.”
“And I can see why he would think that,” Helene acknowledged. “Carl was never a great man, but he was a serviceable one. He wasn’t a solid husband, but he wasn’t bad enough for me to want to kick him out of the house either.
“We didn’t have one of those marriages like you see in the movies,” she continued. “He never swept me off my feet. He never made grand gestures. When I was a kid, I thought that was the norm. As I got older, I realized it was make-believe. No man constantly tells you he loves you ... or brings you flowers ... or wants to dance with you under the stars.”
Hannah thought about Cooper. He did all those things. Well, he didn’t bring her flowers. He had danced with her under the stars more than once, though, and he always made sure to tell her exactly how he felt. Plus, he brought her constant waves of takeout. That was better than flowers. She never doubted he loved her. “Was he ever violent with you?”
“No, but I’m pretty sure he was stealing from his work. I have no proof of that, but the sheriff is looking into it.”
Was that what the demon was talking about when it said Carl was a bad man? Hannah couldn’t be sure. “When did Carl become violent?”
“Something happened about a week and a half ago,” Helene replied. “I don’t know how to explain it. Carl had been his normal self. He had a routine. He would come home from work, grab a beer, sit in his chair and watch sports all night, go to bed, and then do it all over again.
“He wasn’t a good father to our children, but he didn’t terrorize them either,” she continued. “He didn’t help with homework, but he didn’t call them names or belittle them. He was basically a lump of indifference.”
To Hannah, that sounded like the worst thing ever. She refrained from commenting, though.
“Then one day he was asleep in the chair.” Helene took on a far-off expression. “He had a baseball game on. He hates the Yankees with a fiery passion. He’d been swearing at the television and then fell asleep.
“I’ve never liked baseball all that much,” she explained, her eyes keen. “I hate the noise so I turned it off. I thought he would sleep in the chair for the rest of the night like he normally does. I didn’t expect things to fall apart in the blink of an eye.”
Hannah leaned forward, eager. “How did they fall apart?”
“He went rigid, like his whole body turned into a board. His eyes opened, but I could only see the whites of them. I thought he was having some sort of seizure.”
“Did you call an ambulance?”
“No. It happened too fast. He was like that for about thirty seconds and then he relaxed. When he opened his eyes again, though, there was something different about him.”
“What?”
“I know this is going to sound absurd, but it’s the best way I can think to describe what happened. When he opened his eyes again, it was as if another person was inside of him. He talked different, like a lower register or something, and he seemed confused about who I was for a few seconds.”
“I’m sorry. That must’ve been frightening.”
Helene brushed off the question as if she hadn’t heard it. “He said horrible things afterwards. Called me a harlot and tried to make me have sex with him. He hasn’t touched me in that way in years. We don’t do that. I’m pretty sure he has a woman on the side he meets once a week when he says he’s going out with the guys, but I don’t care as long as I don’t have to be with him.”
The admission made Hannah inexplicably sad but she nodded all the same. “Did he give you an explanation for why he was acting so different?”
“No. He just kept screaming at me, and then he proceeded to ignore me for the next week, right up until that night when he lost it and said he was going to kill me because I was giving him a headache. In the few days before that, he’d been taking off regularly and I only saw him when he returned to the house to sleep at night. I figured he was with his new chick when he wasn’t working.”
“But?”
“But he wasn’t going to work. His boss called to ask where he was. I was stunned, told him he had to go to work because we had bills to pay. That’s when he threatened to kill me and the kids. He said that no woman would ever be the boss of him and he chased us through the house. We ran and called the police ... and then everything got even worse.”
“No, but it shouldn’t be that hard to look up. It was the day they had the big dust storm on the mountain. I know because the news broadcaster broke in to tell us and he freaked out when he saw the mountain on the news. That’s what made him stop wanting to force me to be with him and he started fixating on other stuff.”
Hannah’s stomach did a long, slow roll. “That long ago?”
“It’s been a rough week and a half,” Helene acknowledged. “He’s not coming back into this house, though. I’m done. I hope he goes to prison forever.”
“I hope so, too.” Hannah got to her feet, her mind busy. “Thank you for your time. You’ve been a big help.”
16
Sixteen
Hannah was thoughtful when she exited Helene’s house. The story about Carl’s transformation didn’t surprise her. Frankly, that’s essentially how she imagined it happening. What didn’t make sense was the timeframe.
She stood on the sidewalk for several minutes, running things through her mind, and then jolted when her phone rang. Cooper’s name sliding across the screen filled her with dread. Still, she didn’t send him to voicemail. Instead, she decided to meet the problem head on.
“Have I ever told you that I think you’re the most handsome man I’ve ever seen in real life?”
On the other end of the call, Cooper managed to hold back an exasperated sigh ... but just barely. “When you called to tell me what you were doing — which was after you’d already left Casper Creek by the way — you said you would text as soon as you left your interview with the wife.”
“And I just left. I mean ... like literally.”
“And yet I had to call you.”
Hannah refused to let Cooper drag her into an unnecessary argument. “I was thinking.”
“About calling me?”
“About the timetable Helene provided me with.”
“Who is Helene?”
“The wife.”
“Oh, right. Continue.”
“I will if you stop interrupting me. Just for the record, I get that you feel helpless because you’re so worried, but I’m fine. I am, however, having a different sort of problem. I would really like it if you would help me iron it out.”
“Sure. Just as soon as you come home.”
“I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Hannah slid her gaze to the left when she felt a familiar prick on the back of her neck. She could feel a set of eyes on her. Where the gaze was coming from was anybody’s guess. It had to be one of the other houses, though. It was the only thing that made sense. “I want you to listen to me now, though.”
“Come home first.”
“No, you listen to me first.”
“I’ll get naked and rub you with that warming oil you love so much if you come back first.”
It was a tempting offer, but Hannah knew he was all talk. He would rub her regardless. “I need you to hear me out. It’s not a request. It’s dire need.”
“Ugh.” He made an exasperated sound deep in his throat. “You’re lucky I love you.”
“I am,” Hannah agreed. “Here’s the thing, though, Helene says that Carl was always a jerk. He was lazy, uninvolved, but never overtly mean. All that changed one day when he was asleep in a recliner, looked to be having a seizure, and then woke up and immediately demanded sex from her.”
Cooper was quiet on the other end of the line for so long Hannah wondered if she’d dropped the call.
“Are you still there?” she prodded.
“I am. I’m just not sure what to say. I get that he should’ve probably requested sex like a proper gentleman rather than demand it, but maybe Helene read him wrong or something.”
Despite the serious nature of the conversation, Hannah couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “I love that you’re caught up on that particular detail. It’s so ... you. It’s not about requesting. According to Helene, they didn’t have sex. He had a side piece.”
“Of course he did.”
“The demon told me that Carl was a bad man. He flat out told me that. I’m not fixated on that part of it. I’m bothered by the fact that he turned on a dime from being lazy to overtly threatening. It signifies a complete and total personality change.”
“I get what you’re saying. How does that help us, though?”
“It’s not just that he changed. I expected that. It’s that he changed the day of the dust storm.”
Hannah could practically picture Cooper straightening his shoulders on the other end of the call. He was serious when he spoke again. “How does the timing work on that?”
She loved that he understood what was bothering her without her having to explain it. “How can Amelia have called a demon to do her bidding, opened the door after the fact, if the demon infiltrated Carl on the same day Bettina took over Angel? That’s way before the showdown at the creek.”
“I ... don’t know.” Cooper sounded thoughtful. “Are you absolutely sure that’s when the shift happened?”
“Helene is. She’s not doubtful in the least. She’s already moved on, too. She took his photos down.”
“She’s glad to be rid of him. Indifference is even worse than hate. She didn’t have a reason to leave him before but now she does.”
“Yeah. I don’t understand how you can be with someone if you’re indifferent to them but ... I can’t judge her. She has children to take care of and is doing the best that she can. The timing is what bothers me.”
“It bothers me, too. Just for the record, though, I will never be indifferent to you. That’s not how it’s going to work between us.”
The conversational shift threw Hannah. “I wasn’t suggesting that we would end up that way. I know we won’t. So, while it’s sweet that your first thought is to tell me that, I need to focus on the demon.”
“Okay. What do you think is going on?”
“I think the demon crossed over at the same time Amelia and Bettina did. I think he picked Carl on a fluke — he was a bad guy and that’s likely all that mattered — but the most important part is when he arrived.”
“That’s not the only important part,” Cooper countered. “Why did he show up out at Casper Creek to warn you the other day? Why is he working with Amelia instead of Bettina if they’re equals? Are they equals? Maybe we don’t even understand what’s going on.”
“I don’t think there’s any maybe about it,” Hannah agreed ruefully. “We’re missing a huge piece of the puzzle. We can’t put this behind us until we know how to fight our enemies.”
“Wrong. We can’t fight until we know exactly who our enemies are.”
“That’s also true.” A hint of movement out of the corner of Hannah’s eye caught her attention, and when she glanced at the sidewalk a good fifty feet down, she found a familiar countenance staring back at her. “Son of a bitch.”
Misunderstanding why she was upset, Cooper immediately attempted to soothe her. “We’ll figure it out. We always do. I just need you to come home so we can talk it out.”
“Sure.” Hannah glared at Carl with everything she had. “I’ll be home just as soon as I can. First I have to do something else, though.”
“What’s that?”
“Shake the freaking demon standing on the sidewalk until information comes out.”
“W-what?” Cooper was absolutely flabbergasted. “What are you talking about?”
Hannah didn’t bother to respond. She was already racing toward the demon. “You and I need to have a talk.”
“Hannah!” Cooper bellowed Hannah’s name, but she was already focused on Carl.
“Don’t bother running,” Hannah warned as she closed the distance. “It’s just going to make me angry ... and you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”
“I have no intention of running,” Carl replied calmly. “That’s why I’m standing
here waiting for you.”
Hannah pulled up short, her hands falling listlessly to her sides. “Oh.”
Carl waited. “Do you have anything else you want to say?”
“Quite a few things. I don’t think we should say them out here, though.”
“Probably not,” Carl agreed. “I’m assuming you got Helene fired up so she’ll likely call the police if she sees me.”
“Is that why you’re here?” Hannah was honestly curious. “Are you here for Helene?”
“Helene means nothing to me.”
“Does she mean anything to Carl?”
“Not so much.”
“Right.” Hannah couldn’t contain her disappointment. “You weren’t lying about him being a bad man.”
“He’s worse than you realize. That’s not important, though. You and I really need to talk.”
“Okay.” Hannah knew better than inviting him into her car. “There’s a park around the corner. Let’s head over there.”
“Fine. You lead the way.”
She wrinkled her nose. “No way. I’m not turning my back to you. I think you should lead the way.”
“Fine. You’re such a trusting soul.”
“Can you blame me?”
“Not so much. Let’s do it. We don’t have a lot of time ... and you’re going to hate this conversation.”
Hannah had no doubt.
THE PARK WAS LARGELY EMPTY EXCEPT FOR a twenty-something mother and her toddler son. The boy wore overalls and a cheeky grin, which he kept pointing at Hannah as he dug in the dirt. His mother was on the phone and seemed distracted, but that was probably best, Hannah mused. As long as the woman didn’t listen to what was bound to be an abnormal conversation with a demon, she vowed not to complain.
“Sit over there.” Hannah inclined her head toward a bench, opting to sit on the adjacent one rather than directly next to him.
“Don’t you think this looks a little weird?” he asked as he got comfortable. “That woman over there is going to think we’re doing something kinky.”
All the Pretty Witches (A Hannah Hickok Witchy Mystery Book 6) Page 16
