Strangetown Girl (Welcome To Witch County Book 1)

by C. M. Cevis

  Asher shook her head sadly. “No, sorry. I figured you didn’t see who it was since it was dark, but I couldn’t exactly ask you. I didn’t see anything obvious around you, but I was a little more concerned with staunching the blood pouring from your head. I would have gone back after I got you in the bed and bandaged up, but I was afraid to leave you alone.”

  “Maybe we should go look again, now that it’s daylight,” Luna said. She put her head on Asher’s shoulder as they moved through the kitchen towards the back door.

  “This afternoon, after you’ve had a chance to rest some.”

  Luna nodded. Yeah, it would have been nice to have one of them take a look while the place was fresh, but a few hours wouldn’t make a big difference.

  The tools were in the small shed, one that Luna had meant to replace years ago with something larger and more weather resistant for the things that she kept inside. She was going to have to start writing these things down or something.

  She directed Asher where to find the toolbox, and a moment later, Asher was coming back out, the heavy metal toolbox in hand.

  “Here we go.” She headed toward the front of the house, Luna trailing behind. “I helped Mom do this a few years ago. It’s not hard.”

  A knock sounded from the front.

  “Right on time,” Asher said with a grin.

  11

  GRAHAM HAD BROUGHT LOCKS FOR the front and back doors, as well as extra screws, just in case, and they lay spread out across the kitchen table among the breakfast dishes. He’d also asked Luna to consider putting in a second set of deadbolts that only locked and unlocked from the inside. It wasn’t a bad idea, honestly, but Luna didn’t have the tools to make a hole that big in the doors by herself, so that idea was scrapped until she could hire someone.

  Luna and Asher spent breakfast explaining what had happened, conveniently changing how Asher had found her. The end of the explanation left a deep frown on his face.

  “So, first a crime scene was professionally cleaned less than twenty-four hours after the body was discovered, and now someone started stalking you at night in the smallest, sweetest town in the USA?” Graham asked.

  Luna nodded. “That sounds about right.”

  “How do you always find the excitement wherever you go?” Graham asked with a smirk.

  “I didn’t do this on purpose, trust me.” Luna chuckled, then stopped as she noticed Asher watching them both.

  “You don’t seem too upset about your father being gone either,” Asher said softly.

  Luna inhaled sharply. Asher was right. Luna didn’t feel sad about him being gone. That was odd. They didn’t have the best relationship, complicated as it was, but she’d always thought that she’d feel something when he was gone. Instead, she felt cold and indifferent, almost as if she hadn’t accepted it yet.

  “I guess it just doesn’t feel real to me yet. Once it hits me, I’ll probably be a sobbing mess,” Luna said slowly.

  In reality, she couldn’t explain her lack of feelings. That probably wasn’t healthy.

  “Can you two handle these locks without me? I want to see if I can find out who cleaned this place up. Maybe they know something.”

  “Sure,” Asher said, a smile back on her face. “If not, we can call my mom.”

  Graham laughed. “Alright.”

  “Let us know if you find anything out, hm?” Luna asked.

  “Of course. Stay safe and call me if you need me.”

  “You too,” Luna and Asher called in unison as Graham stood to leave the table.

  He smiled, shook his head, and took his leave.

  ~*~

  GRAHAM HAD ASKED THE BOYS back at his home office to do some digging the day before about cleaning services in the town. The nice thing about investigating in a place so small and secluded was that your options weren’t as plentiful as they would have been had the murder been in a Brooklyn brownstone.

  The list of cleaners in Calidity was short, and the closest professional cleaners outside of town would have had to drive an hour just to do the job. They probably would have done the job, had the pay been in place, but Graham doubted that the hassle was worth it. Especially considering the quickness that the job was done.

  The left the three cleaners in town. Two were small chains that had moved into the area and had teams of varying sizes that went out based on the size of the job, and the third was a lone woman and her daughter that did a good bit of business and lived locally.

  Graham started with the small business, the least likely in his mind to have done the job.

  A young-sounding woman answered the phone and immediately started with a warning that cleaning jobs for the next week would be handed off to one of the other cleaning services in the area.

  “Oh? Is everything alright?” Graham asked, without bothering to identify himself yet.

  “Well, Mom picked up a nasty flu last week. Thank goodness she’s feeling better today, but the doctor recommended she rest for another week to recover,” the voice explained.

  Graham put a line through the cleaning service’s name on his list. They hadn’t been taking work at the time, so it couldn’t have been them. Easy as pie.

  “That’s terrible. I’m so glad to hear she’s feeling better,” Graham said.

  “Thank you, I really appreciate that. If your job can wait, or if you have trouble with the other cleaners, just call us back, okay, hun?”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  The next cleaning business on the list had the most employees of the three, which meant it was still quite small.

  “This is Judy, how may I help you,” a bored voice answered.

  Graham stifled a chuckle. “Hi there, Judy, my name is Graham Lloyd, I’m with the FBI. I was wondering if there was someone that I could talk to about a cleaning job that you all possibly took on recently.”

  The woman on the other line hesitated so hard, Graham swore he heard tires screeching.

  “Sir, I can’t tell whether you’re an FBI agent or not over the phone, and until that has been cleared up, I can’t give you any information about our clients.”

  Graham nodded as if the woman could see him. “Completely understandable. Are you at the address listed on your website? I can come down and show you my badge, as well as provide superiors for you to verify with. I have no problem waiting for you to make sure that I am indeed telling you the truth.” Graham had found over the years that allowing people the time to verify often meant they wouldn’t bother. And those who wanted the time to verify appreciated that he wasn’t pushing them before they were ready. It meant there rarely needed to be a bad cop routine in his arsenal.

  “If you could wait about an hour, the owner should be back by then,” Judy said.

  “Perfect, I will see you in an hour, Miss Judy. Thank you so much for your help.”

  “See you soon, Officer.”

  You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

  The last cleaning shop on his list took three calls during the hour that he was waiting to go visit Miss Judy and her boss to get someone to answer.

  “Yes? I mean, this is Paulie down at Clean as A Whistle, is there something I can help you with?” The man sounded exasperated and out of breath.

  “Are you alright, sir? I was just calling to ask a question, but if something is more pressing—”

  “Sorry about that, there’s a lot going on around here and you just happened to call in the middle of it all today. What can I do for you, sir?”

  “I had a few questions about a job you all might have taken on in the last few days. I know it might be sensitive information, so I have no problem coming down there and proving to you that I am an FBI agent before you answer any questions.”

  “FBI? Are you talking about that scene at the bed and breakfast where they arrested Luna?”

  Graham hesitated. Small town people always made him apprehensive with how forthcoming they could be. “Yes sir, I am.”

  “Let me save both
you and I some time: We aren’t the ones that cleaned that place up. We did get a call about it, but my father was a cop, and while I wasn’t privy to a lot of procedural knowledge, something about getting that call didn’t sit right with me. I trusted my gut and turned it down.”

  Graham marked Clean as A Whistle off his list. This was turning out to be a lot easier than he thought it would be.

  “Any chance you know who called you?”

  “No, unfortunately. I didn’t get a name and the voice didn’t sound familiar. I do know that the number came from the police station. I doubt that tells you much.”

  “It tells me something. I thank you for the information.” Though I have no idea why you’re telling me without knowing that I am who I say I am, Graham added in his head.

  “I hope you get to the bottom of this, sir. I’m only telling you what I know because it’s not helpful if the information falls into the wrong hands, but it might make a difference if your hands are the right ones.”

  Graham smiled. “I appreciate that. I am trying to get to the bottom of what’s going on here, and I thank you for trusting me to be who I say I am.”

  There was a loud crash in the background of the call, and Graham almost winced.

  “If you’re lying, that’s between you and God, good sir. Now, not to rush you, but do you need anything else?”

  “Not at all. Hopefully, what I just heard wasn’t expensive.”

  Paulie laughed, though it sounded pained. “Hopefully. Good luck.”

  The two men ended the call, and Graham gathered a few items before leaving his hotel room and heading to the one cleaning service he had left to talk to.

  12

  LUNA AND ASHER HAD MANAGED to get the locks installed in what felt like record time. Whether it was actually record time or not, Luna had no idea, but she was going to pretend.

  Her bandage had been changed again, and the headache from that morning had started throbbing again. She glanced out into the backyard, trying her best not to wince at the sunlight she normally loved.

  “Here,” Asher said, walking up with headache medicine at the ready. “Take it.”

  “How in the world did you know that my headache was coming back?” Luna asked with a laugh and a wince as she grabbed herself a glass of water and did as Asher had asked.

  “It’s been a few hours, and that wound is still fresh. You’re probably going to have a headache for at least another day.”

  “Joy,” Luna said, rolling her eyes. The motion just made her head hurt worse.

  “We can wait a few before we go back to where you got hit to look around. At least until the medicine kicks in.”

  Luna shook her head. “I’m fine. Let me just find some sunglasses,” she said, walking away from the window. She had a few in the house, she just had to remember where they were.

  “Is there anything you can do to maybe reveal anything that we might miss?” Asher asked as Luna closed and locked the door behind them on their way out.

  Luna hadn’t thought about using magic on the scene, but it was worth a try. Why hadn’t she thought of that?

  “Maybe. I can try revealing anything that isn’t mine around where I got hit and hope that what we find isn’t just some random person who stomps through the forests around here.”

  Asher laughed. “It’s better than us stomping through the forest ourselves, looking and sniffing.”

  She was right. Unless the person had blood that Asher had smelled before or a rather distinct cologne or perfume, her scenting the area probably wouldn’t help without something to compare it to. And human senses alone always seemed to miss something.

  The attack hadn’t been too far from the house, but it had been almost completely out of sight of any of the other homes in the neighborhood. It was a walk that Luna had taken countless times before, never fearing anything in the darkness. Calidity wasn’t like that, a place where you always had to watch your back. You were safe, you were always safe. Except for last night.

  “This is where I found you,” Asher said, stopping at a small circle of red so dark it was almost brown. “I tried washing away the blood, but the concrete will be stained until the good rain we get.”

  “So no one moved me after I got knocked out,” Luna said softly.

  She picked up a handful of grass and pulled her keys from her pocket. She kept a small multi-tool contraption on her keys since she never knew when she was going to need to open a beer bottle or cut packaging and the like. She flipped open the small blade that she kept reasonably sharp just in case she ever had to use it like she was about to.

  The blade bit into the tip of her finger, and she inhaled as she curved her finger over the grass in the palm of her hand. Blood dripped from the wound onto the plants.

  “Earth around me, show me everything that is not me,” she whispered.

  Her father had always thought it so odd that her spells were so short. Most witches needed something long and drawn out to bind their magic, sometimes in other languages. But Luna had never needed that much fanfare. She asked for what she wanted with the ingredients that she needed, and the magic simply did as she asked. Maybe the magic just liked her.

  Luna slipped her hand into Asher’s and pushed a bit of herself through the connection so that Asher could see what Luna was seeing. Around them, in a circle of about half a block, everything that wasn’t Luna’s glowed.

  “This is convenient,” Asher said, looking around.

  Luna chuckled and started walking off of the concrete sidewalk and toward the wooded area. “Come on, he came from this side.”

  There was quite a bit that didn’t tie to Luna in the area around where she’d been attacked. She was grateful Asher was there to help her examine everything. They stood back to back in the middle of the trees, and each of them took care of what they were facing.

  Most of it was trash, left behind by kids or tourists, maybe some adults who should have known better but didn’t, or did know better and didn’t care. It led to a lot of dead ends and wasted time. Until finally, there was something.

  “Luna, look,” Asher called out.

  Luna made her way over to where Asher squatted in the greenery. On the floor of the woods, imbedded in what had been mud, was a glowing footprint. A large and well-preserved footprint.

  “Someone’s boot, but we have no way of knowing whose,” Luna said, though she leaned down and took several pictures.

  “No, we don’t, but if it’s who hit you, it might give us something circumstantial. Especially if this is a brand of boot that isn’t worn commonly around here.”

  She had a point. Luna leaned in and squinted her eyes. “It looks like it says Eddies? Esthers? It’s hard to tell.”

  “Make sure you get a clear shot of that name. It might make sense if you can find the shoe that made it.”

  Luna nodded and zoomed in the camera on her phone, making sure that she got as much of the detail as she could.

  “What’s this?” Luna asked, her eyes drawn to something a few feet from the boot print. “Asher, didn’t you say that you didn’t smell anyone else's blood?”

  “Mhmm. Why?”

  Luna motioned to a few leaves that had been splattered with what looked to be dried blood. “Any chance that’s from last night?”

  “It’s possible. There isn’t a lot of blood here, and while my senses are good, they aren’t perfect. This isn’t enough for me to scent, especially with your blood having been so overpowering at the time.”

  “Because it was all over?” Luna said absently.

  Asher shot her a sideways look. “I wasn’t going to say that.”

  “It’s alright. I’m aware that this gash on my head must have had blood everywhere,” Luna said, glancing through the trees at the brown stains she’d left behind on the concrete.

  “I don’t think we’re going to find anything else. Maybe we should call Graham about this footprint? Maybe he can take a cast of it, like they do on cop shows. Do they do that in r
eal life too?”

  Luna shrugged. “I’ve never been quite that close to a police investigation. But he did say to call him if we need him. No harm in asking,” she replied, pulling her phone from her pocket.

  “Look at us, digging for clues and everything,” Asher said with a giggle.

  Luna grinned and shook her head. Nothing in the world excited her less than having the attention of the police again. But she’d fake it to make Asher happy for now.

  “Graham. Do you have something that can take a mold of a footprint?”

  13

  JUDY, THE ABSOLUTE GEM THAT she was, sat behind a small reception desk in a rather boring office held by a business called Suds. That was it, just Suds. She looked to be in her mid to late forties and held a facial expression that was just as exciting as her voice had been when she’d answered the phone an hour before.

  “Miss Judy?” Graham asked as he approached the desk once it became clear that she did not give two craps that someone had entered.

  “Yes sir,” she responded, a questioning look on her face.

  “I’m Graham, we spoke an hour ago about me coming down here to prove to you that I’m an FBI agent and to ask some questions.”

  Her face lit up. It changed her entire demeanor, and Graham found himself wanting to be one of those guys that most women hate, according to his sister, who always tell women to smile.

  “Right, the owner got here about ten minutes before you did, so you’re right on time.”

  She seemed a lot friendlier in person. He wondered if she was told that a lot. Then again, in a town like Calidity, most people probably just knew that she wasn’t as mean as she came across by voice alone.

  “That’s wonderful. Do you want me to speak to the owner directly, or would you like to see my credentials as well?”

  “I’d like to see them, if you don’t mind,” Judy said, standing.

  Graham reached into his pocket, pulled out his wallet, and handed over his badge as well as a few key contacts that he had lined up for credibility’s sake. In larger cities, he didn’t have to worry about that, but in small towns, trust was something that was important. He found that it made his job easier to have people vouch for him. He’d tried to teach other agents to do the same, but a lot of the younger ones preferred to strong-arm their way into everything. Graham got what he needed faster and cleaner.