by Raven Snow
Peony said nothing.
“Fine,” said Rowen. She sat down, parking herself in front of the door. “Then you can just listen.” Rowen told Peony everything she knew. She told her all of her suspicions and that she had confronted Liam about all of it. “You’re an adult,” she added once she had finished. “I can’t make you do anything, but I’d consider it a personal favor if you stayed away from Liam. At the very least, be careful. I don’t know what I would do if anything ever happened to you.” Rowen waited for some sort of response but none came. She gave a sigh. “I guess that’s all I have to say. I’ll just…I’ll go, I guess.”
Rowen headed home. She pulled into the driveway at about the same time Eric did. “I hope things went better for you than they did for me,” she sighed, leaning in against him when he hugged her.
He nodded. “They went pretty well. David’s feelings were hurt, but he was glad I told him. It might just be on a whim, but he wants back in on the family business. If that’s how he feels, I’m not going to steal it out from under him. We’ll share it.”
Rowen smiled. “That’s nice.”
“Not really,” he said. “I bet you anything he’s going to change his mind at least a dozen times. He’s a terrible worker.”
“He’s family though.”
Eric nodded. “Family’s the worst.”
Rowen had to agree. “They really are.”
Chapter Sixteen
The day of the marathon, Lainswich was out in full force. They had all sorts of vendors and food stands set up around the police station. The marathon had started that morning. The less athletic citizens attending were standing around with their barbecue, playing fair games, listening to music, and chatting. Rowen was there to cover the whole thing for the paper, but her heart just wasn’t in it.
Rose was supplying the blog with live updates. Margo and Willow were doing the field work, getting quick interviews with staff and people attending. Of course, Margo and Willow weren’t terribly dependable. Rowen had spotted them both in the bouncy house twice, but who was she to get mad? She had spent most of the day sulking.
Peony was in the marathon itself. That was no surprise. It was also no surprise that she was running alongside Liam. Rowen had tried to pretend she didn’t notice. It wasn’t like there was anything she could do about it.
Eric tried to be supportive, but there wasn’t much he could do. “Come on,” he said, trying to get Rowen to come away from her bench. She had been sitting there for most of the day, scrolling endlessly through Liam’s social media pages, looking for anything incriminating. “That receptionist from the police station we both hate is in the dunking tank. That’ll cheer you up.”
Rowen turned him down. She wasn’t in the mood. She told Eric to go on. It would make her feel better if he was having fun. She stayed with her laptop, growing progressively more annoyed that she couldn’t find anything incriminating. On social media, he looked like a saint. Danny was right. Liam had everyone fooled.
“Rowen!” Ben didn’t shout her name exactly, but he came up behind her and said it with enough urgency that she jumped.
Rowen closed her laptop. She didn’t want him to see that she was looking up Liam. “What?” she asked, looking up as Ben came to stand beside her.
“I don’t want you to panic,” he warned. That was never a good way to start a conversation.
“What?” Rowen asked with considerably more urgency.
“Danny came forward,” said Ben. “He told us some, well, very damning things.”
Rowen couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “He did?” Rowen supposed his conscience must have gotten the better of him. “That’s fantastic.”
Ben nodded. “We sent out men to intercept Liam at a mile marker.” That explained why the receptionist was in the dunking tank instead of an officer. “He evaded us.”
All at once, Rowen realized where he was going with this. “Was Peony with him? She was, wasn’t she?” Rowen stood.
“We have no reason to believe she’s in any danger,” Ben insisted. He continued to explain what had happened and what they were doing now to fix things.
Rowen was only half listening. She had her phone out dialing Peony’s number. It went to voicemail immediately. She swore. “She has her phone on silent. That little idiot.” Rowen had warned her about that. “I told her not to leave her phone on silent.” She turned to Ben. “Why would she go with him?” Love spells could be powerful, but they weren’t this powerful.
“There’s a chance she doesn’t fully understand what’s going on,” he advised her. “It sounds like she went with him willingly. She’s not a hostage, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Rowen shook her head. She wasn’t sure that was much comfort. “And everyone kept telling me to give her more credit,” Rowen muttered. Suddenly, it hit her. “The cell phone has GPS!”
“Actually, I think he ditched it at the scene.”
“No, her cell phone!” Rowen went ahead and pulled up her contact locations on her own phone. She thrust it to Ben.
Ben began to say something. He stopped and stepped away, radioing his men instead. He went back to Rowen once he had. “We have Samantha Brown in custody,” he said. He was likely trying to keep her distracted with an update. Rowen let him. “Turns out something happened in that shed of yours after all,” Ben continued. “Mrs. Woodward figured out what was going on. She confronted Liam out in the shed privately. There was a struggle and, well, she hasn’t spoken since.”
Rowen wasn’t sure if that meant Mrs. Woodward had been rendered comatose in some way, or if her son turning against her like that had just been too devastating. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. “Danny told you all this?”
Ben nodded. “He’s giving a proper statement now in the station. Seems like he was about to skip town, but he said you wore him down.”
Rowen couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for Danny. She imagined, in part, he’d been trying to protect his family in his own way. The same could be argued for Samantha. Her part of the money had undoubtedly gone toward medical school and buying a house she could live in with her son. Still, Rowen could hardly condone what any of them had done—especially Liam. If anything happened to Peony, she was going to hunt him down herself.
“They’ve got her,” Ben told her, lowering his radio.
Rowen was beyond relieved. “Take me to her.”
“She’s coming here,” Ben assured her.
Sure enough, Peony showed up in a patrol car a few minutes later. By then, the whole place was buzzing with gossip. Willow and Margo still hadn’t caught wind of anything being amiss. They really were horrible at their jobs. Eric, at least, had joined Rowen and been brought to speed. He stepped aside when Peony came running up.
Rowen had the breath knocked from her as Peony launched herself into a hug. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.”
“I could kill you,” Rowen said back.
“Next time, don’t run off with a criminal,” Ben said. “We had the area locked down, you know. Your GPS being on wasn’t actually that much of a help.”
“I thought it was heroic,” Rowen muttered to her cousin. “Don’t do it again though.” Peony didn’t say anything. She did, however, begin to cry. “Come on,” Rowen led her away. She could only imagine how devastating all of this must be. Bad decisions aside, she had been through a lot. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
Peony nodded. “Okay, but my home. I don’t think I want to go to your home for a while.”
“That’s fair.”
Epilogue
With everyone who had been involved with the Woodward house’s bad history in police custody, the house felt a little more like home. They had torn down the shed, and Rowen was starting a garden. It showed a lot of promise. Her family had supplied plenty of clippings from their own garden.
Peony still didn’t visit much, but that was to be expected. Rowen didn’t hold it against her. She saw her plenty at work, which
was bustling again. They were at the center of Lainswich’s biggest story, after all. It was tough on Peony, but everyone was there for her.
Well, Margo wasn’t there for her physically. David was putting effort into his work again. That meant he had put his book series aside and was traveling. Margo had only been too eager to tag along. It was something new and exciting. Rowen was sure she would be back. Everyone always came back to Lainswich.
Of course, the Woodwards hadn’t come back to Lainswich. There were too many bad memories here for them. After what Samantha had done, it seemed unlikely that Mr. Woodward would ever get his mental faculties back. Mrs. Woodward, though, had actually made some improvement.
Rowen had even talked to her on the phone for a little while. The poor woman had been through a lot. She sounded uncertain about a Greensmith living in her home. When she heard about Chester, though, she had cheered up considerably. It was difficult for her to hold conversations, and she didn’t sound too open to the idea of a visit. Even so, Rowen promised that if she ever wanted, she could be down there at the drop of a hat with Chester. Eric had immediately agreed that was doable. Mrs. Woodward just seemed content to know Chester was with a family that loved him.
And he was. Chester was curled up between Rowen and Eric now. At first, they had tried to make a rule that he wasn’t allowed on the couch, but that hadn’t lasted long. He was old and adorable, and it was exceedingly hard to punish him for anything.
Rowen was content sitting there with her two boys. The house was quiet except for the television as they binge watched a show. Rowen rested her head against Eric’s shoulder as she scratched Chester between the ears. At first, she hadn’t thought it was going to happen, but it had. Maybe it was fate that had drawn her to this house. She had solved its mysteries and done what she could to set things right. It had taken a lot of work and caused quite a bit of pain along the way, but Rowen’s mother had been right. All the pieces had fallen into place in the end. Finally, this house felt like a home.
*The End*
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Authors Note
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Books by Raven Snow
This list below may be out of date. For latest releases, please visit me on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Raven-Snow/e/B01APHBICQ/
Harper "Foxxy" Beck Series
1) Roller Rink Witchcraft Kindle Edition / Paperback Edition
2) Shake Your Green Thing Kindle Edition / Paperback Edition
3) A Murder Most Rosy Kindle Edition / Paperback Edition
4) Felonies and Felines Kindle Edition / Paperback Edition
5) Murder on the Dance Floor Kindle Edition / Paperback Edition
6) Counterfeits and Cauldrons Kindle Edition / Paperback Edition
Lainswich Witches Series
1) Greensmith Girls Kindle Edition / Paperback Edition
2) Hexes and Exes Kindle Edition / Paperback Edition
3) Murders and Mothers Kindle Edition / Paperback Edition
4) The Missing Librarian Kindle Edition / Paperback Edition
5) The Dog at the Door Kindle Edition / Paperback Edition
