Charmed Bones

by Carolyn Haines

  A frisky Tinkie was a dangerous creature. The horn roused about two dozen cats of all colors and descriptions. They came out from under the porch of the house, out the windows in the dairy barn, jumping out of trees and off the porch roof. Cats were everywhere. And Pluto was standing at the car’s front window, all alert and eager.

  “What if they haven’t had their vaccinations?” I said to him.

  “Meow.” He waited for Tinkie to open her door and he was out like a shot. Pluto was a curious fellow.

  “No more stray cats dumped here,” Hope said as she came out the door tying a gorgeous oriental wrap around herself. The reds and blacks were perfect for her coloring.

  “He’s my cat. He’s only here on official investigative purposes.” Once Corey Fontana was found and returned home, I’d speak with the Harrington sisters about a trap, neuter, and release program for the cats. Or maybe they could just do a sterility spell on the colony. Wouldn’t that be convenient?

  Hope sat down on the porch steps and ran her fingers through her black, tousled hair. “Cat detective. Backwoods Mississippi. Nothing surprises me. Does he talk? Maybe bartend?”

  “No, but he can sniff out a villain,” I said, handing her the folded tabloid.

  Her response when she opened it was a long belly laugh. “This is great. And yes, I have Elvis upstairs in my bedroom. He’s my sex slave. He’s got it going on.” She stood up and struck an Elvis pose complete with leg shake and a few bars of “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.” She had a great voice.

  Tinkie burst out laughing and I had to join in. Brunette witch had a good sense of humor.

  “So Esmeralda Grimes is in Zinnia,” Hope said. “I’m happy to see she never lets the facts stand in the way of a good story.”

  “The International Report believes in alternative facts,” Tinkie said. “I wonder if alternative facts would fly with paying my taxes?”

  “I wouldn’t risk it,” I said. “Now let’s talk about Corey Fontana.”

  “Why don’t you come inside and have some coffee?” Hope stood and opened the front door. “It’s freezing and I need caffeine if I’m going to talk sensibly. Bring your dog inside, too.”

  She didn’t have to ask twice. I let Sweetie Pie out of the car and we all rushed the front door, where we were met with a wave of delicious heat. In the back of my mind I had a thought for Corey Fontana. I hoped the boy hadn’t spent the night outside. He was a delinquent, no doubt about it. But if he was fooling around and ended up injured and exposed to the elements, he could lose fingers, toes, or even his nose.

  We found Faith and Charity in the kitchen. The delicious aroma of fresh-brewed coffee made me sigh with pleasure. Hope picked three mugs out of the cabinet and poured coffee for us. When we were all seated at a sturdy farm table, I brought the conversation around to Corey Fontana.

  “Like I said in the school board meeting, the kid defaced our barn,” Charity said. “I’m sure his daddy will pay to have the paint removed. I saw the boy doing it and ran out the door yelling. He dashed off into the woods, and Faith and I chased him for a little ways, but I didn’t have a jacket or gloves and it was freezing. I gave up and came back home.”

  “How did you know it was Corey?” I asked.

  “He’s been snooping around here since we arrived. Sometimes he hangs out in the tree line and watches us with binoculars.” Faith laughed. “One of these days he’s going to get a real surprise.”

  I was about to ask her what she meant by that, but Faith picked up Tinkie’s hand. “We can help you with your problem.”

  Her words were so out of context with anything that had been said that I was stunned to silence.

  “What problem would that be?” Tinkie asked.

  “The child you want.” Faith held her hand even when Tinkie tried to withdraw it.

  “I don’t think that’s funny.” Tinkie’s dander was getting up.

  “It’s not a joke,” Faith said.

  “We can help you,” Charity added. “We can cast a spell, do an incantation. There are some herbs you can take. You’ll have a baby before the year is finished.”

  “That must be some kind of spell,” I said sharply. “It’s already February. She’d have to conceive virtually this week.”

  “It can happen,” Faith said, her green gaze steady.

  “Really?” Tinkie bit hook, line, and sinker. She’d wanted a baby more than anything for a long, long time. But there were fertility issues. Medical issues that couldn’t be wished away.

  “Tinkie, don’t be foolish. You’ve been to the best doctors in the nation.” I couldn’t bear the thought of Tinkie’s disappointment—again.

  “This isn’t about medicine,” Faith said. “It’s about the power of love. The power of motherhood. The need for a child. And a little bit of magic. I’ll get a potion from the shop. We just stocked everything fresh.”

  I stood up and slammed my coffee cup on the table. “This is wrong. You know it’s wrong.”

  Tinkie reached out and grabbed my arm. “What would it hurt to try?”

  “We aren’t charging,” Faith said. “It’s our gift to you.”

  It wasn’t money. Tinkie and Oscar had enough to light bonfires with it if that’s what they wanted to do. It was about my partner’s heart and spirit. “What time was Corey Fontana here?” I meant to finish my business with the sisters and leave. Tinkie would have to go with me; I was driving.

  “It was just after school let out.” Faith went to the cabinet and got several unusual boxes of tea. She began to mix a concoction while she heated water on the stove. “I was making some extract of dandelion weed when I saw him spray-painting the wall. I ran out, he ran away. Charity and I gave chase and when we couldn’t catch him, we came home.” She poured the hot water over the tea and put the mug in front of Tinkie. “Let it steep a few minutes. You should probably give up coffee and alcohol.”

  “Tinkie, I need a word with you.” I wasn’t about to let her drink whatever that was. I grabbed her arm and almost lifted her out of her chair. In a moment, we were out of the kitchen and in the hallway. “What are you doing?”

  “I want a baby. I don’t care how I get one.” Her lips were thin and pressed tight. “Stay out of this, Sarah Booth. I mean it. This probably won’t work, but if there’s even a one percent chance, I want it.”

  “You’re only going to get hurt.”

  “I have a right to take any risk I choose.”

  This was old, familiar ground, but I was usually the one arguing for the right to risk-take. Most often against physical injury. And Tinkie defended that right. Even against Coleman, who felt it was his personal duty to keep me safe.

  “Okay.” I had no right to stop her. “Try it if you have to.”

  We returned to the kitchen and Tinkie drank the tea, which she said was surprisingly good.

  “We should go,” I said. “We need to find Corey.”

  “We could dowse for him,” Hope offered.

  “Dowse?” I’d heard the term and knew it was a magical search, but I’d always associated it with looking for water. “I’d like to see that.”

  Hope left the kitchen and returned with a property map of Sunflower County and a crystal pendant on a silver chain. “I’ll concentrate on where Corey is and allow the pendant to swing over the map. When it pulls down, it will show me where Corey is.”

  “Really?” Tinkie was impressed. I was skeptical.

  Hope held the chain and set the pendant to swinging. She said a few incantations in a language I didn’t understand, then finished with, “Corey Fontana, we seek you.”

  The pendant twirled and gradually stopped moving. The crystal actually seemed to tug Hope’s hand down as it struck a point on the old Crenshaw property next door to Musgrove Manor.

  “He should be right there.” Hope looked troubled. “I honestly thought he’d gone home and Mrs. Fontana was just staging a drama.”

  I studied the map. The Crenshaw plantation had been abandon
ed for a long time. If Corey was there, he might be injured. We had to search for him. “Would it be okay if we cut across your property to see if we can find any traces of Corey?” I asked.

  “Knock yourselves out,” Hope said. “That boy is full of the very devil. And, trust me, witches know the devil when we see it.” She grinned.

  I couldn’t help but like her. She had a wicked humor. “Thanks.”

  Faith leaned over and whispered something in Tinkie’s ear. She smiled and nodded her agreement, but she followed me outside without complaint.

  With Sweetie Pie and Pluto leading the way, we left the manor house. We cut through an impressive herb garden that was tended with great love and headed through the fields toward the woods. Some of the pastures remained cleared and planted in alfalfa and Bahia grasses that were harvested for hay. A lot of the once-cleared land had grown up in thick woods. When we left the open fields and entered the woods, the temperature dropped at least ten degrees.

  Tinkie and I walked side by side. I waited for her to break the silence.

  “If we find Corey on the Crenshaw place, will you believe the witches have powers?” she asked.

  “No. I’d be more likely to believe they knew where he was because they put him there.”

  She laughed. “You have no faith in magic, Sarah Booth.”

  It was a statement I’d have to study. I had a family ghost haunting my home who sometimes brought me messages from the Great Beyond. Why couldn’t I believe three sister witches had the power to make Tinkie fertile? Until I had an answer, I vowed to keep my mouth shut.

  Movement to our right made us all freeze in place. Sweetie Pie’s ruff bristled and a low growl came from her throat. A ripple of energy, like a dark shadow, raced through the trees. Tinkie drew closer to me. I’d never been afraid of anything in the woods, but my heart was pounding with fear. “There’s no such thing as the boogeyman,” I said, though I hadn’t meant to speak aloud.

  “What was that?” Tinkie asked. Pluto arched his back and turned to face the direction we’d come from. In the distance, branches snapped and a long, extended howl seemed to ricochet off the tree trunks.

  “Let’s get this finished,” I said. We were almost to the Crenshaw place. If we didn’t find Corey, we could take the long route home along the roadway. I wasn’t walking back through the woods. I didn’t care how ridiculous I sounded. Something was there. An intelligence. And it watched us.

  “There’s the old house.” Tinkie pointed and I could make out the shape of the former plantation. The white paint was long gone and the gray boards blended with the drab winter grounds.

  We came to the edge of the woods but were met by a thicket of blackberry stalks. The thorny vines were almost impenetrable.

  “Sleeping Beauty,” Tinkie said, expressing my exact thoughts.

  “We won’t find a princess. If we do find Corey, he’s more like a bad apple. Speaking of which, I wonder if the Musgrove apple orchard still has fruit. Those were some delicious spring apples.” I wore a thick jacket and sturdy jeans, but I didn’t relish wading through a field of briars.

  “There’s a path.” Tinkie had found a narrow dirt trail through the worst of the briars. We set out toward the old Crenshaw plantation. The sun had risen and the day was warming, promising a blue sky and temperatures that were tolerable.

  “Corey!” Tinkie yelled out his name.

  “Corey!” I joined her.

  We left the briars behind and stepped onto the front porch of the abandoned dwelling. “Corey!” we called through a broken window.

  No answer.

  “Corey!” I put a hand on Tinkie’s arm to halt her. On the east side of the house it sounded like someone scuffling. “Corey!” we yelled again.

  “Help!” The word was small and muffled, but clearly a request for assistance.

  We jumped off the side of the porch and spread out to explore the raggedy lawn. Volunteer oak trees grew up in the middle of heritage camellias and the dead limbs of bridal wreath and hydrangeas. This had once been a gorgeous lawn that framed the graceful architecture of the old house perfectly.

  “Corey! Where are you?” Tinkie called out.

  “Here! In the pit.”

  His voice was clearer now. We moved toward the eastern lawn. About twenty yards from the house we came to the edge of a pit where tree limbs and leaves had been piled. Something moved beneath the leaves. It was like the stirring of a long untouched grave, and I grasped Tinkie’s hand.

  “Corey?” If it wasn’t Corey, we were going to set a land record getting out of there.

  “Help me.”

  A la Carrie, a hand reached up through the leaves.

  Sweetie Pie went crazy barking and growling and Pluto dashed up a nearby chinaberry tree.

  “Oh, shit!” Tinkie reeled backward and tripped over a big stone. I grabbed for her and lost my footing, too. In a moment, I’d fallen on top of her and we both rolled down the slope of the pit.

  “Awwwghh!” was the only utterance I could get out.

  We crashed to a halt on top of the hand, and Tinkie let out a squeal. “It pinched my bottom! The hand pinched my bottom!” She leaped up, stepped on my head, and vaulted out of the pit. Good thing she was petite or my skull would be crushed.

  “Hey, you’re suffocating me,” the body beneath the leaves said. “Help me out.”

  I flipped over and dug down into the leaves with my hand and caught hold of another hand. A warm, human hand. “Corey, is that you?”

  “Get me out of here. I fell in and my leg is caught.”

  I glanced at Tinkie, now composing herself on the edge of the pit. “Get your cell phone out and call Coleman. Tell him we need help rescuing Corey Fontana.”

  “I vote we just leave him.” Tinkie wasn’t kidding. “He scared ten years off my life. And he pinched my butt. Hard.”

  I started laughing. I couldn’t help it. We’d spooked ourselves and nearly suffocated Corey. “Make the call. We just earned ten grand for two hours’ work. It’s worth a few scratches and some leaves in your hair.”

  “So say you.” But Tinkie whipped out her phone and made the call while I began to clear away the debris. Corey appeared fine, and he’d been smart to bury himself in the leaves to stay warm. We’d need a chain saw and some strong men to get him out. I could only hope the little juvenile had learned a lesson, but somehow, judging by the smirk on his face, I doubted it.

  3

  James and Elroy Wilson put away their chain saws, took the money I offered them—and would be reimbursed for by the Fontanas—and left Tinkie, Corey, and me sitting on the front porch of the old plantation. Coleman had sent the brothers to cut Corey out of his pit, and they’d done a fine job. Kitten had been alerted that her son was safe and she was on her way to retrieve him.

  “How in the heck did you fall into that pit?” Tinkie asked. She was still a little miffed at the grabby juvenile. Corey was maybe late teens, but he had the attitude of a privileged twentysomething.

  “Something was chasing me through the woods.” He smirked. “It was big and black and evil. It had to come from the witches.”

  I didn’t believe Corey for a minute, but once again, the sensation that we were being watched washed over me. Sweetie Pie was asleep beside us on the porch, but Pluto walked sentry duty around the perimeter of the yard. He was on guard for some reason, and I trusted the feline’s instincts. Something was out there.

  “Something or someone?” Tinkie pressed.

  “It moved too fast to be human, but it was no match for me.” Corey obviously didn’t have sense enough to be worried if he had been pursued by a supernatural being. He was flexing his muscles and striking poses for Tinkie’s benefit. As if she’d be interested in a spoiled rotten high school senior.

  “Did you see it?” I asked.

  “I heard it. First it was behind me, then to my left, then in front of me. It moved through those thick woods without any trouble. That’s why I don’t think it was huma
n. Those witches have brought something evil to town.”

  Corey was seriously creeping me out. I had no reason to be so jumpy, but I couldn’t help it. I had a sense that something was brewing over at Musgrove Manor and it wasn’t just education. The whole dowsing thing with the crystal, the fact we’d found Corey exactly where the witches said he would be. Of course, the logical explanation for that was because one of the sisters had pushed Corey into the pit.

  “Did you fall into the hole or were you pushed?” I asked.

  “I was running as fast as I could and I knew if I could find the driveway to the old Crenshaw place I could get out on the road. I didn’t like being in the woods.”

  The boy couldn’t answer a question if his life depended on it. “Were you pushed?”

  “Maybe. It all happened so fast. That thing was gaining on me and then I was falling through all those branches and leaves. It knocked the wind out of me and when I caught my breath, I could hear something above me. It kind of snorted and grunted, like it might be an animal.”

  “There aren’t any bears or big cats left around here. Do you think it could have been a deer?” I grinned as I asked the question. “Yeah, maybe a killer deer.”

  “It wasn’t a deer. Those witches. They sent something after me.”

  “And why would they do that?”

  “Because they’re witches. Duh! Read any fairy tales or was your childhood barren of culture?”

  OMG, the little pissant sounded just like his brain-dead mother. I considered pushing him back in the hole and leaving him, but I needed the paycheck.

  “Let’s get him back to his mama before you wring his neck,” Tinkie said, sliding off the porch. “We’ll wait for Kitten on the highway.”

  * * *

  By the time I let Tinkie off in Zinnia to pick up her rental car and stopped by the Piggly Wiggly for some food supplies, I felt like I’d been run over by a road paver. The surges of adrenaline had taken a toll on my winter-plump body. I’d learned a valuable lesson over the cold months—pumpkin might be a great source of fiber, but if you loaded it up with eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and cream and baked it in a piecrust, it was also fattening. But oh, so satisfying.