by Tegan Maher
Hunter pulled up right then, but that was okay. The story was told and I was ready to step back into reality and out of the Flynn Witches of Lore world. I did feel bad for Aunt Beth, though.
He clomped across the porch, followed by Matt and Max. The sound of the screen door slapping shut broke the spell and things were back to normal. We ate ourselves into a food coma, then watched some TV and went to bed. Just another day in the Flynn household.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
I HAD LOTS TO THINK about the next day—namely how to not stop time and cause world wars or zombie apocalypses, but the more I thought about it, the more frustrated I became. By the end of the day, I was ready for a girls' night.
Our regular haunt was called Fancy's, a little dive bar on the outskirts of town. They had ten-dollar buckets of cold beer (for us and a handful of other regulars—everybody else paid by the beer because she said it kept the riff-raff out) and the best wings in town. And the owner/bartender, Marybeth, knew how to run a bar. The bucket stayed full and the pool tables were level.
As usual, Rae and I met at the farm and Cheri Lynn joined in to "help" with my wardrobe choices. This time, thought, she brought Trouble along. That was actually helpful, because while they debated what I should wear, I got to choose for myself. Cheri Lynn had been an exotic dancer pre-death, and Trouble was a 70's hippy, so there was a huge difference of opinion.
By the time we got to Fancy's, our friend Camille was already there. So was Bobbie Sue. They had a bucket on the table already, and just a few minutes after we sat down, Levana poked her head in, looking around for us, then stepping inside like she wasn't sure she should be there.
She looked around as if she'd never been in a bar before, and when we offered her a beer, she fumbled for a minute getting it open. When she took a drink of it though, she grinned. "This is good!"
Bobbie Sue cast her a sideways glance. "What, you ain't never had a beer before?"
Levana blushed a bit. "I have, but where I'm from, it was rarely cold."
"And where, pray tell, is that so that I know never to go there?" Bobbie Sue asked.
Levana surprised us by laughing. "Trust me, you don't ever have to worry about that." She didn't elaborate, but I thought back to our earlier conversation and decided to let it slide. The rest of the table must have decided to leave it be too, because Cheri Lynn changed the subject.
"Do you think Olivia and her band of nasty misfits will show up?"
The last time I'd run into Olivia and her backup crew, I'd popped one of them in the nose for saying something bad about Rae. "I hope not. I'm not in the mood for her BS tonight. It's been a hell of a week, and the last thing I need is her whiny butt pushing my buttons."
Camille smiled and glanced at Bobbie Sue. "Yeah, besides, I hear we've already had one cat fight this week."
Bobbie snorted. "Shoot, that weren't no cat fight. I poked her in the nose, and didn't even put much oomph behind it. ’Sides, anybody goes around callin' themselves Cookie and runnin' their mouth like that should be used to takin' a punch."
What did this person do?" Levana asked?
"She implied Earl was a murderer," I said, leaning forward to grab another beer from the bucket. The first one had gone down a little too easily, so I decided to baby the next one.
When I pulled it out of the bucket, Levana, who was sitting across from me, gasped.
"What?" I asked.
Her gaze was fixed on my throat. "May I ask where you got that necklace?"
I reached up to finger it and was a little surprised to feel that it was warm to the touch. "Oh, Anna Mae gave it to me."
Eyes wide, she reached out to touch it. "And do you know, perchance, where she procured it?"
It almost felt as if the necklace was reaching toward her, too. The chain became a little tight on the back of my neck. The hair on my nape stood up and I leaned back. Camille, I noticed, was watching, her eyes narrowed.
"At a junk shop that went out of business," I said, wary.
"Wanna tell us why you're so interested?" Camille asked. "And why it seems to be reacting to you?"
She signed and sat back, and I could see the struggle going on in her head. Cheri Lynn and Trouble were both scowling, though they'd had to remain quiet because Levana hadn't been clued in to the existence of our living-impaired population.
Levana heaved a sigh. "I hadn't planned for it to come out this way."
"Planned for what to come out," Bobbie Sue asked, leaning forward with her elbows on the table.
"So help me, if you've been lying to me, I'm not only gonna fire you, I'm gonna open up a can of whupass on you like you ain't seen before."
"I haven't lied, per se," she said, peeling the label off her bottle. "I just haven't been as forthcoming as I'd have liked."
She glanced around at us, her expression a mix of fear and something akin to pleading. "Do you remember the day I filled out my employment packet and Shelby said I looked familiar?"
I nodded. It was one of the reasons I'd been so curious about her past. Shelby was an ace when it came to faces.
"Well the reason I looked so familiar to her is because she'd seen me before. Somewhere else." The label was off the bottle and she was folding it in neat squares.
"Spit it out," Bobbie Sue said. "I'm losin' my patience."
"Me too, Camille said.
Cheri Lynn started to speak up, but Trouble put her hand on her arm and shook her head.
Levana tipped on corner of her mouth up. "There's no reason to hush her, Trouble. I can see you both, and it's hurt me over the last few months that you've been forced to hide when I could have spoken up and included you."
She looked at us again, imploring. "Just understand, society was much different before I ... reentered it and I didn't want to put myself or my husband in jeopardy."
I cocked a brow and she continued.
"The reason I look familiar to Shelby is because I was in the snow globe with her. When she cast the spell to get herself and her love out, we grabbed on, out of sheer desperation. We'd been in there for almost two hundred years."
I flopped back in my chair, floored. Of all the explanations I was expecting, that one wasn't even on the list.
Camille didn't miss a beat, though. "And how did you get in there to begin with?"
My family had been discovered. They were coming for us."
The conversation we'd had with Addy and Beth popped into my head. Things had been much different back then.
"You're a witch."
"I am, though not nearly as powerful as you are. My aunt was teaching my younger sister some rudimentary spells in a field not far from our home. Some locals were out hunting and saw them. By the time my aunt realized they had been discovered, the riders, who were prominent members of the church, were already upon them."
She was staring at a point somewhere over my shoulder, her gaze unfocused and far away.
"As I said, my family had little power, and in her terror, she couldn't summon magic to defend herself. They took her and my little sister away. My mother began slinging provisions into a sack so that we could run, and I grabbed my snow globe—a gift from my aunt—and remember thinking how safe it looked in there, and how Rory, my intended, would never know what happened to me."
She looked around the table, meeting each of our eyes in turn. "The next thing I know, we were in the snow globe, skating." She shuddered. "If I never see another set of skates, it will be too soon."
"And the necklace?" I asked.
"My mother's," she replied. "Passed down from daughter to daughter."
Cheri Lynn sniffed. "That's one of the saddest stories I've ever heard."
"Yeah," Rae said, "And it also explains how you clean the shop up so fast."
She gave a little smile. "I said my power wasn't as strong as yours. I didn't say I didn't have any. And I deplore sweeping and mopping."
I had to laugh at little at that; I always used a little hocus pocus myself when it was ti
me to do that.
Though none of us were sure what to think, Camille was especially suspicious. You know I'm going to have to test you, right?"
Camille's gifts, or at least the two that served her in her position as head of the Magical Oversight Committee, were mind magic and truth detection. It was a powerful combination because it was nearly impossible to get one over on her. And I suspect she was a little miffed that somebody had.
"I have no problem with that," she said. "You may do it this evening if you wish."
"Then when we leave here, we're going straight to the council and get it out of the way. No offense, but I'm not comfortable having an unknown quantity wandering around."
"Wait," Raeann said. "I've never seen you with a man. He's not still stuck in the globe"—her eyes got wide as realization hit her—"or in the void, is he?"
"No," Levana said, "But it's sweet that you thought of him. He's obtained employment with a local building company. Wheeler Construction. Though he would love to learn to work on cars. We have yet to learn to drive."
I raised my brows. He worked with Matt. "Is he magical?" I had to ask, because though it was rare, it happened.
Her laugh was low and ladylike. "No, he's not." She cast a quick glance at Camille. "Though I'm sure he'd be willing to undergo testing as well."
Camille examined her, thinking. "He can come with us. I'll decide once I meet him."
She took a deep breath and looked at me. "Would you be willing to return my mother's necklace to me?" she asked, then rushed to add, "I would, of course, pay you for it."
I shook my head. "As soon as Camille clears you, it's all yours. It belongs to you, and it wouldn't be right to charge you for it."
Trouble floated toward us. "I have a question about that, though. Knowing what little I know about magic and jewelry, how did the necklace follow you here?"
Levana shrugged. "I don't know. I have no knowledge of what became of my family. I did hear Shelby mention that she was given the snow globe as a gift, and it had been procured from a junk shop by the previous owner, so perhaps the necklace and the globe were found together in a box somewhere. Your guess is as good as mine."
I reached for a third beer. Though I'd been determined to stop at two, it was turning into a three-drink kinda night.
CHAPTER FORTY
I WAS AT THE SHOP THE next morning stripping a piece of furniture when Hunter called. I didn't my gloves peeled off in time to answer it, so I washed up and called him back.
"What's up?"
"I sent that picture of Gregoria Stanton and Mac Moore to Blane Scottsdale yesterday as soon as you sent it to me and he just got back to me."
Because of the way the sheriff had brushed me off the last time I'd tried to bring Gregoria into the picture, I was almost afraid to hear how he'd responded. "What did he say?"
"He said he'd followed up on it, and it seems it ended badly and publicly. He's running a check on her now to see what else he can find. He's also making some calls to the newspaper in Atlanta to see if the columnist still works there. Maybe they know what caused the split and if there were any lingering hard feelings."
"Isn't he questioning Gregoria herself?" It seemed that would be the logical place to start.
He sighed. "It seems she's disappeared."
"Disappeared? As in flew the coop, or missing?" I was a little pissed that Earl was under the eagle eye of the law—so to speak—but she'd slipped under the radar without so much as a by-your-leave.
"He's not sure. At least she lives in Coatesville. She moved there a few years ago from Atlanta, and from what he's learned so far, she'd been a food critic up there, but something happened. The judge's name was thrown around, but nobody seems to know the details."
"That doesn't explain why she'd kill Al Cassidy, though." I said.
"Not yet it doesn't, but we're working on it. I told him I'd help him research."
It made me feel better that there was at least one other person in the cross-hairs now besides Bobbie Sue and Earl, but I didn't like that she'd disappeared. It set off my internal alarm system.
"What are you doing for dinner," I asked. "We're just having leftover spaghetti, but you're welcome."
He laughed. "I didn't bother waiting for an invite. I was just planning on showing up and eating."
That had pretty much become the norm, but being polite and issuing the invitation was a hard habit to break. I didn't ever want there to be a miscommunication because I skipped it. Things were comfortable for us, and I liked that we weren't rushing into things just because everybody expected us to have the house, the picket fence, and 2.5 kids within the next twenty minutes. There was no rush as far as we were concerned.
I finished up the cabinet I was stripping and was surprised when I realized it was almost four. Deciding I was at a good stopping point, I called it a day and cleaned up. I'd ridden the bike to work and hoped to catch some wind on the way home. I was just turning the channel to Lifetime for Erol when my phone beeped with an incoming text from Earl.
It seemed Bobbie Sue and Justin had left over an hour before but hadn't let him know they made it home. Their truck had been acting a little squirrely, but he hadn't had a chance to look at it since they'd gotten home. He couldn't leave because the restaurant was slammed, but he was starting to worry.
That feeling I'd gotten earlier when Hunter'd told me Gregoria Stanton was on the loose crept back and icy fingers of dread crawled down my spine.
I told him I was leaving right then and would text him as soon as I got there.
My next call was to Hunter. Though I had magic on my side, it didn't stop a bullet, and I didn't have eyes in the back of my head. As luck would have it, it went straight to voicemail, so I left him a message, then texted him because I knew he'd get that immediately.
The feeling of dread was spreading fast, so I jumped in the truck and pointed it in the direction of Bobbie Sue's, moving faster than I should have. The drive that usually took twenty minutes only took me fifteen, and when I pulled into the drive, I caught a glimpse through the trees of a newer model car sitting beside her truck.
The hairs on my arms stood up and I stopped the truck before I was visible to the house. I'd rather have her laugh at me for sneaking around when she was just bullshitting with a visiting neighbor than give Gregoria Stanton a heads up that I was there. Since my senses were screaming at me, I was putting my money on the latter scenario.
Sneaking around to the back of the house, I peered in the windows, but neither her nor Justin were anywhere to be seen. Something pelted me on the leg hard and I about jumped out of my skin. I looked down to see a small round stone in the grass a few feet from me, and rubbed the welt on my leg.
"Pssst! Noelle—over here." Justin's whisper-shout reached me from somewhere off to the right, where there was a small outbuilding. I saw him peeking out a small window at me, just the top of his head and his eyes visible.
I held up a finger telling him to wait, then put it to my lips. I motioned for him to get back down, then made my way to the end of the house, where I'd have the best chance of making it to the building without being seen.
Once inside, I hunkered down next to him. He had a pile of decent-sized stones piled in front of him and was clutching his brand-new slingshot—the one Bobbie Sue’d said he couldn’t have—like it was a lifeline.
"You're okay," I said.
"I am, but Bobbie Sue's not," he hissed, scowling. "We gotta go in and get her."
I pulled out my phone and called Hunter. He still didn't pick up, so I sent another text, this time a 911 one. Then I actually called 911 because most of the time it routed through to his office.
Justin was pulling on me. "C'mon! We don't have time for that. The woman had a gun," he said, panicking.
He was out the door and running across the yard, taking the same path that I had. Making a split-second decision, I stuffed the phone in my back pocket, leaving the line open, then followed him.
He w
as already flattened against the house by the time I made it to him when a voice called out, "I know you're out there. Come inside, slowly, or I'll kill her now."
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
I SHOT HIM A LOOK THAT said I was gonna kill him myself if we made it through this alive, then stood and put my hands in the air. Fortunately, she hadn't gotten the drop on me, so I had that going for me, anyway. I closed my eyes and tried to crawl into her head. I met a solid wall.
"Nice try," she said, "but mama taught me how to keep people out of my head before I was fifteen. Now, do as I say. I have a plane to catch."
"Go back to the building," I said, handing him my phone. Get ahold of Hunter, or Earl, or anybody." I shoved him back away from the wall, but a bullet zinged out the window, and I managed to divert it just before it nailed him in the leg.
I closed my eyes and gave a mental shout-out to Shelby and Rae, explaining the situation in a combination of pictures and words rather than taking the precious time to verbalize the entire thing.
"We're on our way," Raeann said. She must have already been at the farm.
Leaving the mental door cracked a little, I pulled Justin in close to the house and kept my body between him and the window as we made our way to the back door. I slid the door open and the first thing I saw was Bobbie Sue tied to a chair with a lump on her forehead that was starting to turn purple.
"Yeah," the voice said, "I owed her a good punch." I looked up and was surprised to find the girl—Cookie something or other—that Bobbie Sue had punched at the fair, rather than Gregoria Stanton.
"But—" My mind was whirring, trying to put the pieces together. I came up blank.
"Let me introduce myself," she said. "Geraldine Cookie Babcock Cassidy. Most people call me Cookie."
"That's not what I call you," Bobbie Sue muttered, staring daggers at her.
Geraldine Cassidy. I remembered the name from my internet search. "So you're married to Al. I saw your name listed as co-owner of the restaurant. I don't get it. Why'd you kill him? For that matter, why'd you kill the judge?"
