Bat Out of Spell

by Amanda M. Lee

  “No. I really want to know if Sheridan knows about you and her father.”

  Rebecca slowly shook her head. “No. She doesn’t know. Why would I tell her? She wouldn’t take it well. In fact, she’d be royally ticked off. I’ll have to hide for weeks once she finds out the truth.”

  “And what truth is that?” I prodded. “The one in which you only started dating her father because you wanted to break up his marriage or the one in which you want to get your hands on his money – money that should legitimately pass to her – and steal from her legacy?”

  Rebecca wasn’t a very good actress. She didn’t even bother to hide how flabbergasted she was. “I don’t think I want to continue this discussion.”

  “I’m fine with that.” I really wasn’t, but it wasn’t as if I could wrestle her to the ground and force her to give me answers. I’d end up in cuffs if I tried that, and Augie might be the one slapping them into place. “You don’t have to answer my questions. I was merely curious. You can wait until you hit the mainland and the media there starts following you around looking for answers.”

  Rebecca worked her jaw, but no sound came out as her eyes widened.

  “You really thought no one knew, didn’t you?” I couldn’t help being disappointed. “Everyone knows, Rebecca. The staff at the resort has been filled in on everything. They were warned to keep you and Blair Whitney apart should trouble arise.”

  Rebecca found her voice. “How do you know that?”

  “I’m a busybody and I track things down. That’s what I do. Once I tripped over Blair’s body I had to find out more information. That led me straight to you. I have to ask: Did you kill her? You obviously knew about the life insurance policy. Did you kill her because you thought it was the easiest way to clear a path to Charles?”

  “Of course not!” Rebecca practically screeched. “I would never kill Blair. She was like a mother to me sometimes … sure, they were very rare times, but still sometimes.”

  Ugh. I don’t think she thought that statement through. “If Blair was a mother figure, does that mean Charles is a father figure?”

  “Don’t be gross.” Rebecca’s temper flared to life. “I don’t need this from you. I really don’t. You’re nobody. I don’t have to talk to you.”

  “Then don’t talk to me. I’m not forcing you. Like I said, I was curious. You’re leaving tomorrow and I thought I would take a shot at getting answers. Trust me when I say that the people asking questions on the mainland will be a lot tougher than me. You should prepare yourself.”

  “And you should bite me.” Rebecca’s eyes flashed with something I couldn’t quite identify. It looked like anger but felt like fear. “I’m done talking to you.”

  “Okay.” I was ready to turn and leave, but the sight of Swoops gliding overhead stilled me.

  Incoming. Incoming.

  I had no idea what that was supposed to mean. “What’s incoming?”

  “I said I was done talking to you,” Rebecca snapped. “I’m so done I … .” She didn’t get a chance to finish. Her jaw went slack and her eyes rolled back in her head. Then she was falling … and fast … and she hit the pavement with a sickening thud.

  I remained rooted to my spot. “What the heck was that?”

  Incoming!

  Nineteen

  I like to fancy myself fast on the uptake.

  When I go to a movie that’s billed as having a twist ending, I almost always figure it out early. The same with books.

  When someone is trying to manipulate me, I see it coming long before the final move.

  When one of my witchy sisters is out to play a prank, I almost always figure it out before public embarrassment becomes an issue.

  This time I didn’t see it coming. Even when Rebecca slumped to the ground I couldn’t wrap my head around what was happening. It only got worse when I saw the figure standing behind where Rebecca had stood, her chest heaving and a rock clutched in her hand.

  “I really can’t believe I had to do this a second time,” Sheridan announced, her demeanor calm. “I thought once would be enough. Clearly I wasn’t thinking far enough ahead. Whew!”

  I jolted at her high-pitched grunt at the end of the statement. “You?” It was a stupid question but I could think of nothing else to say. “You did this? I don’t understand why.”

  As if realizing she wasn’t alone for the first time, Sheridan gave me an extended once over. “Who are you?”

  “Um … .”

  “I’ve seen you before.” Sheridan pursed her lips. “Remind me where.”

  “I’m the one who stumbled over your mother’s body.” I saw no reason to lie. “You probably saw me that day because I was with the medical examiner and security.”

  “No, that’s not it.” Sheridan shook her head. “Where else might I have seen you?”

  “I was out by the mud pit today when Augie hurried you and your probably dead friend away because of the smell.” I wanted to nudge Rebecca with my foot, but that would mean moving closer to Sheridan. I was pretty sure I could take her – she wasn’t large, after all – but I didn’t want to risk it until I came up with a plan.

  “Augie?” Sheridan made a face. “Wait, you’re talking about August Taylor? The security guy? He’s really cute. Is he single?”

  “I have no idea. You’ll have to ask him.”

  “Maybe I will.” Sheridan didn’t drop the rock, instead making a clucking sound with her tongue as she shook her head. “Even so, that’s not where I recognize you from.” She snapped her fingers after another moment of contemplation. “I know. You sang karaoke at that bar the other night. You shook your bottom with that guy.”

  “Augie.”

  “Was that him?” Sheridan didn’t look convinced. “I thought he looked better earlier today than he did that night.”

  “That’s probably because he was drunk the night we sang.”

  “Maybe.” Sheridan seemed as if she was giving it real thought before she returned to reality. “So we have a problem. You saw what I did to Rebecca and I don’t think I can just let you walk away and tell the police what you saw.”

  “Probably not.” Her easygoing nature turned my stomach. She had to be deranged or something. “Have you ever been in a mental hospital?”

  The question would’ve caught a normal person off guard. Sheridan was pretty far from a normal person. “Just that one – okay, two – times. The second time was really a mistake. I didn’t kill the neighbor’s dog. I paid someone else to do it. I should’ve gotten credit for thinking outside the box.”

  “Right.” I risked a glance at Tut as he slowly padded across the parking lot. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry, but he clearly knew where he was going. “So why did you kill your mother?”

  “I should think that’s obvious. My father lost most of his money in the economic downturn. I always believed I’d be able to live off my trust fund forever, but he tapped into that last year and now it’s almost gone. We needed an influx of cash.”

  “We?” Every time I thought I understood where this was going I realized I couldn’t possibly grasp all of it. “You and your father are in this together?”

  “It had to be done.” Sheridan stated matter-of-factly. “We talked about it. We both agreed that we needed the money. We also agreed it would be best for the accident to happen away from home.”

  I figured out the rest of it quickly. “You wanted to make it look like an accident. You thought people would believe your mother tripped and fell, hitting her head on one of the rocks.”

  “My mother was a functioning alcoholic and pill-head. She often wandered around in a daze. We were out here together that night. I led her away from the main building and even tried to trip her twice, but somehow she managed to stay on her feet.

  “She was a babbler when she was lit, and she was going on and on about Rebecca as we walked,” she continued. “I had to talk her into bringing Rebecca in the first place, of course. I needed someone to blame in case so
meone didn’t believe the accident hypothesis. My mother was not happy about Rebecca coming, and she was especially not happy about Lena tagging along. There was nothing I could do about it, though.”

  “So, you wanted it to look like an accident but thought ahead enough to bring your father’s mistress along,” I mused. “That’s almost diabolical.”

  “I knew we needed a scapegoat. I thought my father would put up a fight when I told him the second part of my plan. But he was fine with it. Truth be told, I think he was a little tired of Rebecca and all of her crap. If she could’ve gone to prison in the same breath as we unloaded Mom that would’ve been the best of both worlds.”

  She was cold hearted. I had to give her that. She didn’t seem bothered at all by what she’d done. “So why go after Rebecca now?” I was genuinely curious. “A second accident isn’t going to look good to the investigating officers.”

  “No. But there won’t be a second body. Rebecca is simply going to disappear.”

  “Thus giving the cops an obvious suspect to focus on,” I supplied. “That’s smart.”

  “I graduated with top honors.” Sheridan’s smirk was bone chilling. “My father is on his way. He’s going to help me dispose of Rebecca – he rented a boat and we’re going to pull a Dexter – and then we’ll be home free.”

  “It sounds like you’ve got it all planned out.”

  “We do.”

  “Except for one thing,” I added. “You’ve yet to share what you plan to do with me.”

  “I should think that’s rather obvious.” Sheridan tightened her grip on the rock. “You’re going to have to go missing with Rebecca.”

  “And how will you explain that?”

  Sheridan shrugged. “I have no intention of ever mentioning you. Maybe the police will think you caught Rebecca doing something and she had to kill you to get away. That could be a good inciting incident for her to run. Yeah … I like it.”

  “Inciting incident?”

  “I watch a lot of lawyer shows. That’s how I put this all together.”

  Somehow I saw that coming. “You’re going to have to take me out for all of this to come to fruition. You know I won’t go along willingly, right?”

  “I don’t expect you to.” As if on cue, a set of headlights hit the parking lot. Sheridan didn’t turn in that direction, but the corners of her lips curved in anticipation. “Here comes my backup now.”

  “Your father.”

  “Yup. We’re about to be rich again. That’s a great motivating factor.”

  “Well … awesome.”

  “I’m sorry it has to go down this way.” Sheridan seemed sincere. “You were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s not personal.”

  Oh, that’s where she was wrong. “It’s very personal. It’s been personal since I tripped over your mother’s body. It’s been personal since you whacked that poor, dim bulb friend of yours over the head. It’s been personal since … geez, you’re all kinds messed up, aren’t you?”

  Sheridan didn’t answer, instead widening her smile at the sound of a vehicle door slamming shut. “Over here,” she called loudly enough for someone close to hear.

  He’s coming. Run now.

  Swoops flew in low enough to grab some of Sheridan’s hair and distract her. She screeched, causing whoever was walking in the parking lot to pick up his pace and start running. It also allowed me an opening. Instead of fleeing toward the parking lot, which was illuminated but full of danger, I turned and bolted into the woods that led back to my house.

  “Get it off of me!” Sheridan bellowed as she flailed her hands in an attempt to beat back Swoops. “Dad!”

  I looked over my shoulder long enough to meet Charles Whitney’s furious glare. For one brief moment I thought he would let me go. The smart thing would’ve been to pack up Sheridan and run. That was clearly wishful thinking, because Whitney increased his pace to a sprint when he realized what was happening.

  Run!

  Swoops was beside himself as he doubled his attack on Sheridan.

  Don’t look back!

  For once I followed instructions without putting up a fuss.

  ONCE I DISAPPEARED INTO the tree line I knew that I had the advantage even though I was outnumbered. Swoops would keep Sheridan busy. I could count on him for that. My biggest problem was that I had no idea if Charles was armed.

  “Come back here!” He was yelling, so either he didn’t understand how sound carried or he simply didn’t care about being caught. Perhaps his adrenaline was an equalizer of sorts and he’d gone temporarily insane. It was a possibility.

  I waited until I was sure I was far enough ahead to lay a trap before I peeled off to the right and circled through a dense stand of trees, slowing my pace so Charles wouldn’t hear my feet shuffling through the underbrush.

  “Come back here, girl!” Charles appeared under the moonlight, his chest heaving. I could see him clearly through the branches. He looked frustrated. It was more than that, though. He looked murderous. His daughter was the killer, but she took her cues from him.

  “Were you grooming Sheridan her whole life for this or did you merely take advantage of her mental issues to solve a problem?”

  Charles snapped his head in my direction. He couldn’t see me, but it was obvious he understood I had changed the game. “Why didn’t you keep running?”

  He was smarter than I originally thought. His inner danger alarm was probably pinging up a storm. A normal girl would’ve run for the road, not stopping until she found sanctuary or help. I backtracked and positioned myself so I was behind him. Sure, I was still under cover, but I was closer than he imagined.

  “Why do you think?” I enjoyed turning him into the prey. Perhaps it was sick, but I loved the freaked-out look on his face. “Why didn’t you leave things alone? You could’ve gotten away with it if you had.”

  “Sheridan had a good idea, and getting rid of Rebecca makes things easier. The play would’ve worked without a hitch if it hadn’t been for you.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve never been known for making things easier on people.” I narrowed my eyes as Charles leaned over and grabbed a large branch from the ground. He used it to start poking between the trees. I was far enough back he couldn’t reach me – at least not yet.

  “Why are you even involved in this?”

  “Does it really matter?” I whispered a quick spell to muffle my movements and slipped away from the first stand of trees and into a second. This one was even farther from Charles.

  “It matters to me,” Charles growled. “We had everything planned out. Don’t you understand that? You’re acting as if my wife was a good person, that her death was somehow a great loss. She was a drunk who disengaged from life long ago. Her death was no loss.”

  “I’m sure it was to her.”

  Charles jerked his shoulders so hard I thought he might have toppled to the side, swinging wildly to look toward my new hiding place. “How did you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “You know. I … why didn’t you run?”

  He was putting it together. Sure, he was a lot slower than he should’ve been given the fact that he was here to commit a murder, but things were starting to slip into place.

  “Why did you kill your wife rather than divorce her? I’ll answer your question if you answer mine.”

  Charles squeezed his face into a grimace as he clenched his hands into fists at his side. The good news was that he didn’t appear to be armed. The bad was that he seemed to be getting increasingly irritated and ready to start throwing punches … or maybe even that big branch he held.

  “Come on,” I prodded. “If you answer my question, I’ll answer yours.”

  “Fine. Is that what you want?” Charles threw up one hand in frustration. “What’s that saying? The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. That’s the one. My needs outweighed Blair’s needs. Sheridan’s needs were more important, too. That might sound crass, but that’s the wa
y of the world.”

  “Wow!” I didn’t think he’d be so blunt. I thought the explanation would be convoluted, perhaps a way to paint himself as a victim. He didn’t even care enough to come up with a lie. “You’re pretty cold, huh? You seem proud of it, too.”

  “I’m a realist.” Charles narrowed his eyes as he stared directly at the spot I stood in five seconds earlier. I’d managed to move again without tipping him off. I was nowhere near where he thought I was. “I held up my end of the bargain. It’s time for you to do the same. Why didn’t you run? Why aren’t you calling for help? Why aren’t you screaming?”

  All good questions for which I had a simple answer. I stepped out of my new hiding place and smirked at Charles’ back. “Because I’m not afraid of you.”

  “What the … ?”

  Charles moved to swivel, but I pinned him in place, unleashing a burst of magic that turned him into a human Popsicle. I thought about circling him, allowing him to see my face before I finished him off, but that was a little too petty for my taste. I was trying to turn that new leaf, after all. Heck, I was debating dating Augie, for crying out loud. I was a whole new witch.

  That didn’t mean I could let him go.

  “You’re going to jail, Charles.” I lifted my hands and pressed my eyes shut, feeding on the wind as it started to whip. “So is Sheridan, although she’s nutty enough she might make a stop at a mental health facility first. All that money you were trying to claim through Blair’s death will go for lawyers now. Is that what you wanted?”

  Charles couldn’t answer because of the spell, but he let loose an angry grunt. It promised mayhem if he got loose. There was no way I was going to let that happen.

  “Perhaps you should get a dose of your own medicine, huh?” My braid smacked the side of my face as the wind increased. “I need a little fun of my own after this crap factory of a week. I guess I might as well start with you.”

  I released the first spell at the exact moment the second captured Charles and pitched him forward, pushing him to his knees as he fought the magic. “What is going on? I … what is happening? I’m going to make you pay for this.”