by Raven Snow
Ben nodded. “She’s got a mom, a stepfather, a sister, a brother and several friends that live in the area.” Ben picked up a manila folder seemingly at random. He opened it up and pulled out a mugshot. Rowen was shocked he could so easily make sense of this mess of his. “This is the brother. His name is Orville Jones.” He handed the mugshot to Eric.
Rowen studied it. The man on it had brown hair and a squared jaw. It looked like his lip was split and his right eye was swelling shut.
“That’s from last year. He got into a bar fight,” Ben explained. “He’s had a few more run-ins with the law. It hasn’t been anything major, but he did once serve some time for possession.”
Rowen committed the picture to memory. “Anything else we should know?”
“We contacted the in-laws,” said Ben. “They live out of state, but they were devastated by the news. I got the impression that they’ll be coming down soon. I’m not sure how they feel about the wife or how the wife feels about them. We’ll see soon enough, I guess.”
They chatted a while longer, exchanging information and theories about this and that. When there wasn’t anything more to glean from the conversation, Rowen and Eric left. “We’ve got a new case,” Rowen announced with a smile once they were in the car. “You happy about that?”
Eric frowned at his wife. “I’d never be happy about a fellow human being’s murder.” A slight smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Okay, maybe I’m a little happy about it.
Chapter Five
“He really didn’t tell you?” Rowen asked for what had to be the third time.
“We keep our professional and personal lives apart,” Rose said with a weary sigh. To her credit she had explained that to Rowen on multiple occasions. It was just that Rowen couldn’t imagine keeping a juicy piece of gossip like that from her own husband.
“So are you going to do a story or not?” asked Rowen.
“Of course I’m not,” Rose said, sounding scandalized. “I’ll update the story after the press release, like any good reporter would.”
“But people are eating up that first story you put out about the murder.”
“Of course. That’s different though. We were eye witnesses.”
“I bet Channel 2 is really trying to ride on your coat-tails with that one too.”
“They keep trying to get chummy with Margo asking for interviews. She keeps turning them down. She says they’re getting annoyed, but I’m not too worried about it.” Rose left the subject there. “You guys be careful.”
“Don’t worry about us,” said Rowen. “We’re pros at this.” That might have been selling them a little too hard. They were probably just intermediate detectives when it came down to it. The only thing that set them apart from the rest of the rabble was Rowen’s gifts.
***
Lichen Hallow came into view soon enough. It wasn’t something that happened all at once. It happened gradually with the occasional barn, house or silo. Houses became more frequent. They were all settled on large plots of land, good for farming or whatever it was these people did out here. They drove past a few shops on their way to the address Ben had given them. They were little privately-owned stores like the ones you would find in downtown Lainswich.
“How are we going to spy from our car in a place like this?” Rowen asked, noting just how few vehicles there were. It wasn’t like they could just park on the road across the street from her. Someone would surely notice an out of place vehicle here.
Eric glanced at the GPS on his phone. “It’s not far,” he said. “We’ll park at one of these shops and… go the rest of the way on foot, I guess.”
Rowen cringed. She had been afraid of something like that. Oh well. If it had to be done, it had to be done.
Eric parked in a shopping center. It was the closest thing to a crowded parking lot that they could find. Granted, that wasn’t saying a whole lot. There were maybe only a dozen cars there. With any luck, it would still camouflage the car long enough for their purposes.
They popped the trunk open before they abandoned their vehicle and loaded up with gear from it. Cameras, binoculars, snacks. They took what they could carry and left the rest. Rowen slung a knapsack full of the stuff over one shoulder and forced a smile at Eric as he did the same. “Well, this is just starting out spectacular, isn’t it?”
***
The walk was a little longer than Eric had made it out to be. The sun was out in full force. It felt like it was about a foot from Rowen’s head as it blazed down on her. “I should have brought my sunscreen,” she complained, trudging along the side of the road. She kept losing her footing due to sun blindness and stumbling into the ditch.
“That’s something to add to our gear in the future, huh? Lesson learned.” Eric caught Rowen by the arm and steadied her for the umpteenth time.
“I’m not sure I could handle much more gear than this.” Rowen bounced the pack on her back for emphasis. “How much further?”
“Not much,” Eric assured her. Of course, he had also been the one to assure her that they had been close when they had parked. At least this time it seemed he was telling the truth. “There it is,” he said after glancing at his phone one last time. It certainly looked like he was correct. There was a brick house across the street, about a hundred yards away. It was of an average size, settled on about an acre of land. It had a long driveway that was already littered with cars and pickup trucks. More than likely, these were people who had heard about the murder and come to pay their respects.
“Where do you want to set up?” asked Rowen.
Eric picked a spot among some bushes across the street. Rowen felt awfully silly crouching there, but she imagined she would feel even worse if they got caught. She helped him set up the camera and made sure their phones were on silent.
All they were doing today was taking notes on the woman. Rowen did just that. She jotted down license plates and rough appearances. People came and went. Almost no one brought food, which seemed a bit odd. Each time the door opened, they greeted the woman inside with a hug. At least they seemed sympathetic enough for that.
Through the binoculars, Edith looked like your average middle-aged lady. She had long brown hair and a somewhat plump frame. Her face was round and her cheeks streaked with tears. “Poor thing,” Rowen muttered. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like to lose your husband. Sure she had lived most of her life without Eric, but he was such a staple in her day to day life now. She reached over and gave his arm a squeeze.
“Hmm?” Eric looked over at her.
Rowen just shook her head and looked back to the house. “There. Could that be her brother?”
Eric looked back through his binoculars. Rowen did the same. There was indeed a man in the driveway that looked a lot like the one in the mugshot Ben had showed them. Rowen watched as he knocked on the door. Edith reacted a bit differently as she opened it this time. She all but collapsed into his arms.
“That’s got to be Orville,” said Rowen, feeling confident in her guess.
“Looks like it,” Eric agreed. “Mark the time down.”
Rowen did just that. “You know, this all looks pretty average. I’m not sure what Ben expected us to find.”
“He did say he just wanted us to keep an eye on her activities.”
“Yeah, well, her activities seem to be pretty average for someone who just lost a loved one. This feels weird.”
Eric gave a small shrug. “It’s pretty standard stuff.”
Rowen knew that. Being a private investigator wasn’t glamorous work. Still, hiding in the bushes spying on some poor woman from across a street felt especially odd. She was watching Edith and her brother go inside when her phone vibrated. She nearly yelped aloud but managed to keep her mouth shut. “Sorry,” she said when Eric stared at her. She had startled him as well.
The screen of the phone said that it was Aunt Lydia calling. “It’s not really a good time,” Rowen said as soon as she answered.
> That didn’t seem to slow Aunt Lydia down any. “I was just calling to see if you two were coming home for dinner.”
“I don’t know yet,” Rowen said in return, quietly. “You can go ahead and eat without us if you want. I’m not sure when we’ll be back.”
“All right,” Lydia said slowly. “You know, I have your dog here. He’s getting awfully lonely.”
“Sorry.” Rowen really hadn’t meant to just dump Chester on her. “I brought his leash in from the car. If you want to, you can tie him up outside. I doubt he’ll mind. He mostly just sleeps at his age anyway.”
“Oh, I couldn’t do that to the poor thing,” Lydia said immediately. “I’m happy to keep an eye on him.” It was unclear why she had said anything to start with if that was the case. Oh well.
“I should really be going.” Rowen was beginning to feel even more awkward talking on the phone in a bush. It felt like an all-around bad idea.
“What is it you’re out doing anyway?” asked Aunt Lydia, refusing to say her goodbyes so that Rowen could hang up.
Rowen took a deep breath, trying to remain patient. She means well, Rowen reminded herself. You would want to know where she was if she was acting like you are. “Eric and I are on a case,” Rowen said aloud.
“Aah.” Lydia made a sound like that was fascinating news. “Is this private investigator business?” she asked.
Rowen had always gotten the impression that her aunt thought private investigation to be quite a bit more thrilling than it really was. “Are you investigating what happened to that poor man already?”
“Something like that. It’s just a stakeout the police asked us to do.”
“How exciting. Where are you at?”
“Lichen Hallow. It’s-”
“I know where it is.” Lydia cut her off. Her voice had gotten darker. Much darker. “Honey, that’s not a place you need to be.”
Rowen found herself startled by how matter-of-factly her aunt said that. “Why not?” she asked.
“It’s a real backwards area,” Lydia explained. “They have some ideas there that… They’re not as forward thinking about witches as Lainswich is.”
That sent a chill along Rowen’s spine. It wasn’t like the people of Lainswich were particularly accepting of witches. “Why do you say that?” She couldn’t help but ask.
“Personal experience,” said Lydia. “Your Grammy warned me, and I thought I warned you girls. When your great grandmother was lynched behind our house, it was mostly residents of Lichen Hallow who did it. To this day, they still celebrate it like it’s a national holiday.”
“Celebrate it?” Rowen repeated.
“Sure. They have a big to do where they cook barbecue and have little games with prizes that were centered around lynching witches.”
Rowen was tempted to ask what a witch lynching game even was, but she decided against it. “It’s not like they’re going to do anything in this day and age,” she said instead, trying to set her aunt’s mind at ease.
“Don’t be so sure,” Lydia shot back. “I used to drive through that place back when I worked in Tarricville. It was a good shortcut, but locals caught on that it was me driving through there in my little hatchback. One night on my way home from work, some of them laid a spike strip out in the road. A spike strip!”
Eric was casting frequent glances in Rowen’s direction. She had been on the phone for longer than she should have been given the spot they were in. She couldn’t help it. This was the first she was hearing of all this drama. “What happened?” she asked, despite herself.
“Well, do you remember when you were a little girl and you came to visit me in the hospital? I had the broken arm and that neck brace on. I was going too fast when I hit the spike strip, so my car rolled.”
“I remember that,” said Rowen. She didn’t remember hearing that Lydia’s car had rolled, but she did remember the rest. Aunt Nadine had driven her and her cousins up to the hospital. They had taken turns going back to give her hugs and handmade Get Well Soon cards. “Are you sure that wasn’t the doing of just one lone psychopath, though?”
“Back when your Aunt Nadine was still married, they snatched her husband up when he was coming home from the grocery store,” Aunt Lydia continued, sounding all too happy to cite another event. “They kept that poor boy for a week and brainwashed him in the worst way.”
“I thought he had an affair.”
“He had an affair with a Lichen Hallow girl while they were brainwashing him!”
Rowen wasn’t quite as troubled by this story as she had been the other two. “Are we sure he didn’t just say that to excuse himself for having an affair?”
“I don’t know,” Lydia admitted. “He died a couple of weeks later. You know how those fellows who marry us Greensmiths have just the worst kind of luck.”
“That’s not always true,” Rowen said quickly, feeling that concerned swell of love for her husband again. “Look, we’ll call the police if they do anything illegal. We agreed to do this job, though, and we’re gonna do it. We’ll get home safe. I promise, okay?”
“I don’t like this one bit,” Lydia insisted.
“Okay, I love you. I’ll see you later.” Rowen hung up before her aunt could say anything else. At this point, she surely would have just kept rambling on in circles.
“What was that about?” Eric asked, quietly.
“Apparently Lichen Hallow is less witch friendly than the rest of Lainswich.”
“Hmm.” By the way Eric’s brow furrowed, Rowen could tell that he wasn’t fond of that news. “We’ll have to be careful then.”
“I’m sure Lydia was exaggerating. Don’t worry about it.” Rowen tried to play it off like she wasn’t the least bit worried. In truth, it stayed in the back of her mind. Like a looming threat, she couldn’t shake it. This was a dangerous place.
***
Eventually, all the cars in the driveway and parked along the street left. Only the brother’s pick-up remained. Rowen saw the occasional bit of movement through the windows, but it wasn’t too long before the lights went out inside the home.
“I guess the brother is spending the night,” Rowen observed. “They must be close.”
Eric nodded. “She probably doesn’t want to spend the night alone in the house. It happens when someone loses a spouse, you know? I had a great uncle whose wife passed before he did. He couldn’t stand to stay by himself after that. For a while, family stayed with him. After that he went on the dating scene for a while, tried to remarry. It didn’t pan out. Last I heard, he had moved himself into a retirement home.”
Rowen cringed. That was a horrible story. “Poor woman,” she murmured to herself, watching the house. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Eric nod in agreement.
“We should head back to the car,” Eric said, rising to his feet.
“Finally.” Rowen helped Eric gather their things and, together, they started the all too long trek back to the car. It felt like it took ages trudging along in the darkness. It was also a great deal scarier. She kept imagining being caught in the headlights of a car as it drove past. What if the car recognized her and stopped? What if Aunt Lydia hadn’t been over dramatic at all?
They got to the parking lot they’d left their car in without seeing a single other vehicle. It was like this whole area had a bedtime. They loaded things into the trunk and Rowen stretched before climbing into the passenger’s seat. “Don’t tell me we have to do this again tomorrow.”
“We’ll have to check in with Ben, but probably.” Eric shrugged. “You know that’s a lot of what this job is.”
“Sitting and waiting and watching. I know. It’s just tedious.”
“Don’t worry. Things always tend to get exciting at times like these, don’t they?” Eric smirked and started the car. “Just remember how much you said you hated the tedium when the exciting part comes.”
Rowen couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Yeah, yeah. Fair enough.”
***
>
Chester was certainly happy to see them when they got back to the Greensmith house. He wagged his tail and pranced around at the front door. All the lights in the house were off, meaning everyone had likely gone to bed. Rowen did her best to quiet the dog down. “Hush. I’m happy to see you too, Boy. Now settle down.”
Eric reached down and scratched the dog on the head himself. The smile on his face fell suddenly. “What’s that noise?”
Rowen strained her ears to see what he was talking about. She immediately wished she hadn’t. “Oh.” Rowen cringed. “I heard this last night, too. That’s… one of my aunts and Reginald or Peter, I guess.”
“Oh.” Eric took a step back toward the door. “Why don’t we take Chester for a walk?”
“That’s a good idea.” Rowen did just that. She opened the front door and walked back outside, Chester with her this time.
“It’s nice that your aunts are dating people again,” Eric offered. He was obviously trying to fill the awkward silence. Chester walked across the lawn, none the wiser to their disgust. He was just happy to be outside and have his family with him.
“I guess,” said Rowen. “I just wish they weren’t so… noisy about it.”
Eric laughed. “They’re like your parents. You just don’t want to think of them that way.”
“Of course I don’t. I wouldn’t want to think of one of my cousins that way either.”
“Speaking of which, what about Margo?”
“What do you mean?”
Eric pointed in the direction of the trailer that was still on the Greensmith’s lawn a short distance away. “She’s living there, right? Maybe she won’t mind us spending the night. It looks like there are still some lights on.”
Rowen looked at the trailer. He was right. There was a glow behind the closed blinds. “I guess it couldn’t hurt.” She walked to the trailer. Eric and Chester followed close behind her. She climbed the fronts steps and knocked. There was no answer at first, and Rowen knocked again. Before Rowen could go for a third knock, the door finally opened.
“What?” Margo demanded, glaring at Rowen the moment she flung the door open.
