Waterside Witchery

by Raven Snow

  Helen was still glaring at Edith. Edith, in turn, kept her eyes on the ground. Rowen couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor woman. Regardless of the truth of this matter, it was obvious that Edith was having a hard time of things.

  Everyone just sort of milled around awkwardly until Ben showed up with another officer. It took a good ten minutes for him to show. “What’s all this about?” he asked, getting out of the car. The officer already on the scene filled him in. Ben made short work of things after that. He got the names of everyone before dispersing them. He didn’t make any arrests, letting everyone off with a warning instead. He did give Edith the option to press charges against the Lucas’ and Dennis the option to press charges against Orville. Neither of them took him up on that, perhaps because they were at a bit of a stalemate. After a stern warning not to come around and hassle their daughter-in-law again, Ben got the Lucas family to leave.

  With everyone dispersed, Ben walked Rowen and Eric back to their own car. “Now why in the world were the two of you here?” he asked, looking annoyed but not particularly surprised.

  “We were interviewing Fran Sweet before all this happened. You know, Edith’s mom? She called her part way through the interview, so we decided to come along and document things just in case they got out of hand— which they did. I didn’t expect half of Lichen Hallow to show up.”

  Ben nodded. “They’re a close community. Speaking of which, you may have united them all against you now. Good job with that.”

  “It didn’t seem like they were against me,” Rowen grumbled. “I mean, they might be less likely to sit down and do a proper interview with us, but it can’t really be helped.”

  “You’ll be lucky if anyone is willing to sit down with you,” Ben sighed and gave both of them a stern look. “If you come down here again, it will be at your own peril. Remember that, all right?”

  “Don’t worry,” said Rowen. “We’re used to that sort of thing.”

  Ben took a deep breath. “That’s what I’m afraid of. Don’t let your guard down around these people. Things aren’t as developed as the rest of Lainswich around here— and that’s saying something. Don’t come back here…. But, since you won’t listen to me and probably will, be careful. Just be careful.”

  Rowen wanted to point out that Ben had been happy to have them spying for him before they had been found out. She kept that to herself, though. There wasn’t any point in saying anything. Ben was right. At this point, she wasn’t sure how they were going to solve this one. She supposed they could always leave it to the police, but… yeah, right. That was totally out of the question.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Rowen was sprawled out on her bed in the attic. She was replaying the video Eric had taken the day before for, at least, the tenth time. She was trying to determine exactly what the Lucas family had been trying to take from the house. It looked like boxes of junk. There was a lamp and some dishes, but there wasn’t anything that looked particularly valuable.

  “I don’t know what you’re hoping to find,” said Eric. He was doing something or another on his computer with one hand while he idly petted Chester with the other.

  “There has to be somewhere to go from here,” Rowen said, insisting mostly to herself. “We can’t just end our investigation here. Maybe this was Helen and her son’s doing. Maybe they thought they could get something from the house and didn’t realize Edith would inherit it. They don’t seem like the brightest bulbs.”

  “I don’t think that’s what happened,” said Eric.

  Rowen had to agree with him. It wasn’t like the video on his phone was backing up her theory either. “Well, someone had to murder him. He didn’t get into that trunk on his own.”

  “I’ll agree with you there. I’m just not sure what you’re hoping to accomplish. It seems to me like all avenues of questioning have been closed to us. None of the relatives seem keen to talk to us anymore. From all accounts, they’re really superstitious. It’s best if we just steer clear.”

  “We need to solve this thing,” Rowen insisted, shaking her head. She sat up in the bed, heaving a huge sigh. “There must be something we can do.”

  “You could go help your cousin,” Eric offered “She needs help over at the paper still, doesn’t she?”

  “Something other than that,” Rowen added quickly. She didn’t want to distract herself with busy work. She wanted to solve this thing. “Who haven’t we questioned?”

  “Well, it doesn’t sound like Timothy knew many people.” Eric shrugged. “It sounds like he kept to himself. He even went on camping and hunting trips alone. He retired years ago, so he doesn’t have any work friends we can talk to either.”

  “That’s it.” Rowen stood and went over to look something up on Eric’s laptop.

  “What’s it?” asked Eric, frowning as she took his computer away without asking.

  “He used to own a construction company, didn’t he?”

  “That’s what his wife said, yeah.”

  Rowen began to type. “Well, there you go. Those people must have known him. He must have some former employees that would be willing to talk to us.”

  “I’m not sure how much good that will do.” Eric shrugged but didn’t argue. “We might as well spend the day doing something, I guess.”

  ***

  It took a while for Rowen to find what she was looking for. She could find Timothy Lucas’ old work site in internet archives, but she couldn’t find the names of employees. After searching for current construction companies, however, she found that there was only one other place in Lainswich that did that kind of construction. It stood to reason that at least part of Timothy’s workforce had dissolved into that. A call to the offices of the establishment earned her the knowledge that they were out on a job today. They were adding an addition to an office building downtown. Rowen thanked them for the information and got her husband into gear. “Come on. I know where they are.”

  “I’m not sure how much you’re going to find out from this,” Eric said with a sigh. He followed his wife anyway. He was right to as far as Rowen was concerned. She had great instincts about this stuff.

  They weren’t all the way down the stairs before they heard some muffled crying going on in the kitchen. Rowen was tempted to just keep walking, but she couldn’t. It sounded like Nadine. Sure, Nadine was the most sensitive of her aunts. It didn’t take much to get tears out of her. The woman could cry at commercials. Even so, Rowen couldn’t just ignore it. She poked her head into the kitchen to find Nadine and Lydia seated at the bar. Nadine was crying softly into her hands while Lydia rubbed her back.

  “Calm down,” said Lydia. “It’s not as big a deal as you’re making it out to be. It’ll be fine.”

  “What’s wrong?” asked Rowen. She had a feeling she would regret asking, but she couldn’t just leave without doing so. “Are you okay?”

  Lydia looked up. Nadine sat up a little straighter, quickly wiping at her eyes. It seemed that she was trying to make it appear like she hadn’t been crying. “It’s no big deal,” said Lydia, turning to Rowen and offering her a reassuring smile. “Peter and Reginald are just going to be away a little longer than expected. Nadine is upset about that.”

  “Ah.” Rowen nodded. “I’m sorry to hear that,” she said, offering her aunts a smile. Her aunts smiled back at her, though it seemed more than a little strained.

  “Where are you going?” asked Lydia.

  “Away to do some work. Don’t worry. We’re not going to Lichen Hallow or anything.”

  Lydia nodded, like that news was a relief. “All right. Just call us if you’re going to be late for dinner.”

  “Will do.” Rowen led the way out of the house. She glanced back at her husband as soon as they were where her aunts wouldn’t hear them. “I was afraid of something like this.”

  “Something like what?” asked Eric.

  “This.” Rowen motioned, emphatically, back toward the house. “What if Peter and Reginald r
ealized my aunts are looking for more commitment than they’re willing to give?”

  “I don’t think they would have proposed if that was the case,” said Eric, getting into the car.

  Rowen got in on the driver’s side. “This sort of thing always happens. If it’s not the guy getting killed, he’s getting scared away by something or another.”

  “That sounds like the preferable outcome in that case, doesn’t it?”

  “I’m going to have to give them a call myself tonight,” Rowen decided aloud.

  Eric just shrugged. “It’s not like I can stop you.”

  “No, but a little support would be nice.”

  “I think you should just let this play out on its own,” said Eric. “I thought I’d made that clear from the beginning. It’ll work out however it’s supposed to work out. I don’t think you’re going to have a whole lot of impact on the situation one way or another.”

  Rowen considered his words. “I’m going to call them tonight,” she said finally, putting the car into reverse.

  Eric rolled his eyes. “Of course you are.”

  ***

  The drive didn’t take too long. They got to the construction site before noon, making only one pit stop along the way. The construction workers were all sitting around, eating and chatting with one another. Rowen just hoped she didn’t get run off by a foreman. They watched her as she parked amid their other vehicles and as she approached them. “Hey there, fellas,” Rowen called, putting on her biggest, brightest smile. “I was wondering if I could have a word really quick. I brought donuts.” She motioned back to Eric who was carrying the box.

  None of the construction workers moved. They all exchanged puzzled looks like none of them quite knew what to make of Rowen. “What do you want to talk about?” one of the men finally asked.

  “I was actually hoping to speak to the men who used to work for Timothy Lucas. I hear he used to run a construction company. I was thinking, after he retired, some of his workers came here. Am I right?”

  The construction workers all exchanged looks again. “Why would we want to talk to you?” asked one, a short and stocky man with dark hair.

  Rowen motioned to the donuts again, in case he had missed out the first time she had mentioned them. She realized that alone definitely wasn’t going to do it. “Well, you’ll have the knowledge that you did the right thing and helped out on a murder case.” The men didn’t say anything to that. Rowen sighed. “Also, I’ll give twenty dollars to every person who talks to me and can prove they used to work for the guy.”

  That spurred some of the men into action. At least seven of them got up and headed her way. Rowen glanced back to her husband. “Go hit up an ATM machine, will ya, Dear?”

  Eric rolled his eyes but headed back to the car like he’d been asked to. The workers watched him go. They all sort of paused, exchanging looks like they weren’t so sure about speaking with Rowen before they got paid.

  “You’ll get your money,” Rowen assured them. “Let’s just get this done with before your break is over. Feel free to lay into those in the meantime.” She pointed to the box Eric had sat on the curb.

  One of the construction workers shrugged and went for the box. The rest of them quickly followed suit. Soon enough, they were all seated on the curb, snacking on glazed donuts. “What do you want to know?” asked a tall construction worker with dirty blond hair.

  “Just general stuff,” said Rowen, pulling out her pen and pad. It was too windy for the tape recorder to reliably pick up everything. “What kind of a guy was your old boss?”

  The workers all exchanged looks again. “It was a job,” said one with a shrug.

  Another nodded. “There wasn’t really anything special about him. He’d set a deadline for a project and you’d either meet it or you wouldn’t. He had a temper if you ran behind.”

  “A temper?” Rowen repeated. “What do you mean?”

  The same man shrugged. “I dunno. A temper. You either got fired or let off with a warning. The warnings were about as bad, though. He’d lecture you, talk down to you. It sure would make you want to quit.”

  “Were any of you friends with him outside of work?” asked Rowen, her pen still scratching away at the paper she was holding.

  The men all looked at one another as if checking for someone who would answer in the affirmative. No one did. “I don’t know of him having any work buddies,” said the same man who had spoken up earlier.

  “I don’t know of him having any buddies, period,” another added with a chuckle.

  “Have some respect. The guy did get murdered.” The blond fellow frowned at his coworkers.

  “Do you have any theories as to who might have murdered him?” asked Rowen. “Did he seem to have any enemies?”

  “Enemies was all he seemed to have,” said the dark haired, stocky man. “The only people I remember showing up looking for him were folks who either wanted something from him or wanted to tell him off for something or another. “I know his brother-in-law, especially, hated him.”

  “Orville?” Rowen asked.

  The men nodded. “Didn’t seem to think that he was a good enough man for his sister.”

  “He was right, though, wasn’t he?” asked the blond man. “From what little we saw of that wife of his, she seemed like a real sweet woman. Then, every time Tim opened his mouth it was just to put her down or yell at her.” He shook his head. “That’s just not right. I can see where Orville was coming from. If that had been my sister I would have been mad too.”

  "Do you think Orville had something to do with Timothy’s murder?” Rowen had entertained that theory herself. It felt like a likely one.

  Looks were exchanged again. “I guess,” said the blond man. “I mean, we’ve talked about it before. He seems like the most likely candidate. This one day he even showed up and, like, beat up Tim on the job.”

  “Really?” Rowen hadn’t heard anything about that. “Did Tim file a report with the police?”

  “Not as far as I know. He was a proud man, and he hated the cops.”

  “Is there anyone else you can think of who had a motive?” asked Rowen. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Eric pulling up. He’d found that ATM she’d sent him after, it seemed.

  “Maybe Sadie?” suggested the dark-haired construction worker. He looked around at his fellow workers. They seemed split on that one. Half nodded while the other half shook their heads and threw incredulous looks his way.”

  “She could have. I’d say she’s capable.”

  “Not a chance. She’s a sweetheart like Edith.”

  “I don’t think she and Edith have a whole lot in common.”

  “That husband of hers could have done it.”

  “Hold on for a minute.” Rowen raised her hands, motioning for quiet. “Who are you talking about? Who’s Sadie?”

  “She’s Edith’s sister. She never much liked Tim either. None of her family did. She swung by here every so often to give him a piece of her mind.”

  “Not like Orville, though.”

  “It sure sounded to me like she hated him as much as Orville did. She could have killed him— especially if that husband of hers was helping out.”

  “What’s her last name?” asked Rowen.

  “Mathers, I think?”

  Rowen jotted that down. That was definitely where she intended to check next. “Anyone else you can think of?” Rowen asked, but they weren’t exactly forthcoming with any more names. She had Eric pay them what they were owed and left the donuts with them on her way back to the car.

  “Did you even found out anything useful?” asked Eric.

  Rowen nodded. “It could have been Orville.”

  “We didn’t think it could be him already?” asked Eric, raising an eyebrow in his wife’s direction. “I thought he was our unspoken, number one suspect.”

  “He was up there,” Rowen agreed. “But it’s not like we’ve gotten a chance to interview him yet. I doubt he’s goin
g to let that happen. No, we have another suspect to look into as well.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “Sadie Mathers and her husband. Apparently, she’s Edith’s sister. Those guys back there seemed to think she would be capable of murder. Well, some of them thought that anyway. They seemed to be a bit split on the matter.”

  “Let me guess, this Sadie woman lives in Lichen Hallow.”

  “That’s a good guess,” said Rowen, getting into the car.

  “You know we shouldn’t be going back there, right?”

  “I don’t see much of an alternative if we want to solve this thing.”

  Eric looked over at Rowen from the passenger’s seat. “You know we don’t have to solve this. It’s not like your family is under suspicion this time or anything.”

  “No, but I found the body,” Rowen said. She knew that sort of thing shouldn’t make a difference, but it did for her. She felt oddly responsible, like she kicked off this case so now she should be the one to finish it. It was impractical, sure. She couldn’t help it, though. “Besides, I want to prove to Lichen Hallow that witches aren’t the monsters they think we are. I want to help them through this.”

  “I’m not sure this is guaranteed to make them change their minds, but okay.” Eric might be acting like he was doing Rowen a favor going along with this, but she knew better. He wanted to crack this mystery as much as she did.

  “See if you can find Sadie’s address listed anywhere,” said Rowen, already heading straight for Lichen Hallow.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Finding Sadie Mathers’ address was a bit of a chore. She wasn’t in any phone book listings. They finally found her by finding a male Mathers listed in the phonebook. Unfortunately, there were at least five of those. After much searching, Eric was able to narrow it down to a Justin Mathers after finding an article about the two getting married.

  Rowen found the right house easily enough after that. It was a cute little two-story place situated on a small hill. The lawn was immaculate and there was a flower garden out front. A pickup was parked in the driveway, and Rowen pulled her car in behind it. “You ready?” she asked, turning to her husband.