A Witch of a Time

by Amanda M. Lee

  “You both make me tired,” Landon said, turning his attention to Chief Terry. “Anything?”

  “We got a hit on her fingerprints,” Chief Terry said, settling at the table and running his hand through his graying hair. “Her name is Annie Martin.”

  “Does she live around here?” Bay asked.

  Chief Terry shook his head. “She’s from Minnesota.”

  “What was she doing here?” I asked.

  “That’s a very good question,” Chief Terry said. “All we know right now is that Annie Martin and her mother Belinda left the state of Minnesota three weeks ago. We don’t know when they got to Michigan, and we don’t know why they came to Michigan. We executed a search warrant, and we should have some credit card information tomorrow.

  “For now, though, we just don’t know,” he said.

  “What about her father?” Landon asked.

  “We’re trying to track him down,” Chief Terry said. “From what I can tell, the parents did not live together and were never married.”

  “What about grandparents?” I asked.

  “Her maternal grandparents are dead,” Chief Terry said. “We have managed to get in contact with her paternal grandparents. They seemed surprised to hear we’d found her, but they wouldn’t say why. They’ll be here the day after tomorrow to collect her.”

  “You’re just going to give her to them?” Aunt Tillie asked. “For all we know, they’re the ones who hurt her.”

  “For all we know, her mother is the one who hurt her,” Chief Terry countered. “They have the right to take her. There’s nothing I can do.”

  Somehow, that news didn’t sit well with any of us. Unfortunately, we were in a tricky spot.

  Four

  After another restless night, I woke up late the next morning. Annie was already gone, and I found my mom and Clove in the dining room when I finally stumbled downstairs on a coffee hunt.

  “Your hair looks amazing,” Clove said, giggling.

  Why is everyone always picking on my hair? It’s so unfair.

  I glanced at my reflection in the mirror on the wall and cringed. My hair often has a mind of its own. This morning, apparently, it was feeling batshit crazy. Instead of engaging in a fight, I sat down next to Clove and snatched a piece of toast off of her plate. “I’ve been thinking about changing the color.”

  “Oh, that’s good,” Mom said. “The blue is all wrong for your complexion.”

  I ignored her. “Since Annie only seemed to come around when she saw my hair, I’m going to hold off until she goes home with her grandparents.”

  Clove’s face softened as she looked me up and down. “You’re worried about sending her away with her grandparents, aren’t you?”

  I shrugged. I wasn’t sure what was bothering me. I just knew something was. “I don’t think sending Annie away with people who had no idea she was even missing is a good idea.”

  “Why not?” Clove asked.

  “Because it doesn’t seem right,” I said. “We found Annie walking down the middle of the road. She was dehydrated, and she had a bump on her head. We don’t know if someone hit her. We don’t know if she was in a car accident. We have no idea what happened to her mother.”

  “Maybe her mother is the one who hurt her,” Clove suggested. “Maybe she ran away from her mother and is scared she’ll find her.”

  “Maybe,” I said, accepting the mug of coffee my mom slid across the table in my direction. “Or maybe something happened to her mother, and that’s why she’s traumatized.”

  Clove stilled. “Do you think someone killed her mother and she saw it happen?”

  “I have no idea,” Thistle said. “I just know I don’t feel good about letting her go until we know what happened to her.”

  Mom patted my hand. “You’re much more sensitive than we give you credit for.”

  “I’m not sensitive,” I countered. “I’m just as … insensitive as I ever was. I just don’t like thinking of a little kid being hurt if we can help it.”

  “Don’t worry,” Clove said, tucking her long hair behind her ear and grinning. “We’ll keep telling everyone you’re ornery if you want. It will be our little secret that you’re really just a pussy cat in lion’s clothing.”

  I shot her a withering look. I wasn’t going to let her bait me. It wouldn’t do Annie any good if she saw us fighting. Once she was gone, though? Oh, yeah, the gloves were off – and Clove was eating a whole garden of dirt. “Where is Annie, by the way?”

  “Aunt Tillie took her out to the greenhouse to look around,” Mom said. “She seemed excited to pick out plants. Aunt Tillie is even letting her do some potting.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Are they really in the greenhouse? Or does Aunt Tillie have Annie out dancing by the road again?”

  “They’re really out in the greenhouse,” Mom said. “Landon hid Aunt Tillie’s wine stash. She’s threatening him with great bodily harm, by the way, if he doesn’t return it. He doesn’t appear to be too worried.”

  “That’s because she’s never cursed him,” I said. “Still, that was a gutsy move on his part.”

  “Bay is beside herself,” Mom said. “She’s convinced Aunt Tillie is going to curse her instead.”

  “Aunt Tillie probably will do just that,” I said. “She loves making Bay suffer.”

  “She loves making all of us suffer,” Clove said.

  “Landon says he doesn’t care,” Mom said. “He’s openly campaigning for the bacon curse.”

  I couldn’t help but smirk. What is it with men and the smell of bacon? “I’m sure it will be okay,” I said. “Aunt Tillie isn’t going to do anything while Annie is here. She wouldn’t dare. She seems to really like her.

  “I think I’m going to go down to the greenhouse and collect her, though,” I continued. “We have some stuff to do at the shop today, and a few hours away from this place might do her some good.”

  “You don’t have to come to the shop if you don’t want to,” Clove said. “I can do everything.”

  “There’s a big tour hitting town on Wednesday,” I reminded her. “The summer season is officially set to begin. We’re not ready yet.”

  “I can do the work,” Clove said. “Annie should be your priority.”

  “She’s really taken a shine to you, too,” Mom said, her eyes sparkling. “Since children are usually terrified of you, I’m taking it as a good sign that I’ll get grandchildren one day.”

  I finished the rest of my coffee and got up from the table. “Don’t get your hopes up. Annie is only attached to me because she latched on to my hair. Once she gets over being traumatized, she won’t even remember I exist.”

  “THIS is a magic shop,” I said as I ushered Annie into Hypnotic. Clove and I had opened the store a few years ago, figuring it was a great way to embrace Hemlock Cove’s magical rebranding and make a living at the same time. It had worked out well so far. We were one of the most popular – and most frequent – stops for tourists when they came to town.

  Annie’s eyes were bright as she glanced around.

  “Go ahead,” I said. “You can’t break anything here. You can look around.”

  Annie still seemed unsure. “We just have some inventory to do,” I explained. “We have to put things out on the shelves, and Bay is coming by for lunch. Do you remember Bay?”

  Annie nodded.

  “She’s going to bring some sandwiches and potato chips,” I said.

  Annie seemed comfortable with the situation, and she promptly shuffled over to the tarot table in the corner and started flipping through the cards. Technically, reading tarot cards is a pre-cognitive gift. While we have hints of it in our family, no one is great at it. That doesn’t stop Clove from doing readings. Most people just want to hear good things about their future, and that’s a service Clove is always eager to deliver. She’s a people pleaser at heart.

  Clove arrived a few minutes later with a bag of cookies in her hand. “I figured you might want a treat la
ter,” she said, smiling at Annie. She studied the girl for a second. “Do you want me to show you how to use those?”

  Annie glanced at me for permission.

  “Go ahead,” I said. “I’m going to be in the back for a few minutes, but I’ll still be here. Clove is fun.”

  Clove beamed.

  “And, if she’s not fun, just kick her in the shins until she starts entertaining you,” I added.

  Annie giggled.

  “You get more and more like Aunt Tillie every day,” Clove grumbled.

  “I’m taking that as a compliment,” I said.

  I left Annie with Clove, smiling to myself as she absorbed every quaint magical tidbit Clove bestowed upon her and got to work. Two hours later, the backroom was organized and our new inventory was spread out on the shelves. Annie had taken to organizing like a pro, and we left her to her own devices. She seemed to have a gift for it, and when she was done, the shelves were all beautifully arranged.

  Bay arrived with lunch at noon on the dot, and we all settled on the couch and chairs at the center of the store for a break.

  “How are you doing?” Bay asked Annie.

  Annie smiled brightly in reply.

  “Did you have fun here with Clove and Thistle today?”

  Annie nodded.

  Annie took her sandwich and chips and returned to the tarot table, sitting in one of the chairs and thumbing through the book Clove had given her to explain how the cards worked as she munched on her sandwich. I didn’t think she could read – at least not at a level that the book required – but she seemed to be having fun pretending all the same.

  “What did you find out?” I asked Bay, keeping my voice low.

  “There’s not a lot so far,” Bay said. “I know that Belinda Martin got pregnant with Annie when she was eighteen. She was still in high school, but she graduated before Annie was born.

  “As far as I can tell, Belinda was a good mother,” Bay continued. “Annie was enrolled in school and she attended regularly. In fact, she rarely missed a day. She tested into special classes for reading and science, and never had any behavioral problems.”

  “How did you find that out?” Clove asked.

  “I called the school she was enrolled in,” Bay replied.

  “And they just told you that?”

  “I explained the situation here,” Bay said. “They seemed eager to help. They even got Annie’s teacher on the telephone. She said that Annie was bright and engaging. Everyone was surprised when Belinda yanked her out of school a few weeks ago. She didn’t give an explanation.”

  “And she can talk, right?” I asked.

  “Yes.” Bay glanced over her shoulder to make sure Annie wasn’t listening. “The teacher said Belinda dropped Annie off every morning and picked her up like clockwork every afternoon. While they didn’t have a lot of money, Annie was always dressed in decent clothes and she was always clean. Belinda also came to every school function. She didn’t miss one.”

  “That doesn’t sound like someone who would just abandon their kid,” Clove said.

  “No,” I agreed. “What about Annie’s father?”

  “There is no father listed on the birth certificate,” Bay said. “Later, Jonathan Denham appeared on Annie’s school documents as her father. He was never cleared to pick her up from the school, though, and he apparently never attended any of her school functions. The birth certificate was amended when Annie was five.”

  “I can’t believe the school told you all of that,” I said, impressed.

  “They told most of it to Landon,” Bay admitted. “He told me. They did talk to me after he cleared it, though.”

  “So, do we know anything about this Jonathan Denham?” Clove asked.

  Bay shifted her gaze to Annie again and then leaned forward. “He was Belinda’s teacher.”

  I made a face. “You’re saying that she got knocked up by her teacher?”

  Bay nodded.

  “Why wasn’t he prosecuted?”

  Bay shrugged. “I guess we’ll have to ask Jonathan’s parents when they come. Of course, Belinda was eighteen when she got pregnant. There might not have been much they could do.”

  “I don’t like this,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “How old was Denham when he knocked up Belinda?”

  “He was in his thirties.”

  “So, we have a man who had sex with his student, got her pregnant, and then didn’t take responsibility for the child?”

  “He appears to have taken responsibility at some point,” Bay cautioned. “Landon and Chief Terry are running his background now. They’re over at the police department.”

  “Well, I’m not okay handing Annie over to his parents,” I said. “Even if they didn’t know what he’d done until after the fact, they still knew he was a demented pervert.”

  “I don’t think we have a lot of choice in the matter,” Bay said. “Chief Terry says it’s the law.”

  I got to my feet. “Yeah? Well, we have Aunt Tillie. I believe a lot more in her powers than any law. She’s not going to let this happen.”

  “What do you suggest we do?” Clove asked, helpless.

  “We have to find out what happened to Belinda,” I said. “She’s the key.”

  “And what if Jonathan Denham killed her?”

  “Then Annie isn’t leaving with his parents,” I said. “I don’t care what we have to do to stop them.”

  “What if we never find out what happened to Belinda?” Bay asked. She wasn’t arguing with my attempt to keep Annie safe, more with the logic I was utilizing with my efforts.

  “We have to find out what happened to Belinda,” I said, focusing on Annie momentarily. “Annie needs to know, and we need to help her find out.”

  “Okay,” Bay said, getting to her feet. “I’ll keep digging.”

  “What do you want us to do?” Clove asked.

  “Just keep Annie busy and safe,” Bay said. “We’re going to need her to tell us what happened, and she’s not going to do that until she feels safe.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “Keeping her safe is my top priority. I dare anyone to try and come in here and get her.”

  Bay smiled. “That would be a neat trick, wouldn’t it?”

  Five

  When we got back to The Overlook, it was a little before three. It was too early for dinner and too late to do much else before supper. Since the season wasn’t in full swing yet, we opted to close early. In an effort to engage Annie, Clove and I sat down at the dining room table and entertained her with a rousing game of Go Fish. I was hoping it would force Annie to talk. Instead, she claimed the notepad from behind the registration desk and wrote down what she wanted to ask for. At least I knew her mind was working, even if her vocal chords were refusing to play the game.

  Bay arrived during our second game.

  “Do you want to play?” I asked.

  Bay shook her head, biting down on her lower lip as she regarded Annie. “Actually, I was thinking we could leave Annie inside to enjoy a cooking lesson with our moms while we ran an errand.”

  I furrowed my brow. “What are we going to do?”

  “I thought we could take a quick walk out to the bluff,” Bay said. “With candles.”

  Crap. She wanted to do a spell. “What kind of candles?”

  “The blue ones.”

  The blue candles, in addition to smelling like blueberries, are used in locator spells. Now that she brought it up, I didn’t know why we hadn’t thought of it before. “That’s a good idea,” I said, forcing a smile on my face for Annie’s benefit. “Do you think we should do it now, though?”

  “I think we should do it before Landon and Chief Terry get here for dinner,” Bay said pointedly. Even though both men knew about our witchy secret, neither of them liked to engage – or witness – our activities unless they absolutely had to.

  Annie’s gaze bounced between us curiously.

  “Let’s do it,” I said, getting to my feet. “Come on
, Annie.” I held out my hand. “I know three women who are going to shower you with frosting and cake while you cook. I promise it will be fun.”

  I had her at frosting. She jumped up and followed me into the kitchen.

  “What’s going on?” Winnie asked, shifting her gaze from the roast she was tending as we entered.

  “We were hoping you guys would give Annie a cooking lesson,” Bay said.

  “And what are you going to do?” Marnie asked, suspicious.

  “We’re going to take the blue candles out to the bluff for a little bit,” I said.

  The three women soaked in my admission.

  “We would love to teach Annie to cook,” Mom said, collecting the small girl from me smoothly. “I’m betting you want to learn how to make some vanilla frosting for a red velvet cake, don’t you?”

  Annie nodded eagerly.

  “Thanks,” I said. “We won’t be gone long.” I sent a reassuring look in Annie’s direction. “And we won’t be far.”

  “I DON’T understand why we’re doing this,” Clove said, clasping her hands together as she looked around the bluff.

  She’s such a worrier. It’s beyond annoying. When we were in high school, she was the one who would admit to misdeeds before we were even called into the principal’s office.

  The piece of property where The Overlook is located has been in our possession for generations. The Overlook wasn’t always an inn. In fact, it’s only been an inn for several years. Before expanding on the homestead, the family was known for selling homemade goods and food. That’s how we made our living. Eventually, we turned the big house into a bed and breakfast and then expanded our brand a little every year. Since expansive construction on the inn, our family has flourished. Our moms have found a calling, and we’re exceedingly popular. The one thing we all agreed on, though, was that the bluff would remain untouched. That’s why none of the expansion on the property has ever encroached on its beauty.

  “We’re going to do a locator spell,” Bay said.

  “To find Belinda, I know,” Clove said. “How do we even know it will work? We don’t have anything of Belinda’s to use for the spell.”