Like a Charm

by Candace Havens

  After a quick shower I was in bed. Someone knocked on the door. “Kira?” It was my mom.

  “Sorry if I woke you,” I apologized.

  “Is everything okay, hon?”

  “Something is up with the heat at the library. I just need to crash here for a bit.”

  “Oh.” She didn’t sound convinced. “Okay. Let me know if you need anything.”

  “I’m fine. I really am sorry I woke you.”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  I heard her walk away.

  My life had taken a weird twist and I didn’t like it. I’m a logical woman who always has a plan. Well, I had planned to stay at the library until the end of the month, but I couldn’t do that now. I stared at the ceiling for hours.

  I must have fallen asleep at some point, because my dad woke me the next morning.

  “Kira, Mom has breakfast ready for you. And a young man has been calling the main line. Caleb? He says he kept trying your cell but you didn’t answer. I told him you were staying here.”

  I groaned. I must have left my cell phone at the library along with all my other belongings.

  “Thank you, Dad. I’ll be out in a little bit. If Caleb calls again, tell him I’ll give him a ring later this morning.”

  Splashing water on my face, I stared in the mirror.

  You can’t walk away.

  Oh, yes I can.

  I argued with myself. Those people need you. The town needs you.

  I can’t deal with this right now.

  I blotted my face dry and wiped my hands on the towel. I hadn’t bothered bringing a change of clothes, so I pulled on my jeans and my sweater from the night before.

  My mom was in the kitchen scrambling some eggs. “Ms. Johnnie just called. She said the adult literacy team is at the diner waiting for you.”

  I smacked my hand against my head. “I forgot.” The team worked with adults in town who wanted to develop their reading skills.

  She put some of the cooked eggs on a piece of whole grain toast. “Here, eat this on the way. You’re looking pale.”

  I kissed her cheek, and she grabbed my face in her hands.

  Leaning her head to the right, she gave me the mom stare. “Hon, if something’s wrong, you can tell me.”

  “I know.” I gave her a quick hug “Everything’s fine. I need to go. I’ll talk to you later.”

  I pulled away and ran for the door, grabbing my purse as I went.

  I looked like crap, but there wasn’t time to stop by the library and freshen up. I walked into the diner to see the literacy team sitting at three tables they had pushed together.

  “There she is.” Travis Lyle motioned toward me. “Are you okay?” The question was kind. Travis was a substitute teacher, and when he wasn’t at one of the schools, he helped out Mr. Owen at The Bakery in the mornings.

  “Sorry, gang. If you want to get your coffee to go, I’ll open up the library. I was running a little late this morning.” I smiled.

  There were some curious glances, but they followed me across the street. An hour later we had a set schedule for volunteer needs for the next six months. It felt weird talking about things for the future, when I knew I wouldn’t be here. And if I didn’t stay, the library wouldn’t be here either.

  Maybe they can meet at the high school library. I tried to console myself.

  The dead mixed among the living, and before I knew it, the library was full to capacity. As I watched the masses and answered questions, I realized something important. I couldn’t leave. At least, not until the New Year. I had a plan and I was going to stick to it.

  But I refused to look at that book again.

  Chapter 29

  Love has no age, no limit; and no death.

  THE FORSYTE SAGA

  By Galsworthy, John, 1867–1933

  Call #: F-GAL

  Description: xx, 715 p.: ill; 22cm

  I’d shut down the computer and the library was blessedly silent. I told the spirits that they had to follow business hours, just like anyone else, and that they weren’t allowed to talk to me when live people were around.

  They must have finally taken me seriously. I’d been working on research for Bronwyn since the library closed at six. She’d called to see if I could find something out about golems. Turns out they are living creatures made from dirt that have no soul. They are very hard to kill because they can just patch themselves back together. To kill one, you have to etch its name in its forehead and then erase it. I e-mailed her the info, but wondered how in the world she could accomplish the task. Knowing Bronwyn, she would find a way.

  A pile of books on the front desk needed to be shelved, but it was almost nine. I decided they could wait until morning.

  Rascal and Herman growled.

  “Hey you two, cut that out.” Pushing back from my desk, I thought I heard someone cough. The growls turned into barking. Maybe it was one of the shadows I’d heard about.

  “Hello?” It seemed odd that a spirit would cough. They no longer had ailments where they were. I’d locked the door more than three hours ago. No one said anything, but I sensed some movement back by the break room. I moved around the desk to check it out, and I was suddenly plunged into an ice shield.

  “No!” Mr. Greenblatt, who owned the pharmacy when I was a kid, shouted. “Don’t you go back there! Someone wants to do you harm.” The elderly gentleman stood two inches in front of me. “He’s standing back there with a gun, little missy. You need to get out of here.”

  Grabbing the keys, my stomach a mass of nerves, I ran for the door.

  “Don’t move,” a man said behind me as he poked something into my back.

  Here’s the thing: nothing bad ever happens in Sweet. The town is protected by a coven of witches, and not much gets past them. So the last thing I ever expected was a gun in my back. Well, at the time I didn’t know that’s what it was, but it felt like it.

  “I don’t know who you are, but we don’t keep any money here. The money for the fines is deposited every day at five and we seldom have over five dollars at any given time. You can have my purse. I have a little cash and some credit cards.” My voice trembled, and I tried to make myself breathe evenly. I held it out for him.

  “I don’t want your money,” he spat.

  Oh, crap. He’s going to rape me. I couldn’t keep my eyes from watering. My mind instantly flashed to the self-defense classes I’d taken in college. Please, God. Don’t let me die!

  “What do you want?”

  “Answers.” I heard him take a deep breath. “I want to know what you said to my sister to make her jump off that roof.”

  Sister? “Are you Todd? Melinda’s brother?” I turned around, but it was so dark, I could only see his outline. His cap was pulled low over his face and he wore a sweatshirt and jeans. I recognized him as the man who had followed me in Atlanta.

  He didn’t say anything.

  My mouth seemed to have a mind of its own. “She talked about you all the time. She was so proud of you.” Melinda had loved her brother dearly. He’d been stationed in Iraq and couldn’t come home when she was going through her sexual harassment case against her boss.

  I’d witnessed her boss’s touchy-feely nature and encouraged her to report it. At the time I didn’t think there was any way we could lose. We had one of the best attorneys in the city and an ironclad case with tons of witnesses and women he’d manhandled before. I should have known what a lot of money could do, as well as the power of the right connections. The jerk’s family was old Atlanta money; it didn’t matter how guilty he might be. He wouldn’t go to jail.

  Todd didn’t speak.

  “Look, I can’t even imagine what you think, but I’ll tell you anything you want to know. You don’t need the gun.”

  He moved closer and shoved the gun in my chest.

  My hands shook, and I wasn’t sure how much longer my knees would hold out.

  Since he’d moved closer I could see his green eyes, and dark br
own hair peeked out beneath his hat. He had to be at least six feet tall.

  The hate rolled off of him. It was almost as if I could feel the heat of his anger.

  I started to put the keys in my pocket and then thought perhaps I might need them as a weapon.

  For a moment we stared at each other.

  “I read the police report and the court files. The way I see it, you killed my sister.”

  I shook my head. “No,” I whispered. But the truth is, I didn’t believe it. I had been the one to push Melinda into making the case against that ass Anderson. I’d seen him pressing her up against a wall one night when I’d been working late. I’d gone to his office to drop off some files. He made light of the situation, but I’d seen her trying to push him away.

  The memories flooded back and my eyes filled with tears. “Maybe you’re right. It is my fault. I saw him touching her and I just…She looked terrified and I had to say something. I couldn’t just walk away.” A sob slipped out of my throat. Turning my head to the left. I tried to pull myself together. This was no time for hysterics.

  I took a shaky breath and stood tall. Facing Todd I told him, “No woman deserves to be treated that way. And that jerk had no right to touch her if that isn’t what she wanted. And I know she didn’t. She tried to push him away before they ever knew I was there.”

  Todd didn’t say anything and he still had the gun pointed at me. I looked just over his shoulder to see Mr. Greenblatt waving his arms in a big motion as if he was trying to get my attention.

  Ignoring him, I focused on Todd. “The office was divided, and some people didn’t believe her, or me, for that matter. For six months her life was…tough.”

  “I know all of this.” The words weren’t quite as angry as before. “She was okay. She called me after the verdict and told me what happened. She was sad and said that she’d have to quit. There was no way she could be in that building with him anymore.” Shaking his head, he shoved the gun at me again. “What I want to know is what you said to her on the roof. The police report says she jumped five minutes after you arrived.”

  I looked down at the floor. The guilt overwhelmed me. I’d pushed all of this out of mind more than a month ago. It’d been too much. So much that my body and brain had shut down for the week afterward.

  “I can’t remember,” I sobbed again. This time the sound was torn from my throat. Wrapping my arms around myself, I tried to calm down.

  Mr. Greenblatt had moved beside Todd, and on the other side of him was a woman I didn’t recognize. “Help is on the way,” the elderly gentleman said. “And this woman wants to talk to you.”

  Why won’t you leave me alone! I cleared my throat. “I was in my office on the phone when I heard the commotion out in the lobby. The police were there. I hung up and walked out. I overheard them talking to building security, saying that there was a woman on the roof.”

  My legs gave out and I slid down to the door in a heap.

  “Stand up!” Todd yelled. He shivered. “Don’t you believe in heat? It’s freezing in here.”

  I couldn’t do what he asked. The more the memories came back, the worse I felt. Bile rose in my throat and I shivered too, not from the ghosts that now surrounded us, but from my long-ago buried emotions.

  “I knew when they said someone was on the roof that it was Melinda. I just knew it. At the courthouse she’d been so strong. When the Not Guilty verdict came down, she was a rock. ‘I know you tried,’ she told me. I cried and she gave me comfort, hugged me. She didn’t show an ounce of distress.”

  Hugging my knees, I tried to stop the shivering, which was so bad my teeth chattered. It was as if the shock I’d experienced that day was instantly fresh in my body. “Your sister was an amazing woman. She walked out of that court with her head held high. I knew she would quit. Hell, at that point I even thought about it. Of course, they made the decision for me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  I looked up and saw that the gun was at his side, no longer pointed at me. It didn’t matter. I had to finish the story to the best of my ability.

  “They fired me. Well, it was considered a layoff. But it was just as well. After what happened, I couldn’t be in that place anymore.

  “I told you about the police coming to the office. No one was allowed to go up, but I thought maybe if I could talk with her, help her to see reason. They had officers posted at the elevators, but not the stairwells. I snuck past and climbed the five stories to the top of the building.

  “I opened the door and there were two police officers, and that’s all I can remember.”

  He raised the gun again. “I don’t believe you. How could you forget something so important? Whatever you said made her jump.”

  “I don’t know. I don’t.” I sobbed into my arm. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up. The woman, who had been standing next to Todd, was there. She’d moved to the other side of him so she could touch me.

  “It’s okay, dear. Tell him his mother is here and I want to talk to him.”

  I shook my head. The guy had a gun. I wasn’t about to tell him that his dead mother wanted to talk to him.

  “It will be okay, hon. I promise. Tell him that you see things some people don’t and that Deidre wants to talk to him.”

  I looked to Mr. Greenblatt and he nodded.

  I took a deep steadying breath. “I know you want to kill me, and I don’t blame you. I’d give anything to remember what I said to her. I blacked it all out.” I cleared my throat for the second time. “There’s, um, see—I…oh, geez. I can see things some people can’t.” The words rushed out and I paused. Todd stared at me like I had suddenly turned into an alien.

  “What the hell are you talking about? I want to know about my sister.”

  I held up a hand. “Trust me, I understand, but I have to tell you this. Deidre wants to talk to you. That’s why you feel so chilled. She’s standing next to you.”

  Backing up, he looked to the left and right. “Are you crazy?”

  “Yes, probably. I started hearing voices after Melinda died. Now I actually see dead people. At least I think I do. I know how it sounds. Your mother is here. She’s dressed in a blue dress and black heels and she has a pink rose attached to her lapel. She wants to talk to you.”

  This time he stumbled back. “Hey, I’m not falling for your trick. That’s what we buried her in—anyone could have told you that. Hell, Melinda could have told you.”

  I didn’t want to argue with him.

  Clasping her white-gloved hands in front of her, she nodded toward me. “Tell him when he was seven and stole the peanut butter jar, that I knew he hid it under his bed. And that when he was eleven and had the chicken pox that we made puppets out of the socks I put on his hand to keep him from scratching.”

  I told Todd what she said.

  “It’s—you can’t know that. How do you know that?”

  I shrugged. “She told me.”

  “Tell him I was on the roof that day. I know what happened to my daughter.”

  I relayed the message. Todd just stood there.

  “After you came up, there was a bit of a scurry. The police hadn’t expected you. When you explained who you were, they let you talk to her.” As she explained what happened, my mind opened up.

  Suddenly, I was back on the roof. It was cold being up so high, and I hadn’t remembered my jacket. The wind whipped Melinda’s skirt around as she stood on the ledge. She seemed so calm for someone standing on the edge of a building thirty stories high.

  Her long brown hair waved in the wind.

  “‘Kira, you shouldn’t be here.’ She pointed toward me, her voice monotone.

  “I told her that she was the one who shouldn’t be there. I begged her to step down. Whatever was wrong, we would make it better.

  “She shook her head. ‘There are some things that just can’t be fixed. You’ve been a good friend, but even you can’t get me out of this hell,’ she said. She waved some papers at m
e. ‘He’s hit me with a defamation of character suit. Can you believe that? They were handed to me as I left court.’ She laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound. ‘I’m sorry, Kira. I can’t take it anymore. I’m at the end. I just can’t do it.’

  “I reached out to her,” I told her brother. “‘Please,’ I cried. ‘If you do this, he wins. You can’t let him win. I’ll fight him with you. I promise, we’ll see this through to the end.’

  “She cocked her head and smiled, but it was so sad. ‘You can’t save me this time,’ she said. Then she stepped back. She didn’t scream. One minute she was there, the next…” I cried again. I couldn’t help it. I put my head in my hand. “I didn’t say the right things. I should have never brought him up.”

  The hand rested on my shoulder. “No dear, it wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have done anything different. My daughter took matters into her own hands that day. Nothing you could have said would have made a difference.”

  I explained to Todd what she said. He laid the gun on the library counter.

  “Tell my son I want him to get help. He’s going to want to go after that man. He needs to understand that justice will be done. I won’t have both of my children destroyed because of that evil. Tell him I’m with him always.”

  When I said the last words to him, the tears fell from his eyes and he crumbled to the floor. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so, sorry.”

  I scooted across to him, my legs still too weak to stand. “It’s okay.” He was hunched over, but I put my arms around him the best I could. He sobbed.

  Someone banged on the door and I jerked up.

  “Kira. Are you in there?”

  It was Caleb.

  “Open this damn door or I swear I’ll knock it down. The sheriff’s here and we know someone is in there with you. Let us in.”

  Todd waved a hand. “Let them in. I deserve to go to jail.”

  “You scared me to death with that gun, but you don’t deserve to go jail. I’m not sure what I would have done if I’d been in your shoes. But you have to promise to do what your mom said and get some help.”