Right Witch Wrong Time

by K. M. Waller

  I rubbed the middle of my forehead and said a silent plea to the universe that Lucy had indeed run away and that her hair led me off the map toward Georgia.

  I unfolded the map and sat cross-legged in front of it. I emptied the hair into the middle. I cleared my mind and reached out for the powers of the cosmos. “Cosmos guide me, let my crystal fall, find missing Lucy, so I can end this all.”

  The crystal swirled over and over and for a brief second I believed it would fall off the map. Then it dropped into a wooded area not more than a mile from the school. I took a pen out of my bag and circled the area.

  I gathered my materials and shoved them into my bag. A midnight run into the woods wouldn’t do me any good. I’d get a few hours of sleep and then in the morning before breakfast, I’d find Lucy.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I tossed and turned into the early hours of the morning. I’d missed a major clue, and I could feel it at the edge of my brain. Unable to write anything down, I had to build out the branches in my head with what I knew.

  Someone—a scorned lover of Don Ruiz—murdered two of his girlfriends. I shook out the theory. Or Don Ruiz—who had access to Penny’s scissors because he owned the building—took out two of his ex-lovers because they threatened to go to Grams.

  I flopped onto my side. Laura’s snores greeted me.

  Why would Don leave the Sarah doll and Lucy’s hair for Grams? That theory didn’t work either.

  Every woman connected with the case visited the salon in town. They had an opportunity to grab the expensive pair of feathering scissors at any time. And to have chunks of discarded hair to use to make the poppet dolls.

  I could safely take Michelle off of the suspect list after being a target. Unless she faked her car crash, but she didn’t strike me as the type to indulge in suffering broken bones to throw off suspicion.

  I flopped to my other side, frustration building in my chest. My powers of empath had been useless on this assignment. All because I dealt with too many hormonal teens and my own family drama.

  Why would the Agency send me here?

  I flopped on my back and took a deep steadying breath. Failure was not an option. I glanced at the clock on Laura’s bedside table. An hour before sunrise. I climbed out of bed and dressed in shorts and my cheap tennis shoes.

  Lucy had been missing six months. Her body would have seen substantial decay or been the further victim of animals scrounging for a meal. All I needed was a partial find. An article of clothing or something to tip off the state detective.

  I bit my lip. The Agency’s clean-up crew would not be happy with me if I created a time anomaly mess with my find.

  I’d worry about that later.

  I opened the door to find Rebecca poised to knock. Dark shadows showed beneath her eyes. “Can you handle breakfast with the girls? Michelle usually likes to do the cooking, but well…”

  Needing to maintain my cover until I solved the case, I shook my head in agreement. I’d go out right after breakfast instead.

  Pots and pans clinked from the small kitchenette and I found Jennifer slamming things around in a huff. “This is child slave labor,” she said when she saw me standing at the door.

  “Oh, really?” I wasn’t in the mood for her attitude.

  She stomped to the fridge and removed several cartons of eggs. “I’m going to burn everything on purpose.”

  “Not only will you have nothing to eat, but the rest of the girls will be mad at you for ruining breakfast.”

  She smashed an egg on the counter and dropped its contents plus a chunk of shell into a bowl.

  “Um, let me help with that.” I took the next egg victim out of her hand. “Watch.” I gently tapped the egg on the side of the bowl and used my thumbs to break it in half. “Now there won’t be a crunch in the scrambled eggs.”

  She snickered and grabbed a spoon to pull out the shell already in the bowl. “I guess I shouldn’t punish everyone else.”

  “That’s a better attitude to take.” I pulled out a loaf of bread from the cabinet. “I heard you were missing from your room last night.”

  “I would have made it back before getting caught if not for the accident outside of town.” She cracked eggs like I’d shown her. “I saw you pull up with Hector’s mom. That was weird.”

  “You were there?”

  “Hiding in the trees.” She paused her cracking and glanced at me. “I saw the accident happen.”

  I dropped a piece of bread on the floor. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “I got scared.”

  Understandably so. “Did you see the car that ran her off the road?”

  “It was so dark I couldn’t tell. First, they used their bright headlights, and then shut them off completely.” She flicked her hair behind her shoulders. “Should I say something now?”

  Her account matched up with Michelle’s story.

  Voices from the dining room meant hungry girls would be pounding on the tables soon.

  “What about the blue truck you reported seeing in your statement?” If she called me on it I’d lie and say they allowed all the adults to read the statements.

  Her face blanched. “We… lied about the truck. We were just having fun with the cops.”

  I pursed my lips but kept my chiding comments to myself. If I scolded her for her thoughtlessness, she might not answer any more questions. “Think hard one more time. Was there anything about the other car you can remember?”

  She whipped the eggs with a whisk for about a minute. Then she shook her head. “Not really.”

  I took the bowl from her and added the eggs to a large griddle. “That’s okay. I’ll pass on the information to Officer Mike.”

  She hopped on the counter. “Why were you with Mrs. Ruiz?”

  Need a good lie. “She saw me walking back from town and offered me a ride.” Maybe not a good lie, but passable.

  “That doesn’t sound like her.” Her tone filled with teen attitude and sarcasm. She picked at the edge of a fingernail.

  I held my comments. No matter how much I wanted to use this as a teaching moment so that my future mom would be nicer than my Grams, the honest truth was that Grams wasn’t nice and she didn’t approve of Jennifer. Nothing I could say would change that.

  I washed my hands. “Grab the butter and get started on the toast. We’re almost ready to serve.” Even though the menu called for bacon and cut up fruit, I didn’t have time to organize a complete breakfast. Rebecca would have to deal with the complaints.

  Jennifer and I worked quietly arranging the eggs and toast on serving platters. I let her take the food to the dining room while I slipped out the back door.

  The sun crested over the trees brightening the sky with an orange glow. I’d lost the cover of early morning. I used the folded map to guide me. I kept close to the road until time to turn in and walk through brush and trees. Land navigation had never been my strong suit. Getting off course would be easy depending on how the terrain differed from the time of the mapmaking.

  It didn’t take me long to come into a clearing. The area had the remains of beer bottles and a burn pile. A grown over path led away from the clearing and into the trees. A hang out maybe? I picked through some leftover trash. If so, it hadn’t been used in some time.

  I started a circular search the same way I’d gone through Sarah’s room. From the middle, I walked slowly searching for any disruption in the ground.

  Another fun fact I’d learned early on was most make-shift graves were shallow and less than a foot deep. The killers rarely brought the materials required to hide a body properly. Evil vampires were bold and left bodies out in the open. Were-animals would try to hide them after they returned to human form. Witches were usually better at making bodies disappear.

  After half an hour of slowly walking in a circle and kicking up dirt, I bit my bottom lip hard. I resigned to looking in the burn pile. I grabbed a sturdy stick and pushed around the pile of ashes and half-burnt logs. W
hen my stick caught on a black piece of cloth near the bottom, I pulled it toward me. I could see the edges of the emblem from the girls’ school uniform.

  Enough for me. With the scrying and garment, there wasn’t any doubt Lucy ended up here under less than happy circumstances.

  I’d write an anonymous letter and stick it in Officer Mike’s car. Even if she didn’t have any family, her ghost deserved the peace of a final resting place not in the woods.

  If only I had the ability to see ghosts like other Agency witches. Although that power came with its own set of rules and problems too. I glanced at my watch. Rebecca would be sputtering over my absence.

  I backed against a tree and closed my eyes to clear my head. How did I dupe the murderer into revealing herself? I could plant the seed that I knew about this burial site. Or even if I didn’t know it was a burial site, the killer would get nervous if she knew people would be traipsing around out here.

  How could I spread that information? I had a friend in the biggest gossip in town. Missy would inform everyone at the salon and it would spread from there. If I planned a pretend camping trip for the girls the next night, the chances were high the killer would want to make sure that nothing led back to them. They’d come out to remove any possible evidence.

  While I’d started with a large pool of suspects, I had to consider that the killer was someone I hadn’t had a conversation with yet. Someone who might have noticed me but didn’t need to interact yet.

  I chopped down my mind tree. With five days left, I had to start from scratch on building the profile in my head if my plan to snare them didn’t work.

  I straightened. It would work. No room for self-doubt. Exactly what I told my few personal training clients all the time.

  Still sore from Jazzercise and the extra walking, my body groaned a little as I started the mile walk back to the school. I stuck to the inside tree line to keep from the view of the road. If the killer didn’t mind running into cars, I had to assume they’d be happy to run a pedestrian down too.

  Rebecca stood by Chief Everett’s car as I trudged forward into the parking lot.

  “Where have you been?” she asked, her face pinched with concern.

  “Part of my P.E. plan is to take the girls camping,” I lied with ease. “I scouted a clearing not too far away. It’d be perfect for setting up tents.”

  “We don’t have any tents.” Rebecca’s tone softened. “There’s no money in the budget for it.”

  “Then we’ll hike there and roast marshmallows. I’ll pay for the marshmallows myself.” I turned to the chief who’d stayed quiet during our interaction. “That is, if you think it’s safe for us to take a hike into the woods?”

  “You girls better know proper fire safety,” he grumbled.

  “I was talking about the murder and attempt on Michelle’s life,” I said.

  “Had to be a stranger passing through both times.”

  He said the lie like he believed it. Or he had a heady dose of denial because his small-town police department wasn’t equipped for solving the murder.

  I raised my eyebrows at Rebecca, waiting for her final approval. She didn’t have the future knowledge to know the girls were safe from the murderer.

  “I don’t mind a short hike,” she said. “As long as you take Laura with you.”

  “Great. I’ll tell her now.” I left the chief and Rebecca standing by his police car and went in search of Laura. I wanted to borrow her car so I didn’t have to do much more hiking before the evening trap.

  She was busy counseling a girl, so I opted to take the car now and ask for forgiveness later. I found her car keys on her bedside table.

  My first stop in town was the IGA to stock up on marshmallows. I needed props to sell the trap. I’d parked in front of the salon and caught Missy and Penny standing out front taking a break.

  “Y’all making s’mores?” Penny asked.

  “I love s’mores,” Missy offered.

  “Actually, I’ve found this amazing clearing about a mile from the school. Looks like some local teens might have used it for a make-out area or to drink. I’m taking all the girls out to there tomorrow to roast these bad boys.” I held up the shopping bags.

  Penny gasped. “You’re taking the girls into the murder woods at night?”

  “No, the opposite direction of where the school headmistress was killed. This clearing is closer to town.” I fed them as much information as I could. That gave them several hours to pass along the gossip to their patrons. Anything to do with the girls would be deemed newsworthy.

  “I don’t think you should take them out there,” Missy said. “It could be dangerous.”

  “Your dad said it would be safe. And he should know since he’s the chief of police, right?”

  “Uh huh.” Missy’s words might have agreed with me but she shook her head no.

  “Anyway, I best be off.” I settled for cheerful in my tone to convey that I didn’t have a care in the world.

  They bustled back inside and I waved goodbye through the car’s windshield. I’d conserved most of my magic but now I had a reason to pull out all the stops. By tonight, I’d have the killer in my sights.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I took a page out of my Grams’ book and decided to try using rune carvings for my trap. After dropping off the car to a less than pleased Laura, I grabbed a flashlight and screwdriver from the utility closet and climbed out my window. Rebecca and the girls were busy with dinner and I didn’t have time to explain my upcoming absence.

  Michelle had returned from her emergency room visit with the diagnosis of a broken arm. She’d gone straight to her room and asked not to be disturbed. At least both Rebecca and Laura were on hand in case of another incident.

  I had a killer to catch.

  My trek down the side of the road and through the woods took less time now that I’d discovered the location of the clearing. I stayed on the opposite side of the path and began carving the protection symbol into a ring of trees. I didn’t know a lot of witches who used rune carvings in the states but the Agency had given me a basic breakdown on how they worked. Make the carvings, believe in the carvings, be specific about what the carvings need to do. Grams had wanted hers to protect against anyone who wished her harm. I wanted mine to be more specific.

  “Hear me cosmos, my carvings divine, protect me from a killer, before I go back to my time.” Just because there weren’t any other deaths recorded in the case files, didn’t mean that my death couldn’t happen. I’d disappear and be an unsolved case. Then another poor Agency witch would have to jump in and solve my murder within seven days.

  I cringed. What an embarrassment that would be. Lily Rose would pull a ghostly switcheroo and never let my spirit rest. Reverse haunting it’d be called.

  I carved the last rune and stood in the middle of my three chosen trees. A rustling from across the clearing caught my attention. My breath hitched. Who would push through the overgrown bushes?

  I immediately recognized the curly haired sprite of a woman as Missy. My heart thudded in overtime. It never occurred to me she’d be so nosy as to check out the clearing herself. Any minute a murderer could come up behind her like an 80s horror flick.

  “Missy!” I yelled as I jogged out of my hiding place. “What are you doing here?” I had to convince her to come back to the trees with the protection runes since I couldn’t send her back the way she came in.

  She startled and dropped something she’d been carrying in her hands.

  A poppet doll.

  Oh snap.

  “Why do you have that doll?” I didn’t want the answer to be that she planned on using it for another murder. But Missy wasn’t a witch. She hadn’t given off one paranormal vibe. Had she?

  “It’s just a thing I experiment with.” She grabbed the doll and thrust it behind her back. “Like a hobby.”

  I swallowed hard and my gaze shifted to the place where I knew poor Lucy to be buried. “Whose hair is on the d
oll this time?”

  Her eyes hardened and her pupils grew in size.

  Scary.

  She raised the doll and her arms to the sky. “Arzizopath loo mari cann ooo.”

  I flinched, and every muscle in my body tightened waiting for whatever spell she cast on me to take effect. When nothing happened, I repeated her words in my head. Not words though. “That’s not a spell, that’s gibberish. You’re not a witch.”

  “I am too!” She screeched. Her face reddened. “I am all powerful!”

  Delusional, maybe.

  I crossed my arms but kept my stance ready for a fight. I wanted answers before I took her down. “I thought we were friends. Why are you trying to cast a spell on me?”

  She tilted her head and her expression softened. “So you don’t tell my daddy about the dolls. He doesn’t like them.”

  “Does the Chief know what you’ve done to Sarah and Lucy?” The trampled crime scene, misdirection about the animal mauling, and the reluctance to allow the state detective to help now made sense. If he didn’t directly know of her murdering activities, he certainly suspected them and tried to cover them up.

  She shivered. “He’d send me back to the hospital if he did. I tell him daily that I promise to be a good girl and he lets me stay here.”

  “Why did you kill Sarah and Lucy?” I watched as she put the doll in front of her and rubbed the straw arms. “How did you lure them into the woods?”

  “Don wanted them gone. I pretended to be him meeting them at their spots. He likes to park his car with them. Here and behind the school. But he was done with both of them.”

  “He told you that?” I glanced around. Could Step-grams be an accomplice after all?

  “In my dreams, he did. We have to be careful during the day, but at night, he visits me in my dreams and he loves me. Not those other women.” Her grip on the doll tightened. “And not his stupid wife.”

  “Whose hair is on that doll?” I asked again. Please don’t say mine. If she hadn’t come out here to hurt me, there was a chance I’d be able to reason with her long enough to get the evidence turned over to Officer Mike.