The Witching Hour

by Anina Collins

  I opened my mouth to correct Stephen’s incorrect assumption about Amy and her beliefs, but Alex stopped me by speaking first. “Well, it looks like you guys have this all under control, so I think Poppy and I will return to our evening. Have a good one!”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Donny walking into the clearing. I wanted to protest our leaving simply because I wanted to ensure this case didn’t devolve into some nonsense about witches like Stephen seemed intent on believing, but before I could say anything, Craig began retching again.

  Derek turned to look at us and groaned. “I want you to help Stephen with the case since Craig might not be ready yet.” He then looked at me and said, “Looks like you and your partner have a new case.”

  Seemingly satisfied, even as his junior officer remained throwing up in the bushes, Derek began to walk back toward the road, patting Alex on the shoulder. “Good luck. Those two are going to be a handful. Just remember if she tries to kill him, I’ll have no choice but to end this arrangement between you two. And I want this case solved quickly. If this has even the hint of witches being involved, this could get out of hand. Let’s avoid that, okay?”

  Slightly offended that he thought I might do something so unprofessional, I said nothing. I had no intention of doing anything to jeopardize my working with Alex. My dislike for Stephen aside, I wouldn’t let my feelings about him ruin something so important to us.

  Stephen frowned at us and said in his usual nasty way, “I’ve got this under control. We can pick this all up in the morning when we’ll at least have Donny’s preliminary report.”

  “Thanks! Sounds good!” Alex said as he quickly began to usher me back through the woods toward the car.

  I spun out of his hold and headed back toward the scene to take a closer look at Amy’s body and that dagger before Donny and his guys hauled her away. As he crouched next to her, I examined the weapon protruding from her chest. No ordinary knife, the silver dagger had a pentacle carved into the handle surrounded by what I believed was a Celtic knot design. As much as I knew Amy hadn’t considered herself a witch, the weapon that had killed her made Stephen’s claim that witches were involved all the more likely.

  Alex leaned in close and whispered in my ear, “You ready?”

  I wanted to look at those black rocks surrounding her body a bit more since I doubted they were ordinary stones that belonged in the woods, but his words carried a tone of impatience, so I put off my examination of them until the morning and left with him.

  We started back toward my house, and he said in a hopeful voice, “That was nice of him.”

  Confused, I looked over at Alex. “Who?”

  “Stephen. It was nice of him to let us get back to our night.”

  I held onto the door handle as the Mustang bounced over the rocky road and thought about Stephen’s gesture. I suspected being nice wasn’t his intention. He disliked my being involved in cases, so creating an excuse to get me away from the scene was likely his real motive.

  But I was more interested in why Alex had withheld information from his fellow police officers.

  “Why didn’t you tell them about what I knew about Amy?” I asked as we got back onto the paved road.

  Alex looked over at me and shook his head. “The last thing Sunset Ridge needs is some modern day witch hunt. The investigation will be a mess before it even begins, and we’ll get nothing done if people get wind of this being anything tied to witches.”

  “Druids. Amy was a Druid, Alex.”

  He turned back to look at the road and pressed his foot on the gas. “Witches. Druids. It doesn’t matter. Sunset Ridge is a small town, Poppy. Anything out of the norm could cause this case to be a mess.”

  As we raced past the trees in the darkness, the headlights the only light showing us the way back to town, I warned, “At some point, it’s going to come out. What then?”

  “Why should it? Would it come out if she practiced any mainstream religion? So she was a Druid. So what?”

  I knew he was just being hopeful, but I knew what would happen. “You just said it. This is a small town. Anything out of the mainstream will be important. It’s just the way it is.”

  Alex sighed and nodded his agreement, resigned to the reality of what life in our small town was like. “I know. I just want to put it off until we can’t anymore. I like cases to be as uncontroversial as possible.”

  Reaching over, I squeezed his forearm in sympathy. “I know, but this is life in Sunset Ridge.”

  I knew all too well truer words had never left my lips. But I also knew Alex was right. If we weren’t careful, this case would turn into a circus once the news got out that Amy was a Druid.

  “That knife was no ordinary weapon, Alex. Did you see the pentacle etched into the handle?”

  He nodded and bit the inside of his mouth. “Yeah. And those rocks and candles weren’t ordinary either. Whatever Amy was, she was involved in something in that clearing that killed her. I just hope we can get this case solved before the gossips begin to talk about witchcraft.”

  Chapter Two

  The clock said it wasn’t even eight o’clock in the morning yet, but a quick step outside onto my back porch told me it was going to be another stifling hot day. The heat wave had definitely settled in to Sunset Ridge. My pale blue sundress practically stuck to my skin after just a few seconds, and I barely got a full breath of humid air into my lungs before turning around and heading back into the air conditioned splendor of the house. I loved sun and summertime as much as anyone, but air that felt like it hung off you like velvet draperies wasn’t really my favorite thing.

  The delicious smell of coffee brewing brought a smile to my face as I hurried to close the door to leave the humidity outside, where it belonged. Hopefully, wherever the case of Amy Perkins’ murder led us today, it would be inside where sensible people would have their air conditioning blasting.

  “Poppy? Is that you?” Alex yelled down the stairs, his voice full of worry.

  “Yeah. I just went out to see how hot it is today. Word to the wise: shorts and a t-shirt is the optimal outfit for the day.”

  A few seconds later, he appeared in front of me wearing his dark blue police officer uniform, complete with long sleeves and pants. He certainly wore it well, but just seeing him standing there with so much clothing on made me sweat.

  “Or you could wear the usual and die of heat exhaustion,” I joked as he leaned against the doorway buttoning the second button on his shirt and smiled at me, ever so slightly amused by my teasing.

  “You know I don’t really have a choice, right? I don’t think the people of Sunset Ridge would think much of seeing their police force answering calls dressed like surfers. Doesn’t exactly inspire the level of confidence we’re going for.”

  “I think you look great in shorts and a tank top, but there are a few on the force I could definitely go without seeing so much of. A few come to mind immediately,” I said, grimacing at the thought of Craig with his chicken legs out for all to see.

  It was bad enough I’d had to see them a few times when we ran across each other on his days off and he dressed in his regular street clothes. Craig wasn’t a bad looking guy, but the poor soul had the skinniest legs I’d ever seen on a man. I doubted those pasty sticks could hold him if he ever had to run, bless his heart.

  Alex, on the other hand, had great legs. The man worked out every day, getting up before the sun to head out on a run or to go lift at the gym, so his legs, like every other part of him, were toned and muscular. I wouldn’t have minded seeing him in any state of less dress, even though I could see as much as I wanted of him on any given night.

  “Coffee ready?” he asked, tearing me out of my fantasy of him wearing shorts and a t-shirt like I’d suggested.

  “Of course. You’re at the house of Poppy McGuire, and we worship at the altar of the almighty bean here, sir,” I said as walked across the room toward the counter to pour us some morning go-go juice.

&n
bsp; But he stopped me before I even reached the coffee maker by positioning himself between me and the counter. “I got it. Why don’t you take a seat at the table and I’ll bring it to you?”

  “Okay. Thanks!”

  I wasn’t going to say no to being waited on by a gorgeous man in a uniform, so I sat down at my tiny kitchen table and watched him carefully make both our cups of coffee. He preferred his black these days, so that wasn’t much of an effort, but he took time to make sure mine was exactly as I liked my first cup of the day and before I knew it, he’d set the cup down in front of me.

  He took his seat across from me and smiled, so I joked, “Well, service with a smile. A girl can get used to this.”

  “Good, but it’s nothing. Just a cup of coffee.”

  I lifted the cup to my lips and enjoyed my first sip of my favorite drink as it hit my tongue, loving the sweet yet tangy taste as much as I did the first time I drank coffee back in college. Until then, I’d been a tea drinker, but finals week in freshman year had required something more caffeinated than chamomile tea, and at that moment sitting in my dorm room the night before my Psych 101 final, a coffee lover was born.

  “You make one hell of a cup of coffee,” I said, lifting my mug to toast his ability.

  “It never ceases to amaze me how much you love this stuff. I don’t think I’ve ever met another person, man or woman, who loves coffee as much as you do. And you never seem to get jittery, even though I’ve seen you put away five or six cups of coffee in a day.”

  “It’s the nectar of the gods,” I joked. “The gods on Olympics are said to have loved ambrosia, but I think it was coffee. I know I’d need coffee if I had to rule an entire world.”

  Alex gave me a tiny smirk, much less than the smile I’d expected from my joking, and then it faded quickly and he returned to looking serious, like usual. I had a sense something might be on his mind, so I waited a few minutes for him to bring it up, reveling in my first coffee of the day.

  When he didn’t say anything, I finally broached the topic. “I know I’m no comedian, but you usually give me more than a tiny, forced smile when I tell you something sort of funny. Have we reached the point in our relationship where you don’t feel like you have to pretend to think I’m amusing anymore?”

  In usual Alex fashion, he shook his head and looked at me like he couldn’t believe I’d ever think that. “No, and I hope we never get to that place. I’m sorry I didn’t laugh. I have something on my mind.”

  As I had yesterday while we ate dinner out at the picnic table, I wondered if the something on his mind was us taking our relationship to the next level. He had mentioned how much time he spent at my house a few times, so maybe he was having a hard time coming up with a way to say he wanted to move in. I wanted to tell him there was no reason to be diplomatic. All he had to do was say the word and I’d be happy to say we were living together.

  But so far, I hadn’t heard that word or any others that told me he wanted to live with me, no matter how much we were basically living together already.

  “Anything I can help with?” I asked quietly against the lip of my coffee mug before taking a drink to steel my nerves for what he might want to discuss.

  “It actually involves you, so I think it’s definitely something you can help with,” he answered with a smile I had a sense was an attempt to hide how uncomfortable he was about what he had to say.

  I set my coffee down on the table in front of me and leaned forward a little, hoping my body language told him he had the green light to tell me anything. “Well, I just want you to know whatever it is, Alex, if it involves me, the answer is probably yes. I mean, I can’t imagine anything you have to tell me being something I wouldn’t like.”

  Rambling aside, I hoped he understood he had a willing audience in me for whatever he had to say.

  Slowly, he lifted his cup to his lips and tilted it so the last of his coffee spilled into his mouth before he abruptly stood up and walked over to the sink. His sudden change of location surprised me, and I turned around to look at him as he stood with his back toward me.

  “Is something wrong? You don’t seem okay, all of a sudden.”

  He said nothing while he washed his cup and then set it upside down in the dish drainer, but then he turned around to face me and nodded. What could be wrong?

  “I didn’t want to mention this last night, but I can’t stop thinking about how I have to tell Stephen the truth of what I know about Amy. I regret not telling him last night.”

  I hated seeing Alex unhappy, and at that moment, the frown on his face told me he was truly troubled, like not telling Stephen the tiny bit of information I’d given him less than twelve hours earlier was some major infraction of the police officers’ code or something. My feelings for him made me want to change that.

  Standing, I walked over toward the sink and set my cup on the counter as I slid my arms around his waist. I looked up into those dark eyes so serious and smiled. “You said last night that mentioning what Amy believed could cause this case to become a mess. Isn’t that why you didn’t mention anything to him last night?”

  His expression twisted into one of almost pain, and he shook his head. “Not really. I didn’t tell him because I don’t trust him like I should trust a fellow officer.”

  “Why?”

  Alex sighed. “Because of how he’s been toward you. I don’t like that because that means I’m letting my personal opinions color my professional ones. That’s not good.”

  Tilting my head, I kissed him softly on the cheek for being such a good man. “Thank you for showing me chivalry isn’t dead.”

  He gave me a tiny smile but said nothing, so I continued. “That doesn’t make you any less a great cop, though, Alex. I hope you know that.”

  Nodding, he said, “I just want to be honest with him. He’s as much my partner on this as you are, and you wouldn’t expect any less than complete honesty.”

  As much as I was loathe to admit it concerning Stephen, he was right. On this case, he was his partner just like I was and holding back information that may help us solve the case did no good. I just hoped Stephen reacted the way I would when he found out what Alex had to tell him. In that way, I had a sinking feeling he was nothing like me.

  And the fact that he seemed to dislike me intensely didn’t help matters, in my mind. True, he hadn’t been outright rude to us last night, but had that been more about doing a favor for Alex as opposed to doing something to be nice to the two of us?

  Unable to hold back anymore, I looked up at Alex and quietly asked, “Do you know why he doesn’t like me? Have I done something wrong that I should apologize for? I would, you know. I would because I don’t want you feeling like this case is going to be harder because we don’t get along. Even if it was something that I was completely innocent in, I’d still swallow my pride because I don’t want this to make your life difficult. This is your job, and I respect that.”

  Now it was his turn to smile, and this time it was nothing less than genuine, warming up his brown eyes in that way I knew meant I’d made him happy.

  He brought my hand to his lips and gently kissed my knuckles before looking up at me in that way that never failed to make my stomach do somersaults. “You haven’t done anything, Poppy. I don’t know why he doesn’t like you, and to be honest, I don’t care. I like you, so that’s all that matters to me.”

  “Just like me?” I asked playfully, knowing the answer and loving it.

  Alex winked at me and grinned wickedly. “I think last night was proof that I’m way beyond like. I might be way beyond love, if I’m being honest.”

  “What’s way beyond love?”

  He looked up toward the ceiling, as if he was actually thinking of what the answer to my question could be, and then lowered his head to kiss me. “Completely and utterly devoted to you?”

  Oh, my. When he said things like that, I wanted to tear that crisply pressed uniform off his body and show him right there in my ki
tchen how completely crazy I was about him. I didn’t even care if my neighbors saw us through the windows either.

  “You know, I think you say these things to me at times like this because you know it drives me nuts that we can’t do anything since we have to go to work. I think you’re a tease, Alex Montero. A tease, I say.”

  That wicked grin returned, and he chuckled. “Me? A tease? No way. I always deliver on my promises. I offer last night as evidence of that, Miss McGuire.”

  As memories of our time together flashed through my mind, I had to admit he was telling the truth. He did deliver. There was no arguing with that.

  “You’re lucky I have a healthy respect for the fact that you just spent all that time ironing your uniform or you’d see how I deliver,” I teased, playing with the buttons down the front of his shirt.

  He brushed his lips against mine and whispered, “Tonight. I promise. We’ll come back right after my shift is done, and I promise to deliver whatever you want.”

  I loved that idea, but his suggestion made me wonder if he’d ever bring up the topic of us moving in together, so I decided to gently bring it up now. “You want to come back here again? You’ve been here a lot in the past couple weeks. I’m not sure I can remember when you were last at your house.”

  He nodded and hummed for a second. “True. I don’t think I’ve been home for more than a few minutes since last month. Are you saying you want me to spend more time there? I have sort of just moved in here without even mentioning it to you. I’d understand if you felt like you needed some space.”

  Clearly this was going all wrong. Now I had him talking about giving me space, which I didn’t want, and spending less time at my house, which I didn’t want either.

  “No, no. That’s not what I meant at all. I just noticed you were staying here most nights is all. I don’t want you to think I don’t like that, though, because I do.”

  He studied my face for a moment, likely wondering what the hell I was talking about since I’d been the one who brought up this whole conversation in the first place, and then shrugged. “Okay. I like staying here, if I’m being honest, so that’s good that you like having me here.”