The Witching Hour

by Anina Collins

  The woman hurried to get the supervisor as I stood gazing longingly at the goodies in the cases and wondered how anyone could work at a place like this and not eat their weight in sugary goodies every week. I thought about how fit Amy Perkins had been and didn’t know how she managed to keep in such good shape working here.

  Maybe something in being a Druid kept her thin.

  “I swear, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so quiet,” Alex said, breaking into my thoughts.

  “Well, now you know what to get me for my birthday and every gift-giving holiday from this point on,” I said with a smile, only half-joking.

  As the woman returned through the factory door, he said quietly, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  She waved us around to her side of the counter. “If you’ll come with me, I’ll take you to Mr. Dixon. Please follow me.”

  We did as she instructed and found ourselves not in a factory but a room that resembled a kitchen, just the biggest kitchen I’d ever seen. Large cabinets with stainless steel countertops ran in three rows with space between them for workers. Ovens lined the two shorter walls, with racks taking up the one longer wall and what looked like large stainless steel boxes taking up the other long wall. Eight workers all dressed in white from head to toe like the woman who had brought us back stood at each countertop finishing cakes and pastries with frosting and other tasty touches.

  A slightly overweight man with thinning brown hair and glasses approached us wearing a pale blue short-sleeved dress shirt and brown dress pants covered in flour handprints. Smiling broadly so his full cheeks puffed out, he wiped his palms on his thighs and extended his right hand to shake ours.

  “I’m Walter Dixon. Officer Montero, I hope nothing’s wrong to bring you here.”

  “I’m afraid there is, Mr. Dixon. Is there somewhere the three of us could talk in private?” Alex said in his serious way that instantly frightened the bakery supervisor enough to make his smile slide from his face.

  “Yes, yes, of course. Please follow me,” he said as he quickly led us to an office right off the kitchen area.

  Closing the door behind us, he sat down in a chair at a round table and looked up in terror at us. Had he been that close to Amy? But the absolute fear in his eyes didn’t make sense after the cheery greeting he’d given us just a minute before. Maybe he had something to hide.

  “What’s wrong, Mr. Dixon?” Alex asked as he took his pad and pen out of his pocket.

  He stretched his mouth wide and tried to look relaxed, but the action only had the effect of making him look like he was in pain. “It’s my ex-wife, isn’t it? She told me she’d call the cops when I didn’t get all of my things out of the house by Wednesday. I just didn’t have the time to rent a truck. I do plan to get everything out of there as soon as I can. If you can just give me a couple more days, I swear, I’ll get it all out and she can have the place all to herself.”

  I looked over at Alex and saw the briefest hint of disgust in his expression. That Mr. Dixon thought we were there to make him remove the rest of his junk from his former house was ridiculous. As if the police routinely helped exes out in their desire to rid themselves from their former spouses.

  “That’s not why we’re here, sir. An employee of yours was found dead last night, and we need to ask you some questions about her.”

  As soon as the words left Alex’s mouth, Walter Dixon jumped up from his chair, shaking his head frantically. “Dead? Who?”

  “Amy Perkins. We were told she was employed here as a cake decorator. What can you tell us about her working here?” he asked.

  Walter Dixon’s shoulders sagged, as if the news he’d just heard about one of his workers depressed him greatly. “Oh, Amy. What happened? She was one of my best decorators.”

  “She was murdered, sir. Found out in the woods outside of town near Miller Road.”

  He slid his finger up under his eye to wipe away a tear and then adjusted his glasses. “Murdered? Oh, my God. This is terrible.”

  “Anything you can tell us about her would be helpful, Mr. Dixon.”

  “Amy was a wonderful person to work with. She kept to herself and didn’t get involved in the spats that often happen with the other workers. She never missed her shift, and she made cakes everyone said were the best looking cakes they’d ever seen. I can honestly say she was one of my favorite employees.”

  Alex jotted a few notes as the man spoke, so I asked, “Can you think of any reason anyone would want to hurt Amy?”

  Without giving it a second’s thought, he shook his head. “No. She never bothered a soul here.”

  “Did anyone have any issues with her being a Druid?” Alex asked.

  The supervisor’s eyes flew open wide. “A what?”

  Alex smiled and turned to look at me as if to say I could have the pleasure to getting into a religious discussion with the man. As he watched, I explained, “A Druid is a type of pagan. Amy considered herself a Druid. She tended to keep it private, though, so it’s possible her co-workers wouldn’t have known.”

  “I didn’t know, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. No one ever complained about Amy for anything, though. I was actually the person who hired her four years ago when I was the HR person.”

  “Do you know why she chose to leave the health services field since she had a degree in that?” Alex asked as he jotted down the words DIDN’T TELL COWORKERS ABOUT BEING A DRUID in his notes.

  “No, I have no idea. She never mentioned a reason why. I was just happy to have her after I saw how talented she was decorating cakes. I was happy to give her all the hours I could.”

  “Was she close to any of her fellow workers?” I asked, hoping Amy had confided in at least one person in her time at Charming Cakes.

  Walter nodded. “There is one person I used to see her take breaks with. Her name is Marie Dondel. She’s also a cake decorator. I can get her for you, if you like.”

  Alex didn’t answer him, so I said, “Thank you. That would be wonderful. Can we speak to her in here so we can have privacy?”

  “Yes, of course. I’ll go get her right now.”

  As Walter Dixon ran out to the kitchen area to get Amy’s only friend at Charming Cakes, Alex continued to write notes in his pad. Leaning over, I watched him put down KEPT TO HERSELF—LONER AT WORK.

  “I hope Marie can give us a clue as to what Amy was doing for the past few weeks since she stopped attending those Tuesday night witches’ circle meetings,” I whispered when he finished his notes.

  “Maybe she had to work Tuesdays. Or maybe all she did was hang out with her boyfriend, who I want to go see right after this.”

  Leaning away from him, I smiled. “That’s a lot of time with one person. Even you and I don’t spend that much time together.”

  He didn’t have time to say anything in return because at that moment, Walter Dixon ushered Marie Dondel into the room and we got to see the only person Amy had spent any time with at work.

  The first thing I noticed about Marie was how brown her eyes were, probably because she stared so wide-eyed with a look of pure sadness in them. At any moment, she appeared on the verge of breaking into tears. Her dark hair hung in tight curls that bounced every time she moved her head. Thin like Amy, she clearly didn’t overindulge on the treats they made either.

  “I’ll leave you alone,” Walter Dixon said. “If there’s anything I can do, please let me know, Officer Montero.”

  Once we were alone with Marie, she sat down and quietly began to sob, covering her face with her hands. “I can’t believe this happened. Amy would never hurt a fly.”

  “Miss Dondel, is there anything you can tell us that may help us find who did this to your friend?” Alex asked as he sat down in a chair across from her.

  She wiped the tears from her cheeks and took a deep breath before letting it out in a huge sigh. “Walter mentioned about her being a Druid. Do you think that had anything to do with it?”

  “We don’t know. We kn
ow she kept her religious beliefs private, so there might be something else that led to her death.”

  “Amy and I were close work friends. I knew Amy was into something different religiously, but she never brought that into our friendship. We went out a couple times over the years, but Amy usually had a boyfriend so she spent time with whoever she was seeing at the time.”

  I watched Alex’s eyes light up at the mention of Amy’s boyfriend. Hopefully, Marie would know something about him that we could take into our interview with him right after this.

  “What can you tell us about the man she was dating?” he asked, holding his pen over the notepad, poised and ready to write whatever she said.

  “Amy was very private about her personal life. I do know the guy she’s been dating for the past three months is named Kellen Martin. I never met him, but I had a feeling that Amy wasn’t exactly happy.”

  Alex jumped on that statement. “Why would you say that?”

  “I don’t know. She never seemed really thrilled when she mentioned that they did something together. I got the feeling he was controlling. One time she said she really wanted to go see some movie and he didn’t want to go, so they didn’t go. Sounded controlling to me, but I could be wrong.”

  The sadness in Marie’s voice as she spoke about her friend made me wish I had gotten to know Amy better. She sounded like a great person to be around.

  “What about any previous boyfriends? Do you know any of their names?” I asked.

  “She never really talked about the men she dated. Other than Kellen, I never got the sense that any of them were very important in her life, though. She just liked to have fun. She was young, so that was okay.”

  I didn’t want Marie to think we were judging her friend, so I quickly nodded and said, “Of course. We’re just looking for any clues that can help us find who did this. Often, former boyfriends are likely suspects.”

  “No one stands out in my memory. I’m sorry. Amy wasn’t the type of person anyone would want to hurt. At least, it never seemed like she was. She was fun-loving and sweet, and because of that, she hadn’t really settled down until recently with Kellen.”

  “Is there anything else you can tell us about anyone here who might have wanted to harm her or anything about her boyfriend?” I asked, hoping for anything to give us a direction on who would have wanted Amy dead.

  Marie shook her head slowly. “I wish I could, but other than Kellen, I didn’t really know much about Marie’s private life. The only reason I knew about him was I happened to see him waiting for her one night after work.”

  Alex looked up from his notes. “Was she supposed to work last night?”

  “No. We both had last night off. Last night and this Sunday,” Marie said quietly. “I wish I had suggested we do something together last night, but we weren’t really like that. I guess you could say we were only work friends. I wish we’d been more.”

  Marie began to cry again, so I gently patted her on the shoulder hoping to give her some measure of comfort. “Thank you for helping us.”

  She stood to leave and sniffled. “Please get whoever did this. Amy didn’t deserve anything like being murdered.”

  “We will do our best, Miss Dondel. Thank you for your help,” Alex said with a sympathetic smile. “If you think of anything else, please call the Sunset Ridge police department.”

  After she left, I sat down in the chair, exhausted by everything we’d heard so far. Amy had been a good friend, a good worker, a good person, overall. So why had someone taken her life and left her lying there in the woods with a knife buried in her chest?”

  “You okay, Poppy? You look depressed.”

  I lifted my head and saw Alex staring down at me with concern in his eyes. “I’m okay. I guess it’s just this case. More and more, it’s looking like the only thing anyone could hold against Amy was her being different because she was a Druid. I hate the idea of someone in Sunset Ridge being a bigot like that and killing her for believing in something they didn’t.”

  “It might not be that,” he said, trying to be understanding.

  I knew he didn’t see our small town in the way I did. He often thought I had rose-colored glasses on concerning the people in our town and what they did. Even after all the gossip I’d had spread about me, I still saw my neighbors in Sunset Ridge as good people.

  “We still need to speak to Amy’s boyfriend. We might find that her beliefs had nothing to do with what happened. It might be a simple case of love gone wrong.”

  Standing up, I tapped my fingertip on that notepad in his hand. “You better write something else down. First time Alex jumped to a conclusion.” I looked up at him and smiled. “This is a red-letter day.”

  Unfazed by my teasing, he stuffed the notepad and pen back into his pocket and slid his arm around me. “Time to go, Miss McGuire. Comedy hour is over. We have a potential suspect to interview. First I want to check back at the station, but then we’ll go see him.”

  As we rode back there, I thought about how compartmentalized Amy’s life had been. “Alex, did you notice how Marie had no idea of who Amy really was. She didn’t know about the Druidism really, and I don’t think she had any idea she dated women at times.”

  “The murder of a more public person is far easier to investigate. Private people are, by their nature, hiding things, whether it’s for some particular reason or just because it’s who they are.”

  “Well, if it happened to me, it would probably be way easier than this case. I’m an open book. You, on the other hand, are like Amy. Your murder would probably remain an unsolved case forever because you keep to yourself so much.”

  Alex parked the car in front of the police station and turned to face me. “No, it wouldn’t. You’d find out who did it. I know you, Poppy. You wouldn’t leave any stone unturned. No chance of an unsolved case.”

  Knowing how bad this day had been for him, I leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips, even though I knew we were supposed to remain completely professional at all times when we were working on a case. He didn’t pull away, though, and in his dark eyes as he looked at me, I saw he needed that small gesture of love.

  I wanted to hold his hand as we walked toward the building, sure it would help him, but no sooner had we gotten out of the car Stephen came storming out the front door and walked directly at us, his face red with anger.

  Pointing at Alex, he marched up to him and stopped just before the tip of his finger hit his chest. “Whatever you think, you’re wrong. I’m a lot of things, but I’m not a murderer.”

  I wanted to tell him how Alex could never be someone who jumped to that conclusion. That his lying had been what made believing in him impossible.

  But I said nothing, and Alex simply stood toe-to-toe with Stephen staring him down as he grew angrier and angrier by the moment.

  Finally, Stephen lost his temper and barked, “Maybe if you didn’t let your good cop instincts get clouded by what you feel for her, you would have seen that!”

  Looking down, I saw Alex’s hand curl into a tight fist and felt his rage radiate off him. Stephen had insulted me, but even more, he’d insulted Alex on the foundation of who he was.

  And that he wouldn’t take lying down.

  Chapter Twelve

  I rushed over to him just as he cocked his arm back to hit Stephen. I’d never seen Alex this angry before, and I knew when he cooled down that he’d regret it if he went through with doing this.

  Grabbing his arm, I pleaded with him. “Alex, don’t! Just let it go. Please, let it go.”

  He didn’t lower his arm, not even flinching as I begged him not to hit him. His fist shook from anger as he stared straight ahead, almost looking through Stephen, who glared at me.

  “Get the hell away from us,” Alex said in a terrifying voice through gritted teeth. “I won’t tell you twice.”

  Stephen turned his attention to face him, and for a long moment, the two men faced off with Alex still ready to hit him and Stephe
n angrily staring out from between slits for eyes. I didn’t know what would happen next, but then he simply stormed away, leaving me standing there with my hands on Alex’s bicep still shaking from how furious he was.

  “Oh, my God!” I said quietly as he slowly lowered his hand still balled into a tight fist to his side.

  Alex said nothing and walked away to go inside the police station. I watched him and knew by the stiffness of his body that every cell inside him still wanted to pound Stephen right in that nasty mouth of his.

  I leaned against the car as my legs began to buckle from the reality of what had just happened. Looking up and down the sidewalk, I saw no one had stopped and seen their confrontation, thankfully. Things were strained enough with the police department. The last thing they needed was townspeople complaining about their officers brawling in the street.

  Stephen still stomped down Main Street, and I thought about telling him how wrong he was myself. Alex hadn’t been influenced by me concerning anything about him. If he had, he would have threatened to beat the snot out of him months ago. How dare he accuse an officer like Alex of being blinded by anything.

  In truth, I’d often wanted Alex to do more about the problem Stephen had with me, but he always kept his distance, preferring to remain professional. If that fool thought just because we dated that I’d convinced Alex that he was a murderer, he was even dumber than I thought.

  A hundred things I wanted to say to him ran through my head, but what was the use? He wouldn’t listen to me or anything I had to say. As I got angrier by the moment about how insulting Stephen had been, I felt my temperature begin to rise. As Alex often said, my Irish began to show itself.

  In the moment, I’d forgotten all about the stifling heat, but now as I stood collecting my thoughts after the incident, sweat began to drip down from my scalp. If I spent any more time out in the scorching temperatures, I might melt into the sidewalk, so I hurried inside to find Alex.

  Hopefully, the air conditioning had helped him cool down by the time I caught up with him.