Curse Strings

by Rebecca Regnier

  Bubba came over and Agnes took her seat on his back. They exited the kitchen.

  The boys were silent for a moment. I knew what it felt like to take in all the totally impossible truths of living in Widow’s Bay and the truth of about who I really was.

  “Ah, so, what does all this mean to us? Are we sons of witches?” Sam asked.

  “Ah, mirth. I like mirth. Here’s what you need to know. My coven and I sort of…keep the balance.”

  “Yooper Naturals, that’s hilarious,” Joe said.

  “I am dating Brule, and well, it’s new so I would appreciate if you gave me space on that. I didn’t expect to be dating at my age, you know?”

  Both the boys grabbed each of my hands. The mirth was gone, in its place real concern, and love. My tough football-playing sons had soft hearts; I knew.

  “We know, Mom. It just threw us off,” Sam said, and Joe nodded.

  “I sort of forgot you two were here, and then we had a terrible coven meeting. Your Aunt Tatum is in jail for that murder I went to cover.”

  “All in the space of one day?”

  “Yeah.”

  “No wonder we had to go into town for dinner.”

  “Yeah, about that, I don’t think I’ve cooked once since I moved here.”

  I’d always had a full-time job outside the home, and so slow cookers saved our lives, but I had managed to make a lot of food for them when they were growing up.

  I was starting to feel a little bit guilty that I’d done nothing for their return, albeit surprise return.

  “About that, we needed to tell you about our summer gigs!”

  “Yeah, Sam, I thought you were going to do the news thing?”

  “No, actually, there was an ad for summer rec instructors right here. It’s called Samhain Ski Resort. I applied and boom, I’m going to be teaching sailing, water skiing, give hiking tours. Our summers growing up here will come in handy.

  “Sam, that’s, uh that’s great.”

  “And I got a gig, uh, well, this is going to be a shock maybe. I dropped out of school and I’ve been hired at the Widow’s Bay Fire Department. They’ve got a recruiting class starting this fall. I can intern this summer and then, if I pass all their qualifiers, I’m in.”

  “You dropped out of school? You’re a math whiz! How could you do that? What did your father say?”

  “He doesn’t know. Only Sam knows, and you, and the fire chief here in Widow’s Bay. Oh, and Aunt Dot, she was the connects on all of it!”

  Sam was going to work at the resort? I had some questions to ask Brule about that. And Joe was going to be a firefighter in Widow’s Bay? I had a lot to process.

  “It looks like a lot of things have changed since we were all three together.”

  I had questions, and I had worries, and I had a million bits of advice I wanted to give to my two sons, about life, career, education, all of it.

  And I didn’t say a word.

  “True dat, but something about Widow’s Bay was calling us up here. We just feel it and it all came into place,” Sam said.

  “Me too,” I replied. The same blood that coursed through my veins coursed through theirs. They had magic enough to hear Agnes, maybe there was more. I had no idea if men could be witches. Another question for Georgianne to look up!

  Things were changing again in my life. My sons would live in Widow’s Bay, and they were adults now, sort of.

  We all three would have to navigate new territory.

  “Okay, I need to get some sleep. There’s a lot going on. Aunt Dot’s very good friend Frances has passed on, there’s that murder, Tatum, you two—I need a few hours.”

  “No problem, we’re going to play some Xbox. G’night.”

  I kissed them both, hugged them and asked them not to be too loud.

  “Gonna throw a curse our way?”

  “Oh, there’ll be cursing all right.” I walked upstairs and quickly crawled into bed. My sons had gotten a crash course in what it meant to live in Widow’s Bay. I’d tried to make it a soft landing but that really wasn’t possible.

  There were two ways of seeing the world. In one you didn’t see the extra, you ignored the magic and called it coincidence or imagination. In the other, magic, monsters, and beauty opened to you in an overwhelming riot of color and sound.

  The second way was much scarier, and heck on the nerves. But it was better, I knew that because I’d resisted against all of this so much. And when I did open to it, there were moments that I thought I would drown in the riot of color and sound. But I hadn’t.

  Instead I had richer friendships, stronger connections, and admittedly more danger and chaos than I’d had in my old life. I didn’t want danger for my boys. What parent did? Except bubble wrapping them was also a no-go, and it led to a colorless life. I didn’t want that either.

  It was good they knew, at least a little, about what was going on here.

  Some of understanding and accepting the magic of Widow’s Bay was genetic or innate. I think you had something in your DNA that made it possible to live side-by-side with magic. There were people who lived here, and tourists who visited, who explained everything that happened here with science, logic, and a limited world view.

  But there were people who lived or visited Widow’s Bay that saw the magical truth.

  My boys had the DNA requirement, no question. I guess we’d see how the world view thing shook out. They’d quickly handled the Agnes revelation. Maybe they’d settle into this new reality with more ease than I did. They were young after all.

  My mind was filled a million scenes from the day, but my body sank into the mattress. I truly was exhausted, and tomorrow was going to be a big day.

  “You GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!” The boys were yelling about some Xbox infraction. I put my pillow over my head.

  Though world views and magic may be shifting, they both still had a deep well of outrage at the injustices of whatever video game they were playing.

  Some things never did change. And that was okay too.

  Chapter 11

  The boys were still asleep when I got ready to go, but I decided to give them a task for the day. I popped in on both of them in the rooms they’d selected at the end of the long upstairs hallway.

  “Check in on Aunt Dorothy today, I will be too. She’s grieving the loss of her friend and we need to support her.”

  “Okay, sure, will do.”

  “Good. Love you. And hey, while you’re at it, feed Bubba and Agnes.” They’d agreed to my to-do list through groggy eyes. As much as I fretted over how this would impact my sons, they’d clearly not lost sleep over it.

  I was jealous. My sleep was fraught with things I had to accomplish and disasters that could occur.

  On the upside, I now had roommates; they could share the house duties! I pondered the giant shed in the backyard. Perhaps they’d help me clean it?

  I pushed aside my home improvement plans and allowed the million pressing things I had to accomplish today take over.

  I left the boys to manage their own days. It was good to be the parent of adults and not toddlers, let me count the ways.

  Before I planted myself in court for Tatum’s bond hearing, I stopped in to talk to Byron DeLoof.

  The murder of Thomas Strayhorn was solved. He had a suspect in custody. My questions and prodding of a frame-up or of motives were met dead ears.

  “In your eyes, is this investigation over?”

  “Well, there are still things that will need to be followed up on, but yes. And this will be the last time I talk to you about it. I will not jeopardize the case.”

  For once Weston Redman wasn’t on my elbow, shouting nasty questions. I did appreciate being able to just talk to Loof.

  “What are the follow-ups?”

  “I cannot tell you that, as I said it is pretty much up to the prosecutor and judge now. You’ll need to bark up that tree.”

  “Is it just the ballistics? I mean do you have a witness?”

 
“Tatum’s alibi doesn’t check out. She said an employee saw her at work, at The Frog Toe. Not one did. Not one. But that’s it, I don’t have time for interviews, and you know the Chief. Hates when I do it.”

  “Fine, if I see quotes from you on Man Cave Dot News though, I’ll be back here screaming like a banshee.”

  “Which would be different than any other day how?”

  “Anything else going on that the readers of Your U.P. News need to know about?”

  “Actually, things are nice and buttoned up from my vantage point, until all the summer bunnies show up, then well, sunburnt people bad at boating safety will be your top story.”

  “Thanks, it sounds exciting.”

  I stood up to go.

  “Marzie?”

  “Yeah?”

  “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I like Tatum, and,” Loof paused, pondering what to say next. “Motive. That’s all I’m going to say.”

  “Thanks, Loof. If the judge grants bail to Tatum, you’ll want to usher her out the back door. Yooper Man will be firing questions and I’ll have to too, you know to keep up. It’s a whole scene. Unless you sneak her out.”

  “Thanks for the tip.” I left Loof with the word motive ringing in my ears.

  That was where he was concerned with the case. He had witnesses that saw her fighting with the victim, and shell casings that matched her gun.

  But motive. Would Tatum be motivated enough by competition with an outside beer vendor to shoot him?

  I absolutely knew she would not.

  But I’d also seen the vision we’d conjured last night.

  Tatum was clearly the one who pulled the trigger in the vision. And Loof is saying her alibi didn’t line up. I made a note to check on that myself. But it would have to be later.

  It was time for Tatum’s hearing.

  I was in court, as was Garrett DeWitt, ready for the judge to make a ruling on Tatum’s bail.

  “Morning, boss.”

  “Morning.”

  DeWitt handed me coffee as we waited. I knew we’d had a busy day yesterday, but he was unshaven, and there were circles under his eyes. I had a list of things I wanted to see if he would check out, I figured I should take advantage of having help.

  “How was your night?” I asked.

  “Oh, uh, yes, just not sleeping well.” I brushed it off. I had too much to worry about without adding the fact that my boss looked like he just recovered from some sort of bender. I had thought he could help with checking on Tatum’s alibi, or even Strayhorn’s background, but right now, it looked like keeping his hands from shaking was all he could manage.

  “Maybe later, you can run down leads on Tatum’s alibi, like when I interview her?”

  “Whatever you need.” DeWitt offered a weak smile. What was up with this guy?

  The bailiff brought in Tatum, in an orange jumpsuit. Whatever we’d been through last night, Tatum’s night had been worse.

  The hearing was brief.

  Tatum’s lawyer made the case that she had no priors, that she was a prominent businesswoman, and that she had strong ties to the community.

  “There is no doubt in this case that bail is warranted.”

  The prosecutor pushed back. He was new and I’d never seen him before.

  “This is a murder charge; Ms. McGowan most certainly has the means to flee. She has a history of losing her temper, it is a well-known fact in town.” It felt like the prosecutor had listened to Man Cave Dot News too closely.

  In the end, the judge denied bond. I looked at the judge, the prosecutor, and then back to the gallery. Tatum was going to have to stay behind bars. This was the worst-case scenario and I had a pit in my stomach.

  I looked around. Weston Reman, Ridge, Schutte, and Phillip Lockwood were all there, looking happy and victorious.

  In a town purportedly run by women, there was a lot of testosterone in the room.

  Tatum looked a little smaller than normal. She looked afraid. I had never seen her afraid.

  We had a dozen members of the DLC waiting to support her, hug her, rally behind her, but in the end all she could do was glance our way as they led her back into the jail.

  This was awful.

  Candy, Pauline, Fawn, Georgianne and I had a mini-confab while I asked Garrett to check the morning’s police log. He may know we were witches, but he didn’t need to be in our plans.

  For months I had been on my own at work and at home. Now I had shadows everywhere. I was trying to get used to it.

  “They’ll only let one of us in to see her,” Candy explained.

  “I’ll go. I have the best chance of getting something to follow up on that could explain this whole thing.”

  “Okay, we’ll work hard on Beltane, event one is tonight. You have to spread the word after this,” Pauline said to me. I had done zero when it came to my part of making Beltane work.

  “I’ve got a million duties I need to do for the stupid Testicle Festival. I can’t get away, other than to do the bonfire paperwork,” Candy said, and it was true. Her job was the least forgiving when it came to getting away.

  “Do them, for sure, do them. Ridge is on our tails. We don’t need him getting any more in our faces. Did you see him sitting there, all smug?” Georgianne said.

  “Yeah, it was all I could do to not throw a curse at that man,” Fawn chimed in.

  We went our separate ways. The coven loaded me down with well wishes and thoughts for our friend.

  I made my way back to the waiting area and put my name in to see Tatum. As I waited, Garrett DeWitt found me again.

  “So, what’s the scoop at the police blotter?”

  “Nothing much. There was a dispute over who knocked down a fence, a petty cash theft, and a little vandalism.”

  “Okay, so this is still the biggest story, this and Beltane.”

  “Beltane?”

  I explained that the women of the town were hatching a competing festival.

  “Well, the Testicle Festival didn’t do as well last night, as a typical Widow’s Bay festival. That’s, of course, based on what you’d reported for previous events in Widow’s Bay. So, they may have something there.”

  “Okay, we’ll report on that and a quick update on this case. You want to call the newsroom while I visit my friend?”

  “Should you be? I mean, she’s the subject of the story you’re covering.”

  “True. How about this? I’ll talk to her, record an interview, if she lets me. And I’ll see if she’ll throw me a few quotes, and then you can review the thing to see if it’s biased when I write it up.”

  “Okay, I guess.”

  “I will tell you this: whatever I get will be exclusive. Man Cave will be out of luck because Tatum can’t stand that guy just as much as I can’t, maybe more.”

  “Okay, good luck.”

  I waited until it was my turn to see Tatum.

  “Nowak.” The guard guided me back to the jail and sat me down at a table with a chair across from me.

  And then they let Tatum in. She sat across from me.

  It was jail not prison, and a small one at that. There were no phones or glass, just the two of us at the table.

  “How you holding up?” I grabbed her hand and she squeezed mine.

  “I’m mad, confused, but not too worried because this is preposterous. I didn’t shoot Tommy Strayhorn, so I know this has to be cleared up soon. Oh, also, I need you to check in on Mario, can you do that? He’s got to keep up on the orders, and put out next week’s schedule, and make sure the staff stays in line until I get out.”

  The list was long. I committed it to memory. I didn’t want Tatum worrying about her business, but I was not as confident that she’d be out in a jiffy.

  “Okay, I’m going to ask you a few questions and record the answers. It’ll drive Man Cave Dot News out of their skulls if I have the exclusive.” Tatum nodded; she hated that piece of garbage “news” site as much as I did.

  “Did you kill Tommy
Strayhorn?”

  “No, I had nothing to do with it.”

  “You were seen, by several witnesses, fighting with him. How do you explain that?”

  “I fight with people, it’s my love language.” I gave her a look. We both spoke sarcasm, and now was not the time.

  “Tatum.”

  “I had a disagreement, nothing more. I tend to yell; I’m working on that. If I killed everyone I ever yelled at, you’d be dead and most the town would be too.” This was not coming off too sympathetically, but it was honest.

  “What would you like your fellow citizens to know?”

  “That I did not kill Tommy Strayhorn, that I am concerned that the person who did is still out there, and that operations at The Frog Toe are as normal. Except there’s also a sale, BOGO, until I get out.”

  “Okay, good. That’s good.” I stopped the recording, then glanced up at Tatum. “Look, I have to tell you something. It’s a tough one.”

  “Yeah, hit me.”

  “We did a spell to see who killed Tommy last night.”

  “And?” There was a look of hope in Tatum’s eyes.

  “We all saw you do it.”

  “What?”

  “None of us believe it. That goes without saying, but still, it means…”

  “It means that something is at work, I get that for sure.”

  “And there’s one more thing. Frances passed away while we were looking at the spell.”

  “What?”

  “She collapsed. She’d been weak, you know, and I think the vision was too much for her.”

  “It’s my fault.”

  “What?”

  “I didn’t murder anyone, but you all trying to help me, it killed her.”

  “No, don’t think like that,” I said and had the feeling I was the worst visitor in the world. I had delivered bad news on every front.

  “If I wasn’t in here, you wouldn’t have done the spell and she’d be fine.”

  “No. She was not fine. She was over one-hundred-twenty-something years old. She’d barely survived the attack from Alvarado.

  “How’s Dorothy?”

  “As well as can be expected. We’re focusing on cobbling together Beltane under Ridge’s nose.”

  “That’s good, something positive and it also makes Ridge mad. One ray of light.” Tatum put her head in her hands.