Life's a Witch (13 page)

“But she said I could,” Annie protested.

“Yes, but … .” How do you explain matters of the law to an eight-year-old? “You really shouldn’t be out here.”

I lowered Annie to the ground, keeping her hand in mine as I trudged toward Aunt Tillie. I was almost at her side when Marcus popped up in the space behind her, taking me by surprise.

“I didn’t know you were here,” I said, nudging Annie in Marcus’s direction. “I’m glad, though. Do you think you could take Annie up to the inn and get her something to drink?”

His worried gaze bounced between Aunt Tillie and me. “Um … .”

Marcus was one of the few people Aunt Tillie never got angry with. He volunteered his time to help with her gardening – ostensibly because she taught him important techniques – and they rarely squabbled. I think he’s afraid she’ll do something awful to him if he doesn’t help. In reality, I think Aunt Tillie is too fond of him to ever do anything truly terrible to him.

“It’s okay, Marcus,” Aunt Tillie said. “We’re almost done here anyway. I think Captain Killjoy is about to rain on our parade, and I don’t want Annie to get in trouble because of it.”

“Because Bay is a tattletale, right?” Annie asked, causing me to scowl. “That’s what Aunt Tillie said.”

“I’m not a tattletale,” I countered. “I’m … .”

“Sleeping with ‘The Man,’” Aunt Tillie finished.

“Stop saying things like that in front of her,” I hissed.

“I don’t want to go,” Annie said. “We’ve only been out here for a few minutes.”

The red glow of her cheeks told me differently. “I think you should go inside,” I said. “Marcus will get you some lemonade.”

“Then can I come back?”

“Then you can go to the greenhouse and work on another project with Aunt Tillie,” I suggested. “That will be just as much fun.”

“I prefer working with the oregano,” Annie griped, although she took Marcus’s proffered hand and trudged out of the garden area.

Once they were gone I unleashed my wrath on Aunt Tillie. “You can’t keep bringing her out here,” I snapped. “Do you have any idea what kind of trouble this could cause?”

Aunt Tillie was nonplussed. “What trouble? It’s not like I’m letting her smoke anything.”

“Oh, well, that makes everything okay.”

“You’re so sarcastic,” Aunt Tillie muttered, returning to her hoe. “Whose body did they find out at Hollow Creek?”

She was trying to change the subject. I wasn’t done on the Annie front yet, but this gave me the opportunity to ask her about Nathaniel and get a straight answer before I laid down the law regarding the field. “It was Nathaniel Jamison.”

Aunt Tillie furrowed her brow. “That’s Patty’s kid, right?”

“Yes,” I replied. “He was stabbed eight times and dumped in the creek. He was there for a few days.”

“Yuck.” Aunt Tillie shook her head. “I’ll bet he was a sight.”

“I tried not to look at him.”

“At least he wasn’t a zombie,” Aunt Tillie said. “Then he really would’ve been gross.”

I rolled my neck until it cracked. “Aunt Tillie, did you know that a bunch of high school kids have been coming out to the property to find your pot field?”

“How do you know that?”

So she did know. Wait … of course she knew. She’s Aunt Tillie. She might be in her eighties, but nothing gets past her. “They can’t find it, right? Nathaniel’s sister said he was dealing, and he came out here trying to find product because he needed extra money. If someone manages to get their hands on your … .”

“It’s magically warded,” Aunt Tillie interrupted. “I’m not an idiot.”

I wasn’t so sure, and for once it had nothing to do with her clothing choices. “Has anyone tripped the wards?”

Aunt Tillie let loose with a long-suffering sigh. “If you must know, busybody, someone was tromping around out here about a week and a half ago. The wards held. No one saw anything.”

“And yet everyone in town knows the field exists,” I challenged. “They say you’re bragging about it. That’s not a good thing.”

“Who says I’m bragging about it?”

“That doesn’t matter,” I replied. “Your name came up so many times today I lost count.”

“I’m very popular in certain circles.” Aunt Tillie puffed out her chest. “I’m a legend.”

“Yes, well, Charlie Johnson Jr. is telling people that Landon is going to shoot their things off if they’re not careful. He said you told him that.”

“That kid has a huge mouth,” Aunt Tillie grumbled. “I knew it was a mistake to tell him anything.”

“Dakota Evans said that he’s your favorite and insinuated you’re going to help him unleash his special brand of romance on the unsuspecting girls of Hemlock Cove.”

Aunt Tillie snorted. “That boy couldn’t find his own penis with both hands and a magnifying glass. Don’t worry about him. He’s all talk.”

I shuddered at the unintentional visual. “They all say you’ve warned them about ‘The Man’ and his plans for them,” I challenged.

“Are you telling me Landon wouldn’t arrest them if he caught them doing something illegal?” Aunt Tillie retorted. “You can’t get angry with me for telling the truth.”

“Aunt Tillie, you need to be very careful right now,” I warned. “Chloe said Nathaniel was dealing drugs. That’s bound to be what Chief Terry and Landon focus on once I tell them what she said.”

“So … don’t tell them.”

“A boy is dead,” I snapped. “I have to tell them. I wouldn’t lie about something like this. It’s too important. We both know that if Nathaniel was dealing it probably has something to do with his death.”

“Not necessarily,” Aunt Tillie argued. “He was stabbed eight times. That’s overkill. A drug dealer would simply cap him in the head.”

Apparently we all watch too much television. “That’s not the point,” I said, although I couldn’t argue with her logic. I’d been thinking the same thing. “You need to shut this down until it all blows over.”

“Shut what down?”

“This!” I gestured emphatically at the small field.

Aunt Tillie blew a loud raspberry. “I need this for my glaucoma,” she said. “It’s medicinal.”

“You don’t have glaucoma.”

“Are you a doctor?” Aunt Tillie was getting shrill.

“Aunt Tillie, we have so much going on right now,” I pleaded, trying a different tactic. “We have a dead boy who was probably out here looking for pot less than a week before his death. If I found that out in less than an hour, what do you think Landon and Chief Terry will discover?”

“They’re not going to find my field,” Aunt Tillie replied. “I added special wards so no members of the fuzz can ever find it. If they try, they get diarrhea.”

That was a horrible thought. “I … seriously?”

Aunt Tillie nodded. “If you got diarrhea every time you thought about something, wouldn’t you stop thinking about it?”

That was both diabolical and disgusting. It also wasn’t the point. “What if Aunt Willa finds it?”

“A little relaxation might do that shrew some good,” Aunt Tillie said. “Is she back at the inn yet?”

“I have no idea. I came straight here. She did go to Hypnotic, by the way. It didn’t go well.”

“Nothing she does goes well,” Aunt Tillie countered. “She’s a horrible person.”

“So why is she here?”

“How am I supposed to know?”

“You have to have an idea,” I pressed. “You know her better than anyone.”

“That’s not saying much. I’ve never understood that woman.”

I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose to ward off an oncoming headache. “You’re impossible. You know that, right?”

“I’m getting T-shirts made up that announce it to the world.”

“Please, if you could just … for a few days … let this place go, I would really appreciate it.” I was practically begging. I didn’t like it, but I also didn’t know what else to do.

Aunt Tillie sighed. “Fine. I won’t work in my garden, and I’ll strengthen the wards. Are you happy?”

“I’m happier,” I clarified. “Hopefully people will stay away given what’s going on with Nathaniel. I’m worried the opposite will be true, but I honestly don’t know what to do about that.”

“You’re in a real tizzy today,” Aunt Tillie said. “I blame Willa.”

I smirked, Thistle’s words from earlier in the afternoon echoing through my mind. Thistle was going to turn out like Aunt Tillie. I just knew it. “I blame her, too,” I said. “I’m worried about what kind of damage she’s going to do to Mom and her self-esteem before this is all said and done. Can’t you do something to get rid of Aunt Willa?”

“Murder is illegal.”

“I didn’t say kill her,” I spat. “Can’t you cast a spell to banish her?”

“I could, but I’m not ready to do that yet,” Aunt Tillie admitted. “Your boyfriend was right the other day – although if you tell him I said that, I’ll curse you so you smell like bacon for a month.”

“What was he right about?”

“Willa has something specific in mind,” Aunt Tillie replied. “I shouldn’t care. It’s not as if she has power over me. I can’t help but wonder what it is, though.

“She picked this time to come here because whatever she’s plotting is going to happen soon,” she continued. “She wants to feel us out. She wants to watch us interact. She wants to unnerve us. Then she’s going to lower the boom.”

“If that’s true, then she has big plans, and I’m not sure that’s good for any of us,” I said. “Why not get rid of her now?”

“Because I want to play with her first.”

And there it was. Aunt Tillie was readying a game of her own. “What do you have planned?”

“You were there when I did my planning,” Aunt Tillie said, averting her eyes.

“Yes, but you’ve obviously come up with something else on your own,” I pressed. “What is it?”

“You’re not privy to everything in my life, Bay,” Aunt Tillie shot back. “You’re my niece and I love you … some of the time. That doesn’t mean you’re my keeper. I’m my own keeper.”

“Fine,” I said, giving in. “Just keep from making things worse for everyone in this family.”

“I can’t promise that.”

Crap. She really was up to something. Whatever it was held the potential to be both legendary and awful. “When this blows up in your face, don’t come crying to me for help,” I warned. “Make sure you keep Annie out of this pot field, too. Landon is going to freak if he finds out she was out here again.”

“Landon needs to chill out,” Aunt Tillie said. “If anyone was ever in dire need of some relaxation medication … .”

“Don’t you dare suggest that to him,” I ordered. “Also, you need to stop telling Annie that he’s something to fear. It’s not true, and it hurts Landon’s feelings when she says those things to him.”

Aunt Tillie stilled. “I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings. Most of the time I only talk about that stuff because it’s funny. I forget how much she picks up. I’ll try to be better about that.”

“That’s not all,” I added. “If she’s afraid of him, what happens if she’s in trouble and he’s the only one there to help?”

“What trouble is she going to get in?”

“The trouble that always finds this family,” I answered. “I know you mean well – and believe it or not, I know you like Landon, despite the things you say – but she shouldn’t be afraid of anyone in this house. Not if they can help her if things go bad one day.”

“I … .”

“Just think about it,” I said, cutting off Aunt Tillie before she could come up with an excuse. “What if there was another car accident and Landon found her? What would happen if she wouldn’t go to him?”

“Fine,” Aunt Tillie said, blowing out a frustrated sigh. “You bring up a good point. I’ll handle the Landon situation.”

“Thank you.”

“I think he’s more upset that she has a crush on Marcus than anything else,” Aunt Tillie grumbled.

“There is that, too,” I conceded. “That doesn’t change the fact that he’s a good man and doesn’t deserve to have Annie fear him.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Aunt Tillie repeated. “If he tries to take my pot field, though, all bets are off.”

“I would expect nothing less.”

Thirteen

“I figured you’d be hiding in here.”

Landon let himself into the library a few hours later, lifting my legs so he could settle next to me on the couch.

“Did you find anything?” I asked.

Landon ignored the question. “Where’s my kiss?”

I scrunched up my face and leaned over to give him what he asked for, smirking as he made a loud smacking sound. “Better?”

“Much better,” Landon said, resting his head against the back of the couch. “As for your question – not much. We found out that Nathaniel wasn’t well liked and he had a chip on his shoulder. None of that leads to any suspects. What about you?”

I pursed my lips, causing Landon to narrow his eyes.

“You found something, didn’t you?” Landon pressed. “Spill, little witch.” He tickled my ribs.

“I wish you wouldn’t call me that,” I said, gasping as I tried to keep from laughing.

“Why not? I think it’s cute and endearing.”

“I think it often sounds like you want to put a B in front of it and call me something else,” I countered.

Landon grinned. “Not generally, although I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t true occasionally,” he said. “Tell me what you found.”

I blew out a weary sigh. “Well, I went to the Jamison house,” I said. “I didn’t plan to talk to the family. I was hoping to run into Nathaniel.”

“I figured as much. Was he there?”

“I have no idea,” I replied. “I didn’t really get a chance to look for him, because his sister caught me on the street.”

“That can’t be good,” Landon said, his face sobering. “What did you tell her?”

“I told her I was stopping by to talk to neighbors,” I answered. “I’m not sure she believed me, but she put on an act that she’s not upset and her brother was the world’s biggest butthead. Now, I don’t deny that her brother sounds like a butthead, but I think she’s still upset.”

“Kids that age are hard to read,” Landon mused. “They want to be cool above all else, so they take on different personas so people can’t see they’re hurting. Did she tell you anything else?”

“She told me a few other things,” I said, resigned that lying was out of the question. “She said her brother was selling drugs. She didn’t know where he got his product, but apparently he boasted about moving pot. I didn’t press her too much on whether he was selling anything else, because I didn’t think it was my place.