Life's a Witch (9 page)

“We have no idea,” Landon replied. “They’re clearly up to something … and they haven’t said a pleasant thing since they arrived. Aunt Tillie is planning mayhem, and Winnie is struggling to hold things together.”

“How are you handling it, Bay?” Chief Terry was always sympathetic and kind.

“I’m not the same kid I was back then,” I reassured him. “Rosemary can’t get to me like she used to. I’m more … self-confident ... now.”

“That’s because you have a handsome boyfriend who carries a gun,” Landon interjected.

Chief Terry snickered. Even though he fought Landon’s interested in me for a long time, he was resigned to the fact that we are a couple now. In fact, he’d grown fond of Landon … although he probably would never admit it. “Yes, Bay. You’re popular now because you’re dating an FBI agent.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s not that … although you are studly and handsome, sweetie,” I said. “For several years there, when I was younger, I couldn’t seem to find footing. Everyone thought I was weird, and Lila was always out to get me. Sometimes it felt as though I was suffocating.”

“And that’s why you left town and moved south,” Chief Terry supplied. “I remember.”

“And then I found out about a different kind of suffocating,” I muttered, my mind wandering back to my years in southeastern Michigan. When I was a teenager, the idea of fleeing to a big city where no one knew about the Winchester witches seemed an attainable dream. The reality was different, and once I returned to Hemlock Cove I knew I was home to stay.

“You needed that time to find yourself,” Chief Terry said. “You came back a much happier person. I know you didn’t like it down there, but it was good for you. By the time you came back, you could hold your own and didn’t need Thistle to fight your battles.”

“Thanks for the pep talk!”

Chief Terry rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean, Bay,” he said. “You’ve always been my favorite … mostly because Thistle was mean and Clove used to cry on a dime to manipulate me. I used to worry about you, though.”

“Well, you don’t need to worry about her now,” Landon said. “That’s my job.”

“Whatever,” Chief Terry muttered. “Tell me about Willa. I don’t remember anything good about her.”

“As far as I can tell, there’s nothing good to remember about her,” I replied. “She knows exactly how to get under Aunt Tillie’s skin. Granted, that’s not hard to do, but she seems to get off causing emotional upheaval.

“So far she’s gotten in digs about Mom’s food, the beds at the inn, Landon’s hair, Sam’s job and Aunt Tillie’s parenting skills,” I continued. “She seems to be on a mission to make us all miserable.”

“Why did Winnie allow her to stay?”

I shrugged. “I’ve been asking myself that very question for two days now,” I answered. “The only thing I can come up with is that my grandmother wanted peace in the family, and this is a way for my mother to do what she couldn’t.”

“Your grandmother was a good woman,” Chief Terry said. “She was easy to get along with. Tillie and Willa were the exact opposite. They are older than me, but my father told me some stories about the two of them.”

“Like what?” Landon prodded.

“I’m getting this all secondhand from stuff my father told me, so take it with a grain of salt. Apparently Willa went after Calvin at some point,” Chief Terry replied. “Everyone in town knew Calvin Hoffman was head-over-heels for Tillie. That didn’t stop Willa from going after him out of spite.”

That didn’t surprise me.

“There was some hair pulling and threatened curses,” Chief Terry continued. “They screamed at each other in the middle of a festival dance, and Tillie swore up and down she would turn Willa’s hair green and make her teeth fall out.”

“Wait a second,” Landon interjected. “Calvin’s last name was Hoffman. Why isn’t Aunt Tillie’s last name Hoffman?”

“Aunt Tillie claims there’s power in names,” I answered. “She never changed her last name. My mother and aunts changed theirs briefly, but after the divorces they all changed them back.”

“Why don’t any of you guys have your fathers’ names?”

That was a good question. “When we were born we had hyphenated last names,” I explained. “Aunt Tillie insisted we would be unprotected if we didn’t keep the Winchester name. I think that was a power play. It doesn’t really matter now. I’m Bay Winchester. I don’t really remember having a different last name. When our mothers returned to their maiden names they also switched ours.”

“Didn’t your fathers put up a fight about that?”

“Have you seen our fathers put up a fight about anything?” I challenged.

Landon waited a beat, letting me rein in my temper before continuing. “I take it things aren’t any better between you and your father since we cast that truth spell on his guests.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “I ran into him in town three days ago and he was perfectly … pleasant.”

“Is that code for something?”

“Landon, it’s fine,” I said, too weary to analyze my troubled relationship with my father. “I can only deal with one family crisis at a time. Aunt Willa and Rosemary win right now.”

“Well, you might think that’s the end of the conversation, but it’s not,” Landon said. “If you don’t want to talk about it right now, I’ll let it go. I’m going to bring it up again, though. Prepare yourself.”

“I’m working to tamp down my excitement even as we speak.”

Landon turned his attention to Chief Terry. “Tell me about the body.”

“Our best guess is that it’s a teenager,” Chief Terry replied. “We don’t have an identification yet. He’s been in the water for some time. The medical examiner should be there when we arrive. It looks as though he was stabbed, though.”

“Have any local kids been reported missing?”

“No. That’s troublesome. What’s more troublesome is that he was dumped at Hollow Creek.”

“Isn’t Hollow Creek where I found you guys searching for buried treasure last year?” Landon asked me. “You were all out there pretending you were on a picnic, but then you found the body in the cave. That’s the same place, right?”

I nodded, smiling at the memory. That was long before we hooked up. He was suspicious of us that day. I didn’t blame him.

“I know what you’re thinking about,” Landon said. “I knew you guys were up to something, and I was dying to know what it was. I think that’s when I knew I was a goner where you were concerned. I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about you.”

“You know I’m in the same vehicle with you guys, right?” Chief Terry asked, scowling. “She’s still eight with pigtails where I’m concerned.”

“It’s not as though we did anything,” Landon countered. “Bay, Clove and Thistle were out there searching, and they were all terrible liars.”

“Oh, you’re so smitten,” Chief Terry taunted.

Landon was nonplussed. “I’m not going to deny it,” he said. “Back then I was just trying to figure her out.”

“And how is that going for you?”

“It gets easier every day,” Landon replied, leaning forward when he caught the telltale swirl of emergency vehicle lights. “I take it we’re almost there.”

“Yeah,” Chief Terry replied. “Bay, if you see anyone’s ghost, keep quiet about it. Make sure you’re careful. There are going to be a lot of people out here who won’t understand why you’re here. I think we should lie and say you two were together and she would’ve been stranded if we didn’t bring her along. I can’t control this scene with county people here.”

“That’s a good idea,” Landon said.

Chief Terry parked and Landon hopped out first, opening my door and grabbing my hand. “Stick close to me,” he whispered. “I have to look at the body. If you see something … .”

“I’ll be careful,” I promised.

Landon squeezed the back of my neck with his free hand. “I love you, Bay. Even when we fight – and we’re still going to talk about your father – even then, though, I still love you.”

“I love you, too,” I murmured.

Landon planted a quick kiss on my forehead and then released my hand. He was on official business now. You don’t hold your girlfriend’s hand at a crime scene. I wordlessly followed him, cringing when I saw the county medical examiner poking the body with a gloved finger. Chief Terry wasn’t exaggerating when he said the body had been in the water for some time. The smell was pungent from twenty feet away, and the bloated carcass barely resembled anything human.

I turned away. There was nothing for me there. If I was going to help, it would be in another area. I was careful as I moved around the scene, watching where I stepped to make sure I didn’t contaminate evidence.

I drew a few strange looks before Chief Terry made a big show about explaining my presence. After that, I was largely ignored. Most of the foliage was thick and I avoided stepping in any of it. I kept an eye on Landon, who impassively knelt next to the body and carried on a conversation with the medical examiner. I had no idea how he managed to do his job – and do it well – when I was often overtaken by the plight of human misery. In Landon’s mind he needed to know the “hows” and the “whys.” In my mind I was stuck on the “what ifs” and “what could’ve beens.”

I trudged down to the water, rolling my neck as I took in the scene. Even though I’d always liked Hollow Creek, I rarely visited the location. It was out of the way. It was a fun picnic spot when we were younger, but each generation took it over and made it their own. Teenagers partied on the banks during the summer, while adults gravitated to the multitude of other lakes and streams.

I was studying the murky water when something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I moved closer, leaning down for a better look. When I realized what I was staring at, I straightened.

“Landon!”

Landon jerked his head in my direction, surprised. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s a wallet in the water here.”

Landon and Chief Terry moved toward me, Landon gently nudging me out of the way with his hip – making sure to keep his glove-covered hands from touching me – and stared in the direction I pointed.

“Get a bag,” Landon instructed.

Chief Terry retrieved an evidence bag as Landon dug into the water. He pulled the sopping wallet out and opened it, digging through it to retrieve a driver’s license. “Does anyone know a Nathaniel Jamison?”

Chief Terry and I exchanged a look.

“He graduated from Hemlock Cove High School two years ago,” I said. “He’s a local boy. He’s not a teenager, though. He should be at least twenty by now.”

“We can’t be sure the body is Nathaniel,” Chief Terry cautioned. “Not yet, at least.”

“If it is, it might explain a few things,” Landon said. “Most people don’t report a college kid missing if he’s not under regular parental supervision. His parents might not know he’s missing.”

“He only has a mother in town,” Chief Terry replied. “Patty Jamison. She was a pretty attentive mother, as I remember. His parents divorced years ago, and his father left town. I’m not sure how much he sees his kids.”

“He has a sister, right?” I asked. “I think her name is Chloe.”

“Yeah, she’s still in high school,” Chief Terry said. “I think she’ll be a senior this year.”

“If he’s home on summer break, wouldn’t his mother and sister know he’s missing?” I asked.

“I guess we’ll have to ask them,” Chief Terry said, his face grim. “The quickest way to find out if that’s Nathaniel is to find out when he was last seen. We can feel Patty out about the wallet first. Hopefully news about the body won’t have spread to town yet. This place is pretty isolated.”

“I guess that’s our next stop,” Landon agreed, lowering his voice. “Have you seen anything else out here?”

“If he’s a ghost, he’s not here now,” I replied. “That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s not stuck here. He could be home … or still trying to control his reality. Now isn’t the time to try to find him. There are too many people watching.”

“I agree with that,” Landon said. “If it becomes necessary, I’ll bring you out here later so we can look around when it’s only the two of us.”

“You’re just looking for an excuse to get out of another uncomfortable evening with my family,” I said, going for levity. Given the body on the riverbank, though, I immediately regretted my words.

“It’s okay,” Landon said, as if reading my mind. “Let’s head back to town. There’s nothing more we can do out here. We need answers, and the only way we’re going to get them is by talking to friends and family.”

“Yeah,” Chief Terry said, blowing out a frustrated sigh. “Let’s go. Whatever happened out here was terrible, but our answers are back in town.”

From his perspective, he made sense. Something inside of me told me there was more to discover at Hollow Creek, though. Unfortunately there was absolutely nothing we could do about that right now.

Nine

“Are you sure you want us to leave you here?” Landon asked, glancing around the quiet high school parking lot worriedly. “We can take you back to the inn before we question Nathaniel’s mother. I wish we could take you with us, but it’s unprofessional, and I don’t want to leave you in the Durango for hours if we’re going to be in there for a bit. You might die of heat exhaustion.”

“Are you saying you don’t want to lock me in the car like a dog?”

Landon smirked. “You know what I mean,” he said. “Chief Terry doesn’t mind taking you back to the inn.”

“If I go back to the inn I’ll be stuck going on an afternoon outing with Aunt Willa and Rosemary,” I reminded him. “I’d much rather be marooned here.”

Landon didn’t look convinced. “What are you going to do? It’s summer. School is out.”

“Yes, but summer school is in,” I countered. “There are bound to be a few kids forced to take classes, and there’s a basketball court on the other side of the building. The boys spend hours there every day. Maybe some of them can give us some insight into what Nathaniel was doing.”

“We don’t know that it’s Nathaniel yet,” Landon cautioned.

“I know that,” I replied. “Odds are it is him, though. I’m not going to tell them he’s dead. I’m only going to feel them out for what’s going on at Hollow Creek these days.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” said Chief Terry, leaning against the front of the Durango. After leaving Hollow Creek we drove into town. Neither Landon nor Chief Terry could come up with a legitimate excuse to bring me when they questioned Patty Jamison. That’s when I suggested they drop me off at the high school. “Teenage kids are less likely to open up to law enforcement officials. A pretty blonde is another story.”