Shadow Witch (38 page)

“The teacher left town. She wanted to get married.”

“They ran her off, is what I heard. She was willing to stay on at the school after she got married, but one of the councilmen wanted the school building, so....” He shrugged.

“But —” Then she clamped her mouth tightly shut.

“But what?”

She clenched her hands and closed her eyes for a moment. “Nothing.”

“You started to say something.”

She didn’t answer.

Sammi seemed to be getting bored with all the talking and she reached over and touched Miss Duffy’s arm. “Can you show me how to draw something before the other kids get here?”

She smiled weakly at Sammi and said, “Of course.”

Jamie knew the discussion was over, but he had the distinct impression that something remained unsaid.

* * *

Duane Gundy stood at the counter in the pawn shop and watched as the man on the other side, the owner, tapped on a small calculator. A few guitars hung on the wall behind him, and some DVD players, television sets, and other electronic equipment filled the shelves. The owner was big, both in the waist and in height, and he wore a rumpled shirt, unbuttoned halfway to his navel. Hanging in the center of his hairy chest was a large gold medallion. It looked gaudy and tacky, even by Gundy’s low standards. In between the two men lay a pile of Brenda’s jewelry.

Finally the man looked up and said, “Two twenty-five. That’s all I can give you for it.”

“Are you kiddin’ me? Two hundred and twenty-five dollars? Them diamonds alone are worth more than that. Lots more.”

“The diamonds are fake.”

“Huh? Even the earrings? I paid good money for those.”

“Got ripped off, then.”

“Well...damn. What about...what about that watch? It’s got a gold and silver band. It’s worth plenty, ain’t it?”

“It’s the best of the bunch, but that ain’t sayin’ much. Two twenty-five, take it or leave it.”

“I gotta have more than that for it. I got bills to pay.”

“Everybody says that.” He gave Gundy a smug look, and Gundy suddenly wanted to reach across the counter and grab him by the throat.

Gundy gritted his teeth and jabbed a finger at the owner. “You’re rippin’ me off and you know it.”

“Take it somewhere else, then. Besides, you might a’ stole it, for all I know.”

“Look at the back of the watch. It says ‘With love to Brenda from Duane.’ That was...I mean that
is
my wife’s name, Brenda Gundy, and you already seen my ID, so you know I’m Duane.”

The big man shrugged. “That’s my offer.”

Gundy stared at the pile of jewelry and considered his options. The next closest pawn shop was thirty miles away, and he didn’t want to burn the precious fuel it would take to get there in his gas-guzzling Trans Am. Finally, he gave his head a tight shake and said. “Fine. I’ll take it.”

He fumed while he watched the owner lay the money on the counter, counting each bill carefully as he peeled them from a stack in his hands.
Damn. I gotta have more than that. That’s barely enough to get the power turned back on and buy a few days’ worth of groceries and gas. What am I gonna do?

* * *

Gundy flicked his cigarette butt into the nearby bushes and rapped on the front door of the mobile home again. “Come on, Ellis, open up. It’s me, Duane.”

The door opened and a sleepy-eyed man stood inside, wearing only boxer shorts and an undershirt. “Damn, Duane. Why’d you come so early? I’m workin’ night shift this week.”

Gundy stepped into the small, dark living room and said. “It ain’t early. It’s almost two-thirty. Your wife gone to work?”

Ellis scratched his belly and smacked his lips a couple of times. “Ain’t nobody here but us.”

“Good. I need to do some searchin’ on your computer again.” He walked with Ellis down the narrow hall and they went into the back bedroom. “Same kinda stuff as before.”

On the cluttered desk against one wall sat an old Dell PC. Ellis pressed the power button and sat in the chair in front of it. “This is the third time, Duane. I never knew you to be so interested in hookers.”

“I ain’t, really.”

“Then why are we searchin’ escort and prostitute sites? You havin’ trouble with Brenda?”

“No, she’s fine, I mean, we’re fine.” He cleared his throat. “She don’t give me no trouble.”

Ellis watched the monitor until the Windows logo appeared, then turned in his chair to face Gundy. “Then it’s got to be somethin’ else. Unless you’re lookin’ for a particular girl, and most of them are just teenage runaways, I think. You wouldn’t know none a’ them.” Then the realization of what Gundy really wanted seemed to sink in. “Ohhhh...I get it! You
are
lookin’ for a runaway! It’s Sammi, ain’t it? She musta’ run off.” Gundy didn’t answer and Ellis said, “Damn, am I right?”

Gundy nodded grimly. “You can’t tell nobody, Ellis. If Child Services finds out, they’ll put her in another home.”

Ellis gave a low whistle. “You mean, if they ever find her.”

“I’m gonna find her first, and I need your help.”

Ellis turned back to the computer and launched a web browser. “We done searched the bigger cities near us the last couple times, and ain’t found her, right? That means we gotta go further out, like Memphis.”

A screen popped up for an escort service that specialized in younger ladies, showing a girl who looked to be about fifteen years old, wearing spiked black heels and black fishnet hose, a black leather miniskirt, and a purple sequined tube top. Her face was heavily covered in makeup, and she had one finger crooked suggestively at the viewer.

“Damn, that’s awful,” Ellis said, still facing the computer. “That girl’s just a kid, but she looks like a two-dollar whore. Some pimp did that to her.”

“If I find out somebody’s been pimpin’ Sammi, I’m gonna hurt ’em. I’m gonna hurt ’em real bad.”

“I don’t blame you, buddy. I might have to help you.”

“Not ’till after I’m done with him.”

Chapter 19

Jamie motioned for the kids to give him more room so that he could make a magic doorway to Vessport for Mr. Winston. Miss Duffy stood silently by with Rachel, Evelyn, and Aunt Connie.

There were sixteen students at the school that day, and they all pushed forward to watch Jamie. Most of them had never seen him perform magic up close, though they’d all seen him at the Founders’ Festival.

“Just watch,” Aiven said. “This is really cool.”

“I know.” Sammi tsked and rolled her eyes. “I’ve seen it a million times.”

“Well, I haven’t,” Taila said, one of the new kids.

“What do you mean,
cool?
” Daisy said.

“He means
good
,” Evelyn said, then raised her voice. “Everybody can see just fine from back here.” She gestured sternly with her thumb. “We cleared this area out for Mr. Winston to put his things, not for you to crowd and get in Jamie’s way.”

Aunt Connie held her arms out to shoo the kids back, and Rachel said, “Go ahead, Jamie.”

He traced the glowing outlines of a portal and pushed it open, revealing the darker interior of Mr. Winston’s shop beyond. Most of the children stared at it with wide eyes. Aiven said, “Can we go, too?”

“No,” Aunt Connie said. “Mr. Winston doesn’t need a bunch of children milling around his shop.”

The kids groaned and Jamie said, “Maybe I’ll take you some other time.” He turned to the women, who stood nearby. “Who’s coming with me?”

Miss Duffy took two steps back.

“I’ll go,” Rachel said, and walked with Jamie through the doorway to the curio shop on the other side, where they found stacks of wooden boxes in the front of the room. Mr. Winston was standing behind the counter with a dowdy-looking younger woman.

“Ah!” Mr. Winston spread his arms when he noticed Jamie and his mother. “I was wondering when you might appear.” He introduced them to the woman, Davina, his great-niece. “She’ll be minding the shop in my absence. Hopefully, it will be a permanent arrangement.” A grin spread across his narrow face and he nodded.

Jamie eyed the stacks of boxes. “Is this what you’re bringing with you? It looks like a lot of stuff.”

“It is mostly books. I thought I could loan them to the school as part of your library, until we can procure volumes to permanently add to your collection.”

Jamie reached into the nearest box, pulled out one of the books on top, and flipped through a few pages. “That’s nice of you to offer, but this is way too advanced for our students. Most of them have minimal reading skills, at best.”

“Yes, but they will not always be at such a low level. They will advance quickly under our tutelage, will they not?” He grinned again. “They shall grow like flowers.”

“Okay, but this is a lot of stuff to move. I guess the easiest way to get it out of here is to levitate it into the school.”

He pointed a finger at a box, but before it had risen a foot, Rachel put her hand on his arm. “Don’t do that. Let’s get the boys to help. They’ll like doing that.”

“Okay, but it’ll take longer.” He followed her back through the glowing doorway to the school and announced to the kids, who were still waiting close by, “Which of you boys wants to help move Mr. Winston’s stuff?”

They all raised their hands immediately, but Milly said, “How come they get to go and we don’t? I’ve never been to Vessport. That’s not fair!”

The other girls complained, too, and Jamie scratched his chin with one finger. “Mmm...I guess it isn’t fair, is it?” He turned to Evelyn and said, “What do you think?”

“Okay,” she said, “all of you can go, under one condition. Hands to yourself! Any of you so much as breathe on any of the merchandise, and you’ll all come straight back in here. Understand?”

They all agreed and rushed toward the portal, but Aunt Connie made them form a line, and they walked through it in single file.

Once inside the shop, Evelyn said, “Mr. Winston, these are some of our students. They’re going to help you move your things.”

“Can we go outside and look around?” Blane asked, his face eager. “Please? Just so we can say we have seen the town?”

Evelyn sighed and said, “You mean so that you can brag to your friends.”

“Uh. Well, not exactly, uh....”

“Come on,” Rachel said. “You can go out to the sidewalk for one minute, and then we need to get moving.” She clapped her hands twice. “We have things to do.”

She led them out the front door of the shop and Jamie followed with Mr. Winston. Once they were by the street, most of the kids stared openly at their surroundings, but Aiven only shrugged. “It’s not that much different from Rivershire. Just a little bigger, that’s all.”

“It is more crowded,” Daisy said as she eyed the carriages rolling past them, and the countless pedestrians, everyone seemingly in a hurry.

Leora wrinkled her nose. “It stinks here. Smells like dead fish.”

“That’s because this is a port city,” Jamie said. “We’re only a few blocks from the bay.”

“Oooh!” Milly said. “Can we go? They must have
big
ships. I’ve never seen one before.”

“We don’t have time today,” Rachel said.

“Maybe we can do it some other day,” Jamie said, “before it gets cold.” He chuckled. “We could have a field trip.”

“I would be happy to go with you,” Mr. Winston said. “As a former sailor, I could be quite instructive on such an outing.”

“Yes, but right now we need to move Mr. Winston’s things.” Rachel clapped her hands again and pointed at the door. “Let’s go, kids.”

Once they were back inside the shop, they began carrying the boxes of books through the portaland into the school, two kids per box. While they deposited them in the cleared-out area, Mr. Winston surveyed the main room. “Very nice,” he said with a nod. “Much bigger than I expected.” He looked up at the lights and the twirling fans and raised his gray eyebrows and his eyes widened. “And...so modern.”

“I’ll explain how those work when I have a chance.” Jamie pointed to the front of the building and said, “There’s an empty classroom across from the office. We can use that as a temporary library until we get one built. It would be better if we leave the books right here for now, until we put shelves in there. My granddad said we can get them this afternoon. They’ll be at his warehouse.”

“Is that in town?”

“No, on Earth. It’s in Hendersonville. You’ll get to see a tiny bit of it today, but just the inside of the warehouse. I don’t have time to show you any more than that.”

“You probably want to get settled into your accommodations, Mr. Winston,” Aunt Connie said. “I’ll get a couple of the boys to carry your bags for you and show you to the boarding house. It’s right around the corner. We’ve already paid your rent for the next two weeks, so all you have to do when you get there is see the owner, Mrs. Heath, and get your key.”

“I guess you can relax until this afternoon,” Jamie said. “Then we’ll go to Hendersonville and get the shelves for the library.”

“I shall unpack in my room and return immediately,” Mr. Winston said. “I would like to go ahead and begin my lessons, if you don’t mind.”

“Are you sure?” Rachel said. “You don’t have to start today if you’d rather get settled in and get used to the town. We don’t have any history textbooks yet, anyway.”

“No, no.” He waved one hand. “The sooner I start, the better, I say. Then you can begin your evaluation of my skills.”

“What will you do without books?”

“Oh, I have plenty I can do without books.”

* * *

Duane Gundy was putting groceries away in the kitchen when he heard the doorbell ring.
Who the hell could that be?
He went to answer it, and waiting on the front stoop he found Mrs. Nash, the matronly case worker from Child Services, holding a clipboard and wearing her usual scowl.

Oh, crap
. “Uh...hello, Mrs. Nash,” he said without offering to let her in. “Why are you here?”

“It’s time for our regular visitation. Don’t you remember? It’s always the same Thursday of the month.”

“Oh, yeah, uh....”
What am I gonna say?
“We did kinda forget.” He laughed weakly and tugged at the end of his T-shirt with one hand. “We, uh, kinda let it slip our minds.”

“I need to see Sammi. Is she here?”