Witches in Wonderland

by J. D. Winters

  But at that moment, something else happened that changed the direction of my thinking.

  “Hey!” somebody called from the living room. “Look at this! Isn’t this our footage?”

  We headed in like we’d been pulled by magnets. There was a group crowded around one guy’s lap top.

  “Wait, I’ll rewind a bit.”

  The MyVid video was restarted, and it was clearly footage that had been shot in the hallway of my old house. It was blurry, and shot with one of those low-light filters so everything was green, but I recognized not just the layout of the place, but the artwork on the walls. The way the banister turned.

  And I recognized the flickering, blurry image of a ghost moving slowly down the hall. It was Hector, that enormous spirit who had bowled through me to leave the house. He looked different on the video. He moved with a somber dignity, and a rosary dangled from his right hand as he looked serenely about, like he was searching for something he couldn’t find.

  Then he disappeared, and the video stopped.

  Derek reacted as though he’d been touched by a live wire.

  “What the hell?” he cried, leaning in to see what else the screen of that laptop was going to reveal. “Hey, somebody ripped us off!”

  Everyone was crowding around it now, muttering vague threats and outrage.

  “Mario!” Derek yelled. “What the hell? Where are those memory cards?”

  Mario came in to take a look and paled. He didn’t say a word, just turned and raced off to the room where he was staying.

  “That is the footage we’ve been shooting for the last three days,” Derek cried. “This can’t be happening.”

  Mario was back. He looked at Derek and shrugged, looking lost and bewildered. “They’re gone,” was all he said.

  Derek looked like he was having a heart attack. “Someone got hold of those memory cards. Who did this?” He turned, glaring at everyone in sight. “Who’s the traitor?”

  Denials came swift and loud. Everyone had an alibi, everyone had a theory. Derek looked to be at the end of his rope. He was tearing his hair out.

  I tugged on his sleeve and pulled him away from the others. “Explain,” I said. “I don’t really get it. What has happened?”

  “Don’t you see it? We’ve had our footage stolen. Someone is showing it on MyVid and hoping to make money off it. We’ve got to stop them. That’s our entire portfolio being handed out to the public for nothing. How are we supposed to make anything on it if someone else has already shown it to everyone? This is grand theft.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Who would have done a thing like this?”

  He breathed heavily through his nose, but he was trying to calm down and think. I watched as one emotion after another flashed across his face. Finally he closed his eyes and turned to me.

  “I know who did it. Gordie.”

  I blanked on that one. “Gordie?”

  “Gordie. Gordon. Our so-called friend from the Gorillas shoot last year. The guy who couldn’t do anything right.”

  Oh no. Not Rennie’s brother. “How do you know he did this right?”

  “He worked closely with me down in LA. He would have known what I did after finishing a shoot. He would know what I did with the day’s memory cards, for sure. He knew I handed them over to Mario for safekeeping. And he knew where in his bag Mario tended to store the data and everything else. Someone took them. Who else has disappeared since last night? Gordie.”

  I was short of breath, hoping and praying I would get a brain flash to explain this away. “That still doesn’t prove anything. There were all kinds of people wandering in and out last night. How can you possibly know who went through your bag unless you saw them?”

  He was frowning fiercely. “No one else knows where we hide important stuff. I’ve gotten paranoid lately and I’m really careful about that. I know that people steal whenever they can. I have to guard against that all the time.”

  “But you never saw Gordon going through the bags, did you?”

  He hesitated, then admitted it. “No.”

  I threw out my hands. “Then you can’t…”

  Only to be interrupted by another voice.

  “But I did.” The voice was sharp and angry. “I saw it all. And it was Gordie alright.”

  We all turned and looked at the girl who’d spoken. It was Lilah, the tattooed grip gal.

  “What exactly did you see?” I said, trying to keep this on the up and up. Hysteria could send us all into wild and crazy acts and I was hoping to forestall anything like that.

  “I saw Gordie going into Mario’s room.” She glanced at Mario, her chin raised defiantly. “You were still playing poker with Derek. I tried to get you to come watch a movie with me. I had my tablet all set up and you’d said you would come join me.”

  She was talking to Mario now. The rest of us might as well have evaporated like fog. Her voice began to betray a strain of pain though she was working hard to keep the bitterness at bay.

  “But you didn’t. And you acted like you couldn’t care less if I was there or not.”

  Mario’s chin came up defensively. “So? What does that prove?”

  “It only proves what a jerk you are and that you don’t care if I live or die. You’d rather play poker.”

  He looked around as though that would be completely normal and he couldn’t understand anyone questioning it.

  “Yeah. I would. So what?”

  “So just because you let me stew like that, again. Again. You left me in the lurch, again. Are you blind? Can’t you see how important you are to me?”

  Mario looked uncomfortable as well as angry. “Listen Lilah, do you really have to do this in front of everyone?”

  “Yes. I really do. I want you to know the truth. You deserve the truth. I didn’t tell you about Gordie going into your room. I didn’t tell you about what he was doing, going through your bag. I decided to let him do it. It served you right.”

  “What?” Mario was in a rage. “You saw him do it and you didn’t say a word to me? What the hell? Did you want to destroy my career or what? Without those memory cards, I might as well go put a bullet in my brain. I’ve got nothing. Are you trying to kill me? Are you?”

  Lilah looked around and very deliberately picked up a vase, held it high, then smashed it into the ground. For a grand finale, she kicked the larger pieces so that they were sprayed across the room.

  “Yeah,” she told him harshly. “Yeah, I wanted to ruin your life just like you’re trying to ruin mine. I’ve had it with you. You were supposedly so in love with me that day last month and then you got what you wanted and now you have barely spoken to me since. So, yeah! I want to hurt you. Why wouldn’t I?”

  Mario roared, coming at her like a bull to a red cloth, and I could see disaster happening in seconds. Somebody had to stop him. I looked around wildly. Lilah was frozen with shock and fear. Derek was shaking his head and looking away in disgust. Two others loitered in the kitchen doorway as though they were watching an entertaining show.

  No one was going to stop him. His anger had turned him into a raging monster. He was going to hurt her very badly. Was I the only one ready to do this thing? I had to stop him. He would kill her if he hit her like that. I knew that meant breaking out the magic spells, but what could I do? I couldn’t let him hurt her physically, now that he’d damaged her emotionally. It just wasn’t fair.

  So I did it. I grasped a spell from my memory bank and cast it, mumbling Latin with about a half second to spare.

  The spell suspended him in mid air. His feet were still moving, his arms were swinging, his face was enraged, but he was going nowhere. And then he was going backwards, hard, and right into the wall. Luckily it was a fairly modern wall, made of chalky wallboard, not brick or plaster.

  He left a huge hole, but he was still alive. Alive and okay, it seemed, as he came back to normal, shaking his head and groaning a bit, but still in one piece. Nothing broken. I breathed a sigh of relief. And the
n I heard Shane’s voice.

  “Okay, Haley. That does it.”

  He stood in the doorway, his eye fixed on me in absolute fury. I pointed back at the man emerging from the hole, wanted to say what he was about to do, and how I was helping Lilah… except Lilah was screaming, and looked more terrified at me than she had at Mario. Everyone in the room was backing away from me, heading for the corners, moving slowly like I was a rabid dog.

  Everyone except Shane, who stepped toward, and around me.

  Where he slapped handcuffs on my tender wrists.

  I looked at him, bewildered. “Where did you come from?” I asked him.

  He heaved a sigh, surveying me from the depths of heavily-lidded eyes. “I told you I’d be watching you. That there would be consequences. And now we’re going to take a little trip down the coast. We’re going to go see your grandmother. I think there are some things she needs to tell you about. Let’s go.”

  It was all a blur for a time. The crewmembers I’d been talking to were still there, but they faded and their voices sank into indistinct background noise. I went with Shane, because—well, I was sort of programmed to do that. I plunked myself down into the passenger’s seat of his police car and he got in and started the engine and then I awkwardly positioned myself to reach the window button to roll down the window so I could feel the wind in my hair, and we sailed down the highway, heading for Gran Ana.

  Heading for what? I wasn’t sure and I didn’t know if I was scared…or satisfied. Hard to tell until I heard what she was going to have to say to me.

  Consequences. That word gave me shivers—and the rock-hard silhouette edge of Shane’s jawline didn’t help. I was guessing we were going to find out who was tougher—them or me. But I already knew the answer to that question. Now all I had to do was hold back the pathetic whimpering. I was in deep trouble.

  And deeply, deeply sad. This was just another bit of evidence thrown my way, evidence that there could never be a real relationship between me and this man. He was forever a hunter and I was his prey. What had I been thinking? There was truly no hope.

  Chapter 14

  Shane took a turn into an area I didn’t recognize and soon we were sailing down a road I’d never been on before. I wasn’t really paying that much attention at first. I was too busy feeling sorry for myself. But when I did perk up, I knew something was wrong. This wasn’t the way to Gran Ana’s. I’d never been out here before. The hills didn’t look right and neither did the trees. I couldn’t figure out which direction was hiding the ocean. I was totally turned around and confused.

  We went through an area with heavy forest on each side, trees leaning over us, creating a long, green tunnel for us to fly down. We came out into a clearing, and there was that large, elongated and rounded stone that I’d been working on the day before. Just seeing it there took the breath right out of my body and I gasped. I twisted in my seat, looking back at it, but by then I’d realized this stone wasn’t cracked. It wasn’t the same stone at all, just one very similar. The area around the stone was completely different. Were those large stones more prevalent than I’d realized?

  “What is it?” Shane asked, glancing over at me.

  I took a deep breath. “Nothing,” I said. “But this isn’t the road to Gran Ana’s, is it?”

  “It’s a back way,” Shane said. “I can’t go the usual route if I want to avoid being seen.”

  Avoid being seen. Why? Because he was with me? Because he was playing hooky from where he officially needed to be? I didn’t question him. It was his business.

  The greenery flashed by in one long blur, and then Shane pulled the car over into a tree-choked turnout, switched off the engine and looked at me.

  “I need you to do me a favor,” he said shortly. “You okay with that?”

  He looked at me hard. His pupils were dilated beyond reason, making his eyes so dark, so scary. Was it because of the shadows we were sitting in? Or was it something else? For just a moment, I went a little bit loopy—and my brain kept whispering, “Hunter. Beware.” As though we were in an episode of Twilight Zone or something equally spooky. But I grimaced and got myself back to normal quickly enough.

  “Uh…maybe. What kind of favor?”

  He hesitated, as though it was really hard for him to ask this of me. “I need you to cast a spell for me.”

  My jaw dropped. “What? I thought the whole problem was me casting spells.”

  First Rennie, now Shane. Why couldn’t these people cast their own spells? But that was just a joke to give me some time to think. Cast a spell for a hunter. A thousand options flew through my mind, none of them good. He was a lawman, but was this going to be legal? And even if it wasn’t, how could I refuse?

  Besides, this was Shane. I was on his side. I forced myself to calm down, but still the question lingered: I was on his side, but was he on mine?

  “Can you take off these handcuffs?” I threw that out as an opening bargaining chip.

  He frowned for a moment, then nodded and reached out to take care of that little problem. I rubbed my wrists. They didn’t actually hurt much but I wanted to make him think they did. He should have some remorse after all.

  He didn’t seem to notice.

  “What I need,” he told me coolly, “is a spell on this car. I want you to make it invisible to electronic tracking.”

  Wow. That was a big one. I wasn’t sure I knew how to do that but I was willing to try. Still, I needed a little more incentive.

  “You want to hide this car from GPS, radar, digital tracking of all kinds,” I said. “I get that you really don’t want to be seen. So tell me, who are you hiding from?”

  I asked the question, ignoring that part of my brain that tried to scare me into thinking he might be trying to go incognito in order to hide my body out here in the wilderness somewhere. No way. I do think I know him better than that. Despite anything my absurdly rebellious brain might be cooking up.

  He hesitated again. It was evident he didn’t want to tell me, but he took another look at my face and realized he was going to have to give me something if he expected to get a spell going here.

  “We’re going to your grandmother’s,” he said slowly. “I’d rather keep that quiet for now.”

  “From whom?” I was insisting, wasn’t I? Well, too bad. I thought I deserved to know.

  The corner of his mouth jerked a bit but he told me. “From anyone at the Sheriff Station. This is private and personal.”

  “Really?” I looked at him hopefully. “You and me? We’re private and personal?”

  He hesitated, then turned away. “Yes,” he said, his voice muffled. “We are. Now do it.”

  I grinned, more than happy to oblige. Now that we were private and personal—that made all the difference.

  I racked my brain, throwing out the crazy impulses and going for more witchy secrets. I remembered that packet of sachet herbs and I took it out, drew in its scent, and shook some of the powder onto my shoulders. Now what? I had a few thoughts, so I leaned forward and flattened my hands on the dashboard, closing my eyes. I recited a few Latin phrases, then got down to it. I could feel the magic quiver in the air around us. I could feel a swell of power, like when you’re on an airplane at takeoff and you feel that force gathering and your heart begins to race and fill the air around you with vital energy. I felt it. Now I just had to make it do what I wanted it to do. I uttered a command in Latin, then added a phrase of my own. A surge took my breath away, and then my heart began to slow again. I took a deep breath, then opened my eyes and smiled at Shane.

  “Done,” I said.

  He looked around suspiciously. “Nothing seems different.”

  “Nothing is different here. What’s different is at the station.”

  “Oh.” He still looked unconvinced. “You sure?”

  I nodded and smiled at him and he half-smiled back. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s go.”

  We went. But things were better now. That original coldness h
ad faded away. We could talk like friends again.

  “Have you heard from Rennie?” he asked me.

  I looked at him. “Were you there for the commotion that led up to me using my magic on Mario?” I asked him.

  He nodded. “I know you felt you had to do it. But I warned you…”

  “Never mind,” I said impatiently. “What about what Gordon did? He stole those memory cards. Do you think he had anything to do with the murder?”

  “Gordie? No. He’s all focused on his work with that outlaw video bunch. They put up renegade video whenever they can. I got a line on where they’re holed up. I sent it to Tommy. Hopefully they’ve arrested him by now.”

  “Oh gosh. Rennie is out running around searching for him.”

  “I heard she’d found him. By the time we get back, they’ll probably both be at the Sheriff’s Station.”

  “Both in cells?”

  “Of course.”

  I shook my head. “And this somehow exonerates him from the murder?”

  “Sure. If he’d killed Kenny, he’d be heading for Mexico. Not hiding out in the video studio with his buds. I never really suspected him anyway.”

  That was a relief. Poor Rennie. But at least her brother wasn’t a murder suspect. Yet.

  “So who do you suspect at this point in time?” I asked him.

  “I’m open to evidence,” he said.

  “Who’s on the list?”

  “Who do you think?”

  “Okay.” I thought for a moment. “Well, there’s Derek I suppose.”

  “Nah. I totally buy his alibi. Him and Mario both.”

  “Okay.” I licked my lips nervously. “How about Phyllis?”

  “Kenny’s ex?”

  “Yes. Aren’t ex’es the first ones you suspect?”

  “Of course. Unless they have a good alibi.”

  “Did she tell you she only got to town after the murder happened?”

  “Yes, she did.”

  “Better check out the Dew Drop Inn. I think she spent at least part of the night there.”