Witch Reborn Box Set: Books 1-3: Includes Gemstone Coven Holiday Shorts 1 & 2

by Belinda White

  Even if, deep down in my heart, I knew it was against Orville’s wishes. I’d just have to deal with that later. He would too.

  First things first. Get the killer behind bars where they belonged. All the better if said killer had absolutely nothing to do with either of us or our upcoming wedding. But we wouldn’t be able to rest assured of that until we caught them. At least I wouldn’t.

  Kimberly had supplied a list of all the younger girls in the congregation that she could recall. I’d be going online this afternoon to see if the church had some kind of member roster to make sure I didn’t miss anyone. But for now, this was a good place to start.

  Unfortunately, Kimberly wasn’t so free with the information on who I should start with. I got that. Most of these girls were her friends. As much as the woman wanted to help me, she didn’t want to hurt her friends, either.

  To her mind, I’m kind of thinking the killer did the world a favor in taking out Reverend Castle. That wasn’t a healthy way to look at things. That didn’t mean it couldn’t also be true. A man like that had no right being a shepherd of God.

  But there was something I had to do even before my visiting rounds. I had some spell work to do.

  What with everything going on, there was a whole lot of negative energy built up in this house. I needed it gone. As soon as possible too. Negative energy never helped anything, but it sure as heck could make things seem worse than what they actually were.

  I hoped that was the case here. Get some positivity back in the house and see how that affected my feelings. Hopefully, it would be for the better. Give me a clearer head to work this thing through.

  No spell bag for this one, either. Spell bags were great for last-minute spell casting, don’t get me wrong. But for something this bloody important, I wanted fresh ingredients. Luckily, everything I needed was right in my back yard.

  My witch’s garden was one of the finest in the world. I’d stake good money on that. A sure bet, in my mind.

  Gathering the ingredients was the part that took the longest. After that, it was just a matter of putting a match to them and walking around the house putting a little magic behind the smoke. And yes, there was a little chanting involved too. I kept it down, though. Just because I wasn’t taking advantage of sleep-in day didn’t mean the same was true of the others.

  The farmhouse wasn’t a small one. By the time I’d cleared the energy of the downstairs, I was officially wiped out of magical power. The upstairs would just have to wait for tomorrow. I hardly ever went up there, anyway. And, as selfish as it may sound, right now I was thinking mainly of myself.

  I needed a clear head, dang it all.

  Flopping onto my sofa, I glanced at the clock. Not quite time yet for the church service to let out. I was fairly certain that the church would still have services today. They needed them now more than ever, things being what they were. I just hoped the traveling reverend was a better man than the last one that had taken that pulpit.

  That was another reason I wanted to make my rounds today. It was Sunday. A lot of the girls I wanted to talk with either were still in school or held down jobs. I was going on the theory that Reverend Castle was more a hound dog than a pervert. That meant I was going to concentrate mostly on the girls over eighteen.

  Part of that was because I really didn’t want to think about it being different. If the man hadn’t at least respected the age of majority, then I was afraid I’d have to agree more with Kimberly’s whole take on his murder. Good riddance.

  Plus, of course, I didn’t like to think about a young teenage girl being a killer. Although, now that I thought about it, maybe that might lead to the killing being in self-defense? I could totally get behind that theory one hundred percent.

  And if it was a younger girl involved, the killer could also be a father or mother that found out. Or an older boyfriend. Gah! My conversation with Kimberly had opened the door from no suspects to an abundance of them. Glancing at the short list of names in front of me, I truly had no idea where to start.

  At least I’d had the forbearance to get Kimberly to give me their ages, as well as their names. That was something. Taking a deep breath, I decided to start with the oldest.

  Cassidy Mallard. According to Kimberly, she was around her age, twenty-two. Yes, poor Kimberly had started having kids far earlier than she should have. Not that all of that had been her fault.

  This girl was a young mother too. Only in her case, the father of her child had married her. At least that’s what the word on the street was, anyway. As far as I knew, no paternity tests had ever been done. And I’d met the young family. Baby Samantha really didn’t look all that much like her dad. And Cassidy had a bit of a reputation for not saying no to a man.

  I pulled up a picture of the reverend to have his face clear in my mind. There was a reason I was starting with Cassidy.

  Knowing what I knew now, I kind of wanted a closer look at baby Samantha.

  Chapter 9

  I spent the rest of the morning with my new family. I made a big breakfast, my personal way of paying back Kimberly for always taking on that Sunday morning early bottle feeding. Nancy covered through the week, but a young girl had the right to sleep in occasionally too.

  So Kimberly got up earlier than the rest of us, and I made the big country-style breakfast. Here lately, Orville had taken to coming over to partake of the food too. Most likely because of all the fried foods involved. The man loved his fried bacon.

  But then, who didn’t?

  Today though, it was just us. He was far too busy working on the Castle case to take time out for a huge breakfast. And that right there told me just how badly he wanted to put this to rest. I was right there with him on that too.

  So much so that I fried up some extra bacon, made some extra toast, and planned to make a brief stop off at the sheriff station to drop off a nice little BLT sandwich for my man. It couldn’t hurt to let the others there see that this thing between us wasn’t going to just go away. No matter how much they wished that would be the case.

  Not going to happen.

  He wasn’t there when I got there, but I left the sandwich in a nice little paper bag on his desk. It should keep there until he got back. And I pitied anyone who dared touch it before then.

  As I said, my man loved his fried bacon, and I’d double stuffed that sandwich. Just for him. We’d work off the extra calories later. Right now, the man needed his protein.

  I made sure to wave at Trixie and give her a big smile as I walked out the door. She waved back, but not with a smile. Which just caused mine to grow a little bigger.

  Deal with it, sister. The sheriff is mine. Hands off.

  From there, I drove the few blocks to the Mallard’s residence. I sat there for a minute trying to gather up my wits about me before walking in. How could I work this?

  Then I noticed her bright and colorful flower garden. Seemed like reason enough for a visit. A nice neighborly chat about her beautiful flowers and where she got them, or if she hired the work out, and all that. And of course, it would be the pleasant thing to do to console her on the death of her reverend, now wouldn’t it?

  With a plan in place, I walked up her flower-lined path to the front door. It really was quite lovely. No lie involved there.

  When Cassidy opened the door, she just blinked at me. “Opal Ravenswind? What are you doing here?”

  I gave her my brightest smile. “I was driving by and saw your gorgeous flowers. I was wondering if I could pick your brain for a minute about them? I thought I knew every flower there was, but a couple of those I’m unfamiliar with.” Okay, so one little fib. Sue me.

  She stood a little straighter. “Why, thank you. I’d love to talk about my flower babies.” She glanced over her shoulder into the house. “But it might have to wait a bit. We have another visitor at the moment.”

  And who should step up right behind her than Sheriff Orville Taylor. Darn it all. He must have walked. Otherwise, I’d have seen his ca
r.

  “Oh, I have no issues with Opal joining our conversation if you don’t,” he said, nodding to me.

  Cassidy didn’t look too sure about that, but she stepped aside to let me in anyway. Orville’s warning look was enough for me to keep my mouth shut. Let him do the talking. Goddess knows I’d been with the man long enough to take that look for exactly what it was. A warning.

  She offered me a cold soda, which I took her up on, and we all sat back down in the living room. I have to admit, young Cassidy had me impressed so far. A beautiful front yard, a nicely kept house, not all that usual for a new mother. Mr. Mallard had gotten quite a catch when he’d married her.

  “So, back to our conversation,” Orville said, giving me yet another ‘keep your mouth shut’ glance. “I believe I had just asked if either of you knew anyone who might have wished the reverend harm.”

  Mr. Mallard cleared his throat. “You mean besides me, right?”

  Orville lifted an eyebrow and turned to him. “You wished him harm?”

  “Well, maybe I didn’t wish him dead, but harm, yeah sure I did. A lot of folks in town did. You want a list?”

  The other eyebrow shot up. “A list would be most appreciated, yes.” He took out his pocket notebook and a pen. “But let’s start with your reasons and then get to the others.”

  Mallard looked over at Cassidy. She looked at me, then finally gave him a brief nod. “Go ahead. Tell them.”

  He looked over at Orville. “I’d really like it if we could keep this between us, mind you. Cassidy is a good wife and a good mom, and I don’t want rumors starting back up about her again. Is that agreed?”

  Orville nodded. “As long as what you tell me doesn’t end up directly relating to an active case on my desk, I agree. If it does, I don’t.”

  Mallard thought about it and then nodded too. “That sounds fair.” Then he looked at me.

  “What is said here stays with us,” I said. “On my word as a Ravenswind.”

  A witch is known by her word. At least, they are in a small town like Wind’s Crossing.

  “All right then,” Mallard said. “Yes, I wished the man harm. But if’n I’d done it—which I didn’t—I’d have strangled the man. Made him suffer while watching the life drain from his eyes. I’ve thought about it enough times to know that’s how I would have done it.”

  Wow. There was a whole lot of hatred in those words.

  “What did Reverend Castle do?” Orville asked.

  “He violated my wife, that’s what,” Mallard answered. Then he hesitated. “Okay, so she wasn’t my wife at the time, or the killer’s work would have been done for him. But he took advantage of his position and a vulnerable girl. The man was a despicable human being.”

  Orville looked over at Cassidy, who appeared to be studying the carpet at her feet. “What happened?”

  She took a deep breath, then finally raised her eyes to him. “I was doing a paper for my English class. We all had to do papers on a different profession. To be fair, the teacher made us draw names out of a hat. I got being a preacher.”

  “So you went to visit Reverend Castle.”

  “Yes. It seemed the logical place to start, with my own preacher. I mean, where else would I go? He invited me over for dinner to discuss the paper.” Her voice lowered to almost a whisper. “I thought why not, I mean if you can’t trust your preacher who can you trust?”

  I couldn’t take it any longer. I had to ask. “You were about eighteen when all this happened, weren’t you?”

  She met my eyes. “Yes.”

  Cassidy knew what I was asking. Her baby, Samantha, wasn’t quite four years old. Said a lot, that.

  “Did you tell him he was the father?” I asked. I felt Orville stiffen beside me, but Goddess bless him, he didn’t say a word. But I could tell my question wouldn’t have been one he would have thought to ask.

  She looked away. “Yes. I needed help.” Her eyes fell to her fidgeting fingers. “My reputation as an easy girl was vastly overestimated. I wasn’t. It was all pretend and mean talk by the boys I dated afterward, trying to make it sound like they got something they didn’t.”

  “So you knew exactly who the father was then. Why didn’t you make him take a paternity test?”

  Cassidy glanced over at her husband. “She wanted to. But I put a stop to it. I’d been in love with Cassidy for years.” He reached out and put a hand on her knee. “Her situation didn’t change that, and her baby needed a good decent father. Not that piece of living scum.”

  I smiled at him. Mr. Mallard was impressing me as well. And what’s more, the look Cassidy gave him let me know that the love was well reciprocated too. I didn’t blame them for wanting our assurances that word of this didn’t get out. Why feed the gossip mill when things had turned out as well as they had?

  Orville leaned forward. “I’d be mighty interested in knowing just what Reverend Castle did when you told him.”

  Her face turned red. “He laughed. And then he said ‘prove it’ and walked away.” She looked up at Mallard. “If Blake hadn’t found me crying in the park, I don’t know what I would have done.” She grimaced. “Probably something really, really stupid.”

  Yeah. A lot of teenage girls made those same stupid decisions every single day. A lot of them learned to regret them later on in life too.

  I was glad that hadn’t happened with Cassidy.

  And I was starting to get Kimberly’s reluctance to talk about the whole thing too. If this got out, it could cause irreparable damage to this nice, happy little family. I didn’t want that happening.

  Orville looked at Mallard. “You mentioned a list?”

  The man looked at his watch, then at Cassidy. “It’s almost time for us to go pick up Sam from her playdate, sweetheart.” He turned to Orville. “Is it okay if I write it up and drop it off at the station for you?”

  Orville nodded slowly. “As long as I have the list by the end of the day, that should be fine. But I need that list. And make sure you put why the names are on it too.”

  “I will.” We all stood, and Cassidy gave me a shy smile. “If you still want to talk about the flowers, could you maybe come back during the week? I work from home now.”

  “I’ll do that.” Mallard showed us out, but he hesitated before shutting the door behind us. We had already started walking toward my car. “Sheriff?” he called out.

  Orville turned back with a questioning glance. “Yes?”

  “I’ll get you that list, but if you want to know who’ll be right at the very top of it, here you go. You might want to have a chat with Kenny Driscoll, our local bookie. From what I understand, the good reverend was behind in paying off his losing bets.”

  And the door shut.

  Once we got back to my car, Orville looked at me. “Flowers, huh? I would have thought a nature lover like yourself would know every flower that ever even thought about growing in these parts.”

  I just blinked at him. “It got me in the front door, didn’t it?”

  He scrubbed his chin. “Actually, I think I might have had a little something to do with that, just so you know.”

  I’d have to give him that. Of course, if he hadn’t already been there, that wouldn’t have been needed. And with that being the case, I didn’t feel his statement needed an answer.

  Instead, I just looked at him. “But having me there came in handy, now didn’t it?”

  He grunted. “Okay, I’ll admit I might not have made that leap about the father of their child. That witch’s intuition of yours is a mighty powerful thing. One of the reasons I’m kind of eager to make our partnership thing an everyday reality.” His stare bore straight into my eyes. “There’s no way I’m keeping you out of this one, is there?”

  I lifted a shoulder. “If it didn’t affect me, then I’d stay out of it like you wanted me to. But the truth is, Orville, it sure feels like this is connected to me. To us. And with that being the case...”

  “You’re in the thick of it, wheth
er or not I want you there.”

  “Looks that way, yes.” I paused for a minute as the front door of the house opened and the Mallards came out. “You want a ride back to the station?”

  He glanced back at the Mallards and then to me. “I think maybe I’d better walk. The less you’re seen at the station the better, I think, until we resolve this thing one way or another.”

  Oops. “Well, I should warn you that I went there before coming here.”

  His eyes snapped back to me. “You did?” Was that a little bit of worry I saw in them?

  “I felt bad because you missed out on our big Sunday breakfast, so I brought you a BLT. Double bacon too.”

  He relaxed a bit. “Oh, well, then. I guess I can make an exception for the bringing of food. Especially if that food happens to be bacon.”

  Yeah, kind of figured he’d feel that way.

  But what mattered the most to me was that he was asking me to stay away from the station, not doubling down on me staying off the case. I’d take that as a green light to continue what I’d started.

  I’d just be passing anything I learned to him in private. I could deal with that.

  Chapter 10

  I had two more stops on my list of people to visit with, but neither of them panned out all that well. Nothing more learned. Still, I thought the day’s investigative work had worked out rather well.

  We’d learned that Reverend Castle had a history of taking advantage of young and vulnerable girls and that the man also had a gambling problem. Not bad for a day’s work, I thought.

  So, for the rest of the day I rested on my laurels. When the last friendly little visit was done, I went home to the farmhouse. My family could use a little Auntie Opal time, and truthfully, Auntie Opal could use a little family time too.

  It went both ways, that.

  We spent the evening playing board games and watching an old movie that the kids had picked out. It wasn’t a movie I was familiar with, but the kids had found it at the library and it looked fun. Plus, it was rated for all ages, so it should be safe, right? It ended up being a parody western that very much reminded me of the old Road Runner cartoons. In fact, I think the scriptwriters took entire pages from Wile E. Coyote.