Wicked Witches of the Midwest Mystery Box Set

by Amanda M. Lee

  “Oh, no.” I shook my head. “You’ll take the fall alone. That’s a house rule. Whoever has the secret is on the hook when things go south. We’ll help you as much as we can until that happens.”

  “Really?” Clove’s eyes were glassy again. “Do you really mean it?”

  I wasn’t surprised when I felt tears prick the backs of my eyes. “We really mean it.”

  Thistle let loose an exaggerated sob. “Yes, we’ll help. I demand to be there when you tell Aunt Tillie, though. I think the news may kill her and I don’t want to miss it.”

  I was certain she was making a joke to ease the mood, so I merely smiled. “We’ll get you through the wedding Clove. But you have to tell them right after. We’ll be running on borrowed time as it is.”

  “I’ll tell them as soon as we’re back from our honeymoon.”

  “Oh, no.” I immediately started shaking my head. “You’ll tell them right before you leave on your honeymoon. That way they can stew for two weeks while you’re safely out of their reach and they’ll be pretty much over whatever dark thoughts threaten to overtake them by the time you get back.”

  “Oh, wow! That’s a great idea.” Clove was suddenly bubbly again, which meant Thistle and I were free of tears. “We also have to figure a way for you to control your emotions. I’m hoping this is a byproduct of the pregnancy. If not, you need to work on it.”

  “I didn’t know I was doing it,” Clove protested. “I’ll start working on it right now. I promise. That’s my main focus … as soon as you tell me how to stop doing what I’m doing.”

  “If we knew that we wouldn’t have an issue,” Thistle shot back. “We’ll have to research it, which means you have to be extra careful around our mothers until we figure out a way to keep them from spontaneously bursting into tears. That won’t go over well when Aunt Winnie and Chief Terry are in bed together.”

  I frowned at the picture she painted. “Did you have to say that? Now it’s all I’ll be able to think about.”

  Thistle was blasé. “If it’s in my head, it has to be in your head. Suck it up.”

  “We’ll figure it out, Clove.” I moved to her and extended my arms to give her a hug. “This is a big deal. You’re going to have a baby. There’s going to be a whole new generation of Winchesters.”

  “Cornell,” Clove corrected, accepting the hug. “The baby is going to be a Cornell.”

  “Oh, please let me be there when you tell Aunt Tillie that,” Thistle pleaded. “That will definitely kill her.”

  “Ignore her,” I ordered Clove as I patted her back. “This is going to be great. Just you wait.”

  “I hope so.” Clove sucked in a calming breath and I felt her frown against my cheek. “Do you smell like bacon?”

  “Crap! I just knew Aunt Tillie was going to do me dirty.”

  Thistle chuckled. “Better you than me.”

  “Better you than me,” Clove corrected, shoving me away and hopping to her feet. “I think I’m going to throw up. I can’t stand the smell of pork.” She bolted toward the bathroom, leaving Thistle and me to eye one another.

  “Well, things could be worse,” I said after a beat. “At least she and Sam are getting married. If she was going to be a single mother I doubt we’d ever be able to put things back together.”

  “There is that.” Thistle flashed a smile. “So, what did you do to tick off Aunt Tillie?”

  “It’s not so much what I did as what Landon wants. He made a special request.”

  “He’s kind of a pervert.”

  “Totally.”

  Twenty-Four

  Landon was full of swagger when he strolled through my office door. He pulled up short when he saw I wasn’t alone, his eyes narrowing as he glanced between faces.

  “What’s going on?”

  He was an intuitive guy. He would figure out Clove was pregnant no matter what we did. That meant I had to tell him. We’d already talked about just that, and Clove agreed he could help run interference.

  “Clove is pregnant. She’s terrified to tell our mothers because they’ll probably give her grief about it. We’re keeping it secret for her until the wedding, which is only a few weeks away. You’re going to help. I don’t want any lip about it.”

  Landon pursed his lips as he focused on my brunette cousin. “Wow.”

  When he didn’t expound, I shook my head. “That’s all you have to say? This is a big deal.”

  “I get that. Are you excited, Clove?”

  She held out her hands and shrugged. “I haven’t decided yet. I kind of like the idea of a baby. I think I would’ve liked it better two years from now, but there’s nothing I can do about that. I’m terrified to tell my mother.”

  “We’re all terrified for your mother to find out,” Thistle drawled as she flipped through the papers on my desk. She was brimming with restless energy and her way of dealing with it was being a busybody. “It’s a secret until the wedding. That means no one can find out ... including Aunt Tillie.”

  “I’ve got it.” Landon’s eyes flashed with annoyance. “I’m not an idiot.” He was calm when he rested his hand on Clove’s shoulder. “This is going to be fun. Once the initial flurry of activity is over, you’ll be able to settle in and get a handle on how all of this is going to work out.”

  “Yeah.” Clove pressed her lips together and looked pensive. When she finally spoke, it was to utter something I never thought would come out of her mouth. “I’m kind of hoping childbirth is different for witches. Like ... maybe it won’t hurt because I’m genetically blessed. That’s possible, right?”

  Thistle and I snorted in unison.

  “Yeah. That’s not going to happen,” Thistle said. “If you listen to our mothers, their labor pains were worse than those suffered by mere mortals. Labor is going to suck.”

  The fearful look on Clove’s face told me that was the worst thing to say. “But it’s a temporary thing and you get a baby out of it,” I said hurriedly. “You’ll survive. It’ll be okay.”

  “I just don’t want it to hurt.” Clove buried her face behind the pillow on the couch, allowing me to focus on Landon.

  “It’s going to be a rough few weeks,” I noted.

  “Well, there’s nothing we can do about it now,” he pointed out. “I was hoping you would be done for the night. I’m starving and want to get out of here.”

  “We have separate vehicles,” I reminded him.

  “Yes, but I wanted to check to see if ... .” He shuffled closer and smiled. “And there’s my dessert.” He hunkered down and pressed his nose into my hair. “That is the best perfume ever. I want to bottle that scent and spray it over my clothes so I can smell you all day.”

  That was a freaky visual. “Yes, I smell like bacon. You got your way. Happy?”

  “I’m always happy with you, sweetie.” His smile was broad. “Come on. We should head out to get dinner and then go home so I can enjoy my present.”

  “It’s only a present for you. It’s a punishment for me.”

  “It’s the gift that keeps on giving.” He squeezed my hand. “How do you feel about skipping dinner at the inn and getting takeout? We can hole up in the guesthouse and ignore the outside world for the next twelve hours.”

  “I think it sounds like you already had this planned out,” I said dryly. “I guess I can live with the takeout. I want a bath, though. It’s been a long day.”

  “I can make a bath work.” His grin was flirty as he leaned forward and kissed me. “I’m still kind of mad about what you did. I expect I’ll be over it by the end of the night, though. You smell too good.”

  “Ugh.” I made a face as he helped me to my feet, dusting off the seat of my pants and leaning over to collect the files I’d been perusing so I could take them home with me. My gaze landed on Thistle, who had completely tuned out our conversation (I couldn’t blame her) and was focused on the sheets I’d printed from Hannah Bishop’s missing person file. “What are you looking at?”

 
; “I recognize her,” Thistle replied.

  “Hannah? Yeah. She’s the first person we found in the pool. Her photo has been all over the news.”

  “I don’t recognize her from the television. I haven’t been watching the news. I recognize her because she stopped in at Hypnotic a few months ago.”

  Landon, who was making a series of tickling inhalations against my skin, quickly straightened. “You talked to her before she went missing?”

  “Yeah. I talked to her for a good thirty minutes or so. I was alone at the store because Clove said something came up — I’m betting that had something to do with the baby she’s been hiding from us — when she came in. I didn’t know her name.”

  “What do you remember about her?” Landon was all business now. “Did she say where she was going? Was she meeting anyone?”

  “We talked about Hemlock Cove’s history a bit. She said she was writing a book.”

  “That’s definitely her,” I agreed. “Her parents said she had big plans for the book.”

  “She seemed nice.” Thistle was lost in thought as she tapped her bottom lip. “So often the tourists who come to town are annoying. She was the exact opposite. She had insightful questions and wanted to know about the town gossip. She thought Mrs. Little’s store would make a funny chapter in her book because only a crazy person would sell porcelain unicorns.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. “Well ... she wasn’t wrong.”

  “She had a lot of energy,” Thistle continued. “She was so excited to be here. She asked about a lot of places ... including Hollow Creek and the Dandridge. She wanted to know about the ‘most magical’ places.” She used the appropriate air quotes. “I didn’t tell her I knew about those places from firsthand experience, but she always seemed to have knowledge of them.”

  “Somehow she ended up at the campground,” Landon pointed out. “Do you know how that happened?”

  “No, but I do remember where she was staying. She might’ve left her stuff out there.”

  “Out where?” I asked.

  “The Dragonfly.”

  “Of course.” I rubbed my forehead. The Dragonfly was the inn run by our fathers. They’d only returned to the area a little more than a year ago. Our relationships with them were something of a work in progress. However, they would not be happy to see us darkening their doorstep again only because we were in search of information. “I’m guessing we have to go out there.”

  “We do,” Landon confirmed. “I need to talk to them.”

  ”They’re going to notice I smell like bacon.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure they don’t molest you.”

  I glowered at him. “You’re a funny guy.”

  “I do my best.”

  THE DRAGONFLY WAS A BEAUTIFUL inn. It wasn’t breathtaking like The Overlook — and our fathers weren’t renowned as cooks like our mothers — but it was still a comforting place. That’s why I was surprised when we walked through the front door and found my Uncle Teddy, Thistle’s father, dealing with what looked to be some sort of frenzy in the lobby.

  “We’re doing the best we can, ma’am,” he said, frustration evident. “I swear there’s no ghost living in your room. We don’t have any ghosts on the premises.”

  I exchanged a quick look with Landon, but didn’t say anything. Teddy’s eyes widened when he realized we were joining the fray.

  “Hi, guys. I didn’t know you were stopping by tonight.”

  “It wasn’t exactly planned,” Landon replied. “Um ... where is Jack? We need to talk to him.”

  “He’s in the kitchen.”

  Landon linked his fingers with mine and gave me a little tug as he pulled me through the crowd. There had to be six people lined up in the small lobby, and none of them looked happy. “I’m so glad I don’t have a job that forces me to work in customer service,” he said.

  “I kind of do ... although it’s different. I ... hey!” I felt a hand on my bottom and swiveled quickly, my eyes going dark. A woman and man stood behind me and both had innocent expressions on their faces. “Did you do that?” I directed the question at the man because he seemed the obvious choice.

  “Do what?” Landon asked, confused. “What’s wrong?”

  “Someone grabbed my butt.”

  The announcement didn’t go over well with my boyfriend. “Excuse me?”

  “Someone grabbed my butt,” I repeated, annoyed.

  “Are you sure it was grabbed? Could it have been an accident?”

  “There was squeezing.”

  He growled. “Did you touch her butt?” he asked the man, his shoulders squaring.

  The man’s eyes went wide. “I didn’t. I would never.”

  “Someone grabbed my butt,” I argued. “I didn’t imagine it.”

  “Maybe we should take this outside,” Landon suggested to the flustered man. “We need to have a discussion about how you don’t grab a woman’s butt without invitation.”

  “I didn’t grab her butt!”

  “I grabbed her butt,” the woman announced, causing me to take an inadvertent step back.

  I wasn’t the only one surprised by the announcement. Landon made a noise like a feral cat. “Excuse me?”

  “It was me.” The woman turned prim. “I’m sorry. It was an impulse. She smells like bacon. I didn’t even know they made perfume like that. Is there a cologne option, by the way? I would like to get it for my husband.”

  “It’s a personalized scent,” I muttered, my cheeks burning.

  “I’m truly sorry I did it,” the woman offered. “I can’t explain myself. I have a thing for bacon. I don’t know how it even happened, to be honest.”

  “I’m right there with you.” Landon’s smile was sly as he glanced at me. “Usually I would defend your honor, but I can’t beat up a woman.”

  I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. “We’re going to have a talk about this later. This can’t happen again.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He slipped his arm around my waist. “Try to keep your hands to yourself, ma’am. If you touch her again, I’m going to let her take you outside and you don’t want that. She’s tougher than she looks.”

  The woman’s eyes gleamed. “Well ... that might be fun.”

  My mouth dropped open as Landon started chuckling and dragged me away. He didn’t speak again until we were cutting through the dining room and heading toward the kitchen. “That was different, huh?”

  “I can’t even look at you,” I groused. “This is totally your fault.”

  “I take full responsibility.”

  Dad and Warren, Clove’s father, were busy overseeing dinner preparations when we entered the room. At first, neither of them acknowledged us. It wasn’t until Dad noticed one of his kitchen aides staring at the door rather than focusing on the food that he turned in our direction.

  “Bay, I didn’t realize you were stopping in.” He looked flustered as he wiped his hands on an apron and headed in my direction. “I’m so happy to see you.”

  “I’m happy to see you, too.” I accepted the hug he offered. “I’m sorry we’re dropping in on you like this. It’s just ... we need to ask you about a guest who was here about two months ago. Hannah Bishop.”

  Dad’s face reflected confusion as he pulled back. “I remember her. She left her bag and took off.”

  “Did you report her missing?” Landon asked.

  “No. She was the sort of girl who had wanderlust. She took off in her car and never came back. I figured she’d decided to find another town. She was writing a book.”

  “Her car,” I muttered. “We didn’t think about her car.”

  “We really didn’t,” Landon agreed. “I mean … I did at first and then I forgot about it. Her car is either still out here somewhere or someone destroyed or hid it. I can’t believe no one has stumbled across it.”

  Dad stared at us a beat, blinking his eyes, and then he shook his head. “I’m confused.”

  “We need to see the th
ings Hannah left behind,” Landon supplied. “We pulled her body out of the pool at an old campground the other day. She was murdered. We need to figure out who did it ... and if you still have her belongings, that’s at least a place to start.”

  “Her stuff is in the storage room off the library,” Dad offered. “I have to finish dinner, but you’re welcome to look through it.”

  “Thank you.” Landon smiled at my father and squeezed my hand. “Maybe we’re finally getting somewhere.”

  “Maybe,” I agreed.

  “Do you guys want food?” Dad called after us. “I can bring you plates in the storeroom when we’re done. But you smell like bacon. You must have already eaten.”

  I glowered at Landon as he snickered.

  “Plates sound good,” Landon replied. “I, for one, am starving. I’m guessing Bay could use some nourishment, too.”

  “I’ll bring them to you as soon as I can.”

  IT TURNED OUT HANNAH DIDN’T leave much behind. She had a simple suitcase — one of the smaller, carry-ons with rollers and a handle — full of clothing and toiletries. The only other items were a laptop and notebook. The laptop was password protected. The notebook contained a hodgepodge of ideas.

  “She talked to a lot of people,” I noted as I leaned against the wall and flipped the pages. “She was fascinated by Hemlock Cove. She talked to Mrs. Gunderson ... and Mrs. Little. She wanted to make an appointment with me.”

  Landon slid me a sidelong look. “I know what you’re thinking, sweetie. You couldn’t have saved her even if she did visit.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “And you don’t know that you could’ve saved her,” he pointed out. “What’s done is done. We can’t change it. You’re the one always telling me that.”

  “Yeah. I guess.” I blew out a sigh and rolled my neck. “She hit spots all over town. The downtown area was an easy draw. She went on a tour of the tanker, too.”

  “You’re not saying you suspect Sam?”

  I immediately started shaking my head. “That’s not who he is. Even if he was, he didn’t know about the camp. He’d never been there. If he was going to hide a body it wouldn’t be under the pool cover at a camp he never visited.”