Strangetown Girl (Welcome To Witch County Book 1)

by C. M. Cevis

  “I can call these people to verify you?”

  Graham nodded. “Yes, ma’am, you can. During normal business hours, most, if not all, should be answering their lines.”

  Judy eyed him for a moment, then motioned to the few seats scattered around the small lobby area behind him. “If you could take a seat, I’m going to go back into the office and make the calls.”

  Graham smiled and nodded, moving to take a seat in one of the chairs. If she were as paranoid as he was with new people, she likely had some sort of camera system over the lobby, and she wanted to watch what he did when she wasn’t out there.

  Either way, he wasn’t going to do anything other than sit and wait.

  Judy gave Graham a curt nod and disappeared down a short hall and through a closed door that he assumed was the office.

  ~*~

  JUDY RETURNED FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER without nearly as much suspicion in her expression.

  “Your boss is a very nice woman,” she said, handing him back his things.

  Graham smiled and nodded. “That she is, ma’am.”

  “Let me go make sure that Eric isn’t on a call or something like that.”

  “Thank you,” Graham replied.

  Judy hustled out of sight down a different short hallway and he heard a door click open. She was only gone for a second before the door reopened and a male voice said, “Thanks, Mom.”

  Ah. That made her insistence on calling his contacts make a bit more sense. She was making sure her son, the owner, wasn’t about to get taken for a ride. Graham respected that.

  “Right this way, please,” she called.

  Graham stood and followed her to the office, smiling at the personable young man behind the desk who stood to shake his hand as Judy closed the door and left them to talk in private.

  “It’s wonderful to meet you, Officer. I’m Eric Beatty,” Eric said, waiting for Graham to take a seat before he did.

  “Please call me Graham. I’ve been in this position long enough for the title not to be important unless I need it, and I usually don’t in sweet, peaceful towns like this one.”

  Eric smiled. “You are correct. Most people here are willing to help, regardless of who you are, so the title isn’t needed. I do appreciate you allowing us to verify that you are who you say you are before we spoke, though.”

  “Of course. I’m not here to cause any trouble or make any waves. I just need information, nothing more.”

  “Information that might cause trouble or make waves?” Eric asked. Smart man.

  Graham chuckled. “Not for you, don’t worry.”

  “Then what can I help you with, Graham.”

  “There was a murder here recently, and the scene of the crime was professionally cleaned before it was handed back to the owner. I’m fairly sure your company handled the job, and I wanted to see if you could tell me anything about who ordered the work.”

  “Ah, the bed and breakfast,” Eric said, nodding. “A very unusual call.”

  “Yes sir. It may have been someone trying to do Luna a solid so that she wouldn’t have had to handle the clean-up herself, and if that’s the case, that makes my job much easier.”

  “And if it wasn’t someone trying to help?”

  “Then I’m probably about to make someone’s job hard,” Graham said.

  Eric sighed but opened a desk drawer and pulled out a handwritten ledger. He flipped to a page just a bit past the halfway point and read a bit down the page before speaking again.

  “I can’t tell you who exactly asked us to do the job, but I can tell you that the payment came from the police department. The payment is about as generic as you can get.” Eric turned to his computer and typed for a moment before twisting the screen to face Graham.

  Graham leaned in and read through the transaction Eric had pulled up. “Calidity Police Department,” he read softly.

  “The key was dropped off here while we were at lunch that day, and we were told there would be no one at the house but to go ahead and get the cleanup done, and then return the key to the station, which we did.”

  Graham felt his eyebrows go up. “No one was at the house with you?”

  Eric shook his head. “I made sure I checked with the team that did this job, and they said there wasn’t even a car out front. They were left in the house alone.”

  “It’s a good thing your employees are honest. It doesn’t seem very safe for the police to allow several unrelated people into someone’s home while the location is still in their control.”

  Eric sighed and sat back. “I thought that things seemed a bit odd. We’ve never been asked to clean up police work before. Part of me wishes we hadn’t taken the job.”

  “If you hadn’t taken the job, you wouldn’t have been able to tell me what happened, and for that information, I am very grateful,” Graham said, smiling.

  “Glad to help, though I’m not too sure how I didn’t just give you more questions.”

  “Oh you did, but more questions means that I’ve answered some. I’m moving forward, so I’m okay with things as they are now.”

  Eric smiled as he and Graham both stood. “That’s a good outlook to have on just about anything.”

  “It makes life a little easier.” Graham held out his hand for a parting shake. “It was a pleasure to meet with you, Eric. Hopefully, nothing else odd comes around.”

  “Here’s hoping. You have yourself a good one,” Eric replied. Graham turned and saw himself out of the office. He gave his thanks to Judy on his way out of the building and made his way to the car.

  Eric had been right about one thing: He did have more questions now than he had when he’d arrived. The problem was that Graham was pretty sure the people who could give him the answers he needed weren’t going to.

  Graham’s phone began to ring just as he connected it to his car.

  “What have you gotten into now, Luna?” Graham said as he put the car into reverse.

  14

  IT WAS EARLY DUSK WHEN Luna and Asher began their stroll towards the B & B. The lights on the cope car sitting out front weren’t on, so it had taken them a moment to notice it there. By that time, it was too late to back out. He’d already seen them approaching.

  “There you are. I was starting to wonder if my little fugitive had run off. I’d hate to have to send out a search party to round you up and bring you back to face the music of what you’ve done here.” Wesley’s cocky voice reached Luna’s ears before she noticed him standing in front of her house.

  “Crap. There’s no way of avoiding him. Is there?” she asked softly.

  Asher smirked. “I wish.”

  “You told me not to leave town, Sheriff. Plus, all my stuff is here.” Luna said, not breaking stride as she approached.

  “I’ve been waiting for almost thirty minutes. What was I supposed to think? And what the hell happened to your head?” Wesley reached a hand towards the bandage on Luna’s head.

  She shifted her path to be just outside of his reach and began walking up the stairs. “Nothing. Why have you need here for a half an hour if you aren’t supposed to be stalking me? Most people would just think that I went out for dinner or something normal like that.”

  “Shouldn’t you be holed up in the darkness, distraught over your father’s death?” Wesley asked, skipping a few steps in order to make it to the to the door before Luna and Asher. Now they couldn’t get inside until he moved.

  Luna said some colorful words in her head and gave his comment about her father the look it deserved. She still had no intention of telling him anything that he didn’t legally need to know, and her relationship with her father definitely didn’t fall into that category.

  “Was there something legal that you need from us, Sheriff?” Asher asked, making sure that she had emphasized the word “legal” in case he hadn’t been paying attention.

  Luna smirked.

  “Actually, yeah,” Wesley said motioning to one of the other officers. Luna turned and wa
tched as the man closest to the sheriff’s car pulled something from the back seat and turned to face the group. “Care to explain this?” he asked as the officer approached.

  “You… stole my mallet?” Luna asked, eyeing the tool.

  The officer handed it to Wesley, who promptly shoved it into her face. “Notice anything interesting about it?”

  Luna shrugged, not bothering to look at the tool. “Other than the dirt? No.”

  “So, you don’t see the obvious blood splatter on it?”

  That got Luna’s attention. She turned and looked for real this time, only then seeing the dark red patterned stain that covered parts of the handle.

  “Where in the world did that come from?” Luna asked, absently reaching for it just as Wesley yanked it out of reach.

  “That’s exactly what we plan on finding out. You’d better hope this doesn’t tie you to the victim in yet another way. That would be unfortunate.” Wesley handed the tool back to the officer, who promptly walked it out of reach.

  “Luna?” Asher asked softly.

  Luna shook her head in response. She had no idea why her spade was bloody, but nothing good was going to come of it. Even less good if they talked about it and said anything that could be mis-construed as incriminating.

  “Good thing we’ve been keeping an eye on you,” Wesley smirked.

  Luna lowered her voice to a whisper. “You know, Sheriff, if you want to catch somebody doing something illegal, try not loudly announcing that you are watching them.”

  Wesley shot her an annoyed look. “You’re not helping your case.”

  “You’re not really helping yours either.”

  “Maybe I could back off a bit, if I had some sort of incentive that you weren’t doing anything that would make you look more guilty than you already do,” Wesley said, is face saying one thing but his eyes saying something oddly and angrily different.

  Luna stepped back and frowned. “What?” she asked, thrown off her guard with the man in front of her for the first time since they’d met.

  The anger was gone as soon as it had arrived, and Wesley bounced right back to his normal state. “Are you threatening an officer of the law?”

  The change was a bit quick, but alright. Luna rolled with it, as if she had any other choice. She didn’t really want to know what the hell was going on, she wanted him to leave. “No, I’m threatening the ignorant bastard on my front porch who thinks that touching without permission won’t result in him getting hurt.”

  “Prove it,” Wesley snapped.

  “Witness,” Asher sang, putting her hand in the air.

  “And if you lay a hand on her, please believe you will regret it,” Luna said before Wesley could spit out whatever it was that he’d been about to say.

  “Sheriff, fancy meeting you again.”

  The three of them spun around to see Graham walking up the sidewalk towards the porch. He dipped his head to the ladies, then focused on Wesley.

  “Letting these women know that you’re here? Again? How’s that going for you?”

  Wesley’s face held his shock before it returned to simply angry. He ignored Asher, pushed past Luna, and stomped his way past Graham back to the street.

  “Good night, Sheriff,” Graham called after him.

  Wesley didn’t respond.

  ~*~

  ASHER HAD BEEN CORRECT ABOUT Graham knowing what to do with the footprint. He hadn’t had anything official on him, but he had stopped at the hardware store yet again and arrived with tools in hand. In a matter of minutes—well, maybe an hour or so—they had what they’d needed, though the identifying features of the sole of the shoe were still hard to read. Graham had taken the mold back to his hotel for safekeeping, and Asher and Luna had headed back to the house.

  That had been an hour ago. Luna had been in the woods behind her house since then, picking up a few things. When she finally returned, it was fully dark, and her arms and pockets were filled with what she’d needed. Asher sat on the porch with two glasses of wine.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, eyeing the clods of dirt, flowers, twigs, and occasional napkins that contained loose or pointy items.

  “Having all of those policemen stomping around my house made my wards scream for hours, so some of them are weakened or worn out. I need to replace them.”

  “It takes that much to replace yours?”

  “To replace them with better ones.” Luna set the ingredients down on the deck and picked up the other glass with a sigh.

  “Nervous about whoever hit you?” Asher asked.

  “Yes and no. I know that if I’d been better prepared, I’d have been fine. I think living up here has made me less aware because nothing ever happens here. It’s just peaceful. That’s what scares me: someone catching me off guard again.”

  “Like in your sleep,” Asher said softly, her gaze moving to Luna’s haul.

  “Yes. Like in my sleep.”

  “Well then. Let’s finish this wine, and you teach me how to help you get these up before we go to bed. It’s got to go quicker with both of us, right?”

  Luna looked at Asher, surprised. Asher was involved in enough metaphysical stuff without Luna dragging her into more, so it wasn’t something she’d ever asked of her best friend. But the truth was that yes, it would go faster, because Asher’s kind of magic was much pushier and take charge. Her magic would give just about anything Luna did more of a kick.

  “Yes, it will go quicker,” Luna said softly. She’d explain the rest of it to her while they were doing prep work. For now, she just wanted to sit there and pretend that someone in Calidity wasn’t covering up a murder and trying to kill her.

  15

  ~*~

  Luna felt like she was choking. She couldn’t see anything, and opening her eyes made them water and burn. She’d set the fire too early, or rather, she had taken too long to get what she needed before leaving. The documents were in her purse, as was the handgun she always carried with her, but none of that mattered if she was taken down by smoke inhalation.

  A sound to her right brought her woozy attention around and a shadow climbed through a wall and walked towards her. No, not a shadow. Someone had saved her that night, carrying her down a fire escape and away from the fire that she’d set just a bit too well.

  She’d only made that mistake once.

  ~*~

  IT WAS THE PHONE RINGING that woke Luna up. She rolled over towards the nightstand and cracked her eyelids just enough to see that it was Graham.

  “Has something else happened?” she asked, voice hoarse with sleep.

  “It’s eleven in the morning. You’re usually up by now,” Graham responded.

  Luna hesitated a moment before leaning up enough to see her clock on the other side of the room: 11:04. She groaned.

  “I must have been more tired than I normally am,” Luna said, sitting up and rubbing her eyes, but careful to not disturb the bandage around her head. “What’s going on?”

  “I sent a picture of that footprint mold back to the home office to see if they could make more sense of it than we could. They said it’s a brand of work boots called Elons. Smaller brand that isn’t carried in-store and has to be ordered online, but they’re good boots. Pretty popular too.”

  “Elons, hm? I’ve never heard of them.”

  “How often do you wear full-fledged work boots?”

  Luna snorted a laugh. “Never.”

  “Right.”

  “Did you ever find out how my father was able to go missing without someone informing us?”

  Graham sighed. “Yeah. Local PD thought they’d be able to catch him pretty quickly given his injuries, so they didn’t pass on the information. When it was passed on to other officers to find him once the initial team had tried and failed, the assumption was that they’d already informed everyone.”

  “So no one did,” Luna said, finishing the thought.

  “Exactly. I have ripped local PD a new one, as has my boss and he
r boss. No one is happy with the way that this was handled, and all of them have pointed out that we could have lost you just because someone didn’t want to admit their mistake.”

  “I still don’t get how he found me after all of these years.”

  “Neither do I. We’re still working on that one. If there’s a hole in how we keep people safe, we need to find it and patch it now.”

  “Yeah.” She sat in quiet thoughtfulness for a moment then realized she was still on the phone. “So what’s on the menu for today, boss?”

  Graham laughed. “Well, first, I woke up to an official request to come down to the police station as soon as I am able.”

  Luna frowned. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “I doubt that it is, but I’ll honor the request and go in. As soon as I have lunch.”

  “Agent Lloyd, that is not as soon as you can.” Luna laughed.

  “No. No it’s not.”

  “Let me know what happens?” Luna asked.

  “Of course, provided it’s not something classified. Knowing what kind of person we’re dealing with in the sheriff, I doubt that it is.”

  “Good luck, he’s a douche.”

  “Yeah, I picked up on that,” Graham chuckled. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Later,” Luna said and hung up. She stood slowly. “Here’s hoping my day goes better than Graham’s is about to go.”

  16

  THE STATION SEEMED LESS POPULATED than the last time Graham had been there. If anything exciting happened, the entire place likely emptied out. Someone probably should have stayed to man the front desk, though. He took a seat near an empty desk and waited.

  “Hi there, I hope you haven’t been waiting long.” A young woman in uniform came from a hallway behind the front desk.