“I thought he’d gotten past that; he was quite friendly to me,” Noah replied, I could still hear the sadness in his voice.
Basil returned with good news—he’d found a cabin, but there was no sign of movement. He’d taken a chance and peeked in a window. There were two men sitting in the main room, but no sign of Chloe. She must have been in one of the bedrooms, but the shutters were closed, so he couldn’t see in.
Noah, Basil and I headed to the cabin which was in a remote area three hours west of town. The plan was a simple one: when we got close to the cabin, we’d go into stealth mode, cloaked and quiet. Basil would scout the area, keeping a lookout for guards. Noah would cast the knockout spell on the kidnappers and I would free Chloe. The problem was that Noah was having trouble staying cloaked, which we had discovered as we entered the woods. On top of that, every step he took had snapped branches and shuffled leaves.
Noah followed behind me as we crept within a few yards of the cabin. “What’s wrong with you? You sound like an elephant stomping through the forest,” I whispered.
“I don’t know, and I’m flipping from invisible to visible. At this rate, I won’t get close enough to cast the spell.”
“Well, I can’t do witchcraft, so the plan is toast. We need to come up with something else,” I replied. “What’s that saying about the best laid plans?”
“Can you two make a bit more noise?” Basil asked as he flew down in front of us. “I don’t think they know we’re here yet. And it’s schemes not plans.”
“We have a problem,” I said, gesturing at Noah.
“Yeah, well duh. Why is he flickering?”
There was something seriously wrong with Noah, but we couldn’t give up now. If they moved Chloe, we’d have to start all over again.
“No idea. Noah, just forget trying to cloak, you’re more noticeable when you’re flashing. Basil, did you see anyone guarding the cabin?”
“All clear, no one outside.”
“Good,” I turned to Noah, who had stopped flickering and was now visible. “You better hang back while Basil and I make sure there’s just two guards in there.”
As we closed in on the cabin, Basil went left and I went right. We circled the cabin, peeking in the windows. The shutters were closed on what I assumed was a bedroom at the back, but the front windows were clear. Two guards were sitting in front of a stone fireplace, their stocking feet propped up on foot stools. They looked like Mutt and Jeff, one tall and thin while the other was short and squat. A few glowing embers were visible in the fireplace and they appeared to be sleeping. Basil wanted to just march in, but we needed to make sure we didn’t startle them. After all, it was Chloe’s life that was at stake.
“Why don’t we just knock on the door and clobber them when they come out?” Basil asked as he edged toward the door.
“And take the chance that they shoot first? I don’t think so.” I was beginning to wonder if they were dead—they hadn’t moved an inch. Noah startled me by stomping up to the cabin, then whispering in my ear, “What are you doing? It’s been ages. I’m being bitten to death by mosquitoes.”
“Geez, do you want to get us killed? You were supposed to wait for the signal.”
“They’re asleep, someone knocked them out,” Noah noted as he peered in the window at the men.
“How can you be sure?”
“I can sense the spell. At least my witch half is still working.”
I reached for the handle and pushed the door open, sure enough, both guards were snoring. I pulled out some twist ties and secured their hands and feet while Noah and Basil headed for the bedroom. I peeked into the bedroom and saw that Chloe was chained to a bed, sound asleep. She must have cast the spell on the guards, but couldn’t free herself from the chains. Chloe impressed me—who knew a four-year-old could cast spells? As I threw Noah the keys I had found on the kitchen table, Chloe woke up screaming. He tried to unlock the chains, but she scrambled backward mumbling what sounded like a spell and waving her hands in circles. Before I could react, Noah keeled over on the bed and Basil shot up toward the ceiling.
“I want my mommy,” the little girl whined, clutching her blanket, her eyes grew bigger and bigger as she stared up at Basil. At least they had looked after her; she appeared to be well fed, if not too clean. I ducked out of the bedroom, not wanting to be hit with another spell. I’d notified SIB while I tied up the kidnappers; they were rogues and would spend a long time behind bars.
Basil followed me into the main room, flapping his wings and taking deep breaths. “That little witch throws quite a punch.”
“Then how come you’re not asleep?”
“Spells don’t work on me. They usually just bounce off, but that one,” Basil jerked his thumb over his shoulder, “knocked me back good. You’d better be careful, don’t startle her.”
I peeked around the door as I dialed Skye’s number. I had to get Hilda on the phone before Chloe threw another spell at us. “Basil, since you’re immune, why don’t you go back in, unlock the chain and calm her down.”
Basil shook his head and backed away. “Not a chance.”
“Some help you are,” I grumbled, as I leaned against the wall and waved my phone in the open doorway. “Umm…Chloe, your mommy is on the phone and wants to talk to you.” I peeked around the door jamb and saw Chloe nodding. “Please don’t put me to sleep,” I said, edging toward the bed. Chloe nodded again and reached for the phone. While she was listening to her mother, I finished unlocking the chains and rolled Felix onto his side. He had fallen face down into a pile of blankets.
Hilda spoke to Chloe for a few minutes, and the little girl nodded her head, laughed and said okay a few times. This was one tough little girl, and she’d be a formidable witch when she grew up.
“Your mom will be here soon, and you did a very good job of making the bad men sleep. The police will come and take them away,” I said as I took my phone back and pointed at Noah, “Do you know how to reverse the spell?”
Chloe shook her head, “No.” She poked Noah and asked, “Is he a bad man?”
I smiled at Chloe, “No, he’s good, and so are the police.”
Hilda and the rest of the rescue gang arrived at the cabin within a few minutes. While Hilda and Chloe hugged and cried, Sally reversed the spell on Noah and the rogues. At first, the rogues declined to speak, but they changed their minds after Hilda threatened them with unspeakable curses. Sam Wheatly had hired them to obtain the cursed bullets—he wanted to avenge his sister.
Harvey Wilder and company showed up within half an hour. The two rogues were hauled away for questioning and a group was sent to pick up Sam Wheatly. I explained to Harvey how we had found Hilda and rescued her daughter. As usual, he was not a happy man and threatened to lock us up, but that upset Chloe so much that he backed down. As he left, he threw out the obligatory warning about interfering in police business. It was getting to be a regular routine for him, but I’d had enough of his idle threats and I told him he could stuff it. Noah appeared to be smitten with Hilda and Chloe, not wanting to let them out of his sight. Sally suggested that they stay with them, at least until they could put the kidnapping behind them. Basil spent the entire drive home crowing about how he had rescued Chloe and exposed Sam’s crimes. His twisted version of the events just made me smile, we both knew the truth, it was the witches and just dumb luck.
I went out for a run early the next morning, determined to get in shape, last night’s trek through the woods had left me stiff and sore. The running lasted about five minutes before my legs screamed in protest and forced me into a slow jog. I was second-guessing my choice of exercise when Noah called, he had news and wanted to talk.
When I came downstairs an hour later, I found Basil cleaning the kitchen. “I’m meeting Noah for coffee. Want to come?”
Basil leapt up and flew into the hall. “Sure, sounds like more fun than hanging around here.”
Noah was already at the coffee shop when we arrived, sitti
ng alone on the patio.
“What’s up?” I asked as Basil hopped off my shoulder and perched on the table.
“Remember the other night when I had trouble staying invisible?”
“Yeah, you were like a dying light bulb,” Basil snickered.
Noah rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair. “Well, it’s worse than just flickering. The curse…killed off the reaper part of me.”
“How is that possible? Hilda said it would just slow you down,” I asked, staring at Noah with my hands clenched in front of my face.
“I think it’s because the half of me that was reaper wasn’t strong enough to withstand the curse,” Noah said with a sad frown.
“Won’t it come back?”
“No, it’s gone.”
“Sam’s got a lot to answer for.”
“Yeah, it’s a good thing he’s a lousy shot,” Basil added.
“Harvey called this morning, Sam has more to answer for than just shooting at me. He admitted to killing Sally, shooting me and planting a bullet in Natasha’s house. But he refuses to take responsibility for Felix’s death.”
“I can’t believe he did all that, he really went off the deep end.” I knew Sam had been deeply affected upset by Jane’s death, but shooting Noah and killing Haley was just plain evil. “Hilda cursed six bullets and we’ve only accounted for four of them. We have to go and talk to him, he must know where they are.”
“So Noah, what’s your plan?” Basil asked.
“I guess it’s time I worked on my witchy half.”
“Is that what you want? I mean you never really got into the whole witch thing. What does Skye think?” I asked.
“She’s all for me giving it a go and mom is…overjoyed.” Noah shrugged his shoulders and let out a small laugh. “She tried to cheer me up, said that reaping was a dead-end job anyway.”
“Ha ha, I keep hearing that joke, but she’s got a good point. I think that you can do anything you set your mind to. You’ll be a great warlock.”
“How’s that witch and her daughter?” Basil asked, changing the subject.
“They’re good,” Noah‘s eyes lit up, “That’s another thing. We’re getting ready to leave Silver Falls, and Hilda and Chloe are coming with me. I’m going home.”
“So, are you and Hilda are a thing now?” Basil asked with a smirk.
“You’re leaving? When?” My heart sank; it hadn’t occurred to me that he would leave town.
“Yes, we’re moving back to Pumpkin Bay next week. Skye and I inherited Granny Hazel’s house. It’s been empty for a few years, so we’ll fix it up and live there.”
Noah and Skye introduced us to Granny Hazel when we were vacation; Annie and I had loved spending hours on her porch, staring at the lake.
“Your parents must be happy about that.”
“Mom is sending me back to school,” Noah grinned. “Do you remember Dyson Clarke?”
“Wasn’t he the mayor?”
“Still is, but he’s also a warlock. Mom’s already got him on board; he’s going to mentor me.”
“I remember now. Wasn’t he the one who came up with the idea for that fishing derby to raise funds for the blood bank?”
Noah and I both started laughing. “And he decided to stock the lake with sturgeon.”
Basil looked confused, “What’s funny about sturgeon?”
“Sam Hudson cast a spell to make sure his fish was the biggest.” Just thinking of Sam and that fish had me wiping tears from my eyes. “It got so big that he couldn’t land it, the fish dragged him around the lake for two hours. You should have seen the wake, it swamped all the other boats.”
“I’ll miss you.”
“It sounds like a cool place,” Basil said, “Can we go too?”
“Maybe another time.”
Chapter 18
It was never good news when you walked into a police station bustling with activity. Basil and I had to wait an hour after requesting permission to speak to Sam Wheatly.
As Harvey led us down to the holding cells, he grumbled about the deadline the chef had given the traffic officers. They had until noon the next day to fill the monthly quota of traffic violations. That edict had resulted in the station being overrun with angry citizens.
“That sounds a little unfair to me. There must be another way for the city to make money. What would happen if everyone obeyed the law? The city would go broke.”
“That’s not my problem. The law is the law and if you break it you get a ticket,” Harvey said as he left us in the interview room with Sam. “You have 15 minutes.”
Sam sat behind a table in the middle of the room, handcuffed to a ring on the floor. “What do you two want?”
“I’m just trying to understand why you threw your life away over something that couldn’t be helped.”
“If that jerk had been a real reaper, she wouldn’t be dead. It’s his fault.”
“You’ve never fought a wraith have you? Very few reapers survive the attack.”
“He should have saved her, he’s the one who should be dead.”
“And why Sally? What did she ever do to you?”
“She laughed at me. I thought she was pretty, and I asked her out. She just laughed at me.”
This line of questioning was getting me nowhere. I always thought Sam was level headed, but I now realized that he had lost his grip on reality.
Basil kept his eyes on Sam as he circled the room. “What did you do with the other bullets?”
“Do you have any idea how much they cost? I paid through the nose for three; it was all I needed. I planted the last one in Natasha’s house, when I helped her with the computers.”
“How did you find out about the computers in the first place?” It sounded a bit too convenient for Sam to notice them in a second hand store.
Sam looked everywhere except at me. “I go by that store every day—I’m always looking for a bargain. Natasha was complaining about the damage her movers did, so I told her about them.”
Basil leapt onto the table and sat in front of Sam. “One of those bullets killed Felix. Why did you kill him?”
“Felix? I’d never hurt him, he was the only one who understood me. He was like a brother to me.”
“Where did you get the bullets?” I asked.
“I knew a couple of rogues, they said they could get them. I could only afford three. If they got more, then that’s their business.”
“What are their names?”
“Rocky and Bullwinkle.”
“Ha ha, very funny. What are their names?”
“That’s what they call themselves. They don’t use their real names.”
“Is one tall and thin, and the other short and chubby?”
“That’s them. Why?”
“Do you want to tell me how you got the scrolls to change? It was a spell, wasn’t it?”
Sam paled and looked down, rubbing his shackled wrist. “I had to do it. I needed the cash. It’s all gone though, I threw the vial away.”
“Who gave you the cash?”
“I never got a name, it was just some woman.”
“Why would a random woman give you money? What did she look like?”
“I don’t know. It was dark, all I saw were red nails and some cheap, gaudy earrings.”
“Time’s up,” Harvey called out as he entered the room.
I was in the kitchen, trying to figure out how to work the fancy new coffee machine when my phone vibrated. Harvey called to see if I’d heard anything from Natasha, he was notified when she didn’t turned up for work. She had a reputation for skipping work—at least that was the rumor I had heard in Oregon. I assured Harvey that she had a habit of disappearing for days on end, and not to worry about her. While I had him on the phone, I asked if they had any leads on the missing souls. They’d put the investigation on the back burner after Sam’s arrest, so no one would be actively looking for the lost souls.
I had just hung up the phone when Annie bu
rst into the room. “This is all your fault, you’ve run her off.”
My mouth dropped open as I looked up at Annie, who was beet red. “What’s my fault?”
“Natasha, she’s taken off—she won’t answer her phone. You and that gargoyle of yours chased her away.”
“I didn’t do anything of the kind and neither has Basil. If anything, we’ve been avoiding her. She has a history of disappearing, she did it all the time in Oregon.” Why was I defending myself to my own sister? She knew me better than that.
“We were supposed to meet for lunch today and then go to the fashion show at the convention center. Natasha wouldn’t miss that for anything.”
“When’s the last time you talked to her?” I asked.
“Yesterday. I thought it would take her mind off that prison cell they stuck her in,” Annie said, glaring at me. “She was really excited about one of the designers; he’s an old friend of hers and she gets discounts on the samples. She wouldn’t just disappear.”
Great, more drama, just when things had calmed down. “Do you want to check her house? I’ll get Basil to go with us; sometimes he sees things I miss.”
We arrived at Natasha’s house to find the garage door open, and her car nowhere in sight, My first impression was that she had left in a hurry, and forgot to shut the door. I had barely stopped the car, when Annie leapt out and marched into the garage.
“She wouldn’t have left this door open. Something bad has happened,” Annie wailed as she disappeared through the mudroom door into the house.
I hesitated before following her, Natasha was already pissed at me and she could just be playing hooky. As for her car, it was probably being serviced.
“Looks like Nasty flew the coop.” Basil was grinning like a fool, I’m sure he thought she’d left Silver Falls for good.
Annie was heading upstairs to Natasha’s bedroom when we caught up with her. Just outside of her room, a bed sheet was lying in the hallway. The room itself was in total chaos, pillows, blankets and clothes lay piled in a heap on the floor. A lamp, now broken, rested directly under a fresh hole in the wall. It looked like Natasha had put up quite a fight.
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