Thank You For Not Shifting (Peculiar Mysteries Book 2)

by Renee George

  “Day-yam!” Sunny whistled. “That is one fine, fine specimen of a man.” She wiggled her brows.

  “Shut up.” I laughed. “Anyhow, Billy Bob was with an important delegate.”

  “Jacob Lowry?”

  Jacob Lowry was the Lowry brothers’ father and the president of the Tri-Council.

  “Nope. Not him. I’m talking about the she-fox from Arkansas.”

  “Oh.” She made her mouth a small “o” shape then spit out her next word. “Bethany.”

  “That’d be her.” I couldn’t keep the snarl off my lips.

  “She is truly awful.”

  I threw up my hands then. “Thank you! She is a terrible person. I don’t know why the doc is so fascinated with her.” I bobbed my head. “Oh, wait. I know. It’s because she’s stunning and petite.” I glanced at Sunny. “Besides, I think he has a thing for blondes.”

  Sunny’s smile was soft and gentle, not teasing. She pulled my ponytail over my shoulder and fanned it over the right side of my chest. “Chavvah, you have the most attractive dark, caramel-colored hair, and it’s all natural, doll. If I had your hair color, I’d never dye my hair again. And as to stunning, ten Bethanys couldn’t hold a candle to one you.”

  “As my BFF, you have to say these things.”

  “I don’t know why you can’t see what everyone else does.” She put her hand in her lap. “Darling. Billy Bob Smith is in love with you.”

  I choked on my own breath. “Oh, no, he isn’t!”

  Sunny gave me an exasperated, thin-lipped smile. “For a smart girl, you really are clueless.”

  “Did you have a vision or something?”

  “Nothing like that.”

  I can’t even say how much her lack of vision disappointed me. If it was something she saw in a psychic episode, then I might possibly believe. Did it really matter? “I’m not in love with him.”

  Sunny snorted. “You hear that?” She tilted her ear out.

  “What?” I hadn’t heard anything. “What do you hear?”

  “My bullshit meter.” She shook her head. “It’s clanging like a fire engine on its way to a five-alarmer.” She stood up. “Get your shit together, woman. You’re coming home with me, and that’s that.”

  “Okay.” At least it was better than going back to Billy Bob’s. I couldn’t trust myself around that man. And no, I wasn’t in love with him.

  “I’ll follow you out to the cabin,” said Sunny. “Jo Jo is babysitting Jude, and I promised him I wouldn’t take too long.”

  “Are you still worried about him?” Jude was going on five-months-old, and he’d passed six full moons without a single shift. Therian babies aged slower than human babies, so Jude was about the size of a three-month-old human infant now. Even so, they usually shifted under the first full moon after their births, but with hybrid therians, it could take up to a year, and on the rare occasion, they might be born without the ability. In those cases, the child was usually put up for adoption in the human world. It was dangerous to keep a non-shifting child in a shifter home, especially on the full moons.

  “Babe keeps telling me I shouldn’t worry, but I’m worried. What if he doesn’t ever shift? What if he’s as human as I am?”

  “At least, he’ll have you. You won’t have to give him up like other shifter families.”

  Her mouth went slack, and her eyes widened. “It’s too horrible, Chav. I can’t believe therianthropes give up their babies if they don’t transform.”

  “It’s out of love, Sunny.”

  “I know,” she said. “Enough of this depressing as shit talk. Go get ready.”

  “Fine,” I said. “Give me ten minutes, and I’ll be ready to go.”

  She tapped her watch. “Tick tock.”

  “Bossy bitch.”

  “Yep.” She smiled. “Hurry up. These milk jugs are going to explode soon.”

  I made a high-pitched noise and watched, satisfied, as her smile faltered and she looked down at her leaking boobs. She grabbed a pillow from the sofa and threw it at my backside. I squealed and jumped as it brushed passed me.

  Another knock startled us both, and I realized I hadn’t shut the door when Sunny arrived. A tall man, burly chested with dark hair and an unruly beard stood in the doorway. “Sorry, ladies. Didn’t mean to sneak up on you,” Roger Messer said.

  “It’s okay, Roger.”

  “I’m done with the cleanup.”

  “That’s so great of you,” Sunny said, holding my favorite throw blanket over her wet shirt.

  I cringed and made a mental note to throw it in the wash as soon as possible. “If you send us a bill—”

  Roger shook his head. “This one’s on Blondina and me. You gals have been through enough, God knows.” He reached into his utility apron. “Found this near the corner of your porch. Figured it was some kind of spice y’all used in the kitchen.” He held out a twisted root about three inches in diameter. I could smell it now. Faintly. It was sassafras.

  I took the item from him. When Sunny moved in for a better look, a foreboding welled inside me, and I instinctively stopped her. I don’t know why I didn’t want her to touch it.

  “What’s wrong, Chav?”

  “I don’t know.” I examined the twisted twigs. The dark wood had been woven into an eight-point star.

  “You should let me try and get a vision.”

  “No.” I pressed it between my palms and held it away from her. “It stupid, but humor me. I think there’s something wrong with this…thing. I think I should take it to…Oh Lord.”

  Sunny’s face brightened. “You’re going to talk to a certain hunka-hunka werewolf, aren’t you? Ooooo. Chavvah and Billy Bob sitting in a—”

  I flicked her in the nose.

  “Ow!” She rubbed the tip.

  Roger Messer cleared his throat. He wasn’t smiling, but his eyes crinkled with humor. “I’ll finish getting my stuff out and get on home now.”

  “Tell Blondina hello for us, and thanks so much for your help.”

  Sunny, still holding my throw over her jugs, gave Roger her most charming smile. “You are appreciated.”

  Roger smiled then. “See you all later.”

  I shut the door after him and turned to Sunny. “Well, we better get out to the cabin. I want to do Internet research before I decide to do anything. This token could be absolutely nothing. It’s probably a homemade child’s toy.” It pulsed in my hand as if it were a living thing, and I nearly dropped it.

  “Fine.” Sunny’s narrowed gaze followed me as I went to pack fresh clothes. “But we’re going to talk about this more when we get to the cabin.”

  “You got it,” I promised, gripping the twig star harder. “We’ll try and figure it out together.” Whoops. So much for my promise to Babe to keep our noses out of the investigation.

  Chapter 8

  “I can’t believe you called Ruth.”

  “She’s super awesome at this kind of thing, Chav. I just happened to mention the twisty toy, and she already had a few ideas.” The doorbell rang. “That’s her!” Sunny was excited about the new mystery, and I chalked it up to BMS, Bored Mommy Syndrome.

  After hugs all around, we all sat at the kitchen table with steaming mugs of coffee and slices of blackberry cobbler with ice cream that Ruth brought. As I bit into the deliciously tart cobbler, still warm from the oven, I reassessed her added value to the clue party.

  “Chav doesn’t want us touching it for some reason,” Sunny said when I held up the star.

  Ruth leaned forward. Her lips pursed as she carefully kept her hands on her mug and examined the sassafras.

  “It’s an eight-point star,” she said.

  “I have ten fingers, so I managed to count that high.” I picked my foot off the ground. “With my toes, I can go as high as twenty.”

  Ruth laughed. “Smart-aleck.”

  “Do the eight points mean something?”

  “Yes,” she said. “If I remember right, it has some kind of meaning in Chr
istianity. Something about redemption.”

  I grabbed up my phone and pushed the microphone icon. “Find eight-point star,” I said into the base of the phone. A bunch of search results popped up, but I clicked on the first one. “Uh oh.”

  “What?” Sunny and Ruth were both scooting closer in their chairs.

  “It means gazillions of things to a gazillion different people.”

  “You’re exaggerating,” Ruth said.

  I showed her the screen. “But not by much.”

  Sunny slid her finger up my phone. “There’s the Christian reference. It means redemption or regeneration. There some stuff in here about astrology. And some witchy stuff.”

  “Do you really think the killer left this last night?” Ruth asked.

  “I’m not sure of anything.” Other than I was more confused than ever. Was it a coincidence? Had someone from the fair dropped this outside the restaurant? Maybe it had been in one of the trash bags that burst when I tripped over the body. Why was I making such a big deal about a scent and an eight-point star?

  A phone rang. It was Sunny’s. “Hey, Babe,” she said when she answered. “Yes. All right.”

  I could hear him ask her to put him on speakerphone once she confirmed I was there.

  “Chav, they identified the first body. We’re still working on the identity of the second one.”

  My stomach lurched. “Who was it?” Please don’t let it be someone I like. I knew it wasn’t someone I loved. They’d all been accounted for.

  “Mike Wares.”

  “Mike?” I gripped the star again. He’d been the prime suspect when the sheriff had thought Ed was the victim. “I can’t believe it.” He’d been a volatile man, but he certainly hadn’t earned this fate.

  “Nobody deserves to die that way,” agreed Babe. “I’m nearly home. I’ll see y’all in a few minutes.”

  He ended the call. We all looked at each other in shock.

  “Oh, damn,” Ruth said. “Mike is Blondina’s half-brother. They didn’t always get along, but family is family.”

  “Half-brother?” I asked.

  “Yes.” Ruth shook her head. “They both have the same father, a grizzly shifter who’d been one of the town’s founders—Albert Ware. Blondina’s mom was Albert’s first wife. She was a bear shifter. Albert left his wife for Mike’s mother. She was a raccoon shifter.”

  “So he’s a mix like Jo Jo?” Sunny leaned forward with rapt interest. “I had no idea.”

  Sunny leaned forward. “Does the child usually change into the father’s animal? Like Jo Jo being a coyote and Mike, a bear?”

  “A lot of times that’s the case, but not every case. Sometimes a child will get his or her mother’s form. And, while it doesn’t happen often, every once in a great while we’ll get a child who can’t shift at all.” She said the last part with remorse. “It’s the chance two of our kind take when they cross species. I’ve never heard of any child of a mixed mating being able to shift into more than one animal. I’m pretty sure it’s impossible.”

  I’d already known this, but for Sunny, as she waited for baby Jude to have his first shift, I could tell it hit a nerve. She still felt like an outsider, and she wanted her son to be a real part of the community.

  Which is why it didn’t surprise me when she deftly changed the subject. “So, Chav. What’s going on with you and this Dominic-dude?”

  Ruth leaned forward, elbows on the table and chin on her fists. “Oooo-ooo. Do tell me more.”

  I rolled my eyes. “There’s nothing to tell.”

  “He has dreamy eyes,” Sunny said.

  “I’ll tell Babe you think so.”

  She scrunched her nose and patted my knee. “You do that.” Without missing a beat, she turned the conversation to Ruth. “Those Lowry boys are cute as well.”

  “There has been an influx of handsome, available men in our town with this Jubilee.” Ruth looked meaningfully at me. “A single girl could really have her pick. Especially one as a pretty as our Chavvie here.”

  “I’m not shopping for a husband.”

  “You should be,” Sunny said. “We could be having babies together!”

  “Ruth can have babies with you.”

  “After seven children, I think my ovaries are retired.”

  Sunny gave her a pleading look.

  “For good,” Ruth reiterated.

  Sunny huffed. “Fine.”

  It dawned on me then just what my bestie was saying. “Are you pregnant again?”

  She smiled coyly. “I’ve taken two home tests that say I am.”

  “Oh my God!” Ruth squealed. She and I both jumped up with Sunny and all three of us danced our glee in a group hug.

  “I’m home,” Babe shouted from the living room. He walked into the kitchen and caught us in our celebratory clutch. “Everything okay?”

  Sunny gave Ruth and me a don’t-say-a-word glare. “Everything’s great, Babe.”

  “Really great,” I said too enthusiastically. I winced when Sunny pinched me.

  “I better get home,” Ruth said. “Gotta get supper on. The price you pay when you decide to have a herd of kids. Ow!” She gave Sunny a dirty look. My BFF didn’t look at all sorry for pinching Ruth, too. “Thanks for having me over.” Quietly, she mouthed to us. “Call me.”

  I nodded. “Thanks for the pie.”

  “There’s pie?” Babe asked.

  Sunny laughed. “I’ll get you a plate and a fork.”

  * * * *

  “Aaa-ieeeee!” A scream from Sunny had Babel and me scrambling toward the bathroom. Babe, carrying baby Jude, practically kicked down the door to get inside.

  What we saw defies actual words. Sunny, naked as the day she was born, had one foot in her tub all the way to the far side and the other foot out on the tile floor, effectively doing the splits and barely keeping upright.

  “Don’t just stand there,” she shouted. “Every time I try to stand, my foot slips farther in. I’m about to crotch-land on the edge of the bathtub if someone doesn’t help me!”

  Babe thrust a cooing, oblivious Jude into my arms and rescued his wife by easily lifting her up and out of the foamy tub water.

  “What happened?” I asked, gurgling with repressed laughter.

  Babe grabbed the nearest towel from a rack and wrapped Sunny up.

  “Not funny,” she said, shaking her finger at me.

  “This ranks right up there with scrubbing your face off,” I pointed out.

  “Shut up. This wasn’t my fault.” Her cheeks turned pink. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a pedicure, so I went to Dolly’s this morning, and the day has been stressful, so I thought a eucalyptus bubble bath was in order, especially with you and Babe taking care of Jude. I just wanted to pamper myself for a minute.”

  “And that explains doing the splits how?”

  “My foot is really smooth, Chav. So is the tub. Add soap, and voila, I’m ready to be the next circus act.” She glared at me. “I swear to God if you tell a soul…”

  “Would I do that?”

  “Yes! I’m still trying to live down the allergic reaction I had to the hair depilatory that I used on my lip.”

  “I only told Ruth. Maybe Blondina.”

  She snapped her fingers then slipped as her wet feet skittered on the tile. Babe caught her by the arms and hauled her up. “Not. A. Word,” she threatened.

  “Spoil sport.”

  “I think it’s time I got my wife to bed,” Babe said, smartly staying out of the banter.

  “I am exhausted,” Sunny said. “Jude hasn’t been sleeping well, which means I haven’t been sleeping well.”

  And she was voluntarily having another baby? No, thank you. I hoped she told Babe soon. I was no good with secrets. Babe took Jude back, and my hand went inside my sweat pants pocket to the wooden star. I hadn’t told him about it. Or the sheriff. Hell, other than Sunny and Ruth, no one knew about it. Well, Roger, of course, because he found it, but why did I want to keep it
to myself? I hadn’t let anyone touch it since I took it from Roger. Guilt niggled its ugly way through me, but really, the damn thing could have just been a trinket. It didn’t have to have anything to do with the murder. Right? I stroked it again, enjoying the textures against my fingertips.

  Sheesh. Was I going to start hacking up fur balls and calling it my precious?

  I hoped not.

  By eleven p.m., Sunny and Babe were in their bedroom, but I couldn’t sleep. I could hear the TV on in their room, some cop drama I think. They had it turned down low, and I could hear Baby Jude snoring away over their baby monitor. That kid was going to need a good ear, nose, and throat doctor when he got older. I tossed and turned on the couch. Even with the lack of sleep the night before, I couldn’t shut off my brain. The star wouldn’t let me rest, and the slightly sweet and spicy smell kept it at the forefront of my mind. The smell had been stronger last night. Had it faded that much in such a short time or had the smell come from the victim? Gosh. Poor Mike. I didn’t know him well, but given his exchange with Ed, I understood how he’d gotten his reputation. Still, he was a part of my community, and now he was dead. It made me sad and sick to think about. Another thought occurred to me: Would Sheriff Taylor question Ed about Mike’s death? Maybe he was a suspect now that he wasn’t a victim. But Ed had a pretty good alibi.

  Who else had been murdered? The image of the bloated skinned body in the lake sent a shiver right through me. I wondered if anyone had found an eight-pointed sassafras star with the other corpse.

  Remorse assailed me. I really should’ve told the Sheriff about the star. And I had promised Babe to stay out of the investigation. Still, I couldn’t stop wondering about the second victim.

  Screw it. I’d go to Billy Bob’s and see if I could get info about the second body. And I’d show him the star. Maybe his woo-woo magic had some explanation for it. Maybe it really was just a spice and meant nothing at all.

  I didn’t change out of my sweats and oversized T-shirt. I didn’t want the doc to think I was trying to impress him. I slid on my flip-flops and grabbed my car keys. I was not going to think about our kiss or how much I’d wanted to seal the deal.

  Why had he kissed me? I almost felt better when I knew there was never going to be anything between us. No matter what else happened, we’d always have those two toe-curling, soul-lifting, body-clenching kisses.