Ground

by Kirsten Weiss

  “Of course not.” Rasha’s dark eyes turned flinty.

  Head cocked, Sheriff McCourt rested her hand on the butt of her gun.

  “Is it?” I asked. “As ridiculous as you giving your husband an alibi for Matt's murder? You told me he was with you that night. Later, Eric admitted he wasn't. At first I thought you were trying to protect him. But you were giving yourself an alibi as well, weren't you? You are protective of Eric. That's why you killed Matt, and it's why you killed Phoebe, and it's why you killed Melanie and tried to make it look like a suicide.”

  “You're crazy,” she said.

  “Matt had called Eric to the Bell and Thistle for another bout of blackmail, hadn't he?” I asked. “But you got there early, saw an opportunity to rid yourself of an irritant, and took the tire iron from my truck bed and killed him. Then you took off with the body before Eric arrived, thinking you'd give him an alibi. But Eric messed up your plans. He never showed at the Bell and Thistle. Instead, he drove around and then went home.”

  “Leave Eric out of this.” Her voice rose. “Melanie killed them. She killed them all!”

  “No,” the sheriff said. “Mrs. Zana had an alibi for Ms. England's murder. She was in an interrogation room. With me.”

  “But...” Rasha looked around the patio wildly. “You said you were coming to arrest her.”

  “We were coming to take Mrs. Zana into protective custody,” the sheriff said. “Where were you the night of Matt Zana's death?”

  “This is absurd,” Rasha said. “If you're going to interrogate me, I want a lawyer.”

  “My only question is the car,” I said. “It's a long walk between your house and the Bell and Thistle, and I didn't see your car in the lot. There's a turnout about a hundred yards from the pub. You could have parked there. It was a damp night. I'll bet there are still tire tracks.”

  “You witch!” She lunged for me.

  Brayden and Hernandez leapt between us. Hernandez pulled her away, struggling and snarling. Her scarf slipped to the patio, puddling in a crimson pool.

  “Rasha Gertner,” the sheriff said, “you're under arrest for attempted assault. We may have more charges once we investigate that turnout.”

  Hernandez cuffed the woman, and she went limp.

  “But...” Brayden's brow creased. “That doesn't make sense.”

  “Oh?” the sheriff asked.

  “If Rasha parked in the turnout,” he said, “then it was premeditated. She was trying to hide her car, and then she laid in wait. But she used Jayce's tire iron. She couldn't have known it would be there.”

  “She's tall enough to easily see inside that bed,” I said. “Maybe she brought a different weapon, but she saw an opportunity to shift the blame onto someone else by using my tire iron.” Karin wasn’t the only logical sister in our trinity. Even though it was wrong, I felt a twist of angry triumph. I’d beaten a killer.

  “This isn't over,” Rasha screeched. “You're not safe. You'll never be safe!”

  Hernandez shook his head. “You should never make threats in front of cops.”

  But it wasn't an empty threat, and a tide of fear swept my skin. The curse wasn't done with us.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  “Doctor Toeller is the unseelie?” The blood drained from Karin's face. Abruptly, she dropped onto our aunt's ivory sofa and gasped, pressing a hand to her side. The photocopy fell limp from her hand.

  “Karin!” I leapt to the sofa, but she waved me off.

  “I'm okay.” She panted. “I just moved too fast.”

  “You're not okay,” Lenore said. “You're recovering from a gunshot wound.”

  Karin rubbed the back of her neck and shivered, then looked up, her eyes haunted. “The doctor was in our house. She treated Aunt Ellen! Did she...?” She looked away.

  “Ellen had cancer,” Lenore sat beside her and took her hand. “We can't blame anyone for that.”

  “Can't we?” Karin asked bitterly.

  “At least we know now,” I flopped into an arm chair and crossed my denim-clad legs. We’d been lucky Toeller hadn't been at the hospital when Karin had been brought in. My stomach tightened. If Toeller had been involved in the surgery, would Karin have recovered?

  “A celebration’s in order,” I said, not really feeling it, but this was a win. It needed to be recognized. “Rasha’s been caught.” It had only been by luck or magic she hadn’t killed Karin. And poor Phoebe – her parents, stunned and pale, had come to collect her body yesterday. How many other people would she have hurt to protect her husband? “And now we know to watch our backs around Toeller.”

  “And we will,” Lenore said, dour.

  Karin smiled. “Drinks are definitely in order, especially now that I’m free of the hospital.”

  “An even better reason to celebrate,” I said.

  “Where to?” Karin asked.

  “The Bell and Thistle.” I tugged on the collar of my new, emerald turtleneck. The fabric was soft, but the room was a little too warm.

  “I don’t know.” Lenore rubbed the thighs of her white slacks. “That pub’s connected to her, somehow. Maybe we should leave it be.”

  “The Bell and Thistle is a part of Doyle,” I said. “And I’m not going to let Toeller scare us away from one of the only three bars in town.”

  “How would we survive with only two?” Karin laughed and lumbered to her feet. “I’ll drive.”

  “No way,” Lenore said. “Your car is too small. I’ll drive.”

  Karin smirked. “That’s makes you designated driver.”

  “I don’t feel like drinking anyway.” Lenore raised her nose, haughty and totally lying.

  We strolled outside, Karin leaning on Lenore, and piled into the Volvo. The moon had not yet risen, and stars blazed in the crystalline sky.

  Lenore buckled up, started the car. “I know there’s a connection between the unseelie and the Bell and Thistle – that photo you found proves it. But why would Doc Toeller care about keeping the Bell and Thistle a part of Doyle?”

  “I wonder if it has to do with boundaries?” Karin asked from the backseat.

  Lenore drove onto the highway. Tall pines flashed past in the headlights.

  “She can’t operate outside Doyle.” And the more I thought about it, the stranger that seemed. “Why is that?”

  “I’ve been researching fairies,” Karin said.

  “You mean unseelies?” I raised a brow, needling.

  “Most of the lore comes from England,” she continued, ignoring me. “But there’s a belief that the old Roman roads disrupted the fairies somehow. They were the first sign of human civilization, and somehow, the boundaries of fairyland and our boundaries are linked. According to the literature,” she added.

  “Okay,” Lenore said, “We know what we’re dealing with, and we know who it is. Now what? Did your literature tell you how to get rid of a fairy?” Lenore adjusted her long, off-white knit duster, pulling it closed.

  Karin barked a laugh. “Sure. Set them on fire, force nasty potions down their throats. We can't do that to the doctor. We're not killers, and she's...” she waved her hands. “She's the doctor.”

  I pondered that, feeling slightly sick.

  “And she told me...” Karin trailed off.

  “Told you what?” I asked sharply. “You spoke with Toeller? When?”

  “In the hospital. She checked in on me.”

  I swore. The doctor had been so close at our most vulnerable moments.

  “What did she tell you?” Lenore asked.

  “I'm pregnant.”

  Elation and horror tangled inside me. “Pregnant.” No wonder Toeller hadn’t tried anything in the hospital. She didn’t have to. For our family, pregnancy was a death sentence. And then anger came, even though I knew it was wrong. How could Karin have been so reckless? I grimaced. How many times had she said exactly those words to me?

  “I don’t know how it happened,” Karin said into our silence. “We were so careful. You don
’t think the unseelie… She couldn’t have, could she?”

  “Of course not,” Lenore said quickly. “Accidents happen, and this is a wonderful one.” Lenore reached an arm over the seat and grasped Karin's hand. “Congratulations. Does Nick know?”

  It was a better response than mine, and I hunched, fiddling with the radio until I reached a rock station. I watched my sister in the rearview mirror.

  “Thanks. Nick knows.” Karin touched her stomach. Joy threaded her voice, but there was fear too. “We've decided on a June wedding to keep this baby legit.”

  “That's wonderful,” I said, my throat tight. A baby.

  “Doctor Toeller’s expecting to deliver the baby,” Karin said, her voice choking.

  “You can't let her!” I said. “For all we know, the doctor is the real reason every Bonheim woman has died in childbirth.”

  “I know,” Karin said. “And I'm worried about Nick. If anything happens—”

  “Nothing will happen.” I forced confidence into my voice. “And if it’s true Toeller’s got no mojo outside of Doyle, you can leave. Just leave Doyle.” It was such an easy answer. Why hadn’t we considered it before?

  A truck barreled toward us on the opposite side of the highway, its lights blinding. Wincing, Lenore pulled down the visor. The truck roared past.

  “How far along are you?” I asked Karin.

  “Only a month.”

  So we had a deadline. “We know who the problem is now,” I said. “We'll fix this. And if you have your baby outside—”

  “I’m not sure the curse will be that easy to break,” Karin said.

  “I thought learning who the unseelie was would make things clearer,” Lenore said. “It hasn't.”

  “I wonder what her interest in the wellhouse property is?” Karin asked, changing the subject.

  “At least we know she has an interest in it,” I said. Maybe we knew more about old Doc Toeller than we thought. “Now I really could use a drink.”

  One corner of Karin's mouth slanted upward. “As thrilled as I am that you're no longer a murder suspect and the woman who shot me is in jail...” She frowned. “Rasha did burn down Ground, didn't she?”

  “Yes, she confessed,” I said. “She was trying to kill me. As a handyman, Matt had access to keys, and he made copies of them whenever he could. After Rasha killed Matt, she took the keys from his pocket. Ground's was on the ring. That's how she got inside to plant the tire iron and later, to splash gasoline around and set the building on fire.”

  “She did all that for her husband?” Lenore shivered. “Love made her a monster.”

  “She made herself a monster,” I said. “Don't blame love.”

  “But how did Rasha get Matt’s body inside your truck?” Lenore asked.

  “She had practice,” I said. “She mentioned that she’d taken care of her dying mother. She learned how to move dead weight then.”

  “But how’d she get into your pickup?” Karin asked.

  “When she was a minor,” Lenore said, “she and her boyfriend got into some trouble with the law. He was a car thief. Her records are sealed, but I’m guessing she learned a thing or two.”

  Karin and I stared at her.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Where did you hear that?” I asked.

  “From Deputy Hernandez. I told you, he likes to read. Urban fantasy, mostly.”

  “I still don't understand this rose rabbit business,” Karin said from the backseat.

  I twisted to face her, the seatbelt pinching my chest. “Neither do I, but whatever he or it is, the rose rabbit exists, and it's a part of this.”

  “He needs our help,” Lenore muttered.

  Karin darted a worried look at me. “What?” she asked.

  “We'll find him,” Lenore said.

  “That wasn't what you said,” Karin said.

  We flashed past the welcoming sign to Arcadia.

  “It's just a sense I have,” Lenore said. “That he can help us, if we help him.” She glanced at me. “Brayden told us about his mother’s car accident.”

  My pulse grew loud in my ears. “Oh.”

  “It must have been a terrible burden for a small boy,” she said. “No wonder he had trouble dealing with it as an adult.”

  I sucked in my cheeks. “None of it was his fault.”

  “None of it was his mother's fault either,” Lenore brushed her blond hair behind one ear. “She was being manipulated, influenced, just like everyone else who enters Doyle.”

  “I can forgive his mother,” Karin said. “It was an accident. But I'm not sure how I feel about absolving everyone just because of the fairy. We all have free will. Ultimately, we're responsible for our actions.”

  “It's more than that,” I said. “The coincidence of her being on that road the same moment our father was… It's too much. Was it coincidence that Rasha murdered Matt beside my truck, using my tire iron? That I became a suspect in Doyle’s second murder investigation in a year? That a town the size of Doyle even had so many murders within the space of a year?”

  “No.” Karin’s voice was tired, flat.

  “The people who were murdered,” I said, “don't you see how convenient their deaths were for the doctor? Matt and Phoebe were opposing her on the wellhouse project, and they're dead.”

  “Eric was the lead on that project, and he's all right,” Karin pointed out.

  “He is now,” I said, “but he could have easily taken the fall for the murders. And the deaths earlier in the year — Brayden's wife. She was writing an article on Doc Toeller before she was killed. She even was developing a geneology. Toeller couldn't have liked that. I’ll bet Toeller was helping Rasha out on the sly too, masking Rasha’s presence at Ground with her magic.” It was the only explanation I could come up with. I’d tested myself over and over, and I hadn’t lost my mojo. It had only failed when it came to Rasha.

  “All right,” Karin said hotly. “Maybe the killers were influenced or nudged. Maybe even manipulated. But Rasha still had free will. She was responsible for what she did, and I’m glad she’s behind bars where she can’t hurt anyone else.”

  Lenore came to the trailhead and slowed. In its parking lot, a red car glinted through the trees. We rounded the bend. Lenore swerved, sped up.

  “What are you...?” I trailed off. Where the Bell and Thistle should have stood was a clearing surrounded by pines. And nothing more.

  I frowned, confused. We’d somehow missed the pub.

  “Did I space out and drive past?” Lenore asked.

  “What's wrong?” Karin asked.

  “The Bell and Thistle,” Lenore said. “I swear that was the Redwood trailhead, right before the pub.”

  “It was,” I said, too loudly. “Stop here.” Breath quick and shallow, I unbuckled my seatbelt.

  She bumped to a halt, and I leapt from the Volvo.

  “Jayce, wait!” Karin shouted.

  A bell tolled faintly, as if from a distance.

  My eyes adjusted to the darkness. I found the narrow trail that cut over to the Bell and Thistle and plunged through the pines.

  Lenore shouted something, but I kept going, fear driving me onward. The Bell and Thistle had to be here. Maybe its power had gone out, and that's why it had seemed invisible.

  The trees thinned, and I plunged into a clearing filled with dried thistles. The cold air turned colder, murky. The prickly weeds clawed at my jeans, and I slowed, as if stumbling through tar.

  The Bell and Thistle was gone.

  Hair lifting on the back of my neck, I turned in the center of the weed patch. There, by that twisted pine, was where the pub entrance had been with its old, brass bell. And here, where I stood, had been the parking lot.

  The pub was gone, a crater cracking the earth where it had stood.

  <<<>>>

  Ready to read on? Follow this link. Or read Chapter 1 of Down, Book 3 in the Doyle Witches mysteries, just after the spells!

  And if you enjoy the spells
below, check out my FREE 5-Day Kitchen Witchery course here.

  Spell for Home Protection

  Do a house cleaning, washing any windows in a clockwise direction and while working, meditate on the following mantra: I remove negativity from my home in my greatest and highest good.

  When finished, take a shower, then sit in the center of your home and imagine a ball of white light inside your chest, expanding outward, outside your house, and pushing any remaining negative energy into a violet flame.

  Spelled Bath Salts/Bombs

  You’ll need:

  1 C baking soda

  2 C citric acid

  1 C Epson salt

  20 drops essential oil of your choice

  3 T base oil like almond oil or coconut oil

  4 T dried, crushed rose petals

  2 T dried lavender petals

  2, 5x7 muslin bags (optional)

  A container with a lid

  Stirring clockwise and meditating on your intentions (e.g. more self-confidence, grace and lovingkindness, or to radiate your inner beauty), mix the dry ingredients and make sure there are no chunks.

  Add the oils a couple drops at a time, preferably using a dropper, or you’ll activate the citric acid. Mix.

  Put the mix into the container. Tuck the two muslin bags on top.

  When getting ready for a bath, add half the mix to one of the muslin bags, tie it off, and set it in the water. The bags will keep the flower petals from getting all over the place, making for easier cleanup.