by Nhys Glover
I nodded. “Of course. Just let me know if you’re going to bring people or equipment onto my land. I’ll give you my number.”
Luke gave a bark of laughter. “So you can tell the scientists from the crazies?”
“Exactly!” I answer with a tired smile of my own.
7
It was a bit of a shock when, later than evening, my cell rang. It could have been any number of friends from Austin, calling to check on me, but I didn’t think that likely. Because of Paul’s possessiveness, I’d never been encouraged to make anything but the most superficial of friendships, mostly with the wives of his business associates. When Paul and I began to have problems, those friends took a step back. By the time news of the impending divorce became common knowledge most of those women had disappeared.
No loss, I thought with some regret. I still had Hilary. She had been more friend than daughter from the time she turned fourteen-going-on-forty. If it was possible to put an old head on young shoulders, then Hilary had managed it. Now it felt as if I’d finally reached an age where I was mentally my daughter’s equal. The only time that changed was when Hil fell back into sibling rivalry. Then she became her brother’s age.
Life was never dull with Hilly. And I never felt lonely with my daughter at my side. Michael, when he joined us, was icing on the cake. But my true source of emotional support had always been my daughter.
Therefore, scrambling for the phone, I was left wondering who could be calling me at this late hour. Luke, so soon? The very idea made me blush. I had so stepped over the line with that man this morning. Really. If he asked to be replaced on the project I wouldn’t be surprised. He’d barely told me his name before I was hanging out all my dirty laundry for his inspection. Who did that?
I did, it seemed. And would likely pay for it by losing a prospective supporter. That he was oddly appealing, would also be a loss. It was a long time since I’d felt any real chemistry with a man. In the back of my mind I’d started to wonder if I was too old for it. Menopause couldn’t be too far away and everyone said that you lost your libido when you got the hot flushes.
My caller ID revealed nothing, so I cautiously pressed the green button and held the cell to my ear. A far-too-familiar and unwelcome voice spoke to me.
“Cleo Channing? This is Sheriff Killian of the —”
“I know who you are. What can I do for you, Sheriff?” I said stiffly, pleased to note no weakness in my tone or words.
“I was wondering if you could come into the office tomorrow morning. I’d like to get an update on the situation from your perspective. If I’m to deal with Herbert and his people, I need to have all the facts.”
He sounded gruff and impatient, as if this was the last call he wanted to make. As if he considered me responsible for the behavior of his townsfolk. Typical! Everything was always my fault!
“I’m very busy trying to address ‘the situation’, right now. If you want to talk, we can do it over the phone. Or you can come out here.”
The last I’d dropped in to feel him out about my place. Was he superstitious and half-believed that the devil was responsible for what was happening on my land?
“I’m also a busy man, Ms. Channing. And the questions I have require face-to-face answers. I would strongly recommend you make the time to come into town to talk to me.” There was a threat in his tone I didn’t like.
“Am I under arrest for something, Sheriff?” I huffed out, feeling my ire rising.
This man was responsible for everything that was happening, and yet he didn’t have the time to come out to view his handiwork? And he was throwing his legal weight around to get me to do his bidding? I wasn’t a shy sixteen-year-old child anymore. I wouldn’t be intimidated!
“Of course, not,” he shot back, just as infuriated. “But your situation is the most serious one facing my department at the moment. Your safety, and the safety of your family, are my responsibility. I would like a little cooperation in this.”
“Did my mother ever tell you about all the harassment those fools directed her way? If not, maybe your time would be better spent talking to Dr. Luke Myers, the scientist from the EPA, who was at the funeral yesterday. It seems he knew firsthand what those people were up to. Me and my children have little to no useful information to add to the investigation. My mother didn’t want to worry me. This is all pretty much a shock to me.”
Killian shifted out of DEFCON 1 to a more amenable tone. “No, I didn’t know your mother was being harassed. I’ll speak to the scientist, if he knows about it. But I want to discuss it with you, too. In person. At the station.”
Deciding to give a little, I softened my tone as well. “Look, I have to do a bit of restocking at Mindy’s tomorrow. How about we meet for coffee at Joe’s Diner about 10 am? I really don’t feel like being paraded before your deputies as if I’m a criminal. As soon as I walk in the door it’ll be all round town and Herbert, and everyone else who thinks us to blame for every problem in this town, will start talking. Before I leave the building the gossip mill will have me up on murder charges, and the mass grave in my backyard being responsible for the pollution on my land. I don’t need that.”
He actually chuckled. Chuckled!
“Okay, I see your point. Joe’s it is. But you have to know a meeting there will start a whole slew of other rumors. Being the most eligible bachelor in this here town means every woman I talk to is suspected of sharing my bed.”
“Poor you. It must be hard being so damned irresistible. No wonder you never learned the meaning of the word No,” I snapped back, my hackles rising once more.
“Nobody I’ve ever bedded said no!” he grated out.
“Young drunk girls often find it hard to say the word or fight back. Surely your training has made you aware of that by now. Roofies or alcohol are a sexual predator’s greatest tools.”
The other end of the line was silent. For long seconds I thought he’d hung up on me.
“I did you a favor that night. The state you were in you’d have been opening your legs for every guy there. And I don’t remember giving you a drink or anything else. That was your doing. You were so drunk you couldn’t stay upright!”
It was my turn to stay silent as I tried to bring my temper under control. I failed.
“You’re a dog, Sheriff Killian. A rabid dog! The only way I’ll talk to you now is if you arrest me. I’m sure someone like you can fabricate a charge. Small town sheriffs are well known for misusing their power!”
Oh, how I wished for an old-fashioned receiver right then so I could slam it down to end the call. Instead, I punched the red button hard and hoped the bastard on the other end of the line got the point.
How dare he say he did me a favor, of all things. I don’t care how drunk I was, I wouldn’t have been ‘opening my legs’ for anyone at that party. I wasn’t a slut. How dare he suggest I was!
Hilary knocked on my bedroom door at that moment. Sometimes, I thought her psychic abilities stretched to me as well as babies.
Her head appeared around the edge of the door. “You okay, Mom? I heard you yelling.”
Ah, so no psychic abilities required.
I laughed humorlessly. “Just chatting to our friendly member of local law enforcement about the good ol’ days.”
“Killian? If he’s the kind of man to take advantage of a drunk, innocent girl, you need to be careful of him. Getting him angry could cause us more problems that we already have. What did he want?” Hilary advised, being the adult, as usual.
“For me to come in for an interview so he can understand the situation out here and with Herbert and his crew. I said I’d meet him for coffee instead. Then he insulted me, and I changed my mind. If he wants to talk he’ll have to do it with my lawyer present.”
Hilary groaned, flopping down onto the edge of my bed. I’d turned in early with one of my mom’s books on magic. I thought I could do a bit more reading before sleep claimed me. Now I doubted I’d be sleeping at all. My bloo
d was still boiling.
“I understand that he’s a dick and that you're still furious with him, but waving a red flag in front of a bull is never a good idea,” she said, her expression pained.
I sighed heavily. “I know. But it feels good to stand up for myself, you know? After all these years, it feels good not to be that pitifully shy kid who couldn’t string two words together without stumbling over them. I wanted to yell at him in front of everybody back then. I wanted to call him a liar and a pedophile. But I didn’t have the confidence. I was nobody. And he knew it!”
“So now you’ve told him. Let it go! Let it go or he’ll make trouble for us. There isn’t anyone with more power in this town than him. And it's not like we have a lot of friends to stand with us.”
The truth of that was only too obvious. Hilary was right. I wasn’t helping myself by stirring up a hornet’s nest. Or a bull. Either was a good description of the full-of-himself sheriff. For heaven’s sake, he called himself the most eligible bachelor in town. Who did that? Talk about an ego the size of Texas. The urge to cut him down a size or two was hard to resist.
But I had to be the adult here. I couldn’t leave it all to Hilary.
“You’re right. Maybe I’ll call in at the station before I get groceries tomorrow. Don’t forget to add anything you want to my shopping list. Telling me won’t get you anywhere, as you well know. Mind like a sieve.” I pointed at my head to make my point.
Hilary shifted to get comfortable with her growing bump. Her lips turned up into a smile.
“Old age’ll do that to you. And baby hormones’ll do it to me. I know there was something I wanted to add to that list, but I’ve forgotten already. Maybe I should come into town with you tomorrow.”
I lifted a brow, knowing a ploy when I saw one. “You don’t have to be my bodyguard. I’m quite capable of looking after myself.”
“Unless some of the locals decide a witch burning’s in order. Now you’ve alienated the sheriff, he’s just as likely to look the other way while your eyebrows are being singed off!”
I groaned. “They won’t know I’m there. It’s not like the funeral when the announcement was in the paper. By the time they get organized, I’ll be back home again.”
“Take Michael,” she suggested.
“He’s having the time of his life in the attic. I doubt I could drag him away, if I tried. Anyway, if there’s trouble, I don’t want my teenage son getting hurt. Your dad would kill me himself.”
“Dad rang Michael earlier. I heard him talking. It seems Dad is annoyed that Michael is staying here this summer, instead of ‘having fun’ with his friends. Like college won’t be all fun and games for him, anyway. He can do with a bit of responsibility for a change.”
“Yes, Mom,” I sniped.
“Well, it's true. I know him. He’s not going to take any of his classes seriously. It’ll be one party after another. Maybe, just maybe, he’ll attend a few classes, if he can sober up long enough. But I’m not going to hold my breath on that one.”
“He’s not that bad. His grades were good enough to get him into Rice U.”
“Dad’s influence was enough to get him into Rice U. His grades were barely good enough to get him into a second-string college.”
I sighed and put my book on the nightstand. “As much as I’d love to keep arguing with you all night, I think it's time for me to turn in. I’ve got a big day ahead of me tomorrow. I thought I might invest in some inflammable clothing, just in case.”
My joke fell flat. Hilary rose and headed for the door, her shoulders slumped.
“Just be careful, okay? This is no joke. All you have to do is look out the window to see that. I’m worried about you.”
I smiled at my daughter sadly. “And I wish you weren’t. It’s bad for the bub. I’ll be careful. I promise.”
8
The council buildings that housed the sheriff department and station, the mayor's office and sundry other minor government agencies, occupied a full block just off the town center. Mindy’s Supermarket, which had catered to the needs of locals for fifty years, sat on one of the corners of the square just up from it.
The store was no longer run by Mindy or anyone else in her family. But to keep the town’s mom-and-pop flavor, the company that bought Mindy’s chose to keep its name. Just as Mary Sue Jameson chose to keep the name, Joe’s Diner, when she took over from her dad. Joe’s Diner sat catty-corner to Mindy’s and the two businesses cross-fertilized their customers often.
I chose to park outside Mindy’s and walk down to the sheriff’s office. If I presented myself like a good little citizen, maybe I could avoid any further unpleasantness. After a restless night, I was only too aware that I’d let my emotions get out of hand the night before. Hilary had been right. I didn’t need to make an enemy of the one person who might be able to help me keep Herbert and his crazies off my tail. Or at least well enough so I could focus on what was important: finding the answer to the curse.
I’d decided sometime during the night that I’d start calling the problem, situation, issue, a curse. It seemed a fitting word to describe the magical, ecological disaster surrounding my home. The land was cursed.
As I climbed out of my silver Prius with my eco-bags over my arm, I saw a familiar uniformed figure striding down the sidewalk in my direction.
Damn! Looks like I wasn’t going to get to play the penitent card, by dutifully turning up at his door, after all.
When his gaze met mine, his expression soured. Yet he came on, regardless, almost as if he were girding his loins in readiness for battle. Coward that I was, I turned away to close my car door.
“Ms. Channing,” he said as he reached me.
I slammed the door of my Prius a little too hard and grimaced. Plastering a smile on my face, I turned back to face my nemesis.
“Sheriff. I was just about to head down to your office,” I said stiffly.
Surprise flickered in his eyes. “That’s good of you. I… I wanted to apologize for what I said last night. I was tired, and on edge. Your accusations pressed buttons. But it was unprofessional of me to let them. I apologize.”
He was blaming me for the insults he threw at me, but at least it was an apology. If I wanted to mend bridges, I should accept it.
“Thank you. Do you still want to talk to me?” I asked.
“Yes, if you don’t mind. Joe’s will be fine. I’m about ready for some coffee anyway. It’s been a long morning.”
I opened my car door again to throw in the bags. I didn’t need them for the moment.
By the time I closed the door, softer this time, Killian was already across the road waiting to open the diner door for me. Clearly, he was going all out to be amenable. The perfect elected representative of the people.
If I didn’t already know how unwelcome my family was in this town, walking into Joe’s would have given me an idea. Of the dozen people in the cafe, every one of them turned their scandalized, critical gaze on me as I entered. I wanted to shrivel up and die, just as I did back at school when I realized Jake Killian was not going to acknowledge me.
I fought my knee-jerk reaction to shrivel by remembering that I was no longer that girl. I was a woman approaching middle-age who was soon to be a grandmother. I was a wealthy woman who could buy and sell most of Grand Haven, if I chose to. These people were nothing to me.
The sheriff turned to me. “You want pie as well as coffee?” he asked.
“No. Just coffee,” I answered, as if this was a date.
“Just a couple of coffees, Kathy,” Killian called to the waitress as he indicated a table as far from the rest of the patrons as possible.
The critical eyes never left us.
The table was in the far corner next to the old-time jukebox that was thankfully silent. The spot provided a small amount of privacy. Certainly, it was better than sitting at a window table.
A pink uniformed waitress I didn’t recognize hurried over with a pot of coffee. Wordlessly, s
he filled first my cup and then the sheriff’s, before hustling off again. At least she had no plans to eavesdrop. That was something.
While I doctored my black coffee with creamer, Killian got right to the point.
“I spoke to Dr. Myers this morning. You were right. He witnessed several serious incidents of harassment. Unfortunately, as he can’t identify any of the culprits, I can’t make any arrests. But I will be having a little chat with Pastor Herbert about inciting unlawful activities among his parishioners. It might help.”
I nodded, surprised that he was making an effort, especially after I’d waved the red flag at the bull last night.
“Thanks. It probably won’t do much good, but at least if they know you’re watching them they might… back off a bit. Just long enough for me to sort out the curse.”
“Curse?”
I shrugged. “I’ve decided that’s a better word for it than ‘situation’ or ‘ecological disaster’. I believe the land is cursed. And all curses can be lifted. I just have to find out how. I’ve already started scouring my mother’s library for possible answers, and Luke is doing what he can…”
“Luke?” The angry note in Killian’s voice was surprising.
“Yeah, Dr. Myers.”
“Oh, oh yeah. The scientist. I thought your husband might have arrived.”
“My soon-to-be ex-husband’s name is Paul, and he won’t be arriving any time soon. He’s too busy with his soon-to-be new wife,” I said, a little too snarkly.
“It happens. My ex is onto husband number three,” he said, with not a trace of bitterness.
“Here in town?” I asked, surprised that I cared enough to ask.
“Nope, back in Queens. That’s where I was before coming home. My ex didn’t appreciate my job coming first. I think Husband Number Two probably put his job first as well. Although number crunching is hardly the same thing as chasing bad guys. Maybe Number Three will do the trick for her.”
“Possibly,” I said, taking a sip from my coffee.