Witches of Palmetto Point Series Boxset Books 1 - 3: Haunting Charlie, Wayward Spirits and Devil's Snare

by Wendy Wang

  “I . . . I didn’t say that.” He held his hands up as if in surrender.

  “Then what?” Jen challenged.

  “It’s just, y’all don’t really strike me as outdoorsy. That’s all.” He shrugged one shoulder and all trace of the smirk disappeared.

  “Oh, really?” Jen's mouth twisted into a sour bow. “I'll have you know that we are plenty outdoorsy. Not only do we fish and crab but every single one of us can back a boat down a ramp.”

  Charlie sat back in her chair and crossed her arms to watch her cousin’s tirade unfold. “And drive a boat.”

  “Right, and drive a boat.”

  “And throw a cast net.” Charlie threw gas on her cousin’s flaming retort.

  Jen continued with her list, counting things off with her fingers. “And pitch a tent. And start a fire from sticks.”

  “Yep. We can’t help that we’re skilled and pretty,” Charlie teased.

  Jason snorted. His hazel eyes glittered as his lips twitched into a dry grin. “Even Daphne?”

  Jen made a disgusted sound in her throat.

  Charlie held up her palm as a stop sign. “Dude, Daphne can hold her own. If I had to choose one of us to be lost in the woods with, I’d choose Daphne. No offense, Jen.”

  “None taken.” Jen waggled her head. “I’d pick her, too.”

  Jason looked at both women like they were crazy and scratched his head. “I guess I’d have to see it to believe it.”

  “Oh, you’d believe it,” Jen muttered. “And she’d be your first choice, too.”

  “You know I just came in for fried chicken,” Jason said, “not an argument.”

  “You know, I don’t think I like your attitude,” Jen said.

  Charlie laughed and pointed at a sign on the wall that read: No shirt? No shoes? Bad attitude? No service!

  “Um.” Jason’s face fell.

  Charlie held her hand to her mouth and whispered loudly enough for her cousin to hear. “Maybe you should try apologizing.”

  “I’m sorry. Really. I’m sorry.” Jason said the words so fast they sounded melded together. “Please don’t make me leave. I’ve been thinking about your chicken all day.”

  “Fine. You’re forgiven.” Jen relaxed her shoulders and sighed. She tugged on the black apron she wore and pulled the order pad from the pocket. “Charlie, I know what you want. What about you, Jason? What’re your veggies?”

  “I’ll have the fried okra and red rice please. And a biscuit and a glass of iced tea.”

  “Coming right up.” Jen jotted it down and turned to put the order in. Down at the other end of the counter, someone motioned for her and she headed that way.

  Jason waited until Jen was out of earshot. “Man, your cousin’s a spitfire. I thought she was the calm, nurturing one.”

  “You’d think that, wouldn’t you? I sure wouldn’t mess with her when she’s mad.”

  “Good to know.” Jason chuckled and his gaze shifted toward Jen.

  Charlie watched him and shook her head. “I know what you're thinking.”

  Jason gave her a smug look. “Oh really? What am I thinking?”

  “You're thinking she's too small to be any real danger to anybody.”

  Jason's smug smile faded and morphed into a scowl. “I hate when you do that.”

  “What? Be right?” Charlie chuckled.

  “Shut up,” he grumbled and fidgeted with the salt and pepper shakers in front of him.

  Charlie laughed and looked him in the eye. “You know one day that doubt you call healthy skepticism is gonna bite you in the ass.”

  “Yeah? You see that with your third eye?” He air-quoted the last two words and smirked.

  She cocked her head. “You know I can just take me and my third eye home, right? Leave you to figure out your missing person case all on your own.”

  “Come on, don’t be like that. You know I was just kiddin’.” He put his shoulder against hers and leaned in, rocking against her.

  “No, you weren’t.” There was no trace of teasing in her voice now. Jason’s eyes widened at the accusation. She narrowed her eyes. Her tone still had a little bite to it. “You know I am often amazed at your ability to dig in deep to your cognitive dissonance. It’s like watching a pig wallow in mud and then deny he’s dirty.”

  He bristled. “You callin’ me a pig?”

  “If the snout fits.”

  His lips twisted with irritation, and he turned to face the counter. Charlie bit her lips together trying not to show her pleasure at getting under his skin.

  “Okay, here you go,” Jen said, putting two glasses of iced tea down on the counter in front of them. Jen’s gaze bounced between the two of them. “Everything okay?”

  “Fine.” Charlie picked up her glass and took a sip of the sweet amber-colored liquid. From the corner of her eye she saw Jason take a sip too. The tea cooled her mouth and throat, refreshing her mood and immediately the tension she felt from her partner’s slight washed away. Charlie glanced down at the glass and then up at her cousin. Jen didn’t meet her gaze, instead she stared at Jason. What was she up to?

  “Y’all make the best tea,” Jason said. He took two more gulps and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

  “I’m so glad to hear that.” Jen smiled.

  “I don’t know what you put in it, but I always feel better after having your tea, Jen.”

  Jen’s smile widened. “It’s my own special brew. A trade secret.”

  Charlie pushed the glass away. It should’ve occurred to her before now that her cousin may have been using magic to make the drink so sought after. If someone came into the diner with a bad mood, all it took was a sip or two of Jen's sweet tea to make it dissipate.

  “Well, it’s downright addicting.” He drained the glass.

  Jen grabbed a pitcher from the counter behind them and refilled the drink, taking care to add some extra ice to the cup. She reached for Charlie’s glass to top it off, but Charlie stopped her.

  “No thank you.” Charlie gave her cousin an admonishing glare. She would make sure she questioned her about exactly what was in her secret brew.

  Jen sniffed and turned her attention from her cousin. “So, Jason, how's your mama doing?”

  “She's doing pretty good. The bed and breakfast will be open for business at the end of April, so she’s busy planning that.”

  “That's great,” Jen said. “I'm so glad that things worked out for her.” Jen referred to the very first case she worked on with Jason, ridding his mother's property of a troublesome ghost.

  “So, y’all are leaving Saturday?” Jason asked.

  “Early Saturday,” Charlie reminded him.

  “Is Evan going with you?”

  “No, actually Evan is on spring break next week, and he's going on a trip with his dad to the Bahamas.”

  “And with his dad's new girlfriend,” Jen added.

  Charlie scowled and reached for the tea after all. She took a sip. Jen quirked her eyebrow and an I-told-you-so smile played at the corners of her mouth.

  “Really?” Jason nodded his head, mild shock lacing his voice. “Interesting. I thought he was still hung up on you.”

  Charlie took a deep breath. “Nope. He’s not. Which is good. It’s better this way. He’s happy.”

  “Whatever you say.” Jason took a sip of tea.

  Something about his dubious tone set her teeth on edge. Charlie’s temper flared. “Do you want me to help you or not?”

  Jason sat back in his chair and studied her for a minute. “You want me to run a background check on her? What’s her name?”

  “Heather. And, no. Of course not,” Charlie said, sounding only half appalled. “I've met her. I certainly wouldn’t let my son just go off with anyone I didn’t at least meet. Trust me, Scott will eventually get bored.”

  “Your Spidey senses tell you that?” Jason quipped.

  “No, ten years of marriage did,” she said wryly.

  “Well, you never know
. Maybe good old Heather will work out.”

  Charlie picked up her tea glass and clinked it with his. “Here's hoping.”

  On Thursday morning Charlie stopped at The Kitchen Witch to have a quick breakfast with Daphne and Lisa before her meeting with Jason. She spotted her cousins at a booth at the back.

  “Are y’all early or am I late?” she said, pushing in next to Daphne.

  “Neither.” Lisa glanced up at the clock on the wall. “I’d say we’re all right on time.”

  Daphne handed Charlie a menu and she opened it, pretending she would have time to order something.

  “So,” she lowered her voice to a whisper, “any chance there’s a spell that will make a day last 36 hours? I’m not going to get everything done for our trip.”

  Before anyone could answer, Jen appeared with a coffee pot.

  “Ha!” Jen poured refills for Lisa and Daphne, and a new cup for Charlie. “Now that really would be magic.”

  “Are you gonna get a break?” Lisa took two sugar packs, tore them open and emptied them into her cup.

  “Does it look like I’m gonna get a break?” Jen asked, waving the pot at her café full of customers. “Y’all will just have to do it without me. Darby called in sick.”

  Lisa cocked an eyebrow as she dabbed her finger in the crumbs of her muffin. “So you trust us to plan something as important as Charlie’s initiation into our coven on our own?”

  Jen gave the table a swipe with her towel, then tucked it back into the waistband of her apron. “Oh, I’ll have final right of refusal before we take off for the weekend.” She winked at Charlie then moved on to the next booth.

  The week away in the mountains of North Carolina for some R&R was only the cover story. For months now, Charlie had been studying witchcraft under Evangeline. She’d already hesitated once at becoming part of the coven, but her cousins had all encouraged her to join them. It had been Lisa’s idea to wait until Ostara, the witches’ high holiday that coincided with the Vernal equinox. What better way to finally claim her birthright than to be initiated at the start of the season for rebirth? Charlie had kept the secret from everyone outside the circle of cousins for weeks now. There was no need to reveal the real reason for the trip to Jason and subject herself to his harassment.

  “So,” she said, dosing her coffee with milk and three packets of sugar, “what do you have for me?”

  Lisa shoved a list of items across the table. “This is your shopping list and a few things you need to pack for the spirit circle. You’ll find them around your house. Go over the list twice. You don’t want to forget anything.”

  While Charlie studied the list, Daphne searched through her brown leather tote bag until she found a glossy covered travel book. Attached to it with a rubber band was a small thin book with an ominous black-and-white photo on the cover of a sign that read Devil’s Snare. Do not enter.

  “What’s that?” Charlie asked.

  Daphne held it up and displayed the cover. “Something I thought would be fun to check out. It’s supposed to be about this place not too far from where we’re staying. Evidently, it’s supposedly an entrance to hell or something. The trees there are all dead, and people who go into the woods don’t come out.”

  Charlie reached over and touched the book’s cover. Her fingers twitched a little and her lip curled in disgust. “Why do you have it?”

  Daphne shrugged one shoulder. “It looked interesting. I thought maybe the place was haunted, but it turns out the trees all died from some disease. Not because of the devil or a ghost. Only they didn’t really know that two hundred years ago when the legend was born. They blamed it on local girl. Said she was a witch.”

  “Well, of course they did,” Lisa chimed in, wiping her mouth with a paper napkin. “When in doubt . . . “

  “A legend?” Charlie said.

  “No way.” Lisa’s disgust played across her narrowed eyes and downturned mouth.

  “It could be fun,” Daphne said, sounding like a little girl.

  “No. We are not going on a ghost hunt. This is too important for Charlie.”

  Charlie drained her coffee cup and stuck her list in her wallet, then checked her watch. “Well, I’m gonna let y’all fight it out. I need to run. Thanks for this, Lisa. I’ll be like Santa. Check my list twice.”

  She turned to Daphne. “I wouldn’t tell Jen about your book. You know how she gets.”

  On the way out she mulled over the selection of freshly baked muffins next to the cash register.

  Chapter 2

  Jason’s mind was lost in the contents of a blue folder when Charlie walked into his office and dropped a brown paper bag on his desk in front of him. He gave her a long look and watched her set down a tall to-go cup of iced tea next to it, and then take a seat in the chair in front of his desk.

  “What’s this?” He opened the bag and stuck his nose into it before she could answer. He breathed in the scents of lemon, blueberry and was that lavender?

  “Today’s special.”

  Jason muttered to himself as he pulled the muffin from the bag and peeled back the paper liner. He sunk his teeth into it and moaned. “Oh my God.” He spoke with his mouth full. “I don't know what she puts in these things but I swear to God they are the best thing I've ever tasted.”

  “I know,” Charlie said. “You’d think they were made with magic or something.”

  Jason narrowed his eyes and his lips puckered as he thought hard about her last statement. He wasn't quite brave enough to come out and ask, though. Did she really use magic in them? Charlie probably would have told him the truth but some part of him really didn't want to believe it, even if it were true.

  “So, what do you have for me?” she asked.

  Jason broke the muffin into smaller pieces. “It's just a case file I want you to look at. I don't want to give you too much information. Don't want to influence you.”

  Charlie nodded. “Yeah, that wouldn’t help your case.”

  “Come on, let's go someplace quiet.” Jason glanced across the busy office. His partner Marshall Beck gave him a nod, and a couple of the other deputies looked away conspicuously. Even after all these months they still watched Charlie when she came into the office. They were skeptics or maybe it was just jealousy. Since he'd met her he’d closed more cases and found more solid evidence to back up his cases than the others combined.

  Charlie got up and followed him to one of the interview rooms. She sat down at the small wooden table across from the two-way mirror.

  Jason sat across from her and set a manila folder down on the table. He took a notebook from the front pocket of his uniform.

  Charlie laid her hand on top of the envelope. There was no questioning in her statement. “This is a cold case.”

  “Come on, you know the drill. Just give me your first impression from it. Whatever comes to mind.” He poised his pen against the paper.

  Charlie sighed. “That’s my first impression. Is it wrong?”

  “Um,” Jason met her confused gaze. “No, it’s not cold.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah, pretty sure. I took the report myself.”

  “Fine.” Charlie opened the folder and laid one hand down on the report in front of her. Inside the folder behind the report was a photograph of a teen boy. He wasn't that much older than Evan, maybe fifteen, and a pang of sadness filled Charlie's heart when she touched the photo. Inexplicably, her eyes clouded with tears and she sniffed.

  Jason hated to see any woman cry, but it especially hit him hard when it was Charlie. She felt so much sometimes, he didn’t know how she could stand it. He reached across the table and put his hand on top of hers. “You okay?”

  Charlie cleared her throat and pulled her hand from beneath his. Quickly, she swiped at her eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine. He’s not dead, if that’s what you’re worried about.” She touched the picture, tracing her finger over the boy’s face. “Wow, so many emotions. He’s so angry. And sad. And scared.” She loo
ked up into Jason’s face. Her blue eyes were still glassy. “He's been abandoned. That's what this feels like. As if nobody in the world cares about him.” Charlie touched her hand to her heart and a sob escaped her.

  Panic fluttered in his chest as he watched her weep into her hands. “We can stop. You don’t have to do this.”

  “No. It’s okay. Really.” She breathed in and out through her nose and closed her eyes until, little-by-little, she got herself under control. “I see him running alongside a train. It’s night and there’s no moon. He wasn’t sure he could catch the train and pull himself onto it, but he did. He climbed all the way to the top of the boxcar. He laid down and stared up at the sky full of stars. And kept thinking, ‘I’m free.’” Charlie swallowed hard. “He ran away from something oppressive. Or someone.”

  “His foster father. Evidently the guy’s a real asshole,” Jason said. Charlie’s eyes filled with questioning. “Or so the social worker says.”

  Charlie nodded and blew out a breath. She closed her eyes and swayed back and forth so slightly that most people wouldn’t notice. But Jason had seen her do this before, and he knew what came next. He put his pen to paper again and waited.

  “I see the letters C & R on the box cars. He jumped on the train and rode it out of the area.”

  “Any idea when this happened?”

  Charlie glanced down at the missing person’s report. “It says March thirteenth.” She frowned. “But that doesn’t seem right based on the cycle of the moon.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean the moon was full on the twelfth of March. This says he took off three days before that. So, it would’ve been really bright in the sky. He also didn’t have on a jacket or anything, so it wasn’t cold.” She took her phone from her purse and typed something into it. “Yeah, weatherdog.com says the temps were in the forties when he disappeared. Even Evan would put on a jacket at night and he’s a furnace.”

  Jason nodded and wrote it down. “How do you know all that about the moon cycles?”

  Charlie shrugged. Her gaze fell on the mirror behind him. “It’s just something Evangeline’s been teaching me.”

  “Why?” He cringed at the judgment in his voice when she bristled at the question. “I mean are you studying astronomy or something?”