Witching You Were Here (Wicked Witches of the Midwest Book 3)

by Lee, Amanda M.

  “Are you calling her a liar?” Aunt Tillie swung on Landon angrily.

  “Yes.”

  Aunt Tillie shrugged. “Fair enough.”

  “Aunt Tillie,” I chastised her.

  “I can tell you’re lying honey. So can he,” Aunt Tillie countered. “I just don’t think he realizes you’re not lying to protect yourself.”

  Landon seemed to consider Aunt Tillie’s statement for a second. Realization dawned across his face. “You’re protecting Thistle.”

  “How do you figure?” I asked warily.

  “You suspect Ted is up to something. Ted has disappeared. You disappeared yesterday afternoon. All of this ties together somehow. I’m just not exactly sure how.”

  “Well done, officer,” Aunt Tillie said.

  “I’m an agent,” Landon said.

  “Don’t get a big head,” Aunt Tillie said. “You’ve started to grow on me – but that can change.”

  It took us about fifteen minutes to get back to town. Aunt Tillie used that time to explain to Landon why he should never call me a liar to my face and – instead – just learn to trick me into telling him the truth. She had tips, in case he was interested. When we got back to town, Landon grudgingly let Aunt Tillie climb back in the driver’s seat of her truck and head back towards the inn. She promised she would go straight there and not stop anyplace else.

  “Drive slowly,” he admonished her.

  “I’ve been driving for longer than you’ve been alive,” she reminded him.

  “That doesn’t mean I want you to die,” Landon said.

  “You’d miss me,” Aunt Tillie scoffed sarcastically.

  “No, Bay would,” he corrected her. “I don’t want to see her sad.”

  Aunt Tillie started to roll up her window. “I might miss you a little,” he conceded.

  Aunt Tillie beamed at him for a second and then quickly wiped the smile off her face. “There’s no accounting for taste.”

  Once she was gone, Landon turned to me. I couldn’t decide if he was angry or tired – or maybe a little of both. “We’re going to talk about whatever you’re hiding later. By a fire. When it’s just the two of us.”

  “That sounds a little presumptuous,” I said.

  “I don’t care,” Landon replied. “After last night, you owe me.”

  I ignored the statement. “What are you going to do now?”

  “I’m going to go talk to Chief Terry and then the two of us are going to go check out those tracks.”

  “I could go with you,” I offered.

  “No,” Landon shook his head. “You can stay here in town. In fact, I want you to stay at Hypnotic with your cousins. Don’t go to the paper. Don’t go to the cop shop. You stay in that store.”

  “Why?”

  “Just do as I ask, for a change,” Landon sighed.

  “Are you punishing me?” I narrowed my eyes in his direction.

  Landon grabbed the lapels of my coat and pulled me towards him. He planted his lips on mine for a second and then pulled away somewhat reluctantly. “Trust me,” he said. “When I punish you, you’ll know it.”

  Despite myself, I felt a little thrill rush through me as I crossed the street – accidentally tripping over the curb as I stepped up onto the sidewalk in front of Hypnotic – and opened the door to the store. When I turned around, I found that Landon was still watching me. That gave me a little thrill, too.

  Crap! I was definitely getting in deep now.

  Thirty-One

  Clove and Thistle were waiting for me when I entered Hypnotic.

  “Well?” Thistle was sitting on the couch, looking dejected. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure why.

  “Well what?”

  “Well, where did they go?”

  “Aunt Tillie and Landon? Aunt Tillie went home and Landon went to talk to Chief Terry.”

  “No, not Aunt Tillie and Landon,” Thistle replied irritably. “Trevor and my dad.”

  “I don’t know,” I answered truthfully. “There was at least one set of tracks breaking off from the main road on the route back.”

  “What road?” Thistle asked blandly.

  “Maple.”

  Thistle grimaced. “Back out to the Dragonfly. Why would he go there?”

  “I may have let on that we knew about the property he bought,” I said sheepishly.

  “Why would you do that?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

  “Do you still think that?” Clove asked.

  “Probably not.”

  “So, now what? Did you tell Landon about us breaking into the Dragonfly?” Thistle asked.

  “Are you crazy? I don’t want him to arrest me.”

  “He wouldn’t arrest you,” Clove scoffed. “He already knows we’re hiding something.”

  “He doesn’t know that we’re hiding something illegal.”

  “It’s barely illegal,” Thistle said. “The inn has a wall missing from it, for crying out loud. We could have just wandered in.”

  “Do you think he’ll believe that? And we didn’t just wander in,” I reminded her. ”We used the front door – and we used magic to open it.”

  “He probably won’t believe that,” Thistle conceded. “He won’t arrest you, though. I’m sure about that.”

  I started to pace without even realizing what I was doing. Clove and Thistle watched me for a few minutes in silence, leaving me alone with my rather cluttered brain. Finally I stopped and looked back to them. “Something isn’t right about all of this.”

  “Just one thing?” Clove asked drolly.

  “Wasn’t Brian behind us, too?”

  Thistle looked surprised. “What? Brian Kelly? Yeah, I guess he was at the back of the caravan, now that I think of it.”

  “Where did he go?”

  “That’s a good question,” Thistle agreed. “You think they’re all doing it together?”

  “There are three of them,” I said simply.

  Clove looked aghast. “Are you insinuating that Brian, Uncle Teddy and Trevor are working together?”

  “Maybe,” I shrugged.

  “Don’t you think you would have recognized Brian’s voice?” Clove was desperate. “I’m absolutely positive I didn’t hear Trevor out there.”

  “It could just be a coincidence that they all disappeared,” I admitted. “It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve jumped to the wrong conclusion.”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time this week,” Clove grumbled.

  “I’m not saying it’s them,” I said hurriedly. “I just think the fact that all three of them disappeared at the same time is a little strange.”

  “Maybe they just didn’t want to follow Aunt Tillie,” Clove said. “She drives like a crazy person.”

  “That’s a possibility,” I agreed, although my heart wasn’t really in it.

  “The question is,” Thistle interjected. “What would they all be doing out there?”

  “Maybe they’re opening up a new inn,” Clove said. She was getting desperate now. “Maybe they don’t want anyone to know because they’re afraid Aunt Tillie will curse them if she finds out that they’re competition.”

  “She hasn’t cursed any other inn owners,” Thistle pointed out. “This area can actually sustain another inn without anyone losing any business. As it is now, people have to stay in some of the surrounding towns.”

  “Well, maybe they’re all planning a surprise for us?” Clove’s voice was becoming uncomfortably shrill.

  “Killing us would be a surprise,” Thistle said blandly.

  “That’s not funny,” Clove whimpered.

  “It wasn’t trying to be funny.”

  “You think your dad is planning your death? That’s so . . .”

  “I don’t think he’s planning my death,” Thistle sighed. “I just think he’s up to something.”

  “And I think Brian is involved,” I added.

  “What about Trevor?” Cl
ove’s lower lip started to quiver.

  “I have no idea where Trevor fits into this,” I said. “I actually can’t think of a rational way for him to fit into this.”

  “But you think Brian is up to something?” Clove seemed a little less upset by my admission.

  “I know Brian is up to something,” I said forcefully. “I’ve had Edith spying on him.”

  “What has she told you?” Thistle asked.

  “I haven’t talked to her in a few days.”

  “No time like the present,” Thistle suggested.

  “Landon said we should stay here,” I hedged.

  “Is Landon the boss of you?” Thistle poked me in the ribs.

  “Not last time I checked,” I agreed. “He’ll be mad if we leave, though.”

  “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” Thistle said, jumping to her feet. “We can go down to the paper, talk to Edith, and be back before anyone even knows we’re gone.”

  I sighed. I had already decided to do just that. Blaming it on Thistle might save me a tongue lashing later, though. “Let’s go.”

  It took us longer than normal to get down to The Whistler – mostly because we had to walk on the main street because the sidewalks were still clogged. I was hopeful that Landon and Chief Terry were already out investigating, because if they looked out the window of the cop shop – there was no way they could miss us.

  When we got to the paper, I headed to my office first. Clove and Thistle were right behind me. They were both curious if they would be able to see Edith. We had found out, in recent months, that Clove and Thistle could eventually hear ghosts if they were close to me. They hadn’t been able to see one yet, but they were both anxiously looking forward to the possibility of it happening. Thankfully, I didn’t have to go looking for Edith. She was waiting for me in my office.

  “Where have you been?” She asked irritably.

  “We had a blizzard.”

  Edith glanced out of my office window. “It doesn’t look that bad.”

  “That’s easy for a ghost to say,” Thistle grumbled.

  “She can hear me?”

  “Sometimes,” I said. “We actually came down to talk to you, Edith.”

  Edith couldn’t hide the smile that flitted across her face. “Why?”

  “It’s that task I gave you a few days ago,” I said.

  “Spying on Brian?” Edith’s smile began to falter. “You came here to pump me for information?”

  “Well, no,” I lied. “I came here because I missed you. I was just hoping that you might have some information, too.”

  Thistle hid her snort in her sleeve, trying to cover it up with a fake sneeze.

  “Oh,” Edith still looked doubtful. “Well, I do have some news on that front.”

  “Oh, yeah?” I tried to temper my interest. I didn’t want to tip Edith over from uncertainty into a righteous snit.

  “Before he left yesterday, I heard him on the phone again,” Edith said.

  “Who was he on the phone with?”

  Edith looked at Thistle dubiously. “Maybe we should do this in private?”

  Thistle couldn’t see Edith, but she recognized the tone in her voice. “It was my dad, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Edith said.

  “What were they saying?” I prodded Edith.

  “They were saying the deal was essentially done and that they only had to keep you in the dark for another week,” Edith said.

  “Me personally?”

  “Actually, they said the Winchesters,” Edith corrected herself. “He said that the Winchesters had no idea what was going on and that they had essentially done what they set out to do. He went on to say that you were all too distracted with your crazy Aunt Tillie.”

  “He called Aunt Tillie crazy?” Thistle asked.

  “No, I might have added that part myself,” Edith admitted stiffly.

  “I thought Brian was trying to sell the paper,” I admitted ruefully.

  “He can’t do that,” Edith said sharply.

  “Why?”

  “It was in William’s will,” Edith said. “He can’t sell the paper. If he doesn’t want to run it anymore, he has to turn it over to you.”

  “I didn’t know that,” I said. “Why didn’t you tell me that?”

  “I don’t know,” Edith shrugged. “I thought you knew – and I had forgotten until just now.”

  “How would I know that?”

  “You’re a witch,” Edith said simply. “I thought you could cast a truth spell on him or something.”

  Technically, I could do that. I generally tried to avoid any spells, though, that took over someone’s free will. Karma has a funny sense of humor.

  “Well, if I had known that, I would have been more suspicious of Brian earlier,” I said finally.

  “Haven’t you always been suspicious of him?” Clove chided me.

  “Well, obviously I had a reason.”

  “So Brian has been having meetings with my dad,” Thistle said thoughtfully. “And whatever they’re doing involves the Dragonfly and making sure we don’t find out what’s going on?”

  Edith nodded, even though Clove and Thistle couldn’t see her.

  “It’s got to be drugs,” Thistle said. “What else could it be? What else could they have in those crates?”

  “What crates?” Edith asked.

  “We don’t know that it is drugs,” I said, ignoring Edith’s question. “It could be anything.”

  “Anything? Or anything that’s illegal and they’re desperate that we don’t find out?”

  “They could just be opening an inn,” I said lamely.

  “Really? Are you channeling Clove or something?” Thistle shot back snottily.

  “Hey, I’m just standing here listening to the two of you and you decide to attack me?” Clove looked hurt.

  “Oh, just get over it,” Thistle grumbled.

  “Is she always this mean to you?” Edith asked.

  “Always,” Clove nodded.

  “That’s terrible,” Edith clucked.

  “Tell me about it,” Clove agreed.

  “You know what we have to do,” Thistle said suddenly.

  Clove snapped her head in Thistle’s direction. “No, we don’t have to do anything.”

  “I know,” I blew out a sigh.

  “No, we don’t have to do anything,” Clove repeated.

  “How are we going to get out there?” Thistle asked.

  “We’re not going anywhere,” Clove crossed her arms across her chest obstinately. “It’s cold and we just had a blizzard.”

  “We could take your car,” I suggested.

  “It probably won’t make it down Maple if the snow hasn’t been cleared yet.”

  She had a point. “We could go back out to the inn and get the snowmobiles?”

  “Then we would have to explain what we were doing,” Thistle shot me down.

  “See, there’s no way out there,” Clove said primly.

  I considered the conundrum for a second and then turned to Thistle grimly. “We could snowshoe.”

  Thistle’s eyes lit up. “That’s a great idea.”

  “Where are you snowshoeing?” Edith asked Clove.

  “To hell,” she replied angrily. “To hell.”

  Thirty-Two

  “I want it noted, for the record, that I thought this was a bad idea from the start.”

  “We know, Clove,” Thistle grunted. “You’ve told us the exact same thing for the last five minutes. We get it. You don’t want to go back out to the Dragonfly.”

  “You don’t have to go,” I said mildly. “Thistle and I can go by ourselves.”

  Clove rolled her eyes and stomped her foot impatiently. “Oh, yeah, right. Like that’s going to happen.”

  “Bay is right,” Thistle said knowingly. “You stay here. We’ll go by ourselves.”

  “That’s great,” Clove said petulantly. “I’ll stay here and if you guys die then I’ll be wracked with gu
ilt for the rest of my life.”

  “At least you’ll be alive,” Thistle pointed out.

  “And if you do survive,” Clove continued. “I’ll forever be reminded that I was the one that missed the adventure.”

  Thistle smirked in my direction. “So, I guess you’re coming?”

  “I guess so,” Clove sighed. “I still think snowshoeing out there is a mistake. It’s too far.”

  “Not if we cut across property instead of going around it,” Thistle replied shortly.

  Clove turned to me for help. “You can’t think that this is a good idea. That’s got to be a five-mile hike, even cutting across every piece of property between here and there.”

  “It’s more like two miles,” I laughed.

  “One way,” Clove pointed out.

  “That’s still only four miles total,” Thistle said. “We’ve done more than that for exercise.”

  “Not since we were teenagers.”

  She had a point. Working out wasn’t something any of us liked to do.

  Thistle thought about what Clove was saying for a second and then shook her head. “We don’t have a lot of options.”

  “We could tell Landon what we know,” Clove said suddenly. “We could let the police do the investigating, for a change.”

  “I don’t know,” I hedged.

  “I do,” Thistle charged. “I don’t want to accuse my dad of doing something illegal without proof.”

  Clove sighed dramatically. “Fine. But if we die, I’m going to haunt you forever.”

  “Duly noted,” Thistle said.

  “I think we should at least leave a note for Landon at the store,” I said finally.

  Thistle regarded me seriously. “I think that’s probably one of your better ideas.”

  Clove nodded energetically. I think she was hoping that we would run into Landon on the street and have our plans thwarted, but that was a chance I was willing to take.

  “Just in case,” I said.

  When we got back to Hypnotic, I was surprised to find Aunt Tillie sitting on the couch in the middle of the store. “What are you doing here?”

  “Waiting for you,” Aunt Tillie said simply.

  “How did you get in here?” Thistle asked. “I locked the door.”