“Was she . . .” I broke off. I didn’t know how to phrase the next question.
“She was stabbed, just like the other boy. And, yes, her heart was removed, too.” Chief Terry looked out the front window from his spot at the table. He had a clear view of the inn. Usually, he would have asked about my mom or one of my aunts early in the conversation. I didn’t think he had the energy. “The state boys say there are no signs of sexual assault, though, so at least that’s something.”
Yes, a very small something. “Has her family been told?”
“They’re doing that right now.”
“Was she reported missing?”
“Not to my knowledge. We don’t have any information on her movements yesterday, though.”
“When did she die?”
“We don’t have a time of death yet, but some time last night seems to be the general consensus.”
“They’re obviously putting the bodies in public places,” I said. “They want the bodies found right away.”
“The state boys said they might call in federal help.”
“Like profilers?”
“Yeah.”
“That might not be a bad idea.”
“I’ll take any help can get right now, not that I have any real control over the case.” Chief Terry sounded more tired than bitter, but I knew that having the case taken from him was probably driving him crazy.
“They still don’t have any ideas why this is happening – and why it’s happening here?”
“They have some ideas,” Chief Terry said grimly.
“Like what?” Thistle asked.
“They think that it’s happening because of how we rebranded the town,” he said quietly.
“You mean, because we made it a witch town?” Clove looked incredulous. “Like we asked for it?”
“More like someone here is trying to expand the brand of the town – in a real life way,” Chief Terry said.
“That’s crazy! Why would we want to do that? This will kill the tourism trade for the entire season, not increase it.” Not that tourism really mattered in this situation.
“That’s what I told them,” Chief Terry said. “I’m just one step up from Barney Fife to them, though, so they pretty much just disregard everything I say. They’re only keeping me in the loop because they have to.”
“They’re never going to solve it if they keep looking at the town,” Thistle argued. “It’s not someone from the town.”
“Are you sure of that?” Chief Terry looked at her probingly.
“Aren’t you?”
“No one wants to think of their neighbor as a murderer,” he said. “We can’t rule people out, though, just on a feeling.”
Thistle didn’t look convinced.
“I don’t believe it’s anyone from the town either,” he said. “But we have to look at everyone.”
Chief Terry turned to me expectantly. “I was hoping you would come out to the maze with me?”
“Me? Why?”
Chief Terry hedged. “We all know your family is . . . different. I just thought you might be able to see something that we didn’t.”
Like a ghost?
“Let me get dressed.” Chief Terry didn’t ask for help from outsiders very often. I couldn’t say no to him – not that I wanted to.
I moved towards my bedroom. Clove was close on my heel. “Don’t talk to a ghost in front of them,” she warned in a low voice. “That will just cast suspicion on you. That may be what they’re fishing for.”
“I don’t think Chief Terry would do that,” I argued.
“I don’t think that Chief Terry has a clue what the state police are up to. Just be careful.”
I’m always careful. Okay, I at least consider being careful before I jump into the deep end headfirst.
Fourteen
The ride to the maze was short – only about fifteen minutes – and it was spent mostly in silence. There really wasn’t a lot to say. If we talked about magic, Chief Terry would be uncomfortable. If we talked about the murders, I would be uncomfortable.
When we turned on the drive that led to the Johnson farm, I could see the miasma of flashing lights that were illuminating the early morning sky about a mile down the road – at the entrance to the corn maze.
The Johnson corn maze was the oldest in town – the first, so to speak. There were now a total of five, and most of the others were fancier, but there was something refreshing in the simplicity of the original.
“There’s a lot of police here,” I breathed.
“Double what we had the other day,” Chief Terry acknowledged. “This has made the national news. They say Nancy Grace is sending someone out.”
Great. That was exactly what we didn’t need, a media frenzy.
Chief Terry parked his cruiser next to the other vehicles. We both exited the vehicle in unison. I still wasn’t sure what he expected of me. I was just glad he’d thought to bring me out here. At least I wouldn’t have to sneak into this corn maze in the dark this time. Or, at least I hoped.
Most of the chatter that greeted us was typical police talk. I saw a handful of people being questioned to the left side of the maze. They all looked understandably nervous. I turned to Chief Terry questioningly.
“Workers,” he said simply. “They found the body. At least this time only one or two people had been in the maze before the body was found.”
Thank the Goddess for small favors.
I noticed another grouping of police officers positioned off to the right of the maze – and I was surprised to see whom they were questioning. It was Landon and his cronies. What were they doing here?
Chief Terry seemed surprised to see them, too. “They weren’t here when I left to come pick you up.”
“I wonder what they’re doing here now?”
“You think it’s suspicious?” Chief Terry was staring at me intently.
“I think it’s weird that a bunch of biker guys keep showing up at corn mazes – especially ones that have dead bodies in them.”
Chief Terry pursed his lips. “I think focusing on them might be a mistake.”
“Why?” I looked at him suspiciously.
“Do they seem like the type of guys that run around cutting people’s hearts out? Or the type of guys that would just plug a guy in the head if he crossed them? I think they’re bad guys, just not the bad guys we’re looking for in this case.”
Good point. No sale.
“You know something?”
Chief Terry sighed. “I’m going to tell you something, but I don’t want you printing it in the paper – at least not yet.”
“What?”
“There’s something else going on in town, and I think our new friends are tied up in that, not in the murders.”
“What?”
“There’s been a new, um, business that’s entered Hemlock Cove over the past six months or so.”
If I had to say what one more time, I was going to scream.
“It’s crystal meth.”
“You’re kidding!” Never what you expect.
“Drugs are a part of our culture now. You shouldn’t be surprised.”
“This is Hemlock Cove, though,” I protested. “Not Detroit.”
“Drugs can be anywhere. They’re not just a city thing. Heck, before you were born, your mom and aunts had a small pot field hidden in the woods that they thought no one knew about.”
After last night’s conversation, I found that hard to swallow. Chief Terry must have read the disbelief on my face.
“It’s true. It wasn’t big or anything. They tried to hide it behind their herb patch.”
“They just busted us last night for smoking pot when we were teenagers,” I complained.
“Well, that was a little hypocritical of them.”
I couldn’t wait to tell Thistle and Clove about this new development. Then I felt a wave of disappointment in myself wash over me when I realized I was gleefully planning an ambush on my fami
ly – when we were about to go see the body of a dead teenage girl.
“When did they get rid of it?” I asked despite my now open disgust with myself.
“Before any of you were born. One day it was just gone. Maybe your Aunt Tillie found it?”
Maybe she started it?
I turned my attention back to his meth comments. “Do you think that our new friends are behind the meth trade?”
“I think that’s a fair assumption.”
Something wasn’t adding up to me. “Is that why Landon was in your office the other day?”
“I already told you, I was just asking him some questions,” Chief Terry snapped.
Better avoid that line of conversation for the time being, I figured.
“If you know it’s them, why aren’t you arresting them?”
“I don’t know it’s them,” he said finally. “It’s an ongoing investigation. I just suspect it may be them.”
Chief Terry now turned to me with a new warning on his lips. “Don’t get involved in this. It’s too dangerous.”
“Why would I get involved?”
“Just . . . just stay away from Landon. He’s bad news.”
“Why would I be hanging around with Landon?”
Chief Terry looked at me knowingly. I felt myself blushing under his gaze. “I’m not into Landon,” I said hurriedly.
“See it stays that way.”
Chief Terry flashed his badge and led me into corn maze. I cast a look back in Landon’s direction and found him watching me. The gaze he cast on me was reflective and thoughtful. Could he really be dealing meth? Something told me there was more to this story. Either Chief Terry didn’t know everything, or he was holding something back. It could be both of those scenarios, too. If I had to guess, that was the most likely option.
I followed Chief Terry into the maze. He seemed to know where he was going. About five minutes in, he took a hard left and led me to a central clearing. There were about ten more police officers steadily working here.
I had to catch my breath when I saw the body strung up on another cross in the center of the clearing.
“Another cross,” I murmured.
“Yeah.”
The girl had long blonde hair, but the ends of it seemed to be dyed another color. I realized, all too quickly, that they weren’t dyed another color. They were stained with blood.
I couldn’t see her face, because there was another garish mask on the body. I turned to Chief Terry in surprise. “I thought they would have taken the body by now.”
“They’re still getting photos,” he said. “They’ll cut her down shortly.”
I looked around the clearing dubiously. I still wasn’t sure exactly why I was here. Chief Terry watched me scan the area.
“Do you see anything?”
I was surprised by the question. “Like what?”
“I don’t know, something that maybe we missed.” Chief Terry was being evasive again.
“Like what?” I prodded him again.
“I don’t know,” Chief Terry sighed. “Just look around.”
I didn’t know what he expected me to find, but I took a couple of tentative steps into the clearing. It had been a few years since I’d visited the Johnson maze, but it looked exactly like I remembered it.
Unlike the other mazes in the area, the Johnson maze was wasn’t designed to scare, just to entertain. It was billed as a family maze and not a haunted maze. I didn’t know if it would ever be able to recover the innocence it used to boast. It would probably be forever stained – like poor Sophie Maxwell’s golden hair.
As I carefully edged around the clearing – making sure to avoid getting in the way of any of the officers – I couldn’t help but feel like I was being suffocated. The fact that I was out in the open air made the sensation all the more baffling.
Suddenly, I felt a pair of eyes on me. I swung around, expecting to find a police officer standing behind me. Instead, a few feet away, I saw a teenage girl standing in the corner and watching the police hurry from place to place busily.
No one else noticed her. Not her long blonde hair. Not her timid blue eyes. Not her pink fuzzy sweater – which made her stand out like a rose in a field of daisies. They didn’t notice her, of course, because I was the only one that could see her.
It was Sophie Maxwell. Well, her ghost, at least.
I stood stock still as I watched Sophie. She didn’t look confused. Just resigned. Her gaze followed different officers as they buzzed about – but it always returned to her body. Her broken and bloody body. Her body, which had been erected as a garish monument to hate, and would never be whole again. She would never feel the warmth of the sun. Or laugh with her friends. Or flirt with whatever boy caught her attention.
She was lost, but not gone.
Sophie lifted her sad eyes up and saw me staring at her. She swung around, to see if someone was standing behind her, but found only empty space.
“Can you see me?” She asked tentatively.
I didn’t answer her. I only nodded.
“I’m dead, aren’t I?”
I nodded again.
“Why won’t you talk to me?”
How could I explain that I couldn’t? How do you tell a dead girl that saving face is more important than helping her?
I glanced around the corn maze and found Chief Terry watching me speculatively.
“There’s nothing here,” I said to him hollowly.
He nodded. I knew he didn’t believe me, though. He started to head back out of the maze and I followed. I turned back to Sophie for a second and surreptitiously motioned for her to follow. Thankfully, she recognized the gesture and did just that.
“I’ll take you back home,” Chief Terry sighed heavily. Luckily he didn’t see me smile warmly – and encouragingly – at Sophie. She followed us mutely.
Landon was still waiting outside of the corn maze when we exited. He made a step towards me, but Chief Terry draped a protective arm around my shoulders and glared at Landon. I couldn’t really deal with him now, anyway. I had to get Sophie back to the guesthouse so I could talk to her.
I climbed into Chief Terry’s cruiser. Sophie was already in the backseat. Chief Terry had paused long enough to say something to one of the officers that approached him.
“I can’t talk to you here,” I whispered to Sophie. “Just ride with us back to my place, and when he’s gone, we’ll talk.”
Sophie nodded mutely. I think she was just glad she would have a chance to talk to someone – to anyone.
The ride back home was as quiet as the ride to the corn maze had been. I felt a desperate need to break the silence.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help,” I finally said.
Chief Terry shrugged. “I don’t know what I expected you to do. Maybe you’ll be able to figure something out later . . . after some time.”
“Maybe,” I agreed.
“Just do what you can.”
When we got to the guesthouse, Chief Terry didn’t get out of the car. I opened the door, but paused before I climbing out. Sophie was already waiting for me on the lawn.
“You should go up to the inn,” I said gently. “I know a gaggle of women that would be willing to feed you.”
Chief Terry smiled, despite himself. “Maybe I will.”
“It’s blueberry pancakes day,” I said as I climbed out of the car. One final enticement couldn’t hurt.
“Well, I wouldn’t want to miss blueberry pancakes,” Chief Terry said heavily.
I left him knowing that he would end up at the inn. I was thankful they would take care of him. He needed a little pampering. I didn’t know how much pampering three women fighting over him would be, but at least it would be a distraction.
When he was gone, I turned to Sophie. “Come inside. I have some people I want you to meet.”
Fifteen
I led Sophie into the guesthouse. She was understandably nervous – what with the brutal death and being
strung up in a cornfield and all.
“It will be alright,” I promised her.
“What else could go wrong, right?” The laugh Sophie let loose was hollow. At least she wasn’t dwelling on her predicament, though. If I came back as a ghost, I’d be bitching like nobody’s business.
Clove and Thistle were waiting for me anxiously in the living room. “Well?”
I nodded grimly. “Another murder. Another ghost.”
“Can they see me, too?” Sophie seemed intrigued.
“They can’t see you. We’ve found that, if I’m talking to you for awhile, they’ll eventually be able to hear you.”
“You talk to a lot of ghosts?”
“I’ve met my fair share,” I admitted ruefully.
“Why can you see and me and no one else can?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer the question. I wouldn’t have to, though. Shane did the honors for me.
“They’re witches,” he said simply.
Sophie seemed surprised when she saw him. “He’s a ghost, too.” Thankfully she wasn’t focusing on the witch admission.
“He is.”
Thistle and Clove were still sitting quietly. Apparently the supernatural hearing aid hadn’t kicked in yet. I hoped it happened soon.
“This is Shane,” I introduced the duo. “Shane, this is Sophie.”
“Did the same people that killed me kill her?” Shane asked.
“Yes.”
Sophie looked surprised. “You’re the dead boy the police were talking about?”
“Yeah. That’s me. Saint Shane of the Corn Stalks.”
Teenage humor baffles me sometimes. Other times, the levity can be welcome. I laughed despite the surreal nature of the situation.
“You’re not a saint,” Thistle grumbled. “You’re far from a saint.”
I couldn’t help but smile as I saw Shane and Sophie swap shy grins nervously. Maybe the urge to flirt doesn’t die when your body does? At least they had each other now.
I brought Clove and Thistle up to speed, including a brief detour about the meth trade in the area. They seemed as surprised as I was when I first heard about it.
“You’re kidding? That’s unbelievable.”
Any Witch Way You Can Page 11