Hidden Magic

by Daniels, Wynter

  Zander’s radar perked up. “Alone?”

  “Sometimes. I think there was a boy she was friendly with. He and his father and brothers come here for food.”

  “Are they here now?”

  She glanced around the room. “I don’t see them.”

  Damn. He took his notebook out of his back pocket. “Can you give me a name?”

  She held up a finger then went to a small desk in the back of the room. They followed her.

  Rifling through a spiral notebook, she put on the glasses that hung on a chain around her neck. “Here it is. Torres. I think the father and the boys work at one of the strawberry farms off Route 98. I don’t know their first names, sorry.”

  His hand shook slightly as he wrote. This was his first real lead in weeks. “Do you have an address or phone number?” When she nodded, he gave her his tablet to write down the information.

  They got into his car a minute later and Jilly squeezed his hand. “We’re going to find her. I know we are.”

  His confidence was tempered by the very real possibility that Hannah was already dead. He couldn’t bring himself to mention that to Jilly. Not now when she was so excited. “I should take you back home. I have no idea what I’ll run into at the Torres residence.”

  “Not on your life. I’m the one who got us here and I intend to see this through.” She squared her shoulders.

  Growing up with older sisters had taught him that arguing with a woman like her was pointless. “Only on one condition. When we get there, you wait in the car. I’ll signal you if I think it’s safe for you to come inside. That’s if they’re even there.”

  She folded her arms over her chest.

  “That’s the deal. Take it or leave it.” He turned out of the church parking lot. “Tell me now so I can drop you at your place.”

  After a long pause, she rolled her eyes. “No, I’ll do it.”

  He stifled a grin. Maybe he was finally learning how to negotiate with a woman. He’d show her later how much he appreciated that she hadn’t argued for long.

  Jilly shifted in the seat but she couldn’t get comfortable. Maybe sleeping in a strange bed had left her stiff and achy. Her stomach fluttered as she remembered exactly what they’d done in that bed. She’d stretched muscles she hadn’t used in a long time and her body was sore, but in a nice way.

  Zander had been tender even when their passion had flared so hot. No man had ever seemed so concerned with her physical needs.

  “I think it’s up this street. Remember what I said about waiting in the car until I signal you.” He glanced at her. “You okay?”

  “Sure, fine.” But her unease grew as they traveled the unpaved road toward the Torres house. She pictured herself surrounded by violet light, concentrated on getting into her magical mindset and grounding herself.

  Zander slowed as they neared a cluster of dilapidated trailers. Several cats lounged on the top and hood of a car that looked like it hadn’t moved in decades. A dog tied to a post in front of one of the homes barked incessantly.

  “There.” Jilly pointed to the last trailer when she found the address hand painted on the side of it.

  Zander parked in front and waited until the cloud of dust settled. A dark-skinned teenage boy came outside in cargo shorts and a tan tank top and sat on the steps. He lit a cigarette, never taking his eyes off them.

  “Stay.” Zander shot her a warning look as he tucked his gun into his pants then pulled his shirt over it to hide the bulge.

  Jilly rolled down her window so she wouldn’t miss anything. She sensed the boy wasn’t the one Hannah had been seen with. Was this another dead end? “He doesn’t want to speak to you.”

  “Yeah, I get that. Too damn bad.” Zander stuck his hands in his pockets and strode casually toward the boy. She couldn’t help but notice how Zander’s shirt pulled tightly over his broad chest and shoulders and she flashed on him without a shirt on, without anything on, remembered how the hard angles of his abdomen had felt under her fingers. Heat bloomed in her belly. She shook her head to regain control of her focus.

  “Anybody ever tell you those things’ll kill you?” Zander gestured at the cigarette in the kid’s hand.

  The boy just shrugged. “What do you want?”

  “I’m Detective Parsons with the sheriff’s office. Anybody else home?”

  “They’re working.” The kid dropped the cigarette and snubbed it out with his sneaker.

  “What’s your name?”

  The kid narrowed his eyes at him. “Juan Torres.”

  “Nice to meet you, Juan.” Zander took something out of his back pocket. Hannah’s photo. “I’m looking for this girl. Have you ever seen her?”

  When the teen hesitated, Jilly held her breath.

  “Maybe. I can’t be positive.”

  Jilly knew the boy was sure.

  “She a friend of your brother’s, isn’t she?” Zander asked him.

  Another shrug.

  “It’s important, Juan. What’s your brother’s name?”

  Juan looked up at him with undisguised irritation. “I got three brothers. Michael, Pablo and Ricardo.”

  Jilly mulled over all the names. Ricardo. That was it. He’d been important to Hannah. One of the important men in her life. But who was the other man she’d sensed with them at the pond?

  Zander threw her a quick glance. “The rest of your family’s working today?”

  “Michael and Pablo and our father.”

  “Where’s Ricardo?”

  Juan took another smoke out of a pack on the step and lit it. He blew out the smoke in Zander’s direction, but Zander held his ground.

  “Where is Ricardo?” he repeated, emphasizing each syllable.

  “I don’t know. He took off a few weeks ago.”

  Zander plucked the cigarette from the kid’s lips and crushed it under his shoe. “You’re way too young to smoke. Any idea where Ricardo went?”

  “How the hell should I know? Bastard never said goodbye.” Juan turned away but not before Jilly caught a glimpse of the sheen of tears in his eyes.

  “Mind if I take a look in his bedroom?” Zander asked him.

  The kid shrugged, then silently led him inside. They came back out after only a minute or two. Zander patted Juan’s shoulder then returned to the car. He didn’t say a word until they’d been driving a few minutes. “So where the hell is Ricardo? Did he run off with Hannah or did he kill her? And if they ran off, why in hell would they push her car into the water?”

  “Can we go back to the pond? Maybe since we have a little more information I’ll be able to get a clearer picture of what happened there.”

  He took a left at the end of the dirt road. “You got it. I have something for you.” He pressed a large coin into her hand.

  She glanced at it. It appeared to be a game token from an arcade. “Where’d you get this?”

  He shrugged. “Ricardo’s brother said I could take it from his room.”

  She closed it in her palm and tried to pick up on any information the coin held but all she saw was black.

  “It was worth a shot.” He phoned his office on the way and asked someone to get whatever information they could on Ricardo Torres.

  The sun was directly overhead when they got to Gideon’s Pond. A blast of hot sticky air hit Jilly as she climbed out the passenger door. She breathed in the sickening sweet scent of honeysuckle, heard the croak of frogs near the water’s edge.

  Zander stayed in the vehicle to take a call. She walked to the tree where she’d felt the strongest energy last time.

  “Getting any vibes, or whatever?” He closed the distance between them.

  “Same as last time.”

  He motioned toward his car. “I’ve got a picture of Ricardo Torres up on my computer. Want to take a look?”

  “That might help.” She waited as he brought over his laptop then she stared at the handsome face even a driver’s license photo couldn’t diminish. Dark hair and skin, eyelashes m
ost women would kill for and a smile that could easily melt a young girl’s heart. “Did you find out anything about him?”

  Before he could answer, a powerful vision barged into her mind. She leaned against the tree, felt Zander’s arm supporting her, but she wouldn’t let the image go.

  Hannah and Ricardo were lying on a blanket near the water, holding hands and looking up at the stars. He kissed her. She took off her underpants and he his jeans. “There’s a condom in my purse.” Then Hannah screamed when the other man surprised them wielding a metal pipe.

  The vision vanished, left her with a pounding ache in her temples.

  Zander was gripping her shoulders. “Jilly, are you okay?”

  She blinked a couple times. “Yeah. I saw them.”

  “What? Where? Talk to me. God, you’re pale as a gho…a sheet.”

  She scanned the clearing, almost expecting to see the couple, and whoever had interrupted them. A wave of dizziness forced her to hang onto Zander. Her stomach roiled.

  She clutched his arm, afraid she was about to pass out. “I think the other man killed her, Zander. Hannah’s dead.”

  Chapter Five

  Zander lifted Jilly into his arms then managed to open his car door and set her on the seat. Her skin was cool and clammy.

  Tension knotted his shoulders. God, he’d never forgive himself if anything happened to her. But he prayed she was wrong about Hannah being dead. “I have a water bottle in the trunk. I’ll be right back.”

  She dug her fingers into his arm. “No, wait. I saw something. A man surprised them, her and Ricardo. He had some sort of pipe in his hand and he…” Sweat slid down the side of her face and she was shaking. “I think he hit her with it.”

  “Stop. We’ll talk about this after you recover from…whatever the hell is going on. Let me get you water.” He raced to the back and rummaged in his trunk until he found water. Returning to her side, he opened the bottle and held it to her lips. “Drink,” he commanded.

  Her color finally improved after a few sips. He wiped his arm over his forehead and offered up a silent thank you. Rounding the vehicle, he grabbed his laptop then started the car and turned on the air conditioner. Had to be close to a hundred degrees outside.

  When she seemed back to normal, he faced her. “Okay. Are you up to talking about what you saw now?”

  She nodded, but her expression remained grim. “Whoever that other man was, I think he killed her.”

  He let the words sink in. For the last few weeks, his knowledge of cases like Hannah’s—the probability that she was already dead—had been needling him. If he’d been a better detective, could he have saved her? An unbearably heavy weight settled over him. “Tell me exactly what you saw.”

  Jilly wiped away her tears. “She and Ricardo were…well they were about to have sex. Wasn’t the first time for them. A shadow blotted out the moonlight. She looked up and screamed. Then…” She shook her head. “That’s where it ended.”

  He forced himself to don the stony exterior he wore when a case took a devastating turn. He started the car. “You can’t be sure Hannah was killed. Maybe she rolled away in time, or maybe Ricardo fought the other person off.” He couldn’t let himself go down that road. His assumption had to be that Hannah was still alive.

  “Someone died here. I think that’s why I felt weak and sick.” She sighed. “Where are we going?”

  He didn’t look at her as he started back to the main road. “You’re going home to rest. Sheriff Van Horn went to speak to the Saxons about whether they knew anything about Ricardo. They might be holding out on us. Van plays bad cop better than I do. I want to meet up with him so we can bring each other up to speed.”

  “Can’t I come with you? Maybe I can be of some help.” The concern in her voice was compelling but he refused to let her exhaust herself further. “Nope. This is confidential. Sorry.”

  She folded her arms and hit them against her chest like a petulant little girl.

  He didn’t like the idea of her being alone, though. Not with the person who’d broken into the shop still on the loose. “Do you have a friend who could stay with you the rest of the day? Maybe that waitress.”

  She heaved an audible breath. “Taryn works on Saturdays. I can try my friend Haley.”

  “Good. Call her now, would you?”

  When she took her phone out of her purse, he set a hand on her thigh and squeezed. “Don’t make it a sleepover, okay? I have plans for you tonight.” He threw her a suggestive wink.

  Her cheeks flushed but she didn’t say no. He didn’t want her to be alone at night. And in truth, he couldn’t wait to make love to her again.

  By the time they arrived at her cottage at Freedom Moon camp, Jilly had arranged for her friend Haley to come over. He walked her inside, glancing around the front of the house for any security issues. There were several other homes clustered around Jilly’s. The camp was built in the fifties as a tourist resort and all the buildings had old jalousie windows that were ridiculously easy to break into. No neighbors were outside and since the houses were surrounded by woods they felt isolated. Plus she had tall shrubs in front that could harbor a potential intruder.

  She led him into the small foyer. “Thirsty?”

  “Mm hmm.” He followed her into the kitchen. Half a dozen flowerpots spilling over with assorted herbs lined the windowsill and scented the air with a fresh, minty aroma.

  Jilly poured them each a glass of ice tea. “When are you meeting the sheriff?”

  “Soon as your friend gets here.” He strode to the back door to check the lock. The bolt was situated right next to a window pane in the door.

  She sipped her tea then placed it on the counter. “What are you doing?”

  “I don’t want you here by yourself for a second until we know who broke into Mind’s Eye.”

  She set her hands on her waist. “There’s no way Jamal could find out where I live. I will not let him chase me out of my home. Not again. Besides, we don’t even know it was him.”

  He hoped she wasn’t going to be difficult. “How hard do you think it would be to figure out that a woman who works in a shop in this community also lives here? I’m assuming you don’t have any firearms to protect yourself.”

  “Of course not. I don’t believe in guns.”

  He closed the distance between them and took both her hands in his. “Look, sweetheart, any fool could break in here in a matter of seconds. I’d prefer you stay at my place, but if you don’t want to, fine. I understand. But I’m not leaving you alone here for even a minute. If I have to, I’ll put you under police protection.”

  To his relief, she grinned and stepped into his waiting embrace. “Police protection, huh? That sounds like fun. As long as you’re the policeman providing it.” She molded her body to his, tempting him to drag her into the bedroom that very moment.

  But he had important work to do now that they’d learned about Ricardo Torres.

  A knock at the back door startled them apart.

  A petite blonde holding a shopping bag waved at Jilly through the glass.

  Jilly cleared her throat and squeezed Zander’s hand. “That’s Haley.” She strode to the door and let the young woman inside. “Thanks for coming. You’re a doll.” She bent a little to hug her friend then swept her arm toward Zander. “This is Detective Parsons.”

  Haley lifted an eyebrow as she shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, Detective. Did you find the guy who broke into the bookstore last night?”

  “We’re working on it.”

  She crinkled her nose. “Hmm. I brought some supplies to keep us busy, Jilly.” She took a seat at the table and turned her gaze on Zander. “Word spreads fast through the camp. Everyone’s on edge, wondering if whoever broke into the bookstore will be back. Can we get extra police protection?”

  A headache started between his eyes. “The deputy assigned to this zone is aware of the break-in. He’ll make extra loops through the property. It can’t hurt for everyone
here to be extra vigilant though.” He faced Jilly. “I should go. I’ll call you later.”

  She walked him to the door then gave him a quick kiss on the lips. “I’ll meditate on Ricardo. Maybe I’ll figure something out while you’re gone.”

  He couldn’t resist another kiss before he left. It would have to hold him until the night.

  Fifteen minutes later he walked into the sheriff’s office to find his boss scowling. He glimpsed the cause of Van’s fowl expression seated behind the sheriff’s desk—the mayor.

  “Did you catch the news last night, son?” New wrinkles lined his grandfather’s face.

  Zander had rarely seen him this agitated. “I was working. But I heard about it. That stupid Templeton woman is making me out to look incompetent.”

  His grandfather crashed his fist down on the desk. “Not just you, son, us. My administration. I’m taking you off the case. Sheriff, call in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.”

  “Look, Carl, do you really want to set that precedent? You’re telling the people of this town we can’t handle the case. May as well fire my whole damn staff. We’re putting every resource into finding Hannah and anything we can’t do ourselves, we’ve already made use of the FDLE’s lab.” Van slammed file folder he was holding onto the desk.

  “We made a lot of progress today.” Zander stepped between his grandfather and Van. “Give me a few more days, Gramps. That psychic Grandma sent me to, she’s coming up with some leads that I have confidence are going to blow this case open.”

  But the old man shook his head. “I have to act now. You have no idea how much pressure I’m under.”

  “Give me forty-eight hours. Come on. You asked me to use the psychic and I am. Give me a chance.” Zander crossed his fingers like he’d seen Jilly do several times. What could it hurt?

  The mayor stood up and rounded the desk. “Two days. If you don’t know where that girl is by then, I call in the state.”

  Zander let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. He was used to working under pressure but the clock just started ticking more loudly. As soon as his grandfather cleared the doorway, Zander faced Van. “Did you get anything from the Saxons about Ricardo?”