Craig Smith had filled his brother in on finding us behind the Lodge with our hands caked in dirt, but when Detective Smith asked Charlie how we knew to dig around the trees, Charlie told him she couldn’t reveal her sources.
“He’s just going to have to accept that reporters have sources we must protect,” she whispered to me.
“Right, the police will have to accept what you say,” I said.
“Exactly,” said Charlie.
Just as she hurried away, Hansen stepped up. He had been standing close by, but I hadn’t thought he was listening to our whispered exchange.
“It’s only a matter of time before she gets arrested for stuff like this,” said Hansen, still watching Charlie.
I covered my giggle with my hand.
“Yeah, sometimes she doesn’t know when to quit,” I agreed.
“I just hope I’m there to see it,” said Hansen.
I laughed even harder.
We didn’t linger after Charlie said her goodbyes to Detective Smith. It was already getting late in the day, and I was starting to feel like I hadn’t been home in ages.
I was looking forward to checking on how everything was at the farmhouse, while Charlie intended to prepare for her upcoming stakeout of the Daily Brew. I expected to have an early night and probably wouldn’t even bother unpacking. Tomorrow I’d have a lot to do. While Charlie was investigating and Greer got back to work, I would most likely be attempting to conduct a séance out in the back field.
After my most recent interactions with dark ghosts, the séance was feeling more and more necessary. Instead of quitting, the ghosts were getting more determined to come after Mintwood.
The farmhouse needed to be protected, and I was running out of time.
Jasper came by that night, but he was subdued. I had expected him to be happier when I told him we’d solved the case, but even though he smiled, his heart obviously wasn’t in it. I asked why he was so preoccupied, but he didn’t want to say.
We were sitting in the kitchen, and Charlie and Greer had kindly made themselves scarce. Jasper had already told me he couldn’t stay long. There’d been a note of warning in his voice, but I couldn’t tell why.
“Can you believe it was Cushman?” I asked. We were drinking tea and eating some scones Greer had thrown together. Charlie had said that if she tried to throw together baked goods they’d end up thrown all over the kitchen. The image of chocolate scones sticking to the walls and ceiling made us all chuckle.
“No, he didn’t worry me in the least. I thought it was the neighbor for sure. Delia and Damon must be relieved, though,” he said.
“Because they were friends with the Smiths?” I asked.
“Yeah, they were worried that Craig Smith was going to be accused of the murder,” said Jasper.
“His brother was also clearly worried about that. He seemed nice, so I don’t know why everyone suddenly thought he might turn out to be a killer,” I mused.
“Me either,” said Jasper, looking down at his tea. When I reached over and took his hand, he smiled at me but didn’t look up.
“Is everything all right?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m just tired. Usually I get some work done on the weekends, but being gone left a lot to do. Sorry,” he said.
“That’s okay,” I said.
“Was there something magical that happened this weekend?” he asked, after a long silence.
I thought about the beaver in the woods, the cemetery filled with ghosts, and Wendell and his crew coming after Jasper and the others.
“No, not really. Just a quiet wedding weekend,” I said.
His sharp green glance told me he didn’t really believe me.
I bit my lip. I was breaking an unspoken agreement between us. Then again, so was he, since part of that agreement was that he wouldn’t ask me about being witchy. There were obviously things I couldn’t tell him, so if he asked me about them, I’d be forced to lie.
My heart squeezed when I actually had to do it, though. Usually lying about who I was came almost naturally to me. With Jasper I wanted to tell him everything, but it was for his own good that I didn’t. He’d be in a worse position if I explained it to him; better to leave him out of it.
Anyhow, he knew I was lying. Now we could both save face and he didn’t have to deal with the consequences.
Or so I told myself.
But the tense silence got to me at last, and I asked, in a strangled voice, “Why do you ask?” Suddenly his explicit curiosity made me nervous.
“You disappeared a couple of times and were a bit secretive. I didn’t know what it was. I figured it was a witch thing,” he said.
“I do have witchy things to do from time to time,” I agreed.
“Is that the voices I hear but can’t see?” he asked.
Now it was my turn not to look up. I had suspected for a while that he caught snatches of things Paws and other ghosts said, and I had no idea how or why that happened.
“Yes, you may be hearing ghosts,” I said.
Now was a moment of truth.
Jasper sighed. “I was afraid of that.”
“You weren’t bothered about the fact that I was a witch,” I said. Or that your grandfather hates me, I thought to myself.
“It’s easy to not be bothered when you don’t really know what something entails,” he said.
I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. “Are you now saying you’re bothered about who I am?”
“I’m not saying that exactly,” he said.
Out of the blue, we were suddenly having a fight. Or a disagreement. Or something. I didn’t know what it was, but I was definitely afraid of where it was going.
“Is someone else bothered?”
Like his grandfather.
I scarcely dared to breathe.
“You know my grandfather is bothered about you. Maybe it is because you’re a witch,” he said. “I’m finding out new things all the time, and maybe that is one of them.”
“Your grandfather told you I was a witch?” my voice squeaked.
Outside, the ghosts were milling around. One ghost in particular had come to the window. What she wanted I didn’t know. Probably just to be nosy.
Through the glass peered Mrs. Goodkeep. She raised her eyebrows when she saw that I was in some distress, then pointed at Jasper to find out what was wrong. I glared fiercely at her. Her eyes opened wide and she disappeared.
“What was that?” Jasper asked. He had finally looked up and seen the angry expression on my face.
“Nothing,” I said.
“By ‘nothing’ to do you mean you’re looking at ghosts?” he said hotly. This was the first time I had ever seen Jasper show the slightest sign of anger.
“Maybe. I’m a witch. You knew that and were fine with it before! What suddenly changed?” I demanded.
But I already knew. Something had happened with his Witch Hunter family.
Something was wrong.
“Sometimes stuff changes. You can’t very well hold that against me,” he said.
“What has changed with us?” I said desperately.
I silently begged him: he had to say nothing had changed. We hadn’t changed. The fact that something had happened with his grandfather did not mean that he could hold it against me.
No, no, no!
Jasper’s mint green eyes were too bright.
He didn’t look down again.
As I gazed at him, his expression closed. Lines formed around his mouth and eyes as his shoulders sagged. He had a pained but also determined look on his face, but he didn’t say anything.
I didn’t like the silence. “What did your grandfather do?” I whispered.
His jaw tightened. He pushed his cup a little ways away over the old wooden table and shifted in his seat.
“Leave my grandfather out of this,” he said.
“Oh, really? Why? Isn’t he a part of this? You show up here all disgruntled and you’re going to tell me he di
dn’t have anything to do with it? I don’t believe that for a minute,” I said.
Jasper expelled a breath, gulped down the rest of his lukewarm tea, and set the mug down.
“I have to go. You deserve better than this.” He stood up and his chair scraped the floor. I was too stunned to move or say a word.
When I finally unfroze myself, I mumbled out, “You have to go . . . okay? What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I need some time to think about things. A lot has happened suddenly. You’re right. I got home and I had to deal with . . . some unpleasant information and truths, and I need time to think about all of it. It would be best if I didn’t see you while I was doing it.” His voice dropped at the end and I could see how hard it was for him to say it.
That didn’t hold a candle to how hard it was for me to hear it, but hear it I did.
Jasper slowly looked away, a stillness about him now that told me how serious he was. There was no way I was going to get through the next five minutes without crying. He mumbled something that might have been sorry and turned toward the door.
Jasper Wolf walked out of the crammed little kitchen that smelled like my grandmother and tugged my heart right along with him. I followed after him and tried to keep up as he strode swiftly toward the front door. At least, I thought, if I can keep up with him then our hearts could stay close together for another few breaths. He kept moving through the living room and toward the door, not looking back.
When I came in sight of the porch, I saw Paws at his usual place on the crate under the window, with Mrs. Goodkeep whispering to him frantically. When she caught my eye she shrank away.
Paws was watching me with what looked like a great deal of concern. His tail was motionless and his whiskers didn’t twitch.
“Wait, can’t we talk about this? I don’t understand,” I said to Jasper as he reached the door.
“I know and I’m sorry. I just . . . there are some things I need to think about,” he said.
“Why can’t you see me while you’re thinking about them?” I asked.
“Because it wouldn’t be good . . . for you and maybe for me,” his voice hitched.
There was something at work here that I couldn’t put my finger on BECAUSE I WAS BUSY WATCHING MY HEART GET RIPPED OUT.
“When can I see you again?” My voice trembled as I said it. Tears hadn’t spilled yet, but they were coming. Like a dam broken by an explosion, my emotions had started to tumble forward. In another moment they would surely tumble out.
“I’ll let you know. I promise. Maybe I shouldn’t have come here tonight. I’m not really sure, but I wanted to. No, I needed to. You deserved that much. I just . . . I really have to go,” Jasper said.
Never in my life had I seen Jasper so lost for words. He was having a hard time looking at me as he held onto the doorknob, apparently unable to stay or go. I wanted to stomp my foot and yell at him, but I didn’t. There was no explanation for why I just stood there.
Or maybe there was. Maybe it was because he looked so serious. In my heart, which was leaving with him, I knew there was nothing I could say or do to change his mind.
No matter how badly I wanted to.
Even Paws was lost for words.
Jasper opened the door and stepped out.
“Bye, Lemmi,” he said as he left.
“Bye, Jasper,” I whispered.
He looked away quickly and hurried to his truck.
All the ghosts had come around to the lawn to watch; Mrs. Goodkeep must have told them there was drama. Most of them looked dumbfounded. I squeaked my eyes tightly shut and then opened them again.
This was real.
It was happening now.
My world was crumbling.
This was so much worse than I would ever have imagined it could be. Okay, so in high school Jasper was the successful athlete whom everyone loved, and I was nobody. But even then I had wanted to date him. A couple of times I had been hurt when he hadn’t noticed me in the hallway, when he had turned away as if he hadn’t even seen me.
Of course, come to find out years later that he had noticed me.
His apparent rejection had hurt a lot then; my high school mind had had trouble handling it.
Now we were actually dating.
We were together.
We were happy.
The truck drove out of the driveway.
I stood there watching until I couldn’t see the taillights in the darkness.
We weren’t happy anymore.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“He didn’t say anything else?” Charlie asked for the tenth time.
She was utterly baffled by the lack information. To someone who thought everything could be solved if the right question was just asked, this was mystifying.
I was on the couch with tissues and ice cream, which are breakup clichés for a reason. It reminded me of the time Charlie had come to my place and started crying on the couch, the start of the time when she moved to the farmhouse to live with Greer and me. But Andy had been a total jerk, which Jasper was not.
“Something definitely happened with his grandfather. I just wish we knew what,” said Greer, patting me on the back. The gesture was meant to be comforting, and I appreciated the intention, but I had gone out of reach of comfort.
“He must have said that Jasper wasn’t allowed to see you anymore,” Charlie suggested.
Sniffle. Snuffle. I blew my nose.
“He probably did. I just wonder what prompted him to do it now,” said Greer. “Lemmi has been a witch the whole time they’ve been dating, and Jasper hasn’t cared.”
“I don’t know, but we have to get to the bottom of it,” said Charlie. “He can’t just dump you like that.”
“He didn’t dump her,” Paws chimed in. He was sitting in the slightly open window as usual. We had a fire blazing to make the living room toasty warm on a cool, late summer evening.
“It sounded like he dumped her,” said Mr. Bone over Paws’ shoulder.
I only cried harder.
“He didn’t. He clearly didn’t want to be doing what he was doing. He slunk away like a dog all guilty about it and stuff,” said Paws, sounding disgusted.
“Who would act like a dog anyway?” Greer muttered.
“Definitely no self-respecting cat,” said Paws.
“Did he look upset?” Charlie asked the cat. Now that she’d found a witness who wasn’t crying, she could ask the proper questions.
“Sure, he was upset. Like I said, he didn’t want to be doing what he was doing. It was mighty strange, but something definitely happened. Probably something to do with Wendell attacking him the other night,” said Paws.
“He what?” said Mr. Bone, sounding shocked.
Just then there was yelling, and Mr. Bone turned to look. When I followed his gaze I saw ghosts racing past the window, but for a few breaths I couldn’t get up to watch where they were headed, so Charlie and Greer raced in that direction to do it for me.
“Oh, no!” Charlie cried. She spun around and looked at me. “We have to go.”
They both bolted for the door.
Unfortunately for them, I was not going with them. There was no way I was going to be able to stand up after what had happened with Jasper. After he left it had been all I could do to gather supplies and limp to the couch. I’d gotten the ice cream and tissues myself. Later when I’d wanted a glass of water, I had thought about performing spells to get it. Greer had offered instead.
Yes, I was being pathetic.
I’d be better tomorrow, I promised myself.
Tonight I just needed to wallow in my confusion. There was no way I understood losing a love that I had cherished so closely, and who I thought had cherished me. I hadn’t even understood how much it meant to me until he walked out.
“Don’t worry. You’ll move to anger soon,” said Paws.
I lifted my head from the pillow. “What are you talking about?” I said.
“He wal
ked out without an explanation, said he’d be back at some point, and seems to think you’ll wait for him to ruminate on whatever nonsense he’s ruminating on,” he said. “Foolish, don’t you think?”
“When you put it like that, you make it sound like he’s walking all over me,” I huffed.
“Right . . .” said Paws.
“It didn’t feel like that. It felt like he was hurt and confused,” I told him.
“Whatever!! I was only trying to annoy you enough to get you up off that couch. There’s clearly something going on outside. As the Witch of Mintwood, it is your sworn and solemn duty to be out there!” he said.
I peeled myself off the sofa and staggered to the window. Maybe I’d just take a peek outside to check on my friends. If they were fine I could go back to eating more ice cream. It had been nearly forty-five minutes since I’d had my last bowl. That had to be enough time, right?
I sighed and threw down my tissues. I couldn’t see them out the window; they must have gone around the other side of the house. Instead of feeling better, I felt a pit suddenly form in the bottom of my stomach. There was no way I should have left Greer and Charlie to go outside alone. The defenses hadn’t been properly installed on the property yet, there was still a séance to conduct, and Charlie and Greer had just seen something and run outside without any protection.
All feelings of melancholy over Jasper evaporated, vaporized by fear. My friends were in danger! I just knew it!
Suddenly I was all business, albeit sloppy business after the amount of crying I’d been doing.
“Was it something I said?” Paws asked.
I ignored his “humor” as I pulled on a sweater, dashed outside, and found that a light rain had started to fall. Coupled with how cold it was, the rain had me shivering immediately.
As soon as I was out on the porch I could see everyone again. Charlie and Greer were outlines against the darkening sky, with all the ghosts visible in the same general area, over near the trees.
In fact, it was much the same spot where I’d tried to form a protective magical barrier with Scarlett and Josephine.
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