Right Witch Wrong Time

by K. M. Waller

  “Don’t worry. You look great.” She regarded my slicked down mullet. “Of course, I wouldn’t have gone with that style for your face, but Penny got to you first.”

  She swung her arms high and then down to the floor in a windmill stretch.

  “That’s right.” I crossed my arms across my chest to stretch out the triceps muscle. “You were styling someone else’s hair.”

  “Mrs. Ruiz.” Missy’s expression dimmed. “She makes a point of seeing me every month even though I’ve tried to pawn her off on Penny more than once.”

  She sat down on the floor to stretch her legs.

  I joined her. “What is with her and her husband? She has to know he’s seeing other women in town.”

  The surrounding atmosphere shifted, and I picked up a quick change in Missy’s emotions.

  “Wow. You’ve only been here two days and you know as much as I do.”

  “I’ve heard rumors out at the school. Someone has seen him with Michelle and the former headmistress Sarah too.”

  She tilted her neck from side to side. “I didn’t know about Michelle. He’s a notorious flirt, but he always goes home to the queen bee.”

  “I heard Mrs. Ruiz and Sarah had an argument about it. Perhaps he was more serious about her than any of his other flings.”

  She leaned toward me and put a hand on my knee. “I’d stay away from both of them if I were you. Trust me when I say it’s not worth the trouble.”

  Her emotions shot through me as she squeezed to accentuate her warning. Anger. About Grams?

  Penny trotted in through the double doors. “Sorry I’m late. I had to travel into the city to pick up a new pair of feathering scissors. Irks my rear end they’ve gone missing. Professional scissors aren’t cheap.”

  Missy clapped her hands. “Let’s get started.” She dragged a silver boom box into the middle of the floor and pressed play. Pat Benatar’s Hit Me with your Best Shot thumped into the room and Missy led us in a pelvic thrust to the left and right. I bit my lips hard not to laugh, glad that smart phones and their recording devices wouldn’t be invented for years to come.

  We exercised for thirty minutes and I sighed in relief when Missy led us in a cool down. The sprinting and push-ups earlier had worn me down. No doubt the stress of the case had put an additional strain on my body.

  Missy bounced over to me after she dismissed her class. She used a towel to pat the sweat off her brow. “You did great.”

  I wiped my forehead against my sleeve. “Thanks.”

  “We’re going to grab some drinks at the local bar if you want to join us.”

  “I’m not much of a drinker.”

  “Me either. I take a med that doesn’t interact well with alcohol. But it’s a chance to hang with the girls. You can have a soda with me.”

  I needed to kill time before sneaking back to Grams’ shed. “Okay, sounds good. But shouldn’t we change first?”

  “Nah. The guys love us in the tight stuff.” Missy grabbed her bag. “It’s a short walk from here so we can leave the cars.”

  Penny joined us and we walked a few blocks over to a hole in the wall bar and grill named Gary’s Place.

  Penny pulled a tube of red lipstick from between her breasts. “Gary is a friend of mine so if you change your mind about drinks, they’ll be half off.”

  “That’s totally cool.” I wouldn’t change my mind. Witches working a case had enough distractions without adding alcohol to the mix.

  As soon as we walked through the door, a haze of smoke smacked us in the face. I’d need a lung detox after I got back to my time. Loud music blared from a jukebox. With the amount of static and crackle, I guessed at least one speaker had blown. The patrons didn’t seem to care as they swayed or danced along, anyway.

  “Hey, ladies!” a man called out from the other side of the room.

  Missy waved madly in his direction but Penny caught her arm and pulled it down. “Don’t.”

  “I’m just being friendly.”

  I craned my neck to see past a row of men sitting at the bar. “Who are we waving at?”

  Penny rolled her eyes. “Don Ruiz. Maybe if we don’t acknowledge him, then he won’t come over to our table.”

  “You don’t like him?” I shouted the question over the music.

  “There’s trouble and then there’s Don Ruiz.” She fluffed her hair. “Trust me when I say he isn’t worth the trouble he causes.”

  We secured a table and Missy bounced off to buy our sodas.

  I leaned in close. “I heard at the school that Don Ruiz was sleeping with a teacher and the headmistress. That had to make his wife mad.”

  Penny scoffed. “As long as he brings home the big paychecks, I’m not sure Mrs. Ruiz cares where he gets his kicks.”

  “Someone said the headmistress and Mrs. Ruiz were fighting the night she died.”

  Penny sat back in her chair, her gaze full of suspicion. “You sure do love some gossip.”

  Missy appeared with our drinks. “I love gossip too. Who are we talking about?”

  I sipped my soda to give me a moment to think up something better than the Ruiz family.

  Penny’s mouth twisted into a small smile, mischief gleaming in her eyes. “I think our new friend Netty is enamored with our Mr. Don Ruiz.”

  Missy’s eyes widened. “What?”

  “No.” I held up my hands to ward off the accusation. “That’s not true.”

  “He offered you a ride this morning.” Penny tilted her drink toward me and took a long sip.

  “It was nothing but a ride.” I needed a change of subject.

  Penny burst out laughing. “Chill out. I’m just messing with you.”

  Missy let out a high-pitched giggle but eyed me as if it hadn’t been a joke. “Funny.”

  I glanced around and noticed Michelle on a bar stool. I turned to hide my face, but she’d caught a glimpse of me. She pulled cash out of her pocket and slapped it on the bar, then made her way to our table.

  “You’ve had my car all day. I should have reported it stolen to the police.”

  I shrugged. “Errands.”

  She held out her hand. “Give me the keys now.”

  “What’s your issue?” Missy asked. “Take a chill pill.”

  Michelle narrowed her eyes. “I’m not the one taking crazy pills, am I?”

  Missy gasped, and Penny stood up, fire in her eyes.

  The last thing the dingy bar needed was a cat fight. I dug the car keys out of my pocket and handed them to Michelle. “There. Sorry.”

  “You will be.” She jingled the keys at us and then stomped to the exit.

  “Such a mean-spirited lowlife. Like the girls at the school too.” Missy picked up her bag. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m beat. Let’s call it, okay?”

  “That’s cool,” I said.

  Penny nodded in agreement and we parted at the door. I didn’t ask either of them for a ride, opting to walk since I needed to check out Grams’ shed before heading back to the school. They walked toward the church and I pretended to walk in the school’s direction until they were no longer in sight.

  I glanced at the sun setting behind the oak trees in the distance. By the time I hiked back to Grams’ subdivision, I’d have the cover of darkness to cloak my snooping. And with the cover of night it’d be easier to use magic without getting caught.

  A brisk twenty-minute walk and I’d made it back to Heather Mist.

  The Ford Pinto was missing from the circle drive, and I knew for a fact Don was at the bar flirting with anything in a skirt. That left Grams to watch out for if Hector hadn’t made it back from delivering Little Miss yet. At least they didn’t have a dog or a fence. Two wins.

  I stuck to the shadows and crept through the freshly mowed grass to the back of the house. A slight chill in the air raised goosebumps on my arms. I glanced in a window but no lights were on.

  I continued on to the shed and found my first obstacle. A black padlock secured the door.
I ran a hand over the outline of the protection carving. Would it keep me out or was it intended for a specific person?

  I checked my surroundings once more. I held onto the lock and murmured a quick spell. “Tick, tock, no time for locks, open I say, so I can be gone before day.”

  With a click, the locking mechanism unlatched. I pulled it off the door and opened it enough to peek in. Hard to see with no light and I hadn’t brought a flashlight. I was used to using my cell phone. A strike against me for not being prepared.

  I left the door ajar and waited for my eyes to adjust. The moonlight provided just enough light to make out objects like a table, chair, candles. I felt around on the table and my hand brushed a book of matches. Lucky. I struck the match and lit a candle.

  Mother of witches.

  “It’s not what you think.”

  I swung around, fighting stance ready. Not a kickboxer by any means, but I could punch and kick my way out if strongly motivated.

  Grams stood at the door of the shed.

  I gestured behind me. “It’s exactly what I think.”

  “Who sent you here? You have all the markings of an undercover cop.”

  “What agency I work for is not your concern.” While I couldn’t break the rule of specifically telling my role as a time-traveling, crime-solving witch, I could use agency affiliation to stop from being stabbed. “Your concern is the dolls and hair and scissors sitting behind me on the table.”

  The feathering scissors—most likely the ones stolen from Penny’s station—were stuck in a doll exactly like the one I’d found at the ritual site, complete with the black hair wrapped around the neck. Dried blood stuck to the handles. I held my stance. I could take Grams.

  “That was left on my front porch yesterday morning.”

  “Why should I believe you?”

  “It’s true.”

  “What’s with the protection rune carved in the door?”

  She crossed her arms and moved into the shed with me. She reached up and pulled a string that turned on a light bulb hanging from the ceiling. “It’s not the first time I’ve received a threat. How do you know about rune carvings?”

  I relaxed my stance but kept her at arm’s length. “I’m well-versed in the occult. It’s my specialty.”

  “Last time it was a chunk of very light reddish hair.”

  “Why do you think these items are being used as threats?” They sounded more like trophies. How would someone go about getting chunks of hair from different women? Duh. The salon.

  “I’m not sure.” She settled onto a stool in front of the table. “It all started about six months ago. Weird little dead things left on the front steps. Then the hair. Then the doll.”

  “Why haven’t you told anyone?”

  “Who is there to tell? The police will think I’m crazy.”

  “Or a witch?”

  “I don’t like that word.” She sighed and placed her face in her hands for a moment. “I gave up my coven ways after Hector was born. The witch powers skip the males in our line, so in order to give him normalcy, I moved out here.”

  No powers for males in the bloodline. Good to know. Not that I had any plans for kids.

  She tilted her head and confusion glinted in her eyes. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this. You’ll think I’m crazy too.”

  “No. I don’t.” Ugh, I didn’t want to change my mind about Grams just yet. “So you didn’t set up the ritual at Sarah’s death site?”

  “No. I wouldn’t dare expose myself to this community.”

  “What were you and Sarah arguing about the night she died?”

  “I told her to stop letting Hector sneak in to see that girl.”

  “Jennifer.” I repeated her name but didn’t tell Grams she had no right to treat my mother as if she were mud on her shoes.

  I refocused my thoughts on the investigation. “Where was Don?”

  “At the bar getting his tires slashed.”

  Good. “Would you know if any other practicing witches were in the area?”

  She glanced up at me, her composure and cold stare back in place. “It’s not like we have five-pointed stars tattooed on our foreheads.”

  Touché. “But you do sell those necklaces in the salon.” The ones my mom and her friends wore.

  She shrugged a dainty shoulder. “They’re popular with the teenagers.”

  I pointed to the poppet. “Does this type of witchcraft mean anything to you?”

  “A doll and hair? This is child’s play.”

  “You should have taken the scissors to the police chief.” And now I’d have to find a way to anonymously get it to him. Better yet, I’d get it to Officer Mike and have him deliver to the state police instead.

  “I’m taking the doll and scissors.” I pointed to the plastic baggie with red hair. “Any idea who that hair belongs to?”

  “No. Please take it all as long as you don’t mention my name.”

  “Can you get another plastic baggie?”

  “Anything else?”

  “Yeah, I need a ride back to the school.”

  She pursed her lips and for a second I thought she’d say no. “Meet me out front. Hector returned with the car just after I noticed you skulking toward the shed.”

  I don’t skulk. “Would the rune symbol have worked?”

  “Yes, if you’d been here to harm me, the symbol wouldn’t have allowed you into our yard.”

  I waited for her to return with the plastic bag and then followed her to the front of the house. We climbed into the Ford Pinto. From the set of her jaw, I could tell she didn’t want to have a conversation with me. Fine. I knew all I needed to know about my grandmother. Too bad she’d never get to know the real me.

  On the outskirts of town flashing lights caught our attention. When she slowed, I could see a familiar car that had run off the highway and into a tree. A county ambulance and the Heckle patrol car lined the side of the road. Officer Mike waved us past.

  “Pull over,” I said. “I’ll catch a ride with Officer Mike when he’s done.”

  “Goodbye,” she said.

  The finality of it sank like a rock into the pit of my stomach.

  I didn’t respond and focused on the scene in front of me.

  The crumpled car smoked, and a firetruck roared its way to a stop behind the ambulance.

  Michelle sat on the back bumper of the ambulance, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and gauze held up to her bloody nose.

  I walked over and sat beside her. “What happened? Are you okay?”

  “Some crazy tried to run me off the road.”

  “Who?”

  “I don’t know. They had their bright lights on.” She pulled the gauze away and sniffed. “Headlights followed me pretty closely out of town but then they turned them on high and tried to swerve into me. It was crazy, man.”

  She’d been a target. “Blackmail anyone else lately?”

  “Just you,” she said with a matter-of-fact tone.

  “Where did you go after the bar?”

  “I stood in the parking lot for a few minutes and talked to Don. Then I came this way.” She scrunched her nose.

  Don Ruiz. The cheater. All bumpy roads led back to that man. He messed with every woman within a ten mile radius and didn’t think twice about the consequences.

  I patted the chunk of hair in my pocket as the possible owner hit me like an electric shock. A sickness rolled my gut into a wave of nausea. If my hunch was right, it belonged to a victim no one knew about. The girl everyone had assumed had run away.

  ∞∞∞

  Long after the ambulance escorted Michelle to the emergency room and the tow truck picked up her broken Honda, Officer Mike dropped me off at the school’s entrance.

  He shifted in the seat until his upper body faced me. “That was nice of you to stay at the scene. Rebecca is going to meet Michelle at the emergency room.”

  My expression must have conveyed the concern at being two adults sh
ort at the school.

  He smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll be outside all night.”

  “Do you think this is somehow related to Sarah’s death?” I sure did, but I wanted his take on it too.

  The smile fell. “If Michelle hadn’t been wearing her seatbelt, the tree would have killed her. In the police academy they taught us there is no such thing as a coincidence.”

  They’d taught us about coincidences at the agency too. “Be safe out here.”

  Laura waited for me by the front door. “How awful for Michelle.”

  “She’s lucky it wasn’t worse.” Jennifer’s two mean-girl friends sat in the chairs near Rebecca’s office. “Is everyone okay out here?”

  “Jennifer escaped out the window again. We’re waiting on her here.”

  My anxiety spiked a notch before I remembered that I knew the future outcome of Jennifer’s life. The murderer wouldn’t harm her. It wasn’t her time yet. “There’s no point in waiting by the door. I’m sure she’ll come in the window.”

  Laura lifted one shoulder. “I’ve locked it so she has to come this way. I won’t be able to sleep until Rebecca returns, anyway.” She turned to the girls. “You two go to bed. You still have classes tomorrow.”

  I needed a few minutes alone to work another scrying spell for the hair. I’d been so internally focused on meeting my family that I’d forgotten to keep my mind tree updated. Instead of being a branch, I’d put Don Ruiz as the entire tree trunk. And with the amount of lovers he racked up, the murderer could be a scorned lover he’d moved on from. Someone with a deep obsession.

  I walked down the quiet halls to my room and locked the door behind me. I retrieved the file on the runaway—Lucy—and flipped through hoping once again to find a picture. There wasn’t one. The case file in the present had a picture of all the girls but that was probably now in the state’s possession. I glanced over to Laura’s side of the room. Being the emotional, nostalgic type, I bet she had a copy of the picture in her things.

  I sifted through her side table and came up with a Kodak envelope. Bingo. Inside I found the group pictures of the girls. A redhead smiled mischievously at the camera and when I flipped the picture over and skimmed the names, hers matched the one on the folder.

  I put everything back the way I’d found it. If Laura caught Jennifer sneaking back in within the next few minutes, I’d lose my opportunity to scry.