by K. M. Waller
“Michelle’s of course.” She held out the doll. “She’s the next to go.”
I backed up two full steps, but my movement sent Missy into full alert.
“I really liked you but you can’t tell daddy.”
I held up my hands. “I won’t, I promise.” Easy to lie to a cold-blooded killer.
She tossed the doll to the ground and pulled a pair of scissors out of her pants pocket. Her weapon of choice obviously. “I’ll bury you beside Lucy so she’s not lonely.”
How had I thought I could reason with her? I scooted closer to a broken branch. Distract her instead. “Tell me about being a witch. How did you learn about the poppets and witchcraft?”
Her advancement steady, a crooked smile formed. “I met a fellow witch in the hospital in Tampa. She taught me all her ways.”
Apparently, mentors came in all shapes and sizes.
The vacations in Tampa and the medication she took, or crazy pills Michelle had called them, were only a couple of the major clues I’d missed.
When I was less than an arm’s length away from the branch I dove toward it, Missy close behind.
She bumped into me hard, but I’d swung the branch toward her hands at the same time. I needed to focus on disarming the stabby weapon first.
Missy grunted with the force of the blow but didn’t drop the scissors. She stumbled back a few steps, so I swung with full force again, this time hitting her right shoulder. The tree branch broke in half and she dropped the scissors in the dirt.
A guttural sound emitted deep from her throat as she launched at me, knocking us both to the ground, the remainder of the tree branch flying into the air. Her fists came in little bursts of fury at my face. My empath powers soaked up all her rage, confusion, and insanity. She would kill me if I didn’t get the upper hand.
With her fist, she made a solid connection against my cheek. I lifted my knee between us and placed it close to her midsection, giving it a hard kick. It was enough to put distance between us.
“Enough of this,” I said and prepared a fast spell, pulling from the cosmos and nature around me. “Stop this woman, stop her now, make a knot against her brow.”
I really stunk at coming up with spells under pressure. Lily Rose and I needed to work on that for the next assignment.
Her head jerked as if an invisible fist punched her forehead. She blinked hard two times before crumpling to the ground in a heap.
“I can’t believe that worked,” I said to the surrounding air.
I stared down at her for a few minutes making sure she didn’t move. All the clues locked into place one by one. The town busy body who nobody paid attention to could know everything and be everywhere with no one but her father raising a brow. I didn’t feel good knowing I’d caught Missy. She lived in a world of her own making. Don probably didn’t even know her name yet her infatuation with him motivated her to kill.
She needed psychological help. And prison. Many years in prison.
I needed physical help to carry her through the woods. I picked up the newest doll and Lucy’s doll to deliver as evidence. Even if Officer Mike had doubts when I tracked him down or if Missy woke up and tried to run once they found Lucy’s remains they’d be closer than they’d been without my help.
∞∞∞
I spent the next two hours debriefing Officer Mike on Missy’s confession and writing out a statement for the state detective. I’d led them to Missy, who’d stayed unconscious in the woods. Only Rebecca had been notified, and she’d welcomed me with an awkward half-hug in the parking lot when Officer Mike dropped me off.
I trudged into the front of the school, my body aching from the fist fight with Missy. I went straight to my room and crumpled into the bed. I pulled on the cassette player’s headphones to drown out Laura’s loud snores and blasted 80s heavy metal. I’d deal with the aftermath of solving the case in the morning.
And I’d figure out a way to say goodbye to my mom forever.
Chapter Fifteen
The next morning, I woke later than I’d planned. Laura had already vacated our room, and I grabbed my toothbrush and toothpaste to scrub away the awful taste in my mouth. Outside my room, Michelle milled about holding her cast against her body with her good hand.
The smell of bacon permeated the air and my stomach rumbled.
“I’ve been waiting for you to wake up. Rebecca said not to bother you.” She spoke at me but kept her eyes downcast. “The talk of what happened last night has already reached the school.”
I leaned against the wall. “Oh yeah. What talk is that?”
Had she come with more plans to blackmail me?
“Officer Mike called the front office and told Rebecca that Missy admitted to running me off the road. You took her down, and I’m grateful that I don’t have to worry she’ll come back for a second try.”
I flinched at the unsuspecting personality change from Michelle.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She turned to leave, but I reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. For the first time I could feel her emotions. Almost dying in a terrible car crash could do that to a person. “I have to ask. What did you think you knew about me that was worth three hundred dollars?”
She shrugged. “Everybody, totally, has secrets. You’re the only one who’s ever taken the bait and offered to pay. I should have known it was too easy of a payday.”
“That’s a sure-fire way to make enemies. Stop doing that before you cross paths with another Missy.” I kept my tone light and even. Her broken arm had been enough of a lesson without me sounding like an irritated schoolmarm.
The apathy surrounding her returned, and she brushed off my hand. “Anyway, I’m quitting the school. I hate teenagers. After breakfast I’m getting in my car and driving north.”
I sighed, the relief at her confession easing the guilt that I had to leave a group of girls in her care. “That’s a great idea.”
She moved toward the main dining area while I headed to the shared bathroom. I hurried so I could make it before breakfast shut down. Not because of my growling stomach but because I wanted to share one last meal in the same room as my mother. While technically I didn’t have to return to the present for another few days, there was no point in delaying the inevitable. I couldn’t confess to my mom who I was but I could occupy the same space as her one more time to memorize the way her eyes crinkled when she laughed.
I entered the dining room and Tonya waved at me from the serving line. It must have been her turn to prepare breakfast. I grabbed a Styrofoam plate and waved it at her. “You should tell Ms. Rebecca to switch to paper. Or better yet, invest in some real plates. It’s better for the environment.”
“Whatever.” She plopped runny eggs on my plate. “I wanted to tell you that Little Miss showed back up this morning. Ms. Rebecca said I can take her into town to her owner after breakfast.”
“Really, she showed up again?” Cats were known to travel miles for any number of reasons. I glanced around in search of Jennifer, only half listening to what Tonya had to say.
“Yeah, she came right to my window. I swear she knocked.”
I snapped my head around at the mention of the knock.
A gleam flashed in Tonya’s eyes. I recognized it to be happiness. She put several pieces of bacon on my plate. “I’m going to ask her owner if I can visit her from time to time.”
Lily Rose had first knocked on my window, and I’d thought it to be my imagination. It’d taken two or three weeks of little hints before she’d revealed herself as my familiar. I reached over and placed my hand on top of Tonya’s. The teen’s mixture of emotions hid beneath a layer of something recognizable. How had I not seen it when we’d first met in the grocery store bathroom?
A fellow witch. Or soon to be full-blown witch if the familiar was any true sign. Right in my midst. The signs had been there, but the distractions had been super massive on this assignment.
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Bee Bee, or Little Miss as I still liked to think of her, had been on a mission the day she’d followed me to the school. I bit my lip and thanked the stars I hadn’t outed myself as a time traveler unknowingly. Very smart not to reveal herself even when I used the scrying spell.
Tonya narrowed her eyes at me, and I removed my hand. “I think you should visit her often and let her in whenever she knocks on your window.”
I winked at her and left the serving line. Tonya would be one of the good ones. The world needed more good witches to balance out with the bad ones.
The distinct sound of my mom’s meanness pulled me toward the common room. My eyes watered and I blinked hard to keep the tears in check. How could I say goodbye without saying goodbye?
Instead of crowding her in the common room, I walked to the furthest spot away from her. I figured the girls weren’t allowed to bring their breakfast into that room but no one said anything to me.
She flickered a glance in my direction and leaned in to whisper to Frick and Frack. The three girls burst into a round of laughter, hers being the loudest. I closed my eyes and mentally absorbed the sound. It didn’t matter that they most likely made fun of my hair or the bruises on my face left from Missy.
For the next thirty minutes I focused on the sound of Jennifer’s voice until she and her friends left the room. I finished my breakfast in a hurry before my throat closed with sadness. Goodbye Mom.
I dumped my plate in the trash and headed for Rebecca’s office. I found her rifling through a stack of paperwork. She glanced up at me, concern taking over her expression. “What an awful experience for you last night. I never imagined that someone so ingrained in our community could do such a thing. Missy has probably cut all of our hair at some point in the last six months.”
And kept some of it for her poppet dolls, I wanted to add.
“I can’t stay,” I started, finding it harder to quit than I would have imagined two days before. “I hate to leave you on such short notice, but what happened last night has made it difficult to remain.”
Not a total lie.
“Good.” Her tone took on that professionalism I’d become used to. She patted the top of her stack of paperwork. “I can’t afford to pay you. It wouldn’t be right to keep you on working for free. Especially, with the abuse some of these girls can dish out.”
“The girls aren’t that bad, you know. They just need a little guidance.” I gave her a finger wave and backed out of the office. It’d be pointless to say more. Rebecca would do the best she could for the school until it closed down permanently.
I avoided saying goodbye to Laura. I could hear her sniffling as I passed by her closed office door. I had enough of a time keeping my emotions in check without absorbing her additional sadness.
Back in my room, I packed the Adidas bag and put only the items I’d come with inside. I put the dress back on and flung the Adidas bag over my shoulder. The files I’d taken from the office were sitting in the middle of Laura’s bed. She’d get them back to the right place.
The trek to town took about thirty minutes, but mostly because I drug my feet along the way. I had to wait outside the IGA Supermarket’s bathroom until the stall I’d arrived in became vacant. A few patrons threw glances in my direction but no one said anything about my loitering.
In the stall, I hugged the bag close and said the words,
“Agency hear me,
it’s time to go,
return me to all that I know.”
The time travel ride to the present met with the same mix of emotions as the ride to the past, except a little added nausea. The candle wicks surrounding me snuffed out one by one as if an invisible person blew on them. Exhausted, mentally and physically, I decided to wait and check out the updated file in the morning to confirm Missy didn’t escape the consequences of her murderous actions. I gathered all my witching materials and put them back in their place beneath the sink.
Before leaving the bathroom, I double-checked my hair in the mirror. No mullet. Thank the witch ancestors. I could still see the purple tinge of a bruise on my cheek. I’d have to come up with a lie for that.
Seth’s snores greeted me in the bedroom, and the comfort of the familiar reduced my anxiety by tenfold. I quietly changed into a pair of loose-fitting pajamas, wanting nothing more than to snuggle with my main man.
A soft tapping from the balcony sliding glass doors drew my attention. Speaking of familiar.
I unlocked the door and opened it just enough for Lily Rose to slide through in cat form. I’d learned long ago not to ask how she made it up to the second story.
She trotted past me toward the kitchen. I stopped by my closet to grab a robe and slippers. I shut the bedroom door behind me confident Seth’s deep slumber wouldn’t be interrupted as long as we didn’t start howling at the moon.
When I joined Lily Rose, she’d already changed to grumpy lady form and sat at the kitchen table, her hands folded together in front of her and resting on her stomach. A frown etched deep into her wrinkles.
“How did you know I was back?” She’d never shown up so close to my travel back from an assignment before.
“I’m your familiar. I know these things.” She tilted her head and pointed to the assignment box. “Did you solve the case?”
“I did.” I lifted the file folder from the box and flipped to the articles which would have been updated magically by the Agency. “It turned out to be a case of jealousy and mental illness. The murderer thought she was a witch.”
If Missy had real powers, she’d have been almost unstoppable. I flipped a few more pages and read that they had found her unfit to stand trial. She’d spend the rest of her life in the nearby facility for criminals with mental health issues. “Looks like Chuck might be one of her doctors when he works out of Tampa. Crazy how it’s all connected. Six degrees of separation.”
Lily Rose twisted her lips. “Hm. Crazy is one way of thinking of it.” She unfolded her hands to tap the top of the table. “Tell me about your biological parents. I assume you met them.”
I let the easy smile rest on my face. “My mom isn’t a paranormal at all, but she’s as mean as the meanest witch could be. I think if she’d been given a chance to grow up after having me, she’d have turned out okay though. Daddy dearest is still mostly a mystery, but it’s my witchy grandmother that was the biggest surprise. I can tell she hates being a witch and tries to live a normal life.”
“Are you going to look up your grandmother and father in the present now that you know who they are?”
I ran my fingers through my hair letting the question sit between us for a few seconds. “I don’t think so. I saw girls who were growing up in the system that didn’t have what I have with Momma Carla and Chuck. I’m lucky.” And I needed to appreciate my adoptive family more. I shivered at the thought of growing up with Grams. “Things turn out like they’re meant to be. Isn’t that what you always say?”
She nodded and folded her hands again, leaning forward to rest her elbows on the table. Something was on her mind but I couldn’t be sure what. If there was one thing I knew about Lily Rose, it was to let her come to it in her own time.
“What lessons did you learn from this assignment?” she asked. I could tell from the tightness in her voice the question made her uncomfortable.
“Parents will do anything to protect their kids. The police chief sabotaged a crime scene because he suspected it involved his daughter. Grams wanted to protect my dad from the local reform school but she didn’t succeed in that either.” I put the file back in the box and closed it, a little ruffled by her question. She rarely quizzed me when I returned from an assignment. That’s what the Agency debriefings were for. “The biggest lesson was that I can still solve a case while dealing with major distractions.”
A half-smile formed on her lips. “That’s good. That’s what I wanted to hear.” She leaned back again and withdrew a paper bag from her pocket.
“If that’s a cig
ar you are not lighting up in here. I’ve had enough smoke in my face to last me a decade. Practically everyone in the 80s lit up.”
She dumped the contents of the bag onto the table.
I stared at the white box for a what I imagined to be a full thirty seconds before the image connected with my brain and I formed coherent thoughts. “A pregnancy test? You’re joking.”
Panic in the form of a prickly sensation tore through me from my toes up to my forehead.
“You can’t tell me you haven’t noticed the little signs. You’re a little slower than usual, more tired, the weight gain…”
“I am not gaining weight,” I screeched louder than intended as if that were the defining factor in determining if what she proposed could be true. “How would you know before me?”
She shrugged. “I’m your familiar. I know things.”
I picked up the box. The extra nausea, Jennifer beating me in the race, the distraction and emotional upheaval I blamed on being around the teens. Could it all mean this? I pulled the box to my chest. A mom? Me?
A deep clearing of a throat pulled me out of my thoughts. Seth joined us in the kitchen, the look of sleepy confusion still on his face. His gaze bounced between Lily Rose and me, and then finally settled on the box in my hands.
Oh snap.
***
Hey reader! Looks like Nuala will be welcoming a little bundle of joy into the world. Watch out for Nuala’s next Witch in Time Mystery coming in 2019.
By the way, do you like mystery games? Turn the page for your fifth and final clue for the Witch in Time Mystery Scavenger Hunt…
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