Son of a Witch

by K. J. Emrick

  When he came down he landed on all four hooves, a horse once again. He pranced around in a circle, his tail swishing, stopping long enough to stare at the two of them with one round, black eye.

  Then he turned again, flicking his hooves up in the air and flinging clods of dirt that rained down on the hood of the Jeep. He was laughing at them, snorting and whinnying, as he disappeared around the corner of the house once more.

  “That was different,” Willow said sarcastically. “I don’t think it helped us much, either.”

  Addie watched Cavallo’s tail flick one last time. “Maybe,” she said. “Maybe not.”

  There was no answer when they knocked on Eleanor Griggs’ door. Her house was small, and relatively new. She was renting it, still relatively new to town herself, and reading between the lines Addie had figured out that she was only here at all because she was trying for the town manager’s position. If she won, she probably would look for somewhere more permanent to live. If she lost, well, it was a lot easier to leave a house you were renting than one that you had purchased with a ten year, fixed rate mortgage.

  “Where would she be?” Willow wondered out loud. She cupped her hands over her eyes and peered closely into the windows. “It’s not like she knows a lot of people here. Plus, if people like Herman Bledsoe are going around town accusing her of being the killer, then she should be right here, holed up under her covers where it’s safer. That’s where I would be.”

  “No, it isn’t.” Addie knew her sister better than that. “You’d be out on the street corner daring anyone to call you a killer to your face.”

  “Well, sure,” Willow agreed, “but that’s me. Eleanor Griggs is more of a girly girl, from what I know about her.”

  Addie knew that was true. Eleanor could have left town altogether for a few days to let things settle, for that matter. Maybe up to Birch Hollow, maybe down to Bellewood in the south. Maybe even further away than that. It wasn’t like she had any roots here.

  Until they found her, there wouldn’t be any questioning her about her motives.

  “Why aren’t we looking into Seth’s finances?” Willow asked, leaning over the railing on the steps to peer into another window. “It sounds like Seth might not have been the guy next door, folksy do-gooder everyone thought he was. If he was taking bribe money from Cavallo then his bank accounts would show it.”

  Addie agreed. “Yes, it would. However, that’s more of a police thing than a witch thing. I can’t make his bank accounts magically appear. That takes a warrant.”

  “Or the right spell cast on the right bank teller.” Willow put her finger to her lips dramatically. “I once cast a spell with a kiss on this guy doing security for a concert and he let me in backstage. I got to meet Portugal the Man that night. You know he’s shorter in person?”

  Addie rolled her eyes. Willow wasn’t wrong. At least, not the part about following Seth’s finances. The rest of it was questionable at best. Still, she would have to ask Lucian for help on that and she wasn’t even sure if Lucian was speaking to her anymore. There still hadn’t been so much as a text from him.

  Problems for another time, she reminded herself. She knocked again, and then cast out through the house with her Essence, looking for signs of life. “Nobody’s in there,” she told Willow.

  Her sister turned on her heel, already down the front steps. “Good. Then we can go back to Stonecrest and check in on Kiera and that hottie-hot son of hers. Then I can get back to Gary. The poor boy is probably missing me after being alone all day… what?”

  Addie hadn’t moved. She was still up by the door, chewing thoughtfully on the inside of her cheek. “You don’t suppose, do you? I mean, there’s no one in there alive, but you don’t suppose, do you?”

  Willow walked back up the steps slowly. “You mean, could Eleanor be in there and be dead? It wouldn’t be the first time.” She laughed bitterly. “By the Morrigan, it wouldn’t even be the first time this week.”

  This time, when Addie felt around the interior of the house, she was searching for any sense of death.

  What she felt was the sensation of swallowing chlorine.

  Addie gasped. That was what a drowning death felt like.

  She took in a deep breath as the feeling washed over her. She held the sensation of it in her mind for a moment, trying to understand why it felt different than usual. It was hard to explain. What she was feeling was small. So very small, like maybe the death was old and the feeling had faded. It kept slipping through her fingers whenever she tried to get ahold of it.

  That didn’t make any sense.

  “I feel it too,” Willow said. “We have another death on our hands. Should we break the door down?”

  “We could do that.” Addie put her hand, palm first, against the door just above the handle. With a loud click, the lock slid, and the door fell open. “Or, we could just open it up.”

  “Spoilsport,” Willow mocked.

  “Maybe I just don’t want to end up explaining a broken door to the police.”

  “You don’t want Lucian to come arrest you?” Willow poked her head through the open door, but Addie saw the mischievous grin she tried to hide. “Handcuffs can be fun. At least, that’s what I hear.”

  “Not my thing, Willow.”

  “At least he’d be paying some attention to you then.”

  “That’s enough of that, thank you.”

  Willow let her smile drop. “Is it that bad between you two?”

  “I don’t know,” Addie answered honestly. She led them into the house, following the scent of death as they went. “Lucian was mad. Madder than I’ve ever seen him. There’s been no call from him today, and I know it shouldn’t worry me with everything that’s going on, but it does. So, please. Can we just drop it?”

  “Sure, sis. Hey, I didn’t mean anything. You know me. I like to poke fun but that’s all it is.”

  “I know. Just, let it go.” She held up her hand, pointing toward a room on their left. “I feel it from in there.”

  They moved slowly and deliberately, both of them with magic ready at their fingertips, unsure what they would find inside.

  It was a small living room, big enough for the sofa and the television stand and a department store bookcase. On the bookcase was a fishbowl.

  Inside the bowl, the water had turned brackish. On top of the water, floating upside down, was a goldfish.

  Willow laughed out loud. “Good to know our magic is always so reliable.”

  Addie actually wanted to laugh in relief. “Well, I did sense a death by drowning.” She leaned in closer to the fishbowl, looking into the milky eyes of the fish. Well, this explained why the scent of death was so small. Death by drowning. Ha, ha. Somewhere, the universe was laughing at both of them. “Come on. We should go.”

  “Back to Stonecrest?” Willow suggested.

  “I don’t see any other choice. We’ve spoken to all of our suspects. I mean, the logical ones. We could start going door to door around Shadow Lake, I suppose, and ask everyone if they murdered Seth Hunter.”

  “Yeah. No thank you. Home sounds good to me.”

  “Poor fish, though. Hopefully Eleanor Griggs takes better care of our town than she does her pets.”

  The sound of someone clearing their throat caught them by surprise. When they turned, they found Eleanor Griggs standing there, watching them.

  “The fish,” she said to them, “was a gift from an ex-boyfriend who I can’t stand. Now will you please tell me what you’re doing in my house?”

  Addie hesitated, trying to find the right line between truth and lie.

  Willow was quicker. “The door was open.”

  There it was. For them, the door had been open. It was the truth inside the lie.

  Eleanor scratched at her cheek. Her eyes scrunched up behind her glasses. “I was sure I locked my door. Oh well. Were you two looking for me? Is this about Seth’s death?”

  “Yes, it is.” Addie moved away from the bookcase and
the fish bowl. For some reason it was making her nervous. “Were you expecting us to come and talk to you?”

  “I’d be a fool not to. I still don’t understand how you Kilorian sisters fit into the hierarchy here in Shadow Lake, but I know you’re at the top of it, somehow. So yes, I was expecting you. The only other candidate in a small-town election dies? I’m sure that made me the primary suspect. I had the most to gain, after all. But, I spoke with the police last night. I told them everything I know. That nice detective… what was his name? Oh, yes. Knight. Lucian Knight.”

  “Yes,” Addie said, keeping her voice neutral. “I know him. So if the police didn’t arrest you I’m guessing you didn’t confess to killing Seth.”

  Eleanor’s laugh was musical, and her blonde curls bounced as she shook her head. “Of course not. Why would I do that? Listen, I know I’m new to this town and no one really knows me, but what kind of monster would I be if I killed a man just to be the town manager of Shadow Lake?”

  “Stranger things have happened,” Willow pointed out.

  “And,” Addie said, “you did kill this fish.”

  “Yeah, sure, I suppose.” Eleanor seemed unconvinced. “Look. I showed up at the town hall around five o’clock yesterday. Before that, I was on a two hour conference call with the board of selectmen. I was trying to get them to throw me their support in the election. I laid out my plan for the town for them and they seemed very receptive. I want to bring in more tourism so that the tax rate can go down for the residents, and there’s a few other little things I want to try. They’ll vouch for me that I was way too busy trying to win them over to be killing anyone.”

  “All of the selectmen?” Addie asked.

  “Well, most of them. All of them except that Mac McDougal, and Maria Stiles. But they were at the town hall setting things up. I told all this to the police last night. I’m assuming they’ve checked on my alibi already but feel free to check again.”

  Addie was almost disappointed. That would give Eleanor a solid alibi, for sure, because she couldn’t have been in Seth’s house and on her phone with the selectmen at the same time. Someone would have noticed Seth talking in the background if she had.

  There was one other thing Addie noted from Eleanor’s alibi. Maria was certainly at the town hall setting up just like Eleanor thought, but Mac hadn’t been there. He didn’t get there until after Seth had died.

  That led right back to the question that Mac had refused to answer. Where was he before the debate?

  Willow crossed her arms and regarded Eleanor with a raised eyebrow. “Tell us something. You don’t seem at all surprised that we might think Seth was murdered. It’s like you knew he didn’t die of a heart attack or other natural causes. Why is that?”

  Eleanor sat down casually on her sofa. “I consider myself to be a pretty smart woman, that’s why. Shadow Lake will really benefit from having me as a manager.” She waited for them to say something to that. When they didn’t, she shrugged. “Although, it doesn’t take a genius to figure this one out. The police are asking questions, and there’s rumors flying around this town like leaves in a windstorm. Seth was definitely murdered. Now, I was with him just before the debate started in that little backroom at the town hall. He was all sweaty and agitated, and the way he keeled over on stage… I’m guessing he was poisoned?”

  Well. Addie had to hand it to Eleanor. She might just be as smart as she thought she was. Then again, she did let her goldfish die.

  “Nobody’s perfect,” Eleanor said, seeing Addie looking at the stagnant fishbowl.

  Addie nodded, knowing how true that was. “No one’s going to put you in jail for killing a fish.”

  “No one’s going to put me in jail for killing Seth Hunter, either,” Eleanor countered. “Because I didn’t do it. Look, like I said. I was on that phone call before the debate, and a dozen or more people saw me when I arrived at the town hall, too. Oh. And that secretary of Maria Stiles’ was part of the phone call as well. What was her name?”

  “Irma. Her name is Irma.” Addie still wasn’t happy about what had happened there. “She was fired today, apparently. I don’t suppose that was a result of your suggestions, was it? Maybe one of the things you want to do as town manager is save money by firing people?”

  “I’m not trying to make anyone lose their job, thank you. But if I was, then yes, I would fire this Irma woman. From what I understand she was the whole reason why the debate started late. We had to wait for her to bring the cards with the candidate questions. Who knows? If she’d brought them on time then maybe we would have been on stage sooner, and someone would have noticed there was something wrong with Seth, and we could have gotten him to a hospital.”

  Willow tilted her head to one side. “Didn’t you just say that you saw Seth sweating and acting oddly before the debate? Seems to me that you could have said something yourself.”

  Eleanor’s face turned red. She shot up to her feet. “I think it’s time for you to leave. Get out. I had nothing to do with this murder. Why don’t you talk to Mac McDougal, hmm? He was arguing with Seth just a few days ago. I saw them in Seth’s office, and they were shouting at each other. Go bother him. Just leave me alone.”

  They had obviously overstayed their welcome, so Addie and Willow left by the front door, closing it firmly behind them as they stepped out into the early afternoon sunlight.

  “Well,” Willow said once they were in the Jeep again. “I guess we can cross Eleanor off our list of suspects. She has a pretty decent alibi with that phone call. That was all kind of a bust, wasn’t it?”

  “Not completely.” Addie was behind the wheel, but she didn’t start the engine right away. “Eleanor did manage to point suspicion pretty firmly at Mac McDougal. What do you suppose his argument with Seth was about?”

  “No idea. From what we’ve found out about Seth so far, it could be almost anything. Maybe Mac knew Seth had been taking bribes.”

  “Maybe.”

  Willow watched her sister for a moment. “Oh, no. I know that face. You want to go talk to Mac again, don’t you? Come on, Addie. He isn’t going to say anything else and the way he just shrugged off our spell is still kind of freaking me out. We shouldn’t go back there without all three of the sisters together. Besides, Kiera’s waiting for us and right now she needs our support as much as the town does.”

  Addie had already made up her mind. “Okay. I tell you what. Here’s my keys. You go back to Stonecrest and be there for Kiera. I’m going to talk to Mac one more time.”

  “By yourself? Addie I don’t know if that’s smart. Besides, how are you going to get home?”

  “I’ll be fine. It’s not that far from here back to Stonecrest. It’s a pretty nice day out for a walk, don’t you think?”

  Willow chuckled. “I think you’re crazy. That’s what I think. Fine. I’ll see you at home later. Just be careful, okay?”

  “If he tries anything, I’ll scream.”

  “Ha!” Willow scoffed. “If he tries anything, turn him into a newt.”

  Chapter 10

  This time she didn’t go right up to the door and knock.

  Walking around to the side of Mac McDougal’s house, Addie went from one window to the next, trying to see inside. The blinds were drawn on each.

  Trying to act casual while peeking in windows wasn’t easy. Addie kept looking around at the nearby houses, hoping no one was looking back. Around the next corner, she was at the back of the house. There were two windows back here. The first one was blocked by curtains. At the bottom of the next one was a two inch gap between the windowsill, and a set of blinds.

  Peeking inside, she saw Mac McDougal.

  He was standing in the bathroom, in front of the mirror with his shirt off, his lumpy body bare to the waist.

  His hands moved over his side, spreading a cream of some kind around his skin. Addie watched, transfixed, as the minutes passed. There were scars on Mac’s skin, and bulges where there shouldn’t be bulges. This wasn’
t any disease. This was something else. An accident, maybe, or a birth defect.

  But what was he doing?

  His bulky hands reached for the shirt he had discarded over the side of the sink, putting it on one arm at a time. Then he stepped back from the mirror, and out of Addie’s line of sight.

  She bent down lower, trying to get a better angle, but Mac was—

  Right there at the window looking back at her.

  His face had just appeared there, his eyes blinking slowly from left to right. His eyebrows bunched down, and time stretched as they stared at each other.

  Then he blew out a breath from his nostrils like a brahma bull. “Guess you might as well come in, Addie. No sense peaking in my windows. I’ll meet you around front.”

  She nodded, wishing she had the Hellebore prepared for that invisibility spell she wanted to try. Now would be the perfect time for it. There had been rumors of a witch once in Portsmouth, Virginia, who had been able to wink herself out of sight. Literally. She would blink, and she would disappear.

  Too bad she didn’t know a spell like that.

  Mac had the front door open for her when she got there. His shirt was buttoned up, but untucked from his waist. His face was a little more inscrutable than usual. Addie was on her guard, but she didn’t sense any kind of danger from him. Still, she had a few spells at the ready. Banishment wouldn’t do, considering she was standing in his own house, but she could always Snare him. The Snare spell would freeze him in place like a living statue. The aftereffects were the same as a hangover, but nothing permanent.

  By the time they got to the living room with its oversized furniture it was obvious to Addie that she didn’t have anything to worry about. He’d had plenty of opportunity to attack her, or to call the police, and he hadn’t done either. Still, she didn’t sit down when he gestured to the couch. He didn’t sit down either.

  “Well,” he said, breathing like a tornado. “Here, we are.”

  “I wasn’t trying to snoop,” she started to say defensively.