Moonshine and Manslaughter

by Ellie Moses

  Mr. Covey lit out of there so fast I thought he might leave his wife behind in his agitation. Ray flew out the door after him and I wanted to join him but Granny held me back. “Girl, that fellow there ain’t one to chase off after into the night. He wants them arrowheads of yours because they’re packed with your magic. How’d that happen?”

  My brain hurt to think of what Granny meant. “I’ve collected them all my life, you know that. You’re the one always telling me to be careful what I pick up.”

  Granny grabbed my hands and stared into my eyes, her brow furrowed with deep worry lines. “Where’s that sliver of summoning stone, child? Are you carrying it with you?”

  Ray returned, his frustration palpable at losing Mr. Covey when the man jumped in his car and peeled off down Main Street. “What happened Jolene? Why’d he offer you a king’s ransom for something anyone can pick up in the woods?”

  Granny Mack shook her head and looked from me to Ray and back again. “That stone you found at the still site after the murder enhances your powers. Mother Earth is allowing your power to push into her realm easier than a hot knife through butter. Not a lot of witches can do that.”

  Well, that explained a lot.

  Deputy Carter had joined us shortly after Mr. Covey lit out and now he stood silently with his thumbs in his belt loops. “Those two are up to something, but I can’t say it’s criminal, Jolene. All I can do is set up a speed trap on the road out of town to slow them down.”

  “They won’t leave without the rest of these arrowheads,” I said, sure in my soul I was right.

  Granny Mack took hold of my shoulders. “This is no game to them. I hadn’t counted him for a shifter, and a mean one at that.”

  Ray shimmered beside me. “I’m going to stick with them till they leave town. If I get up above the trees, I can pick up the trail.”

  He gave me a spectral kiss on the cheek and disappeared through the roof of Value Vintage. Delilah was beside me, her long painter tail thumping against my legs as she settled down.

  I went over to the arrowheads and sifted them through my hand. All of a sudden, the sight took hold and I saw the shadows creeping in the forest near still site #4. I’d seen this vision before, but never knew what it meant. Now I was certain it was Harlan Covey and his wife. Dropping the arrowheads, I leaned against the counter and realized Granny Mack and the deputy were looking at me with more than a little concern. I must have called out when the realization hit me.

  “Granny, it was them. They were there the night of the murder.”

  11

  Deputy Carter followed the directions Ray gave me. My ghostly boyfriend had tracked the Coveys as far as he could and swooped back down to join us. Harlan and his wife were headed out of town on old 25E. We all knew that road well and finding them had been easier than falling off a log.

  I looked over at the deputy as we came up on their tail lights. “I don’t think setting up a speed trap is gonna work now.”

  He nodded and flipped on the cherries and berries atop his old Crown Vic. I braced for the sound of the siren, but Deputy Carter obviously felt the light show was a good enough strategy without putting on his siren.

  I thought he seemed a tiny bit more excited about our plan now that we were racing up behind them down 25E. Since they weren’t going to stop without interference, I set up a glamor a few miles down the road that looked like a tree was across the ancient two-lane highway.

  Ray placed a hand on my shoulder and I turned to glance at him. “There’s gonna be a fight with them, Jo,” he said and glanced at Deputy Carter, “If he can’t bring them in, you have to be ready to call on your own powers to compel them to come clean. It’s gonna get ugly, but I’ll protect you as much as I can.”

  I wanted to soothe away the worry in his knitted brows. I shrugged my shoulders. “Granny Mack and Delilah can’t be far behind us, Ray. I’ll be okay. I know now what has to be done and I’m up for it. Harlan Covey had the element of surprise back there at Value Vintage, but I have it now.”

  My glamor worked long enough to fool Harlan and he slammed on the brakes skidding to a sideways stop as my imaginary tree dissipated in a mist behind his sedan.

  Deputy Carter was out in a flash and I was close on his heels. No way I was going to miss my chance to find out whether they had framed Billy Jack for murder. Harlan Covey tried to get his car going again when he saw the tree had only been a glamor. His wife pushed her door open and hopped out mad as a mule chewin’ bumblebees.

  She came at me fast, her hands out in front of her like a boxer. I wanted to laugh at the poor woman but Ray had been right, I had to be ready for anything where these two wild cards were concerned. I closed my eyes as Ray moved in front of me. I was thankful for his presence. He helped me to calm down and center my energy. I sent out a ward of protection around the scene in case Harlan tried to shift again.

  He wouldn’t be able to hurt any of us and his silly wife would also be neutralized unless she was a stronger witch than me and a master of ley lines. I sincerely doubted it, but I was relieved to open my eyes and find Granny Mack at my side. Delilah stalked up still in her painter form and stood on my other side. I was surrounded by more love and magickal power than the Covey’s could overcome no matter how or what they tried.

  Marleen Covey would not be discouraged by my entourage and before I could blink an eye, she hurled a barrage of fireballs my way. Granny didn’t miss a beat in extinguishing each of them with just a flick of her wrist. The clouds of steam were quite impressive but they made the silly witch before us as angry as a hornet.

  Deputy Carter had wrestled Harlan Covey to the ground before he went full wolf when his wife came unhinged. Ray glanced at me and I gave him an almost imperceptible nod so that he would leave me and give Deputy Carter an invisible hand.

  While the werewolf’s wife worked up another trick to throw at me, I chanted quietly and Granny moved slowly away taking Delilah with her. If Mrs. Covey had control of her powers instead of going off half-cocked, she would have seen my plan coming.

  As it was, she could only scream in frustration as kudzu vines burst from the ground easily dislodging the asphalt of the road. They snaked around her arms and body trapping her in a living prison. I kindly asked them to give her a little squeeze for good measure.

  Deputy Carter had worked his own magic, and a silver lariat bound Harlan Covey rendering him as helpless as a wolf pup without its pack. Silver bullets could kill his kind, but the lasso was more effective and humane since we only wanted information from the man and his witchy wife.

  Granny and Delilah had gone to the trunk of the Covey’s sedan and worked it open as easy as taking candy from a baby. I hustled over and saw the arrowheads Mr. Covey had purchased from my shop still in their Value Vintage bag.

  I wished I had the money he had paid for them so I could throw it back at him, but Granny read my mind. “You don’t owe him diddly squat, Jolene, but he owes you answers. Let’s get the truth outta’ him and beat feet back home. I don’t want to be out here all night waiting for someone to come along and wonder what’s up.”

  I turned and looked where Granny was pointing and saw that Mr. Covey had shifted back to his human form. The silver still caused him discomfort. Striding past his cursing wife, who I silenced with the wave of my hand filling her mouth with leaves from the kudzu, I went to stand before the panting, sweating man.

  “You have one chance to tell me exactly what you had planned with my arrowheads or we can take this interview somewhere more private. I promise you won’t like that. We won’t take it easy on you then like we are now. Hillbillies don’t play nice, hillbilly witches don’t play at all.”

  He looked up at me, his eyes red from the wolf he kept tamped down. “You can’t do worse than my cousins, I know that. You have your arrowheads, why not let us go back to Texas? I promise you’ll never see hide nor hair of either of us again.”

  His wife squirmed and her muffled voice was urgent, but Harl
an couldn’t understand her any better than the rest of us could. I looked at her and then back at him. “I’d hate to harm a hair on her pretty head, but if you can’t tell me what I need to know, perhaps she can. I doubt she could hold her magic if I’m pushed.”

  My threat was all too real. I could call her magic out and leave her an empty husk, but it would cost me a great deal. I had no particular hankering to go ballistic on either of them. I only needed to know what they had planned to do with my arrowheads and get a confession they were at the still the night of the murder.

  Deputy Carter tightened the silver loops of his lariat and Ray moved to stand beside Mrs. Covey, his chill air causing her to tremble in the kudzu’s embrace. Mr. Covey cried uncle and struggled to his feet, leery of the lariat and Deputy Carter.

  Harlan Covey let out a garbled howl, part man and part wolf, and looked at his darling wife. He seemed to be telling her he was sorry for being the one to break first. Looking at me, his eyes pleaded for mercy. “We were trying to break my cousins’ dark magick. If they gain a foothold here, your family will be wiped out. We all will. The whole magickal South will be under their control.”

  Granny cackled and Delilah paced over to the shifter and circled him three times before settling on her haunches in front of him. He’d made a threat and my familiar didn’t take that lying down. Granny on the other hand, well, I knew she hadn’t laughed like that for the fun of it.

  “Harlan Covey,” she said as she moved to stand beside me, the bag of arrowheads in her hand, “no one living or dead will wipe out my bloodline from these mountains, least of all your heathen kin.”

  The man breathed heavily under Deputy Carter’s hold. “I hope that’s true. If my cousins want these mountains, you’ve got a fight on your hands. It’ll only be a matter of time before they take over everything south of the Mason-Dixon.”

  I was tired of hearing about the Coveys. “Were you there the night Coleman Davies was murdered?”

  Deputy Carter reminded the man of his right to remain silent and I was irked by his devotion to his duty. “This ain’t an official police interrogation is it?”

  He didn’t care one bit for my sass and handed it right back. “It is since he tried to outrun me. Let me worry about the law, Jolene. You worry about getting your information.”

  Mr. Covey snarled at Deputy Carter and I knew he’d be a wolf in minutes and I’d lose my chance to find out his involvement in framing my cousin. I went to stand before him, my magic reaching out to compel him to face me. “Were you there that night?”

  I thought he’d been sweating before but now it poured off him in rivulets. “No. Yes. We weren’t there when my cousin’s lackey was killed, but we were there later. We knew that if Buck or Eustice learned how to control your wards, they could expand their operations. The Texas branch of the Covey line can’t afford to let that happen. I was trying to stop them, but now it’s up to you and your family.” He sneered at me, his eyes glowing red in the dark.

  Deputy Carter pulled out his cuffs and whipped them on Harlan’s wrists in the blink of an eye. “You have the right to remain silent...” he began and I knew I’d just lost my advantage over the Texas shifter and his wife.

  She began thrashing and twisting against the vine that held her fast. I let the kudzu go back where it came from, but held her in my power so she could speak her piece but not hurt anyone. With the vines no longer holding her back, she pushed against my magic. “We’re leaving this godforsaken town and may the devil take you all!”

  She strained under my hold and turned on Deputy Carter. “Let us go or I’ll see your badge taken. You can’t charge us with nothin’ unless you tell your sheriff what she did here tonight. I can see in your soul you don’t want harm coming to her.”

  This was news to me and Ray wasn’t too happy to hear it either. Instead of soothing him as I saw him work himself into an icy state, I spoke calmly to Deputy Carter. “She’s nothing but a husk of lies and deceit. Don’t you dare let them go now.”

  He looked at me as Ray moved to stand beside me, his deep freeze mood giving me immediate goose bumps. “As an officer of the law, I’m not letting them go. They were at the scene of a crime and withheld information. But you know they won’t be any good to you now, any information they had on the real killer will take months to come out. Until then, Billy Jack will still be held in custody.”

  Frustrated that he was right, I warned the pair. “If you lie to the police about my cousin, an innocent man, I’ll see to you myself. I’m not the killin’ kind, but the old laws of witchcraft allow a blood price if you cross me and mine.”

  Deputy Carter coiled his silver lariat in his hand, his body language backing me up. Delilah cornered the shifter while the deputy went to cuff Mrs. Covey. When I released her into his custody, she hissed at Delilah and spit out a stream of fire toward my familiar. Granny made a claw of her hand and turned it in a clockwise fashion, mumbling under her breath. The fire turned into butterflies and Mrs. Covey gasped for breath, her eyes bulging.

  I took Granny’s hand and pulled it towards me. “That’s enough. Deputy Carter can control them both without us now. You have to show me that butterfly trick, though.”

  She laughed and called out to the deputy. “You sure you got them, Dean?”

  “Yes, ma’am, Mrs. Mack,” he said as he led Mrs. Covey to his squad car. He placed her in the back and then strong-armed her riled-up husband into the front seat.

  By the time he’d cleared out of there with the two, I was a trembling mess. I’d never had to defend my family or my familiar in such a serious manner until tonight. Granny Mack placed an arm around my waist and led me back to my jeep she had commandeered on the chase to catch up with us down 25E.

  “But the road, we need to patch up the asphalt,” I protested and Granny just flicked her wrist. The road knitted itself back together as good as new.

  I fell gratefully into the back seat, my energies spent. I felt Ray’s ghostly hand on my brow, the coolness like the night air soothing me as I closed my eyes.

  Aunt Dixie was banging on the door of The Value Vintage bright and early the next morning. I yawned and sat up, my bones feeling like I was older than Methuselah. Last night’s run in with Harlan Covey and his wife had tested me like I’d never been tested in my life.

  Grabbing my old robe from the bed, I wrapped myself up and hurried downstairs with Ray and Delilah following in my tracks.

  “Aunt Dixie,” I said as sweetly as I could for so early in the morning and without even the smell of coffee to pep me up.

  She rushed in and whirled on me like a tornado in a trailer park. “I know something big went down last night out on 25E going out of town. Deputy Carter would only tell me he had that couple up from Texas locked up. Is Billy Jack gonna go free now?”

  I closed the door to my shop and took a deep breath. “I can’t say for sure, but they know more about the murder than they let on last night. It’s somethin’ when we had nothin’ before.”

  My answer wasn’t nearly good enough.

  “Unless it gets my baby outta that jail cell over in Louisville, it’s still nothin’ to me Jolene.”

  I called on Mother Earth to help me keep from sassing my auntie. “I’m sorry you see it that way, but at least with them locked up, the real murderer might slip up. We have to be extra careful now. I feel like somethin’ bad is brewin’. Like a big storm is coming our way.”

  “Well let me tell you somethin’, this town ain’t seen a storm to beat what’s in store for Sheriff Quinn if my son is sent to the federal pen for manslaughter. I’ll see to it that he’s relieved of his duties.”

  I sighed with relief when she turned and marched outta my shop. Thank goodness she meant to unseat the sheriff instead of raining a supernatural disaster on Devil’s Elbow.

  Before I could lock the door behind her, here came Sissy Prather all by her lonesome right on into the shop. She looked me up and down with her spooky eyes and gave a little smirk.
I resisted the urge to touch my hair as Delilah mewled and circled my feet. She took up her post between me and Sissy when the woman didn’t make a move to leave. I knew she’d turn to her painter if the heifer meant to harm me.

  Ray was at my back, whispering a warning. “She’s up to no good Jo, watch out.”

  “As you can see, I’m not open for business.” I went around her and held the door wide for her to leave.

  “There’s not a thing here I want, well, not anything you’d give me anyway. I just came to warn you about messin’ with the Covey brothers. They don’t take kindly to having their kin throwed in some podunk county jail.”

  I was out of patience and I didn’t feel one bit bad about sassing Sissy. “Since I’m not the law in Devil’s Elbow, I ain’t got nothing to do with that. I’m sure Sheriff Quinn or Deputy Carter would love to hear you pass along a threat from that bunch, though.”

  She came toward me and I could feel her trying to pry her way into my brain again. This time, I kept that door locked tight. The look on her face as she walked by me and out the door was priceless.

  I smiled sweetly and began to close up as she went, almost shoving her out. She turned once more, her anger flaming out at me. “That bunch is my blood too, silly witch. You best watch your mouth or you might find yourself on the wrong end of some mighty bad magick.”

  The sight of my sliver of summoning stone sitting on my dressing table upstairs flashed in my mind and I felt sick to my stomach. That’s what she had come for.

  “That’s right,” she whispered, “you’re playing with fire too hot for you to handle. See that Harlan and Marleen are turned loose or you’ll sure regret it. I know you can work your magick on Deputy Carter, sweet as he is on you.”