Every Witch Way But Wicked (A Wicked Witches of the Midwest Mystery) (18 page)

A woman? Well that was something. “What about a cause of death?”

“That was pretty easy, given the big knife wound in the clothes. The blade actually nicked the sternum.”

“So, just one stab wound? Just like Myron?”

“That’s what it looks like.”

“Was it the same knife?”

“It could have been,” Chief Terry said. “The problem is, there is really no way to be sure. The sternum didn’t have any flesh on it, so there’s no way of knowing if the blades match. All we can be sure of is that the blades were roughly the same size – and the wounds look to have been inflicted in the same manner.”

“You believe that the two cases are connected?”

Chief Terry shrugged. “I think it would be one heck of a coincidence for you to stumble upon one body during the investigation of another and not have the two cases be connected. Especially in a town the size of Hemlock Cove.”

“Did you find anything else in the cave?” I asked curiously.

“Like a big bag of coins?” Chief Terry searched my face for an answer.

I shot a dark look in Landon’s direction. “You told him?”

“Of course I told him,” Landon scoffed. “This is an investigation, not a playground game.”

I resisted the urge to shoot him the finger and turned to Chief Terry. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know,” Chief Terry said. “I never believed the stolen money story, for obvious reasons. I can’t figure out why anyone would want to kill Myron, though, otherwise.”

I bit my lower lip. Chief Terry could tell I was thinking. “What do you know?” He asked suspiciously.

I sighed. “I think William Kelly’s death should be looked into,” I said finally.

“Why?” Chief Terry seemed surprised.

“Who is William Kelly?” Landon asked in confusion.

“The owner of the newspaper,” Chief Terry answered for me.

“That tool Brian’s grandfather?”

“Yes.”

“Why do you think his death is suspicious?” Chief Terry asked.

How the heck am I supposed to explain this? “I just remembered that Myron spent the night at William’s a lot of the time.”

“He spent the night at my house, too,” Chief Terry pointed out. “He spent the night at everyone’s house, for that matter.”

I pursed my lips. There really was no rational reason for me to suspect William’s death was anything but an accident. I couldn’t exactly admit that my interactions with a ghost had led me to believe that something bigger was going on.

Chief Terry must have realized that I was waging an inner battle with my own mind, because he sighed. “I’ll have William’s body exhumed.”

“Just because she thinks the deaths might be linked? Wasn’t William Kelly ninety years old?” Landon looked dumbfounded.

“It’s a small town,” Chief Terry said smoothly. “William died in close proximity, time-wise at least, with Myron. It can’t hurt to make sure he died of natural causes. Better safe than sorry, right?”

“Something is going on here,” Landon sputtered. “What is the big secret? You guys are hiding something from me.”

I ignored him. “My theory is that Myron told at least one person about the money over the years.”

“And you think William might be one of them?” Chief Terry surmised.

“He looked at William like a father,” I pointed out.

“If that’s true, than either William or Myron had to tell at least two other people.”

“How do you figure?”

“We have another body in a cave,” Chief Terry pointed out. “And if William was murdered, then we have three dead bodies. That still leaves another person out there as a killer.”

He had a point.

“Who could it be?” I asked helplessly.

“I figure it has to be someone that knew Myron relatively well, either in the past or the present,” Chief Terry said.

“Was he especially close to anyone in town?”

“Not now,” Chief Terry said briefly. “However, he didn’t go off to the war alone.”

“He didn’t?” I was surprised. This was the first I had heard about it.

“No. There were several of our young men who joined the Army together that year,” Chief Terry said. “Myron was older than the others, but they all went off together as a unit. The other three were the same age as each other, though. They all went to high school together.”

“Who?”

“Billy Kelly, Jr. for one,” Chief Terry supplied.

“William’s son?”

“Yes. He was one of the four. There was also Ken Trask and Mike Wellington.”

I felt my heart drop to my stomach. “Mike Wellington? Marcus’ father?”

“Yes,” Chief Terry nodded.

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

“I didn’t think it mattered,” Chief Terry said matter-of-factly.

“What if Mike Wellington, Bill Kelly, Ken Trask and Myron were all in on it together? Stealing the coins, I mean.”

Chief Terry shrugged. “That doesn’t mean they’re all killers.”

“Bill Kelly died ten years ago. Mike Wellington died about a year ago. That leaves Ken Trask as the only living member of the quartet,” I said. “But what if Bill Kelly told Brian or Mike Wellington told Marcus?”

Chief Terry considered it for a minute. “Brian Kelly did come to town right before Myron was killed.”

“And he’s been searching William’s office for something,” I said.

“What do you mean?” Landon asked in surprise.

“He says he’s been redecorating, but he spends hours in there moving the furniture and tearing things apart,” I answered.

Landon exchanged an unreadable look with Chief Terry. “Maybe we should have a talk with Brian Kelly?”

Chief Terry nodded. “It couldn’t hurt.”

The two of them got to their feet and glanced down at me. “Are you coming?” Landon asked.

“No, I trust you two.”

Landon watched me suspiciously. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to Hypnotic to find a way to keep Thistle away from Marcus until we’re absolutely sure it’s not him,” I said honestly.

“That’s probably a good idea,” Chief Terry admitted.

“You’re just going to Hypnotic? Nowhere else?” Landon questioned me seriously.

“I’ll stay at Hypnotic with Thistle and Clove until I hear from you,” I promised.

That was my intention, it really was. Nothing ever goes to plan in Hemlock Cove, though.

When I got to Hypnotic, Clove was working in the front of the store alone. I figured that Thistle was in the back doing inventory – or bagging herbs – and I wanted to approach Clove first about the Marcus situation. I didn’t want to make Thistle unjustly suspicious if I didn’t have to. She tends to panic – even when there’s nothing to panic about. If there is a legitimate reason to worry, then she’s going to fly off the handle like nobody’s business.

“So what happened after we left?” I asked Clove.

“Brian Kelly pitched a fit,” Clove clucked angrily.

Uh-oh. “What do you mean?”

“He started casting aspersions on Landon’s character,” Clove said. “Saying that he shouldn’t be trusted alone with you. That he’s probably some sort of sexual deviant. I think he was jealous.”

Well, this wouldn’t end well, especially given Clove’s crush on Brian. “I don’t know why he would be jealous.”

“He likes you,” Clove said irritably. “He’s interested in you. That’s obvious, so don’t pretend it’s not.”

“I haven’t encouraged him at all,” I said hurriedly.

“I know,” Clove said sharply.

“He could be the bad guy anyway,” I admitted.

“What?” Clove looked shocked.

I told her about what Chief Terry had just told me. She sank down onto the couch heavily when I was done. “Do you think it’s him?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I think his arrival in town is suspicious. He’s kind of a goof, though. It’s hard to imagine him creeping around killing people and searching through caves for money. He’s not exactly an outdoorsy guy.”

“Do you think he would really kill his grandfather, though? That’s his blood.”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “We’ve all had dreams about killing Aunt Tillie.”

“Yeah, but we wouldn’t really do it,” Clove pointed out. “You wouldn’t, would you?”

“No,” I said honestly. “Thistle might, though.”

“Totally.”

“Where is she, by the way? Is she doing inventory in the back?”

“No, she took the day off,” Clove said innocently.

“What do you mean?” I couldn’t help the pang of alarm that coursed through me.

“She said she had things to do,” Clove said. “I didn’t ask her what those things were. I figured it was Marcus.”

Shit.

“Are they up at the guesthouse?” I got to my feet hurriedly.

Clove looked confused by my sudden action. “I don’t know.”

I reached into my pocket for my cell phone and swore when I realized I had left the phone in the charger at home. “Call her.”

“What?” In our current situation, Clove was obviously three steps behind me in the race to enlightenment and I was running out of patience in the explanation game.

“Call her!”

Clove hurriedly scurried up to the phone and punched in the number to the guesthouse. I watched her nervously. “The voicemail picked up,” Clove said. “Should I leave a message?”

“Tell her to call you. Don’t say anything else,” I warned.

When Clove was done, I took the phone from her and called up to the inn. My mom answered. “Is Thistle up there?”

“Hello to you, too,” my mom admonished me.

“Hello. Is Thistle up there?”

“I don’t know who taught you phone etiquette, but you clearly didn’t learn it from me.”

If I could strangle her through the phone, I would. “Is Thistle up there?”

“No. She packed a picnic basket a few hours ago and then left with Marcus. She didn’t say where she was going. Why?”

“I don’t know,” I bit my lip. “I just don’t think she should be alone with Marcus right now.”

“Why? He seems like a nice boy?”

I made the decision in an instant. I gave her an abbreviated version of the story Chief Terry had told me and then waited for her reaction. “You think Thistle is having lunch with a murderer?”

“No,” I said hurriedly. “I just want to make sure that she’s safe.”

“I don’t think Marcus could be a murderer,” my mom said, although I could hear the doubt creep into her voice. “He’s too good looking to be a murderer.” It sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than anything else.

“Are you sure she didn’t say where she was going?”

“No,” my mom said. “What are you going to do?”

“Find her.”

I started pacing the store. Where would she go? I turned to Clove suddenly. “The overlook.”

“The inn? You just called there and she’s not there,” Clove’s voice was bordering on shrill.

“Not the inn, the actual overlook. Thistle loves it there.”

The overlook was a cliff bluff at the far end of our family property. Technically, it’s what the aunts had named the inn after and not
The Shining
. As a teenager, Thistle had spent hours up there reading and looking out over Hemlock Cove. It was a beautiful spot.

“You’re right, she’s probably there,” Clove was breathing heavily.

“Where’s your car?” I asked.

“Thistle has it,” Clove said.

“How did you get here?”

“Brian dropped me off on his way to the paper.”

Crap.

I walked back up to the phone, took a deep breath, and then started to dial.

“Who are you calling?”

“We don’t have a lot of options,” I grimaced when I heard the voice on the other end of the phone. “Thistle is having a picnic with Marcus right now.”

“I’ll pick you up in five minutes,” Landon said grimly.

“Where is this overlook?” Landon asked when we were all in his car and on our way back out to the inn.

“It’s on the very back of the property,” I explained. “It’s like a mile from the clearing we were in the other night.”

“Can we drive there?” Landon was grim, but I could tell he was trying to maintain an even keel. He was trying really hard not to panic us – which was having the opposite effect and completely freaking me out.

“No, not all the way,” I replied, gripping the fingers on my left hand with those on my right nervously. “We’ll have to park and walk the rest of the way.”

“And how long will that take?” Landon glanced at me carefully.

“If we hurry, it shouldn’t take more than ten minutes,” I said, averting my gaze from Landon worriedly.

I directed Landon to the closest spot to park. When he had stopped the car, he turned to me expectantly. “What are the odds that you two will stay here in the car and just tell me how to get to this overlook?”