Pretty Witches All in a Row (10 page)

What?  No ‘buy my how to be a witch in ten easy steps’ spiel?
  Any lingering doubts she might have had about the woman were fast dissolving.  “Thanks, that’s really nice of you to suggest it.” 

Annaliese waved off the thanks.  “It’s no trouble; I wish I’d had all of these resources available to me when I was your age.” 

“Did your parents know you were a… Wiccan when you were growing up?”

“Actually, I didn’t stumble upon this way of life until I was a bit older, in college.  My mom wasn’t very receptive about it when she found out, no,” she admitted with a rueful twist of the lips. 

“She went ballistic, huh?  I can relate,” Veronica commiserated with a faint smile.

Feather returned from the register as the only other customer in the shop departed.  “Hey,” she gave Veronica a speculative smile.  “Your last name is Gibson, right?  Isn’t that detective guy that was here yesterday your dad?”

Busted!
  “Uh yeah, he is,” she admitted, feeling her cheeks grow hot with embarrassment.  She’d been hoping Feather wouldn’t remember that little tidbit, but the girl was on a roll. 

“Did he send you down here?” 

“God no!  He’d probably blow a gasket if he knew I was down here right now,” Veronica insisted, looking from one to the other, figuring Annaliese would probably show her the door now and sure enough, Annaliese frowned.

“Maybe you should head on home then, if he has such strong feelings about it.  I wouldn’t want him to be upset that you’re spending time here.”

“Oh, it’s not about you personally or your store, he just wants to keep me safe. You know, until he finds out who the killer is.”

“Sage advice,” Annaliese nodded.  

The door opened, and a little old lady stepped in, her face crinkling into a smile.  Veronica didn’t think she’d seen her in there before, but the other two recognized her easily enough. 

“Hello Ellie, I’m glad you stopped in,” Annaliese smiled.  “I’m headed out, but let me get you that tincture you wanted.  This is Detective Gibson’s daughter, Veronica.”

“Sergeant,” Veronica corrected automatically.

Annaliese fixed her with an odd look.  “You really are his daughter, aren’t you?”  She shook her head over some private amusement.

“Oh?  Sent his daughter to do his dirty work, did he?” Ellie frowned.  “A little young to be sniffing after killers aren’t you?” 

“Ellie!  Of course not, Veronica’s been in here before all of this mess, I’ve seen her plenty of times,” Annaliese interjected.

She had?
  Veronica hadn’t thought she’d left much of an impression the few times she’d been there in the past, mostly she’d chatted with Feather.

“I hope you realize that talking to
her
doesn’t absolve you of your oath,” Ellie sniffed, giving a pointed look to Annaliese.

“Oh Ellie, you’re being ridiculous.  Actually Feather, why don’t you get Ellie her tincture, it’s under the counter next to the ink cartridges.  I’ll be back later.” 

To Veronica it almost seemed as though Annaliese was eager to get out of there.  She was dying to ask about this oath, but she recognized her window of opportunity to make an exit.  “I should head for home before my dad starts to wonder where I am.  I’ll catch you guys later.”

Right on cue her phone chirped and she withdrew it, glancing at the text message from her father. 
Dinner’s on the way, you’d better be too.
“Speak of the devil.  Crap, I’d better move it if I want to make the bus in time,” she smiled, ducking out ahead of Annaliese who held the door open for her. 

“Would you like a ride?” Annaliese offered, pulling the door shut behind them.

Veronica was pretty sure her father wouldn’t like it if she accepted a ride home from Annaliese.  Though she technically wasn’t a stranger, it was a given that accepting rides from witches wasn’t high on her father’s list of acceptable activities.  “I wouldn’t want to be any trouble…”

“What part of town do you live in?” she asked, pulling out her keys.

“On the west side, in Tigard.”

“That’s no trouble at all.  In fact, I need to go to a copy place on Hall; they’re giving me a deal on some flyers.”

“Oh… okay.  If you’re sure it’s no biggie.”  Veronica gave her a hesitant smile.  The errant thought slipped in;
would they find her on the side of the road come morning?

Annaliese was quiet for a moment as she unlocked her SUV, climbing in and turning down the radio that was blasting Aerosmith at top volume.  “Sorry,” she flashed Veronica an apologetic grin.  “Hey, maybe you should give your dad a call; let him know I’m giving you a ride home?  See if he’s alright with it?” she asked suddenly.

Yeah, genius plan, then he’d know I was here for sure…
  “No, I’m sure it’ll be fine,” she answered with more confidence than she felt.  Then again, if Annaliese was going to do anything bad to her, would she have suggested that she call home and announce that they were together?  Comforted by that logic, Veronica climbed in and fastened her seatbelt. 

“Did
your father send you down to the store?” Annaliese asked, pulling smoothly out into traffic, her eyes on the road.

“No, of course not,” Veronica laughed at the notion, “He didn’t send me down to do his
dirty work
like the old lady put it.  I just… I dunno…”

“Thought you would come down and see if you could find anything out?”  Annaliese’s voice was tinged with amusement.

“Kinda,” Veronica returned with a sheepish grin.  “It’s so awful, what happened to those girls.  And it’s kind of interesting, the occult stuff… I mean I’ve never felt weird in your place… I wonder if that makes me weird,” she frowned at the idea. 

“I don’t think you’re weird.  But then again, most people would consider me to be pretty weird,” Anna laughed and Veronica joined her.

“I think you’re nice.  My dad does too by the way, I can tell.”

Annaliese was silent for a moment, moving onto the freeway.  “What about your mom?  What does she think about all of this?”

“My mom?  She’s been out of the picture for a while, she left when I was in junior high.”  It almost felt like she’d never even existed.  Veronica and her father had managed to cobble together a pretty decent home life together, a few hiccups aside.

“I’m sorry,” Annaliese murmured.  After a few moments she added, “my mom left too.  When I was older, in college, so I won’t pretend it’s the same thing, but yeah.”

“Are you and your Dad close then?” 

“No, my father died when I was little.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright, I hardly remember him.  It was me, my sister Jade, and my mother while I was growing up.”

“Then… why did she leave?”

“She didn’t take it so well when I started getting into this lifestyle.  It’s funny, she never seemed all that religious to me when I was growing up, but the first time she spotted a pentacle around my neck… you’d have thought I was the devil’s concubine.”  Annaliese grinned over at her briefly, but Veronica could see it still bothered her. 

“So she left, because of that?”  The concept was alien to her.  How could a parent write off a child like that?  Although in a way, wasn’t that what her own mother had done? 

“Yep, she moved to Utah.  I didn’t even know about it until my sister mentioned it in passing when I brought up holiday plans.” 

“Wow, harsh.  Even if I shaved my head, started chanting Hare Krishna and hanging out at the airport, I think my Dad would still tell me before he moved away.  Actually I don’t think he’d move away, he’d probably try to get me to move back home with him to try and keep an eye on me,” she mused aloud.  It was hard to imagine her father abandoning her under any circumstance.

“Okay, where am I going?  Should I take the ninety-nine exit?” Annaliese asked, breaking into her reverie. 

“Oh, yeah, head towards Hall.  It’s on Spruce.”   

“You got it,” she replied, signaling for the exit.  “So… your Dad, did he ever remarry?”

Veronica smiled to herself, thinking how best to reply.  “No, he never remarried.  He goes on a lot of first dates.  Not that there’s anything wrong with him,” she added quickly.  “Not every girl is understanding when he has to break a date at the last minute, or leave in the middle of dinner, you know?”

“Ah, I can imagine he doesn’t exactly have a set schedule.”

“Yeah, it’s kinda crazy when he’s got a new case.  It’s better since we moved up here though; in LA I’d go days without seeing him sometimes.”  And that wasn’t an exaggeration.  “What about you?  Are you married?” 

“Me?  No, I haven’t met the right guy yet.  I only believe in getting married once.” 

“Me too,” Veronica approved.  “You don’t do those… love spells do you?”  She’d seen the candles and oils in the store before and Feather’s pitch for the
love machine
candle came to mind.

“No, I don’t,” Annaliese chuckled.  “I think they’re cheating.  I’d never know if a guy was with me because of me or the spell, you know?”

“But people do use them, right?  Do they work?” 

“It’s hard to say.  I think they do under the right circumstances.  Do they work like it does in the movies where you work a spell and someone becomes your obsessive love slave?”  She shook her head.  “No, not like that.”

“Here’s the turn, here on the left.”  Veronica directed her, conversation falling by the wayside as she guided her to the house.  Annaliese pulled into the driveway next to Nick’s unmarked police car.  She had been hoping to avoid her father knowing about the ride home, but after the conversation with Annaliese, Veronica changed her mind about that.  “You should come up and say hi, it looks like my dad’s home.” 

“Oh, I probably shouldn’t, I have to get to that print shop before they close.”

“Don’t you want to find out if there’s anything new on the case?  He might have some more questions for you,” Veronica pointed out, unbuckling and picking up her bag.  “Come on, just for a minute?”  She fixed Annaliese with the look that always made her dad melt into a puddle of goo and give her what she wanted.  Of course she had no idea whether or not it would work on anyone but her dad, but it was worth a shot. 

“Oh alright,” Anna laughed at the face, “just for a minute.”

Practically bouncing with excitement, Veronica waited for her to get out of the car before going up to the door, using her key and calling out, “Honey, I’m home!” at the top of her lungs as soon as she stepped over the threshold into the vaulted ceiling of the living room. 

* * *

“You made it just in time, partner,” came Nick’s drawl from the direction of the kitchen.  “I was about to send out a posse fer ya,” he grinned, coming around the corner, stopping short once he saw she wasn’t alone.  Some other men might feel a little foolish greeting a bare acquaintance wearing a cowboy hat, an apron that said ‘kiss the cook’ and a bright red bandana tied around his neck, but Nick went with it, tipping his hat to the both of them.  “Howdy, Ma’am.”

Annaliese’s lips mashed together as if she were afraid to laugh at him, nodding back.  “Howdy.” 

“And you, ya little ankle biter, you best get washed up fer dinner or ya’ll be muckin’ out stalls ‘til the cows come home.”  He swatted Veronica playfully on the behind with his oven mitt, giving her a look that said they’d talk more about it later. 

“I’ll be right back,” she promised, whispering “be nice,” at her father as she passed. 

When wasn’t he nice?  “Sorry about that.  Barbecue night; it’s kind of a weird tradition around here.” 

“I think it’s nice,” Annaliese smiled back.  “You made barbecue food?”

“Ah no, Buster’s Barbecue delivered, I just popped it in the oven to keep it warm ‘til the cowpokes arrived,” he grinned.

“I didn’t know they delivered.”

“They don’t.”  He leaned close, as if to impart a great secret.  “I know a guy…” he added sotto voce, affecting a mob-type accent. 

“That must come in handy.”

“We order a lot of take out down at the precinct,” Nick shrugged.  “So… you just happened to give Veronica a ride home?  How exactly did that come about?”  His brows climbed slightly.

“She stopped by the shop.  I was heading out in this area… I offered her a ride.”  Anna gave him a tentative smile.

“Makes sense.  Stay for dinner?  We’ve got ribs a’plenty and all the trimmings.”

“Oh, I don’t want to intrude on your dinner…”

“No really, there’s always room for one more, especially good Samaritans who make sure my daughter gets home safely.”  He tried for his most charming smile as she hesitated.  “Besides, there’s another question or two I was hoping I could pick your brains on later.  It would save me a trip across town.” 

“More questions about the investigation?” 

He had her now, he was sure of it.  “Stay for dinner.  We’ll talk over dessert, I’ve got ice cream; chocolate and chocolate,” he waggled his brows playfully.  “You do eat meat right?  I mean there’s bacon on the potatoes, ham in the beans, it’s pretty much a carnivore-fest in there.”

“Yes, I eat meat.  I believe in the food chain as long as it’s humane.”

“Good, then grab yerself a hat and saddle, ‘cause we gots plenty of vittles to be et.”  He took off his cowboy hat and settled it on her head.  “You gotta leave yer six shooter by the door though.”

Annaliese tipped the hat back a little, her smile widening.  “Afraid I ain’t got no six shooter, Sheriff.”  She waggled her empty hands in the air.  “Are ya gonna frisk me?” she challenged.

Was she flirting with him? 
Oh, this was a bad idea on so many levels…
but he found himself grinning right back.  “Might could, might could… maybe we could save that friskin’ for later when the youngins are down fer the night?”

“Might could,” she drawled, ambling past him, deeper into the house as Veronica reappeared at the bottom of the stairs. 

* * *

Dinner was a lighthearted affair, with plenty of belly laughs and more than one biscuit tossed across the table.  Annaliese kept up with their quirky sense of humor without batting an eye, making the occasional comment that sent them into such fits of laughter, Nick started to tear up.  It had been a long time since he’d laughed like that.  Sure, he had great times with Veronica, but it was different having another person to share it with.  It added a new dimension, one he hadn’t realized he’d missed.