Three Witches and a Killer: Wicked Western Witches Book 1 (9 page)

No matter, this was important.

“What makes you think something is wrong?” I asked.

“Because lately that is the only time you call,” he stated.

I winced inwardly. He had a point, which meant that I was going to have to make more of an effort to visit my family.

“Sorry dad. I’ve just been so busy.”

“I know,” he sighed. “So what’s up?”

“When I was on my way home tonight someone was following me.”

“Are you sure? Perhaps you are just imagining it,” he suggested.

“I’m sure. I saw them hide behind a tree, and that’s not all either. Last night I saw someone in the park, watching my kitchen window,” I explained.

“It’s all that witch business you have been getting involved with. How much do you want to bet?” he grumbled.

No doubt my father was probably right, but that wasn’t exactly what I what I wanted to hear. “Well, even if you are right, what am I going to do about it?”

“First, I would suggest you drop the case.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

“The next best thing you can do is call the sheriff and tell him what is going on,” he advised. “And if you insist on being involved in witch business, I would suggest you brush up on your witch skills.”

“I’m trying but I’m just not very good at it.”

“I’ll get a hold of Buck in the morning and let him know what’s going on,” Dad said. “Until then, stay home and keep your doors locked.”

He didn’t have to tell me that twice. Staying home with my doors locked was exactly what I intended to do, at least until the sun came up anyway.

“Okay, Dad. I think I’ll do that ... and thanks,” I added.

Chapter Ten

I’d hoped to get a good night’s sleep but that didn’t happen. Strange dreams of fire, drums, and weirdly painted faces kept me up half the night. I suspected the nightmares were brought on because of my research into the voodoo priestess, also known as the Queen of Witches, at least I hoped that’s all it was.

With half a cup of coffee down, my head was finally starting to clear. Good thing too since someone took that moment to pound on my door.

Forcing myself to get up from the kitchen table, I made my way to the door, but didn’t open it right away. There was no peephole so there was no way to see who was on the other side of the door.

“Who’s there?” I asked.

“It’s me! Open up, Sadie.” The landlord, also known as Jackson Taylor, yelled.

I figured I was probably safe. After all, it was only my half-crazy landlord. Swinging the door open, I gave him one of my morning smiles. Not that it helped much, on account of my morning smile was more of a glare.

“What’s up, Jackson?” I asked, placing my hands on my hips.

“What’s the big idea?” he growled.

“Hmm ... what are you talking about?” I asked, genuinely confused.

“Painting the door!” Jackson pointed to the door. “Who gave you permission to paint anything on the door?”

I focused my attention on the door. Gasping, I took a step back.

He was right. Someone had painted the door with a red Celtic cross, adorned with bat wings.

“I didn’t do that,” I came to my own defense.

“Then who did?” he asked in a tone of voice that made it clear he didn’t believe me.

“I have no idea,” I told him. “But I am sorry. I’ll do my best to clean it off.”

“You do that,” he barked. Spinning on his heels, Jackson stalked away.

Jackson Taylor wasn’t exactly mean, he was just ornery as hell most of the time.

The symbol on the door was obviously from the blood cult. I’d seen the same symbol carved on doors at Draven Court. This was way too obvious. Someone had to be trying to set up the Petrovas, which meant I should probably be putting my focus elsewhere.

For now, my big problem was how to get the paint off the door, without ruining the wood. I ran my finger over the cross and was surprised when it smeared.

So whoever put the symbol on my door, hadn’t actually used paint. It was lipstick. That would make cleanup a lot easier, but it meant more than that. It also meant that whoever put it on my door was likely a woman. Either that or it was another attempt to mislead me.

No matter, I still felt as if I was starting from square one.

It took nearly an hour to get all traces of the lipstick off the door. Hopefully, it was good enough that old Taylor would keep his trap shut. If there were even a speck of red left on the wood, no doubt he’d find it.

Collapsing into one of the kitchen chairs, I had high hopes of enjoying the rest of my cup of morning coffee while touching base with my cousin.

I dialed Pax’s number.

“Hello Sadie,” he answered.

“Hey Pax. I hope your morning is going better than mine.”

“Why, what happened?” he asked.

I told him about being followed the night before and the symbol someone had painted on my door.

“I think you’re right,” he agreed. “It could be someone trying to mislead us. If that is the case, I would suggest we look at the Trevils.”

“You could be right,” I agreed. “I think that’s the direction we need to be looking in.”

“Well, you’re going to need to do that on your own today, at least for a time. I’m going to go talk to Garrett and demand some answers. Holly wasn’t at home last night and never returned. She seems to have disappeared.”

“Oh no,” I gasped. “Do you think he could have something to do with it?”

Okay, so I knew I sounded a little air-headed, but I have been known to be a bubblehead once in a while.

“Makes sense. He shows up, takes over her store, and then suddenly Holly disappears. Sounds pretty suspicious to me.”

“I think it is time for someone to report her missing if she isn’t at the store today,” I told him.

“I’ll take care of that,” Pax said. “What are your plans for the day?”

“First, I’m going to go over to the Pumpkin Patch and see about my car. Hopefully, it’s done. If it is, I’m going to take a drive out to Winterbane Hall and have a talk with Tristan Trevil. It’s a good possibility he might have an idea of what’s going on in this town.”

“You be careful,” Pax sighed. “I don’t need another cousin disappearing.”

“Don’t you worry on my account. You’re the one that needs to be careful. At least I can cast spells. You couldn’t cast if your life depended on it,” I teased.

“At least I know the difference between a frog and a zombie,” Pax chuckled.

“Whatever. I’ll talk to you soon,” I told him, ending the call.

There was no telling if Tristan, the eldest Trevil boy, was actually at Winterbane Hall, but I thought he could be, considering his father just passed away.

* * *

Thankfully, it was only a short walk to Pumpkin Patch Auto Repair. When I strolled in, I found Darrell Hanning finishing up the repairs on my car.

Although technically, no one was allowed in the garage area, I disobeyed the rules, bypassing the office. “Hey Darrell.”

“Hello Sadie,” he said, waving the wrench he held in his hand, in what I assumed was a greeting.

“How long until I can drive her out of here?” I asked.

“I just finished with her,” he told me, as he was slamming down the hood of my car. “I just have to ring you up.”

“What was wrong? Was it the battery cables like you suspected?”

Darrell nodded. “Sure was. One of them wasn’t making a good connection because the cable itself was damaged.”

“What you mean damage?” I asked, hoping he would be a little more specific.

He gave me one of his twisty face expressions, which meant he had a good idea what caused the damage, but because he lacked self-confidence, he didn’t want to blurt it out.

“Well, I could be wrong, so keep that in mind,” he started.

“It’s okay. Just tell me what you think,” I urged.

“To me, it looks as if someone tried to cut it.”

Why wasn’t I surprised?

Someone didn’t want me to find out what was really happening in Shadow Crossing. That much was obvious.

I followed Darrell back to the office where he started writing an invoice. When he was done, he slid it across the counter toward me.

“Are you crazy?” I gasped. “What on earth did you do to merit charging me $107.25?”

“Well, I cleaned the battery posts and replaced the cables with some new ones. Those aren’t cheap you know,” he explained, as if the reason for the high cost should have been evident.

“It’s a good thing you’re the only mechanic in town,” I grumbled. “You know Darrell, one of these days someone is going to open their own mechanic shop and give you some competition.”

“Until then … you’re stuck with me,” he said, a cocky smile playing on his lips. “I might see fit to give you a reduced price if you’d agree to go to Chucky’s Burger Bar with me tonight.”

“Yeah right.” I rolled my eyes and handed him my credit card. “You just better hope you never need a P.I. I might have to price gouge you.”

“Can’t see as where I’d ever need one of those,” he came back, adding a wink to go with his words.

Chapter Eleven

Standing on the massive wraparound porch of the Winterbane Hall, I pounded on the door several times. I’d already been standing there knocking for a long time, but no one seemed to be around.

That was strange, considering the family had just suffered a major tragedy. One would think they’d want to stick close to home.

On the other hand, it was possible they had a house somewhere they’d retreated to, taking their staff with them.

Still, I knew these old families and even when they weren’t in residence, there was always staff left behind.

Although it was completely against all the rules, I tried the door. It was locked.

Giving up, I decided to take a look around the estate. If no one was around there wasn’t much chance of being discovered, which also meant there wasn’t much of a chance of getting into trouble for trespassing.

The estate grounds were really more like a forest. The Trevils had apparently decided to leave the land in its natural state. It wasn’t perfectly manicured like Draven Court, but still just as beautiful.

Taking a look around to make sure no one was watching, I made my way to the area in which Mr. Trevil’s body was discovered. The yellow crime tape was still up but I was sure the police had already combed the area for clues. I wasn’t likely to find anything new but it was a possibility that they’d miss something further into the woods.

Discovering a trail near the crime scene, I decided to take it and see where it went. I wasn’t on the trail long before I begin to hear twigs snapping behind me.

I was being followed.

Since I hadn’t gotten around to buying a gun yet, or getting a concealed weapon permit, I was unarmed and completely helpless. Well, almost completely helpless.

There were plenty of thick branches and big rocks along the trail. If I had to, I could always use one of them to defend myself. Besides, I was kind of getting used to being followed.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that this time was different. This time, not only were there snapping twigs but I could hear growling. Either Mickey D had gotten loose or I had an animal on my trail. I figured it was probably an animal or more likely a werewolf.

Reaching down to grab a large branch from the side of the trail, I started walking a little faster. I had no idea where I was going to go but going back the way I’d come was out of the question. That’s the direction I could hear the growls coming from.

A moment later, there were more growls, which meant more wolves. It was time to start running.

Big mistake!

That just seemed to spur them on. Taking a chance, I glanced over my shoulder. There were three wolves and they were gaining on me.

Either there was truth to the rumor that the Trevils were werewolves or they had a very strange idea of guard dogs.

The only chance I had for escape was to climb a tree and call the sheriff to come and rescue me. I would totally be giving myself away but I didn’t see as where I had a lot of choice.

Struggling to pull air into my lungs, I found a tree and climbed it faster than I’d ever climbed a tree in my life. Actually, I was surprised that I could climb it at all since I hadn’t visited the gym in at least five years.

Still gasping for air, I twisted around, fully prepared to come face to face with the wolves.

There was nothing there.

What the heck was that all about? Where were they?

Figuring they might be trying to psych me out, I stayed in the tree. I’d seen wolves, I was sure of it.

For the next hour, I sat there watching for wolves and seeing nothing.

Beginning to doubt my own sanity, I finally forced myself to climb down from the tree. Once on the ground, I wasted no time going for my car. I didn’t run, but I didn’t exactly walk at a leisurely pace either.

I saw no sign of wolves or that there had ever been any wolves pursuing me.

Safely inside my car, I dialed Pax’s number. It rang several times before his voicemail picked up.

It wasn’t like Pax not to answer his phone. My cousin took his phone with him everywhere, even the bathroom.

Something was wrong and I suspected that something had to do with the new guy, Garrett.

It was time for me to pay Garrett a visit and since I’d already had a bad day, he was probably in for it.

After making the drive into town in record time, I brought my car to a screeching halt in front of the Catnip Book Boutique.

Pax’s car was nowhere to be seen.

When I strolled through the front door I was in no mood to mess around with small talk and it must have showed.

“Hello, Sadie,” Buck said, waving me over to the coffee bar in back. “What’s wrong? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”

Since I had no intention of confessing to trespassing at a crime scene, I jumped right to the point. “Holly is missing and now Pax is too. I think you need to ask this guy what’s up with that,” I said, pointing to Garrett.

Smiling, Garrett shook his head. “Sorry, your cousin hasn’t been in today.”