Be Careful What You Witch For (A Family Fortune Mystery) (20 page)

33

Sore, stiff, and tired, Diana and I had both seen better mornings. However, we were happy to hear that Lucan’s surgery had been a success. The nurse took one look at us and ordered us home to rest.

“He doesn’t need to be worrying about you two,” she told us with a scowl. “He’ll be asleep for at least a few hours.”

Diana dropped me off at home and I went straight into the shower. I hadn’t even told my family about what had happened to Lucan. Part of me didn’t want to wake them, and part didn’t want Vi showing up in the waiting room. I’d have to tell them soon, but hoped to get one more thing over with before facing them.

After a very fast shower and a longing look at my bed, I hopped in my Jeep and turned it toward Neila’s house. I wasn’t sure what her connection was to Lucan, but I was determined to find out.

“How nice to see you again, Clyde,” she said as she swung the door wide.

“Ms. Whittle. I have some news.”

“Oh. Come in.”

We walked back toward her kitchen. This was our usual path and I wasn’t sure what the other rooms contained.

After I refused Neila’s offers of coffee and tea and cookies, she sat down across from me. “This must be serious,” she said.

I nodded. “Lucan Reed was a hit-and-run victim last evening.”

Neila didn’t react. It was almost as if she hadn’t heard me. Then a single tear fell down her cheek. “Is he all right?” she asked with a shaky voice.

I nodded. “He needed surgery for a broken leg. . . .” I hesitated, not wanting to upset her but needing to question her anyway. “The car that hit him . . . backed over him on purpose.”

This time she did react with a quick intake of breath. Her fingers turned white on the tabletop. It was as if she gripped the table to keep her balance.

“I had no idea this would be so dangerous,” she said quietly and mostly to herself. “What have I done?”

I reached across the table to put a hand on hers. “Ms. Whittle, what do you know about Lucan’s accident?”

She met my eyes, but didn’t seem to focus. Her mind was far away. And then just as quickly she was back. “Why can’t I see this sort of thing happening? Why is it always . . . other things?”

I understood her completely and began to wonder how much she would be able to help me if she had the same concerns I did about her own visions.

“Lucan told me to talk to you. He said to tell you he’s sorry.”

Several tears were released this time and I glanced around the kitchen, looking for tissues. Neila pulled a handkerchief out of the folds of her apron and scrubbed at her eyes.

“He’s right. I can’t keep this a secret anymore.”

“What is it?”

“We didn’t want anyone to know we knew each other,” she said. “He was here once when you stopped by. He’s been helping me with repairs around the house. But also, Lucan is a private detective.”

I sat back in my chair, trying to fit this information into the rest of what I knew about him.

“I hired him a year ago to help me find my son.”

“Your . . . son?”

She nodded. “I had a baby boy many years ago. I wasn’t married, not that that bothered me at all.” She stopped. “Have you ever wondered why I live up here all alone and almost never go into town?”

I thought she was trying to distract me from Lucan’s story.

“I guess I never gave it much thought. . . .”

“No one ever does, I suspect. Crystal Haven has all sorts of people who can do amazing things and the idea that there might be a scary witch really isn’t so surprising.”

I smiled at her. “I don’t think you’re a scary witch.”

“No, but you did. Until you came up here a week ago, if you gave any thought to me at all it would be to wonder if I was still alive, first, and whether I was really a witch, second.”

I started to argue, but she held my gaze and I nodded.

“I’m to blame, in part, for the rumors. I never did anything to stop them. In fact, I welcomed them when I decided to retreat from the world. It made it easier that everyone in town was a little afraid of me. No one ever got too curious.”

“Why did you decide to retreat?”

“Your grandmother was the only one who stood by me, but it wasn’t enough. My kind of talent is one that is guaranteed to keep people at a distance.”

I waited.

“I do see some bits of the future, and of course I can read the cards and tea leaves,” she said and waved her hand to encompass all of Crystal Haven’s offerings. “But my main talent, if you can call it that, is that I can see a woman’s children.”

“What do you mean?” I leaned toward her.

“I can see how many children she will have, whether there will be boys or girls, or both.”

“I don’t see how that’s such a scary talent.” I smiled and wondered where this was going. “I would think people would pay a lot of money to find out that sort of information.”

Neila nodded and clasped her hands tightly together on the tabletop. “In some cases, I can also see if the woman will outlive her child.”

“Oh.” I felt my smile fade, but forced myself not to look horrified.

Neila took in a deep breath and seemed to steady herself. “I can tell if a person is going to lose a child.”

I realized that this was why she had sequestered herself. The fewer people she met, the fewer tragedies she would see.

“Who knows about this . . . gift?”

Neila shrugged. “Most of the older members of the city council are aware, I think. They may not have firsthand knowledge, but they’ve probably heard the rumors.”

I grimaced at the word “rumor.” It seemed most of what passed for certainty in this town was based on chitchat and hearsay. Unfortunately, there was always a piece of truth buried in the gossip. I thought back to the story about Neila. The kids told the tale of how she was a witch who would take children from their parents and they were never seen again. Much like the “Hansel and Gretel” fable, the witch killed children. In Neila’s case, she knew which children would die.

Neila watched me while I struggled with this new information. No wonder she hid herself away. Not only did town legend have her pegged as a child killer, but her visions would show her which kids would die before their parents. I couldn’t imagine living with that kind of knowledge. Either as Neila, who had the knowledge, or as the parent, who didn’t want it.

“I tried for a long time to keep the information to myself, but that got to be just as bad. If someone’s child was in a car accident, they would blame me for not telling them and if I warned them ahead of time, they said I had ruined their last months with the child.”

I nodded, thinking about the burden she had carried all these years.

“What would you do?” she asked.

I already knew the answer to that one. I would run, just as I had been doing for the past fifteen years.

We sat quietly for a few minutes and then Neila seemed to gather her strength. She sat up, dried her tears, and took a deep breath.

“Rafe Godwin was my son,” she said.

My mouth dropped open and my brain froze. I didn’t know what to say.

“What?”

“I gave him up for adoption when he was born.” Her voice shook as she spoke. “The minute they placed him in my arms, I knew that I would outlive him. It’s amazing to discover what you will do for your child.” Her eyes filled again with tears.

“Oh, Neila,” I said and laid my hand over hers.

“I thought I’d figured out how to beat the prediction. Maybe if I sent him away, and didn’t try to find him, let him disappear into someone else’s life, I might be able to protect him.” She shook her head.

“What made you look for him now?”

“I guess I just got curious.” She lifted a shoulder. “I’m getting old. I wanted to know that he was okay. It never occurred to me that hiring Lucan would lead to anyone’s death.”

I squeezed her hand to get her to meet my eyes.

“There is nothing to indicate that your investigation of Rafe was related to his death in any way. You can’t take the blame for this.”

“Maybe not, but I can take the blame for not knowing my son.”

I didn’t have anything to say to that.

“If it makes you feel any better,” I said, “I think he was really proud of who he was. It sounds like he had a very supportive family.”

She smiled at me in a pitying way.

“He tried to hide the fact that he was adopted all of his life. Maybe he didn’t even know he was adopted until adulthood. I’ll never know how he felt about it all except that he didn’t want to admit to it.”

I nodded. She was right. He didn’t want to admit that he was adopted. If Dylan was correct, he’d even killed to keep it a secret. I shuddered to think of how he would have reacted if Neila had tried to contact him after she located him.

“So, all these years that he was living in Grand Rapids—you had no idea?”

She shook her head. “None. I assumed he’d been sent farther away. I don’t know why I thought that, but I always imagined him somewhere warm and sunny. I tried not to think about him very much at all.”

“How did Lucan find him?”

“He’s very good.” She shrugged. “I never quizzed him on his methods.”

“And he’s sure about Rafe?”

She nodded again. “He got close to Rafe through the coven and we sent off a DNA test. It’s been confirmed.”

“Were you planning to tell Rafe?”

“I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.” She traced the flowers in her tablecloth with a finger. “I just found out recently that Rafe had been looking into genealogy. He’d been working with that young girl. She apparently knows how to trace things with the computer.” She sipped her tea. “If I’d known he was looking for me as well, I would have gone to him immediately.”

Neila’s lost opportunities and regrets weighed on me. Skye was working on Neila’s family tree. Rafe must have known Neila was his mother. I wondered why, after all this time, he’d been trying to locate his birth parents.

“I just hope that Lucan and I didn’t trigger all of these events.”

“I don’t know how you could have. No one even knew what you were doing,” I said.

“No, but something got Rafe interested in his birth family.”

I wondered whether he would have been pleased in the end to find out that Neila was his mother. She was famous in her own way in Crystal Haven. Would he have found a way to turn that to his advantage? I hated to admit it, but my protectiveness toward Neila had me feeling relieved they’d never met.

34

I left Neila’s house feeling unsettled and anxious. My list of suspects was rapidly diminishing. My mother always told me to pay attention to my dreams and visions. I’d been dreaming about a woman. It had to be Morgan.

I drove to my parents’ to pick up Seth. I knew I’d also have to tell them the story of Lucan’s accident. Dad can only learn so much from his police scanner. I prepared myself for the interrogation that would ensue when they heard I had been out with Mac.

The noise from the dogs and the people enveloped me when I opened the front door.

“Where have you been?”

“I knew it!”

“We were worried.”

I barely heard these statements over the barking of the dogs. After everyone calmed down, we reconvened in the dining room. Mom had one highly polished extra sense—she always knew when I was starving. She brought some coffee and the leftover bagels and cream cheese the rest of them had eaten for breakfast. I hadn’t eaten more than a candy bar since dinner and I gave my food the focus it deserved. For about two bites. Then Vi slapped the table and startled everyone in the room.

“Tell us!”

“Give her a minute, Vi,” Mom said. “She needs to eat.”

Vi narrowed her eyes at both of us, and crossed her arms.

I swallowed and took a sip of coffee. Then, looking at Vi, I started to take another bite but her steely gaze stopped me. I put the bagel down.

“Lucan was hit by a car last night while he was out running,” I said. “He’s already had surgery and the doctors say he’ll recover nicely.”

Vi’s shoulders slumped. “You’re sure he’s okay? Too bad we weren’t following him last night—we might have been able to help.”

I nodded. “I think so. He’s got a broken leg, but he should be all right.”

“What happened?” Dad asked. “I heard about a 10-57 on the scanner. The driver didn’t stop to help him?”

I shook my head. “He didn’t see who the driver was, but they ran into him on purpose . . . and then backed over him.”

Mom gasped and reached for her amulet. Seth grimaced and shook his head.

“Is this related to Rafe?”

“I don’t know. It might be.” I didn’t know how much I could tell them without revealing Neila’s secret and the fact that I had been visiting her.

“Well, we know Dylan didn’t do it,” Dad said. “If it
is
connected, that should get Dylan out of jail.”

“Who would do something like that? It’s horrible,” Mom said.

I caught Vi’s eye and we both said, “Morgan Lavelle.”

Seth shook his head. “I don’t know.”

We all turned to look at him.

“It seems like you’re all just picking on her because she looks different. She might be a very nice person.”

“Are you accusing me of . . . of prejudice?” Vi sputtered.

“I don’t think so.” Seth tilted his head. “Maybe. You said she looks creepy—like Lady Gaga—but she’s just trying to make a living and express herself. There’s nothing wrong with that.” Seth shrugged.

“It’s not just how she looks, Seth,” I said. “She sells evil spell kits, and I found her mucking around in Rafe’s house, and . . . she’s creepy.”

“Well, you were at Rafe’s house, too,” he said. “And you’re psychic. Some people think that’s creepy.”

I wondered where all of this protection of Morgan came from. I didn’t think he’d ever even met the woman.

“We need more evidence,” Vi said.

“Yes, that would be helpful.” Mom nodded.

Dad put his head in his hands.

“We aren’t going to follow Morgan now, are we?” Seth said. “That hasn’t worked out so great in the past.”

I decided I needed to talk to Seth alone. He seemed very invested in his life in Crystal Haven and I knew it was time to confront him on his decision to leave New York.

“I have some things to take care of at home,” I said.

I thanked Mom for the breakfast and Seth got his things.

“We’ll work on a plan,” Vi said as we herded the dogs out to the car. “Let’s talk this afternoon.”

Amazed that I had escaped without talking about Mac, I turned the Jeep toward home. But, about a block away from my parents’ house, I pulled over and shut off the engine. The dogs looked at me curiously.

“What are we doing here?” Seth peeked out the window.

“Seth, we need to talk.” I knew this was the wrong way to approach a teenager, but I didn’t have time for subtle.

“Sure, okay.”

“Why did you come back to Crystal Haven?”

His phone buzzed and he pulled it out of his pocket with relief. I put my hand over it and waited until he looked at me.

His shoulders slumped.

“I can’t live there anymore,” he said.

“Where? In New York?”

He nodded. “Ever since this summer when I . . . heard Baxter. I’ve felt like I should be here. For one thing, there are a lot of animals in New York City and most of them aren’t very happy. It drags me down.”

I nodded. I hadn’t thought of this, but if he really could sense what the animals were thinking it was probably similar to the way I felt about my own premonitions—assaulted with no way to fight back.

“I thought that there must be other people dealing with this and it’s more likely I’ll find them here than in New York. Plus, my parents are always gone. There’s something going on at work and they’re stressed out.”

“But, don’t you miss them? Don’t you miss your sister?” Sophie was seven years younger than Seth, and my own status as a little sibling had me worried about her reaction to his vanishing act.

He nodded. “I do, but I miss them whether I’m here
or
there. I’ve heard from them more this past week than the whole time I was home. I guess they want to check in with me because I’m out of town. I do miss Sophie. . . .”

“I’m sorry, Seth. I didn’t know things were so stressful for your parents. Your mom doesn’t tell me very much about her work.”

He nodded. “She doesn’t talk about it much at all. But it’s been worse these past few months.”

I got an uncomfortable tingling feeling in my scalp and I rubbed my head to get rid of it. Grace was in trouble and I didn’t know how to help her.

“So, what’s your plan?”

He shrugged. “Dunno. I like it here. I’m keeping up with my schoolwork and I don’t have to deal with . . . actually going to school.”

There was no way Grace and Paul would agree to this. But, Seth clearly wanted to stay here. It would be an uncomfortable conversation—
Hi, sis, your kid wants to come live in the place you’ve been running from all your life
. I got a queasy feeling just thinking about it.

Seth looked at me with the same sad expression Baxter used when he wanted more dinner.

“Okay, I’m going to have to think about this. It’s really going to be up to your parents.”

He nodded, and I caught a fleeting smile as he turned his head away.

*   *   *

My chest is
bursting as I run up the steps. They are twisting around each other and go on and on. I can barely take a breath because the panic fills my lungs.

I have one thought: Seth.

Light bursts through ahead of me and I realize I am almost at the top. Wind nearly knocks me back down the stairs and rain lashes at my face when I force myself out onto the open tower. My head spins and I have to grip the rough stone wall to keep my balance. I hear the laughing again.

A dark, hooded figure steps out of the shadows and approaches me, slowly. I don’t want to see what is under the hood, but its hands pull back the fabric. Morgan.

Someone pounded on the door. I awoke on the couch with afternoon sun streaming in the windows. After we’d arrived home, Seth had taken the dogs for a walk. I’d stretched out on the couch and must have fallen asleep. My scratchy eyes didn’t want to open all the way and I felt disoriented after the dream.

I glanced at my watch. Seth had been gone about an hour. The pounding continued and was now punctuated by Diana’s urgent voice. “Clyde! Are you there?”

My heart sped up and I felt a jolt as I woke up fully and realized Seth wasn’t home yet and Diana was attacking my front entrance.

I jumped up and raced to the door. I wrenched it open such that Diana almost fell on me in her quest to break it down.

“Oh, you
are
here. Good.” She straightened up and smoothed her wild hair.

“Where’s Seth? Did something happen?”

Diana tilted her head and jerked her thumb over her shoulder. Seth was there in the yard, with Dylan and the dogs. Baxter and Tuffy were welcoming Dylan in their doggy way and Seth laughed at something Dylan said. I felt my body relax. After the dream and the urgent pounding, it took a moment to calm down.

“Why were you pounding on the door like that?”

Diana blushed. “I just . . . got worried when you didn’t answer. Seth said you were home and I got a bad feeling. . . .”

I grimaced and swung the door wide so she could enter.

“I take it Mac came to his senses about Dylan?”

Diana nodded. “Charla dropped him off just a little while ago. It seems they have new evidence.”

“What new evidence?”

Diana shook her head and shrugged. “She wouldn’t say. Just that Dylan wasn’t a suspect anymore. Rupert seemed relieved, and maybe a little disappointed that he wouldn’t need to go to court.”

I sat on the couch and rubbed my forehead.

“Are you okay?” Diana asked.

I nodded and offered her a weak smile. I knew I should be thrilled for Diana that Dylan was out of jail, but the dream lingered with a sense of menace and I was worried about this case. None of it made sense to me and I felt no closer to figuring it out than I had that first day in Mac’s office. “I’m so glad Dylan is in the clear, Diana. I just wish they had caught the killer by now.”

Diana dropped into the seat next to me. “I know. I was at the hospital earlier visiting Lucan and they have a police officer stationed outside. I had to show my driver’s license and get clearance from Mac just to go in the room.”

“Mac must think he’s still in danger.”

“What’s going to happen when they let him out of the hospital? Luke will never put up with a babysitter cop hanging around. . . .”

“You seem to know him pretty well,” I said.

Diana blushed and dropped her head so her face was hidden behind her hair. “He’s . . . not like anyone I’ve ever met.”

I vacillated about whether to tell her he was a private investigator, but decided to wait on that for now. It was his story to tell and she had enough to deal with.

“How long do you think you can keep Mac a secret from your family?” she said.

I had the same worry she did. It wouldn’t take long for them to put everything together and figure out that I had been with Mac when Lucan was found on the side of the road.

“Maybe another hour or so?” I sighed.