Witching You Were Here (Wicked Witches of the Midwest Book 3) (7 page)

“We don’t know. We haven’t been able to get that far yet.”

“Has anyone reported them missing?”

“We have a call in to the authorities in Canada,” Landon said. His eyes never left my drawn face. “We haven’t heard back yet.”

“Is there any reason to believe that someone would want them dead?”

“All we know is that they were in their late sixties and they bought the boat a little over a year ago,” Chief Terry said. “We don’t know if they had any enemies. We don’t know anything about their financial situation. We don’t really know anything except that the boat was empty and that there was blood on the deck.”

“We just got the case an hour ago,” Landon reminded me.

“I know,” I said testily. “I was just checking.”

Chief Terry leaned back in his chair and regarded me doubtfully. “I think something else is going on.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because you have that same guilty look on your face that you had when you got caught shoplifting lipstick when you were twelve.”

Landon tried to hide his smile. I didn’t find the situation amusing.

“I didn’t shoplift it,” I said. “It fell in my bag.” Actually, Thistle had dropped it in there, but I had no intention of dragging her down, too.

“I didn’t believe it then and I don’t believe that nothing is going on now,” Chief Terry said gently.

I looked up at him forlornly. “Brian Kelly called me into his office for a meeting,” I started.

“Did he do something to you?” Landon looked incensed. He and Brian had gone toe to toe several times when Landon hadn’t liked Brian’s interest in me.

“He wasn’t alone,” I continued. “He had a new advertiser there. The thing is, I know the advertiser.”

“Who is it?” Chief Terry looked concerned.

“Ted Proctor.” I blurted out the name before I fully considered the ramifications of my actions. I trusted Chief Terry, but my mom and aunts could sweet talk just about anything out of him with just the promise of cookies and homemade pot roast.

“Ted Proctor?” Chief Terry looked confused.

“Who is Ted Proctor?” Landon looked like he was ready to jump into action, although he had no idea why.

Realization dawned on Chief Terry’s face. “Teddy Proctor?”

“Yeah,” I nodded miserably.

“Thistle’s father?”

I nodded again.

“I don’t understand,” Landon started. “Why is everyone so worked up about Thistle’s father coming to town? Is he a bad guy or something?”

“He’s not a good guy,” I said.

Chief Terry sighed. “He’s Twila’s ex-husband.”

“Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

Chief Terry regarded me warily. “Teddy Proctor left town, abandoning Twila and Thistle when she was still a little girl. As far as I know, he hasn’t been back since.”

“Abandon is a strong word,” I said.

“What would you call it?” Chief Terry asked bleakly.

“He left town and . . . yeah, he abandoned them.”

“So why are you so upset?” Landon asked curiously.

“He asked me to let him approach Thistle.”

“So, that seems like a reasonable request.”

I had to remind myself that Landon wasn’t being purposely obtuse. “He doesn’t want me to tell her that I’ve seen him.”

The fog cleared from Landon’s face. “And you don’t want to lie to her?”

“I can’t lie to her,” I admitted. “She always knows.”

“Maybe you’re just a bad liar,” he said pointedly.

“I’m a terrible liar,” I said, ignoring the pointed barb. “Especially when it comes to Thistle and Clove. When I was thirteen I broke Thistle’s favorite doll and tried to blame it on Clove.”

“What did she do?”

“She burned down my tree house.”

Landon looked stunned, while Chief Terry chuckled to himself. “I remember that. You were crying like someone had died.”

“I loved that tree house,” I said.

“I know,” Chief Terry said. “Every time you ran away as a kid and your mom would call me all panicked that was the first place I looked.”

“And you always found me there,” I said. “And you never told them where I was hiding.”

“I figured you had your reasons to run away,” Chief Terry said fondly.

“I’m guessing that reason usually had something to do with Aunt Tillie,” Landon said.

“I can’t lie to Thistle,” I said.

“Then tell her the truth,” Chief Terry said gently.

“Uncle Teddy asked me not to.”

“Are you loyal to him or Thistle?”

I met Chief Terry’s gaze evenly. “Thistle, of course. That’s why I’m so torn, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“Thistle brought up her dad this morning,” I explained. “She’s clearly been thinking about him. I don’t want to ruin their reunion by forcing a confrontation before either of them is ready.”

“Then I would suggest booking a room at another inn,” Chief Terry said honestly. “Because one look at your face and she’s going to know something is up.”

I knew he was right, even if I didn’t want to acknowledge it.

“You can stay with me,” Landon said brightly.

I could hear Chief Terry grunt from across the table. “Don’t even think about it.”

“Excuse me,” Landon met Chief Terry’s consternation with a flash of his dimples.

“Don’t make me beat you, boy,” Chief Terry said.

“She’s a grown woman,” Landon pointed out.

“Not to me,” Chief Terry smiled. “To me she’ll always be the little girl that bribed me with apple fritters in a tree house.”

I excused myself from Chief Terry’s office a few minutes later. I still wasn’t sure what to do. On one hand, I could try to avoid Thistle – which would undoubtedly end with one of us pulling a clump of the other’s hair out of her head. On the other hand, I could tell her I saw her father and that he had been hiding from her – which would undoubtedly end with her trying to scratch his eyes out.

It was a tough choice.

Landon followed me out of Chief Terry’s office. He didn’t invade my personal space, but he didn’t walk away either.

“You probably think I’m a whiny baby,” I said finally, glancing out the front window of the police station when we got to the front vestibule.

“No,” Landon smiled. “I think that the loyalty you share with your cousins is fairly impressive. It reminds me of me and my brothers.”

“You have brothers?” I realized I didn’t know very much about him.

“Two,” Landon said. “Both younger.”

“And where are they?”

“One of them lives in Traverse City,” Landon said. “I see him every couple of weeks. We get together for a football game and beers.”

I could picture him hanging out with his brother and watching football. It was a nice image.

“And your other brother?”

“He lives in Saginaw,” Landon said. “He’s a Baptist minister.”

Well, that was surprising. “Really?”

“Yeah, every time I see him he tells me I’m going to go to hell because I’m plagued by impure thoughts.”

The statement was pointed, and I could feel myself blush under his sudden scrutiny. “So, what would you do in my situation?”

“I don’t know,” Landon said honestly. “My mom and dad are still married so I don’t know what I would do in your situation. Something tells me, though, you’re worried about more than Thistle’s reaction to seeing her dad.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that you’re also worried about
Twila. And if you’re worried about Twila and Thistle, that means the rest of your family will be worried about Twila and Thistle. And if the rest of your family gets worked up, that means that everyone in town should be worried about Twila and Thistle.”

I think Landon was going for levity, but his words carried a trace of truth that I couldn’t deny.

“Aunt Tillie is a concern,” I said carefully. “She didn’t like Uncle Teddy when he was married to Twila. She downright hates him now.”

“And we don’t want her getting mad,” Landon said seriously. I could see he was really concerned.

“She wouldn’t kill him or anything,” I said hurriedly.

“Then what would she do?” Landon asked curiously.

I pictured Ted’s face full of boils for a second and then shook my head. “Nothing that would have permanent ramifications.”

“I guess that’s something to be happy about,” Landon said dubiously.

“This is such a mess,” I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose to ward off the migraine that was threatening to overtake me.

Landon took a careful step towards me and then pulled me towards him, wrapping his strong arms around me to comfort me. I considered pulling away, but it felt so good to be in his protective circle – even if it couldn’t last – that I willingly stayed there and rested my head on his shoulder for a minute.

When I finally broke away, I looked up into Landon’s clear eyes and saw the comfort I so desperately wanted. I could tell he wanted to kiss me, but one look at the curious secretary at the front desk told him that he didn’t want to do it here. I wanted him to kiss me, too, but I didn’t exactly want an audience.

“I’ll walk you back to the paper,” Landon said finally, shooting an irritated look in the secretary’s direction.

“That sounds nice,” I said with a warm smile. I meant it, too. It did sound nice.

Unfortunately that sentiment didn’t last long. When I exited the police station, Landon close on my heels, I found Thistle standing in the middle of the sidewalk with her hands on her hips. She was waiting for me.

I inadvertently pulled back when I saw her, slamming backwards into Landon as I did so. He wrapped an arm around my chest to steady me. “Hey, Thistle,” he greeted her with faux enthusiasm.

Thistle ignored Landon’s greeting. “Why did you walk away from me when I was talking to you at the stable?”

“I didn’t,” I said, avoiding Thistle’s angry gaze. “I just needed to talk to Chief Terry about the boat.”

“It’s been like an hour,” Thistle said dismissively. “You knew they wouldn’t have any real information yet. Plus, The Whistler is a weekly. You don’t have to turn your story in for days.”

“That doesn’t mean that I didn’t want to get up-to-date information,” I lied smoothly.

“You’re full of it,” Thistle challenged me. “You’re hiding something.”

“How’s Marcus?” Landon was trying to deflect the conversation. I wanted to kiss him – again – right there.

“He wants to know why Bay is avoiding me,” Thistle said, shooting a pointed look in Landon’s direction.

“I’m not avoiding you,” I lied. “If you must know, I was trying to find a reason to invite Landon to dinner up at the inn tonight.” The minute I said the words, I regretted them. The last thing I wanted to do was spend time with Landon – with my mom and aunts hanging around, that is.

If Landon was surprised by the invitation, he hid it well. “I’m looking forward to a home-cooked meal,” he said brightly.

Thistle shifted her gaze from my face to Landon’s. “That’s funny,” she said. “Because when you were at Hypnotic, not an hour ago, you said that you didn’t want me to tell my mom about you running into Landon because that would mean they would force him into a family dinner.”

I could feel Landon shaking with silent laughter behind me. “You really told her that?”

“You’re not funny,” I muttered. All the warm feelings I had been basking in where he was concerned a few minutes ago were suddenly gone.

Landon returned to the task at hand. “I’m really looking forward to dinner tonight. I think it sounds like fun.”

“Really?” Thistle challenged him. “I never realized you were crazy.”

“You don’t want me to come to dinner?”

“Oh, no, I want you to come to dinner,” Thistle said. “In fact, I expect your phone to ring with an invitation from my Aunt Winnie at any moment. I just don’t think that was what Bay was doing here.”

I frowned at Thistle. “I told you not to tell your mom.”

“I didn’t,” Thistle waved off my concerns. “I told Marnie.”

“That’s the same thing.”

“No it’s not,” Thistle said. “My mom and Marnie are different people.”

“Barely,” I grumbled.

“I’m not letting you change the subject,” Thistle plowed on. “I want to know why you’re avoiding me.”

“I’m not avoiding you,” I said, trying to step around Thistle so I could get to the sidewalk that led back to The Whistler. “You’re just being paranoid.”

Thistle moved in front of me to block my way. “I know when you’re lying. You’re horrible at it.”

“I’m not lying.”

“Oh, you’re lying, I just can’t figure out why. You were fine when you were at Hypnotic. You were even excited about Landon being back in town. Then you went to meet the new advertiser at the paper and now you’re being all . . . weird. Who was at the paper?”