4 Witching On A Star (20 page)

“Hi, sweetheart,” I greeted her cautiously. “Can you come over here and talk to me?”

I noticed that the argument behind me had ceased. Clove and Thistle were fixed on me, but they weren’t moving. “Another ghost?” Thistle asked dubiously.

“Yeah.”

“From Erika’s boat?”

“No,” I shook my head grimly. “Definitely not.”

“Erika says you can help me,” the little girl said piteously. “Can you help me?”

“I’m going to try,” I said honestly. “What’s your name?”

“Gracie. Gracie Campbell,” she said quietly. “I just want my mommy.”

I didn’t blame her. Quite frankly, right now, I wanted my mommy, too.

“I need your help.”

I barged into Chief Terry’s office dramatically. I had left Gracie and Erika – who didn’t like the idea of driving in a car in the slightest – at Hypnotic with Clove and Thistle. It had taken awhile, but I had finally gotten enough information out of Gracie to give Landon and Chief Terry a place to start their search.

“Do you knock?” Landon looked surprised by my sudden appearance.

“The door was open.”

“We were in the middle of a conversation,” Landon pointed out.

I glanced over at Chief Terry, who seemed a little too amused buy our verbal interplay. “What are you smiling at?”

“I just like that you’re driving someone else crazy for a change,” Chief Terry said. “It takes the onus off me.”

“Well, not for long,” I said.

Chief Terry’s eyes shifted from bemusement to alarm quickly. “What’s wrong? Is it your mom? One of your aunts?”

“Aunt Tillie?” Landon asked grimly.

“No, they’re fine,” I said. “Well, at least I think they’re fine. This is about something else.”

“What?” Landon asked suspiciously.

“So we were out at the Dragonfly,” I started.

“When?” Landon jumped up angrily. “You said you were stopping by the paper and then spending the afternoon with Thistle and Clove until I was done here.”

“I did,” I replied irritably. “I just saw . . . that doesn’t matter right now. It turned out to be a big nothing. Anyway, when we were leaving the Dragonfly, Erika found us.”

“Who is Erika?” Chief Terry asked curiously.

“She’s a ghost,” I replied carefully.

“A little girl ghost,” Landon supplied.

“The one you had me searching the lake for?” Chief Terry looked nonplussed. “The one that died running away from slavers? What does she want now?”

“She’s not the problem.”

“She’s not?”

“Well, she is,” I corrected myself. “I have to find a way to help her move on and I have no idea how I’m going to do that. How do you help a hundred-and-sixty-year old ghost get closure? I can’t even think about that right now, though. We have bigger problems.”

“We do?” Landon didn’t look thrilled with the statement.

“Erika wasn’t alone when she showed up at the Dragonfly,” I said.

“Who was with her?” Chief Terry asked curiously.

“Another little girl.”

“One from her boat?” Landon looked confused. “Wasn’t much of a freedom ride, was it?”

“No,” I shook my head. “This little girl was not on Erika’s boat. She’s from the other boat. The one Erika told us about.”

“She died recently?” Chief Terry was tense again.

“Yeah.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Well, she was blonde, white and wearing
OshKosh overalls,” I replied succinctly.

“That doesn’t mean she died recently,” Chief Terry said warily. “Kids wore
OshKosh decades ago.”

“She’s a new ghost,” I said. “Erika said she was on the boat.”

“How did she die?” Landon asked. “Wait, I don’t want to know.”

“You don’t?”

“Okay, tell me,” Landon said grimly. “Not knowing is worse than knowing. Tell us.”

“I don’t know how she died,” I admitted. “She didn’t want to talk about what happened on the boat, which makes me think it was pretty bad.”

“What did she want to talk about?” Chief Terry asked.

“She’s a little freaked out and upset,” I replied. “Basically, she just wants her mommy.”

“Well that’s just . . . sad,” Landon said quietly. “So what do we do?”

“We find out about her,” I said simply. “She said her name is Gracie Campbell. If I had to guess, she’s about eight years old, but I would expand the parameters when you do your search. It’s hard to pin it down with kids that age.”

“You want us to see if there’s a missing girl named Gracie Campbell?” Chief Terry asked wearily.

“Yes.”

“And then what?” Landon asked.

“Well, if we can find a real girl that’s missing, can’t we just fudge some details to get help looking for the boat?”

“Fudge some details?” Chief Terry raised his eyebrows. “Is that a technical term?”

“No,” I bit my lower lip. “Can’t you do something if we prove that the little girl is real and that someone is looking for her?”

“How am I going to explain to the Coast Guard that a ghost told us she died and then we found her in a missing person file?” Chief Terry asked.

“I don’t know,” I shrugged helplessly.

Landon grimaced. “Let’s take it one step at a time,” he said. “Let’s see if we can find Gracie Campbell first and then decide what to do when and if that happens.”

“I guess we have to start somewhere,” Chief Terry agreed.

“I THINK I MIGHT
have her.”

I glanced up and met Chief Terry’s steady gaze. “Really?”

Chief Terry and Landon had been going through missing person files for the past two hours. Occasionally, they would call me over to ask if any of the children in the files they were looking at looked familiar but – so far – the search had been a big bust.

I moved around Chief Terry’s desk and glanced at his computer screen. The sight of Gracie Campbell’s face – her living face – was staring back at me. “That’s her.”

“Her name is Grace Ellen Campbell,” Chief Terry said, reading from the information file attached to the photo. “She’s ten years old. She was reported missing a little over a week ago.”

“Her mother?” I asked resignedly.

Chief Terry shook his head sadly. “No. According to this, her mother was injured in a car crash that killed her father four months ago. She’s been in foster care since.”

“Foster care? But you said her mom survived. She’s looking for her mom.”

“Her mother has been in a coma since the accident,” Chief Terry explained. “She was put into the foster care system for the time being. It doesn’t look like she has any other living relatives besides the mother and until a determination can be made on the mother’s viability, the kid stays in foster care.”

“Not technically,” I said, my voice barely a whisper. “She’s not in the foster care system anymore.”

“No,” Chief Terry agreed. “Not anymore.”

Landon walked back into the office, returning from his coffee hunt, and glancing up at us as he did. “Find something?”

“We found her,” Chief Terry nodded. “It’s complicated, though.”

Landon moved to read over Chief Terry’s shoulder. After a few minutes, he turned to me expectantly. “Well, this is just . . .”

“Terrible?”

“Disgusting,” Landon said. “Someone took this little girl because they knew she was vulnerable. They knew that a lot of people wouldn’t be looking for her. Then they killed her.”

“So, is this enough to get more patrols on the lake?”

Landon rolled his shoulders, trying to rub out the kinks as he did. “I don’t know,” he said honestly. “We have to think of a valid reason why.”

“What do we do until then?”

“We talk to the foster mother,” Landon said grimly. “I want to do some research on her, make sure she’s not involved in this.”

“You think she’s involved?” I was horrified.

“I don’t know,” Landon cautioned. “I can tell you that I’m not going to let her get away with it if she is.”

His face was fierce with determination.

“I’ve got a friend at the Coast Guard,” Chief Terry said, rubbing his chin tiredly. “I’m going to talk to him and let slip that we’ve had a couple of residents commenting on a strange boat off the coast.”

Landon looked intrigued. “A strange boat?”

“I’m going to let him think that maybe there are drug traffickers out there or something,” Chief Terry said. “It’s not perfect, but it’s something at least. This way, they’ll be on the lookout and more apt to stop boats in the channel.”

“How does that help?” I was confused.

“Because, if there’s a big drug bust out there, the Coast Guard will get all the glory,” Landon said knowingly.

“So, why not just tell them our suspicions?”

“Because,” Chief Terry answered. “They’ll think we’re crazy. We’ve got to make it look like it’s their idea, not our idea.”

“Don’t you think all this subterfuge is just a little paranoid?”

“Really? Coming from you and your wacky cousins?” Landon challenged me.

He had a point.

“Okay, you guys know what to do in this situation better than I do,” I said. “I’m going to run back over to Hypnotic and see how Clove and Thistle are getting along with Erika and Gracie.”

“Now, when you say you’re going to be at Hypnotic, does that mean I’ll find you traipsing around the countryside in about an hour when I come to pick you up?” Landon’s question was pointed.

“It’s not like we were doing anything dangerous,” I countered. “We were just going out to see Uncle Warren.”

“What you still haven’t told me is why?”

“We wanted to ask him some questions,” I replied irritably. “Is that a crime?”

“When you tell me you’re going to be one place and you end up in another, that’s a crime,” Landon said.

“No, it’s not,” I shot back. “It’s running an errand with my cousins.”

“I’m not going to fight about this,” Landon warned.

“Good,” I raised my eyebrows in challenge. “I would hate for us to fight about something trivial. Again.”

Chief Terry started chuckling.

“This isn’t funny,” Landon turned on him.

“Watching you two fight all your hormones? It’s damn funny from where I’m sitting.”

Landon flushed. “Hormones? This has nothing to do with hormones.”

“Oh, please,” Chief Terry waved off Landon’s anger. “Boy, every time you look at her I can feel the hormones. It’s kind of sweet. Gross and uncomfortable, but sweet all the same.”

I smirked at Landon victoriously.

“I wouldn’t be so full of yourself, missy,” Chief Terry turned to me. “You’re just as bad.”

“That’s just a bald-faced lie,” I said.

“I agree,” Landon grumbled.

“Of course,” Chief Terry said. “There are no hormones involved here. I’m totally wrong. Sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“So, I’ll see you in an hour?” Landon asked, purposely turning his back on Chief Terry as I started to move out of the office.

“Yeah, I’ll be there. I promise.”

“Good,” Landon said. “I might want to have a talk with you about . . . those hormones later tonight.”

I smiled despite myself. “Yeah, well, okay.”

“Hey,” Chief Terry barked. “Let’s not get all flirty in front of me. It makes me uncomfortable.”

“You were the one that brought up the hormones,” Landon pointed out.

“Yeah, but I don’t want to see you two talk about doing stuff about them,” Chief Terry said. “She’s always going to be ten years old to me and that makes you a dirty old man. Are we clear on that?”

“Yeah, we’re clear,” Landon said shortly.

Chief Terry turned to me. “Clear?”

“Does that mean I don’t have to hear about your hormones where my mom and aunts are concerned?”

Chief Terry looked scandalized. “That is none of your business, young lady.”

“Oh, it’s not so funny when it’s your hormones, is it?”

“This conversation is over,” Chief Terry said suddenly. “You go do whatever it is you do with your cousins and you, Landon, you go back to doing some actual work.”

“Got it, chief,” I laughed as I walked out the door. I was halfway down the hall when I heard Chief Terry speak again.

“How do you put up with her?”

“I don’t know,” Landon answered. “It must be all the hormones.”

After a night of exploring our hormones – no bacon smell included – Landon and I woke up refreshed and relaxed.

“It’s hard to believe that I can feel this good when things are so bad right now,” I admitted, snuggling into Landon’s side the next morning.

“We can’t stop living, Bay,” Landon said, dropping a kiss on my forehead. “We’re going to find Gracie and we’re going to find the people that hurt her. We can’t do it all in one day, though.”

“But there are other kids out there.”

“I know,” Landon said. “The problem we have is that we don’t know if that boat is even in the area anymore. We don’t have any specifics about the boat. You said Erika can’t read. We don’t know the name of the boat. We don’t even know if it is in Michigan waters or international waters. For all we know, the boat has docked in Canada at this point and is long gone.”

“Well, you’re a joy in the morning,” I grumbled.

I felt Landon’s chest quake with laughter next to me. “You’re the biggest grump of all in the morning and you’re making fun of me?”

“I’m not grumpy in the morning.”

“Right,” Landon sighed. “You’re all sweetness and light.”

“What time is it?” I bolted up suddenly.

“Why?”

“I have to get down to the inn,” I said. “The contractors are coming and I promised that I would stop by to make sure Aunt Tillie isn’t . . . well, being Aunt Tillie.”

“That’s a tall order,” Landon said.

“Well, if you get up and get showered right now, I can see a big pile of peanut butter pancakes in your future,” I teased him.

Landon looked interested. “Your mom’s peanut butter pancakes?”

“Well, I’m not cooking for you.”

“How come your mother and aunts can all cook but I found you and Thistle eating tuna straight from the can for dinner two weeks ago?”

“Not all gifts hit every generation,” I said lightly, climbing out of bed.

“Gifts? Cooking is a gift?”

“When you’re a kitchen witch, like them, yes.”

“And what kind of witch are you?”

“I’m an earth witch,” I said. “Thistle and Clove are, too.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means we can call upon the elements and we’re at home in nature essentially,” I replied distractedly. I always got a little uncomfortable when Landon probed too far into the witch thing. It made me nervous.

“Call upon the elements? Like that wind monster?”

We didn’t speak about the events from a few months ago very often. I knew Landon was still uneasy with what he had seen.

“Kind of,” I hedged.

“Your mothers were involved in that, though,” Landon pointed out.

“They can call upon the elements,” I replied, meeting Landon’s searching gaze worriedly. “That’s not a great strength for them. They funneled their power into the spell that Clove, Thistle, Aunt Tillie and I conjured.”

“So you created the wind monster?”

“We all did,” I said.

“And who gave it form?”

I grimaced. I had wondered if he had noticed that. “Aunt Tillie.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Truthfully? Because when it passed me by me I realized I recognized the eyes staring back at me.”

“You knew him?” Landon looked impressed.

“No,” I shook my head. “I recognized him from pictures.”

“Who was he?”

“My Uncle Calvin.”

Landon looked flabbergasted. “Was it really him?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “We conjured the wind out of rage and anger. Maybe Aunt Tillie just gives form to her anger.”

“Why don’t you ask her?” Landon asked pointedly.

“Maybe I don’t want to know the answer,” I said. “Or, maybe, I know she doesn’t want to answer the question.”

“So, you’re just going to let it go?”

“Do you have any other suggestions?”

“Ask her,” Landon replied simply.

“Why don’t you ask her,” I suggested. “That sounds like an even better idea to me.”

“I’m not asking her.”

“Well,” I shrugged. “I guess we’re in the same boat.”

AN HOUR
later Landon was plowing into his second plate of peanut butter pancakes and I was finishing off a glass of tomato juice as my mom and aunts busily discussed the contingency of guests that were expected to arrive in two days.

“More pancakes, Landon?” My mom pushed the plate towards him, her eyes twinkling mischievously. “You certainly have an appetite this morning.”

“I just love your cooking,” Landon said, avoiding the obvious infringement of personal space my mother was currently embarking on. “Bay can’t cook. Her idea of breakfast is cereal – or a glass of tomato juice.”

Landon made a face when I swallowed another gulp of juice. He was disgusted by tomato juice and had made that opinion fairly obvious every time I drank it over the past few months.

“She’s always loved tomato juice,” my mom agreed. “I like it, too, but she could live on it. Have you seen her dip pickles in it for a snack? That’s really gross.”

“Yeah, she does that about once a week,” Landon grimaced. “I make her brush her teeth before she kisses me.”

“Well, that’s nice – I guess.” My mom frowned at the over share.

Landon realized what he’d said but it was too late to take it back. “I’m sorry. That was too much information. Chief Terry made it abundantly clear that he didn’t want to hear about my hormones and I’m guessing that you don’t either.”

I kicked Landon swiftly under the table.

“
Ow,” he rubbed his leg. “What is that for?”

“What are you doing?” I hissed.

“Talking to your mom over breakfast,” Landon said ruefully. “Is that a crime?”

“Just stop talking,” I muttered.

“You should listen to her,” Aunt Tillie said sagely from her spot on the other side of Landon. “You’re awfully chatty this morning and it is embarrassing the girl.”

“I’m not embarrassed,” I countered.

“You look embarrassed.”

“Well, look again,” I said briefly.

“You still look embarrassed.”

“You know what?” I pushed away from the table. “I have actual work to do today, so why don’t we check in with the contractors and then you can spend the afternoon telling them about how embarrassed I am?”

“Fine,” Aunt Tillie said, suddenly going rigid. “I’ll meet you down there in a few minutes.”

“Why?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at her suspiciously. “What are you up to?”

“What do you mean?” Aunt Tillie frowned. “I’m not up to anything. Why do you always assume I’m up to something?”

“Because you usually are,” Landon said around another mouthful of pancakes.

“You stay out of this,” Aunt Tillie warned him off with a point of her finger.

“Fine,” I said tiredly. “I’ll be down at the construction site. You do whatever it is you’re not doing and meet me down there. And you, “ I turned to Landon. “Keep me up on whatever you find out today.”

Landon nodded. “You got it.”

“What are you doing today?” My mom asked Landon curiously.

“I’m just working on something with Chief Terry,” Landon said evasively.

“Oh, well, if you’re seeing Terry, I have some fresh baked donuts to send with you,” she said happily. “Let me go pack them up.”

“You made fresh donuts? How come I’m just hearing about this now?”

“Because they’re for tomorrow,” my mom said. “You and your cousins will eat them all if we’re not careful.”

“You could have set a few aside,” I complained.

“There’s a plate of chocolate-sprinkled in the kitchen for the three of you,” my mom said. “You can take them with you when you go.”

“Awesome.”

Dirk was already hard at work when I made my way down to the construction site. He greeted me with a warm smile and an embarrassed shake of his head. “I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “I wanted to apologize to you about what my grandfather said at dinner the other night.”

It took me a second to focus and then I remembered Kenneth and his curmudgeonly flirting with Aunt Tillie. The memory wasn’t unpleasant.

“It’s fine,” I waved off his concerns. “Trust me. It was nice to see Aunt Tillie get a little shaken.”

“Well, it still wasn’t appropriate,” Dirk said apologetically. “My grandfather thinks that, because he’s old, he can just say or do whatever he wants.”

“Aunt Tillie thinks that, too,” I said. “It has nothing to do with her age, though, and everything to do with entitlement. She’s always been like this – or so I hear.”

“Well,” Dirk hedged. “Either way, I just want you to know that I had a talk with him and he promised not to do it again.”

“I don’t understand,” I started. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not like he’ll see her again.”

“Um, well . . . “ Dirk broke off.

Uh-oh.

“The thing is, my grandfather, he started the business,” Dirk explained. “He’s still the main owner of the business and, even though he doesn’t do any of the work anymore, he still has the ability to come on job sites with us.”

I glanced around the area quickly, my gaze falling on Kenneth near one of the trucks. “So he’s going to keep coming out here to work?”

“He won’t be doing much work,” Dirk said grimly. “Except maybe on your aunt.”

Something niggled in the corner of my brain. “Did my Aunt Tillie know he was coming?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Huh.”

“Huh, what?”

I inclined my head behind Dirk. He turned curiously, just in time to see Aunt Tillie arrive with a box full of donuts. She put the box down on the hood of one of the trucks, opened it, and pulled out a chocolate frosted one and handed it to Kenneth grudgingly. “I figure you deserve one of these, even if you’re not really working.”

Kenneth smiled, tickled to see Aunt Tillie again. “That hard hat makes you look hot.”

“Are you getting fresh?”

“Maybe,” Kenneth smiled.

Aunt Tillie glanced at me and frowned. “Well, enjoy your donut.”

“Don’t you want to have one with me?” Kenneth asked.

“I already ate breakfast,” Aunt Tillie stiffened.

“Well then, maybe while everyone else is working, you can show me the rest of the grounds? I bet they’re beautiful.”

“They’re just grounds,” Aunt Tillie shrugged.

“You don’t want to show me around?” Kenneth looked disappointed.

“I could show you around,” Aunt Tillie said begrudgingly. “If you’re that interested, it’s not a problem.”

“Good,” Kenneth brightened considerably and held out his arm for her. “Shall we, milady?”

I pushed my tongue to the roof of my mouth to keep from laughing aloud as Kenneth led Aunt Tillie past Dirk and me.

“Don’t you say a word,” Aunt Tillie warned as she walked by. “Not one word.”

I merely shook my head. “My lips are sealed.”

But only until I could get some time alone with Clove and Thistle. This was too good not to share.