4 Witching On A Star (26 page)

“How did you get them loose?” Dean asked angrily, taking a step towards me.

I could feel the children shrinking in terror behind me, so I projected a warming spell around them in an effort to still their fear. “Magic.”

“Magic?” Dean looked nonplussed. “Really? You have a skeleton key or something? You can pick a lock for some reason?”

“No,” I shook my head.

“How did you find this boat?” Karen asked. She was pacing closer to the door – and she didn’t look happy.

“I was out for a walk and just stumbled upon it,” I lied. “When I saw the boat, I just wanted to check it out. I thought it was abandoned.”

“Where are your cousins?” Dean asked. He didn’t look like he believed me, and he was searching the room curiously – like Thistle and Clove were hiding in a corner or something.

“Home.”

“Really? You came out for a walk at the Dandridge alone? At night?”

A thought occurred to me. “I wasn’t alone. Landon was with me.”

Dean’s face crusted over with anger. “Where is he?”

“She’s lying,” Karen said. “If she was out here with him he would be here now. Do you really think a FBI agent would be running around in the dark with this idiot? She’s just trying to stall.”

“I guess we should kill her now then,” Dean said. “We’ll dump her with that other brat when we get a couple hundred miles north.”

“Her name was Gracie,” I said angrily clamping my mouth shut when I realized that I had shared too much information.

“How do you know that?” Karen asked suspiciously, taking a step forward. “How could you possibly know that?”

I heard one of the children behind me whimper. I had to stall until help arrived. “I know a lot of things,” I said boldly. “We’ve been looking for this boat for awhile.”

“This particular boat?” Dean asked worriedly. “I knew it.”

“Why do you think you kept running into us up here?” I continued, avoiding Dean’s question. “We were looking for the boat. We were looking for the kids.”

“You didn’t do a very good job of looking,” Dean scoffed. “We were right here the whole time.”

“I didn’t know about the cove,” I admitted. “It’s kind of frustrating to think that we could have ended this days ago.”

“We can end it now,” Karen suggested. “I’m all for that.”

“Why did you guys stay here so long?” I asked hurriedly, trying to distract both of them. “You could have escaped and no one would have been the wiser.”

“We couldn’t leave,” Karen said bitterly. “The Coast Guard has been all over this area for days. We were stuck.”

Whoops. I decided to change to a different tactic. “So, opening the Dandridge was just a big fat lie?”

“Actually, no,” Dean said. “I have every intention of refurbishing the Dandridge. It’s going to be our home base. It will be a nice little business for the town and a great way to hide what we’re really doing.”

“Your home base for what?”

“For this,” Dean gestured at the small faces behind me.

“I don’t know what this is,” I admitted. “All I know is that you have five children shackled on a boat and another dead child out in the hallway.”

“Gracie,” one of the kids behind me whispered. “She didn’t find a new home?”

I frowned. “Is that what you told them? That Gracie found a new home?”

“You would prefer that we tell them the truth?” Karen’s voice was icy. “I don’t think that would go over well.”

“Where are you taking them?”

“North,” Dean said evasively. “We have people waiting for them there.”

“To what end?” I pressed. I just needed to keep stalling.

“We’re finding them new homes,” Karen replied. “They’re all orphans. We’re part of a rescue group.”

“Really? What kind of rescue group chains kids in the belly of a barge?”

“Yeah, I didn’t think you would buy that one,” Karen laughed. “I had to try, though. I guess that’s not going to sway you from your
Scooby-Doo
moment, huh?”

“Not really,” I replied dryly. “If I’m going to die, I want to know why.”

“You mean you haven’t figured it out?” Dean looked surprised. “If you haven’t figured it out, why are you here?”

“I told you, I was out for a walk and stumbled on the boat.”

“I think we’re beyond that,” Dean prodded me. “Why don’t we lay all of our cards on the table and see where we stand?”

“Okay,” I agreed. “We’ve been looking for the boat for days,” I said honestly. “We didn’t find it until tonight.”

“Who is we?” Karen asked.

“What?” I internally cringed.

“You said we found it tonight. I want to know who the we is.”

“I told you, Landon was with me.”

“And why isn’t he with you now?”

“We got separated,” I said. “When he can’t find me, he’ll be calling the police out here to conduct an extensive search.”

Dean and Karen exchanged worried glances. “I think you’re lying,” Karen said finally. “I think you’re out here with Thistle and Clove.”

Crap on toast.

“Speaking of Clove,” I said. “What’s the deal with you and Uncle Warren? Is he in on this, too?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Karen said innocently. “We’re in love.”

“I think you’re with him to make sure that people aren’t suspicious about why you’re in town,” I countered. “I don’t know much about him, but I can’t believe he’d be involved in this.

“I’m in town to decorate the Dragonfly, and when I’m done, I’ll be decorating the Dandridge,” Karen said. “That’s the truth. And, no, Warren doesn’t know anything about this. Are you kidding me? He’s as naïve as the rest of you. I am telling the truth, though, when I say that I originally came out here to decorate the Dragonfly.”

“And, what, you just stumbled on a human trafficking ring?” I probed. “That’s seems . . . unlikely.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Karen mused. “It only seems unlikely to you, though, since you’ve discovered the truth. Once you’re gone, though, no one will suspect me.”

“And you’ll be able to help Warren while he’s trying to console Clove,” I replied sagely.

“Oh, I don’t see Clove surviving the night,” Karen laughed hollowly. “If you know what’s going on, so do your annoying little cousins.”

“They don’t know that it’s you,” I said hurriedly. “They only know about the boat.”

“Then they know too much,” Karen said simply.

“They’re not the only ones that know about the boat,” I said quickly.

“Who else?” Dean asked dangerously.

“Landon. Chief Terry. A few other people.”

“That’s why there’s increased patrols, isn’t it?” Dean asked. “It’s all because of you.”

“It could be,” I agreed.

“Well, the question is, how did you find out about our little . . . operation?” Karen asked.

“Operation? Is that what you call kidnapping children away from their families and shipping them off God knows where to do God knows what?”

“If it’s any consolation,” Karen said matter-of-factly. “We are taking them to new families.”

“Really? Somehow I have my doubts.”

“No, we really are taking them to new families,” Karen said earnestly. “Families that have peculiar interests, but families all the same.”

I felt sick to my stomach. “You mean sexual deviants, don’t you?”

“Among other things,” Dean said. “We don’t really ask questions of the buyers. We don’t care why they want the merchandise – we just procure the merchandise.”

“This is an awful big operation for two people,” I said. “I mean, you have to kidnap the kids, transport them to the boat, pilot the boat and deliver the kids. I don’t think only two people could handle it.”

“We’re not alone,” Karen conceded. “It’s a big operation. That’s why it’s so profitable. We’re not the only boat.”

“I figured.”

“What’s important now, though, is where Thistle and Clove are. Why don’t you tell us that now so we can get on with this?”

“I don’t know where they are,” I shrugged. “We separated at the dock. For all I know, they could be back at the inn now.”

“You think they would just abandon you and leave you out here?”

“We’re not all that close,” I replied blithely.

“Oh, please,” Karen scoffed. “You three share a brain. It’s ridiculous.”

“We don’t share a brain,” I challenged.

“Not for long, that’s for sure,” Karen agreed. She turned to Dean decisively. “We need to find out where the other two troublemakers are.”

“She won’t talk,” Dean said. “I told you something was up when I had dinner with them earlier. They were acting odd – even for them. I thought it might have something to do with that Sam guy – but I was nervous when that Fed wasn’t around. Aren’t you glad that I thought ahead and got us a little insurance?”

I didn’t like the sound of that one bit.

“Actually, I am,” Karen agreed. “They’re going to come in handy.”

“Who?”

“Why don’t you go and get our other guests and we can all have a little conversation together?” Karen suggested.

“Gladly,” Dean turned on his heel and stalked out of the room.

I watched Karen warily. I was debating about whether or not I could take her – and keep the kids safe – when I heard a sound that stopped my heart.

“You take your hands off me right now! You have no idea what I’m capable of! I will turn you into a bug and squash you with my own foot – and then I’ll feed you to my pet scorpion.”

“You didn’t,” I moaned.

Karen smirked. “No, I didn’t. Dean on the other hand, well, he took advantage of the two of them being outside by themselves. They were pretty easy to incapacitate,” Karen continued. “What with them being so old and all.”

I clenched my jaw grimly when I heard the scuffle outside the door. When Dean pushed Aunt Tillie and Kenneth into the room, I wasn’t surprised.

“What are you doing here?” Aunt Tillie looked flabbergasted.

“I could ask you the same thing,” I replied blandly. “Well, this just sucks.”

“Feels rather normal to me,” Aunt Tillie sniffed. “It’s like we’ve been here before.”

“That doesn’t mean I like it,” I grumbled.

“It will be fine,” Aunt Tillie responded calmly. “Trust me. These people aren’t a threat to us.”

“Now,” Dean said, stepping back into the room. “Let’s talk about where your cousins are. And then we’ll talk about exactly what kind of threat we really are.”

I didn’t overtly flinch when Dean pulled a knife out of his pocket, but internally my heart started pounding.

Crap. Crap. Crap.

“So, I’m guessing when you got yourself into this mess you didn’t exactly think things through?” Aunt Tillie was angry.

“You’re in the same mess I am,” I reminded her.

“I was kidnapped by a crazy man,” Aunt Tillie corrected me. “And he came up behind me and cheated, and this was after he complimented our cooking to throw me off his trail, so that doesn’t really count. You climbed on this boat alone and by yourself. That makes you queen of the stupids.”

“I knew there were kids on here,” I complained bitterly. “I was trying to help.”

“Good job.”

“Will you just shut up,” Karen ordered. She was sitting on a crate by the still-open door. Dean had left the room to find Thistle and Clove, but not before leaving Karen with a loaded gun and a lot of time to think. “Just shut up, all of you.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Kenneth offered helpfully. He was sitting on the floor with the kids grouped around him while Aunt Tillie and I had positioned ourselves a few feet in front of the rest of the group.

“Well, keep it up,” Karen said blithely.

“Did you have any idea she was involved in this?” Aunt Tillie asked, narrowing her eyes at Karen evilly.

“I had no idea either of them were involved in it,” I admitted. “I just knew there was a boat out here with kids on it. The only thing I knew about her was that I saw her talking to Sam on the street – and that made me suspicious. Other than that, though, I only knew about the boat.”

“How did you know that? Erika?”

“Yeah,” I sighed.

“Who is Erika?” Karen asked darkly. “Let me guess, another cousin I have to round up?”

“Yes,” Aunt Tillie replied with as much sallow distaste as she could muster. “I think that’s a good thing for you to do. You go and find Erika and kill her and we’ll wait here.”

Karen furrowed her perfectly manicured brow. “You want me to go and kill someone?”

“Erika,” Aunt Tillie said. “She’s evil. You’ll get along.”

“She’s not evil,” I argued. “That’s a really ugly thing to say.”

“This is all her fault,” Aunt Tillie said. “If she hadn’t found you and realized what an easy mark you were, we wouldn’t be here.”

“Easy mark? Like you could have told her no.”

“I could have told her no,” Aunt Tillie sniffed. “I’m meaner than you.”

“You’re not as mean as you pretend to be.”

“Apparently you don’t know me at all,” Aunt Tillie lamented. “I’m mean, really mean,” she said pointedly, tilting her chin in Karen’s direction.

“I’m still confused who Erika is,” Karen said. “If she’s the one that caused this whole situation, then we’re going to have to find her.”

“Good luck with that,” Aunt Tillie said.

Karen got to her feet threateningly. “I don’t think I like your attitude.”

Aunt Tillie wasn’t impressed. The gun Karen was waving around wasn’t exactly filling her with fear – although I was on the fence about it. “I know I don’t like your attitude,” Aunt Tillie said.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You’re a bitch.”

I shook my head tiredly. “Really? That’s the way you’re going to approach this?”

“I only know one way to approach things,” Aunt Tillie shot back. “The right way.”

“How do you live with her?” Karen muttered, plopping back down on the crate. “It’s no wonder the three of them are so screwed up when you’re their role model.”

Aunt Tillie pursed her lips angrily. “And who was your role model? Mrs.
Hannigan?”

“Who?” Karen looked confused.

“Watch a movie,” Aunt Tillie scowled. “At least my girls aren’t kidnapping children and chaining them in a boat and giving them to Hecate knows who for profit.”

“I’m a capitalist, what can I say?” Karen looked unconcerned with the comment. “You wouldn’t believe how few people want to hire a decorator – and when they do, they don’t want to pay me.”

“Maybe you’re just a bad decorator,” Aunt Tillie suggested.

“You know this is out of hand now, right?” I turned to Karen searchingly, trying to pull her focus off of Aunt Tillie. “You can still save yourself in this mess.”

“Oh, yeah? How does that work?”

“We’ll tell the police you helped us save the kids,” I offered, although it was an empty promise. “You would get consideration for that.”

“Consideration? You mean I’ll get life in prison instead of the death penalty? That doesn’t sound like a win to me,” Karen replied snottily.

“Michigan doesn’t have the death penalty,” Kenneth interjected.

“Yeah, but she’s transporting kids through international waters,” I replied distractedly. “That makes the case federal – and the feds don’t like child-trafficking pricks. They like killing them.”

Karen glowered at me.

“That’s not helping,” Aunt Tillie said through gritted teeth.

“Maybe you’re not as dumb as you look,” Karen smiled at Aunt Tillie. It was an ugly and mean smile, but a smile nonetheless.

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Aunt Tillie challenged. “I miss the days of public dismemberment in the square. I think that’s what you deserve.”

“Oh, well, that’s helping,” I scoffed.

We all jumped when the metal door opened again and Thistle and Clove tumbled into the room, followed closely by an aggravated Dean. Thistle’s grave eyes met mine. She was trying to tell me something, but I had no idea what.

“Where did you find them?”

“Stumbling around the woods like idiots,” Dean said. “I almost missed them, but there were a bunch of fireflies out there and I wanted to check them out – it was like they were on fire or something -- and that’s why I went in that direction. I didn’t see any fireflies, but I did find the two of them.”

I raised my eyebrows at Thistle questioningly.

“The flashlight died,” she said simply. “Then, when Clove started freaking out, I wanted to die. It seemed like the easiest solution.”

“I wanted to leave,” Clove said. “I wanted to go and get Chief Terry but Thistle wouldn’t leave without you.”

The loyalty warmed me. The stupidity of the gesture made my heart sink. “Didn’t Erika find you?”

“Who is Erika?” Dean asked irritably.

“Another family member,” Karen supplied. “They won’t tell me much about her but, from what I gather, we have her to blame for this whole mess.”

“And she’s out there right now?” Dean looked incensed. “Well, this is just great. I thought we had them all rounded up.”

“Guess not,” Karen shrugged. “You’ll have to go find her.”

“Why me?” Dean whined. “I just found them. Maybe you should have to go and find this one.”

“I am not walking around in the woods in these shoes,” Karen gestured to her expensive boots. “These boots are made for fashion – not walking.”

“That’s your fault, not mine,” Dean said. “I’m tired. I’m not going back out there again.”

“Well, I’m not going out there,” Karen said grimly.

Aunt Tillie raised her hand suggestively. “I’ll go look.”

Karen rolled her eyes. “Like we’re going to trust you?”

“It seems to me, you don’t have a lot of options,” Aunt Tillie countered persuasively.

“Just sit down and shut up,” Dean ordered. “You two go join your crazy family.”

Thistle begrudgingly moved to my side, running a hand through her purple hair wearily. “Erika found us,” she whispered in my ear and then turned around evasively to face Dean and Karen.

“So, now what?” Karen asked. “Should we shoot them?”

“Well, that’s going to be loud,” Dean said.

“We’re in a boat,” Karen reminded him.

“Yeah, but apparently there’s someone else named Erika out there.”

Karen and Dean lapsed into an argument of their own, which allowed me the chance to question Thistle more fully. “Did you call the police?”

“Yes,” Thistle nodded.

“So, they’re on their way?” Relief washed over me.

“I got Chief Terry’s voicemail,” Thistle answered stiffly.

“Well, that will be helpful,” I grimaced. “If he checks his voicemail tonight.”

“We had a choice,” Thistle replied irritably. “We could have gone back into town and tracked him down – leaving you here to die alone – or we could have continued looking for you. We decided to look for you.”

“That doesn’t look like it’s working out too well,” I mused.

“I had no idea Aunt Tillie was here, too,” Thistle said. “How did she even get here?”

“Dean took them from the inn because he thought there was something weird going on at dinner tonight,” I explained.

“There always something weird going on at dinner,” Clove said.

“Well, weirder than usual, I guess,” I shrugged. “What does it matter? We’re all here now.”

“One big happy family,” Thistle said sarcastically.

“No one needs your sass,” Aunt Tillie warned Thistle. “We’ve got to come up with a plan.”

“What plan?” Clove asked worriedly.

“There’s only two of them,” Aunt Tillie said. “We outnumber them.”

“Barely,” Clove said. “Plus, you’re forgetting the gun.”

“And the knife,” I added.

“They have a knife?” Thistle didn’t look pleased.

“Yup.”

“They’re not very smart, though,” Aunt Tillie said. “That’s in our favor, too.”

“We also have five kids and Kenneth to protect,” I reminded her.

“Yeah,” Thistle smirked. “You want to keep Kenneth safe, right?”

“Do you really think now is the time for that?” Clove sounded shrill.

“It might be our last shot to tease her,” Thistle said pragmatically. “I can’t just let it pass me by.”

No, that definitely was not in her nature.

“Do you think Chief Terry will come?” Clove eyes swam with unshed tears.

“He’ll try,” I replied honestly. “I don’t think we can rely on him, though.”

“We can only rely on ourselves,” Thistle said grimly.

“That’s the way it should always be,” Aunt Tillie said. “I have a plan.”

“Oh, good,” I said. “This always ends well.”

“Maybe you can make them smell like bacon and they’ll eat each other,” Thistle offered.

“Yeah, I didn’t think that one out,” Aunt Tillie admitted. “I’ll do better next time.”

“Good to know,” Thistle replied listlessly.

“Good to know what?”

“That there will be a next time,” Thistle said. “I’m actually looking forward to it.”

Aunt Tillie patted Thistle’s arm kindly. I thought it was a move to comfort her in the face of our likely demise. It was a nice change for her. “You say that now,” Aunt Tillie said. “You won’t be looking forward to it when it happens, though.”

Well, there is also comfort in knowing that some things stay the same.

“Did you hear that?” Dean stopped arguing with Karen and cocked his head.

“What?” Karen looked exasperated.

“Someone is out there.” Dean moved away from Karen and slipped back around the door, disappearing into the hallway.

“Well, look at that,” Karen mused. “Erika must have found her way to us. That’s convenient.”

Thistle and I exchanged wary glances. Or maybe Chief Terry had found us, after all?

The unmistakable sounds of a scuffle met our ears. Karen’s eyes raised in surprise and she turned towards the door. As much as I wanted to wait and see if Chief Terry would swoop in and save us, I knew that I couldn’t take that chance. Thistle must have read my mind. We both rushed towards Karen while she was distracted and jumped her from behind.

Karen swung around wildly, trying to dislodge the two of us from her back. Thistle was vicious, though, and she haphazardly jammed her fingers into Karen’s eyes while I attempted to choke her into submission.

Karen inadvertently pulled the trigger on the gun but, thankfully, the bullet was about four feet above our heads. Clove joined the fray at that moment, trying to rip the gun from Karen’s hand. When Karen refused to give it up, Clove did the only thing she could think of - - she sank her teeth into Karen’s wrist.

Karen howled in pain, dropping the gun into Clove’s waiting hand. Clove took a step back and watched Thistle and me expectantly.

“Are you going to do something?” Thistle asked, yanking Karen’s hair as hard as she could.

“I did,” Clove said, “I got the gun.”

“Something else,” I gasped, snapping my arm into Karen’s throat as hard as I could.

Aunt Tillie moved towards us and I watched in wonderment as she peered into Karen’s glassy and terrified eyes. She raised her hand and slapped it against Karen’s forehead. “Sleep. Sleep, you bitch.”

Karen’s body went suddenly slack and she dropped to the floor.

Thistle and I didn’t immediately let go of her. When we were sure she was down, we carefully took a step back and regarded her warily.

“If you could do that, why didn’t you do it two minutes earlier?” Thistle asked angrily.