An Ordinary Fairy (42 page)

The pictures!

“That’s bullshit and you know it, Jones,” Noah said. “Sheriff, this man has not only been trespassing, he’s also broken into the mansion.”

Jones’s sneer vanished, for once replaced with uncertainty. Noah dug in his jacket pocket and pulled out the infrared photos. “Here’s the evidence.” He handed the pictures to Stevens, who rifled through them, frowning and squinting. Jones edged closer, trying to see.

“What kind of pictures are these?” Stevens asked Noah.

“Infrared. I’m a nature photographer, and I have equipment for night photography with a motion detector camera.” Noah looked toward Jones. “We set the unit up in the kitchen Wednesday morning and got these shots that night.”

Jones was looking over the sheriff’s shoulder, his face flushed. “This is crap,” he said. “Those aren’t real pictures. You can’t tell what they are. And I wasn’t anywhere near here Tuesday or Wednesday.”

“That’s a lie,” Willow said. “You were in the house Tuesday night. We were there, too.” She looked at the sheriff. “I followed him to his car and got a clear look at him. I’m sure he made this mess, too.” She pointed to the house.

Jones flushed deeper red, but then laughed. “This is crazy, Sheriff.” He pointed at Noah. “
He’s
the one that probably did the ritual. He told you he’s a Wiccan, didn’t he?”

All eyes turned to Noah’s burning face. Only Willow’s were sympathetic.

How did he know?!

Jones’s sneer returned, now that he had scored a point. “People have seen him at that witch store on Main Street.” He paused to let that fact settle in. Willow looked surprised now, too.

Forgot to mention that.

“So are you going to believe a city council member or this whore and her warlock john?”

Willow stepped forward, her face blazing fury. Noah grabbed her arm.

“Alright, alright,” Stevens said. “Everybody back down. This is for a court to decide, not us.”

“Court?” Jones said. “Surely you don’t think any prosecutor will give this accusation any credence.”

“That’s not up to me.” He held up one of the pictures. “But I have to say, this is a pretty good likeness, Mr. Jones.”

Jones fumed, and now Willow smirked.

“Are you going to arrest him, Sheriff?” she asked.

“Not today,” Jones said and he turned to leave.

Stevens motioned to the two remaining deputies, and they stepped into Jones’s path, forcing him to stop. Jones turned a scathing look on the sheriff, but Stevens spoke first.

“I’d like to talk with you some more about this, Mr. Jones. The deputies will escort you to your vehicle. I’ll be along shortly.” He turned back to Willow and Noah. Jones stalked away, a deputy on either side.

“We can show you where he broke in, Sheriff,” Noah said.

“Lead on.”

Willow led the way toward the back of the house. The deputy with the camera remained to take the real crime scene photos. When out of earshot of the deputy, Sheriff Stevens spoke again.

“Ms. Brown, you may not remember, but I’ve been here before. I was one of the deputies assigned to the case when your parents disappeared.”

That’s where I heard the name. You’re the deputy quoted in the newspaper articles.

“I traipsed around these woods for three weeks looking for clues. I felt badly for you.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t remember you,” Willow said. “I do remember all the deputies were kind and helpful.”

“That’s alright. You were distraught at the time. Fortunately, I remembered enough to find the lane even after thirty years. It’s well hidden.” He paused, as if deciding what to say next. “You must have been younger than I thought at the time. When you answered the door this morning I thought I was speaking to your daughter.”

Willow ignored this statement. “Sheriff, what will you do about Jones?”

“When I get back to Danville, I’ll visit the district attorney and show him these. He’ll want you to swear out a statement. This should be enough evidence to charge Jones, taken with your statement that you saw him. The DA may want both of you to testify about these pictures. You realize, of course, the gravity of accusing someone as well-known as Chester Jones?”

“Yes,” Willow said without hesitation.

“We may have more pictures,” Noah said. “I set up the camera last night, too. We’ll check it later and let you know. Willow, let’s show him the shutter.” Willow nodded and led the way to the back porch. Once there, she pointed out the wood shavings on the floor and a small piece of wire bent in a V shape.

“I put that wire in the joint between the shutters so we could tell if they were opened. Looks like it worked.” Stevens carefully examined the shutter and the porch floor. He pulled out his notebook and scratched on it.

“I’ll have my man photograph this before we leave. My official photographer.”

“Sheriff, is there any chance you might search Jones’s house?” Noah asked. Willow gave him a knowing glance.

“Is something missing?”

“So far only my privacy,” Willow said. “The house is empty except for one room. We’ll check later to make sure nothing’s been disturbed.”

“Can’t you do that now?” Stevens asked.

Willow hurled her voice, full of command. “No.”

The sheriff stood in silence for a few moments before speaking again. “Why do you think Jones did the vandalism?”

Noah answered. “He’s been harassing Willow for several months. Spreading rumors about her, like the prostitute thing. You heard that yourself. He’s been trying to pressure her to sell the property to him. We had a visit with him last week that was … unpleasant, and a threatening confrontation at the nursing home on Tuesday. You can ask the nurses.”

“I see.” Stevens scratched more notes.

“And Sheriff, these emblems are a sham,” Noah said. “They have nothing to do with me or the Wiccans in town, they would never—”

“I know.” The sheriff went on when he saw Noah’s surprised expression. “I’ve made a hobby of occult crimes over the years. There’s a lot of that activity around here, what with all the woods and parks. We have a church with a graveyard north of Danville, a church that has thirteen sides. We’re always having stuff go on down there. Wiccans didn’t make this mess. For one thing, they don’t normally draw pentacles upside down like these. But the real kicker is the blood. No Wiccan would ever use real blood in their rituals, nor would they kill an animal as in this case.”

“What?” Willow said, her face all worry.

“They killed someone’s dog, a big shepherd. One of my deputies found it in the woods a couple of hundred feet east. He took photos and bagged the body to take to the crime lab. You won’t have to bother with it. Satanists, real ones, might kill an animal, but this doesn’t look like their work. They like to go deep in the woods to established places where they won’t be seen. This was no ritual. It’s just your garden variety vandalism.” Stevens paused in apparent thought, and then looked Noah in the eye. “
Are
you a Wiccan, Mr. Phelps?”

The sheriff’s blunt question blindsided Noah. No one had ever directly asked him that before. Broom closet dwellers didn’t advertise.

Should I lie, or crack the door, so to speak?

His eyes strayed to Willow, whose face showed understanding for his struggle. Noah’s pulse quickened.

“Yes,” he said. “I am.”

Stevens nodded. “I thought so. You have the air about you. Peculiar people, most of them, but you won’t meet kinder, gentler folks.”

Noah let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

They walked to the front of the house. Stevens instructed his deputy to photograph the back porch and shutter. The extra photographer was nowhere to be seen.

The sheriff turned to Willow and Noah. “Thank you, Ms. Brown. We’ll not bother you any longer. Let us know if anything’s disturbed inside. I’m sorry about that photographer, ma’am.”

“No problem. Would it be alright if we clean up the mess now? I’d like to get the blood washed off before it stains.”

“Yes, we have all the photos we need. We’ll be out of your way soon.”

Shadow was released from duty and plunged into the brush to explore. Willow led the way to the old shed south of the Big House. When they were alone, she spoke. “I don’t think you’re peculiar.”

“Thanks. For a moment there, I wanted to blink … I mean wink … but that’s a little beyond my humble Wiccan magic.”

Willow smiled. “I know the feeling. In fact, the first rule of Guarding the Mystery is ‘When you are found out, disappear and fly away.’ A rule I violated in your case.”

“I’m glad you did.”

Willow took his hand and squeezed it. “Me, too.”

“Did Guarding the Mystery prevail over your curiosity about damage inside the house?”

Willow nodded. “Plus I hate having law enforcement around. Anyway, Jones won’t do anything inside the house. He’s too much in love with it.”

“True. Did you get the chip from the camera before it spontaneously broke into pieces?”

“Yep. It’s right here in my pocket.”

Once at the shed Willow opened the big sliding door to reveal a garage-sized room full of tools for maintaining a large estate: chainsaws, shovels, hoes, rakes, a mower, a heavy duty brush mower, and in the center a John Deere Gator outfitted with a small bed. Every carefully stored tool gleamed. The smell of earth, oiled steel and gasoline filled the air. A stack of salt and mineral blocks occupied one wall. Noah peered up a wood stairway leading into the darkness of the second level.

“Anything interesting up there?” he asked.

“Just lumber and stuff we don’t use often. I think we still have a few bales of straw and some feed for the animals. The worker’s overseer lived there in the Jones days.”

Willow pulled a garden hose from a peg and threw it in the back of the Gator, along with a push broom and a scrub brush.

“Hop on board,” she said as she got behind the wheel.

Noah took the other seat warily. He located the handholds and took a tight grip while Willow started the engine and revved it up. She grinned at him and floored it.

Noah nearly discovered how it felt to fly, as they went airborne several times on the short trip to the Big House. Willow did a violent one eighty in front of the house and stood on the brakes. She looked at Noah, waiting for a comment. He shook his head and climbed out. Willow cackled happily.

The sheriff and his men had left. Noah and Willow went about the gruesome task of hosing down the door and the porch floor. The finish resisted staining; a good scrub removed all traces of the blood. They took turns, one on hands and knees scrubbing while the other sprayed and swept. More than once Noah caught a peculiar expression on Willow’s face while she watched him scrub, reflecting some mysterious new emotion he sensed in her.

Happy, yet … subdued.

When they finished Willow stood up and stretched her back. Noah stood on the opposite side of the cleaned area with the spray nozzle still in his hand. He looked from Willow to the nozzle and back.

I shouldn’t. I really shouldn’t.

Willow looked from Noah to the nozzle and back. Her eyes narrowed. “If you want even a
chance
of sex with me tonight, Noah Phelps, you’ll put that nozzle down and step away.”

Noah pasted on his most innocent expression and subtly turned the nozzle Willow’s direction. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Put—it—down.”

Noah slowly lowered the nozzle to the porch floor as if she held him at gunpoint, one hand raised in the air, and then stood up and raised both hands over his head.

“Great. I make love with you one time and you’re already using sex as a weapon.”

“Well, now you appreciate the value of my assets.”

Very true.

They loaded the hose and cleaning gear onto the back of the Gator. Noah climbed behind the wheel before Willow could. “May I drive?” he said. “I want to live to a ripe old age.” Willow stuck out her tongue.

Ten minutes later, everything was back in place at the shed.

“Willow, let’s go back to the house,” Noah said. “You can scout your parents’ room while I check the camera. You can fly from here. Is there stuff to secure the shutter? We’ve gotten Jones in trouble now, so we should secure it.” Willow nodded her agreement and walked to a workbench. She rummaged for a minute or so and produced a flat steel bar and some screws, as well as a drill and bits.

“This should do it,” she said. She handed everything to Noah and pulled off her sweatshirt, vanishing just at the right moment to disappoint Noah’s ogling. She giggled and with a buzz and a rush of air, zoomed away.

Noah secured the shed and walked to the Big House. He tried the door and found it unbarred. Willow was standing in the atrium with her sweatshirt tied around her waist. She peered thoughtfully around the open space and upper floors.

“This is the first time we’ve been here since we saw the pictures. It feels different now, knowing for sure they’re here. Like I know they’re okay.” She let out a long sigh. “See ya,” she said and buzzed away to the fourth floor. She disappeared over the railing as Noah crossed the atrium.