Prelude to a Witch, Amanda Lee [ebook reader web txt] 📗

“She’s dead.”

“What?” Sophia sat up straighter. “Are you serious?”

“Of course not,” Amelia sneered. “This is some weird joke.”

“I don’t joke about death,” Chief Terry replied calmly. “Paisley was found behind the Dragonfly this morning. She was in a clearing in the woods. She’d been stabbed.” He laid it out concisely, no embellishment.

“I can’t believe it.” Tina whined. “We saw her just the other day. She was fine.”

“Well, that’s how this works,” Landon offered. “One minute someone is fine and the next they’re not.”

“Oh, we’ll always need hot police officers like you,” Sophia said, offering up a wink that made Landon shift uncomfortably.

Landon managed to keep from scowling, but if I had to guess, it took a lot of work. “Thank you for that inappropriate comment in the wake of your friend’s death.”

Sophia had the grace to look abashed. “I didn’t mean ... um ... .”

“What happened?” Amelia asked. She’d yet to react like the others, who appeared to be shocked. She was calm, something I couldn’t identify in her eyes.

“She was stabbed,” Chief Terry replied. “That’s all we know right now. But there’s more.”

“More?” Tina was so pale I thought she might pass out.

“You should sit down,” I prodded, grabbing her arm and leading her to the oversized chair at the edge of the room.

Tina was the malleable sort, which probably explained why Amelia was queen of this particular castle. She allowed me to situate her in the chair.

“What could possibly be worse than Paisley being stabbed?” Amelia demanded.

“I didn’t say it was worse,” Chief Terry cautioned. “I said there was more. We went to Paisley’s house to inform them of their daughter’s death, but they weren’t there.

“Both vehicles were in the driveway, but it appeared there had been a struggle in the living room,” he continued. “The coffee table was tipped over. There was a broken glass on the floor. We believe that Paisley’s mother was in the house watching television.”

“Are they dead too?” Emma asked in a timid voice. “Were they all killed?”

“There were no bodies in the house. We’re not certain what happened to Paisley’s parents. That brings us to why we’re here. Do you know of anything that was going on in Paisley’s house that might explain what has happened?”

“No,” Sophia and Emma said in unison.

Amelia didn’t respond.

“I need specifics,” Chief Terry stressed. “When was the last time you saw Paisley?”

“Yesterday afternoon,” Sophia replied. “We were all downtown together for coffee.”

“What time was that?”

“Um ... around three o’clock I think.” She looked to Amelia for confirmation.

Amelia nodded. “That sounds right.” She’d yet to show a shred of emotion and I was becoming increasingly suspicious.

“What did you talk about?” Chief Terry asked.

“Normal stuff.” Amelia lifted one shoulder in a haphazard way, as if they were having a conversation about the weather. “I mean ... it wasn’t a big deal.”

“Sophia has a crush on Taylor Watkins,” Emma volunteered. “We mostly talked about that.”

Sophia’s cheeks colored. “I don’t have a crush on him. Don’t be ridiculous.”

Even though it was a byproduct of their age, the trivial back and forth frustrated me. The trio had just been informed that one of their closest friends had been brutally murdered, but they remained wrapped up in themselves.

“It’s important that you girls think hard,” Chief Terry stressed. “Paisley is dead and we can’t help her. But we can find out who did this. Her parents are still out there somewhere. We need to find them.”

“Why do you think we would know where her parents are?” Amelia demanded. “It’s not as if we hung out with them.”

“Amelia! Show some respect,” Tina scolded.

“It’s okay.” Chief Terry waved off the admonishment. “They’re in shock.”

“It doesn’t feel real,” Emma admitted. “I mean ... I keep thinking that I should be having one of those montages in my head, like on television, where I hear music and remember all the good times we used to have.”

The statement struck me funny. Not ha-ha funny but funny weird. Perhaps the girls weren’t reacting normally because of the spell I’d put them under.

“That’s normal,” Landon offered. “It won’t feel real for a little bit. We need you to think hard. Was there anything weird going on in the Gilmore household? Were Paisley’s parents fighting? Was she fighting with them?”

Horrified disbelief washed over Sophia’s face. “You don’t think her parents killed her?”

“It’s unlikely,” Landon replied, “but we have to consider all the angles. We need your help. Was there anybody new in Paisley’s life? Perhaps a boyfriend.”

That single word — boyfriend — sent Sophia and Emma into squirming fits. Amelia managed to remain impassive, but it appeared to be by force of will.

“There was a boy,” I surmised, speaking before I thought better of it. “Did Paisley have a boyfriend?” Thanks to my previous journey into Paisley’s head, I knew she didn’t have a boyfriend as recently as two weeks ago. But these were teenagers. I remembered well how quickly things could change on that front for girls of that age.

“She didn’t have a boyfriend,” Sophia said. “She just hung around with us.”

I ignored her and focused on Amelia, the group leader. If we wanted answers, she would have to supply them. “Who was she dating?” I demanded.

“I ... .” Amelia glanced at her mother, unsure.

“If you know something, you have to tell them,” her mother stressed.

Amelia sighed. “I don’t know who it was. She was hiding that information. I know she’d met someone and seemed to think he was ‘the one,’ but she wouldn’t tell us who it was.”

“Was that odd for her?” Landon asked. “Did she tell you about other boyfriends?”

Amelia shrugged. “Yes and no. She liked to build up to it before telling us. It was like a game to her.”

“Was it a boy from the high school?” I asked. Could a teenager have delivered the destruction I saw in that clearing? It didn’t seem possible and yet I couldn’t shake the notion.

“We don’t know him,” Amelia replied. “We just know she met someone last week