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

and she really liked him. We didn’t pressure her because we knew she would tell us eventually. She liked to drag things out because she liked the attention.”

Emma nodded solemnly. “Do you think he killed her?”

Landon slid his eyes to me, his expression unreadable. “We don’t know. But we’re going to find out.”

“How?” Amelia demanded.

“We’re going to investigate.”

“That’s not really an answer.”

“It’s the only answer I have. We need answers, so we’ll dig until we find them.”

“What should I do?” Tina asked. “There’s a killer out there. Could he be coming for the rest of the girls?”

That was a very good question.

“We don’t know what we’re dealing with,” Chief Terry answered. “I’ll have marked cars patrol the areas around your houses tonight and for the foreseeable future.”

Tina didn’t look comforted by the answer, but she nodded. “I guess that’s something.”

“It’s all we have for now,” Landon said. “We will have more … and soon. You have my word on it.”

5

Five

Landon opened the back door of Chief Terry’s official vehicle for me, pausing long enough to brush the hair from my face and stare into my eyes, and then leaving me to my thoughts.

I waited until we reached the diner in town for lunch to speak.

“I don’t know if they remember.” My voice was low. “I just ... don’t know.”

Landon shot me a sympathetic smile. “I figured. If you’d keyed into the fact that she was lying you would’ve pushed the situation.”

“Most definitely,” I agreed. “I don’t know, though. She’s ... detached.”

“For all we know, she might’ve always been detached,” Chief Terry noted. He smiled at the waitress as she delivered our drinks. “What’s on special today?”

“I think you’re special.” The waitress, a woman who had lived in Hemlock Cove for as long as I could remember, winked at him. “But on the menu, we have chicken pot pie.”

“Comfort food,” Landon said. “I’ll have that. Thank you.”

Chief Terry nodded in agreement. “Sounds good to me.”

The waitress turned her attention to me. “And you, honey? You look a little pale today.”

“It’s been a long day. I’ll have the pot pie.”

“No problem.” She winked and moved on to another table.

“Bay, you can’t blame yourself for this,” Landon said. “This isn’t your fault.”

“Did I say it was my fault?” The challenge came out harsher than I intended. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. I just feel ... something.” And that something didn’t have a name.

“I know how your mind works,” Landon said. “You think those girls had something to do with what happened to Paisley. You believe if you’d done something different, she’d still be alive.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“You don’t?”

I shook my head. “I can’t see those girls stabbing Paisley multiple times. She was one of them. I do think it’s possible that they know more than they’re saying. I also think it’s possible somebody else was helping them and we missed that person during our initial sweep.”

Realization dawned on Landon’s face. “There’s a sixth partner taking out the others so they can’t squeal?”

“It’s a possibility. That still doesn’t explain what happened to Paisley’s parents.”

“Maybe they were involved,” Chief Terry suggested. “Maybe they staged their house to make it look as if there had been an attack and took off.”

“I ... don’t know. Why would they kill their daughter and flee?”

“Maybe they didn’t feel they had any other choice.”

“If they were involved, they could’ve set the scene and then fled as a family. That doesn’t explain why Paisley had to die.”

“Maybe they didn’t believe her when she came home with a modified memory,” Landon suggested. “Maybe they thought she was lying and figured they couldn’t trust her.”

That didn’t feel right either. “Say there was a sixth person — though it seems they would’ve admitted what was happening when we had them at Hollow Creek, if only to point fingers away from themselves. Why kill Paisley and not the others? Why not draw them all out to that clearing and kill them at the same time?”

“That would draw outside attention,” Landon replied. “If you kill four teenagers in ritual fashion and leave them in a clearing in the middle of the Michigan woods, that will be the lead story on every cable news channel ... and for more than just one night.”

“He’s right,” Chief Terry said. “That’s the stuff nightmares are made of and news programs thrive on. Besides, why add the ritual? That just makes it all the more hinky.”

That was another good point, but I had an answer for that. “This is a witch town. Making the murder ritualistic points the finger at all the fake witches in town.”

Chief Terry shook his head. “I don’t know what to say, Bay.”

I rested my elbow on the table and rubbed my forehead, watching as Landon pulled out his phone and checked his email. His lips curved down almost immediately. “What is it?”

He attempted a smile. “It’s not good news.”

“Is it the autopsy on Paisley?” I hoped he wasn’t going to somehow make things worse and say there was a sexual component to her death.

“We won’t get that until this afternoon at the earliest,” Chief Terry replied.

“So, what is it?”

“It’s Steve.”

Steve Newton was his boss. I’d come to know him through his several visits to Hemlock Cove. I liked him but remained fearful of how he would react if he ever found out the truth regarding my family. “Does he want you to go into the office?”

“No. He’s sending someone from the office here.”

Oh, well, that was actually worse. “What did we do to deserve that?”

“There, there.” Landon patted my hand with a chuckle. “It’s not some grand conspiracy aimed at you. He saw the photos from the crime scene. He believes they suggest we may have a serial killer in the making. He’s sending a profiler.”

My brain went blank. “Like on Criminal Minds?”

“If you’re picturing Shemar Moore right now, we’re going to have issues,” Landon warned.

That elicited a smile. “I just mean ... I’ve seen that show.”

“It would essentially be