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

Mom shook her head. “No, but I’m pretty sure she got sick last night.”

“She took over the bathroom on the second floor and we heard her puking through the door,” Chief Terry added. His eyes were glassy and unfocused. “I think she was there for half the night.”

“We should let her sleep it off,” Mom said. “I put aspirin and bottles of water outside her door.”

Landon rubbed his chin, debating. “Should we wake her? She does have a job to do.”

“Leave her be,” I replied. “We’re not even sure what’s going on. Until we’re absolutely certain that we need her, we should let her rest.”

“I agree with Bay,” Mom said as she sat. “The girl is new to Aunt Tillie’s wine. She’s going to wish she’d listened to us when we told her to stop. She’ll be worse than all of us.”

“I’m fine,” Aunt Tillie offered. “I feel great.”

“That’s because you’re evil and the wine doesn’t affect evil people like it does the rest of us,” Landon drawled. “By the way, there’s no reason to brag. It makes us like you less.”

Rather than be offended, Aunt Tillie grinned. “Aw, is ‘The Man’ feeling queasy this morning?”

“Shaky is more like it,” Landon replied. “I’ll be fine after breakfast.”

That was a bolder prediction than I was willing to make. “Give Hannah a few hours. We’re not even sure where to focus this morning. If we come across something that will help us, we’ll deal with it then.”

At the other end of the table, the guests who had checked in the previous day were sharing an intense conversation. They weren’t interested in what we were saying in the least.

“I like the kissing booth,” a younger man said. “How great is it that they have a booth set up for that?”

I flicked my eyes to my mother and found her shaking her head. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” She cleared her throat to get the attention of the two couples. “I should probably make introductions. They fell by the wayside last evening.” She introduced everybody at our end of the table and then singled out the two couples. “This is Tony Sexton and his wife Samantha. They’re here on their fifth wedding anniversary from Grand Rapids.”

She turned to the other couple, who looked to be in their forties. “And this is Phyllis and Randy Hamilton. They came from Wisconsin. Apparently they’re all big fans of the festival downtown.”

“It’s amazing,” Samantha enthused, her eyes sparkling. “It’s so quaint. It’s a witch festival in a witch town. Who doesn’t love that?”

Aunt Tillie’s hand shot in the air.

Mom pretended Aunt Tillie was invisible and gave the couples an indulgent smile. “The festivals have taken on a life of their own. I wasn’t sure that it was a good idea to have nonstop festivals throughout the year, but they’ve turned into big crowd pleasers.”

“That’s because everybody loves carnival food,” Landon offered. He was mixing hash browns and eggs with bits of bacon. “Elephant ears are a special kind of magic.”

Tony chuckled. “I ate one of those. I paired it with ice cream – amazing.”

Landon nodded in agreement. “See, Bay, I’m not the only one who thinks elephant ears and ice cream belong together.”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. “You think elephant ears can be paired with anything. I believe I watched you eat them with chili last year.”

“And I stand by that decision.”

“The whole town is great,” Samantha said. “I can imagine living here. I’m an accountant, so I wouldn’t be able to make a living in a town this small, but if I could I would move here.”

“My wife loves witch stuff.” Tony said. “She’s absolutely over the moon about it. When we read a story about Hemlock Cove in The Detroit Free Press, we had to check it out for ourselves. I’m pretty sure we’ll be back.”

“Oh, definitely.” Samantha bobbed her blond head. “I want to come back for Halloween but understand you’re already booked.”

“We are. I’m sorry.” Mom said. “That’s our busiest time of the year. We book a full year in advance for Halloween.”

“Don’t be sorry.” Samantha waved her hand. “I just wish we would’ve thought ahead. This Halloween is out, but we definitely want to come back next Halloween.”

Tony agreed as he squeezed his wife’s hand. “We plan to have kids in two years, so if we come back next Halloween that might be our last hurrah as a couple. We want to live it up right ... which is why I love that kissing booth.”

Samantha made a face. “I didn’t like the guy running it. He was creepy.”

I lifted my chin and stared at her. “What do you mean?” Todd Lipscomb was officially on my radar. If he didn’t clean up his act, I had every intention of making his life a living hell.

“He was fine,” Tony said hurriedly. “I think it was part of the act. He just might not be as good an actor as everybody else in the town. It would make sense to have some people pretending to be evil.”

Landon flicked his eyes to me, something unsaid passing between us. “How was he acting?” He tried to be nonchalant with the question but couldn’t carry it off.

“Is something wrong?” Tony asked, straightening in his chair. “Is there something wrong with that guy?”

“Not that we know of,” I lied. “I wasn’t aware that anybody in town was acting evil. They usually save that for Halloween to ratchet up the atmosphere.”

“That makes sense.” Tony visibly relaxed. “Maybe he was practicing.”

“Maybe.” I forced a smile. “Can you tell me what he was doing?”

“He was talking to himself – and was really crabby,” Samantha volunteered. “He kept talking as if there was someone else there, saying things about needing more power and evil women trying to steal his life. It was weird.”

“I think we were lacking context,” Tony explained. “I believe he came up with an entire backstory that he was playing out and we missed the first part. I kind