Strangetown Girl (Welcome To Witch County Book 1) Read online

  “Our protocol typically does not involve cleaning up the crime scene, sir, but I don’t know the details on this case. Let me see who I can find with the authority on this one. Can you wait here?”

  Graham nodded and moved to a nearby bench. “Of course. Take your time.”

  He wasn’t there to cause problems. He could wait for authority.

  It took a few minutes, but the officer returned. Alone. “Uh, Agent Lloyd?”

  “Please, call me Graham,” Graham said, standing and smiling again.

  “Graham, then. The scene has already been worked and cleaned.”

  Well, that was odd. “Cleaned?” he asked, choosing to stick to the odder of the two things he’d just been told.

  “Yes sir. Someone in the department authorized and paid for professional cleaners to go clean up the scene so that Luna could have her house back,” the officer explained.

  “And when is Luna going to be told that she can go back into her house?”

  The officer’s eyes widened. “I can’t answer that. I only know what I was told.”

  So the scene was worked quicker than any murder scene in the history of murder scenes, and then someone paid to have it cleaned? Graham knew widows who had been left to clean their dead husband’s blood off of the walls of their homes; this was not even remotely normal. What in the world was going on here?

  “I understand, Officer,” Graham said in calm voice. “Since the home is cleaned and ready for Luna to return to, may I have the keys to give to her? She is in my charge.” He held out his hand.

  The officer looked down. “I don’t have them. The sheriff said he was on his way to give them to Luna when he left… a few hours ago.” The last words were noticeably quiet.

  Graham smiled. The officer probably wasn’t supposed to tell him that, but he also probably hadn’t been told not to tell either. “Thank you, officer,” Graham said, turning to leave.

  “Do you… do you need me to call the sheriff and see where he is?” the officer stuttered after him.

  “No sir. If he’s going to give Luna the keys, I’m good with that information,” Graham lied. He knew exactly where the sheriff was, and that he hadn’t handed over anything. He just had to figure out why.

  It was time to have a talk with the man in charge.

  9

  THE SHERIFF WAS RIGHT WHERE Graham had left him. Sitting in front of Luna’s friend’s house, glowering at the front door. Graham pulled up just around the corner, like someone who knew what he was doing when it came to watching someone, and waited, gathering his thoughts. He hated going into situations without a bit of planning.

  Graham looked up at the sound of a car door opening. Wesley stepped out and closed the door behind himself, taking a moment to straighten his uniform before walking towards Asher’s house. Graham silently opened the door to his car and stepped out to follow. He didn’t know what was about to happen, but instinct told him that he needed to be closer to witness it. His instincts were hardly ever wrong.

  Wesley walked up the walkway to the door and knocked. The first time was polite, but the second was a full-fisted pounding. It was the knock you used when you knew that the person inside probably wasn’t friendly, but you were usually backed by a few other officers and guns when you used it.

  “Come on, you know who it is. Open up,” Wesley yelled. Graham chuckled to himself as he moved closer. Knowing who was knocking was probably why they weren’t answering.

  Graham saw the flutter of a curtain in the window just beside the door and waved. He didn’t know if they’d seen him, but if they had, they’d know they weren’t alone.

  The door opened. Slowly.

  “Something you need, Sheriff? Again?” Luna’s voice asked. She didn’t step out from the house.

  “I was just, you know, making sure you all were okay. It’s dinner time, and it’s getting dark and all,” Wesley’s voice responded as his foot took a small and subtle step towards the doorway.

  Graham didn’t like that.

  “That’s right, it is almost dinner. Shouldn’t you be getting home to your wife? She’s got to be wondering where you were all day, since the answer isn’t at the station, hm?” Luna asked.

  “So you really fed those other strangers, but let me sit out here all day?”

  Graham almost chuckled. Was he jealous? Did he not know that the two women on the other side of that threshold didn’t particularly care for him? Maybe he just didn’t care.

  “We aren’t required by law to feed you, Sheriff. You do know that, right?” Luna responded.

  “What about you, Asher? You’ve always been nicer than your bad choice in friends here.”

  “What about me?” Asher responded, not actually answering the question, but answering it all the same. Graham was beginning to see why Luna liked her so much.

  “You know, I could just force my way into this house if I wanted to. No one would know, and there isn’t anything that you two could do about it,” Wesley hissed.

  And that was Graham’s cue.

  “Sheriff, fancy meeting you here. Did you come to give Luna the keys to her already-cleaned and no-longer-a-crime-scene home? Or did you just come here to threaten two women with the intention of getting away with it?” Graham said, making sure to project his voice as he walked up the walkway towards the house.

  Wesley spun around, clearly not expecting the intrusion.

  “How in the world do you know—” he started, but Graham cut him off.

  “I went to see the scene. Imagine my shock when I found out it wasn’t there anymore. It also seems very odd that it was cleaned, and not left for Luna to take care of. Is that normal protocol for just this particular town?” Graham held in a smile as the sheriff squirmed.

  Wesley frowned but didn’t answer as Graham stepped up onto the porch.

  “There is no other legal reason for you to be here other than to give Luna her keys, is there? I don’t see one,” Graham said, holding his hand out just like he’d done for the officer at the precinct.

  Wesley looked like he was going to blow a gasket, but he reached into his pocket, pulled out a key with an evidence tag on it, and slapped it into Graham’s hand.

  “Wonderful. Thank you, Sheriff. And should I find that any copies were made of this key, your doorstep will be the first one I visit,” Graham replied, keeping his calm smile.

  Wesley grumbled something that he didn’t have the nerve to say out loud and walked down the stairs off of the porch. Graham stayed exactly where he was until Wesley got in the car, started the engine, and drove off.

  “He’s been here all day with the keys and came to the door about anything and everything else?” Asher asked, stepping into the light of the porch.

  Graham sighed and shook his head. “Yep. And if I hadn’t gone down to the station, none of us would have known.”

  “That doesn’t sound right,” Luna said, crossing her arms.

  “No, it doesn’t. Several things about this don’t sound right,” Graham replied, handing Luna the keys. “I’d get those locks changed if I were you.”

  Luna nodded. “First thing in the morning.”

  Asher disappeared into the house as she called, “Wait. If you’re going to the house, let me grab a bag.”

  Luna turned towards her friend’s retreating back. “A bag of what?”

  “Clothes. If you’re going back, I’m going to stay with you for a few nights.”

  “Asher…” Luna began.

  “Not asking. Informational purposes only,” Asher called.

  Graham chuckled. “That’s a good friend you have there.”

  Luna sighed and smiled as she faced him. “I know. And I don’t want her to get tangled up in something because of it.”

  Graham nodded his understanding. “I sympathize, but I get the feeling that your concerns about that aren’t going to stop her from making sure she’s involved.”

  Luna smirked. “They won’t.”

  10

&nb
sp; THE HOUSE WAS DARK AND silent. Some of Luna’s wards had given their all on alerting her the day that everything had happened. Yesterday. It felt like it had been so much longer than a day.

  Luna made a mental note to replace the wards that had burned out, perhaps with something more like what she’d done at Asher’s house, instead of just alarms. She’d put them in place when Wesley had started to get a bit pushier than she was comfortable with, but at the time she hadn’t wanted to hurt him. That had changed.

  Graham had asked that she and Asher allow him to go in first. He was the one with a gun, he’d said. Neither of them had argued, but both of them had watched carefully to make sure that he hadn’t needed more than the handgun.

  “Do you think we should get handguns?” Luna asked Asher as they watched lights go on in various parts of the house while Graham checked everything.

  “You know, I’ve never really thought about having one, but it doesn’t seem like a bad idea,” Asher said, her eyes following the lights.

  “Once we get past this, we should go take classes together.” Luna didn’t need the classes, but she was pretty sure Asher did.

  “There are classes?”

  “Yes, on gun safety, how to handle yourself around one, things like that. And then you have to take one to get the license to carry concealed.”

  “You mean like Graham does? So that not everyone sees the gun, but you have it if you need it.”

  Luna nodded. “So we can carry in purses, or in our waistbands. Or, we can get holsters.”

  “Can we take Mom?” Asher asked.

  Luna grinned. “That sounds like an amazing idea.” That reminded her—she needed to do the wards at Mom’s house too. Add it to the list for tomorrow.

  “All clear, looks like,” Graham said, coming back to the front door.

  Asher and Luna walked up onto the large porch together and stepped into the entryway.

  “They really did clean it up,” Luna said, turning to Graham. “I almost didn’t believe you.”

  Graham didn’t say anything in response, but the frown on his face said everything that she needed to know. That wasn’t normal.

  “We should go through everything, make sure nothing went missing.” Asher slipped her arm through Luna’s.

  “She’s right. Make sure everything is where it’s supposed to be,” Graham said. “I saw a homey little place a few miles up the road. I’ll go grab something for us to eat.”

  “I don’t want to keep you, and this might take a while,” Luna said. She wasn’t opposed to him staying, but she didn’t want to be the reason he spent half the night sitting around, bored.

  “I don’t mind at all,” Graham said on his way towards the door.

  “Thanks,” Luna said. The door closed behind him.

  “He’s nice,” Asher said.

  “Yeah, he is.”

  Asher and Luna did a thorough once-through of the house. Other than the sheets that had been used to cover Luna’s father’s body, there didn’t seem to be anything missing. In fact, everything looked to be where she’d left it, as if someone had come back through and made sure everything was in its place. She was pretty sure police officers couldn’t know where your things had been before they were involved in the scene of a crime.

  What in the world was going on?

  Asher had given the house a good search of her own and stated that while she could still faintly smell the blood, it had been cleaned very thoroughly. Enough that had she needed to track someone with the scent, she wouldn’t have been able to.

  In the middle of the house assessment, Graham returned with food for the night, and the three of them had a proper dinner at Luna’s insistence. Once that was over, she and Asher went back to going through the house, and Graham concentrated on seeing if anything had been left behind in the front hall.

  The police hadn’t found Luna’s stash of alchemy ingredients. She’d hidden her little lab of sorts away so well that no one had noticed it in the recess of her walk-in closet. The repulsion spell on the entrance also helped with that. You never knew when a guest was going to get a bit too nosy.

  Once everything had been accounted for, Luna assured Graham that first thing tomorrow, the locks would be changed. With dinner cleaned up, she and Asher settled in the living room to unwind.

  Asher had always been better at falling asleep than Luna. Then again, Luna was more of a night owl than Asher this far from the full moon. It wasn’t long before Asher was snoring, mouth open and hair in her face, and Luna got restless.

  Luna loved walks, day or night. She hadn’t always lived somewhere where she could go outside and see the stars, so being as far away from the noise and smog of the city was something that she took advantage of as often as possible.

  Sometimes she was content just to sit on the porch and be, but tonight, that wasn’t enough. She set her glass of wine to the side and got up. Tonight, she wanted to walk.

  The neighborhood was pretty quiet, as usual for ten at night. The occasional conversation or television show came through the open windows, and she smiled at the familiarity and wholesomeness of it all.

  If she hadn’t been paying attention, the sound of movement in the trees beside the sidewalk wouldn’t have caught her attention.

  She didn’t stop moving. She didn’t call out a greeting, something that she’d never understood in horror movies. If someone was going through all that trouble to stalk you, they weren’t going to shout a greeting back. If it was an animal, it wasn’t going to respond at all.

  If it wasn’t an animal…

  Luna turned a corner and crossed the street. The sound of shoes crossing the street several feet behind her was almost silent, but she caught it. Someone was following her. Did Wesley have a police officer following her? If so, he was far more competent than the ones outside Asher’s house.

  She stopped and turned to face the empty sidewalk behind her.

  “Hm,” she said softly, frowning and turning to start walking again.

  She readied a spell in her head. It wouldn’t hurt whoever was following her, but it would blind them and give her time to get away. She wanted to know who it was, but she wanted to be safe more.

  She counted down in her head. When she hit one, she’d release the spell and take off running.

  3…

  2…

  She whirled as a dark figure stepping out of the woods. There was a sharp, stinging thud as something connected with her head, and a loud ringing noise that she couldn’t shut out. Then darkness.

  ~*~

  SUNLIGHT ALERTED LUNA TO THE fact that it was now morning. Her panic-induced flailing met with calm, cool hands, and her own sheets. She was at home, in her bed. The headache made her put her hand to her head, where she found bandages.

  “Good morning,” Asher said softly. She handed Luna a glass of ice water from the bedside table. “Drink this.”

  “What in the world—”

  “Drink. Not talk,” Asher admonished her.

  Luna stopped talking and drank.

  “I was asleep downstairs when the smell of blood smacked me in the face. I thought something had happened with the entryway and the missing stains there, but there was no one, and you were gone. So I went out and found you, lying on the sidewalk a few blocks away with your forehead cracked open.”

  “That is a terrible way to explain all of this,” Luna mumbled.

  Asher pushed the glass of ice water back towards her. “You were knocked out, and whoever had done it had left. Probably when they heard me coming. I thought about calling the police, then thought that might cause more harm than good. So I took your phone and called the last number that was outgoing, hoping that it was Graham.”

  Luna choked on the water.

  “He asked if you were okay. I told him you were fine, and I had medical training and could handle you for the night. I did ask him to go to the hardware store and grab a new set of deadbolt locks for the front and back doors. He and I are going to tak
e care of that as soon as he gets here with breakfast.”

  “Asher—”

  She hushed Luna before she could say anything. “Now that you are on your way to being hydrated, let me go refill this so you can take something for the headache that I’m fairly sure that you have. Once that’s done, you can get dressed and come downstairs. You need to eat so you can heal.”

  She got up and left the room.

  Luna sighed and tried to be upset about the fact that she wasn’t being consulted on anything that was going on in her own home. She tried, but the headache wouldn’t let her. Instead, she slowly got up and made her way to the mirror.

  Her head had been tightly bandaged, but she managed to get a finger under the tape and unwind the gauze that Asher had wrapped around her head.

  The gash was unsightly. It was a good two inches in length, and Luna was convinced that she could see her skull through the opening in the skin, even though common sense said that wasn’t the case.

  “Are you done? I need to change that, and you messing with it isn’t going to help it heal without scarring horribly.” Asher set a glass down on the dresser and took the used bandage from Luna.

  She hadn’t heard her come back in, but she definitely heard the annoyed tone. Asher was never annoyed with Luna.

  “Sorry,” Luna said, though she couldn’t really place why.

  “Sit,” Asher said, pointing to the stool at the foot on Luna’s bed.

  Luna sat.

  Asher took her time to make sure that the gash in Luna’s head was clean… Or that’s what Luna assumed she was doing as she poked and prodded and wrapped.

  “Don’t take this one off, okay? You just got this wound, and it wouldn’t take much for it to become infected or something,” Asher said, stepping back.

  Luna nodded. “Yes ma’am.”

  “Come on, Graham should be here with the locks soon and I can’t remember where you keep the tools,” Asher said, taking Luna’s hand in hers.

  “In the small lean-to out back,” Luna answered absently. “You didn’t see anything that would help identify who knocked me out?”