Delia said, “When she was with me, despite the revenge hex, she seemed . . . hopeful. She wouldn’t go jumping off a cliff. Not willingly.”

  I had a flash of someone making her walk to the bluff and forcing her to jump. Heavens above, I hoped that hadn’t been the case. Tears stung my eyes, and I took hold of my locket, squeezing it until my knuckles ached. “Hopeful about what?”

  “I don’t know exactly, but when I read her energy, I felt happiness.”

  I watched the flame flicker on the citronella candle as I said, “What time was she at your shop?”

  Delia tipped her head side to side, thinking about it. “Round near one-ish.”

  After Marjie’s gun-toting incident and the car ride with Warren Calhoun, but before I’d seen her poking her head out at my mama’s chapel.

  It made me wonder what had happened in that car with Warren. Had they made up? Had he agreed to whatever ultimatums she’d laid down before him? Hopeful. I didn’t question Delia’s observation. She had the same empathy skills I did—she’d know hopeful if she felt it.

  Which made Katie Sue’s death that much more tragic.

  Again, I wondered about her secret ammunition. . . . It was still out there, somewhere. That ammunition might have just turned into evidence. Hopefully, it would point to who was responsible for her death.

  I needed to put together a timeline of her whereabouts during the day. Who had she met with? Who’d received the hex? And what had she been fighting about with Lyla? Old family problems? Or something new?

  My gaze skipped to all the people gathered around. Familiar faces, most of them. On the fringes, I spotted one of Warren Calhoun’s lug nuts. He was standing completely still, intimidating in his size and demeanor. There was no way he could see me watching him, not from this distance, but I could have sworn for a second there that our gazes met. The next thing I knew, he turned and threaded into the crowd, disappearing from sight.

  I searched for any other sign of the Calhouns, but I didn’t find any. Were they oblivious to what had happened here? Or were they on the way to the hospital to meet up with Gabi?

  Gabi, who’d been covered in Katie Sue’s blood. Gabi, who’d “found” Katie Sue on the rocky riverbank. Her presence raised the question of why she’d been on the trail in the first place. Alone, at that. And how she’d come across Katie Sue.

  My gaze once again swept the crowd, and a flash of metal caught my eye. Lamplight gleamed off one of Jamie Lynn’s crutches. By now she had to have learned who was under that sheet, and it showed by the look on her face. Then Lyla appeared behind her, put an arm around her shoulders, and led her away.

  I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to Katie Sue’s estate. With her kind of money, she must have had a will. Would it all go to Jamie Lynn? I wasn’t sure how to figure it out, and hoped Caleb could help me.

  I also needed to have a talk with Lyla. The sooner the better. I wanted to know exactly what she was arguing with Katie Sue about—and if she knew why her mother had been spying on her sister.

  “Here comes Dylan,” Delia said, nudging me.

  I hadn’t noticed him walking over—I’d been too fixated on Katie Sue’s next of kin. The world around me seemed to fall into a hush as our gazes met, and most of my anxiety seeped away. He was the only one who could soothe me with just a look. I’d missed that ability when he moved away after our last breakup. I’d missed him.

  “Sap,” Delia whispered.

  “Stop reading my energy.”

  She laughed. “Stop being so overwhelmingly lovey-dovey, and maybe I wouldn’t have picked up on it at all.”

  I was just glad that Dylan couldn’t sense what I was feeling, too. Heaven’s above, that would cause all kinds of trouble I didn’t need right now. I set my foot back on the ground as he crossed the small bridge over the creek, his footfalls echoing on the wooden planks. He came up the steps, and leaned on the porch railing. Boo wagged his tiny tail, let out a happy yip, and leaped down off Delia’s lap to sniff Dylan’s feet.

  I was envious of the little dog’s joy.

  “Nice shirt,” he said, eyeing my chest.

  “What did Johnny say?” I asked, ignoring him—and the urge to cross my arms. “Anything interesting?”

  “Basically, he gave the same account as Gabi,” Dylan said. “He and Marjie came across Gabi trying to get Katie Sue up the path from the riverbank.”

  “What happened to Marjie’s leg?” Delia asked. “Did he say?”

  Dragging a hand down his face, he said, “Apparently the two were taking an evening hike and picnic. When they were headed back, Marjie tripped on something and fell, hurting her ankle.”

  Had she really tripped? Or had she been pushed?

  “But about the same time,” Dylan went on, “Johnny was overtaken with some sort of stomach bug. So he kept having to make pit stops in the woods, while Marjie went about fashioning herself a crutch from a broken branch. By the time they came across Gabi, they’d been in the woods going on three hours.”

  I wondered what Marjie had given Johnny to cause the “stomach bug.” Because I was sure as heck certain she’d done something. There were plenty of plants in those woods that would cause intestinal distress. Certain leaves, berries, and sap were poisonous to varying degrees. She could have easily slipped something into his picnic food. Heck, she had plenty of those things in her own yard and could have packed something in the picnic basket. From pokeweed to milkweed, azaleas, mountain laurel, hydrangeas, oleander . . . and many, many more. Aunt Marjie had her pick of poisons.

  As I tried to block the mental image Dylan had just painted of Johnny dashing in and out of the woods, Delia said, “Do you think Katie Sue’s death was a suicide?”

  “Not sure right now,” Dylan said, his lips pressing into a grim line. “All I know is that things aren’t adding up.”

  “Like what kind of things?” I hoped he’d elaborate.

  “Just things.” He evaded like a pro. “But I will tell you this . . .”

  Moonlight grew brighter, throwing shadows throughout Daddy’s gardens. Delia and I eagerly leaned in like moths drawn to Dylan’s flame.

  He dropped his voice a notch. “Johnny said he saw one other person on the trail.”

  “Who?” My guess was Cletus. With Dinah parked nearby, he had to have been around here somewhere when all this went down. But how close had he come to Katie Sue?

  “As Johnny put it, ‘a crazy-assed runner’ dressed all in black, head to toe.”

  “Wasn’t me,” Delia said quickly.

  I laughed. They stared. “Sheesh,” I said.

  Somberly, Dylan added, “We need to find that runner. At the very least, that person’s an eyewitness.”

  “At the most?” Delia asked.

  “That person could be a killer.”

  A shiver rippled through me at the thought. “You should check on Cletus’s alibi.”

  “Already on it, Carly. I sent a deputy over to his and Dinah’s trailer to question them.”

  “You sent someone?” I asked. “Don’t you think you should go?”

  “You two might as well head home,” he said. Apparently it was his turn to ignore me. “It’ll be a late night here. There’s a lot we need to get done still, and then I have to head to the hospital to interview Gabi.”

  “Oh?” I wouldn’t mind going with him.

  “You can’t come with me,” he said.

  He had always been able to read me well. I countered with, “I’m sure my aunt Marjie would want to see me.”

  Delia snorted.

  I didn’t dare look at her, or else I wouldn’t be able to keep a straight face. Marjie hated hospitals, and I wouldn’t doubt if she was currently biting the heads off everyone who came near her.

  “Marjie’s being released soon,” Dylan said. “Apparently, she’s been yelling at the doctors since she got there, and they are more than happy to let her go.”

  I bit my nail. “I’m sure Gabi would like my company.”

  “The Calhouns are on their way to be with her, and there’s a guard watching the door, keeping out anyone who’s not approved.”

  “I might be approved . . . Gabi likes me.”

  His eyes darkened. “Be that as it may, Gabi’s a person of interest in this case. No one’s talking with her until I do.”

  “But maybe she’ll tell me—”

  “Carly.” He cut me off.

  “Dylan,” I echoed, using his same serious tone.

  “Let it go, Carly,” he said. “Go home, get some rest. Nothing’s going to happen tonight.”

  “Fine,” I lied, leaning back, not wanting to cause another scene for the tourists to witness. There was no way I was letting this go. I was too involved. From the moment Katie Sue walked through my door this morning, to when I left Jamie Lynn on my porch . . . I was in it up to my eyebrows.

  Suspicion clouded his features. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

  Nuts, I knew I shouldn’t have agreed so easily. “I just said ‘fine.’”

  He stared.

  I stared back.

  Letting out a resigned sigh, he said, “Fine. I need to get going.” Turning, he walked away, his strides long and sure.

  I smiled at his retreating form. I knew his “fine” meant that he would turn a blind eye and deaf ear to my snooping.

  Delia looked at me, a mischievous knowing twinkle in her eyes. “I can’t imagine why you two never married.”

  “Hush,” I said.

  What I really wanted to say was, “Never say never.”

  But I had the feeling she already knew.

  Chapter Fourteen

  As much as I hated to admit it, Dylan may have been right about one thing. There wasn’t much I could do tonight to figure out what happened to Katie Sue. It was too dark to trek into the woods to see where she’d gone off the cliff; the area around the gazebo was cordoned off with a deputy keeping watch; and Johnny, Marjie, and Gabi were otherwise occupied. I’d have to bide my time where they were concerned. I ultimately decided to go home, but I doubted very much that I would rest.

  As Delia and I had parted, she promised to let me know if she came across anyone who’d suddenly gone bald, and I—much to her surprise and a little of mine as well—threw my arms around her and hugged tight, thanking her for cleaning me up and for just . . . being there. Happily, she didn’t shove me away, but hugged me back.

  It made me think about families and second chances. Maybe Jamie Lynn Perrywinkle was right. Maybe her mama did deserve another shot.

  I’d made a quick stop at Potions to make an ointment for my hands, and then pedaled home. As I coasted down the street, I noticed Marjie’s inn cloaked in darkness and wondered when she’d get back. My gaze quickly skipped to the Crazy Loon with its welcoming lights shining softly through the windows. Dylan said the Calhouns were on their way to the hospital, but I spotted Warren and one of his lug nuts smoking cigars in Hazel’s garden. I wondered if it was a celebratory cigar now that Warren’s problematic lover was dead. Had he cared for her at all? Or had he been the one to put an end to her threats? I debated whether to go over there to confront him about his relationship with Katie Sue but hesitated. I didn’t quite know what to say, and before I could think of anything, the pair turned and went back inside the Loon.

  I took that as fate’s way of telling me to let it go. Fate, apparently, had been chatting with Dylan.

  For tonight, I would let it go.

  But tomorrow . . . all bets were off.

  I parked Bessie Blue next to the garage and climbed the back steps of my house, ready to face the wrath of the cats. I’d been gone most of the day, and they weren’t ones to suffer hunger patiently. Especially Poly. I fully expected to hear his outraged cries as I opened the back door, but oddly they didn’t greet me there.

  I made kissy noises to call the cats as I kicked off my shoes in the mudroom and set my lotion on the kitchen counter. As I started toward the living room, I suddenly froze at hearing a strange noise, one I couldn’t quite place. A surge of adrenaline shot through me.

  I waited for the tingle of my witchy senses, but felt nothing. All was clear. There was no danger. But just in case, I grabbed my pitchfork from the kitchen pantry and held it at the ready as I tiptoed into the living room and called out, “Roly, Poly!” I made more kissy noises.

  A head popped up from the other side of the sofa.

  “Eeee!” I screeched, startled.

  “Don’t fork me!”

  I grabbed my heart. “Ainsley Sage Debbs! You just took a year off my life at least.”

  “You’re telling me! I wake up to kissing noises and come face to prong with your pitchfork. Hell’s bells!”

  Ha! Now that I knew she’d been sleeping, the noise I heard was easily recognizable as her snoring.

  “I mean I’m used to kissing sounds from Carter and all, but that pitchfork is a whole other thing.” Her eyes narrowed and she giggled. “You been raiding your mama’s closet?”

  I glanced down at the dangerous curves T-shirt. “Long story. Carter makes kissy noises? I don’t believe it.”

  Grinning, she tucked her hair behind her ears. She had changed out of her flirty sundress into sweatpants and an oversize Oscar the Grouch tee. “Once in a while. Don’t tell him I told you.”

  I couldn’t even imagine that conversation. Carter and I rarely talked about anything but the weather. “My lips are sealed.” Smiling, I set the pitchfork aside. “What are you doing here?”

  “Well,” she said and took a deep breath. “I’d just got the kids down for the night when the phone started ringing off the hook with news about Katie Sue Perrywinkle being dead and all. I felt just horrible after joking about it earlier. I never imagined it might actually happen.”

  I wish I’d felt the same. I’d known something bad was going to happen—and hadn’t been able to stop it.

  “Of course I wanted to know what went down, and knew the best source for getting the news, so I left Carter and set off to find you, but I couldn’t even get close to your mama’s chapel for the crush of people there. So I came here to wait you out, but I must’ve dozed off. Getting the Clingons into bed is enough to do me in. Shoo. Those kids . . .”

  I sat next to her on the sofa. “They’re just like their mama. Unless they go around making kissy noises. In that case I’d say they take after their daddy.”

  She laughed. “Hush now.”

  “What’s all this?” I asked, taking note of the items stacked on my coffee table. A pile of folded clothes. Toiletries. A cell phone. “You moving in?”

  “Not me . . .” Heat colored Ainsley’s cheeks. “Since I was here, I decided to poke around some and check out the work that you’ve been doing—the place is coming along nicely, by the way—and when I peeped in the guest room, I saw the overnight bag on the bed and . . .” Shrugging, she scrunched up her face. “I went through it. I mean, that’s not too terribly wrong, is it? She couldn’t possibly care at this point, right?”

  Overnight bag? I was puzzled for a moment, before it clicked. “Katie Sue’s bag.”

  Ainsley nodded. “I don’t even know what I was looking for necessarily, but I can tell you there was nothing to find. Just some clothes and makeup and her phone, which might be helpful if I could figure out the code to get the thing unlocked. There are probably some juicy text messages stored in there.”

  “How long did you try?” I picked it up. I had very little know-how where cell phones were concerned.

  “An hour.”

  “I’m surprised you gave up so easily,” I teased.

  She elbowed me and leaned over the side of the couch to haul up Katie Sue’s handbag as well. “Nothing of interest in here, either.”

  I peeked in the bag. Goose bumps raised on my arms. It felt strange going through her things. I opened Katie Sue’s wallet and found plenty of money, credit cards, her driver’s license and hospital I.D. She worked at Birmingham Memorial—one of the best hospitals in the state. I couldn’t help but think of her lifelong goal of being a doctor—and how unfair it was that she wasn’t going to be able to live that dream.

  “So, tell me what happened with Katie Sue? Did she ever meet with Jamie Lynn?”

  I set the bag aside. “Let me feed the cats, and then I’ll tell you all about it.”

  “Already fed them. They’re passed out on your bed in a tuna stupor.”

  “Tuna? They’re never going to want you to leave.”

  “It is kind of nice here,” Ainsley said, rubbing the sofa arm. “So quiet.”

  I laughed. “You’ll be missing Carter and the Clingons soon.”

  “Maybe,” she said, her violet eyes gleaming. “Or maybe not. I should sleep over, like the old days.”

  “You won’t last till ten.”

  “Try me.”

  “You’re on.”

  As I checked Katie Sue’s clothes, I filled in Ainsley about the night’s events. Katie Sue had packed enough for two more days. There was no ammunition I saw, no diary with Mrs. Warren Calhoun written inside a heart shape. No hint as to why she’d died tonight.

  Ainsley tucked her legs beneath her. “You couldn’t tell what was wrong with Jamie Lynn?”

  “No, it’s the weirdest thing. I’m going to do some research in my medical books tonight.” I had quite the assortment of textbooks, collected throughout the years. Even though I could feel someone else’s ailment, it was important for me to understand how that translated into a diagnosis. With all the reading I’d done, I was probably as well schooled as Katie Sue had been. But there was always room for improvement—as Jamie Lynn’s case proved.

  “Did you talk to Jamie Lynn after Katie Sue’s body was found?” Ainsley asked.

  “No, but I saw her from afar. She looked crushed.”

 

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