Any Witch Way You Can (6 page)

“Neither do you.”

What was that supposed to mean? “I grew up here.”

“You didn’t always live here, though, did you?”

“No. I lived in Detroit for a few years. How did you know that?”

“Everyone out there is freaking out because they’ve never seen a body before. You’re a little too calm.”

I didn’t tell him I was fighting not to lose my morning breakfast on the evidence in the area and further contaminate the scene. “I’m not calm. I’m composed. There’s a difference. This isn’t the first body I’ve seen, though.”

“You get a lot of bodies strung up in corn mazes?”

“That’s not what I said,” I protested vehemently. “I just said that I’ve seen other bodies before.”

“In Detroit?”

“Yes.”

Landon raised a hand and placed it reassuringly on my shoulder. “Well, you’re doing a good job of pretending to be in control.”

“Someone had to take charge,” I argued.

“I get the feeling you have to be in control, no matter what situation you find yourself in.”

I wasn’t sure, but I thought I’d probably been insulted. I didn’t get a chance to find out, though, because I could hear voices coming through the maze. I turned to see Chief Terry making his way through the remnants of the crowd that were still milling about the corridor. “Go out to the front of the maze,” he ordered. “My officers have some questions for you.”

Chief Terry’s gaze met mine as he entered the cleared area where we were standing. “Bay,” he greeted me with a nod. I saw his gaze wash over Landon. He didn’t speak to him directly, though. Instead he asked me the question that was clearly banging around in his head. “Who is this?”

“I’m Landon,” Landon stepped forward to shake Chief Terry’s hand. Chief Terry, who stood about two inches shorter than Landon -- and five inches wider -- steadfastly ignored it.

“Who is he?” Chief Terry raised his gray eyebrows as he pointed the question at me, instead of Landon. He was obviously trying to put Landon in his place.

“I don’t know, “ I replied. “They were outside of the maze drinking beer before it opened.”

Landon looked like he wanted to say something but then wisely clamped his mouth shut.

“Is it really a body?” Chief Terry asked finally. He hadn’t made a move towards the scarecrow.

“Yeah,” I said. My mouth was dry and the single word came out as a rasp.

“Do you recognize him?”

“I didn’t touch the mask,” I said. “I figured you would have a forensic team here to do that.”

“A forensic team? This isn’t the city.”

I hadn’t thought of that. Chief Terry had exactly three officers at his command. He didn’t have the resources to investigate something like this. “Maybe you should call the state police?” I didn’t want to offend him, but I didn’t want him to bungle this either. Chief Terry had been the head of the Hemlock Cove Police Department for as long as I could remember. That usually entailed citing underage drinkers, random cow tippers and the occasional drunken driver. I don’t think he’d ever seen anything like this before.

“I already did,” he said, running a hand through his salt and pepper hair. “They’ll be here in a few minutes.”

Chief Terry moved over to my side protectively. He was still regarding Landon warily. “Why are you here?” He finally addressed Landon directly.

“I heard the screams,” Landon said.

“And you wanted to run to the rescue?”

“Something like that,” Landon muttered.

“You don’t look like a guy that runs to the rescue of others.”

“Meaning?” Landon had placed his hands on his hips and was now facing off against Chief Terry aggressively.

For his part, Chief Terry didn’t look intimidated. He moved around me and stood in front of Landon, placing his own hands on his hips and adapting an equally confrontational stance. “Meaning you look more like the type of guy that causes trouble.”

“I heard screams and wanted to make sure no one was hurt,” Landon said, casting a sideways glance at me. “I didn’t realize that made me a criminal.”

Chief Terry slid a questioning glance toward me and realization dawned on his face. “You came in here to make sure she was alright.” Chief Terry jerked his thumb at me when he said the word “she.”

“I just met him,” I protested.

Chief Terry ignored me. “She makes an impression, doesn’t she?”

Landon didn’t answer the question, but a small smile played at the corner of his lips.

“The whole family does. You should see her mother. And her aunts. Well, not her Aunt Tillie, not that she doesn’t make an impression," he said hurriedly. Even Chief Terry didn’t want to run the risk of offending Aunt Tillie.

Landon quirked a smile. “I see you know the family well.”

“I’ve known her since she was a kid and I don’t like ruffians – especially ones that look like you – sniffing around.”

“He’s not sniffing around,” I interjected. “I really did just meet him a few minutes ago.” I don’t know why I felt the need to stand up for Landon – but I did.

Chief Terry was still pretending he didn’t hear me – even though I knew he did. “Why don’t you go join the others out front,” he ordered Landon. “Don’t leave, though. My officers are going to want to interview you.”

Landon glared at Chief Terry but he did as he was told. He cast a glance back at me as he left, but he didn’t say anything. I was relieved when I saw him disappear back into the maze.

“I don’t need you to protect me,” I told Chief Terry, even though I was touched at his concern.

“That is not the kind of man that you should be spending time with,” he said warningly.

“I told you – three times now – I just met him,” I snapped. “I’m not spending time with him.”

“Just keep it that way,” Chief Terry grumbled. “I don’t think your family would like him.”

“Who do they like?”

“They like you,” he replied quickly. “And they don’t want to see you get hurt.”

I wasn’t sure about Aunt Tillie, but he was right about the rest of them. “What makes you think I’m going to get hurt?”

Chief Terry opened his mouth to explain but he was interrupted by a contingent of state police who were suddenly descending on the area. I wanted to stay and see what they found, but I was ushered out of the area quickly.

Once I was back at the front of the maze, I found myself surrounded by the townspeople that usually made a point of shunning me.

“Who was it?” Mrs. Little asked in alarm.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I didn’t see his face.”

“You’re sure it’s a body, though?”

“I’m sure.”

One of the teenage boys that had been in the maze earlier brought me a cup of cider. I thanked him and sipped it mindlessly. I don’t even like cider – and yet it tasted good.

The police questioned everyone in the area. Most people were released quickly. After about an hour, only a handful of people were left. One of them was Landon. I watched as he made his way over to me.

“How are you?” He seemed genuinely concerned – and that puzzled me.

“I’m fine.” I glanced around the front of the maze and realized that his friends were gone. “Where are you little buddies?”

“They didn’t like all the police, so they left,” he said.

“Why don’t they like police?”

Landon shrugged. “Lots of people don’t like the police.”

“And how do you feel about the police?”

Landon looked down on me and smiled despite himself. “I think that police serve a purpose.”

“Have they had to serve a purpose with you before?”

Landon chuckled. “I get the feeling you don’t trust me.”

“Why would I?”

“Why wouldn’t you? Because I drink beer at nine in the morning?”

That’s as good of a reason as any. “No. I just don’t know you.”

“So you’re suspicious of everyone you don’t know? You only trust family?” Landon was baiting me. He was trying to get a reaction.

“Oh, I’m suspicious of my family, too. That’s because I know what they’re capable of, though. I have no idea what you’re capable of.”

“Maybe you’ll find out?”

I realized he was flirting with me and felt a rush of warmth wash over me. Then I remembered where I was.

I turned to see Chief Terry exiting the corn maze. He made his way over to me. “It’s a teenage boy,” he said heavily.

“One of ours?” I felt as if the air had been knocked out of me.

“I don’t recognize him.”

That was a small relief. Not for his family, though.

“They’re going to get dental records and see if they can identify him.”

“He didn’t have any identification on him?” Landon asked the question, but Chief Terry directed the answer to me.

“He didn’t have a wallet on him. They’re still looking around the maze to see if they can find any of his belongings.”

I swallowed hard. “How was he killed?”

“He was stabbed in the heart and it was . . . removed.”

“Removed?” My eyebrows practically shot off my head. “Why would someone remove a heart?”

“I don’t know,” Chief Terry admitted. “It’s sick. They state boys say it’s ritualistic.”

“Like a cult?”

Chief Terry shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see what they find out. I know about as much as you do right now.”

“Where will they take him now?”

“The state lab.”

We lapsed into silence for a few minutes and watched as the state police wheeled a body bag on a gurney out of the maze. I felt sad for the unidentified boy inside. What a horrible way to die. I could only hope he’d been dead before his heart had been cut out.

Chief Terry turned back to me briefly. “I’ll let you know what we find out.”

“Thanks.”

I started to move away but Chief Terry stopped me. “Bay, they did say one other thing.”

“What?”

“They said if it is some sort of ritual thing, this might only be the beginning.”

Six

When I left the corn maze, I was still shaken by Chief Terry’s parting words. Only the beginning. More murders? More teenagers with their hearts cut out? I couldn’t even imagine that. Why here? And why now?

I found my hands shaking as I drove and pondered what had just happened. This was Hemlock Cove. Things like this weren’t supposed to happen here. The most distressing thing to happen here on a regular basis was gossip.

I stopped at the paper to see how the layout for this week’s edition was going. It wasn’t exactly rocket science, but it was still important. This was the town’s only source of local information, after all. And, even though the townspeople made fun of the paper, they would be lost without it.

I went into my office, closing the door behind me, and opened my laptop. I started Googling ritual murders – and was disturbed by what I found. To be fair, my only knowledge on anything like this came from television – basically
Criminal Minds
and
Dateline
reruns. The only thing I could ascertain is that there were no set rules for this sort of thing.

Essentially, two types of people conduct ritualistic murders: Those that thought the devil was making them do these things and those that thought they were doing horrific things because they were actually the devil. Both sounded insane to me.

Surprisingly, when I widened my search, I found that there were a disturbing number of ritual murders throughout the country that involved removing hearts. Apparently, the heart was the most common organ to be removed. Nice.

Despite surfing through several websites, I couldn’t find one commonality for why people would take the heart. Some did it as a way to appease certain pagan gods. Others did it as a trophy – putting it in a jar or on display in their homes. The truly disturbed, I found, actually ate them. And I thought liver was gross.

I was so engrossed in my work that I didn’t see Edith float through the wall and join me in my research.

“Why are you looking at that?”

“A boy was found in the Harrow Bluff corn maze this morning,” I explained. “He had his heart cut out.”

“That’s awful,” Edith intoned. “Was it done with a chainsaw?”

“I don’t think so. I think it was done with a simple knife,” I replied. I didn’t know if that was better or worse, though.

“Was he from town?”

“They don’t think so,” I said. “No one recognized him. The state police are trying to find out who he is through dental records.”

Edith’s gaze was focused on my computer screen. “And the police think it was ritualistic? Like a cult?”

“They don’t know. They think it’s a possibility, though. I was just doing my own research.”

“Well, I hope that it’s not devil worshippers,” Edith said. “The last thing this town needs is devil worshippers – what with all the witches and everything.”

I tried not to let her comments hurt me – but it wasn’t an easy endeavor. I knew she didn’t mean me specifically, but since I was the only one in town that could see and talk to her, I thought she would show a little restraint. If only for my benefit.

Edith didn’t seem to notice my sudden discomfort. Or, maybe she did, and she chose instead to ignore it. “This won’t be good for the town,” she said.

“It’s not good for anybody.”

I left the office after another twenty minutes of research and decided to go to Hypnotic to tell Clove and Thistle what had happened. I knew they would never forgive me if I didn’t give them the details myself. Plus, I wanted to get their thoughts on ritualistic murders. I didn’t think they knew any more than I did – but it never hurts to check.

When I entered the shop, I was surprised to see them anxiously waiting for me.  Thistle was even pacing, not even pretending to do work. They both greeted me excitedly.

“Is what everyone says true?” Clove asked breathlessly. “Was there a body in the new corn maze?”

I nodded stiffly and sank down on the couch. Thistle brought me a cup of tea, pushing it into my hand. I accepted it absentmindedly.

“Who was it?”

“They don’t know. Chief Terry didn’t recognize him. He doesn’t think he’s from Hemlock Cove.”

“Why would someone kill an outsider and then bring them here?” Clove asked. “Or maybe he came to the corn maze and was killed here instead?”