Spelling Mistake (The Kitchen Witch Book 4) (8 page)

Chapter 17

“I can’t believe they didn’t have any coffee shops open in that town we just went through,” I grumbled.

“You’ve said that about five times, Amelia.” Thyme clutched her stomach. “They probably don’t open until nine, and we went through town well before that. Just as well I don’t have anything in my stomach, though, or I’d be sick.”

I shot a worried look at Thyme. She wasn’t exaggerating about being prone to carsickness. We had only just hit the winding roads and already her face was a ghastly shade of green. “Just tell me if you want me to pull over,” I said. “Try to give me some warning, because it doesn’t look like there are many opportunities to pull off the road.”

Thyme merely grunted, and stuck her head out the window.

I swerved to miss a bush turkey. It was considerably past dawn, so I was fairly certain that kangaroos wouldn’t be jumping out in front of the car, but I tried to keep my eye on both sides of the road just in case, not that it would do any good. Kangaroos move like lightning.

“You were right, Thyme, this isn’t a very nice road.”

“It’s like this for miles,” Thyme managed to say. “This is nothing. This is just the beginning—it gets worse after Gingers Creek. At any rate, living up at Bayberry Creek, whenever you want to get to the coast you’ve gotta go down a big mountain whichever route you take. This is nowhere near as bad as the Dorrigo mountain.”

I made a mental note to avoid the Dorrigo mountain. Still, as far as mountains went, this one wasn’t horrendous. There were no scary cliff faces at the edge of the road, at least not that I could see. If any existed, they were obscured by the towering eucalyptus trees and thick undergrowth. It was just that the winding road was unrelenting, and slow going at that.

I drove on for another thirty minutes in silence. There wasn’t a word from Thyme until we reached a big sign heralding the approach of the only café on the mountain. “Look,” she said with obvious relief. “We can pull over there. I can walk around to get some fresh air if you want to use the bathroom.”

I pulled off the road, in front of the store that looked something like a giant log cabin, an oasis in a vast stretch of rainforest. There was plenty of parking, and about five cars already parked there.

Thyme struggled out of the car and then slumped over the hood, while I headed for the big sign that said ‘Ladies.’”

I paused with my hand on the door, wondering why the ladies’ bathroom was right next to the alfresco dining area. I opened the door and walked in, and then saw to my dismay at a there was a giant window directly overlooking the alfresco dining area. Sure, the window was frosted, but it wasn’t quite frosted enough, if you ask me.

The color had returned to Thyme’s face, and she was pacing up and down next to the car. “You’re looking a lot better,” I said.

“You’re back fast,” she said by way of response.

“Are there any other public bathrooms around here?” I asked her. “That one has a huge window. I’m sure anyone eating out there could look straight in!”

Thyme chuckled. “Why did you think I didn’t go in there?”

“Please tell me there’s another one close. I’m going to have to go back if there isn’t.”

“Yes, the composting toilets are just down the hill.” Thyme pointed over her shoulder to the left.

“That’s a relief!”

Thyme sniggered. “You mightn’t say that when you see them.”

I motioned for her to get back in the car in a hurry. I’d had two cups of coffee before I collected Thyme that morning, and they were beginning to take their toll. At the bottom of the hill was a huge parking area and a green corrugated iron building. “You go first, given that you’re so desperate,” Thyme said.

I didn’t need to be told twice. I hurried up the ramp to the composting toilets.

Several minutes later, I was back at the car. “Why didn’t you warn me about the smell of the composting toilets?” I asked Thyme.

She shrugged. “It’s either a ghastly smell, or you have an audience. Which do you prefer?”

I had to admit that she had a point. Soon we were back on our way, winding down the mountain on our way to Wauchope.

It seemed like an age before we were down the mountain, and it probably was, given that I had to pull over for Thyme about three times on the way, giving her the opportunity to walk up and down to get some fresh air.

Mercifully, once down the mountain, the road was fast and flat. “I’m beginning to feel hungry now,” Thyme said.

I pointed to a sign. “Wauchope’s just under an hour away.”

Thyme groaned. “I need to eat before that. Can you stop at Long Flat shop?”

“What do you mean? There’s a long flat shop?”

Thyme laughed. “No silly, that’s the name of the town. Long Flat.”

We bought food at Long Flat and took off all our outer layers. It was so much warmer here than in Bayberry Creek, and it wasn’t all that far away as the crow flies.

“Remind me again why we’re living in Bayberry Creek and not here,” I said to Thyme when we finally reached the outskirts of Port Macquarie.

“You say that now, but wait until we reach the beaches,” Thymes said. “Then you’ll be
really
sorry we don’t live here. I think there are nine beaches here. We’ll have to come down for the weekend one time.”

My mind went straight to Alder. This would be a great romantic getaway. Of course, thinking about Alder brought up the unpleasant thoughts that had been bugging me ever since he kissed me. Had he only kissed me because I wished he would?

Thyme was punching an address into the GPS. “I only know my way to Port Macquarie, so this will get us to Penny Plank’s address.”

“What are we going to do when we get there?” We had planned to discuss that matter on the way down, but Thyme had been too sick for any conversation.

“Play it by ear,” Thyme said nonchalantly.

“Quick, stop the car!” Thyme said as I turned into Penny Plank’s street.

I did as she asked. “Why?”

“Look, that’s her house over there.”

Penny’s house was a few houses away from where I had parked. She was trying to get five children and a medium sized dog into her car. “That’s a lot of kids,” I said. “I don’t know how she manages.”

“Especially if Scott wasn’t paying child support,” Thyme said. “But how lucky are we! We can just follow her.”

I shook my head. “I still don’t know what Ruprecht expects us to find.”

I turned the car around, and followed her at a distance, until she came to a busy road. I kept a couple of cars between us, and stayed behind her for over five minutes. She finally turned left at a sign that said, ‘Nobbys Beach,’ so I pulled in behind her.

I could see the beach directly at the side of my car, and there was a cliff edge. I was on the outside edge of the road with the sheer drop right next to the car, and I don’t like heights at the best of times. I broke into a cold sweat. To my horror, a huge Jeep Grand Cherokee headed up the hill straight for us. “There’s not enough room for us to pass each other,” I said in a panic.

“Just keep going, you’ll be all right,” Thyme said weakly.

I froze. I stopped the car and just sat there, until the man driving the other car edged past me slowly. I then continued down the short distance to the parking area, relieved that on the way back up the hill, I would not be on the cliff side.

Penny had parked on the left side of the parking area and was getting the children and the dog out of the car. I parked on the opposite side of the parking area, and to my horror, there was another sheer cliff drop. This one was directly in front of me. There was no guardrail and only some tiny wooden stumps between me and a precipitous plunge to a certain death.

“Amelia, can you make really sure that the car’s in reverse when we leave?” Thyme asked, her voice fraught with anxiety.

“You can be sure I will,” I said nervously. I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans and tried to steady my breathing.

We waited until Penny was out of sight, and then we walked over to the beach, pausing at the top of the long flight of wooden steps down to the beach itself.

“Look, here’s a sign that says ‘Dogs only,’” Thyme said. “We don’t have a dog.”

“It’s not as if anyone’s going to arrest us for not having a dog,” I pointed out. “What will we do? Will we wait in the car until she comes back, or go down to the beach?”

“We’ll be way too conspicuous going down to the beach without a dog,” Thyme said.

I was sure she was right. Everyone on the beach, as far as I could see, had at least one dog. “We could wait to see if she’s meeting anyone, I suppose.”

Thyme clutched my arm. “I have an idea! Quick! Let’s drive back to her house.”

“And do what?”

“We can question her neighbors about her, pretend we’re visiting or something and looking for her.”

I tapped my chin. “I suppose so. But what if someone describes us to her later?”

“She’s never met us,” Thyme said. “Hurry, we don’t know how long she’s going to spend at the beach, but her being here gives us some time to question neighbors.”

On the short distance to the car, at least five people stopped to ask us if we’d lost our dog. We said that we had just met a friend with a dog.

After commenting on how friendly the locals were, I gingerly reversed the car, and then drove back up the steep hill. This time, I didn’t pass another car, but I wasn’t too worried about doing so, given that I wasn’t on the cliff edge this time. The GPS led us straight back to Penny’s house without incident.

“Follow my lead,” Thyme said.

I nodded, wishing I had her confidence. My heart was racing and my palms were sweaty. Thyme walked to Penny’s door and knocked on it, and then made a show of looking around. I noticed a woman peering at us over the fence, so I nudged Thyme.

Thyme waved to the lady and then walked over to her. “Hi, we’re friends of Penny’s from out of town. We haven’t seen her in ages, but she knew we were passing through town today and she’s expecting us. I thought she’d be back by now. She did say she was taking the kids and the dog to the beach first though, so I suppose she just got held up.”

The lady nodded. “Yeah, she only left a short time ago. Perhaps she got the time wrong. Those kids are a handful, and so’s the dog.”

“It must be hard for the children with their father dying recently,” Thyme said.

The woman snorted rudely. “Those kids didn’t even know they
had
a father. He’s never paid child-support and he’s never even been here to see them.”

“I’m surprised he’s managed to avoid paying child support,” I said, “especially since he has a legal obligation to do so.”

“But that’s what happens when you have expensive lawyers,” the woman said. “Penny often says that he’s probably paid the lawyers more than he would’ve ended up paying in child support, but he’s just so spiteful.”

“I’m not surprised that Penny won’t be going to his funeral,” Thyme said.

“She’s probably just happy that someone did the job for her,” the lady said.

Thyme and I exchanged glances. “What do you mean?” Thyme asked her.

“Well, there was that time when she tried to hit Scott with her car, and he ended up in the hospital.”

“But that wasn’t recently,” I said. I guessed it wasn’t by the way she mentioned it, but I wanted her to think that I knew all about it, especially if she was going to tell us that Penny had actually tried to murder her husband. It seemed to pay off.

“I’d forgotten about that,” Thyme lied. “Was she charged for it?”

The woman laughed. “No, she wasn’t even charged. It was when Scott came here to yell at her and tell her she’d never get any child support out of him, and she was just on her way out when he arrived. She reversed over him, and broke his leg in three places. You know, she never had any luck with the law over getting child-support, because he keeps delaying it, but Lady Luck was sure on her side that day.”

She paused for breath, and Thyme and I remained silent. Fortunately, she continued. “Scott called the police, of course, but Penny pretended to be upset. She said that he’d yelled at her and threatened to take the kids away from her, and as she was on her way to collect them from school, she became distraught and didn’t realize he was standing directly behind her car.”

“That was lucky for her,” I said. “It seems a rather lame excuse. I’m so glad they believed Penny, though,” I added quickly.

“As you know, Penny’s a drama teacher, so she’s quite a good actress. She had those cops wrapped around her little finger. She was really pleased with herself. She was only sorry she missed him, and only hit his leg.” The woman narrowed her eyes.

Thyme pointedly looked at her watch, and I took the hint. “Oh, I just forgot that we haven’t brought the children any gifts,” I said to Thyme. “You know how upset they get when we don’t bring gifts for them.”

The lady appeared to believe me—after all, why wouldn’t she? “You probably passed a big shopping mall on your way here,” she said helpfully. “Settlement City. I’m sure you’ll have time to go there and buy gifts and get back about the time Penny and the kids get home.”