Southern Witch - Would-Be Witch Part 14

"Not yet. One problem at a time."

I sighed as we both stood. Life wasn't going too good. If tomorrow's horoscope prediction was bad, I was liable to tear the whole newspaper to shreds.

I hesitated as we walked to the door. I looked Bryn full in the face. "I do appreciate this," I said. "After all the stuff I said and did last night, and you didn't even mention that. It's real gracious of you."

"We'll chalk what you said up to the red hair," he teased with a wry smile.

I turned to the door and pulled it open. "I'm not in a position to argue about it right at the moment." I glanced back and stared straight into his cobalt eyes, so clear and blue, like water in those pictures of the Caribbean. "But I'll think it over, and maybe if I ever get out of here, I'll dye it."

He leaned near me and said softly, "Don't you dare."

I spent the night in jail, but I had the cell to myself. Zach brought me a pillow and blanket from home and breadsticks and the lasagna I love from De Marco's. He left the cell door open all evening and played rummy with me until one in the morning. Then he kissed me good night and locked me inside. The guys on night duty came around every few hours to see if I needed anything and at nine in the morning, I got to take a shower and get ready for court. So my advice is, if you have to go to jail, make sure somebody you sleep with is holding the keys.

When I walked into court on Wednesday, there was a female judge with steely gray hair and an even steelier expression. My heart pounded, and I clasped my hands in front of me tightly, almost like my heart was in my grasp and if I squeezed hard enough I could make it go slower. Then I saw Bryn, and he nodded and waved to me in a confident way that rea.s.sured me. The bailiff led me over to him.

Smitty came in then with the prosecutor, and Smitty looked like he'd had skunk stew for breakfast. I c.o.c.ked my head and then glanced at Bryn.

"What's going on?" I whispered.

"Give it a moment."

The prosecutor, who I'd never met, stood near his chair with Smitty sitting in the row behind him. Two rows back from them I spotted Jenna Reitgarten, giving me one of her usual holier-than-thou looks. I cringed. Could my humiliation get any worse? Did she have to be there to watch? I felt so nauseous I was frankly worried about Bryn's fancy briefcase sitting on the table in front of me.

I slid it to the side and forced myself not to put my head down. Bryn squeezed my arm in rea.s.surance when I swayed. He leaned to me.

"Don't pa.s.s out."

But it seems like such a good time for it. I gripped the table until my hands were white.

After some announcement, the hearing was called to order, and the prosecutor stood.

"I've read Mr. Lyons's motion, Your Honor, and have had time to question the arresting officer. It seems that Mr. Lyons's statements are not incorrect. Ms. Trask was never advised of her Miranda rights at the time of the arrest. Officer Smith was also not able to inform her of the exact charges since he didn't have the warrant in his possession at the time that he arrested her."

The judge raised her eyebrows and then frowned at Smitty, who looked ashen.

"In light of these deviations, these serious deviations, and some other facts that have been brought to light, we are prepared to drop the charges against Ms. Trask."

The judge nodded. "Case dismissed."

People behind us gasped and mumbled, but I didn't look at them. I turned to Bryn, who smiled.

"Is that it?"

"That's it," he said.

"Oh my gosh," I stammered, too overwhelmed to speak.

Bryn slid his notepad into his black leather briefcase.

"I can't believe it." I put a hand to my forehead. I was still dizzy, but I was feeling better by the second. "Thank you," I said. "You're worth every penny of your fee."

He laughed. "You're welcome. There's always still a possibility of civil action, so don't talk about that night with anyone."

I gave him a hug, then started toward the back of the courtroom. I wanted the h.e.l.l out of Dodge. That's when I saw Lucy Reitgarten and a couple of women I didn't know, all of whom had large brown smudges on their foreheads, scowling at me from the back of the courtroom like the Furies.

I wanted to tell them the marks would wear off, but I remembered Bryn advising me not to talk about things, so I looked straight ahead and hurried past them.

When I got home, I gave Mercutio his medicine. He promptly went crazy, attacking the furniture and me. I had just cornered him with some throw pillows when the doorbell rang. As soon as my back was turned, he barreled by me.

My hair looked like I'd been in a NASA antigravity machine by the time I answered the door. I smoothed it down and gave Zach my most innocent face.

"Now what's going on?" he asked.

"Nothing. Just playing with Mercutio."

"Uh-huh, that's another thing we need to talk about. The vet says he's not a house cat."

"He does fine in the house," I said, trying to keep Zach from venturing into the living room where the disarray looked suspiciously like a tornado had come through.

"I ran into Mac. He says he's pretty sure it's an ocelot."

"A what?"

"A wild cat. Like a leopard, but smaller."

"Don't be silly. Mercutio's not a leopard. He'd have bitten me by now."

Mercutio did a flying leap into the foyer and onto Zach's leg, snagging his pants before landing and merrily pouncing on imaginary prey.

Zach looked at me.

"He's on medication."

Zach shook his head and walked around Mercutio, who seemed to have subdued whatever invisible foe he'd been battling.

"Texas has laws, Jo. No exotic animals as pets. You best say your good-byes and turn him over to a zoo before someone complains. And they will complain because the whole town's gonna be watching you."

"He's my cat. I'm not giving him up."

"You had such a good time in jail, you want to go back?"

I turned red, but put my fist on my hip and widened my stance to let him know just how serious I was about keeping Mercutio.

Zach walked into the kitchen, pulled open the cupboard and took down the coffee. I walked over and attempted to pull the can from his hand.

"It's my house. I'll make it."

He held fast to the can and eyed me as I tried to take it. "I can't make myself at home here anymore?" he asked.

I frowned. "That's not what I'm saying-"

"Then sit yourself in a chair, and let's talk about your locket. Who's seen it and asked about it? And who have you told that it's old and valuable?"

The locket! Yes, I did want to talk about that.

"Anybody who's known me and my family knows that we consider that locket our most important possession."

"Right, but someone just stole it recently. You been wearing it on the outside of your clothes lately? Mentioned it to anyone?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Folks come into the bakery all day long. I can't remember what all's been said in the past few weeks. No one took an interest that I noticed."

"You told me once that you weren't the only person in town to see the ghost. Who else has claimed to see it?"

"Her. She's a her. And her name is Edie."

Zach gave me a pained look.

"And just why are you so interested all of a sudden?" I wondered if it might have been because Bryn had saved the day that morning, and Zach didn't intend for him to get all the glory in rescuing me.

The coffee percolated, and Zach got himself a cup. "I'm working on the case. Isn't that what you want me to do? Ilene Faber's Jag turned up in San Antonio. Who do you know with family or friends over there?"

"n.o.body."

"Who claims to have seen the ghost?"

"Johnny Nguyen Ho."

"Of course," Zach mumbled. "He's probably also had visits from Elvis and James Dean."

"This was a very reliable Edie sighting. He described her perfectly, right down to the way she talks. I know he's seen her."

"Uh-huh. And did you open the locket to let her out for him to see?"

"No."

"So then how did he just happen to see her?"

"She doesn't need me to open the locket. She can get in and out whenever she wants to. And she went to his house. He was having a seance. Maybe she was the closest spirit to his place at the time."

I could see Zach's blood pressure rising, but he held his tongue like someone was likely to cut it off if he didn't.

"Has Johnny seen the locket?"

"Yes."

"Does he know that the ghost is attached to the locket?"

"Yes, but he wouldn't steal the locket. He doesn't need to. Edie likes him. She visits him."

"When she feels like it, huh?" Zach asked. "Maybe he wanted her to be the guest of honor at some seance, and she didn't show up like a trick pony. Maybe he thought if he had the locket, he could make her appear whenever he wanted her to."

"Oh, I don't think so."

"He's got out-of-town friends, more than most people around here. He could have asked them or paid them to get the locket."

"You're just too suspicious. Not everyone is out to break the law."

"Most times, people are out for what they can get away with. Now, who else knows how much you love that locket? Lyons?"

"He only found out it was important to me after the robbery."

"Did you tell him about the ghost?"

"As a matter of fact, no. I don't just go 'round telling everyone. You know I don't."

"Hey, you divorced me. How do I know what you do in your free time?"

"How do you know? That's a good question. 'Cause it sure seems like whatever I do gets right back to you. You've got more spies than the CIA."

"There you go exaggerating again. Now tell me about this ghost." He poured coffee into a mug and held it out to me. I took it, feeling strange about having this conversation with him. He'd never wanted to hear about Edie, and when he and I were breaking up, any mention of her had made him furious. Seeing my hesitation, he added, "C'mon, Tammy Jo, this is your big chance to tell me all about her."

Something in his tone rubbed me the wrong way. "Maybe I'm past wanting to tell you about her."

"You want me to find the locket for you or not?"

However uncomfortable I was about talking to him about Edie, I couldn't let it get in the way of his doing his job. I needed that locket found.

"There's not much to say that has anything to do with all this. She died a long time ago when she was twenty-four years old. The locket was her sister's. They were close and when Edie died, she attached herself to it. It might be that wherever she was supposed to go didn't want her or she didn't want it. But anyway, she's never left this world, or almost never left it. Except this one bad night of a Bryan Adams concert in 1984."

"What does that mean?"

"It's why I'm worried. I don't know what keeps her here, whether it's blood or memories or what. But something terrible will happen to her if she tries to appear and none of us has the locket. Back in the eighties, Momma and Aunt Mel shared the locket, and sometimes when they weren't wearing it, they left it lying around. Well, Aunt Mel's friend Lisa picked it up and put it on. They all went out, and Aunt Mel didn't remember to get the locket back, even though they knew it wasn't supposed to get taken anywhere without one of us.

"That night Momma and Mel had terrible nightmares and woke up hearing Edie screaming. She was being churned up and pulled into some hall of horrors. They ran out of the house, crying and hysterical. It was raining, and Momma crashed their car into a tree. Aunt Mel smashed her head against the winds.h.i.+eld and was bleeding, but Momma couldn't even stay with her because she couldn't stand the shrieking. By the time she got to Lisa's house though, it all stopped.

"And when she got the locket, it was cold and dead, and Momma said she thought she'd die right along with Edie. She and Aunt Mel couldn't eat, couldn't sleep. They were so heartbroken.

"They called a ghost to make sure Edie made it to the other side, and it told them she wasn't totally gone. So they did something to call her back."

"Like what?" Zach asked. "A seance?"

I ignored the question because I still didn't like his tone. "So they pulled her back, but she wasn't the same. She used to talk and joke with them, tell stories, and give advice. But when she came back after that night, she would only stay in corners and sit curled up with her head down. She didn't talk or look at them for almost a year."

"Later, when she was a little better, she told them that it happened when she'd started to appear and couldn't tell where she was. She couldn't get her energy together. It was like being ripped apart by claws and sharp teeth she said. Well, Momma and Aunt Mel never took the locket off again. When one took a shower, the other wore it.

"When Momma and Aunt Mel left town, they gave it to me for safekeeping while they're gone. I promised I wouldn't take it off, and I didn't voluntarily." I shook my head angrily. "Those bandits, the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. I've got to get that locket back before she tries to come out. I just have to." I took a deep breath to compose myself as Zach watched me with a guarded expression. "I need it back before October twenty-fourth. It's an important anniversary." Edie's birthday as a witch. The day she'd successfully cast her first spell. "She always comes to visit on that day."

"C'mon," Zach said, getting up. "Let's go take a ride."