A Howling Good Time (Wicked Witches of Destiny Cove Book 3) Page 6

  “Actually, we were just talking to someone about an old employee,” I said. “Why? Is something wrong?”

  “Are you some sort of law enforcement?” he asked.

  “No. I was just having a conversation with someone. It was a casual thing.”

  “I think that you two need to leave the mall.” His voice was much louder. All of the mothers with their children turned around to stare.

  “Excuse me?” I asked. “I don’t understand.”

  “I’ve heard around that your friend here,” he said and pointed at Ginger, “is possibly a murder. We don’t want that kind here in this mall. This is a family establishment.” He rocked back on his heels when he said the last part. “So, why don’t you two get out of here.”

  “What?” I said. I still couldn’t believe what he was saying.

  “Come on, Zoe. Let’s go,” Ginger said softly.

  She stood up and threw her trash in a nearby can while I sat there staring at the security guard who had obviously lost his mind. It was only when she came back and shook my shoulder that I snapped out of it.

  “We don’t want your kind here,” he hissed quietly so that the other people in the food court didn’t hear him. “Not that Amanda’s kind is any better. Rabid animals need putting down.”

  “Oh my goddess,” I said. “Ginger, let’s go.”

  As we hurried out, I couldn’t help but keep looking behind us to see if the psycho security guard was following us. He didn’t, but I still threw the car in gear and peeled out of the parking lot.

  We would have to find somewhere else to shop.

  Chapter Twelve

  I called Joe and asked when we could meet. I wanted to talk to him right away, but he couldn’t get away from a homicide he was assisting the county sheriff with. He’d been getting called away a lot to help the county and state police. There just seemed to be more traffic accidents and murders happening, and Joe didn’t say much about it, but the traffic accidents weren’t really accidents. People were driving more recklessly or aggressively, and it was costing lives. Something dark permeated the air around Destiny Cove.

  Ginger called Lupin, and she went to go help him with his current project. I spent the afternoon pacing the floor in my living room and trying to talk myself out of going back to the mall and sucker punching that crazy security guard. I probably should have found something productive to do with all of that energy, but I couldn’t focus.

  When Joe arrived, I filled him in on what the security guard had said to us. I told him about what I learned about Amanda and Angel’s friendship too.

  “You probably shouldn’t go back to that place,” Joe said after giving me a big hug.

  “Don’t worry, I wasn’t going to. I couldn’t trust myself not to deck that guy. I don’t know how people can just say things like that and think it’s okay. I’m surprised he hasn’t gotten himself fired, but then not everyone knows shifters and witches exist.”

  “So, do you think Amanda was a shifter?” Joe asked. “Is that what he was talking about, or was she witch? I don’t get his ranting at all unless it’s that.”

  “I don’t know. I’m sure Lupin knows if she’s a shifter or not. She probably was. That seems to be his type. As far as witch, I don’t know. I could…”

  “Please don’t say contact her spirit,” Joe interrupted.

  “Well, there’s that or I could just look at the body. I might be able to tell from that.”

  “How?” he asked. “How could you tell from looking at her body?”

  I pulled my shirt up and turned around to show him the small tattoo on my back. “We aren’t born with witch marks, but most of us have them. It marks our transition into the full moon,” I said. “If I could look at her body, I could tell you if she had one. As far as being a shifter, you can ask Lupin.”

  “She could be both?” he asked.

  “Sure, Ginger is, after all. There are far stranger things. Though, I doubt she was a witch. If she was, then she was definitely tainted by dark magic. That’s the only explanation for how mean and aggressive she was.”

  “If I take you to her body to look for the witch mark, do you promise not to try and contact her spirit?” Joe asked reluctantly. “Otherwise, I can try and look for myself.”

  “You want to go poking around on a dead body looking for a witch mark?” I asked.

  “Not really, but I also don’t want you unleashing a hoard of demons on earth.”

  “Fair point,” I said. “Okay, take me too look for a witch mark. I promise no necromancy.”

  “We can’t go right now. The corner’s office is still open. We’ll have to go after they close. I’m going to go back to work so it appears I was too busy to go during regular hours. I’ll pick you up as soon as I’m sure the coroner and his secretary are gone for the day.”

  Joe came back to get me just after dark. Ginger was still out with Lupin, so I didn’t have to make any excuses as to why she shouldn’t come.

  He picked me up in his personal vehicle instead of the cruiser. I guess he didn’t want to draw attention to us, but I wondered what would happen if someone noticed the car sitting in the Coroner’s Office parking lot.

  It turned out that wouldn’t be a problem. We were able to park around the back. There was a little keypad next to the door. Joe typed in a code, and we were in.

  “Oh, crap,” he said. “The cameras. How could I forget that?”

  “Are they outside too?”

  “No, just beyond the desk.”

  “I’ve got this,” I said and did a spell to conceal us.

  “Nothing happened,” Joe said.

  “It did. Trust me.”

  “I do,” he responded. “If you say we’re in the clear, then let’s go.”

  Joe went behind the receptionist desk and hit a button that made the door in front of us unlock. I reached out and grabbed it before it locked again.

  The hallway on the other side was long, white, and smelled like a hospital. It wasn’t just normal hospital smell, though. It was like hospital times a thousand.

  There was something else too. Once we were on the other side of the door, the air felt heavier. It was like wearing a coat that was a size too small. It pressed down on you and at the same time constricted your breathing.

  We were halfway down the hall when I figured out what it was. Oddly enough, I hadn’t felt it at the funeral home, but in that place death hung bloated in the air.

  The funeral home was a place where loved ones went to tell their family or friend goodbye, but the Coroner’s Office handled deaths with a darker story behind them.

  “Do you feel that?” I asked Joe. “Or is it just because I’m a witch?”

  “It’s always that way here,” Joe said. “If you’re talking about the heaviness in the air. The county even tried to do something about it once after employees said it was getting unbearable. They had fresh air circulators installed, but it didn’t do any good. A bunch of people quit, and now only people who can handle it work here. Employees spend as little time on this side of the door as possible. The air circulators obviously didn’t do any good because it’s not a physical issue.”

  “Yeah, it’s definitely supernatural. I guess it’s because of what this place is used for. The sadness and other negative emotions seem to pool here. The air circulators were a good idea, but they need something that will circulate the negativity, not the air.”

  “I don’t think anyone would take that suggestion seriously,” Joe said.

  “There have to be magical folk working here. They’d be the only ones who would have the means to deal with it. But I guess if that were true, they’d have done something about it.”

  “Maybe they can only protect themselves,” Joe said. “What kind of things would work?”

  “Flowers and music are two right off the top of my head. If there were fresh flowers inside and outside, and positive music playing.”

  “So, if we hum a little tune while we go downstairs,
will it make it better?”

  “And remember that we love each other. I love you, Joe,” I said.

  “I love you, too. Hey, that did work. I can feel a little lift,” he said as we stopped in front of the elevator and Joe pressed the button.

  It didn’t last long, the elevator doors opened and a wave of that heaviness rolled out and crashed into us. Joe took my hand and we stepped inside despite it.

  The ride down felt like it took forever even though it was only one floor. The elevator shook like it didn’t quite fit in the shaft and had to shimmy down to the bottom. The lights in the top of the elevator and behind the buttons flickered a few times too.

  “Can you get us out of here if this thing gets stuck?” Joe asked nervously.

  “Yeah. I’m pretty sure that’s within my power,” I said.

  “So, it’s not like cell phones?” Joe asked.

  “You mean like I can’t get a signal in here?” I said with a chuckle. “No, it’s not like that. The elevator doesn’t block my magical signal.”

  Right on cue, the doors opened to a similar hallway as the one on the floor above. Except that this one was darker and the lights were flickering like they were in the elevator. The feeling of oppression was also heavier.

  “Let’s get this over with,” Joe said. “Or we can go back upstairs. I’m not sure what knowing if she was a witch or not is going to do for us anyway.”

  “I guess we’re doing it for the sake of investigation. I don’t know how it fits into the puzzle, but it is one more piece. So let’s finish what we started.”

  Joe nodded his head yes and stepped out of the elevator in front of me. “I’ll lead you to her. Stay behind me.”

  “Okay,” I said with a chuckle.

  He threw me a look, but it was cute when he got all protective. The snarky side of me wanted to remind him that I could protect us from things too and that something paranormal wasn’t going to necessarily attack us from the front. But, that seemed cruel. Joe wanted to take care of me, so as much as I could, I would let him.

  We walked down the hallway, and it was barely perceptible, but the flickering got more intense the closer we got to our destination. There was also a buzzing in the air that became audible once we were standing outside the room where her body was kept.

  “All right,” Joe said. “You’re sure about this?”

  “I’m sure.”

  He pushed the door open, and the buzzing sound was coming from inside the room. At first, I expected to be swarmed by insects, but the noise was coming from the lights.

  They bathed the center of the room in stark, harsh white light while creating deep shadows in the corners. Along the back wall of the room were the drawers that contained the bodies.

  “Do you think the tattoo will be in the same place as yours?” Joe asked.

  “It’s usually somewhere discreet, but it might not be in the exact same spot,” I said.

  “So I’ll pull out the drawer and turn around while you look her over. If you need help, let me know, but I’d rather let her keep her dignity as much as possible,” Joe said.

  “Of course,” I said solemnly, but on the inside I was beaming.

  It was hard not to be proud of him. He was a hard worker, a protector, and he loved me. If we hadn’t been standing in a morgue ready to inspect a dead body, I would have kissed him.

  The creaking sound when he pulled out the drawers was enough to make me cover my ears. While the upstairs portions of the building were all new and shiny, it was obvious the budget had run out there.

  The equipment in the room we were in looked like something straight out of an old horror movie. It was like an autopsy room from at least an era ago, and the drawers were all rusted with chipping paint and mechanical parts that desperately needed maintenance.

  Joe pulled the sheet back just enough to confirm that he’d opened the right drawer. He knew exactly where she was without checking, so he must have looked up the information before he picked me up for our little outing.

  “Let me know if you need my help,” he said and turned around.

  “Something’s wrong,” I said without even pulling the sheet back further.

  “What do you mean?” Joe asked.

  “She’s got an aura. Dead people don’t have auras,” I said.

  “Could it be some sort of residue? Maybe she had a really strong one in life,” Joe said.

  “That’s an interesting idea, but it’s not the way it works.” The aura was so faint that I’d almost missed it because it was partially blended in with her hair.

  “Zoe, she’s been autopsied.” Joe swallowed hard as he tried to wrap his head around what I was saying.

  “No, the coroner thinks he performed an autopsy,” I said and waved my hands over the body.

  Goddess I plead

  Let me see

  Bring what is hidden

  Show me what I need

  I couldn’t see many of the wounds on her body because of the sheet still covering her, but what I could see faded away. They weren’t real, but she didn’t wake up.

  “Look,” I said. “Her wounds were illusion magic. The autopsy wasn’t really done. The coroner was under the same illusion spell. He only thought he did it.”

  “So, she’s alive.” Joe swallowed again. “Why is she still just lying there?.” His hand went to his gun. “Zoe, get back from her. Whatever reason she had for pretending to be dead, it can’t be friendly.”

  I took a step back and tried to think of what could be happening. Why would Amanda fake her death?

  “She didn’t count on us coming down here,” I said. “She was going to wait until the coroner sent her to the funeral home and then make her escape,” I said. “Isn’t that right, Amanda? If you can hear me, your little ruse is over.”

  She didn’t move.

  “What if it wasn’t her?” Joe said. “What if someone else did this to her? Someone who didn’t have the stomach to kill her for real but wanted to frame Lupin.”

  “Someone like Angel maybe?” I asked.

  “That’s possible. She’d be my number one suspect, but it could be someone else too. Heck, it could be Lupin, for all we know.”

  “Why would he do that?” I asked.

  “I have no idea. If there’s anything I’ve learned since I met you, it’s that I have no idea. I thought I knew so much…”

  He trailed off as the lights began to flicker and a moaning sound came from the hallway. “This place is haunted,” I said. “Turn around.”

  Joe did, and I quickly checked Amanda as best I could for a witch mark without exposing her too much. I was careful to protect her modesty since she wasn’t really dead and it was possible she hadn’t done the illusion magic that landed her in the morgue.

  “There’s no mark on her, lady.” A voice came from behind me and I jumped halfway out of my skin. “You guys need to get out of here. Something’s coming. Take her with you too. She’s vulnerable. It could get in. But go fast, it’s not going to like you stealing its ticket out of here.”

  It was Lucinda the ghost. Her normally calm and enigmatic demeanor was gone. She was panicked.

  “That’s a ghost,” Joe said. “That’s not the one haunting this place, though.”

  “Wrap Amanda up in that sheet and let’s get out of here,” I said.

  “Wait, what? You want to steal the body for real?”

  “You heard what Lucinda said. We have to get her out of here before the bad ghost or demon gets her. I know you can feel it coming because I sure can. Joe, please, just trust me.”

  With that, he wrapped Amanda up in the sheet and we headed for the elevator. I must have pushed the button a hundred times, but the door took forever to open.

  “I’ll hold it off,” Lucinda said. “Take her somewhere safe.”

  She took off down the hall, and I heard the moaning turn into shrieking just as the elevator doors opened. Joe stepped inside, but the elevator hadn’t lined up with the opening perfectl
y. He stumbled a little and Amanda’s head lulled to his shoulder while the sheet dropped a bit.

  It was then that I saw the witch mark hidden in her hairline. She was a witch, and a dark one at that. It was entirely possible that she’d set the whole thing up to frame Lupin and offer herself to the thing that wanted to possess her.

  “I should go help Lucinda fight that thing,” I said softly.

  “No, you can’t put yourself in danger like that. Zoe Magnolia, get on this elevator,” Joe said in the most commanding voice I’d heard from him yet.

  He was right. Not because I would be putting myself in danger, but because if I left him alone holding a dark witch who wanted to be possessed by a malevolent entity, I was putting him in danger. I had to stay with him.

  “Lucinda, we’re in. Please be careful,” I called out as the doors closed.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Do I put her in the back seat or the trunk?” Joe asked as we walked to the car. “Putting her in the trunk is completely against the rules, but putting her in the back seat seems too risky.”

  “Hmm… Let me think,” I said. “How about you put her in the passenger side, and I’ll sit in the back? Or I can drive and you can sit in the back. That way you can keep your gun on her.”

  “If I let you drive my car, you cannot wreck it,” Joe said.

  “Okay, that’s decided. Now we have to figure out what we’re going to do with her,” I said. “Like, where are we supposed to take the not-so-dead body we just stole?”

  “The best place would be the jail, but that’s not going to look good. I can’t prove she’s alive to people who don’t know about witches.”

  “We’ll lock her in my basement,” I said.

  “That’s a terrible idea,” Joe said. “I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night knowing she’s in there and you’re not protected.”

  “I wouldn’t be unprotected, Joe. You forget that I’m a witch. I can keep myself safe.”

  “I can’t leave you alone in that house knowing that you and Ginger are there.”