19. Nineteen
NINETEEN
W e had more information, but not enough to solve our problem. I had theories as to how it all had transpired. We needed proof. That would inform my decision about the remaining naiad.
“I can hear the gears in your mind working,” Thistle said as I parked in front of Hypnotic. “You know, you don’t have to do it all yourself.”
“Who else is going to handle it?” I challenged, my tone harsher than I intended. I immediately offered an apologetic shoulder shrug. “I just mean … it’s my responsibility. If not mine, then who is supposed to handle this?”
“You could leave it to the Feds.”
“They wouldn’t even know what to do with a naiad.”
“They could cut it up and experiment on it.”
I froze. Was she serious? When I looked at her, she was smirking.
“That’s what you’re worried about, isn’t it?” she prodded. “You’re afraid this is all some big cover, and just like some bad science fiction movie, the government is going to build super soldiers from parts of dismembered paranormals and we’re all somehow going to pay for it.”
My mouth fell open. “I was not thinking that.” Now I wasn’t so sure.
“I think that was an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer ,” Clove volunteered from the back seat.
She’d been quiet for the ride back to town.
“Or maybe it was the majority of the fourth season. The government was fighting paranormals, but there was a scientist who was taking the parts and creating a super soldier.”
“Yes, because our lives are just like an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer ,” I said.
“They kind of are,” Thistle said. “Just for the record, I don’t think Steve has that on his agenda.”
“Steve isn’t the problem,” I argued. “I think he’s sincere, but I don’t know his bosses. I don’t know what their plan is.”
She nodded in understanding. “You can’t go into this being afraid, Bay. You have to take control. That’s the only way this is going to work.”
“It’s not just the fear of what his bosses will do,” I admitted. “I’m also afraid of what I might do to protect them if they get in too deep. What if they decide I’ve gone too far and try to prosecute me?”
“That’s not going to happen.” Thistle shook her head.
“How can you be sure?”
“If they try to prosecute you, a whole army of paranormals will rescue you. On top of that, the court documents would have to include all the paranormal stuff. I guarantee they don’t want records of that.”
I pursed my lips. “That’s a fairly logical take,” I said. “I’m still afraid.”
“Don’t be afraid, be cautious. I agree that telling the Feds about the naiad is a mistake. We need more information first.”
“We need information on the construction site.” I pulled out my phone. “I’ll see if we can get Landon alone for lunch. I would prefer having this conversation without Steve listening in.”
“What about Spencer? Do you trust him?”
“I do. I’m not too worried about him. He’s being careful to only tell Steve certain things right now. We should probably follow his lead.”
Landon texted back right away.
“He and Chief Terry will meet us at the diner,” I said. “Without Steve and Spencer. Apparently, they’re having lunch in Bellaire with Cam, Hodgins, and Patrice.”
“That’s good for us.” Thistle nodded. “Have you seen any of them this go-around?”
“Only Cam. I still don’t trust her.”
“Well, we don’t have to deal with her today. Let’s fill in Chief Terry and Landon. Then we’ll decide how to handle things.”
“It’s kind of like old times,” Clove noted. “We’re all involved in another life-or-death situation, Aunt Tillie is off the rails, and we have to keep everything secret. I missed it.”
“Yeah, say that again when we’re face to face with a vengeful naiad,” Thistle said. “Something tells me you won’t feel the same way.”
“You always have to ruin my fun,” Clove groused. “Why can’t you ever just let me be happy?”
“Because that ruins my fun.”
WE MADE IT INSIDE THE DINER FIRST, SO WE grabbed the big table in the corner.
Mrs. Little was present with several of her cohorts, including Cora and Madison, who seemed to be her favorite friends of late.
She looked up when we entered, narrowed her eyes, then went right back to her conversation with the women.
She didn’t as much as nod at us in greeting.
“Well, she’s back to her old self,” Thistle noticed as she sat, grinning when Mrs. Little glanced over and sent her a saucy salute. “I prefer her this way. It’s a real bummer when I have to feel sorry for her.”
I chuckled and shook my head. “She isn’t showing any signs of falling victim to depression. That suggests the spell worked.”
“What happens if we have to reverse the spell to get rid of Millie?” Clove asked.
I would’ve been lying if I said I wasn’t worried about that possibility.
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see.” The idea of sending Mrs. Little back to emotional despondency didn’t sit right with me.
When I weighed it against the damage Millie could do if she wasn’t reined in, however, there was a clear path.
“We might have to do the spell on Mrs. Little a second time. We’ll figure it out. ”
I looked out the front window. “No Aunt Tillie.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Thistle made a face. “A day without Aunt Tillie is like a day without diarrhea.”
Landon and Chief Terry were just arriving when Thistle let loose that pearl of wisdom. Both of them looked horrified that she would say anything of the sort.
“Man, I’m not sure we want to be part of this conversation.” Landon planted a kiss on top of my head. “Can we not talk about diarrhea right before I eat?”
Thistle shrugged. “I was just stating a fact.”
“Still delightful as ever, I see.” Landon grinned at her, then focused on me. “You look a little tight around the edges, Bay. Do I want to know what you did with your morning? Can I hazard a guess that you haven’t dealt with the Millie situation?”
“We haven’t seen Millie or Aunt Tillie,” I replied, “but we have made progress on our other problem.”
I waited until the server took our orders, choosing a grilled cheese and chili for the second time in as many days.
Comfort food was my friend right now. Landon went with a salad, no cheese, and light dressing.
I cocked an eyebrow, caught between being impressed and amused, then shook my head.
“How long do you think you can keep that up?”
“Until dinner. I’m saving my calories. I’m even going to have dessert. Half a slice of cake or one cookie.”
“Speaking of cookies, did you know that Mom and the aunts visit Clove and Thistle with a delivery of cookies every week?”
Landon’s forehead creased. “What about us?”
“That’s what I said.”
Chief Terry made a face. “Oh, please. You guys get dessert five nights a week. You would get it seven if you didn’t like to hole up at the guesthouse and play gross naked games.
Clove and Thistle only eat at the inn once or twice a week.
It’s a way for your mother and aunts to spend quality time with them. ”
“I should’ve known you’d take their side,” I replied.
“Totally,” Landon agreed. “He always takes their side.” He managed a smile to let Chief Terry know he was kidding. “I, however, will always be on your side.”
I gave him a sidelong look. “Why are you buttering me up? I can’t make no-calorie bacon.”
“Mean.” He shook his head. Then he turned serious. “What did you find out?”
I filled him in, including what we knew about naiads. He listened, only interrupting twice for clarification. When I got to the part about finding the body, he shifted on his chair. Then he continued shifting as if bugs were crawling up his backside.
“Now would probably be the worst time to tell you exactly what I think about you digging up a body, right?” he challenged in a low voice.
The server arrived with our food before I could respond, which turned out to be a good thing because it allowed me time to calm down, if only marginally. After she left, I was ready to speak, in measured tones.
“I know you’re not happy about what we did, but what were our other options?” I challenged.
“You could’ve called me.”
“And when Steve insisted on coming with you?”
“I wouldn’t have told him what you found.”
That didn’t sit well with me for a completely different reason. “Landon, I don’t want to put you in a position where you have to lie to your boss.”
He matched my tone. “Bay, the second I decided I wanted to be with you, I made that decision for myself. Lies are part of the game.” He reevaluated how he’d phrased it when he saw the expression on my face.
“I mean that lies are part of the game with everyone but us. I have no problem lying to protect you. I do not lie to you.”
“That’s very sweet,” I started.
He waited.
“I still don’t want to have to put you in that position if I can help it. Plus, we had Evan with us. If we’d waited until you were out there, one of us would’ve had to unearth the body. He did it in five minutes.”
“You make a fair point.” Landon managed a wan smile. “I still wish you had called me. I don’t understand the whole naiad thing, but I don’t want you to go through this without me.”
“I’ve seen worse.” That wasn’t the point, but I blurted it anyway. “Either way, we have a dead naiad, and given the story Evan told us—about what happened in Detroit—it has me wondering.”
“You think our victims had something to do with the death of that naiad,” Landon assumed.
“It makes a strange sort of sense. They were killed quickly, then strung up to send a message.”
“Wouldn’t it have made more sense to string them up at the construction site?”
“I thought about that,” I admitted. “The thing is, if the naiad was infuriated, maybe he or she lost it and took them all out in a rage.”
“I thought you said all naiads were females.”
“That was our assumption. Now, we’re not so sure. It’s possible the naiads were lovers. It’s also possible they were sisters. Maybe we were wrong about naiads being female. I don’t want to assume we’re dealing with a woman because we might overlook a man and get ourselves into hot water.”
“Fair enough.” Landon nodded. “You think the naiad was stabbed?”
“That’s what Evan said. I didn’t get close enough to see the wound.”
Landon flicked his eyes to Chief Terry. “We could collect the body.”
I was shaking my head before he finished.
“No?” He arched an eyebrow. “Why not?”
I flicked my eyes to Thistle, who was watching me with steady eyes. Things were about to get uncomfortable.
“I don’t want to start a thing here,” I hedged.
He waited, opting not to prod me. That only made what I was about to say all the more difficult.
“I prefer not giving the government the body of a paranormal for them to poke and prod,” I said. It was difficult to get out, but once I said it, I immediately felt better. “It’s not that I don’t trust Steve,” I added quickly, “but I don’t know everyone who might be involved with his plan.”
“Plus, the naiad deserves respect,” Thistle added. “Someone who loved her put her in that grave. She should stay there.”
Landon took it all in and ultimately nodded. “Okay,” he said after several seconds. “We won’t mention the body. How long do you want to keep Steve in the dark about all of this?”
“I think we have to share some of it with him. We have to be careful.”
“How strong is a naiad?” Chief Terry asked. “Is this thing powerful enough to take out the entire town?”
“I don’t believe so,” I replied. “Our problem is that we’re not sure on motive. That might clear a few things up for us.”
“What do we need to do?” Landon asked. “What’s the best way to do this?”
“Can you find out if the three men had ties to the resort development?”
He already had his phone out. “That should be easy enough.” He hit his screen a few times, then pulled up Hal Weaver’s file. “Okay, here we go. Hal owns a concrete company in Detroit. He pours foundations and walkways.”
I angled my head. “That seems like a good possibility.”
“Hold on.” Landon pulled up another file. “Ben Mason works for Weaver.” He pulled up the final file. “And so does Matt Pope.”
“They stood to make a good bit of money if they were selected to do the concrete work at the new resort?” I pressed.
Landon nodded. “That would be a big deal. How does them getting that contract lead to a dead naiad?”
“Maybe they were out there to do some measuring and planning and they ran across the naiad. History suggests naiads get aggressive when their homes are threatened.”
“So the naiads approached our victims, threatened them or something close, and one of the naiads ended up dead,” Landon guessed. “The other naiad, grief-stricken and angry, decided to pay them back. Why days later? And why out there?”
“Maybe the men panicked after killing her and took off. The naiad might’ve fled and then returned to bury the other one. After that, anger could’ve gotten a foothold. She also likely stumbled across the arachnids at some point.”
“The naiad still had to track down the men,” Landon surmised. “That’s a loose framework, but it covers all the angles. I’m curious how a naiad was out there without anyone knowing.”
“I can’t answer that.” My shoulders hopped. “It’s possible there’s a plane door there we don’t know about. It’s also possible they’ve always been here and we never realized it.”
“How do we handle this?” Chief Terry asked.
“First, we need to talk to anyone else who might’ve been at the construction site in the past week.” I tapped my fingers on the table. “They might have information.”
“And they might be potential targets,” Landon added. “Maybe more than the three dead men were involved.”
I’d already come to that conclusion. “I can’t help but imagine a scenario in which ten or fifteen guys were out there and the naiads decided to take them all on to protect their home. Things might have gotten out of hand.”
“I’ll get a list of everyone who has been out there,” Landon said. “Are we going to split up to tackle this list? I want to be part of it, but I don’t think Terry and I would recognize a naiad if we saw one.”
And that was another problem. “We’re going to need help.” I was resigned. It wasn’t as if Evan and I could handle every name on the list. Clove and Thistle weren’t strong enough to fight a naiad, so I couldn’t send them. “I’m thinking of bringing in a few witchy friends.”
Realization dawned on Landon’s features. His mouth curved down. “That’s just what we need. A vengeful naiad, two Aunt Tillies, and Scout’s mouth. This won’t go off the rails or anything.”
“Better safe than sorry, right? We might need Scout.”
“I want Scout with you.” Landon said. “At least I know you’ll be safe.”