Chapter 14
It didn’t mean anything, Zach determined. Of course, Connie Berkley had been in the store, probably standing restlessly at the counter forever, while …
While what?
Forensics had been there, yes. But it was a store, a place where people came and shopped, all kinds of people, some just looking, some buying things.
Skye was staring at him.
He winced, shaking his head, thinking he should not have spoken those thoughts out loud already.
And Skye was staring at him skeptically.
“So,” she said dryly, “you’re thinking Connie Berkley is ‘a bad apple,’ and she might be one of ‘a few bad eggs’?”
Zach shook his head. “Ouch. No, I mean, there was every reason in the world for her being here. The apple was here before and after Mrs. Howell and Sophie disappeared.”
“When the green witch spirited them away,” Skye murmured.
She hesitated. “Well, we could see if Gavin could speak with her, one on one. Since we’ve been here, I haven’t seen Gavin with either of them.
Gavin is the one in charge of managing the case, but he seems to send out orders and spend much more time with us than he does with Berkley and Cason. ”
“I think he has more faith in us finding an answer,” Zach told her. “But before we go to Gavin … I know she was holding this apple. And for a while. Maybe you could see what she was doing, what was happening, while she held the apple?”
Skye nodded. “Of course, I can try.”
“I’m going to be right here,” he told her.
She smiled. “I know,” she said softly. “I’m going to stand in front so that I have a pretty good view of the store itself, the register area, and a few of the aisles. You know she was standing there for a long time; we don’t know what else was happening in the store.”
“Right. She could have been just standing, while a forensic team was seeing if there was anything at all that they could do. I mean, Connie … Okay, so apparently, she and Vince Cason can be rude and hardline as detectives, but that doesn’t make either one of them a criminal, a witch, or … a murderer,” Zach said.
“Okay, here we go.”
Skye took a position just inside the shop with her back almost against the door. She closed her eyes and opened them.
Nothing, just the store.
She closed her eyes again, concentrating, thinking about the store, her visions of Mrs. Howell with Sophie, the register …
Then time seemed to sweep by.
There was Detective Berkley, just standing at the register, holding the apple, moving it impatiently in her hands, waiting, just waiting.
No one else seemed to be in the store.
There was a silence so complete that … as the saying went, it was almost deafening.
Then the detective set the apple down and the silence was broken.
Her phone was ringing.
She looked at it anxiously, then looked toward the back, toward the little room, where Sophie played and studied.
A look of confusion and fear crossed the detective’s face.
She reached to the holster at the belt of her pantsuit, drawing her service weapon. But then she turned and fled, the image of her race to the door and out of it was so strong, Skye felt as if she’d been slammed back …
She had been, or she’d leapt back as the woman had raced for the door.
Skye’s vision of the past disappeared as the sound of the glass rattling behind her brought her instantly back to the present.
“Okay, what the heck happened?” Zach asked, standing before her, taking her by the arms and drawing her gently to him. “Seriously, this time, are you okay? I’ve never seen you react so physically!”
She smiled at him, glad of his warmth at that moment, and of the sense of security his presence gave her.
Of the caring—the deep caring.
“I’m fine. No, I will be fine. Need to shake that one off a little,” she told him.
“Breathe,” he said gently.
She smiled. “If all else fails, you could make a great Pilates instructor!” she told him.
He arched a brow. “Ah, but here’s the thing. We will not fail.”
“I hope not!”
“So, was Connie here to destroy evidence? Were there others around? Is she guilty of something? Is she innocent?” Zach asked.
“Well, here’s the problem with what we’ve seen.
Connie was here, just as you said. She was standing impatiently in front of the register, playing with the apple.
I couldn’t see anyone else in the store at all.
Her phone rang; she drew her weapon. But then she bolted toward this door and out so quickly that it was as if I felt her hurtle herself against me!
” Skye explained. “Zach, I just don’t know!
What could scare an armed detective so completely? ”
“I think we need to ask her. With Gavin,” Zach said.
“I’m going to get ahold of him and have him make sure she gets to the station, somewhere we can put her down in a chair and question her,” Skye said. “I don’t want to believe … All right, I can understand that a woman detective doesn’t want to let anyone know she was frightened—”
“Anyone can be frightened,” Zach said.
“Yes, but trust me, it’s not something she would want advertised,” Skye told him. “But we need to find her. We need to speak with her ourselves—and Gavin needs to speak with her.”
Zach nodded and put a call through to Gavin, frowning as he did so. Things just kept twisting and twisting.
“What?” Skye asked.
“We need to get back to the station.”
“What’s happened?”
“Vince had the same feeling you did—that there might be something here about the kidnapping we had missed. Connie wanted to go home, but she told Vince she might get her car and meet him here last night. When he got here, she wasn’t here,” Zach told her.
“He walked around, thought about ways they might have missed a witness, thought about where someone might have gone, but he didn’t worry last night.
He figured she just didn’t agree with him and decided not to come.
But when he couldn’t reach her this morning, he got concerned.
He went to her place and got no answer. He’s been trying to call her, reach her online …
and he finally called the department to report to Gavin that he couldn’t find her. ”
“Did you tell Gavin what we saw—” Skye began.
“Yes,” Zach assured her quickly. “And I told him we’d like to speak with Detective Cason, and he needed to speak with the man. But apparently, Cason is a pile of nerves at the moment, and he took off to look for her and isn’t replying to anything now himself.”
“But if he was given a direct order—” Skye protested.
“No one got a chance to give him a direct order—he reported he’d be busy looking for her—and noted that we had been brought in specifically for the case.”
“All right, then. Did Gavin say anything about his interviews with the rehab centers? Did he find out anything about Sheryl’s sister, Bella?”
“He asked that we get into the station and take it from there,” Zach said.
“Okay, okay, but wait! Just one more minute, let me see …”
“Right,” Zach said. He knew what she wanted to do.
Find out if she could “see” what Connie had done when she burst out of the costume shop.
“Where do you want to be?” he asked her.
“Back on the road so that I can see the door, the parking, and the surrounding area,” Skye told him.
He nodded. “I’m right beside you.”
She smiled and nodded and headed out to her desired position. He followed her; and when she found her position, he stayed a small distance behind her, and a little to her right.
He watched as she stood still, looked at the entrance to the shop, closed her eyes, and opened them again.
She repeated the process.
She didn’t fall or falter. She closed her eyes, and he set his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him.
“What did you see?” he asked her.
“She ran out of the shop and raced for her car. She hopped into her car and got the ignition going, just as someone else burst out of the store!”
“Who?” Zach demanded, wincing at the sound of his voice.
But she didn’t seem to hear the tone of his question. She was still caught up in whatever the surprise had been in her vision.
She stared at him directly. “A witch,” she said wearily. “A person we’ve seen a dozen times, someone dressed up in green makeup and a black cape and pointed black hat.”
“Why would an armed detective run from a perp dressed up as a witch?” Zach demanded.
“Probably because he was carrying an assault rifle,” Skye said.
Zach nodded. “We’ve got to get to the station. We’ll invent a witness who saw the witch go after Connie. Officers need to be warned; the public needs to be warned now. Someone is going to need to do a press conference, because everyone in Salem and the areas surrounding the city is in danger.”
She nodded, then headed for the car, walking around to the passenger seat. She was shaken enough by what she had seen to determine that he was better suited to be driving at that time.
“She was running from a witch with an assault rifle,” Zach said reflectively, setting the car into gear. “What did the witch do?”
“Stare after her.”
“Run for a car?” he asked.
“No. The witch headed back into the shop.”
“How the hell is this person getting into the shop?” Zach mused, shaking his head as he drove.
“Well, it’s a code. And we believe someone in law enforcement is involved. Oh, my God! What if it’s Gavin?” Skye suggested, looking at him with horror.
Zach shook his head. “Jackson Crow set us up with Gavin. Or, I should say, Gavin called Jackson for our help. But if Jackson didn’t trust him completely, he wouldn’t have sent us out here.”
“But what if …”
“What if Jackson didn’t know?” Zach asked. “He’s Jackson Crow. And he works with Angela. I can’t believe for a minute that after all the years he’s been dealing with the unusual, he wouldn’t know.”
Skye nodded after a minute. “I guess … Well, we’re back to a witch. Because anyone in the station might have seen a scratched-out note, or someone’s phone—somewhere that the code to enter the place was written.”
“I would think only someone close to the department,” Zach said.