Chapter 12

Sitting on the porch with my head between my knees, I didn't even look up when I heard the sirens. Tilda had managed to inject just the right amount of hysteria into the conversation when she had called in the dead body. Despite the calm way she had organized the photos, even going so far as to send them to her home computer and then deleting the photos in case her phone was seized, the panic in her voice had not been faked.

I only looked up when I heard heavy footsteps pounding up the garden path. I was really hoping that was the police. Sure enough, there was Sheriff Tolan and Karl, although I'm guessing he was expecting me to call him Deputy Iversen at a murder scene.

"Tilda. Miss Goodwin."

I barely looked up.

Sheriff Tolan eyed me critically. "You don't look too good."

"You won't either in about five minutes," I replied, caustically. I was barely holding on, and the one thing I wanted more than anything was to hide in bed and forget this day ever happened.

"That bad, huh?" murmured Karl.

"Worse."

Sheriff Tolan took his hat off and ran his hand through his hair. "You claim to have found a dead body. Can you show us?"

"No way in hell are we going back in there," I said with possibly a little too much force.

Tilda nodded in agreement. "She's in the basement. The stairs are towards the back of the house, in the kitchen."

The sheriff glanced at Karl who nodded, before entering the house alone.

"So, you got stuck with babysitting duty." I don't know why I felt the need to fill the silence with small talk.

Karl leaned against a post and crossed his arms. "Not so much babysitting, more making sure the suspects don't flee the scene."

I snorted. "Way to be subtle."

Tilda's head swung between the two of us. "How do you know each other?"

"We shared a romantic sunrise together," drawled Karl.

"Sitting next to each other on a bench does not constitute sharing," I said.

"Hey, it beat rounding up the geese that escaped from Mrs Evans' yard."

We heard footsteps coming from behind us and a much paler sheriff emerged from the house. "We're going to need everybody on this one. Definitely a murder." he barked.

I could have told him that.

"On it." Karl headed for the car.

Sheriff Tolan came down the porch steps and squatted in front of us, bringing himself down to our level. "Did you ladies want to tell me why you are visiting an outcast witch in the Glen."

"So, it was Helen Napier," I breathed. There went our best chance at finding someone who could help us break the curse.

The sheriff's voice was laced with suspicion. "Yes, it was, and you still haven't answered my question."

"We were doing a welfare check." I was grateful for Tilda's interruption. The sheriff had been looking at me intently, and I couldn't break away from those ice blue eyes. I wouldn't have been able to craft a believable lie if my life depended on it.

"A welfare check." Sheriff Tolan did not sound like he quite believed Tilda's explanation.

She nodded. "The coven had some concerns, and it was felt one of us should check to make sure everything was okay."

"And the coven nominated the two of you to perform this welfare check." The sheriff seemed skeptical.

"The understanding was that Helen may still have hard feelings towards the coven. Neither of us were present when she was bound. The hope was that she'd be more amenable to talking to us."

"Interesting," the sheriff drawled. "So, you came to do this welfare check, and what happened then?"

Tilda looked over at me. It looked like her brilliant creative streak had come to a screeching halt.

"We knocked on the door and we found it was open."

"And you decided to enter."

I raised an eyebrow. "Welfare check, remember. We were concerned."

"Of course, you were."

"We went inside and called out to her, but she didn't answer."

"Because she was dead."

I gritted my teeth. "We didn't know that at the time." I tried to relax my jaw which had become more and more tense. "We went down to the basement."

"See, there is where I get confused. You've established she's not at home, why would you go down to the basement?"

"It was the one place we thought she could be," Tilda jumped back in the conversation. "You know witches generally do their work in the basement."

Sheriff Tolan nodded. "I do know that, but Helen Napier was bound. She was no longer capable of practicing magic. Whatever put it into your head that she would be practicing magic in the basement."

Tilda's face went blank. It was back to me.

"We were looking everywhere. We figured we'd try the basement, and if she wasn't in there we'd wait out here on the porch until she came home."

The sheriff waited as if expecting me to continue. Tilda and I stayed silent. We were pretty sure that talking too much was going to get us in trouble.

"So, you found the body in the basement. What did you do next?"

"We bolted out here and tried very hard not to throw up," I said, deciding to keep the rest of this conversation as succinct as possible.

"Then what?"

"We called the police." I refused to look at Tilda. I didn't want the sheriff to get any hint that I was lying to him, another first for me.

"Immediately?" The sheriff sounded skeptical.

I chose my words carefully. "As soon as we had pulled ourselves together and were able to do so, we called the police." That was as close to the truth as we could get. I don't think he believed me though.

"You can go, but I may need to speak to the both of you again, so I'll require you to stay in town." He narrowed his eyes when looking at me.

I nodded. Chances were that I wasn't going anywhere until I'd helped Flora anyway.

The sheriff started up the steps but stopped at the front door.

"You're still herbal lore, aren't you, Tilda?"

Tilda nodded vigorously. "Absolutely. That's my specialty and I never stray from it."

Sheriff Tolan didn't seem to be put off by Tilda's inappropriate enthusiasm. "And you, Miss Goodwin. What is your specialty?"

I looked over at Tilda. Why did nobody tell me I was supposed to have a specialty?

"Sadie doesn't have a specialty," Tilda said, keeping her voice pitched low in an attempt to keep others from hearing. "She's a null. The coven is trying to help her ability to manifest." She shook her head sorrowfully. "I hope we can rely on your discretion. It's an unpleasant situation all around."

Sheriff Tolan cleared his throat and glanced over at me, sympathy in his eyes. "Of course. I may have some more questions for you later." He nodded stiffly, turned around and stalked back inside the house.

"What...?"

Tilda put her hand on mine and shook her head, throwing a worried glance towards the house. I nodded and followed her to the car. Once we got five minutes down the road, she turned her head. "You can talk now."

"Why couldn't I talk before?"

"Werewolf hearing. Usually it's pretty good. I don't know what the sheriff can hear, but I'd prefer to err on the side of caution. The last thing we need is him asking any more questions."

I nodded in agreement. "Why do I feel like you just told Sheriff Tolan something unsavory about me?"

"Because I did. Nulls who haven't come into their magic are looked on as disappointments to their family. If you were a guy, it's the equivalent of me announcing you were impotent."

Great. That was just great.

"Witchcraft is an acquired skill," Tilda continued. "You study to learn how to create spells and charms. However, you can't acquire the skill unless you have some innate ability." Tilda paused and I could see she was concentrating. "It's like being born with a talent for sport. You have that affinity, but unless you put in hard work and training, you'll never reach the top of your game. My specialty is herbal lore which means I have a strong understanding of plants and potions. However, I had to study for years before I could cast any other spells with any confidence. You've seen how Grandma's specialty is weather. She can control weather herself. After years of study, I can cast a spell which has some control over weather, but I can only do it as part of a group, all working together, and it won't be nearly as pretty or smooth as Grandma could do it."

"So, you're saying that I should have some natural specialty, and then learn the rest."

Tilda nodded. "All witches have an ability that usually manifests in their teenage years. That is their specialty. They build their skills up from that. We just need to find your specialty."

"After we help Flora."

"Yeah," Tilda said. "After that."

I really wish she'd said that with a little more optimism.