The Ghost and the Witches' Coven Read online

  Walt chuckled. “I think you need to do a little more research on witches and broom flying. The oil they rubbed on the broom had nothing to do with making a broom actually fly. Reportedly, whatever they rubbed on the brooms were hallucinogens.”

  Danielle frowned. “Heather definitely doesn’t have those types of oils. Are you telling me they were tripping out and just thought they were flying?”

  Walt shrugged. “So some believe. The purpose of the broom, applying the oils.”

  Danielle wrinkled her nose. “I need to google this again.”

  “Well, if you really want to fly on that thing, I know one way you can do it, and it won’t require taking any drugs.”

  Danielle perked up. “Really?”

  “Sure. Want to take a little spin around the living room?”

  She answered with a grin. Wearing denims, Danielle easily straddled the broom, holding onto the stick as a witch might actually do when flying through the night sky.

  “Get ready,” Walt called out. The next minute the broom took flight, with Danielle on board, holding on for her life. Of course, had she thought about it, she would have realized Walt’s telekinesis moved both her and the broom through the air, and even if she had not been holding on, she would not have fallen to the floor, not unless Walt lost concentration.

  Danielle laughed in delight as she circled the living room overhead and looked down at Walt, who sat on the sofa looking up at her. Movement from the door caught her attention, and she spied her cat, Max, strolling into the room.

  “Hey, Max!” Danielle called out.

  Max looked up toward the ceiling and froze when he saw Danielle flying overhead. He sat down, let out a meow, and continued to watch, his black tail twitching back and forth.

  Officer Brian Henderson had not seen his cousin Kitty for over five years. And that had been at the funeral of her husband, Tim. Brian had always liked Tim. Unfortunately, Kitty couldn’t say the same about Brian’s last two wives.

  As children, he and Kitty had been especially close. She was his favorite cousin—and he was hers. In those days she was a tomboy and hadn’t been afraid to give him a punch if she felt he needed it. After they had grown into adults, she had given him one of those punches when he had announced his engagement to his first wife. He should have paid more attention to that punch.

  She had liked his second wife more than his first. That was until she left him six months after their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Kitty had been supportive during that time, calling frequently and inviting him to visit her and Tim. But then Tim had died, and Kitty had her own life and sorrow to handle. Unlike Brian, she had adult children and grandchildren that help fill the void. She eventually began traveling with one of her daughters, and she and Brian kept in touch with infrequent phone calls and frequent post cards. But Kitty was finally coming for a visit, and he had taken off some time to spend with her.

  Brian left work early on Wednesday. He planned to run some errands before his cousin arrived later that evening. On his way out of the police station, the chief stopped him and asked if he would mind stopping by Marlow House to give Danielle and Walt a message. He would do it himself, but he had a meeting in a few minutes, and he thought this message should be delivered in person. Brian agreed.

  After parking in front of Marlow House, Brian got out of his car and slammed the door closed behind him. He headed up the front walk. Just as he started through the front gate, motion from the living room window caught his eyes. He looked that way and froze.

  He couldn’t be seeing what he was seeing, Brian told himself. It looked like Danielle, and she was flying around the living room—on a broomstick. He stood and stared in the window, his right hand resting on the front gate, preparing to open it so he could continue to the front door.

  Brian had to admit, she looked like she was having one hell of a good time. Was it a jet pack? It had to be a jet pack, he told himself. People didn’t really fly around on broomsticks. Maybe witches did, if there really were witches. But there was no such thing as witches, right? Just like there were no such things as ghosts.

  A moment later Danielle’s flight ended and the broom, with her on it, drifted to the floor. It was then he noticed Walt, who had been sitting on the sofa but now stood. Brian watched as Danielle tossed the broom aside and then ran to her husband, throwing herself into his open arms for a hug.

  Brian shook his head in disbelief and muttered, “Just another day at Marlow House.”

  “Brian, hello!” Danielle greeted in surprise when she opened the front door five minutes later.

  “Hello, Danielle. The chief wanted me to stop and tell you and Walt something, but first, I need to ask. Was it some sort of jet pack?”

  Holding the door open, Danielle stared at Brian for a moment and then laughed nervously and said, “Oh, the flying broom? You saw that. Um…that’s just a little magic trick Walt was working on.”

  “Walt is still interested in magic?” Brian asked.

  “Yeah, he likes to dabble.”

  “I’d sure like to see how he did that one,” Brian said.

  Danielle opened the door wider. “Come on in. No reason to keep you standing on the porch. You can wait in the parlor, and I’ll go get Walt. You said you had something to tell both of us, right?”

  A few minutes later, after situating Brian in the parlor, Danielle rushed to get Walt from the living room.

  “That was Brian Henderson at the door,” Danielle said in a low voice when she reached the living room sofa, where Walt had returned to his book. “He wants to talk to us about something.”

  “Why didn’t you bring him in here?” Walt asked.

  “Because I needed to give you a heads-up. He saw my spin around the room. And if he asks about it, tell him it’s one of your magic tricks. And if he asks how you did it, you need to tell him you can’t give away your secrets.”

  “Or I could tell him how I really did it. I’m sure he’d believe that.” Walt snorted.

  “Why didn’t we close the blinds first?” Danielle groaned.

  Walt closed his book, tossed it on the coffee table, and stood up. “Don’t worry, love. I don’t think Brian can arrest you for flying around your own living room without a license.”

  Danielle gave Walt’s arm a playful swat and said, “Oh, shut up.” She then paused a moment and cocked her head as if considering something.

  “What is it?” Walt asked.

  “You know what is kind of weird? He didn’t seem too freaked out about it. When Pearl saw Connor flying around the living room, she fainted in our bushes.”

  “I’m rather glad Brian didn’t faint on the front walk. He could have hit his head and gotten a concussion.”

  “Walt, take this seriously.”

  “I am. A concussion is a serious thing.”

  Danielle smiled. “What am I going to do with you?”

  Walt grinned. “I have a couple of ideas, but first we need to see what Brian wants, and get him out of here.”

  Danielle shook her head at Walt, reached up and gave him a quick kiss, and then started with him to the door. Just before they stepped out into the hallway, Danielle turned abruptly and ran back into the living room. She grabbed the broom and shoved it under the sofa cushions.

  “What did you do that for?” Walt asked.

  “I don’t want Brian to come in here and start looking too closely at that thing.”

  “Why? It’s just a broom.”

  “Exactly. And Brian saw me flying around on it.”

  Three

  Brian stood at the parlor window, gazing outside, his fingertips tucked lightly in the back pockets of his denim jeans. His thoughts weren’t on the sights before him, but what he had seen just minutes earlier. He heard Walt and Danielle enter the room. It wasn’t until Walt greeted him that he turned around and faced the couple.

  The memory of his first visit to Marlow House flashed in his mind. Back then, some four years earlier, he had been investiga
ting the disappearance of Danielle’s cousin and the Missing Thorndike. He had believed Danielle was involved in the disappearance. His opinion of her improved several months later, after she helped clear him of Darlene Gusarov’s murder. Yet he still did not understand much of what had happened that day. Or in many of the days that followed at Marlow House.

  “Danielle said you have a message from the chief,” Walt said, breaking the silence, while gesturing to a chair for Brian to sit on.

  Brian’s attention turned to Walt Marlow. He was truly an enigma, Brian thought. There were so many unanswered questions. Questions that his boss, Police Chief MacDonald, did not want to discuss.

  Marlow could have been the twin to his distant cousin, the original Walt Marlow, whose grandfather had founded Frederickport and built Marlow House. Since first meeting Danielle, Brian had believed she had an unhealthy fixation on the original Walt Marlow, a man who had been murdered on the premises over ninety years earlier. Brian always suspected that had played a role in her eventual marriage to the distant cousin.

  When Clint Marlow had arrived on the scene several years earlier and then was in an accident that claimed his fiancée along with his memory, he had stayed at Marlow House to recuperate after waking from his coma. From all accounts, and from what Brian had seen back then, Clint hadn’t been a very pleasant man.

  But then he changed his name to Walt—okay, maybe Walter Clint was his proper name, and he had been going by his middle name—but it all seemed so weird to Brian. What was stranger still was not just that Danielle had fallen in love with Walt, but those closest to her accepted the relationship. Even Chris Glandon, aka Chris Johnson, who had once dated Danielle, seemed supportive of the couple and had been Walt’s best man at their wedding.

  Had Brian made any predictions back then, he would have thought the unlikely relationship doomed, but he had to admit, they seemed to be happy and in love. Sometimes he wondered if the spirit of the original Walt Marlow had taken over Clint’s body. But that was an insane notion.

  “Won’t you sit down?” Walt said after Brian failed to take his silent invitation to sit.

  “How did you do it?” Brian asked. “The flying broom.”

  Walt grinned. “The wires. Are you saying you really didn’t see them?”

  “Wires?” Brian frowned.

  “I was afraid people might see them. It would ruin the entire illusion,” Walt said.

  “But how—” Brian began.

  “A magician never gives away his secrets,” Walt interrupted in a conspiratorial whisper.

  Brian frowned but did not respond. Instead, he took a seat on the offered chair and watched as Walt and Danielle sat on the sofa, facing him.

  “So what is this message from the chief?” Danielle asked.

  “He wanted to let you know the DA dropped all the charges against Brad and Kathy Stewart.”

  “Why?” Danielle asked. The thirty-something, unmarried Stewart siblings had broken into Marlow House and had held Danielle at gunpoint while forcing her to open the safe. They had taken some old letters Walt had written in his first lifetime. Since they had been wearing ski masks, Danielle could not identify them. Later, Brad had helped his father kidnap both Walt and Danielle.

  “The only evidence they had against them was the testimony of their father,” Brian told her.

  “Wait a minute, what about my testimony?” Danielle asked. “I saw Brad Stewart in the barn with his father after they chained us up and practically killed Walt.”

  “According to his lawyers, he wasn’t there during your attack. And as you’ve said, you never saw who hit you. You were alone in the barn when you came to,” Brian reminded her.

  “Yes, but after I regained consciousness, Beau came into the barn, and so did his son,” Danielle said.

  “The lawyers are insisting Brad thought you tried to break in, and his father was holding you for the police. They say Brad had no reason not to believe his father.”

  “That is ridiculous!” Danielle blurted.

  “There is another thing the chief wanted me to tell you. Beau Stewart’s attorney has made a plea deal. They have committed him to a mental institution.”

  “Mental institution?” Danielle repeated.

  “The state’s own doctors agree; Beau Stewart is not fit to stand trial. He has totally taken a trip to crazy land,” Brian said.

  “Crazy land? Is that some official place?” Walt asked with a chuckle.

  Brian shrugged. “It should be. All I know, since his arrest, he’s gotten progressively worse each day.”

  “Maybe he’s faking it?” Danielle suggested.

  Brian shook his head. “They don’t think so. They’ve had him under constant observation for the last few weeks. From what I understand, hidden cameras in the room. Watching him while he’s alone.”

  “What does he do?” Danielle asked.

  “For one thing, he’s obsessed with witches.” Brian paused a moment and looked toward the direction of the living room, where he had seen Danielle flying around on a broom. He then looked back to the couple and said, “I imagine your little magic act would send him over the edge if he hadn’t already gone there.”

  “Obsessed by witches, how?” Danielle asked.

  “Not just any witch. Heather Donovan,” Brian said.

  Both Walt and Danielle could not contain a smirk.

  Brian arched his brows at the pair. “This is serious. The poor man has totally lost his mind.”

  “Excuse me for not being more sympathetic,” Danielle said, the humor gone from her voice. “But he almost killed Walt, tried to smother me, and planned to burn us alive.”

  “If he planned to smother you first, then you really can’t say he planned to burn you alive,” Brian joked.

  Danielle’s glare at Brian earned her his chuckle. He then said, “Okay, I get it. I understand why you aren’t especially sympathetic toward the man’s current state. But I wonder, what exactly did Heather do to him? When she asked to see him, it surprised me he agreed. What in the world did she really say to him?”

  Danielle shrugged. “I guess you’ll have to ask Heather that.”

  “We have, but I suspect she hasn’t told us the entire story.”

  “Why are the doctors convinced he isn’t faking it?” Walt asked.

  Brian looked to Walt. “Like I said, he has been under constant observation. They don’t believe it’s an act.”

  “What did Stewart say Heather did? Surely, he said something,” Walt asked.

  “From what I understand, he insists Heather used her witchy powers to make him fly around the barn, and then in the holding room.” Brian paused a moment and then added, “He didn’t mention anything about a broom—or wires.”

  “Are you suggesting they don’t believe he’s capable to stand trial because he feels Heather made him fly? That’s it? Perhaps there is a valid reason for Stewart to believe that, and it has nothing to do with losing his mind,” Walt said.

  “I don’t think there were wires in the barn or in lockup,” Brian said.

  “Some believe that a hallucinogenic experience convinced some people—those who professed to be witches—that they could fly. Stewart was on the old Barr property digging up—well, you know what he was digging up. It’s entirely possible he came in contact with organic material, maybe some mushroom or some fungi that’s a hallucinogen,” Walt suggested.

  “From what I understand, they did a complete blood panel on him. There was nothing in his system. Of course, I suppose it’s possible he had been exposed to something, and it was gone by the time they took the blood tests. He’s also fixated on food and water,” Brian said.

  “Fixated how?” Danielle asked.

  “He breaks out into giddy laughter whenever he finishes eating or drinking. Apparently, it has something to do with the curse Heather supposedly put on him.”

  “Curse?” Danielle already knew all about the curse.

  “Stewart told the chief, and then the d
octors, that Heather put a curse on him, and she told him he wouldn’t be able to eat or drink anything until he confessed everything.” Brian paused a moment and thought, I can’t believe you don’t already know that, since the chief seems to tell you everything. He then said, “According to Stewart, after Heather left him, he wasn’t able to eat or drink, just like she warned him. I wondered if maybe Heather did some hypnotic-suggestion thing. But according to Heather, when she was asked about it, she swore she knows nothing about hypnotism, and claimed she only urged Stewart to tell the truth. Told him it was bad karma if he didn’t.”

  Walt and Danielle exchanged quick glances. Heather had already told them about the conversation with the police and her karma retort. Fact of the matter, Heather had pretended to be a witch, told Stewart she had cursed him, and to prove the fact, had Marie Nichols send him flying. It would have been an impossible task for Marie when alive, but a fairly easy accomplishment for her ghost.

  “What happens now?” Danielle asked.

  “I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen to Stewart. But like I said, unless we can find some evidence on his kids, aside from the rantings of a mentally unstable man, I’m afraid they won’t be charged.”

  “What about the estate?” Walt asked. “Is that still being challenged by the Jenkins family?”

  “From what I heard, it probably won’t go to court. The Stewarts’ attorneys have made an offer to the family, and I suspect they may take it,” Brian said.

  “So the Stewarts aren’t ending up penniless?” Danielle asked begrudgingly.

  Brian flashed Danielle a grin. “You don’t sound too happy about that.”

  Danielle shrugged. “I just don’t think a family with a history of murder and deceit should end up profiting.”

  “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t believe money is buying happiness. From what I understand, Beau’s wife has taken control of the family empire and has already put Kathy and Brad on a strict budget. They’ve lost their token jobs with the family business. From what I heard, they’re not happy,” Brian said.