Wiccan, A Witchy Young Adult Paranormal Romance (4 page)

“
Did you see her
attacker?”

“
Not the face,
no.”

“
Did you actually see this
girl die? Or you just saw someone choking her?”

“
Yes, sir, I saw her
die.”

“
Did you try to help
her?”

“
Well…no.”

Disher started shaking his head
sympathetically. “That’s alright,” he soothed. “Most people freeze
when they witness something like that. Don’t beat yourself up. You
could’ve ended up getting hurt if you’d intervened,” he said. “I’m
assuming you didn’t call the police.”

“
No, sir.”

“
Did you tell anyone
else?”

“
No, sir.”

“
Did the attacker see
you?”

“
No, sir.”

“
Did the attacker move the
body?”

“
I don’t know.”

Disher looked back down at the form I’d
completed. My pulse picked up again when I saw his thick eyebrows
draw together over the bridge of his nose. “Is this description of
what she was wearing accurate?”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
So she was dressed like a
man.”

I nodded.

“
And she had a fake goatee
on.”

I nodded.

“
And this happened yesterday
morning in broad daylight.”

Uh-oh
, I thought, hesitating before I answered. “Uh, I’m not
sure.”

“
What’s that supposed to
mean?”

“
Well, I didn’t actually see
the—”

“
You said you saw
it.”

“
Well, I did, but it was
more of a
vision
than—”

Crumbling the paper in his hand and
hissing an explicative, Disher pushed away from the desk. “Are you
one of those fruitcakes that invent crimes so you can get
attention? You’re not gonna claim to be a psychic, are
you?”

“
No, I’m not a psychic, but
I did see—”

The lieutenant rolled his
eyes, standing up so quickly his chair flew back and slammed
against the wall behind the desk. “Come with me,” he snarled,
stomping angrily around his desk and out the door. I could hear him
muttering.
Come in here and waste
my
time like I’ve got
nothing better to do.
Then he mumbled
something about crazy people, followed by a few more things I
couldn’t quite make out.

I followed him back through the marked
door. He pointed to the bench I’d been seated on earlier and
growled over his shoulder. “Sit.”

I desperately wanted to take exception
to his command as well as his attitude. I was neither a dog nor a
criminal that he could treat just any old way. But I figured at
this point that would be like poking an angry bear so I kept my
mouth shut.

He jerked open the glass door that led
to the policeman’s common office area, looked around for a minute,
then stalked over to the trio by the coffee pot. They hadn’t moved
since I’d left.

I saw Disher’s belly shake and jiggle
as he ranted. He gestured wildly and hiked his thumb over his
shoulder in my direction several times. I saw the trio look up at
me twice, but they said nothing, merely listened intently to what
Disher was saying.

A devious smile broke out on the face
of the tallest of the group. He leaned in toward Disher. I couldn’t
make out what he might’ve been saying, but whatever it was must’ve
been pretty funny. All four men laughed.

The tall cop clapped Disher on the
shoulder and Disher turned and walked back toward me. He was still
smiling when he pushed through the glass door again, but it faded
as soon as his eyes met mine.

“
Somebody’ll send for you,”
he said and then he walked right past me, opened the restricted
door and disappeared behind it.

I turned my attention back
to the three cops in the glass room. They were still enjoying some
kind of joke between them. They huddled their heads together for a
minute before I heard the tall one shout
Hey, Grayson. Got a live one for ya, Rookie.

The other two cops snickered as they
headed toward what I assumed was a desk that sat deep in the corner
closest to me. It was completely hidden from my view.

I could see the three men looking down
at someone, talking and gesturing—again toward me. I was
immediately uncomfortable. I wondered if I should just leave. After
all, I hadn’t given Disher my name. They’d have no way to know
where to find me.

That option was sounding really good
and I was actually rising to my feet to bolt when I remembered that
I’d had to put my name on the top of the report.

I was still considering escape when I
saw the trio of men back away from the desk that I couldn’t see and
a fourth head pop up in front of the glass.

A man with short cut, shiny black hair
walked out from behind the desk and turned toward the door. I
watched him head my way. In a panic, I froze like a deer in
headlights.

Though he was dressed in plain clothes
like the other three men, his outfit was much nicer. He wore a
forest green shirt with black pants and a matching tie that had an
abstract print on it. He looked much younger than any of the
others, too. And he was very handsome in a dangerous-cop kind of
way.

He stopped in front of the door to rub
tiredly at his nape. It made me feel a little sorry for him. I
feared I was not going to make his day any better or
easier.

Finally, he pushed the door open and
looked right at me. “Holloway?”

“
Yes?”

“
Come on back,” he said,
sweeping his hand in front of him.

I stood and walked to the door, turning
sideways to squeeze past him. He smelled like cinnamon and coffee
mixed with soap. Not a bad smell, just an unusual combination. I
avoided his eyes as I passed in front of him then I stepped to the
side to let him lead the way.

“
I’m Detective Grayson,” he
said over his shoulder as he made his way across the room. He
headed for a desk that was indeed crammed into the corner as I’d
suspected and then he stopped in front of it.

It was piled high with folders and
papers. A stack of empty coffee cups sat on one corner and a glass
jar of Fireballs sat on the other. There was a small space cleared
out right in front of the computer where the desk surface was
visible. It was brown and worn and looked a hundred years
old.

He plopped down into the
chair behind the desk so I sat in the ratty gray one to the side. I
watched him quietly as he rifled through the folders scattered
about, searching for something. He said
Ah-hah
when he came up with a
pen.

He grabbed a wrinkled paper from the
top of one of the stacks of files and then turned toward me with my
report in his hand.

“
So, Ms. Holloway, you
witnessed a murder. Is that correct?”

“
Yes.” He nodded slowly as
he read over what I’d written. When he’d finished, he leaned back
in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest, pinning me with
warm hazel eyes.

“
I understand that you saw
it through some kind of psychic vision. Is that
correct?”

“
Look, I never said I was a
psychic. I just told Lieutenant Disher that I saw it
through
a
vision
. Not in real life.”

“
So what you’re saying is
that you’re a psychic,” he said. I looked for scorn, amusement,
disgust, sarcasm, but there was no trace of any emotion on his
face.

“
No, I’m not. It’s not like-
it’s hard to explain.”

“
Well, why don’t you
try.”

Knowing I’d come too far to turn back
now, I told Detective Grayson everything I’d seen yesterday
morning, not sparing even the smallest of details. I figured at
this point I needed to lay it on thick. They’d likely think I was
either making it up or imaging it anyway. But if her body did turn
up, maybe something I’d seen would be able to help them catch her
killer.

When I was finished, he just watched
me. It made me nervous and I wanted to look away, but I forced
myself maintain eye contact. During his silence, as we stared at
each other, I wondered how many hundreds of jet black eyelashes
lined his eyes and if the hazel color was always as green as it was
today.

Detective Grayson rubbed his hand over
his jaw, his already visible dark stubble making a sandpaper sound
against his palm. When he finally leaned forward, there was neither
judgment nor belief on his face. It was carefully blank. And though
I’d have preferred belief, I’d settle for anything other than
mockery.

“
Alright. If we get any
reports of a missing person fitting this description, I’ll give you
a call. Or if a body turns up, I might need to talk to you again.
What’s a good number to reach you at?”

I gave him my cell phone number and he
jotted it down on the report.

He stood to his feet, pulled a business
card from the little holder on his desk and held it out to me. I
stood, too, and took the card from his fingers. “My number’s on
there. Call if you think of anything else.”

He just stood there, as did I. I wasn’t
certain what to do or what just happened. Had he just blown me off
in the most nondescript way ever or was this pretty much standard?
Finally he said, “Have a nice day.”

“
Thank you,” I muttered as I
turned to leave. I was a little confused.

Once I got back to the Jeep, I realized
that it was close to dinner time. The whole ordeal had taken much
longer than I’d expected. Being inside the police station was like
being in a time warp. What felt like only thirty or forty minutes
in there had been nearly three hours out in the real world. It was
so surreal, I felt like I’d been dosed with something.

On the way home, I didn’t feel nearly
as relieved as I thought I would have after reporting Lisa’s murder
to the authorities. I just assumed I’d feel deeply satisfied with
my bravery and good Samaritan-ship, but it turns out that I’d had
more gratifying experiences at the library, and that wasn’t saying
much.

********

By the time Wednesday morning rolled
around, I was feeling a little bit better. I’d done the right
thing, painful and humiliating though it had been, and now I could
leave Lisa’s safety and welfare in the capable hands of the
police.

When I got to class, I took the same
seat I’d claimed on Monday and waited for the rest of the students
and the teacher to arrive. Three blonde, sorority-type girls came
in and sat two rows in front of me. I hadn’t seen them on Monday,
but that could’ve been the result of being blind-sided by seeing
Lisa.

I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop; they were
just close enough so that I could easily hear what they were
saying. I started actively listening when I heard one of them
mention Jake. I was instantly riveted to the
conversation.

“
That’s the thing,
though.
No one’s
seen her since Monday night. She was there one minute and gone
the next. Nobody saw her after that, not even Jake,” one girl
said.

I felt the air leave the
room when I heard that. I quickly thought back to Monday. I hadn’t
seen Lisa talking to them. Wouldn’t she have spoken to them if they
were friends? But then again, I reminded myself, I hadn’t noticed
them
at all.

Maybe they weren’t even
talking about Jake
Wheeler,
in which case they probably weren’t talking about
Lisa Bauer either. I hoped that they weren’t. Dear God, I hoped
they weren’t.

“
Maybe she’s sleeping it off
at some random guy’s house.”

“
Are you insane? There are
no other guys at this school that can compete with Jake. She’d
never cheat on him. You know that,” another said.

“
I don’t know. She’s been
acting kinda freaky the last couple of weeks.”

“
She seemed fine to me at
the party. And her costume was one of the best. It was genius! I
mean, whoever would think of coming dressed as a
man?”

CHAPTER FOUR

My heart stopped beating for an instant
and then restarted again at an alarming rate, hammering violently
against my ribs. I felt a cold sweat break out on my brow. Visions
of Lisa’s fake goatee and man’s shirt with loose tie flashed
through my head like a strobe of condemnation. She was probably
lying dead somewhere. The police hadn’t been able to prevent it
because I had waited too long.

It turns out I was incredibly wrong.
Lisa could very much be murdered on Monday.

Saliva poured into my mouth and my jaws
burned like I was going to throw up. I put my head down on my desk
and concentrated on taking deep breaths, in through my nose and out
through my mouth.

A little defensive voice inside my head
reminded me that there was really very little anyone except Lisa
herself could’ve done to prevent it anyway. Even if I had gone
right after I’d had the vision Monday morning, there simply wasn’t
enough information for the authorities to be able to prevent the
murder. Was there?