Page 32 of Bewicched

“I get that, but sometimes you have to show them exactly who you are and why they should be trembling in your presence to get a little breathing room.”

He chuckled. “That sounds like a story.”

“It is. For another time. I will say that my cousins no longer try to fuck with me, which was their favorite pastime growing up.”

“Now I definitely want to hear—” He paused a moment. “That detective is back. I recognize the sound of her car. Yeah. She’s asking Phil if you’re in.”

“Thanks for the heads-up and talk to you later.” I disconnected the call, pulled out the earbuds, and went to the gallery door. When I opened it, I found Detective Hernández with her hand raised, preparing to knock.

“Oh. Hello. Are you feeling better today?”

I stepped out of the way, inviting her in. “Sorry. I must have looked like a lunatic yesterday. The mom—”

“Nancy.”

“Yes. All I could hear was her wailing in my head. I had to get away.”

Hernández nodded as though that all made perfect sense. She took her notepad out of her pocket, tapped it against her thigh a couple of times and then put it back in her pocket. “I know you said you wouldn’t help us search the forest, but I was hoping after things settled down, you’d reconsider.”

I was already shaking my head when I heard, “Sure. We can do that.”

I turned to find Declan standing in my doorway.

“I’m sorry,” Detective Hernández began. “And you are?”

“Declan. I trained in search and rescue up in Oregon. I can help Arwyn.” He moved forward and held out a hand to the detective.

She took it and shook. “That would be great. We’ll have our own team, but the forest is quite large, so we can use some help narrowing it down.”

“I’ll just”—he gestured to the open gallery door—“go tell my boss I have to leave on official business.”

Once he was gone, Hernández looked at me, brows raised in question.

I shrugged. “I think he’s okay. He’s building my deck and seems like a decent guy. I mean, I don’t get serial killer vibes off him, so we should be fine.”

“That’s certainly a relief. Shall we?” The detective moved to the door and waited for me.

All I wanted to do was work on my tentacles, not hike through a forest looking for a poor dead kid. Damn it. “Give me a minute.” I capped the pail of sealer and wrapped my brush in cling film. I didn’t have time to wash it now and had every intention to get back here soon to finish the job.

When we got outside, Declan was standing by his truck. “I’ll follow so you have a ride home.”

I nodded before pulling a hoodie over my head and dragging it down, covering the top half of my overalls. “Good idea.” I liked having a better escape plan this time.

Detective Hernández hit the key fob and her car chirped. I opened the passenger side door and slid in. The detective buckled up, checked to make sure I was strapped in, and then drove off. I checked the rearview mirror and found Declan’s faded red truck following.

“Did the other cops give you a hard time about bringing a crazy psychic to your crime scene?” I’m not sure why I asked this. I was pretty sure the answer was going to irritate the hell out of me.

She shrugged a shoulder. “At first, but when they found fingerprints on the milk crate that didn’t match Nancy or Christopher, the smirks disappeared. Then I had detectives with cold cases asking what your name was and if you’d be willing to help.”

I wasn’t looking forward to that. “I think I freaked out the poor guy who drove me back to the gallery.” I didn’t like people seeing me in that state.

“Jon? No, not at all. He’s a good guy. He actually felt really bad for you. He said it was obvious you were in a lot of pain and he was sorry he couldn’t help. He was just trying to be quiet and drive as smoothly as possible so he didn’t make it worse.”

“Aww, that was sweet of him.” I hadn’t expected understanding. I thought for sure I’d have been the butt of every squad room joke for a couple of days.

As she drove up the narrow winding roads again, my stomach started to twist. I didn’t want to do this again. Glancing in the rearview mirror, I saw Declan was sticking close. Strangely enough, that helped steady me. I wouldn’t be doing it alone.

When Hernández pulled up, there were lots of other cars. Oh, good. I’d have an audience.

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