Casting Spells by Barbara Bretton

Author:Barbara Bretton [Bretton, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Contemporary, Fiction, Romance, General, Mystery & Detective, Police, Suspense, Paranormal, Police Procedural, Fantasy, Magic, Body; Mind & Spirit, Magick Studies, Vermont, Charms, Knitting Shops, Women Merchants
ISBN: 9781607511793
Publisher: Berkley Books
Published: 2008-12-14T16:00:00+00:00

13

LUKE

I hooked up with Paul Griggs and his sons in front of the old pet shop the next morning. The sun was just beginning to rise over the mountains to the east, and the boys already had five o’clock shadows.

“How old did you say your sons are?” I asked as they fell on the donuts and coffee I’d picked up at Fully Caffeinated.

“Fourteen and fifteen,” Paul said. “They’re big for their age.”

That was an understatement. Both kids were taller than me and I’m six-three. They were also the hairiest pair of teenage boys I had ever seen. Their old man was no slouch in the body hair department, but clearly puberty had hit those kids hard.

“Sorry I’m late,” I said as I grabbed a donut for myself. “Damn truck stalled out on the bridge. Took ten minutes to get it to turn over again.” I didn’t mention that my wipers went wonky and the radio kept blaring disco instead of the sports preset.

“I know a shortcut,” Paul said. “You can avoid the bridge entirely. On icy days that’s not a bad thing.”

I thanked him.

“No problem,” he said with a quick smile. “Bridge gives lots of folks trouble.”

I gathered up the empty cups and donut bags and chucked them in the trash. “I should’ve picked up gas masks while I was at it.”

“You sure nothing died in here?” Paul asked as we cranked open the windows and let the arctic air blow through.

“Good question,” I said, gulping down the rest of my coffee. “You check the front, I’ll check the back. The boys can start washing down the walls with the bleach solution.”

The boys were good workers, same as their father, and I used the time we were together to ask my questions. All three told the same story about the night they found Suzanne’s body in the lake. They had been cutting through the woods with their father on the way home from their grandmother’s house on the other side of Snow Lake. They had just stepped into the clearing when the younger of the two saw a pair of women’s shoes on a bench near the closed skate rental shack.

“Anything unusual about that?”

Paul shrugged. “Not really. Full moon’s coming, lots of light. There’s always somebody looking to skate off a big dinner or a little tension.”

They were about to continue on their way home when Paul noticed something strange near the middle of the ice. When you grew up skating on lakes and ponds, you learned to read the ice. You knew the weak spots, the last areas to hard freeze. The places to avoid. In early December, the center of the ice was one of those spots you treated with respect.

Suzanne should have known better but those margaritas had probably blunted her judgment. By the time they found her, it was too late.

Jeremy and Johnny split for school around eight thirty. Paul went off to open the hardware store at nine. I cleared away an abandoned squirrel nest near the boiler and swept out the store rooms.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.