Chapter 30

I watched Sheila walk off toward a dark blue Mazda. She climbed in, started the car, and left. She was lucky she found me after we arrived. I had to be more careful. If anyone else found me, if anyone got lucky, then my luck would run out. I didn’t need the Sheriff finding out that I was in the city limits again after I had agreed to stay out. It made me nervous.

I looked toward the store and spotted Alyssa and Kelly with two carts full of food. Either the house was almost bare or they went overboard. Then I realized how the inside of the SUV smelled. I called up the cleaning spell without the big splash, and cleaned up the seat, the floor, and myself.

Kelly opened the back doors as I finished. “Can you help us?”

I didn’t answer. I simply got out and went to help. Between the three of us, it took almost two minutes to load everything into the back. By then, the inside of the truck was cold, and the three of us were imitating vibrators in an effort to get warm.

Alyssa drove this time. Kelly looked back at me with a grin. “We’re having tacos tonight.”

I nodded and shivered.

Alyssa made an exasperated sound but didn’t say anything. It made me wonder how far Kelly pushed this test of her self-control. I wouldn’t find out until we returned to the house.

I decided to keep my mouth shut until we got everything inside. We didn’t pass anyone on the roads, and nobody was waiting for me at the house. It was a good sign.

We pulled in and I sent the women inside while I carried in as many groceries per trip as I could. After my fifth trip, everything was in. Thank goodness for plastic bags with handles. If they had used paper bags, it would have taken me a lot longer.

Other than the things we needed for dinner, they put away everything else. I watched from the breakfast nook. Apparently, we really did need the food.

Kelly pulled one of the bags aside and set it on the table in front of me. “I think you’ll like this. It shouldn’t hit you as hard as the rum did.”

I frowned and looked in the bag. There were two bottles: tequila and margarita mix. “Kelly, what are you trying to do to me?”

She stepped up behind me and rubbed my shoulders. “Relax, baby. It’ll be okay. We’ll take care of you.”

Oh, yeah, sure! But what kind of care?

“Besides,” Alyssa said, “you can drink the mix without the tequila, it just won’t taste the same.”

Kelly leaned over and said, “And it won’t be any fun that way either.” She kissed my cheek, and went to turn on the stove.

I gently yet firmly pushed the two bottles away from me. Then I got up and went to check on the fire. It was down to coals, so I added the last two small logs from the bin we kept next to it. We needed more wood, and there was nothing like manual labor to work out the body and mind. However, since the back doors were still blocked by snow, I had to go out through the garage.

I grabbed the snow shovel, opened the carport door again, and made a path to the back porch. I could see Kelly sitting at the breakfast table chopping vegetables, but I didn’t see Alyssa anywhere.

I cleared off the back porch, set the shovel aside, and moved a number of various-sized logs to the back door of the living room. When I had enough, I then opened the door and moved the logs to the bin next to the fireplace. After that, I closed the back door, grabbed the shovel, and looked out at the shed.

The shed was where Mom kept everything for her garden. She hadn’t done anything with the garden in a few years, mostly because winters like this made sure everything in it died. However, I recalled all of us helping her with her garden at one time or other. If Dad forgot about the locket, then it may have been because he hid it out there. I couldn’t use Magic to check the shed for the locket, so I had to do a manual search.

I forged a path to the shed in only a few minutes. I cleared away all the snow in front of the doors, and set the shovel aside. I pulled open the doors, looked inside, and then walked in.

When I left Newton Grove to go to college, I thought there was nothing in town that would draw me back for any reason. Sure, finding dad was a good reason to return, but that was out of necessity and for mom’s sake. Beyond that, I had nothing good to find here. Not until I stepped inside the shed.

The smell of the ground, mixed with the different chemicals mom kept here, as well as various other scents associated with mom’s garden, all brought out memories I had long forgotten. Good memories. The kinds of memories nobody wants to forget. They were memories of carrying seedlings in green trays, finding worms in the ground and being told how they helped loosen up the soil, and using gloves that were excessively big for me to work with hand tools. I smiled at the memories, glad I decided to come out to the shed, even if I didn’t find the locket.

There weren’t many places to hide things in the shed, nor were there many places to store something so small in order to keep it safe. The ground was hard. The freezing temperatures would make digging difficult. Fortunately, I recalled the same spell I used up the in the playroom to find hidden doors or such. This time, though, I focused on previously upturned earth. I cast the spell and the only previously disturbed soil was around the edges of the shed, where it was partially buried in the ground. No one had buried anything in the shed.

I left the shed and closed it up. I looked around at the backyard and realized how dark it was getting. Another day was almost over and I didn’t feel I was any closer to finding the locket than when I started. All I could do was wait until morning and hope that the roads would be clear enough that I could travel north to that Motel 6 in Virginia. I fingered the matchbook in my coat pocket. It had to be more than a coincidence that I found it while looking through Dad’s stuff in the garage.

Shivering in the cold, I grabbed the shovel, and returned to the garage. The only place left to check for the locket was the stacks of boxes in the garage.

Once inside, I closed the carport doors, put the shovel away, and turned to face the boxes. There were three stacks of five. Fifteen boxes. I didn’t know what was in any of them or why they were here. I didn’t recall Dad ever asking me to help him put anything in a box, much less multiple boxes, and other than when we moved into the house, sometime after Mom and Dad were married, we never had a reason to box anything up. Maybe they were things left unpacked after they moved in. Anything was possible.

I opened the top box on the stack closest to the carport doors, and Kelly opened the door from the house.

“Dinner’s ready,” she said and then looked at the box. “What are you doing?”

I shrugged. “Just curious.”

She waved at the boxes. “That’s just stuff we never unpacked after we moved in. I don’t know what you could possibly find in there.”

Considering she thought I was looking for keepsakes, I had to agree. I nodded and closed the box. I followed her back into the house, but knew that I had to look through them. If no one had opened them since we moved into the house, then they were good places to hide something for a long time.

The scent of food found me, and all thoughts of looking for the locket were packed away. I hung up dad’s coat in the utility room, along with the gloves, and went to the kitchen. Alyssa was already seated in the breakfast nook. She was eating and had a tall glass of what looked like the margarita mix. It also looked like something was on the top edge of the glass. I didn’t ask. I really didn’t want to know. Kelly, still wearing the collar, sat across from her with her own plate and an even bigger glass of the same stuff.

I made myself several tacos, poured myself a glass of tea, and went to the table.

Kelly eyed my drink. “Aw! You don’t want to try it? It’s really good.” She shot Alyssa a look.

Alyssa chimed in too. “Yeah, brother-doodle. You’re in college now. Shouldn’t you be experimenting?”

I looked from one woman to the other. Nobody at home ever tried to get me to drink alcohol. We didn’t really need it. If someone wanted to fool around, a couple of hints went a long way. Was this their idea of those hints, or was something else going on?

I sat down. “If you two have something in mind for tonight, out with it. You don’t need to try to get me drunk to find out whether I’m willing.”

They looked at each other. Kelly opened her mouth to say something, but Alyssa stifled her with the slightest shake of her head.

I took several bites of my food automatically while watching the two of them. When I was done chewing and swallowed, I only said, “Out with it. What’s going on?”

Again, Kelly started to say something, and again, Alyssa stopped her.

“Fine,” I said. “Alyssa, you tell me.”

She looked at me. “What makes you think anything is going on?”

I gave her a withering look. “It doesn’t take a detective to understand you two have something in mind.”

Alyssa rolled her eyes. “It’s nothing.” Then she looked at Kelly. “We just thought you’ve been working so hard all day that you should relax. A little alcohol can help with that.”

I looked from her to Kelly. Kelly nodded. “Yup.”

I knew they weren’t telling me what was really going on, and more than likely, I wouldn’t find out until I decided to participate. I picked up my glass of tea and looked at it. “I’ve heard that if you mix the wrong drinks it’ll make you sick.”

Kelly reached out and gently took my tea. “Actually, it’s not a matter of mixing the wrong drinks. It’s a matter of what you drink first. However, let’s not take any chances.” Then she got up and went into the kitchen.

I looked at Alyssa and reached for her hand. She gasped softly and gripped my hand. I was happy to note that her nipples tented her top just that quick too. I leaned toward her. “What is going on?”

She looked at me with wide eyes. “Oh no you don’t. That is so unfair.”

“As opposed to getting me drunk?”

She looked around the table, searching for a way to answer. “It’s a surprise.”

“You don’t have to get me drunk to surprise me,” I said.

Then she looked at me again. “Please, Seth. Nothing’s wrong. We just didn’t know how else to handle this.”