Chapter 24

As I walked out of the cave, the wooden chest wrapped in Maude's scarf, I stopped suddenly and almost got knocked over by Tilda who ran into the back of me.

"Why did you...? Oh dear."

"Ladies," Sheriff Tolan drawled as he pushed himself up from the boulder he was leaning against. "What a delightful surprise to see you on this fine day."

I was going to assume he was being sarcastic.

"Now, would you like to explain why on Earth you're up here?"

Maude opened her mouth and the sheriff put his hand up.

"Before you start with whatever story you have concocted to protect coven secrets, I want you to know that I am a little on edge at the moment, and it won't take much for me to lock you all up for as long as I can find a reason to. You should be aware that I'm feeling creative today."

"You're right, Sheriff," Maude said, a resigned expression on her face. "It's time that we told you everything. If you'll follow us back to Tilda's house..."

The sheriff shook his head. "No, I think we've gone past the point where the coven dictates our terms of engagement. We'll be going down to my office and having our discussion there."

I could see Maude wanted to argue with him. I wanted to argue with him, but one look at the sheriff's determined expression put paid to that.

"Very well, Sheriff Tolan," Maude replied in a way that managed to be both accepting yet hinted at future retribution.

The sheriff gestured towards the pathway. "After you."

"When we got back to the vehicles, Maude threw her keys at Tilda. "You're driving."

"Great," Tilda muttered.

"And I'll be driving behind you so watch your speed," called out Sheriff Tolan.

"Just great."

Maude pushed me into the back seat of the car and followed me in. "Buckle up, we need to get Margot and Isobel on this. There's no telling how long that boy is going to keep us tied up." She looked down at the box which I'd settled between us. No way was I having that thing sitting in my lap. "I'm going to need you to open it up."

I covered up my hands again and opened the box. Maude peered in and took a couple of photos. She concentrated on her phone and her fingers started flying. I figured now wasn't the right time to express how impressed I was at her texting ability.

Once she was finished, she put her phone away and gestured at the box. "You can close it now. I really don't want to look at that thing any more than I have to."

I closed the lid and wrapped the scarf securely over it. "So, are you going to tell me what a curse tablet is?"

Maude sighed and pulled her attention back to me. "A curse is bad enough, but if it's embodied in a tablet it lasts as long as the tablet does. There are still curse tablets being found in ruins from thousands of years ago."

"So, it's worse than we thought."

"Somewhere out there we have a witch who is practicing magic so dark that they must have forfeited their entire soul to do it."

"Why would they do that?" I asked. "I know this sounds harsh, but wouldn't it have been easier to just kill her?"

"It would have been easier, but I don't think this is about killing Flora. This is a statement. To create a curse tablet and a golem to protect it, all of which is going against everything the Conclave has been trying to institute for the last several hundred years, this doesn't sound like a personal grudge. There is something much deeper happening here. We may have to bring the Conclave in on it."

From the look I could see on Tilda's face in the rear-view mirror, that was not the most popular option.

When we pulled up at the sheriff's office Maude put her hand on my arm. "Let me do the talking."

I was completely fine with that. "What did you want me to do with the box?"

Maude stilled. "There's no way we can leave it in the car, it's too dangerous. You'll need to bring it in with you."

"You don't think that the sheriff is going to object to me lugging this thing through his office. For all he knows it could be a weapon."

"It is a weapon," Maude replied. "And we're going to be explaining what we were doing up in that cave anyway. We may as well make it a show and tell confession."

The three of us got out of the car and followed Sheriff Tolan into the building. Before long we found ourselves in an interrogation room with the three of us on one side of the desk and the sheriff and Karl on the other side, with the box of evil between us.

Sheriff Tolan spread out his hands. "Well, who would like to start?"

Maude leaned forward. "About two weeks ago, Flora Harstone was struck down with a curse. We are trying to work out how to break it. After hearing about a golem running around the forest we decided to investigate to see if the two situations were linked." Maude pointed to the box. "Inside that box is a curse tablet which we believe is targeting Flora."

"Two weeks. You have been sitting on this situation for two weeks, and nobody thought to notify me that there is a rogue witch in Walker Bay."

Maude drew herself up. "This is coven business. We were not obliged to bring this to the Sheriff's Department."

Tilda and I winced. Even I could see that was precisely the wrong thing to say.

Sheriff Tolan slammed a hand down on the table. "You have recklessly endangered this town. I should lock you up for that alone." He waited for a few moments as if pulling back his anger.

"Who is involved in this?"

I could tell that Maude didn't want to give him any more information, but the sooner the sheriff got what he wanted, the sooner we would get out of here. Hopefully.

"Margot, Isobel, Tilda and I have been researching ways to break the curse. We reached out to the rest of the coven a couple of days ago, hoping to get further information. Unfortunately, our search hasn't been very fruitful. The first real break we had was last night when Sadie came across the golem. We knew it had to be protecting something important, so we went up there to find what it was. That brought us to the curse tablet." She clasped her hands together and gave the sheriff her best grandmother look. "The sooner we can study that tablet, the sooner we can try to work out a way to break it."

"That would be great except I have a dead body on my hands. I'm guessing Helen Napier is involved in this somehow."

Maude shook her head. "We have no knowledge of that. Helen Napier was magically bound due to an attempt to cast a curse twenty years ago. We were simply trying to get information from her in the hopes she would help."

"From what I've heard it would be more likely that Helen would curse Flora, rather than help her," the sheriff mused.

"True, she would be one of our suspects, but her death means there was somebody else involved."

"Do you have any idea who?" Sheriff Tolan asked.

"No, but they put in place a dissipation spell which also destroyed Helen Napier's soul, so if you were planning on asking one of the coven members to try to communicate with her ghost, you're out of luck."

"Great, do you have any suspects yet?"

Maude shook her head. "Our energy for now is focused on breaking the curse. Once that's done, the coven will be looking into who is able to do this." Maude paused. "If you want to know where I think you should look, it would be the Path Coven."

"Do you have any real evidence to back up that statement, or is it just reflex to blame them?"

Maude shrugged. "Not really, I just wouldn't be shocked."

The sheriff leaned back in his chair and watched the group thoughtfully. "I'm starting to get an understanding of what has happened and what everybody's role is." He settled his gaze on me. "Except for you, Miss Goodwin. You're the one part of this puzzle which doesn't quite fit. How did you come to be a part of this situation?"

I had no idea how to answer this one. As I was trying to think up something to say, Maude beat me to it.

"I kidnapped her."

My mouth dropped open. Of all the ways I thought she would play this conversation, the possibility of her going with the truth had not once entered my mind.

"You what?"

"When Flora first went down with the curse, we thought it was a sleeping potion overdose. We wanted to do a healing spell which is strengthened by having someone of the patient's bloodline. We went looking for a member of Flora's family to help us. None of them would even talk to us and I got frustrated. I found Sadie, knocked her out with a stun spell, and brought her back here."

Sheriff Tolan looked shocked. "Are you out of your mind? Her coven is going to go ballistic when they find out about this."

Maude lowered her head. "She has no coven. Until four days ago, Sadie had no idea that she might have witch blood in her. She knew nothing of our world."

"Are you saying you broke the number one law of our people?"

"If you're asking me whether I brought someone into Walker Bay that had no idea of the paranormal world, the answer is yes. But she is a witch, we just haven't had the opportunity to explore her abilities yet." Maude straightened. "We believe Sadie is Flora's niece. The coven is claiming her as a lost soul."

"Lost soul?" I muttered out of the side of my mouth.

"Paranormal who is taken from our world as a child and needs to be rescued," Tilda replied.

"Doesn't quite fit."

"It's close enough," snapped Maude.

I raised an eyebrow and gave her an expression my mother had perfected when I was a teenager and got a little mouthy.

"I apologize," she amended. "It's been a trying couple of weeks. I shouldn't take it out on you."

"No," Sheriff Tolan interrupted. "Taking out your bad mood on the woman you snatched off the streets is not usually considered good form."

He stood up abruptly. "Iversen, you stay here. Do not let these women move. If they do, you have my permission to use a stun gun on them. Miss Goodwin, you're with me."

That really didn't sound good. I followed the sheriff out of the interrogation room and into the much more pleasant surroundings of his office.

"Take a seat."

Ignoring his gesture towards the chair at his desk, I sat down on a small couch that was at the side of the room. I just got out of an interrogation room. I didn't really feel the need to repeat the experience in a slightly nicer setting.

Realizing that if he sat behind his desk he would be talking to the side of my head, Sheriff Tolan placed himself on the small table in front of the couch.

"Congratulations, Miss Goodwin, you just jumped from perpetrator to victim."

"I am not a victim." I wanted to make that perfectly clear. This was getting us nowhere. We needed to be studying the tablet and helping Flora. "If you're thinking of trying to charge Maude, I'm not going to help you. In fact, I'll be the most difficult witness you've ever had."

"Why does that not surprise me?" He studied me for a few seconds, those pale eyes searching mine. "Have you ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome?"

"You're talking about someone who starts to sympathize and have a relationship with the people who have taken them captive."

The sheriff nodded.

"It doesn't apply here."

Sheriff Tolan looked skeptical. "From where I'm sitting, you're pretty much a textbook example."

We really didn't have time for this. "Look, you're a witness to the fact that I have been able to wander freely. Sure, my initial meeting with these women was unpleasant, and I probably still have issues from the head injuries, but I believe in what they're doing, and I can't turn my back on Flora."

Sheriff Tolan leaned back in his chair. "You realize that this situation puts me in a bad position."

"Sure, let's make it all about you."

The sheriff let out a bark of laughter that sounded rusty. "You know, for someone who has probably had a shocking few days, you're coping amazingly well."

"Don't worry, I have a feeling there is going to be an epic meltdown in my future. I'll try to be very far away from this town when that happens."

"I would appreciate that," he replied, a smile on his face.

I felt a quiver in my stomach that I ruthlessly quashed. Despite the kiss that still filled my thoughts, the last thing I needed was an irrational attraction to the man who turned into a raging monster. I may not have had a lot of romantic luck, but that would be pushing it, even for me.

"My problem is that my legal hold over the coven is tenuous at best. That's what happens when you have more than one legal system people have to live by. This situation is a perfect example of what makes my job so difficult. The first step that the coven should have taken as soon as Flora was cursed would have been to notify me. Instead they kidnapped you and now I'm dealing with at least one rogue witch, a ritual murder, and Flora's attempted murder. Nobody is speaking to me and, because it's coven business, I can't make them talk." He dragged a hand over his face. I could see the stress was taking its toll. "So, Miss Goodwin, how would you suggest I deal with this mess?"

I licked my lips and was surprised at the way his eyes zeroed in on the movement. A flash of heat went through me and I wanted to kick myself. I so did not have the time for this.

"The first thing that we need to do is to break the curse that's holding Flora. Once we do that, I think that the coven will throw everything into finding out who did this. If you show leniency now, I promise I will talk to Maude about having the coven give you complete access to assist with your investigation."

"You really think she'll agree to that?" the sheriff asked doubtfully.

"I will use every bit of guilt that she has over kidnapping me to get them to help you."

"You really believe she has that much guilt?"

I raised an eyebrow. "I should hope so, she knocked me out and stuck me in the trunk of a car for almost twenty-four hours."

The sheriff groaned. "Please stop giving me details. The more you tell me, the harder it is to ignore what they did."

"You don't have a choice. Your only other option is to stick me on the stand and watch your case implode in a spectacular fashion. I can be very creative when I want to be."

"I know that, it's the only reason I'm willing to go along with this."

I stood up abruptly. "Well then, you need to let us go now. I really don't think it's very kind of you to leave Karl in there with Maude."

I walked towards the door but stopped when I felt a hand on my arm. The sheriff cleared his throat. "I need to know if you're going to tell anyone about what you saw."

I hated seeing the vulnerability in his eyes. Since I'd arrived, Sheriff Tolan had been consistent. He'd been annoying as hell, but he'd been consistently annoying. I didn't like what I was seeing here.

"I'm not even sure what I saw last night. I only just found out that my family doctor is a centaur. I'm trying to limit the amount of new information I take in at any one time." I put my hand over his. "Your secret is safe with me. I won't tell anyone."

The sheriff smiled tightly and let go of my arm. "Thank you, I'm not sure what I'm going to do but I'd prefer to make the decision myself."

"Good, now that that's settled, I think we should go rescue Karl. Maude doesn't strike me as the patient type."

"Why'd you think I left him in there?"