Parker didn’t call or stop by the night before, and I was a little disappointed. I thought he would at least call me. Was he avoiding me? Was the kiss so bad, he was living with regrets?
I had an aching pit inside me when I drove to town in the morning. I wanted to go by the college before work. My purpose was twofold. First, I was going to pick up an application from the Admissions office, and second, I wanted to talk to Jeff Callahan. I’d checked his class schedule online, and he had a nine a.m. class on Fridays.
I pulled into the large parking lot. Cars, trucks, and vans with red college tags filled in almost every available space in both the student and faculty parking. Luckily, I was only a visitor this morning. There were a handful of open spots, and I parked Martha in one at the end of the first row.
It wasn’t cold, but I pulled my cardigan tighter around me. I didn’t expect to be nervous, but what if I couldn’t get into the GED program? When Hazel had given me forged identity documents that put my age at twenty-eight, I should have had her get me a high school diploma as well. My nerves were making my hands shake. Ugh. So much for Brave Lily.
I walked into the Administration Building. There was a room guide on the wall. Admissions was in room 109a. I walked down the wide corridor, avoiding eye contact. The office had a glass front with a glass door. Inside there were three employees, two women and one man, sitting behind a long counter. It reminded me of a trip to the DMV. There weren’t any numbers to grab, so I opened the door and went in without ceremony.
The first woman, a full-figured brunette with hazel-brown eyes and a creamy complexion, looked up at me and said, “Hi, what can I do for you today?”
I froze for a second.
“This is Admissions. Are you in the right room?”
“I think so.” Why was I so embarrassed to admit I never finished high school?
I glanced nervously at the other two clerks. The other woman was a stern-looking black woman who kept giving me side eye over her reading glasses. The man was a thin and balding with pasty skin from too much fluorescent lighting and not enough sun, if I had to guess. He wore a beige short-sleeve, button-down shirt with a pocket protector in his front pocket. He had glasses too, but his were for distance, and magnified his eyes in a way that made them look buggy.
“Don’t mind Al and Tilda. They love to scare incoming freshman. This will be your first time enrolling, correct?”
Tilda looked at her coworker and said, “You’re ruining my fun, Gladys.”
I took a deep breath and pulled my ovaries up by the bootstraps. I am a strong woman and a Shifter. I ain’t afraid of no GED. “I never finished high school. I’d like to enroll for your HSE class.” HSE stood for high school equivalency.
“That’s great,” Tilda said. “Good for you, honey.”
Al grumbled something about the fall of today’s youth, and shuffled to the copier with a folder stuffed with papers.
“Don’t mind him,” Gladys said. “Al is one of those people who came out of the womb grouchy.” She opened her drawer and pulled out a map of the campus. She pointed to a square on the map. “You’re here.” She drew a line with her finger to a building that was back behind the square. “You need to be here in the Tolliver Building. Enrollment starts next week on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, between nine a.m. and four p.m. in the Learning Center. You come back then and check in over there and they will get you set up for a summer course.”
The way she rattled off the information told me I wasn’t the only one who came to the wrong place for the program. “Thank you, Gladys. Is there anything I should bring along? I have my driver’s license and a birth certificate.”
“Then you’ll be fine,” she said reassuringly.
“Do you know how much it costs?”
“Absolutely nothing.” She smiled.
Tilda chuckled. “It’s an investment.”
“Lily,” a woman said from the doorway. “What are you doing over here?”
I turned, a snarl on my lips. Naomi Wells was dressed in a cream-colored pant suit with blood-red heels and a black and red hand bag. Her hair was done up in a flattering French roll. Her makeup was as flawless as her outfit.
Did I hate her because she was pretty? I’d never been jealous of other women before. When growing up in a town with witches, you get used to being one of the ugly ducklings. Was it just because she was putting the moves on Parker? Maybe. I didn’t want to think of myself as petty and jealous.
I tried to make my face pleasant and relaxed. Her smirk told me I was failing miserably.
“Hi, Naomi. I’m just—”
Gladys stood up and handed me a folder with Course Catalog written on the front. “Here is the information you wanted.” She gave me a quick wink. “Hope to see you again soon.”
I nodded gratefully. “This is a small room,” I said to Naomi. “Let’s take it out into the hall.”
When we exited Admissions, Naomi said, “What do you want to study?”
I looked down at the course catalog in my hand. “Oh, uhm, something in medicine. What are you doing here?”
“I…” She gave me an odd look. “I can’t think of what I was about to say.”
Was Naomi hiding something? My witch inheritance made me an honesty magnet, but if someone really didn’t want me to know something, they might not be able to lie to me, but they could avoid telling the truth. Naomi was telling the truth about not being able to remember what she was going to say, because she had been about to tell a lie, but instead, the real reason for her visit to the college was on her lips.
I pressed a little. Not too much though. “I seem to be running into you everywhere. I’m going to start thinking you’re following me.” I lightened my tone and asked. “You’re not stalking me, are you, Naomi?”
“Yes,” she said, then snapped her mouth shut and blinked.
Holy crap on a cracker. I never expected her admit to stalking me. I’d been feeling a little paranoid about her since she’d recorded our bathroom conversation, but what is it they say, it’s not paranoia if someone is really out to get you?
“Seriously? You’re following me?”
Naomi frowned. “I mean, well, nothing. I have to go.” Her smile turned feral and malicious. “I can’t wait to see Parker tomorrow night. I always had a thing for him in high school, but he only had eyes for Bridgette back then.”
This woman loved to bring up this nightmare blast from my past. I picked my cell phone out of my purse. It was nine forty-five. Jeff Callahan’s class would be over soon. “It was nice to see you, Naomi.”
“I hope I’ll see you around soon,” she said.
Not if I see you first. “Sure,” I told. “Talk to you later.”
I waited for her to clack down the hall and out of sight before I made a beeline to the building’s side entrance. Jeff taught in the Sanders Math and Science Building. The campus was small, so it was a short walk past the art building and the college bookstore.
I went inside, dodging a gaggle of students exiting rooms on both sides of the hall. Some classes were still full and in progress, but I knew Jeff’s class was only fifty minutes. I scanned the hallway, catching the scent of pot. Unfortunately, Jeff wasn’t the only recreational user on campus, and I ended up following five dead ends before I found Jeff at his instructor’s desk talking to a young male student. I waited outside the door for the kid to leave.
When the room was clear, I stuck my head in the door. “Hey, Jeff.”
He glanced up, clear surprise in his expression. “Lily. Hi. How are you?” He shook his head. “What are you doing out here?”
“Checking out the campus. I’m thinking about taking some classes.”
“Come in,” he said. “I’m just taking care of some last-minute work before I have to vacate for the next class. Chemistry starts at ten, and Professor Robins gets touchy if I don’t get out of here on time.”
“Don’t let me stop you.”
He started typing into his computer. “I just have to log attendance and sign out. I stopped using class time to do it. Some of my students need every minute of math they can get.”
I would probably be one of those students. English, science, and history were easy for me, but when it came to numbers, my mind didn’t always work like it should. “I might need some help with math if I decide to attend.”
“My door is always open. Metaphorically speaking; I don’t really have a door here, or an office. Adjunct professors pretty much share different classrooms, and we have to make arrangements if a student wants to see us before or after class.” He closed the attendance window and logged off. “How are you settling in at the Mills place?”
“I like to think of it as the Mason place now.”
“That’s right.” He smiled. “Awful business out there.”
“Yeah. Talk about a surprise. I mean, I really thought mold would be the worst thing I’d find in the walls.”
He laughed nervously. “I bet.”
“And poor Merl Peterson.”
“Right.” Jeff shook his head again. “It’s such a shock. Merl would give the shirt off his back to help a stranger.”
He wasn’t the first one to say so. And I knew from experience how true that statement was. Merl had really cut me a solid deal. “I didn’t know him well, but he was certainly fair with me.”
Jeff gathered up his books into a leather satchel and slung it on his shoulder. “We better go.”
I walked out of the class with him. We passed a tall, thin elderly woman with long, puffy white hair, and round spectacles. She wore a very bohemian maxi dress.
“Mr. Callahan,” she said in greeting.
“Professor Robins,” Jeff said. “Have a nice day.”
She didn’t reply.
“That’s the chemistry professor, huh?”
“Yes.”
“I’d be scared of her too.” I smiled.
Jeff smiled, but he still looked worried.
I didn’t know how to work the auction into the conversation subtly. So I went for not so subtle. “Did you try to buy my house and property?”
He stopped and stared at me. “Why do you ask?” He popped a rubber band on his wrist. When I gave him a questioning look, he said, “Quitting smoking.”
I didn’t ask if he was talking cigarettes or marijuana, because I could smell the faint hint of weed smoke on his jacket. That alone didn’t mean much. Smoke had a tendency to cling for a long time regardless of its source, but his pupils were a little dilated as well.
I kept my focus on the property. “I heard through the grapevine that you might be interested in turning the place into a housing subdivision. Bringing the suburbs to a rural address.”
His expression relaxed. “Oh. You’ve been talking to Gary Ream.” He nodded and started walking again. “Sure, I thought it would be a good investment. You win some, you lose some.”
His shift from nervous to relaxed instantly increased my suspicions. “Was there another reason you wanted to buy the place?”
“I…I don’t want to…” Jeff’s expression became muddled confusion. I was pressing too hard in an area he didn’t want to delve. He popped the rubber bands again.
“Did you kill Merl?”
He blinked. “No. Of course I didn’t. Why would you even ask that?”
Another notion hit me. “What brand of cigarettes do you smoke?”
“Uh, I don’t know what this had to do with—?”
“Have you been digging around on my land?”
His eyes widened, and he quickened his pace.
“You have, haven’t you?” It had to be about the robbery. The money. Had he killed James Wright? He would have been, what? Seventeen at the time. It felt like a stretch, but I didn’t know what else to assume. “What are you looking for out there?”
Red-faced, he practically ran out of the building with me right on his heels. Deputy Morris and Nadine, both in full uniform, were walking toward us. I looked at Nadine and when our eyes locked, she waved her hand away from her side and mouthed the word, move away.
There was nothing but grass to my right, so I walked in that direction when I heard Nadine shout, “On your knees, Callahan. Now.”
What the heck was happening? I looked over at Jeff, who reluctantly went to his knees. He glanced my way, real fear coloring his expression.
Deputy Morris said, “Jeffrey Michael Callahan, I am placing you under arrest for the murder of Merl Peterson. You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions. Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law.” He put handcuffs on Jeff and stood him up. “You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to the police, and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you before any questioning, if you wish. If you decide to answer questions now without an attorney present, you will still have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to an attorney. Knowing and understanding your rights as I have explained them to you, are you willing to answer my questions without an attorney present?”
“I don’t understand any of this,” Jeff said.
I knew he was being honest. He really didn’t know what was happening or why.
Nadine came over as Morris took Callahan to their police SUV. “What are you doing with Jeff Callahan, Lily?”
“I just had a few questions I wanted to ask him. He’d tried to buy my property at the courthouse auction, but Merl won the bid. Do you really think he killed Merl?”
“You didn’t hear this from me, but we found a bloody shirt in Jeff’s trash bin. Merl’s wallet was in there as well. The evidence is pretty damning.”
“What made you even look at Jeff?”
“An anonymous tipster sent us in his direction.”
“Who?”
Nadine frowned. “There’s a reason it’s called an anonymous tip.”
I hadn’t smelled a lie when he’d said he hadn’t killed Merl. “Jeff might not be clever, but he wouldn’t be smart enough to not leave any prints at the scene and then be stupid enough to leave evidence in his trash.”
“One thing I know for certain, Lils.” She held up her finger. “Most criminals are caught because they are careless and stupid. The shirt and wallet were wrapped in a black plastic bag and shoved to the bottom of the bin. He probably assumed when it was picked up tomorrow morning he’d be home free.”
“So he conveniently put the evidence in a plastic bag to preserved it from contamination.” Jeff seemed more like the type to do a more thorough job of getting rid of evidence.
“There’s other evidence. Jeff phoned Merl an hour before he was murdered, and Merl was killed on campus. Jeff works here. It’s looking like a pretty airtight case.”
“I guess.” I bit the inside of my cheek and worried it for a few seconds. “It still doesn’t seem right to me. We’re missing something.”
Nadine looked over her shoulder and watched Morris stick Jeff in the backseat. “I got to go, Lily.”
“Call me later.”
“Promise,” she said then sprinted to the SUV.