DESPITE THE LATE HOUR, Max headed back to the office. His head buzzed with the image of a cloaked witch and the name Wilburn Walker. No way would he be able to sleep — especially in his mother’s crowded apartment. Better to get started on research. Besides, he had asked Drummond to search for Walker’s ghost in the Other which meant the office would be empty and quiet for several hours.
Parking on 6th Street, Max lingered on the deserted sidewalk. Winston-Salem had grown a lot in the years since they first moved to the city, and it often became a hub of activity for people — especially with events like the River Run Film Festival and the Bookmarks Book Festival. But on a mid-week night, the city became a quiet town with barely a hint of being one of the top five largest cities in the state. Max usually disliked that strange dichotomy. He wanted the area to pick an attitude — be a bustling city or be a snoozing town. Choose one and stick with it. However, standing on the sidewalk, feeling the cool night air around him, listening to the gentle silence of a city asleep — he embraced the stillness.
After all, he had just encountered a witch. That meant the odds were high that his world would become anything but still.
When he finally climbed the narrow stairs, trudged down the old hall, and unlocked the office door, he knew he had been right to take a moment. Inside, he heard Sandra muttering to herself as she stomped across the floor.
“Where have you been?” she asked as way of a greeting.
“Stakeout. Remember?”
She rushed over and hugged him tight. “Sorry.”
They held each other long enough for her to release some of the stress in her muscles. At length, she pulled away, and Max offered a smile. He had always thought of her as beautiful, always knew she was intelligent, and always respected the gifts she brought to the team, but in recent months, he had gained a new appreciation for all that made her such a formidable woman. Her strong will and keen insights continued to serve them well — both with cases and with life. She was his anchor. At the moment, though, he could see that she needed him to take on the role of anchor for a bit. And he could think of only one thing that would disturb her this much.
“I take it you had another fight with my mother.”
“I swear she’s baiting me now. There is no way she can really be like that all the time.”
He could hear all that tension flooding her system again. Sitting behind his desk, he said, “Tell me what happened.”
“Laundry,” she said, folding her arms and leaning against her desk.
“That doesn’t really help. What about the laundry?”
“Apparently, I don’t do it right. Apparently, the boys need to have their laundry done in her special way so that they are comfortable at school and will do better at learning. It’s laundry, for crying out loud. It doesn’t make a difference if I fold it left or right, doesn’t matter if I put in one swish of detergent or two, doesn’t mean a thing. As long as the clothes are clean. And that was just the start of it. She doesn’t approve of the foods I give the boys, doesn’t like the rules I have in place for them, doesn’t like anything I do. If I said it was a sunny day outside, she’d comment that the rain would be coming any minute. I mean, I’ve always known that she doesn’t like me, but this is getting insane.”
Sandra heaved a long breath. Max tried to think of something calming to say, but they had been through this too many times since moving in with his mother. Mrs. Porter goaded Sandra. Sandra reacted hard. Sandra vented her anger at Max. All grew calm until the cycle repeated. Any time he tried to hasten the process, to find words that might ease Sandra, she usually accused him of taking his mother’s side and her anger reignited.
“I couldn’t take it anymore,” she went on. “If I stayed in that house any longer, I would’ve said something, or worse done something, and none of us want that.” She leaned over Max’s desk. “But I’m telling you right now, we have got to get out of that place.”
“We will move out as soon as we can.”
“You’ve been saying that for months.”
“I can’t force the insurance company to act any quicker. I’ve called them, and I’ve complained. But they’re dragging their feet, and we can’t afford a lawyer to speed them up. Even if we could, we don’t want to push them any harder than necessary. We have to hope they don’t start investigating too close because we have no idea how we could explain any of the things they might find in the ashes of our house.”
With her hands on her hips, Sandra said, “That’s a load of crap. We weren’t dead broke when the house went up in flames and we’re not dead broke now.”
“We don’t have enough for a down payment on a house.”
“Maybe not a luxury home, but we lived close enough to that once before and I don’t need it again. Do you?”
“It doesn’t have to be a mansion, but it still has to meet all of our needs. And we need a lot. If we’re going to continue the whole guardianship process for the Sandwich Boys, then we’re going to have to show the state that they’re not living in squalor.”
“There’s five of us living in your mother’s one-bedroom apartment. I think we can do better than that. The boys once had their own apartment, for crying out loud. They gave that up to be with us. We have to do better for them.”
“Don’t start trying to use the boys as your excuse. It’s my mother that’s your problem.”
“No kidding. And if you want to see her live through the end of the year, you better start listening to me.”
All their years of marriage had taught Max how to read his wife’s emotions. Despite her vigorous debate, he spotted her easing shoulders and the way her hands dropped to her sides. She was still angry, but he had a chance to get through the thick wall of her stress.
“Come here,” he said, patting his lap.
The corners of her mouth rose involuntarily. She quickly shut it down to a firm line, but she also sauntered over and settled on Max’s knee. Her arms went around his neck, and she leaned in to share a brief kiss.
Something hard pressed against his neck, and he knew it was that ruby ring Sandra had started wearing. She said she found it at the bottom of her jewelry box — just a small thing with a small gem. Max could not recall ever seeing it before, but he caught her gazing at it from time to time.
Pressing her forehead against his, Sandra said, “I know you don’t like the situation any better than me. The way she goes around calling you Little Max.”
“What is with that? She’s never called me that my entire life and now suddenly she forces it in wherever she can.”
“I don’t know. But it irritates you every single time. I can see it. And that’s just a tiny example. You know things are driving you nuts, too. So why do you keep dragging your feet?”
“I’m not saying that my mom is right. She’s not. We can do the laundry however we want and create our family the way we think it should be done.”
“But?”
Max pulled his head back so that he could see Sandra clearly. “I think that she’s right about the core idea. That we should be thinking about these things — about how we do the small things as well as the big things. It’s not just us anymore. We’re responsible for PB and J. It’s been a hard adjustment, and I think we’re getting there. Figuring out where we’re going to live, what kind of house, what area, it’s going to be the foundation of the life we create for those boys. It’s that important. I think we need to take our time and do it right.”
“And you think having all the money we can get from our insurance is going to make that much a difference?”
“I think we need to make sure these boys have a stable living situation. If we go buy an inferior house, then in another year or so we’ll either be miserable or probably end up moving again. I don’t want to do that to those boys. PB and J lived on the streets and lived in a ratty place of their own and they deserve to have a chance at a real home.”
Sandra hugged Max tighter. “I agree.” She kissed him before walking over to her desk. “There’s no reason we can’t be looking right now. If anything, it’ll help the boys know that our current living situation is temporary. It’ll show them and your mom that we are trying to improve our lives, trying to build a sturdy foundation for our family. And if you think waiting for the money so that we have the best possible options is important, then okay. While we wait, I’m sure we can come up with a rough estimate of how much were going to get and start searching now within that price range.”
“As long as we’re approaching it from the same side, then that works for me.”
Finally, Max saw a genuine smile lift on his wife’s lips. “Then let’s go back to your mom’s place, get some rest, and in the morning, we can start looking at houses again.”
Max tried to hide his frown. He quickly replayed the conversation in his head, attempting to find where the whole thing had flipped around so that he agreed to help her search for homes tomorrow. Though he trusted his wife to never use magic against him, she had been studying the ways of witchcraft for a long time. He couldn’t keep his brain from raising the possibility that she had manipulated him with some other-worldly assistance. Of course, he dismissed the idea immediately. If for no other reason, he knew Sandra needed no assistance. She was smart — just a fact.
Besides, she was right. If he wanted to build the strongest foundation for their family, then he had to get out and search for it. Waiting to cross some arbitrary line only postponed the inevitable.
“Something the matter?” she asked.
With the evening’s tension finally dissipating, he had no plan to shake the ground again. Instead, he jumped on the first thing to come to mind. “There have been some developments in our case.”
“The cheating spouse?”
“Cheating with a witch.”
“Really?” Sandra’s eyes widened, but Max could not tell if she felt surprise or interest.
He told her everything that had happened that night. From the long stakeout, to the visit from Drummond, to the cloaked woman skulking around the parking lot, to entering the hotel room and finding the casting circle. He recounted the attack and finally revealed the name Wilburn Walker. When he finished, he saw the answer on her face — she was intrigued.
“Describe the circle again,” she said.
“Not much to describe. It was a plain circle made from a powdery white substance. Looked too thick to be salt. Maybe chalk. There was one symbol on the edge — a circle with a crosshatch inside. And that paper with the name was in the circle. I’m guessing we interrupted her before she could actually draw any other symbols.”
“Maybe.”
“What else could it be? I’ve never come across a casting circle that was mostly blank. You?”
Thinking as she spoke, Sandra said, “Meditation circles or other kinds of focusing methods might look like that. Not a casting circle, though.”
“So, what’s the matter?”
“That piece of paper with the name on it. That’s the oddity. If she were doing a summoning spell or a curse or any serious magic, she would have completed all of the casting circle before laying the name down. If you had found a half-completed set of symbols, that would’ve made more sense with the idea that you had interrupted her. But this — it’s wrong.”
“Maybe she’s a novice.”
“Maybe.”
Getting up from his desk, Max said, “Well, we’re not going to solve it tonight. We’ve got a meeting set for tomorrow morning with Mrs. Berkley, and we can report everything that’s happened. See what she says. If she chooses not to believe in witches or thinks we’re crazy or whatever, the case is over and we don’t have to worry about. If she wants us to keep going, then we’re no longer doing a simple cheating spouse case and that means our costs go up.”
Sandra snickered. “Somebody’s been learning a bit about business.”
“Call it hazard pay. I don’t care. But if we’re going to be finding a new place to live sooner rather than later, then we could use all the money we can get.” Max picked up his coat and headed for the door. He put his arm out for Sandra to link and as she walked over, he said, “I’ve got a good feeling about this one.”
Sandra paused mid-step. “You just had to say that.”