Lost Bird

  “Don’t you need to coordinate with them first?”

  “Ellis said the drive would take about three days, give or take. You and Brad can fly back. We’ll use a car hauler for your truck. You can get back here and start work sooner that way.”

  “All my tools are still there, Miki.”

  She looked up at him and saw he wore a smile. “The job will still be here for me,” he assured her. “I’ll fly out first. You have your investigation on Tuesday night. Let me get things packed and arranged before you make the flight reservations. You can fly out later in the week. Besides, you have juniors on Thursday afternoon.”

  He touched her chin. “They were so glad to have you back. Don’t worry, it won’t take long to pack the house. You arrange things with Brad and Ellis and you three come out together. I don’t want you missing any more of your lessons than you have to.”

  She felt a smile creeping in. “You realize I might try to sneak skeet in while you’re gone, right?”

  He nodded. “I’m counting on it. Which is why I already talked to Mandaline about giving Ellis your guns to hold on to until the doctor clears you or I get back, whichever comes first.”

  “Dad!”

  He grinned. “Logic, sweetheart.”

  * * * *

  Oscar held back and watched the group head down the driveway in the kiwi green Honda Element. Aunt Tammy and John had already stepped inside when she called to him.

  “Oscar?”

  “Coming.”

  He couldn’t get his mind off Sachi. Several times, it felt like he’d caught her gaze darting away from him, as if she hadn’t wanted him to see her watching him.

  Then again, maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part.

  In fact, he suspected that was the more likely explanation.

  Why would she have any interest in me?

  Aunt Tammy plied them with homemade red velvet cake before allowing them to head home. Oscar had driven them in his car, and as he pulled into his parking space in front of their duplex, he realized how utterly miserable he felt.

  “Remind me again why we keep refusing her offers for us to move in with her?” Oscar muttered. “She’s got a big house.”

  John let out a sad sigh that surprised Oscar. “Well, at first, I didn’t want to be a mooch. Then I thought I didn’t want to worry about it interfering with my love life.”

  “What love life?”

  “Exactly. Now I’m wondering if we shouldn’t take her up on it.” He turned to look at Oscar. “Whether she’s seeing things that aren’t there, or it turns out to be someone illegally hunting on her land at night or something, maybe she’s at an age she shouldn’t be living alone. I worry about her.”

  She’d asked them about it again that evening, before the group from Many Blessings had arrived.

  “I wouldn’t mind living there with her,” Oscar agreed. “I mean, I want to sign a real lease with her and everything. I know she keeps asking us, but I want it all aboveboard.”

  “Agreed.”

  John looked out the windshield again. The complex wasn’t exactly in the middle of a crack neighborhood, but it was at least two decades past having seen better days. Many of the residents were receiving subsidized housing assistance, a mix of young families, elderly, and some disabled residents. Fortunately, crime was low in the otherwise mostly rural area, but so was the morale. The landlord kept up with basic repairs and little else. Two of the buildings were slightly different shades of grey than the others due to more recent paint jobs, and three of the units had roofing shingles with large mismatched patches because of repairs. The parking area was cracked and crumbling blacktop that hadn’t been repaved since at least two presidents ago.

  It was utterly depressing.

  “We’re pretty pitiful, aren’t we?” Oscar asked.

  John nodded. “Yep.”

  It was on the tip of Oscar’s tongue to ask John what he thought about Sachi when he squelched the thought. He didn’t want to do anything to screw up the investigation or taint her impression of Aunt Tammy based on him looking like a jerk to the woman.

  Nope, better to keep it to himself and admire her from afar.

  He and John got out and headed toward their apartment. Anyway, they’d be seeing Sachi again on Tuesday. Both men had agreed to be present for the investigation.

  But it didn’t stop Oscar from thinking about Sachi’s beautiful blue eyes as he lay in bed and waited for sleep to take him.

  Chapter Six

  “So you’re in cahoots with Dad to keep me from shooting skeet yet, huh? Some friend you are.”

  Sachi leaned against the doorway of Mandaline’s office and shot her friend a glare. Early on a Monday morning before Many Blessings opened, they were the only ones downstairs. Brad had already headed over to Libbie’s bakery to pick up their morning order.

  Mandaline grinned from where she sat at her desk. “Sorry, sweetie. He bribed us with brisket. Blame Ellis more, because he offered to stash them in the new gun safe at the house.”

  She let out a snort. “Bastard.”

  “Like you’re really upset.”

  Try as she might, Sachi couldn’t press her lips into a tight enough line to hide the way they curled at the outside edges.

  “That’s what I’m talking about,” Mandaline said, her grin even coloring her voice with good cheer.

  “Ugh.” Sachi threw her hands up and headed for the counter. “I can’t win.”

  “No, you can’t,” Mandaline called out from behind her. “So you might as well give in.”

  Sachi spun on her heel and returned to the office. “Oh, I’m going to be in late tomorrow. I’m taking Dad to the airport.”

  “He finally picked one of the jobs?”

  “Yep.” She laced her hands together in front of her. “Look, if Brad and Ellis are too busy, I’m sure I can pay a moving company—”

  “Don’t even,” Mandaline said as she pointed a finger at Sachi. “The guys were asking me this morning if we had a date yet. Looks like I can tell them now.” She smiled. “I’m so happy for you.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m still irritated at you for shoving me into the bear pit. Two guys with great auras. I don’t even need one guy, much less two of them.”

  Mandaline leaned back in her chair, that playful smile still on her face. “Either something will come of it, or it won’t. I’m not asking you to go throwing yourself at them. I’m simply asking you to stay open to the Universe.”

  “I’m trying. It’s easy for you to say that.”

  Mandaline’s smile finally faded. “Not so much, no. You were the one on my ass not too long ago, remember?”

  Sachi crossed her arms in front of her. “Yeah, well, again, the whole do as I say shit, witchypoo.”

  * * * *

  Sachi jumped on the shop’s computer and pulled up Google Earth to get a better look at Tammy Evans’ property. No, they wouldn’t be hiking around it tomorrow night, but she wanted an idea of what they were dealing with.

  The problem came when she tried to distinguish the property from the state forest it bordered. On the satellite view, the front three acres were clearly visible, but a sea of tree coverage blended the rest of the property in with the main forest and more heavily wooded properties on either side. Other than the faintest hint of a trail that might be a fire road if the overhead coverage wasn’t so thick, there wasn’t anything.

  After a quick thought, she pulled up a page on the official Florida Fish and Wildlife website that listed hunting season dates for the Withlacoochee State Forest and found the ones for the Croom Tract.

  Nope, there should be no legal hunters in the area. It would make sense during hunting season if people accidentally—or purposefully—wandered onto private property if it wasn’t adequately fenced and marked. Tammy had told them the pasture fencing had only been barbed wire, meaning it was probably down in many places now.

  But maybe if they were jacklighting?

  She might h
ave been born a city girl in New Jersey, but having gone to school in Montana and Idaho, she heard enough hunting talk from kids in her classes, and from hanging around at the shooting clubs, to know what it was, and that it was usually highly illegal. Another quick search on the same state website confirmed that nighttime hunting wasn’t allowed, except for brief periods before sunrise, in some cases.

  Hmm.

  But Tammy insisted she wasn’t seeing flashlights or spotlights.

  It would take a special kind of stupid to hunt with a glow stick.

  And Tammy had said she hadn’t heard any gunshots.

  But bow hunting was allowed in some areas of the forest during certain seasons and for certain game.

  Sachi looked up a couple of phone numbers and made some calls. Ten minutes later, she was still stumped. Rangers didn’t have any cases of poaching arrests, or reported poaching activity, in that area for the past couple of months.

  Of course not. That would have been way too easy.

  The Croom Motorcycle Area was the more heavily used park area and lay just to the east. It was the tract where Sami Corey lived.

  Where Julie had died trying to get rid of the evil spirit possessing Sami’s now-deceased husband, Steve.

  Sachi yanked her thoughts right the hell off that train before they could get settled into seats and make themselves comfy. She had a job to do and didn’t want to get bogged down again in her relatively fresh grief over losing Julie.

  Sitting back in the chair, she studied the satellite view once more. She’d gone on many investigations with Julie and had helped her debunk plenty of cases.

  What would Julie do?

  Sachi stared at the screen, willing the answer to come to her.

  Believe…

  The word quietly drifted through her mind with the force of a hurricane.

  But what did it mean? Believe Tammy? Believe Mandaline’s insistence on taking a risk? Believe that there was hope for her lonely, pathetic life?

  Temporarily stumped, she started to put together the investigation plan.

  * * * *

  Sachi both dreaded and eagerly anticipated the upcoming investigation. So much so that, by Tuesday afternoon, her body had decided to reenact the Normandy invasion in her stomach and lower intestines.

  Mandaline knocked on the apartment’s bathroom door, where Sachi had retreated yet again for a little privacy and so as to not tie up the downstairs bathroom that both staff and customers shared.

  “You all right? I have Imodium.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Sachi grumbled. “This is all your fault, you know!” she added.

  On the other side of the door, Mandaline laughed. “Sure, I’ll take the blame if it means you get past this and take a chance.”

  “Right now I have to get past needing to stay within a ten-second sprint of a toilet.”

  Mandaline was waiting for Sachi in the kitchen when she emerged a few minutes later.

  She handed Sachi a glass of water and a tablet. “Here. It’ll help.”

  “So will Valium. Or maybe Xanax,” Sachi muttered as she took the offered medicine and downed it with a few swallows of water. She’d always had this problem, from when she was a kid. Even before the attack that had changed her life. If she got nervous, her stomach took the brunt of it.

  “You know what you’re going to say when you look back on all this, don’t you?” Mandaline asked.

  “That I really wish I was into hexing and threw one on you?”

  Her friend grinned. “Nooo. You’re going to be glad you took this step regardless of how it turns out.”

  “You sound annoyingly cocky right now. You realize that, right?”

  “Yep.” She hugged Sachi. “That’s because I see only good things happening for you.”

  * * * *

  Unfortunately, the Goddess apparently had an even more twisted sense of humor than Sachi originally suspected. A blob of showers moved in off the Gulf of Mexico and hovered over their area, with more rain behind it.

  They wouldn’t be able to run their investigation that evening. Although, to be fair, that was a typical summer day in Florida, with a very strong chance of late-afternoon thunderstorms every day.

  She called Tammy first, both relieved at not having to face the men, and irritated at the fact that her intestinal uprising had been in vain.

  “I wondered if you’d have to reschedule,” Tammy said after Sachi broke the news to her. “It’s all right. I’m keeping track of things like you all asked me to.”

  “Anything new happen since we left?”

  “No, I didn’t see any lights yesterday, and I haven’t seen any tonight, either, but I suspect with the rain I might not be able to.” She had a thought. “Come to think of it, I usually don’t see the lights for a couple of days after a good hard rain. But then again, maybe I simply missed seeing them.”

  “Okay. Would you mind calling your nephew and letting him know?”

  “I’ll do that. Let me know when you want to reschedule.”

  “Thanks, I appreciate it. I’m going to have to juggle a few things on my schedule, as well as my dad’s move here from Idaho. It might be a couple of weeks before we can reschedule, but please call us immediately if the activity increases.”

  “I will, thanks.”

  With more than a little relief, Sachi said good-bye and ended the call.

  “Bok-bok,” Mandaline clucked from the doorway.

  Sachi stuck her tongue out at her. “Hey, don’t blame me, witchypoo. Blame the Goddess.”

  “Did you do a rain dance?”

  She grinned. “No, but thanks for the idea.”

  “You want to stay for dinner tonight?”

  Sachi was about to say no and remembered that she’d be going home to an empty house for the first time in a couple of weeks. Her dad had arrived the day after she got shot, and had been there ever since.

  It would be weird going home and not having him there, not smelling him cooking their dinner, and not having his comforting presence around.

  “Okay,” Sachi said. “Sounds good.” She stood to leave the room and stopped in front of Mandaline. “You sort of owe me anyway for putting me through this.”

  “I am but a tool of the Universe,” she said, an evil grin on her face.

  “You’re a tool all right, witchypoo.” She pushed past Mandaline to take the phone receiver back to its cradle at the front counter, her friend’s bright laughter following her down the hallway.

  * * * *

  Brad’s cooking experiment that evening was homemade fried chicken. The aroma drifted from the apartment and filled the downstairs where Sachi and Mandaline were going through the candle display in the closed store and putting together a replenishment order.

  “I have to admit,” Sachi said, “you lucked out with those two.” Ellis would return home shortly from his law office just a couple of blocks down the street. For now, they were still living in the apartment over the store until the renovations were complete enough on the old house Brad and Ellis had purchased and started rehabbing for them to move there.

  The same house that had brought Brad and Ellis together with Mandaline, and where Sachi nearly lost her life.

  “You, too, could know the joys of a poly triad,” Mandaline teased. “Or, at the very least, a relationship with one guy.”

  “Can we make a deal to can it tonight? My stomach’s finally declared a truce with itself. I haven’t needed the bathroom for a whole twenty minutes. I’d rather keep it that way.”

  “Sorry.”

  Her father had also called her upon his safe return to Idaho. While they didn’t have a firm date set yet, it looked like Sachi, Ellis, and Brad would be flying out sometime the following week.

  “This messes up your July 4th plans, you know,” Sachi said. “Are you sure you don’t want them here with you? I can drive the truck. Might take me longer by myself, but I can do it.”

  Mandaline jammed her hands on her hips. “You know
damn well your dad won’t let you do that, and he shouldn’t be riding in a vehicle that long with his arthritis. Makenzie and Anna already volunteered to help out here in exchange for paid days off elsewhere. So did Mina and Paige. I’ll have more than enough help around here.”

  “All right.” She swallowed hard, touched that her friends had jumped in like that to help cover the day. “Thank you.”

  “Second thoughts about having him here?”

  “No. Not that. Just…it feels weird in a good way, this big change.”

  “Not all changes are bad, sweetie. I know you’ve had more than your fair share of bad changes, but take it from me, good things are coming your way.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “I am right.”

  Ellis let himself in the front door with his key, carrying his suit jacket and his laptop bag slung over his shoulder. “Ooh, what smells yummy?”

  “Tarzan’s stirring up a batch of fried chicken,” Sachi said.

  He walked over. “I take it you’re joining us tonight?”

  “For dinner. Nothing else, lucky you.”

  She liked Ellis. He and Mandaline had a little bit of a rocky start at first due to his inability to believe in the supernatural, but he was the first person outside of Sachi’s immediate Many Blessings family she’d ever confided in about what had happened to her years ago. She’d taken him skeet shooting that first time more as a way to better evaluate him for Mandaline’s sake, and had ended up becoming friends with him in the process.

  He smiled. “Your dad get to Idaho all right?”

  “Yep.”

  “I’m actually looking forward to taking the time off for this. I haven’t been through that part of the country before.”

  “You haven’t missed much,” she groused, then gentled her tone. “Sorry. Old habit. It is pretty. My memories are…tainted.”

  He gave her a one-armed hug. “Understandable. I’ll see you guys upstairs.”