Curse the Dark (The Harstone Legacy Book 1)

Chapter 12

Sitting on the porch with my head between my knees, I didn't even look up when I heard the sirens. Tilda had managed to inject just the right amount of hysteria into the conversation when she had called in the dead body. Despite the calm way she had organized the photos, even going so far as to send them to her home computer and then deleting the photos in case her phone was seized, the panic in her voice had not been faked.

I only looked up when I heard heavy footsteps pounding up the garden path. I was really hoping that was the police. Sure enough, there was Sheriff Tolan and Karl, although I'm guessing he was expecting me to call him Deputy Iversen at a murder scene.

"Tilda. Miss Goodwin."

I barely looked up.

Sheriff Tolan eyed me critically. "You don't look too good."

"You won't either in about five minutes," I replied, caustically. I was barely holding on, and the one thing I wanted more than anything was to hide in bed and forget this day ever happened.

"That bad, huh?" murmured Karl.

"Worse."

Sheriff Tolan took his hat off and ran his hand through his hair. "You claim to have found a dead body. Can you show us?"

"No way in hell are we going back in there," I said with possibly a little too much force.

Tilda nodded in agreement. "She's in the basement. The stairs are towards the back of the house, in the kitchen."

The sheriff glanced at Karl who nodded, before entering the house alone.

"So, you got stuck with babysitting duty." I don't know why I felt the need to fill the silence with small talk.

Karl leaned against a post and crossed his arms. "Not so much babysitting, more making sure the suspects don't flee the scene."

I snorted. "Way to be subtle."

Tilda's head swung between the two of us. "How do you know each other?"

"We shared a romantic sunrise together," drawled Karl.

"Sitting next to each other on a bench does not constitute sharing," I said.

"Hey, it beat rounding up the geese that escaped from Mrs Evans' yard."

We heard footsteps coming from behind us and a much paler sheriff emerged from the house. "We're going to need everybody on this one. Definitely a murder." he barked.

I could have told him that.

"On it." Karl headed for the car.

Sheriff Tolan came down the porch steps and squatted in front of us, bringing himself down to our level. "Did you ladies want to tell me why you are visiting an outcast witch in the Glen."

"So, it was Helen Napier," I breathed. There went our best chance at finding someone who could help us break the curse.

The sheriff's voice was laced with suspicion. "Yes, it was, and you still haven't answered my question."

"We were doing a welfare check." I was grateful for Tilda's interruption. The sheriff had been looking at me intently, and I couldn't break away from those ice blue eyes. I wouldn't have been able to craft a believable lie if my life depended on it.

"A welfare check." Sheriff Tolan did not sound like he quite believed Tilda's explanation.

She nodded. "The coven had some concerns, and it was felt one of us should check to make sure everything was okay."