Witch's Wheel Read online

  “But I thought you said you knew you had enough time when you saw your uncle in the bathroom.” Caroline said as she sat one of the cups down in front of Teagan and took her seat back opposite him.

  “Yeah. I can’t figure that out,” he said and rubbed his hand across his forehead. “I know that she helped him wrap his hand after he cut it on those wine bottles in the kitchen.”

  The steam from his cup rose up toward his face and into his nostrils. “This doesn’t smell like hazelnut,” he said.

  “That one’s raspberry chocolate truffle.”

  “What!” He looked at Caroline, a grin on his face. He was feeling more relaxed with her. “In the coffee?” he asked and she nodded. “I love chocolate truffles. And raspberries.”

  “I know,” she said. She took a sip from her cup and got back to his dilemma. “So how come you were too late?”

  “I don’t know.” He shook his head.

  “Maybe the sisters did something with the time? They are witches, right?” Caroline’s question more of a statement.

  “I don’t know. Maybe they did.” He pushed his cup away from him and leaned back in the chair. “And like I told them, I don’t believe in witches.”

  “Witches or not, they seem responsible for what happened to you last night.”

  “If something really happened.”

  “Wait. After all of this you’re still questioning it?”

  “No,” Teagan said. “I just wanted to hear how it sounded for me to openly reject the whole idea.”

  Caroline nodded as if she completely understood his logic. “So why did they send you back?” she said her eyes big, getting back to the conversation. “You know, in the first place.”

  “Why don’t you have a hard time believing all of this?” Teagan asked. “I mean, you and I have never really had a conversation before, and then here I come, first time out, and tell you that witches sent me back in time and you’re okay with that. Why aren’t you questioning the veracity of it all? Or my sanity?”

  Caroline shook her head. “I know I probably should. I mean it really is hard to fathom.” She lowered her eyes. “But it’s fun, and I don’t know why, but I do believe.” She smiled, and wiggled as if the delight went all through her body.

  “I don’t know that I’d necessarily use the word ‘fun,’ but all of it is intriguing. My grandmother used to always talk about apparitions, and superstitions. I even heard her once say, ‘For Goddess sakes,’ just like Layah did.” He let out a sigh and smiled at Caroline. “And, to answer your question, I don’t know why I was sent back.”

  “But you think it was to save your grandmother?”

  “If it was, I failed,” Teagan said and blew out a breath.

  “Maybe you could try again? Can you go back?”

  “Yeah. I thought about that. But, I can’t find the sisters.”

  “You said you went by their shop last night?”

  “Right. It was shut down tight.”

  She shrugged. “So they were closed for the night.” She stood up and walked into the kitchen where she’d left her tablet and cell phone. “Let’s try now. It’s after nine. On a Monday morning. What business wouldn’t be opened, right?”

  “Okay. Call.” Teagan sat up straight, and waited expectantly.

  Caroline found the shop on her tablet in the cached history, and looked for the number. She scrolled up and down the page, and clicked back on the browser. “I can’t seem to find a number for the shop,” she said and looked up at Teagan.

  “Didn’t you call them yesterday?” he asked.

  “No, you just said you wanted to stop by, their website gave the address, and the hours shown indicated they were open. I didn’t look for a number.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “What about their last name? Do you know it?” she asked. “I can check whitepages.com.”

  “Their last name is Frazier. At least that’s what they told my grandmother.”

  “So Libby and Layah Frazier?”

  “Lybbestre and Calayiah Frazier.”

  “Lybbestre?” Caroline chuckled. “That name means witch.”

  “It does not.”

  ‘Yes, it does.” Caroline grinned. “And,” she said scrolling on her tablet. “There’s no listing for them either.”

  “Figures.” He relaxed back into the chair.

  “They may just use cell phones, but I would think they’d have a number listed at least for the shop,” Caroline said. “How do you do business without a phone?”

  “I don’t know, but they called me last night, so they must have one. And I wouldn’t worry about them if I could just get back.”

  “Wait!” Caroline’s eyes flitted back and forth as she formulated an idea. “They weren’t there when you went back in time. Were they?” Caroline said. “Didn’t you say that they appeared later?”

  “It wasn’t much later,” Teagan said. “But no, you’re right, they weren’t there. I walked into the door, and bam! I was . . . Transported, I guess.”

  “Maybe,” she said with a sparkle in her eye. “You don’t need them.” She spread out her hand. “Maybe it wasn’t them.”

  Teagan seemed to understand what she was thinking. “Maybe it was the house?” Teagan said, leaning forward. “Now that I’m thinking about it.”

  “Right!” Excitement shown in her voice.

  “Nothing strange happened until I went into the house.”

  “I was thinking that, too,” Caroline said. “But I think we should be more specific.”

  “How?”

  “I think it has something to do with the doors,” Caroline said.

  “The doors?”

  “You know, the doors. I think it was the doors that led you to a different dimension. When you opened the doors – the front door going in. The cellar door on your way out of the basement– that’s when something seemed to happen.”

  Teagan thought for a moment. He scrunched up his face. “I opened doors a few times. The front door. The cellar door. And, some other doors I’m sure. I mean I was there a few hours, I must’ve opened a lot of doors. Nothing happened every time I did.”

  “When? What other doors?”

  “I opened the doors to the library.”

  “Did anything happen?”

  “No.” He cocked his head to the side and thought about it. “Other than that’s when the sisters told me about time travel and how I wouldn’t be able to change anything.”

  “You call that nothing?”

  “Well nothing like me going to another realm. Or the fourth dimension. Or wherever it was I went.”

  Caroline chewed on her thumb nail. “How many times did you open the front door?” she asked.

  “Uhm. Twice. I think. Once when I came in and then when I came back in from helping my father.”

  “And nothing happened the second time?”

  “No.” Teagan said slowly and frowned. “Wait. I didn’t open the front door when I came back in from helping my father with the cases of wine.”

  “You didn’t?”

  “No, because I didn’t shut it on the way out.”

  “Okay,” she said and scooted forward in her chair. “What about the cellar door? How many times did you go down there?”

  “Twice.” He shook his head, a lopsided smile appearing on his face. “But I only opened it once. Uncle Teddy opened it when we went down and when we came back up. Then when I went down to try and save my grandmother, I found it slightly ajar, so I didn’t have to open it.” He looked at Caroline. “But I shut it behind me, so when I came back up, after finding my grandmother, I did open it.”

  “See,” Caroline said. “Maybe it was the house that controlled you going back and forth in time.”

  “So why would the house, if that’s possible, want me to go back in time?” Teagan asked.

  “I’m not saying the house wanted you to go back in time, clearly from what the sisters told you, they did that. I’m just saying that they may have enchanted the house. And y
ou can use it to go back.”

  “Someone read you a lot of fairy tales when you were young, didn’t they?” Teagan said.

  “Any child who went through the things I did, had to develop a hearty imagination.” Caroline looked at him, a thin smile forming on her lips. “Okay, so why would the sisters charm the house?” Caroline asked. “I know you think you were sent to save your grandmother, but the sisters said you couldn’t. So what other reason could you have gone back?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I think you need to figure that out before you go back, so you don’t mess up. Do something wrong.”

  “I don’t mess up,” Teagan said. “I’m organized. Focused.”

  Caroline bit her bottom lip. “Yes. I agree with that. But, Mr. Bales, if you went back in time and then returned unfazed, you must have messed up. Clearly you were supposed to do something. Or something was supposed to happen, or change. Is anything different?”

  “Other than the way you’re speaking to me?” Teagan said. “No. Nothing’s changed.”

  “So think about the night. If you couldn’t have saved your grandmother’s life, why were you there?”

  “I don’t know.” He hunched his shoulders, his words showing no interest in thinking otherwise.

  “Can’t you just think about it?”

  Teagan eyed Caroline, and she started to back away.

  “Maybe,” he said thinking he shouldn’t offend her, she was only trying to help. “I was sent back to realize what an arrogant, selfish person I’d become.”

  “Anyone in the present could have told you that,” Caroline said flinching slightly as she let the words out.

  “Okay,” he said. “So maybe it was something else.” He closed his eyes and let his thoughts drift back to when he was at the house. “One thing,” he opened his eyes, “it seemed like everything I saw contradicted the things that I know about the night my grandmother died.”

  “Like how?”

  “Like Yvonne Giordano bad mouthing my grandmother. The story I know is that she and my grandmother were getting along famously all night – laughing and talking when Mrs. Giordano notice the wrong wine had been brought up. Then, supposedly she had very discreetly told my grandmother who went to take care of it.”

  “But that didn’t happen?”

  “No. I don’t remember seeing the two of them speak to each other once that night. Although I wasn’t with my grandmother every second I was there, I do know that they weren’t chummy at all. Mrs. Giordano was braggadocious and haughty. She compared her wines to my grandmother’s and even called into question my grandmother’s abilities, all the while gulping down my grandmother’s champagne.”

  “What did Mrs. Giordano say about your grandmother?”

  “She pointed out that the red wine that had been brought up from the cellar didn’t pair well with the seafood menu. Only the red wine that had been brought up was the one to be taken by the courier – well, by my father. The correct wine was in the kitchen being prepared to be served.”

  “Did she recognize you?” Caroline asked.

  “Who?”

  “Yvonne Giordano?”

  “How could she?” Tegan rolled his eyes. “No one back then knew what I looked like as an adult.”

  “Oh that’s true.”

  “Anyway, that led me to the kitchen. That’s where I overheard my grandmother and Viktor Gustov having a conversation about a bottle of wine. Actually, the bottle of wine.”

  “The one she was putting back when she had the accident?”

  “Yeah, although I can’t figure why she was putting it back in the room where her body was found.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “She was in the wrong room. The bottle of wine didn’t belong there.”

  “Why was she in that room?” Caroline asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “So maybe that’s one of the things you need to find out when you go back.”

  “I won’t need to know the reason when – if – I go back. I’ll just be in that room and save her.”

  “The sisters said you can’t.”

  “What do you know about the sisters?” Teagan asked. “Don’t rely on their words.”

  “I’m not,” Caroline said. “And I don’t know anything about them. I’m going by what you told me. You couldn’t save her. You didn’t save her.”

  “And, what do you mean, one of the things I find out?” Teagan said, backtracking to her question.

  “Well what else was different? You said Mrs. Giordano’s account was different. Maybe,” she looked up at him, “your uncle’s account may have been skewed.”

  He sighed. “I was thinking that. Because how did she help him when she had to have been already dead?”

  “Right.”

  “And then there’s my father,” Teagan said.

  “What about him?”

  “He always said that he wasn’t there that night. He’d left on a business trip and only returned when he learned of my grandmother’s passing.”

  “And that wasn’t true.”

  “No. It wasn’t,” Teagan said.

  “What else?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “That was different. What else was different?”

  “Everything.” He shook his head. “I know that when different people tell the same story over and over, it can become distorted. Either that, or all these years, I was the one that had it wrong. I mean even my grandmother acted differently with Gustov than how I remembered the two of them acting.”

  “What happened with the two of them?”

  “Gustov seemed secretive. Not answering my grandmother’s questions.”

  “How did your grandmother act toward him?”

  “I remember them having a good relationship. Warm, maybe I would even go so far as to say they were friends. But last night – well, that night – she was, I don’t know – stand-offish toward him. She acted irritated with him, and I didn’t notice anything he’d done.”

  “What about that woman that you heard talking on the phone?” Caroline asked.

  “Rose Avery.”

  “Yes. How is her story different?”

  “I never heard about her that night. Or any of the wait staff.”

  “And what about Pastor Tim?”

  Teagan chuckled. “He was probably the only one that was the same as I remember. Just like he is today. Nice. Jovial.”

  “What has he said to you about that night?”

  “That time would give me all the answers I sought, and until then, God would provide me all the comfort I needed.”

  “Time would give you all the answers?” Caroline said. “A surprised look on her face. “Did he really say that?”

  “Yes. He did. Quite coincidental now, huh?”

  “Yes, it is.” Caroline chucked. “I bet all of this has sent you for a loop,” Caroline said.

  “To be honest, last night did send me for a loop. I thought I had resolved all of this. I had moved on. But since last night I feel confused. Unsure.”

  “Not yourself?” Caroline offered.

  “Yes. Because those are not things I usually feel.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m used to being in control of things. Knowing what is going to happen because I am the one that planned what happened. But last night? Nothing was like it was supposed to be.”

  “Including your grandmother’s death.”

  He nodded. “Including her death.”

  “Maybe that’s why you went back,” Caroline said.

  “Why?”

  “To find out what really happened.”

  “I don’t understand what you mean,” he said.

  “Maybe you were meant to find out the truth about everything. About that night. About her death.”

  “About the accident?”

  “Maybe that’s what you were meant to find out. That it wasn’t an accident,” Caroline said. “Maybe it was murder.”

  Chap
ter Seventeen

  Murder.

  Teagan chuckled mockingly. He stood up prepared to end the conversation. Perhaps he shouldn’t have shared his thoughts with an employee.

  Even if it was Caroline.

  “I think that we’re done here,” he said.

  “That idea isn’t any more fantastical as you traveling in time.” She saw the ease he’d been speaking with had suddenly disappeared.

  “The idea that my grandmother was murdered?”

  “Yes, that your grandmother was murdered. Think about it.”

  “I’d rather not.” He sat back down in the chair.

  “The sisters said that there was no such thing as lost time. Why would they waste time by taking you back for no reason? They must have wanted to show you something. It must’ve meant something.”

  “The reason was to save my grandmother.”

  “No it wasn’t,” Caroline said.

  “Okay. Let’s say it wasn’t. How do you jump to murder?”

  “Because that’s the way it always happens.”

  “You’ve been involved with something like this before?”

  “In books. In the movies.”

  “Don’t do that,” Teagan said sitting up straight. “Perhaps, unreal things happened to me, but all of this is about real life. Not make believe.”

  She noticed that his voice and his demeanor returned to his usual self. Controlling. Condescending. Still she pressed on.

  “Witnesses tell different accounts because they see things differently than another observer,” Caroline said. “And because they are trying to cover up something.”

  “A murder?”

  “Yes.” Caroline nodded. “Perhaps. But last night you got a firsthand account of what happened.”

  “Who has told me something different because they are trying to cover up what happened?”

  “I don’t know,” Caroline said. “You’d have to find that out.” Caroline let her gaze drift for a moment and then looked back at Teagan. “Maybe it’s what the sisters gave you last night. You can learn the truth of what time has altered, and from there you can find out who altered the truth.”

  Teagan studied her face. She hadn’t had a hard time believing what he said happened, and perhaps what she was saying made sense.