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Chapter Four

“O MG, you look so cute!” Marty purred as she pinched my thigh. “I love these jeans on you! You’re giving earthy and grounded.”

“And you’re also giving wannabe lumberjack,” Nina teased.

With a vague smile, I thanked her and ignored Nina. I’m not really a denim gal. I far prefer skirts and silky tops that are a bit more conservative, but Nina had convinced me, if we were going to go digging into a bunch of kooks’ heads and explore the woods to see if maybe we could find a clue about whether Neerie was with them, I couldn’t go in looking bougie.

She often accuses me of being bougie, but I say my skirts and heels are what make me…well, me . I enjoy being a girl. I won’t deny that.

Maybe not in the way Marty does, with lots of jewelry and the most current fashion. I’m more about a sedate set of pearl earrings and short heels. But jeans truly aren’t my bag.

However, Nina was correct. I did need to fit in and move freely if we ended up searching for clues in the woods. So fit in, I did. I borrowed a pair of Marty’s jeans and some sneakers, but I turned Nina down when she offered me a T-shirt.

“I got a T-shirt that’ll make those jeans sing the fucking blues, Wanda. It’s even in your stupid color wheel. You sure you don’t want a piece a this?” She held up one of her favorites. It read: “Surely, Not Everyone was Kung-Fu Fighting.”

I held up a hand with a small smirk before gently pinching her cheek. “As generous as that is, I’m going to pass, Mistress of the Dark. I’ve got one of Marty’s sweaters. Thank you anyway.”

I’d no sooner wear that shirt than I’d sleep with the devil.

She made a face at me, throwing the shirt on her desk. “Okay, but don’t say I didn’t offer. Now, are you two ready to do this shit?”

I wasn’t sure I was ready, but I was going to give it my all because of Tamlin.

As we headed out of the castle and filed into Marty’s SUV, I fretted over Will and his email to Neerie. “How can we question Tamlin’s father? If we do, he’ll know Neerie is missing, and if he’s not responsible, he might use it against her and try to take Tamlin from Naida.”

Marty turned around in the passenger seat, her eyes glittering in the dark. “You’re right, but if we don’t talk to him, and he has Neerie, or knows where she could be, things could go sideways.”

Nina, our elected driver, gripped the wheel, her knuckles pale. “I can always mind-meld the motherfluffer then make him forget our conversation.”

Tucking my purse into my lap, I nodded. “True. I just hate that it taxes you so, Nina.”

But she brushed that notion off. “I’m fine. The more I do it, the easier it gets.”

“But you’re not supposed to do it,” Marty reminded, snuggling into her flannel jacket. “You could get into trouble with the clan.”

“Like some of the dicks I’ve used it on are gonna tattle and look like prissies? Not a fucking chance. I think we’re good. Besides, I’m not doing it to gain anything for me. I’m doing it for information to help someone.”

Then I remembered something I’d thought of when we found out Thad wasn’t Tamlin’s biological father. “Do we even know if Will’s a fairy like Neerie? Or something else? She’s never spoken about him. Not once.”

Marty tightened the bun on the top of her head, giving it a fluff. “Neerie doesn’t talk about much but herself. She probably thinks this Will had nothing to do with making Tamlin.”

I laughed, leaning back in my seat to watch the bare trees of February speed past my window. “First things first. Where are these conspiracy theorists meeting?”

“They rented a room at the VFW hall, the crazy shits, but it shouldn’t be hard to get in. They’re all humans, so if they give us trouble, we beat ’em up.”

Marty poked Nina in her arm. “We’re not beating anyone up, Nina. We’re in and we’re out. You do your mind thing and then we skip. If Neerie was in those woods, we need to have time to go sniffing around.”

“You’re a fucking fun stomper, Marty. Always with the don’t do this, Nina. Don’t do that, Dark Lord. You’re sure singing a diff tune when you need somebody to save your ass.”

Marty threw up a finger. “Excuse me, last time I checked, Mrs. Muscle, I saved you .”

I leaned forward between them before Nina could lob a comeback. They did this often. In turn, I diffused the situation often . Sometimes, it was exhausting, keeping them from ripping each other’s throats open.

Mostly it amused me, because no matter how often they argued, their love and loyalty for one another was far deeper than any fight they had.

“Ladies, no time for bickering. Now, I’ve been wondering why Neerie was caught up with a bunch of human conspiracy theorists?”

“Probably ’cause as paranormals, we know Bigfoot could actually exist. But who knows why anyone gets caught up in this shit, human or not.”

I certainly couldn’t understand it. “But she could easily debunk some of the more outlandish tales they conjure up by showing them her wings and her pointy ears.”

Marty cocked her head. “Maybe she does it to feel superior—because she knows what they don’t know? Neerie loves being on top. Maybe it gives her a thrill to have the upper hand. Or maybe, just maybe, she’s lonely. I don’t know why she and Thad divorced, but it’s a transitional period for her. Some divorcees go hog wild with their newfound freedom to help them heal. Some hide away to heal.”

“And some go lookin’ for Bigfoot? I dunno, Marty. Hah! I’m bettin’, she got so involved in this crazypants shit it drove her husband to divorce court.”

Frowning, I wondered that, too. “I’m going to text Naida and ask. I’ve also asked her to come to our office tomorrow morning so we can probe further. I didn’t go terribly deep in the hallway at school. Little ears everywhere and such.”

Nina turned into a dirt parking lot with about four or five cars and a shoddy-looking building with a sign that read: VFW Post 999. Everyone Welcome. Bingo every Friday 6:00 p.m.

Rolling her head on her neck, Nina cracked her knuckles and popped open the car door. “Let’s do this.”

As we piled out, I wiped my clammy hands on my jeans and swallowed hard. I don’t particularly enjoy this part of investigating. I’m not nearly as good at playing a part as Nina and Marty. They’re much quicker on their feet than I am.

I already felt foolish in jeans I wouldn’t ever wear and sneakers that felt foreign to my feet. My imposter syndrome was hard to hide.

As we approached the door, Marty stopped us. “Wait. Isn’t there a secret password to get in or something? So they know we’re really part of the group? They’re not just going to let anyone in. Not after what happened the other night.”

Nina made a snorting sound from the back of her throat. “You let me worry about that. You two stay behind me and let me do the work. I know what a couple of ’em who planned to attend tonight look like. I poked around on their pages. Just follow me and zip it.”

Pulling open the rusty, peeling door, she strode into the VFW like someone owed her money. Leave it to my fearless friend to take the bull by the horns.

She lifted her chin in a nod to a couple of grizzled old men sitting at the gummy-looking bar, sipping frothy beers, their ballcaps pulled down low over their faces.

Pointing to a door that led to another part of the hall, she asked, “Gaggle of lunatics in the house?”

One of the men barked a gruff laugh. “You mean the zippity-doo-dahs, lookin’ for Bigfoot?”

Nina grinned, turning her eyes on the men, her gaze mesmerizing them. “That’d be them.”

Both men, unable to look away, their eyes glued to her face, nodded woodenly. “Yeah…in the back past the kitchen.”

Nina grinned harder, saluting them. “Thanks, gentlemen.” Waving her hand at us to follow, she made her way across the uneven wood floor toward a door, pushing through it.

There was small hallway passing the kitchen and then an open room, where six or seven people sat in a circle with a table of glossy donuts and coffee behind them.

Stopping to listen, she held up a finger to her lips and cocked her head.

They were discussing the events of a couple nights go, around the same time Neerie’d disappeared.

A man with but a wisp of hair on his shiny bald head, dressed in jeans and an oversized jacket, shook his finger, his lips thinning. “I told you, Earl. That Benson was no good. Look what the hell he did! Now we’re all in the shits with the law. I don’t need that kind of crap in my life. They think we’re crazier than bedbugs, out in the woods lookin’ for Bigfoot. My kid’s husband is a cop at the local precinct. They been razzin’ him all day about his nuttier-than-squirrel-shit father-in-law.”

A woman, her short hair choppy and gray, crossed her American-flag-Croc’d feet at the ankles. “Oh, put a sock in it! How was Earl supposed to know Benson was bloomin’ crazier than a sack full of cats, Jody? None of us knew. We met him on the Internet, dumbbell! I didn’t even know if any of you weirdos were real till I met ya. If I had a gun, I mighta brought one, too!”

Earl, a round, chubby man in overalls that had seen better days and a dusty brown cowboy hat curling around the edges, held up a hand. “I banned him from the group, Jody. He’s in the clink now anyway. How was I supposed to know he’d come with a gun and go off like the Mad Hatter? That’s not why we’re here tonight. We’re here to talk about a coupla leads I got since the news broke about our group.”

Nina wasted no time once she heard those words. “Earl’s the admin from the group.”

She sauntered directly up to Earl and without hesitation, put her hand on his rounded shoulder. Several of the people in the group gasped, and yelped a variation of, “Hey! Who are you?” but when she held up a finger and looked each of them in the eye, they quieted.

Tipping his stubbly chin up with her fingers, she captivated Earl’s gaze. “Earl, I need to ask you some questions and you’re going to answer without giving me any flack. Got it?”

His mouth went slack, his jowls trembling as he drove his hands into his overalls. “Uh-huh.”

“Do you know Neerie Lincoln?”

“Uh… Yeah.”

“How do you know her, Earl?”

“She’s in my Facebook group,” he said robotically, quite suddenly gripping the sides of his metal folding chair.

“Did you see her the night you went hunting for Bigfoot in the woods?”

Earl blinked. “Nuh-uh.”

Dang it all.

But Nina didn’t give up quite yet. “Was she supposed to come to your meeting? Her comment on your post said she was gonna be there. I need to know everything you know about Neerie Lincoln. Spit it all out.”

“I don’t know a lot about her. She just joined the group a couple of months ago. She was supposed to meet us there, but I didn’t see her. I think Benson did though.”

Nina lifted Earl’s chin higher, straddling his chair so she loomed over him. “Benson’s the guy who shot that cheating fucker in the woods, right?”

Earl’s nod was slow. “Yeah…”

Nina gripped his shoulder harder. “Did anybody else see her?”

He shrugged his sloping shoulders. “I don’t think so. But I got a text from her. I just didn’t see it until after all that stuff went down in the woods.”

“Do you remember what it said? Do you have your phone on you?”

I’d been so engrossed watching Nina, I didn’t see Marty disappear. She held up a donut under my nose, the smell irresistible.

“Donut? It’s glazed. Your favorite,” she said, taking a big bite of her chocolate one, chomping happily.

“Don’t mind if I do,” I whispered. “So Neerie was at the meeting in the woods.”

“If you listen to Benson. But he did shoot someone he thought was Bigfoot. Can we consider him a reliable witness?”

As I chewed on my donut, I watched Earl take his phone from the pocket of his overalls and scroll his messages until he held it up to show Nina.

As she read it, she grunted. “What did she mean by, ‘I have to go to the basement?’”

His face went confused, as though he hadn’t given it much thought. “I don’t know.”

Nina took a picture of the text and handed the phone back. “Did Neerie tell you anything personal about herself? Did she have a boyfriend or anyone who was pissed at her?”

Earl’s eyes glazed over. “I’m tellin’ ya, I didn’t know her real well. She was new to the group. She didn’t say much about anything but Bigfoot.”

I licked my fingers clean and wiped them with a napkin Marty provided. “I think we’ve hit a dead end. Unless someone else in the group has something to share.”

“Give it a minute, Wanda. Maybe someone else knows something.”

But as Nina moved from one person to the next, they all claimed they hadn’t seen Neerie that night, and she never said anything about any trouble she might be having outside the group.

“Now, you all sit here until we’re gone and you won’t remember a damn thing. When you see us leave the room, you can carry on with whatever you nuts were doing.”

“Nina!” we both hissed.

She ignored us and let go of Earl’s chin, giving him a pat on his arm. “Thanks for the help, buddy.”

As she made her way across the floor, no one stirred. We gave her a silent cheer and a quick hug before she crossed the threshold, and we made our way back down the rickety hall to the main area, where only one customer still sat at the bar. The television blared a college basketball game, and it appeared both the old man and the bartender were engrossed in the action.

But not so engrossed that the former didn’t say, “Bye, good-lookin’. Be glad I ain’t yer age or I’d give ya a real run for your money.”

Nina smiled at that before she glared at him, fixing her eyes to his. “We were never here, Paw-Paw.”

We hit the exit with a giggle and headed for the SUV, the gravel under my feet crunching as we scurried to get into the car, the cold night air producing snowflakes.

But Nina wasn’t giggling. She handed the keys to Marty. “You drive.”

I grabbed her hand. “Hey, you okay?”

She nodded, climbing into the backset, giving my hand a weak return squeeze. “Just some wild shit in their heads. I’m here to tell you, those people are loons, and it’s gonna be a long time before I get that kind of batshit out of my brain,” she said wearily. “I don’t know how people live like that, afraid of every damn thing. It’s not just Bigfoot they’re worried about, either. It’s electrical lines and 5G and phone tapping and… everything . All of ’em at once was a lot. It got dark fast.”

Marty reached back and brushed Nina’s hair from her face. “Hey. You up to going into the woods and sniffing around? Because we can call it here and now if need be.”

She gripped Marty’s wrist and shook her head. “Just give me a few and I’ll be fine.”

Not much spooked our girl. She was the epitome of strength and fearlessness, but her face said she’d read things that had upset her.

I decided to ride in the back with her, pulling her to me and easing her head to my shoulder, for which she gave me no guff. Instead, Nina pressed her silky head to my shoulder and let me stroke her cool cheek to calm her fears.

Nina rarely reached out for any kind of physical comfort. That she allowed me to comfort her meant she was afraid.

And if Nina was afraid, we all should be.