Page 18 of Hexes and Hiccups (Mystery In A Bottle #3)

D aisy

The world flashed red and blue as police cars and ambulances loitered around Lake Silverpine.

All the cars that had once flocked to it with their kids were long gone, sent away by the Sheriff and other first responders.

Investigators stood and crouched at the shore, talking in quiet voices as they looked over the calm water.

Paramedics carefully extracted the body from the driver’s seat, though everyone knew that the singular passenger was long gone far before the car had been retrieved from the water.

Sheriff Hank Dalton wore a tall, rusty brown hat that matched his uniform.

A golden badge, shimmering even in the darkness, sat formally on his breast. He carried himself with a jutted chin and puffed out chest, looking rather aggressive and ready for a fight.

There was nothing outrightly aggressive about the Sheriff, in reality.

He happened to be a very good man, Daisy knew, who took his job as seriously as it should be.

Not once did he back down from a case, or from what he believed to be right.

When he showed up on the scene, his cruiser zipping down the street and parking at the lake’s shore, Daisy breathed a sigh of relief.

Sheriff Dalton might’ve been entirely human, without even a glimmer of magic within him, but he knew about magic, and his human-ness did not stop him from being powerful in his own right.

Daisy would not have wanted anyone else to have shown up, after all.

He was the best option to figuring out what had happened, and where they might need to go next.

“You alright?” Ethan bumped his shoulder into hers. “I know that’s a silly question.”

They sat on the back of an ambulance, a thick blanket wrapped around their shoulders.

On Daisy’s lap, Ethan’s hand was intertwined with her own.

They never once dared to break their connection.

When the first responders arrived, the children and their parents were ordered to leave.

It was Daisy and Ethan who were told to remain, with the idea that the Sheriff would likely wish to speak to them.

Since then, Daisy wracked her brain for what she could say.

A romantic evening at the drive-in theater turned into a murder case, a manslaughter case.

But there was something in the back of Daisy’s mind that told her she was meant to be exactly where she was then.

Despite not even being able to recall the night they had watched Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance across the big screen, Daisy had the inclination to believe that they were meant to show up at Lake Silverpine after all.

But why ?

“There’s a feeling I can’t shake,” she replied in a whisper. “One that tells me there is something more to this. Something that I’m not seeing.”

Ethan’s brow furrowed. “That would be quite the coincidence, wouldn’t it?”

“Lately,” she murmured, “I have a hard time believing in coincidences.”

Sheriff Dalton approached them with an intensely arched brow. “Ms. Fields,” he said as he pulled off his hat. “And Mr. Walker. Out of all the people to have uncovered this, I’m glad to see you both.”

“Really?” Ethan frowned.

“Well, a respectable lawyer and a small business owner devoted to the town seems rather lucky to me, don’t it?”

Daisy gave him a half-smile. “Sheriff, you and your team arrived rather speedily.”

“‘Course we did.” He hooked his thumbs through his belt loop. “This ain’t a regular shin-dig. Ain’t every day we get cars pulled out of lakes with bodies in them.”

“Sure,” she said. “But you all seem to be moving pretty fast. Seems to me like you know what you’re looking for.”

Sheriff Dalton grimaced as he watched her. “Sounds like you’re conducting an investigation of your own, Ms. Fields.”

She felt heat rise to her cheeks in embarrassment, but ignored it, staring straight on at the officer. “You said it yourself,” she said. “I’m only a small business owner devoted to the town.”

The Sheriff sighed as he looked over his shoulder at the investigators loitering over the car. They were pulling out small tools to search for fingerprints, though the water damage probably ruined that avenue. He kept his teeth clenched as he turned back towards them, hands on his hips.

“Sheriff,” Ethan asked, “is there any chance you know who that poor girl was?”

“Now, you know, Mr. Walker, that's an answer I ain’t handing out like baseball tickets.”

Daisy eyed her date. He leaned forward, a certain look on his face that Daisy recognized from when he was at work.

Being a lawyer gave him a sort of leg up, she supposed, one that allowed him the ability to ask the right questions and seek out the appropriate answers.

She hadn’t even told him about her connection to it, how she felt as though the car and the body inside was something she needed to know, and yet, Ethan already sought out the information she needed.

“Something tells me that you’ve been waiting for a call like the one I gave you this evening,” Ethan pressed. “Something tells me that this isn’t all that much of a surprise. To you or your team. But please, correct me if I’m wrong.”

Sheriff Dalton’s mouth opened but quickly snapped shut within the same breath. He glanced around another time before sighing heavily, and taking a knee in front of them. When he spoke again, his voice was lowered into a whisper so quiet, Daisy could hardly hear him.

“The license plate,” he murmured. “It’s registered to the one and only Evelyn Harper.

Didn’t take much for our investigators to ID her from the body, too.

” He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Can’t make a conclusion, though, till the forensics team reports in.

But…but if I had to bet, I’d bet it’s her. ”

“Evelyn Harper,” Daisy whispered, her eyes widening. “As in, the girl who disappeared thirty years ago? Fern’s daughter?”

Sheriff Dalton nodded solemnly. “Poor lady’s been waitin’ to hear somethin’ ‘bout her missing girl for years. We won’t be makin’ the call till we know for sure, you hear? That means keepin’ this between us.”

Daisy rose from her spot, still gripping onto Ethan’s hand tightly.

“We can keep a secret, Sheriff.” She gently tugged on Ethan to stand.

“Let’s take our leave to get out of your hair, alright?

” Before stepping away, Daisy grabbed onto the Sheriff’s hand and gave him a firm shake.

“You’ve done great work for Willowbrook, Sheriff Dalton. ”

The man huffed a few times before shaking her hand back.

Daisy led the way to Ethan’s car, unable to stop herself from speed walking back. They climbed in, and Ethan started the car instantly, pulling out of their spot without saying a single word. He eyed her a few times with a curious gaze.

“You pulled us out of there quick,” he finally said when they were reentering Willowbrook. “Do you know the Harper family?”

“Fern Harper was turned to stone,” Daisy replied in a whisper. “I don’t know what this means, but how can it be a coincidence?”

He clicked his teeth together. “You said it yourself: it’s hard to believe in them anymore.

” Ethan reached for her again as a silence took over the car, his hand finding her own.

“Look, Daisy, I wanted this to be a nice evening out, and I’m sorry it turned out this way.

With everything you’re already dealing with, I’d hate for it to end in such a gruesome way. ”

“Don’t apologize for a second,” Daisy replied. “The night was wonderful. And, if it’s any consolation, I wouldn’t have wanted to go through that with anyone else.”

Ethan chuckled lightly as he pulled onto her driveway, giving her hand a tight squeeze. “I’ll take it,” he whispered.

As he walked her to the front door, Daisy eyed the lit porch light, and the amber light streaming out from behind the blinds.

Tessa must’ve snagged her copy of my key, Daisy thought to herself.

Ethan took her to the door, not hesitating to capture her lips in a soft kiss.

Daisy allowed herself to melt for a moment, though the nagging in the back of her head said that the night was far from over.

She held onto his collar for a second before holding herself back and giving him a small, tired smile.

“Thanks again, Ethan. I enjoyed all of it.”

He grinned. “All of it?”

“You know what I mean.”

Daisy slipped inside the house quietly, exhaustion wracking through her the moment she passed over the threshold. It was nearing midnight, but Daisy had the growing suspicion that she wouldn’t be going to bed anytime soon.

In the living room, Tessa stood with a pillow pressed to her face. “Oh, Ethan,” she teased, pressing kisses to the pillow. “What a night, Ethan! Oh, another goodnight kiss, Ethan?” Tessa pushed the pillow away. “You’re being far too naughty! It’s far past my bedtime, and –”

“You are quite the child, aren’t you?” Daisy said, grinning.

Tessa giggled. “Hey now, you left me waiting for quite some time, Flowers. I’m desperate to know about the magical mystery evening!”

“It was as perfect as you might imagine it to be,” Daisy recounted, a distant smile lingering on her lips. “Dinner and a movie at the drive-in.”

“Let me guess: something with Astaire in it.”

“How could you have possibly known that?”

Tessa shrugged, looking rather proud of herself. “And?”

“And…” Daisy sighed, leaning her back against the shut door. “And then we saw all these people at Lake Silverpine and got too curious for our own good.”

“What does that mean?” Tessa asked, looking more serious.

“You remember Fern, right?” Daisy asked. “And her daughter, Evelyn?”

“Of course. Poor girl.”

Daisy pressed her lips together. “Tyler found a car at the bottom of the lake,” she explained. “When they managed to pull it out and open the front door, there was…there was…there was a body inside, Tess. Sheriff Dalton believes it to have been Evelyn Harper.”