Page 7 of Witch and Tell

I shook my head. I’d have to get used to the idea that we weren’t together anymore. “Any word from Ian?”

“No, but I did another tarot card reading this morning, and….” She untied the ribbon that was Sailor’s leash, and he trotted toward the atrium to search for Rodney. She dropped into a velvet upholstered chair and played with a loose thread on its arm.

“And what?”

“I pulled the Death card.”

Oh, boy. I grabbed a stack of books from the returns cart to process. “I thought you didn’t believe in tarot cards. You told me you use them as a tool for your customers to see whatever their subconscious has been storing up for them but that they don’t want to recognize.”

I didn’t tell her about Buffy and Thor’s search or about what they’d spied in his trailer. There was no use piling it on. For whatever reason, Ian wasn’t in Wilfred. As for his van still parked outside his home, he might have called a cab. I had to hope there was an explanation that didn’t have to do with his relationship with Lalena. Or, I thought, picturing the tarot card, something worse.

Lalena stabbed the air with a finger. “Exactly. Maybe my subconscious has been picking up subtle clues that Ian plans to leave me, and now that I see the Ten of Swords and the Death cards, I know what they mean. It’s over between us.”

“My subconscious has been telling me otherwise, because I’m not convinced,” I said.

“I know.” A long sigh escaped her. “I don’t understand it. This is not like Ian. At all.”

I turned away and busied myself logging book returns. “I’d better order more westerns for Duke. He runs through them like potato chips.”

She sat straighter and squinted at me. “Josie?”

“Yes?”

“Look at me.”

I resolutely kept my head down. “There sure were lots of books in the return bin today.”

“Don’t try to distract me. You know something, don’t you?”

“Not really.”

“Not really? That means you know at least part of something. What aren’t you telling me?” She leaned forward. “Spill it, Josie.”

I gained time by returning to my seat behind the circulation desk. Sooner or later, she’d learn the truth. “I asked Buffy and Thor to track down Ian.”

Lalena nodded. “Great idea. If those two kids can’t find him, no one can. And?”

“They think he’s left town.”

“But his van is in the driveway,” Lalena said quickly.

“Thor says he left a carton of milk on his kitchen counter.”

“Not just a glass? A whole carton?” she asked.

“That’s what he says.”

“That’s serious. Maybe he wants me to think he’s still here,” she said. Her body seemed to collapse into itself. “But he’s gone. He went somewhere. He didn’t want to tell me.”

“That’s not necessarily true.”

“The alternative is worse,” she said. “He could be dead. Or in a hospital somewhere.”

“Surely you don’t think that. Have you called the hospitals?”

She stared at the chair’s arm and nodded.

I gentled my voice. “Then you know better. Maybe you should file a missing person’s report with the sheriff’s office.”