St. Clair Ch. 02: Witch

"Genevieve LeFleur. But don't tell anyone - she asked if we can keep it to ourselves. Some kind of family thing. I ran them anyway. Nothing there." He sorted a page out and flipped it over to her desk. "Thought I put that over there."

She looked the paperwork over and, as usual with Ray's paperwork, it was flawless.

"TJ, Shannon have any ideas about that body?"

"Said he thought it might be a Cody Macintyre."

"His mamma's gonna lose it. Still, we looked. Body couldn't have been there too long, must have washed down with that flooding - the next bend down Big Bramble is prime catfish territory, somebody would have seen it a long time ago."

TJ made a mental note not to have any local-caught catfish at the diner for a while.

"Shannon and Swede are staying on scene til daylight."

Ray set his glasses on the desk. "I'd better head out and relieve Swede, he's been running for days. And you need to get some sleep too. After you wash out the Beast."

TJ couldn't agree more - two deputies had gone off for training, then three more had promptly caught the flu, leaving the remainder working double shifts for two weeks. Already exhausted from dealing with the floods a month ago, she'd been operating in a daze for a while. Four of the five were due back on shift in the morning, and TJ could hear the clarion call of real rest already.

She grimaced as she stood up to head out to the wash rack where she'd parked the truck. Then paused. "I need to get the Beast checked, Jenny got out of the back somehow."

"Don't worry about it. If you stop anywhere, she'll get out. Last time I picked her up, she was passed out so I came in to get another blanket. She walked right in, threw up all over my desk. And she'd thrown up in the cruiser too. She's done it to everyone. No idea how."

Out of the corner of her eye, TJ saw Kathy sneaking in through the side door, trying desperately not to laugh out loud.

Heavy snoring sounds were echoing from the holding cell as TJ walked out to the vehicle bay.

***

By the time she reached the cabin, TJ was fighting to stay awake. Tammi met her at the door.

"Give me your belt and go get cleaned up in the shower. Melanie called, said you had to pick up Jenny today."

"She didn't get any on me."

Tammi sniffed cautiously.

"Need to clean up after a double shift anyways."

TJ was too exhausted to even put up a weak resistance; she just handed her the heavy gun belt and watched Tammi hook it over her shoulder, dragging her robe partly open. In normal circumstances, TJ would have happily taken the sudden appearance of bare skin as a promise, but tonight, she could barely get to the shower on her own. The stump of her leg was aching as she pulled the artificial leg off. Wearing her "peg" for more than 18 hours was usually a bad idea, and she'd gone way over that.

Tammi stepped into the bathroom shortly after she turned the water on.

"Brought you some pajamas."

"Real ones?"

Tammi chuckled. "This time, I'm not making any promises for later."

A few weeks before, she'd told TJ she'd left her pajamas on the sink and TJ'd found nothing but a tub of coconut oil. It had worked out rather well, since Tammi was wearing the same thing.

Tonight, though, TJ just didn't have the energy to do Tammi justice.

When she got out, she found her plain grey pajamas and the crutch she used to move around without her "peg."

Tammi welcomed her to bed with a soft kiss and a hug.

"You okay? Melanie told me what you found."

"She's not supposed to do that."

"Yeah, well, she doesn't want me to hunt her down and kick her ass for not warning me. And she didn't tell me who it was."

"We're not sure of that anyway. Not yet."

As they talked for a few more minutes, TJ could feel Tammi's fingers trace along her neck and jaw line in a slow and hypnotic pattern.

The soft fog of sleep seemed to pour from Tammi's fingers, wrapping itself around her as she drifted off to dreamless sleep, the kind of sleep she could have with Tammi near.

It was noon before she woke. Tammi had left sometime earlier - she'd been doing volunteer work at the State Park so she could qualify for a Natural Resources position, like the one she'd just applied for. She'd already taken the course for the Peace Officer commission required by the state for Naturalists and Park Rangers. TJ had worked with Tammi on handguns, but she asked Don, one of the other deputies, to help her learn how to handle a shotgun; he shot competitively and was damn good at it. Tammi seemed a little leery at first, but gained a lot of confidence quickly.

TJ hoped Tammi got the position. There wasn't likely to be a lot of competition; after all the pay wasn't much better than the diner, probably not even that good if you included tips. She actually enjoyed working at the diner, but she wanted to work at the ecology she'd studied in college.

Tammi seemed to glow when she thought about actually working in the State Park.

She crutched her way to kitchen and fumbled the coffee pot on. She sat on one of the bar stools at the counter while the coffee pot sputtered through its paces. A note from Tammi said she'd promised they'd meet Swede and Angie at the VFW for a couple beers and some burgers later. This was third time in a couple months Tammi had dragged her out.

Her first inclination was to grumble, but she knew Tammi was usually right about things like this. She'd been entirely too solitary for a long time, and Tammi was ever so gently integrating her back into civilization.

And that was pretty brave of Tammi. She'd been pretty cowed when she'd been under Andy's thumb, though she seemed to be exploding out of her shell now.

She also got the feeling Tammi wanted everyone to know they were a couple and TJ wasn't even sure how she felt, or should feel, about that. Tammi had been straight up front with everyone about it - even a little aggressive about it.

It was a relief in some ways - nobody seemed particularly upset, and TJ had more than her share of short 'surreptitious' relationships over the years. They never lasted very long, and this... "thing" with Tammi felt more permanent. TJ was a little more of a private person, though, so she felt a little exposed, a little more vulnerable than she was comfortable with.

Still, she probably needed to get out; besides, Swede was great and Angie was pretty good company anyway. TJ had met her a while ago at a Sheriff Department Barbeque that Shannon had held. Angie had a wry sense of humor and hilarious stories of life among the clueless artists and would-be actors in California. And her tales of working with the Doc at the veterinary clinic were howlingly funny.

Of course any time a story started with "I had my arm in that cow near all the way to the shoulder..." it was hard put not to be damned entertaining.

Whatever she had with Swede didn't look too serious but they both looked they were having some laughs.

Angie was also a bit of a practical joker - at the barbeque she'd convinced a half dozen of the younger kids that the reason TJ had an eye patch and mechanical leg was that she was actually a visiting space pirate. TJ, Tammi and her had ended up spending most of the picnic horsing around with the screaming mass of eager volunteers to join her space pirate crew. TJ made up a story about how she lost her leg to an alien space-shark and frankly she'd had a blast. Angie had even snatched a bunch of cupcakes for them to share with the kids as ''space pirate treasure." The only thing that cut Angie's creative mayhem short was a sudden migraine that forced her to regretfully go lay down in a guest bedroom.

TJ set up her stationary handbike. First time in weeks. She could, and did, go running, even with one leg amputated as high up as hers was, but she only did it when Tammi was home, in case something went wrong and she ended up needing picked up. It'd happened a couple times. The running blade was great, but it was really designed for a nice clean track, not the red rock roads or the trails near the cabin. Sometimes Tammi even went with her. On a trail bike, of course; Tammi really wasn't designed for running.

Just about the time she finished, she heard Tammi pull up in front of the cabin. She walked in and dropped her purse on the counter, and strode directly over to TJ to kiss her.

"I see you're finally back in the land of the living."

"Almost. I think another cup of coffee should do it. Anything interesting out there?"

"Had a massive beaver dam pop up along the Big Bramble in the last week, a couple uprooted trees wedged in the gulch-pass through and partly blocked it and a couple lodges of beaver moved in. State has to decide what to do about it, got the whole upper end of the Bramble blocked. Hard to believe how fast that backed everything up, must be 40 acres flooded back there."

"I guess that's why the Bramble's so damn low at W. They're not going to do anything about it today are they?"

"It'll be a few weeks. They'll have to put in a leveler to let the water flow through - if they trap them or kill them, more will just move in. The leveler is basically a big pipe that lets water drain. The beaver moved in because of the flooding a few weeks ago. That flooding displaced a lot of beaver; better they stay back there than get forced out where they'll cause real damage."

"When we go into town, I'll drop a note at the office, Shannon needs to know. I'm sure they finished the scene, but if it goes back to normal or floods suddenly, there won't be any chance to go back."

"It may not be the State that screws everything up. That beaver dam will only hold so long. With 40 acres of catch water already, the pressure could build really fast if we get more heavy rains."

TJ glanced out the window toward the river - their cabin was plenty high to avoid the water, but the floods had done massive damage all along the river.

Swede had lost his house, more or less, to the flooding, and it'd carved out a pretty good chunk of the Carter land along the Bramble. Swede seemed to be doing alright though; she figured Angie was a big part of that.

"That'd be a flash flood, could do even more damage. Maybe Shannon could get someone out earlier to relieve the pressure somehow."

Tammi nodded. "It'd be a good idea. I have the Natural Resources number in my purse. Hope you don't mind hitting the VFW for burgers, I should have asked, but you were out cold when Angie called. They do have catfish if you want that instead."

"Let's just stay away from the catfish for a while Tammi."

***

Tammi whispered quietly as they pulled up in front of the Sheriff's Department.

"There's Jenny. She's looking a little ragged."

TJ eyed the pristinely dressed woman critically. Other than a slightly grey undertone to her complexion, she was perfectly dressed and put together. Before she could say anything, Tammi popped her door open.

"Hey Jenny. Heard you broke up with Tony. Good for you."

Jenny nodded to Tammi then gave a sheepish smile as she saw TJ walk around from her side of the truck.

"Officer James."

"I thought we established you could call me TJ."

"Did we? I don't remember much of what happened. I never really do remember what happens after I get to... drinking." She seemed stiff and cautious. And the accent was completely gone.

Tammi cut in with a smile. "Don't worry, nothing weird happened. I got TJ to tell me about it."

Jenny suddenly turned ashen. "Except the body. There was a dead body, wasn't there?"

TJ nodded somberly. "There was."

"Do you have any idea who it..."

Jenny stopped as Angie all but skipped up to them, stopping with one arm over Jenny's shoulders and a sly grin on her face.

"Lord, Jenny. You look like ass, girl. And not in good way."

Tammi suppressed a laugh. "She just broke up with Tony."

"Awww, I was hoping to watch that." Angie made a mock sad-face then grinned over at TJ. "Actually, Swede told me. Said you got to wrassle Nature Girl here into your truck and got hurled on."

Jenny looked appalled.

TJ shook her head slowly. "Swede's exaggerating. She didn't fight and she threw up in the truck, not on me."

Angie scrunched her nose. "Eeewww." Then turned her smile on Jenny. "Since you're a shade of green not usually seen on living people, I'm guessing you'd rather not go with TJ, Tammi, Swede and me to the VFW and then Bert's for Karaoke?"

Jenny paled further at the thought. "I don't think that would be wise."

Angie stifled a giggle. "I'll drink your shots then. Rum, right?"

TJ wasn't sure if Jenny was going to respond or vomit. Before she could do either, a keening whine of fear erupted from the door of the Sheriff's Department.

Don, one of the deputies who'd just returned from training was leading a handcuffed Elvis out the door toward his waiting cruiser, no doubt on his way to another bond hearing.

White-faced and terrified, Elvis was struggling to get back into the Department.

"Stay away, stay away! It'll kill us all! It's a monster, it just pretends to be a person! She'll eat your heart!"

TJ jolted. Enough was enough. She set her jaw and started toward Elvis.

Then froze. He wasn't looking at her. He was looking past her, straight at Jenny, who shrunk back in Angie's arms.

"Run! It's wearing her skin, but it isn't her! It's using that black magic stuff - voodoo! I've seen it, the thing that hides in her!"

Tammi stepped in front of Jenny. "Elvis! Get a goddamned grip, it's Jenny."

"NO. It's not... IT"S NOT!"

Elvis tore free of Don and made two crazy, panic-driven steps before tripping and slamming head-first into the door of the cruiser.

TJ knelt down beside him and watched his eyes roll back into his head.

"Elvis has left the building."

Don stared at his own hands in disbelief - a heavyset man, he was no bodybuilder like Swede, but he was actually stronger - his forearms were bigger around than TJ's thighs. The idea of Elvis managing to pull free from him seemed ludicrous.

"Shit. Now I have to take him to the infirmary, Shannon will have my ass if he hurt himself."

TJ checked Elvis over a little more.

"He'll probably be okay; he managed to hit his head. Seems to do that a lot. How would you even know if he had a concussion?"

Don shook his head ruefully. "He'd probably start making sense."

Angie glared down at Elvis. "Just keep that whack-job away from Jenny. I don't have enough friends as it is. Besides we only have one decent hairdresser in the damn county."

TJ helped Don put the now-snoring Elvis into the cruiser.

Then froze as Angie's earlier words finally registered. "Did you say karaoke at Bert's?"

Angie giggled wickedly. "Already reserved a table."

TJ grimaced while Tammi grinned. "Hey, I didn't know. But since it's already set up..."

***

Swede managed to open one eye and look at the night table clock radio. It said 1:00... AM? PM?

Hell, it had to be PM, they hadn't even left Bert's until 2AM, and couldn't have fallen asleep until at least 4. Angie's thin tattoo-covered back and long dark hair were all he could see other than the clock; no light leaked into the room through the windows. The curtains were probably the only thing in the "Ponderosa Verde Hotel" that had been given any real thought; when you rent out rooms by the hour on the edge of town, you really don't want your reputation sullied by wives and husbands being able to peek in and see the activities of their spouses. He couldn't bitch about it too much though; he was pretty much staying here free since his house had been flooded out. A cousin owned the place and was letting him stay until he could get the old Holloway place fixed up. His own place was too undercut to salvage and the Insurance money more than covered the new place - it needed a lot of work, but it had good bones. With all the manpower shortages at work, it was taking longer than he'd expected to get started on the house, especially after some teenager had nearly burned it down.

Angie - Angie - sat for a second on the edge of the bed, then unsteadily stood up and crossed the room to the bathroom, stopping to grab her purse off the flimsy table. Strands of multi-colored tattoos scattered down her left arm and right leg from the flower-wrapped sugar skull - calavera - on her back. The flowery chains of tattoos wrapped around smaller sugar skulls. Angie had always loved the decorative little skulls; her mom had been Mexican and had come from a town in the south where the Day of the Dead celebrations were a big deal. Angie and her mom had always decorated their house for it, and she'd brought little candies to school for everyone. Until her mom died of cancer and her then-boyfriend, Buck, had run off. Angie had headed to California.

He turned on table lamp and the clock radio - no point in listening to her pee through the cardboard-thin bathroom door. Got to maintain some illusions. He pulled himself to sitting and grabbed the bottle of Jack off the side table, but it was sadly, tragically, empty.

Swede tried to drop it into the trash can, but heard it thump onto the rug instead. Mildly curious, he leaned over and saw that at some point one of them must have kicked or hit the trash can out of its usual position. Jeans and a black t-shirt from last night - this morning? - were crumpled on the floor next to the threadbare red chair, while Angie's denim miniskirt and white V-neck t-shirt were draped carefully over the back of that chair. If he remembered right, she hadn't been wearing any underwear or a bra. Not that she needed a bra. Angie would have to work her way up to an A-cup.

And she didn't really make a habit of wearing underwear.

Shoes sat in an odd little pile by the door.

He'd started hanging out with Angie on a regular basis since she came back from chasing too-quick, too-slippery dreams in California. She just showed up one day, when he was drinking pretty seriously, announced she was back, and slid her mini-skirted butt onto his lap. At one point she bet he couldn't guess the color of her panties by touch alone. It was a particularly interesting challenge because, as it turned out, she wasn't wearing any.

Despite her lack of tits and not much more ass, and despite the heavy make-up she used to cover her acne-scarred face, she was spectacular in bed: Angie saw sex as a form of exercise, she engaged in it with manic, energizer-bunny enthusiasm. Her lean form was a bit deceptive; she was a dedicated cross country runner and had enough endurance for any three women.

Swede figured it was a fair enough trade.

He'd known her since grade school, and they dated in high school a little, she'd been more on and off with Buck than anyone, but she wasn't anyone's steady girl. That hadn't changed. To say Angie wasn't long term relationship material was the understatement of all time, but they were damn sure having a good time.

Over the maudlin country music, he listened to the flush of the toilet, the queasy gurgle of the pipes, then the sink ran for a minute. A moment later Angie popped the door open and strode out much more steadily. Slight sniffles and her now hard-bright eyes made it clear why she'd grabbed her purse.

"I thought you'd stopped using that shit."

Her mouth gave a slight quirk that might have been the start of a frown, but might just as well have been a twitch. "I just take a little now and then because of these damn headaches." She paused, looking thoughtful as she began to pull her clothes on.

"Tammi sure as hell seems happy."

Swede smiled. "Good thing TJ got her away from that asshole. It was getting bad. She just wouldn't dump the stupid bastard. Either me or Shannon was going to have to deal with him. I'd already warned Andy once. The little shit filed a harassment charge."