The Dregs of Murder

She waved her hand in dismissal, but her smile spread. "Nothing."

"Looks like something to me."

She glanced at me and her smile spread even more. "Jim is... amazing..." I stared at her. I didn't think my jaw was hanging open, but I made sure it was closed anyway. "What?" Vicki asked. "I'm not so old that I can't enjoy the company of a man." She paused a moment and then continued. "When I'm there... I can be me."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing."

"Oh... no!" I exclaimed. "You're not getting off that easy."

She flushed, her face turning almost as red as her hair. "It means, Kiddo, if I let myself go... things can happen."

I began to giggle. "What things?" She flushed even more. "Come on!" I encouraged. "What things?"

"Sometimes... I lose control... and I... break things," she murmured, as if she were struggling to get the words out.

"Break things?"

"Windows... the bed..." she murmured.

"You're kidding!"

"No... I'm not," she said softly. "This is why we can be ourselves without worry there. It's why I rarely take a lover except at the compound because... well... because."

I was quiet for a long moment. "I guess I never thought about it like that."

She nodded and then smiled evilly. "Liz is even worse. Alberto always joins us over the winter for a few weeks. He and Liz are close, but they're not allowed to have sex, at night, in the house."

"Why?"

"Because her desire causes others... to do things they later regret."

"Aunt Liz?" I asked. Liz was the stern one who always seemed to be all business.

"Yes... your aunt Liz. Why do you think she's the way she is? She's a wild woman in the bedroom, but she can't be herself anywhere except at the compound."

"Really? Wow..."

"Yes... really." She grinned. "Want to hear a funny story?"

"Absolutely!" I was seeing my aunts in a whole new way.

"One night, Liz and I were too close to each other while... well... you know. Anyway... I blew out the entire wall of our bedroom." She was as red as a tomato. "That was embarrassing. It took Jim and I a week to fix that. Thank God it was an interior wall, or I might have brought down the entire corner of the house."

I began to giggle and couldn't stop, imagining all the antics my aunts could get into. I always knew they were a little crazy, but I had no idea. "Maybe this won't be so bad after all," I said after I got control of myself.

She nodded, her flush fading. "Everyone understands, and we help each other. We're a family, and now you're part of that family as well."

"Are you looking forward to seeing him?"

"Jim?" I nodded. "Yes," she purred.

"Do you love him?"

Her smile became slightly wistful. "No, not really. We enjoy each other's company, but we're not exclusive. I know he sleeps with other women when I'm not there."

"And you're okay with that?" I asked. I'm damn sure not willing to share Hunter.

"I have to be. He can't join me, and I don't want to leave Liz... or you. So... we keep it... simple."

"What's he look like?"

She grinned. "Take Hunter and age him up twenty-five years... then bulk him up a little more in the chest, arms, and legs."

"Damn..." I muttered as I developed my mental image. No wonder Aunt Vicki was breaking stuff.

"Exactly," she replied with a smirk.

"I'm looking forward to meeting him."

She smiled. "And I'm looking forward to introducing him to you." She grinned. "You better keep your hands to yourself though... because I'm not above tossing your ass out into the middle of the lake to cool you off."

I snickered. "Noted. Who else is going to be there?"

"Keller and Lena will arrive tomorrow. They're the two masters that will help you learn to control your gift. Other than that, I don't know who's going to be there, other than Jim... because he never leaves."

"What will they do?"

"Who... Keller and Lena?" I nodded. "Help you control your gift."

"Okay, but how?"

Vicki shrugged. "The same way you learn anything... with practice."

"So why can't I do that at home?"

"Because, like any teacher, they can help you learn. Also, they can protect you. They must be concerned about your power because they're both coming. I've never heard of two masters training a single apprentice before."

"Oh," I grunted. "I'm not sure what to make of that."

"I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. It just shows how important the Council thinks you are."

"Or dangerous."

"I know you won't deliberately do anything to hurt anyone. It was like when I was learning control. Could I have hurt someone? Absolutely. Would I have done it on purpose. Of course not. That's where the masters help."

"How?"

"They both have the ability to dampen a gift."

"What does that mean?"

"Think of it like a blanket. If you begin to lose control of the gift, they can throw a blanket over you to make it harder and harder to use the gift."

"I'm not sure I like the way that sounds."

"It's for your own protection, and the protection of those around you. They can only do it if they can physically see you, and you won't feel a thing when they do it. It's like your gift just stops working." She glanced at me and smiled. "You can trust them. They trained me and Liz."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. We're not that old!"

I snickered. "That's not what I mean... or maybe, I don't know, it was. How old are they, do you think?"

She shrugged. "Late seventies, maybe early eighties." I grunted, still not sure I liked the idea of someone poking around in my head. She smiled at me. "Don't worry. I'll be there beside you every step of the way. I can remember my first-time training, and how scared I was. It turned out to be a big nothing. Masters make it fun and safe. It's more like a game than anything else."

"If you say so."

"I do. I won't let anything happen to you. I may not be your mother, but Cathy would want me to watch out for you."

I favored her with a lopsided grin, remembering all the good-natured razzing Catherine, Elizabeth, and Victoria gave each other. Vicki and Liz might not be my mothers, but they were more to me than simply my aunts. They were more like my surrogate mothers.

"So tell me about other gifts." I said after a number of miles of companionable silence.

"What do you mean?"

"I know you said there are a lot of different gifts. What are some you've seen at the compound?"

"Well... Christina can, if the plant isn't completely dead, heal ailing plants, and make healthy ones produce amazing bounties."

"Handy."

"Yeah. I'm sure you'll be surprised to find out she's a botanist. Carl, he's the one that can project light. Then there's--"

"How's that work?"

"Projecting light?" I nodded. "Where he looks, it lights up. It's like his eyes shine light, though they don't, but that's how it seems."

"Also handy."

"Very. Rick, he has the same ability that I do, Teresa is like Liz, but not as adept, Cynthia can sense any warm-blooded animal that's close by, and though she says she can't talk to them, you'd swear she can. What's that Disney movie where the princess can talk to the animals?"

"All of them?"

She chuckled. "Maybe, but there's one, an old one, where she lived in the forest or something."

"Snow White?"

"Maybe. Anyway, in the movie, the birds would flock around her, and the deer would stand beside her. Cynthia is like that. She can hold her hand out and a moment later, a bird will land on her finger. I got to pet a deer once because of her."

"That also might be handy."

Vicki nodded. "She's a vet."

"Anyone else?" I asked, genuinely curious. "What's Alberto's gift?"

"He has telescopic vision. Eagles have nothing on him."

"And what's he do?"

"He's an accountant in San José."

"Mexico?"

"Costa Rica."

"What's the craziest gift you've heard of?"

She thought for a moment. "I've heard there's a guy in India that can create darkness."

"How does that work?"

"I have no idea. From what I understand, from the outside, it's like looking into a dark cave. From inside, there's nothing but blackness. It's like there's a bubble of darkness around him."

"Not sure how useful that might be."

"Yeah." She grinned. "How about this one? I've also heard there's someone in Mongolia that can create such a powerful stink that anyone around instantly becomes violently ill."

I began to chuckle. "No kidding?"

"I might be wrong, but I'm not kidding. Not every gift is useful."

"Like mine."

She shrugged. "Maybe. How can you know if your gift is useful or not until you learn to use it? Lightening wasn't useful until we learned how to control it."

"Electricity..."

"Exactly."

A thought occurred to me. "How does Jim cope with storms?"

Vicki looked at me, her face clouded. "Not well. He can sense a storm brewing well before anyone else because he can feel the charge in the air. If the storm has lightening, especially if it's close... it's bad. It's really bad. I've held him for hours before as he cried in pain."

I'd started feeling better about my trip, but now the cheery mood in the SUV evaporated. "That sucks."

"Yes... it does."

"How does he stand it?"

"What can he do... other than kill himself? It's not like he can control the weather, and lightening happens everywhere."

"Yeah. I feel sorry for him."

When I'd been in Gardner, I'd been frustrated by my inability to access my gift. Now, after talking to Aunt Vicki, I realized how lucky I was. I could have received the gift of a stink bomb... or worse, be condemned to live like it was the seventeen hundreds... and to be in agonizing pain every time it rained.

"I do too, Kiddo... I do too."

It was well after ten when Aunt Vicki and I pulled to a stop at the small marina on Grand Island. We should have arrived hours ago, but there'd been two accidents that had delayed us significantly.

"Turn your cell off and leave it in the car," Vicki said, opening the center console as she switched the car off.

"Do I have to?"

"Yes."

"Okay," I sighed as I fished the device out of my purse, turned it off, and dropped it into the center console. She snapped the lid closed behind it.

After parking the Range Rover in the nearly empty parking lot, we hefted our bags from the cargo area and carried them down to the water's edge. We turned left and walked to the end where a dull grey aluminum powerboat waited. I smiled at the boats name... Bewitched IV.

Lake Pokagon sported more than its share of pleasure craft, and this one looked like the thousands I'd seen on the lake, or being pulled through town, in my life. The boat wasn't huge, certainly not big enough to go far out on one of the great lakes, but at maybe eighteen feet, it would easily accommodate seven or eight people, and was more than large enough to handle the mile or so Vicki said we had to travel to reach Grand Champlain Island. The boat was open, with a large, 150 horsepower outboard, and it clearly prioritized utility over comfort. We tossed our bags into the boat before Vicki began untying the craft.

"How'd the boat get here?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" she asked as she tossed the rope into the boat and moved to the stern to untie the other rope.

"I mean, did they leave the boat here and swim back?"

She grinned as she stepped aboard. "No, of course not. We have two boats like this one."

"Oh."

She retrieved the key from under the seat, inserted it into the ignition and twisted, causing the motor to whir over and rumble into life. "Think of it like having to share a car. We also have a rowboat, if push comes to shove, that Jim uses if he wants off the island. We either tow him across or he rows himself."

I watched, impressed, as Vicki deftly maneuvered the craft away from the dock using the throttle and the wheel at the pilot console. As we slowly pulled away from the dock, Vicki flicked a switch and the boat's running lights lit up. The darkness was complete, and I had no idea how Vicki could see where she was going as we turned and puttered away from the marina.

"How do you know where to go?" I asked. I could just see her face in the glow from the instruments.

"I use the lights on the shore to get out onto the lake." Just as she finished speaking, she shoved the throttle hard forward and the boat began leaping across the water. "See that light?" she called into the wind.

"I think," I yelled back.

"That's the dock!"

I watched as the light rapidly drew closer, and as Vicki cut power and the boat began to settle, I realized it was an old-fashioned oil lamp hanging on a hook. As Vicki guided the boat in close, she flicked on a powerful light that she directed to the side, lighting the dock in its almost blinding glare. On the other side of the dock I could see what was probably Bewitched III or V, and I noticed that the lamp hook was firmly attached to the dock side as she guided the boat to a soft, bumping stop against some old tires hanging over the side to prevent the boat from rubbing against the wooden dock.

The moment the engine fell silent, she grabbed the rope and hopped onto the dock, quickly and efficiently tying off the rear of the craft. I waddled my way to the front, not used to the feel of the boat moving under me, before I tossed the front rope to her. Like with the rope on the back, she quickly spun it around one of those things that people tie boats to, and Bewitched IV was secured.

I handed our bags up to her and then scrambled out, stumbling as the boat tried to slide out from under my foot. I looked back at the craft in annoyance. Aunt Vicki was a gazelle... and I was a drunken cow.

"I'm impressed," I said as I picked up my bag.

"About what?"

"How you handled the boat."

She smiled in the warm glow of the lamp. "Lots of practice."

"So I see. What's that?" I asked. I'd seen the large cart sitting on the dock as Vicki brought us in close, but now I could see it was like a little railroad car sitting on tracks.

"That's the cart we use to haul heavy stuff up to the house." She lifted the lamp from the hook and held it closer to the cart. "See that eyelet?" I nodded. "That's where we hook the horses."

I wondered if we were going to put our bags on it, and then decided no. The cart was far too large and heavy looking. Pushing it by hand, especially up the slight hill from the lake, was probably more work than carrying our bags.

Taking the lamp in one hand, Vicki picked up her bag with the other. I followed her off the dock with my bag in hand. We walked on one of the two gravel paths that bordered the track, probably for the horses. After a short walk, I saw another lamp coming in our direction. I forced myself to remain calm, but the quiet, darkness, and absolute emptiness was making me slightly jumpy.

Vicki stopped and set her bag down. I did the same as a man, probably Jim based on Aunt Vicki's description, slowed to a stop in front of us. Jim and Vicki put their lamps down on a couple of ties before falling into a long hug. I turned away to stare into the darkness to give them a moment of privacy. After a moment, I heard Vicki sigh softly, so I turned toward them again. I had the distinct impression they'd just completed a kiss.

Vicki picked up her lamp. The man did the same. "Jim, I'd like to introduce my niece, Camille Wicker. Camille, James Bellingham."

"Mr. Bellingham," I said extending my hand.

"Call me Jim," he said as he took my hand, his voice pleasantly deep and masculine. "Everyone else does."

I quickly took him in. I could see some of Hunter in his dark hair and eyes, and from what I could see in the lamps glow, he was certainly fit. I glanced at Vicki as she watched him, a tiny smile playing on her lips. She was glowing, but I didn't know if it was from the lamp or being in Jim's presence. He released my hand, handed his lamp to Vicki, and then picked up both bags.

"I can get that," I said, reaching for my bag, though secretly I was glad he'd picked it up. My bag was getting heavy on the long walk.

"I've got it," he said, making no effort to hand it back to me as he turned back the way he'd come. "I heard the boat arrive, so I thought I'd come see if you needed any help."

"Such the gentleman," Vicki purred as she handed me one of the lamps she held.

"There are still a few of us."

I smiled to myself as I brought up the rear. I was seeing my aunt in another new way. With her pale skin, flaming red curls, and lush build, not to mention the way Jim looked at her, I saw her for the first time as the sexy woman she was. I could hear them softly conversing, but I kept far enough back so I couldn't understand their words and they could speak in private.

We'd walked about five minutes more when I saw faintly glowing windows. It was hard to tell the shape or style of the home, but I could tell it was large, and probably one story... or at least, all the light was coming from the bottom floor.

"Who's here?" Aunt Vicki asked as we neared the house.

"Landon Newcastle. Hanna left just a few days ago."

"I don't believe I know him," Vicki said as we mounted the wide covered porch that seemed to surround most of the home.

"First time here."

"Newly gifted?"

"No... just never visited the compound before."

"What's his talent?"

"He won't say."

"Really? That's odd."

Jim nodded. "I think he's embarrassed by it. He keeps mostly to himself. From the little I've spoken to him, I don't think he's had it easy. I'd guess he's in his sixties, and I think he's probably the only gifted in his family. I get the feeling his parents were pretty hard on him growing up. His father just passed, and I think he's starting to reach out for help."

"I hate that. It's not like it's his fault he has a gift," Vicki said.

"I know. I think Hanna talked to him some... but I think he'll open up if we give him some time and space."

"I don't understand," I said as Vicki opened the door for us. "How did he know about this place if he didn't have any family to tell him?"

Jim shrugged. "Like you, I think he had some cousins or something that have gifts, but I think his parents isolated him from them." He lowered his voice. "He's really introverted. I can tell he's trying, but he won't speak to anyone unless they speak to him first, and like I said, he tends to keep to himself." He looked at Vicki. "Maybe you can talk to him. He was certainly more comfortable around Hanna than he is me."

"Maybe I will... in the morning."

I glanced around the room. There were four oil lamps placed around on various tables that gave the large open space a warm and comforting glow. The room was clearly set up to be a central gathering area, with many large and comfortable-looking couches and chairs scattered around, heavy rugs on the polished floor, and a well-loved piano tucked into a corner. There was very little art on the wall, and the house reminded me of the Riis house in Gardner, though that house was far more ornate. Both houses were old, but this one seemed to have been a working family's home, and not the home of a rich industrialist like the Riis home.

"Right this way," Jim said as he continued across the room. "We'll get you settled in."

I followed Jim, with Vicki bringing up the rear. He led me through a huge kitchen with a massive iron stove and a giant table with enough seating for at least twenty. Interestingly, the kitchen seemed to have a walk-in cooler not unlike the one we had at Coffee w/ Cream.

He stopped in a bedroom and tossed Vicki's case onto the large bed, but then he immediately stepped out of the room again with my bag still in his hand.

"How many bedrooms are there?" I asked as the three of us returned to the kitchen and then turned down the hall on the opposite side of the house. I noticed I was the only one holding a lamp, and I wondered where Aunt Vicki had left hers.