there was the forest that surrounded Timber Falls, imprisoned it, really, and constantly had to be fought back as if it was at war with the tiny town. As he drove past the city limits, the forest formed almost a canopy over the two-lane highway, a tunnel of green darkness over the only road out.
To the clack of the wipers, he turned off in front of a cottage-style house with a dozen smaller bungalows lined up behind it. Years ago, the place had been a motel. But not long after Wade Dennison started his decoy factory, Florence Jenkins had taken down the motel sign and started renting out the bungalows as apartments.
It was about the same time that Florence discovered her hidden powers. The sign out front now read: Madam Florie’s. Under it was her Web site address.
Nina Monroe had been renting from Charity’s Aunt Florie, Timber Falls’s self-proclaimed clairvoyant.
Mitch braced himself then climbed out of his patrol car and hurried through the pouring rain to the front door.
When an elderly woman opened the door, he tipped his hat, dreading this more than he’d imagined. “Mornin’, Florie.”
“Sheriff. I’ve been expecting you.” She smiled knowingly, her eyes twinkling in her lined face. “Saw that you’d be by in my coffee dregs this morning.”
He nodded. If Florie could see the future in her coffee cup, more power to her. He just didn’t want to hear about his own future. He wanted to be surprised.
She motioned him in with a dramatic sweep of her arm, reminding him of some exotic, brightly feathered bird. Florie was sixty if she was a day. Her dyed flame-red hair swirled around her head like a turban. She wore a flamboyant caftan, large gold hoop earrings, several dozen jangling bracelets and a thick layer of turquoise eye shadow.
Florie and her much younger sister Fredricka, Charity’s mother, had been raised by hippies in a commune just outside of town. Freddie still lived on the old commune property with a dozen other people but seldom came into town. While Freddie raised organic vegetables, Florie predicted the future to tourists in the summer and locals during the rainy season—another reason Mitch had cause for concern during the rainy season.
The old motel office was painted black and had recessed lighting that illuminated the only piece of furniture in the room—a purple-velvet-covered table with a crystal ball at its center. Florie had had the ball shipped in from a store in Portland. It gleamed darkly, as if mirroring the weather outside.
“I suppose your coffee dregs also told you why I’m here,” he said as he entered. “Or maybe Wade mentioned it when he called you about Nina Monroe not showing up for work?”
Florie gave him an annoyed look and pointed to a sign on the wall in the entry that read No Negative Thoughts. A series of other small signs advertised palm, tarot and crystal ball readings.
“I was concerned after what I saw in my cup this morning,” she said, lifting one tweezed dyed-red brow as she waited for him to ask.
No way was he going there.
“It involved my niece Charity,” she added, not a woman to give up easily, a trait she shared with her niece.
“I understand that Nina Monroe rents from you and she didn’t come home last night,” he said, cutting to the chase.
Florie nodded, obviously disappointed by his lack of curiosity about those telltale coffee dregs.
“How do you know she didn’t come home last night and then leave again before you got up?” he asked.
“Because I was up until daylight.” At his surprised look, she added, “My Internet business—horoscopes, tarot cards, psychic readings, all by e-mail. You really should get your chart done. I’m concerned about your aura.”
He had worse things to worry about than his aura right now. “I need to see Nina’s bungalow.”
Florie stepped behind a dark-velvet curtain. She came back with a key attached to a round small cardboard tag.
When he reached for the key, she took his hand and turned it palm up.
“Ah, a long life line with a single marriage.” She beamed and dropped the key into his palm.
He shook his head. His palm lied. His parents’ marriage had more than convinced him what his future didn’t hold—a wedding.
“‘Aries’?” he asked, reading the lettering on the key’s tag.
“I try to match my guests and their bungalows based on their horoscopes. Better karma.”
“So Nina was an Aries?”
“No, the Aries bungalow just happened to be the only unit I had open when she showed up.”
He reminded himself that Charity shared Florie’s genes. All the more reason to keep Charity at arm’s length. Several car lengths would be even better. “So what was Nina?”
Florie shrugged. “She wouldn’t tell me her birth sign. Can you believe some people aren’t interested in enlightenment?”
He could. “Nina rented the bungalow in September?”
“Drove up in that little red compact of hers looking for a room. September nineteenth. I remember because she didn’t even have a job yet. But that very afternoon, she got one at Dennison Ducks. Kismet, I guess.”
Or something like that. “No need for you to come out in the rain with me.”
Florie took a bright purple raincoat from the closet and a pair of matching purple galoshes. “I wouldn’t dream of letting you go alone. I’ve been picking up some really weird vibes from that girl,” she said, and stepped past him and out the front door.
He followed her around back through the rain to the first of twelve bungalows, the one with the Aries symbol on the door.
Standing on the small porch, he felt a sudden chill as if someone had walked over his grave. Florie knocked, then cautiously unlocked the door.
“Oh, my!” she cried as the door swung open on the ransacked bungalow.
“Stay here,” he ordered, and stepped inside to look for Nina Monroe’s body in the mess.
Chapter Three
“You all right?” Betty asked, looking concerned.
Charity turned back to the counter as the black pickup disappeared from view in the steady torrent of rain. “I just thought I saw…” She shook her head, catching herself. “Nothing.”
She didn’t want it all over town that she thought somebody in a black pickup was following her. Or that she’d found a present on her doorstep, a palm-size heart-shaped red stone in a small white box with a bright-red ribbon and a small card that read THINKING OF YOU in computer-generated letters. No name.
“Is it me or is the whole town on edge today?” Betty said. “Kind of gives you the creeps thinking that Frank might really have seen Bigfoot.”
“Yeah.” Charity turned again to look through the rain to the dense forest beyond the street. The foliage was so thick that not even light could get through in places. Who knew what lived there?
Charity shivered. “Frank’s a pretty reliable witness,” she said. “He saw something. Something he thought was Bigfoot, at least.”
Betty nodded and moved away. Behind Charity, several other diners began arguing amongst themselves.
“All Frank saw was a bear,” said one.
“A bear that walks on its hind legs?” said another.
“It was dark,” a third put in. “Probably just saw a shadow move across the road.”
“I say it’s some ancient ancestor. You know, a former race of giants.”
“Who just happens to live in the Timber