“These past couple of days must have been awful for you. I’m sorry I didn’t call.” Diana patted her back and released her.
“Clyde, this is Skye. You might have met her the night Rafe . . .”
I put out my hand to shake hers. I remembered her now, but meeting her in the woods in the dark had not prepared me to see her during the day. A quick glance at Seth showed a person not ready to meet her under any circumstances.
Seth turned reluctantly away when a customer tapped him on the shoulder.
“Diana, since Seth and Skye are here to help Bethany, maybe we can wander the festival for a few minutes?”
She cocked her head at me and seemed to understand immediately what I wanted to do.
“Good idea. Let’s go.” Diana turned to Bethany and said, “Call me if it gets crazy again. We won’t go far.”
I glanced at Seth, who seemed to be standing very tall.
Once we got a few booths away, I said, “What’s up with Skye?”
Diana nodded and sighed. “I hired her for the festival because Rafe recommended her. She’s been working on some sort of project with him and she’s a computer expert. Do you remember meeting her mother at the ceremony? Bea? She’s short, thin, and always wears her hair in a bun?”
I slowly nodded as I ran the ceremony through my mind. “She didn’t seem very happy to be there that night. Sort of the way my mother would act if I had forced her to come.”
“That’s not too far off. Bea doesn’t approve of Skye’s choice but came to the ceremony as a show of support or interest. Anyway, the fact that someone died right in the middle of the ceremony hasn’t made matters any better.”
“Is Skye old enough to join a coven? I thought you had to be eighteen?”
“She turned eighteen a few months ago. Her parents weren’t happy when her first act as a legal adult was to leave their church and join the coven. They blamed Rafe and things got pretty ugly for a while there. When Bea asked if she could come to the ceremony I thought it was a good sign, that maybe she had developed an open mind.”
“Sounds like maybe you were wrong.”
Diana nodded and chewed on her thumb. I knew she worried about Rafe’s coven and some of the accusations that had been swirling over the years. Rafe liked to run things his own way and some in the Wiccan community felt he was too heavy-handed. Even within his coven there were detractors. Now that he was dead, the group would have to figure out if it would stay together or split up. Diana had avoided covens because she didn’t like the politics and she didn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize her business. She would never admit it but she was just too independent to join a group that would dictate how she should practice her religion.
“We need to pick up some gossip,” I said. “This is the last day of the festival and then our chance disappears to find out what people are saying about Rafe.”
Diana nodded. “I doubt I’ll pick up any useful tidbits. Everyone here knows how close we were.”
“I think we should split up,” I said. “You ask around and see what people saw at the ceremony. You know everyone who was there. I’ll try to find out what stories are circulating. I never thought I would say this, but we sort of need Aunt Vi.”
“I’ll start with Ember and Bronwyn. They’re from Traverse City area. They don’t have any connections to the drama in Grand Rapids.”
I took a deep breath. “I’ll go find Lucan Reed. If he was arguing with Dylan, he might be more likely to talk to me than you.”
“See you back here in an hour?”
I nodded and watched her melt into the crowd.
9
I found Lucan at his booth. He made masks and costumes for rituals and ceremonies, as well as cauldrons and wands. There was a large red head with black horns growing out of it that would have terrified me if I didn’t know that it was used during Beltane to symbolize the god of fertility. I had seen pictures in Diana’s books. There were more scary-looking masks and some robes as well as metal cauldrons and wands.
He stood when I approached, rising in front of me like a Highland warrior. He was well over six feet tall and very broad. His hair was wild, long, and dark red. He had it tied back in a piece of rawhide string. His full beard obscured most of his face. I felt myself flinch when his hand shot out. Realizing what he wanted, I took it and shook.
“You’re Diana’s friend,” he said in a deep rumble.
“Yes, we met the other night at the ceremony in the woods.”
His face pulled down and he looked away. “What a nightmare that was.”
“I’m sorry for your loss. You and Rafe were close?”
He shook his head. “Not as close as you might think. We worked together, but that was it. Still, it’s hard to watch someone die like that and not be able to help.”
“Did you know he was allergic to peanuts?”
“I’d have to be living under a rock not to know he was allergic. Every time he put something in his mouth he announced he couldn’t eat peanuts.”