Maya smiled evilly. “Tell her you were wrong about me after all; just another poor victim of the horrible woman who stole away everyone’s children. Maybe you’ll even get enough sympathy from those foolish locals to sway a few more people to your side.”
Tired of arguing, she drew on her borrowed magic and bound his will to hers. The spell hadn’t worked as well as she’d hoped on that silly Melissa, protected as she was by her own insanity. But Peter had no such protection, and Maya relished the moment when he realized he no longer controlled his own actions. Only his eyes, darting frantically back and forth, revealed the mind that no longer ruled his body.
She turned her back on him and walked outside, knowing he’d have no choice but to follow. At the top arc of the circular gravel driveway, Callahan’s wife Penelope was helping a small boy out of his car seat, a pile of shopping bags on the ground near her feet. She looked up in surprise when she saw Maya.
“Why, Ms. Freeman, I didn’t expect to see you here.” Penelope gave Maya a cautious look, suspicion edging her voice. “I heard in town that you’d accused Sheriff McClellan of being involved in the kidnappings somehow. I just can’t believe it’s true. You must have made a mistake.”
“Not to worry,” Maya said brightly. “It will all become clear soon enough. In the meanwhile, I’m afraid there’s been a little problem in your basement. It seems like one of the pipes there sprang a leak, and the water is rising fast.” She tapped her toe again, speeding up the flow of the underground spring she’d called on earlier to break through the floor and flood the cellar. Sometimes having control of water was a handy thing.
“Your husband asked me to come take little Peter Junior out for ice cream while the two of you deal with the plumber and all that mess,” she continued, moving to take the boy’s hand before his mother could react, and walking him rapidly in the direction of her rental car. She would be so relieved never to have to use these stupid human metal torture devices again. Even with all her increased strength, it was agony to ride in the things.
“And I was happy to do it. You just take all the time you need. Peter Jr. and I will be just fine, won’t we?” She smiled happily down at the child, who craned his neck around to look at his mother uncertainly.
“Oh, no,” Penelope said. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. You don’t even have a car seat. Besides, we’ve been out all afternoon and Petey is tired. And it’s almost dinnertime.” She gazed as her husband, obviously expecting him to do something.
“Peter. Peter! Tell her she can’t take our son!”
Callahan just hung his head and said nothing, holding Penelope back by force when she would have stopped Maya, who plopped their son into the passenger seat of her car, buckled the seatbelt around his tiny waist, and drove off in a spray of gravel and impending sorrow.
*
LIAM WAS WALKING out of the cemetery with Baba when he heard the crackle and squawk of the two-way radio in the squad car. Technically, he shouldn’t even be driving it now, but he hadn’t gone home yet to exchange it for his personal truck. Besides, as long as he still wore his uniform and could sit behind the wheel of the cruiser, he could almost pretend he still had an office and a job to go with them.
“Sheriff? Sheriff McClellan, are you there?” Nina’s voice spilled out of the radio in a muffled whisper, as if she was trying to talk without being overheard. “Liam? Pick up the damned radio!”
“I’m here, Nina,” Liam said as he stuck his head into the car and thumbed on the two-way. “Why didn’t you just call me on my cell phone? You’re going to get in trouble if someone catches you talking to me over official channels now that I’m suspended.”
The dispatcher’s exasperated sigh came clearly down the line between crackles. “Because you’re someplace out in the middle of nowhere, and your cell has no reception. I’ve been trying you on it for the last ten minutes.”
Liam glanced at the rural countryside surrounding him and grimaced. “Fine. But what’s so important you had to reach me right away? If it’s a fight at The Roadhouse, somebody else will have to deal with it this time.”
Nina lowered her voice even more, and Liam had to bend down closer to the speaker to hear her, the top of his body twisted awkwardly half in and half out of the open cruiser window.
“Peter Callahan’s wife called in, completely hysterical. She insisted on talking to you, no one else.”
“Nina,” Liam said in his most patient tone, “I’m not the sheriff right now. She’s just going to have to talk to someone else.”
“You don’t understand,” Nina said urgently. “She says that Maya took her son.”
Behind him, Liam could hear Baba let out a quiet gasp.