Enchantress (Witches Academy #8) - Tamara Ferguson Page 0,1
he wasn’t working on a case, and had happened to stop in Crystal Rock to visit with one of his old friends, Jake Loughlin, who owned the Dragonfly Pointe Inn. He’d fallen in love with the town and had rented a cabin at the Inn. Now, if he could only find a to live, he’d have it made. Birch knew he was being picky, but once he settled down, he wasn’t planning on moving again.
“Okay, so have you ever heard of Dragonfly Ridge? This is kind of nuts, but Jake sent me a strange message he got this morning, about someone reporting a murder. The odd thing about it is, it sounded like it was me who left the message. Jake said it came through with my caller ID.”
Sam looked taken aback. “Now that is odd. Dragonfly Ridge? I don’t believe there is such a place, although…” Sam stood, approaching the bookshelves covering one of his office walls. “I keep a load of different maps here, because of all the tunnels located beside the river as well as at Dragonfly Pointe.”
Apparently discovering what he was looking for, Sam pulled out two picture books containing maps.
“Here’s a map of the chain of lakes back in the early eighteen-hundreds,” Sam murmured, laying down the book on his desk and thumbing through it.
“The eighteen-hundreds?”
“I was thinking that maybe your location’s been renamed.” Sam paused, staring at one of the pages, and handing it over. “Okay, here were go.”
“Okay,” Birch murmured, pulling out a notebook from his pocket and jotting down the location. “It’s supposedly in one of the channels branching off from Crystal Rock Lake.”
Sam was thumbing through another book, and suddenly looked puzzled. “That’s odd.”
“What?” Birch asked.
“The island isn’t even shown in the next series of maps from a little later in the nineteenth century.”
Standing, Birch looked over his shoulder. “How in the world would an island that large completely disappear?”
“I’d kind of like to know that too,” Sam answered, pursing his lips.
“Well,” Birch said, standing and slugging down the remainder of his coffee. “I guess I’ll take a ride out there in my cruiser and see what I discover.”
“Want to take along these two books?” Sam asked.
“As long as you don’t mind? I am kind of interested in checking out the topography,” Birch answered, scooping up the two books.
“Are you still looking for a place to live?”
“Yes. I think I might be too picky. I love your place. I wish I could come even close to finding something similar.”
“I hear you,” Sam answered, walking with Birch toward the door. “It didn’t look it does now. It took a few years to restore the place and add on.”
“Being right on the lake would be something I would love. But homes are hard to find.”
“There are a lot of people moving into Crystal Rock,” Sam admitted. “Real estate on the lake is getting to be a little more difficult to find.”
“Tell me about it. I’ve looked at a lot of places during the last month. I hate to have to waste a lot of time restoring some of them, plus a lot of them aren’t in ideal locations.”
“Well, good luck with both searches,” Sam said as Birch made his way from the office. “Give me a call if anything turns up with the murder.”
“Will do. Thanks, Sam,” Birch replied, making his way outside from the lobby.
* * *
About ninety minutes later, Birch was out in his cruiser, heading toward the section of the lake where the secreted channel was supposed to be located.
He’d made a copy of the map before taking off on the lake, which luckily wasn’t frozen as of yet. Soon, he’d be on his snowmobile, doing more exploring during the winter months. He was definitely a man who loved his toys, along with the risks involved.
Birch wasn’t sure why, but sometimes he felt invincible, as if nothing could harm him. Of course, it might have had something to do with the fact that he’d escaped death numerous times while on the job.
Strangely, when Birch arrived at the point on the map which was supposed open into a channel, momentarily, there was none to be found. But moments later, as if by magic, a waterway appeared between some pines, seeming to become wider right before his eyes.
As he steered the cruiser through the eerie channel, he felt as if he’d descended into a world of blacks and grays, seeming to be somewhere between life and death.
But what he was experiencing didn’t