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too, shook her feathers and charms at her. “Don’t act so high and mighty with me, miss. I can see right through you. You’re like a ghost to me. I see all of you. And you are plain scared.”
    Ann rolled her eyes. “Even if I
was
scared—which I’m not—the race car takes out all of your theories about the whole event. You might as well go home and dig around in your root cellar for answers.”
    Flourine hissed at her much the same way Treasure had earlier. Shayla got between them, and the argument about Maggie’s witchy powers went on among the three of them for a while.
    Gramps was talking to Kevin in a corner of the living room. I noticed that Flourine insinuated herself between them, smiling up at Gramps, asking him what his favorite kind of pie was.
    Kevin came into the kitchen to help me. “That’s interesting.” He nodded toward Gramps and Flourine then smiled.
    “I know. Did you notice Trudy and Tim at the inn earlier? Romance must be in the air.”
    “You could’ve fooled me. Not much romantic about digging up a car out in the cold.”
    “I haven’t thanked you yet for bringing the excavator out there even though I probably sounded like a crazy person and everyone thinks I’m possessed.”
    He kissed my forehead and put his arm around me. “I love you, Dae. There isn’t much I
wouldn’t
do for you.”
    My usually confident smile trembled a little as I said, “And you don’t think I’m possessed, right? It would be okay to add that in.”
    “Something’s up.” He didn’t quite let me off the hook. “I’m not sure what it is yet, but I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. I wish you’d be honest with me.”
    That wasn’t exactly the answer I was looking for. I wasn’t ready to go into more of what had happened either. Before I could put my foot into it any more, there was a hard rap at the front door that drew everyone’s attention.
    I went to answer it, expecting to see Chief Michaels. He
was
on the front step, but he was also joined by another familiar face. Luke Helms had moved to Duck after retiring from his lucrative legal practice on the mainland. Last spring, when the district attorney for Dare County had given up his position due to illness, Luke had stepped in to take his place.
    “Chief! We’ve been waiting for you. Luke, I haven’t seen you in a while. I hope life as the DA is agreeing with you.” I shook both their hands. I’d never felt less like the mayor of Duck than I did at that moment. There were too many doubts clouding my brain. I had to let my usual outgoing personality switch to autopilot and hope everything I said made sense.
    Chief Michaels muttered something polite and immediately went to find Gramps.
    Luke smiled and held my hand an extra moment when he stepped inside. He was a good choice for DA. He’d always been kind and helpful to everyone in Duck. I admired his expensive suits and confident handshakes.
    “I haven’t seen you for a while, Dae. How’s the campaign going? You know you have my vote, right?”
    “Thanks. I’m afraid I haven’t put as much time and energy as I should have into the election. It always seems like something else comes up.”
    “Well, you must have good people working for you then. I’ve never seen so many signs in such a small place. Was that an airplane banner I caught the other day? I even noticed the Richmond paper had a story about you last week.”
    I was totally surprised by that. I knew Gramps and some of his friends from the pinochle group had put up a few posters they’d printed on our computer, and some high school students had held up signs during rush hour on Duck Road. That was as far as my campaign budget went. Who else would put money into my campaign?
    I smiled and nodded then sidestepped the issue. “Why did Chief Michaels drag you out on this awful night?”
    “I think we’re about to hear the story.” Luke nodded toward the chief, who was standing at the kitchen table. “I’ll