“I did some research last night, and there wasn’t much to go on in terms of gargoyles being part of…our world.” I’d caught sight of Bree walking our way, so I needed to be careful of my choice of words while finishing up my side of the conversation quickly. “We’re going to need your help on this one, Rye.”
Help might be a strong word, wouldn’t you say? We simply need to know where your cupcake lady bought the hideous thing, then you can be on your way.
I managed to sit back in my chair as Bree set down a brand-new cup of steaming hot coffee in front of me. The delicious aroma of cinnamon had me breathing in deep, causing her to laugh in delight.
“I thought you’d appreciate another cup,” Bree said, setting her hand gently on Rye’s shoulder. “I thought you were heading over to Monty’s shop. Did you hear what happened, Raven? It’s horrible. It’s all anyone can talk about, because things like that don’t happen around here. Something of that nature makes me want to get one of those alarm systems with those motion-activated video cameras.”
“Trust me, the mayor is never going to hear the end of this,” Rye interjected, wrapping an arm around Bree’s hip. “I heard that Eugene and Albert were already sitting in the mayor’s office, demanding that he find out what happened to the money set aside for those street cameras that Liam has been lobbying for the past few years.”
“Liam texted me this morning with the news, but he didn’t go into detail.”
“I know this time of year is hard on everyone,” Bree said with a gentle shake of her head. “Monty was in here the other day saying that he wished he’d thought of opening up a bakery instead of a hardware shop. Everyone puts off their big project until summer, so his business is a little slow right now.”
What’s with all the chit-chatting? We have things to do and gaggles of gargoyle legions to stop, Raven. Gargoyle Gary’s friends could arrive at any moment.
“I can relate to Monty, though not to that extent,” I shared, wondering how to steer the conversation to her street decoration. “The teashop’s foot traffic always slows down in January, but it usually picks up by the middle of February. I was thinking of sprucing up the outside with some decorations, and I was wondering where you purchased your statue.”
First off, nice segue. Second, it looks like we didn’t need the cheating wizard’s help, after all. Win-win.
“Thank you so much,” Bree said with a smile. “I thought he was kind of cute, in a gothic décor kind of way.”
Did I miss part of the conversation? I consumed quite a bit of my blueberry-filled edibles to help stem my short-term memory issues, but now I’m thinking the small pile wasn’t near enough. We might have to make a pitstop back at the cottage, Raven. I can’t have this happening when a gaggle of gargoyles might be headed our way.
Rye coughed to cover up his laugh over Leo’s commentary, but he wasn’t technically wrong. I was a horrible liar, and there was no way that I could say the statue was a nice addition. I’d been thinking more in line with one of those long wooden welcome signs with some type of ivy vine that hung down the side. Maybe even some stone planters on either side of the entrance. Bree had mistaken my question for a compliment, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the statue had made several rounds on the local gossip mill.
“Anyway, I wish I could tell you where he came from, but I can’t.” Bree looked over her shoulder when one of her part-time helpers called out her name. She motioned to them to hold on for just a moment longer before turning back to us, though I had already filled with dread from her answer. “The gargoyle statue was a gift. I don’t know who sent it, but the note was lovely. I’ve got to get back to my orange scones. Rye, stop back after you finish up helping Monty. I’ll have some fresh pastries for you.”
Rye nodded his agreement as Bree walked away, but it wasn’t long before he lifted a hand to stem my upcoming lecture.
“That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier, but you wouldn’t hear what I had to say.” Rye pointed a finger Leo’s way when he would have disagreed. “If both of you recall, I did tell you that you weren’t going to like the origins of the statue. A delivery van showed up last week and dropped off a huge crate. There was no name on the card.”
Let me get this straight. A monstrous creature shows up at the bakery’s front entrance, and you welcome it with open arms?
I shrugged sheepishly when Rye glanced at me for help. He was on his own with this one, because I one hundred percent agreed with Leo’s opinion on this particular subject.
“What did the card say?” I asked, hoping for some clarification.
“I hope you have a great year. Enjoy this special gift for luck.” Rye gestured toward the entrance, where Leo was still staring out of at the gargoyle in question. “Raven, it’s just a regular statue.”
“Have you seen the gargoyle’s nails?” I asked, trying to put this into perspective for Rye to understand the significance of what was truly taking place right now. I lowered my voice even more to make sure that no one overheard me. “They are more like the claws of a raptor. Well, Liam called me first thing this morning to tell me that there were marks in Monty’s hardwood floor that strongly indicated the statue came to life last night and vandalized the hardware store.”
Rye closed his eyes and leaned his head back with a groan of annoyance, but also what sounded suspiciously like acceptance.
It’s really hard not to get on board the gargoyle train, isn’t it?
“What is it with you and these mysteries?” Rye muttered in exasperation before standing up from the table. He then pushed his chair in, though he remained leaning on the back of it to make one final claim. “I’ll take a look at the marks myself, but I don’t know what to tell you. The statue was delivered by one of the regulars—UPS, FedEx, or something like that.”
I just arched my brow and leaned back in my chair to take a sip of the fresh cinnamon coffee that Bree had delivered on the house. I was never one to turn down free coffee, but I did have expectations when it came to Rye.
He was of the supernatural world.
As Leo had so eloquently put it…Rye was going to have to jump on the gargoyle train along with the rest of us.
“Fine, fine.” Rye straightened and began to put on his gloves with a little more force than necessary. “I’ll see if Bree kept the note so that we can cast a spell on it to see who sent it or where it came from. I’d like to go on record that this is not how I thought this year would start out.”
“Us, either,” I called out to his retreating back, taking note that he stayed to the left of the exit in wariness of the gargoyle statue now that he’d been made aware of the truth. “Looks like we have a new porter on board our little train, Leo.”
As long as everyone remembers that I’m the conductor, then we won’t have a problem.
We sat in silence while I finished my coffee, already knowing that this would probably be the last time today that we had a bit of time to ourselves. Something was nagging me though, and I couldn’t seem to figure out what had been said or done to unsettle me.
“We’re going to need to stop by the library.”
Or we can stay here and keep an eye on Gargoyle Gary.
“It’s broad daylight,” I reminded Leo, not allowing him to get away with just sitting around this morning and staring at an object. “Gary isn’t going anywhere. Besides, the note said…”
I sat forward in my chair, having finally figured out what had been bothering me about the conversation that we’d just had with Rye.
Let me guess—the speck of food that’s stuck in between your front teeth is what has been bothering you for the past five minutes.
“Leo,” I said in in frustration, running my tongue over my front teeth and finding that he’d been right. “That’s not nice.”
Not being nice is you making me leave this cozy chair while I’m attempting to conduct a stakeout.
I was beginning to get a few odd looks from the other patrons, and
I couldn’t help but wonder if they thought of me as the odd neighborhood cat lady. On the other hand, I was dating the handsome sheriff. That gave me a pass, right?
Do you really want me to answer that question?
“No,” I mumbled underneath my breath. “I want you to get off my coat so that we can head over to the library and talk with our resident librarian, who just so happened to be a werewolf. Rye said that the note referenced the statue was for luck. In all my research, I never came across such a reason for gargoyles to exist.”
If that monstrosity was lucky, it wouldn’t have a smushed in face like that.
Leo’s gasp and his quick jump off the chair afforded me the luxury of snagging my coat off the seat before he could hop back up. As I stood to slide my arms into the sleeves, I realized that I’d had nothing to worry about. Leo’s nose was once again pressed against the glass as he stared out in horror at the statue.
It moved again! Did you see it? Did you, Raven? Did you see it?
I hadn’t bothered to bring my tote bag with me, and I had already tucked my phone with the case that carried my credit card and driver’s license into the safety of my pocket. Grabbing my keys off the table and my two coffee cups, I carefully walked to the door and peered outside.
“Gary looks the same as he did when we arrived,” I murmured before leaning over him to throw away the empty to-go cups. “It’s morning, Leo. Gary isn’t going anywhere until tonight.”
You’re right, Raven. I’ll start planning our stakeout, which will include bringing various types of my premium organic catnip. This means we’ll have to stop by home so that I can pack a bugout bag. Oh, and we’ll have to borrow my soulmate’s car. She’s got heated seats, and your deathtrap has a hole in the passenger seat that could swallow me whole. Hmmm. That gives me an idea. How do you feel about setting gargoyle traps? They’re a lot like bear traps, but much bigger. Would a high-powered scoped rifle be out of line? I’m sure the residents will just believe that we’re going hunting or something. Right?
Chapter Six
Leo was still carrying on about the stakeout that he assumed we’d be on tonight, but I was still holding out hope that we could solve this mystery before nightfall. I mean, how hard could it be to find out where the gargoyle statue came from and return it to its rightful owner?
You’re throwing a lot of rhetorical questions out there into the universe, Raven. One might consider that you are tempting fate, and we all know how well your track record goes on that kind of thing.
“It’s the month of January,” I said wryly as I opened the door to the library. Leo had taken on his invisible form, though not because we were about to pay a visit to our resident werewolf. It had more to do with those using the library frowning upon animals being allowed to roam free in and around the numerous shelves of books more than anything else. “I still say this month was thrown in on the calendar as a joke of some sort in the cosmic scheme of things.”
The werewolf we were searching for just so happened to be standing at the front counter. Ironically, his name was Harry, and he could have literally been a member of an old rock band called ZZ Top. His long dark hair was below his waist, and his full beard of facial hair was something that had every male envious of in the entire town.
Of course, they had no idea of Harry’s supernatural lineage.
“Raven, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Harry asked in his usual jovial mood. He then tilted his head slightly and took a small sniff of the air. It was his way of seeing whether or not a certain feline was in attendance. “Good morning to you too, Mr. Leo.”
Tell our resident werewolf that I have some inside information on how to get one over on the cheating wizard during Wednesday night’s poker game.
“Good morning, Harry.” I wasn’t going to tell him anything about poker or what Leo thought he’d learned about Rye earlier. This visit was strictly about gargoyles. “We may have encountered an itsy-bitsy problem that we need your help with.”
You must have flunked the measurement test during your school years. Do you know how many ounces are in a cup? Or how many feet are in a yard? No? I didn’t think so, because Gargoyle Gary doesn’t equal an itsy-bitsy problem. He is on the level of the squirrelpocalypse, Raven.
“Come with me,” Harry replied quietly, though he then raised his voice for all to hear. “Those particular books are in the special reference section. Let me show you.”
No one even bothered to look up from their books or laptops as Harry led the way toward the back of the library. He stopped just short of a door that I happened to know led to a very special area that stored countless numbers of grimoires that his family had collected over the centuries. I’d only ever been inside of it once, and that had been when we were trying to figure out who the visiting vampire was last year. Little did we know that the vampire would go on to become my stepfather.
“What seems to be the problem, Raven?”
Nothing ever seemed to get Harry rattled, and I found myself envious of his composure.
You should see him during one of our poker games. There’s no telling when he’s bluffing, which is why I’ve set my sights on the cheating wizard. He’s going to be the easiest to bring down.
“We have a gargoyle running around town when no one is watching,” I revealed, figuring it was best just to get things out in the open. Harry frowned until his brow was almost a perfect V. His reaction told me that he hadn’t heard of the recent events that had been taking place in Paramour Bay, and that led me to a sigh of relief. “Do you know anything about gargoyles?”
Well, the treasure trove that our resident werewolf has behind that locked door might be able to tell us something, but you should ask him if I can maybe also take a peek at anything squirrel related. I can’t be the first to know about the squirrelpocalypse. For all we know, the answer to our prayers lies within those historical papers that he protects like it’s his civil service pension.
Leo did have a point about Harry owning a hoard of family grimoires from countless generations of witches, and I would love to spend time inside the chamber combing through them. Unfortunately, we had a tiny problem on our hands that needed to be sorted out first.
There you go with your miscalculations again.
“Gargoyles aren’t a part of the supernatural realm. At least, not in the way that you and I are.” Harry stroked his beard in thought. “Are you sure that the statue in question is the culprit?”
“Absolutely sure.”
I gave a rundown on what had taken place since last Wednesday or Thursday.
At this point, I wasn’t too certain.
I began with Monty seeing prints in the dusting of snow before it melted from the rising sun, quickly ran through all the small details since then, and closed out with Monty’s hardware store being vandalized last night during the blackout that had only affected the streetlamps on River Bay.
“What I’m gathering is that Monty is the reason this gargoyle statue is here in town,” Harry said, tying things together in a completely different knot than Leo and I had secured. “Monty saw the footprints first, and then eventually his shop was broken into.”
I don’t think that I give our local librarian enough credit.
Me, either.
I bit my lip as I mulled over Harry’s take on things.
I’d just assumed that Bree was at the heart of this mystery. She was the one who’d received the statue, and she’d been the one to place it where all could see…and it could see all of the town. Had Bree been chosen for the so-called gift because the individual who’d shipped to her figured that she would be the only one who would display such an odd choice of décor out in front of their business? If that was the case, then whoever sent the gargoyle knew enough of the residents to know which of us would do such a thing.
You’re throwing way too many scenarios my way, Raven. We’re going to have to take a break and stop by the teashop. My VVBFF will have some of my blueberry-filled edibles on hand for
me to resupply my mental antioxidants.
“Harry, you might not have had an answer regarding the statue, but you have definitely put things into an entirely new perspective for us,” I revealed, not in the least disappointed that we’d made the drive over here. “I’ll go and talk to Monty. I’ll have to tread carefully, of course. He wouldn’t understand exactly what is going on, but it would help to know if he upset someone lately or attracted someone’s unwanted attention. Regardless, it still brings us back to the gargoyle statue.”
“Are you sure it’s the gargoyle himself?” Harry asked as he crossed his arms, pressing his long beard against his chest. I remember when he only had a five o’clock shadow, but he must have had to constantly trim it to keep it so short. “If I recall, the bases of such statues are rather large and could contain a troll or something nastier, possibly a sprite.”
I no longer like where this conversation is heading, Raven.
I was a little taken aback myself, because never once had I thought about a troll or any other such magical creature. It was as if we’d gotten aboard that gargoyle train that Leo had mentioned earlier and were taking a ride through a magical kingdom.
“That is something for us to check out,” I replied rather cautiously, becoming a bit overwhelmed. Gargoyles weren’t sounding so bad at the moment, especially now that Harry had brought up other magical beings that might have nefarious intentions. “Are you sure that gargoyles don’t exist?”
What kind of question is that? You seem to be forgetting that I can see Gargoyle Gary move a toe, an ear, or even one of his wings. It appears that I’m the chosen one, Raven. It’s a lot of responsibility, and you shouldn’t minimize my contribution here.
Harry took another few moments to mull over my question, but my phone began to vibrate before he could speak. I’d made sure to silence my cell after we’d pulled into the parking lot and stuff it into my coat pocket. It didn’t take me long to retrieve it.
“It’s Rye,” I whispered, holding up the phone so that Harry could see the display. “Bree was the one who was sent the statue, and the present had come with a card. Let me see if he was able to find it.”
Stony Blend (A Paramour Bay Cozy Paranormal Mystery Book 16) Page 5