by Bella Falls
“That’s not what she asked, Deputy Sheriff,” countered Luke. “She asked if we could gather the chairs and sit down while we wait. Surely that won’t break any official protocol.”
Caine licked his fingertip and turned pages in his notepad. “And your name is?”
My boyfriend stood to his full height, an air of authority settling over him. “Luke.” He paused, allowing the sheriff to write it down but also forcing the man to wait for him to speak. “My surname is Manson.” He spelled it out with slow deliberation.
“And your reason for being here tonight?” Deputy Caine interrogated.
Luke smirked. “To attend the wedding of my girlfriend’s friends.”
“And please identify both by name and by indication who said girlfriend is,” the officer insisted, ignoring my presence at Luke’s side.
I rolled my eyes. “At the rate you’re going, we’ll be here for another couple of days. We won’t need chairs, we’ll need tents.” I waved my hand in the air. “Me. I’m his girlfriend. And my name is Jewell. Ruby Mae Jewell. That’s spelled R-U-B—”
“I know how to spell your name, Miss Jewell,” he interrupted, a terse frown forming underneath his mustache. “I’m more than acquainted with it from our previous encounters. Plus, I have a note here that you might be a key witness.”
“Good, then you’ll know that I’m also not one for waiting around. Can you tell us exactly how long this is going to take and what we should expect?” I demanded, crossing my arms and forgetting that by doing so, it highlighted my exposed cleavage.
The sheriff’s eyes dipped to my chest for a brief second. He cleared his throat and regained his composure. “It’ll take as long as it takes.” He turned on his uniformed heel to walk away.
“Hey, aren’t you going to interview me now?” I called after him.
He waved his pen in the air. “I’ll get to you eventually. In the meantime, yes.”
I huffed with impatience at his petty attempt to control me. “Yes, what?”
“Yes, you can sit in chairs while you wait.” He joined other law enforcement personnel and conferred with them, pointing back at me once or twice. Whatever he told them, it probably wasn’t all that positive.
Luke helped to drag chairs over for others to sit on although he chose to pace nearby rather than to join me and my friends. Hunter scooted his chair right next to mine. “Okay, spill it. Who’s the unpleasant guy with the ‘stache?”
Dani, Cate, and I gave an abbreviated version of the murder investigation that had happened on my family’s land, leaving out the part about the magical crystal ball at the root of it all. However, we held nothing back about our general dislike for the sheriff’s insistence of my uncle’s guilt and lack of apology when Dani’s father was found innocent.
Levi, the quiet bassist, surprised us with his utterance of conviction. “He sounds like an absolute tool.”
“He speaks,” joked EJ, punching his bandmate’s arm.
“Well, I don’t like watching those with authority abuse their power.” Levi sat back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest, pursing his lips.
We fell into quiet banter while waiting for our turn to come. While the rest of the officers spread out to get as many interviews done as possible, nobody approached us. The occasional smirks from Caine confirmed my suspicion that he’d arranged a little power play and prevented anyone from talking to me or my friends.
When only our small group remained, I stood up. “Finally.”
“You can sit back down, Ms. Jewell, and wait your turn,” Sheriff Caine instructed.
“I don’t think so, Deputy. Ms. Jewell will be talking with me.” A new woman in khakis, a simple white button-down blouse, and a suit jacket approached the last officers surrounding our group with a purposeful stride. “The rest of you need to make sure you’ve recorded what you can of the crime scene, and let’s be finished for the night. I want to see the reports on my desk in the morning.”
Several of the officers who had been helping Caine in his delay scattered with the commands of the newcomer. The sheriff glared at the woman. “I’m sure everything will be in order, Lieutenant. I’ve made sure of that.”
“Glad to hear that, Deputy. I wouldn’t want someone who was looking to move up in the department making things harder than they needed to be.” She gestured at the rest of us staring back at her with mouths agape. “I’m sure if I interviewed these people myself, all of them would speak to your efficient handling of the situation, yes?”
Caine replied with a solitary sniff. “I’ll make sure to finish the last interviews right away.”
“Good.” The lieutenant snapped her fingers twice at me. “Ms. Jewell, please accompany me.” Without waiting for me to stand, she marched in the direction of where Harrison’s injured body had been found. Some of the officers still cataloguing the scene scrambled to finish and get out of her way without her needing to ask them to move.
Once she cleared the immediate area, she pulled her suit jacket open and showed me a badge hanging from the inside of the lining. “My name is Olivia Alwin, and I’m a lieutenant with the county sheriff’s office as well as the regional warden’s division. I came as soon as Ebonee Johnson, head of the Crystal Coast Coven, alerted me. I understand you might have more information on what happened here.” She stopped flashing me her badge and pulled out a notebook.
Not often did I find myself without anything to say. I stammered and struggled to gain control of my words, speechless from shock and awe at the lieutenant’s commanding presence. Coughing once to regain composure, I explained to her exactly what I’d observed.
“So, you didn’t see who wielded the knife?” she clarified.
I repeated the same answer I’d given to everyone else. “No. Only that Azalea was touching it when I arrived, and I felt I needed to stop her.” Hearing the words come out of my mouth, I realized the immediate conclusion I would come to if I heard them. “I was trying to keep her from pulling the knife out.”
Watching the lieutenant write down my account, I cringed. Everything was coming out wrong.
“I mean, I don’t think she was doing anything other than panicking and not in her right mind at the time.” Nope, that wasn’t much better. “So, she thought she might be able to save him, but extracting the knife would have hurt him more.”
“Or killed him on the spot,” Lieutenant Alwin stated, glancing up at me. “You did good stopping her from causing more damage.”
“But I’m failing at trying to tell you I don’t think Azalea was the one who hurt Harrison. I believe her when she says she found him already stabbed.” Having finally gotten to my point, I tried to peek to make sure she wrote that down.
“Hmm.”
The lieutenant’s enigmatic reply worried me, but I didn’t want to prolong our talk in case I fumbled my words and messed things up even more. She walked me back to where Luke waited for me, the last guest still present other than me. Relief swept through me, and for the first time tonight, exhaustion replaced the adrenaline. Still, I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight thinking I’d wrongly implicated a friend.
Lieutenant Alwin collected my contact information in her notebook and closed it, but I refused to quit. “Listen, I want to make it perfectly clear. There’s no way I would ever believe Azalea did this. You should be making a list of possible suspects or whatever it is you do to figure out who to investigate.”
She placed her notebook back in its place in her suit pocket. “I’m sure you’re recalling your bad experience with how your uncle was wrongfully accused of the murder on your family’s property. Let me inform you that I work from evidence. I’ll let the facts talk to me and not allow speculations or assumptions to drive my conclusions. Is that clear, Ms. Jewell?”
Although her tone held a slight chill, her words comforted me. “Clear and welcomed, Lieutenant.”
She nodded once in dismissal, and I spied a small hint of a satisfied grin. Once back with my group, Lu
ke offered me the crook of his arm and escorted me to the parking lot. We passed Caine on our way, and I dared to wiggle my fingers in a cheeky farewell, feeling a little more secure that this time, things might go right.
Chapter Five
My dead-but-not-departed great-grandmother popped my knuckles with her spatula. “Stop trying to steal bacon out of the skillet. Those are for your guest.”
“For my mortal guests, which means it’s supposed to look like I made breakfast. Not some ghost. And what cook in their right mind doesn’t steal bacon while they’re frying it up? I’m going for authenticity here, Granny,” I defended, finishing the strip I’d snatched. Totally worth the sting on the back of my hand.
Dani entered the kitchen. “Table’s all set, and Mom brought over a bunch of baked goods from the cafe already.”
A timer dinged, and Granny Jo threw a pair of oven mitts at me. “That’ll be the buttermilk biscuits to go with the country ham and jelly. Better get a move on because if you burn my biscuits, I’ll haunt you every day of your life.”
I rolled my eyes, obeying and removing the cast iron skillet loaded with golden brown biscuits from the oven. “Not much of a threat when you already do that.”
My ghostly great-grandmother wiggled her eyebrows. “Ah, but I’ll burn your little cottage down and force you to move in here with me and all the other family spirits,” she threatened in a dramatic wavering voice. “Now, put in that breakfast casserole dish and set the timer for twenty minutes.”
The thought of having to live one night in the family homestead shut me right up. Sure, it appeared as a normal white farmhouse on the outside, but because of my family’s extensive magical ancestry, the house grew and adjusted to accommodate all the Jewell family members, alive or dead.
“Yes, ma’am,” I promptly replied with a tiny salute.
My cousin ridiculed the two of us, ignoring our familial snark back and forth and taking dishes out to the dining room table.
“I know you told your daddy and your uncle everything that happened last night before they took off, but remind me who’s coming to our house this morning?” Granny Jo asked, frying up some sizzling hash browns in another skillet.
“They’re members of a country band that used to play at the bar I worked at,” I explained. “I convinced them to stop by here before they headed back home to Virginia. I’ve got something I want to ask them about last night.”
As tired as I was after getting home, my mind kept me awake for a few more hours mulling over every detail. About the time I’d begin to drift off to sleep, I’d recall the sight of Azalea bent over Harrison’s limp body. This morning, I was feeling almost too weak to whip a gnat. My need to gain a little energy to get through the meal definitely warranted at least one more piece of stolen bacon.
“They’re here,” Dani announced from the foyer.
I tied an apron around my middle. “Okay, you gotta make yourself scarce.”
Granny Jo pouted and hovered in the air. “But I wanna see them. I thought you told me they were something to look at.”
“So, you were listening to me,” I accused. Voices got closer to the kitchen, and I heard Dani speak loud enough to give us a warning we might be having visitors. “Come on, Granny. If you’re not gonna go away, then at least disappear. Otherwise, we’ll have a whole different kettle of fish to fry, trying to explain your see-through presence.” Snatching the spatula from her, I shooed her away like an errant fly.
“And this is the kitchen.” Dani popped her head around the corner to make sure the coast was clear for her to let them in.
“Mornin’, boys.” I waved the kitchen utensil at the bandmates. “If y’all are hungry, we’ve already got stuff set out in the dining room.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” EJ pushed his friends out of the way and fought with Hart to make it to the table first. Levi shook his head at their shenanigans but followed in companionable silence.
“Can we help you carry anything out?” Hunter picked up the piled plate of biscuits. “Here, I’ll take this to the table.”
“I can help you finish up in here,” Mac offered once we were alone. “I’ve been told I know my way around a stove.”
A slight sigh sounded in my ear, and my great-grandmother’s approval of the young man gave me a serious case of the heebie jeebies. “These hash browns are the last dish other than the casserole in the oven.” I flipped the pan over, dumping the crispy potato dish on the plate.
“Then before we leave, we’ll help out with the dishes. If you cook, we’ll clean,” he promised.
As soon as he left the room, Granny Jo clapped her hands behind me, causing me to leap out of my skin. “Ooh, a man who can cook and clean. Sign me up, buttercup.”
“Ew, Granny, they’re all way too young for you. Like, centuries too young.” I’d have to take a hot poker to my eyes to kill the mental picture of my departed great-grandmother getting all moony-eyed over my friends.
“Hey, just because I’m dead doesn’t mean I’m actually dead. I can appreciate good looking men when I see them. And boy, I’m gonna want to see them.” The timer dinged again. “You’d better take that sausage and egg casserole to the table with some pep in your step or I’ll do it myself. Might be worth scaring the actual pants off of those boys.”
Not caring if I dropped the piping hot dish, I almost sprinted to the dining room to get as much distance as possible between me and my kinky spectral kin.
Cate and Crystal let themselves into the house and joined in the easy conversation. It did not slip my notice that Cate positioned herself right next to Hunter, and I wondered if anything of significance had happened last night when the band dropped her off at her place. Making a mental note to ask for those kinds of details later, I played the hostess, offering to fill plates with food.
Taking my father’s seat at the head of the table, I tore a biscuit in half and used it to scoop a large portion of the egg casserole onto my fork. Ignoring any etiquette of being a genteel Southern lady, I stuffed my face, trying to make up for not doing the same the night before and to fuel my brain to help figure everything out.
“I’ve been trying to come up with a clear timeline of last night,” I started, finishing a bite of biscuit, “but I only have my own experience to go by. I stopped dancing, went up to the house to use the restroom, and on my way back, I overheard Azalea’s distress, and found her and Harrison. But that doesn’t really help figure out what happened, does it?”
Crystal raised her hand. “I’m not going to be much help since I wasn’t there.”
“What time was it when you left?” I asked.
She wrinkled her nose. “I wasn’t wearing a watch, and I definitely wasn’t paying attention to much other than my bear of a husband wanting to get a little frisky with me.”
I held up my hand to stop her from adding any details. “That’s enough.”
Dani pulled a honeybun off the plate in front of her and passed it down. “I stayed up late last night trying to remember when I last saw Azalea or if I remembered her or Harrison disappearing from the dance floor.”
“And?” I pushed.
My cousin shrugged. “I really wasn’t paying attention. Blame it on these guys.” She gestured around the table.
Hunter stopped mid-bite with his fork in the air. “Why is it our fault?”
“Because y’all were amazing,” Cate gushed, batting her eyes at the lead singer.
“Yes, I think we’ve established that the members of Tailgate Down are mighty country gods,” I acquiesced. “But I can’t believe none of you didn’t notice anything at all. Didn’t any of you pay attention to the bride and groom or see either one of them take off while you were on stage?”
EJ stopped stuffing his face. “Hey, we played long after we had to. And we were playing requested songs, which isn’t always the easiest. It takes effort to play covers.”
I wiped my hand down my face. “I’m being rude. I didn’t mean to imply y
ou weren’t doing your job or kicking butt while performing.”
The lead guitarist stopped frowning and grinned. “I’ll forgive you if you’ll give me your bacon.”
“There’s an entire stack of some on a plate right in front of you,” Hunter complained, pointing.
EJ raised an eyebrow, the corners of his mouth lifting in smugness. “I know. But if she’s willing to give up what’s on her plate, then I know she’s sincere. Besides, someone else’s bacon always tastes better.”
“Fine,” I agreed. Breaking the slice from my plate in half, I tossed each piece at him, watching him catch the first portion with his mouth and eating. He missed the second to much razzing from his friends.
Unfazed, he rescued the fumbled piece off the floor and ate it with a wink. “That’s good enough for me.”
Hunter chuckled into his cup of coffee. “If you asked us here thinking we could help you nail down a timeline, I don’t think there’s anything we can do to help. But we definitely appreciate the fuel before our long haul back home.” He lifted his glass to salute me. “Sorry, Rue.”
“That’s not necessarily true.” Levi’s quiet voice interrupted, stunning us into silence. He squirmed in his seat with all the attention on him.
Hunter set his cup down. “What do you mean?”
“I think we actually could figure out the time if we can get some more information.” The bassist pushed some egg around his plate with his fork.
I sat up straighter in my chair and leaned forward, forgetting about eating. “Go on. What information do you need?”
The bassist flashed his eyes in my direction and then back at his plate. “What song were we playing when you left to go to the restroom?”
The question surprised me, and I looked at Dani in the hopes that seeing her now could help me remember our moments together at the end of the night before everything went pear shaped. “It’s hard to say. We danced a lot.”