by Zoe Arden
"And?" I asked.
"And I can't think of a single thing," Natalie said. "How about you? Do you have any theories? Maybe Colt or Sheriff Knoxx told you something?"
Now Lottie seemed more interested. Her eyes widened and she held her breath before I answered.
"Sorry," I said and shrugged. They both looked disappointed.
"Oh, well," Natalie said and waved her hand.
I was trying to think of the best way to approach the questions I really wanted to ask but there was no good way to do it. I just had to be careful.
"Can you think of anyone who might've wanted to hurt Randall?" They both shook their heads. "Right before he died, he mentioned he was on his way to that Witch Council's meeting on integration. You didn't seem too thrilled with that idea, Natalie." Her shoulders tensed. Her back straightened. "Integration is a very compelling topic for a lot of people. Can you think of anyone who might've wanted to hurt him because of it?"
She blinked at me. "No," she said, a haughtiness in her voice that hadn't been there before.
"Are you sure?" I pressed.
"What are you implying?" she snapped. "That I know who Randall's killer is?"
"No, I was just asking if you knew anyone with feelings as strong as yours regarding the integration topic."
Lottie poked her side. "Sounds like she wants to know if you did it," she said.
Natalie's face turned beet red. "You think I killed Randall."
"No, but you and Lottie were both there when it happened. In fact, you were both standing fairly close to him. I only wondered—"
"How dare you!" Natalie screeched so loudly the music actually stopped. "The only thing I saw before Randall died was a bear claw flying his way and a flash of sunlight that nearly blinded me." The orchestra looked our way, along with everyone in the room. I felt my own face turning red.
"I'm not accusing you of anything," I snapped, trying to keep my voice low and steady. "But now that I think of it, you're getting awfully defensive, aren't you?" I don't know what made me bait her like that. It was exactly the wrong thing to do. She let out an exasperated cry and held her punch cup up like she was about to fling it at me. Lottie stopped her.
"You better go now," Lottie said to me.
With every eye in the room on me, I thought that was a good idea. Colt was still standing next to Dean, scowls on both their faces. As I walked off, the music resumed. I stepped outside onto the expansive patio for some air. Night had fallen and the stars twinkled at me from the sky. Real stars. The fake ones inside were pretty, too, but nothing could quite compare to the real thing.
I heard two voices from nearby. They were arguing behind a bed of giant rose bushes. I thought I recognized one of the voices as Polly's but couldn't quite place the other one. They weren't quite loud enough for me to make out, I was only catching bits and pieces and even those were somewhat muffled.
"You... stay away... Slater..."
My heart hammered in my chest. Was Polly talking about her old boyfriend, Slater Winston? Slater was dangerous. He was human but he was locked up in a maximum security wizard's prison for good reason.
"I can... Slater..."
I tripped over an invisible crack—I had a clumsy streak that sometimes came out—and went sprawling on the ground, making a racket. The voices I'd heard stopped. They came around the corner and I saw Polly with Betsey LaGrange.
"Betsey?" I said, picking myself up.
Why was Betsey talking to Polly? I didn't even think they knew each other. What could they have to argue about? Did Betsey even know Slater?
Polly and Betsey had lived on opposite sides of the island before Polly had gone to prison, and now that she was out, I didn't think she'd left Sweetland. In fact, Colt, who had briefly acted as Polly's parole officer when she was first released, had told me it was a condition of her parole that she was not to leave Sweetland Cove. Though she was still on parole, Dean had replaced Colt with a new parole officer. He'd decided Colt was too "influenced" by me to be objective. Whatever that meant. Colt hadn't cared much but I'd thought it was a rotten deal. Dean just didn't like me. He thought I was too nosy.
"Get an ear full?" Polly snapped at me.
"Why are you two arguing about Slater?" I asked, not bothering with niceties. Why should I bother pretending I hadn't heard what they were talking about?
Betsey and Polly exchanged a look.
Betsey shrugged. "I don't know what you mean," she said, a soft, sly smile on her face. "If you're going to eavesdrop on people, you should make sure you actually know what they're saying. Not just make assumptions. Assumptions get people hurt." She shot an irritated look to Polly, who was still fuming, and walked off, leaving me us alone.
"Tell me what you two were talking about," I said, going up to her. "I heard you say Slater's name. Are you planning to try and break him out of prison again?"
Her eyes widened for a second. She looked like she was about to answer when her mouth suddenly tightened and her eyes narrowed back down. "You know what? It's none of your business. I'm sick of people always giving me the third degree. You have no right to ask me anything.
"I have a right to protect this community," I said. "And if you're planning something—"
She put a finger to my lips. The movement was so sudden that I was more startled than scared.
"Ssh," she whispered. "Did you hear that?"
I looked around, suddenly all too aware that we were alone in the dark. Just the soft lights from the ballroom fell across us. A sudden beam of light flashed out of the blackness pointed toward one of the ballroom's windows. A second beam followed it. Flashlights. I could just make out a cluster of shadows moving through the darkness along the outside of the building, near the patio door on the opposite side from us.
"What the..." I muttered.
Then one of the beams fell on a face. Renee's face.
"It's MAPP," I whispered, realizing the other figures belonged to Sally, Bebe, and Vivian.
"They're breaking in," Polly said, alarm sounding in her voice. "MAPP is breaking into the mayor's ball!"
Oh, my roses. She was right. If they were looking for proof of magic, they had all the proof they wanted right inside those walls. We had to stop them. Now.
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CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
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Polly stood at the back of the ballroom, watching apprehensively as I gathered my aunts, dad, Sheriff Knoxx, and Colt together and told them what was happening.
"We have to get them out of here before they ruin the party," Trixie said, her hand on her cheek. She'd been out on the dance floor with Melbourne when I'd run inside to get her. In fact, everyone had been on the dance floor. The orchestra had been playing a slow waltz that had drawn out most of the crowd, including my dad and Sadie as well as Eleanor and Sheriff Knoxx. Sadie was by the punch bowl now but Sheriff Knoxx was right here beside Eleanor.
My eyes kept shifting, looking around to see where everyone was, keeping tabs on what was happening. I saw Polly hurry toward Wilma and whisper something in her ear. Her eyes widened and the two of them made their way toward one of the back rooms we'd been using earlier to set our desserts in.
Lucy was around here somewhere, too. I wondered if I should track her down; she'd want to help. Then again, maybe that would be too many people stirring the pot. Tadpole was off in a corner doing tricks for the kids. He loved children, and Otis had allowed parents to bring them to the ball knowing that Tadpole would entertain them the whole night. Otis probably would have allowed the children in anyway. He wanted the mayor's ball to be open to everyone who wanted to come. Snowball, Tootsie, and Rocky sat nearby Tadpole, relaxing and helping Tadpole with the entertainment when they could. Rocky was gnawing happily on a bone almost as big as he was.
"Should we tell Otis?" I asked, looking to Sheriff Knoxx.
He shook his
head. "Otis will just try to do something and... well…" He shrugged and I thought I understood. Otis was a great person and a great mayor but as a deputy, he'd been a bit on the Barney Fife-ish side of things.
"Let's just go grab them," Eleanor said. She turned to me. "We can take them down like that." She snapped her fingers. "I'll use a silencing spell so no one can hear them if they start to shout."
"That's a good idea," Sheriff Knoxx said, taking over. "I've only got one set of handcuffs but if you can stun them before they run off, that'll take care of things." He was looking at my dad.
"There's four of them, right?" my dad asked. "I can stun at least two, I imagine. Trixie? How are you feeling?"
She sniffed as clear liquid ran out of her nose and wiped it away with a tissue. "I'm fine." She patted her side, where she was holding her wand out of sight of the guests. "I can handle it."
"Okay then," Colt said. "I'll make sure no one gets away. If anything goes wrong—"
He stopped and looked toward the patio door at the far end of the room. Not the same one I'd gone through—the patio was huge and had multiple entrances and exits. A beam of light was shining in through the glass door. None of the other guests noticed it. Yet. They were all dancing and drinking and having a good time.
"Come on," Colt said. "There's no more time."
We all hurried toward the doors, our plan as good as it could get in under two minutes. Colt and Sheriff Knoxx stopped next to the large window beside the sliding doors, while me, my dad, Trixie, and Eleanor prepared to slide the doors quickly open and step outside. If Renee or anyone in her group tried to get in or go through the window, Colt and Sheriff Knoxx would be there to stop them.
"One, two, three," Eleanor said and the patio door slid open. We stepped out onto the patio, Trixie conjuring a light from the tip of her wand so that we could see better. Renee and her friends turned toward us, looks of shock on their faces.
"All right," Eleanor said, "don't move."
That seemed to have the opposite effect. All at once, Renee and her friends started running. There were only four of them but they took off in all directions. Bebe, in particular, was fast. She was already halfway to the next patio door by the time we started moving. I chased after her, losing sight of the others. She was holding a camera in one hand and kept pointing it back toward me. I let out an angry hiss. The last thing I needed was for anyone to get another picture of me. Then I realized it wasn't a camera at all. It was a video camera.
Great. Even better.
Bebe threw open another patio door and stepped into the ballroom. I was so close I actually made a grab for her. My fingers just missed the ends of her hair. I felt the soft silkiness pass over my fingertips and grunted. She ran straight to the dance floor and started swinging her camera in all directions. She wasn't going to get anything magical here, though. It was just a bunch of people dancing.
I caught sight of Renee, who was up on stage making a grab for the microphone. The orchestra stopped playing and looked at her, confused. Renee cleared her throat. The sound echoed across the room as she held the mic close to her mouth. "Mothers Against Paranormal Predators will not allow this event to continue," Renee said to many perplexed stares.
I wondered where Damon was. He'd been here earlier. Maybe he was hiding now; I knew I would be if that were my dad up there. The party stopped all once. Colt was running out onto the dance floor but stumbled when his feet got caught up in someone's chiffon dress. Someone started snapping pictures and I suddenly saw Sally standing at the edge of the dance floor. She was holding a camera and snapping it at everyone and everything. Bebe was holding up her video camera, taping everything. I wasn't sure where Vivian had gotten off to but she couldn't have been far.
The crowd started to realize what was happening. Instead of dancing, they slowly started to help us chase down Renee and the rest of MAPP. Several people jumped on stage and grabbed the microphone out of Renee's hands. She screeched and yelled out, "Are you getting this?"
Bebe yelled back, "I am!"
"Don't stop taping!" Renee yelled and made a run for it.
Bebe turned her video camera up toward the magical stars that were glowing even more brightly now than they had earlier. "Wow," she muttered as a shooting star ran across the ceiling. Tadpole appeared out of nowhere and jumped on top of her head, yanking at the camera and trying to pull it out of her hands. She screamed and almost dropped the camera.
Several more flashes went off and I finally saw Vivian. She was standing next to our buffet table snapping pictures of levitating bakery trays. Tootsie and Snowball ran toward her and she turned the camera in their direction, snapping pictures as fast as she could push the button. Tootsie jumped into the air, a whirring orange ball of fur, and knocked her over the table like a football player tackling his opponent. Trixie would be so proud of him when I told her later what Tootsie had done. Two party guests grabbed Vivian on either side and forced her toward an exit.
After several minutes of chaos, everyone in MAPP had been taken care of. They'd all been extricated from the ball and Sheriff Knoxx and Colt were outside talking to them with the sheriff's deputies. I wasn't sure if the women were going to jail or being expelled from the island but at least the cameras and video camera had all been confiscated.
"Where's Renee?" Eleanor suddenly asked.
We were standing out on the patio watching Colt and the Sheriff pack Bebe, Vivian, and Sally into the car they'd driven here in. Renee was mysteriously absent.
"She was on stage last time I saw her," I said.
Eleanor bit her bottom lip. "I think she's gone."
* * *
CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN
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I finally spotted Damon inside the ballroom. Betsey was clinging to him. Neither looked very happy. Damon's face had gone quite pale. People were chatting, walking, running. Some people were just standing still, blank expressions on their face. The ballroom was messy, though not exactly in a shambles. Paper plates and plastic cups were strewn around the floor, though the cleaning staff was already hard at work to pick the place up.
Otis walked out to the center of the room near the cake, which was miraculously still intact. Tadpole stood high on his shoulder, surveying the room and the people in it like a general inspecting a battlefield.
"All right, all right," Otis said, "everybody just calm on down now, okay? The worst is over." No one seemed to pay him any attention. He cleared his throat and tried again. "All right now, uh, calm on down now." Still no response.
Tadpole climbed onto Otis' head, stood on his hind legs, and stuck his paw into his mouth. He let out a loud, shrill whistle. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him.
"Thanks, Tadpole," Otis said, reaching up to scratch his head. Tadpole returned to Otis' shoulder and sat back on his bottom as if Otis were his favorite chair. His skunky tail swished happily behind him. If he'd been a cat, he'd have been purring.
People gathered around Otis as he began to speak. "Now then, like I was saying. No real damage has been done here. The MAPP women are all gone, aren't they?" He looked around the room for confirmation. Colt had just stepped back inside.
"All gone," Colt called. I didn't point out that Renee was unaccounted for. I didn't want to ruin Otis' moment. He was trying so hard to get things back under control and I wanted him to succeed. He'd worked so hard to plan this ball. Still, Renee had to be found. If Colt and Sheriff Knoxx hadn't gotten her, she still had to be hiding somewhere in the ballroom.
I started making my way toward Colt along the perimeter of the room, keeping to the walls so that I wouldn't draw attention to myself. Megan was standing near the punch bowl, throwing back cup after cup as she tried to regain control of her senses. Lucy hovered nearby, patting her on the shoulder.
Snowball was sitting casually amidst the chaos. She caught sight of me an
d started forward but Tootsie jumped playfully out in front of her, wanting to play. He'd gotten riled up from chasing the MAPP women around the room. Snowball jumped back then playfully swatted at him. Tootsie swatted back, and then they were off. Rocky, Eleanor's wolfhound, barked several times then chased after them, not wanting to be left out.
Otis was still talking. "Okay now, everybody. I say we get back to the party. I know things are a little messy right now but the cake is still standing, and I think that's the most important part, don't you?"
There was a sudden burst of light laughter as tension was released. The chatter started back up and slowly, the orchestra began to play.
"There now," Otis said, a smile on his face. People moved back out onto the dance floor. "We'll finish cleaning up and cut the cake in just a few minutes," he said.
People muttered to themselves and to each other but they were happier mutters. Things like "sounds good" and "cake would be nice" and "why not?"
The cleaning crew swept through the room like a vacuum, sucking up dirt, dusting up debris, and wiping down tables. Only a small portion of the food had overturned during the scramble to get the MAPP women. Soon the room was like new again. I had managed to make my way back to Colt and tapped him on his shoulder; he was looking out the window.
He turned to me and smiled.
"That was quite a stir. I'm just glad we got them all out before any real damage could be done."
"What about Renee?" I said. "Did you get her, too?"
He frowned for a minute and I could see his mind turning.
"Sheriff Knoxx had her, I think," but he sounded even less certain than he looked.
"Are you sure?" I asked, hoping he would tell me yes and I could stop worrying. I wanted to rejoin the fun. I could hear smiles in the laughter of the other guests and see the lightness in their step as they moved around the dance floor. I longed for Colt to put his arms around my waist and pull me close as he spun me around once again.