As I got closer, I recognized it was Astra. Had she come to pick a fight? Was she there to confess and make things right by giving my bags and decorations back?
There wasn't a car in my driveway from what I could see, so either she'd pulled up really far, walked, or someone had dropped her off. When I pulled into the driveway, I saw that there was no car at all.
She was just sitting there on the porch with some sort of tropical-looking drink in her hand, staring at me with this creepy smile. It was unnerving, to say the least.
What was even worse was how fixated on me her glare was. She wasn't moving at all.
"What are you doing here?" I asked as I got out of the car.
Just then, Meri jumped into the window behind her. He was pawing at the glass frantically. "Let me out," I heard him call.
"What is wrong with you?" I asked as I walked up the steps.
What was wrong with him was that Astra wasn't glaring at me without moving. She wasn't moving because she was dead.
Not sure exactly what to do, I unlocked the door quickly and let Meri out. "Are you okay?" I asked. "Was someone in there with you?"
"No, no one's in the house,” he said and ran over to me.
I scooped him up and held him against my chest. "Who did this?" I asked. "Did you see who did this?"
"No. I looked out the window a while back and she was there. I didn't see anybody. I might have heard a car at some point, but I was up in the attic. When it wasn't you, I just sort of went back to what I was doing."
"I need to call Thorn,” I said and carried Meri down the steps.
We stood in the middle of the yard, and I took out my phone. My front porch was a crime scene, and I wanted to avoid contaminating it any more than I already had.
"I'll be about another half an hour,” Thorn said when he picked up.
"I'm not calling because of that,” I said, and then I told him what I found.
Meri and I waited there in the middle of the yard until he and a couple of his deputies arrived. They took pictures and collected fingerprints. Thorn made the decision not to call in crime scene techs because there wasn't any other evidence to collect. However she died, it hadn't left any blood or other such evidence. He did call the coroner and came over to take my statement while we waited.
"Did you kill her?" he asked first off.
"What?"
"Are you really saying that someone killed her on your porch or brought her body here and staged it, and you didn't hear anything. You had no idea what was going on outside of your window?"
"I wasn't here,” I said. "I just got home, and I found her that way."
"You were still in the cemetery?" he asked. "You stayed there all that time?"
Well, there wasn't any way around it. I was going to have to tell him where I'd been. If nothing else, Azriel was my alibi. He could vouch for my whereabouts, and at least I wouldn't be a suspect.
"Okay, I don't know any way to say this other than to just come out with it. I was with Azriel,” I said.
A coldness I hadn't expected chilled his blue eyes. "You went to see him after our talk? Why, Kinsley?"
"I went to go talk to him about what you'd said, and I ended up staying to watch a movie."
"You did what?" he asked and then I watched his entire demeanor change. "You know what, I don't have time for this right now. I'm going to take your statement, and I'll check your alibi with Mr. Malum. Assuming it checks out, I will let you know if I have any further questions for you. So please, go over your discovery of the body one more time for me."
It was all business after that. My Mom and Dad did show up a little while later when it got back to them what had happened. I sat in their car while I waited for the coroner to release the scene.
"I don't think you should beat yourself up over this," Mom finally said.
"Over Astra's death?" I asked.
"Over the prickly situation with Thorn," she responded.
"You know about that?"
"There's not much that goes on in this town I don't know about,” she said. "Even when it comes to Azriel Malum."
"Oh,” I said.
"We're not going to judge you, honey," my dad said.
"Thorn is a nice guy," Mom said. "His father did the best he could with him, and he's a good friend of the family."
"But?" I asked. "I sense there's a but here."
"Well, Thorn Sr. wasn't exactly known for sticking around. And, that's okay. Everything worked out for the best, but he had a tendency to run from things. The only exception was his ex-wife, and that's a dynamic that I don't really need to get into,” she said.
"Yeah, from what little you've told me over the years, it seemed like a bad situation."
"It was," Mom said. "So Thorn Jr. may not have had the best role model when it came to healthy relationships."
"Well, I did, and look how I turned out anyway,” I said.
"Two things on that," Dad said. "One is that your mother is amazing, but I've had my issues with... the darkness in the past. It’s gotten its claws into me and made me do things I wasn't proud of. This was way before you were born, but your mother handled it better than I deserved."
"What did you do?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"I messed around with some dark magic I had no business in and it turned me a little obsessive. I was a bit stalkery for a while."
"What?"
"In all fairness, your dad was trying to do the right thing. He just managed to go about it all wrong. It was a mess, but it was a mess I understood and forgave because he's my soulmate," Mom said. "People aren't perfect, Kinsley. Sometimes they get mixed up in things they shouldn't, but that doesn't mean you can't forgive them. It doesn't mean they can't change."
I got the feeling she was talking more about Azriel than about Thorn, but I was too afraid or too emotionally exhausted to ask. "You said there were two things about Thorn?"
My Dad let out a deep breath through his nose. "I don't even like to bring it up because it's probably not fair, but you're my daughter. Things don't have to be fair when it comes to me protecting you."
"Protecting me? From Thorn?"
"It might be nothing," Mom said.
"But there's always the chance that it is," Dad said. "What we're getting at is that Thorn Jr.'s biological father could be Thorn Sr.'s brother. He's the man that broke up Thorn Sr.'s marriage the first time around. That would most likely explain why Thorn. Jr. looks so much like his dad even though he's not his biological father."
"So he's his uncle. Okay?" I was confused.
"Thorn Sr.'s brother wasn't a good man," Mom said. "In fact, he may have had a personality disorder. I don't think they had the best childhood, and that's why Thorn Sr. seemed to run from anything good in his life. Relationship-wise, anyway. But it's also why he was so dedicated to Thorn Jr. and his sister. He was a complicated man. Thorn Jr.'s biological father, on the other hand, wasn't complicated. He did what he wanted and he didn't care who he hurt."
"You think he was a psychopath?" I asked.
"Or a sociopath. Maybe a malignant narcissist," Mom said.
"Wow," I responded. "So you think it's possible Thorn, my Thorn, inherited that?"
"We don't know, honey," my Dad said quickly.
"He's our friend," Mom said quickly. "Thorn is a charming young man, but..."
"But that can be a problem too,” I said. "I've seen enough shows about personality disorders."
"We're not saying you shouldn't date him," Dad added. "We're just saying do it with your eyes open. We've been debating telling you about this for a while now, but Thorn's and your relationship didn't seem to be getting much more serious. So, we sat on it."
"You guys remember that the other man in this little triangle I find myself in is a vampire biker who runs an outlaw motorcycle club, right?" I asked.
"People make mistakes," Mom said. "We're not going to tell you what to do. Just know that we support you no matter what, and we're here fo
r you."
"Thanks,” I said, and it got quiet again.
A few minutes later, the coroner arrived. He did his thing, cleared the scene, and Thorn left without saying another word to me. He didn't even look in my direction. It was one of his deputies, dressed in jeans and a t‑shirt because it was technically his night off, that came over and told me that as soon as the body was removed, I could go home.
"Call us if you need us," my dad said as they rolled away.
I went inside through the back door so I didn't have to go on the porch. Meri had eaten the bacon I'd gotten him while we were in my parents' car. I threw the container away and went into the living room.
Are you okay? The text came through a few minutes after I'd plopped down on the sofa with a book and a bottle of Coke from the fridge. At first, I'd thought that maybe Thorn had a change of heart, but it was from Reggie.
I'm doing okay. I responded.
I would have come over, but your house was like, a crime scene, right? I wasn't sure if I could. I'm sorry. she texted.
It's okay. Thanks for thinking of me. I'm back in the house now.
Do you want me to come over now? she asked.
I think I might go to sleep. We can talk about it tomorrow at the shop. I responded.
So that's still happening?
Of course it is. If you still want the job.
I'll see you then, boss. Call me if you need me. No matter how late. :-) Reggie said.
Night.
A little while later, I had basically the same text exchange with Viv. Except the part about the job, and I told her I'd come in for coffee in the morning.
I must have been exhausted because I fell asleep with my head on the arm of the sofa. My phone was right next to my head, so it woke me up when I got another text a couple of hours later.
Again, it wasn't Thorn. Obviously, he was really mad, and he'd abandoned me because of it. I guess I didn't blame him.
The text was from Azriel. Are we still on for tonight?
Well, the woman whose shop I planned to break into was dead. I was probably a suspect. If I was caught breaking into her business, I'd look even more suspicious.
Yeah, we're still totally on. I texted back.
I'll see you in a half hour then. Meet me in the alley behind the store.
See you there.
I was supposed to be there in half an hour, and I needed to walk so no one saw my car. If I hadn't fallen asleep, I'd have been ready to go. As it was, I needed to run upstairs to my room and throw on a black t-shirt and leggings. I tied my hair up into a bun on my head. I didn't have time to do anything with my makeup the old-fashioned way, so I waved my hand over my face and came out with flawless foundation and a perfect smokey eye. It was breaking my rule about not using magic when I didn't absolutely need it, but looking better made me feel better. More confident. I did need that.
"You want me to carry you?" I asked Meri on the way out the door. "I'm not taking a bag. We're traveling light tonight."
"I can keep up,” he said.
I locked the front door and rushed down the steps so I could be on that porch as little as possible. At some point, I'd need to do a cleansing ritual to clear the space of the negative energy left by Astra and whoever killed her.
It was quiet, and the moon was new, so Meri and I slipped across my front yard without being seen. We darted across the road, and I climbed over the fence that led into the ancient cemetery located across the street from Hangman's House. The very cemetery that my parents fell in love restoring.
I could hear frogs singing in the nearby creek. Crickets also began their carrying on as we moved among the ancient headstones. The cemetery didn't scare me at all. None of them did, really. But that particular one, I'd played in since I was a child.
That's why the voice that rang out behind me only made me jump half out of my skin. "Hey!"
At first, I thought it was Meri, but he was actually running a little ahead of me. At the sound of the voice, he stopped and whirled around. I did the same, and we came face to face with Brody's ghost.
"You shouldn't be here," I spit. "You're not supposed to be able to come inside the town limits."
"Now, now, Kinsley. You saw me at the diner months ago. You know I can come here anytime I like."
"Technically, you were still outside the town limits. You shouldn't be here now. Not in this place," I said. "Maybe you're not really Brody."
"It's me,” he said with a shrug and drifted closer. "I had a little help getting in, if you really must know."
"I bet I know who did that,” I said. "But she's dead."
"So?" He almost sounded like a petulant child, but he also drifted closer to me again. I could feel the hatred and malice rolling off of him like an oily, choking smoke.
"You should go,” I said. "Go now, or I'm going to dispatch you."
"I'm not afraid of you,” he said.
But at that same moment, gray, ghostly hands came up from the grave he was standing on. Abigail Skeenbauer-Trenton, or whatever ghost was just hanging out inside of her plot in the cemetery, reached up and seized Brody's specter. He must not have expected that because he let out a childish shriek. Seconds later, the hands dragged him down into the damp earth.
"Let's keep moving,” I said to Meri.
"You don't have to tell me twice."
The rest of the walk to the alley behind what had been Astra's shop was uneventful. When we got there, I almost thought I'd arrived before Azriel until he stepped out from a shadow.
"That's a neat trick," I whispered.
"I'm sure you could manage something similar,” he said softly before raising one finger to his lips.
I nodded and opened the back door into Astra's shop. It had been locked, but a little magic was all it took to get through the deadbolt. It took a lot more to get through the warding spells intended to keep other witches out, but she wasn't powerful enough to stop me entirely. It would have been difficult to actually break a dead witch's spell, so I just had to grimace and walk through.
"You okay?" Azriel asked once we were inside and the door was closed.
"Yeah. The door was warded against witches. Let's just say it stung a little to walk through. I'll live."
We were in the back room of the store. It looked a great deal like mine. There was a big open room with shelving, an office off to one side, and a small bathroom off to the other. In fact, it looked almost just like mine.
Especially since my swag bags and decorations were lined up on one of the shelves. "Now I wish I'd brought my car,” I said.
"Why is that?" Azriel asked.
"Because my bags and decorations are here,” I said and pointed to the shelves.
"Let me call a couple of my guys. They can bring a truck and make quick work of this,” Azriel said.
"That's going to be rather conspicuous,” I said. "I thought we were going for stealth."
"We'll make quick work of it,” he said. "Unless you have another idea? Are you okay with leaving this stuff here and letting the law sort it out?"
"No. Call them,” I said. "If your guys can move in the shadows the way you did, the only part to worry about is the truck. Meri and I can camouflage that with magic."
"They will be here in ten minutes,” he said after hanging up the phone.
"I'm going to take a look around," I responded. "I want to see if there is anything that might point to why she's dead here."
"You should probably stay away from the front windows."
"I'm going to look in her office,” I said. "Meri, why don't you go have a look behind the register."
"What should I do?" Azriel asked.
"Are you taking orders from me now?" I cocked one eyebrow up in disbelief.
"I’d consider it an honor,” he said with a smile I couldn't quite read. "But don't let it go to your head."
"We can take a deep dive into the meaning of that when we're done with our little B&E here,” I said. "For now, why don't you see
if there's anything in these boxes besides extra stock."
"Your wish is my command,” he said with an exaggerated bow.
I just rolled my eyes and headed into the office. Once inside, I closed the door so I could turn on the light.
The first thing I found when I sat down at her desk was a notebook with a picture of a cat in a space suit on the front. The notebook was purple, and the cat design was embossed with rainbow metallic.
Inside was just a bunch of creepy drawings and poems written about the beauty of death. It would have been disturbing except that it reminded me of something a teenager would write to try and be edgy.
I closed it and moved it off to the side. Underneath that was a handwritten letter. I looked at the bottom and it was signed by Jemma Crane. The name sounded vaguely familiar, so I read the entire letter.
Apparently, Jemma believe that Astra had stolen her favorite garden gnome. She couldn't get Thorn to do anything about it because there wasn't any proof, so the letter went from begging Astra to give it back to threatening to beat the snot out of her.
"I sympathize, Jemm. I really do,” I said and put the letter down.
Astra had a laptop sitting open on the desk. I hit the spacebar and the login screen came up.
I didn't have time to try to go through it, though, because Azriel called out to me. "They're here. Let's go."
"Coming,” I said.
Before I left the office, I closed the laptop and unplugged it, taking it with me. I grabbed the letter too. I didn't think that a lawn gnome was a reason to commit murder, but Jemma's letter was pretty unhinged by the end.
Azriel's men loaded the boxes with my bags quickly and took off.
"Do they know where I live?" I asked.
"I'm taking the stuff back to the warehouse,” he said. "I don't want you to get caught with it at your house."
"They're going to figure out I got it back eventually,” I said. "The whole point is that I have to have it out at the Midnight Magic Festival."
"Let's give it a couple of days to blow over, and then you can find it,” he said.
"You're the criminal mastermind,” I said with a shrug.
Midnight Magic Page 7