Witches & Words

by Elle Adams

  Why had she told me about Mr Spencer’s ex-wife? Perhaps she’d been intending to distract me from asking about vampire rogues, but the fact that he’d called his ex-wife before his death sounded like something the police needed to know, if they didn’t already.

  Xavier gave me a sideways frown. “Why did you want to talk to her?”

  “About Mr Spencer’s death,” I said. “I thought the vampires might be involved, except when I came here to talk to her, she dropped another bombshell on my head.”

  “Which is…?”

  “Mr Spencer was married once,” I said. “To a woman who still lives here in Ivory Beach. She also claimed he called her the day he died. Or possibly the other way around.”

  “We can check,” he said. “If she called him, she knew he was here, but it depends if he was the one to make the call.”

  “And if she answered,” I added. “Either way, I think we need to question his ex-wife.”

  8

  Xavier and I walked to the library together. I half expected Evangeline to make a reappearance behind us and ask about the screaming book again, but she didn’t. Silence spread between Xavier and me, filling with questions about how on earth he’d known where I was. The Reapers’ home wasn’t far from where the vampires hung out, true, but to be honest, I still didn’t know how he spent the time he wasn’t looking for souls to escort into the next world.

  “I assume the police know,” said Xavier. “About Mr Spencer’s wife, I mean.”

  “Not necessarily.” I forced my thoughts back to the present. “He seems to have made a career out of making himself impossible to find. My aunts had to spend days researching before they found out where he’d been for the last few years, let alone where he actually came from. And they didn’t mention anything about marriage. I should have asked Evangeline for more details, but I was shocked she told me anything at all.”

  “Are you sure she’s being truthful?”

  “If she is, I bet she gave me that information for a reason,” I said. “She’s playing a game with me.”

  His forehead scrunched up in concern. “Vampire games aren’t worth the risk.”

  “But if they could help us catch a killer?” I said. “I don’t know what else to do. Blair talked to the guests and it sounds like one of them saw a vampire last night, outside his hotel room.”

  “Blair?”

  I told him about my two encounters with Blair. I hoped she wouldn’t mind me mentioning her lie-sensing abilities, but she’d told me about them during her first meeting and Xavier was good at keeping secrets. Too good, if anything.

  “So you showed this Blair around the library?” he asked.

  “Not all of it,” I said. “You can’t fit a tour of the whole library into a year, let alone an hour.”

  He gave me a smile. “Just the highlights, then.”

  “Yeah.” I was such a hopeless case. He’d ditched me once already, and his boss hated my guts, and yet the instant he smiled, I melted, a fact which probably said more about my sanity than any visit to the vampires did.

  Giving myself a mental shake, I pushed open the door to the library and found Estelle at the front desk.

  Her eyes bulged at the sight of Xavier. “Hey. I thought you left town.”

  “I came back.” He shot me a questioning look, as though wondering why I hadn’t told my family about him. “I heard you were researching Mr Spencer’s history.”

  Estelle’s brow wrinkled. “Yes, but I didn’t think you were involved in the case. Or are you? Is that why you came back?”

  “Not exactly,” he said. “But Rory found out something more.”

  “He used to be married,” I explained. “His ex-wife lives here in town, but we don’t know her name or address. Edwin might, but he already spoke to me today and he’ll get annoyed if I start pestering him.”

  “I’ll tell my mum,” she said. “Can you watch the desk?”

  “Sure.” I walked behind the counter, and Xavier followed. “You don’t have to wait here.”

  “Of course I do,” he said. “I’m sticking with this for as long as you are, Rory.”

  Why? He’d barely returned to town, and we still hadn’t dealt with the oh-so-slightly important issue of the Grim Reaper’s disapproval. If he’d been following the rules, his involvement ought to have ended after he’d escorted the guy’s soul into the afterlife, but I kept my fingers crossed that the Grim Reaper stayed out of this one.

  Sylvester flew down to land on the logbook. “So you brought the Reaper here again, did you?”

  “There you are,” I said to the owl. “I assumed the book had eaten you.”

  He let out a disdainful hoot. “That pathetic excuse for a book is nothing compared to me.”

  “Really, you two have a lot in common,” I said. “Are you sure you aren’t first cousins?”

  The owl ruffled his wings in a threatening manner. “Are you sure you want to keep all your fingers?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I could have told my family there’s an easy way to find out how to read the book, you know.” Namely, the Forbidden Room. Even Xavier didn’t know Sylvester’s true nature, but I was never entirely sure if the owl’s threats were serious.

  The owl huffed. “If you think I can get that book open, you’re wasting your time.”

  “Wait, you can’t open the book?” said Xavier. “I thought you knew everything about all the books in the library.”

  “Did I ever make that claim?” the owl enquired.

  “Yes,” I said. “Multiple times. Anyway, the book is under a sentience spell and neither of my aunts has managed to get it open.”

  “This ridiculous matter is no longer worth my time.” Sylvester spread his wings, took flight, and disappeared over the bookcases.

  “Yeah, right,” I said. “He doesn’t want to admit he’s stumped, too. The book went out on a long-term loan, so Mr Spencer might have borrowed it years ago for all we know.”

  “And now it turns out he was married,” said Xavier. “You don’t think he might have come to Ivory Beach to see his ex-wife?”

  “Maybe, but he was cutting it pretty close to the deadline to return the book,” I said. “The book was rigged to screaming if it wasn’t returned on time. Though it screams the rest of the time, too.”

  “But your friend managed to speak to it?” he asked.

  “Who—oh, Blair,” I said. “Not for long enough to learn anything substantial. The book clammed up the instant it figured out she could tell truth from lie. I think we need to get creative if we want answers.”

  Estelle returned, crossing the lobby towards us. “You’re right,” she said. “Mr Spencer was married to a woman called Lauren, who changed back to her maiden name, Peterson, after their divorce five years ago. They were only married for two years, and it looks like Mr Spencer was still doing the nomad thing then, so I have no idea how that worked out.”

  “Do you have an address?” I asked.

  “Lauren works at the local antique shop,” said Estelle. “It’s open today, so if you want to head over there, she should be there.”

  “It’s worth checking out.” I glanced at Xavier. “If he called her the day he died, it’ll be for a reason. We can just check into the shop for a look around. It’s not like we’re paying a social call.”

  “True,” he acknowledged. “Okay, let’s go.”

  I led the way out of the library again, hoping I wasn’t making a mistake in following Evangeline’s advice. That vampire was as much of a mystery as Mr Spencer, if not more, which was no doubt exactly how she wanted everyone to see her. And while she'd offered me the information freely, I wouldn’t put it past her to call in a favour at a later date.

  The antique shop was located down a side street off the town square. We entered through the red-painted door to find a small room crammed with various odds and ends, all of which looked centuries old. An ancient cuckoo clock sang at the wall beside a spinning disk of coloured lights, an innocuous-lo
oking armchair turned into what looked like a medieval torture device as we passed by, and several bloodstained instruments filled one shelf marked with names. I wasn’t entirely sure if the names belonged to their previous owners or their victims.

  A middle-aged woman with tightly curled dark hair sat behind the counter. She must be Mrs Spencer—no, Peterson.

  “Hello,” she said, her eyes widening a little in surprise. “You’re the Reaper, aren’t you? It’s not my time, is it?”

  “Not yet.” I didn’t think he meant to sound creepy, but he must know hearing those words from a Reaper wasn’t exactly reassuring.

  The woman’s eyes flew wider. “I suppose that’s good news, then. Looking for anything in particular?”

  “Uh, we actually wanted to talk to you,” I said, opting for the direct approach. Without Blair’s lie-sensing power, I couldn’t dance around the subject and still ensure I got the right information. “About your ex-husband.”

  Her expression shadowed. “What about him?”

  “I heard you spoke on the phone,” I said. “Not long before he died.”

  “How did you—?” She looked from Xavier to me. “I suppose Howard’s phone is in the police’s hands, though few people knew we were married. But yes… he called me the other morning before he died.”

  “Any particular reason?” I asked.

  “I didn’t answer the phone. I was in the shower.” She shook her head. “I suppose I’ll never know what he wanted to say to me, but it didn’t seem right to push myself into the investigation when we hadn’t seen one another face to face in years. After all…”

  “They might suspect you?” said Xavier.

  “Of what?” Her hands clenched on the counter, her knuckles whitening. “Do the police think his death wasn’t an accident?”

  “They think there was something odd about the timing,” I said carefully. “My family owns the library, and he returned one of our books shortly before his death.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t know about any books,” she said. “But I imagine he must have wanted to call and say hello to me before he left town. After all, it’s been a few years, and we were good friends for a while after our divorce.”

  Hmm. Wishing I had Blair with me to verify if she spoke the truth, I went on. “What did he do for a living?”

  “It’s not really my place to tell you.”

  I’d suspected not. “He was a freelance paranormal hunter, right? Did he ever deal with vampires?”

  From the blank shock on her face, I’d guessed right. Xavier shot me a brief sideways look, then turned back to Mrs Peterson. “That’s why he moved around so much? He was a freelance hunter?”

  “Yes, he was.” Her shoulders slumped. “He’d be annoyed with me for telling you, but I suppose it doesn’t matter at this point. When we married, he claimed he planned to retire, but he found it hard to stop taking on freelance cases. Eventually, it drove us apart. I mean, who wants to wake up to find a note from their spouse saying they’ve gone to kill a rogue vampire in the middle of the night?” She chuckled and shook her head.

  “Didn’t you know his history?” I asked. “I mean, he must have told you what he did for a living before you married.”

  “He led me to believe he’d turned over a new leaf,” she said. “He was obsessive, though. Sometimes he’d use my contacts in the world of antiques to work out an angle to get at a vampire, and then forget I existed the rest of the time when he was working a case. Eventually, I moved out. It took him a week to notice.”

  “Ah,” I said. “So—did you live here together? In Ivory Beach, I mean?”

  “No,” she said. “We originally met in London, and I thought we’d stay, but even when we lived in the same city, he took frequent trips outside for work. Any hint of a rumour about a rogue and he was gone.”

  “And what about other vampire hunters?” I asked. “Like Mr Blake? He claimed it was a coincidence that he and your ex-husband showed up in town at the same time, but I’m guessing they worked in the same profession. Were they friends?”

  “I’m not sure Howard had friends,” she said. “It was a dangerous profession and I didn’t blame him for his paranoia, but it got out of hand by the end. He saw enemies everywhere.”

  “But did you know Mr Blake?” asked Xavier.

  “I wouldn’t say we knew one another,” she said. “I heard Howard mention his name a few times. I got the impression the two of them were rivals before they quit hunting.”

  Rivals? Was that why they’d argued the morning of Mr Spencer’s death? If the two had been after the same target, perhaps they hadn’t been working together after all. But that was pure conjecture.

  The question was, why had Evangeline told me about Mr Spencer’s ex-wife to begin with? You’d think she’d be more concerned with his vampire-hunting history, even if he only went after rogue paranormals.

  And what of the book? Did it contain some top-secret vampire-related information? Maybe that’s why it was so cagey about sharing its secrets.

  “Okay,” I said. “Thanks for talking to us. If you find anything out about that book, can you let me or my aunts know? We’d appreciate it.”

  “I will,” she said. “I hope you get your answers.”

  I left the shop, steering clear of the cursed-looking chair and trying my best not to look at the bloody instruments on the shelves.

  “So Blair was right,” I murmured. “Mr Spencer and Mr Blake were both vampire hunters. If Mr Blake didn’t kill him, a vampire might have. The vampire they were both hunting.”

  “I don’t know,” said Xavier. “Pushing someone downstairs? Not really a vampire thing. They tend to go for the neck.”

  “That’d be too obvious, though.” I shivered. “Think about how fast and quietly they move. It’d have been easy for one to sneak into the hotel and push him downstairs without being caught.”

  “Normally I’d agree, but I assume former vampire hunters are wise to their tricks and constantly watch their backs,” said Xavier. “If he survived for years as a freelance vampire hunter, he couldn’t have easily let his guard down.”

  “True,” I acknowledged. “Edwin thinks I’m letting my paranoia get the best of me, but I’m not even the first one to bring up vampires. One of the other guests saw a vampire from his window in the middle of the night.”

  “Edwin said what?” The surprise in his voice gratified me, though my cheeks stung with renewed humiliation. “You have reason to be wary, yes, but there’s more than one connection between vampires and this case.”

  “We know that now,” I said. “I can’t believe my family missed the ex-wife in their research.”

  “Speaking of whom,” he said. “Didn’t you tell your family I was back in town?”

  Uh… Now I was blushing for a different reason entirely. “It never came up. I wasn’t sure you weren’t about to leave again, anyway.”

  I’d spent the last two weeks trying to forget him, but the lack of closure had stung the most. It was much easier to move on if you knew what you were moving on from.

  “I already told you,” he said. “I said I won’t disappear this time, and I meant it.”

  “But you’re still not allowed to see me,” I said. “From that note, it sounded like your boss meant business.” To say the least.

  “Did he say anything to you in person?” His voice was uncharacteristically hesitant.

  I shook my head. “No, but the fact that he went to the trouble of leaving me a personal note telling me never to contact you again was pretty clear. Has he found out we’ve spoken since?”

  “You haven’t broken your word,” he said. “I contacted you, not the other way around. He’s rarely spoken to me since my return to town, and he has no interest in what the two of us do together.”

  I had my doubts. Even if Xavier did plan to stick around, spending every one of our dates dodging the Grim Reaper was no plan for a long-term relationship. “Even talking to Evangeline?”

&nb
sp; I was tempted to go looking for her again to ask if she knew what Mr Spencer had done for a living. Maybe I should take Blair along, too, but I didn’t know if her lie-sensing ability even worked on vampires. Besides, she’d come here for a holiday, not to play mind games with the leader of the vampires.

  “I won’t mention that part to him,” said Xavier. “He isn’t a fan of the vampires.”

  “Then it sounds like he wouldn’t want you involved in this case, though,” I said. “Unless he knows you took Mr Spencer’s soul to the afterlife?”

  “He doesn’t,” he said. “I deal with a lot of souls, and he has no interested in who they were in life.”

  “I bet not.” Personally, I’d much rather be escorted into the afterlife by a golden-haired angel of death than a cold and terrifying inhuman figure in a hooded cloak, but the dead didn’t get to pick and choose. “I guess if you chat with the dead on a daily basis…” I trailed off as Xavier’s body froze, his gaze fixed somewhere in the distance. “What is it?”

  His expression turned serious. “I’m being called to pick up another soul.”

  My heart lurched. “But—”

  He moved forwards, the scythe suddenly in his hands, and the next instant he was gone. I spotted his blond head vanishing down the road by the clock tower and sprinted that way, my breath coming in sharp gasps. After weeks of working at the library, I was in the best shape I’d been in my life, but no human could keep up with a Reaper on the hunt. He moved like a ghost, a flicker of light moving across town.

  Then, he stopped, his scythe held high above his head.

  I skidded to a halt outside the hotel, where the crumpled body of Mr Blake lay spread-eagled on the pavement. A gasp rose in my throat as shadows fanned out from Xavier’s body, engulfing the area until darkness smothered my surroundings. Within the darkness, a door appeared, edged in light which shone against the surrounding shadows. I inched closer, but in another instant, the ghostly figure of Mr Blake passed through the door and was gone.

  Xavier lowered the scythe. His expression was as grim as his namesake as the shadows vanished, leaving nothing behind but Mr Blake’s lifeless body.