by E. M. Moore
I didn’t feel brave. I felt useless. Two deaths within twenty-four hours of each other and nothing to go on but similarities between the cases. I just hoped we didn’t have a serial killer loose in Salem.
Chapter 6
Mel was already gone when I woke the next morning. Because we had such a late night, I’d overslept and rushed to get ready. Instead of stopping by the library first, I went straight to the sidewalk fair. Fortunately, it didn’t look as if I missed much. As soon as I saw Scilla and her crazy hats, I walked faster. A smile brightened my face when I found her talking with a patron. She looked so happy today, so talkative. I wondered how many hats she’d sold already to account for her good mood.
With all the activity the night before, I didn’t get a chance to count the money the library brought in for the new elevator. As soon as the thought popped into my head though, it shot out again.
Scilla looked so calm today, didn’t she? I wondered if she needed help setting up her table. At the same time, I looked down the street and noticed I had nothing set up on my table yet since everything was still in my hands and Scilla’s table was completely full, everything arranged just as it should be. Never mind that. But maybe she could use some help selling her hats today. I’d have to make sure I told everybody about them when they came to my table.
In the back of my mind, a niggle of weirdness wormed its way through into comprehension. I’d never thought so much about Scilla in my life, but I had the urge to talk to her about anything and everything. My feet were moving so fast Maxie had to run to catch up with me. “Hi, Scilla. How are you today?”
Scilla jumped in her chair, her eyes lifting from a magazine she held in her lap. She looked over and smiled, giving me an almost imperceptible wary look. “Well. You?”
“I’m doing great,” I said and really meant it. I had the worst case of word vomit working its way up my throat, but I was happy about it. “How are things at the store?”
Her eyebrows rose, surprised at my question. “Things are going good. What about the library? Have you got that milk jug filled to the brim for the elevator yet?”
I waved her questions away, not feeling like talking about me this morning. I didn’t really care about anything other than what Scilla was doing. I finished laying out the brochures on my table and plopped the milk jug in the center. It wasn’t the best organization job I’d ever done. In fact, it didn’t look good at all. I shrugged and turned toward Scilla, my full attention focused solely on her. “Glad to hear everything’s going well. Are you still practicing your witchcraft?”
Panic darkened Scilla’s face. Her eyes darted around the crowd until they focused back on me. “Maddie, do you feel okay?”
“Great. In fact, I feel even better that I’m talking to you.” Oh, my Goddess. Even I wanted to hit myself in the face. What the hell was I saying?
“Are you sure? You don’t seem like your yourself. Should I call Mel? No, I probably can’t do that, can I? I heard she was the one who found Casey’s body.”
“She did. She seems to be doing well with it though. I’m curious. What do you know about the whole situation?”
Scilla’s cheeks colored, a rosy blush highlighting her pale features. She looked like an old-fashioned doll. “What do you mean?”
I literally could not make myself shut up. Inside my head, I screamed at myself to let it go. Who cared what Scilla knew about the situation? I did, apparently. I needed to see, needed to hear, needed to know what she felt about it. “You were close with Casey, right, Scilla? You went to school with her?”
“We all went to school together.”
Scilla looked around as if to find an escape, but I continued. “No need to be scared. I’m just curious. Mel seems like she’s lying to me and I don’t know why, something just tells me you know more about this than I do. I just want to help. What’s going on?”
“I don’t know what your sister has told you, but—”
“Mel hasn’t told me anything. It’s just a feeling I have. A feeling that we really need to talk today. Do you know what we should be talking about?”
For the love of magic, what was happening to me?
Scilla stared down at her clasped fingers and frowned. “No,” she said, her voice firm. “I don’t think we should be talking at all, actually. If you knew what was good for your sister and me, you would keep your mouth shut.”
I wished I knew how to keep my mouth shut, I really did. I was acting like a lunatic. I tried to bite down, keeping my jaw shut, but it just kept opening and words kept pouring out. “Mel hasn’t told me anything. I’m just curious myself.”
She turned her head toward me and scowled. “You know what they say about those who are curious?”
“Curiosity killed the cat? I never really was much of a cat person, which is so not librarian-friendly, right? I’ve always liked dogs better. You know, like Maxie here.” As usual, when I said his name, he looked up. I smiled and ruffled his head. “I guess because it has a cat in the saying I don’t really trust what it means.”
“You should. Do you want there to be even more deaths?”
“Deaths? I wouldn’t just call them deaths. Right? They were murders. Both murdered. Two,” I offered as if she couldn’t count. I rubbed my forehead, a headache starting to form at the crown. “I just feel like you know something. What do you know? Do you know what Mel knows? I know she knows something. The thing is, she won’t tell me. But maybe… Yeah, maybe you can tell me?”
Scilla stood, her hands balled into fists at her sides. “I’m not going to tell you anything.”
I froze. A few people in the crowd turned to look our way, but I ignored them. There was something much bigger happening than being embarrassed by a public scolding. I shrugged. “Okay, have it your way. How’s the séance business going?”
Her shoulders deflated and she rolled her eyes. Staring at me, she sat back down. “You want to know about my séance business?”
“Yeah, I guess I do. I did just ask about it, didn’t I?”
“You’ve been asking quite a lot.”
“I guess we just never really talked before and I wanted to know how your business is doing. I can clearly see your hats are selling well, but what about the séance business? Is that going well, too?” Inside my head, I screamed, shut up, shut up, shut up!
“That’s going good as well.” She looked away, her eyes trained forward, landing anywhere but back on me. “About as good as could be expected.”
“Did you ever think about holding a séance to try to contact either Pepper or Casey?” A smile filled my face. I’d just figured out all the world’s problems with just one sentence. Energy coursed through me. I was on to something. “I’m sure it would be perfect.”
Her shoulders stiffened. She sat completely still except for the ticking of her jaw. “Why would I do that?”
“Why wouldn’t you? Maybe you could help the investigation. Maybe that’s why I’m asking you all these weird questions. If you held a séance—considering you can hold a real séance—why not try to call one of them up and figure out what happened?” I just figured out the key to this whole investigation. My hand itched to call Jackson and tell him my revelation. It was perfect. Excited, I said the first thing that came to mind. “We should all do the séance. We can call on Pepper. We can call on Casey. They can tell us who killed them.”
Scilla was already shaking her head. “I’m not doing that. It’s not a good idea. I don’t want to talk about them anymore.”
“I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to help. Unless, like I said, you’re not the real thing.”
“I am the real thing and you know it, Maddie Styles. Mel knows it, too.”
“Then Mel would agree with me. She’d want to do the séance. We can do it with you. You can use our power, put together with yours, we’ll definitely find answers.”
“I’m not holding a séance. It’s out of the question.”
“Why?”
Scilla looked exasperated. She ran her hands through her hair. “I don’t know. Maybe because it won’t work on people who just died.”
“Is that true?”
“Yes,” she said, nodding. “Yes, it’s definitely true. You can’t contact spirits who just lately passed to the other side.”
Huh. That was strange. Then why had I felt the cold chills? Why would Mel be able to see Casey yesterday? It didn’t make any sense at all. “I think you’re wrong. I think you can contact them. Yesterday, I felt a cold chill and Mel said—”
“Stop talking!” Scilla stood, turned on her heel, and ran away, pushing past people on the cobblestoned street.
“Whoa,” a male voice said.
My neck twisted, and I found Jackson staring down at me. The urge to talk to Scilla lifted. ”What the hell?”
“What was that about?” Jackson asked.
I shook my head. I had no idea. I couldn’t stop myself. It was a spell of some sort. Had to have been. I’d never gotten word vomit like that before. I couldn’t control anything I said.
Despite what was running through my head, all I said out loud was, “I have no idea.”
“What did you say to her?” he asked, laughing. ”You really made her mad.”
“I just asked her what she knew about Casey and Pepper.”
“And why would she know anything about that?”
I shrugged. “I have no idea. I just felt like she did.”
He shook his head. “You should leave the detective work to me, Maddie.”
I crossed my hands in front of my chest. “Fine, Detective Ward. And what is it you’re doing this morning?”
He leaned against my poorly put together table. I started rearranging things as he said, “Well, I’ll have you know Rich is looking at tapes again. This time from Casey’s shop.”
“And nothing’s there, right?”
“We actually don’t know yet. He just got here.”
I shuffled the brochures and made sure they were straight. “He must have a run on the security business in Salem. He does the library. I know he does my sister’s shop. He did Pepper’s, and now Casey’s.”
“He does the police station, too.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Yeah, he’s got Salem on lock.”
Jackson smiled and shook his head. He muttered something about ‘on lock’. “How was Mel this morning?”
I sat back down in the folding chair and relaxed. “I’ve no idea. She left before I got up.”
“She was acting pretty strangely yesterday.”
No kidding. Everyone seemed to be acting strangely, myself included. Scilla, as well. I didn’t know why she got so mad at me. “She did find a dead body,” I offered.
“Did you get out of her why she was even at the shop?”
I straightened the flyers on the table. “Not a thing. I’ve got nothing. I know nothing… nada… zilch… zero.”
“Right, right, I got it. I’ll have to talk to Mel again sometime today. I need to know why she was at the store.”
I stared up at him until his face colored. “Is she a suspect?”
“No, but she’s a POI.”
“POI. What’s that?”
“A person of interest. Not as far as who did it, but we need to figure out what happened and she knows more than she’s saying, I think.”
We both thought that. People were keeping secrets in this town. It was no use trying to get anything out of Scilla but I could get it out of Mel. She was my sister after all. I could play the sisterly love card.
I nodded toward Casey’s store. “Here comes Rich now, Detective.”
He followed my gesture and frowned. “Doesn’t look good, does it?” He sighed and turned back to me. “We’re moving the sidewalk fair to the square outside City Hall—the old City Hall. We don’t think it’s safe to be in this area anymore.”
My stomach knotted. “You expect it to happen again?”
“We can’t rule it out. Due to the information we have, we’re thinking it’s got to be some sort of serial killer. You pointed out the similarities last night. Just for everybody’s security and safety, we’re going to move the fair to the square.” As if on cue, four police officers walked up to Detective Ward. He nodded, and they started telling each table to pack up, informing them they were being moved to the Old City Hall.
By this time, Rich reached us. He looked at his feet and shook his head. “Nothing’s there. Wiped clean again.”
“Someone obviously knows what they’re doing,” Jackson said.
Rich pulled at his pants, balling the fabric in his fists. “Yes, Detective. Someone knows exactly what they’re doing.”
Chapter 7
I was just throwing the spaghetti in the boiling water when I heard Mel’s high heels click and clack against the wood stairs outside my apartment. I ran to the door and threw it open. “Mel!”
She jumped about a foot in the air and screamed.
“It’s me.”
She turned, her chest heaving in front of her. “Don’t do that. What’s wrong with you?”
“I just need to talk to you.”
“About what?” she seethed.
My head careened back. “You left so early this morning I didn’t get a chance to say anything to you. How are you doing?”
She looked wistfully down the steps and then back at me. “I’m fine. You don’t have to worry about me, I’m absolutely fine.”
“Okay…” She looked anything but fine, but I knew arguing with her would be fruitless. “I saw Jackson today. He said he really needed to talk to you again. Did you happen to see him?”
She shook her head. “No, I didn’t have that pleasure. Did he say what he wanted to talk to me about?”
“He needs to know why you were at Casey’s shop.”
“Jeez, I just happened by. What is the big deal? I decided to stop in and say hello. Now, all of a sudden, I find a dead body and someone thinks I murdered them.”
“He doesn’t think you murdered her, Mel. There’s no way he thinks that. It’s just part of the investigation. He needs to know everything that happens so he can piece it together. Something that means very little to you can me a lot to him since he knows all the information.”
A small smile formed on her face. “Isn’t that exactly what I told you a couple weeks ago about the dead body they found in your library? You weren’t all that keen on sharing a certain security tape if I remember correctly.”
A blast of embarrassment hit me in the face. “Yeah,” I said cautiously, “But, I finally did do the right thing.”
“Thanks to me.”
“No, thanks to my own conscience, thank you very much. Quit trying to change the subject. Will you just go and see Jackson, please?”
“Fine.” She rolled her eyes. “I would love to go see that fine specimen of a man.”
I laughed and shook my head. “That’s the spirit. Hey,” I said, looking around, making sure no one was there. “Something really weird happened to me today.”
Mel clamped her jaw shut and took a step closer. “Yeah?”
“It was just so weird. You’re going to think I’m crazy.”
She rolled her hand over as if to tell me to get on with it.
“It’s probably nothing, but I was talking to Scilla Longbottom today and I literally could not keep my mouth shut. I kept asking her question after question about the two murders and if she knew anything about it. I don’t know what was wrong with me, I just— It’s almost like I didn’t have control over myself. You ever heard of anything like that?”
Mel’s eyes widened. “What exactly did you ask her?”
My nose wrinkled. “Pretty sure I asked her if she could do a séance to contact Casey and Pepper and ask them who killed them…among other stuff. I mean, it was bad, Mel. I could not keep my mouth shut. She said a séance wouldn’t work because you can’t contact a ghost that early after their passing, but I know that’s not true because you said you talked to Casey ye
sterday. She’s lying.”
Mel closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. She took a deep breath. “One, please don’t talk to anybody else about the murders. Can you do that for me, please? Two, it sounds as if you were compelled to ask those things. There must be a reason. Was anyone else there?”
“A compulsion spell?” Huh. I hadn’t thought of that. I’d never been on the receiving end of one. It could’ve been exactly that. “No one else was around. Jackson came later and a few police officers, but that was it.”
She lifted her shoulders. “Maybe you felt compelled by the dead. You’re sure no one else was around? Did you get cold chills?”
“Compelled by the dead? Okay. Now you’re freaking me out. I catalog books. I’m not a mouthpiece for dead people.”
She moved closer even though we were all by ourselves. “Pepper,” she whispered. “Or Casey. Maybe one of them got inside your head and wanted you to ask her those questions.”
“Why would they do that? I’m a librarian.”
“You’re also a powerful witch if you would pull your head out of your ass.” She looked exhausted. Her temper flared like that when she was tired. “Listen, I don’t know why they would do it. What’s with all the questions? I don’t know everything.”
She sounded just like Scilla Longbottom. That was curious. “What’s going on, Mel? You know more than you’re saying.”
She looked down the steps again. “I can’t talk right now, Maddie. I got to go. I just have to be somewhere. Okay? Bye.” She waved and ran down the steps, her high heels galloping over the wood stairs. At the bottom, she whipped the door open and screamed. Another mingled with hers. Mel held her hand over her heart. “Sorry, Mrs. Ward.” She pushed past her and was out the door before I could even yell down to her.
Mrs. Ward walked in, watching after Mel, until her gaze moved upwards and met mine. “Is your sister okay?”
I shook my head. “I think everyone’s losing it in this town.”