by E. M. Moore
Mrs. Ward nodded nervously. “I think everyone’s been losing it for a long time.”
Well, that was the truth. I waved her up the stairs. “I’ve got the spaghetti in. Glad you’re here. I really appreciate you looking after the library this week.”
“You know I would do anything for you…or the library.”
I held the door open for her and we both walked in. I headed straight for the stovetop so I could stir the spaghetti. Everything looked good. Maxie got up from his perch next to the couch and went over to say hello to Mrs. Ward just as her phone rang.
She rummaged through her purse and then pulled it out. “It’s Jackson,” she said. She swiped at her screen then put the phone to her ear. “Hi, honey. No. No, I’m not home. I’m at Maddie’s for dinner. Looks like we’re having…” She peered over my shoulder. “…spaghetti. Do you want to come over?” She paused. “I’m sure Maddie won’t mind.” Mrs. Ward breathed out heavily, pulled her phone down, and then stared at me. “Maddie, do you care if Jackson comes to dinner?”
I almost laughed. Almost. I didn’t care if Jackson came, but it was also nice to be asked first. “No. I’d be happy to have him.”
Mrs. Ward put the phone back to her ear. “Did you hear that? Yes, she said you could come. Alright, see you in a bit. Bye.” She shook her head as she pressed her screen. “Men,” she grumbled.
I pressed my lips together and continued to stir the spaghetti.
Mrs. Ward made herself comfortable, taking a seat at the small table. Maxie laid his head on her knee and she pet him absentmindedly. “I thought I’d see you at the library this morning.”
“I was going to, but I woke up late. Mel spent the night. I’m sure Jackson told you she’s the one who found Casey’s body.”
Mrs. Ward’s eyes widened and her face colored to a deep crimson red. “Oh my goodness. I had no idea.”
Crap. I guessed I wasn’t supposed to say anything. Jackson had been on this new kick about not sharing as much information about cases with his mother. She tended to worry too much about him. “I’m sorry. Forget I said anything.”
“Absolutely not,” she said. “Poor Mel. Is that why she was running out of here so quickly? I hope she’s okay. I’m sure she will be although we know what it’s like to see a dead body, don’t we? It could really turn her life upside down.”
I stared into the boiling water. Unfortunately, we did know all about seeing a dead body. Before a couple weeks ago, I only thought it would happen at a funeral with an open casket. Instead, now I’d seen one in a broken elevator, in a store window, in a body bag. A shiver ran up my spine.
Mrs. Ward stood and rubbed my shoulder. “I know. We don’t have to talk about it. This dinner will be completely dead body free.”
I looked back at her, eyebrows halfway up my head. “I should hope so, Mrs. Ward.”
“You know what I mean.” A knock sounded on the door. “Oh, that must be Jackson.”
“Can you get it for me? I’ll strain the pasta.”
Mrs. Ward was already walking toward the front door. I was just about to remind her not to say anything about Mel finding the dead body when I heard, “You didn’t tell me Melissa Styles found Casey’s body.” Some welcome.
“Mother…”
“I need to know these things.”
“No, you don’t. You don’t need to hear all the stuff I have to deal with on a daily basis.” Jackson shot me a warning look as they came into the kitchen.
I’m sorry, I mouthed.
“I should’ve known you would’ve said something.”
Mrs. Ward looked her son up and down. “To be fair, it was Mel who gave it away. She ran out of here like a bat out of hell. I could tell something was wrong straightaway. I have a sixth sense about these things.”
Jackson rolled his eyes. “Yes, Mother, so you’ve been telling me for years now.”
“Did she come by and see you?” I asked. “She said she was going to.”
“She didn’t. I’ve been trying to call her all day, but she’s been ignoring me.” I froze with the dinner plates in my hand. It wasn’t like Mel to give up a chance to see Jackson. Something must really be bothering her about this. She was more involved than she was letting on. “Hey,” Jackson said as he came closer. “You alright?”
I shook my head to take myself out of the stupor. I’d have to force Mel to talk to me tonight, even if I had to tie her down and make Maxie slobber all over her until she started talking.
Jackson leaned down. “You know I don’t think she did it, right? I just need to talk to her.”
“I told her the very same thing not ten minutes ago. She said she would talk to you. I don’t know what’s going on with her, but I admit, I’m a little worried.”
Jackson passed his thumb back and forth over his lower lip. After a few seconds, he shook his head. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure this out. Here, let me take those plates and I’ll go set the table.
He offered me a smile as he grabbed the plates. I smiled back. It was nice to have someone to talk to again besides Mrs. Ward and my sister—and Maxie of course. I walked into the small dining room with the bowl of pasta and the spaghetti sauce. Maxie sat in my chair like a person. Jackson and Mrs. Ward eyed him.
“Maxie,” I scolded, trying to hold back my laughter at the same time. “Get down, boy. That’s my seat.” He jumped down and curled into a ball to the left of my chair. “It’s so strange sometimes. It’s as if he thinks he’s a person.”
We dished out the dinner and ate in hungry silence for a few minutes before Mrs. Ward took a sip of water and cleared her throat. “Jackson tells me you met at the wharf again the other night.”
My stomach hollowed out. It wasn’t as if I minded talking about Derek, I didn’t. I’d even told Jackson to tell his mom she could talk to me about him, but it always made me nervous because I didn’t know what people were going to say and I felt awkward about how I might react. “Yeah, you should’ve come. You know you can come. And you can ask me about him. You know…if you ever want to. I don’t mind.”
“Good,” Mrs. Ward said, smiling. “Because I’ve been wanting to ask you something for a long time, but I didn’t feel right about it.”
Whoo. Was it hot in here? My mouth was suddenly dry.
“It’s been a couple years since Derek died and I wondered if you thought about dating again.”
“Mom,” Jackson said, dropping his fork onto his plate. The cup in his other hand slipped, but he grabbed it just before it spilled everywhere. “That’s none of our business.”
I looked at the scene with wide eyes, not knowing how to answer at first. It was a question I asked myself often, but that no one had ever asked me, not even Mel. Jackson’s eyes were trained on his plate, and even Mrs. Ward looked sheepishly into her spaghetti.
There was a good minute or so of awkward silence until I just had to break it. “I don’t know,” I said, lifting my shoulders. “I’ve thought about it, and I think if the right guy came along, I would date again. So, yes, I suppose, but it would have to be someone really special. And that’s even if I could actually go through with it.”
Mrs. Ward beamed, a smile filling her face. “I’m glad to hear that, Maddie. I’m sorry I asked. I was merely curious,” she said, eyeing Jackson with a pointed glare. “Some people are different. After my husband died, I dated a little, but just couldn’t find that special person, someone who was worth replacing him with.”
My heart thumped in my chest. For two beats it felt as if my heart was going to bust right out, but then it went back to normal. “I wouldn’t want to think of it as replacing Derek.”
Jackson placed his elbows on the table and held his head in his hands. “Can we please stop talking about this?”
His cheeks were red and his muscles were popping out of his forearms. He was taking this conversation even harder than I was. “It’s okay, Jackson. Derek will always have a special place in my heart and if I were to date someone else, it wouldn’t be replac
ing him, it would be more like having another special person in my heart. Not the same, just different.”
Mrs. Ward nodded, her eyebrow raising. “You’re a smart woman, Maddie.”
“Yes, she’s smart. We can all agree to that. Now let’s talk about something else.”
His mother pursed her lips. “Absolutely. Jackson, what’s going on with your case?”
He shot her a look. “Anything but that.”
“You did say to talk about something different,” I offered with a smile.
He wiped his face with a napkin and then dropped it back on the table. “I think I’d rather talk about your love life.”
“Well, I definitely would rather talk about your case. Anymore leads?”
He blew out a breath. “Got the toxicology results back. We know what poisoned both Pepper and Casey now. Hemlock.”
“Hemlock? That’s a witch’s herb.”
“You know it?” he asked, his eyebrows drawing together.
“Of course. Just because I don’t practice anymore doesn’t mean I’ve completely forgotten everything.” Hemlock would be one of the last herbs to forget anyway. It was ingrained into us when we were younger that it was dangerous. We weren’t allowed to even touch it. “It’s a poison, as you said. It’s common enough in negative witchcraft spells. If you give someone too much, it makes them dizzy, and then, unfortunately, it overpowers their body and they die. Isn’t it odd two Wiccans are dead and the murder weapon points to witchcraft?”
Jackson sat back in his chair. “Everything about this case is odd.”
This pushed my suspicions about Mel being involved in this over the edge. Of all the prominent Wiccans in the area—of all the prominent and knowledgeable Wiccans in the area—she was one of them. She’d never given it up like I had. She had years and years of experience. The only other two witches I would’ve put on the same level as her were now dead. Well, except Scilla. There were others, sure, but the Wiccans that came to mind when I thought of power were all involved in this.
“I think I can read your mind, Maddie. We need to talk to Mel.”
I nodded.
Mrs. Ward gasped. “You can’t think Mel did anything.”
“No, I don’t think Mel did anything, but it’s obvious she knows something,” Jackson said, his face tightening. “This has witch written all over it. Two Wiccans are dead and they were clearly killed using a witch’s herb. Not to mention they were killed out of malice. You don’t kill someone and take the time to stage the body if it’s a crime of passion. No, these were planned. Pepper was found in her store window and we think Mel interrupted the killer before Casey’s body was moved into a position that would’ve degraded her, just like Pepper.”
“Maybe someone has a thing against Wiccans?” I offered.
“Then why kill them with the Wiccan herb?”
“As a ‘Hey, screw you’, kind of thing. ‘I don’t like Wiccans so I’m going to kill you with your own power’.”
I waited, but neither one of my guests said anything. In fact, Mrs. Ward looked a little pale. It was just Jackson who was still contemplating everything. It made sense in my head that someone who didn’t like Wiccans would try to kill them with a taste of their own medicine so to speak. It was the ultimate revenge.
“It’s an idea,” Jackson said, but he didn’t sound convinced. “Do you know of any Wiccan squabbles in the area?”
“You know that’s not me. That’s Mel’s thing. Mel could tell you.”
“If we get her to talk.”
That was the key, wasn’t it? If we could only get Mel to talk then we might find out what was going on. “Don’t worry,” I assured him. “I have a plan. Mel is definitely not going to last the evening without giving up all she knows.”
“How are you going to do that?” Jackson asked, suddenly intrigued.
“She’s my sister. I know more about her than anyone else in the world. Plus, us sisters have our ways of making the other talk.”
The corners of his lips tipped up. “I’m suddenly happy I never had a sister. Forget what I said about wanting younger siblings, Mom. I didn’t mean it.”
Mrs. Ward took a deep breath and finally started to eat again. “It’s far past that time anyway, Jackson. No worries there.”
“Do I need to be around for this?” Jackson asked me. “Any police involvement needed in the Styles Sister Showdown?”
I laughed. “We’re not going that far, but trust me, you’ll have your answers by tomorrow morning.”
Smiling, I rubbed my hands together under the table. Jackson just shook his head and laughed. “What would the world be like without a little sisterly fight?”
Chapter 8
I wished I could say that Operation Make-Mel-Tell-Me-Whatever-She-Knows went off without a hitch. It didn’t.
After Jackson and Mrs. Ward left, I grabbed the extra keys she gave me and sneaked upstairs to her apartment. I sat on her couch in the dark. Surprising her, or scaring her a little, might loosen her tongue. Instead of being all Dick Tracy or Nancy Drew like I imagined, I ended up falling asleep on her couch. Drool had dripped from the corner of my mouth and onto the arm of the sofa by the time Mel’s hand reached out and shook my shoulder. “What are you doing here?”
I blinked, trying to adjust to where I was. Then, I remembered I was on a mission. A mission I’d already clearly screwed up. I’d lost the element of surprise I was going for. I wiped the sleep from my eyes, stood from the couch, and tried to look as menacing as possible. “We need to talk. You didn’t talk to Jackson like you said you would.”
Mel rolled her eyes and turned around, turning all the lights in the apartment on before she faced me again, her hands on her hips. “You and Jackson seem pretty close lately.”
“Oh, don’t even start.” The last thing I needed was for my sister to start talking about my supposed love life when I was trying to shake her down for information. “Stop trying to change the subject. We’re talking about what’s been going on around here and how weird you’ve been acting lately.”
“Weird? Oh, I don’t know, Maddie. It seems to me you were acting weird when you found Mr. Sanders dead, but I can’t act weird?”
“You were acting weird before you found Casey. You’re better off just telling me what happened so I can help.” My hard voice turned wimpy. “That’s all I want to do, Mel. I just want to help you.”
The air conditioner kicked on. Mel jumped and spun, her hands coming up into a karate strike position even though we hadn’t taken karate since we were five years old.
“See,” I said, gesturing toward her hands. “What’s all this? Something’s going on. You don’t just jump into karate pose if there’s nothing you’re worried about.”
Mel turned. She was clearly upset. The color had risen in her cheeks. She ran a hand through her hair then crossed her hands over her chest. “I can’t say anything, really,” she whispered after I gave her a doubtful look. “I can’t. Yes, there is something going on, but you can’t be a part of it. If I say something to you, you’ll just get brought into it and the last thing we need is another rendition from the police station a week ago.”
I walked over to her and put my hands on her shoulders. “Mel, you’re my sister. We’re in this together. It can’t be that bad.”
That could be a lie. It could be that bad if she was worried about telling me and there were dead bodies being found everywhere. Even Scilla warned me to shut my mouth.
I squeezed her shoulder. “Mel, you’re not just freaked out because you found Casey, are you? There’s something more.”
She nodded her head silently and bit her lip.
Okay, we were getting somewhere now. Kind of already knew that, but we were getting somewhere. “What about the murders, Mel? There are two witches dead, two witches who owned stores much like you. If your store was on that same road, I’d be really worried for you.”
“You should be worried for me, anyway.”
Oh, that was w
onderful. My heart skipped a beat. “You can’t just say that to me and not follow it up with what the heck is going on. First, I see you in the morning when Pepper was found. You should’ve been at your shop, but you weren’t. Then, you find Casey’s body. That’s two places you normally wouldn’t have been, but you were there.”
Mel started to shake, her eyes pooled with water like a running sink.
“You’re scared.”
She nodded.
“You think you could be next?”
She nodded again.
I grasped her elbow and pulled her to the sofa, making her sit on the edge as I stood in front of her. “Tell me what happened.”
She took a deep breath, her shoulders hunched as if she were a hundred years old. Her foot jumped up and down like when we were teenagers. Then, it used to happen for no reason, just pent up energy. This was different. This energy came from fear.
“A couple weeks ago,” Mel started, “Scilla contacted me. She said there was this guy willing to spend a lot of money to have a spell done for him. She said that herself, Pepper, and Casey were already on board and they needed a fourth. The spell called for a witch for each direction of the compass,” she added. “I don’t even really know why I said yes. It’s not like I need extra money. The shop is going well. It’s paying the bills at least. I don’t need much.
“I told her I would help, and we met up a couple times to talk about it. Scilla and the person who wanted the spell done were still talking price at this time. I don’t know why it didn’t even occur to me to ask what the spell was for. It was just nice having a circle of witches to talk to again.”
“A coven?”
She shrugged. “I guess. Yeah, a coven. I miss talking about witchcraft stuff with other people like me. I used to talk about it with you. We used to talk about the spells we were doing, what worked best for this or that. I had that again. I had friends with similar interests and, I’m not going to lie, that felt good.”
I closed my eyes and swallowed. I knew what Mel was getting at. It wasn’t just that it felt good to talk to other people, it just felt good to talk. After Derek passed away, I kind of retreated into my own shell. Even my sister, who lived upstairs, barely saw me. A week would go by and we’d only see each other on the landing, passing each other like strangers.