by Mara Webb
There was a soda cup in the central cup holder with no lid, I recognized it as the same container that Kate had handed me a lemonade in. Did that mean the last place Greta went before this was Pete’s Za? The airbag hadn’t gone off either. I walked around to the other side of the car and could get a better view of the driver’s seat.
“How tall would you say Greta is? Was?” I said, shrugging as I continued to struggle with the concept that she was both past and present tense.
“Maybe 5’3?” Ryder replied. “I know her shoe size but not her height.” He smiled his disarming smile and I had to force myself to look away and back towards the driver’s seat. It was too far back for her to have reached the peddles, either she had scooted the seat back after the crash, or someone taller had been driving.
The drink wasn’t spilled, the airbag hadn’t deployed, the hood wasn’t wrapped around the tree and the seat was too far back. This had all the markings of a faked car accident.
11
“Can anyone come with me to Tivercana?” I asked as I stepped back into the café. Effie was on the phone taking orders and the only other woman behind the counter looked to her for approval. Effie nodded.
The woman removed her apron and walked with me to the café exit and out onto the sand. “I’m Rosie, we haven’t met,” she smiled. I was being such a terrible cafe manager. I hadn’t introduced myself to anybody and I was taking more time out from the café to go out on boat adventures.
“Rosie, hey, I’m Sadie. I’ve been a bit caught up with...”
“You're the new peacekeeper. Greta was always busy too, that’s why Effie is the efficiency machine she is, because she had to take over at short notice all the time if there was a clan dispute,” Rosie giggled. We had circled the building to head towards the marina and Rosie had barely come up for air, she was speaking so fast that I wondered if she even needed oxygen.
“I’ve been at the cafe for a few years now, such an honor to work with the peacekeeper and serve the community, you know? Like, people will always need to eat so it’s steady work, we have tourists here all the time and it’s been such a good distraction since Greta died. The witches and humans that come here don’t even know about our peacekeeper thing, so they didn’t think anything weird was going on.
“I swear they don’t see people fighting or the graffiti or the litter. I wonder if there is some magic that prevents guests to the island from seeing it for what it really is? Ha, maybe my boyfriend had that spell on him too,” she said, finally pausing.
“You say the tourists haven’t noticed that there’s been tension?” I asked, bracing myself for another long response.
“Yeah, they still fly in and lie in the sun, buy our novelty hats and stay in the fancy hotels. Maybe it’s willful ignorance. No one wants their vacation to be ruined by the locals. Now that you are here it should all be back under control. Greta has been the peacekeeper for so long that I don’t remember if the last transition involved so much conflict.”
“Do you have any theories about what happened to Greta?”
“Oh boy, do I? Wow, so first of all she was like, super into Ryder, right? I don’t think Ryder was vibing in the same way, so what if he killed her? Or... what if some other woman on the island killed her over a rivalry thing? There are a ton of woman that would love to hook up with that tall drink of water. Or—”
“What about the stalker?” I interrupted. She looked at me very seriously all of a sudden and a tear rolled down her eye.
“I’ve considered it, but I have to keep those ideas out of my head otherwise I’d be unable to get out of bed in the morning,” she sobbed.
“When did you first notice someone following you? Can you describe them? Is it a tall person?” If the stalker was big enough to be the one that had pushed back Greta’s car seat, then it would increase suspicion in my mind that the incidents were connected.
“Tall? Yeah, yeah they’re tall. A guy, I think. I first noticed him, like, a month ago, I wasn’t sure at first but then it became hard to ignore,” she sniffed. We were almost at the marina now and I desperately wanted to continue the conversation about the mystery threat to the cafe staff, but I felt certain that I was about to hit two birds with one stone.
We boarded the small boat that had taken me to Port Wayvern earlier and I held on tight as we pulled away from the shore and began to power across the water. The reason for visiting Tivercana was twofold, it had been made clear to me that I had to go to meet the people on the island as I had taken the time to visit Port Wayvern and I didn’t want to ruffle any feathers, and also because they had a golf course.
I was quite sure that the damage to Greta’s car had been caused by a golf club. This was based entirely on a memory of watching a country singer beat up an expensive car in a music video and the resulting dents looked identical to those that I’d identified up on the mountain.
I had briefly spoken to Ryder about it and he told me about the golf course, so I figured I could have a look around to see if perhaps there was anything Greta had spotted here that would make her a target for attack. I had wanted to take Miller along with me, but he was unreachable when I called the station.
I had considered wandering around looking for him, but with time pressing on it seemed like I should just pick another person to help me. I wasn’t sure on the peacekeeper rules yet, but I was sure that taking Rosie instead of Miller would be fine. Right?
I had wondered where Miller was as we hadn’t spoken much since he rushed into the water to save my life this morning. It felt like an age had passed since then, what with the mountain hike and now this trip to Tivercana. I hoped he was okay.
I still hadn’t sorted out my phone to connect to service on the island, so I wasn’t contactable, I had used the phone in Ryder’s shop to call the police station. If Miller wanted to contact me now, he couldn’t.
I also wondered if Justin, my ex-boyfriend, might have tried to contact me. Was that normal? I wanted him to have noticed that I had fled Virginia and moved far away, I wanted him to be upset about it, but I didn’t want to get back together with him. Is that terrible?
I wanted to feel important enough that my absence had left a hole in his life, but unless I looked him up online or called him, I wouldn’t know what he thought about it all.
Tivercana island was in full view now, a smaller island than Port Wayvern and a lot less foliage. It was flatter than the main island too, which I found confusing as I always thought that island clusters like this had been force upward from the ocean floor by volcanic activity, so how it lacked a mountain or two I had no idea.
It bothered me that Justin was still on my mind when I had so much else to think about. Thankfully it seemed that Rosie had packed enough emotional baggage for the two of us and she began to unload as the boat approached the dock.
“Simon is from here,” she huffed. She had needed to say it loudly for me to hear her over the engine and the moving water, so I know she wanted me to engage with a follow up question.
“Who is Simon?” I asked.
“My ex-boyfriend. We broke up five weeks and three days ago, roughly,” she yelled. The boat slowed as we got closer to the shore, she didn’t need to shout anymore. “Mutual decision, you know how it is. He is probably going to be at the golf place because he works there. Deciding to stay friends was just such a good idea for us, you can’t fight a connection like that, even if the romantic part isn’t there anymore.”
“Right,” I said, nodding encouragingly. Has anyone ever stayed friends with an ex-partner? I saw Gwyneth Paltrow talking about her success with it in some online interview, but she might be the only example.
She had made it seem as though she was just helping me out by joining me on this trip, now I suspect she had jumped at the chance as it would give her a legitimate reason to bump into him on his home island. Was that how it looked to everyone else? Was I the only one that could see it? I felt embarrassed for her, but she was younger than me by quit
e a few years and they were her mistakes to make, not mine.
“Sadie Alden!” a man shouted from the dock. He waved and we both waved back as the boat got close enough that he could reach out to help us disembark. “A pleasure to finally meet you, I’m Kieran Davick. I believe you made it out to Port Wayvern this morning, so we’ve been waiting by the dock all day for your arrival.”
Ouch. He was using some intense passive aggressive language to give me a scolding for taking so long to get here after visiting his adversaries. “I had an incident on the beach, twisted my ankle and got caught in the undercurrent. I almost drowned,” I replied. Two could play at this game.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t hear about that. Well obviously, that would never happen here on Tivercana, I don’t know what those fools are doing over on Port Wayvern, but we have a safe island here,” he smiled. “We’ve prepared some food over at the club and we’d be more than happy to give you a tour.”
I didn’t remember eating a single crumb since my pancake breakfast and I liked the sound of food being organized for me, I felt like I was being courted for my business. Maybe that was what was happening, he wanted me to pick a favorite. Rosie seemed excited at the prospect too, I suppose a tour of the island almost guaranteed a run in with Simon.
Kieran snapped his fingers and a golf cart lurched forward from behind a bush where it had been waiting with a driver in the shorts and t-shirt version of a caddy’s uniform. When they planned the golf cart reveal I imagine that they thought it would look much slicker than it really did.
“Rosie, I haven’t seen you on the island for a few weeks,” Kieran said matter-of-factly.
“Simon and I are taking a break,” she smiled.
“You’ve been a favorite of mine, my son has dated some real unsavory types in the past and I thought he was onto a winner with you,” Kieran replied. It didn’t feel like a kind thing to say, but it was delivered as though he was paying her a compliment. I also wondered if she was using the term ‘break’ for Kieran’s benefit, or her own.
After a short trip during which we had lapped all of Tivercana, the golf cart driver took us up to the building associated with the golf course. The signs seemed to suggest that it also housed a casino.
“This island is a playground for the rich and famous tourists that come to the Hallow Haven looking for luxury, quiet splendor and breathtaking scenery,” Kieran announced performatively. It reminded me of the in-flight videos you see for the place you are flying to, it’s like I’m already headed there, stop selling it.
“Have you had any recent incidents that Greta had to address?” I asked.
“I think some of my younger children had decided to steal a boat or two from one of the smaller islands, maybe carve bad words into a few palm trees, spray paint over a portrait of Port Wayvern’s largest lobster... nothing major,” he smiled. He had an uncomfortable edge to his voice that suggested perhaps I wasn’t getting the full story. I would have to review the notes back at the house.
A tall, thin man hurried out of the building in a smart polo shirt and cream-colored trousers. “Rosie why are you here?” he barked.
“I’m here to show Sadie the island, she’s the new—”
“You’re still following me, I told you to leave me alone. You shouldn’t have come here.” That must be Simon. He and Rosie stepped to the side to continue bickering and I was left waiting for them to stop.
“Young love, eh?” Kieran chuckled. “They’ve been off and on for a long time. Very dramatic but I like her.”
I smiled but couldn’t help wondering if Simon might be the one stalking Rosie.
12
By the time I was back home, I felt that I had done some solid detective work and was ready for bed. It seemed the universe had other ideas. The sun was beginning to set, the café had closed for the day and Effie was the only one still around.
“Tivercana live up to the hype?” she asked.
“I hadn’t heard of it before yesterday,” I laughed. “But I’ve appeased the Davick’s by making sure they got a visit on the same day that I went to Port Wayvern. They really hate each other but I don’t know why,” I said.
“I don’t even think they know the reasons anymore. If your great great-great-great-great-grandfather had an argument with someone, you wouldn’t pass on the rage to all of your descendants, that’s not a normal thing to do. It goes so far back that I don’t think they have a hope of just letting it drop,” she said.
Effie was sitting cross-legged on the kitchen table wearing a biking top and denim shorts, it was so humid that I had gone to change into a similar outfit, only my bare skin was just bare, Effie was covered in so many tattoos she looked like she still had clothes on. She was eating an ice-cream sandwich and I couldn’t take my eyes of it.
“Catch," she shouted. Her right hand was empty, and she made a fist as if she was holding something to throw to me, I cupped my hands in front of my face to receive whatever was coming my way, but I didn’t see it until I felt the weight in my hands. She had thrown nothing, yet I was now holding an ice-cream sandwich in its wrapper.
“How did you do that?” I asked, flummoxed.
“What part of ‘witch’ is confusing?” she laughed. “Look, think of something that you want, food is super easy so think of a snack.”
“The soft cookies from the grocery store by my old house,” I said. This made Effie laugh again for some reason.
“You don’t have to tell me, just think about it. Imagine that you are holding it in your right hand, make a fist really tight, then open up so that your palm is flat and facing upwards,” she instructed. I did as she said and when the cookie appeared on my skin, I was so alarmed that I threw it across the room.
Despite having just watched Effie cause an ice-cream sandwich to materialize, it felt too much to be doing it myself. “I did it,” I said through heavy breaths.
“None of it is all that hard, but if you are born and raised in a world that dictates to you what’s possible and what isn’t then you’ll never try. We don’t raise kids that way on the islands, even the humans that don’t have a drop of magic in their body think that if they try enough times that they might just spontaneously become something exciting,” Effie smiled.
I decided that I would clean up the floor cookie later, eat the ice-cream sandwich now and not try magic again until my brain had caught up with me.
“Kate said you and Miller have the hots for each other.”
“Did she now?" I said through a mouthful. The heat of my breath as I spoke condensed against the ice-cream, so it looked like I was exhaling smoke.
“He’s a strange guy. Greta said he was a solid partner for all the diplomacy stuff, mad patient with all the lunatics that live around here, but just some eternal bachelor. Never seen him on a date, never seen him grinning like a goof down at his phone like he just got a text from someone cute, nothing. If he’s into you then you should know that you are about to be the envy of just about every chick on this island, a few of the dudes too.”
“He seems shut off, like he wants to keep things very professional and not blur the lines. I can appreciate that he is all kinds of fine, but if he wants to keep to himself then I can’t do anything about it,” I replied. I thought again of the time that I had stumbled on the shore and he had jumped away to avoid my arms touching him. As much as I liked the idea, I didn’t think he would be asking me out anytime soon.
“I would love to stay and talk boys all night, but Kate is out on one of her weird GPS roulette games with her weird friends and that means I get the house to myself for precisely two more hours, so I’d better run!” Effie jumped down from the counter, clicked her fingers to have her trash dance through the air into the trash can and then she skipped out of the room. Shortly after that I heard the door click shut as she left the building.
I stood up and made my way over to the cookie I had thrown on the ground. I couldn’t help but smile as I swept up the mess, I was a witch,
a real one. I can’t claim that I had spent a lifetime not feeling as though I fit in, that wouldn’t be true. Everything on the mainland had seemed normal, the same old regular things that happen to regular people. It was only being on this island that I realized how different things could have been. Why had I been sent away? Would Greta know?
A noise from another room made me think that maybe Greta had shown up and maybe now was a good time to ask her about the family history that had been a secret to me all this time. Who were my parents? Where are they now? I tipped the crumbs into the trashcan and walked towards the living room, assuming I would see Greta. There was another noise, like a low, snarled breathing sound.
I hadn’t gotten round to closing the blinds or curtains anywhere in the house yet. This allowed me to see a silhouette pass by the outside of the house, a dark figure looming by the window. I wanted to see who it was, but as I stepped forward, they moved. Was the stalker here? Were they after me now?
I still hadn’t taken the time to go through the dispute notes, I didn’t know if Greta had made a bad decision or sided with the wrong family and put a target on her back. Why stalk Rosie too though? In the time between Greta being killed and me arriving on the island, the stalker must have known that there was no peacekeeper in place. Was this about the café?
Something loud hit the door, like a body throwing themselves at it. A shoulder shove or two could probably allow them to get into the house and then I’d be trapped. I looked around for an object I could use to hit them with, the living room was filled with small clay pots and fake flowers, none of which would be useful in a fight.
As I expected, the second attempt to ram the door down was successful. I heard the splintering wood hit the floor and then the sound of the ocean lapping the shore was slightly louder, masked only by the sound of my breath and a stranger’s footsteps on the floor of the hallway.
My magic had so far produced a cookie, I had doubts that produced baked goods would help me out of this situation.