“Of course,” she groaned. “How awful to have to watch our backs like this just because some lowlife decided to mess with an innocent child. I thought about cancelling all of the classes completely, but then thought perhaps the other students could use at least a little bit of normalcy. I’ve brought in grief counsellors to help anyone who needs it, but it’s crazy that we need to do this at all. I can’t believe this has happened.”
“I know. It’s not fair. Moonlight Cove never used to be this way,” I sighed. “But we are going to set this right. It’ll go back to how it was, I swear.”
The problem was, I wasn’t sure I believed my own words.
Chapter 6
Two official police interviews and two less-than-comfortable conversations with my sister down, and it was still early afternoon. I was getting pretty efficient at this whole investigation thing, if I did say so myself. Granted, I had a professional to follow around half the time, but I usually did that anyway, regardless of whether they knew or wanted it.
Maybe I’d try tailing Morgan Forsetti next time if I wanted a real challenge.
But when official channels like these failed me, there was always one place I could always rely on to give me the details on what the local gossip mill was turning out, as long as I could keep track of what was just fluff and what was something worth investigating.
My broom carried me down the usual slope to where the Magic Bean stood, and the smell of fresh coffee hit me before I even brought the broom to a halt.
At this point in my life, I drank so much coffee that just the smell of it tended to perk me up, like a placebo effect. I thought about putting some charms on the kitchen to keep a constant coffee smell floating around in the air, but it just wasn’t the same as the real thing.
By the looks of the broomsticks propped up out front already, plenty of other people had already had the idea to use a steaming mug of coffee to escape the chilly air outside. But I missed the lunch rush, so at least there wouldn’t be a huge swarm of people clamoring to get their caffeine fix.
I pushed the door open and a wave of heat washed over me, my whole body relaxing at the familiar, rich smells of freshly ground beans, spicy teas, and baking pastries that made my stomach growl loudly enough to announce my entry.
As usual, Elisa was behind the bar with a big smile on her face as she looked up and down between snippets of conversation with a customer while she made what looked like a hazelnut mocha. I felt a pang of shame that I could recognize what she was making at a glance. I definitely spent too much time in here. Elisa kept half-jokingly offering me a part-time job if the B&B business ever got too slow for my liking, and honestly, I was starting to wonder if it wasn’t just a matter of time before I caved. Of course, I was pretty sure taking a job here meant my blood type was going to change to ‘espresso’. As I entered, I caught a glimpse of Bella, Elisa’s shy little sister, who vanished behind the back door after setting a full tray of fresh bagels in the basket behind the counter. Bella was a good enough baker that she could open her own place and see it flourish, but the poor thing was too young and too shy to even fathom such a thing.
Besides, she and Elisa worked well together, and the Magic Bean wouldn’t be the same without her face around.
“Arti!” a voice called out, and I turned in surprise to see that it came from Lara, who was seated at a small round table by the snowy window. Crowded around the little table next to her were Daphne, bundled up in so many layers that she looked like she could have been toppled over and rolled across the floor, and a more comfortable-looking woman who bore a striking resemblance to Daphne.
It had to be her sister, who she had come here to visit.
Lara was already waving me over to their table as I started making my way over to them.
“I didn’t expect to run into all of you while I was out,” I said as I reached them.
“We weren’t expecting to be out until about half an hour ago,” Lara said with a nervous laugh. At that point, Elisa swept in beside me, her arms carrying three little plates bearing panini.
“Here we are, ladies - oh, hi Arti!” she exclaimed, beaming at me. “I didn’t realize you were going to be joining the party here. Are you having one of these too?”
What she set down for each of the ladies made my stomach growl so loudly I thought people across the cafe were going to turn and look to see who let a bear into the coffee shop. Just the faintest wisps of steam rose up from fresh-baked ciabatta bread covered in shavings of cheese that were just sparse enough to garnish the presentation perfectly, crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. Between the bread were two thick slices of tomato per panini that I knew came from a local garden, squashed between generous servings of decadently melting mozzarella cheese. The inner sides of the bread were stained green with what I recognized as handmade pesto, thick with the basil that grew in Elisa’s windows, garlic from her garden, pine nuts, and a sinful amount of olive oil. A sprig of basil garnished each plate’s ensemble, as did a thin spiral of pesto surrounding the sandwich.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Elisa said, snapping me out of my trance that I realized I’d been in for about eight full seconds of awkward silence.
The table laughed as I blushed and thanked Elisa, pulling up a fourth chair to have a seat with the others.
“Arti, this is my sister, Desiree,” Daphne said, pulling down her scarf and finally starting to work her way out of her bundle of winter clothing. “I’m Daph, she’s Des.”
“Oh, hi!” I said, giving the young woman a bright smile. “I’ve seen you around, nice to finally meet you.”
“That’s the Moonlight Cove greeting,” Desiree said to Daphne with a knowing smile. “‘I’ve seen you somewhere but don’t know you’. Small town life, you know?” She then turned to me with a brighter smile and extended a hand to shake mine. “I’m Des. We probably haven’t met because I’m always working down at the nursery these days. Nice to finally meet the B&B detective.”
“Oh, I hope that’s not my nickname around town already,” I said with a nervous laugh.
“It will be if I have anything to do with it,” Lara said with a wink.
“So, I take it you had a change of heart about lunch?” I asked Lara, raising an eyebrow at the panini, and she bit her lip with a guilty smile.
“Well, okay, so I wanted to make chicken and rice, but I realized you didn’t have instant rice-”
I winced involuntarily.
“And then it hit me that I don’t actually know how to cook chicken for chicken and rice, or how to cook rice, and actually I kind-of sort-of don’t know how to cook chicken, either. And I might have been too nervous to say so on the phone.” She gave a sheepish grin, and my heart melted, both because it made me feel a hundred times better about my own cooking, and at the idea that Lara Lancaster would be nervous about impressing me of all people.
“Oh, I’m sure it would have been fine!” I said reassuringly.
“Well, maybe,” Lara said. “But I had this vision of me burning the rice and ruining one of your pots and the fire alarms going off and long story short we ended up here instead.”
“Well, this is a good backup,” I said. “We’ll just have to start incorporating cooking classes into the B&B package.”
“Oooh, I love that idea,” Daphne piped up, finally free of her heavy outer layers.
“We certainly might have time for it, depending on how long the police keep up this quarantine spell,” I said with a sigh. “Oh, and Daphne, I’m sure Lara mentioned it, but you’re more than welcome to stay at the B&B as long as the quarantine is still in place, I’m not going to kick you out on the streets. Free of charge. I’m just lucky I didn’t have anyone scheduled immediately after you.”
“Who wouldn’t want to get stuck in a resort town with an active kidnapping investigation?” Lara joked.
“Right? It’s practically free advertising,” I said with a feeble smile that hid how worried it was actually making me. Then
again, I knew by now that there was a healthy demographic of guests who loved the idea of a town where murder investigations were regular. On the other hand, I really, really hoped Tina Frost was alright. The longer the investigation went on, the worse it was for everyone, and frankly, there were much more important things at stake than my B&B’s business operations.
“This place is just adorable, though,” Daphne said, looking around at the interior of the Bean while she picked up her sandwich. “Besides, I like a little fresh air.”
“Sure you got any of it under all those layers?” Desiree teased, and we all laughed.
“I like to be cozy! I’m from Arizona, this is basically the north pole,” Daphne protested good-naturedly, and we were still laughing when Elisa appeared with my sandwich.
“Happened to have another one heating up,” she told me with a wink as she set it down.
“Oh, put the table on my tab, if you can do that,” I asked Elisa. “I’m covering for being an absentee hostess for lunch.”
“Oh my!” Elisa laughed. “Big standards to live up to.”
I rolled my eyes as Elisa bustled off to let us enjoy our sandwiches after the girls gave me a round of thank-yous and you-didn’t-have-to-do-thats.
But as soon as I bit into the panini, I regretted my choice - not because it tasted bad. In fact, it was simply the best panini I had ever had, and I had to hold myself back from making an audible moan when I took a bite. I regretted it because I knew I had to step up my game in a big way if I was going to follow up on this caliber of cooking. This was a panini to die for.
We chatted about some of the odds and ends of Moonlight Cove, how Lara came to settle down in a cozy place like this, and some of Desiree’s work at the nursery while we munched. And thankfully, none of the girls brought up the ongoing investigation, presumably because they thought I was legally obliged not to talk about it. That made me feel nice and official, even though I was technically still just snooping.
When things were winding down, I stood up and excused myself to make my way over to the counter, where Elisa beckoned me over once she finished handling another customer.
I took out my wallet, but Elisa made a subtle gesture for me to come closer, and I realized she was leading me a little ways away from the rest of the crowd.
“What’s up?” I asked in a low tone. “Oh gosh, I didn’t steal someone’s chair, did I?”
“What? No, no,” she giggled under her breath. “I just wanted a second with you - first of all, try this,” she whispered, revealing a tiny sample cup of espresso. “New shipment from Hawaii.”
I glanced around secretively, then downed the espresso like a shot. It was smooth and rich, not at all acidic, and just the right temperature.
“Oh holy moon,” I breathed with wide eyes.
“I know, right?” Elisa said with a delighted grin.
“I’m definitely buying some of that off you.”
“We can deal with that later,” she said. “Next order of business - you’re working on the kidnapping case, right?”
“Wait, how did you-?”
She gave me a flat look. “Arti, I run the coffee shop all those worried parents came to right after they watched Xander Forsetti pull you aside in the middle of a speech. The newspaper should be paying me to write the bulk of their articles for them. Oh, and you literally solved three murder cases in the past year.”
“Okay, yeah, fair,” I admitted. “Yes, I’m unofficially tailing Xander.”
She nodded, casting one last furtive look around us before leaning in closer and whispering lower. “There was one upside to having all the PTA parents swarm in here earlier. I heard a table of them talking about how there’s someone living in town who has a statutory rape charge on his record.”
My eyes widened, and my face went a little pale.
That wasn’t just a bombshell I didn’t realize about Moonlight Cove’s population. It was a pretty dark implication for the motivation behind the Tina Frost kidnapping in the first place.
“Elisa, what do you-”
“I don’t want to jump to any conclusions,” she said. “I just thought you might find it interesting to know. And if you’re running around with Xander, he might be able to help connect the dots, if you know what I mean.”
“Do you have a name for me?”
She frowned and shook her head. “I didn’t catch that, no. And I thought it would be a little tactless to ask them about it directly, you know?”
“Right,” I said, sliding cash over the counter. “Well, thanks. I’ll pass it on to Xander.”
Her expression changed to a smile, and her eyes flashed with interest.
“Speaking of, how’s that going?”
“How’s what going?”
“Oh my goodness, Arti, Xander!”
It took me a full five seconds of staring blankly at Elisa’s expectant face for me to put together that she was asking about me and Xander as an item.
“Oh, shut up,” I said, rolling my eyes. “You haven’t been talking to my mother, have you?”
“Maybe I should, if she’s got more juicy info than you,” she teased.
“We’re working on a case together!” I hissed. “Unofficially, even.”
“Exactly, so there’s no professional conflict of interest,” she said with a wink.
“Elisa, please.”
“I’m just saying, he has eyes for you.”
“Elisa.”
“And God, they’re good eyes, aren’t they?”
“I need to go text him about this.”
“What’s his name in your phone? Does it have emojis next to it?”
“I’m leaving now.”
“You two had better have your first date here,” she called after me as I turned my back on her and rolled my eyes.
“Not a chance,” I called over my shoulder before giving a little wave to the girls and an extra thumbs-up to Lara for playing backup for me. I took a deep breath as soon as I stepped out of the building and picked my broomstick up.
Moon help me, managing a date with Xander was going to be a heck of an ordeal if half the town’s gossip mill had its eyes on us. I hoped he had somewhere lowkey in mind.
I pulled out my phone and looked at Xander’s name thoughtfully. I bit my lip, thinking about Elisa’s words. I texted him the info about the possible statutory rape charge in town, then cast a quick glance over my shoulder to make sure nobody was hovering around.
When the coast seemed clear, I opened up his contact page on my phone and clicked Edit on his name. After a little judicious browsing, I stuck a muscle-arm emoji on one side and a police hat one on the other. Feeling a little color come to my cheeks as I blushed, I stuffed the phone away and waited for the others to come out while running through my mind everything we had learned about the case.
Tina Frost had to still be in town somewhere. The question was: where, exactly? And was she still alive? By the moon, I hoped so.
Chapter 7
I waited outside the Bean while Lara, Daphne, and Desiree finished up lunch. I leaned against the outside of the building, breathing in the crisp, fresh air. A few moments later, the ladies came out to meet me. Daphne and her sister exchanged tight hugs, grinning at each other warmly. It gave me the warm-and-fuzzies to see them so fond of each other. Family closeness was an important part of the culture here in Moonlight Cove, what with being such a small town, and all of the families being so tightly linked, magically. Everywhere you looked, you could find loving, laughing families interacting with each other and enjoying one another’s company. Diana and I had always been close like that, as had Bella and Elisa. Sisterly love was a foundational part of the town, considering that it was founded a long time ago by a coven of witches, and it had remained much the same way ever since. Change came very slowly to our sleepy little corner of the country, and we liked it that way. I hoped that even with the changes to our crime statistics as of late, the good things about Moonlight Cove would stick around.
“Well, I do wish that you were stuck here under less auspicious circumstances, Daph, but I can’t say I’m totally disappointed with how it’s working out. It’s wonderful to spend as much time as possible with my dear sister,” Desiree said, beaming at Daphne. “I haven’t seen you in so long, we were well overdue.”
“I agree. And if I do have to be stuck somewhere, I’m awfully glad that it’s a place like Moonlight Cove. What a beautiful place, even in winter. And such friendly people,” she added, glancing between Lara and me. Lara was positively glowing. I wondered when was the last time someone treated her like a normal person rather than a celebrity. It seemed that the two sisters either didn’t know about her star-studded past or simply didn’t care. Either way, Lara was enjoying being judged based on her character rather than her reputation for once.
“Well, it was great to catch lunch with you all, but I do need to get back to the studio. I’ve got some photos that need to be edited,” Desiree remarked with a wink.
“Oh, do stop by to show them off later!” Daphne piped up. She glanced at me. “If that’s okay with you, of course.”
“Sure, yeah. Come on over. What sort of photos do you take?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Whatever people want, really. I mostly do family portraits, but also weddings, engagement shoots, maternity, pet photos,” she explained happily.
“So, you do the photos on the side?” Lara offered.
Desiree nodded, happy to talk about her passion. “Oh yes. Don’t get me wrong, I do get love my day job at the nursery, but photography is my true passion. I don’t do it enough to make a living from it, but even as a side business I get to capture beautiful, timeless memories for people and get paid to do it. Sounds like a win-win to me,” she said, chuckling.
“Her work really is phenomenal, too,” Daphne added. “She got all the creative genes in the family, for sure.”
A Perfect Spell Page 5