Thea’s eyes narrowed, catching the obvious hole in his story. “Didn’t you get caught before you got the chance to reach his body?”
His eyes widened, not expecting her to know that. “I….”
“So how would that even work? How did you manage to see his body in the morgue when you never made it that far in the first place?”
Thorn swallowed thickly, raising up a finger. His mind was racing, scratching at the walls of his brain to find a way out of this situation. Meanwhile, his cheeks and his ears flushed red in embarrassment.
Fortunately enough, he wasn’t stagnant for long. Thea jolted upwards at the sound of the door opening behind her. Peeking out from inside the room was one of the members, staring straight at Thorn.
“We’re starting,” he spoke in a small voice. Thea noticed how his fingernails were unusually long. “We need you.”
“Right away,” Thorn responded, making his way towards the door.
Before entering, he stuck his foot in front of the door and turned back to Thea. He leaned in close, making sure to keep his voice low.
“If you want to know the truth, meet me at the Ferris wheel tonight. I’ll show you everything.”
“Tonight?”
He nodded. “If you seek answers, I suggest you do what I tell you.”
Thea scowled at his tone but said nothing when he disappeared behind the door, letting it shut behind him without another word. She stared down the empty hallway, watching as one of the lights began to flicker. Thea came there looking for clarity, but she was left mainly confused.
Chapter 21
Balancing three coffees in one hand, Thea pushed open the door to A Novel Idea with a shoulder and made her way inside.
Pippa and Jesse were seated at one of the tables together. Captain was curled up in Jesse’s lap, getting bright fur all over his nice black jeans.
When Pippa and Jesse noticed her, their faces lit up into smiles.
“There you are, Thea!” Pippa said, watching as she set the cup holder upon their table. She immediately grabbed the one with her name on it. “I was missing you.”
Jesse gaped. “What about me?”
“How can I miss you when you’re already here, silly?” Pippa replied, grinning at him.
That comment made him happy, enough to make the tips of his ears go hot. He hoped that she didn’t notice that though.
“All right,” Thea said, taking the seat across Pippa. “I needed to talk about everything I’ve learned so far about this case. It’s been getting interesting.”
“Ooh, spill!” Pippa responded eagerly. “What else did you learn?”
“Well, I’ve been thinking about all of the potential suspects and their motives for killing Marcel,” Thea explained, holding up a few fingers to represent the various people involved in the case. “First, we have Francis. He obviously benefited from Marcel’s killing. He’s now the head chef of Cuisine Maline.”
Jesse nodded. “The Best Restaurant. If I were him, I’d be happy to be in that position.”
“There’s also Thorn. He’s weird and he has a clear connection with Marcel. When I went to the hotel to meet with him, those robed members were all in a conference room having some sort of meeting,” Thea said.
Both Jesse and Pippa widened their eyes at her.
Thea held up her hands. “I think they had the tools to block the scrying spell. This would explain why it was so difficult for Sybil to find the bullet in the maze.”
Pippa sipped on her coffee. “And what about that woman who owns Witt’s End? Eleanor?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure she was at odds with Marcel, there’s no doubt about that. I’ve heard the way she talks about him.,” Thea reasoned with a small shrug. “But I’m pretty sure she didn’t do anything.”
Jesse raised a brow, but took a big gulp of his coffee and said nothing. Thea continued.
“And then there’s Sandra. The ex-girlfriend.” Thea finally got to her last finger. “There’s still a chance she could have killed Marcel. She’s not totally out of the picture yet.”
“What did you find in her desk?” Pippa asked. “Was there anything incriminating?”
“Nothing much, just some pictures of herself and Marcel when they were still dating,” Thea said. “I didn’t find a gun and I asked my Aunt Tiegen about it, too. She said that Sandra didn’t have one.”
“Do you really think that she would be capable of killing Marcel and still have photos of when they were together?” Jesse asked with a confused expression. “That doesn’t add up to me. What if she really does care about him?”
Pippa pressed her lips together in thought. “You know, that makes a lot of sense. Maybe she really does want to find out who killed him.”
“Maybe so,” Thea whispered, staring down at her hands.
The door of the shop opened to reveal a winded Blaine, who had hurried to make it there. Thea turned around in her seat, watching him as he walked towards their table.
Thea filled him in on the discussion. “My aunt told me that Sandra doesn’t own a gun. Eleanor doesn’t own one, either. But Fred does.”
“Fred?” Blaine repeated. “Isn’t she the one who spends all of her time in Witt’s End?”
Thea nodded. “She’s a close friend of Eleanor’s, and she co-owns the diner. She told me that she has a gun.”
“I’ll stop by and see if she’s willing to let me check it out then,” Blaine replied.
However, Thea shook her head, which came as a shock to Blaine. Considering this might have been a step closer to solving the murder case, he figured she would have been eager at the idea. Instead, fear momentarily flashed in her eyes.
“Don’t do that yet. Please don’t. It’ll make Granny upset,” Thea pleaded. “I really don’t want her to get worried even more about this whole thing.”
Although this wasn’t the optimal situation, Blaine accepted her terms. “All right. I’ll wait a little bit, but I’ll have to check in with Fred eventually.”
Turning back to address all of them at once, Thea let out a sigh. “I’m meeting up with Thorn tonight at the festival. He said to meet him under the Ferris wheel if I wanted to find out the truth about Marcel.”
Pippa and Jesse both spluttered out some of their drink, while Blaine frowned deeply.
“What? That sounds like a horrible idea,” Blaine retorted. “That guy was weird. Creeping around in an empty morgue by himself, who does that? And now you want to meet up with him during the night?”
“Eww,” Pippa whispered, rubbing at her arm. “He sounds weird.”
“Yeah, I have to agree with Blaine, Thea,” Jesse piped up, bringing his coffee to his lips again. “This guy sounds like bad news. I wouldn’t even get six feet near him.”
Hearing their opinions made Thea glance up at Blaine. “Do you think Thorn killed him?”
“I…” Blaine said, hesitating. He shook his head. “I can’t know for sure. All I know is that he’s a sketchy guy. I don’t trust him.”
“Who would?” Pippa mumbled.
“When I visited him and the rest of those people at the hotel, they were in the middle of some sort of meeting. They had a bunch of magical tools on their table. Thorn mentioned to me how he knew that Marcel was a demon and how important that was when it came to spells.”
“So what are you saying, Thea?” Jesse asked, furrowing his eyebrows. “I thought those people were Marcel’s allies in a way. Do you think they were up to no good?”
She shrugged in response, her expression somber. “I don’t know, but Thorn knew how powerful demon blood was as an ingredient. If that’s true, then I can see why they might have thought it was worth killing him.”
Chapter 22
No matter how Thea tried to reassure Blaine, it entered one ear and then shot out the other side. There was no way to convince Blaine to let her talk to Thorn by herself. He was adamant about it, determined to stay by her side every step of the way.
Knowing it was w
ise to choose her battles, Thea conceded. She only hoped that Blaine’s presence wouldn’t scare Thorn off. In her pursuit for answers, that was the last thing she needed.
“Is that him over there?” Blaine whispered to her, leaning in closer.
They spotted a mysterious, hooded figure from a distance. Standing alone at the foot of the Ferris wheel, they were positive that this was Thorn. Peculiar as always, wearing a robe that draped over his entire body. It was definitely him.
“Thorn?” Thea called out.
Her voice caught his attention. He pulled down the hood on his head, and although he eyed Blaine warily, he put on a brave face.
“I didn’t expect you to bring him with you tonight,” Thorn said scornfully, still remembering the way Blaine dragged him through the police department before interrogating him for hours on end. “But I can understand. To an extent.”
“What did you want to tell us about Marcel?” Blaine asked, cutting to the chase. “Are you going to give us information that’ll be useful in solving this case?”
Thorn narrowed his eyes, looking from Blaine to Thea. Before long, he was rolling up the sleeves of his robe and crossing his arms over his chest. He carried a blank expression.
“In all honesty, there’s not much to say. My group and I came to this town in order to meet Marcel, but we never wanted to kill him. That was never our intention,” Thorn explained. “Besides, killing someone is strictly against our group’s beliefs. None of us would do something like that.”
“So what does your group really do?” Thea prompted. “Back at the hotel, you and the rest of those people were in the middle of something. A ritual. I saw all those items on the table.”
Thorn snorted, chuckling for a few seconds. “My club and I just do this for the fun of it. We never took any of this magic stuff seriously. My name’s Eugene, by the way. I thought being called Thorn would give me a cool edge.”
“A cool edge,” Blaine repeated incredulously under his breath. He wasted so much time interrogating this kid, just to find out that he was playing some act all along?
“We wanted to try out something different,” Thorn continued with a shrug. “When we got to Ardensville, we didn’t think Marcel would end up getting murdered. That was way too crazy. None of us had anything to do with that, I promise.”
“So what were you doing in the morgue?” Thea asked.
“You kept mentioning something about a lord of darkness,” Blaine piped up, unimpressed by this sudden revelation. “What? Was that also part of your game?”
“I was dared to sneak into the morgue. I got a lot of credit in the group for it,” Thorn explained, sending them a sheepish smile.
Suddenly, Thea held her hand out. “Give me one of those symbols. I want to see something.”
Although bewildered by her request, Thorn complied. Pulling it out of one of his robe’s inner compartments, he flinched when Thea abruptly snatched it from his grasp.
Putting her skills to work, she closed her eyes and focused on her magical meditation. Doing her best to sense the energy emanating off the object, she frowned when she realized nothing was happening. Matter of fact, the symbol wasn’t even glowing. It was as dull as a worn out knife.
Twisting it around in her hands to observe it from all angles, Thea squinted as she found some small lettering engraved on the side of it.
Made in Pittsburgh. The thing was made out of plastic.
“So you and your group aren’t some weird cult out for demon blood?” Thea asked absentmindedly.
She figured that he would take offense to that comment, but Thorn didn’t seem to mind. Handing the symbol back to him, he looked somewhat amused.
“We’re not out for anyone’s blood, trust me,” he reassured the two of them. “I get most of my information off Wikipedia.”
After departing from Thorn, Thea and Blaine walked through the festival and tried to make sense of what happened. Blaine, still stunned that some kid managed to trick the whole police department into thinking he was a part of some cult, was mostly quiet. A lot of thoughts were spinning in his head.
Thea, on the other hand, observed the festivities going on around her. As her eyes drifted across the scene, she was surprised to see a familiar face. A man in a suit with a sour look on his face, even with his wife and children by his side. Her memories of him at A Stitch in Time came to the forefront.
“Dennis, hello!” Thea greeted, bowing her head out of respect. “I hope you’re having fun at the Harvest Festival.”
“We are, thank you!” his wife cut in, a tight grip on the shoulder of one of her children. The smile on her face was wide. “We are so fortunate that we were invited to this town. Isn’t that right, Dennis? Right, kids?”
As she waited for confirmation from her family, Blaine cleared his throat. “As natives to this town, we’re glad. We worked really hard to make sure this festival was successful.”
“Oh, I can see that,” she replied, taking a look at the decorations that could be found up and down the street. “It’s beautiful. We’re sort of taking this as a vacation, even though Dennis is technically here for his job.”
“Don’t remind me,” Dennis mumbled.
“The Better Business Bureau is a stressful job as is, so it’s easy to get caught up in all of the work,” she explained, patting Dennis’ arm in an affectionate way. The man remained emotionless, regardless of her actions. “But his endeavors are definitely paying off! Everyone values his opinion at the BBB. He’s in a great position.”
“We can tell,” Thea said, already bored with the conversation.
It was interesting to see the two contrasting personalities together. Dennis was objective and unfeeling, while his wife didn’t mind talking about anything and everything under the sun. She wasted no time bragging about Dennis’ position within the company, even though neither Thea or Blaine were quite interested in hearing about it.
Before long, Thea discreetly waved over Jesse, who was handing out small balloon animals to the children he passed by. As he managed to distract Dennis’ children, as well as his wife, this gave Thea and Blaine the perfect opportunity to slip away unnoticed.
She would have to thank him for that later. After all, this wasn’t the first time she left Jesse behind to deal with Dennis. Coupled with his wife? He could get paid vacation off if he wanted it, at this point.
Chapter 23
On the other side of the festival, Sandra stood at the edge of a small crowd gathered around a display from several local crafters and artisans. From afar, it appeared Sandra was fixedly watching the crowd, but upon closer inspection it was clear she was incredibly distracted. In her arms was a small pile of papers which she thumbed through absentmindedly, and hanging from her shoulder was an over-sized handbag.
Whatever held Sandra’s attention was enough that she failed to see Blaine and Thea emerge from the crowd and walk towards her. It wasn’t until the two were practically right in front of Sandra’s face that she seemed to notice their presence.
Sandra rapidly blinked her eyes as if she were waking from a trance and said, “Oh! Hello Sheriff, Thea. So nice to see you two here. Are you having a good time?”
Blaine ignored the question and instead answered Sandra with one of his own.
“Ms. Holden,” he said, putting on the most authoritative voice he could manage, “do you own a gun?”
Sandra raised her empty hand to her chest in shock. “What? A gun?”
“Yes, ma’am. I have reason to believe you own a weapon, and we’d like to take a closer look at it.”
Sandra’s shock shifted to quiet fury. Her brow furrowed. “No, I actually don’t own a gun.” Sandra turned toward Thea, convinced that she was the root of this suspicion against her. “In fact,” she continued, “I don’t approve of violence. It’s a nasty thing.”
“I can’t disagree with you there, Ms. Holden,” Blaine responded.
“Oh, Blaine, let’s stop with the formalities,” Sandra looke
d back toward the Sheriff and shook her head.
Blaine shifted his weight from one foot to the other, obviously caught off guard by Sandra’s shift in attitude. It didn’t take long, though, for him to regain himself and continue his line of questioning.
“All right, Sandra,” he carefully enunciated her name, “I have another question. What can you tell me about the night you broke into Marcel’s home?”
Sandra’s eyes shot wide open. “How do you know about that?” she asked incredulously.
“I’m a cop, remember? It’s part of my job to know these things.”
Sandra crossed her arms as best she could with her hands and arms full. “Well then you should also know that Marcel dropped those charges. It wasn’t even a real break-in. I had a key to his house.”
“But you two were on the outs at the time, right?” Blaine questioned.
“Yes,” Sandra responded coldly, turning her gaze down to the ground. She stood that way for what felt to Thea like an eternity before she looked back up. She looked not directly at Blaine, but instead gazed over his right shoulder.
Sandra finally spoke up again. “At the time, I suspected Marcel had been cheating on me. I used my key to get in, legally,” she added, “to see if I could find any evidence. For what it’s worth, I found what I was looking for.”
Sandra, so recently reticent to hold eye contact with Blaine, looked directly in Thea’s eyes and added, “Not that it’s any of your business, mind you. I’m not sure what the owner of a craft store has to do with solving a murder.”
Thea blushed and almost attempted to argue the point, but Blaine rested a hand on her shoulder. It wasn’t worth arguing with Sandra. It was obvious she just wanted to change the subject and shift attention from herself.
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