by Kelly Ethan
She slid behind the bench and opened a filing cabinet, rifling through the papers, but none of them were staff. She abandoned the first cabinet and moved to the second. This was harder as it was closer to the lunchroom.
Xandie eased the drawer out and skimmed through the files. She’d hit the jackpot, the staff files. She thumbed through until she hit Makepeace.
“You know, Ms. Meyers, I’d have given you any information if you’d asked. There’s no need for surreptitious behavior.” A statuesque woman with flowing blonde ringlets towered over Xandie’s five-feet-five height.
When in doubt, bluff it out. Xandie frowned and tapped the folder. “I’m disappointed to see the records in such disarray. And have you heard it’s the digital age? These could be a fire hazard.”
The blonde goddess trilled a laugh. “My goodness, so brazen. I adore you, Alexandra Meyers, and can see why the library picked you.” The blonde Amazon slid the file out of Xandie’s hand and gave it a fleeting glance before dumping it on a cabinet.
Busted. “Thank you. And you are?” Please don’t work here, she chanted mentally.
“I’m one of three head mistresses. I’m Melissa Syne and I’m thrilled to meet you.”
Thrilled? Xandie called tall-tale and decided on a blunt attack. “Why are you thrilled? I’m stealing staff files from you.”
The woman pointed to the purloined paperwork. “This? There’s been a misunderstanding. It’s not stealing when it’s gifted.” She placed the folder into Xandie’s sweaty hands.
Xandie sagged against the filing cabinet. All her thieving adrenaline dissipated in the face of too much sweetness. “Okay, what gives?”
“It devastated us when we lost Sera, but we rejoiced when you accepted your family duties.”
“Why is the boss of the academy concerned with what I do?”
“The Great Library was dedicated to the goddesses of the arts. The nine muses. I’m a descendent, as are my two sisters, who run the school with me. Calliope and Clio.” She leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, “I’m better equipped to handle teenagers since I’m descended from the muse of tragedy but don’t tell my sisters that.” She straightened. “That information needs to be back by the start of the day tomorrow. Do we understand each other, librarian?”
Xandie nodded mutely.
The muse clapped her hands. “Wonderful. Now, we have career day coming up and we’d love to have you talk about working as the librarian. We’ll arrange that later. Goodbye, Alexandra.” She propelled Xandie out.
What just happened? Had she met a groupie? Xandie walked determinedly out. She needed to see if her cousins had found any information on Archibald’s cause of death. They could go over the school file together. Three heads were better for solving a murder.
Lila wiped her sweaty face and heaved in a shuddering breath. “It was horrible. You should have seen her. She fawned over the guy while he cut into Archibald’s chest. Holly had to wipe drool off her chin. I puked, and she drooled. I’m shocked at her priorities. Just shocked. Today’s youth are so desensitized.”
The cousins gathered in Lila’s apartment as Harrow House had too many busybodies and Theo was bathing Horatio, the imp. No one wanted to bear witness to a naked imp.
“I’m two weeks younger than Xandie and four weeks younger than you.”
“Exactly. The younger generation.” Lila nodded sagely.
Holly responded by pegging a French fry at her cousin’s round face.
Lila retaliated with her own food bomb.
Xandie snatched the food before all the delicious oily takeout ended up as missiles. “Besides blood, puke and drool, did you find anything else?”
“My area of expertise.” Holly picked a fry out of her hair and munched. “Someone poisoned Archie. I can’t identify it yet since it’s only a partial sample.”
Xandie groaned. “That’s frustrating.”
Lila kneeled next to her cousin. “Are you sure she’s innocent? Really sure?”
Xandie remembered the remorse in Priss’s face after the gnome incident. The sadness and dejection when questioned in her holding cell. “I’m sure. The woman’s hiding a secret, but she didn’t do it.”
“Well, alright then. That’s all I need. Let’s read her file and see what we can find out?” Lila handed the contents out to everyone.
Dead silence reigned as the three women read through Priss Makepeace’s life.
“That was so boring.” Lila threw her part on the floor. “Slayer girl has been a fencing instructor for four years. Taught at private colleges in Massachusetts and volunteered at a sporting club for under-privileged sorcerer teenagers. She’s a saint.”
“Athletic more than saint,” Holly corrected Lila. “She holds national records for fencing as a junior. But once she hit eighteen, she disappeared from competition. Appears again five years later. I wonder why she disappeared?”
“Her father died.” Xandie flapped her sheet of paper. “The school ran a check. They had trouble getting history on her family, especially her father, Simon, because they moved so often. But when Priscilla Makepeace turned eighteen, her father died. Officials recorded his death as a work-related accident, but it’s vague. I think she went to ground, trained and popped back up as a fencing coach.”
“Wow, that’s traumatic.” Holly teared.
“But there’s something else. Priss told me the academy reached out to her when the permanent instructor went on maternity leave.”
“And?” Lila demanded.
“That’s a lie. She reached out to them and offered her services. At the exact same time the instructor left on early maternity leave.”
Lila pursed her lips. “She paid the other instructor to disappear?”
“Yeah. But why?” Xandie dropped the papers on the chair next to her.
“What about the library?”
“It keeps showing me the same dragon clan migration information. The chapter on the Penne’s mentions the heir Adelind and her mate, Ronald. Hang on.” Xandie snapped her fingers. “It did mention a missing heir, Melinda Penne, who ran off with a guy of questionable origins.”
“What does questionable origins mean?”
“It means he was a dragon slayer.” Priss stood in the doorway of Lila’s apartment.
Xandie, Lila and Holly spun about.
“And Melinda Penne was my mother.”
Six
“The twin cops released me on bail this afternoon. I wandered for a while. Then saw the lights on over the bakery. Thought I’d see if you were here.” Priss stepped inside.
Xandie peered out the window. Without them realizing, the sun had set while they were going over their evidence.
“Aren’t you the only suspect? Why did the cops let you out?” Lila frowned.
She shrugged. “They only took me in for questioning and they found another print on the poison bottle. They aren’t one hundred percent sure I’m the murderer now. They’re still investigating. I’m free for now, but not off the hook. And I need your help.” She shuffled from foot to foot.
Holly threw a cushion. “For God’s sake, sit and let the baker feed you.”
Priss took a single armchair as Lila jumped up and bustled into the kitchen. She leaned forward. “I’m sorry for not telling the truth, but my life’s complicated.”
Xandie snorted. “That’s an understatement. But at least the library isn’t on the fritz. The dragon book it shoved at me mentioned Melinda as a missing heir.”
“Not missing, banished. My mom fell in love with a slayer. My father, Simon Makepeace. She tried telling her mother, but Marjorie Penne wouldn’t listen. Even her own sisters, Adelind and Belle, turned against her. Adelind’s mate Ronald passed on a letter from her mother detailing her banishment.” She paused when Lila dumped a large meat and salad sandwich in front of her, along with a glass of milk.
“Eat first. Talk later.” She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for Priss to consume her food before she sat.
Priss drained her milk after she finished the sandwich. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”
Lila motioned for her to continue her story.
“Ronald broke protocol and gave my parents money. He apologized, and that was the last time my mom saw her family.”
“The library’s never wrong. The information mentioned missing, not banished. Are you sure you have it right?”
Priss drew crumpled paper from her pocket. “This is the letter. It’s my only proof except for my birth certificate and my parents’ marriage certificate. But the rest is at my place. I’m renting at Hazel’s bed-and-breakfast on Elm Street.”
Xandie grabbed the letter and smoothed it out. It was a handwritten diatribe about Melinda’s mate, his dragon-slaying lifestyle, and how the family head refused to countenance such a mate in the family. She’d never allow Melinda and Simon under her roof. Even banished her own daughter and refused to see her again. “Wow, harsh. No way to misunderstand those words. Surely when your mom had you, Marjorie changed her mind?”
“Not that I ever heard. My father said once a dragon’s mind was made up, there was little anyone could do to change it. Not even with the tip of a sword.”
“Your dad wasn’t much of a charmer.”
“No.” Priss offered a watery smile. “My mother’s death ripped a hole inside him. He functioned and took care of me, but he lived and breathed revenge against the dragons. Any dragon. Most of what I learned came from textbooks I hid away from him. As far as the books go, they state dragons are only compatible with other dragons. Human hybrids don’t exist.”
“Yet clearly you do.” Holly sniffed and dismissed the letter. “Nothing wrong with hybrids. We’re extra special; it just takes time for us to find our own way. You have any dragon woo-woo?”
“I can make claws.” She held fingers up and concentrated. Sharp silver talons slid out from the tips of her fingers. “And I don’t get sick, ever. I guess I have dragon immunity, but nothing else so far.”
“Rewind. Did your mother even tell Marjorie about you?” Lila arched an eyebrow.
“She was on her way to force her mom to acknowledge me when she collided with a crop duster, outside of town. Both her and the pilot died. That wasn’t too long after I was born.”
“Point Muse doesn’t have crops, so why have a crop duster buzzing overhead?” Lila frowned.
“The investigation into the pilot’s death stated he was off course. They suspected he’d been drinking.” She stared at her hands. “My dad returned to dragon slaying. He died when I was eighteen. I became a fencing instructor, but I swore I’d get even with my mom’s family.”
“That’s not helping your murder suspect status. Hang on...” Xandie narrowed her gaze. “You’re behind the missing artifacts, aren’t you? There’s a rumor the Pennes had stolen and hoarded them.”
“Tried to frame them, but the police never moved against the Pennes. I even snuck into her hoard. But it didn’t work. Instead, the cops took me in for questioning.” She dropped her head into her hands and moaned. “Everything’s such a mess.”
“Revenge never wins. Karma always rebounds,” Lila intoned the words in a deep voice and then dropped the serious act. “That’s what mom says. On the other hand, Elspeth is a whiz at revenge. That’s why the old ducks won’t let her enter the annual pie contest any longer.”
“Because she kept winning?” What did pie have to do with revenge?
“Nope, because every time the contest came up, Elspeth would bake a pie with a spell mixed in. One year she had them clucking like ducks, another she laid a truth spell and don’t get mom started on the chaos caused by the naked spell.” She shuddered. “I couldn’t eat pie for ages after that.”
Xandie ignored Lila’s deviation into Elspeth whining and asked Priss a question. “Where are the artifacts you stole?” Xandie wondered what other mayhem headed their way.
“I returned the gnome and the lantern. I didn’t realize what taking them would cause. There’s a snow globe from the gift shop I left in the gallery when Archibald died. Also, a large goblet thing from the funeral home and I left that in the dragon hoard.”
“Oh no.” Holly closed eyes for a moment. “Was it dented and rusted? And larger than a normal cup, you’d have to use two hands to hold it?”
Priss nodded.
“That’s not a goblet. It’s a small cauldron.”
“How is a small cauldron a problem?” Xandie knew she’d regret asking that question.
“Because the people who run Elysian Fields Funeral Home are necromancers. They collect anything to do with death. The goblet’s one of them.” She sagged against the couch, staring off into space.
“For God’s sake, Holly. Spit it out. Enough with the dramatics,” Lila yelled, unable to stand the suspense any longer.
“The goblet is Celtic and belongs to the god Dagda. It can raise the dead.”
“Oh crap.” Priss and Xandie mouthed the words together, eyes wide.
“The cauldron had protective spells put on it by Elspeth. I hope stealing it didn’t rupture the spells. Or...” She trailed off, and then carried on with an audible gulp, “Or Elspeth’s killer ceramic garden gnomes will seem like a garden party compared to supernatural zombie residents.”
“Ah, the joy of Point Muse keeps on giving.”
“Enough, Lila,” Holly snapped at her cousin. Her quiet nature dissolved when confronted by the walking dead.
Xandie stalked to the front window of Lila’s apartment and stared out over Main Street. One thing after another. Whoever killed Penne was a step ahead. Frustrated, Xandie laid her forehead against the glass. A red glow behind Main Street caught her attention. “We have another problem.”
Lila and Holly ran to Xandie, leaving Priss to follow.
“Near the bed-and-breakfast, wouldn’t you say?” Xandie pointed toward the smear of rusty red in the early evening sky.
Lila confirmed Xandie’s guess. “Not near. That is Hazel’s place.”
“We need the artifact from the gallery, and we need to put the fire out at Hazel’s. Someone set Hazel’s alight to destroy any evidence that Melinda had a child.” Xandie grabbed Priss and dragged her to the front door. “We’ll break into Malones. Harrows, get to Hazel, make sure she’s safe and save our evidence. If we get the globe, we can stop the fire straight away.”
Xandie and her new friend headed to the gallery and an icy end to the fire.
“Just one more push. We don’t have time to wait.” Xandie hung over the windowsill, panting. A sad case of déjà vu shivered along her spine. What was it with windows and her hanging out of them?
Priss slapped a hand on Xandie’s behind and gave an almighty shove.
Xandie flew through the window space and collapsed on the floor. Someone had left the window open in a storeroom. Without Priss and her upper body strength, she’d never have clambered inside. “That was too easy.”
“Try being on the shoving side. It wasn’t so easy.”
“I’m ignoring you.” Xandie switched her phone’s light app on and shone it around the storeroom. “I’ll see if I can open a door. Iris so needs a security system.”
“No need.” Priss eyed the window and backed up. She took a running leap, grabbed hold of the sill and heaved herself through the open window. Unlike Xandie, the fencing instructor dismounted with grace and then bowed to a pretend audience.
“Hate you and your coordination right now,” she grumbled at the way-too-perky murder suspect. “Where’s the artifact?”
“In the kitchenette where I found Penne dead. It was in my fencing bag with my workout stuff.”
“Why bring your workout gear to an art showing?” Xandie slid into the hallway.
“I had a last-minute meeting arranged with Archibald. He caught me at the end of a workout. I had enough time to change, but not drop my stuff back at Hazel’s. He thought I was lying when I first told him about my mom or being a hybrid. But something must have interested him becaus
e he contacted me and asked for a meeting. I went straight to the gallery. And you saw what happened next.” She followed Xandie.
“So why did he want to meet?”
“Some evidence he found made him believe my story. He wanted to help. Stick it to the clan. At least that’s what he told me. But then I walked in and stumbled over the poison bottle and earned a stint in jail.” She searched the room, looking for her gear. “No bag, no globe. It should be here.”
“Unless Iris, the gallery owner, found your bag. Let’s search her office.”
Priss led the way. “The office is windowless so we’re good for lights.” She flicked the switch and light blazed through the messy overfilled room. “Iris Malone’s a packrat.”
Xandie toed a box open. “Mass-produced tourist gifts. Maybe she was selling them as originals?”
“Who knows? I just need my gear.” Priss rifled through the other boxes.
Moving boxes aside, Xandie searched through the desk. Lots of overdue bills, but no bag. She shoved at a pile of catalogs and a red leather book hidden in the middle of the stacks slid off the desk. Xandie snatched it before it hit the floor. Her necklace tightened before releasing a second later. The library had been right about the dragon information. Maybe the red journal was important?
“Xandie?”
“I might have found something.” She opened the journal and thumbed through the pages. It was a running tally of artifacts. Each entry described the artifact and had a dollar amount, along with two letters. “Ha.”
“Xandie,” Priss called out again.
Spinning, she waved the notebook at Priss. “I found something interesting.”
“Ditto.” Priss lifted the globe with one hand and a dragon’s fang with another.
“Okay, you have a morbid obsession with teeth the same as Holly?”
“I watched Penne drop off boxes to the gallery owner at odd times. I was so focused on getting even, I didn’t pay too much attention.”