by Kelly Ethan
The mermaids frequented her Aunt Amelia’s veterinary practice because of their fish physiology, so Lila had asked around and turned up Coral Greenwater. The mermaid had agreed to a meeting on Xandie’s dock. Now all Xandie had to do was get to the beach without breaking her neck on the rickety stairs.
She flinched when one tread let out an ominous creak. “No more pastries, I swear,” she promised the stair.
“I’m not a pastry eater, but Lila’s Chai Oyster chaser is to die for.” A greenish blonde-haired woman leaned the top half of her body on the dock and smiled.
Xandie exhaled as she cleared the last step and joined the woman. “Oysters aren’t my thing.” Xandie paused. “Ah, how do you…” She pointed to the mermaid’s covered bottom half.
The mermaid flicked the tip of a shimmering emerald and lapis lazuli tail above the water. “We do a group order and Lila delivers to the waterside for us. She’s a full-service bakery. Caters to every supernatural.” The mermaid shrugged and Xandie glimpsed a pastel pink sports bra.
“Most land dwellers can’t handle naked skin, so we found a great dive clothing company that designs clothing for us.” The mermaid maneuvered backward and flashed her glittery bra.
Xandie cleared her throat. “That’s great. I’m guessing you’re Coral Greenwater?”
The merrow swam back to the dock. “Call me Cora. Lila mentioned you needed to talk about a swan?”
Swan? Avians weren’t high on her interview list. “No, a woman who fell off a cliff twenty years ago. You fished her out and deposited her up the coast a hundred miles.”
“That’s what we call cliff divers—swans. But yeah, I was around the area, searching for new coral combs. She nearly took me out.”
Xandie settled into a seated position on the dock. “That was my mother, Miranda Harrow.”
“Oh.” Cora opened and closed her mouth like a goldfish. “Glad I didn’t leave her to drown.”
“Can you tell me what happened?” What had happened to her mother after she’d fallen? Had she spoken to Cora? Had she mentioned Xandie?
“Once she sunk to me, I snagged her and brought her back to the surface. The sea was rough, so I just went with the tide. Left her with some fishermen up the coast.”
Where shadowy government agents had scooped up her amnesiac mother. “Did she say anything to you?”
Cora grimaced. “She was in and out most of the trip. She kept mumbling about her little girl, keeping her safe. I guess that was you?”
Xandie swallowed the golf-ball-sized lump that took up residence in her throat. “Yeah, that was me. Is there anything else you can tell me?”
Cora nibbled the end of her greenish hair. “It’s probably nothing.”
“Doesn’t matter how small. Every piece of information helps.”
“While I was looking for my combs, before your mother landed on me, there was a boat moored way out.”
“What kind of boat?” Had someone been watching her mom as she fell off the cliff?
“Nothing fancy. But there were men in suits watching me. I thought they might help pick up your mom, but they just watched me through metal thingies.”
Binoculars? Men in suits suggested government types. The same men her mom had worked for before her accident.
Cora shuddered. “I thought they might be big game fishers. Those killers are our boogeymen.”
“What did they do?” Strange to realize mermaids had boogeymen. Xandie had spied the mermaid’s very sharp teeth earlier when she’d smiled. The green-haired merrow would be a nasty predator when riled. What nightmare figure scared a vicious predator? No one Xandie wanted to meet.
“Nothing. They stayed back and followed us. I dropped your mom off at the harbor and they stayed out. I noticed some of them left the boat and followed your mom once the fishermen found her.”
The government agents who taken her mom from the hospital must have been watching Miranda Harrow. Somehow, they’d known the knight’s plan. They’d been waiting below to snatch her mother. But Cora had derailed their plans, and they hadn’t been willing to tangle with a mermaid. Could the government have been behind the knight’s attack on her and her mom? Was the knight’s plan to force her mother off a cliff into the waiting hands of the government?
“Sorry I can’t tell you anything else.” Cora pushed off the dock and floated. “Tell Lila we’ll need an order for chasers tomorrow. We have a union meeting arranged.”
“Wait.” Xandie stood. There was one more thing she had to ask her. “Was anyone around when my great-aunt drowned?”
Cora made a sad face. “Most of us were at our annual conference in the Bahamas. Our Queen was still here but couldn’t get to Sera in time. All of us were sorry to see her go. She was a hoot.”
“Thanks, Cora.”
“Do you remember I used to brush your hair when you were little?”
“You did?” Xandie vaguely remembered Sera bringing her to the dock sometimes. But most of the times before her mother had disappeared was hazy.
“Sera bought you here sometimes and she and my mother gossiped while I looked after you. You loved brushing my hair with my coral comb. Sometimes, I’d braid your hair. Normally you hated people touching it.”
Xandie fingered her shoulder-length brown hair. Cora was right, she’d hated people touching her hair when she was a kid. Her mother had to bribe her to even sit at the hairdressers. Hang on, Coral… “Did you give me a blue shell hair clip? It had gold glitter on it.”
Cora clapped her hands above her head. “Yes, I had one, and you loved it. I gave one to Sera, and she sprinkled glitter over it for you.”
Xandie smiled. “I still have that clip. For a while after mom disappeared, it was the only thing I wanted every day. My dad had to take it away because it broke.”
“It’s nice to see you again, Xandie. So grown up and the librarian. Welcome home.” Cora blew Xandie a kiss and flipped her tail up, diving deep and vanishing into the briny deep ocean.
Xandie climbed back up the stairs toward the house and her cat, Theo. A mermaid had brushed her hair twenty years ago. Now here she was interviewing her about Xandie’s amnesiac mother’s rescue from death by drowning.
Funny how everything came back to Point Muse.
“Why do we have to meet here, Agatha?” Xandie held her breath. All the competing smells in the candle and soap shop, ‘All lit up,’ that her Aunt Winifred owned drove her sinuses crazy.
“Everyone knows I hate this girly stuff, and I’d never be caught dead here. If we want to keep this off the gossip rounds, we meet here.” Aggie Braun’s faded blue eyes bored into Xandie.
Xandie held up her hands in surrender.
Winifred broke in. “You want me to get your regular order ready, Aggie?”
Agatha nodded. “That would be great, Winifred.”
“I thought you wouldn’t be caught dead here?”
“That’s why she orders online, Alexandra. The Internet might be hit and miss here in Point Muse because of the ley lines. But I’ve made sure my customers can order online with a special spell. Elspeth hooked me up.” Winifred sniffed and shoved a brown paper bag at Xandie.
Xandie handed it off to Agatha. “What’s so important you and I had to have a secret meeting in Aunt Win’s shop?”
Agatha lowered her voice. “Marjorie had bail denied. They think that because she’s a dragon and rich she’s a flight risk.”
Xandie snorted. “The woman’s old. How far can her dragon wings take her?”
“Well, for now, nowhere. I’ve set her up as comfy as possible. But she ain’t happy. She wanted me to remind you of your responsibilities.”
What was that again? That’s right…clear a dragon of murder, then said dragon owes you. Once again, she had to find a killer. No big. “I’m aware of my responsibility. Do the twins have any other evidence?”
“The twins don’t. But I might. I was chatting to the old dragon and mentioned her daughter, Melinda. She got real upset when
I told her there was a rumor she’d banished her. Marjorie denied it and refused to talk to me until Melody fetched her a mocha latte from Lila’s. As far as she’s concerned, her eldest ran away and I believe her.”
“Marjorie had no clue Melinda left because she thought she’d been banished? How was that even possible?” Was it the dragon dementia Ronald had mentioned? Xandie scratched at her arm, digging her nails in as she puzzled the problem. Ever since the rat infestation at Mayweather Inn, she’d had a damn rash on her arm. Maybe she should ask her Aunt Winifred for a potion to cure it.
“Look, Xandie, I might have an idea.” Agatha made sure the shop was empty before continuing, “I don’t want to undermine the boys and their job, but they don’t have the experience Zach does. But I can’t see that old dragon go to prison for a crime she didn’t commit.”
“And?”
“We need to dig into Melinda Penne’s death. See what we can find out. I’ve got a feeling it’s connected.”
“What do we do?”
“I’ll track down old Wolf. He was acting chief at the time of the accident. You can go have a chat with him. See what he remembers. He hates the Braun and won’t talk to us, but he might to you.” Agatha gathered her parcel up and stuck it under a beefy arm. “I’ll contact you when I have an address for him. And get that itch seen to, it looks like you’ve got a bug or the plague.” Agatha nodded to Winifred and slipped out the shop door.
“I love Agatha, but sometimes those Braun’s drive me crazy.” Winifred slipped up next to Xandie and poked at the red, raised patch on her niece’s arm. “Wowza. You have a nasty case of transferred dragon shale.”
“Eww.” Xandie drew back horrified. “What’s dragon shale?”
Winifred disappeared behind a counter and reappeared with a mortar and pestle and a handful of different ingredients. “Dragon shale is a rash caused by shedding a dragon scale and not looking after the exposed skin. Once exposed areas become infected, sometimes on rare occasions, the rash can be transmitted to humans. It’s not common, but it happens.”
Xandie rubbed her neck. The damn rash had started at her hand and traveled up her arm. It appeared straight after the rats showed up at Mayweather Inn, she assumed the gray vermin caused it. “A dragon gave me this?”
Winifred grabbed a few ingredients and threw them into a mortar and pestle, smashing them together. She hummed a discordant tune as she worked. Winifred nodded at Xandie. “Yep, a dragon caused it.” She decanted the mix into a small bottle of clear liquid and gave a good shake before putting a stopper in the top. “All done. You need to apply this twice a day. You should be good in a week. I’ve only had to make this a few times. But I still carry the ingredients just in case. You’re lucky.”
“When was the last time you made it?”
“Oh, years ago. You were only a baby.”
“Do you remember who you made it for and when?”
Winifred considered the question for a moment. “It was a long time ago and Holly was still a baby, she was such a horrible sleeper back then. I was exhausted all the time. Elspeth threatened to mute her if she didn’t stop screaming in the middle of the night.”
“Was this around the time the crop duster crashed?”
“It could have been.” Winifred nodded. “Yes, it was just after it crashed.”
“Who needed it? The potion I mean.”
“A dragon?” Winifred chuckled at her joke. “One of the Penne’s. That’s all I can remember.” Winifred snapped fingers. “Hang on. Ronald picked it up for his wife. Does that help?”
Xandie nodded. It did if the original dragon scale shed was then used in a spell for dragon’s breath by a crop duster to bring Melinda Penne down. The Penne clan declared her sister heir after Melinda left and the ex-heir coming back threatened that position. And Xandie had touched Adelind’s hair and neck, at the Inn during the rat incident. Maybe that’s when she’d picked up the rash? If the dragon had a history of shedding a scale and getting an infection, then maybe Adelind was the killer. Xandie had only come into contact with four full dragons and only three before the rash appeared. Adelind, Ronald and Es Penne. “Is that dragon shale thingy only a disease you see in older dragons or can teenagers get it too?”
“Teenagers can contract it, but it’s mature adult dragons who are more susceptible. Teenage dragons have a super-charged immunity until they hit maturity so it’s rarer.”
So not likely to be Es Penne. That left her parents.
“I’d keep wearing long sleeves while you have the rash. Just until it clears.”
“Am I contagious?” Last thing she needed was to give Point Muse a dragon-human plague. Residents would form an angry mob and run her out of town.
“No. Dragons can pass it to humans, but the contagion vector loses power once passed to a human. Not contagious, just not pretty. I’m sure Zachary Braun will be home soon, so you just cover up until it clears.” Winifred winked at Xandie.
“Why is everyone trying to set me up with a mouthy, arrogant shifter?”
Winifred patted Xandie’s arm–the opposite side to where the dragon shale rash had spread. “Because Lila and Holly are lost causes. You still have options.” Winifred smiled and shoved Xandie out the door.
Xandie slipped the potion into a pocket. Harrows were hard-core. Chaos and mayhem were part of everyday life. Xandie smiled and scratched her arm. Harrows were family, but Zachary Braun wasn’t. She’d avoid him whenever he made it back home.
“Hey, I texted you a few times.” Priss hurried up to Xandie, her phone in hand.
“Phones don’t work so well here in Point Muse because of the ley lines. The energy messes with phone signals. They only work occasionally or if you bribe Elspeth for a charm. I don’t even bother to take mine out of the house half the time.”
“Oh.” Priss shoved the phone into her pocket and cleared her throat. “I wanted to apologize for losing it at the Penne compound. Going toe to toe with Penne villain number one wasn’t what I had planned. Just saw red, I guess.”
A temper just like every other Penne. Priss had inherited more than claws from her mother. “It’s fine. An argument’s what you get when two people with the same type of personality spend time with each other.”
“I’m nothing like her.” Priss glared at Xandie.
“You can shift claws, you both walk the same way when you’re angry and Agatha Braun’s right. You have Marjorie’s chin and her temper.”
Priss took a deep breath. “Marjorie banished my mother. I guess the Penne clan is a sore spot for me.”
Xandie weighed up the information she’d gathered from Agatha and Winifred. Priss needed to know. “Marjorie didn’t banish her.”
“I have a letter. Trust me.”
“Agatha spoke to Marjorie. She had no clue about the banishment. She thinks Melinda ran away. Agatha’s good at spotting liars since her family’s in law enforcement. Plus, Winifred had more details that helped. Marjorie’s not the killer. Somebody else is.”
Priss look frustrated enough to sprout wings and fly away. “Then who is?”
Xandie headed off to Lila’s bakery, with Priss following. “Let’s get the girls and reconvene at my place with pizza for dinner. This might take a while to explain.”
“A chocolate and strawberry pizza. The food of the gourmet gods.” Elspeth grinned and stepped inside Xandie’s house.
“My eyes.” Theo covered his and his pet imp’s eyes, blinded by the glare that was pizza delivery woman, Elspeth Harrow.
Elspeth did a shimmy and a shake, patting her fire-engine-red wig back into place.
Lila poked her head out of the lounge room. “What’s taking so long, Xandie?” She opened and closed her mouth when she spotted her grandmother. “Why are you delivering pizza?”
“Well, darling granddaughter, they had a job free, and I was bored. Plus, they let me decorate the uniform, and they gave me a moped for deliveries.” She hooted and hollered and spun her green and red velour-bedazzled
bottom in a booty shake.
Xandie copied Theo and covered her eyes. “The rhinestones cause temporary blindness and maybe insanity.”
Elspeth sniffed. “Everyone’s a critic. Now let’s eat. You’re my last delivery for the night and I’m hungry.” Elspeth hauled a stack of pizzas into the lounge and dumped them on the coffee table. “Dig in.”
Lila led a still myopic Xandie to the feast.
Priss and Holly open the pizza boxes and dug in under Elspeth’s benevolent and slightly wicked gaze.
“Do we have toppings other than chocolate?” Lila pawed through the boxes until she found a plain cheese.
Elspeth dumped her red and green ‘Bros Santos’ jacket on the floor and grabbed her own slice. “Do you think I don’t know my granddaughters? I even added in a special one for my freakish chocolate-addicted middle grandchild.”
Xandie mumbled around a slice of chocolate and strawberry pizza. “Yeah. Thanks.” She needed to cut back on the sugar in her diet but at the moment, the only way to keep up with the dead bodies and her Harrow family was with sugar-fueled adrenaline.
Theo shuddered and tore a small piece of meat lover’s pizza off for Horatio. “That addiction worries me. Anyone could buy her for a block of chocolate. And then what would I do with Horatio? Not everyone allows imps in their condos.”
Xandie poked a chocolate-speckled tongue at her cat. “I’d be more worried about finding places that take talking cats.”
Lila gave a timeout signal. “Can we please focus on the issues at hand? Namely, murder and dragons, instead of your conversation with your cat that no one else can hear?”
Holly and Priss waved Lila on.
“Right. Xandie found information out that might help us narrow our suspect pool and get Marjorie Penne out of jail.” Lila bowed to Xandie. “Great librarian and nosy cousin, the floor is yours.”