by Kelly Ethan
“And release her I did, my darlings.” Winifred stood in the doorway of the kitchen, dragging an obviously weary Amelia with her.
“Mom.” Lila rushed up to her mother and gave her a quick, hard hug, before glaring at her. “You better tell us everything or we’re setting an injured Elspeth on you.”
Amelia sagged into her chair. “Winifred filled me in on the antics. Why am I not surprised? The damn show always brings out the worst in people.”
“What happened, Aunt Amelia?”
“The same thing that happens to every Harrow witch. Bad timing.” Amelia stared off into space for a moment. “I went in to have a chat to Amity Puffin. I wanted to make sure she wasn’t up to her old tricks of supplying unnecessary cosmetic potions to the competitors. But I couldn’t find her. Decided to check in her grooming area. Walked in and found Lorelei and Fifi petrified. That’s when Amity found me. She called Braun in and the rest you saw.” Amelia grimaced. “I hated LaRue and what she was doing to poor Fifi. But I’d never hurt them. Besides, how can I turn anyone to stone? I’m an animal lover, not a killer.”
Who or what stoned Lorelei then? “Do the police have any ideas yet?”
“Zach wouldn’t let anything slip, but Aggie told me they ruled out spells or potions after testing a stone sliver of Lorelei’s hair. About the only other thing that could do that naturally is a Basilisk or a Gorgon.”
“And for the newly supernatural among us?” Xandie would head into the library once the others left and dig out more information, but for now a quick load of basic info would do.
“A Basilisk is a reptile hatched from a Cock’s egg and can turn anyone to stone with their stare. A Gorgon is a woman with snakes for hair who can also turn someone to stone.” Elspeth announced with a wave of her uninjured hand. “Malachi Mede’s the only Medusa descendant, but he’s male and can’t inherit any of the gifts.”
Only in Point Muse. “What about a Basilisk then?”
“A Basilisk’s a high-level dangerous breed and has to be licensed with the local vet and council. Mom would have said if there was anyone in town with a Basilisk.” Lila dumped a mug of herbal tea in front of her mother. “Drink up. You need energy and a calming influence.”
Amelia took a gulp of tea and hissed as the bitter herbs hit the back of her throat. “Currently no Basilisk’s in town right now, but I have treated one in the last six months. I’m assuming as the police are currently searching my vet practice, they’ll find my treatment records.”
“Plus, we have a bigger problem than that.” Elspeth paused dramatically. “They have banned me from competing.” She looked around expectantly. “Well? Where is your outrage? I expected more from my family.” Elspeth covered a snoring Colin’s ears. “It’s all right, my poor rejected pug. Mummy still loves you.”
As one, the Harrow witches shuddered. Seeing her sometimes hex-loving grandmother coo over an oversexed, wrinkled pug scared Xandie.
“Haven’t you lot left yet?” Theo, Xandie’s talking black cat, wandered in with his pet imp Horatio doing handstands on his back.
“Can’t block greatness, evil feline.” Colin sneezed on Elspeth, then gave the imp a beady eye. “No one ever told you, you shouldn’t play with your food?”
Theo hissed and swerved to stand next to Xandie and sighed. “Are you going to allow that manufactured monstrosity to insult Horatio like that?”
Drama animals, the lot of them. Xandie held up her hand in a timeout signal. “Cease and desist the insults, animals. We’re here to make sure Aunt Amelia’s all right.”
“And to make sure she stays out of jail,” Lila added. “Considering she’s a Harrow, that could be difficult.”
“I’m sitting right here, daughter.” Amelia sighed. “But sadly, I agree with you. To the police it probably looks like an open and shut case.”
“But not to Xandie. She’s a detective extraordinaire. She has to stumble across another body sooner rather than later. That will get you off the hook.” Lila looked hopefully at Xandie.
“No, no, no. We have to look at the most serious problem we have right now.” Elspeth chugged a gulp from her hip flask.
“Who killed Lorelei?” Amelia offered.
“Who’s targeting Aunt Amelia?”
“Why is Colin belching yellow clouds of gas?”
Winifred battered at a hazy cloud of Colin gas in front of her and moved to the opposite side of the kitchen.
“Why hasn’t some foreign country arrested Elspeth yet?” Lila sneered at her grandmother.
“Ingrates, the lot of you. I was speaking of the issue of Colin competing.”
Lila whispered to Xandie, “If she’s banned, we have a way out of that furry horror show, don’t we?”
“We need someone to compete with Colin if Elspeth can’t.”
Everyone stared at Amelia, shocked to hear that come out of her mouth.
Elspeth recovered first and eyed Amelia suspiciously. “Who are you and what have you done with my daughter?”
“Your craziness finally drove me to it.” Amelia smiled then sobered. “I don’t want to go to jail. We need someone on the inside. They won’t let Theo enter his imp, and the rest of us don’t have animals. Elspeth is banned. We only have Colin now.”
Everyone swiveled to stare at Xandie. No way. Not another dead body investigation. “No. Let Braun handle the case. He’ll see sense about Amelia’s involvement.”
Theo coughed a fur ball onto Xandie’s feet. “Please, we all know you’ll cave. You’re a Harrow’s groupie.”
Horatio the imp cheered wildly and poked a finger in Theo’s eye.
Yowling, Theo blinked rapidly and bucked Horatio to the floor. The imp shook a fist at Theo and scampered out the kitchen door, heading for Xandie’s library.
“As my oh-so-noisy pet pointed out, viciously, to me, it’s not my choice and Xandie does have a gift for the macabre. Maybe she should investigate.” Theo followed the imp out the door. “But I make no promises about fur balls and your walk-in closet.”
Elspeth wiggled in excitement. “That’s decided then. Xandie will show Colin and Winifred can coach her. Watch out, competition, the Harrows are back.” She coughed into her hand. “And we’ll clear my daughter’s name of course. First priority…well, maybe second. But we’ll do it.” Elspeth collared Winifred and consulted in a secretive pow wow with her daughter.
“When did I get railroaded into this?”
Snickering, Lila slapped Xandie on the back. “When you came to town and found out you had Harrow blood, sucker.” Lila led Amelia out of the kitchen. “I’m taking mom home for a shower. Winifred can take Elspeth and Colin home.”
“So, it’s just you and me, kid. A match made in a Harrow cauldron. The two of us taking on SPAFS together.” Colin winked at Xandie and belched another radioactive cloud into the kitchen. “Man, that burrito Elspeth doctored with pixie dust is a killer on my indigestion.” Colin rubbed his tummy with a grimace.
On that note…
“Right, Aunt Win? Take Elspeth and Colin home for now. I’ll consult with the library and meet up tomorrow before the next event.” Xandie pushed Winifred and Elspeth out her kitchen door.
Winifred snatched a grumbling Colin on the way and shooed her mother out.
Elspeth yelled over a shoulder. “Don’t you worry, Xandie dear. We’ll plan everything. You’ll be a competing machine when we finish with you.”
Xandie grimaced and hurried into the library. Who knew what fresh hell Elspeth had planned for her now?
“I guess you agreed then?” Theo perched on the top of a shelf of scrolls, cleaning his imp-free fur.
Xandie grabbed a couple of books and shelved them. “Looks like. It’ll be fine. I just have to deal with that egomaniac, Colin.”
“And dodge a killer and dead bodies.”
“Hey, it’s only Lorelei and Fifi so far. I’m sure Chief Braun can handle it. I’ll be fine.”
Theo stopped his grooming and leaped onto the lib
rary desk. “I hope so. It’d be a pain in my furry rear end to have to break in another one of you librarians.”
The library’s lights flickered overhead. Normally Xandie wore a gold necklace with a triangle symbol with an engraved open eye. It was her link to the library, but she found out when she tangled with a killer Knight, she didn’t actually need to use it to communicate with the sentient library. The Great Library of Alexandria had purposely let its physical building burn during ancient Greek times so it could protect all supernatural knowledge.
Since the eighteen hundreds, the library had rested in Point Muse, Maine. A supernatural town anchored around a hub of ley lines. After its destruction, the Library was always paired with a librarian and the super grouchy, Theophilus a.k.a. Theo. A talking black cat who’d been caught in the original fire and turned from a scroll-porn-reading, hip-flask-drinking, ancient Greek teenager into a cat guardian. Her great aunt Sera had been the last librarian until she’d been killed. Her mother, Miranda, had bought Xandie down to Point Muse and Aunt Sera every vacation to spend time with her. Now she wondered if that had been to get her used to the library and being the librarian? Sera had been her father’s aunt, but he couldn’t stand her or Point Muse. After Miranda had disappeared, he washed his hands of Point Muse. Xandie had only phone and email contact with Sera after that. Until she died and Xandie inherited the library and Theo.
Xandie rubbed a hand along the desk to soothe the library. “It’s all good, library, promise. How bad could a supernatural pet show be?” Xandie grabbed a few requests for library help and wrote them into the appointment book. Both inscriptions dissolved and appeared on different dates in the appointment book. The library decided who had access to her and what information was supplied. She’d been quiet of late, refusing visitors, it was good to see the old girl opening her doors again.
“Did you ask the library what’s going on?” Theo placed his paw on the open appointment book.
Since SPAFS was a supernatural pet show, odds were, it wasn’t a human killing so the library might have some information. For once, Theo had a good idea.
Xandie glanced around the room. Horatio the imp was curled up on Theo’s cushion snoring, but the rest of the room was quiet. Beautiful wooden shelving around the room covered in books and scrolls, and polished reading tables and chairs, sat tidily together. No stray books out of place and no mischievous scrolls dueling each other. Why did she feel it was the calm before the storm? “Library? What supernatural creature turned Lorelei and Fifi into stone?”
A wooden bookcase next to the photocopying room wiggled for a moment. Then a small gilt-edged blue-covered book flew into Xandie’s hand and she smiled her thanks. Opening the book with care, she settled onto a couch. “Basilisk Care: How Not End Up As A Garden Ornament.” Xandie read the title out loud. Catchy, but not exactly market friendly. She continued, “Basilisks are purported to be a serpent king hatched from a cock’s egg and can turn one to stone with a single glance. Can range in size from twelve fingers in length to the size of a large dog. On their head they have a crown-shaped crest. They have a bird-shaped face, with dragon wings and a serpent tail. It walks upright on bird legs. Its putrid breath can wither plants.” Xandie shuddered. “So can Colin.” She didn’t know who’d be worse, a Basilisk with a stony gaze or an enchanted pug with a toxic butt.
“Best thing anyone can do is to avoid a Basilisk. But it does have a weakness and is terrified by weasels. Weasels are also immune to a Basilisk glare or bite. If in the vicinity of a Basilisk, a mirror is a worthy defense as well. The Basilisk is not immune to its own gaze and if using a mirror back at it, the animal can be turned to stone. The Basilisk is classified as a high-level dangerous breed and must be registered with the local vet and all supernatural councils. Basilisk’s are deemed controllable by the use of an amulet, but the making and use of said amulet is highly regulated.”
What’s the bet Elspeth had some knowledge of Basilisk control amulets with her underhanded dealings on the witch black-market. The couch Xandie was currently curled up on quivered as she finished reading. Xandie placed the book down on a side table and rubbed the wood of the table softly, trying to settle the library. After Sera dying, her mother going missing and having to help save Xandie from a killer knight the poor old library had attachment issues.
“It’s all good. I promise you; I’ll be fine tomorrow.”
How bad could a supernatural pet show really be?
Six
“I promise all competitors that any disease carriers have been quarantined this morning. There’s no cause for alarm. Everything has been dealt with.” Hannah Mede tried to smile, but the green raised blisters on one side of her face forced a grimace instead. “The competition is perfectly safe.”
Lila leaned into Xandie. “Except for all those diseased mini corns running around. I mean, look at her face.”
Hannah glowered at Lila and Xandie. “But for those who are worried about contamination, the blisters on my face are caused by an allergy to mugwort. There’s no reason to be alarmed. The chef is preparing an amazing feast for a sit-down lunch today. So, thank you for coming and please, enjoy yourselves.” Hannah stepped down from the small podium and had a hurried conversation with Madeline Luna and the producer, before the chef and Davros, hustled off.
Time to start investigating. Xandie made a beeline for Hannah. “Mrs. Mede? I wanted to thank you for the opportunity to compete in place of my grandmother, Elspeth Harrow. It means a lot.”
Hannah smiled lopsidedly at Xandie. “The Harrows have been around Point Muse since the town formed. Wouldn’t seem right they were excluded.”
“Your family has been here a long time too, Hannah.” Lila popped up next to Hannah and gave her a quick hug.
Hannah stood stiff as a board before sagging slightly and giving Lila a quick squeeze in return. “Hey Lila. How are you?”
Lila stepped back and shrugged. “As good as can be expected between Elspeth and my mother’s antics.”
Hannah checked around to make sure they were alone. “I don’t know what’s going on. But Amelia would never hurt Fifi. That horrible Lorelei maybe, but not the animal.
Xandie introduced herself. “I’m Lila’s cousin, Xandie Meyers.” She shook Hannah’s hand and got down to business.
“We positive someone framed Amelia. We just don’t know who.”
“It’s this damn pet show. I swear it’s cursed. Ever since I came back to Point Muse, things have been going wrong.”
Lila frowned. “What do you mean? What things?”
Hannah grabbed a long curly blonde lock and twiddled the end. “That banner collapsing, my face allergy, power off and on at the resort. Some of my clothing missing and then having to deal with that woman, Lorelei. She was horrible, she even demanded an extra dressing room at the resort. But I guess I didn’t want her and Fifi to die.” Hannah lowered her voice. “We found a chimera statue first thing this morning. No sign of his owner, it’s like he vanished. And I swear someone keeps following me. This nasty short man with a yellow-gray beard. I see him everywhere.”
What were the odds these were all coincidences? Xandie had a question. “Lorelei had another dressing room? I thought all the competitors were given areas to use as their own in the one tent?”
“Usually, but somehow she got my husband to give her space at the resort. Not a real room, of course. It’s a small office Malachi turned into a dressing room for her. It’s off the resort kitchen. I have no clue why he’d do that for such a horrible woman. But they were always having meetings behind closed doors. I…” Hannah stopped, her cheeks pink. “I thought they were having an affair, but it was pretty obvious my husband couldn’t stand her. I just don’t know why he spent so much time with her.”
The police had searched the tent changing rooms already, but they might not have known about the extra dressing room. Xandie focused on Hannah. “How long have you been married to Mr. Mede for?” Xandie hoped Hannah wouldn’t clam up if L
ila was here. Because Hannah might be on to something. Why would a rich, happily married Malachi Mede hand out special favors to a nasty piece of work like LaRue?
Hannah smiled. “I’m Malachi’s second wife. His first love divorced him years ago for a centaur. We’ve been married for a little over two years now. He’s sweet, treats me like a pampered princess.”
Lila cocked her head and considered her old friend. “Is that enough for you? I mean no offence, but you were pretty smart at school. Mom expected you to go into medicine or science. Not a…”
“Not a trophy wife?” Hannah grimaced. “I found out quickly that most supernatural men aren’t after brains. Then my parents died, and Malachi came along. I guess I fell into line with the blonde bombshell image.” Hannah whipped out a book on Nicola Tesla’s inventions from her handbag. “But you can’t take the book out of the girl, I guess.”
“And you decided to build a resort here in Point Muse?” Xandie guessed Hannah wanted to show her bullying classmates how far she’d come.
“I started getting homesick, not everywhere is like Point Muse. I begged Malachi to build here. Originally, he said no, it would be too expensive, but he eventually came around.” Hannah scowled. “I wish he hadn’t come up with the pet show angle for the launch. It’s been horribly tense since they showed up. Malachi’s always in a meeting with that Japanese man. He’s in hotels too, but I guess a businessman has to do whatever they need to, to close a deal. Sorry to gossip and run, but I need to make sure that nasty chef is running on time for lunch.” Hannah waved goodbye and trotted off in her ridiculously high heels.
Lila yelled out to Hannah, “Watch out for that chef, she’s bad news.”
“Give it a rest, Lila. We have more important issues to focus on than a food feud.”
“What’s more important than ruining Madelyn Luna’s reputation?” Lila stood with her hands on her hips.
Xandie ticked points off on her fingers. “Find out who killed Lorelei, Fifi and the chimera. Find out who’s framing your mother and search LaRue’s secret dressing room before Braun does. Work out why there are so many accidents happening around Hannah and the resort, find out who’s following her and control Elspeth’s cheating manipulative ways.” Xandie groaned at the large list of mystery to-dos.