No Charm Intended

by Mollie Cox Bryan

  “And?”

  “He told me some unbelievable news,” she said, eyeing him up and wondering how he was going to take this. “Please stop pacing and sit down.”

  He stopped and finally sat down at her kitchen table.

  “We were told not to tell you, but to watch you, in case . . . in case she contacted you.”

  “Gracie? You knew she was alive and you didn’t tell me?”

  “Wait!” she said. “There’s more.”

  He popped up out of the chair and started for the door.

  He stopped and turned around to glare at her. “How could you keep this from me?” How to tell him? How to find the words? Sometimes it was just best to be blunt. “The DNA evidence on Henry’s murder indicates Gracie killed him.”

  Paul’s jaw dropped. His face reddened with what—rage? Fear? He crunched into himself. Was he going to pass out?

  She placed a hand on his shoulder.

  When his head rose, his shoulders began to shake. He was laughing. Laughing.

  “Paul?” she said.

  She’d seen this reaction before.

  “There’s no way she killed him,” he said. “They think Gracie killed Henry?”

  “They are certain,” she said, leading him back to the kitchen table. The coffee smell was filling the room now.

  He sat down, still laughing, slightly hysterical.

  “You like your coffee black, right?” she said, turning to her cupboards.

  “Gracie is not a killer,” he said, as Cora poured the coffee.

  “And yet the evidence suggests she is,” Cora said, and sat the coffee down in front of him. She sat down. He finally stopped laughing.

  “Someone is trying to frame her,” he said after a moment.

  “That could be,” Cora said. “But the person would have access to her DNA and have gone to a lot of trouble to frame her. Why?”

  Paul’s face fell into his hands as he sobbed.

  Cora touched his shoulder. “If she reached out to you for help, you need to go to her. But first, try to drink your coffee and get it together. I’ll call Brodsky.”

  She tried to ignore the immediate crushing sensation in her chest. But she knew she couldn’t ignore it much longer. The last time she took one of her pills was at the last retreat. She didn’t want to take another one.

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself. If you need one, take it,” she heard her therapist’s voice ringing in her head.

  “I’ll be right back,” she said.

  She went into the bathroom and took one of her pills. She didn’t even peek at herself in the bathroom mirror. She felt sick about keeping this from him. The cops didn’t want her to tell him, but it would have been the decent thing to do.

  She came out of the bathroom intending to apologize to him—but he was gone.

  Chapter 54

  Cora tore out of her apartment, almost running into Liv, who was picking herself up off the floor.

  “I heard all this commotion and it woke me up. Paul knocked me over,” she said. “What’s going on?”

  “He heard from Gracie,” Cora managed to say, but she kept moving. Where was he going? Did he say where Gracie said she’d meet him? She had to stop him! What if Gracie killed him, too?

  “What?” Liv said, following her down the stairs.

  Cora ignored her, trying to run through the house and get to the door. Stop him. She must stop him. She opened the door just in time to see his car pull away.

  “No!” she said.

  Liv was right behind her. She grabbed her by the shoulders. “What’s going on, Cora?”

  “He’s running off to meet her,” she said.

  “So?”

  “She may be dangerous,” Cora said. She walked to the table where she kept an extra set of car keys. “I’m following him. Can you please call Detective Brodsky and tell him what’s happening?”

  “What? Wait. You need to stay here,” Liv said.

  “I agree,” came a voice from the stairs. It was Sheila.

  But Cora headed for the door. “You don’t understand. This is my fault. If I had told him. If only I had told him.” She was running on adrenaline. She felt it course through her system.

  “No matter,” Sheila said forcefully. “It will do you no good to place yourself in danger.”

  “The cops can track him if he has his cell phone,” Liv said. She handed Cora the phone. “Call Brodsky yourself.”

  Maybe they were right. Maybe she shouldn’t try to follow him. Maybe she should call Brodsky first.

  He answered, sounding groggy, then said he’d be right over.

  “Try not to worry, okay?” he said. He knew about her anxiety condition. “We can trace him through his phone. It will be okay. She probably won’t hurt him.”

  But as they hung up, the word probably hung in the air and poked at her.

  “Liv, can you trace Paul’s phone? You know, work your hacking magic?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Sheila said. “You need to leave it all to the police.”

  Cora felt a sense of calm starting to take over. Her pill was taking effect. She knew what Sheila said was true. But a part of her felt responsible for this.

  “If anything happens to him, I’ll never forgive myself,” she said.

  “He’s a grown man,” Sheila said. “He can take care of himself.”

  “Henry couldn’t,” Cora said, after a moment. “The police think she killed Henry.”

  “What?” Liv said.

  Sheila gasped.

  “So Paul thinks he’s off to meet the love of his life and she might be luring him in for the kill,” Liv said.

  Cora and the others stood for a few moments, letting it sink in.

  “Let me see if I can trace him. I have this app on my laptop I’ve been wanting to try,” Liv said, and she headed back to her room to fetch the computer.

  “Where is Brodsky?” Cora wondered out loud.

  “I’ll make some coffee,” Sheila said, and scurried into the kitchen.

  Cora followed, and soon Liv came back downstairs. They sat at the kitchen table. Liv placed her computer on the table and opened it. Her fingers clicked over the keyboard. The blue light from the screen shone on her face.

  Sheila pressed the button of the coffeemaker. The room was quickly filled with the scent of coffee and the sound of nothing but Liv’s fingers moving across the keyboard.

  “Where is Brodsky?” Cora wondered again.

  Sheila sat a cup of coffee down in front of Cora and one next to Liv’s laptop.

  “He’s probably not coming here,” Liv said. “Looks like there is a car chase heading across the mountains.”

  “They are chasing Paul?” Cora asked. Her stomach churned.

  “How do you know?” Sheila said.

  “It’s this app. It’s kind of like a police scanner and a tracer.”

  “Why would you have something like that?” Sheila asked.

  “My dad bought it for me last year,” she said. “He used to be a cop. He said this might come in handy.”

  “It seems illegal for you to have something like that,” Sheila said.

  “It doesn’t seem like Brodsky is coming,” Cora said, and sipped from her coffee mug. “He should have been here by now.”

  “Maybe he’s going after Paul?” Liv said.

  “Where could they be going? Where would Gracie want to meet him?” Cora said. She was trying to imagine what there was on the mountain. A rest area? A restaurant? She hadn’t been over that way very often. Only once, as a matter of fact. And she thought there wasn’t much over there.

  “Can you pull up a map of the road?” Cora asked.

  “Of course,” Liv said, and pulled one up quickly.

  “It appears to just be wilderness,” Sheila said.

  “Yes,” Liv said. “But if you look here, farther down the road—there’s Oz World.”

  Cora’s heart skipped around in her chest. Cou
ld they be meeting at the very place Henry was found dead?

  “You don’t think?” Liv said, her eyes wide.

  “What?” Sheila asked.

  “Henry was found there,” Cora said. Was she dreaming? Would someone please pinch her and wake her up from this nightmare? Was Paul really heading toward the abandoned theme park where Henry’s body was found? To top it off, it was a Wizard of Oz theme park, just like the game.

  “This is kind of creepy,” Liv said, and shuddered.

  Cora felt a chill. Creepy, indeed.

  Chapter 55

  Jane’s phone rang, rudely interrupting the sexiest dream she had had in a long time. She was with Harry Connick, Jr., and he was whispering a sweet song into her ear. It had to be Cora.

  “I didn’t want you to worry when you get up and don’t find me at home,” Cora said once Jane had answered. “I know we were supposed to go and talk with the professor’s wife again today, but I’m on my way to the Oz World.”

  “What? Back up. What’s going on?” Jane said, sitting up in bed. “Why are you going over there?”

  “Because we think that’s where Paul is meeting Gracie.”

  “Gracie? Whoa, girl. You need to start from the beginning. I’m lost,” she said.

  “I’ll try. But the phone may go out. We’re heading for the mountains,” she said. And then she told Jane what happened.

  Jane sat dumbfounded. Why would a group of seemingly intelligent women head up to the park, knowing there may be a half-crazed woman there? Jane adored Gracie, but even she questioned the wisdom in this decision.

  “You better just come back,” Jane said. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing. What do you think you are going to accomplish by getting in the way of the cops? Girl, you need to look at this.”

  Jane didn’t know how much Cora heard before the phone went dead. Reception while traveling across those hills was sporadic.

  She glanced at the clock. It was 4:30 AM. Really, Cora?

  She loved Cora, but she could be so daft. Her need to please, to help, often overcame her good sense. What did she think she was doing? If the cops were following him, why did Cora think she needed to be there? No good could come of this!

  Jane willed away images of a half-crazed Gracie wielding weapons and attacking her friend. That is not who she is, Jane reminded herself. Still, Gracie did kill Henry. Maybe. She wasn’t herself. Not at all. What had happened to her?

  She lay back down on her pillow. No matter the outcome, she would have the answers to her questions soon. Her best friend in the world was heading into a potentially volatile situation.

  Jane wanted to think that she’d go back to sleep—but she knew herself better than that. London was still at her friend’s house, so she decided to get up and get the day started. How to get her mind off the fact that Cora and Liv and Sheila were heading up to Oz World?

  She made coffee and took the pot into the studio.

  Jane fired up her wheel, placed a lump of clay on it, and put her hands to the clay.

  Her hands connected with the clay as the gentle noise of the whirring wheel filled the room. She closed her eyes, whispered a prayer to the universe, and lost herself in her clay.

  As her vase was beginning to form in her hands, her doorbell rang. Who could it be at this time of the day? This could not be good news.

  The doorbell rang again. “Jane?” A voice rang out as she wiped her hands on a towel. “It’s Detective Brodsky. I saw your light on.”

  Pulses of fear shot through her. If he was here, who was Cora following to Oz World?

  She opened the door. “Cora is gone,” she blurted out. “She’s following Paul and a car she thinks is being driven by you or some other cops up to Oz World.”

  “Okay,” he said quickly. “Let me call for help.”

  “Please come in,” she said.

  After he made several phone calls, he turned around to Jane, shaking his head. “What is wrong with Cora? Why would she endanger herself?”

  “She was afraid Paul was being lured into a bad situation. She feels guilty because she didn’t tell him you think Gracie killed Henry. She thinks she should have warned him.”

  He started to pace. “There’s no ‘thinking’ about it. Gracie did kill Henry. She’s a dangerous young woman. We think she’s gotten involved with an extremely dangerous young man.”

  “What man? That’s the first I’ve heard of it,” Jane said.

  “Never mind. You don’t know him. He used to go to school with Henry and Gracie. Suffice it to say, Gracie is very dangerous.”

  How could that be? Sweet, dependable, smart Gracie? “I gotta tell you, Detective, that’s not the Gracie I know.”

  He shrugged. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that.”

  Chapter 56

  By the time Cora and her crew arrived at the abandoned theme park, there were already two empty cars in the parking lot. One was Paul’s and the other, Cora guessed, was an unmarked police car.

  “We need to be quiet and careful,” Sheila whispered. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”

  “Stop,” Liv said. “If you didn’t think it was a good idea, why are you here?”

  “To protect you both from yourselves,” Sheila said.

  “Oh, please,” Liv said.

  “Please stop arguing,” Cora said, and opened her car door. The other two got out of the car as well.

  The three of them stood in the parking lot, looking around, wondering which way to go.

  “Maybe we should split up. There’s a lot of ground to cover here,” Liv said.

  “Absolutely not,” Sheila said.

  “I agree with Sheila,” Cora said. “Until we see what’s really happening here, we need to stay together.”

  “Which way should we go?” Liv said, placing her hands on her hips.

  “Well, the park is abandoned, so it should not be hard to get in,” Cora said.

  Sure enough, the gate didn’t prove much of a deterrent, as the women easily walked around it and entered the park.

  Cora’s heart lurched when she saw that a yellow brick path stretched out before them. God, why? Why the Yellow Brick Road?

  “Okay, this is creeping me out,” Liv said.

  “Why?” Sheila asked. “It’s just an old park.”

  “But the game,” Liv said. “Now this. It’s too strange to be coincidental.”

  “I agree,” Cora said. “There’s more going on here than we know. Let’s be extra cautious.”

  The three of them stood on the Yellow Brick Road and took in their surroundings. Cora thought she heard a voice.

  “Over there,” Liv whispered, and pointed to an area marked with a faded sign that read: ENCHANTED FOREST.

  They walked toward the cluster of fake trees interspersed with real. Etched onto one of the artificial trees there was a smiling face. Another had lips that formed an O. A chill traveled up Cora’s spine. She’d never been a fan of The Wizard of Oz. It was a scary movie to her as a child, especially the flying monkeys. And these anthropomorphic trees weren’t any better.

  But she was an adult now and knew this was all make-believe. Yet, she couldn’t shake the feeling that someone else was having trouble telling the difference between reality and make-believe. Could that person be Gracie? If so, what had happened to her? Did she have a mental collapse? Was she on drugs?

  “Be careful,” she said to the others, but it was a reminder to herself as well. Something was off. Someone was deeply disturbed. And the three of them might have just walked into a trap.

  “I think we should go back,” she whispered. “I don’t think we should be here.”

  “What? We came all this way,” Liv said.

  “She’s right,” Sheila said in a whisper. “We shouldn’t be here.”

  They heard voices once again in the distance, but this time they sounded closer.

  “Let’s just see who they are,” Liv said.

  “Okay,” Cora said.
“But then we need to sneak away. Fast.”

  She’d feel better if she could see that Paul was okay, if he and Gracie had reunited, and were walking hand and hand down the Yellow Brick Road. Happily ever after.

  The three women crouched down and Liv pulled some leaves on the branch away so they could spy upon whoever was approaching.

  There stood Paul. A couple of men were next to him. The police?

  “Look, I’m just here for my girl,” he said.

  Wait, thought Cora, those guys weren’t just standing next to him. They were holding him in place. One even had a gun. Why would the police have a gun pointed at Paul?

  What was going on here?

  “Your girl?” one of the guys sneered.

  Cora eyed Liv, whose eyes were wide with fear. Sheila tapped her gently and mouthed, “Let’s go!”

  They slowly started to back away.

  “Not so fast,” a voice said. “Just what the hell are you doing here?”

  The three women turned around to see a man with a gun pointed at them. Cora’s heart pounded. He was the same man with long, stringy hair and glasses that she’d been seeing all over town—and even at her front door. What was his name?

  All three women automatically put their hands up, despite not being asked to.

  “Answer me! What are you doing here?” the stranger demanded.

  “Ah . . .” Liv said. “We were going for a walk?”

  He smacked her across the face with his free hand, which sent her to the ground.

  So he wasn’t a cop, then, Cora thought with a surge of fear.

  Cora’s brain shifted into high gear. She and Sheila were still standing. They outnumbered the man, but he had a gun. A gun. But it wasn’t as if she had no experience with guns, was it?

  Cora jumped forward and stepped down hard on his foot. He yelped and, as he bent forward slightly, she jabbed her knee into his stomach. Yes! The move had never failed her in the past. At that same moment, Sheila jumped on his back. The gun slipped from his hand.

  “Jesus,” he grunted, as all three of them fell to the ground.

  Sheila managed to grab the gun and pointed it at him. This time his hands went up. “Now,” she said. “We just came for Paul and Gracie. That’s all we want.”