Witch Way To Amethyst: The Prequel (A Stacy Justice Mystery Book 0)

by Barbra Annino

  "I know that." What was this about?

  Leo scrubbed a hand over his chiseled face. "First, I wanted to say I was sorry. Obviously, you did break down along the side of the road and I didn't believe you."

  He left out the part about Chance kissing me and I was grateful. "Apology accepted."

  "Now we have a new problem.”

  “Lay it on me.”

  He gave me a hard stare. “You broke our arrangement and you’re coming dangerously close to impeding this investigation."

  He was right, but I didn’t have time to check into headquarters every few minutes. “I can explain.”

  “Explain what? That you swiped a martini glass from a bar and sent a drunk girl to drop it off last night?”

  Oh. That. Crap. I didn’t know she did that. I was going to get it from her myself before Barney Pfieff came calling. Someone was so not going receive her Wild Woman certificate.

  “I didn’t tell her to bring it here. I was going to do that.”

  "Good. So maybe you'll leave the police work to me then?"

  "Maybe." I smirked at him, walked to the table, and scooted on top of it. I told him about Gretchen, even though something was still knocking on my brain and I couldn’t grab the last piece of the puzzle. I also let him know about Ed, the pow-wow meeting, Wildcat, and Pearl.

  Leo jotted down some notes as I spoke. Then he nodded. "I’ll run the prints."

  "Ed delivers groceries to my grandmother's bed and breakfast. He could have maybe slipped something into the food or into a drink at the bar.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “Because if Gramps dies, he stands to inherit not just the building but a pretty good chunk of land.” I explained how Roy and Gramps had been in business together once upon a time and Gramps guilt about Roy losing everything.

  Leo stood up and walked around the table to face me. He touched my shoulder, sending a tingle down my spine and said, “If anything changes, anything happens, you call. Understand?"

  "Right, Chief." I saluted him and headed for the door.

  Birdie wasn’t in her cell when I popped my head around the corner. I assumed she was out shopping or grabbing a coffee or whatever the hell it was Leo allowed her to do, so I decided to get my car first.

  The short walk to the garage felt good. I needed to stretch my legs and think. There was still a lot I didn’t understand, but I knew that somehow Gates and Gretchen--or whatever her name was--were in cahoots. I just didn’t know why. Or how of them would stand to gain anything by hurting Gramps.

  Cin's car was parked in the lot as I headed up the drive to the garage. I didn't see the Jeep, but I heard voices.

  "You know you should thank my cousin for getting us back together." Cinnamon said.

  Tony said, "It’s on my list."

  Then I heard kissing noises and debated if I should came back later. I didn’t want to interrupt the reunion, so I started away.

  "I think she's taking this all personally. Like she's responsible if anything happens to Birdie or Gramps. She said something about her mother. It about broke my heart,” Cinnamon said.

  I backed away, not wanting to interrupt their reconciliation.

  Tony said, "I can't believe no one ever told her about what happened. It may help her, you know."

  I stopped. Told me what? What happened?

  "It's not my secret to tell, Tony."

  What secret?

  "I think she has the right to know that her mother was committed."

  My heart skipped and my knees faltered. What was he talking about? It couldn’t be true. It just couldn’t. This was a small town. If my mother had been institutionalized, surely I would have known. Unless. Is that where she had been all these years?

  I had to get to Birdie. I had to know the truth. I turned to run and skidded on a hubcap, sailing through the air like a lawn dart. My cousin’s car broke my fall.

  Cinnamon and Tony ran out to see what the commotion was.

  "Stacy! Jeez, are you all right?" Cinnamon said as she rushed towards me.

  Nothing seemed broken except my pride. And maybe my heart.

  Cin helped me to my feet as Tony rushed up behind her. My hip throbbed as I stared at Tony.

  My cousin slid her eyes from me to Tony. Realization dawned on her and her face twisted into a grimace. “Oh, crap. Stacy, hold on. It's not what you think."

  I just kept staring at Tony, because I understood in that moment that my weakness fell with my family. I couldn't see their emotions or feel their thoughts.

  But Tony I could read like a billboard. Guilt, embarrassment. Pity.

  "Where's my car?" I said to him.

  "In back," he said.

  Cin slapped his shoulder. “Stacy wait.”

  I ignored her and jogged to the back of the lot where I found the keys in the ignition of my patched up Jeep. Cinnamon was calling, chasing me, but I didn't blame her. It wasn't her fault.

  There was only one person I blamed.

  Chapter 33

  I clipped the tail light of Gus's patrol car as I slammed on the brakes in front of the station. I hopped out, leaving the door open and the Jeep running and burst through the entrance.

  Gus stood up as if he were going to reprimand me but he took one look at my face and thought better of it. He sat down and pretended to talk on the phone. Leo was nowhere in sight.

  I marched down the hallway and into Birdie's cell, which still wasn’t locked. My attempt to slam it shut was futile because it was so freaking heavy. This ruined my entrance but fueled my anger.

  Birdie lifted her head up from the book she was reading and smiled. The smile faded when she saw my expression.

  My fists were balled into knots at my sides. I felt a vein in my neck throb.

  When my voice came it was tight and small. I was expecting to roar like the Lion King, but instead, I squeaked like Mickey Mouse.

  "How could you?" Was all I could manage.

  "How could I what?" Birdie removed her reading glasses and placed them at her side. She folded her hands in her lap.

  She was always calm. How did she do that? Sit there, without a care in the world when I was running around with a dustpan cleaning up her mistakes.

  Frustration took over and I yelled so loud I think I rattled the shade on her lamp. "Nature, Knowledge and Truth. Isn’t that what you said? What you used to teach? Well, grandmother, it’s a shame you don’t practice what you preach.”

  My grandmother said, “What on earth are you talking about, child?”

  She stood and stared at me, confusion painted all over her face.

  I paced, trying to organize my thoughts and control my anger. “Did she abandon me, Birdie? Did she? Or did you have her committed?”

  A shocked look fell over my grandmother’s face and her shoulders hunched ever so slightly. She sat there for a few beats. When she lifted her head, her eyes were soft, like wormwood leaves.

  “Don’t you dare lie to me,” I said. “Not now.”

  Birdie stood and walked towards me. I backed away. “Whatever it is you heard, whatever it is you think you know, I can assure you, it isn’t the entire truth.”

  “Then what is?”

  Birdie sighed and her eyes slipped away from me to a place I had never been. Somewhere far off in the distance that she alone guarded. I think I knew, even then, that secrets would always be woven into my family’s fabric.

  “It was a long time ago. Just before your father passed,” Birdie began. “You were special, right from the start.” She paused and smiled at me. “I knew who you would be the first time I laid eyes on you.”

  The lump forming in my throat tasted like acid.

  “Your mother knew it too and she did everything in her power to prepare you for it. And to protect you.”

  My words were a whisper. “Protect me from what?”

  Birdie’s emerald eyes met mine. “Our family is special, Stacy.”

  She had never called me by my first name an
d it rattled my core.

  “We have gifts that other’s dare not dream about. We have...” She searched for the right word. “Responsibilities. You more than any of us.”

  I sighed. “Right. Because you think I’m the Seeker.”

  Birdie grasped my shoulders. “That and oh so much more. In time, you will learn just how powerful you are. How important your role in the world is. And when you have that kind of status, there are those who wish to take it from you. Who wish to do you harm.”

  “What does that have to do with mom?”

  Birdie bit her lip. She was weighing how much to reveal to me, I could tell. It was the same look she gave me when my father passed away. The same look she gave me whenever I asked if my mother was coming home. “You developed so quickly, so fiercely, that after a while, it depleted something from her. And she needed to get it back.”

  “What did I take?” Mist formed in my eyes as I waited to hear how I had destroyed my mother.

  “Her gift, but believe me, child. You didn’t take it. She gave it willingly. Without it, she was defenseless. And she needed all of her power if she was going to raise the next Seeker of Justice.”

  “What was her gift?”

  Birdie sighed. “That’s not important right now. What is important for you to know is that it was a short time she was away in that facility. She had to be grounded, balanced and there were people there that understood the...uniqueness of her condition. People like us. She came right back to you after a full moon cycle.”

  I racked my brain trying to recall my mother being gone for a month before she was...gone forever. “Wait...there was a class she took. Somewhere in Europe. On herbs, new treatments and healing properties. But that was just a week.”

  Birdie cast her eyes aside. I didn’t like the vibe I was receiving.

  “Oh, she didn’t,” I said.

  My grandmother raised an eyebrow.

  “She zapped my memory? Bespelled me?”

  “It was for your own good.”

  Seriously? What was with these people? “My own- never mind. We’ll stick a pin in that one for now. So where is she?"

  Birdie averted her gaze.

  "Where is she?" I repeated, louder.

  Birdie shifted her eyes to me. They were filled with sadness. Regret. "I haven’t seen her since after your father died. Same as you."

  Now I was really confused. “Hasn’t she come to see you recently?”

  Birdie’s face crinkled. "Why would you think that?”

  I wanted to scream. Why does every answer lead to another question? Mom contacted Gramps and not Birdie? What was going on?

  “Because Stan Plough said--”

  Oh no. Oh crap.

  I spoke quickly. “Birdie, what was the name of the facility where she stayed?”

  Birdie lifted her head to the ceiling. “It was a long time ago. I don’t know off the top of my head.”

  I grabbed her hands. “It’s important, Birdie. Think.” Her eyes met mine.

  “Sunnyside?”

  “Sunnyvale?”

  She blinked. “Yes, that sounds right.”

  Chapter 34

  I apologized to Gus on my way out of the jail and asked him where I could find Leo.

  "He got called out to the Shelby Farm. Someone spray painted all their goats."

  Naturally. "Well, have Leo call me ASAP, okay?" I wrote down my cell number in case he forgot it.

  Gus nodded. "Stacy, you going to the parade tonight?"

  I paused for a minute. "I'm not sure, Gus." I started back out.

  "Uh, hey which costume do you think Cinnamon would like better?"

  Gus held up a Mr. Incredible costume and a Spiderman suit. I didn't have the heart to tell him that she was back with Tony. Or that Leo would fire him for patrolling incognito at a parade. "How about something from Smokey and the Bandit?" I said.

  "Hey yeah, 'cause of her car. I could be Smokey."

  "And you've already got the costume."

  Gus looked down at his uniform. "Yeah."

  I skated out of there, jumped in the Jeep and pulled away from the curb, backtracking down Lunar Lane. I turned left on Main Street and parked a few doors down from the Pearl Palace.

  The place was hopping when I walked in. Tourists, churchgoers, college students, and families were either finishing up breakfast or ordering lunch. I managed to grab a stool at the counter. The clock above the soda machine read 12:02.

  I flipped over a coffee cup as a young waitress with a long French braid approached me.

  "Coffee?"

  "Yes, please," I said. "Is Olivia around by any chance?"

  "Sure. She's in the back section. You need something?"

  "No. I just wanted to say hello."

  "Okay. I'll send her over when she has a second."

  I smiled. "Thanks." I dressed up my coffee and glanced around the room.

  The kitchen was behind the counter and I could see the cooks' arms sliding platters of omelets and potatoes, tuna melts and club sandwiches through the pass. It had been a long time since I’d been to the apartment, but if I remembered correctly, the office was behind the swinging doors that led to the kitchen. The stairs that fed into the second floor were beyond that.

  The waitress came over with a pad and pencil asking if I wanted to order food. I didn’t and told her so. A minute or so later, Olivia strolled over. "Hey sweetie, how are you?"

  She put an order up on the wheel and spun it back to the guys in the kitchen. Someone snatched the ticket and Olivia turned back around to face me. She leaned against the counter.

  "I’m fine. Gramps is improving."

  "Oh, so happy to hear that. So I guess the boss lady will be back around, huh? She hasn’t been by all day.” She tapped my arm and winked. “And I guess in no time, she’ll be back to sneaking off to kiss your granddad goodnight.”

  “She does that?”

  "Oh sure. Brings his dinner up to him if he doesn’t want to come down.”

  A cook rang the bell on the stainless steel pass. "Order up," he said.

  "That's me," said Olivia. She reached for a plate of toast and plopped a packet of grape jelly on top of it.

  I watched the servers fill coffee cups and take orders as I gulped down my coffee. It was still pretty busy in the restaurant. I might be able to sneak in and out of the studio without even being noticed. Besides, if I got caught I was just the concerned granddaughter.

  I tossed some bills on the counter as Olivia came back around to place another order. "Olivia, do you think I could use the phone?"

  "Sure, hon. Just ask Mary at the hostess desk."

  "Actually," I glanced around the busy dining room. "Maybe I could use the phone in the office. It's a bit loud out here."

  "Well sure. Go on."

  “Will I disturb anyone? Is Gretchen here?”

  “No, honey. She had some errands to run.” She smiled at me and I made my way toward the kitchen.

  Pete, the gorilla tamer from the Opal, greeted me with what might have been a machete, although I'm sure it was just a butcher knife.

  "Hello, there," I said carefully, praying his crazy was locked away for the moment.

  "The bathroom is that way." He pointed towards the doors with his knife. His voice was gruff, his apron stained with grease and what I hoped was barbecue sauce.

  "Yes, that's true. Actually, I'm not here to use the bathroom."

  "Can't come back here." He wagged his head for emphasis.

  "Well, I can, actually. You see Pearl--"

  "Pearl said no one comes back here. Just workers."

  Okay. This was getting me nowhere. Obviously, Pearl was using this guy as a makeshift bodyguard and he took that seriously. What was I afraid of anyway? All I ever saw him do was take down a stuffed gorilla.

  He stared at me like a lion watches a gazelle.

  That big ass knife, that's what I was afraid of.

  I peered past Pete's shoulder and I could see the little door to
the office and the stairs that led to the apartment. I could also see through to the back door. It was one of those heavy metal numbers with a long arm that locked when it swung shut. I didn't have a key. So the back door was not an option.

  "Listen up." I flashed my wallet and my driver's license. "I'm from immigration."

  Three Hispanic men ran out the back door. A Caucasian man plastering the ceiling also took off.

  Pete swung his head from side to side, confused.

  "Order in," a waitress called.

  "Pete, get in here." A young male voice said. “I’m backed up on fries, man.”

  Pete glanced at the door, shifted towards the grill, and glared at me. He raised the knife. I stepped back.

  "Pete!" Three people said in unison. He shuffled back to the kitchen reluctantly.

  I scurried into the office and shut the door.

  Chapter 35

  I pulled out my phone, took out Leo's card and dialed his number. "Come on, answer," I said, but that stupid recording about the customer being out of reach was all the answer I received so I ended the call and set the phone on the desk.

  Pearl's office was compact but orderly. I rummaged through the drawers first, looking for anything that might tell me if she were partnering with Gretchen.

  I found a ledger that seemed to be in the black. Some bills had been paid by Gretchen. Electric, water, phone. Nothing incriminating there, since Pearl did mention that Gretchen was helping out with the accounting.

  I went to the file cabinet. Employee records, vendor accounts, licenses. Again, nada.

  That meant that whatever clues if any existed, would be in the apartment.

  There were a few sets of keys in the desk, so I grabbed those, hoping one would unlock the loft and stuffed them in my pocket. I quickly scanned for Samurai Pete, but he must have been cooking his heart out in the kitchen.

  The stairs were steep, so I took them two at a time. After several attempts, I finally found the right key and unlocked the door. I poked my head inside.

  “Anyone home?" Better safe than sorry.

  No answer.

  My eyes drifted around the expansive loft. I had heard that Gramps had it refurbished when he moved in with Pearl. The floors were smooth and stained a dark walnut color, the walls painted in soothing beige tones and bay windows overlooked the town. There were just a few rooms. The kitchen was to the left and the living room melted into the bedroom. A service elevator Gramps had installed when his knees wore out was off the far wall near his office.