“Magic?” Trace said, and looked like he was going to say something further but then he stopped.
“Yes, I'm a white witch. For reasons that I am sure you are aware of, I like to keep that fact under the radar,” Luna said smoothly, smiling her most charming smile at Trace. He couldn't help but smile back and I shook my head at them both. When Luna turned up the charm, nobody could resist.
“Of course, Luna. I'd never say anything,” Trace said easily and I wondered briefly if Luna had actually charmed him – in the magical sense, that is.
“Good. It's just a little bit of white magic. We'll just poke around a bit and see if anything pops up in regards to Renaldo's murder,” Luna said soothingly as she moved to the back of the room where a locked chest of drawers stood. No ugly steel file cabinet on display for Luna – instead she concealed the locked set of drawers inside a pretty reclaimed-wood armoire. More than one client had asked if it was for sale.
I watched Trace carefully to see if he had any reaction to Luna's revelation about being a witch. Because if he did, well, he would be off my list for me. Luna and I were a package deal, I thought as I moved towards the back of the shop.
Luna's presence this morning had helped us to gloss over any awkwardness about the night before and as far as I was concerned, the kiss had never happened.
“What's the purpose of a seeing spell?” Trace asked, leaning against the counter where the register stood. He wore yesterday's clothes, though I knew he had showered this morning. His blond hair was tucked back in its customary small ponytail and I wanted to tug on it a bit, to let his hair flow out.
“Althea,” Luna warned and I pulled my thoughts away from Trace.
“Yes? Sorry?”
“Trace would like to know what the purpose of this seeing spell is,” she said, refocusing on the items she was pulling from her shelves.
“Um, I think for this particular spell, we should focus on being able to see through illusions,” I said as I tapped my finger against my mouth, considering all options for seeing spells that we could use.
“Agreed,” Luna said and then turned, gesturing for us to follow her into her back room.
“Trippy,” Trace observed, standing at the doorway of Luna's workshop. The wooden floors were clean and a circle of protection was chalked on the floor. Enormous crystals of various shapes and sizes lined the walls of the room, each to be used in different spell castings. A small altar held various mortar and pestle sets along with a variety of other tools used in spell casting.
Luna moved to the circle and bent to place white candles at interval points around the circle. In the middle, she placed a shallow clear glass bowl of water and poured a few drops of liquid from an amber bottle into the bowl.
“Sit,” Luna said and Trace and I moved into the room, sitting at equal points around the circle so that we formed a triangle within the circle.
“What's going to happen?” Trace whispered.
“You're going to not talk,” I said adamantly and then clamped down on a snort when he stuck his tongue out at me.
“Children. Knock it off,” Luna said and closed her eyes, signaling for us to do the same.
Closing my eyes, I did my best to clear my mind of any thoughts, and just focused on my breath as I waited for Luna's incantation.
“Angels of future, Angels of past,
Make my magic strong to last
Through this water
Show me the truth
What I want to see
I'll finally find
What I try to foresee
Will be shown in my mind.”
I kept my eyes closed as Luna leaned over to stir the contents of the bowl and instead, focused on any sort of vision that would arise for me.
“Drink,” Luna said and I popped my eyes open to see her handing me the bowl of water. Reaching out, I brought the bowl to my lips, drinking the cool liquid and hoping this magic would work.
“Now we wait,” Luna said and Trace looked like he was going to open his mouth, but I shook my head before closing my eyes. Pulling deep breaths through my nose, I let my mind clear as I focused my internal gaze on the third eye point in my forehead, allowing myself to drift into a slightly meditative state.
A poof of white clouds materialized and then, as though a strong wind blew them, they disappeared to show me the interior of Luca's Deli Shop. My breath caught as my view turned to see Theodore and Cash ordering at the counter. Luca, every bit the New Jersey Italian with a gold chain and velour tracksuit on, joked with them behind the deli as he prepared their sandwiches. The men laughed together, sharing a joke, as my heart got caught in my throat and I realized that one of them was a murderer.
“Open up!” A voice from outside the shop interrupted our spell.
I jerked my eyes open and shook my head to clear my thoughts, a wave of dizziness washing over me as I watched Trace stand up and send a questioning glance to Luna.
“Yes, it's fine. Go see who it is,” she murmured, bending over to blow out the candles and put the dish on her altar. Straightening, she smoothed her linen shift dress and met my eyes.
“This isn't going to be good,” Luna said, nodding towards the front door.
“Why?”
“I saw it. In my vision. What did you see?”
“Luca's Deli. Cash and Theodore were chatting with Luca as they ordered sandwiches.”
Luna grimaced and shook her head.
“It can't be Cash.”
“We don't know that,” I whispered, glancing towards where low voices rumbled through the door.
“Listen, take my key to my cabinet. There's a spell book in there that you will need,” Luna whispered, stepping forward to press a small key into my palm. Panic fluttered through my stomach as I saw the fear in her eyes.
“Luna, what's happening?”
Luna just shook her head at me, indicating that I should stop talking, and moved into the front room. Slipping the key into the pocket of my linen pants, I followed her, nerves making me chew at my bottom lip.
“Ah, there she is,” Chief Dupree said, all but singing the words out as he came into the shop. If he could have puffed out his chest any further he would've looked just like the rooster down on County A.
“Officer Dupree,” I said, assuming he was speaking to me.
“Ms. Rose, that's Chief Dupree,” he corrected and then turned to Luna. The hair on the back of my neck stood up as it flashed to me what he was about to do.
“No,” I said, moving to stand in front of Luna.
“It's okay, Althea, he's just doing his job,” Luna said, running a hand softly down my back.
“No, this is wrong,” I said, staring down Chief Dupree and enunciating my words very carefully, as though he was hard of hearing.
“I'm sorry but I have to take your friend in for questioning, as she was the last person to see the deceased,” Chief Dupree said, a smirk on his face.
“This is ridiculous,” I said, “You can ask her questions right here.”
Chief Dupree looked around, a sneer on his face as he took in the crystals and healing elixirs.
“Luna Lavelle, I need to take you in for questioning on the murder of Renaldo Santiago,” Chief Dupree said, reaching for his handcuffs.
“Wait just a minute,” I said, moving to stand even closer to Chief Dupree so that we were eye to eye.
“Careful, Ms. Rose,” he drawled, his chin coming up as he met my eyes.
“From my understanding of the law, which I am certain you have studied at some point, yes?, you need to charge her with a crime before you put her in handcuffs. Asking her to come down to the station to answer questions certainly doesn't require aggressive force on your part, does it now?” I said, heavy on the sarcasm.
Chief Dupree's face flushed and if he could have spat on me, I swear he would have.
“Now, Ms. Rose, there's no need for handcuffs. Ms. Lavelle? Will you willingly come with me to the station to answer a few questions?�
��
“Don’t go, Luna,” I said, whipping my head around.
“Careful, Ms. Rose, or I'll slap you with an obstruction of justice charge,” Chief Dupree drawled and my mouth dropped open. Stepping back, I raised my hands in the air.
“Looks like you've gone a little power hungry now that you have a real case to try. I'll be watching you very carefully, Officer Dupree. Don't think I can't pull out the big guns if you step one inch out of line with Luna,” I threatened, and Trace came to stand beside me, wrapping his arm around my shoulder in support.
Chief Dupree looked a little white around the gills and he nodded, understanding my intent.
“It's going to be okay,” Luna whispered, leaning in to wrap her arms around me. “In the safe…there's money. Use it if you need it. Don't forget the spell book. The breaking spell. Towards the back.”
“Enough chatter, ladies!” Chief Dupree barked and Luna straightened, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Call me when you are done, we'll come pick you up,” I said, not even bothering to address Dupree as he led Luna from the shop. The blinds were still closed, which spared me the sight of seeing beautiful Luna being put into the back seat of the cop car.
Whirling, I grabbed Trace's arms.
“We need to get Beau. This is going to be bad.”
“What do you think will happen?” Trace asked in surprise.
“Luna said it would be bad. She already knew. They are going to charge her with murder.”
Chapter Nineteen
“You really think they'll charge her?” Beau asked as he paced behind the warm teak wood of his bar, tossing a shaker back and forth between his hands. We'd come here directly from the shop, knowing that Lucky's wouldn't be open until 4:00 on a Sunday. Beau had met us at the door, ushering us in and locking it after us.
“There's no reason to. But Luna knew something bad was about to go down.”
“We have to solve this before they get too far,” Beau said, coming to stand in front of me and holding up a bottle of vodka.
“No, I need food,” I said, waving away the drinks.
“Something from here? Or Luca's?”
Remembering the vision that had surfaced for me earlier, I considered going to Luca's to scope things out and see if I got any feelings.
“What are the chances of me walking down there and getting back without being hounded by the gossips or trapped by the press?”
“Zero,” Trace said, rolling his eyes in disgust at the annoyances of living in a small town.
“I'll go. I eat here every day. Orders?” Beau asked and I smiled at him, loving him and all that he was.
“Turkey on rye,” Trace and I both said at the same time and I blushed, looking away from the knowing look that crossed Beau's face.
“Oh, and pickles,” I called after him.
“Duh,” Beau called back and I smiled, though my nerves were clawing at me.
“When do you think we'll hear from her?”
“I don't know,” Trace said, shaking his head and reaching down to pull his MacBook Air from his messenger bag.
“What are you doing?”
“I think we need to learn more about Renaldo.”
Twenty minutes later, Beau returned with sandwiches and a grim look on his face while I hung over Trace's shoulder and took notes on what he found.
“This town is nuts,” Beau declared, dropping onto a stool next to me and sliding the bag of food my way.
“You hadn't noticed?”
“No, like really nuts. Luca and his buddies are taking bets on who the murderer is.”
“Shut up,” I said, stopping as I burrowed into the brown paper bag, my stomach already growling at the thought of Luca's turkey sandwich.
“It's like – I love this town – and then they go and pull some crazy shit like that,” Trace murmured, his eyes still focused on the computer.
“Who's favored?” I asked, deciding if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I pulled wax paper-wrapped sandwiches from the bag and handed them off, along with sea salt potato chips and the best pickles you'll find this side of New Jersey.
“Luna's leading,” Beau said gravely and my mouth dropped open.
“How do they know that?”
“Seems like Dupree stopped by the deli for a chat before he headed on in to pull Luna in for questioning,” Beau said, taking a small bite of his sandwich.
“Can he even do that? Is that even legal? He'll smear her name in this town. That's slander!” I said, slamming my hand onto the bar so hard that Trace's computer shook.
“Dupree does what he wants,” Trace said.
“There has to be a way to stop this,” I moaned.
“There is. Solve the murder,” Beau observed and I sighed, knowing he was right.
“Do you have your laptop here? We've been trying to gather information on Renaldo,” I said.
“Cash would be a great help with this – he used to work in security, you know,” Beau said as he strode across the restaurant to step into his office.
“That guy,” Trace said, disdain in his voice.
“He may be right though; I bet Cash could dig a little deeper than we could,” I said, immediately stuffing the sandwich in my mouth to stop any other words that would most likely piss Trace off.
“I've been known to dabble in some hacking. Let me see what I can do first before you call lover boy,” Trace said.
“Oh? What about shy Sienna? Didn't you miss out on a date last night with her?” I said, and then clamped my mouth shut and counted to ten.
“Children, knock it off,” Beau ordered.
Trace just shook his head at me and went back to his computer.
“What was Renaldo's job exactly?” Beau asked, coming to sit next to us again, his laptop in hand.
“I know that Cash said he worked with some investors. I believe it was maybe a competing group? I'm not totally sure...” I trailed off when I saw Trace's face go stony with the mention of Cash's name again. When he finally looked up at me, I just shook my head at him. Now was so not the time for jealousy.
“He was a consultant, from what I understand,” Beau said, taking a bite from his sandwich and tapping at his keyboard to pull up Google.
“I hate that word – consultant. It sounds so mobbish,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Or like someone who was made redundant at his company and went out on his own,” Trace said.
“I suppose,” I said, not willing to give Renaldo – may he rest in peace – the benefit of the doubt. As far as I was concerned, people didn't end up with an anchor attached to their legs when they were walking the straight and narrow. There was something we were missing and I highly doubted that Renaldo would turn out to be a squeaky clean investor who was in town for new opportunities.
“Okay, so I am finding a Renaldo – from Puerto Rico. It looks like he was working for a company called S&L Investments. A search on S&L investments turns up literally nothing, not even a web page. It's like they don't even exist.”
“Could be a fake name,” Beau supplied and I nodded.
“Maybe he just made the name up and was here on some other mission.”
“Although I do know that we are in competition with another investment group for Luca's space,” Beau said as he reached for a pickle.
“You think that group is S&L?”
“I think Cash would have the answer to that,” Beau said, turning to raise an eyebrow at me and I gulped as my mouth went dry.
“What if Cash is involved?” I whispered, staring down at my sandwich, hating that I had to throw him into the line of fire. There was little I could do though – my best friend was being held by a maniac of a police chief.
“Why do you say that?” Beau said with a gasp, swinging towards me.
Trace snorted, a pleased smile crossing his face.
“That guy,” he said again.
“Knock it off, Trace,” I warned.
“You didn't see something, d
id you?” Beau asked, tugging on my hand to pull my attention back to him.
“We were in the middle of a seeing spell earlier today,” I began, not having to explain to Beau what Luna was. There were no secrets between the three of us. “And before Dupree came and interrupted us, I saw Theodore and Cash talking.”
“The spell was to dissolve illusions – to make you see who's lying,” Trace said cheerfully.
“So either Cash or Theodore is lying to us?”
“Or both!” Trace said happily.
“Trace! That's it! Cash is a nice guy and I happen to care about him so I would really appreciate it if you'd show some humility and just knock it off.”
“You're really a piece of work, Althea,” Trace said, slamming his laptop closed and shoving back from the bar
“Trace, just stop. There's a lot going on right now. I don't need some pissing match between you and Cash – if they charge Luna, it's on us to save her,” I said, refusing to back down.
“And while you try to play nice, you may be sleeping with a murderer,” Trace hissed in my face before storming across the dining room towards the patio.
“I'm not sleeping with him,” I shouted, the slamming of the door my only answer.
“Well, then,” Beau said, fanning his face dramatically. “I swear, if we didn't have a murder to solve, I'd mix up a cocktail and watch the sparks from this little drama.”
“Ugh, Beau, what am I going to do?” I said, burying my face in my hands.
“Well, sweetie, you're going to put your big girl panties on and solve a murder,” Beau said sweetly and I pulled back to glare at him.
“How? I can't even work with the two men who could actually be of some help.”
Beau pulled back and raised an eyebrow at me. “And what do you think I am?”
“Sorry, Beau, of course you can help. I just know how busy you are with the restaurant.”
“Well, I'll close it for a day or two. No big deal,” Beau said and picked up his cell phone to start calling his staff.
When I grabbed his arm to stop him, he just shook me off. Covering the mouthpiece, he shushed me.
“You and Luna are my best friends. If you think I can't close the restaurant for a few days until we figure this out then you had better reexamine your definition of friendship,” he sniffed, clearly offended.
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