Death Quixote (A Paranormal Cozy Mystery) (Magical Bookshop Mystery Book 4)

by Samantha Silver

  I had to be careful to avoid people; Chase had drawn quite a crowd. I couldn’t blame them, really–with his muscular body holding the fire extinguisher, he looked like he belonged in one of those sexy firefighter magazines. The only way he could have looked sexier right now is if he had his shirt off, and he was also holding a puppy.

  Smiling at the mental image I made for myself, I slipped away from the crowd and made my way back to the bookstore, slipping into it before daring to use another spell to turn myself visible again. I was glad it worked on the first attempt; it would have been pretty embarrassing to have to text Cat to come use her magic to make me visible again because I’d screwed it up.

  As soon as I was visible again, I took the little note off the door saying I’d be back at one, and I made my way to the counter, where I quickly wrote down Sally Wentworth’s address on a post-it note before I forgot it, and settled in for the afternoon. I figured I could pop by her place after work and see if she was there, and see what kind of vibe I got off of her before Cat and I dealt with the bike thieves.

  Chapter 11

  Mountain View Drive was a little ways outside of Sapphire Village; because I didn’t have a car I had to walk, and it was a good twenty minutes from the bookshop. Still, as far as walks went, it was absolutely beautiful. The summer foliage was in full bloom as I walked along the Sapphire Trail, a shared pedestrian and cyclist walkway that meandered its way through the residential neighborhoods in town. It was a beautiful stroll, and when I finally reached Mountain View Drive I was happy I’d taken the time.

  I figured maybe I should take up hiking or something; there was so much natural beauty around here that I felt like maybe I was wasting my time just sitting cooped up in the bookstore all day. Maybe I could even take up mountain biking!

  Giggling at the thought–I was going to try and master broom riding first–I made my way to the apartment Sally had listed as her address and knocked on the door.

  There was no answer. I knocked again, and still nothing. Looking furtively around, I saw that there was no-one around. I quickly pointed at the lock and let magic take care of the rest; a second later I heard the click of the deadbolt sliding back, and I slipped into Sally Wentworth’s apartment.

  It became immediately obvious that she wasn’t home; the whole apartment had to be about two hundred square feet, tops. A tiny kitchen to my left, a bathroom to my right that I was amazed actually fit a toilet and a shower in it, and the rest of the room was made up of a living room/bedroom combo, with a futon that could be pulled out to make a bed.

  Considering the size, however, Sally had definitely kept the place homey-looking. There were a couple nice art prints on the wall, and the place was clean. Dirty dishes were in the sink, and her clothes were all kept in a small chest against the far wall by the television.

  “Sally?” I called out all the same as I made my way through to the living area. There was a laptop on a small desk, though I didn’t see a purse or cell phone anywhere. It also didn’t really look like she’d left at all. Everything was perfectly neat and tidy, like she’d just stepped out to get groceries, or something.

  I made my way around the tiny kitchen, but there were no clues there, either. No kettle left on, no pot still on the stove. In fact, there was nothing out of place at all.

  If Sally did leave here without intending to come back, she did so in a huge hurry. Why wouldn’t she at least take her laptop with her? It didn’t make any sense. Nothing about this apartment looked like someone who had left permanently.

  Of course, there was always the chance that she was working a new job, was out on a date, or had just run off to get some groceries. Maybe I was over-reacting. In fact, I realized that I was standing in the middle of her home, and if she happened to come back right now, I’d have absolutely no way to explain why I was in her apartment.

  I was about to leave–after all, I didn’t want an awkward encounter, when I noticed a post-it note on the fridge. Looking over at it, I saw it was for an appointment. Massage w/ Kerry @ 12 Tuesday. Well, that was about six hours ago now. I wondered if she made it to that appointment.

  Slipping out of the apartment, I made my way back to the bookshop, where I opened up my iPad and Googled “Masseuse Sapphire Village Kerry”.

  I quickly found out that Kerry Green was a massage therapist at Sapphire Village Spa, so I picked up my phone and made a quick call.

  “Hello, Sapphire Village Spa, how can I help you?” a friendly voice on the other end answered.

  “Hi, I’m wondering if you could tell me whether or not Sally Wentworth showed up to her appointment with Kerry at noon today.”

  The woman on the other line paused for a moment. “Um, we don’t normally give out confidential client information like that.”

  “Oh I know, I’m sorry, but it’s just that I’m a friend of Sally’s, and she hasn’t been answering her phone, and I know she had an appointment and I just wanted to see if she showed up or not or if I should be worried about her.” Worried that she might be a murderer, anyway.

  “Oh,” the girl replied. “Well, in that case, I guess I should tell you, Sally missed her appointment today.”

  “Ok, thanks,” I replied.

  “I hope she turns up safe and sound,” the receptionist told me.

  “Thanks, me too,” I answered before hanging up the phone. So Sally had skipped the massage she had booked. She wasn’t at home. She had left most of her belongings, but she’d taken her purse and phone with her.

  Maybe it had been an accident. Maybe she hadn’t meant to kill Sapphire Sam, and then panicked when she had killed him.

  Either way, I didn’t think there was any way around it: I had to tell Chase what I’d found out.

  I made my way back to the police station for the second time that day, only this time I walked in through the front door.

  “Hey, Andi,” I said to the receptionist, who was now doing her nails at her desk.

  “Hey, Chase is in his office,” she replied, motioning back with her head. I smiled and made my way back there. Chase was back to looking at his computer intently, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he was still looking at flowers.

  As I sat down on the chair my back twinged in protest, and I grimaced.

  “Are you ok?” Chase asked as he looked up from the computer.

  “Yeah, I just tweaked my back a bit, I think,” I replied as I sat down in the chair across from him.

  “Ok, well, if you need a recommendation for someone to see about it, I know all the good physios in town.”

  “Thanks,” I replied with a smile. I had to admit, as much as Sirona Scissorhands had the most terrifying name ever for some kind of healer, I was definitely more willing to put my faith into magical healing than human healing. How things had changed; it was only just a few months ago that I had discovered magic was even real.

  “So what’s up?” Chase asked, ignoring the screen completely and focusing on me. “Don’t tell me you’ve been going out and continuing to investigate the murder.”

  “Well no,” I lied. “But I did try to follow up with someone who was supposed to be working on Saturday at one of the local bike shops. Anyway, she didn’t show up to her shift the next day, and I found out that she has probably skipped town. She was supposed to get a massage today and didn’t, and when I went to her place, there was no answer.”

  Chase leaned back in his chair, obviously interested. “So you think this worker may have had something to do with Sapphire Sam’s death?”

  I shrugged. “If not, well it’s a pretty big coincidence, isn’t it? She probably saw the guy just before he was killed, and now she’s disappeared herself?”

  Chase nodded slowly. “Sure, I get that. And after all, Sapphire Sam wasn’t a big dude, I could easily see a woman being able to overpower him, especially if she got the upper hand somehow. But what would a woman working in a bike shop have against Sapphire Sam? Why would she want to kill him?”

  “I’m no
t sure, but I think I have an idea.” With that, I told Chase everything I found out about the SecurLock bike lock, leaving out the fact that Cat and I had left her bike out as bait and had it lost. When I finally finished the story, telling Chase everything I knew, he let out a low whistle.

  “You know, if it wasn’t for the fact that you run your family’s bookshop, I’d almost insist that you join the police academy and become a cop here. You’ve single-handedly discovered more about these bike thieves than any of the cops in town here knew, including me.”

  My face flushed slightly at the praise as Chase continued. “So what you’re thinking is that Sally, who worked at a bike shop, might have figured out how to unlock the bikes that use that lock, and that she was stealing them?”

  “Yeah. Either by herself, or as part of a group. And I think maybe Sapphire Sam found out about it, or caught her in the act, or whatever. And now she’s skipped town.”

  Chase nodded. “That could make sense. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Though it seems useless to reiterate, I do have to tell you that you really shouldn’t be involving yourself in this investigation.”

  “I know. I was just following up on one of the first things I found out, though.”

  “Ok, but stay out of it in the future, all right?”

  “Sure thing,” I replied, crossing my fingers behind my back.

  “I’ll chat with you soon,” Chase said. “I’m totally swamped with this case, still.”

  “Don’t worry, I get it,” I replied. I was pretty busy with it too, to be honest, but I wasn’t about to admit that to Chase. “I’ll see you.”

  I waved and turned around, then headed back out the door to go and see Cat. After all, just because Chase had the information didn’t mean we were going to stop hunting Sapphire Sam’s killer. He might have been a former marine, but Cat and I were witches.

  Chapter 12

  Cat’s Cupcakes was just closing as I walked through the front door.

  “Hi, Alice,” Maddie, Cat’s main employee, said to me as I walked in. “I’m afraid we’re completely sold out of cupcakes today, but I think Cat’s getting the batter ready for tomorrow’s batches if you want to head into the back and steal some.”

  “Thanks, Maddie,” I replied with a grin, doing exactly as she suggested and making my way through the door that led through to the kitchen. I found Cat pouring a giant bowl of flour into a mixing bowl the size of a large tub, and she grinned at me when I came in. The smell of freshly baked cupcakes wafted over from the oven, and I peered into the industrial-sized machine, gazing at the rising dough dimly lit by the warm glow of the oven light.

  “You can’t eat those just yet,” Cat said, her voice rising to cover the sound of the electric mixer beneath her. I turned and stuck out my tongue at her.

  “Just admiring the view.”

  “You know, most people say that about the ocean, or men, not cupcakes.”

  “Hey, I’m paying you a compliment, you should just accept it,” I replied.

  “Fair enough,” Cat grinned, turning off the mixer and heaving the bowl over to the counter. “Now, help me out by putting some cupcake liners here,” she said, motioning to the eight dozen muffin tins that lined the counter. I grabbed a pile of cupcake liners and began to work alongside of Cat.

  “So I went and grabbed Peaches’ bike out of storage, I think we should use it as bait tonight,” Cat said.

  “Won’t Peaches be mad?” I asked. “Especially if we lose her bike like we did yours.”

  “First of all, there’s absolutely no way we’re going to lose Peaches’ bike. Not again. Second of all, she won’t care. Peaches never rides. You’ve seen how her magic goes wrong. Multiply that by ten and that’s what Peaches looks like trying to ride a bike.”

  I giggled to myself. Whenever Peaches tried to use magic it usually ended with… rather unusual results. I could only imagine what it would be like if she was even worse on a bike.

  “Ok, so we’ll do it the same way? Head back to my place and spy, this time without falling asleep?”

  “Exactly,” Cat nodded. As I sat down on a chair, she saw me wince.

  “Your back is worse, hey?” she asked, and I nodded.

  “Definitely. I had a bit of an adventure sneaking into the police station this afternoon.” I recounted my day’s adventures to Cat, who shook her head when I was finished.

  “What have I told you about going out and having fun adventures without me?” she asked.

  “Sorry, it was just kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing. Besides, it was painful enough just for me, I don’t think you missed out on anything.”

  “If your back hurts that much, you really need to go see Sirona.”

  “Fine. Make me the appointment, and I’ll go.”

  “Will do. Now help me get the current batch of cupcakes out of the oven so we can put these next ones in.”

  An hour later I’d finished helping Cat set up the cupcakes for the next day, and we were ready to head home.

  We decided to grab pizza on the way, and as we made our way back into the bookstore we immediately found ourselves accosted by Archibald once again.

  “It’s ended! It ended and I need to know what happens next!” Archibald said desperately.

  “All right, all right, let me find The Return of the King for you,” I said. “You do realize that’s the last part of the trilogy, and when it’s over, that’s it?”

  “I do, and as sad as that is, not knowing whether or not Frodo and Samwise make it to Orodruin to destroy the ring would be a greater tragedy than any other.”

  Cat laughed. “You’re seriously the only person who calls Sam “Samwise” and Mount Doom “Orodruin”, Archie”

  Archibald glared at her. “For one thing, my name is not Archie, it’s Archibald. Just as Samwise Gamgee is the hobbit’s name, and Orodruin is the name of Mount Doom in the tongue of the elves, whose language is far superior to ours.”

  “It’s a Sindarin name, though, which is low Elvish,” Cat teased. “I would have thought you’d go with the Quenya name instead.”

  “Ugh, just get me the next audiobook, please, so I can go back to a land where your cousin doesn’t exist,” Archibald said, and I had to laugh. Cat was extremely good at riling up Archibald. I had no idea if that stuff about low Elvish was right or not, but it certainly worked him up. I took the iPad from where it sat, plugged it back in since the battery was running low, and went to Audible to buy the final Lord of the Rings audiobook.

  I set it up and called Archibald over. “Here you go. We’re going upstairs, so I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Of course, thank you Alice. You are really a much better human than the other one.”

  “Thanks,” I replied with a small smile. For someone who was hundreds of years old, Archibald really could act like a small child a lot of the time.

  I left him with his audiobook as Cat and I made our way up the stairs and got the pizza out. “I’ll go grab her bike when we’re done eating,” Cat told me. Sure enough, by the time night had fallen, Peaches’ bike, which I had to admit looked a lot less impressive than Cat’s, even without all of the cat-themed accessories and stickers, was locked at the same rack as the night before.

  This time, Cat and I took shifts–she would sleep for a few hours while I watched, and then I’d wake her up and vice-versa. That way, when the sun came up and the bike was still there–unfortunately our thief didn’t strike a second time–we were both tired, but we also didn’t feel like zombies, either.

  Cat sighed when I woke her up as the sun came up and let her know the bad news–no one had tried to steal Peaches’ bike.

  “I knew that piece of crap she calls a bike wouldn’t get any bites,” she said.

  I laughed. “It’s not that bad.”

  “Maybe not, but thieves are looking for stuff that’s actually worth a lot of money. After all, you’re not going to risk jail for a bike you can offload for $200, but you are going to risk it f
or a bike like mine that you can sell for over a thousand.”

  “Fair enough,” I said. “So what do we do from here? Try to find Sally Wentworth? After all, if she’s one of our thieves, and we manage to track her down we might be able to see where she’s got the bikes.”

  “That’s a good idea. You should stay on that. I’m going to keep browsing Craigslist in Portland to see if my bike pops up for sale anywhere. I also had another idea,” Cat continued, squirming slightly in her seat.

  “Yes?” I asked, curious as to where the sudden nerves came from. After all, if there was one thing Cat definitely was not it was nervous.

  “I think we should go out at night. Your adventure at the police station gave me the idea. What if we made ourselves invisible and wandered around town? We could cover so much more space, and we might be able to catch Sally and the other thieves, if she’s working with anyone, in action.”

  I nodded slowly. “That makes sense, but you know that—”

  “I know,” Cat interrupted before I could finish the sentence. “Being outside, alone, at night, while using an invisibility spell would basically be inviting The Others to come after us. But come on. You’ve killed one of them before. And frankly, I don’t like knowing they’re out there but not doing anything. It’s like, come on. Come and get us.”

  I laughed. “Boy do we have different opinions about that. I would absolutely be happy if they just went and hid forever.”

  “Yeah, but they’re not going to, are they?” Cat replied. “They’re out there, somewhere, and they’re going to come back. And they’re going to come back stronger, and after revenge. If we go out there, if we invite them to come after us, we have a chance at getting them again, before they have a chance to figure out how to get us.”

  I tossed Cat’s logic over in my mind. In a way, it made sense. If we could defeat more of them now, before they got stronger, it would put us in a better position.