by Kelly Ethan
“That’s the thing. There’s no record anywhere of Miranda Harrow having a job during that time. No employment, banking or tax records. Nada. Zip. And that’s suspicious.”
“How?”
“There had to be a digital or paper footprint. Did she have a coffee meet-up? Paid with credit? Did she meet someone for lunch and use her bankcard? There’s no record of credit or bankcard usages during those blank times. Even human security cameras got nothing. I have a great tech witch who can hack, and she can find footage even from twenty years ago. But there’s only a big blank. In my business, that ain’t normal.”
Her mother, even a mystery before she disappeared. “You have nothing on her?”
He scratched the side of his nose. “I wouldn’t say that. Look, you gotta know. A twenty-year-old mystery is tough. Records were paper, not digital yet. And in magical departments, it’s even worse. Supes are paranoid about security and more suspicious than humans. Getting answers is hard work. I went to an old contact of mine. He works in various projects for higher-ups.”
“Higher-ups where?”
“Government, chickie. The human kind though, not supernatural. My contact did some digging and turned up your mom’s name on deep classified files.”
“Has to be the wrong person. Mom never worked for the government.” Mom had had no real powers, compared to those of her Harrow family, but she’d still grown up in a supernatural clan. Why would she have worked with humans?
“Your mom was a digger, as far as I can tell. She had a nose for crime, the super freaky woo-woo kind. Shadowy inner circle government types would call her in to consult. But my friend had to dig deep to even find that. The guy won’t take my calls now.” He grimaced.
“Are you saying my mother, Miranda Harrow, was a spy?”
“I’m saying she’s murky like her mother. She wasn’t all peaches and cream.”
Xandie’s heart fluttered, skipped a beat, then pounded in her chest. “The knight confessed to chasing her off the cliff. What connection does he have to her death?”
The troll sighed and then looked Xandie straight in the face. “That’s why I wanted you to read the file. So I didn’t have to see you face to face.” He took a deep breath. “I don’t think your mother is dead.”
Xandie reared back, his face tunneled in for a moment, hazed over with black fog. She shook her head. No way. Her mother was dead. Otherwise why leave her only child? “No. The knight confessed to chasing her off a cliff. Miranda Harrow is dead.”
“The knight chased her off a cliff and she fell, banged herself up good. But someone saw her fall. I got a real witness, one that swears your mother was alive after she fell.”
“A witness?” Xandie screeched the last word, then took a shuddering breath in and let it go with a shrill whoosh. “Why didn’t Point Muse police find the witness? What about the human coast guard? Surely they would have found someone who saw my mother’s death?”
“Nah, my witness is a merrow. A mermaid. They’re secretive. No way she’d go near human police or coast guard. She told me she saw your mom fall, hit the water hard. The rocks banged her up so bad, the Mer assumed she was dead until your mom moved. The witness grabbed your mom and tried to return her to Wrecked Cove under the cliff Miranda Harrow fell off, but the tides wouldn’t let her.”
Xandie inched forward on the edge of her seat. “What happened?”
“The fish dropped your mom off two towns over at their fishing port and never thought a thing about the incident until I came asking.”
“My mom was only a few towns away?” All this time, her mother had only been a short distance away?
“The thing with Merrows is they’re flighty, with a short attention span. They have no sense of land or human map references. Her two towns over were a hundred miles away near Macon, up the coast.”
“Mac… what?” She’d never heard of the town.
“Macon. Small town. Human with a few psychics. It’s the eastern most point of the United States.”
“Mom’s alive?” Xandie’s hands shook and she slipped them under her jean-clad thighs.
“Twenty years ago, she was. I checked the hospital records, but they had a fire just after your mother arrived and it destroyed the paper records.”
“Convenient,” Xandie mumbled to herself.
“It’s not surprising in a small coastal town. It’s the timing of the fire that concerns me. I had a look-see and talked to the residents. Most had no clue, but I found an old nurse from the hospital who remembered her. She said around that time, some fishermen found a Jane Doe near the harbor. The woman matches your mom’s description.”
“Why didn’t my mother come home?” Xandie burst out, unable to hold her words back.
“Because of the head wound. The Jane Doe had no memory of her life before the fishermen found her. All the nurse could tell me is that a week after the cops made enquiries, black-suited government types swept in and took her away. The hospital was never told her why the agents grabbed Jane Doe.” The troll patted Xandie on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, chickie. The trail stops there.”
“The government people my mom may or may not have worked for picked her up but didn’t bring her back.” Xandie leaned over the table, gritting her teeth and glaring at the investigator.
“Whoa there, librarian. Cover those pearly whites. I can keep looking. But even if they are humans, those shadowy government types cover their tracks.”
Xandie closed her eyes then forced them open again. Her mother’s whereabouts had waited twenty years, it could wait a little longer. The priority was Priss and a dead dragon. Even if Xandie didn’t want it to be. She was the librarian and tough enough to focus on other things. “Keep an ear to the ground in case something bubbles up from your digging, but I have other bodies to deal with right now.”
The troll slapped his hand on the picnic table. “Zombie dragons, got it. I’ll call you if I get any information. Then we can discuss my finder fee.”
She groaned; the library had paid one invoice; the next one was on her. She’d speak to Lila. Everyone in town passed through her bakery. Her cousin probably knew the witness and could set up a meeting.
“Check you later, library girl.” The troll lumbered off, whistling a discordant tune.
She realized something. “Hey, you never told me your name?” Xandie yelled after him.
He turned back and bowed to Xandie. “Herman Trollish, at your service.”
“Your last name is Trollish and you’re a troll?”
“My mother was a traditionalist.” Herman waved and stomped off.
“Interesting mother, Herman.” She traced a pattern on the wood of the table.
Then again, what did she know about mothers?
Twelve
Xandie navigated the stairs to her beach and the small dock. She was there to meet with a woman named Coral Greenwater, who just happened to be the merrow witness to her mother’s fall off the cliff. There was no doubt the mermaid had saved Miranda Harrow’s life by plucking her from the ocean depths. The only catch was, by depositing her a hundred miles up the coast, no one had realized her mother had survived the fall. Coral had never breathed a word about it, preferring to stay off land-dweller radar.
The mermaids frequented her Aunt Amelia’s veterinary practice because of their fish physiology, so Lila had asked around and turned up Coral Greenwater. The mermaid had agreed to a meeting on Xandie’s dock. Now all Xandie had to do was get to the beach without breaking her neck on the rickety stairs.
She flinched when one tread let out an ominous creak. “No more pastries, I swear,” she promised the stair.
“I’m not a pastry eater, but Lila’s Chai Oyster chaser is to die for.” A greenish blonde-haired woman leaned the top half of her body on the dock and smiled.
Xandie exhaled as she cleared the last step and joined the woman. “Oysters aren’t my thing.” Xandie paused. “Ah, how do you…” She pointed to the mermaid’s covered bottom half
.
The mermaid flicked the tip of a shimmering emerald and lapis lazuli tail above the water. “We do a group order and Lila delivers to the waterside for us. She’s a full-service bakery. Caters to every supernatural.” The mermaid shrugged and Xandie glimpsed a pastel pink sports bra.
“Most land dwellers can’t handle naked skin, so we found a great dive clothing company that designs clothing for us.” The mermaid maneuvered backward and flashed her glittery bra.
Xandie cleared her throat. “That’s great. I’m guessing you’re Coral Greenwater?”
The merrow swam back to the dock. “Call me Cora. Lila mentioned you needed to talk about a swan?”
Swan? Avians weren’t high on her interview list. “No, a woman who fell off a cliff twenty years ago. You fished her out and deposited her up the coast a hundred miles.”
“That’s what we call cliff divers—swans. But yeah, I was around the area, searching for new coral combs. She nearly took me out.”
Xandie settled into a seated position on the dock. “That was my mother, Miranda Harrow.”
“Oh.” Cora opened and closed her mouth like a goldfish. “Glad I didn’t leave her to drown.”
“Can you tell me what happened?” What had happened to her mother after she’d fallen? Had she spoken to Cora? Had she mentioned Xandie?
“Once she sunk to me, I snagged her and brought her back to the surface. The sea was rough, so I just went with the tide. Left her with some fishermen up the coast.”
Where shadowy government agents had scooped up her amnesiac mother. “Did she say anything to you?”
Cora grimaced. “She was in and out most of the trip. She kept mumbling about her little girl, keeping her safe. I guess that was you?”
Xandie swallowed the golf-ball-sized lump that took up residence in her throat. “Yeah, that was me. Is there anything else you can tell me?”
Cora nibbled the end of her greenish hair. “It’s probably nothing.”
“Doesn’t matter how small. Every piece of information helps.”
“While I was looking for my combs, before your mother landed on me, there was a boat moored way out.”
“What kind of boat?” Had someone been watching her mom as she fell off the cliff?
“Nothing fancy. But there were men in suits watching me. I thought they might help pick up your mom, but they just watched me through metal thingies.”
Binoculars? Men in suits suggested government types. The same men her mom had worked for before her accident.
Cora shuddered. “I thought they might be big game fishers. Those killers are our boogeymen.”
“What did they do?” Strange to realize mermaids had boogeymen. Xandie had spied the mermaid’s very sharp teeth earlier when she’d smiled. The green-haired merrow would be a nasty predator when riled. What nightmare figure scared a vicious predator? No one Xandie wanted to meet.
“Nothing. They stayed back and followed us. I dropped your mom off at the harbor and they stayed out. I noticed some of them left the boat and followed your mom once the fishermen found her.”
The government agents who taken her mom from the hospital must have been watching Miranda Harrow. Somehow, they’d known the knight’s plan. They’d been waiting below to snatch her mother. But Cora had derailed their plans, and they hadn’t been willing to tangle with a mermaid. Could the government have been behind the knight’s attack on her and her mom? Was the knight’s plan to force her mother off a cliff into the waiting hands of the government?
“Sorry I can’t tell you anything else.” Cora pushed off the dock and floated. “Tell Lila we’ll need an order for chasers tomorrow. We have a union meeting arranged.”
“Wait.” Xandie stood. There was one more thing she had to ask her. “Was anyone around when my great-aunt drowned?”
Cora made a sad face. “Most of us were at our annual conference in the Bahamas. Our Queen was still here but couldn’t get to Sera in time. All of us were sorry to see her go. She was a hoot.”
“Thanks, Cora.”
“Do you remember I used to brush your hair when you were little?”
“You did?” Xandie vaguely remembered Sera bringing her to the dock sometimes. But most of the times before her mother had disappeared was hazy.
“Sera bought you here sometimes and she and my mother gossiped while I looked after you. You loved brushing my hair with my coral comb. Sometimes, I’d braid your hair. Normally you hated people touching it.”
Xandie fingered her shoulder-length brown hair. Cora was right, she’d hated people touching her hair when she was a kid. Her mother had to bribe her to even sit at the hairdressers. Hang on, Coral… “Did you give me a blue shell hair clip? It had gold glitter on it.”
Cora clapped her hands above her head. “Yes, I had one, and you loved it. I gave one to Sera, and she sprinkled glitter over it for you.”
Xandie smiled. “I still have that clip. For a while after mom disappeared, it was the only thing I wanted every day. My dad had to take it away because it broke.”
“It’s nice to see you again, Xandie. So grown up and the librarian. Welcome home.” Cora blew Xandie a kiss and flipped her tail up, diving deep and vanishing into the briny deep ocean.
Xandie climbed back up the stairs toward the house and her cat, Theo. A mermaid had brushed her hair twenty years ago. Now here she was interviewing her about Xandie’s amnesiac mother’s rescue from death by drowning.
Funny how everything came back to Point Muse.
“Why do we have to meet here, Agatha?” Xandie held her breath. All the competing smells in the candle and soap shop, ‘All lit up,’ that her Aunt Winifred owned drove her sinuses crazy.
“Everyone knows I hate this girly stuff, and I’d never be caught dead here. If we want to keep this off the gossip rounds, we meet here.” Aggie Braun’s faded blue eyes bored into Xandie.
Xandie held up her hands in surrender.
Winifred broke in. “You want me to get your regular order ready, Aggie?”
Agatha nodded. “That would be great, Winifred.”
“I thought you wouldn’t be caught dead here?”
“That’s why she orders online, Alexandra. The Internet might be hit and miss here in Point Muse because of the ley lines. But I’ve made sure my customers can order online with a special spell. Elspeth hooked me up.” Winifred sniffed and shoved a brown paper bag at Xandie.
Xandie handed it off to Agatha. “What’s so important you and I had to have a secret meeting in Aunt Win’s shop?”
Agatha lowered her voice. “Marjorie had bail denied. They think that because she’s a dragon and rich she’s a flight risk.”
Xandie snorted. “The woman’s old. How far can her dragon wings take her?”
“Well, for now, nowhere. I’ve set her up as comfy as possible. But she ain’t happy. She wanted me to remind you of your responsibilities.”
What was that again? That’s right…clear a dragon of murder, then said dragon owes you. Once again, she had to find a killer. No big. “I’m aware of my responsibility. Do the twins have any other evidence?”
“The twins don’t. But I might. I was chatting to the old dragon and mentioned her daughter, Melinda. She got real upset when I told her there was a rumor she’d banished her. Marjorie denied it and refused to talk to me until Melody fetched her a mocha latte from Lila’s. As far as she’s concerned, her eldest ran away and I believe her.”
“Marjorie had no clue Melinda left because she thought she’d been banished? How was that even possible?” Was it the dragon dementia Ronald had mentioned? Xandie scratched at her arm, digging her nails in as she puzzled the problem. Ever since the rat infestation at Mayweather Inn, she’d had a damn rash on her arm. Maybe she should ask her Aunt Winifred for a potion to cure it.
“Look, Xandie, I might have an idea.” Agatha made sure the shop was empty before continuing, “I don’t want to undermine the boys and their job, but they don’t have the experience Zach does.
But I can’t see that old dragon go to prison for a crime she didn’t commit.”
“And?”
“We need to dig into Melinda Penne’s death. See what we can find out. I’ve got a feeling it’s connected.”
“What do we do?”
“I’ll track down old Wolf. He was acting chief at the time of the accident. You can go have a chat with him. See what he remembers. He hates the Braun and won’t talk to us, but he might to you.” Agatha gathered her parcel up and stuck it under a beefy arm. “I’ll contact you when I have an address for him. And get that itch seen to, it looks like you’ve got a bug or the plague.” Agatha nodded to Winifred and slipped out the shop door.
“I love Agatha, but sometimes those Braun’s drive me crazy.” Winifred slipped up next to Xandie and poked at the red, raised patch on her niece’s arm. “Wowza. You have a nasty case of transferred dragon shale.”
“Eww.” Xandie drew back horrified. “What’s dragon shale?”
Winifred disappeared behind a counter and reappeared with a mortar and pestle and a handful of different ingredients. “Dragon shale is a rash caused by shedding a dragon scale and not looking after the exposed skin. Once exposed areas become infected, sometimes on rare occasions, the rash can be transmitted to humans. It’s not common, but it happens.”
Xandie rubbed her neck. The damn rash had started at her hand and traveled up her arm. It appeared straight after the rats showed up at Mayweather Inn, she assumed the gray vermin caused it. “A dragon gave me this?”
Winifred grabbed a few ingredients and threw them into a mortar and pestle, smashing them together. She hummed a discordant tune as she worked. Winifred nodded at Xandie. “Yep, a dragon caused it.” She decanted the mix into a small bottle of clear liquid and gave a good shake before putting a stopper in the top. “All done. You need to apply this twice a day. You should be good in a week. I’ve only had to make this a few times. But I still carry the ingredients just in case. You’re lucky.”
“When was the last time you made it?”
“Oh, years ago. You were only a baby.”