by Kelly Ethan
“Do you remember who you made it for and when?”
Winifred considered the question for a moment. “It was a long time ago and Holly was still a baby, she was such a horrible sleeper back then. I was exhausted all the time. Elspeth threatened to mute her if she didn’t stop screaming in the middle of the night.”
“Was this around the time the crop duster crashed?”
“It could have been.” Winifred nodded. “Yes, it was just after it crashed.”
“Who needed it? The potion I mean.”
“A dragon?” Winifred chuckled at her joke. “One of the Penne’s. That’s all I can remember.” Winifred snapped fingers. “Hang on. Ronald picked it up for his wife. Does that help?”
Xandie nodded. It did if the original dragon scale shed was then used in a spell for dragon’s breath by a crop duster to bring Melinda Penne down. The Penne clan declared her sister heir after Melinda left and the ex-heir coming back threatened that position. And Xandie had touched Adelind’s hair and neck, at the Inn during the rat incident. Maybe that’s when she’d picked up the rash? If the dragon had a history of shedding a scale and getting an infection, then maybe Adelind was the killer. Xandie had only come into contact with four full dragons and only three before the rash appeared. Adelind, Ronald and Es Penne. “Is that dragon shale thingy only a disease you see in older dragons or can teenagers get it too?”
“Teenagers can contract it, but it’s mature adult dragons who are more susceptible. Teenage dragons have a super-charged immunity until they hit maturity so it’s rarer.”
So not likely to be Es Penne. That left her parents.
“I’d keep wearing long sleeves while you have the rash. Just until it clears.”
“Am I contagious?” Last thing she needed was to give Point Muse a dragon-human plague. Residents would form an angry mob and run her out of town.
“No. Dragons can pass it to humans, but the contagion vector loses power once passed to a human. Not contagious, just not pretty. I’m sure Zachary Braun will be home soon, so you just cover up until it clears.” Winifred winked at Xandie.
“Why is everyone trying to set me up with a mouthy, arrogant shifter?”
Winifred patted Xandie’s arm–the opposite side to where the dragon shale rash had spread. “Because Lila and Holly are lost causes. You still have options.” Winifred smiled and shoved Xandie out the door.
Xandie slipped the potion into a pocket. Harrows were hard-core. Chaos and mayhem were part of everyday life. Xandie smiled and scratched her arm. Harrows were family, but Zachary Braun wasn’t. She’d avoid him whenever he made it back home.
“Hey, I texted you a few times.” Priss hurried up to Xandie, her phone in hand.
“Phones don’t work so well here in Point Muse because of the ley lines. The energy messes with phone signals. They only work occasionally or if you bribe Elspeth for a charm. I don’t even bother to take mine out of the house half the time.”
“Oh.” Priss shoved the phone into her pocket and cleared her throat. “I wanted to apologize for losing it at the Penne compound. Going toe to toe with Penne villain number one wasn’t what I had planned. Just saw red, I guess.”
A temper just like every other Penne. Priss had inherited more than claws from her mother. “It’s fine. An argument’s what you get when two people with the same type of personality spend time with each other.”
“I’m nothing like her.” Priss glared at Xandie.
“You can shift claws, you both walk the same way when you’re angry and Agatha Braun’s right. You have Marjorie’s chin and her temper.”
Priss took a deep breath. “Marjorie banished my mother. I guess the Penne clan is a sore spot for me.”
Xandie weighed up the information she’d gathered from Agatha and Winifred. Priss needed to know. “Marjorie didn’t banish her.”
“I have a letter. Trust me.”
“Agatha spoke to Marjorie. She had no clue about the banishment. She thinks Melinda ran away. Agatha’s good at spotting liars since her family’s in law enforcement. Plus, Winifred had more details that helped. Marjorie’s not the killer. Somebody else is.”
Priss look frustrated enough to sprout wings and fly away. “Then who is?”
Xandie headed off to Lila’s bakery, with Priss following. “Let’s get the girls and reconvene at my place with pizza for dinner. This might take a while to explain.”
“A chocolate and strawberry pizza. The food of the gourmet gods.” Elspeth grinned and stepped inside Xandie’s house.
“My eyes.” Theo covered his and his pet imp’s eyes, blinded by the glare that was pizza delivery woman, Elspeth Harrow.
Elspeth did a shimmy and a shake, patting her fire-engine-red wig back into place.
Lila poked her head out of the lounge room. “What’s taking so long, Xandie?” She opened and closed her mouth when she spotted her grandmother. “Why are you delivering pizza?”
“Well, darling granddaughter, they had a job free, and I was bored. Plus, they let me decorate the uniform, and they gave me a moped for deliveries.” She hooted and hollered and spun her green and red velour-bedazzled bottom in a booty shake.
Xandie copied Theo and covered her eyes. “The rhinestones cause temporary blindness and maybe insanity.”
Elspeth sniffed. “Everyone’s a critic. Now let’s eat. You’re my last delivery for the night and I’m hungry.” Elspeth hauled a stack of pizzas into the lounge and dumped them on the coffee table. “Dig in.”
Lila led a still myopic Xandie to the feast.
Priss and Holly open the pizza boxes and dug in under Elspeth’s benevolent and slightly wicked gaze.
“Do we have toppings other than chocolate?” Lila pawed through the boxes until she found a plain cheese.
Elspeth dumped her red and green ‘Bros Santos’ jacket on the floor and grabbed her own slice. “Do you think I don’t know my granddaughters? I even added in a special one for my freakish chocolate-addicted middle grandchild.”
Xandie mumbled around a slice of chocolate and strawberry pizza. “Yeah. Thanks.” She needed to cut back on the sugar in her diet but at the moment, the only way to keep up with the dead bodies and her Harrow family was with sugar-fueled adrenaline.
Theo shuddered and tore a small piece of meat lover’s pizza off for Horatio. “That addiction worries me. Anyone could buy her for a block of chocolate. And then what would I do with Horatio? Not everyone allows imps in their condos.”
Xandie poked a chocolate-speckled tongue at her cat. “I’d be more worried about finding places that take talking cats.”
Lila gave a timeout signal. “Can we please focus on the issues at hand? Namely, murder and dragons, instead of your conversation with your cat that no one else can hear?”
Holly and Priss waved Lila on.
“Right. Xandie found information out that might help us narrow our suspect pool and get Marjorie Penne out of jail.” Lila bowed to Xandie. “Great librarian and nosy cousin, the floor is yours.”
“Everyone’s a critic.” Xandie wiped her mouth for chocolate drool. “Agatha wanted a meeting at Winifred’s shop. Turns out she’s positive Marjorie didn’t do it but needs evidence to show the twins before they can release the dragon. She’s gonna track down a guy called old Wolf who was deputy chief of police when Melinda Penne died.” Xandie paused not sure how to word what else Agatha had told her. “Agatha’s sure Marjorie never banished Melinda. As far as Marjorie’s concerned, your mother ran off. Not banished.”
“But the letter. It’s from Marjorie, banishing her. It’s proof she’s lying. And if she lied about the letter, what else is she hiding?”
Elspeth grabbed a slice of pizza. “Yum, rhubarb, basil and apple honey barbecue pizza. The Santos make the best pizza.” She stopped groaning when everyone looked at her. “What? I like this pizza. I can even take my teeth out to eat. It’s perfect.”
“I’m glad you’re pleased with your denture-friendly pizza, but we’re i
n the middle of something.” Lila glared at Elspeth.
Holly choked on her mouthful and had to swig water. Eyes watering, she agreed with Lila. “What she said, just in a casual non-confrontational I don’t want to upset Elspeth kind of way.”
“No fun. You’re all so like your mothers. But Xandie’s still my favorite. Besides, I’ve seen that letter young Makepeace is flashing around and it’s not Marjorie’s writing.”
Lila scoffed. “Please, you only want to be the center of attention.”
Elspeth placed her pizza slice on the table and rifled through the small bag attached to her waist. She threw a wad of paper on the table. “Read it and weep, granddaughter. Lila Marie Harrow, I expect an apology.” Elspeth crossed her arms and smirked.
Xandie and her cousins each grabbed a slip of paper. Priss peered over Xandie’s shoulder as she read aloud.
“IOU Elspeth Harrow. Signed Marjorie Penne.”
Lila held hers up. “Mine says the same.”
Holly threw hers back on the table. “Mine is the same but adds that she owes you a foot rub.”
Elspeth shuddered. “Like I’m letting scaly claws at my feet. Besides, she never pays up, the next hand she wins them back. I kept these in case I have to blackmail her.”
“Poker?” Xandie raised an eyebrow. Poker with the social elite of Point Muse. Not what she expected.
Priss ran a hand over the writing on Xandie’s note. “My grandmother didn’t banish my mom. Did she? We’ve had it wrong all these years.”
Elspeth leaned forward. “No, sweetie. She hired investigators to find Melinda, but they never came up with anything.”
“Did she know my mother was coming here to confront her when she died?”
“No. She had no clue your mother was the one hit by the crop duster. The paranormal investigator group and old Wolf kept the incident quiet. No one realized it involved a dragon. She has no clue Melinda was dead. Your grandma and your Aunt Belle were away on a trip. Adelind and Ronald were supposed to go but pulled out at the last minute because Adelind was sick.”
Pulled out. Xandie ran the phrase through her head again. That, combined with the information Aunt Winifred had told her, sat in the pit of the stomach, heavy with the pizza. “I know why they pulled out of the trip. Winifred told me the last time she supplied a cure for dragon shale was around the time of the crop duster incident.”
“And?” Lila and Holly yelled at Xandie together.
“It was for Adelind, picked up by Ronald. And a core ingredient in dragon’s breath poison is a dragon scale. If the crop duster sprayed dragon’s breath, would it have been enough to take out a full dragon? Elspeth?”
Elspeth curled her lip. “Dirty poison to use, hexes are so much cleaner. But yes, if the crop duster carried dragon’s breath, it would have taken out Melinda.”
“Bit of a coincidence that dragon’s breath needs a dragon scale and Adelind had an infection from shedding a scale,” Lila mused.
Holly rolled her eyes. “I don’t believe in coincidences. But Adelind was the heir. Why risk it?”
Elspeth answered before Xandie. “She wouldn’t have been the heir if Melinda had reached Marjorie. Marjorie adored her eldest child. Someone faked Marjorie’s writing and banished her out of the picture. But when she came back, they had to do something more permanent so Adelind could stay heir.”
“Is she capable of killing her sister?”
Elspeth snorted, pushing her teeth back in as they shot forward in her mirth. “She’s a dragon. Of course she’s capable. In fact, she’s more likely to get her claws dirty than either Marjorie or Ronald. Her husband is a weak man who’d do whatever he’s ordered to as long as he maintained his social profile within Point Muse.”
“My dad said Ronald helped them leave Point Muse and gave them money from Adelind. The plan was to disappear for a while and wait for Marjorie to calm, but then Ronald turned up with the letter. It devastated Mom. She contacted Adelind after I was born. She wanted to change Marjorie’s mind.” Priss exhaled a shuddering breath.
“Adelind knew Melinda was coming back to town and couldn’t risk the threat to her position. The dragon removed your mom from the picture so she’d still be the heir.”
Priss stared, shattered, at Xandie as she processed her new friend’s words. “Marjorie, my grandmother, never knew mom died, or that I was born. My aunt took everything away from me.”
“And then you came back. She had to get rid of you. Archibald too, since you’d spoken to him. You’re a target. Anyone who stands in the way of her remaining the heir is in danger.” Xandie bit her lip, her chocolate cravings forgotten as she realized just what that meant.
They were all in danger.
Thirteen
“Whatever you do, don’t touch the man’s begonias. He’s obsessed with them,” Elspeth admonished Xandie and then ruined the caution when she fluffed her hair.
“This isn’t a date. Agatha arranged the interview with the acting chief at the time of Melinda’s death. We want information, not a love connection.”
“I know that!” Elspeth huffed in offense. “We had a thing back in the day before your grandfather and Wolf’s wife. I just want to show him what he missed out on.”
Xandie rolled her eyes. “Revenge dating isn’t on the list either.” Anyone with information on Melinda’s death, not the mating practices of octogenarian witches, would help. “What’s his name?”
Elspeth shrugged. “We used to call him Wolf, and then old Wolf. But he’s a hermit now. He’s obsessed with begonias and grows the flowers in greenhouses. He lives up past Harrow house.”
“So that’s the house?” Xandie pointed. At first glance, the small gray and white cottage with shingles was a picturesque Maine cottage. But if you looked closer, paint peeled off external walls, shingles sagged, the concrete path had a spider web of cracks in it and the porch looked like a fire hazard. And begonias in pots covered every available inch.
“It is.” Elspeth sighed and navigated the porch steps. “His wife died a few years back. The cottage has gotten a little rundown since.” Elspeth banged on the door with a thump of her hand.
“I’m not interested in whatever you’re selling. Leave me alone,” a gravelly old man’s voice rumbled from the other side of the door.
“Um, Elspeth? I don’t think he wants to talk.” Xandie backed up a step. Annoying a cranky wolf shifter hermit wasn’t on her bucket list.
“Open up, you crusty old wolf. My granddaughter needs a word with you.” Elspeth whispered to her hand and slammed it against the door. The cottage groaned and shuddered. But the door stayed shut.
“Look, Elspeth. Maybe we should do this another day?” Before he murdered them and planted flowers around their bodies.
“You’ve got plenty of potted begonias, Wolf. How about you have one less?” Elspeth grabbed a pot and swung. Potting mix sprayed the porch floor.
“Fine.” The door swung open and a tall, grizzled, gray-haired man grabbed the pot off Elspeth and settled it on the porch. “What do you want, Elspeth?”
“Not me, old Wolf. My granddaughter, the librarian.” Elspeth clicked her fingers at Xandie and then glared back at him.
Great, upset their one source of information. Thanks, Grandma. Xandie moved up next to Elspeth and extended a hand. Old Wolf stared at it then at her. Xandie lowered her hand. “I’m the librarian. Sera Meyers was my great-aunt and we need your help.”
Old Wolf opened the door further. “Well, why didn’t you say that earlier?”
Elspeth stormed past the shifter and into the house without a word.
Xandie grimaced and followed her grandmother. Considering the unloved exterior, she dreaded to see inside.
Elspeth spun around in place and took in the cottage interior. Every surface gleamed, flowers gathered in vases and pots decorated the cottage in a blaze of color. “Old Wolf, it hasn’t changed.” Elspeth offered Wolf a sad smile. “She loved her flowers.”
“That she did
. I do my best inside, but I guess I’m not much bothered by the outside.”
“She’d kick you for the peeling paint and then bake you a cake.” Elspeth patted Wolf on the shoulder. “We need your help.”
He sighed and hunched his shoulders. “You always had a one-track mind. No distracting you when you smelled blood. Fine. Sit and tell me what you want.”
Xandie perched on a cozy little chair in the corner of the room. The old shifter was like his house. Cranky, unloved exterior with a caring warm center. You just had to dig for it.
“Well? Get on with it.”
Elspeth stared at Xandie, encouraging her.
“We need to ask you about when you were acting chief. Around the time of the crop duster incident.”
Wolf dropped into a chair and nodded. “I wondered when that would come back and bite me.”
“What did you do, Wolf? I know that look. That’s the I got caught in dodgy business look,” Elspeth growled at her friend, sounding like a wolf herself.
“Gerald Braun was away. They called me in to be acting chief. A cakewalk, except Janie got diagnosed with cancer.” He paused and swallowed. “It wasn’t the best of times; she lost our first baby and then the cancer. I drank way too much, and the job suffered.”
“The fire hydrant.” Elspeth face crumpled. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
Wolf hung his head, shamefaced. “We were full of pride. Was our business, no one else’s. Janie stayed with a sister in Portland for a while, but we couldn’t afford the cancer treatment. Until the crop duster.”
“Someone paid you to look the other way.” Poor man, what a choice to make. Xandie couldn’t imagine herself in that situation.
“A few days before the incident, someone contacted me, offered money if I looked the other way. We needed money for Janie’s treatment, so I took it. I told her I’d gotten a raise because of the acting chief. She never questioned it.”
“Who gave you money?” Xandie gritted her teeth, not willing to let the excitement build yet.
“I have my suspicions. But I couldn’t refuse or question. I accepted and drank more, creating a distraction by destroying fire hydrants.”