"Nothing of the sort is happening," I said. "They must have stepped outside for some fresh air." But Brayden's after midnight walk aroused my suspicions too. He avoided exercise whenever possible, including leisurely walks. Everything had a purpose with him. Grandma Vi was right. Something fishy was going on.
"Here comes the other guy." Grandma Vi pointed to a man about fifty feet away from Brayden. He reversed course and started walking back towards Brayden. Once he reached Brayden it was clear that he was a few inches taller, with longer, shoulder-length hair. He wasn't a local or anyone I recognized.
"They're definitely measuring something. I don't like it either," I said. There was no reason at all for Brayden to be showing our property to a stranger.
Alan growled in agreement, then laid down on the floor.
Grandma looked sympathetically at him. "Poor thing, you must be exhausted."
I padded to the kitchen and rummaged through my fridge. I found a bone for Alan to chew on. "I'll ask Brayden about it tomorrow." Just before I break his heart. The thought brought back my bad mood. Suddenly I wasn't sleepy anymore.
"One more thing, Cen."
"Now what?"
"I know what your secret is." Grandma taunted me like a third grader on Valentine’s Day. "You were dreaming about him."
"You're trespassing into my dreams?" My new roommate was overstepping her boundaries, and I didn't like it one bit. It was tolerable for a couple of weeks, but if I called off the wedding, this could be permanent. We had to figure out some different living arrangements.
"You have a crush, and it's not Brayden." She tittered like a schoolgirl.
"I don't know what you're talking about." I closed my eyes and tried to ignore her.
"That new sheriff sure is a looker. Why not hook up with him instead?" She gave me a ghostly smile.
I felt my face flush. I wasn't hooking up with anyone, let alone Tyler Gates. My physical attraction to him was natural for any red-blooded American woman, wasn't it? I told myself that's all it was, but I couldn't get him out of my mind. As sleep overtook me, my thoughts drifted to my wedding. Only this time, the groom wasn't Brayden Banks.
CHAPTER 18
I awoke just before seven, exhausted after a mostly sleepless night. I opened a can of Alan's favorite dog food and scooped out a double helping to make up for getting home late yesterday. I vowed to somehow convince Hazel to return and make things right for my brother.
My stomach growled as I inhaled the stinky dog food. I craved caffeine, eggs, and toast. As a ghost, Grandma Vi didn't eat, so I decided to head over to the Inn for breakfast. A hearty meal was exactly what I needed to get my investigative juices flowing.
I glanced over at Alan who had already devoured his food and waited impatiently by the door. I let him out as I recalled last night's events.
Brayden's secret visit troubled me, and it reminded me of Aunt Pearl's comments about Tonya. I didn't think Brayden and Tonya knew each other, but their shared interest in our property seemed too coincidental. I intended to get to the bottom of it.
I left Grandma Vi and Alan on lookout duty and promised to check back in a few hours. Neither Grandma nor Alan could pick up a phone, so that meant doubling back to the tree house later in the morning. I convinced Grandma Vi that Alan needed company. It was the only way to persuade her to stay at the tree house. With everything going on, Grandma Vi was itching to visit the Inn, but that would just complicate matters.
I passed the vineyard and crossed the garden on my walk to the Inn. My heart did a somersault when I spotted Tyler Gates' SUV parked in the lot. I smoothed my hair, regretting my wardrobe choice of a baggy t-shirt, shorts, sneakers and no make-up. I got a weird fluttery feeling in my stomach, something I couldn't remember experiencing before.
I slowed my walk and reviewed my goals for today. I had a lot on my to-do list. First on the list was to investigate Tonya and validate Aunt Pearl's claims about the vortex and confirm that she was a witch. The development plans proved she was eying our property, but that didn't make her a killer.
A close second was talking to Hazel. Her visit coincided exactly with Sebastien and Tonya's, all the more suspicious considering their love triangle. Was Hazel acting in her official WICCA capacity as Aunt Pearl claimed, or had she come to Westwick Corners for personal reasons? I was betting on the latter. I was also angry with Hazel. If she had reconciled with Aunt Pearl, the least she could have done was immediately reverse Alan's curse.
In short, I would conduct my own probe in parallel with the police investigation. Only I would focus on the supernatural elements while the sheriff tackled the regular ones. The sheriff didn’t know this of course.
Key to both our investigations was finding the man in the black hoodie. I had nothing to go on, but I had to start somewhere. Maybe I'd press the sheriff for more information on the mysterious man as a pretext for a story. I just hoped he was following up on that lead.
Meanwhile Aunt Pearl continued to incriminate herself. On top of everything else, I needed to get the heat off of suspect number one, Aunt Pearl. As long as her alibi with Hazel checked out, I was pretty confident I could steer the investigation back in the right direction. Hazel was less evasive than my aunt, so as long as she cooperated, I could probably clear them both.
If they were innocent, of course.
Aunt Pearl's nuggets of intelligence led me to believe she wasn't involved, but the only way to steer the official investigation onto the real killer was to find a lead, whether that was Tonya, the guy in the black hoodie, or someone else. A good lead got my aunt off the hook and also ensured justice was served on the real killer.
Last but not least, I had to do whatever I could to ensure Tyler Gates stayed on the job. I didn't want the sheriff to quit our town, but the supernatural elements could prove to be too much for him.
Aunt Pearl's revelation about Tonya gave the case a whole new angle. The sorcery world was small, yet somehow I had never met, or even heard of Tonya. I needed to dig into her past.
I was so lost in thought that I collided with Aunt Pearl as I crossed the driveway.
"Hey!" Aunt Pearl balanced on one leg before regaining her balance. "Watch where you're going."
"Sorry." I glanced towards the Inn's dining room windows, hoping that no one, especially not Sheriff Gates, had noticed Aunt Pearl's agile balancing act and recovery. It would be doubly hard to explain the wand away as a cane if he had witnessed our collision and my aunt’s advanced yoga moves.
"Time for class." Aunt Pearl motioned for me to follow her.
"Can't it wait till after breakfast?" I regretted my late night promise but there wasn't much I could do about it now. I was trapped. She had obviously been lying in wait for me, since she wasn't an early riser.
Aunt Pearl shook her head. "It has to be now. I've got some more intel on Tonya."
My heart raced as I imagined the worst. "Don't tell me you went back to her room."
"Not exactly, no."
"Can you be more specific?"
Aunt Pearl looked around to make sure no one was within earshot. "Not here. Follow me."
CHAPTER 19
An hour later I squirmed in my seat in the first row of the classroom at Pearl's Charm School. I struggled to both stay conscious and hold my temper. I was sleep deprived, ravenously hungry and my involuntary caffeine withdrawal was giving me a headache.
I was no closer to finding out Aunt Pearl's revelations about Tonya. She refused to divulge any details until I completed my first magic lesson. Another one of her tricks.
Aunt Pearl tapped her wand on the blackboard. "And that's how you do a reversal spell. Got it?"
I nodded, though I was so distracted with my growing to-do list that I had missed a few steps.
"Let's see you do it."
I frowned. "Can we do this later? We should focus on solving Plant's murder instead."
"Uh-uh, missy. Now or never." She tapped the tip of her wand on her palm.
&nbs
p; "You need to return that wand, Aunt Pearl. It's evidence."
"It's nothing of the sort. It's my spare wand."
"But last night you said you had taken it from the evidence locker."
"I said nothing of the sort. You thought that and I didn't bother to correct you. Every good witch has a spare, Cendrine. Always have a backup plan."
"You're just making that up so I stop bugging you about it. You have to give it back to the sheriff, Aunt Pearl."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Aunt Pearl batted her eyelashes. "This wand has been here the whole time."
"I know you don't have two wands. What I don't understand is why you'd want to make up stuff."
Aunt Pearl shook her head slowly. "At first I thought it was my wand in the gazebo. But it wasn't my wand, just a perfect replica. My wand has been here the whole time."
"I don't believe you."
"Think about it, Cen. Of course I had my wand. How else could I have shape-shifted into Carolyn Conroe last night?"
"The bigger question is, why you had to shape shift in the first place."
"Ah-hah! I thought you'd never ask. I had to distract Tonya while Hazel did her thing."
I didn't like where this was going. "What exactly was Hazel doing?"
"Saving Westwick Corners from destruction and ruin."
"You're being overly dramatic." I stood to leave.
Aunt Pearl motioned me to sit back down. "Tonya made a potion to bewitch me, Ruby, Amber, and you. She plans to use it at breakfast. That's why I had to intercept you."
"But what about Mom? She's at the inn cooking breakfast all alone right now. Shouldn't we warn her?"
"Relax. She knows all about it."
It still didn't make sense to me. "Why does she want to use it on me? I'm not an owner." I could see Mom and my aunts being targets, but I didn’t have an interest in the property.
"No, but Tonya knows you're a witch. You have influence. She needs to neutralize you, so you can't undo her spell. That's the other reason you're here. You need to brush up on your magic skills if you're going to defend us."
A lump formed in my throat. "Defend you from what?"
"Tonya's potion will take away our free will. We will be completely under her command, unable to think or make decisions for ourselves. She will force us to sign over our property for a pittance. In return we'll be penniless and homeless."
"She can't do that in this day and age, Aunt Pearl. There has to be a bill of sale and title transfer. It won't work."
Aunt Pearl rolled her eyes. "You’re getting distracted with all that bureaucratic crap. She'll make it look normal, but that won't be what's really happening. But that's not the worst of it. Once we lose our free will and ability to make choices, she'll force us to make the ultimate choice—to give up our powers."
"I don't see how that's possible. We're born with those powers."
"We are, but because we have free will, we can always choose to forfeit our powers." Her eyes bored into mine. "Sort of like what you're been doing by hiding your talents. You got to use it or lose it, Cen. Tonya's got it all figured out. Except she still doesn't know what we found in her room Friday morning."
"You mean the plans?" I flashed back to our visit to the Plants' room and realized that Aunt Pearl knew a little too much about its contents. "You were in that room a few times before you brought me, weren't you?"
"Nope." Aunt Pearl smiled smugly.
"I just don't understand you sometimes. You said you didn't want Tonya here, but it's almost like you enticed her here. You know a lot more than you're letting on, and I just wish you'd come clean. If you won't tell the sheriff, at least tell me so I can help."
"I had to switch to Plan B," Aunt Pearl said. "You know what Confucius says: keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I checked the Plants in early so I could keep an eye on Tonya."
"I doubt Confucius meant you should invite disaster, but whatever." The only good thing was that if Aunt Pearl really had Tonya under surveillance, she could at least verify some of Tonya's claims.
Aunt Pearl pulled a wrinkled receipt from her pocket and handed it to me. "Look at this. It was lying on the dresser in the Plant's room."
The receipt from the Shady Creek Walmart was dated Thursday at 11:15 p.m. The items on the bill included latex gloves and plastic garbage bags, all purchased in cash.
"You took this from Tonya's room?"
Aunt Pearl nodded. "Actually, Hazel took it. Now we just have to give it to the sheriff without appearing to cooperate."
"We?" If it truly was evidence, Aunt Pearl had compromised it by removing it from Tonya's room. "This is a murder, Aunt Pearl. It's much bigger than your spat with the sheriff. Just give it to him yourself." The sheriff now knew of Tonya and Sebastien Plant's early check-in time, but whether he considered Tonya a prime suspect was quite another matter. I actually felt bad for him, since my aunt was purposely hiding evidence.
"No. I want you to give it to him." She placed the receipt on my desk.
"Why me?"
"I can't stand the sight of that man."
I was losing patience, but someone had to give him a key piece of evidence, and soon. The items certainly looked sinister when purchased together. "Fine. I'll do it."
If Aunt Pearl was right about Tonya, we had no time to waste.
CHAPTER 20
In true supernatural fashion, Aunt Pearl seemed the most normal when the opposite was true. Witches often exaggerated the ordinary and played down huge events. This was one of those moments, and I feared disaster.
"You’ve destroyed the chain of custody by taking the evidence, Aunt Pearl. It's no good now."
"That's where you're wrong, Cen. It might not be good in a mortal court of law, but we've got all the evidence we need for a supernatural one. That’s the one that counts.”
I begged to differ. The Washington courts were very real, and Aunt Pearl’s ties stretched easily beyond a doubt. "Uh—because you had already stolen it by then."
"That wand is mine, Cendrine. How can I steal something that was mine to begin with?"
We were talking in circles. Aunt Pearl was hoping to confuse me so I'd change the subject. It wasn't working.
"Ah-hah! You did steal it after all." I shook my head in exasperation. "How can I help you if you won't cooperate?"
Aunt Pearl said nothing as she studied her feet.
"Just tell me the truth, Aunt Pearl. I promise I won't report you to WICCA." Aunt Pearl always skated on the thin edge of WICCA regulations. It was a constant source of embarrassment for Aunt Amber, who felt her younger sister's constant rule-bending and breaking tarnished the West family reputation.
"Report me for what? I haven't done anything." Aunt Pearl batted her eyelashes and gave me her most innocent look.
"There's something you're not telling me. I can tell by your expression."
"That's ridiculous."
I pulled out my cell phone. "Lost wands are serious, especially when they fall into the hands of non-witches. I'm calling Aunt Amber and telling her what happened. She'll know what to do."
"Cen, stop." Aunt Pearl paced in front of the blackboard. "Please don't call Amber. Just don't. She'll throw the book at me."
I put my phone back in my purse. "Start talking. Tell me how your wand ended up at the murder scene."
"I have no idea. That wand must be a duplicate—a fake. You've got to believe me, Cen. It's not my wand."
That was easy to prove. "I'll just call Sheriff Gates and confirm that. If you're telling the truth, he should still have the fake wand in the police evidence locker." I had no intention of calling him but Aunt Pearl didn't know that.
"No—wait. I was at the gazebo, waiting for you and Ruby. I saw the whole thing."
"I thought you and Mom walked over together."
"That was later. I returned to the Inn after the fight," Aunt Pearl explained. "I went to the gazebo a few minutes early, hoping to practice a few minutes of magic bef
ore everyone else arrived. I saw it happen."
"You saw the murder?"
"Yes," she whispered. Her face turned a ghostly white. "I just thought it was a fight. I didn't know he died."
"Once you knew it was murder, you still didn't tell the sheriff. Why?" It suddenly dawned on me that she had kept it secret from one other person. "You didn't tell Mom, either, did you? You walked all the way back to the Inn, brought her back with you knowing that someone was injured or dying in the gazebo."
"No, Cen." Aunt Pearl frowned as she rubbed her forehead. "I didn't know anyone was dead. I saw two men fighting, so I hid in the laurel hedge. When the shouting stopped, I saw one man walk away. I assumed the other one had already left. I had no idea he was there, much less dead. Had I known, I would have tried to help."
This time I believed her. "What did this man look like?"
"I can't remember. It just happened so fast."
"But you were there."
Aunt Pearl nodded. A single tear fell down her cheek.
"Then there's nothing to worry about," I said.
"Huh?"
"We can do a reversal spell and unlock the truth."
"Oh."
She was lying again. "You weren't actually there, were you?"
"Not exactly," Aunt Pearl said. "There was a break-in here at the school yesterday." She pointed to a broken windowpane in the door. "Somebody stole my wand while I was in the bathroom. I chased him to the gazebo, but it was too late."
The image of Aunt Pearl running down a criminal flashed before me. That, and the odds of a daytime break-and-enter in our town were next to zero probability, but then so was the murder. "Why didn't you mention this sooner? What did the intruder look like?" Her fearful expression told me she was telling the truth this time. Leaving a wand unattended was a WICCA no-no. I guessed that my aunt had covered up to avoid WICCA backlash and a fine.
"I couldn't get a good look, Cen. But it was a man, wearing a black hoodie. That part’s the truth. I only saw him from behind."
Witch You Well Page 10