I also saw my aunt in a whole new light. Yes, she was ornery and stubborn, but she also cared deeply for Westwick Corners and would do anything to protect the town and our way of life. She also took her talents very seriously. I would never admit it, but I was proud of her.
Aunt Pearl and I were the two key witnesses testifying against Tonya, and I didn't want to mess things up. We had a huge task ahead of us. Magic infractions had to be tried under the WICCA justice system. I just hoped that our claims withstood supernatural scrutiny.
Aunt Amber ushered us into the executive boardroom where Hazel was already seated at the head of the white lacquer boardroom table. Aunt Amber took a seat to the left of Hazel, and Aunt Pearl and I sat beside her.
Hazel remained seated and said nothing. From her tired expression and bloodshot, swollen eyes, it was obvious she had been crying. Because of her relationship with Sebastien she couldn't be part of the hearing; however, as WICCA president she was required to be present.
Alan followed behind me and sat at my feet. I was determined to defeat Hazel's excuses and procrastination. One look into his soulful brown eyes would guilt Hazel into changing him back to his human form, but it had to wait until the hearing was over.
I shifted my gaze to the opposite side of the boardroom table to the three judges who would decide Tonya's fate. The three frail, gray-haired women appeared to be at least in their nineties. They all had a wrinkled, learned look, which I hoped meant they were very wise in terms of WICCA law.
Supernatural beings required supernatural deterrents. That was the reason WICCA dispensed its own justice and why our mission was so critical.
The tension-filled room was a powder keg of emotions ready to ignite as Tonya was escorted in by a security guard. She looked down, avoiding eye contact with anyone as the first judge read out the charges against her.
The most serious charge, Abuse of Supernatural Powers, had the most severe punishment. If found guilty, Tonya would be expelled from WICCA and forever stripped of her supernatural powers.
Mortal punishments paled against WICCA ones, and a Washington jail cell was nothing compared to WICCA sentences. If Tonya were found innocent in the WICCA court, her supernatural powers would remain intact. She would easily escape a Washington State prison and get away with her crimes. That was why she had to be tried under WICCA law first. All we had to do was provide proof that Tonya had committed a crime using witchcraft. Proof of the crime was easy, since we had ample evidence that she had killed her husband. The harder part was showing how she had used her supernatural powers to do so.
"First witness," Judge Number One said. "State your name and address."
My palms dampened with sweat as I recited my details. I gradually relaxed as I summarized the facts, starting with finding Sebastien Plant's body in the gazebo and ending with the discovery of antifreeze in Sebastien's glass on the bedside table.
Judge Number Two wrung her pale, blue-veined hands together. "That's all you've got? No magic involved in any of that."
"No, there's more." The future of Westwick Corners depended on my last piece of evidence. Was it enough?
I pulled three copies of the coroner's report from my bag. I had used my magic to make copies of the coroner’s report, making me just as bad as Aunt Pearl. It was to ensure justice was served, I told myself as I gave a copy to each judge. "The coroner's report proves that Tonya poisoned Sebastien before Jack hit him with the tire iron. Sebastien had already ingested the poison when he and Tonya checked in, but she gave him even more in their room. Her fingerprints are on the glass, and his DNA is on the rim of the glass. Based on the coroner's estimates, he drank the lethal dose of antifreeze sometime after they checked in. Pearl can corroborate the check in time. Yet he didn't arrive at the gazebo until hours later. He would have lost the ability to stand, let alone walk, by then."
I glanced at the judges to gauge their reaction, but their faces remained expressionless. Aunt Pearl squirmed in her seat beside me. "Someone had to carry three-hundred-pound Sebastien Plant to the gazebo."
I drew a deep breath and pulled out my last weapon, my laptop. On it was surveillance footage from our security camera. "You can see Tonya and Sebastien floating outside the Inn."
Tonya shot to her feet. "That doesn't prove a thing."
"It proves you were outside with Sebastien, not sleeping as you claimed. The camera footage is from 7:30 a.m., and if you look closely, you can see that Sebastien's eyes are closed. He is very clearly unconscious."
The judges’ faces remained impassive as they watched the surveillance video.
"It also proves that Tonya used her supernatural powers to get him to the gazebo." I turned and locked eyes with all three judges, who leaned forward in unison.
The video didn’t lie. But it proved that Tonya had.
"Tonya tried to frame Pearl, another WICCA member, for the crime. But she gave herself away with the note she left at the scene." I pulled out a copy of the note and slid it across the table to the judges. "She spelled unraveled with two Ls".
Judge Three's brows knitted together in confusion. "So she can't spell, so what?"
"It's not an error, Judge. Pearl is American and uses the American spelling, which has only one L.”
"Lots of people use British spelling. Hazel, for instance," Tonya protested. "That alone doesn't make me guilty."
I shook my head. "Hazel couldn't rhyme if her life depended on it."
Hazel glared at me, even though I had just vouched for her. "The crime lab analyzed the note and Tonya's fingerprints were all over it. Hazel's weren't." I slid the report across the table.
Judge Two grabbed it with a boney hand.
Aunt Pearl sighed. "I've already spent time in the slammer because of Tonya's false accusation. I want justice served."
Judge Three gasped. "Tonya tried to frame another WICCA member?"
I nodded. "She also convinced Jack that he had murdered Plant. When he delivered the tire iron blows, he had no idea that Tonya had already given Sebastien a lethal dose of ethylene glycol, or antifreeze."
Hazel gasped.
"How do you plead, Witch Tonya?" Judge Number One asked.
"Guilty."
CHAPTER 35
I awoke early and headed to my office, refreshed after a good night's sleep and the knowledge that Tonya Plant had been stripped of her supernatural powers. The three WICCA judges' decision had been unanimous. Tonya’s supernatural powers had been immediately and permanently stripped, and she would serve a ten-year WICCA sentence once her Washington state sentence ended.
Justice was served for Alan, too. Hazel had removed her curse and returned my brother to his human form. He was back to his normal self, having a very hearty breakfast at the Inn.
Tonya had been released awaiting sentencing under the condition she wore an ankle monitoring bracelet so that her whereabouts would be known at all times. I had no doubt that she was with Jack, en route to Westwick Corners at this very moment.
I was confident she would return, since she was practically salivating about her Westwick Corners vortex resort. She was certain that, despite the WICCA conviction, her plan would all still come together. All she and Jack needed was to finalize the paperwork with us for a done deal.
I had something else in mind based on the evidence now in Sheriff Gates’ possession. I could hardly wait to see Tonya and Jack arrested and justice served, and our ruse to accept their sale offer would finally expose them.
While I awaited their arrival, I needed to finalize the current issue of The Westwick Corners Weekly. And what a week it had been. A murder, a canceled wedding (that kind of thing was headline news in our town), a conflicted mayor, and finally, news that we had our very own vortex. Who knew?
Then there was the other news I couldn't print that was rocketing through the witch world: one of our own had been responsible for a horrific crime and was about to pay the price. That story didn't need anything from me. It pretty much wrote itself.
My original feature on the Westwick Corners Inn's grand opening seemed trivial compared to the other news, so I had no choice but to kill that story and replace it with one on Sebastien Plant's murder. The lost publicity would probably hurt our business, but the other news would more than make up for it.
For once, The Westwick Corners Weekly would be full of original content rather than coupons and advertorials. People would get the facts before the story was spun and embellished by the rumor mill. And, I realized, the stories were really one and the same.
In short, Westwick Corners was an interesting place and well worth a detour off the highway. Tourists were unlikely to read our local paper, but locals who did would certainly flock to The Witching Post to discuss the latest happenings over drinks. I could make good out of a bad situation.
I glanced at my watch and realized that our scheduled meeting with Jack and Tonya was in less than thirty minutes. They thought they were about to buy our property, but we had something completely different in mind.
That is, if I made it to the Inn on time.
Desperate times called for desperate measures, so I used magic to draft a story about the murder, another one about the Plants and their company, Travel Unraveled. Add in a vortex and voilà, I had a final edition.
A half hour later the paper was proofed, formatted, and ready to be published. All I had left to do was upload the story to The Westwick Corners Weekly website at the appropriate time.
I had just sipped my cold coffee when a large bang startled me.
"What the—?" I choked, spewing the liquid all over my desk.
A split second later an airborne Aunt Pearl dropped through the ceiling and into the office chair opposite my desk. Despite her small stature, the chair cracked from velocity of the impact. Ninety pounds of skin and bone will do that from eight feet high. Aunt Pearl herself looked no worse for wear.
"Damn! I'm getting too old for this." She winced as she wiggled her bum in the seat. "Jack and Tonya have just arrived at the Inn. Why are you still here?"
Aunt Pearl had been officially cleared of all suspicion this morning, after the coroner's report identified the tire iron as the murder weapon. The blood on her wand had been cow's blood, not human. The whole thing had been staged to frame her, but forensics proved otherwise.
"Sorry." I stood and followed behind my aunt as she headed for the door.
"Just remember to follow my lead." She skipped down the stairs, tapping her wand on the railing as she descended. "Damn, it feels good to be free."
I flashed back to my almost wedding and my almost life as a politician's wife. "I couldn't agree more."
CHAPTER 36
Mom, Aunt Pearl, and I followed behind Tonya and Jack as we headed across the garden to the gazebo. Tonya Plant and Jack Tupper III were reluctant participants, duped into the premise of Aunt Pearl's arrest at the scene of the crime for Sebastien Plant's murder.
While both Tonya and Jack were eager to see Aunt Pearl arrested for murder, they were even more enthusiastic about getting the paperwork signed for the sale of our property.
I tapped my watch. "Aunt Amber was supposed to arrive an hour ago. I'm sure she'll be here any minute." It was a lie, designed to stall them.
"That will have to wait," Sheriff Gates walked towards us. "I've got some business of my own to take care of. I've got some questions that need answering about Sebastien." Tyler pointed to Tonya, who ignored him. She stood several feet back from the group, immersed in something on her smartphone screen.
Jack cleared his throat and fidgeted with his hands.
It took Tonya a moment to realize that everyone was staring at her. "You can't be serious. It’s a wonder you got hired as sheriff, even in this little hick town. You do realize that nobody else would take the job here."
Sheriff Gates ignored the insult.
"Most people wouldn't even want to live here," Tonya added. “Even incompetent cops."
Pearl's eyes narrowed. "This so-called hick town is on a vortex, missy. You're just jealous you can't live here. If you think you're taking over our vortex, you've got another thing coming."
Mom patted Pearl's arm. "Settle down, Pearl. The vortex is for everyone to enjoy."
"But not to take over and exploit," I added.
Sheriff Gates looked confused. "What vortex?"
I waved my hand in dismissal. "I'll explain later.”
"Whatever." Tonya scowled at the sheriff. "I knew this would be a waste of time. I've got to go, so I'll leave the paperwork with you. Any questions can be handled through my assistant." She rummaged through her purse and extracted a business card. She shoved it into the sheriff's hand.
"You're not going anywhere," he said.
"You can't order me around. I'm free to do as I please. You're too incompetent to ever find my husband’s killer.”
The sheriff ignored the insult. "You're under arrest for the murder of Sebastien Plant.”
"That's ridiculous. I've got an alibi. They all saw me at the inn." She waved her hand dismissively at Mom, Aunt Pearl, and me. "I was with them, dealing with their abysmal customer service at the time of the murder."
"I don't recall seeing you," Aunt Pearl said.
I made a cutting motion across my neck. The one thing my aunt excelled at was getting everyone riled up and off topic. That was the last thing we needed right now.
"I doubt you remember much of anything, you old bag." Tonya slung her purse over her shoulder and motioned for Jack to follow.
I recalled Aunt Pearl's comment about Tonya being older than she looked. Why didn't she look that way if she had been stripped of her powers? Maybe there was a delay before it took effect.
"You have no right to talk to me that way!" Aunt Pearl held her wand in the air and was just about to use it before I stopped her from another criminal charge.
Thankfully Tonya ignored her. She turned to Jack. "Let's go."
Jack frowned but turned and followed on Tonya's heels.
"Hold up," Sheriff Gates said. "You can't leave until I say so. You both have plenty to answer for."
"The hell with that," Tonya said. "You can talk to my lawyer. I was at the Inn the whole time, so you can't blame me for Sebastien's murder.
So much for the grieving widow.
"Aaah, but that wasn't when the murder happened. Sebastien Plant died much earlier, and during that time you had no alibi. You were alone for an hour, starting from when Sebastien took his walk, until later when you met Jack in his room."
"That's not true. I never left my room. These ladies can confirm I was inside the Inn the whole time. Isn't that right?"
She stared at me so I nodded. "You never went outside with Sebastien for a walk."
"See, sheriff. You couldn't solve a murder if your life depended on it. It's obvious to everyone that Pearl West killed my husband with her cane. Anything else is just ridiculous." Tonya punched in some numbers on her phone. "I'm calling the governor. I want you removed from the case immediately."
"No one's removing me from the case, because the case is solved." Tyler's eyes met mine in a silent thank you as he pulled out handcuffs. "You're under arrest for the murder of Sebastien Plant."
He read Tonya her rights but didn't cuff her right away.
"Right to remain silent, my ass." Tonya glared at him and turned sideways. She yelled into her phone, but whoever answered the governor's calls was apparently screening them. "Put me through to him right now or I'll get you fired."
Hardly the behavior of a mourning spouse, I thought.
"Shut that thing off." Tyler waved the handcuffs in front of her face. "The only person you should be calling right now is a lawyer."
Tonya glared at him but finally listened. She stood silent and crossed her arms if only to delay the inevitable handcuffs.
"You might not have delivered the blow, but you did kill your husband. Most of the time it's the spouse, and this time isn't any different."
"You really are an idiot
." For the first time Tonya's face showed a hint of fear.
"Sebastien suffered blunt force trauma, but it wasn't Pearl's cane that did it." Tyler Gates scanned our faces. "His attacker is right here."
"It's obviously Pearl," muttered Tonya. "She was even stupid enough to leave her cane behind."
"How dare you call me stupid!" Aunt Pearl raised her cane in the air and started towards Tonya.
"She's at it again," Tonya cried. "Stop her!"
I grabbed my aunt from behind in a bear hug and pulled her back. I realized that I couldn't remember ever hugging her. She just wasn't really the touchy-feely type. It was like I was seeing her for the first time though. My aunt was just so full of spunk and vinegar that I hadn't realized how tiny or fragile she really was.
"Pearl didn't kill him," Tyler said. "She's not strong enough to apply that much force."
I glanced nervously at Mom. Pearl had plenty of strength with her supernatural powers. Tonya was well aware of that too. Was she desperate enough to reveal we were witches?
"Actually, she can—"
I cut Tonya off before she could finish her sentence. "Pearl's obviously no match for a three-hundred-pound man."
"Especially not one over six feet tall," Tyler added. "She couldn't reach high enough to hit him on the top of the head. And there’s just no way she has enough strength to disable him."
Aunt Pearl's eyes narrowed as she scowled at the sheriff.
"Can I go now?" Tonya snapped.
Tyler Gates ignored both of them. "Whatever struck Sebastien's head was much heavier than Pearl's cane. His attacker was also strong enough to leave an imprint not just on his skin but also cracks on his skull."
We all turned to look at Jack, who, at over six feet, towered over Tonya. His eyes widened as Alan stepped out of the gazebo. At six-foot-two, he looked rather intimidating next to Jack. He smiled, ready to assist the sheriff if needed.
Tyler Gates' left hand held handcuffs. "In fact, we know exactly what his attacker used.” He bent down and picked up a tire iron beside the gazebo steps. "A tire iron, exactly like this one. The end of this tire iron left a distinct impression on Sebastien Plant’s skull. An impression that doesn’t match Pearl's cane. It does however, exactly match the tire iron from Jack's Lamborghini."
Witch You Well Page 16