Mangroves and Murder: An Enchanted Coast Magical Mystery
Page 12
He flicked his wrist to reverse my stunning spell, then glared at the three of them. "Somebody needs to start talking, and right now."
All three of them sat there, their lips sealed as they glared at each other. Thunder boomed so loudly that it shook the entire building, and the accompanying lightning was brilliant. My lips curled up into an evil self-satisfied grin. The boss was here, and his timing couldn't have been better.
Ari appeared in the office, and his beefy six-foot-five frame filled the room. the angel of water emitted a blinding glow as he raked his hands through his golden hair.
He nodded at Blake, then at me, and his gaze softened by just a fraction when I smiled at him. That only lasted for a second, long enough for him to turn toward the trio magically trussed up on the floor.
He pointed at Xavier, and a zap of magic shot from his finger. "Speak, and let nothing but the truth flow from your lips."
Xavier shook where he sat and I was pretty sure he wet his pants, not that I could blame him. "I lied. I didn't really see that merman get in the boat with Marty, but if it got out that Bella had killed him, we would've been ruined."
Bella practically fell off her chair as she whipped around to stare at him. "I didn't kill him! I thought you did. That's why I paid everybody off. If you go to jail and lose everything, what would happen to me?" My stomach flipped in disgust. She really didn’t care that a man had died. She only cared about not losing all her fancy clothes and expense accounts.
It seemed we had a quandary, except I knew the truth. I turned my attention to Bobby, who appeared to be trying to shrink himself into as small a ball as possible.
"Bobby, do you have anything you'd like to say?" I asked, crossing my arms.
He shook his head, but Ari, whose expression was the exact opposite of patient, flung his arm out. Magic wrapped around his arm, then flew off his fingertip and zapped Bobby. "Speak!" he boomed, and the light fixtures in the room shook.
"All right," Bobby squeaked, holding up his hand. "No more. I killed him, but it was an accident."
I raised my brows at him. "How do you accidentally strangle somebody?"
He huffed out a breath. "We were arguing. We'd gone out early yesterday morning to go fishing, and we were talking about what we were going to do about Atlantis. He'd asked Sandra for money, and she’d told him she’d have to think about it. It was a big chunk he was asking for, but I'm sure she woulda came around."
"So how do you go from fishing and talking about Atlantis to having your hands around his neck choking the life out of him?" I asked.
He sighed and closed his eyes. "We got in a fight. He was havin’ second thoughts because he’d spent some time with a merman at the casino. It changed the way he saw things and he thought maybe we should leave Atlantis alone. He was willing to just walk away from all of that because he'd realized what it would probably mean to the merpeople. He was also taking this big swing toward environmental responsibility”—he put that in air quotes—"and he was worried about what would happen to the ocean life if we pursued it. I just got so mad at him. We’d found the golden ticket, and he was willin’ to just let it go. One minute we were wrestlin’, and the next, I was on top of him. By the time I realized what I'd done, he was already dead."
"So you robbed him and threw his body out of the boat?" Blake asked, his expression disbelieving.
Bobby looked him right in the eye. "I'm not proud of it, but yes. That ring is enough to pay my bills for years, but it's just a drop in the bucket to Sandra."
If it hadn't been for that, I might have felt a little sorry for him. As it was, all I felt was disgusted.
Blake rushed forward and slapped magical cuffs around his wrists, then summoned security.
Bella’s check must not have cleared yet because Lester, who surely saw all that donation money disappearing, held his hand up and started to say something. Ari spun on him, and the squirrely little man shook like he’d just come out of a freezer. "You and I are gonna have a long conversation. As a matter of fact, I want you to summon the entire Council. We're gonna set something straight once and for all. This resort isn’t for sale, and I’m no longer willing to cooperate with them if that’s what they think."
Since Bobby had confessed, there was nothing left to do but declare that Jackson had been exonerated. Ari made that call because even after his interaction with Lester, the Councilman hadn’t spluttered about the ruby ring Jackson had “stolen.”
I wanted to be the one to tell Sandra, so as soon as all the hullabaloo was over, Ari and I went to talk to her.
“Destiny,” she said, her eyes red from crying when she opened the door. “What can I do for you?”
“I’m sorry to bother you, and even more sorry to have to be the one to tell you this,” I said, “but Marty’s murderer was caught.”
“That’s good news,” she replied, though her tone was listless. “Where was he hiding?”
Ari stepped up and introduced himself. “That’s just it, Ma’am. It wasn’t Jackson after all.” He sighed. “Destiny found conclusive evidence that Bobby Mackey killed him, then Bobby confessed.”
Her hand fluttered to her chest and the blood drained from her face. “Please, come in. I think I need to sit down.”
She swung the door open and we followed her in, then took a seat at a small table in the suite.
I dreaded telling her the rest, but it wasn’t like we could hide it from her. “That’s not all. Xavier and Bella were involved in the coverup. Bella made a sizeable donation to the Witches Council and the resort, and Xavier lied about seeing Jackson with Marty.”
Sandra swallowed, and I jumped up and got her a water from the mini fridge.
“Thank you,” she said, her manners prevailing even though she was shaken to her core. Her tortured gaze flickered between Ari and me. “I’m so ashamed. How can I ever make it up to you?”
Ari leaned forward and put his hand over hers on the table. “You have nothing to be ashamed of. You’re the victim here, and I want you to know that you’re welcome here, free of charge, any time you want to come back. I know it might bring you painful memories, but I’d like a chance to offer you happy ones, too.”
A little of the sadness and exhaustion seemed to leave her face, and it was then that I noticed the slightest glow coming from their hands. He was giving her his healing energy, and my respect for him grew. Despite the common misconception, not all angels were good. There were shades of gray with them just like there were with all people.
“Thank you,” she replied. “I think I’d like that. And so would Marty. We were only here for a couple of days, but he loved it.”
We said our goodbyes and left, and I felt a little bit better when we did.
I nudged him with my elbow as we made our way down the hall to the elevators. “That was a sweet thing you did back there.”
He glanced at me. “Nah, offering her a free stay anytime she wants to come is the least we can do for her.”
I shook my head. “That’s not what I mean. I saw what you did when you put your hands over hers.”
His cheeks pinked a little, but he smiled. “I hated that she was suffering when I had the power to take a little of that away from her.”
“You know something?” I asked, looping my arm through his.
“I know a lot of things, but I don’t know what you’re referencing in particular.” His mouth quirked up in a grin.
“Then let me enlighten you, no pun intended. You’re okay for an angel.”
He pushed the button to call the elevator. “And you’re all right for a witch. I think we make a pretty good team.”
Chapter 18
After the dust had settled and everybody was gone except for Ari, we belled up to the bar and ordered a couple of beers.
I nudged him with my elbow and gave him a sideways grin. "Way to blow in here all thundery and glowy to put the fear of the gods into everybody."
He grinned back and rubbed his face. "Sometimes an
angel's just gotta make an entrance." His face turned serious. "I'm gonna have to deal with the Witches Council, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that. I need to make it crystal clear that I won't tolerate them ever pulling anything like that with this resort again, but I'm not quite sure how I’m going to do that yet."
His blue eyes glittered, and for just a second, I felt a little bad for all those high and mighty folks who thought they were above reproach. But that only lasted for a second. After that, I was giggling in delighted glee just imagining what all he could do to them if he wanted to, and I’m sure they wouldn’t be so joyous about it.
"Please tell me you’re gonna let me go with you as a representative for the resort. You have no idea how badly I want to see you take them down."
"Why Ms. Maganti," he said, pride etched across his features, "is that a little bloodlust I'm hearing in your tone?"
I laughed. "No, that's a lot of bloodlust your hearing in my tone. Those people have needed taken down for years, and nothing would make me happier than getting to see Karma in action."
"Well," he said, clanking his class on mine. "Karma probably won't be there, but I will. You're welcome to go along for the show. And not for nothing, but I really hope you're thinking about the job offer. You'd make a great angel someday."
Ever since shortly after Cassiel, the Angel of Temperance, had been murdered, Ari’d been after me to take the job. After all, in angel years, an entire human lifetime was a blink. To me, though, it was my entire existence, and I wanted to let it play out before I decided what I wanted to do once it was over. Since I didn’t know what would happen over those decades, I didn’t want to make a decision now that I might regret when it was time.
I lifted my shoulder. "I’ve thought about it but considering the first job requirement is that I have to be dead, I'm hoping I have a little bit of time to make my decision."
He tilted his head and smiled. "Trust me when I say that you have plenty of time, but when you're ready, we’ll welcome you with open arms."
We turned and put our backs against the bar and watched as the sun slipped behind the horizon over the Gulf of Mexico. In one day, I'd had a lighthouse thrown at me by a kraken, solved a murder and cleared a merman, found out Atlantis was real, and drank a beer with an angel. My life was strange, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
A Note from Tegan
We’ve reached the end of another story. Destiny is near and dear to my heart because she first came to me when I was working at a real-life beach resort on the Gulf of Mexico. I’d often think how cool it would be to be able to magic up spills and work with Bigfeet and faeries, and even though my friends thought I was silly, I’d spin them tales of how cool the place could be if only.
So now you know where Destiny came from and why I enjoy writing in this series so much. She’s a younger me working at the job I wish I’d had!
Thank you again for taking the time to read my book, and I’d love to hear what you thought of it. Drop me a line or pop into my Facebook group. We always have a good time in there.
If you haven’t read my new Paranormal Artifacts series, I’d love to introduce you to Sage and Eli. Keep reading to take a peek at chapter one of The Haunted Pendant.
‘Til next time, happy reading and may your life be filled with magic!
Love,
Tegan
The Haunted Pendant
Chapter 1
“Knock it off!” I said, jabbing my fork at my best friend Eli’s hand. It was the fourth time he’d tried to filch a scallop from my plate.
“I can’t help it,” he said, snatching his hand back before I could impale it. “I’m stress eating.”
I scoffed. “What’s got your knickers in a twist now? Is your dry cleaning late? Are your Yoda socks dirty? Oh! No, I know. You forgot it was Tuesday and didn’t steal the crossword out of Mr. Anderson’s newspaper before he got it off the stoop.”
“Stop minimizing my struggles.” He scowled at me, his dark eyes narrowed. “And besides, it’s not any of those things, though I did miss the crossword this morning. I’m stressing about the dive.”
I paused, my fork halfway to my mouth. Unlike me, Eli tended to stress about pretty much everything, but never a dive. We’d been exploring Marauders Bay since we were kids, and we knew it inside out. The only truly dangerous part of it was Devil’s Reef, a treacherous stretch of coral and sand that formed a horseshoe around the bay. The jagged coral and deep sugar sand created a hull-ripping quagmire that had sunk more than one ship over the years.
That wasn’t what worried me, though. We knew every inch of the reef just as well as we knew the bay, and Eli was brash, outspoken, and had never met a convention he didn’t want to flout. It’s why we’d been best friends since kindergarten. He was also one of the most powerful warlocks I’d ever met. If he was stressing, then it would probably behoove me to stress, too.
“What do you mean, stressing? Like, you’re worried we’ll rip a sail, or you foresee our imminent, shark-induced deaths?” The shrimp and scallops I’d just eaten were swimming in my gut much harder than they ever had in the ocean.
He blew a breath out through his cheeks and ran a hand over his face. “I don’t know, Sage. It’s just a feeling, but it’s hard to pinpoint because the storm messed with my juju. I don’t sense physical danger. Just … something else not good.”
“Just not good? Or flat-out bad?” I fought the urge to run my hands over my arms to flatten the hairs that were standing up on them. I’d never known his senses to be wrong, and as much as I was looking forward to our post-storm adventure, I was neither stupid nor suicidal. “Do we need to call off the dive?”
A category-one hurricane had blown through a few days before, and the water in the bay was finally clear enough to allow for some visibility underwater. We’d made some of our best finds right after storms, so the explorer in me was anxious to get out there.
He pressed his lips together and pushed them to the side, thinking. “If we do, we’ll miss the shifts caused by the storm, plus Larry’s going out of town tomorrow. I think instead of diving the reef, we should probably stick to the bay. Even if the boat sinks, we can swim back to shore.”
I had to hope he was kidding, though I couldn’t be sure. Larry was the only captain we ever went out with. He was reliable and capable, not that other captains weren’t. It was just that Larry’d been taking us out to look for treasure and explore the ocean since we were kids, and our Saturday dives were sort of a tradition. Still, it would suck to sink his boat just because we wanted to explore the bay post-storm. No trinket was worth that, and even as talented as we were, I wasn’t sure we could levitate an entire sailboat back to shore.
“Okay,” I said, then stared at him for a few seconds, watching his expression.
“What?” he snapped. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Did the feeling go away now that we changed our plans?”
He rolled his eyes and heaved a long-suffering sigh. “It doesn’t work that way, and you know it.”
I pushed the last remaining bit of linguini around on my plate, not even really seeing it.
“Young lady! That butter sauce is mana from the heavens. Ezra didn’t make it for you to play in it.” A pleasantly plump woman on the other side of middle age clucked at me as she filled my iced tea. “And since when do you leave so much as a noodle behind, anyway?”
I smiled at her, though my mind was still a little distracted. “Never, Maris. And don’t tell Ezra. He’ll think I’m sick and send me home with a gallon of chowder to help me recuperate.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Eli said, his generous lips curving up into a half-smile. “If you don’t want it, I’ll take it.”
Ezra made the best seafood chowder that had ever passed my lips. Rich, creamy, and made with only the freshest ingredients. Larry, who was Maris’s brother, was a shrimper by trade, so Ezra had an inside track on the good stuff.
He hopped up and pulled her into a big hug, then planted a sloppy kiss on her cheek. “You know you love me, Ms. Maris. I’m your best customer.”
Her plump cheeks pinked, and she smacked him on the arm as she patted her gray hair. “Fresh! Now go on, you two. Surely you have somethin’ better to do than sit around a musty old fish house on such a beautiful day.”
Her description of the restaurant was way off base. The Cozy Clam was old, but the weathered wooden floorboards and plank tables worn smooth by the feet and elbows of thousands of happy customers gave the place a homey, welcoming feeling you just didn’t find in a brand-new building.
Used nautical pieces including fishing nets, deep-sea lures with chipped paint, old line weights, and even a wheel salvaged from a sunken pirate ship covered every square inch of wall, giving it an authentic feel that you’d never get in a chain seafood place. The smells of ocean air, fried seafood, garlic, and French fries had hovered in the air for so long that it had permeated the very walls. There was nothing about the place that wasn’t amazing, at least to somebody who’d grown up on the ocean’s edge.
I plucked the last hushpuppy from our shared cardboard boat and popped it in my mouth as I dug my wallet out of my backpack-style purse. After handing Maris enough money to cover the tab and tip, I gave her a quick hug. “Thanks for another awesome lunch. We have to hustle, or we’ll be late meeting Larry.”
She rolled her merry green eyes and smiled as she tucked the cash into her apron. “Like that old coot ever knows what time it is, anyway. Fair winds, and good luck explorin’.”
When we pushed out the door, I took a deep breath of fresh air washed clean by the hurricane. The storm had only brushed the coast, so the only thing left in its wake was perfect weather. The humidity was low, which was rare in our little Florida town.