Goddess, these are strange times.
I shuddered, trying to shake off the parading insects that danced along my spine.
I pulled my attention away from the chief of Gless Inlet Para Police Department and settled my gaze on the accused. Barnabus Kramp. A vile man of great means, and connections to the slimy, yet very influential, Governor of Cathedral Isle: Gideon Shields.
As you probably know already, Barnabus murdered his co-worker, who was also one of Shields’ right-hand people; the fierce Morag Devlin.
Morag had been a major player in Shields’ cabinet of top lawyers and had met her ‘end’ in a spectacularly public way. The Cathedral Governor’s recently deceased lawyer tumbled from the Ferris Wheel on the opening night of the annual Mabon Fair. It had been a particularly distressing case, as, at the time, I had tried to stop her fall in mid descent. I had invoked magic. A magic passed to me from my late Grandma Chimera. The Chimera Charm had failed, however. Morag plummeted, her body collapsing in a heap of broken bones to the hard concrete below the ride. For some time I had thought I had been the one responsible for her untimely death.
Just one more reason to believe that magic isn’t safe in my hands.
I shook my head. How had I gotten myself so wrapped up in all of this … this… weirdness?
Magic, murder, Fae mischief, Unseelie hostility, now burgeoning rumors of Warlock hostility.
Strange times, indeed.
I was ripped from my flights of fancy by foot-stomping, and a raw-throated roar. My hands flew to my head as missiles zipped past my ears toward the newly sentenced Kramp.
“Wha .. what did I miss?” I pleaded with my cats. Holy Goddess, how deep had I been plunged in my own hopeless thinking?
“Now is hardly the time to be drooling over the Chief Para Inspector,” Gloom spat. “While you were dreaming of happy-ever-afters, that clown just got a paltry two years in Steeltrap for involuntary manslaughter.” My female kitty’s face was a dark cloud as she turned and stormed out of the courthouse.
I swallowed. I didn’t have words. Goddess, I couldn’t even form a thought for a second or two. My head was reeling. Two years? Involuntary manslaughter?
No. This didn’t make sense.
My cheeks burned with shame at Gloom having caught me thinking of myself and my lusty whims. Maybe she was right. Maybe I shouldn’t always have my head in dream-land when it came to Chief Trew. I made a silent pact with myself right then that I’d focus my attention on the events tearing apart our isles, instead of wishing and dreaming of the day that I could call David my husband. I needed to be of some use to the Coven Isles. And, to do that, I had to stop thinking of my sorry love-life.
I stood on my toes to better see the debacle at the front of the courthouse, but could only see a wave of flailing arms and fists, and the whizzing blurs of hurled rotten vegetables. I noticed Judge Moody depart in a streak of billowing black robe. Preferring to escape the belligerent rabble for the peace of his chamber.
“This is a joke,” Eclipse whispered shaking his head.
David pushed his way through the crowd toward me. I straightened my shoulders and said another silent prayer to my resolve. My near lifelong longing for the chief didn’t matter now. What mattered was the peace of Glessie Isle and of all the neighboring isles. I hoped that with Kramp behind bars now, things would settle down.
But, two years, Hattie?
“Hat?” David shouted over so many heads as he was involuntarily shoved toward the exit of the law building. “Meet you outside,” he called over his shoulder as he passed.
“C’mon guys,” I mumbled to my cats. “Gloom’s outside already, let’s go.”
The verdict had obviously taken its toll on my kitties, as not one of them pounced or leaped for the crowd’s hurled missiles. They looked as defeated as I felt, as they trotted obediently behind me, their eyes downcast.
We met Chief Trew on the outside, where the crowd’s anger was slightly more diluted with the gusting wind of a cloudy October day.
“This is insane,” David said, raking his hand through his hair again. “Shields has to be behind this.” The chief’s jaw twitched. I could see his temples throbbing.
“Does he have any connections with Judge Moody, do you think?” I asked.
“Well, this is something we’re gonna find out,” Midnight offered. Middie’s face was pinched with a look of determination. “I’m not coming back home tonight until I find some intel on this Moody guy.” Midnight was the king of intel. Or, gossip. He couldn’t distinguish between the two, but sometimes the little guy came back from his dead-of-night romps with exceedingly useful information. I ruffled the fur behind his ears. “Good work, sweetie,” I said.
I exhaled, and looked at David. “How’s Kramp getting to Talisman? Is it a prison convoy? Private?”
“He’s in a police vehicle now, being driven to Glessie Docks. From there he’ll be boarded onto a small, armed watercraft owned by Steeltrap Penitentiary. He should be behind bars by about …” David looked at his watch. “Bran the blessed!” He nearly shouted, tapping vigorously at the face of his timepiece. With one deft hand, he took it off and slipped it into his pocket, shaking his head at the same time.
That was another weird thing going on with the chief. His watches kept breaking down. Don’t ask, because I honestly don’t know.
“Four p.m.” my friend finished.
Okay, so maybe I had just promised my undivided attention to the good of the patrons of the Coven Isles, but I gave it one final effort with the man I loved. I stood in front of David.
“I’m going to ask you one last time, David Trew. What is going on with you? Tell me!”
You know, you should never confront someone for answers when you’re brimming with invested passion. My friend’s face looked aghast at my full-frontal assault.
He whirled on me.
“How many times do I have to tell you? EVERYTHING’S FINE!”
I reeled backward. I’d never seen the chief’s face so hideously contorted into such a mask of fury.
David’s turn to let out a loud sigh.
“Hat, I’m sorry. I’m fine, really,” he moved toward me, but I took a step back. The chief’s shoulders slumped. “Look, if I feel really bothered by what’s going on, I’ll tell you, deal?” He held up his hands in a peace gesture.
I nodded, trying to hold back hot tears.
His hand brush my cheek then. “Hattie.” His voice was so soft. “Things are … well, you know how they are. They’re whacked right now. And I’m under a whole lot of pressure to find out what’s going on. The stress ... well, I’m probably not eating too well either … so I’m getting a few nasty bouts of indigestion. It’s really nothing to worry about, kiddo.” He lifted my chin until I was looking up at him. I didn’t let a tear fall. Instead, I met his eyes; staring unblinkingly into the steely blue lagoons there.
Vicious chanting to our right disrupted our … whatever it was. The crowd had gathered on Saint Pendragon street to watch the armored vehicle, carrying Barnabus Kramp, begin its short journey to Glessie Docks. I could just make out Kramp’s shadowy profile as he sat, powerless, in the back seat. He turned then. His pale face swung toward the furious mob, his lips twisted into a triumphant leer. Another flurry of mob-thrown missiles hit the vehicle as it passed. I watched as a soggy vegetable thumped against the glass at the exact location where the outline of Kramp’s nose was. The near liquified tomato began a slow and slimy descent down the pane, creating a ghoulish gooey mess of the killer’s features.
A great bulk of a man; dressed well, straight back, walked at a leisurely pace next to the bullet proof car. The same man who had been standing next to Zinnie in the courthouse.
I craned my neck. Who was that guy? It was a twitch of black fur close to the well-groomed giant that distracted me from the man. I noticed Midnight, his head cocked to one side, pawing at a piece of screwed up paper on the ground before him. I guess one of my cats just couldn’t res
ist the sheer volume of ‘toys’ that littered the ground outside the courthouse.
“Hat?”
I turned to my friend again. He pulled me into him. A tight squeeze, a fierce kiss on the top of my head, and before I could react he had pushed me at arm’s length again. He gave me a tight smile.
“Okay if I walk you and the kitties home?”
I considered telling David we were fine to walk back to The Angel by ourselves, because, quite frankly, I needed the peace to think about what had just happened. Why the angry outburst then sudden display of almost harsh affection from him?
Instead, I nodded at my friend.
I lifted on my toes to see if I could spot Midnight. The rest of the Infiniti, minus Jet, made an informal circle around me. “Guys, can you go and get your brother? He’s playing over there.” I pointed to the spot where I’d last seen my night-wandering cat. Eclipse and Carbon nodded at me and trotted toward their brother, weaving a helter-skelter path between the feet of the furious mob.
Kramp’s prison chariot finally disappeared through the green lights at Saint Pendragon and Alchemy intersection. I breathed a sigh of relief. Good riddance.
Carbon and Eclipse were back within thirty seconds, Midnight trailing behind with a balled-up piece of paper in his mouth.
I shook my head at my frolicsome cat. David laughed. Although it sounded forced. “Middie, I know you love to play, buddy, but now’s really not the--”
The sound was explosive.
My eardrums burst in a discordant chorus of high-pitched whines, as the ground beneath my feet shifted and twisted. I felt an aggressive pressure on my forearm and turned to see that David had gripped my arm to steady me. He reeled me into his chest and brought both of his sturdy arms across my body, pushing the back of my head so that it tucked under his chin. I blinked, trying to make sense of what had just happened, and saw my cats dive closer to me. Fraidy, motionless with paralyzing fear, stared at us all, his eyes as wide as saucers. Gloom, in a rare act of protective tenderness, pounced on her trembling brother and covered his body as best as she could, offering Fraidy a helmet of ample cat-rump. I felt a moving mass of fur rubbing against my shins as my cats all pulled in close to me.
The earth stopped rumbling, and the explosive roar gradually diminished into a hissing, crackling noise. David whirled me around and put his hands to either side of my face. He forced his thick fingers into my hair, and his palms felt so forceful against my ears that he almost blocked out all sound.
“You okay?” He shouted, almost angrily, in my face.
I nodded dumbly.
The cats didn’t speak. They were in shock, I think. David’s hands dropped to my shoulder, while his head cast downward. I heard and saw my friend’s body lurch as he took in a breath of ragged relief.
My adrenaline jolt dropped from its previous insane level to a manageable notch. My thinking started up again; as if my brain hadn’t just been ‘bombed-out.’
“David, what was that?” I looked at the chief with what felt like beseeching eyes.
“Go home. Now. I’m going to check out what just happened. I’ll call you as soon as I know. Get back to The Angel. Now, Hat.” His eyes flashed for a second. Something about that look. Something I didn’t recognize in my friend before now.
“Hattie, go.” His head was already moving away from me, as his hand pushed me in the opposite direction.
“Guys, come on,” I said to my kitties while staring at my friend. David turned and ran toward the source of the explosion, and, in less than a second he was swallowed up by the running crowd who were once angry, but who was now just plain nosy. They ran, like a demented pack of rubberneckers toward the thick black smoke that rose and strangled the already ashen gray sky. I turned away, shaken. The cats and I -- Fraidy in my arms -- in stunned silence, walked back to the apothecary. Our home, the place where I worked; my sanctuary.
CHAPTER 2
“Hattie, you’re back! Oh, my Goddess, are you okay?”
I put Fraidy down on the floor and watched him scurry to his brothers and sister, as my ever faithful assistant, Millie Midge, rushed toward me. She scrutinized me with her almost lilac colored eyes. Millie’s hands were trembling as she passed them over my body quickly, checking for injuries.
“Millie, I'm all right,” I said, warding her off with my upturned palms. Her head darted toward the cats. “Guys? You all good? All okay?”
The Infiniti looked up at my empathetic friend and nodded in collective agreement. Fraidy was still shaking. My assistant scooped him up and held him so that his head was directly under her chin. His body relaxed a little, and I felt relieved when I saw his head fall onto Millie’s chest.
I turned to the other person in the room.
“Hattie, dear.” A breathy Carpathia breezed toward me. Even under the thick layers of aloe-soaked bandages, the bewitching vampire was all curves and womanly contours. “Please, tell me you’re okay?” My vampire friend inquired.
Millie held her hand up and reached for my shoulders. She brought her lovely face to within an inch of mine, and stared at me. “How close were you to the blast?”
Carpathia crowded in from the other side of my assistant. Once again, I put my hands up to fend off my inquisitive friends.
“I’m okay, guys, I’m okay.” I huffed. “We all are,”
Jet bounded into the room and settled into a bounce-athon in the middle of the floor. He easily cleared a foot in height. I wondered if he’d been at the ‘nip again. “Yep, yep, you guys rock for all, like, coming back alive like that. I mean, Boom! Yep, yep, even the glass in here rattled, yep, awesome, scary though, yep!”
“Calm down, honey,” I advised my zippy cat.
I turned to the yummy mummy. “Carpathia, what are you doing here? You shouldn’t be risking daylight like this,” I said, eyeing her body-wrap suspiciously.
“Darling! What nonsense!” She enthused through her cotton covered mouth. “I came to share with dear Millie here, the abhorrent truth of the verdict.” Carpathia put a bandaged hand to her bandaged throat. “But, then the explosion! We were told to stay in here until the ‘threat’ has been investigated. GIPPD guys are swarming the area already. But, did you see anything? You were so close to where the bomb went off, no?” Her cloth-fingers drummed her eve’s apple in a jittery dance.
“Bomb?” I asked. “What makes you think it was a bomb?”
“Oh, I’m just guessing, darling. It sounded like a bomb though. What happened, I wonder?” Her eyes sparkled with unbridled excitement.
“We don’t know anything yet,” I advised. “Probably a gas leak, or … well, I don’t know what it was, but we’ll find out soon enough, I guess. David will call after he’s made sure the area’s secure.”
“I hope nobody was hurt,” Millie said.
Shade head bonked Millie’s forearm from his place on the counter. “Respect,” he said solemnly.
“So, what about the Kramp verdict?” Millie asked, her eyes darkening. “Insane! How can this lunacy even happen? Two years for involuntary manslaughter?”
I nodded. I didn’t want to freely admit to my friend that she had probably heard the verdict even before I had, seeing as I had been in dream-land while the most crucial part of the case; the jury’s decision, had been delivered. I felt a flood of shame course through my body, at the memory of Gloom’s sharp words.
“Well, let’s be thankful the bottom-dweller is being housed on Talisman, and not our own blessed isle, at least,” Carpathia Alecto opined. “Talisman’s air is foul anyway. Have you seen the smog over the capital?” The mummy-vampire sniffed. “Barnabus Kramp’s fetid breath can add to their pollution now, not ours.”
Millie placed a reasonably placated Fraidy carefully on the counter next to Shade.
“The kettle has just boiled, and I’m pouring tea,” my assistant insisted. Tea sorted everything out.
“How did you find out about the verdict so quickly, Carpathia?” I asked.
&nb
sp; “I was on the way to the bell, as it happens. But, I was intercepted by Portia Fearwyn. She told me about Kramp’s laughable sentence. Portia instructed me to share with ‘any and all’ who are of help to the Custodians.” My vampire friend sighed. “Anyway, as I was saying earlier ... in these treacherous times, it’s essential for us to share information as quickly as possible if we are to stay ahead of the enemy.”
The enemy.
Did we even know who the enemy was? Up until now, all the unsettling events that had befallen our isles (and that’s not including the recent spate of murders) had been squarely put upon the shoulders of the Unseelie court of the Fae. But, now, with the news that Gideon Shields had been appointed Chief Warlock, and with the seemingly mounting evidence that Warlock activity was behind at least some of these recent strange events, everything was muddy. I mean, who knew which direction to point the finger at the bad guy?
I leaned my back against the counter and wiped a hand over my face. My bones felt drained of strength.
“Here, Hattie,” Millie said from my left, proffering a cup of lemon balm tea. “Drink this, it’ll help you chill out a bit.” My assistant rubbed my back as I blew on the hot drink to cool it down.
“Nice hair, girlfriend,” I said over the edge of the tea cup. I meant it. Millie had sported a multitude of different colors over the months, but this time she’d gone full Unicorn. Violets, pinks, and shimmering blues all tumbled over her shoulders. She looked good enough to eat.
“Carpathia, how’s the work at the bell going?” I asked the wrapped vampire.
“Oh, my dearest, it’s terribly tedious, I won’t lie,” she breathed. “Verdantia has dropped in a couple of times to help Artemus and I, of course, but still, we can’t uncover the blasted thing!” Her eyes were wide, glittering balls through the narrow opening of her bandages.
“I know it’s frustrating,” I said. “But, keep at it, okay? You know we need to know what it is that Morag planted there. You and Artemus know how important this is, so, please, Carpathia, don’t give up, okay?” My lip was trembling. I felt like the weight of the day’s events were crashing down on me.
Moggies, Magic and Murder Page 41