To Spell With It

by Amanda M. Lee

  I got my wish. When I realized several sets of eyes had moved to a figure at the top of one of the dock posts my blood ran cold and I forgot the sniping I’d witnessed. The man was too far away for me to make out his features. All I knew is that he climbed to the top of the post, extended his hands as if he thought he could fly and then leaned forward as if to take flight.

  He couldn’t fly.

  I cringed when he hit the ground. The sound echoed throughout the entire area, bouncing off the water and causing my stomach to threaten revolt.

  While I worked to keep the contents of my stomach intact, Galen was already moving. “Stay here,” he ordered as he and Booker ran in the direction of the man. “Don’t go wandering around. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  And just like that, he was gone ... and I was stuck with Booker’s delightful mother and her arch nemesis. This evening had certainly taken a turn for the worse.

  3

  Three

  My heart hammered so loudly I hoped it would drown out the hard-headed women. I didn’t get that lucky.

  “Well, that was a nice welcome,” Darlene said dryly. “I’m so glad we came back to this hellhole.”

  “Oh, like it’s the island’s fault,” Judy groused. “The island didn’t make him do it.”

  “I didn’t say the island made him do it.” Darlene’s tone was withering. “This isn’t Lost. There’s no strange man living in the foot of a statue making people do things.”

  That reminded me of something. “I think Lost is on Netflix. Galen and I should watch it together. I haven’t seen it in forever.”

  Slowly, as if they were both remembering I was present, Darlene and Judy tracked their gazes to me.

  “Or I could go catch up with the guys and see what’s going down,” I said hurriedly. I had no interest in seeing a body ... especially one that had fallen from a great height. That horror, however, was more welcome than listening to the two cupids shade one another. “You guys should wait here.”

  “Are you with the police?” Darlene asked primly.

  “No.”

  “Then I don’t believe I have to answer to you.” She gripped the handle of her suitcase, which was exactly the same size as Judy’s monstrosity, and gave it a tug. “I’ll go where I like.”

  “Fine. Knock yourself out.” I was happy to get away from the women and practically ran to the body. A small crowd had already gathered around Booker and Galen, who were kneeling next to the fallen man and talking in low voices.

  “How did he die?” I asked as I leaned over Galen’s shoulder.

  He lifted his eyes to mine and arched an eyebrow. “Really?”

  That was a stupid question. Of course, I only realized it in hindsight. “I don’t mean it like that. I just ... did he fall or jump?”

  “You saw him for the same amount of time I did. I have no idea.”

  “He looked as if he was trying to fly,” I offered. “Did you see the way he spread his arms? I thought maybe he was a cupid and they really could fly.”

  Booker made a strange noise. “You think cupids can fly?”

  “Just because I haven’t seen you do it doesn’t mean it’s not possible. Since I came to the island a lot of things I thought were impossible turned out to be normal ... at least for this place. I mean, I watched Lilac’s hair go red — and not Madison Reed red either — and she magically kicked the butts of an entire cult. I definitely didn’t think that was possible.”

  Galen worked his strong jaw back and forth. “Didn’t I tell you to stay back with the other women?”

  “Yes, but my sanity — and your love life — require me not to follow those orders.”

  It was a serious situation, but his lips quirked. “Thanks for the warning.” He was grim when he turned back to the body. “I did see him hold out his arms, but I can’t be sure that he wasn’t trying to balance himself. It’s not as if the glimpse I got of him was complete. It was fast.”

  “I’ll say.” I hunkered down for a better look. Surprisingly, his head wasn’t splattered all over the docks as I’d anticipated. “Why didn’t his head crack open like a melon? My father always warned me that would happen if I ever fell off our balcony when I was out there playing.”

  “Your father sounds like a joy,” Booker noted. “My mother used to say things like that, too. Then she would follow it up by saying, ‘Now go and play in heavy traffic.’ If you haven’t figured it out yourself, she’s the devil.”

  “Oh, I figured it out.” That went without saying. “What’s her deal? Have you tried taking her to a doctor to see if she can have that huge stick removed from her rectum?”

  “Hadley.” Galen’s voice was low and full of warning.

  I was in no mood to be chided. “What? It’s not as if Booker hasn’t noticed what a pain she is. He doesn’t care.”

  The sound of someone — obviously a woman — clearing her throat behind me caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end. “Oh, geez. She’s right behind me, isn’t she?”

  Booker appeared more amused than Galen when he nodded.

  “Oh, well. It’s not as if we were going to be best friends anyway.” I flicked my eyes over my shoulder and found Judy glaring at me. “I bet you’re glad I’m dating Galen instead of your son, huh?”

  “I’m not glad you’re dating either of them,” she fired back. “You have a lot of May in you.” She spoke about my grandmother as if she’d known her well. I found that interesting, especially because I was just getting to know her given the fact that she hung around after her death in ghostly form.

  “Is that a bad thing? From what I can tell, May was well loved around here.”

  “May was definitely loved,” Galen agreed. “As for whatever you two have going on over here, it’ll have to wait. I need to call the medical examiner and then question witnesses. You might want to go home, Hadley. I’ll be a few hours.”

  That was one possibility. The other was that I stay and help. It would allow me to see more of the cupids, and I wasn’t keen on going home alone after witnessing a man fall to his death. “I would rather stay here. I mean ... if that’s okay.”

  He studied me for a moment and then nodded, sympathy washing over his features. “That’s fine. You can help me question the bystanders. You might be of some help there.”

  “I fail to see how,” Judy sniffed. “I’m pretty sure she doesn’t know the meaning of that word.”

  “Come on, Mother,” Booker said wearily, exhaling as he stood. “I’ll take you to your hotel and then come back.”

  “Why would you come back? We have a lot of catching up to do.”

  “Why do you think I’m coming back?” He sent me a wink as he crossed in front of me. “Oh, don’t start kvetching, Mother. I was just joking. Kind of.”

  I watched him go with a mixture of amusement and pity. I’d never had a mother so I didn’t know if such interactions were normal. Most of my girlfriends in high school yelled and screamed at their mothers something fierce. They seemed to outgrow that by the time they hit their twenties, though. Given Booker’s mother’s attitude, I was surprised he hadn’t yet killed her and stuffed her body in a chest to sink at sea.

  “What are you thinking?” Galen asked when he realized I was lost in thought.

  “I was just thinking about mothers.”

  “Because of Judy? I wouldn’t spend too much time basing assumptions on her. She’s not a normal mother. Heck, she’s not a normal anything.”

  “What’s your mother like?”

  “Here we go.” He rolled his eyes to the sky, as if pleading with a deity to smite him so he could change the subject. “I told you that I will arrange a meeting between you and my mother as soon as it’s possible. Why can’t that be enough?”

  “It’s fine.” I wasn’t in the mood to argue. There was a dead guy between us, after all. “Let’s start interviewing people.” I took a moment to study the man’s profile. There was blood under his nose, which suggested to me he
’d broken it during the fall. “Do you know him?”

  “Actually, I do. His name is David Fox. He went to school with me and Booker.”

  I was taken aback. “Was he a friend?”

  “I wouldn’t say that.”

  “Was he an enemy?”

  “He was ... not the sort of kid I wanted to hang around with. He grew into the sort of man who was easy to ignore.”

  That was a roundabout way of answering the question. “Meaning?”

  “Meaning he was from a very wealthy family.” Galen kept his voice low as he dug in his pocket for his phone. “His mother is one of the wealthiest women on the island.”

  “So ... he wasn’t on the ship?”

  “I don’t believe so. I guess it’s possible he was off island and returned on the ship. I doubt it, though. His family would more likely charter a private helicopter to get him home.”

  “Tell me how you really feel.” I poked his side. “You had to have another reason to dislike him besides the fact that he was wealthy. You don’t seem the sort to make fun of someone for being poor. Making fun of them for being rich is just as bad.”

  “You never met him. He refused to wear the lacrosse jerseys provided by the school because they weren’t made of organic fabrics.”

  “Okay, he was a total douche. Why would he jump?”

  “We don’t know that he did jump.”

  “We don’t know that he fell either,” I pointed out.

  “We don’t know anything,” he stressed. “I’m placing a call to the medical examiner. Once that’s finished, we need to cordon off the area. After that we can start questioning the people who were around at the time he took his swan dive.”

  “I’m looking forward to that.”

  “The oddest things entertain you.”

  “Which is why I’m dating you.”

  He blew me a kiss and then dialed. “This is not how I saw my night going.”

  CASS DOHERTY WAS THE first person we interviewed. I knew his face, but I couldn’t remember ever talking to him. He was often in Lilac’s bar on the main drag and I recalled a raucous round of karaoke coming out of him on occasion. That was pretty much the only thing I knew about him.

  “You were working at the time he fell, right?” Galen had a small notebook out and was jotting down information. “Did you see him before he climbed the post?”

  “What is that post, by the way?” I was suddenly curious as I glanced toward the top of the item in question. “Is it a telephone pole?”

  “It used to be,” Galen replied. “Now it’s just kind of ... there. We buried all our lines several years ago because of trouble we had during hurricane season in 2015. The power doesn’t always stay on during storms now, but it’s much better.”

  “Oh, well, that’s a relief.”

  “Back to David,” Galen prodded. “Did you see him before he was on the pole?”

  “I did, but it was only for a second,” Cass replied, rubbing his chin. “I remember because I was surprised to see him out here. The Fox family has their own private yacht club on the north side of the island. They’re never down here.”

  “They’re not,” Galen agreed. “Do you think he was on the ship?”

  “I don’t think so.” Cass appeared to be puzzling it out. “I’m pretty sure he came from that direction.” He pointed toward the opposite side of the dock. “He was over by the bait store.”

  “Why would he be at the bait store?” Galen queried. “I’ve never known him to fish.”

  “He certainly wasn’t dressed for fishing,” I added. “He was wearing an expensive suit.”

  “I don’t know why he was there,” Cass answered. “I didn’t see him buy anything. I only noticed him a few minutes before people started screaming and pointing. I saw him wandering around. I noted it because it was weird. That was it.”

  “Okay. Thanks for your time.” Galen inclined his chin toward the bait shop. “That’s our next stop.”

  I wrinkled my nose as we closed the distance. I was well aware of what the shop sold. That was the precise reason I didn’t want to get up close and personal with the owner. Galen either didn’t notice the odor or didn’t care, because he swaggered straight up to the counter and fixed the older man, who looked to be wearing some sort of rubber overalls, with a tight smile.

  “Hey, Harry.”

  “Hey, Galen.” Harry had spark plugs for eyebrows and a craggy smile. “What are you doing out here today? I didn’t think you enjoyed night fishing.”

  “That’s not on the agenda for today.”

  I was confused. “You fish?”

  He slid me a look. “I’m an islander. We all fish. You have to turn in your Moonstone Bay Man Card if you don’t participate in the island pastime.”

  I couldn’t tell if he was kidding. “Have you been fishing since we got together?”

  “A time or two. You don’t usually notice that I’m out here because I take my lunch hour to get a few casts in.”

  “I guess you learn something new every day,” I muttered.

  He flicked the end of my nose. “Why? Do you want to go fishing with me one day?”

  That sounded like pure torture. “I’m good. I don’t want to intrude on your man time.”

  He snickered. “I’m shocked that fishing isn’t on your to-do list.” He turned back to Harry. “I’m sure you heard about David Fox.”

  “I heard people whispering,” Harry confirmed. “I didn’t really believe it was him until just now. I can’t believe he jumped like that.”

  “Are you sure he jumped?”

  “I saw him. I didn’t know it was him at the time, but I saw him when he got up there. I could hear him, too.”

  “He was speaking?” Galen cocked an eyebrow. “Did you hear what he was saying?”

  “He said he was going into the light.”

  “Were those his exact words?”

  “Yeah. He said ‘I’m coming to you, to the light. I’m almost there.’ Then he waved his arms like a lunatic and fell headfirst into the dock. That’s going to be a mess to clean up, I bet.”

  “His head didn’t crack open like a melon,” I offered helpfully. “It shouldn’t be too bad.”

  Galen shot me a quelling look and shook his head as Harry snickered.

  “I like her,” Harry announced. “She reminds me of May.”

  “That seems to be the general consensus today,” I agreed blandly. “I’m not sure if I should take that as a good or bad sign.”

  “Good,” Galen and Harry answered in unison.

  Galen tapped his pen tip on the notebook to regain Harry’s attention. “Did you ever see David hanging around here any other time? I mean ... did he spend time out here?”

  “Not that I recall. That’s why I was surprised when I heard it was him. I thought for sure the gossip had to be a mistake.”

  Galen thanked Harry for the information and then led me to the edge of the dock where we stared at the setting sun. “It’s looking more and more like a suicide.”

  I studied his profile. “You don’t seem convinced.”

  “Maybe it’s because I can’t figure out what that guy had to be depressed about. He had loads of money, every toy he could dream of, and never had to work.”

  “Things don’t make a person happy.”

  “The right things do.” He swooped in and gave me a quick kiss before pulling away. “I’m going to talk to a few other people, but I’m pretty sure this is going to turn out to be a suicide. It’s not as if anyone else was around to force him to do it. His mother will fight that determination, but I can’t worry about that.”

  I chewed my bottom lip. “You’re worried about telling her, aren’t you? Do you think she’ll break down?”

  “I don’t know how she’ll react. I’ve only met the woman a few times. None of those meetings were exactly warm and cozy.”

  “Do you want me to go with you?”

  “Not for this one.” He rubbed his hand over my back be
fore prodding me forward. “Come on. I’ll take you home and then head out to talk to David’s mother. I should be back before you even get into those comfortable sleep shorts I love so much. You know, the ones with the cute little ruffles?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Those aren’t girlie ruffles. They’re ... womanly ruffles.”

  “I’m glad you clarified that for me.”

  “I just wanted you to be aware that I don’t wear girlie ruffles.”

  “Good enough.” He brushed his lips over my forehead and slowed his pace so he could talk to the medical examiner, who was toiling over David’s body. “I’m taking Hadley home and then heading out to talk to his mother. I don’t want her to hear it from someone else.”

  “I pity you having to go out there, but I’m glad I’m not the one making the call.”

  Galen’s lips turned down as he started to move me away from the body. Something caught my attention before he could steer me away. “What is it?”

  “Do you smell that?” I lifted my nose, causing him to chuckle.

  “You hate when I do that.”

  “You briefly look like a scary wolf when you do it. I look cute when I do it.”

  “I guess I can’t argue with that.” He grinned as I sniffed again. “What’s the deal?”

  “Seriously, can’t you smell that?” My stomach revolted at the scent. It made me feel lightheaded and weak in the knees.

  He mimicked my earlier motions and shook his head. “I don’t smell anything. Am I supposed to smell something?”

  “I don’t know. I ... it’s weird. Are you certain you don’t smell anything?”

  “I honestly don’t and I have a pretty engaged sniffer.” He tapped his nose for emphasis. “What do you smell?”

  “It’s like ... rancid honey.” I didn’t know how else to describe the overpowering scent. “I can’t believe you can’t smell that.”

  “I think you’ve had a long day and we should get you out of here.” He locked me against his side and dragged me toward the parking lot. “Let’s get you home. I’m sure the lighthouse will smell the same as always.”