by Tess Lake
We went in through a white picket gate and around the side of the house which was planted with rows of blooming flowers in shades of red and blue. Thankfully, the fence dividing the properties was quite high and when we went around the back of the property we saw the fence on the other side was too. Usually, houses up here would back onto another property over the fence but this time there was an old grassy alleyway behind each of the houses.
TJ had his crowbar ready and waiting to go, but then we discovered the back door was unlocked. We crept into the house, feeling the temperature drop. They had left the air conditioning going to keep the house cool. The house was well maintained but impersonal. It was simply a holiday rental, bland and functional. A cup in the sink and some groceries sitting atop the bench was the only sign that Rufus and Dawn were here at all.
“Let’s split up and see what we can find,” Jay said.
“No, you never split up, that’s how people end up getting murdered,” Jenna said.
“Grandma Gough always splits up and she hasn’t been murdered,” TJ said.
“The house is tiny. I sincerely doubt anyone’s gonna get murdered,” Red said and poked Jenna in the ribs.
We split up–sorta. Me with Red, TJ and Jenna together, and Jay by himself. Our first stop was a bedroom. There was a suitcase in the corner full of men’s clothing and then another one next to it that contained parts of what was clearly Rufus’s disguise. Red and I went through the suitcases as quick as we could, trying not to disturb anything but checking for anything unusual. We didn’t find anything. Red was moving a sock into place when we heard Jay call out from the other end of the house.
“Get down here!” he said, his voice echoing down the corridor. We rushed down to a far room, which looked to be a tiny fourth bedroom. There was a single bed against the wall and sitting laid out for everyone to see was a full monster costume.
“It’s actually them attacking people. This is crazy,” TJ said from somewhere behind me. We filled the room, standing around the bed staring at the costume in disbelief. It was the size of an adult man, covered in brown matted fur that looked somewhat realistic. There were long claws on both the hands made out of metal, and they were smeared with red. There was a separate head resting against the pillow of the bed that had small latches where it connected to the body of the suit. The face of the monster was a snarling visage of a wolf crossed with a man. TJ picked up the clawed hand and touched the red stains on the sharpened steel claws. Then he sniffed at it.
“I think this is paint, not blood,” he said.
“Look what I found,” Jenna said from the corner.
There was a long black bag sitting against the wall. Jenna pulled the top of it open and inside it was glittering steel. The entire bag was full of carving equipment, chisels, drills and the like.
Some of the equipment still had wood shavings on it. There were also a few spray paint cans stuffed in the end of the bag.
“I guess this shows that maybe they are behind it,” I said.
I realized that my hope that we would find something was going to backfire seriously. Red and Jenna were already taking photos with their phones. I had no doubt that Sheriff Hardy would be notified and then all the clues seemed to point in one direction. The two men who had been attacked and the vandalism that had been going on around town could be pinned on the Mysterious Mysteries.
Except I knew it wasn’t true. I’d sensed magic when Carl Stern had been attacked and also when Harry had been attacked too. We witches knew there was something magical in town. There was the man or possibly monster who had called me Marguerite. I would have to tell Sheriff Hardy that although the clues and evidence appeared to implicate Rufus and Dawn, it likely wasn’t them. But that would put him in a bad position of having to possibly cover it up so they didn’t get arrested for crimes they didn’t commit.
“What do you think: anonymous phone call?” Jenna said. I didn’t get a chance to answer because all four of us heard the slamming of car doors that sounded awfully close.
“They’re back! Why didn’t we have a lookout?” TJ said.
As one we bolted out of the room, down the corridor, and out the back door. We heard a man and woman out the front of the house and then the sound of keys. I was last out of the house, closing the door as quietly as I could and then sprinting to follow the authors who headed for the back fence. There was a gate but unfortunately it was locked. That was okay–we had a giant on our side. TJ practically flung Jenna, Jay, and Red over the fence and then I was next. One moment I was near the fence, the next I was over on the far side, landing in the thick grass, Red and Jenna pulling me to my feet. We had to get out of the way as a giant mountain of a man appeared on top of the fence and then landed beside us with a thud that shook the earth. Then we were off again, running down the narrow alleyway, and continuing until we reached the end of the street.
“Stop running, we have to look normal,” TJ said.
We slowed down and headed back to the cars. I could feel my heart thudding in my chest and I wanted to look behind us to see if were being pursued. My mind was filled with doubts. Had Jenna closed the bag? Maybe TJ had disturbed the costume? Or possibly Rufus and Dawn had heard us climbing the back fence. We had to get out of here as fast as we could. I could only imagine how bad it would be if a police car came around the corner.
We got back to the vehicles and this time Red took the wheel. We were all in a kind of stunned silence as we followed TJ out of the street, down the hill and back towards town. I don’t think I came out of it until he stopped in a random street and we parked behind him. Then I followed Red and Jay to TJ’s truck and we all got in.
“That was way too close,” Jenna said. Her cheeks were red but she seemed almost giddy with joy at our narrow escape.
“I think we need to anonymously call the Sheriff because if they heard us, they might get rid of that stuff and then what proof will there be?” Jay said.
That panic was back again. The idea that they would call the police and get someone other than Sheriff Hardy. Then the case would roll along to its inevitable and unjust conclusion of Rufus and Dawn being arrested for attacking Carl and Harry, and also going down for the vandalism.
I had to take charge immediately.
“I’ll do it! The Sheriff is my uncle. I’ll talk to him in private, not implicate any of us, and then we’ll see what happens. He might have to keep the investigation quiet so they might not be arrested straight away,” I said.
“How are you going to explain how you came across the information?” Red asked.
The lie came together with startling clarity and quickness.
“Although I’m currently working for Writerpalooza my actual job is being a journalist for The Harlot Bay Times. Carter and I have been working on this since those weird symbols appeared in town. I’ll say I had a tip off and so I went to investigate,” I said.
“Can you believe they had a monster suit, though? It’s Deep Dish Disaster all over again,” Jenna said, shaking her head.
“You know, it’s always the ones you least expect,” TJ said.
Jay pointed his finger at Jenna. “Then I suspect you,” he said, smiling at her.
“Me? I write cat mysteries!”
“Precisely! It’s the one you least suspect,” Jay said. The writers started chattering away and I was only half listening. Although they were joking around and seemed somewhat relieved, it also appeared that they were a bit disappointed that there wasn’t more to the mystery. For my part, I was quietly panicking inside. I had to talk to Sheriff Hardy as soon as possible.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sheriff Hardy was not enjoying the conversation. He sighed down the phone again.
“So they have a monster suit, a bag full of carving tools with wood shavings, and also spray paint,” he repeated.
“I’m sorry I have to tell you this,” I said.
“I’m not going to ask you how you came upon this information,” he said,
his voice still somewhat flat. “But if they get caught around town carving or spray painting it means they probably will be blamed for all of the vandalism that’s been going on around Harlot Bay and there will be nothing I can do about,”.
“I know,” I said.
Sheriff Hardy sighed again. I had the feeling he’d been doing a lot more of that since he’d married Aunt Ro and discovered the truth about our family: we were witches and often involved in the strange things that went on around Harlot Bay.
“You know I’ve had Carter Wilkins in here trying to get me to investigate Rufus and Dawn. He’s convinced they’re the ones behind all the vandalism, and maybe they are behind some of it,” he said.
“I don’t think Carter has anything serious yet. I sort of agreed to an information sharing thing with him, and I haven’t heard anything yet,” I said.
“Let’s hope no one else gets attacked and that the Mysterious Mysteries leave Harlot Bay. It’s bad enough we have all the rest of the national media here after Harry Sparkle was attacked drawing attention. If those two get caught doing anything the investigation will roll to one conclusion. I don’t want to see two people who are innocent be arrested,” Sheriff Hardy said.
He ended the call after thanking me again for telling him about what me and the writers had found. I hung up the phone and continued down the main street, heading to the Harlot Bay Museum. After the break-in, the writers seemed to have been at a loose end, and I think were intending to go to the beach rather than get involved in any more snooping. I had Red drop me off in the middle of town, telling her I would catch a ride home with my cousins and see her tomorrow. There was still a few hours before Traveler would close so I thought I’d put it to good use and see if I could find a compass in the museum.
I gradually made my way through the crowd of people entering the museum, paid my fee and then I was in. Although I was still under the influence of the slip power that was desensitizing me to the heat, it still felt nice to be inside where the floors were polished marble and there was a coolness to the air.
The last time I’d been here as a teenager the museum had been full of narrow corridors that had led to larger rooms. In the renovation they’d knocked out a lot of walls making larger rooms that were filled with hundreds of glass cases. There were cleverly placed walls separating the exhibitions from each other, and tourists wandering everywhere.
I was standing looking at a map of the museum wondering where I would be if I were a compass when I felt a finger tap me on the shoulder. It was Aunt Cass wearing an enormous pair of black sunglasses and a cowboy hat that obviously came from her stash at the Chili Challenge.
“Don’t you know if you’re going to do any snooping for crime you should probably go in disguise? Because after you steal a thing they’re going to go back through the security tapes,” she said.
I looked her up and down. She was wearing one of her Chili Challenge T-shirts with ‘Hot Enough For Ya Sucker?’ written on it.
“You’re wearing a T-shirt from your business and I’m fairly sure if Sheriff Hardy looks at any security tapes he’s going to know it’s you,” I said.
“Ah right, our man on the inside,” Aunt Cass said.
“Man on the inside? I think if we get caught breaking in here Sheriff Hardy is going to have to arrest us,” I said.
“He married into the family, he’s not going to arrest us,” Aunt Cass said.
I wasn’t so sure but I wasn’t going to get into an argument with her, especially not in the midst of a crowded room full of tourists, some of whom I’m sure would be able to overhear us discussing crime.
I suddenly remembered the other crimes that I’d been talking about with Sheriff Hardy, specifically the spray painting of strange symbols around town.
“Can you tell me why you blackmailed Molly and Luce into spray painting around town? Why are you doing that?” I said in a lowered tone.
“Let’s walk and talk. We have a lot of ground to cover,” Aunt Cass said, pointing a finger towards the display of old whaling equipment.
We headed over, making our way through the hoards of tourists. The exhibition was from an old whaling ship and they were all kinds of cases and boxes, maps, and a gigantic harpoon stuck up against the wall.
“Don’t you feel yourself being pushed, a continuous pressure?” Aunt Cass murmured to me as we looked over all the items.
“I guess so,” I said. I knew what she meant. Since I’d been told there was a spell cast on me, occasionally I’d felt something, a strange force pushing me. It was hard to know though, because it was subtle. I would think that I should go off to my lair to examine the wall of crazy, and then instead find myself spending the evening on the sofa watching TV or finding some reason to spend more time with Jack. It was hard to know whether that was the spell pushing on me or me being lazy.
“I think the more attention is applied to it the more it weakens. Those symbols appeared around town and some of them I think are from the monster or man. Others are mine and I’m sure those Mysterious Mysteries are doing some of their own. But what it means is more attention, more people looking into it, digging into the past and whatever it is, a spell, a curse, it only has so much power. Ollie finding those papers–they were hidden surely by a spell, and then there they were, and we discovered something we never knew before! I’m starting to feel like I can finally breathe freely for the first time in decades,” Aunt Cass said. We continued moving past the exhibits, looking into each one to see if we could spot a compass or anything that looked like one.
“But what are we pushing? What will happen if we get to the other side?” I whispered to Aunt Cass.
“I don’t know. But once it breaks then we’ll see.”
We passed two more exhibitions and continued on our way. There were tourists all around us, but there were still quiet moments in the museum and it seemed Aunt Cass was willing to answer questions so I kept going.
“You said we were going to set a trap… are you still making it?”
“I have some ideas, but these things don’t go quick. Wrong trap and it’ll slip right out of your hands.”
We moved past an exhibition of flags and turned a corner where I was very surprised to see John Smith drifting around. He was doing a ghost thing which can be quite confusing. Sometimes they walk like normal people. Other times they float slightly off the ground, drifting about the place. I was quite surprised to see him in the museum. Given the sheer number of people here I would have thought he would have been bounced out of here long ago. When we turned the corner John saw us and came floating over.
“Hi Harlow, and…” He frowned, struggling to remember.
“Cassandra,” Aunt Cass murmured, not paying much attention to him, looking around the room.
“Who’s Cassandra?” John asked, confused.
“Never mind. What are you doing here today?” I said.
“Did you see the catapult in the Weapons of the World Exhibition? Didn’t that belong to your cousin?” John said.
I was surprised again because he never remembered anything. The fact that he’d held on to the memory that the catapult had belonged to Luce was incredible. Before we would talk to him more though a tourist walked straight into him and John shot out of the room at high speed, disappearing through one of the walls. When he didn’t return, we continued on our way.
“Have you been keeping track of how many security cameras there are?” Aunt Cass said to me.
“No, I haven’t. Do I need to do that?” I asked looking around. There was at least one security camera in the corner of each room and we were now near the middle of the museum which meant we’d passed by many of them.
“Start counting,” Aunt Cass said.
We continued around the museum, eating up another hour and a half, looking through the exhibitions piece by piece. There were enormous glass cases and in each of them there were often up to thirty of forty individual objects, named and numbered, many of them featuring a small p
laque with information beneath it. There were also crowds of tourists which made it quite difficult to get close to some of them. We went by the Weapons of the World Exhibition, which featured Luce’s catapult sitting in the center of a long room. Tourists were posing for photographs in front of it.
We eventually found ourselves in front of an exhibition titled Wreck of the Appalachia, a sailing ship from long ago. There were multiple glass cabinets filled with things like old boots, telescopes, a chest, clothing, plates and spoons, the captain’s ledger and so on. Aunt Cass and I saw the small compass at the same time. We rushed over and both of us let out a breath at the same time to relax, to sense the magic. Unlike the map, which clearly felt magical, the compass was well shielded. In the swirl of the magic around us, it was barely noticeable. But still, it was clear this was the compass the map was referring to. The glass case was locked which wouldn’t be a problem considering we could unlock it with a spell. But there was no way we could do that in the middle of the day. In addition to the security cameras in the corner of each room, there were guards moving about the place as well.
“I count at least twelve security cameras we need to get by. I’m going to have to come up with a plan so let’s go before we start looking suspicious standing here at the thing that’s going to be stolen soon,” Aunt Cass said.
I followed Aunt Cass out and she went back to the Chili Challenge. We’d spent far more time in the museum than I’d thought. It was almost getting time for Traveler to close so I walked over there feeling that same anxious tension from earlier in the day while plotting breaking and entering with the writers. We witches didn’t have such a great track record when it came to breaking into places. Although we’d gotten away with it, many times had been a close call. With the writers on the same track, the Mysterious Mysteries in town, the extra media attention, and the sheer number of tourists about the place, I wasn’t quite sure how we were going to break into a museum that was in the middle of town.