Slowly, I nodded.
“Good. That’s good.” She turned back to the screen.
Sighing, I dropped the film off at the reference desk and hurried out of the library before I did something stupid like invite her over for dinner tonight.
She was desperately in need of Operation Fix Glinda.
But I was not the witch to undertake such a dangerous mission.
Chapter Twenty
A construction truck was parked in front of Oracle Realty as Cherise and I walked up. Happily, she hadn’t opted to wear the leather jumpsuit.
A young reed-thin man in tight-fitting jeans and a backward baseball cap stood on the walkway and critically eyed the low-pitched roofline. He jotted a note on a clipboard, then went back to eyeing.
The agency was housed in a tiny bungalow not far from the library. Its adorable exterior bespoke of a simpler time when two bedrooms and one bath was plenty of room. Ferns hung from hooks attached to a long front porch, and a pair of rockers sat in front of a stacked-stone front facade. Nantucket blue clapboard sided the rest of the house.
Cherise and I stepped up next to him. “Hey, Hank,” she said. “What’re you looking at?”
I was beginning to believe that Cherise knew every single person in this village.
He pointed toward the house with the tip of his pencil. “Trying to decide whether it’s best to bust up or bust out.”
“Out,” she said matter-of-factly, then added, “That’s a big job.”
“Yes, ma’am. Once I get a plan drawn up and permits acquired, it’s full speed ahead. Should be done by Christmas.” He smiled full-on, and I was taken aback at how much he looked like a young Elvis.
“It’ll be beautiful,” she said. “All your work is.”
“You might be a bit biased, Aunt Cher.”
“Never,” she said, patting his cheek. “Hank, this is my friend Darcy Merriweather.”
I shook hands and smiled. “Nice to meet you.”
“Same,” he said.
“We have a meeting,” she said. “Tell your mom to call me.”
“I will.”
As we continued on up the walkway, I said, “Related to Terry?”
“His sister’s oldest. What gave it away?” She curled her lip like Elvis.
“I should have guessed a relation straight off, but for a second there I was thinking that you knew absolutely everyone in this village.”
“Well, I do.”
As we climbed the front steps, I asked, “Did you know my mom?”
She stopped midstride and looked at me. “Sure I did. She was a good friend. I missed her terribly when she moved.”
“Did you call her Dee, too? Or just my dad?”
“Just your dad,” she said. “She was always Deryn around the village. Ve sometimes called her Derrie.”
“Ve doesn’t talk about her much.”
“Not an easy subject,” she said. “It was a difficult time when your mom decided to give up her powers and move so far away. But she loved your dad with her whole heart, and had to follow where it led her. If you haven’t noticed, your aunt has trouble talking about feelings. Especially her own.” She tipped my chin to make me look her in the eye. “Why the sudden questions, Darcy?”
“Floodgates,” I said, explaining how I’d found my mom’s obituary. “How come no one told me she had owned As You Wish? Did Mom give it to Ve when she left for Ohio? Did Ve inherit it?”
Cherise’s eyes filled with kindness. “These are questions best directed to Ve.”
“Is it a secret?” I asked.
“I don’t believe so. A little advice?”
I nodded.
“Velma dislikes difficult conversations so much that she waits and waits, hoping the situation will resolve itself. Or until she’s confronted head-on and has no other option but to deal with it. Talk to her.”
It was exactly what Ve was doing with Terry—waiting for the situation to resolve itself without having to get messy feelings involved. And also what she’d done when trying to end her engagement to Sylar. Cherise was absolutely right, and the way she spoke made me wonder if she knew what Ve was doing with Terry. It wouldn’t surprise me if she did, and if I hadn’t known she’d been at Terry’s while Ve was chatting with the Elder, then I’d think Evan might be right . . . that Cherise was the Elder. She was a very wise woman.
“I’ll talk to her,” I said. I should have done it a long time ago, and recognized that I might be afflicted with the same problem as Ve. I tended to avoid painful topics. And my mother definitely fell into that category. I was equally to blame for not asking as much as Ve was for not telling.
“It’s the best thing,” she said, knocking on the door, then pushing it open. “Noelle? Hello!”
The cozy reception area held a small desk and two loveseats that faced each other. A coffee station had been set up on a console table, and beautiful artwork filled the wall space. Mostly nature shots—trees and birds.
As I studied a particularly beautiful shot of a cardinal, I was inspired to attempt a similar drawing. I’d love something like this at As You Wish. Or better yet . . . at Nick’s house. And I knew just the bird. I’d draw the mourning dove that lurked around As You Wish. Hanging it at Nick’s would add a sense of familiarity. A sense of home. I made a mental note to take a reference photo of the mourning dove as soon as I had the chance.
“Cherise!” Noelle said, striding out of a back room. She kissed her cheeks, then smiled at me. “Hi, Darcy. I’m so glad you’re both here. Come on back to my office.”
Her hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, and she looked more like a horse than ever. A pretty horse, but a horse nonetheless.
“I saw Hank outside,” Cherise said. “You’re expanding.”
“Oh, yes. I have big plans. Huge. A massive expansion, not only of the office but of the business.”
“How long has this been in the works?” I asked, thinking the timing was fishy as all get-out. Raina, her top competitor, dies and suddenly she’s launching an expansion? It stunk to high heaven.
“A few months now,” she said. “It’s time to take the business to the next level. I’m bringing in other agents, sinking a fortune into promotional opportunities, and thinking about franchising.”
Franchising. It’s what Kent had wanted to do with Magickal Realty before Raina shot him down. Would he try to resurrect the plan now that she was gone?
“Oracle is going to be the best of the best. If I happen to land that job as a TV host, all the better. Free PR. Sit, sit,” Noelle said.
Cherise and I sat in matching armchairs in front of the desk, which was extremely tidy. I appreciated that about Noelle.
“Sounds exciting,” Cherise said.
“Oh, it is. I barely sleep at night, thinking of it all. It’s a dream come true.”
The whole office space was neat as a pin. I wished Ve had been here so I could show her how an office should look. Everything was picture perfect, from the bookshelves behind the desk to the seating arrangement, including the comfy-looking couch along the back wall and the coffee table stacked with architectural books.
“I—” I broke off, my gaze snagged on an object sticking out from beneath the couch.
“Darcy?” Noelle said.
Cherise said, “What’s wrong?”
I stood up, walked over to the couch, and bent down. I picked up the plaid flat cap. I held it up.
Cherise’s eyes flared. “Isn’t that Kent’s hat?”
Color bloomed on Noelle’s cheeks. “I, ah . . . Shoot.”
Suddenly, Kent’s talk of big plans at the Black Thorn yesterday made sense. He was in cahoots with Noelle. By the looks of her blush, I guessed they were partnering in more ways than one.
“Noelle,” Cherise whispered. “You . . . and Kent?”
I set the hat on the desk and sat back down as I tried to wrap my brain around this. “How long have you two been together?”
She shrugged. “Four months or so. We got to talking at an open house I was holding and one thing led to another.”
“He was married,” Cherise said.
“Not happily,” Noelle retorted. “He was being stifled by Raina. In their marriage and in his job. She was forever taking over his clients, closing his deals. She never listened to him or his ideas for growing the company. And at home, all she talked about was having a baby, when he’d told her again and again he wasn’t ready.”
I felt queasy listening to her. It was all so one-sided, and I could easily imagine Raina’s take. About how she had to step in with clients or risk losing them. Had to close deals because Kent was a bumbling fool. That she wanted to have a baby because for some ungodly reason she loved him.
“It was his idea to expand Oracle, and he wanted to be part of it,” Noelle said. “He’s been such a help with planning, especially recruiting. He has several great agents ready to sign on and of course a big client base.”
I sent Calliope a silent apology. I’d fully believed her to be Kent’s mistress. And sure, he’d been wooing her—but not romantically. He wanted her to join him at Oracle.
“Raina was no fool,” Cherise said sharply. “Surely Kent had signed a nonsolicitation agreement.”
Noelle squirmed in her seat. “I’m not aware of any such thing.”
The agreement would restrict Kent from taking any existing clients with him to a new job. It would absolutely be binding if Kent divorced Raina and moved on . . . but probably not if she was dead. He’d have the entire Magickal Realty client pool to pull from.
“Look,” Noelle said, “I know this doesn’t look good from an outsider’s point of view, especially now that Raina’s dead, but neither of us had anything to do with her death. Kent had filed for divorce. Even if he had to start from the ground up, he was more than willing just to be away from her. Now that she’s gone, he’s going to close down Magickal and get on with his life.”
“With you,” I said.
“With me,” she said defiantly. “It’ll be just like the storybooks. Big house, picket fences, kids running around, a dog. It’ll be perfect.”
“Kids, you say?” I said.
“Someday,” she said. “I want a big family.”
“Does Kent know that?” Cherise asked.
“Of course he does. Just because he didn’t want kids with Raina doesn’t mean he doesn’t want them with me. He told me he wants a big family, too.”
“Good luck with that,” Cherise said.
“I don’t need luck, Ms. Goodwin. I have love.”
She’d tried to sound fierce, but I heard the crack in her voice. The tiny sliver of doubt creeping in.
“With that, we should go,” Cherise said. “I think I’m going to put house-hunting on hold for the time being.”
She thought no such thing—she was still interested in finding a house, but she didn’t want to work with Noelle.
Noelle stood. “You’ll call when ready to look again?”
Cherise smiled sweetly. “Sure thing.”
She was a fantastic liar.
I could only shake my head as we walked out. “Kent obviously hasn’t told Noelle about the snip-snipping.”
“Love is not only blind, Darcy, but deaf and dumb as well. She’ll be none the wiser for years to come. And by then, he’ll most likely be a rich man with a new woman on the side.”
I glanced back at the house and saw Noelle standing in the doorway.
Between her and Kent, I wasn’t sure who was the bigger pretender.
It was clear she would do anything for him . . . but did that include getting rid of his wife?
Chapter Twenty-one
Cherise and I were headed back to As You Wish when I spotted a sight on the green that had me grabbing her hand and breaking into a run.
“Darcy! What on earth?”
“Look!” I said.
“Sweet heavens. Run faster.” She pressed a hand to her bobbing bosom and kicked up the pace.
Ahead, Ve and Dorothy were walking toward each other like two gunslingers on a deserted dusty stretch of road.
By the time we reached the pair, they were circling each other warily.
“How dare you!” Dorothy thundered.
“How dare I?” Ve seethed. “How dare you!”
I tried to step between them, but Ve shot me a quelling look. “Stay back, Darcy.”
“But—” I started.
“Back off,” Dorothy interrupted. “This is between your aunt and me.”
Ve set her hands on her hips. “Don’t talk to her like that.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Dorothy said.
A small crowd had started to gather. It wasn’t long before Starla was at my side, camera in hand. She didn’t bother taking photos—they wouldn’t come out. Not with Ve in them. “My money’s on Ve.”
“I don’t know,” Cherise said. “Dorothy’s scrappy.”
“Yeah,” Starla said, “but she won’t want to risk breaking a fingernail.”
True. “Maybe we should call for help.”
Cherise set her hand on my arm. “Don’t worry. I’ve got a Taser if we need it. Let them be for now. This has been brewing for quite a while, and it might be time for it to bubble over.”
I thought about what Cherise had said earlier, about Ve confronting problems only when she had no other choice.
Stealing Sylar had been one thing, but Dorothy went too far when she took Ve’s signs.
“I heard you’re accusing me of stealing,” Dorothy said. “I’m outraged. Simply outraged. What in the world would I want your signs for?”
“Why do you do anything you do? You’re crazy. Certifiable. Loco.” Ve made a twirling motion with her finger near her ear.
“Embellish much?” Dorothy shot back. “Even if that were true, I’m no thief. I have standards.”
The crowd oohed.
“You stole Sylar,” Ve returned.
The crowd gasped.
“No,” Dorothy said. “You gave him away.”
Another ooh.
“I feel like I should have popcorn,” Starla said.
“I could go for popcorn right now, too,” Cherise said. “With extra butter.”
Starla looked at her. “Is there any other way?”
“Not in my world,” Cherise said.
Ve jabbed a finger. “Be that as it may, my signs are missing and you’re the only one with a motive.”
Dorothy rolled her eyes so far back in her head that for a moment I feared she was going to lose consciousness. “It’s a good thing you’re not the detective in the family.”
Whoa, whoa. This was getting mighty personal to be discussing in front of mixed company. There were bound to be mortals around. “Maybe we should take this ins—”
Both glared at me and I snapped my mouth closed.
The crowd continued to grow. Great. Wonderful.
“The Toil’s going to be ticked that I’m not getting these shots,” Starla said.
“It’s probably best this isn’t immortalized,” I said. I snapped my fingers. “But that reminds me . . . Do you have access to the photo archives at the Toil?”
“Sure, why?”
I told her how the microfilm at the library had been misplaced. “Those photos put a personal spin on the story that’s invaluable.”
“I’ll see what I can find,” she said.
“Thanks.”
Ve said, “I want them back.”
“
I don’t have them.” Dorothy stamped her foot. “I’ll sue, Velma. Slander. Libel. Something. As You Wish will be mine if you’re not careful.”
Ve laughed. “Have fun trying.”
This was getting ridiculous.
Dorothy snapped her fingers. “You know what?”
“What?” Ve said testily.
Dorothy stepped toward Ve and said sweetly, “I wish I knew where those signs were. So I can prove to you I didn’t take them.”
Ah crap. I glanced at Starla. She said, “I don’t want to do it. You do it.”
One of us had to. Ve couldn’t with the crowd looking on.
Resigned, I covered my mouth and cast the spell. A moment later, Dorothy brightened.
Apparently, the Elder had approved the wish.
“I think I know exactly who took those signs.” Dorothy laughed. “Oh, this is too good. Karma, that’s what this is.”
“What are you talking about?” Ve asked, exasperated.
“Come with me.” She sashayed away, her heels clicking on the pathway. We all followed, like the rats behind the Pied Piper.
“Where’s she going?” Starla asked.
I wasn’t sure. It looked like she was headed to As You Wish.
“Where are you going, Dorothy?” Ve demanded. “This is absurd, even for your standards.”
“Just hold your horses, Velma Devany. You’ll see.”
In front of As You Wish, Dorothy suddenly took a sharp right and then marched straight up Terry’s driveway. We all followed, and I heard Archie making whooping sounds. His warning noise.
I had a bad feeling.
Dorothy stormed toward Terry’s garage as Archie’s whooping grew louder. I glanced up and saw him sitting on the peak of a window dormer.
A very bad feeling.
Dorothy lifted the garage door, and sunlight spilled across a pile of political signs. Ve’s banner had been scrunched into a ball and tossed in a corner. Dorothy made a sweeping motion with her arm, à la Vanna White, and then cocked a hip.
“Uh-oh,” Starla said.
Cherise grabbed my arm. “What are those doing in there?”
“Terry,” I whispered. “He’s never been too keen on this whole election thing.”
Some Like It Witchy Page 19