Of Murders and Mages: Casino Witch Mysteries 1

by Nikki Haverstock

  Acrid sweat filled the air and shone on the black fur of the animal. His mane was long but tangled and knotted in large chunks.

  “No! Get away!” A man ran down the aisle toward us. “Ladies, please, you must—Oh, Miss Santini, I’m so sorry, but I must implore you to come away from Hercules. He’s not well. Please.”

  Hercules whinnied and stomped before slamming into the door, the top edge cutting into his chest. He bared his teeth and snapped at the air.

  The gentleman was older, with sinewy strength in his arms exposed by a short-sleeve shirt. He looked at Hercules with sadness. “We don’t know what’s wrong with him. We’re going to have to put him down. He’s starting to hurt himself.”

  “What?” Olivia turned to him in surprise. “What’s going on? Why hadn’t I heard anything?”

  “I’m sorry. With your father passing, no one wanted to bother you. We’ve tried everything.”

  Olivia stared into the stall as Hercules continued to snort and pace. “When did this start?”

  He rubbed his temples. “Since that young man was killed. We could barely get his body out of the stall. That’s when I got this.” He lifted a sleeve to reveal a scar that extended from his shoulder to his elbow. It was still scabbed over in spots, and the healed places were red and angry in their healing.

  “I’m so sorry, Vladimir. We will stay back, but can we have some time alone?”

  He hesitated before answering. “Please just be careful. The vet is coming soon to put him out of his suffering.” He turned and slowly shuffled down the aisle and disappeared.

  Auntie Ann tapped her chin. “Something isn’t right. Hercules has always been such a gentle horse. Vanessa used to ride him bareback around the arena. He took such good care of her. And he just happened to start acting up since Tony was killed?”

  She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, the way she had shown me. I did the same. I started picking up emotions and sensations immediately but very differently than I had before. Instead of echoes of emotions, the feelings were very present and centered on the enormous horse stomping around in his stall in front of me. Fear, anger, and disgust all fought inside the body of the black beast.

  I ran my tongue over my mouth, trying to clear it of the foul taste, as though I had sucked on a battery. “What is that?”

  Auntie Ann’s eyes flew open. “You can sense that?”

  “Yes, but it’s different from Mr. Santini’s office or where Ethel jumped. Why?”

  Auntie Ann started digging around in her large purse. “Because this is not something from the past. This is happening right now. Someone has cursed this horse.”

  “The same person that is killing everyone?” I guessed.

  “That seems likely. We will need to remove it from the poor animal. Where is it?” She started taking fistfuls of things from her purse and shoving them at Olivia. “All those awful feelings need to go somewhere. It would work best if we put them onto something living, but that is too cruel. But you can find something that was alive and has the potential for life like a fruit. It was living, and the seeds have the potential for more life. Here it is!” She pulled from her purse a large orange that she placed on the ground then stood and grabbed my hands.

  “What are we doing?”

  The horse kicked at the stall, but his eyes showed pain and suffering hidden behind all the stomping and snorting.

  “You are going to help me. I’m not sure if you have a second affinity for animals or emotions or what, but we don’t have time to figure it out. The burden on that horse is too great. It’s been two months, and his heart might not take much more. We’ll close our eyes and try to push the curse from the horse to the orange. Come, Patagonia, Ella will need you.”

  Patagonia sat on my feet. “Uh, I think I’m going to need more instruction.”

  “I’m doing the heavy lifting. You’re just going to give me a little oomph. Grab your channeling key.”

  I dropped her hand to grab the smooth moonstone in my palm before holding her hand again, the stone between us. I took a slow, deep breath and closed my eyes. “Now what?”

  “Picture the horse and the orange. Now imagine pushing the negative things off the horse and onto the orange. Don’t grab it. Just push with your mind.”

  I mumbled, “Oh, obviously.”

  She squeezed my hand. “If all you do is stand here with me, you will be a help. We begin.”

  Hercules snorted and kicked. The smell of his sweat filled my lungs. While forming a mental picture of him and the orange, I wrestled with what Auntie Ann had asked me to do. I reached out and felt until I could clearly sense the hatred and fear on the horse, then I shoved at it with my mind, pushing it toward the orange. Forever, it felt as if nothing was happening. I imagined heaving, pulling, twisting, and every other variation of moving the sensation, but I didn’t feel any difference.

  Hercules was becoming more agitated in his stall, but he wasn’t the only one. Auntie Ann’s breathing was getting labored, and her fingers delicately trembled.

  I redoubled my effort, but my mind was starting to wander, and as I was losing the focus, my method changed. Instead of pushing directly at the horse, my effort slipped along the outside of it, and something shifted. Auntie Ann’s hand twitched in mine. She felt it too. I focused my effort on pushing on the outside of the horse, like wiping my hand over his coat to push off water.

  I continued around my mental picture of the horse, wiping it off. Auntie Ann must have been moving it from there because once it disconnected from the horse, it was whisked to the orange before I could push any farther. I went over the whole body then down the legs and up the neck to the face. My energy was wearing out, and the channeling key was hot in my hand, but I continued.

  Auntie Ann let out a deep sigh. “You can stop. It’s done.”

  I opened my eyes and blinked. It could have been a minute or an hour that we had stood there. I didn’t know which. My knees ached, and I ran a hand over my lower back.

  Olivia walked Auntie Ann over to a chair. “Was it bad?”

  She nodded and dug out two candy bars. After biting and chewing one, she swallowed hard. “Yes, whoever cast that curse is very powerful. I wasn’t expecting that. Here, dear, eat this.” She extended the second candy bar to me.

  I opened the wrapper and bit through the chocolate shell and into the caramel and nut center. The sugar hit my blood and made my skin tingle. Patagonia meowed, and I scooped up her massive wiggly frame to press my cheek against her neck. She purred into my ear and flexed her paws rhythmically against my shoulders. I struggled under her weight and was about to put her down when she yowled and clawed her way out of my arms and climbed onto my shoulder, draping herself around my neck like a furry stole.

  Olivia looked at me then back at her aunt. “Did Ella help?”

  “Yes, very much. If I had known it would be that difficult, I would have had you help, Olivia.” She finished off the candy and pulled out a compact to reapply her lipstick. The color had returned to her face, and she seemed right as rain. “I think Ella has a natural affinity for the work. She was able to loosen the edges of the curse. I did all the heavy lifting, so to speak, but I’m impressed with her knack for the delicate work.”

  Patagonia was done being my neckwear and meowed loudly in my ear. I lifted her off me and lowered her to the ground, letting her jump from the height of my hip. She hit the floor and smoothly moved toward the stall.

  I followed her over. Hercules was slick with sweat reflecting the lights in the stable. His head hung low, his lower lip dangling down and his tongue poking out. His eyes were half closed until he caught sight of me.

  He nickered softly and slowly stepped over, his massive hooves dragging lightly through the straw in his stall. He shook his massive head, his mane slapping on each side of his neck, and tendrils sticking to the sweat. I extended my hand palm up, and he lifted his head over the stall door to nestle into my palm. His lips were velvety soft.

 
I reached up to scratch behind his massive ears. He closed his eyes and blew air and snot out of his nose.

  The stomping of boots racing across the floor echoed in the aisle. “Hercules!” Vladimir ran up but slowed as he approached. “Is he…?”

  Hercules nickered, and I stepped back. “I think he is feeling better.”

  Vladimir extended his hand and ran it over the horse’s face. “Old friend, you’re back.” He grabbed a halter off a hook hanging next to the door and pulled it over Hercules’s nose then wrapped the strap over behind the ears then through a buckle.

  I tried to think of an excuse for the horse’s sudden change in behavior. “Oh, he… The thing is that I—”

  “No. I have worked here long enough to know that I don’t need to know. Thank you.” He opened the door and pulled the horse out by the lead. “Thank you, Miss Olivia. Thank you, Mrs. Russo.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  I leaned against the elevator and hid a yawn behind my hand. In the hours since helping Hercules, we had investigated two more of the deaths. First we had taken the elevator up to where Roberta had been the third victim. She had been attending a convention, and a group of friends had gone to the tram station to visit the other casinos. An express tram was about to race through the station when Roberta had surged forward in front of the tram and been killed instantly.

  Her companions insisted that it must have been an accident as she had been in a great mood and laughing just a moment earlier, but the video showed that she definitely hadn’t tripped but instead stepped off the platform.

  When I had closed my eyes, I felt something similar to what Ethel had felt. There was love and happiness. Roberta hadn’t suffered, and whatever she stepped toward had brought her great joy.

  After we had watched the video and I had read the area as many times as I could, we took the elevator up to where the second death had occurred. Joe had been playing in the poker tournament that weekend. He had come upstairs to the floor his room was on, but instead of going there, he had stepped into an alcove with a chair, sat down, and never moved again. He was severely diabetic, and when he didn’t check his blood sugar and take his insulin, he had slipped into a coma and passed before anyone checked on him.

  The video didn’t show anything useful. When I went to read the emotional hologram, it was very weak and faded. I had struggled for a long time trying to get any details, but in the end I just picked up a general sense of warmth and happiness, like sipping on a cup of hot chocolate or slipping into a warm bath.

  Last, we were going down to see if there was anything I could discover at the site of the first death. Patagonia was taking an aptly named cat nap at my feet in the elevator, and I finished the last bit of taffy. I had never ingested so much sugar in one day. My stomach was turning sour, and it was no longer providing the energy lift of earlier.

  I ran my finger over a small scratch in the hand rail of the elevator. Up and down all day, I was quite familiar with every detail of the elevator. In a casino this size, they must have dozens of elevators, and yet we only had to use one elevator to visit all five locations.

  “Could the elevator be involved?” I asked as the door dinged open.

  “Pardon?” Auntie Ann reached into her purse and pulled out a package of gummy bears and offered them to me as we walked through the casino.

  I shook my head. “If I eat any more sugar, I’ll throw up.”

  She put them back and offered me a bottle of water instead. “You’ll sleep well tonight.”

  Olivia slowed down so we could catch up. “What did you mean about the elevator?”

  “We have used the same elevator to investigate all the deaths. Ethel took it to the abandoned floor where she jumped, it was next to the horse that trampled Tony, it’s the nearest to the tram station, Joe used it to get to his room, and now we took it to the parking lot to see where Michael overdosed. Maybe the elevator is cursed or the source.”

  Olivia slowed, and her eyebrows knitted together. “Maybe… but the elevator isn’t the closest to the parking garage, so it must be a coincidence.”

  “But maybe Michael took it anyways. This could be the thing that ties all five cases together.”

  “Four.” Olivia pushed on past the slot machines and disappeared into the crowd around a roulette table.

  I coughed and ran a hand across my forehead. I was feeling feverish.

  Auntie Ann took the empty water bottle from my hand and replaced it with a fresh one. Her massive purse seemed to hold everything in it. “You’ve done a lot of magic today for someone who has never done any before. What were you saying to Olivia?”

  I unscrewed the top, drank half of it, and let out a loud burp. “I was just spit-balling an idea, but Olivia didn’t listen.” I finished the water while thinking about her reaction. “She seemed distracted.”

  Auntie Ann turned to find Olivia and found something significant. “Oh boy. I think you’re right. Come along.” She walked off in the direction Olivia had gone.

  I tossed the empty plastic container into the trash and emptied out my pockets of candy wrappers before scooping Patagonia into my arms. It appeared that people in general were giving her a wide berth, but I worried about the increasing drunken crowds near the card tables.

  Staggering under her weight, I weaved through the crowd. She seemed heavier than before, or perhaps I was getting weaker. She didn’t help me any as she obscured my view by rubbing her face against mine. I sneezed when her black hair tickled my nose. Once I was through the rows of blackjack, craps, and roulette tables, the crowd thinned to a few people spread over probably a hundred slot machines. The machines rang and flashed, trying to seduce me into lightening my wallet.

  I loosened my grip on Patagonia, and she leapt down to race down the strip of carpeting that designated the walkway. Trotting after her, I spied Olivia and Auntie near the entry to the parking garage, talking to Vin and another man. The second gentleman was the same height as Vin but tall and slim, as opposed to Vin’s broad shoulders and muscular chest, but both of them radiated power.

  They turned and left before I could reach them, which was for the better since Vin’s bad attitude had been annoying. He thought he was so cool, important, and hot. “Who was that with Vin?”

  Olivia looked at me, startled out of whatever deep thoughts she had been having. “No one important. Come on. This is the last place, then we’re done for today.” She pressed open the door to the garage and marched on.

  Auntie Ann caught the door and held it open for me. “Don’t mind Olivia. She’s got a lot on her mind. Make sure you get a lot of protein tonight. Sugar is good for keeping up your energy, but you need real food.”

  “So eating two pounds of candy isn’t healthy? I never would have guessed,” I teased her.

  Auntie Ann chuckled and gave me a smile.

  We walked along the long rows of cars. I should have brought Patagonia’s harness and leash. Though she followed by my side, I could just imagine a car swinging around a corner and not seeing her. She was enormous for a cat but still so much smaller than a person.

  I slapped my thigh, and she bounded over before twining herself between my legs as I tried to walk. I stumbled and tried to catch myself before I face-planted. I flung out a hand that landed on the trunk of an expensive red sports car. Immediately, the parking garage echoed with honking from the car’s alarm bouncing around the cement structure.

  A young man in a uniform came running around the corner. “Ma’am, this is the valet area. Can I assist you in—Hello, Ms. Russo, Miss Santini. I apologize. I didn’t see that she was with you.”

  Olivia turned back and approached. “I’m so sorry about the car alarm. It won’t happen again.” She turned to glare at me.

  I shrugged. It was hardly as if I did it on purpose.

  “Miss Santini, I put up the tape like you asked.” He pointed to the end of the row, where several caution cones barred traffic from going around the corner. “But the next show starts in
two hours, and the valet area is starting to fill up. We hate to turn away customers, but…” He looked around at the cars around us.

  “I’m taking care of it right now. We need another thirty minutes or so.”

  He nodded. “Why don’t I take the cones down now, but I won’t let the boys park any of the cars on this level until the other spots are all filled. Thank you.”

  As we passed the safety cones and turned the corner, he stopped and collected the cones, then his retreating jogging steps indicated he had left.

  I walked past the empty parking spots and took out the channeling key and started taking slow, deep breaths. Even with only one day of practice, the peace and ease I needed to work magic was coming faster.

  “Here.” Olivia pulled out her tablet and cued up the video as she had at every location.

  I touched Play, and the recording of the empty parking structure started. A disheveled, lanky man stumbled to his car, parked in the spot where we were standing. He got into his car, and the tablet cut off.

  I pressed the button, and it flashed a picture of a battery. “It’s dead.”

  Olivia snatched it back with more force than necessary. “Seriously?” She jabbed at the button.

  “Is there anyone specific that I needed to see?”

  “Not really. He gets in the car, and that’s all we can see. One of the valets found him later. Michael had overdosed. The video doesn’t show anything. Don’t know why I even bothered to show you.” She shoved the tablet in her purse. Her hand got caught on one of the straps, and she fought with the purse, growling, until finally she seated the purse back on her shoulder.

  Auntie Ann cut her eyes over to Olivia but didn’t comment on her growing agitation.

  Patagonia rubbed against my leg, and the channeling key’s smooth finish was growing warm in my hand. “Why don’t I see what I can find?”

  “Yes. Fine.”

  I closed my eyes and expected to find something, but there was nothing to feel. The space was empty and clean. My nostrils tickled from fumes but nothing magical. I spent several minutes trying before a shrill voice broke my concentration.