Witch My Grits

by Amy Boyles

  “It’s gone.”

  “What is?” I said.

  “Lilly's money.”

  I frowned. “Why do I get the feeling that you’re two steps ahead of me?”

  “Because I am.”

  “That doesn’t help. What’s the deal?”

  “Lilly had a large sum of money in the side pocket of her purse. I found it earlier today and decided to leave it in here.”

  I glanced over his shoulder into the contents of the purse. It was all regular looking stuff—lipstick, notepads, perfume. “So what’s the big deal? I mean, the door was unlocked. Anyone could’ve come in here and taken it.”

  Roman zipped up the purse and dropped it back in the closet. “Nope. It was Dave. You weren’t looking, but he stuffed a wad of cash in his breast pocket as he left. He stole it.”

  I rubbed the crease forming between my eyes. “Why?”

  Roman clicked his tongue. “Not sure, darlin’. But I say we go find out.”

  “We? As in you’re going to let me do it, too?”

  Roman sighed. “Why not? You can unofficially be my deputy.”

  I squealed with pleasure. “Yes, I can see the signs now—Dylan Apel, dressmaker and detective.”

  Roman cleared his throat. “Let’s not get carried away.”

  I shrugged. “Don’t be jealous. You know it’s a great-sounding title.”

  He cupped my chin and grazed his lips over mine. Heat flashed down my core at his touch. I sighed into him and curled my fingers around his waist.

  “It is a great-sounding title,” he whispered. “Only, I was expecting you to have a different last name.”

  I rocked back on my heels. “Don’t let’s start this again. Come on. Let’s go see how Dave knew about that money.”

  We found Dave in his room. He blanched when he saw us, but he did open the door and let us inside.

  Roman didn’t waste any time on subtleties. “We watched you stuff a wad of cash in your pocket as you were leaving Lilly’s room. I could get my guys in here, tear your room apart and cause a whole slew of commotion—enough to get your fiancé in a tizzy about why we’re looking so closely at you right after Lilly was murdered. But I don’t want to do that. I want you to confess what you did and explain yourself before it needs to get to that level.”

  Roman’s tone about made me want to confess, and I hadn’t even done anything.

  Dave rubbed a hand over his twelve-o’clock shadow. It sounded like sandpaper scratching over wood. He stumbled back onto the bed and threaded his fingers through his hair, spiking it up.

  “You can’t tell Rose. I’ve tried so hard to keep things quiet.”

  Roman leaned against the wall. He crossed his arms and knitted his brow. “That you were having an affair, you mean?”

  He nodded slowly. “It started out innocently enough.”

  “Cheating started out innocently?” I said. “That seems like a horse pill to swallow.”

  Dave shook his head. “That’s not what I mean. I was trying to help her out at first. She needed money.”

  “So you were paying her?” Roman said.

  “No!” Dave kneaded the heels of his palms into his eyes. “This is all getting screwed up. I’m not explaining it right.”

  “That’s an understatement,” I mumbled.

  Dave fell back onto the bed. He released a shot of air. After a minute his breath hitched and he pushed himself back up. “We weren’t exactly friends, but Lilly came to me asking for help with paying some bills. We got to talking, and I saw she wasn’t as bad as everyone said.”

  I cocked a brow. “You mean she wasn’t as bad as the stuff you were spouting about her earlier?”

  Dave nodded. “We became close. One thing led to another, and things happened. I cared about her—a lot. I was still trying to help her out. I’d heard the rumors she was stealing at work, but there was no reason for her to be doing that. I was helping her.”

  “Were you planning on keeping it up after you got married?” Roman said.

  Dave shook his head. “There was no way I could. I told Lilly as much, too. That’s when she started in on the whole witch business, telling people that she could work magic. She started making the lotions for extra money since I was about to cut her off.”

  He pulled a roll of bills from his pocket and tossed them on the bed. “That’s what you saw me taking—my own money. She’s dead. Lilly wasn’t going to be needing it anymore, and I didn’t see any reason not to retrieve what was originally mine.”

  “Maybe you didn’t,” Roman said. “But it raises suspicion about you. You stole money from a dead woman.”

  Dave shrugged. “Like I said, it was my money to begin with.”

  “Did Rose know about the affair?” I said.

  Roman scowled at me. I wasn’t sure if that was because I’d beaten him to the question or for some other reason.

  Dave ran his fingers along the bedspread. “No. I mean, I don’t think so. She never said anything to me about it.”

  Roman headed toward the door. “Thanks for your time. Don’t go too far.”

  Dave shuddered. “Where am I going to go? You’re keeping us here.”

  Roman nodded. “At least until after we finish interviewing everyone.”

  We left the room. Roman was quiet, too quiet. The wheels were turning in his head, and I wanted to know what trail they were leading him to.

  I wrapped a hand around the crook of his arm. “What’s going on? What are you thinking?”

  Roman scratched his chin. “I’m thinking there’s more to the Wood family than meets the eye.”

  I slapped my thigh. “Tell me about it. They tried to get those goons to kick us out of the house. Of course, Grandma was trying to get Rose to confess to being a witch. Something I don’t personally believe, but I guess you never know.”

  Roman stopped. “What?”

  I winced. “Yeah, I haven’t had a chance to explain that to you.”

  “Time to start.”

  So I told him everything that had happened with the tiny dragons and all that.

  “So what did the tiny dragon see?” he said after I finished.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  Roman whirled me around. He picked up his pace down the hall. “Let’s go find out, because someone in this house is lying and I need to know who.”

  ELEVEN

  We barged into the grandmas’ room. Grandma and Hazel sat in a pair of chairs before a fire in a blazing hearth.

  I blinked. “Where did that come from?”

  Grandma wiggled her silver-ringed fingers toward the blaze. “Milly and I wanted a fire to warm our feet, so I made one. Also whipped up some hot chocolate. We needed a little relaxation after those two yahoos tried to throw us out of the place.”

  “Did you conjure a masseuse, too?” I said hopefully. I mean, if you wanted to relax, a massage was the best way to do that, in my opinion.

  “Should’ve thought of that,” Milly snarled. “I knew we’d forgotten something.”

  I poked the air. “There’s no time like the present.”

  Grandma lifted her fingers to conjure a masseuse. Roman butted in. “You can get your pool boy later. Or massage therapist or whatever. For now I need some questions answered.”

  Grandma pressed a finger to her nose. “What can we two old ladies help you with?”

  “I need to know about”—Roman turned to me—“what did you call it?”

  “The tiny dragon.” I peeked around his arm at my grandmothers. “Roman wants to know what happened that made you tie up Rose.”

  Grandma shifted in her chair and stood. “Oh, that was simple enough.” She waddled over to a table and picked up the object. “We received an alarm that something had happened. I snapped my fingers and brought the tiny dragon here. When it arrived, I simply asked it what it had seen.”

  I shot Roman a look that said don’t ask me. Without missing a beat, he walked over and took the piece from Grandma. He
turned it upside down and inspected the chunk of black rubbery stuff.

  “What did it say?”

  “Ask it yourself,” Milly said. “It’ll repeat the tale.”

  Roman scratched his forehead, brushing a sun-bleached strand of hair from his eyes. “Tell me what you saw.”

  Boy, sometimes I really loved that man. The fact that he didn’t even flinch when he asked the dragon just spoke to me—Roman could take all the craziness in my family.

  The dragon yawned and stretched. Its red eyes glowed the color of fire. It opened its mouth and said, “Magic spewed from the woman. It lit up the room. Then it faded.”

  Roman frowned. “Tell me about the woman.”

  “Blonde and young.”

  “Anything else?” Roman said.

  The dragon paused.

  “Her name?”

  “Rose.”

  Well, there you had it.

  “Thank you,” Roman said.

  Grandma pointed a finger at me. “See? The dragon even said her name. It’s not as if we were going after an innocent. The tiny dragon named her exactly.”

  “But all the other dragons had been destroyed,” I said. “There’s no way to know if this one was tampered with. Is there?”

  Grandma and Milly exchanged a look. Milly sighed. “I suppose not.”

  “And now the Wood family thinks we’re evil,” I said. “They tried to get us thrown out.”

  “I’ll handle them,” Roman said. “Don’t worry about that. But this worries me. Either it is Rose or someone is blaming anyone they can for this murder to get their trail off them.”

  “And it’s a powerful witch as well,” I said. “Whoever it is made my magic leak right out of me, and then they burned all the tiny dragons except for one.”

  “Or maybe they didn’t catch this one?” Grandma said.

  I shook my head. “Not possible. Don’t you think the person found it in their room? That makes the most sense.”

  Roman nodded. “I agree. The fact that they burned all the others proves that. So, we’re back to square one. We need a way to flush them out—get the killer out in the open to confess, basically.”

  We were all silent for several seconds.

  “I’ve got nothing,” I said.

  Milly rapped her cane on the floor. “Dylan, I think we can use you in some way here.”

  I frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Toots, you’re the one they’ve been harassing. I think we should use that to our benefit.”

  Grandma’s eyes sparkled. “Absolutely brilliant. But how?”

  I laughed. “Yeah, brilliant. Why don’t you just go ahead and tell everyone I’m a witch, see if that’ll get the person to come out.”

  Milly shook her head. “That’s not exactly right. Whoever it is already wants you to come out. What if we went in the opposite direction?”

  I frowned. “I’m not following.”

  Grandma pinned my shoulders and led me toward the window that the dress had jumped out of. “What if you work the spell that calls forth the person who’s working against you—see who’s causing you ill will.”

  “You think I should?” I said.

  “Why not?” Milly croaked. “Seems as good a plan as any.”

  “As long as it doesn’t bring any harm to Dylan,” Roman said. “Then I’m all for it. But nothing that’s going to hurt her.”

  “Don’t worry,” Grandma said. “I’m not going to hurt my own granddaughter. Okay, Dylan, focus your power and imagine that the person who wants to harm you will walk through that door next.”

  I closed my eyes and focused on finding the person who wanted to do me harm. I pinpointed my concentration. I thought long and hard about it, letting my magic flare and blossom. I felt a bubble of power swell inside me until it popped, letting power flood through my body.

  I wiped a line of sweat from my brow. “Well, let’s see if it worked.”

  Roman ran a thumb over his bottom lip. “I’m staying right here to see what happens.”

  I smiled. “My protector.”

  He didn’t say anything, which I took to mean that was his job—he was supposed to be my protector.

  The four of us sat in the room, waiting. I nibbled every hangnail I could find on both hands, spitting them out onto the floor until Milly shot me a scathing look.

  “Sorry,” I whispered. “Nerves.”

  “Well, your nerves aren’t making anything better.”

  I grimaced. “I know.”

  Finally, after what seemed a lifetime, the knob turned. Roman crossed to me in a flash. He stood beside me, waiting.

  The hinges creaked; the door opened.

  I blinked. The hallway looked bare.

  And then I saw it—a large kitchen knife suspended in the air. The tip glinted in the light. The blade pivoted and turned until the sharp tip pointed straight at me.

  The thing hurled through air, aimed directly for my heart.

  TWELVE

  Milly jumped into action. Well, jumped probably isn’t the right word. I mean, she is old, after all.

  She raised her cane. A spark of magic sprayed from the tip. Shards of power showered over the blade. The steel cracked and splintered. The knife clattered to the floor. Magic wafted off it like steam rising off skin after exiting a hot bath.

  The four of us held our collective breaths.

  “What the heck?” I said.

  Roman crossed to the blade. He kicked it, I suppose to make sure the thing wasn’t going to put itself back together and attack—you know, like the stupid thing was the star of a horror movie and just wouldn’t die.

  “It’s safe to inspect,” Milly said.

  Roman picked up the shards. “How’d this happen? I’m not an expert in magic, but the spell Dylan worked should have brought the witch here. What happened?”

  Milly caned over to him. She glanced down at the knife, her eyes narrowing. “The witch set some sort of safety spell on herself. To ensure she lived, this knife was set as part of a trap for Dylan.”

  “Does someone want me dead? Why?”

  Grandma worried her hands. “There’s a witch on the loose, and she’s heck-bent on blaming you for this; we know that. Is it so she can get the heat off herself and onto you? Or simply because we’re after her?”

  I scoffed. “She’s the one who started it. Why would one witch try to highlight focus on another witch? It’s almost as if she’s trying to let the world know what I am—especially when she leaked my magic in public.”

  Grandma wagged a finger. “We have one witch dead and another witch attacked. Why would one witch blame and attack another, knowing that we’d be trying to track her down?”

  “What if it’s not a witch,” Roman said quietly.

  We paused. The three of us turned to him. He tossed a blade shard onto the floor. The sound of metal clinking on wood filled the room.

  “What do you mean?” I said.

  He rose. His knees cracked as he straightened to full height. “Just that. What if it’s not a witch? What if it’s a creature that doesn’t like witches? The exact opposite of what we’ve been searching for.”

  “But what could it be?” I said. “The thing has to take human form, right?”

  Milly nodded. “There are plenty of magical creatures that can take the same shape and size as a human—in fact, I’m sure plenty of them could live among us for years. Elves would be one, certain species of fairies.”

  Grandma frowned. “Seems a bit too vindictive to be a fairy. Elf might be a better choice. But revealing a creature like that takes more power than I’ve got. We’d need to draw it out into the open, get the thing to reveal itself to us.”

  “But how?” I said.

  Roman brushed his knuckles over his thighs. “There are other creatures of magic who can sense that sort of thing better than humans.”

  Grandma nodded. “I know just what you’re thinking.”

  “Me too,” Milly said. “It’s a great idea.
Best one I’ve heard in the past day. But can you keep everyone at the mansion for another day? We may need that much time to get everything put into place.”

  Roman squinted. “They’ll do whatever I say. Whether they like it or not is another thing. I’ll say we’ve still got a few more folks to interview. That should buy me enough time to get us to lunch. Is that long enough?”

  Grandma steepled her fingers together. “I should think so. That’s all we need.”

  “Can y’all please stop being cryptic and tell me what you’re talking about?” I said, huffing out a breath.

  Roman glanced over at me. “We need outside help.”

  Grandma grinned. “Specifically, unicorn help.”

  “You’re saying—” I said.

  Milly nodded. “We’re going to call Titus, king of the unicorns.”

  We stood in the backyard. Spotlights beamed down from the house. The wind had picked up, and the night was turning cold. I rubbed my shoulders, trying to fight off the chill.

  “Where are we doing this?” I said.

  Grandma pointed toward the woods. “We’ll walk out a bit farther and call him. I don’t want anyone in the house to see.”

  “That’s a shocker.”

  She threw me an innocent look. “Dylan, I try to keep my magic on the ‘down low,’ as you young ones say. I don’t want anyone to know what we do.”

  I frowned. “Okay.”

  Did Grandma really think I believed that? She was generally the person who got me in trouble with my magic.

  Well, whatever floated her boat, I suppose.

  Roman and Milly had stayed inside, but we’d wrangled Reid and Sera for this task. Nan had come along, too. She seemed happy to be back at my side, ready and willing to protect me.

  “Stick with me, Dylan. I’ll keep you safe,” she said.

  For a moment I wished she’d been there when the knife hurled itself at me. I could’ve seen her in action. I’m guessing it would’ve been super awesome.

  Maybe next time.

  Actually I hoped there wasn’t a next time. I didn’t want another knife throwing itself at me.

  “Did you know that sometimes a person can get a spirit, or ghost, to do what they want?” Reid said.