by Raven Snow
“Sorry.” Rowen didn’t mean to bring him down. She just couldn’t help this foul mood of hers. “Maybe it’s this whole Peony thing getting to me. I don’t like seeing her this upset.”
“She’ll get past this too. Don’t worry.” Eric headed into the bedroom.
Rowen followed close behind him. She had just climbed into bed when her cell phone rang. “What time is it?” Rowen answered her own question by looking at the clock on the nightstand. “Geez. It’s past midnight. Who’s calling me at this hour?” She picked up her cell phone and looked at the number with her heart in her chest. She figured, this late, it had to be a family related emergency. She was steeling herself for some bad news until she actually answered and got a response. “Hello?”
“Rowen?” asked a man’s voice. “This is Darren Hawthorne.”
“Oh, uh, hey?” This definitely wasn’t who Rowen had expected. Eric was looking at her like he expected her to give him live updates on the phone call. She flapped a hand at him, trying to indicate that he could ask her later. “What’s this about?”
Hawthorne didn’t answer right away. He took a big, deep breath instead. It sounded a lot like he didn’t want to be on the phone right now either. “I was thinking… If you and that family of yours feel the need to come and examine the crime scene again, I wouldn’t be wholly against that.”
“Really?” Rowen fought the urge to thank him and simply hang up before he had a chance to change his mind. “Can I ask why?”
“It would help with this amateur investigation of yours, wouldn’t it?” asked Hawthorne, sounding annoyed she had even asked such a question after what he’d offered her.
“Maybe,” Rowen conceded. “But I’d like to know why you’re changing your tune all of a sudden. Last time I checked, Channel 2 was really working the dangerous bunch of witches angle. And you were making Peony take her art from the show. What was up with that?”
Hawthorne didn’t say anything at first. When he did, he sounded more irritated than ever. “Fine. I’ll level with you. Lucy Odele agreed to buy my house if I did her some favors. One of those favors was letting you continue with your investigation unhindered. So, if checking out the crime scene is something you want to do, come on down. Just make sure you do it outside of business hours.”
“I’ll be there tomorrow morning then.”
“Yeah, sure,” said Hawthorne, sounding completely disinterested. He wasn’t too fond of this arrangement and it showed. He hung up.
“What was that about?” asked Eric.
“Hawthorne is letting us look at the crime scene… What’s left of it anyway.” Rowen knew that the statue had been taken away by the police, and the space where it had once stood had been filled. Still, without people crowding the place, they might be able to get a read on energy. That could tell a story. They could always try and get in contact with Dayveed again, but Rowen wasn’t sure how much she trusted his word anymore.
“That’s good,” said Eric.
Rowen had to agree even if she didn’t feel very enthused. She turned her phone back on and began to type out a group text to her cousins, letting them know what she planned for tomorrow. They could decide amongst themselves who was tagging along. Rowen was going for sure. She had already decided.
“What’s wrong?” asked Eric. He must have sensed Rowen’s hesitation.
“I was just thinking… Even if I do figure out who did this, I’m not sure how I’m going to prove it. It sort of feels like whoever did this already got away with it. I can confront the person and I can tell Ben, but there’s no guarantee I’ll be able to get a confession.”
“You’re too hard on yourself. Just do what you can.” Eric didn’t look too concerned. “You always figure this stuff out. I’m sure that this time will be no different.”
Rowen hoped he was right, but something in her gut told her that she was in for trouble tomorrow. All the more reason to try and get some sleep, she supposed. Rowen lay down and closed her eyes, but it felt like hours passed before she actually fell asleep.
Chapter Fourteen
Rowen arrived at the art gallery early but wasn’t the first member of her family there. When she parked out front, she spotted Rose leaning against the wall near the door. She was holding a coffee drink in her hands. It kept slipping lower and lower as her eyelids drifted shut. “Rise and shine!” Rowen shouted, making her cousin jump and slosh coffee over her fingers. Rose shrieked and Rowen cringed in sympathy. “Sorry about that.”
“Apparently, we have different ideas as to what constitutes ‘early,’” Rose grumbled, shaking the coffee from her fingers. “Do you know who else is supposed to join us today? Can we go ahead and go in?”
“We’ll see who shows up.” Rowen went to the door and knocked. “He didn’t actually give me a key or anything.” Now that she thought about it, she really hoped that the janitor was there. She wasn’t sure how they were actually going to get in otherwise.
Fortunately, the janitor arrived after a couple of knocks. He unlocked the door, allowing them in. “Mr. Hawthorne told me you might show up. I’m cleaning up the back room. We’ll stay out of each other’s way.”
“Sure.” Rowen got the impression that the janitor would much prefer not to be there at all right now. It was probably in her best interest to stay on his good side. She didn’t want any unnecessary hostility between the two of them. “Is it all right if we leave the door unlocked? I’m expecting a few more people to show up.”
“Of course you are.” The janitor frowned out into the parking lot, scanning it for more cars. There were none. It was unlikely that someone who didn’t work here was going to waltz in at this hour. “Fine. Just make sure that you get me to lock it behind you when you leave.”
“Can do.” Rowen offered him a smile as he turned to leave. He didn’t return it. He just strolled toward the back room.
“I don’t think Margo is going to show up. She’s not a morning person.” Rose walked with Rowen toward where the crime had taken place. “I’m not sure about Peony either. I’m not sure that she wants to be here for this, not now that people know what she did.”
“I don’t blame her.” Rowen knew firsthand how cruel people around Lainswich could be. Since she really had hexed Dayveed and Karen, she likely wouldn’t have been able to take any dirty looks in her direction. She could be a sensitive girl. Rowen wanted to be annoyed that she had done those hexes to begin with, but she was already being hard enough on herself. “It’s probably for the best.”
They stopped together in the place where the statue had been. In its stead was a still life painting of some fruit. “Hmm.” Rose looked up at the painting. She inclined her head this way and that. “Is this, um, Nathan’s work?”
“Looks that way.” Rowen took a moment to really take the piece in. “Exciting, isn’t it?”
“Art doesn’t have to be exciting.”
“Is it supposed to be boring?”
“I dunno. Maybe?”
“Well, either way, I’m not impressed.” As far as Rowen was concerned, Peony or even the janitor would have been a better fit for this spot. She was biased, sure. Even if she wasn’t she felt fairly certain she would find Nathan’s art amateurish. “I bet he bought his way in.”
“That’s not really any of my business.” Rose had a point. They had come here with a job to do. “Are you getting anything?”
Without a crowd of people, it was much easier to get a sense of the energy hanging around the place. “Not yet.” Rowen closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. A feeling fluttered through her chest. She felt wonder, confusion, even annoyance. The people coming through this place had left behind an impression that was difficult to miss. Rowen did her best to filter through it. She tried to focus on emotions that had only occurred in the spot where she now stood.
It hit her like a truck. There was anger, hostility. There was regret. She did her best to focus in on all of that. They were difficult feelings to hone in on. All of th
em made her sick to her stomach they were so strong.
“Hey, guys! I brought coffee.” Willow arriving roused Rowen from her investigative daze.
“Sorry. Did I interrupt something?” Willow asked, stopping as soon as she caught sight of Rowen. Tina stood beside her, carrying a coffee drink of her own.
“You only interrupted me solving this thing. Don’t worry about it.” Rowen was used to this sort of thing by now. She had to be.
“Do either of you want coffee?” Willow asked, taking what Rowen had told her at face value and not worrying about it one bit.
“I’d like some. Rowen made me spill mine.” Rose went to retrieve a cup. “I didn’t expect to see you here, Tina.”
“Peony told me you were meeting here last night,” said Tina between sips of coffee. Her dark hair was disheveled and her t-shirt and jeans looked a touch out of place. She wasn’t really a t-shirt and jeans kind of person. She yawned, clearly half asleep. “She said she didn’t think she could stand to come, so I decided I’d reach out to Willow and see if I could help.”
“That’s really nice of you,” said Rose, smiling. “Peony’s lucky to have such a good friend.”
“I’m not sure how much you can actually help, but the sentiment is nice.” Rowen’s words came out a little blunter than she had meant them.
“Is that one of the new paintings?” asked Willow, ignoring Rowen’s rudeness and going up to the still life on the wall before her. “That sucks. Peony’s art was way better.”
“Maybe if we solve this thing, they’ll put some back up,” suggested Tina, looking hopeful.
“I doubt it,” said Rowen, again being blunt without fully intending to be. Maybe she was a bit on the tired and grumpy side herself. “The art gallery only has one more day left in the show. I don’t think they’re going to put her art back up just for that.”
“That sucks,” said Tina. “We really put a lot into those paintings.”
“We?” Rose repeated.
“Yeah, I modeled for them.” Tina said proudly. No one really seemed to know what to say to that. Rowen could have probably lived without knowing that it was a naked Tina hanging up in her aunt’s New Age shop.
“Anyway,” Rowen said loudly, directing everyone’s attention back to the task at hand. “I’m trying to get an energy reading here. The more the merrier if anyone would like to help.”
“Actually, I thought we might use the Ouija board.” Willow pointed to the thing Tina was hugging to her chest. “It worked pretty well for us before.”
Rose’s eyes widened. “Maybe you should put that away,” she hissed. “We’ve gotten into enough trouble with that thing around here.”
Willow frowned and looked at Rowen like she wanted a different answer and didn’t much care who she got it from. Rowen shrugged. “I mean, we were invited here. I’m not sure how much good it will do, but I don’t see any harm in trying.”
“If you think it’s a good idea.” Rose obviously didn’t think it was. She knew when she was outnumbered, though. Instead of arguing, she just washed her hands of the whole thing. “It’s coming out of your pockets if we get another brick through our window.”
Willow didn’t look all that worried, but she seldom was until something actually went wrong. “Yeah, yeah. C’mon, Tina. Let’s set up here.”
“Not here,” said Rowen before they could sit down. “Do it over there. I’m busy here.”
Willow rolled her eyes but did as she was asked. “Rose!” shouted Willow. “Do you want to come help us?”
“You might as well,” Rowen said to Rose when she began to object. “No one’s going to think any less of you for it. I promise. If they get in trouble for the board, I’ll make sure you get to say ‘I told you so.’”
That seemed to sway Rose. “Fine. But, for the record, I still think it’s a bad idea.” She headed to Willow and Tina anyway. They really needed someone else genetically predisposed to witchy talents manning that board. Rowen decided she might help them later if their questions didn’t turn up anything. For now, she focused instead on the energies around her.
Rowen closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and did her best to clear her mind. She let herself be in the moment, feel the air on her skin, feel the tingling in her fingers where imprints of all the things that had ever happened in the spot where she stood began to seep in. There was a lot of energy to get through, so Rowen brought Dayveed’s face to the forefront of her mind. She pictured him with the statue that had once been here as well. She pictured him dead in its arms. “What happened?” she whispered, willing the energies of the building to show her.
It took a couple of minutes, but a picture began to form as she sat there. It was blurry at first, but the longer she looked the more defined it became. She took the whole of the picture in. She even did her best to make it more than a still image, but that didn’t work very well. Still, it couldn’t be said that this particular picture wasn’t worth a thousand words.
Rowen was roused from her vision when she heard the front door to the place open. She looked in the direction of the entrance, expecting to see Margo. “I’m glad you finally decided to show up,” she grumbled. But it wasn’t Margo who stepped around the corner.
“I didn’t realize you were expecting me,” said Nathan. “I would have come sooner.”
The sound that left Rowen’s mouth was not a happy one. It was closer to gagging slightly than anything else. “Why are you here?” she asked, not really caring if he took the words as openly hostile. She didn’t want him making any mistake about her feelings this time.
“I’ve got some of my art on display here,” said Nathan, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. For once, he wasn’t dressed like a millionaire. He was wearing casual wear, the fitted tee making him look more muscular than Rowen was particularly comfortable with. She didn’t want to find him attractive. “I take it you enjoy my art?” He nodded to the picture she was standing in front of.
“I was trying to get a feel for the murder that happened here,” Rowen assured him. “I’m not a big fan of still-lifes. I think they’re boring.”
Nathan bristled at that. Rowen took some pleasure in the way the smile fell from his face. “I see you aren’t here alone.” He looked across the room to Willow and the others. “Is that the Ouija board? Isn’t that what all the fuss was about on the news?”
“Actually, the ‘fuss’ was about the hex my cousin did,” said Rowen, doing her best to stare Nathan down. Even though she had no proof, she felt confident that Nathan had been the one to rat them out. He seemed like he could be vindictive.
“Oh, I’m not going to say anything about this.” He held up his hands to feign innocence. “You have my word.”
“I don’t need your word, actually. I have permission to be here and investigate however I want. So tell whoever you like.”
“So you’re trying to find the murderer? Mind if I help?”
“How can you help?”
“Well, I’ve never actually used a Ouija board. That looks like fun. Let me help with that.”
Rowen wasn’t sure how she had ever trusted this guy. At that moment, he was getting on her last nerve. “Don’t you have some reason you came here?”
“I was just checking to make sure my new pieces had been displayed properly. I’m a perfectionist about that sort of thing. It can wait, though.”
“Fine.” Rowen relented. “Come on then.” Rowen joined her cousins and Tina at the Ouija board. “Come on. Scoot over and make room.”
Everyone looked up. Rose furrowed her brow at the sight of Nathan. She had heard about what he had done and obviously didn’t have much love for him being there. She must have figured it was Rowen’s call, because she didn’t object. She did as Rowen had requested and made room instead.
“Have you guys gotten any answers?” asked Rowen.
“Not yet,” said Willow. “Maybe he’s moved on.”
“I doubt that,” said Rowen. She had seen
and heard about ghosts like this before. “I’d be shocked if he ever left the side of his art, much less left before this showing was over.”
“A true artist,” said Nathan. “Talk about putting your heart and soul into the artwork.”
Rowen knew that Nathan was being sarcastic, so she ignored him. “Come on, Dayveed.” She put her fingers on the planchette alongside her cousin’s. “People get tired of mysteries. Don’t you want to give me some sort of clue to work with? Do you have any suspects you could name? If the police don’t have a direction to search in, they’ll have to shelve the case. Who’s going to be talking about you then?”
The planchette didn’t move at first. Rowen was about to try and appeal to the ghost’s ego again when the plastic piece beneath their fingers finally gave a tug. “W-H-A-T” the board spelled.
“We’re here to help,” said Margo, picking back up as the one asking the questions. “Do you have any idea who killed you?”
“Any new ideas?” Rowen specified. “Maybe you saw them coming through here over the last couple of days. Maybe you have a name or you recognized a face?”
The planchette hesitated. When it began to move again, it was much quicker than the time before. “S-U-R-E,” it spelled.
“He sure does sound enthused,” chuckled Nathan.
Rowen ignored him, keeping her focus on the board instead. “Who was it?” she asked, getting to the heart of the question.
“H-I-M,” said the board.
“Him?” Rowen repeated. “Him who?” She glanced to Nathan. “Him?”
The planchette went to “Yes.” All eyes turned to Nathan who was sitting there looking uncertain. He had a smile on his face, but it looked like it was an effort to maintain it. He was nervous. That much was clear. “Who’s moving that thing?” he asked, looking around the circle. “That’s not cool. You shouldn’t joke about stuff like that.”
“It wasn’t us,” Rowen assured him, even though she sincerely doubted he would believe her. “And ghosts don’t typically lie about these things.” She looked to Rose. “We should call Ben and let him know about this.”