Bedtimes and Broomsticks

by Amanda A. Allen

  She must have looked sick at the question, because Lex took a step forward, paused and then tentatively said, “I’m not asking to taunt you—”

  She stared at him. Had he upped his attractiveness level? Or was it something else. Was it what Gram said about falling in love? Was this the man she’d “faceplant” into love with? Was this man the father of her future daughters? By the stars Scarlett, she thought, focus on the matter at hand.

  Was she running or was she staying?

  But she already knew the answer—she was staying, she was fighting. It wasn’t only about Luna anymore. It was about those other two daughters. It was about Scarlett’s path and her fate and whether she’d be letting someone steal it from her.

  “Are you all right?” Lex took a gentle hold of her bicep and searched her face. “You look paler than normal.”

  “I’m fine,” she said pushing her hair back from her face. She realized it was down and when she ran her fingers through it, she found a couple of twigs and several leaves. She shook her head at her general sloppiness and wound it up into a messy bun.

  “We’re going to find the killer and keep your little girl safe,” Lex said gently. “You don’t have to worry. I thought you were crazy to leave them with Harper, but…”

  Scarlett laughed and then glanced over to see his face, “You realized that she was dangerous, had no filter and that there was nothing she wouldn’t do to keep the girls safe.”

  “She’d murder someone she thought might be thinking about hurting them, maybe.”

  Scarlett nodded and then said, “Why did you ask how druid I was?”

  “There is only one person who doesn’t make sense in Lacey’s life. We need to know more about why Lacey spent so much time with Abby.”

  Scarlett’s mouth twisted as she considered and then she asked, “Surely you can figure that out on your own. What do you intend?”

  “I thought we’d break into Lacey’s office and Abby’s office. And their homes.”

  Scarlett took a step back. By the stars, she thought, he was right—his plan wasn’t very druidic. But…he was also right about Abby not fitting into Lacey’s life. If teenage Scarlett had found out that someday Abby would have been having breakfast and lunch with Lacey every week, that they’d go shopping together, Scarlett would have laid down good money on Abby being some kind of servant for Lacey.

  “So why do you need me? You’re the big shot PI.”

  “I need…” He paused and glanced around and then said, “You’re you. I’m me.”

  “You mean I’m the single mother who everyone remembers growing up? And if we end up getting caught, they’ll treat you entirely differently because of that?”

  Lex grinned as he nodded.

  “You’re wicked, Lex Warder.”

  “Did you expect me to be anything else?”

  She shook her head and thought about those hands lifting her up in her meditation. Had his hand been the one who helped? Or had it been the one who had let her fall? It felt now, looking back, that someone she might be inclined to trust was untrustworthy. Which didn’t surprise Scarlett so much—what surprised her was how many people had helped. How many people were on her side. How much caring seemed to come through to her.

  There had even been some people she recognized—Gram, her mom, Harper, Gus. There had been people she wasn’t sure of but thought she felt like Henna. And there were some she thought she felt, but she couldn’t be sure which roles they played. Who had been those who threw her down? Lex? Abby? Brad? Becca Lovejoy?

  “What’s going on with you, Scarlett?” Lex’s ice blue eyes focused on her face and she felt them move over her almost like a caress. “Are you all right?”

  “I…” Scarlett shook her head and shrugged. She felt like she’d been hit in the back of the head by a brick. She still had no idea what to do. No idea where to go. What plan to pursue. She felt lost and alone even among all those hands that wanted to reach out and help her. She felt like…set adrift. “I…don’t know what to do next.”

  “How about if we started with a little B&E?”

  She shrugged and nodded. She needed to do something.

  Chapter 18

  Scarlett led the way to the bakery. She packed a basket like the picnic lunches they sold during the on-season.

  “What’s this for?”

  “Cover. Lacey’s place is by a nice park. We can walk into the park with the basket and then cut over into Lacey’s back yard. Those houses up there on the hill have the park that had ducks and lots and lots of trees.”

  Lex didn’t say anything as Scarlett packed up the lunches making him a club sandwich and herself a loaded vegetarian sandwich heavy on avocado. She was going to need to get up some gumption to break into a dead woman’s house, and if it took cheese and avocado to make that happen, well then there was no shame in that.

  Scarlett led the way through the park, directed Lex to the gathering of trees in between the park and the back of Lacey’s house. Was house the right word or had it crossed over to mansion and how was that house possible? Who was paying for it? And why?

  Scarlett had Lex throw out the picnic blanket she’d made for herself and her girls and then she sat down.

  “We don’t actually have to eat,” Lex said.

  “We do,” Scarlett countered. “Start eating and give me a second.”

  Scarlett slipped off of her shoes, crossed to the trees, slid behind one and laid her hands and feet on as many as she could reach. She slid her mind into them and said hello. As they were communing, she sank her mind into their roots and let it skitter across them feeling around for life. She found a little foxhole with kits. She found a den for squirrels. She felt along and said hello to a couple of little chickadees who perked up when they felt her.

  Querying back and forth and the birds flit through the trees and around Lacey’s property for Scarlett. They found a perch and watched for Scarlett while she went back to Lex and ate her sandwich.

  “What as that all about?”

  “I might not be all that druid,” Scarlett said as she bit into her sandwich, “But I am a druid. And we have our ways.”

  Lex examined her face and then said, “Ok.”

  “Leave the blanket,” Scarlett said. “We’ll be able to justify where we’re going if anyone follows after by saying hello to the trees.”

  Lex rose and pulled Scarlett up saying, “That isn’t a story I’d ever get away with.”

  “I can use a look away charm on her fence though. Once we get over it.”

  They scouted through the trees and along the fence. Scarlett wasn’t too worried. The trees would tell her if another human entered this part of the property.

  “The fence is higher than I expected,” Lex said. “We can get over, but I don’t want to make a ruckus, so we need to be smooth.

  “You haven’t been here before?”

  Lex shook his head and Scarlett’s brows rose. She glanced around and found an old tree near the fence line. In some places like Mystic Cove a tree that old would never be cut down if it could be saved. Scarlett jerked her head towards the tree, but Lex didn’t seem to understand.

  “Lex,” she whispered, “I’m a druid. The tree will help us.”

  She made her way to it and laid her hand on the trunk. The leaves shuffled as she conveyed her wants and then she reached high, feeling almost as if those same hands from her vision were lifting her higher. She felt a moment of panic, but this wasn’t a vision. And this tree wouldn’t betray her. She found a place on the tree branch to be comfortable and told Lex to climb. He leaped, taking hold. He didn’t have the same faith in the tree and struggled into the branches rather than her smooth transition. Once they were high enough, she froze.

  Kelly’s kids were in the backyard next to Lacey’s. They had caught the movement in the tree and were staring this way, but Scarlett didn’t think they’d seen them—just the strange rustling of the branches. Lex grabbed Scarlett’s ankle to hold her still and w
hispered, “I can throw a bang charm.”

  “What? No. They’re kids, not idiots.”

  “I'm open to suggestions.” His glance was a little irritated, and she grinned.

  “I’m a dr—” Scarlett started to explain, but a door in the house banged and the sound of shouting filled the yard. The little girl who looked even younger than Luna covered her ears, while the older boys stared towards the shouting.

  None of them could make out the words of the argument, but it sounded vicious.

  Scarlett called to the wind, hoping to eavesdrop, but the boys grabbed their sister by the hand and ran to the back of the yard, right at Scarlett and Lex. She grabbed onto Lex and held her breath as the children pushed aside a board in the fence and went into the woods between their house and the park.

  “Come on, Mindy,” said the older of the boys. He held his sister’s hand who was looking back to the sound of shouting. “We’ll go down the slide and chase the ducks.”

  “Mommy and Daddy are fighting again,” the little girl said, looking up at her brother for comfort. It was a look that Scarlett had seen time and again on her daughter’s face. It wasn’t fair that she was looking to a little boy—he was too little to be in the parent role.

  “It’s ok, Mindy.”

  The middle boy said nothing, but his ears were red and then a shout was followed by the slamming of a door, he broke into a run.

  Lex and Scarlett waited for long minutes before they dared to move in the tree.

  “Was it like that for you and your ex?” Lex’s voice was soft in the tree and Scarlett let it drop her over the side of the fence and into Lacey’s backyard.

  “No,” Scarlett said. “We never fought.”

  “What happened then?”

  Scarlett’s heart clenched as it all came rushing back.

  “He moved on.”

  “And you let him go?”

  Scarlett pressed her lips tightly together until she almost couldn’t feel them, but she finally answered, “It’s not really a choice kind of situation. I didn’t get a vote.”

  “Would you have voted for him to stay?”

  Scarlett took a long breath and then said, “I don’t know.”

  The fury she felt came out in her voice and Lex held up his hands. They’d reached the back door to Lacey’s house, and he laid his hand against the door, pinched a charm on his bracelet, and it crushed between his fingers. Scarlett heard the door lock click, and he stepped inside. She didn’t follow immediately.

  It was wrong to let yourself into someone’s house—even when they were dead. Someone’s threshold was important. It was powerful. Then she heard Kelly and Brad shout for their kids, she remembered she was doing this for her kids, and she slid inside the house before anyone noticed movement in Lacey’s yard where there shouldn’t be any.

  The thing that immediately hit Scarlett was the starkness of the place. It was perfect. It was lovely. It was a showpiece, but there was no warmth. None at all. It wasn’t even the lack of drawings all over the fridge or the way the carpet didn’t even have one stain. She crossed to the fridge and opened it. All that it contained was condiments and wine.

  Scarlett blinked and then turned to the dishwasher—opening it and finding it empty. Lacey didn’t live here. And not because she was dead. Whatever life she had—this house was as much of a trophy as the prom queen crown.

  Scarlett followed Lex through the house. He searched methodically, lifting things to the side, looking under couch cushions and behind books, Scarlett wasn’t a warlock. She wasn’t a PI. She was a druid so she let her senses flow as she tried to get a sense of Lacey the adult.

  The truth was, Scarlett was having a hard time moving beyond the body in the alley. The blood on Lacey’s face. The realization that someone had hated her so much that they’d struck her down fast and hard. Scarlett couldn’t imagine hating or being hated that fiercely. Even now—with all her history with Grant and her desire to punch him as hard as possible for as long as she could—she’d never kill him. Not him or his girlfriend.

  She turned and looked at Lex as he moved about. she realized that she’d come to trust him. He hadn’t killed Lacey—Scarlett didn’t need proof to know it. She knew it with the discernment of her kind.

  “I don’t understand,” she said. “I don’t understand living like this. I don’t understand…I don’t understand Lacey. Her life. Or this place.”

  Lex glanced at Scarlett and then crossed the room.

  “Are you all right?”

  Scarlett shook her head. “No.”

  She pushed her hair back and again said, “No. I hated Lacey in high school. And I feel sorry for her. Look at this place. She has white carpet. She has paintings on the walls. Look at her fridge. Look at her.”

  Lex touched Scarlett’s face and said, “Do you need to leave? It’s a house. It’s ok, Scarlett.”

  “No, it’s not. Look.” Scarlett waved her hand around the house and she said, “Don’t you see?”

  Lex shrugged and said, “I don’t think I’m following you.”

  “She didn’t have anyone she loved enough to put on the walls. She didn’t have anyone to cook for. She didn’t live here. She was dying here.”

  Scarlett let her hand run over the pretty little curio cabinet. But the things inside weren’t Lacey. They didn’t even show her personality. They were just pretty things. Scarlett didn’t need to have seen Lacey around to know that she didn’t love them beyond their monetary value.

  “You aren’t Lacey, Scarlett. Lacey didn’t want what you want.”

  Scarlett shook her head. She could see that he didn’t really understand, and she had to wonder what his home was like. Did he have someone that he loved enough to have their face on the wall? Did he have food in the fridge because his home was more than a place to keep his things? It wasn’t having a full fridge—it was having a home. It wouldn’t matter if Lacey’s fridge was empty if you could see her in the home. But she wasn’t here. Or maybe she was—maybe Lacey was as cold and lifeless as this house.

  Scarlett left Lex in the living room and made her way up the stairs. Maybe she could find Lacey in another room of the house. Maybe she could find that cheerleader who’d loved to dance. Who’d dreamed. Maybe Scarlett could find that girl in the woman who’d lived here.

  The bedroom was lovely. It was the type of room that someone would take pictures of and put in a magazine for inspiration. But the walls still only held pictures of oceans. Oceans that Scarlett was almost positive that Lacey had never visited. As for Scarlett, she recognized the Canary Islands. She’d swum in that ocean. She’d gone snorkeling and let her hand trail along the bright fin of a fish in that sea. And yet…here the ocean was on Lacey’s wall, and it was lifeless.

  Scarlett turned and wandered into the bathroom. It was marble countertops and a line of bright lights for makeup application. Pretty jars held perfume and creams. Where was the scattering of beloved jewelry? Where was the radio to play music and sing along to as Lacey dressed? As Scarlett recalled, Lacey had a beautiful voice. She’d loved to sing once. Maybe she still had. Maybe Scarlett shouldn’t assume that because Lacey’s home felt lifeless that it was. Surely Lacey had loved things. Surely she had people she cared about. Surely Lacey had some vibrancy.

  Scarlett found the closet—it was nearly a room in and of itself. She found the dresses at the back of it. They were in their protective bags, and Scarlett unzipped one, pulling out the dress she remembered Lacey wearing at one of the dances. Scarlett couldn’t remember which one, but it had been lovely. Scarlett laid it over the bench in the middle of the giant closet and unzipped another and another.

  Lex found her kneeling on the floor of Lacey’s closet, letting her fingers trail over the dresses as she stared around.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Trying to find Lacey.”

  “We’re here for evidence of who might have killed her.”

  “I’m looking for evidence that she lived.
That she cared. Someone hated her enough to kill her. As far as I can see, Lacey didn’t live enough to be hated.”

  Lex sighed and kneeled down next to Scarlett. “I don’t understand why you’re mourning her. You didn’t like her.”

  “I’m not, not really.”

  Lex’s fingers touched Scarlett gently and turned her face to him. “Then why do you look so sad?”

  “Don’t you see?” Scarlett placed her fingers on his face. One was above his eye, one was below—with her finger on his cheekbone, and her thumb on his jaw. And she said, “See. Know.”

  Scarlett let her abilities sink into him.

  He started as he saw what she saw—as her feelings, her awareness and most of all her discernment sunk into him.

  “Oh,” he said as she showed him all that was missing.

  A few moments later he pulled back and said, “Do you always feel so much for people?”

  Scarlett shrugged. He cupped her cheek again and said, “Is this what being druid means?”

  Scarlett glanced away and then, like a lodestone, his gaze called to hers again. “I don’t know what it’s like inside of other druid’s minds.”

  He let his forehead fall forward until it rested on hers. “The way you see things…”

  And then he tilted her chin towards him and set his lips on hers. He was the only man whose lips had pressed against hers outside of Grant, and it was foreign. It was horrible. It was wonderful. She shivered and then the warmth of him sank into her and bones that had been cold for long started to heat.

  She couldn’t…she wasn’t…she…by the stars, she jerked away. Her gaze searched his and then she handed him the flash drives she’d found at the bottom of the dress bags.

  “I…those had to have been important to her. The only thing I’ve found of her inside this house.”

  Scarlett stood. She felt like ants were crawling inside of her. She didn’t know what to feel, what to do. She felt like she was cheating on Grant, on her kids. She knew she wasn’t, but that didn’t change the way her body was rebelling. She both wanted to curl into Lex and run away. As fast and as far as she could.