Old World Charm

by Cate Martin

  "For now?" I asked.

  Sophie gave me a grave nod. "For now. If they really do botch it…" She ended in a noncommittal shrug and popped another square of cheese in her mouth.

  But with her other hand, she was tapping her beaded bag, on the table next to mine. Her bag, like mine and like Brianna's, was long and narrow to accommodate the one item we all three carried that the rest of the women in attendance didn't have.

  Our wands.

  Chapter 8

  I love coffee. In particular, I love the smell of coffee. Even after years of working in a diner that was thick with the aroma of brewing coffee and fried food, I never tired of it.

  It wasn't even just from working there. I had grown up in that diner, sitting in the kitchen watching my mother as she washed dishes and unpacked boxes from the supplier and made pot after pot of coffee. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that smell permeated my entire childhood. I'm sure even when I was home I could still smell it on my clothes and my mother's.

  Now that I lived at the charm school, the smell of that coffee had changed. Mr. Trevor favored a dark roast, with its richer aroma. But he only made a pot in the morning, and when that was gone, we all drank tea.

  I hadn't realized how much my brain had adjusted to the smell of coffee meaning my meditation practice was done, but I hadn't yet started the real challenge of my work in the library.

  In short, coffee meant mornings to me now. And I hadn't even noticed that shift until I stood looking down at the half-drunk cup sitting on the table in front of me as the clock inched closer to midnight. Coffee at night hadn't been odd before. It was definitely unsettling now.

  Brianna touched my hand, and I looked up to see McConnell waving to catch our attention. A woman was standing next to him with her head down, her brown hair hanging loose and covering her face. I recognized the dress. It was Mary Taylor.

  I rushed over to put an arm around her, and McConnell gave me a look of deep gratitude. Clearly, he had no clue what to do to calm a distraught young woman and was happy to hand her over to me.

  "Do you want to go to the parlor where it's quiet?" I asked Mary. She wasn't crying at the moment, but her red-rimmed eyes said she had been doing plenty of it in the recent past.

  "No," she said. "I just need to sit."

  "Of course," I said. I guided her across the room to where Sophie had found a chair and Brianna had produced a cup of tea out of seemingly nowhere. Mary sat primly in the chair and took the tea from Brianna with a murmur of thanks.

  "We lost track of you in all of the commotion," I said.

  "Sorry. I just needed a moment to myself," Mary said. Then looked up at us, eyes widening. "Oh dear. I hope I didn't worry you all? That wasn't my intention."

  "We just wanted to be sure you were all right," I said. "You seemed very upset when you left the hall."

  "Did the police tell you about Ivy?" Sophie asked. "I hope they did it gently."

  "They did, but I already knew," Mary said, looking down at the tea in her hands. "After I left the hall I went upstairs. I wanted to talk to… it doesn't matter. But I was there, coming down the corridor, when… it happened."

  We three exchanged excited glances. This was news. "What did you see?" I asked.

  "Nothing helpful," Mary said, pressing a trembling hand to her forehead. “I saw people on the balcony, but the light from the hall was too bright. The chandelier is level with the third floor. You can't really tell if you look up from below, but when you're up there, it's a bit blinding."

  "Do you know who was there?" I asked.

  "Ivy," Mary said. Her voice threatened to catch, and she paused for a moment until she had her emotions back under control. "Her parents. Thomas. Edward." I flinched. "And Coco and Charlotte."

  "Coco and Charlotte?" I asked. It wasn't until she said their names that I realized I hadn't once thought of either of them since before the big announcement. I hadn't seen them with the other guests during the announcement or after.

  "They weren't on the balcony," Sophie said.

  "No," Mary said. She looked up at me. "At the end of the upstairs hall is a playroom. Just a tiny space too small for an adult to stand up in. You get in through a little door even a child has to crawl through. Sort of a hidden panel in the woodwork of the wall at the top of the steps. When I got far enough down the hall to see people as more than silhouettes against the light, Coco and Charlotte were there, by that door. I guess they had been hiding in the playroom and were drawn out by the noise."

  "But where are they now?" I asked. I looked around the ballroom even though I was quite certain they were not there.

  "I'm not sure," Mary said. "I haven't seen them since."

  "What happened right after?" I asked. Brianna gave me a nudge, and I realized that my tone was probably pretty grilling, and Mary had just been grilled by actual police for the better part of an hour. "I'm sorry. It's just, no one will let us see Edward. You said he was there?”

  "He was," Mary said. "I was walking down the hall towards the balcony when I heard Ivy cry out. But I couldn't see anything. Then everyone below was shouting, and I started to run. When I got to the balcony, Mrs. McTavet was collapsed on the floor. Thomas was standing there like he'd been turned to stone. He didn't even look at me when I called his name." She looked down at her tea again. A single tear splashed down into its milky depths.

  "And Edward?" Sophie asked softly.

  "Edward was actually coming towards me," Mary said. "I stopped short of the balcony, still in the corridor but close enough to see clearly. Edward was backing away, sort of reeling. He didn't turn until he collided with me. Then he sort of stumbled drunkenly down the corridor behind me. I don't know where he was going."

  "He was drunk?" I asked, surprised.

  "No, no," Mary said. "I just meant, he didn't seem to be all there. Shock, I imagine. Shock," she repeated, and her eyes were back on her tea. "He really did love Ivy very, very much. I can't imagine the shock he must be feeling. Twice in a day." The tea on her lap began to tremble, and Brianna hastened to remove it before Mary collapsed into tears. Sophie put an arm around her, turning her own body to block the view of anyone else in the room who might be inclined to gawk.

  I caught Brianna's eye and tipped my head towards a corner of the room. She nodded, setting the cup on one of the tables, then joined me.

  "We should find Coco and Charlotte," I said. "If they were there the entire time, they might have seen what happened."

  "Maybe the police are questioning them right now," Brianna said. She didn't say the words, but by her tone, I knew she was reminding me that we had agreed to let the police solve this crime.

  "We're Coco's guests," I said. "We should be sure she's all right."

  "So you want to go back to the police guarding the door and tell them you have to get upstairs, this time to see yet a third person?" Brianna asked.

  "What, you don't think they'd be up for that?" I asked sarcastically then sighed. "You're right. They'll only be more suspicious of us if I ask."

  "And we're trying to avoid attention," she reminded me.

  "So we don't ask the same police officers," I said. "There's a pair guarding the back stairs that don't even know who we are."

  "Unless they've been warned we might try to get upstairs again," Brianna said.

  "Can't they at least look for the girls themselves and send them down to us?" I asked. "Charlotte should be with her sister just now."

  "Agreed," Brianna said, looking past me to where Mary was once more drying her eyes and nodding at whatever words Sophie was whispering to her. "But perhaps Coco isn't here because she's with her mother?"

  "I hadn't thought of that," I admitted. "But I do really wish she were here. She's probably the only one besides the three of us who has any feeling for Edward. And maybe she saw enough to prove his innocence."

  "She is fond of Edward," Brianna said. "If Mary told the police what she just told us, they're going to be talking to Coco at some po
int. And Coco won't let them say a bad thing about Edward; you know she won't."

  "She is loyal," I said.

  "And precocious," Brianna said. "She's not going to be talked out of what she believes, not even by a room full of grownups who are also police."

  "I agree," I said, then took a breath. "Thanks, I feel better now. Hope is nice. Do you imagine she'll come in here when the police are done talking to her?"

  "Or maybe sooner," Brianna said and nodded her head towards the back door to the ballroom, the one that led towards the parlor.

  Coco was standing in the doorway looking around the room. When her sweeping gaze finally reached us, she rose up on tiptoe and waved. Then she turned back towards the darkened hall behind her, catching someone by the arm to drag them after her across the ballroom.

  It was Charlotte, of course. Looking as surly as ever. But then she saw her older sister talking with Sophie, twisting a well-used handkerchief in her hands, and that surly look melted into one of genuine concern.

  Coco made a beeline towards Brianna and me, but Charlotte went straight to her sister, who burst into fresh tears as she got up from the chair to gather her little sister into a tight embrace.

  "How are you doing?" I asked as Coco stopped in front of Brianna and me.

  "Oh," Coco said, blinking repeatedly and staring up into the light rather than looking at either of us. "Oh. Not good."

  "And your mother?" Brianna asked.

  "Really not good," Coco said, blinking more fiercely than ever.

  "Why don't we get out of this room to somewhere more private," I said.

  "I'm all right," Coco said. A bubble in her throat was making her voice sound unusually deep.

  "You don't have to be," I said. "You've had a terrible shock. It's perfectly normal for you to be not all right."

  Coco nodded but was still blinking back tears.

  "Do you need anything?" Brianna asked. "Tea or something to eat? Maybe a chair?"

  "Just one thing," Coco said. A fierceness was in her voice now, and the blinking had stopped. She gave us each a hard look, first Brianna and then me.

  "What is it?" Brianna asked. She was half-opening her bag, as if she were about to pull out her wand and magic up whatever Coco asked for, there in front of the band and everyone.

  Coco leaned forward, and it was like someone had just poured gasoline on the fire in her eyes, flaring it up to vicious life.

  "Justice," she said.

  Chapter 9

  Brianna and I didn't know what to say to that. Of course, she would want justice for her sister, that wasn't odd. But the way she was looking at the two of us, it was as if she expected us to deliver it for her.

  But she didn't know that we were witches. So what exactly was she asking us to do?

  "The police are being very thorough," Brianna said, and I could tell by the unusually slow pace of her words that she was choosing them carefully.

  "No, they aren't," Coco said. "They've already decided it was Edward, and they aren't asking the right questions to find out who really did it. They're just convincing everyone who isn't sure what they saw exactly that they saw Edward."

  "I'm sure that's not true," Brianna said, then fell back half a step when Coco glared up at her with that fire back in her eyes.

  "It's absolutely true," Coco said.

  "Did they question you and Charlotte?" I asked.

  The question seemed to calm her mind, and some of the anger left her as she shook her head. "No. They haven't even found us. They probably will now that we've come out. Charlotte wanted to see her sister."

  "Mary needed her," I said, looking past Coco to where the two sisters were still hugging and rocking each other.

  "You were deliberately hiding?" Brianna asked. Coco nodded. "Where? In the playroom upstairs?"

  "No," Coco said, not surprised that we knew of its existence. "There's another one downstairs."

  "Really?" I said. "Why so many hidden places?"

  Coco looked for a moment like she didn't want to tell us, and I wasn't going to press, but then she changed her mind. "My mother is actually my father's second wife. He built this house for his first family. He had two sons then. He built the tunnels through the walls and the hidden playrooms and the treehouse in the backyard all for them."

  "You have two older brothers? I had no idea," Brianna said.

  "Had," Coco said, and her voice went flat.

  "I'm so sorry," I said. "You've lost all of your siblings?"

  Coco shrugged, but she was blinking again. "My brothers died in the war. I barely remember them. Ivy did, a little, but she didn't really like talking about them."

  My heart broke a little for poor Mr. McTavet. Now he'd buried a first wife and three of his children. Maybe that wasn't as unusual in 1927 as it was in modern times, but it was still a tragedy.

  "Anyway," Coco said, her emotions back under firm control. "Charlotte and I were in the cubby behind the library fireplace. We were listening to the police officers talking. But after they finished questioning Mary, Charlotte wanted to go see her. I still wanted to listen, but she can be mean if you don't let her have her way." She cast an annoyed glance over her shoulder at her sometime companion. "If you don't believe me about how they're handling this, we can go in there and listen."

  "I believe you," I said. "Who are they questioning now?"

  "At the moment they're just talking to each other. They've sent people out to find Otto, but apparently, he's not findable."

  I looked around the room and realized that indeed Otto was nowhere to be seen.

  "Otto was downstairs with us at the time," I said.

  "Like it matters," Coco scoffed. "They aren't asking about the fall. They're digging into Edward's past. I told you, they aren't after justice. They just need someone to take the blame. But I want actual justice."

  "So do we," I said.

  "Then you need to start looking for clues, right?" Coco said, looking imploringly at us both. "I know you solve murders. You did before with Cynthia Thomas. You figured out it was her sister, and you brought her to justice."

  "That was different," Brianna said.

  "How?" Coco demanded.

  Brianna opened and closed her mouth a few times before summoning up the words, "she worked at the school. So. We had to."

  "My sister lived next door to your school," Coco said.

  "That's different," Brianna said.

  "I'm asking you to," Coco said. "As a friend. Please. I know you can help me. I know you're not like other people even though you pretend you are. I know you can do this if you want to. Why don't you want to?"

  "We do want to," I said, ignoring Brianna's warning look. "There are rules we have to follow. We can't break them."

  "I break rules all the time," Coco said. "I follow the important ones, but most rules are just stupid. Why would you follow stupid rules?"

  "These are important ones," I said. "Coco, I promise, we're going to do all we can to make sure the police don't hurt anyone here. Not Edward or you or anyone. But we can't act unless it's clear that's what's about to happen."

  "The chief seems like he's a close friend of your father's," Brianna said.

  Coco nodded. "They went to school together."

  "Don't you think he wants justice too?" Brianna asked.

  Coco mulled it over. "Maybe he would in a normal situation, but this isn't normal." She took a deep breath and glanced around to be sure no one was close enough to overhear, then took a step closer before whispering to us. "I was in that library cubby a week ago when he came to see my father. Ivy was still planning to get engaged to Edward then. But the chief had been digging into Edward's past. I guess he thought he was being a good friend. He told my father all about Edward growing up in an orphanage and how he was still close friends with some young gangster who's been… How did he say it? Gaining notoriety?"

  "Otto," I guessed.

  "Otto Mayer," Coco said. "Apparently he's done all sorts of illegal things. T
he chief kept going on and on about it. Then I remembered that one time when I ran into Edward on the corner by the shop, he was with a friend he said was named Otto, so I guess it was the same guy. He didn't look like a gangster. Is he even at the party?"

  "Yes," I said. "You'd know him now if you saw him. He's not wearing a black tux."

  "The guy in the green suit with the purple vest?" Coco said, and something like a grin touched her lips. "He looked interesting. I didn't recognize him from before. Wow."

  "They can't pin this on Otto," I said. "He doesn't have motive, and he was standing next to me the entire time."

  "They aren't trying to," Coco said, getting impatient. "They are going to ask him all sorts of questions about Edward's childhood so they can make it seem like he's a thug who tried to marry above his station and turned violent when he failed."

  "What did your father say that day when the chief told him about Edward and Otto?" Brianna asked.

  "He got mad," Coco said. "My father really liked Edward."

  "So what happened?" I asked. "Why did Ivy get engaged to Thomas instead?”

  Coco shrugged. "They've known each other forever."

  "But when did she change her mind?" I asked.

  "Just today," Coco said. "They were setting up for the party, and we were all getting dressed when Thomas came to see her. They went into the parlor for a really long time, and when they came out, the whole plan changed. I don't know what he said to change her mind."

  "Surely Edward knew before that announcement?" I asked.

  Coco shrugged again. "He came early, but I don't know. I was already on hostess duty with Charlotte Taylor."

  "Charlotte came over with Mary?" I asked, and Coco nodded. "Did Mary know then?"

  Coco bit at her lip. "I don't know."

  "She didn't seem to," I said. "When she saw Thomas up on the balcony with Ivy, it seemed to come to her as a complete surprise."