Makeovers and Murder

by Tegan Maher

  I opened my mouth to answer, but Hunter did it for me. "She's a part-time consultant for the Keyhole PD. She's trained in the field of criminal behavior."

  I did my best to keep my face neutral, but it took everything I had. Technically, he hadn't lied. I sort of consulted with them, and my degree was in criminal justice. It was a thin stretch, but it worked.

  "As for having a suspect, Ms. Cooly, you're correct. I actually have several suspects and am following up on every lead I get."

  She arched a brow at him, but seemed to accept his response and took a deep breath. "To answer your question, no. I met the group for an open-bar cocktail hour from four to five. They went to dinner, and considering my financial status, I opted to hit the Dollar Menu rather than go out to dinner with them. I already spent more than I can afford just on the room and the conference fees."

  "Speaking of," I said, "if you're so strapped for cash, why did you come here?"

  "I'd already paid part of the conference fees before Loretta crawled out of the woodwork and stole half my commission. And functions like this are a great place to network. If you want the truth, I'm on the hunt for a smaller firm that pays a bigger commission. What better place to do that than at a real-estate convention?"

  So far, she was telling the truth, but there was still plenty of time between the cocktail hour and the time we found the body for her to have grabbed a double cheeseburger and killed Loretta.

  "Then I'll come right out with it, then," Hunter said. "Ms. Cooly, did you kill Loretta Higgins?"

  Her gaze flickered up and to the right for the briefest flash, but then she met his gaze straight on. "No I did not. She was a horrible person, but nobody should die that way."

  Is there anything else you can tell us?" Hunter asked.

  She shook her head. "Nope, I think we covered it all."

  "Wait a second," I said. "When we contacted Loretta's office, they had nothing but nice things to say about her."

  "I imagine so," she replied. "She made them a boatload of money, and she and that slimy lawyer of a husband through fancy parties all the time. It was outside people she put the screws to, not the ones she was in bed with."

  "In bed with?" I asked. "Are you implying she was sleeping around?"

  She rolled her eyes. "No. It was just a turn of phrase, though I wouldn't have put anything past her."

  Hunter reached out to shake her hand. "How long will you be here tomorrow?"

  She shrugged. "The last class is at three, so since I paid for all of this, I may as well get as much out of it as I can. I'm leaving right after that. But I'm telling you, you're barking up the wrong tree."

  Strangely enough, her words rang mostly true, but something in them set my meter off just a bit. I studied her, trying to put my finger on what part of the sentence she could have been messing with—semantics, after all, matter a great deal when telling the truth, as Hunter had just proven a few minutes before when he described me. Nothing stood out even when I picked the sentence apart. Maybe she was lying about the last part. As a matter of fact, I was almost certain she was. After what Loretta did to her, I'd have bet my bottom dollar she probably believed she got off easy. I know I would have.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  BY THE TIME WE FINISHED talking to Leighann, the party was starting to thin out. Hunter asked her if she could point out Delilah Merryweather, and luck was on our side. Ms. Merryweather was a tall, slim woman just this side of forty if I had to guess. Like Sully said, she was athletic looking, and I wondered if she was strong enough to move a body. Loretta hadn't been overweight, but she was sort of tall—she'd probably weighed a buck fifty or sixty at least. It would be close.

  "Ms. Merryweather?" Hunter said as we approached.

  She turned toward us, an open and friendly expression on her face. "Yes?"

  Hunter held out his hand. "I'm Sheriff Hunter Woods, with the Keyhole Lake PD, and this is Noelle Flynn, a consultant. We'd like to ask you a couple of questions, please."

  "Of course, Sheriff," she said, and excused herself from the group of people she was talking to. Whereas Hunter had directed Leighann to an area, Delilah led us to a quiet cafe table at the end of the hall.

  "Now what can I do for you Sheriff?" she asked, clasping her manicured hands and resting them loosely on the tall table top. I couldn't decide if she was being open or if she was just so used to being in charge that she had complete control of her emotions. I focused on my meter, but so far, it wasn't sending up any red flags.

  "I understand you and Loretta Higgins had a rather vocal disagreement at Sully's Tavern the night before she was killed. Can you tell me what it was about?"

  Her mouth curled upward in a wry half-smile. "Sheriff, Loretta Higgins was despicable. She preyed on younger agents who didn't know enough to stand up to her, and she had a monumental sense of entitlement. But the cherry on top the cake was that she had the nerve to be two-faced about it. That night she was on a soap box about professional integrity, and I merely informed her that she wouldn't know integrity if it bit her on the ass. Pardon the expression, but if you've gotten verbatim statements, I'm sure that's what they've told you I said."

  "I imagine that didn't go over too well?"

  "No, Sheriff, it did not. Rarely does a person like to be called out on their behavior, especially when they're a sociopath. And make no mistake—Loretta Higgins was a sociopath. She ran over people without remorse, then turned the tables on them so she came out looking squeaky clean to the people who mattered. She was a lazy realtor and a horrible human being. I, for one, am not sorry she's dead, and I think she got off too easily. It's a shame she didn't suffer more."

  Wow. Talk about not mincing words.

  "I assume your next question is going to be whether or not I have an alibi. I do. I was with a small group of people who went to that lovely little steakhouse a few streets over from Main. Most of the people I dined with are still here, so I'd be glad to give you names. You can verify with them in just a few minutes."

  She pulled a pen from her pocketbook and wrote the names on a cocktail napkin. Handing it to Hunter, she pointed to a group of four people. The first three people on that list are chatting in that little group over there. Please, speak with them."

  Glancing back and forth between the two of us, she waited.

  Hunter sighed and thanked her.

  "Sheriff?" she said as we turned toward the group.

  We paused. "Yes?" Hunter asked.

  "When you catch whoever did it, go easy on them. I have no doubt it was justified."

  Hunter stiffened. "That'll be for a jury to decide, ma'am. My job is just to make the arrest."

  "Yes, well good luck," she said, pushing off the table and ambling back toward the group she'd been talking to.

  "Something that seems to be in short supply for us lately," I muttered under my breath.

  "No kidding," Hunter replied before we reached the table. It only took a few minutes for the people at the table to corroborate her alibi, and we turned to the front entrance to leave.

  I kept an eye out for anybody who may have been watching us or behaving suspiciously in any other manner, but the entire group seemed to have dismissed us and gone back to the business of rubbing elbows.

  "So what do you think?" Hunter asked when we made it to the truck.

  "Leighann Cooly wasn't lying, but she wasn't being completely truthful, either," I said, stepping around a mudhole. "I can't put my finger on it, but there's definitely something not right there. Delilah, on the other hand, was being as straightforward as she appeared to be. Not a speck of prevarication or dishonestly. As a matter of fact, I liked her."

  Hunter pressed his lips together and glanced at me. "I'm not sure what I think of her. She was very self-possessed and made no bones about not being sorry Loretta's dead. As a matter of fact, the only thing she's sorry about was that it didn't hurt more."

  I shrugged. "Well, it's not like other people aren't thinking the same thing. She's
just honest about it. I imagine having an air-tight alibi leaves her free to say whatever she wants. Leighann doesn't have that luxury."

  "No, but to be honest, I don't think she did it, either. She's all of five-feet-nothing. I can't see her being able to move the body, and no matter how mad she is, I don't think she has the spine to carry it out."

  "What makes you think that?" I asked. "She seemed plenty spunky to me."

  "Spunky, yes," he replied, opening the truck door for me, "but that isn't the same thing as having what it takes to stab somebody in the back. That was a couple months ago, and it doesn't make any sense that she'd have waited until now to do it. Especially not in a small town where she'd be under the microscope."

  Valid points. I saw her as more of a crime of passion sort of girl, and if she was gonna do it, I had a feeling the couple would have found more than a welcome basket full of fruit in their foyer when they moved in. Plus, he was right. She did seem a little mousy underneath it all. Had somebody done something like that to me, I imagine much hair-pulling would have ensued, and Loretta would have had to wear sunglasses to home showings for a few days to cover the black eye.

  "So we'll head over to the Balls' house first thing tomorrow morning?" I asked as he pulled onto the main highway leading back to the farm.

  "Yup," he said, flipping his headlights to highbeams. "I'm anxious to hear what she has to say. Though Loretta seemed to excel at ripping people off, so I'm guessing it's not something we didn't already hear from Leighann Cooly."

  "I think you're right," I replied, straining to see through the darkness. There wasn't just a garden-variety murderer out there—there was lethal magical one, too. A shiver raced down my spine when I realized they may be watching me even then. After all, they'd stolen some of the most powerful spells in the country, and maybe the world. It was hard to tell what they were capable of. I pulled my coat a little closer around me and resisted the urge to cast a cloaking spell around the truck to keep prying eyes out. Other vehicles needed to see us to avoid us, but even knowing that, it was all I could do to keep my magic under wraps.

  We needed to find a resolution to both murders, and fast. One threatened my friend's freedom and the other wanted to harm my family. Neither was acceptable to me, and I'd do anything in my power to take them both down. They may not have realized it, but they would soon—they'd picked a fight with the wrong witch.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  SHELBY, CODY, AND EMMA were still studying when I got home, and I was a little surprised to see that it was only ten. It felt like Hunter and I'd left eons ago.

  "How'd it go?" Shelby asked, looking up from her textbook. "Did you get any closer to figuring out who did it?"

  I lifted a shoulder. "I don't know. It was a mixed bag. Leighann Cooly is the obvious suspect, but she's all of five feet tall and a hundred pounds—maybe. She was mad enough to do it and had motive and opportunity, plus, she was a hairdresser up until a few months ago."

  "Sounds like somebody who needs a closer look," Emma said, sticking her pencil behind her ear. "What did your gut tell you?"

  "That she wasn't being completely honest. I didn't pick up an actual lie, though. Honestly, I don't think she did it."

  "What about the other chick? The one she argued with in Sully's?" Cody asked. He slapped his book shut and leaned back, stretching over the back of his chair.

  I opened the cabinet and pilfered through, looking for the orange-spice blend Rae'd been making for me. Finding it,I pulled it out and swished a hand to send the teakettle to the sink. While it filled, I measured out the right portion into my tea ball and dropped it in a cup. "If I had to pick between the two of them, based solely on personality, I'd say she was more the murdering type, hands down. But she has a solid alibi."

  "No way she could have slipped out around it?" Shelby stood and pulled the tea pitcher out of the fridge and filled their glasses.

  "No," I replied, flicking the stove on after the teakettle settled on it. "She was out to dinner with a bunch of people. Between them, they verified that she didn't leave the table for more than five minutes the entire time."

  "So much for that, then. You're going to see the last woman tomorrow?" Emma asked, checking her phone as a text came in.

  "Yeah, first thing. Personally, my money's on her. She literally lost everything because of Loretta."

  Emma held a finger up. "Noelle, Mom just texted and said she's been trying to call you. Is your phone off?"

  "Oh, crap!" I replied, pulling it from my back pocket. "It is. I turned it off when we were interviewing those women and forgot the turn it back on." Sure enough, I'd missed three calls from Camille. I swiped her number to call and she picked up on the first ring.

  "You scared me witless," she said, right off the bat. "With everything goin' on up here, I thought something had happened when you didn't answer your phone. I was about to port there just to check on things."

  "I'm sorry," I said, feeling terrible that I'd put her through that. "I was with Hunter, interviewing suspects. The judge gave him until tomorrow evening to either find somebody else or arrest Coralee."

  "Great," she said, her voice heavy. "Everything is going to hell in a hand basket all at once. Things up here aren't good either."

  A cold finger of fear washed over me. "What's going on? Has there been another murder?"

  "No," she replied. "That's just it. Nothing is going on. No whispers, not so much as a hint of anything big going down. It's business as usual. That has the local coven worried more than anything. Every other time something's happened, there were at least hints. Whispers here, people getting busted doing smaller stuff there. This time, there's nothing. Just some very powerful witches turning up dead. The worst part is that we don't even know what killed them. They're just ... dead."

  I pulled in a deep breath, then released it. "There's something you need to know. I don't know if it's related, or if it's even real, but you feel the same way about coincidences that I do." I told her about the dream.

  "And is this the first time it's happened?" she asked.

  "No," I replied, flicking off the stove when the teakettle started to whistle. "Well, it's the first time it's happened like this. I've had a few dreams about him, but they were always discombobulated. There was never a clear message or any sort of hint. I just wrote it off to bad dreams. I used to have them when I was young, but as my magic got stronger and I built better wards, they went away. I've had a couple over the last few months, but this was the first one that was lucid. It felt different. Real."

  "And what about the woman? Did you know her? Describe her to me."

  "Golden blonde, busty, dark eyes." Just the thought of them made me shiver, which reminded me of something. "When it was just Dad in the dream, it was warm and sunny. When the shadow came and she emerged from it, the temperature dropped like a stone. It was freezing."

  "And that's all she said to you? That it wasn't your time yet?"

  "Yeah." As if that wasn't creepy enough.

  "Addy said the description was familiar, but that she knew for a fact the woman she was thinking of is dead." I set my cup on the counter to steep for a minute and plopped down at an empty space at the table. The kids were listening, but I figured they were old enough to know what was going on.

  "Yeah," Camille said, distracted. "Addy took her out herself during the uprising when the council was forming."

  I drew my brows together. Was I the only one who didn't know that about her?

  "And there's no way she survived somehow? Or maybe had a sister?"

  "No," Camille said. "To both questions. The council ... made sure she couldn't come back, and she had no direct family. For that matter, I haven't even been able to find any distant relatives. She was the only child of an only child. And as far as we know, we got every person who worked with her, even if it was just as an accessory. The council came down on that like a ton of bricks. Made an example out of them, and did a bang-up job of it, too."

  I
shuddered to think what that even meant. I'd met some of the witches at the top of the food chain. They were old and powerful and terrifying. And I'm not one to scare easily.

  It occurred to me that we'd talked about my dream, but hadn't gotten to the reason she'd called to begin with.

  "So what's up?" I asked. "I don't usually hear from you if you're in the middle of something like this."

  "No reason, really. I guess I just wanted to make sure everything is okay. I had a weird feeling."

  "What kind of weird feeling?" Weird feelings were never something to sneeze at—nearly a hundred percent of the time, they happened for a reason and you never, ever ignored them. I always shook my head when I heard non-magical people referring to gut feelings, then ignoring them. You'd think they'd eventually learn, but they didn't.

  "I can't put my finger on it," she said. "I just had a weird push to call and check in, then when you didn't answer, it freaked me out."

  "Did it go away when you got ahold of me?" That was the important part.

  She paused. "I think so. I know I feel better now that we've talked."

  "Okay, well if it comes back, let me know right away."

  "Will do. And Noelle?"

  "Yeah?"

  "Be careful. Don't try anything stupid like going to sleep without your wards or whatever your aunts gave you."

  "Wait," I said. I hadn't mentioned the stones. "How do you know my aunts gave me something?"

  She laughed. "Because they love you, they know how important dreams can be, and if it occurred to me that you may consider going off half-cocked, I know for a fact it occurred to them. What did they give you?"

  I described the crystals and assured her that Beth had also added her own magic.

  "Excellent," she said. "I'm glad to see Beth using her magic. She'll be a valuable asset if things go south."