by Rose Pressey
They sat in silence for a moment and then the woman said, “You need to find out if any books are left. If there are, then we can assume she might be coming for them too.”
“So we can catch her in the act?” Tom said.
She nodded. “Yes.”
“That doesn’t sound like it would be easy. Meredith was pretty sneaky. We have to figure out which shops still have their magic,” Tom said.
“There were only two shops whose owners weren’t here to tell us their books were missing,” I said, breaking my silence.
“You should contact the shops,” the woman said to Tom.
He nodded. “We’ll get right on it.”
We? Now I was involved in solving this crime? Did the Organization now trust me? I hoped now they knew that I had nothing to do with Reagan’s disappearance. Not only did we have to get the books back, but we still needed to find Reagan and Rory was gone now too. At least I thought he was.
The group stood from the table.
“We’ll be in touch. We have more things to do for our search for Reagan.”
I wondered what those things were. I wanted them to look for Rory, but since he technically wasn’t involved with the magic, I knew that wouldn’t happen. The group left the café.
“See, that wasn’t so bad after all, right?” Tom said.
“They aren’t the friendliest people I ever met, but no, it wasn’t bad, I suppose,” I said.
Tom pushed to his feet. “We should get going.”
We exited and I locked the door behind us.
“You know the two shops that we need to hit?” Tom asked.
“One is the soap shop just down the street and the other is the clothing boutique the next street over.”
Tom looked out across the town for a second. “Okay, how about we go our separate ways to check on the shops? That way we get figure this out faster. You go to the soap shop and I’ll go to the boutique.”
I was a little nervous doing this on my own, but he was right, it would be much faster this way. The quicker we figured this out the better off we’d all be.
“Okay.” I nodded.
“I’ll call you as soon as I find out anything. You do the same, okay?” Tom said.
“I’ll see you soon.”
“You’ll be fine,” Tom said as I started to walk away.
I hoped that was true. Would he be fine? I didn’t think any of us were safe. I was worried about Grandma Imelda too and I knew she was wondering where I was.
Since a lot of the shops were closed, no one was walking along the sidewalk with me. After the short walk I arrived at the soap shop. It was a small shop. The front window had an old-fashioned bathtub in the front with soap and balls that looked like suds. I pushed through the door.
At first I didn’t see anyone, but the owner, Colleen Gray, peeked out from the back room. “Oh, Elly, it’s you.” I saw the worry on her face.
“Is everything okay, Colleen?” I asked.
She moved over around the counter. “I’m worried. There is a man who keeps walking past the window and looking in.”
I glanced back but didn’t see anyone. “A man? What does he look like?”
“He doesn’t look very friendly. He has long dark hair, he’s tall, and he has dark beady eyes.”
I knew exactly who that sounded like. It had to be Ron. “Has he been inside the shop?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, not yet, thank goodness. But after what I’ve been hearing around town I’m worried that he will be here soon. Is he trying to take my spellbook?”
I couldn’t hide the sad expression on my face. “Yes, I think that’s what he wants. The book isn’t safe.”
“What will we do?” she asked.
That was a good question.
“We can’t let him get the book,” I said.
Just then my phone rang and I pulled it out of my pocket.
“Did you find out anything?” I asked when I saw Tom’s number and picked up.
“The book is already gone.” His tone sounded lower than I’d ever heard. “What about you?”
“The book is still here, but I think that man Ron has been walking past the window. He’s obviously trying to plan his way of getting the book.”
“I’ll be right there,” Tom said.
I hoped he hurried before Ron came back.
“Tom, the detective with the Organization, is on his way,” I said.
She released a deep breath. “Thank goodness.”
We stood near the front window watching for Ron. So far he hadn’t returned, but Tom hadn’t shown up either. I checked the time on my phone. It had been thirty minutes and I knew it didn’t take that long to walk from where he was at. I dialed his number and it went to his voice mail. This made me even more nervous.
Colleen peeked out the window. “Shouldn’t he be here by now?”
“Yes, he should be.”
“Do you think something happened to him?” she asked.
That was something I didn’t even want to think about.
I paced across the floor trying to think of what to do next. One plan involved gathering up the book and having Colleen walk with me over to where Tom was supposed to be. The next would be to call Mary Jane. She could drive us over there, but by the time she arrived in the car we could have already walked over to where Tom was supposed to be.
My thoughts were going a million miles a minute when the back door rattled. We exchanged a look. I had assumed Tom would come in the front door. The back door to this place was kind of hard to find and I didn’t think Tom even knew where it was.
“Do you think that’s him?” she asked.
“I hope so,” I said as I walked across the room and to the back door.
The door rattled again. She moved past me and to the door. With her hand on the knob she said, “Should I open it?”
I nodded. “It’s probably him.”
There was no way to know because the door didn’t have a peephole. That was something she really should invest in, but I digressed.
She opened the door a little and all of a sudden it was pushed even wider. Ron shoved his way into the door, knocking her down in the process.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I yelled.
His eyes were full of rage. “Where is the book?” he demanded.
Of course I didn’t know where it was and if I had I wouldn’t have told him. He looked from me to her on the floor. I hoped she didn’t tell him where it was.
She looked him in the eyes and pointed. “It’s over there.”
In two giant steps, he was over there and had the book in his hand. I had to stop him taking the book. I scanned the area for something to hit him with. I spotted a big pan that I assumed she used to make the soaps. As he turned his back, I raised the pan over my head and smashed him on the head with it.
He turned around and glared at me. Uh-oh. It hadn’t even affected him. And I’d thought I would have knocked him out. So much for that plan.
The next thing I knew, she and I were tied up and sitting in the back room of her shop. Ron looked at us and laughed. Then he marched out the back door with the book under his arm.
“I’m sorry I told him where the book was,” Colleen said.
“That’s okay, he would have forced us to tell him eventually,” I said.
I had to find a way to get to my phone in my pocket. My hands were tied but I could still move them. I wiggled around enough until I was finally able to stick my hand in my pocket. The phone fell to the ground.
It wasn’t like I could put the phone to my ear anyway with my hands tied behind my back. I was able to fumble enough so that I hit dial on Mary Jane’s number and then pressed speaker phone.
“Hey, you, I was just getting ready to call you. Do you want to go to a movie tonight?” she asked in a cheerful voice.
“Well, I’m a little tied up at the moment,” I said.
“Really? What are you doing?”
“I’m literally tied
up.” I explained what had happened and of course Mary Jane freaked out. She hung up and said she would be there right away. I hoped it didn’t take her long.
It felt like an eternity until Mary Jane raced through the door with a frantic look on her face. In reality, it was probably only ten minutes. She untied our hands. As soon as I was free, I ran to the back door. Of course I knew that he wouldn’t be there, but I was hoping for a miracle. I stepped out into the alley. I looked to the left and to the right and I didn’t see anything. Until… movement caught my attention. Something had moved behind the Dumpster. I had to check it out, but I hoped that it wasn’t a rat. It probably was a rat and it would want to eat my face off.
Mary Jane and the shop owner walked out into the alleyway with me. As soon as I neared the Dumpster I realized that it was a man’s legs.
Chapter 23
When I got even closer, I saw that the legs belonged to Tom. I ran toward him and knelt beside him.
“Tom, are you okay?” I pushed on him and he opened his eyes.
“What happened? Where am I?”
“You’re behind the soap shop. You never came inside.”
He sat up and rubbed his head. “Someone hit me with magic and knocked me out.”
“I think I know who did it,” I said. “Ron. He came into the shop and got the book.”
Tom pushed to his feet. He wobbled a little before righting himself. “We need to find him now before they get away with all the books.”
Mystic Hollow without magic? I didn’t even want to think about it. What would we do without the books? Grandma Imelda and I remembered some of the spells, but that wouldn’t be good enough. We needed the books because new spells were added all the time.
I said, “Mary Jane has her car here.”
“I can drive you anywhere you want to go,” Mary Jane said.
“We just need a ride back to my car,” Tom said.
“Are you coming too?” I asked Colleen.
“I think I need to straighten up around here.”
Now that her book was gone I knew she wouldn’t know what to do. We headed back inside the shop. Tom still seemed a little sluggish, but I hoped he would be back to one hundred percent soon. I was sure that Ron had attacked him when Tom showed up. He’d probably hid and smacked him with the magic when Tom’s back was turned. He’d never confront Tom to his face.
“We’ll get your book back,” Tom said as we headed out the door.
Colleen waved, but I knew by the look in her eyes that she wasn’t so confident. I had to admit my faith was a little broken too.
When we reached the sidewalk, Mary Jane stopped. “Where’s my car?” She ran up and down the sidewalk. “My car is gone.”
“What? Where did you park it?” I asked.
“Right here.” She pointed. Mary Jane’s voice was on a freakout level.
Tom walked down the sidewalk and looked down the street. “I don’t see any cars on the road.”
“Someone stole my car!” she yelled. She added a few other colorful words to the end of the sentence.
I spun Mary Jane around. “Calm down. You’ll have to call the police.”
“I’m afraid we don’t have time to wait for the police to show up. Mary Jane will have to wait for them while we go back to my car.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
Tom nodded. “We don’t have much time.”
I knew he was right, though I didn’t want to leave Mary Jane alone to deal with this.
The shop owner stepped outside. “What’s wrong?” Colleen asked.
“Mary Jane’s car has been stolen,” I said.
“Oh, no. Do you think that man Ron took it?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” I said. “Will you wait with Mary Jane for the police? We have to go.”
“Of course,” Colleen said.
I hugged Mary Jane. “Call me when you find out anything.”
She nodded. “Be careful and good luck.”
I waved. “We’ll need it.”
Tom and I hurried down the sidewalk back toward his car. I was having a hard time using my short legs to keep up with him. I was definitely getting my cardio for the day.
“I wonder how her car was stolen,” I said. “I hope she didn’t leave the keys in it again.”
“She does that?” Tom asked.
I nodded. “Sometimes she forgets.”
We reached his car and he opened the door for me. At least he seemed to be feeling better. He had been hit with magic twice in less than twenty-four hours.
“Did the magic feel like what hit us last night?” I asked when Tom slipped behind the steering wheel.
He glanced over at me as he started the car. “Exactly the same. I’m lucky it didn’t last as long this time.”
“That’s true. I wonder why they didn’t make it as strong this time.”
“That’s how we’ll get them,” Tom said as he pulled away from the curb. “They’re not nearly as smart as they think they are.”
Chapter 24
I was lost in thought on the drive to Rory’s. It seemed impossible for us to ever get the books back. I wondered how the town would change without the magic. What would we do? Surely there was some way the Organization could get the books back.
We pulled up in front of Rory’s house and of course all was quiet. His truck wasn’t there and there was no sign of Meredith or Ron.
“Do you think they’re still inside?” I said.
“I guess we’re about to find out,” Tom said as he shut off the car. “Let’s go check it out.”
We hurried up to the front door. Tom knocked, but I knew there was no way even if they were inside that they would answer.
“Do you happen to have a key?” he asked.
I shook my head. Tom tried the door, and to my surprise it was open. We exchanged a look.
“Let me go first,” he whispered.
He knew that I wouldn’t stay outside, but I would agree to let him go first. After all, he was the investigator. Tom eased inside the house and after a few seconds, I followed. We went from room to room, but there was no one there.
Not surprisingly, the books weren’t there either. I wanted the books back, but more importantly I wanted to know where Rory was and if he was okay.
“Now what do we do?” I asked.
Tom ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t know. Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
If Tom was out of ideas then I knew we were in trouble. Tom and I stepped outside again and headed down the front steps. Just as I reached the bottom, I noticed something in the grass. A cell phone was on the ground beside the steps.
I stopped and reached for the phone. “Look what I found.”
Tom turned around and I handed him the phone. He looked at it for a second. “It’s Meredith’s phone.”
“What do we do with it?”
He tapped the screen. “She’ll come back for it.”
“You think so?” I asked.
“I do. We’ll wait for her to come for it.”
“Then what? We can’t confront her because she won’t tell us where Rory is.”
Tom stared down the street for a moment. He placed the phone in his pocket. “Okay. We’ll wait for her and then follow her.”
I smiled and Tom gave me the saddest look I’d ever seen. I was glad that he was doing this for me though. We headed back to his car to wait for her. I hoped that he was right at that she would come back. If she didn’t then I had no idea what we would do.
Tom pulled the phone from his pocket. “I’ll be able to see who she’s had contact with.”
“Good idea,” I said.
He scrolled through the calls. “She’s deleted everything.”
I pushed the hair out of my eyes. “Maybe that means that she didn’t want the phone at all?”
As silence settled between us, I wondered what I should say. I could talk about the weather. No. I could ask him what he’d been doing since he had been go
ne. I had been dying to find out.
“So have you had a lot of cases since I saw you last?”
He leaned back in the seat. “Quite a few. They were all boring compared to…” He didn’t finish the sentence.
“Compared to what?” I pushed.
He looked me in the eyes. “Compared to working with you.”
My whole body tingled when he said that. Why did he have to be so sweet? Not to mention sexy.
I didn’t respond because I didn’t know what to say. So the silence returned. I knew Tom was watching me without having to look over at him. He wanted to say something. I could tell by his tension.
“What about Rory?” Tom said.
So that was what he wanted to talk about.
I glanced at him. “What about him?”
“What if you find out he was involved in helping Meredith?”
I released a deep breath. “I guess I hadn’t thought about it. I don’t think he would do something like that to hurt me on purpose.”
“Sometimes you never really know someone.” Tom reached out and squeezed my hand lightly.
My skin tingled at his touch. Before I had a chance to respond a car pulled up. It wasn’t just any car though. It was Mary Jane’s car.
“Look. It’s Mary Jane’s car,” I said.
When the car pulled into the drive, I recognized Ron behind the wheel and Meredith was in the passenger seat.
“I can’t believe that they can just steal a car like that and then just casually drive it around. It’s as if they think they can’t get into trouble no matter what they do.”
“Maybe that’s because they’ve gotten away with so much in the past.”
If I had anything to do with it now they wouldn’t get away with it.
“So what’s the plan? Do we call the police?” I pulled my phone from my pocket.
Tom touched my arm, stopping me from placing a call. “We can’t call the police just yet. First, we should find out if they have the books.”
“How do you plan on doing that?” I asked.
“We will go up to the house and see what happens,” Tom said without looking at me.
“That doesn’t sound like much of a plan,” I said.
“Sometimes you just have to wing it.”