Felicity came into the office with a fresh tray of coffee. “Where did they go?”
“Merlin’s going to play at being a sheriff for a while.”
She set the tray down on my desk. “It’s really him, isn’t it? Merlin from the legends.”
“Yeah, I think so. He came here to remind me that I was given Excalibur to avenge Gloria’s death and I should be putting everything else aside to go after the Midnight Cabal.”
“He probably doesn’t understand that you’re running a business.”
“He understands, he just doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned, we should only be working on the Midnight Cabal case and nothing else.” I went to the window and looked out over Main Street. The good folk of Dearmont were going about their business like every other day, unaware that a secret society was plotting their downfall. “I don’t know, maybe Merlin is right. I made a pledge to destroy the Cabal and I’m spending my time on other things.”
“Like the Hawthorne case?” She joined me at the window, her gaze drawn to the townspeople on the sidewalk. I could smell a tantalizing trace of her perfume, along with something sweet, as if she’d been in her kitchen, baking with sugar and frosting. “How did your meeting with Charles Hawthorne go?”
“He thinks someone—probably a member of his family—is trying to kill him by magical means.” I told her everything Hawthorne had told me earlier.
When I finished, Felicity shook her head in disbelief. “His children,” she said softly. “What type of people must they be to do that to their father?”
“If it is one of the kids. For all we know, it could be his wife, one of the staff, or even the family dog that wants to kill him.” I took the hex bag and stick figure out from my pocket and handed them to her. “Someone used these to attack him.”
Felicity held the items at arms length and studied them. “Looks like some sort of sympathetic magic.”
“Exactly,” I said.
She turned them over in her hands “The fact that these items were used raises a question.”
“What’s that?”
“Why is someone using magic to harm Charles Hawthorne when they could simply use a gun? Mundane weapons are much more reliable than magical ones.”
“I guess that’s something we’ll discover when we investigate the case. I need you to be my plus-one at a party tonight.”
“A party?”
“Yeah, at the Hawthorne house. Everyone in the family is going to be there so it’ll give us a chance to question them. Surreptitiously, of course.”
Her face lit up. “We’re going undercover.”
“I guess we are. I mean, we’re not using false identities or anything but no one will know why we’re really there. Apparently, Jane Hawthorne hosts a party for the business owners in Dearmont every year. Charles put me the guest list.”
She frowned in confusion. “If the party is for the owners of Dearmont businesses, shouldn’t you be on the list already?”
“I told you, Felicity. Everybody hates P.I.s.”
She rolled her eyes. “Maybe the ‘P’ should stand for paranoid.”
“Or maybe it should stand for practical. Anyway, the point is, we’re going to the party tonight and it’ll give us a chance to suss out the Hawthorne family.”
“Do you really think we should be working on this case at all?” she asked, giving the hex bag and stick figure back to me.
“Sure, why not?”
“After what you just said about Merlin and the Midnight Cabal, I thought you were going to focus on that.”
“If Charles Hawthorne is right and it’s one of the kids trying to murder him, we’ll be able to crack the case in one evening. I’ll take a crystal shard to the party and that will let us know who’s been using magic recently. We get free food and drink and collect a big paycheck when we solve the case. And then we’ll be free to work on the Cabal stuff tomorrow. I’m not seeing a downside.”
“Well, if you think it’s going to be that easy,” she said uncertainly.
“I do. All we have to do to make sure there are no loose ends is drive to Rockport today and pay a visit to the one member of the Hawthorne family who won’t be at the party tonight.”
“Lucy Hawthorne. The reclusive author.”
I nodded. “I’m pretty sure there’s no love lost between Charles and Lucy so she’d be a good place for us to start. And Rockport is only forty-minutes from here.”
“But if she’s a recluse, will she even speak to us?”
I walked over to my desk and took a crystal shard from the drawer. “We just need to get close enough to use this,” I said, holding it up. It was glowing because of its close proximity to the hex bag and figure. “If it glows when we get near Lucy, we know she’s been using magic and she becomes our number one suspect. If it doesn’t, we drive back to Dearmont and never bother her again.”
She offered me a thin smile. “You make it sound so simple.”
I shrugged. “It sounds simple because it is simple.”
“I’ll get my things,” she said, leaving the office.
I slipped the crystal shard into my pocket and threw the hex bag and stick figure into the desk drawer.
When I left the room, Felicity was waiting in the hall outside, her laptop under her arm.
“You going to do some research on the way?” I asked.
“Well I assume we’ll need her address. Unless Charles gave it to you.”
I shook my head and began descending the steps to the door. “No, he didn’t know it.”
“So we’ll need the laptop,” she said, following me outside.
3
As we drove south out of Dearmont, the sun was high in the sky, illuminating the edges of dark storm clouds that promised rain but hadn’t delivered on that promise yet.
I had the radio on low, tuned to a Bangor rock n’ roll station. Dire Straits were singing Money For Nothing and I was humming along, low enough that I didn’t disturb Felicity.
She was tapping away at the laptop’s keyboard, the screen’s bluish glow reflecting in her glasses. Behind that reflected glow, her dark eyes were narrow with concentration.
“You got anything?” I asked her.
She looked up from the screen and glanced at me as if in a daze. She’d been so focused on her research that it probably wouldn’t have mattered if I’d had the radio cranked up full blast. “Hmm? Oh, yes, I found her address ten minutes ago. I’m looking at the books she writes.”
“You found her pen name?”
Felicity nodded. “She writes under the name L.H. Cane. I assume the L.H. stands for Lucy Hawthorne. Her books seem to be horror with an occult flavor. It sounds like there are some Lovecraftian themes in her writing and she lists Lovecraft as one of her influences, as well as Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, Thomas Tryon, and Stephen King.”
“So we know she at least has a passing interest in the occult,” I said.
“But that doesn’t mean she tried to murder her father.”
“No, it doesn’t,” I agreed. “How many books has she written? What are the titles?”
“There are quite a few. The Witch Moon, The House by the Sea, a book of short stories called Crawling From the Darkness. The Dream Portal, The Face of the Monster. There are dozens of them. Shall I go on?”
“Anything about demons?”
She scanned down the list, using her fingernail as a guide. “There’s one here called The Summon. I suppose that could be about demons. And there’s one called Beasts From Hell.”
“When she researched those books, maybe she discovered a way to summon demons.”
Felicity shrugged. “It’s possible, I suppose.”
“You don’t sound convinced.”
“It’s just that she seems like the type of person who wants to distance herself from her family. Why would she break her period of isolation from them to attack her father?”
“Revenge, maybe. We don’t know what happened in the past. It co
uld have taken this long for her desire for revenge to boil over and prompt her to take action.”
Felicity went back to looking at the laptop, seemingly unconvinced by my theory.
The storm clouds finally delivered on their promise and broke open. I turned on the wipers and concentrated on the road ahead as heavy rain lashed at the windshield and bounced off the Land Rover’s hood. Dire Straits finished singing about money for nothing and November Rain by Guns n’ Roses started to come through the speakers. The timing of the song and the sudden precipitation was eerie.
Forty-five minutes later, we reached Rockport. As we drove into town, Felicity gave me directions that took us past the harbor and then along a street that was lined with long, well-manicured lawns and federal style houses. The houses were situated some distance away from each other and tall pine trees bordered each property, offering privacy. We got all the way to the end of the street when Felicity pointed at a house on the right and said, “That one.”
I pulled over and killed the engine. Lucy Hawthorne’s house was identical to the others; a large three-story federal style building set back from the sidewalk behind a long, neat lawn. The driveway was empty. If Lucy was at home, her car was probably sitting in the closed garage that sat beside the house.
Felicity inspected the building through her window. “What a lovely place. I bet she has a view of the harbor through the rear windows.”
“You want to go knock on the door?” I asked her. “She might be more likely to open it if there’s only one person standing there.”
“All right. Give me the crystal shard.”
I handed it to her and she opened her door. The smell of wet leaves and grass entered the car, along with the hissing of the rain. “Wish me luck.”
“Good luck.”
She flicked the hood of her jacket over her head and climbed out of the Land Rover, holding the hood to her head as she ran up the driveway toward the house. I wondered if she was going to tell Lucy some story explaining her presence or if she’d simply hold the crystal shard close to the girl and then run back down the driveway. Knowing Felicity, I had a hard time picturing the second scenario. She’d be more likely to talk to Lucy, get to know her.
Of course, if Lucy didn’t answer the door at all, then we were going to have to come up with another plan.
Through the rain-smeared window, I watched Felicity ascend a small flight of steps to the front porch and lift the knocker on the tall front door three times. Protected from rain by the covered porch, she pushed the hood down off her head.
“Come on,” I whispered, willing Lucy Hawthorne to open the door.
A couple of long minutes passed and nothing happened. Felicity raised and lowered the knocker again. This time, I was sure I saw a curtain twitch behind one of the first floor windows.
Felicity turned toward me and shrugged. Then she turned back to the front door quickly, as if she’d heard movement in the house. But the door remained closed.
After another minute or so, Felicity came back to the car. “No answer,” she said as she climbed into the Land Rover, bringing the rain and a rotten-leaf scented breeze with her. “I think she’s in there, though. I’m sure I heard someone inside the house.”
I shrugged. “Well, her father said she was reclusive so I guess expecting her to answer the door was a long shot. Let’s go and grab a burger at Darla’s.”
“Sounds good.”
I started the engine and turned up the heater for Felicity.
When I reached the intersection at the end of the street, I glanced at Lucy’s house in the rearview mirror. In the first floor window where I’d seen the curtains twitch earlier, a face peered out at us.
4
Darla’s Diner was busy, as usual, but Felicity and I managed to get a booth by the window. After we’d ordered, I watched the rain falling over the parking lot while Felicity tapped away on her laptop.
“Do you still think this case is going to be solved by the morning?” she asked, peering at me over the top of her glasses.
I shrugged. “Sure, why not?”
“Well, we didn’t manage to eliminate Lucy Hawthorne as a suspect and all we had to do was get her to answer the door. Do you think the other family members will be any easier?”
“They’ll be at the party. We’ll have easy access to them,” I said. “Whoever makes the crystal glow, that’s our culprit.”
“And if none of them has any magical residue?”
“Then we move our attention back onto Lucy.”
She looked out of the window at the rain and the cars.
“You okay?” I asked her.
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“You seem to be pondering something.”
She hesitated, as if determining how to frame her next sentence, and then said, “You haven’t mentioned the Midnight Cabal all day.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Merlin won’t release the sheriff until you use Excalibur to attack the Cabal and yet here we are spending our time chasing down the children of a billionaire.”
“Charles Hawthorne’s life might be at stake.”
“So might Sheriff Cantrell’s. I can’t bear to think of him trapped in some magical prison while Merlin is walking around in his body.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “And if the person attacking Hawthorne wanted to kill him, they’d simply have broken the neck on that effigy, not just its legs. I think someone wants Charles Hawthorne to suffer but they don’t necessarily want him dead.”
”Well I’m sure the truth will come out during our investigation.”
She sat back in her seat and looked like she was about to say something but stopped herself when the waitress arrived at our table with the food. We sat in silence as the burgers and sodas were placed in front of us and Felicity gave the waitress a warm smile. But after the waitress had left, Felicity’s demeanor became frosty. She leaned toward me. “I don’t think you should be investigating the Hawthorne case.”
That was a surprise. She’d seemed onboard with the investigation until now. “What’s your problem?” I asked.
She took a deep breath, as if steeling herself, and then said, “The problem isn’t mine, Alec. The problem is yours. You’re avoiding the Cabal because your mother is a member of the organization. And you’re using the Hawthorne case as a distraction.”
“Wow,” I said, stunned. “I’m pretty sure we discussed this before and I said I’d take down the Cabal no matter who its members were.”
“You did,” she conceded. “But since then you haven’t done anything about it. At first, that was totally understandable; I could see why you’d put it off. But now, the longer you procrastinate, the longer the sheriff is trapped in some magical prison. Amy has to deal with Merlin inhabiting her father’s body. And what will happen to Dearmont now that there’s an ancient wizard pretending to be the sheriff?”
“I’m sure Amy won’t let anything bad happen to the town,” I said.
“That’s not the point. She needs her father back. We need our sheriff back. You’re supposed to help people in danger from preternatural beings and Sheriff Cantrell is the very definition of that at the moment.”
“Charles Hawthorne is also in danger,” I reminded her.
“So give me the Hawthorne case.”
“What?”
“Give me the case. I’ll find out who’s trying to hurt Hawthorne, freeing up your time so you can work with Merlin to bring down the Cabal.”
I took a bite of my burger and thought about that for a moment. I had no doubt that Felicity could handle the Hawthorne case—hell, I had no doubt that she could handle any case—but giving this case to her at this moment meant that I would have to focus all my attention on the Midnight Cabal.
And I knew deep down that Felicity was right; I’d been avoiding the Cabal because of my mother’s ties to it.
After Gloria’s death, I’d been filled with rage and I’d sworn to take down the
Cabal no matter what. The fact that my mother was a senior member in the organization hadn’t mattered to me; if she was one of the Cabal, then she had to go down, just like every other member.
At least, that was what I’d told myself at the time. But as the weeks wore on, I realized that I had no idea what had really happened on the night my mother had disappeared, the night I’d thought she’d been killed.
For twenty years, she’d been alive and hadn’t contacted me. Not only that, she’d been working with my enemies. Why? What had happened to make her go over to the Cabal?
I needed answers more than I needed revenge. But because I’d pledged vengeance to the Lady of the Lake and had received Excalibur from her, I was on a path of bloodshed. And Merlin was going to make sure I stayed on that path until I destroyed every member of the Midnight Cabal, including my mother.
“Okay,” I told Felicity. “I’ll give you the Hawthorne case. If we can’t solve it tonight at the party, it’s all yours. I’ll work with Merlin and do the Cabal thing.”
She nodded slowly and looked at me with compassion in her dark eyes. “You’re worried about your mother, aren’t you? Wondering where she fits into all of this?”
“Yeah,” I admitted. “For most of my life, I thought she was dead. Then I discover that not only is she alive, she’s part of an enemy organization. It’s crazy.”
“I’m sure everything will work out,” Felicity said, her tone lacking conviction.
“Will it? What if Merlin and I crash a Cabal party and he starts throwing magic missiles around the place? He might kill my mother before I get a chance to speak with her. I’ll never know what happened to her that night after she told me to run from the car. I won’t know why she let me think she was dead for all these years, why she joined the Cabal. It’d be like losing her all over again.”
Felicity reached across the table and placed her hand on mine. “Don’t worry, Alec, I’m sure you’ll get your answers.”
I shrugged, unable to share her optimism. “Yeah, maybe.”
“I think Merlin’s being unrealistic if he expects you to bring down the entire Cabal anyway.”
Midnight Blood Page 3