To Catch a Witch

by Heather Blake

  I thought back to everything I knew about Madison in regard to Abby. Was it possible Madison was the one who killed her? No. Impossible. Vince’s video footage had given Madison an alibi. And she couldn’t have been the one who’d attacked me last night at the hospital—she wasn’t tall enough.

  So … why had she left a noose for me? To stop me from finding out her husband had killed Abby? Or was it possible they were partners in the crime?

  “Joe’s lawyer,” Nick said, “was calling about Joe’s alibi. They have evidence of Joe’s movements the morning of the race. His GPS watch tracked his every step, including into the woods after the bathrooms were locked. His route on the race morning was loaded on the family’s group account, and Joe didn’t realize he had the evidence until he logged his run from today and saw the route from the morning of the race. The watch syncs to the app automatically when it’s near a cell phone. The information exonerates Joe since the map didn’t show him going anywhere near the Aural Gorge bridge Saturday morning. The lawyer is sending me Joe’s watch—the information is still on it—and also the group’s log-in information to the app’s website, so I can see it for myself.”

  “Can the data be manipulated?”

  “I don’t think so. It all goes through the watch. You’d need to be a high-tech wizard to change it.”

  Stunned, I nearly stumbled. “Then the watch clears Joe.” With that, I was back to thinking Abby had been killed because of the wedding plans. “We need to figure out who thought it was Ben and Abby eloping today.”

  “No one I’ve asked had known about it. How about you?”

  I was still stumped as to Madison’s involvement, but I didn’t think she was that good an actress to feign her disbelief about the elopement. “No one. All were shocked by the idea.”

  Which made sense now. They hadn’t seen love and passion between Abby and Ben, because it hadn’t been there.

  And he and Quinn must have been exceptionally good at hiding it.

  “Look, I’ll be home in ten, fifteen minutes. We’ll go over every bit of evidence. We’re missing something. Okay?”

  As came to the edge of the green, I looked at the house and slowed to a walk.

  “Darcy?” Nick asked. “You there?”

  “I’m here. I just got home. I might not have found Quinn, but I found Ben. He’s sitting on our front step.” He had his head down, resting on top of arms folded across his knees.

  “You’ll only be safe in the house with him, so do not go anywhere with him, do you hear me?”

  Safe, because of the protection spells. “I hear.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  I hung up and slowly walked toward Ben. His head came up when he heard my footsteps. Big fat tears filled his eyes but didn’t spill over.

  “Ben?”

  “I need your help. Please help me. Quinn’s missing.”

  Despite the doors being closed in my face the past couple of days, I hesitated only a second. “Come on,” I said, motioning him upward. “Come inside. Nick’s on his way home.”

  Higgins was trying to bark his head clean off as we went inside. Harper was sitting on the stairs again and had Higgins by the collar. I was happy to see she had the strength to hold him back, since he weighed more than she did. A lot more.

  She said, “Ben’s been waiting out there for you for nearly half an hour. I wouldn’t let him in without you here. What with the noose and all.”

  I was glad to hear it. Being overly cautious was going to serve her well in the coming months.

  “Noose?” he asked.

  “Someone left a noose for Darcy,” Harper said. “We assume because of her investigating Abby’s death.”

  “That’s … horrible,” he said.

  So was attacking me in the parking lot.

  I didn’t mention to him that I thought Madison was behind the noose. I wanted to hear what he had to say, and if he had any idea who had killed Abby. “Tell me about Quinn.”

  “Quinn and I were supposed to meet up,” Ben said, “at ten, to go up to Marblehead.”

  “To get married, I know.”

  “To do what?” Harper asked, following us down the hallway. She led Higgins to the back door, let him out, where he promptly started chasing a sparrow.

  I led Ben to a stool at the island and motioned for him to sit.

  “Long story,” I said to her. “Where’s Mimi?”

  “She went to a friend’s house to make zombie snowmen. Ve drove her over. You know, because of the noose thing.”

  Good, good. I was glad they’d took the extra step—and that she wasn’t here.

  Ben went on explaining, saying, “Quinn didn’t show up. She’s not answering her phone. I’ve looked everywhere. Help me find her. Please.”

  “First,” I said, “do you think she’d stand you up? Is it possible she just up and left all this madness behind?”

  “She wouldn’t,” he said. “We’ve been planning this forever. She texted me this morning that she had picked up her dress from the house and was on her way to get the rings. I called the jeweler. She never made it there. Something’s wrong.”

  “Before we go any further, do you know who killed Abby?” I asked.

  “What? No! I don’t know what happened to Abby. I get sick just thinking about it.”

  He did look a little green. “Could it have been Duncan?” I asked. “I know they’ve been dating for a while and that he was upset with her the night before the race. Was he still angry with her Saturday morning?”

  “Duncan and Abby?” Harper asked.

  “Nick just told me on the phone,” I said to her.

  Ben raked a hand through his short hair. “Duncan wouldn’t have hurt Abby. He was frustrated, that’s all. And they weren’t just dating. They were married. For about two months now.”

  My hand froze as I unzipped my coat. “Married? Had they ever really broken up?”

  Harper sank onto a stool.

  Ben said, “Yeah. After the fallout with the doping scandal, they split. They were both devastated. Abby, because he had been using performance enhancers, and Duncan because Abby didn’t believe him that he hadn’t.”

  “Did he, or didn’t he?” Harper asked.

  “He didn’t,” Ben said. “But Abby, Quinn, and I didn’t know it at that point. All we knew was what we had seen on those lab reports. It was horrible.”

  It sounded like it.

  “Duncan was barely out of the picture, when Madison ramped up her matchmaking between Abby and me, not knowing that Quinn and I had been dating secretly for more than a year at that point and had plans to get married. We were waiting for the New Zealand trip. Get married the day before here in the States, get on a plane, and not come back. We were going to relocate there, get away from the toxic environment at Balefire.”

  I said, “I don’t suppose it’s a coincidence you chose a location halfway around the world?”

  “Hardly.” He looked me in the eye. “The farther away, the better. My family … is complicated.”

  That was stating things mildly.

  “We were just going to grit our teeth and deal with Madison’s pressuring, but two things happened. One, the matchmaking was getting under Quinn’s skin and she was having a hard time biting her tongue about it.”

  “And the second?” Harper asked.

  “A few months ago, Quinn was cleaning the office and came across Duncan’s lab report. The original one, the one that hadn’t been altered. She showed it to me, I took it to Abby, and we all realized what had happened.”

  “Did you confront your family? Who changed it? Your mom? Joe?”

  “Joe,” he said, “but Madison knew about it.”

  “Did your mom?”

  He shook his head. “As much as she wanted Duncan gone, she wouldn’t have tolerated such a devious plan.”

  “Why didn’t Joe and Madison tell you?” I asked. Higgins barked, and I went to let him back inside. I didn’t bother to wipe his paws�
��he had his sights set on Ben, and I didn’t particularly want to dislocate a shoulder trying to hold Higgins still. He galloped over to Ben to sniff him up-and-down.

  “They knew I was good friends with Duncan. They didn’t know if I’d go along with their plan to get him out of Abby’s life. I wouldn’t have.”

  “Did you confront them?” Harper asked.

  “We were going to, but Abby wanted us to wait until after she talked to Duncan. She always played by the rules. Always. My family’s deceit cut her to her core. She was crushed they’d do that to her and Duncan, knowing how much she loved him. She went to see him.”

  “In New Hampshire?” I asked.

  He nodded. “He was on a new team there. She told him about the lab report. Begged forgiveness for not believing him. He forgave her, but told her he was never moving back to the village and didn’t think he could do a long-distance relationship. He was really worried my family would just try to break them up again when they found out they’d gotten back together.”

  He had good reason to worry, I thought. I glanced at the clock, hoping Nick would get here soon.

  Ben went on. “Abby had been wanting to leave Balefire to open a training facility, and Duncan had been planning to retire from racing anyway, so they moved up those plans. And Abby had the idea that if they were married, none of those things would go wrong. So they drove to Vermont and eloped that day.”

  All this eloping was really making me rethink my wedding plans. “Then how did Abby end up back at Balefire? And why pretend to date you?”

  Harper added, “Did she and Duncan have another falling out?”

  “No, they didn’t. At some point in all their excitement, Abby realized that without her as a buffer at Balefire, Quinn wouldn’t last long.”

  “Even though she was a Halfcrafter?” I asked.

  “My family doesn’t know that,” Ben said.

  “Why not?” Harper asked. “The knowledge could have eased some of the tension between them.”

  “Quinn didn’t want us to tell them. She wanted them to like her for her, not because she was now part of the Craft. But it was never going to happen, whether or not they knew she was a Halfcrafter. To them, she’d always be a mortal. The Craft isn’t in in her blood. It took a year for my mother to forgive Joe for marrying Madison, and she likes Madison.”

  “But Madison is a Terracrafter,” I said. “Why would she have a problem with Joe marrying her?”

  “Because she’s not a Vincicrafter. Mom wants grandchildren who are full Vincis to carry on her legacy.”

  My jaw dropped. “You’re kidding.”

  “No. I mean, she adores Aine, but she’s knows there’s no way Aine is going to end up an Olympian. Especially since we can all see she’s starting to take after Madison.”

  “This is positively eugenic,” Harper said, shaking her head.

  “And after seeing what my family did to Duncan and Abby, I’m glad we didn’t tell them. Quinn would have been memory cleansed and who knows how they would have framed her to get her out of my life? Maybe blame their little tax fraud scheme on her and get her sent to jail?”

  I didn’t doubt it. Joe and Madison, I was quickly realizing, were utterly ruthless.

  Ben said, “Knowing Quinn would be under a constant barrage at Balefire without her there, Abby came up with the idea to pretend to date me until mine and Quinn’s elopement date. That way, we could live under some semblance of normal.”

  “That’s a lot to ask of Abby,” Harper said.

  “And Duncan,” I added.

  He said, “I know, but it was Abby’s idea.”

  “Even with her strict moral code?” I asked.

  “Even with. Maybe because of it. She wanted to right the wrongs that had been made. And she said she owed Quinn for finding the truth about Duncan, and beyond that, she loved Quinn. Wanted her to be happy. And she’s happy with me. And we were grateful, because we needed her, especially as the elopement day got closer, so she could help Quinn pick out a dress and do all the wedding things.”

  Selfless, Quinn had called Abby. It was true.

  “Why didn’t you just go into the city for a dress and cake?” Harper asked. “Why risk being seen in the village?”

  “We did for the rings, since they had to be sized to our fingers, but Quinn really wanted one of Godfrey’s dresses. We figured if anyone saw Abby picking out a dress, if word got out, it wouldn’t be a big deal for people to think Abby and I were getting married. Even if my family caught wind of it, they liked Abby. We actually didn’t know Abby had picked out one of those cream puff cakes, until after she ordered it. She was going to call Evan on the morning of the wedding, to have the cake delivered to our hotel room that night.”

  “Aw,” Harper said.

  “It was the kind of person Abby was. I don’t know who could have killed her. It had to have been some nutjob who caught her off guard. A wrong time, wrong place kind of thing.” He glanced at me. “Right?”

  “Maybe,” I said. “We’ve ruled out you, Quinn, Joe, and now Duncan.”

  “Have we really ruled Duncan out?” Harper asked. “He and Abby fought Friday night. And why were you so mad at him Saturday morning, Ben?”

  Harper, I thought, would make a great Craft investigator, should I ever want to quit the job.

  “Duncan would not harm a hair on Abby’s head,” Ben said. “They argued because he was frustrated she was spending all weekend in the village, doing stuff for Balefire. He’d been there to pick her up, but she was running late dealing with last minute details for the race. He lost his temper. Abby calmed him down and that was that.”

  Harper asked, “And Saturday morning?”

  “I was angry because I couldn’t believe he showed up at the race. It was too risky. But he wanted to watch Abby compete—it was going to be her last race. When he didn’t see her at the starting line, he went to look for her at her house. But … Abby wasn’t there.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “It drove him crazy, but he waited there until Quinn arrived to tell him what was going on. He’s devastated.”

  “Where is Duncan now?” I looked again at the clock. Nick should be here any minute. “Why’s he been hiding?

  “He’s with his lawyer. He was waiting until after Quinn and I got married this morning to go in for police questioning. He was honoring Abby’s wishes by not wanting to ruin mine and Quinn’s plans for today. He knew it was our way out. If he went to the police before today, everything would come out, because he wouldn’t lie about his relationship with Abby. So he was waiting.”

  “So we’re back to square one,” Harper said.

  “Let’s go back to when this all started,” I suggested. “Saturday morning. Is there any detail you can think of, Ben, that you haven’t told us?”

  He pushed the heels of his hands into his eyes. “No. You know everything. I’m just so upset with myself that the last time I saw Abby, I was angry.” His eyes watered. “She’d even been trying to get me to laugh by saying how she was looking forward to the wedding on Tuesday because I’d most likely be less grumpy once I was a married man. And I held onto my anger. If only I could go back…”

  “Wait,” I said. “You talked about the elopement at the race?”

  “Just what Abby said. Why?”

  “Was there anyone nearby?” I asked.

  “I mean, not really. A few people passing by, warming up. There was the line for the portable toilets not too far away. No one seemed to be paying us any attention.”

  Harper said, “What are you thinking, Darcy?”

  I’d been thinking about what he’d said earlier. About how Lucinda wanted full-blooded Vincicrafter grandchildren. To be a full Vinci, the child would have to be two Vinci parents … it was the only way.

  I added that to the way Lucinda was so sure Ben and Abby’s relationship was casual in nature, rather than one headed for the altar. If she had known they were getting married, I had no doubt she would have put a stop to it somehow
.

  Even if it meant getting rid of Abby any way possible, since Lucinda believed she had only ’til Tuesday. There was no time to Craft an elaborate plot to get her out of the village.

  I swallowed hard and said, “If your mother truly wanted you to marry a Vincicrafter and thought you and Abby were marrying on Tuesday…”

  “You don’t think … No.” He shook his head. “She didn’t know anything about the elopement. None of my family knew.”

  But I wondered if she’d somehow found out. I was thinking back to the video I’d watched with Vince. Lucinda had been with Madison and Aine, but I didn’t recall seeing her again until the race went off.

  I pictured the area, trying to imagine where someone could overhear Ben and Abby’s conversation. There was nothing around the trailhead but bushes and trees, which I realized, would provide plenty of cover. Lots of evergreen to hide behind. “Both Joe and Quinn had gone off to find other restrooms after seeing those lines. Joe ended up in the woods and missed the start of the race. Is that something your mom would do? Use the woods?”

  He said, “All the time. You don’t run dozens of miles on wooded trails without using the woods once in a while.”

  Why hadn’t I suspected Lucinda before now? Because she was older? Because I’d seen the loving way she looked at her granddaughter? She was fast enough to get to the bridge and back before anyone knew it. And she ruled her family with an iron fist.

  I was kicking myself mentally. “Is it possible your mom was in the woods nearby when you were talking with Abby?”

  “I mean, it’s possible.” His face had scrunched up as though fighting the idea that his mom had done something so terrible. Yet … he wasn’t vociferously defending her either. “But, Quinn. There’s no way she knew about Quinn.”

  My heart was pounding. “I think she knows about Quinn because she was the one who broke into Abby’s house. I questioned her right before the break-in,” I continued, trying to keep my breaking voice steady. “I must have unknowingly made her suspicious when I questioned her. I told her about Quinn picking up the wedding dress, and I asked her about the wig too.”