“You’re a good person,” I told her.
“I try to be.”
“Look, I know I can’t change anything about what the other witches think. But your family seems to be pretty good.”
She barked out a laugh. “With one glaring exception.”
“Aunt Lucy?” I asked, and Kaillie nodded.
“That’s right. She and her friends – she calls them Lucy’s Floozies because of course she does – are always going around getting into trouble. It drives me crazy. Why she can’t just work hard and keep her head down like the rest of us is beyond me.”
“Well, some people just aren’t wired that way.”
“I hope that one day the people in the coven see that we’re not awful and we’re let back in,” Kaillie said. “But it’s hard when you don’t know what kind of information they’re getting. That’s why I’m so upset about Leonard dying here. I know it was just a coincidence, but what if they don’t know that in the magical world? What if they think we killed him, or think we had something to do with his death? Then we’ll never be let in.”
“I’m sure they’re not getting their information in dribs and drabs. After all, these people are witches and wizards. They’ll have ways of getting the whole story, I’m sure.”
“I hope so,” Kaillie said with a sigh. “Look at me here, whining about my own problems, when I’m sure all of this must be the strangest conversation ever.”
“It’s certainly been… interesting,” I replied. “Honestly, I woke up today and a part of me thought I’d dreamt the entire thing. It doesn’t seem real, and yet the longer this goes on, the more I’m having to accept that it is.”
I received a sympathetic smile in reply. “It must be strange. It was always so funny growing up, while everyone was reading Harry Potter and pretending magic was real, we always had to hide the fact that we had real magical powers. I guess you’re getting to live your own real adventure now.”
“Yeah,” I replied. “It’s a lot more confusing than it is in books, though.” The fact that Dad hadn’t wanted me to know I had magical powers was really something. I wished I knew why. And yet I was never going to get that opportunity.
Tears sprung to my eyes, but I blinked them back. Just then, Debbie came out from the kitchen at the back and made her way toward us.
“Eliza, he’d like to talk to you,” she told me, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder. I stood up and made my way to kitchen at the back, where I found the policeman looking over the notes he had written in a small pad. He smiled at me when I came in and motioned for me to sit on a small bench near a stainless steel table.
“Hi, I’m Detective Ross Andrews,” he said, holding out a hand. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“Eliza Emory,” I replied, reaching forward to shake his hand. As soon as my skin touched his, a spark of electricity flew through me. Ok, so this guy was good-looking, and I hadn’t had a boyfriend – or heck, even a one-night stand – in far too long. I smiled, pretending nothing had happened, and sat down on the bench.
“So you’re new in town?” he asked, and I nodded.
“Just moved here yesterday, actually. I lived in San Francisco, but my dad died a few months ago and now my only family live here.”
“I’m sorry,” Detective Andrews replied.
“Thanks.”
“So this is your first day working at Cackling Witch Coffee?”
I nodded. “That’s right. My Aunt Debbie and Uncle Robert were nice enough to offer me a job here. I just started this morning.”
“Did you know the victim, Leonard Steele?”
“No,” I replied. “I mean, I served him his coffee and donut, of course. But I had no idea who he was.”
“What did you think of him?” Detective Andrews asked, and I couldn’t help but think I noticed a flitter of a smile on his lips.
I shrugged. “Honestly, he didn’t seem like the nicest person. But being mean doesn’t mean a person deserves to die. It can lead to health issues though, and I guess his heart just couldn’t take it anymore.”
“What makes you think it was a heart attack?”
I was taken aback by the question. “Well, I mean, it was so quick,” I said. “And he started by coughing, and thumping his chest. Honestly, I thought he had choked on something, but then Nancy did the Heimlich on him, and she’s a nurse. You would think that if he had choked, she would have gotten it out. So it had to be his heart.”
Detective Andrews nodded slowly. “Ok. After you served him, did you see anyone else approach Leonard?”
I scrunched my brows together as I tried to think back. “Honestly, I’m not really sure. I think a woman came over and spoke to him for a second. He also got up and went to the bathroom at one point. I don’t know if he saw anyone in there, obviously.”
“Do you remember seeing anyone near Leonard’s drink when he left it unattended?”
My eyes widened. “You don’t mean-”
“I don’t mean anything at the moment, no,” Detective Andrews interrupted with a kind smile. “These are just ordinary questions, par for the course in any investigation. Don’t worry.”
His words did little to put my mind at ease. Would he really be asking things like that if he didn’t suspect foul play?
“I honestly don’t know,” I replied with a shrug. “It’s my first day on the job, I was trying to figure out how everything worked, and once I served Leonard he stopped being my focus. Leanne might have noticed a little bit more.”
“She would be your… cousin, right? Leanne Stevens?”
“That’s right. I guess this is a small town,” I said with a smile.
Detective Andrews grinned. “I went to school with Leanne; she was a couple of years younger than me. But yeah, you’ll find most people around here are pretty tight. Is there anything else you can think of that might help?”
I shook my head. “Sorry, I don’t. I do want to ask though – what do you think happened?”
Detective Andrews shrugged. “I do my best not to rush to any conclusions. The medical examiner is coming over from the mainland and will have a look at the body, and I’ll trust what she says. Would you mind asking Leanne to come in, please?”
I nodded and left the kitchen, my mind whirling with thoughts.
“Detective Andrews wants to speak to you,” I said to Leanne as I made my way back to the counter. She let out a giggle.
“Detective Andrews. It sounds so professional. Up until about two months ago he was just Officer Andrews, handing out speeding tickets. Thanks.”
She made her way toward the kitchen at the back and I stole another look at Kaillie, doing my best to avoid the scene nearby. She still looked a bit more pale than usual, but a bit of color was coming back to her face.
I really hoped she was right, but I couldn’t help but feel a little bit more worried than I had before the chat with Detective Andrews. Maybe things weren’t so cut-and-dried after all.
Chapter 9
About an hour later, when Detective Andrews had spoken to everyone in the coffee shop we were all finally given permission to leave. The group of customers couldn’t wait to get out of there, and shortly thereafter the only non-law enforcement officials left in the building were Debbie, Leanne, Kaillie and me.
“Why don’t you girls head on out?” Debbie suggested. “I’m going to stay here in case I’m needed for anything.”
Figuring that was probably a good idea, the three of us left and made our way down the street.
“Did you get the distinct impression Detective Andrews thought it was a murder after all?” Leanne asked me, and I nodded.
“Yeah, I did.”
Kaillie let out a moan. “I knew it. I just knew it. Someone’s been murdered and it was in our coffee shop. The coven is going to think one of us did it.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Leanne replied. “Obviously it wasn’t one of us. None of us had any access to his food and drink, anyway.” She stopped and bit
her lip as she realized that wasn’t true – I had been the one to serve him.
“Well, at least I don’t have a motive?” I offered with a shrug. “I didn’t even know the guy. No one can think I murdered someone randomly the first time I met him, right?”
“That’s right,” Leanne said. “So there you have it. Even if he was killed, no one is going to think it was Eliza. There are no problems at all.”
Kaillie didn’t look convinced.
“Come on,” Leanne said. “None of us have had lunch and it’s almost two, I’m starving. Let’s show Eliza the best place in town for a good lunch.”
Otterly Delicious was a small diner-like restaurant, not quite the sort of place that had tablecloths. Everyone seemed to order from the large counter at the front, and food was then brought to a chosen table. As the smell of food wafted toward my nostrils I realized what a good idea this had been; my stomach grumbled in anticipation. I was starving.
I settled on the macaroni and cheese with a side of tomato soup, and the three of us found a table near the window where we could watch people walking past.
“I still can’t believe this happened,” Kaillie moaned. “They’re never going to let us into the magical world now.”
“Hey, there’s literally nothing I can ever do to get invited,” Leanne replied. “At least you’ve got a chance. And the ability to use magic. Why couldn’t you just use a spell to see if that guy was dead?”
Kaillie gasped. “Use magic in public? Absolutely not. That goes against every rule the paranormal world has.”
“Well, maybe they shouldn’t have kicked the family out if they didn’t want magic to be used around us normal humans,” Leanne suggested with a shrug. “Personally, if I had magical powers, I’d be using them all the time. Need to make the bed? Bam. Magic. Forgot my lunch at home? Bam, BLT and fries ready and waiting. Jessica Longview steals my boyfriend again? Bam. Yeast infection.”
I snorted with laughter at the thought while Kaillie looked horrified. “You wouldn’t be able to use magic like that! You can’t use it to make people’s lives worse!”
“Aunt Lucy does it all the time,” Leanne shot back.
“Aunt Lucy shouldn’t be doing that,” Kaillie said. “Magic should be used for good, and only good.”
“You’re such a boring waste of magical powers,” Leanne replied. “I wish I’d gotten them instead of you.” I watched the exchange with interest, and a moment later a waitress came by with our drinks. I sipped my iced tea, but before Leanne and Kaillie could continue their argument about the proper use of magic, the discussion turned to me.
“So what was your dad like?” Kaillie asked. “I wonder why he didn’t want you to know about us.”
“I wonder too,” I said. “He never liked magic. He didn’t stop me from reading books like Harry Potter or Coraline, but I could tell that he didn’t like them, either. He was nice. He gave good hugs. And whenever I had a problem, he always worked through it with me. He wasn’t the type to tell me to figure it out myself. He would sit me down, and we would get through it together. That was what I liked the most about him; I knew I could go to him about anything.”
“Did you get in trouble a lot growing up?” Leanne asked, and I shook my head.
“No. I didn’t want to disappoint my dad, so I always did my best to be kind. That was the main value he always tried to instill in me: to be kind. He would always tell me that you never knew what someone else was going through.”
“He sounds like a good guy,” Leanne said, and the tears welled up in my eyes once more.
“He was. He really was.”
Kaillie put her hand on mine and gave it a squeeze, and I returned it. “Thanks. It’s still hard to think he’s gone. Really hard.”
“But he’s not gone,” Kaillie said softly. “He lives on in you. Every time you’re kind to someone, your father’s spirit lives on.”
That was an absolutely beautiful way to think about it.
Just then, the waitress came by with our food orders, and I spent the next couple of minutes burying smooth, creamy macaroni and cheese topped with a gorgeous breadcrumb crust into my mouth.
“It’s strange thinking about Leonard being gone,” Leanne said after a few minutes, staring out the window. “I mean, I knew he was old. Heck, he was already old when we were kids. I’m surprised he was still working, really. But he was such a fixture around town, it’s going to be weird not seeing him around anymore.”
“He always wrote letters to the paper,” Kaillie said. “The editor, Carly, told me once that he always wrote five or six letters, usually complaining about individual people in town, and they never published those ones. But when he wrote one that wasn’t profanity-laced they would, and they were always entertaining.”
“He did get things done, though,” Leanne said with a grin. “Remember the time a couple of years ago when the library cut their hours due to budget cuts? He argued that the library was a place where teenagers could hang out at night rather than drinking in the park, and he actually got so much support that the town was forced to increase the library’s budget so they could stay open until ten o’clock.”
“Yeah, but then there was also the time when he complained about the grocery store not carrying his favorite brand of cookies anymore, and he had a meltdown that ended with him doing a one-man protest at the front every day for two months.”
“Well, he certainly sounded like a character,” I said.
“He was,” Leanne confirmed. “He did have a lot more enemies than friends, though. Who knows, maybe he would have lived longer if he didn’t automatically assume that every person he ever met was awful and that they had to prove otherwise.”
“What about his brother? Did he get along with him?” I asked, moving to my soup and taking a careful sip of the hot liquid.
“They used to,” Kaillie replied. “They lived together, in their old family home. Since their mom died, though, they haven’t gotten along as well as they used to.”
“It’s a run-down cabin by the water,” Leanne explained. “Honestly, I’m kind of surprised the town hasn’t condemned it as unlivable; the thing is practically falling down, and every time we get a windstorm that’s more than just a small gust, I’m worried the thing will fall over.”
“It’s not the sturdiest building anymore,” Kaillie confirmed. “And I don’t think either brother was taking particularly good care of it. But as Leanne said, they both seemed to be content there, so who are we to complain? I always did kind of imagine both of them dying with the house crumbling to pieces over them one day, though.”
“Well, if someone did kill Leonard, it wasn’t Roman,” Leanne said. “After all, he wasn’t in the coffee shop at all.”
“Can you please stop talking like that’s what happened?” Kaillie said, looking around furtively. “You’re going to have half the town talking about it.”
Before I got a chance to ask about the feud between Roman and Leonard, however, the strangest character walked through the front door of Otterly Delightful. He looked around, spotted us, and immediately began making his way over. He was tall, with pointed ears, like one of the elves from Lord of the Rings. His face was pale, which contrasted with his dark hair that reached his shoulders, and his blue eyes were like looking into glacier ice.
He sat down at the table next to us and it took everything in my power not to stare at him. Instead, I shoved a spoonful of soup into my mouth, immediately burning my tongue. Great.
Who was this?
Kaillie was now sitting straight and tall in her chair, like a student trying to suck up to her teacher.
“Hey, Kyran,” Leanne said to him with a nod. “Looking for Aunt Lucy?”
“That’s right,” the man replied. “There were reports of excessive and inconspicuous magic used yesterday in the human world.”
“And so automatically you thought of our aunt,” Leanne said with a smile.
“Naturally.”
“Ev
en though California is two states away.”
“The fact that you’ve heard about the magical events makes me think I’m on the right track,” Kyran said with a grin, leaning back in his chair.
Leanne shrugged. “Word gets around. I don’t know where Lucy is, but she’s not here. Anyway, have you met Eliza? She’s our long-lost cousin who only found out yesterday that she’s a witch. Eliza, this is Kyran. He’s an elf.”
My eyes widened at the last statement.
“A real elf?” I said in a half-whisper. Kyran laughed.
“Yup, she’s new alright.”
“Do you live in the magical world we’re not allowed in?”
“I do,” Kyran replied.
“So it’s real. It’s not something someone just made up?”
Kyran shook his head. “No, it’s definitely real. I’m one of the few paranormals that comes into the human world on a regular basis, though.”
“What do you do here?” I asked.
“My role involves basically unofficially being a link between law enforcement in the paranormal world and crime committed by paranormals in the human world. Sometimes, paranormals come here to do illegal things thinking they’ll get away with them more easily than in the paranormal world. My role is to hunt them down and bring them to justice. As a result, I’m often also given messages to pass on, like the one I have for your aunt that she needs to stop using magic in front of humans.”
“Oh. Well, that’s got to be interesting, at the very least.”
“It certainly is,” Kyran replied. “Well, I’m going to head off and try to find your aunt. It was nice meeting you, Eliza.”
“You too,” I said, still kind of shocked at the whole situation. “An elf? Really?”
I watched his retreating form and then turned to my cousins. “Is he really magical?” I hissed, and Leanne laughed.
“Yeah. Even he gets to have magical powers, and I don’t. Kyran is a good person. You can trust him. He gives Aunt Lucy tons of crap about using her magic inappropriately, but frankly, she deserves it.”
A Cauldron of Hot Coffee: Enchanted Enclave Mysteries Books 1-3 Page 5