The Floozies left, and Leanne laughed as she handed me the next coffee order. “Never a dull moment with her.”
“No, you can say that. She’s up to something.”
“She’s always up to something.”
“She’s up to something involving the cops this time, but that apparently isn’t the investigation into Barry’s death. And I believe her; she somehow knows we’re doing it, and she’s not the kind to lie about that sort of thing.”
“No, that’s true,” Leanne mused. “I wonder what it could be.”
After work, the three of us decided we were going to go talk to Sean. After all, the cops had probably spoken to him by now, so it was unlikely that we were going to be interrupted and caught out by Ross.
“He lives in a small house down the street from us, anyway,” Leanne said. “We can just pretend we’re concerned neighbors checking in on him.”
Sure enough, the three of us made the twenty-minute walk back home after work and kept going for another five. We found ourselves in front of a cute little wood-clad cottage. It was small but in good shape, with a well-manicured lawn and a Ford Ranger in the driveway. A stump for firewood had an axe stuck in the middle of it, and it basically looked like the perfect home for a single man who wanted to live in the forest.
Sean was in the backyard, and he came around the corner holding a shovel, wiping his brow. He did a double take when he saw us.
“Hey there, ladies. What can I help you with?”
“We were hoping to speak with you about Barry.”
Sean gave a small chuckle. “Yeah, you and everyone else in town. What does he have to do with the coffee shop?”
“Nothing, but it seems everyone in town thinks you killed him, so we wanted to give you a chance to tell us your side of things,” Kaillie replied. Smooth; that was a great way to hopefully get him talking without having him think we suspected him of murder.
Sean’s eyebrows rose. “Well, I can’t say I’m particularly surprised by that. For the record, I didn’t kill him.”
“Where were you at six this morning, then?” I asked. After all, that was the easiest way to prove he didn’t do it: an alibi.
“Here alone, sleeping.” He shrugged. “Trust me, no one wishes more than I do that I had an alibi.”
“Ok, so you say you didn’t kill him. But you didn’t want the development project to go ahead, and you were the most vocal person in town about it.”
“Sure. But haven’t you heard the expression ‘all bark, no bite?’” He grinned, and I had to admit, I could see why people liked Sean. He was charismatic. “I didn’t like the project, but I was planning on going through completely legal channels to get it cancelled. I mean, the thing was going to take almost a year to build. There was still plenty of time. I wasn’t giving up, but I also wasn’t going to take a human life to reach my goals.”
“So who do you think might have done it?” I asked, and Sean shrugged.
“Honestly, wouldn’t have a clue. A lot of people had it in for him. If you really want to know, speak to his business partner.”
“I didn’t realize he had a business partner,” I replied.
“Yeah. He wasn’t involved in the hotel project, but they’ve done other stuff together. He spends his summers on the island and his winters in Hawaii.”
“Oh, Peter Toole,” Leanne said, and Sean nodded.
“That’s him. He’ll know much better than I do who would have had it in for Barry.”
“I didn’t realize they were business partners,” Leanne said.
“Yeah, they worked a few projects together. They have their own independent businesses as well.”
“Hey, do you know what Detective Andrews was at the protest for?” I asked, suddenly remembering that I’d asked myself the same question at the time. “I mean, cops showing up to a protest is nothing new, but usually they just send officers.”
“Yeah, I heard him speaking with Barry after. They needed to talk to him about pressing charges against Hugo. From what I overheard, they weren’t going to stick as apparently none of the people Barry listed as witnesses admitted to being there.”
“Ok, thanks,” I said.
“Look, I’m telling you, no matter what’s going on around town, it wasn’t me. I didn’t kill the dude. But I’m also not sorry that the project is on hold. You ask me, that was a crime that needed more investigation.”
“Does anyone on your Facebook page have an idea who did it?”
Sean grinned. “Everyone on the internet has an opinion. Good opinions on the other hand are another matter entirely. Each and every member of the municipal council has been accused of taking cash in exchange for pushing through the project, but I have no idea which ones actually did. I’m sure it was at least a couple. Potter is a pro-development shill; he would have voted yes anyway. Drake voted against the development, so she obviously didn’t take any money. But chances are that to be safe he bribed two of Jeffers, Lieberman, and Yamamoto. I’m not sure any of the three would have voted for it without financial incentive.”
I nodded, hoping Leanne and Kaillie knew who he meant. I didn’t exactly keep up with municipal politics; I knew Potter was Al Potter, the mayor of Enchanted Enclave, but the names of the municipal councilors were new to me.
“Alright, thanks,” Kaillie said. The three of us left and began discussing everything as we walked home.
“Do you think he did it?” I asked as we walked back up the drive.
“Nah,” Leanne answered, shaking her head. “I didn’t get that vibe from him.”
“Murderers don’t walk around with a sign saying ‘I did it’ on their front,” Kaillie argued. “Personally, I thought the fact that he didn’t have an alibi and didn’t have any idea who else might have killed Barry to be pretty incriminating.”
“I don’t know. If I killed someone, I’d do my best to find someone to pin it on if people came around asking questions,” Leanne said.
“Well, that’s good to know,” I replied with a chuckle. “You know Peter Toole?”
“Yeah, he comes into the coffee shop about once or twice a week, but he only got back from Hawaii last month, so you probably just assumed he was a tourist. Hopefully he’ll be in tomorrow or the day after. We can have a chat with him then.”
“Cool.”
Chapter 10
As soon as Kaillie opened the front door, a blur of black darted past us and into the driveway.
“Cleo!” I called out, and my cat stopped. “What are you doing?” She had never left the house before, not since we had found each other.
Cleopawtra stopped and turned. “I have to explore my kingdom.”
“Your what?”
“My kingdom,” she said, looking around. “Everything the light touches is my kingdom.”
Suddenly, I understood. “Cleo, that was a movie. About lions. You’re a cat.”
“The lion is the king of the cats!” Cleo replied. “And I am a queen. Therefore, I am a lion at heart, and everything the light touches is my kingdom.”
“No, your kingdom is everything inside the house.”
“Wrong. The movie said so. I’m in charge of all the animals. They all must bow to me.”
“I think you’re going to find that what happens in a movie and what happens in reality are two very different things.”
“All the same, it is my role as the leader of the animal kingdom on this island to introduce myself to my people as their queen. You can’t stop me.”
I sighed. “Are you going to kill any birds? Or mice? Or anything else?”
“What kind of queen would condemn one of her subjects to death without a proper trial first? Of course not.”
“Alright,” I sighed. “You can go out and see your kingdom. But please be careful and be back in the house before nighttime. I’ll leave the front door open for you.”
“Whatever the light touches is my kingdom.”
“Right, so when the light disappears, you had better be back in my ki
ngdom. Besides, if you’re not back by then, you’re going to miss your dinner. And remember: being brave doesn’t mean you’re looking for trouble.”
“I know, I know,” Cleo said. “I’ll be back in time for dinner.”
And with that, Cleo darted off.
“What’s with the cat?” Leanne asked.
“She thinks she’s the queen of the island and she’s going to go rule over her kingdom,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “I feel like someone’s about to get a harsh dose of reality when the deer don’t care what she wants them to do.”
My cousins laughed. “Cats. You’ve got to love them,” Kaillie said.
I laughed as we walked into the house, and I use a shoe to leave the front door propped open just a little bit. On the bright side, the open door let in some of the nice summer breeze as I went to the kitchen and started chopping up some chicken to make souvlaki for dinner.
About an hour later, the kitchen smelled like oregano, garlic, and lemon-roasted potatoes as the three of us sat down at the dining table to eat.
I couldn’t help but notice Kaillie was just picking at her food.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” I asked her, and Kaillie looked up at me with a sad smile.
“Nothing. Nothing, really. Thanks for asking. I think I’m just nervous.”
“About finding the vampire who killed Barry?”
“Yeah,” she replied, nodding. “This is the best chance I’ve ever had at being able to get into the paranormal world. Kyran told us that they hope we’ll be able to help, and if we can, I’m sure the powers that be will be grateful and might even forgive our family.”
“And it might happen,” I replied. “But also keep in mind that it might not. I want it to happen for you; really, I do. As someone who didn’t know my family or who I was related to for the first two decades and change of my life, I know exactly how amazing it feels to find a family that loves you and to be able to finally connect with the people you really belong with. But if it doesn’t happen, you have to be prepared for that, and you have to ask yourself if you’re willing to keep going with this goal.”
“Of course I will be,” Kaillie replied. “This is the only thing I’ve ever wanted from life. I want to know what life is like in the paranormal world. I want to know who I’m related to, the way you found out. Do we have other aunts and uncles out there? I mean obviously at this point enough generations have passed that we won’t have anyone we’re super closely related to, but what about distant relatives? Is there someone out there who’s just as crazy as Aunt Lucy? Maybe someone even crazier who makes her look normal in comparison. Is there someone out there with the same hair as I have? The same nose? Maybe someone with Leanne’s same bossy personality. I just want to know where I came from. I think that’s a natural thing to feel.”
Leanne nodded. “I can understand that. For the record, though, there is no one as bossy as I am.”
I laughed. “As someone who has to work next to you all day, I can confirm that. But I know what you mean, Kaillie. It’s funny that we grew up so differently. I never knew that I had any other family, so I never felt that same desire you had, but if I had, I think I would have liked to know as well.”
“And it worked out so well for you since it turns out we’re the most amazing family a person could ever ask for,” Leanne said to me with a wink. I laughed and leaned in, placing my head on her shoulder for a minute.
“That’s right,” I said. “I lucked out. And maybe it’ll happen to you too, but you have to be prepared for the possibility that it won’t. The last thing I want is for you to be disappointed.”
Kaillie shook her head. “That’s fine, but I want to have that opportunity. That’s why we need to solve this case. It might not get us there, it might not get me there, but it certainly can’t hurt. And it might just give me the opportunity I’m after.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “Regardless of the outcome, I agree, you have to try your best. Just because the view at the top of the mountain isn’t what you’d hoped doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to climb it anyway. We’re going to solve this case. Hopefully Leanne is right and Peter Toole will come into the shop tomorrow, and we can talk to him then. If not, we can always go and find him.”
“Exactly,” Leanne replied. “Eliza’s right. We’re going to do our best to find this killer, to make sure the paranormal world knows that we’re doing our best to be good witches.”
Kaillie looked a little bit happier at our conviction. “I hope we can do it.”
“We can do it,” I replied firmly. “We’ve done it twice before. There’s no reason why we can’t do it a third time.”
“Believing you can do it is the first step,” Leanne said. “I’m with Eliza. We’ve got this. It might not be instant, but we will get there. If we speak to Peter tomorrow, we’ll tell you what he says straight away.”
Kaillie nodded, looking even more relieved, and started actually eating her food instead of just picking at it. I wasn’t going to let my cousin down. I was going to do everything I could to make sure we found Barry Blackburn’s killer and made sure he was brought to justice.
Before we had a chance to speak further, though, a little black dot darted through the door.
“Cleo?” I said, and my cat stopped. It took a lot of effort not to burst out laughing when I saw her. Cleo was covered – and I mean covered – in the little tiny prickly parts of a plant that were all over the place here in Washington. I wasn’t entirely sure what they were called, but I’d found them once or twice on my socks.
“Cleo, are you in pain?”
“No, why would you ask that?”
“Because those things on you are prickles.”
“Well, these are just my new natural defense system. I totally mean to have them on me, and it’s not at all because I accidentally walked through a bush full of them.”
“Oh, of course, I didn’t mean to imply you would ever do something like that by accident,” I said, hiding a smile and playing along. “But your new defense mechanism is going to get all over the house, so you can’t keep them.”
“Well, I don’t trust you to pick them off me,” Cleo replied.
“That’s ok, you don’t have to. Kaillie will be nice enough to get rid of them with magic.”
“Fine,” Cleo agreed, and I looked at my cousin.
“Do you mind casting a spell to get those things off her?”
“The cockleburs? Sure, no problem.” Kaillie whipped out her wand and pointed it at my cat. “Saturn, god of wealth, remove these cockleburs from the cat to make her herself.”
The burs immediately disappeared, and Cleo was back to normal. She immediately sat down and began cleaning herself.
“There we go,” I said. “Much better.”
“I personally liked my plate of armor.”
“I’m sure you did. So how did your travels into the world outside go?”
“Unfortunately, most of my subjects were unwilling to recognize my natural authority over them.”
“You don’t say,” I replied, raising my eyebrows.
“It was strange. I suppose they’ve never had a ruler like me, so it will take some time for them to get used to it.”
“Yes, that’s definitely the problem.”
“But, if I believe in myself, then there will come a day when everyone else will have no choice but to believe in me, too.”
Wow, Cleo was really taking the lessons of that movie to heart.
“That’s a very good lesson. You do always have to believe in yourself.”
“Exactly. That’s why tomorrow, when you’re at work, I want to go out and explore again.”
I sighed. I hadn’t exactly expected that response.
Chapter 11
“Do you think Cleo is going to be ok?” I asked Leanne the next day. It wasn’t that I thought Leanne had all the answers; I just needed reassurance.
I had been torn when Cleo asked to go back outside. On the one hand, I wanted
my familiar to be happy, and this was obviously something she wanted to do. On the other, I knew she was just a simple house cat, and one who had almost drowned after trying to catch fish in the ocean, no less.
I had set out some more ground rules before letting her out that morning: no going near the water, no going near dogs, and no going near cars. There were no bobcats or coyotes on the island, so apart from dogs there were no real predators she had to worry about, but that didn’t stop me from being concerned for her all the same.
“She’ll be fine,” Leanne replied. “Don’t worry.”
I sighed. “I hope you’re right.”
I did tell Cleo that if at any point she was in trouble or wanted to go home that she just had to come to the coffee shop, so my eyes kept darting to the front door to see if my cat had given up on her plan to control the entire animal kingdom on Enchanted Enclave. But so far, no sign of her. Either she was in trouble or she was having the time of her life, and I really hoped for the latter.
“Swap spots with me,” Leanne said quickly as a new customer came through the door a little after eleven in the morning, just as we had a little bit of a lull. The two of us changed spots and I took over at the coffee machine, waiting for the next order, while Leanne greeted the man who had just walked in.
His hair was a dirty blond, and he had a relaxed air about him. He wore a simple polo shirt and slacks and had a warm smile, which he flashed at Leanne.
“Good morning, how’s it going today?”
“Great, thanks, Peter,” Leanne replied. “How about you?” That explained it; this was Peter Toole.
“Oh, you know. Things have been better.”
“I heard you and Barry were business partners,” Leanne said sympathetically, and Peter nodded.
“We were. Not on the hotel project – I knew that was going to get heat right from the start, and I didn’t want to get involved in that – but we’ve built a few residential buildings together. The new Blue Lagoon complex not far from Orca Beach, for example. Barry and I built that together a couple of years ago. It’s quite sad, really. He came to me for financing. He wanted to be partners on the resort, but I couldn’t do it. I love the lifestyle in this place, and it was obvious Barry’s plan was going to result in that being taken away.”
A Cauldron of Hot Coffee: Enchanted Enclave Mysteries Books 1-3 Page 36