“Jenny.” She crossed her arms. “And I sure hope you are.”
“I assure you that I know how to do my job.” Brigs met her gaze. “And I think it’s best if you let me do it.”
I put a hand on Jenny’s shoulder. “It’s okay.”
She stepped back to let the officer by. We all watched him get into his cruiser and then leave the scene.
I looked at Trace. “So, Duo is our guy for sure. We saw him with the dogs. But Jenny and I have spent all afternoon trying to find a way to track him, and here’s what we came up with.”
I pulled up the map on my phone. “These are the people who lost animals in a similar fashion. We contacted this guy here, and he said he’d meet me tomorrow to talk about it. The public social media post he made said that to get his dog back, it cost him a hat, one that was supposed to be magical.”
“Like we learned though, it’s not the hat that’s magical, it’s the person.” Trace added on. “So why does he want a magical hat?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m hoping that after talking to this guy, we’ll know.”
“I found something interesting about your window.” Trace motioned to inside the store.
Jenny and I followed him, and I looked down at the ground when Trace pointed.
“Notice something missing?”
I nodded. I hadn’t seen it before because I was in such shock. “There’s no glass on this side.”
“There were very few pieces, most of the glass was on the outside of the building. Which meant that the body was thrown from the inside.”
A chill went through me. “How did someone get into my shop?”
“The doors were locked, your security system set.” Trace noted. “So they were either hiding in here, which there are not many places to hide.”
“Or they were able to get in with magic.” This from Jenny.
I looked over the destruction of the shop. “Who knows how they did that. I won’t know until I clean up this mess.”
“Probably should get to it then?” Trace asked. “I’m done for the night, so I can help.”
I nodded and then stepped out of the shop for a minute. There, across the street, was a truck, and inside it, Moses was watching us. “I’ll be right back.”
“Be careful,” Jenny called after me. I looked over my shoulder to see her and Trace standing there with worried looks on their faces. I knew what I was doing.
I hoped.
I got to the truck, and Moses rolled the window down without me asking. “What can I do for ya?”
“A couple things actually. I need someone to help us clean up the mess in the shop. I can pay you some for your work, provide you dinner, and if you want, you can sleep in the shop.”
He seemed to think about it for a moment. “Not worried that I’m going to steal from you?”
“Not much to steal. Some petty cash if you can get into the safe. Everything worth money has been destroyed. Not much of a loss on my end. You give me honest work, I pay you for that work. What do you say?”
He looked me up and down. “I’m not cheap labor.”
“I’ll pay you twice minimum wage, no taxes. Help you out a little bit, and it’ll help me out.” I had the money in savings to pay him for a few eight-hour days. Cooking for him wasn’t an issue either. “Cold front’s coming in this week.”
He snorted. “Is this to help your Christmas cheer?”
“Dude, my Christmas cheer is long gone. Someone dropped a dead body in my shop, destroyed my livelyhood, and is making me miss at least a week of business.”
He laughed. “Sounds like a rough week. Let me go park my truck ‘round back, and I’ll be at the shop in a few.”
I stepped back and hoped I wasn’t making a mistake. He pulled off in the truck, and I walked back to the shop. “Okay, he’s going to help, and it gives me a bit of peace knowing that someone else will be in the store when I’m not.”
“You offered it to him as a place to stay?”
“Yep. And he agreed. If he takes off with the petty cash from the safe, then oh well. If he doesn’t, then maybe he really is a good guy.” I looked as Moses walked into the shop. I smiled at him. “Welcome to the mess.”
He looked around. “You weren’t kidding.”
“Nope. Whoever did this destroyed everything.” I didn’t almost choke on my words this time.
He was silent as he looked around. “This is doable. With all four of us, it should only take a couple days to clear it out. I have carpentry experience if you want me to help rebuild some things.”
That was more than I was expecting. “I’ll let you know. Right now, I want to focus on getting stuff cleaned up.”
“We’ll start tomorrow since most of this stuff has to be hauled away. You’ll need to call a dumpster.” He smiled at me. “Now, about that hot meal.”
I got Moses his warm meal and left him alone in the shop before Jenny and I headed back to my house. She was silent on the drive home, and when we got to my house, she gave me a big hug. “I’ll check in with you tomorrow. Take care and be safe.”
“Thanks.” I squeezed her. “I think tomorrow all I’m going to do is work on the shop after I meet with the guy.”
She nodded. “Take Trace with you to the meeting. I’d feel better if someone was with you.”
“Yes, mom.” I snorted and let her go. I watched her get into her car and drive off. I let myself into the house and went through the motions of getting ready for bed.
But I didn’t want to sleep. I wanted to find out how someone got in my shop and managed to have a body with them without my security cameras going off. I sat down at the computer.
I pulled up the security system’s cloud drive and started going through footage. The store was calm and quiet. Nothing stirred, no shadow, nothing. I waited for anything to happen in the quiet.
The screens crackled and went dark as I heard the sound of things breaking and shattering, then nothing.
I assumed that was the point when the cameras broke. I rewound the footage and slowed it down so I could see frame by frame what happened. Nothing showed. Which left only one option.
Magic.
I texted Trace. “Footage of the shop showed nothing. Has to be magic.”
The response I got was, “Stay out of the murder case, Lacey. We have dogs to find.”
I made a grumpy noise that I knew he couldn’t hear, but it made me feel better anyway. I closed out the security footage and went to the website to order the dumpster for tomorrow.
The human police force hadn’t really figured out how to work with magical crimes yet, so this was probably going to end in a cold case.
The woman wouldn’t get justice, and the little boy would be kept wondering what happened to his mother.
I hoped wherever he ended up was a good place because everything seemed to be pointing to something suspicious.
My phone dinged, and I looked to see Jackson’s number on the screen. I made a disgusted noise as I read the message.
“Coming into town, we should hang out.”
I didn’t even justify him with a response. Hang out my ass. I didn’t even want him next to my shop.
I ordered the dumpster and then went to work on making a list of stuff that was going to need to be done tomorrow. Clean out the store, contact insurance, buy new security cameras… it went on.
I looked at Copperfield. “You’re lucky you’re a bunny.”
He just twitched his nose at me and snuggled under his blanket.
I rolled my eyes at him and went back to my list.
Once I finished the list, I crawled into bed. Tomorrow would be a better day. I hoped.
CHAPTER SEVEN
I pulled up to the shop the next morning to see the door wide open. My heart fell. Did Moses decide to take off? Did he manage to get into the safe? I slowly walked in to find Moses sitting there, munching on the leftovers of his meal from the night before. Relief filled me.
I held up
the bag of fast food breakfast I had brought back. “Sorry, it’s not much, but I was eager to get the day going.”
He smiled. “Thanks. I opened the door to let in some more light. Most of your light bulbs are broken, so there’s not much to go off of right now.”
“Yeah, I put those on the list for today.” I cleared a spot with my foot and sat down across from him. “So, what’s your story, Moses?”
He chuckled. “I don’t have a story. Me and my dog lost the house due to some uncontrollable events that started with a bad marriage and ended with homelessness. Someone stole my dog when I was at the homeless camp down by the creek, and now I sleep in my truck.” He paused. “Well, now I sleep in your shop, but you get the gist.”
“I saw you at the Humane Society looking for your dog. The lady said it’d been a couple months?”
He nodded. “I have no doubt someone in the homeless community took him and is using him to gain sympathy while panhandling. What they don’t realize is that dog was my last friend, and I miss him terribly.” There was a sadness in his voice that I couldn’t place.
“The lady said you were working on getting back on your feet.”
“I am. I’ve come a long way. I earn money with odd jobs here and there. Occasionally I’m short on cash, so I do have to beg on the street.” He sounded ashamed of himself. “You know we’re not all druggies and assholes.”
“Is Duo one?”
“That man is a special breed. He’s not right in the head.” Moses shook his head. “Now Slate, he’s a vagabond. He looks for a warm place where he can find it. This month he’s here in Colorado, next month he’ll be in Utah.”
I nodded and took a bit of my breakfast sandwich. “The dumpster should be dropped off soon, so we can get to work. I appreciate the help.”
“I appreciate you offering me a job.” He took a few bites. “Not many people give a man like me a chance.”
“As long as you don’t screw me over, I’m happy to give you a good reference to help you out later.”
He was about to say something when Nooccar came running into the door. Moses nearly jumped out of his skin.
“What is that?”
Nooccar paused in his steps and then scurried to me. “This is Nooccar. I accidentally summoned him from a hat.” I scratched the reversed raccoon’s head. “He’s harmless.”
“He’s a giant rodent.” Moses eyed it. “They carry diseases and lice.”
“Not Nooccar, he’s had his shots and his check-ups. I promise.” Nooccar ran up to Moses and sniffed him before running off.
Moses relaxed. “Do you often have animals scurrying in and out of your shop like you’re some type of fairy princess?”
“Only Nooccar and Copperfield are typically in here. I once summoned over a dozen rabbits to save me from a psychopath.”
He raised a brow. “And here I thought I met interesting people on the streets.”
“Well, I’m a bit quirky when it comes to my magic.” I finished my sandwich.
Moses finished his sandwich, and we put the trash in the bag. A shadow blocked the light from the door, and I looked up to see a truck delivering the dumpster.
I went out to greet the guys and make sure we didn’t block too many parking spots and that we put enough cones around to warn people.
Trace had already beaten me out there. “Aren’t you supposed to be at a meeting?”
“I have a little bit. I came by early to talk to Moses and get him breakfast. Now that the dumpster is here, I’m going to head out. Want to come?”
Trace nodded. “Sure thing, I’ll drive.” He grinned. “Meet me around back.”
I went back inside for a moment. “Moses, the dumpster is outside, really no need to keep anything that’s broken. If it doesn’t look broken, leave it to the side, and I’ll take a look. I have a meeting to go to, but I’ll be back in about an hour or so.”
He gave me a little wave. “Good luck. I’ll be here.”
I ran out of the shop and to the back of the building to find Trace leaning on his truck. “Ready?”
“I hope that you aren’t making a mistake with trusting Moses.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think I am. Just say I have a feeling about it. Now, let’s go. I’d like to get these dogs back to the family before Christmas, and time’s a tickin’.”
“Feeling cocky about the situation?”
“Maybe I’m just in a good mood and filled with Christmas Spirit. If I can’t have a good Christmas, maybe I can make it better for someone else.”
Trace laughed. “Okay, my little elf, let’s go see a man about a dog.”
I rolled my eyes as we got in the truck, and he drove out of the parking lot.
The coffee shop wasn’t that far away from my store, so the drive only took a couple of minutes. I looked around to find the guy I’d messaged. He sat at a table, his hand wrapped around a steaming mug. He looked up and met my gaze.
The funny thing about social media profile pictures is you’re never sure if they are actually going to match the person or not. He looked pretty much like his photo though, a bit scruffy, but bright eyes.
Trace and I walked up and sat down with him. “Hi, I’m Lacey Willows, and this is Trace. We’re currently working on a case that includes two missing dogs. The situation was similar to what happened with your dog.”
“Oh, you mean the dogs got out, and some homeless person took them for ransom?” He sounded like he was still angry about it. Not that I could really blame him on that.
I nodded and held my phone out to him. I had snagged a screenshot of Duo from the news report the night before. “This the guy?”
He studied it closely and then nodded. “Yeah, he wanted a magical hat for the ransom. I gave it to him and then took my dogs. He messaged me all pissed off because he said the hat wasn’t magical.”
Trace held a hand up. “He messaged you?”
“Yeah, we had some help hunting down his real name, and I found him on social media. I messaged him and must have caught him on a good day. I don’t know what he was talking about with the hat, because I bought it from a magic shop as a gag gift. The person at the shop told me that it’s only magical for the people who hold the talent. Other than that, it’s not much good except for parlor tricks.”
I nodded. “That would be correct. Do you think that you can send me a link to his profile?”
“Yeah, I still have it somewhere. I hope this guy gets caught on dog-napping charges or something.” He shook his head. “Anything else I can help you with?” He pulled out his phone and started scrolling through.
I looked at Trace, who shook his head. “No, actually, that’s a ton of information. Thank you so much.”
A moment later, my messenger dinged, and I looked at my phone for a moment to realize the guy had sent me the link to Duo. “Thank you.” I said again.
He stood and grabbed his drink. “Of course, thanks for reaching out to me. I hope you guys get him and get the dogs returned.”
Me too. I gave him a little wave as he walked out of the shop, and I looked at Trace. “We have a name.” I pulled up the profile and showed it to him.
“Which isn’t much without a location, but maybe we can message him too and ask him to meet with us.”
I wrinkled my nose as I poked through the profile a little bit. At first glance, I didn’t see much. “We’re going to need a magic hat, I bet. That’s what he was after when he came to the shop.”
“Can you order a hat quickly?”
I grinned. “I know where we can find a hat.”
“The flower shop?”
I nodded. “Yep.” I stood up. “Let’s go. I’d like to get back to my store and make some progress today.”
“Jenny coming down?”
“After she works, I think so.”
“It’ll go faster with all of us working.” Trace got in the truck and started it. I climbed in and buckled up.
“Let’s swing by the flower shop, and t
hen we can get back to Parlor Tricks.”
He nodded and started in the direction of the shop. “All of this for a magic hat? What on earth could this guy be trying to pull out of it?”
“Well, at the flower shop, he tried to pull out dog poop.” I snorted. “That’s not exactly what most people typically want to pull out of the hat.”
“What are some things?”
“Money, mostly is what I’ve been asked. But I’ve seen people try and pull their drugs out of a hat. That doesn’t typically end well at all though. Food is another one. Kind of like me and the cake at the flower shop.” I laughed. “As for parlor tricks, rabbits, doves, that kind of thing.”
He smiled. “You should pull out some cake, good cake.”
“Actually, my mom made a pretty good cake the other day, or rather, my dad did. It was great. I have the cupcakes at home.”
“You’re holding out on me.”
“No, my mother surprised us and came to the house with them.” I shook my head. “She didn’t know that my dad had used magic to fix it.”
“What did he do to it?”
“Turned it strawberry, but it was still good.”
He snickered. “Okay, so no cakes out of hats.” He turned down the road to get to the flower shop.
He parked, and we both went in and saw Anne at the counter. She looked at us. “And here I thought that I was done with you people.”
I raised a brow. “Wow, I just wanted to know if you still had that hat.”
She paused for a moment. “Yeah, I do actually. I wasn’t sure what to do with it. It’s a nice hat. I was thinking about washing it and using it for something in the shop.”
“Can I have it?” I tried to sound as casual as I could.
She eyed me for a moment. “Why do you want it?”
“Honestly, to see if I could use it to bribe the man to give back the dogs.”
She glanced at Trace, who nodded. “Apparently, he has a history of holding pets ransom for magical hats.”
“Sure. I mean, if it helps that family get their dogs back.” She reached down and grabbed a bag. Inside was the seemingly innocent hat.
Walking Through Walls Page 7