My phone dinged again, and I looked at the screen to read Duo’s message.
“I have a warrant out for me. I don’t want cops involved.”
I hadn’t planned on involving the cops. Honestly, at this point, I just wanted the dogs back. “No cops, just want to trade the dogs for the hat. Think we can do that?”
“Give me a day, I’ll give you a date and time. Right now, I’m up in Denver.”
Denver was about a two-hour drive away, I wasn’t going to question if he biked up there or not. “Okay.” Was what I wrote back.
If I didn’t hear from him tomorrow, I’d message him again and hope that he answered and wasn’t going to run off with the dogs.
CHAPTER NINE
I got to the store the next day to see Moses already hard at work before I could deliver him the breakfast that I had made. He brushed his hands off when I got to him, and I handed him the container of food.
“Early start?”
“It’s supposed to snow more today. I wanted to make sure I got a good start. Most of the broken shelves are cleared out of the main area, and I’ve bagged up a lot of the broken product to throw out as well.”
“Did you sleep well? Sorry I don’t have a cot or anything in the store.” I walked in and looked at all the progress that had been made. It was looking more and more like an empty store and less like a crime scene.
“Excuse me, Ms. Willows?” Officer Brig’s voice broke my thoughts.
I turned around to find him standing in the doorway. “Good morning Officer, can I help you with something?”
“I was hoping to speak to you for a moment about the murder?”
I hadn’t been aware that it was officially a murder. At the start of the case, I had just assumed that it was. “Of course, I’ll step out for a few minutes. Moses, I’ll be back.”
Moses gave me a little wave as I walked out. Officer Brigs pulled out a note pad. “The woman’s name was Rose. She was married to a man who goes by the name of Salazar a few years ago. She divorced him and disappeared from his life, starting a new life here.”
I tried to keep my face blank. “I told you that Salazar threatened me and told me that he left me a present.”
“The problem is, Ms. Willow, how did Salazar get into your store without a key?”
I swallowed. “I don’t know. I wasn’t here, so I can’t tell you.”
“Do you know anyone who can vouch for you?” He closed his notebooks. “Because right now, you look like you could be an accomplice in this.”
I stared at him. “Excuse me, what?”
“You know our primary suspect, he was able to get into your shop without a key and without forced entry,” He ticked off a finger with each reason, “and you knew the victim.”
I held a hand up. “Hold on right there. I didn’t know her personally. A PI came here and asked me if I’d seen her because the PI had heard that the woman was in my shop. As for how Salazar got in my shop? I don’t know. Maybe he walked through the damn wall.” My words trailed off. “Oh, no. Oh, hell, no.”
“You’ve thought of something?” Office Brigs asked.
“Yes. The missing dogs case we’re working on, the man we think has the dogs claimed he could walk through walls. But his mentor was supposedly Salazar. There’s a picture on social media with him waiting in the wings.”
“What is your connection to Salazar?”
“I caught him in connection with one of Trace’s cases. He was after me in a clothing store, and I well, I subdued him with a bunch of rabbits.”
Brigs blinked at me. “A bunch of rabbits?”
“Out of hats,” Trace added as he walked up. “Sorry to barge into the conversation. I can vouch for Lacey’s whereabouts that night, and I can also tell you that there is no way that she would team up with that sleaze bucket.”
“I’ve looked into Salazar’s record, there was no mention of rabbits.” Brigs raised a brow.
“You know, it’s not really my finest moment. But it worked.” I shrugged. “I’d like to get back to my shop now. Maybe once I clean up the mess, I’ll be able to figure out how Salazar was able to get in.” I turned away from him. I really hoped that walking through walls wasn’t going to be a common thing. I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to protect my shop from that.
Brigs took his leave, and Trace followed me into the shop. “Wow, this is looking great.”
“Thanks,” Moses said. “It’ll be done soon.”
I nodded. “Moses has been working really hard while I’ve been trying to track down Duo.”
As if on cue, Jackson jumped into the shop. “I found our man!”
Before he could say anything else, I added, “He’s in Denver.”
Jackson’s mouth opened and closed like a fish. “How did you know that?”
“I found his social media and messaged him. Glad that you confirmed he was telling the truth, though.” I smirked. “I may be bad at magic, but I’m learning how to hunt people down on the internet real quick.”
Trace snorted. “I guess we didn’t need your services, after all.”
“I can help you out with getting the dogs back. Lacey and I can work side by side.”
“In your dreams,” I muttered and then headed toward the back area. I didn’t keep much back there, typically. There was some bigger furniture, like my desk, the safe, and a bookshelf where I kept my bookkeeping files. I grabbed a trash bag and started shoving papers into it. I had all the bookkeeping stuff digital, but I printed it out as a backup.
I picked up the broken binders and shoved them in the bag. Climbing over the desk, I slid a little bit into the wall. I put my hand on the wall to catch myself, and a shock went through me.
This wasn’t ordinary static electricity. This was magic.
Moses walked in before I could think on it further. “I wanted to talk to you about last night.”
Something in me cringed at his words. “What’s up?” I asked as I turned to face him.
“I swore I heard a noise back here, but when I came to check it out, it was empty. I wrote it off as me just being paranoid. But after I heard you and Officer Brigs talk, I’m wondering if someone wasn’t trying to come in here again.”
His words were what I needed to confirm my theory. Salazar had to have walked through walls to get in here. I turned back to the portion of the wall I had touched.
Could I use it to track down Salazar? I didn’t think it worked that way, and according to my dad, you had to have a very clear focus on where you wanted to go.
“Lacey?” Moses asked.
“Thanks for letting me know, and thanks for being here. I have a feeling if you hadn’t been around, something else would have happened to the shop.”
He didn’t say anything, but I heard his feet shuffle out of the room.
I walked back out of the office after a few more minutes of cleaning up in there. “I think as soon as Moses and I can get the big items out, all we’ll need is a good sweeping and mopping, and we’ll be able to start bringing back in shelves and such.”
Moses and Trace looked up. “That’s great news. I wasn’t expecting it to take such little time.”
The two of them looked like they were plotting something. I narrowed my eyes, trying to figure out what it was. “I need to go talk to one of the other witches at the metaphysical stores to see if she can help me protect my store from unwanted visitors.”
I looked between the two of them. “Where’s Jackson?”
“He walked off, muttering about you.” Trace shrugged. “I’m not sure what his issue is.”
I shrugged. “Okay, I’ll be back. I just have to walk down the street. I’ll reassess all the situations when I get back.”
“I’ll walk with you.” Trace stepped up. “You can fill me on your social media investigations.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
Moses cleared his throat. “Let’s lock the shop, I’m going to go to the Humane Society to check for my dog. You k
now, hoping for a Christmas miracle and everything.”
“Sure thing.”
We all walked out together, and I locked the door behind us. Moses wandered off to the back parking lot while I stood there and looked at the board that currently acted as my window.
“When can it be replaced?”
“After Christmas. I scheduled it the other night after calling insurance. I won’t be opening again until after New Year’s.” I shoved my hands into my coat pockets and headed up the road to a metaphysical shop I knew.
Trace walked with me. He didn’t say anything, and I don’t know if he just didn’t know how to comfort me, or if he just wanted to enjoy the silence. With the snow coming down, it seemed almost perfect. Our feet made almost no noise on the sidewalks, and the flakes kept getting bigger as we walked. The absence of wind made it almost tolerable to be walking around outside.
We stopped at the shop, and the little bell dinged as we walked in
The woman from behind the counter looked up from her magazine. Her hair was done in pigtail dreadlocks with streaks of bright colors in the natural black of her hair. Her dark skin was dotted with darker freckles on her face. She smiled at me when we walked in.
“Not many people out in this weather. What brings you in today, Lacey?”
“Kaz, I need a way to keep people from walking through my walls.”
She stared at me for a moment. “Have a wall problem, do you?”
“I have a wizard that left me a dead body. I want to keep him out of my shop.”
She tapped her chin and then turned away. “You have to lock his magical door.”
“I have to what?” I shook my head. “Kaz, this is me we’re talking about. I can’t lock anything magically.”
She nodded. “I know. I’ll come with you and do it.” She picked up a couple things off the shelf behind her. “Your magic doesn’t lean this way. Mine does.” She looked over her shoulder and flashed me a smile. “Your magic is much more fun than most people’s.”
Fun wasn’t really something most people called my magic. But I’d take it. “Thanks, Kaz. You rock my socks off.”
She nodded. “Yes, yes, I know, but I require payment.”
“Name the price. I need to keep Salazar out of my shop.”
“Coffee.”
Trace raised a brow. “Coffee?”
“Black with a hint of vanilla in it.” She nodded. “That should keep me warm enough.” She grabbed a coat and put it on. “Let’s go. I want to get home before the storm gets too bad.”
I shook my head. “We’re not getting a storm.”
“Mmm, not yet we aren’t, but soon. I can feel it in my bones.” We walked out of the shop with her. She locked up behind us, and we started on the short distance to my shop. “You never visit me anymore.”
“I’ve been busy. I’ve been running the shop and working with Trace.”
She chuckled. “Working with Trace.”
I glared at her. “Yes, working.”
“Yeah, that’s really all we do.” He rolled his eyes. “That, and she gifted me with this raccoon.”
“Really, I didn’t gift him to you. Nooccar chose you.” I shrugged. “At least it wasn’t a bunch of bunnies.”
He laughed. Kaz walked with us. “You two are funny.”
We got to the shop, and I unlocked it. She looked around and shook her head. “I haven’t seen this place this empty in a long time.”
“Yeah, well, Salazar destroyed all my stuff.”
She nodded. “I saw some of it on the news. Show me where you think he got in.”
Trace took a step back. “I’m going to check something in my office, you two have fun with the magic.” I wasn’t sure if he had just thought of something or if he was uncomfortable with the idea that someone else was going to be performing magic.
I walked her to the back room. I climbed over what was left of the desk, and she followed me. I put my hand up to the wall. “Right here. You can feel the aura of the magic.”
She hmmed for a moment and ran her hand over the wall. “You’re right. He has a door here. It’s connected to somewhere. Have you tried to call the door up?”
“Nope, I have no desire to get lost in limbo.” I shrugged. “Should I try?”
She shrugged. “If Salazar is on the other side, no. You can’t take him a second time with bunnies.”
She was probably right.
“I’ll get it sealed up, and he’ll stay out of the shop. I can’t do it until you get this stuff cleared, though. I need room to work.” She nodded. “I’ll do it tomorrow, before the storm gets here.”
I sighed. “I’d hate to make you work on Christmas Eve.”
“Are you going to be here?”
“Probably.” I shrugged.
“Then I don’t mind helping you out.” She patted my cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She walked out, and I stood there, staring at the wall. One more night wouldn’t hurt. Besides, now Salazar knew someone was in the shop at night.
Wait.
That meant that he could target Moses. I couldn’t leave him in the shop to be a target for Salazar.
I ran my hands over my eyes and let out a frustrated growl.
“Problems?”
I turned around to find Jackson standing there. “Go away.”
“How did you know that guy was in Denver?”
I rolled my eyes. “I already told you, I found him on social media. Unlike some people, I can’t depend on my magic to find things for me.”
He snorted. “Your magic was always bad.” He stalked toward me, and I backed into the desk.
“Go away, Jackson. You’re not welcome here.” I kept my voice even. I’d stared down scarier lately. He wasn’t going to win this.
“You see, Lacey, I wasn’t the only one looking for you. There’s this lovely PI that’s been watching you for her client. She helped me out. I’d been looking for you, and then when Trace called, I knew I had my chance to try to win you back.”
I shook my head. “You aren’t winning me back.”
He grinned. “Are you sure?” He stepped closer, and I scrambled over the desk. I could scream, and there was a chance that Trace would hear me.
Jackson jumped over the desk, trapping me against the wall. “Little Lacey’s in trouble.”
I had nothing in the shop that I could channel my magic into, except the magical doorway that was already in my wall. I focused as hard as I could on where I wanted to be. Home. Safe. And then I could call the cops on Jackson.
Jackson leaned forward. “What are you going to do, little witch?”
I took a deep breath and stepped backward, trying to keep my mind clear of any other thoughts.
Jackson disappeared, and he was replaced by a brick wall. I tried to calm my breathing and turn around. I had expected to find myself at home. But the room behind me wasn’t mine, nor was it a room I’d seen before.
My mind had been clear. I’d wanted to be home. I’d wanted to be safe. And now I was standing in a fancy study complete with a fireplace.
The picture on the mantel showed the woman who had been killed and Salazar.
My heart dropped. I’d wanted to be safe, and my magic dropped me right into enemy territory.
CHAPTER TEN
I fumbled for my phone as my heart pounded. I dialed Trace and went to hide behind the couch in case someone walked in. Part of me felt silly, but it was the only thing I could think of to give me some sense of peace.
“Lacey, I’m literally next door.”
“No, you’re not,” I whispered. “Jackson cornered me, and now I’m at Salazar’s house.” My voice cracked a little bit. “I walked through a wall.”
He was silent for a heartbeat. “You’re at Salazar’s?”
“I’m assuming it’s his. There’s a picture of him and his deceased ex.” I peeked over the couch.
Nothing stirred on the other side. There wasn’t even a light shining through the crack a
t the bottom of the door across the room. Maybe he wasn’t home.
Maybe I was safe here, and that’s why I was put here.
My magic was funny, after all.
“Do you have any idea where you are?”
“None, but you can track my phone, right? Do some fancy PI stuff and find out where I am?”
“I can, but I want you to get out of the house first. Find an exit, get to a road, and follow it to the nearest business.”
If I was still in Colorado, I was going to freeze to death, but I think I’d rather that than face Salazar again. “Okay. I’ll give you a call when I make it out of here.”
“Stay safe, stay low. Worst comes to worst, summon a rabbit.”
His joke made me feel a little bit better. I disconnected the call, and my phone vibrated before I had a chance to put it in my pocket.
My mom’s message flashed on the screen. “My magician isn’t answering my call. Any chance you can come tonight?”
I wasn’t going to answer her right this second. I shoved the phone into my pocket and crept toward the window. I didn’t have time to deal with my mother. I needed to get out of this house, and I didn’t want to risk someone being on the other side of that door.
I tried to open it but found it locked. I went to flip the latch and found that it was locked with an actual lock. Who the hell had legit window locks like that?
Someone who didn’t want people to get out.
I took a shaky breath and headed toward the door of the study. I wrapped my hand around the doorknob and slowly turned it. With little effort, the door opened. I peeked my head out, trying to look for which way to go.
The hall was empty, lined with a fancy designed carpet. There was a window at the end of the hallway. I moved forward to the window and saw that it wasn’t one that opened. I looked down and could see the snow coating the ground, growing thicker by the moment.
I needed to get home before I got snowed in and before Salazar found me. To my left were stairs, but they left any vision of the lower level blocked by a wall. I would be going down blind. I didn’t really have a choice at this moment, though.
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