by Amy Boyles
Milly shot me a look. “Tell her.”
As I retold my story, I watched as Caroline’s cat kept a close eye on Polly. I wondered what that whole thing was about, but quickly put it out of my mind as I started getting to the good part of the night.
“I know you lied to us,” I said to Caroline. “You gave Maisie your old sheets with spells on them. I saw them. They were right in front of me with your name scribbled on the back.”
Caroline ignored me. Instead she stroked her cat and said, “Tell me about what visited you.”
“A tornado of dark magic,” I said.
“And how do you think that tornado came to Maisie’s house?” Caroline said.
I quirked a brow and did my best to look intimidating, though I probably mainly managed to just look weird and tired. “I think someone cast that spell to come while Roman and I were in the house.”
Caroline inspected her fingernails. “And who do you think cast this spell?”
I smacked my lips. “I think you might’ve had something to do with it.”
Caroline threw her head back and laughed. “Let me show you something. Wait here.”
She rose from the couch, the cat staying on her like white on rice as she left the room.
“How’s that coffee?” I said to Milly.
Milly grinned. “Delicious.”
“You think it’s safe?”
She shrugged. “About as safe as anything.”
Caroline reentered the room holding what looked like a scrapbook. “I didn’t put two and two together until you said something.”
“What do you mean?” I said.
Caroline lowered herself back onto the couch, curling her legs beneath her. “I’ve kept this for ages, collecting rituals for years. Some I’ve used; some I haven’t. But basically it’s mine. Always has been and always will be.”
Milly snorted. “You expect us to believe that you’ve kept these spells and never used most of them. I take it these are dark, mysterious spells the likes of which would make your hair curl.”
Caroline nodded. “Believe what you want. I’ve been collecting them for my own knowledge, not to share with others.”
I sniffed. “And that cat you have there is all good; am I supposed to believe that?”
Caroline shrugged. “I don’t care what you believe. I’m not trying to please you. Only help you. Look, you’re the ones who appeared on my doorstep saying you were attacked. I’m trying to fill you in on what I know.”
Her cat jumped off the couch and sashayed back and forth, glaring at Polly. The wooden parrot paid no attention to the cat as her tail swished.
“What is it you do know?” I said.
Caroline opened the scrapbook. Right in the center, several pages had been ripped from the binding. “What I’m telling you is that those were once in here, but they aren’t anymore. Disappeared a few weeks ago. I haven’t been able to locate them, but you’ve just told me what happened.”
Milly frowned. “Those pages were stolen.”
Caroline nodded. “They were stolen, and whoever took them either gave them to Maisie or left them in her house. Apparently they wanted them back, hence the tornado.”
I frowned. “So it’s possible Maisie knew how to work the balloon spell?”
Caroline nodded. “Yes. Someone may have shown her my pages. Perhaps they went to her house to do the preliminary work on the spell and left the pages in her room.”
I narrowed my gaze. “So Maisie could find them? That makes no sense.”
Caroline shrugged. “I’ve heard of stranger things. Sometimes if a person wants to scare another, they leave a warning. That could’ve been it. I don’t know. I didn’t have a chance to speak to Maisie at the shower. But what I do know is with that tornado, the guilty party is trying to cover their tracks.”
I thought about it for a moment. “That tornado was dangerous.”
Caroline nodded. “Exactly. I think someone’s trying to kill you, too.”
ELEVEN
At that moment, the cat launched itself at Polly. The parrot fluttered into the air, leaving Milly’s shoulder exposed for the cat.
Milly, for what it’s worth, moved like lightning. She raised her hand, suspending the cat in air.
Caroline glared at my grandmother. “I would appreciate it if you left.”
Milly snorted. “You don’t have to ask me twice, toots.”
We left, stepping outside into a warm sun and chilly air. “What do you think’s going on?” I said.
“Wait,” Milly said. She tweaked her nose, and a second later we were back in the motel room. My head swam from vertigo, and I paused, giving myself time to get my equilibrium to be, well, equal again.
“I’m not sure what I think is going on,” Milly said. “From what it sounds like, someone stole the papers, gave them to Maisie and took them back.”
“If someone even stole them to begin with,” I said. “Caroline could be lying.”
Milly yanked a hair on her chin. “Could be. Could not be. The only way to know for sure is to find those papers.”
“How are we going to find them?” I said.
“Do we even want to?” Milly said. “They clearly hold very dark magic. Not the sort of thing you want to deal with.”
“Hmm,” I said. “Why don’t we head over to the jail and see how it’s going. Maybe the police will decide to release Sera since their evidence is flimsy, at best. We can discuss it with the family, see what they think.”
“Good idea,” Milly said.
“Can you leave Polly here? He’s not exactly something I want people to see you walking around with.”
Milly deposited Polly on the bed and rose. “Hang on, toots.”
She raised her hand. A silvery mist shrouded me. I felt myself thin and shrink. A moment later we stood in front of the jail. Grandma, Sera and Reid stood on the steps with Roman. Brock had his arm wrapped around Sera.
Whatever was bothering their relationship must’ve taken a back seat—at least for a few moments.
I clapped and jumped. “You’re out! What happened?”
Brock nodded. “They never officially charged her. The sheriff brought her in under suspicion of murder, but nothing formal was filed, so they released her.”
“Thank goodness,” I said. A crinkle of worry lined Sera’s face. “Everything go okay?”
Sera rubbed her arms. “As well as can be expected, but I still think they believe I’m guilty.”
I cringed. “So what are we going to do about it?”
Roman grazed his knuckles over his jaw. “We need to discuss everything we know and see if anyone’s got a lead we haven’t thought about.”
I nodded. “Sounds good.”
Brock nodded. “I’ll take the ladies in my vehicle.”
Roman slid his sunglasses over his eyes. “Great. That gives me time to talk a few things over with Dylan.”
I did a double take. “What? What do we need to discuss?”
“Things,” he ground out.
I clamped my lips together, worried. As soon as he got in the SUV, he turned to me.
“I called Daisy’s husband this morning.”
That was awesome. I swear, sometimes Roman was the closest living being to Superman. “Have I told you how handsome you are?”
Roman chuckled. “Never.”
“Well, you are about as handsome as they get.” Which was true, but he was even more so since he’d already followed up on the husband.
“Thank you,” he said.
My fingers twitched as I itched to know what he’d discovered. “Okay, I can’t take it any longer. What’d you find out?”
Roman tipped his head toward me. “I found out he’s here in town, staying at the same motel we are.”
“You’re kidding,” I said.
Roman turned the wheel, and we nosed down a new street. “Nope. I also convinced him to talk to us.”
“How’d you manage that?”
“That’s
the interesting part. All I did was introduce myself and Scott was ready to talk.”
I quirked a brow. “Scott? Out of all the supernatural names we’ve heard in the past day, that’s about the most bland one.”
Roman smiled. “Yeah, but this guy is going to be the farthest thing from bland that we’ve encountered.”
“Now how could he possibly beat a leprechaun?”
Roman chuckled. “That’s true. He probably won’t.”
He steered the vehicle back toward the motel. “So we’re going to talk to him right now?”
He nodded. “Yep. I’ve got a feeling we’re both going to want to hear what he’s got to say.”
I clicked my seat belt off as Roman slid into a spot. “Great. Let’s go.”
Roman killed the engine, and we got out. The earlier sun was quickly being covered in a sheet of gray clouds.
“What is it with this town?” I said, shivering. “Sunny one minute, depressing the next.”
Roman slipped his hand into mine. “Come on. Let’s see if this guy has any information that might be of help.”
Roman knuckled the door of number 3. I heard the chain slide, the lock unbolt and the knob rattle as it opened.
A small man wearing round glasses with mussed brown hair and wrinkled clothing answered the door.
“You the policeman I spoke to earlier?” he said.
Roman nodded. “That’s me. This is my associate, Dylan Apel.”
That Roman called me his associate left me speechless. I fumbled for a word until finally, “Hey,” ejected from my mouth.
“Come in,” he said, nervously ushering us inside.
He was a squirrelly man, not at all what I expected of Daisy’s husband. His gestures were quick, birdlike, and I noticed the curtains were drawn as if he was hiding out.
“Scott,” he said, introducing himself. “Am I under arrest?”
Roman paused. I figured he wanted an answer that would get the most out of Scott, but he didn’t want to scare him.
“Why don’t you tell me why I’m here,” Roman said.
“Listen, when the deal was made, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. It seemed like a good idea at the time; I didn’t know what else would happen. I thought it would be simple, and all of it done quickly. But there’s been more, much more that I didn’t expect.”
“Like what?” Roman said.
Scott shook his head. “I can’t talk about it.”
Then why were we here? I shot Roman a look.
“Listen, Scott, we’re here to talk to you about your wife, Daisy. You know her sister wound up dead yesterday.”
Scott nodded. “I know. That’s what I’ve been telling you.” He rubbed his hair, messing it up even more. He sighed and sank onto the unmade bed. “Daisy and I struck the deal. She wanted a baby so badly that she’d do anything for it, and the leprechaun made the pregnancy happen. Or someone did, but then things started to go wrong. Bad things began happening. It was like having that one good thing brought on a swell of bad things. At first we didn’t notice it. Just little things would go wrong, like a lightbulb would go out, but then we started getting flat tires. But then one night this tornado thing showed up. I was scared to death. Haven’t been back to the house since.”
I shot Roman a look. Sounded like the exact thing we’d seen.
“Where do you think it came from?” Roman said.
Scott dropped his face in his hands. “I think we called it. We fooled around with that stupid Walter Scales, and he made it happen.”
“But she’s a witch,” I said. “Couldn’t she have just helped herself along?”
Scott shook his head. “She tried. We ate every good herb in the book, even infused them with positive thoughts, but nothing worked until we saw him. Then she became pregnant almost immediately. And now this has happened. Whatever we brought to help us killed Maisie. I told her we shouldn’t have messed around with forces we didn’t understand, but Daisy wouldn’t listen to me. The baby’s going to be here in a few weeks and we’re not even talking.”
I rocked back. He didn’t know that there wasn’t a baby. And did this mystery have anything to do with Maisie’s death, or was it pure coincidence?
Or were we falling down a rabbit hole that wouldn’t lead anywhere? Clearly Scott was hiding out because he feared for his life, but what did that have to do with Maisie?
Roman ran a thumb over his jaw. “What can you tell us about Maisie? We know she died, but we don’t believe it was an accident. In fact, we found incantation rituals at her house. Do you know where they came from?”
Scott shook his head. “No. Unless somehow she was working with Walter.”
Roman sighed. “Scott, I’m going to tell you something that’s going to be hard to understand, but whatever Walter Scales did, he didn’t make Daisy pregnant.”
Scott frowned. “What?”
I nodded. “Walter Scales confirmed it. Daisy isn’t with child.”
Scott crumpled on the bed. “How can that be?”
I crossed to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “It’s the truth. I don’t know what happened when you went to see Walter. Either he’s a phony or he played you. There’s no baby. She is growing, but not because of pregnancy.”
Scott raked his fingers down his face. “No baby? But I saw pictures—the ultrasound.”
“Magic,” Roman said. “I believe Daisy was magically induced to appear pregnant; that’s why her belly has swollen, but according to Walter, who we saw, there is no child.”
Scott was silent for several minutes. I shot furtive glances to Roman, unsure of exactly what to do. We waited patiently; the only sound in the room was the television turned down low.
After a time Scott finally broke the silence. “So what does this mean?”
Roman shrugged. “You tell me. You’re telling me there’s some kind of power trying to get you. Incantations were stolen from Maisie’s house; you and your wife went to see Walter Scales to become pregnant. There’s definitely something rotten in Normal. I’m just not sure where or who it’s coming from.”
Scott rubbed the heels of his hands in his eyes. He released a thick shot of air, grabbed a tissue and dabbed his eyes.
“I didn’t go see Walter Scales with Daisy; that was all her doing.”
I frowned. “It was?”
Scott nodded. “She’d seen him before we ever arrived in Normal, without me.”
“But why did she go alone?” I said.
Scott shook his head. “She didn’t go alone. Not at all. Not to see someone like him, a man who delves in the darker side of life. She’d never go by herself. I wouldn’t have allowed it.” He rubbed his scalp. “In fact, I wanted to go with her, but she said that only one person could take her.”
Roman shot me a look. “Who was the one person who could do that?”
Scott shrugged. “The person who introduced her to him to begin with. See, the way the leprechaun works is that the person who tells you about him and his magic is the one who’s supposed to be the bridge, or go-between, at the initial meeting.”
“So who was it? Who was the person who was the go-between?” I said.
Scott’s lips dipped into a frown. “Haven’t you guessed?”
I shook my head. “No. Not at all.”
Scott cracked his knuckles nervously. His gaze flickered from me to Roman. “Why, the person who took my wife to meet Walter was the one person who knew her best: Maisie, her sister.”
TWELVE
You could’ve pushed me over with a feather duster. “Maisie took Daisy to meet Walter?”
Scott nodded. “Yep. That’s who introduced that scavenger into our lives.”
Roman pressed the flat of his hand to his belly. “Thank you for your time, Scott. If we need anything else, I’ll be sure to call you.”
Scott gave us a weak wave, and we left.
As soon as we got in the car, I turned to Roman. “Well, no one told us that.”
He
jabbed the keys in the ignition and cranked the engine. “Yep. Go figure everyone forgets to leave out that one tiny detail.”
I folded my hands and plopped them onto my lap. “So where do we go now?”
He cocked a brow at me. “Care to guess?”
“I’m pretty sure I’ve got this one. We’re going to talk to Daisy and find out exactly what’s going on.”
Roman clicked his tongue. “You’re one thousand percent right.”
So there we were, on a Sunday morning, driving back through Normal to bother a woman who’d just lost her sister.
We passed one of the funeral homes in town and noticed several cars out front.
“How much you want to bet Daisy’s in there making arrangements?” Roman said.
I grimaced. “Should we be bothering her? She is in mourning.”
Roman’s jaw clenched. “She’s going around letting everyone think she’s pregnant when she’s really not. How many gifts do you think she received yesterday?”
I shrugged. “Good point.”
Roman nosed into the parking lot. “I think I should do this by myself,” I said. “You know, woman to woman. Besides, if I can get her alone in the washroom, maybe I’ll have a shot at getting the information out of her.”
“In a bathroom?” Roman said, his tone full of amusement.
“Hey,” I said defensively, “you never know when you’re going to get lucky.”
“I’m going to ignore that you said that because it’s weird,” he said.
I playfully cuffed him on the shoulder and slinked from the SUV. I entered the funeral home and was greeted by a kindly older gentleman.
“Can I help you?”
“Oh yes—I mean, no, I’m just looking around.”
His eyebrows shot up. “At a funeral home?”
I had contemplated saying I was here to see Daisy, but I figured they wouldn’t let me just barge in while the family was making arrangements. So instead I decided to play it coy.
I cleared my throat. “Yes, I wanted to peruse your display of caskets. You know, for the future. In case I ever need one, I want to be able to tell my family exactly what to get me.”
He folded his withered hands. “Are you terminal?”