by K. J. Emrick
Addie stared intently at the woman on the bed. The way she was sitting, and the way she was talking to Lucian… well. Addie knew that expression. That was the look of a woman who was much more interested in the man in the room than the women. Even the one who was supposedly her girlfriend.
She remembered what Willow had said, about how these two women didn’t seem like a couple at all. Now that Addie was here to see it for herself, she was convinced that these two weren’t girlfriends at all.
So. More lies.
“I want to ask you about something,” Lucian was saying. “You told Kiera that you saw someone running through the backyard behind Pendulum Lodge.”
“That’s right,” Dahlia said just as Christine was about to answer. “We both saw someone. That was just before Eileen began screaming and we realized something was wrong.”
Addie saw Lucian’s mind working over the details. “How well did the two of you know Eileen?” he asked.
Dahlia answered again, right over whatever Christine had been about to say. “Not well at all. Eugene invited us here. He was Danny and Eileen’s friend. I guess that would make us a friend of a friend.”
“I see.” Lucian took out a small notebook from the inside pocket of his suitcoat and began scribbling with a pen. “So. Let’s go back. The two of you said you were looking out at the backyard when you saw a man running.”
“Well,” Dahlia said, giving Christine a pointed look that told her to shut up. “We didn’t say it was a man. There was someone running but it could have been a woman. I mean, it could have been Eileen for all we know.”
“I see.” His pen scribbled a few more notes. “And you both saw him? I mean, this figure, man or woman. You both saw that person?”
“Yes,” Dahlia said. “Right Christine?”
After a moment, Christine nodded.
“Interesting, interesting.” Lucian put the notebook and pen away. “So can either of you explain to me where you were when you saw this person? Because what you told me before was that you were right here, in this room when the murder happened.”
“Of course. Isn’t that right, Christine?”
There was the briefest of hesitations before Christine nodded. It was just enough to be noticeable.
Lucian stepped past both of them, to the window, and threw the curtains aside.
The view was of the front of the lodge, with the driveway, and their cars, and the dirt access road leading away through the trees.
“That’s not the backyard,” Lucian pointed out. “Now, how did you see anyone running away from the murder, when your room faces the wrong way?”
Dahlia looked at Christine, who dropped her head until her hair hid her face.
Kiera stepped forward. “Ladies, you have been caught in your lie. Perhaps now would be the time to come clean.”
Addie felt the life force that her sister threaded through those words, using her Essence to compel the truth. It only worked when someone wanted to tell the truth anyway, but Addie had a feeling…
“We were in Eugene’s room.” Christine spit the words out, like she couldn’t help herself, and then clamped her hands over her mouth.
“Shut up!” Dahlia hissed, but it was too little, too late. One more secret in this mystery had been revealed.
“Why don’t you let Christine talk,” Addie told Dahlia, using her own Essence to make it more than just a suggestion.
Dahlia looked at her, and then sat down on the couch at the side of the room, her lips clamped tightly shut.
Lucian saw it happen, and Addie could tell that he knew something was up. He just didn’t understand what. This was what it meant to work with witches and she hoped that he would see it as a good thing, as a benefit to his work, and not just something to be weirded out about.
She took a breath, holding it in her lungs and letting the oxygen replenish her body. This was a good use of her magic, but it was physically exhausting to Compel someone this way. These were just simple questions, too. Compelling someone to tell a deep, dark secret like being a murderer would take more energy than she had to give right now.
Besides. There were other ways to get the truth.
“Uh, all right then,” Lucian said, clearing his throat. “Christine. Since you seem to be in a talkative mood, why don’t you tell me why you guys were in Eugene’s room?”
“Because…” There was a long hesitation while Christine’s lips worked, and noises came out that were almost words but not really. Then she took a breath, and probably against her will, she answered the question. “Dahlia is a private investigator. She’s here because I hired her to investigate my aunt’s death.”
Dahlia looked like she wanted to argue, or shout, or deny it, but her lips stayed sealed and muffled whatever she was trying to say. They would for a while longer too, until the spell that Addie had placed on her wore off.
So. Eileen had been living under an assumed identity. These two weren’t who they said they were, either.
Was anyone here at Pendulum Lodge really who they said they were?
“All right,” Lucian said. “You and Dahlia…wait. Is that her real name? Are you really Christine?”
“Of course,” Christine answered in a small voice. “Of course that’s our names. Why would you ask that?”
“Well, it wouldn’t exactly be the first time tonight that someone… never mind. So. Who is your aunt, and what happened to her that you hired a private investigator?”
“My aunt’s name was Margaret. She was married to Eugene Forrester.” A single tear ran very slowly down her cheek. “And Eugene killed her.”
Chapter 6
Well, Addie thought. That certainly put a different spin on things.
They had arrived here at Pendulum Lodge to investigate one murder mystery. Now there was two.
Lucian sat down on the bed next to Christine. “Let’s take this slowly. You and Dahlia, you aren’t a couple, are you?”
She shook her head, bringing her knees up to her chest on the mattress, wrapping her arms around her legs. “It was a trick so Eugene would invite us here. Dahlia spent three weeks getting close to him and acting like his friend so that he would let his guard down. She’s very good at her job.”
“Yes I am,” Dahlia blurted out, taking a breath, and then another, now that she could finally speak again. “I’ve got all the proper PI licenses for this state too. You can check them if you need to.”
“Oh, I will,” Lucian promised her. “In the meantime, let’s set the murder of Danny Bellinger aside for a moment and focus on the murder of Christine’s aunt. I want to know why you think Eugene killed her.”
Dahlia stood up from her chair and crossed her arms, glaring down at Lucian. “She died in a car accident. Only it turns out that she had so much prescription medication in her bloodstream that she shouldn’t have been able to walk, let alone drive. Oh, the official cause of death was accidental overdose and speed not reasonable, but someone drugged her and put her behind that wheel. Nobody but Eugene had a reason to do that. I’ve turned the aunt’s life upside down. She had no enemies. No gambling debts. No secret love affairs. She was dedicated to her husband.”
“Then why would Eugene kill her?” Lucian asked.
“Easy,” Dahlia answered. “For the money. A few years ago Eugene Forrester had a scare with his heart. He almost died. After that, he and Margaret took out insurance policies on each other. If one of them died, the other would receive enough money to live on for the rest of their lives. Very practical, if you think about it. Except I guess Eugene couldn’t bother to wait for Margaret to die of natural causes. He killed her, and got all that money for himself.”
“But you can’t prove it?”
Dahlia shook her head. “No. I was hoping to find something in his room that would give us the proof.”
Kiera arched an eyebrow at that. “You thought he would have incriminating evidence with him here? On a vacation in the woods?”
“It’s been my experi
ence that men are pretty stupid.” Dahlia shrugged. “Plus, people tend to keep things close when they’re worried about people finding it. So, yes. I thought the creep might have something I could use against him here in his room. Bank statements, a copy of his last will and testament, or something. It would have been nice to look through his wallet, even, but that wasn’t there either. It was a complete bust.”
Maybe, Addie thought, that was because there was no evidence to find. “Christine, your uncle didn’t recognize you? He didn’t know who you were?”
Christine sat up on her knees now, her bathrobe sliding down one shoulder. “No. Eugene was Margaret’s second husband. He’s only seen me once before, and I’ve dyed my hair since then.”
“Did you consider going to the police?” Lucian asked them.
“Of course I did,” Christine snapped at him. “The police in our hometown ignored me. They said my aunt must have been some kind of closet drug abuser. Well, I knew my aunt. That’s not who she was. Can you help me, Detective Knight? Can you please help me prove what Eugene did to my aunt?”
“I don’t know what I can do,” he said, “but I promise I’ll look into it. Just as soon as I have Danny’s murderer in custody.”
Christine leaned over, the smile on her face just for him.
Addie didn’t like how close Christine had gotten to Lucian. She didn’t like how that nightgown of hers kept slipping down from one shoulder to the other. Most of all, she didn’t like the way she was trying to flirt with him while talking about murder and the death of her aunt.
She blinked at herself, frowning as she realized… she was jealous. How odd.
Well. She wasn’t just a witch. She was also a woman. Lucian might not be her boyfriend but they liked each other and she did not like Christine being that close to him.
Ahem.
“Uh, Lucian?” she suggested. “Maybe we should go and talk to Eugene now.”
“I suppose so,” he agreed. “As long as these two are going to alibi each other for Danny’s murder.”
“We are.” Dahlia sat down again in a huff, crossing her short legs in her nightgown. “We were in Eugene’s room. I was looking through his suitcases and his undies when I saw someone running through the backyard. Just a minute later we heard Eileen screaming. So you see, we couldn’t have killed Danny, because we weren’t there when it happened.”
“What about after that?”
“What do you mean?”
Lucian smiled patiently. “I mean, after you heard Eileen screaming, what did you do? You didn’t run back to your room.”
“No, we ran out to help her, of course. Then we sat with her the whole time until the police arrived. See. Not us.”
Lucian nodded. His notebook came out again. “So, you two were with Eileen the whole entire time after the murder?”
Dahlia started to say something, and then clamped her mouth shut. Christine answered for her. “Not like, all the time. I left to use the, um, ladies room at one point. Then I came back, and Dahlia went to the kitchen, I think.”
“I was hungry,” Dahlia protested.
His pen scribbled a few sentences before Lucian turned his gaze back to both of them. “So you can’t alibi each other. Not completely.”
Dahlia shrugged. “That was after the murder, Detective. It doesn’t matter. Why don’t you write that in your notebook, huh?”
He did, taking his time about doing it. “All right. Did you give me your correct addresses and phone numbers?”
Dahlia pouted about it, but she nodded. “Yes, we did.”
“Good. Then I’ll know where to find you if you run. So. Don’t run.”
“Whatever.”
Christine placed her hand on Lucian’s shoulder. “Don’t mind her. I promise we aren’t going to go anywhere. Um. Except home. We’re going to go home tomorrow. But we’ll stay here tonight, and we’ll only be a phone call away.”
Okay, Addie thought to herself. That was just about enough of that.
“Better go talk to Eugene now,” she suggested loudly. “Before the other officers arrive, right?”
He smiled at her, and she felt her cheeks heating up as she realized he knew exactly why she wanted them to leave. “Right,” is what he said out loud. “Let’s go have a talk with Eugene about Danny, and then about his wife’s death.”
Christine flashed her eyes at him.
Lucian and Kiera headed out into the hallway and Addie followed before she could say anything else.
Out in the hallway again, Lucian brought them to the next room down on the opposite side. “Thanks for your help in there. I’m still not sure how you two got them to talk so easily, but I really appreciate it.”
“It’s a witch thing,” Addie said brightly.
“Then it’s a good thing I’ve got a few witches on my side.”
“Oh?” Kiera asked wryly. “So we’re on your side now?”
“Well, maybe two sides of the same coin,” he admitted. “That might be a better way of putting it, I suppose. You know, I was thinking about what Dahlia and Christine said. If they were in Eugene’s room when the murder was committed, you know what that means, right?”
Kiera nodded. “I was thinking the same thing. That means that not only were Dahlia and Christine not in their rooms at the time…”
“Neither were Eugene and his girlfriend,” Lucian agreed. “So where were they?”
“You haven’t spoken to them yet?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I was about to come up here when the three of you arrived. We’ve been busy since.”
Addie felt his frustration. Lucian was a good man, a good police officer. He wanted to see justice done. Good was good, and bad was bad, in his world. Addie knew better. She knew that sometimes good people did bad things for the right reason, and sometimes truly evil beings could commit acts of selfless charity. Very little was ever one thing or the other in this crazy universe.
Still, it was nice to know there was one truly good man in the world.
At the door to Eugene and Rosemary’s room, they waited while Lucian knocked. And then, knocked again.
There was no answer.
“Are you sure they’re here now?” Kiera asked. “Perhaps they went somewhere else. Maybe they were gone before you arrived.”
“No, I don’t think so. Dahlia and Christine said they saw Rosemary coming up here after the murder. Funny, now that I think about it they didn’t say whether Eugene was with her.”
He knocked again.
“I mean, we’ve been through just about every part of the lodge. It’s a big place, sure, but it’s not that big. We would have seen them if they were anywhere else.”
He knocked again.
Still, there was no answer.
Kiera gave Addie a glance. It was just a quick little look but Addie understood what her sister wanted. Raising a hand, she felt with her Essence through the door. Life resonated with an energy all its own. Witches could tap into that energy. They could manipulate it. They could wind it around their little finger and make it dance. They could also sense it from a long distance away, and around corners, and through doors.
“There’s only one person in there,” Addie said. She squinted, closing her eyes, because something wasn’t right. “There’s a woman, lying on the floor. She’s hurt. Lucian, we need to get in there—”
He was already moving. Never questioning what she had said, he kicked the door just below the handle. Hard. Leaning all of his weight into it, the door splintered and buckled under his boot and flung open as the hasp went flying into several pieces.
Inside the room was exactly what Addie knew they would find. On the floor between the bed and the wall there was a woman lying on her stomach, face turned away, her arms all akimbo. She was wearing jeans and a tight black t-shirt, which Addie noticed because up until now everyone had been dressed for bed.
There was blood staining the white rug under her head.
Lucian rushed to her, putting two f
ingers to her neck. “She’s got a pulse, she’s still breathing.
Addie had already known that, of course, from what she had felt through the door. If this woman had been dead, there would have been no way to feel her presence.
While Lucian tried to rouse the woman, and made a call on his cell at the same time to the police station, Addie looked around the room. The bedsheets were mussed. A suitcase was open on the couch with clothes pulled out of it. The woman on the floor could only be Eugene’s girlfriend, Rosemary. She had very dark skin, and black curly hair, and the shapely body of a woman who was used to catching a man’s eye.
Even as Addie was thinking that, Rosemary stirred on the floor. She groaned and started to move around. With Lucian’s help she rolled over onto her back, and then into a sitting position. She held a hand to the back of her head, and when she took her fingers away, they were red with blood.
“Ow,” she moaned. “That hurts. That hurts so much. Who… When did you get here? Where’s… where’s Eugene?”
“I’m a police officer. Detective Knight.” He put his phone away as he knelt back on his heels. “Was Eugene here? Did he do this?”
Rosemary blinked her eyes slowly, like she was trying to remember. Then she nodded. “Yes. He was so mad. He was so angry and he hit me. I fell…”
Addie went into the bathroom, taking a folded washcloth and running it under the water for Rosemary. The edge of the white porcelain was stained red. This must be where she fell.
She handed the damp cloth to Lucian. “Thank you,” he said, taking it and holding it firmly to the back of Rosemary’s head. “How’s that feel?”
“Ow. It feels… ow.”
“There’s an ambulance on the way. Rosemary, can you tell me what Eugene was angry about? You two were dating, right? What would make him do this?”
Rosemary closed her eyes again, pressing her lips firmly together.
More lies, Addie wondered? Maybe she should use some of her Essence to compel the truth here in this room as well. She lifted her hand, and called on her life force.
Before she could do anything, Rosemary took a breath. “He was angry,” she said, “because I knew what he did. I threatened to go to the police and tell them.”