“Are we having company?” I asked carefully. I had started chopping broccoli and had to pay attention to that.
“As a matter of fact we are. Sorry, it must have slipped my mind . . . well, never mind,” said Bethel.
I swallowed hard. Bethel had a very self-satisfied expression on her face.
Chapter Fifteen
When I heard a knock at the door I didn’t have to wonder who it was, but for some reason the noise still surprised me. Neither Bethel nor Lowe moved. As I walked past my cousin I muttered, “Traitor.” She just grinned at me.
Quinn Merchant was standing at the door wearing a flannel shirt and jeans and leaning in a way that slightly favored his good leg. His broad shoulders filled the doorway and he hunched slightly, as if preparing to walk underneath the low doorframe. I tried to remember noticing him having difficulty chasing Nancy when she had tried to run, but I couldn’t. Then again, Nancy wasn’t exactly a high school track athlete.
“Hey,” he said. He was holding flowers and what appeared to be chocolate.
“Hi,” I said. Were those for me?
“How are you?” he asked, still on the porch.
Behind him two armies watched his back in fascination.
“Good. Fine, still a little upset about Henry,” I added.
“His calling hours are tomorrow. I imagine most of the town will be there,” said Quinn.
“Right. I’m sure we’ll go,” I said.
Over his shoulder I saw Spunk the gray cat eyeing something in the grass. Nearby Tiger lolled about, looking entirely uninterested in working that hard.
“Let the man in!” Bethel’s voice yelled from the kitchen. I flinched. I hadn’t been consciously blocking the door.
Or maybe I had. I stepped aside and said, “Come in.”
He stepped past me, but made no move to give me the beautiful arrangement of flowers. I tried to sniff him unobtrusively as he went by, to see if he smelled like the sea. Whatever came over me that I thought I should do that, I didn’t know. He didn’t really smell like the sea.
In the kitchen Bethel had nearly finished the dinner preparations. The back door was open, and it was through there that the cats came bounding in. At least six of them spread themselves out over the well-worn kitchen floor.
“Here are some flowers for the table,” said Quinn, handing Bethel the bouquet.
She took them and smiled. “Thank you. They’re lovely. So many beautiful flowers this time of year!”
“I also brought chocolate for dessert,” added Quinn, handing the chocolate to Lowe.
“I’ll take the important cargo,” she said with a smile.
“Dinner’s ready,” said Bethel.
The four of us sat down, with Bethel at the head of the table and Lowe at the other end. That left me across from Quinn.
He smiled at me. He wasn’t trying to apologize any more, or talk about his wife. I tried to hide my confusion, but I couldn’t help feeling it. Why wasn’t he talking about his wife or apologizing more? The way I saw it, he certainly had a lot to apologize for. Like having a wife, especially one like the one I’d seen.
Bethel got the conversation going as she passed dishes around. She clearly noticed and appreciated the fact that Quinn took a healthy heap of everything. Lowe and I were more measured. Quinn was here, and I wasn’t sure how it had come about. Had Bethel been calling him on the phone? Was she running into him when she was out and about? Why wasn’t the woman better supervised!
Or had Quinn initiated this encounter because he’d found out about our snooping and wanted to chastise us? I had no idea, but I sure wanted to acquire one.
Just then I happened to glance down at my ankles and saw Tiger sitting there looking up at me. I couldn’t understand cat, but I didn’t need to; his eyes were speaking clearly enough. I hastened to give him a scrap of chicken. He took it as if it were his due, ate it quietly, and then started to wash himself.
When I looked up again, Quinn was watching me, his expression intense. My toes curled as electricity raced through me. Good thing we weren’t in the water, because . . . oh, never mind.
“Pass the potatoes,” said Bethel firmly. The way she said it made me think she’d already asked several times. I hurried to do as she requested.
“What’s the latest business on your murder investigation?” Bethel asked.
Quinn nearly choked on his chicken. Several cat heads looked up hopefully.
“It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to discuss ongoing investigations with civilians,” he said.
“I’m one of the coven’s founding members,” she countered. “There’s nothing you can tell me that I haven’t seen before. I might even be a good sounding board for information. For example, you tell me Henry was killed in the hospital. I take it that although you know he was murdered, you can’t yet figure out why.”
Quinn’s facial expression changed at that. “How did you know that?”
“Like I said, there’s nothing I haven’t seen before,” said Bethel.
Quinn frowned as of he hadn’t had to deal with anyone like Bethel Rhinestone before. In that I felt for him.
“Is there a law against your giving us information?” Bethel asked.
“No, I am the law. Most of this information is in the public domain already. The amount of gossip that goes on in Twinkleford could fill a mountain,” he grumbled.
“We do try and communicate effectively,” said Bethel with a smirk.
“All right,” he said. “Fine, since you already know, I would say that we don’t know how Henry was killed. I was there, and we have other eyewitnesses who corroborate a Vixen attack. We of course blame them, but we don’t actually know how they did it.”
“Before you ask,” he added, after a moment’s reflection.
“No, it wasn’t a potion,” said Bethel. “Of course not. A potion would not be the way they’d go. Vixens want to expand their power. They must make it clear that they’re more than a one-trick pony.”
“We’ve been looking at potions,” said Quinn, who had shed his hesitation and was now absorbed in the conversation, apparently as a worthy philosophical debate. “Given that it was a Vixen operation, we had to explore their most commonly used form of attack, which is potions.”
“If it wasn’t potions, what was it then?” I asked, my dinner all but forgotten as I too got absorbed in the exchange. Even the cats were listening with fascination.
My grandmother glanced at me. Not even Quinn cared that I had interrupted. We were all on pins and needles waiting for the pearl of wisdom to tell us everything.
“Lizards,” she said.
Chapter Sixteen
Of course I was the only one at the table who did not have a clue why that was so terrifying. Truth be told, I’d spent almost no time at all in my life thinking about lizards. Lowe sucked in her breath and pushed her chair back, while Quinn looked grim.
“Lizards are highly illegal, not to mention undetectable and deadly,” he said.
“You think a criminal organization is worrying about using illegal lizards?” Bethel asked with bemusement.
“That’s not the point,” sputtered Quinn.
“What your problem is, is that you’re too good-hearted,” said Bethel, shaking her head as if she was very disappointed in him. “I’m sure Jade will break you of that soon enough.”
I had made the mistake of rescuing my meal, and now I choked on a piece of garden lettuce. I glared at my grandmother and she glared back.
“Lizards are undetectable?” I managed to choke out.
“Yes, they are. You could perform a powerful spellcasting and determine that they were in the area, but the poison they release is undetectable,” Quinn said.
“Is there an antidote?” I asked.
This did not sound good. If the lizards could go unnoticed and then release an undetectable poison, those fighting against the Vixens—that is, us—were not in a good position.
“Yes, there is an antidote,
” said Bethel.
“I didn’t know that,” said Quinn. “I thought there wasn’t one.”
“That’s because you haven’t read the book on ancient witch healing,” said Bethel.
“I guess I haven’t,” he said.
“Can we borrow it?” I asked.
“I haven’t written it yet,” said Bethel. “Why so impatient?”
“You’re a mystery, that’s what you are,” I muttered. Bethel just smiled. Infuriatingly.
“There is one way to stop a lizard bite from killing you. It’s quite simple if you can get the ingredient in time,” she added.
“What’s the ingredient?” asked Quinn.
“Unicorn dung,” said Bethel. “When townsfolk say that it really does work for everything, they aren’t lying.” She smiled.
Lowe rolled her eyes. “You’re way too gleeful when you say that. How did you find out that remedy worked?”
“I’m saving that story for the book,” said Bethel.
“How much do you charge for unicorn dung?” Quinn asked suddenly. All three of us ladies looked at him. At first I thought he might be kidding, but from his expression it was clear that he wasn’t.
“I don’t just sell it,” said Bethel. She looked excited, as if she were suddenly in the middle of an intense chess game.
“I’m aware of that. Your reputation as a hard bargainer is known far and wide,” Quinn said.
“Exactly. Why do you want to know?” she asked.
“It seems like something the sheriff’s department should have,” he said.
“They will never put it in the budget. I’ve been telling them to add it for years,” she said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Out of the goodness of my heart,” she said dryly.
I kept frowning at my grandmother, but she just shrugged.
“They’ve refused to put it in the budget?” Quinn didn’t like the sound of that at all.
“Yes, that’s what they’ve done,” said Bethel. “The Board of Select Specimens is an unruly and foolish lot. Clearly they don’t care about your well-being.”
“Maybe they can’t afford your prices,” said Quinn. “Or were you going to give us a discount?”
“Don’t kid yourself. This town is wealthy,” said Bethel. This was the first sign of testiness this evening.
After that we ate in silence for a long time, but the wheels in my head were turning. I couldn’t wait to get to my purple crystal ball and start to look into lizards. Why this sort of thing had started to excite me, I didn’t know. A secretive creature that would sneak in and out of places and cause destruction should not be something that interested me, but until now I hadn’t thought much about how Henry had died, I’d just assumed that Quinn already knew, and that the answer wouldn’t offer any further evidence of strangeness in Twinkleford.
Boy had I been wrong.
Part of me desperately wanted Quinn to stick around, but another part wanted him to leave. There was a lot of snooping to be done, and I couldn’t very well get to any of it with him sitting there watching our every move. For that matter, Bethel would be another problem. She had mentioned where the cauldrons were, but she hadn’t invited me to go to the basement and get one. What she’d say when I asked about that I couldn’t begin to guess.
“I wonder if I might ask you a favor . . .” Quinn said, looking up from his plate.
Bethel met his eyes. “Somehow I know what you’re going to say. Excuse me.”
She had finished eating, and now she pushed her chair back and went out the back door without a word to Lowe or me. I didn’t know what Quinn wanted, but with Bethel out of earshot for a few moments I wasn’t going to waste my chance.
“What else do you know? Is there any news about Kyle?” Kelly’s brother also worked in the sheriff’s department, and I knew she was going to ply him with questions. Between the two of us we might learn something, but since we hadn’t had a chance to talk yet, this would have to do.
“Kyle is missing. You know that,” said Quinn. He looked conflicted. I knew he was relieved that I was speaking to him; that was a change. He also knew I was going to use his guilt against him. I mean, what was the harm?
“Yes, but no other news?” I demanded.
“We’ve been trying to track him from his last known location, without much luck. The way spellcasting is layered, the first spell is the strongest no matter what. Someone hid his or tracks well. The good news is that the longer we don’t find Kyle, the more confidence we have that he’s still out there somewhere.”
I mulled that over, then pushed. “Anything else?”
“We’ve been trying to find out why he was out there to begin with. Henry hadn’t wanted to tell me, and the doctors didn’t want me to push him. I hadn’t, because I had figured we’d have time to talk once he felt better.” Quinn shook his head at the memory of why that hadn’t come to pass.
I found myself wondering what it was like to be the only half-mermaid in Twinkleford. It must be lonely, not least because he wasn’t with his family any longer. Then I remembered his wife and got grumpy again.
“What are you thinking about?” Quinn asked.
Lowe looked between us, and Quinn was again watching me closely. I felt myself flush.
“I don’t like spinach,” I mumbled to him.
“We aren’t having spinach,” he said.
“It’s the principle of the thing,” I said.
He nodded slowly as if he understood and was humoring me. I knew perfectly I wasn’t making any sense. Probably because I’d been lying.
Anyway.
“Is there anything more you can tell us about this investigation?” I asked. “Like any substances that were found near where Henry was found?” We were going to conduct our own experiments, obviously, but it couldn’t hurt to hear information from the official source.
“There’s nothing I can tell you at this time,” Quinn said. “We’re confident that everything will be explained, that there’s going to be a simple explanation for all of this.” Was he not going to mention the orange substance? Apparently not.
“And what is that?” I asked.
Quinn was silent.
“That Kyle attacked Henry and then ran away,” said Lowe.
I stared at her, but she was looking at Quinn and not at me. “That’s it, isn’t it? That’s why you’re being so circumspect about all of this,” she said.
“Yes, that’s why. Kyle has a history of causing problems. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that he attacked his friend. Maybe Henry was double-crossing him, or maybe Henry was going to reveal secrets. It doesn’t really matter. The longer Kyle stays missing, the worse it’ll be for him,” said Quinn.
“Funny, but I remember you saying the same thing about a certain other fugitive recently,” I told him.
“That was different,” said Quinn.
“How? Sure, in one case the lady in question is a sparkling example of a witch and in the other there are some troublemaking guys, but the same principle is the same. You keep blaming others for what the Vixens are doing.” I was getting heated now.
Before Quinn could answer, the back door opened and Bethel came in. She glanced at Quinn only briefly before she went to the sink to wash up. Once she’d finished she said, “Would anyone like tea on the porch?”
“I have to get going. The calling hours for Henry are tomorrow and I need to be at work bright and early,” said Quinn. “Thank you for dinner. I’ve never had such good food before. It’s a wonder what ingredients grown in your own garden with love can do,” he added.
“Love and threats. Especially come April. Grow or else,” Bethel gave a crooked grin and shook her fist in the air.
“You don’t want chocolate?” Lowe asked.
Quinn shook his head. “That’s for all of you. It’s very good, though. You should try the milk rose.”
“We’ll be sure to check it out,” Lowe assured him.
Quinn stood, then
hesitated. He really filled the space. All of us Rhinestone women were short, but he stood tall and imposing. I admitted to myself that I liked having him there.
He glanced at me and appeared to be on the verge of saying something.
“If you can’t spit it out in a timely manner. you’ll just have to come back,” said Bethel sternly.
For the second time that evening I flushed. Quinn ducked his head. He might not show as much embarrassment as I did, but I could tell that he was mortified.
“Sorry. Yes, now isn’t the time for all of that. I’ll come back soon,” he said.
“Any time,” said Bethel. “Now let me show you out, and we can have a few minutes alone.”
And out they went.
“Why did she want to speak with him privately? Doesn’t she trust us?” Lowe demanded.
“She’s giving him unicorn dung for emergencies. She knows he isn’t going to get it from the Board of Select Specimens in time,” I explained. “And no, I don’t think she does.”
Lowe’s face brightened. “That’s so nice of her! I didn’t think she had it in her.”
“I doubt she thought she did either,” I said dryly.
“What about tomorrow? The visiting hours?” Lowe asked.
“Yes. Do we wear black?” I asked.
Lowe frowned. “Why would we do that?”
I started to tell her, but she interrupted before I finished my explanation. “Yes, I remember something about that. No, we don’t. We wear our witch finery and preferably solid colors. Your cape should do the trick. Now, should we get going on a cauldron?”
“You want cauldrons now?” Our grandmother came striding down the hall looking back and forth between us, accompanied by several cats weaving between her legs. Why they felt the need to almost trip people in order to get from one place to another I surely didn’t know.
I was glad that Bethel knew we had to get going on the potions.
“Yes, you mentioned that they were in the basement,” I said.
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