I hugged her tightly around the shoulders. She looked so tough; black leather will do that. But when she was with me, her vulnerable side was allowed to peak through.
“I’ll be right there with you every step of the way. I promise,” I said.
She brightened. “I believe you. I know you will. Okay, I should get going. I’m sure the Vixens know that I like to visit my family from time to time. They might be nearby.”
“I also hope they know they can shove it,” I muttered.
My sister threw back her head and laughed, and the unicorns sent appreciative looks her way. They loved her. A lifetime of dedication will do that.
“Until next time. Good luck with the snooping,” she said, and she started to walk away.
It was only then that I realized what I had most wanted to talk to her about. I almost laughed as I called out to her.
She spun around.
“I went on a date with Quinn, and it was glorious,” I told her.
She beamed at me. “If he hurts you, I’ll throw him to the fishes . . . on second thought, he’s too good a swimmer.”
I chuckled. “True. I appreciate having you looking out for me.”
She grinned. “That’s what sisters are for.”
Then she disappeared into the night at last. We both wanted to keep talking about Quinn, but there was no time. Her safety was at risk.
I made my way back into the house. There was a chance I was just imagining it, but I thought I saw a shape moving across the road. When I looked again, it was gone.
Chapter Thirty
Lowe was utterly manic the next day. Having made a to-do list of everything that had to happen in order for us to solve the case, she had promptly decided that we couldn’t possibly do that much snooping, and that Kyle was doomed.
Kyle’s parents were still sure their son was going to wake up. On the other hand, the hospital had realized that their spells weren’t likely to awaken Kyle for several weeks. Everyone was frustrated.
On top of that, Bethel banned us from leaving the property.
“I think you’ve done enough for one week. Jade, you may go to the Young Witches meeting, but after that you must come straight home. I don’t care if the sheriff himself is willing to supervise you, I want you here. There are plenty of chores to do, and we can play games later.” She glared at me as if that would strengthen her point.
“Okay, I’ll only go to the Young Witches gathering,” I agreed. Bethel nodded sharply.
Lowe started to rise as if she intended to come with me, but Bethel glared at her and my cousin quickly sank back down. “You’re staying here,” said our grandmother.
“All right. I have gardening to do anyway,” Lowe murmured. She headed outside to get started.
Bethel and I didn’t talk much until I was about to leave. I had a hunch that it was important to wear some of my witch’s garb, so I’d gone upstairs to change. I put the shoes on my feet and placed the pointy hat on my head and I was ready to go.
“Let me know if you hear anything about Kyle,” I said to Bethel when I was back downstairs.
“I will. I’m sure that the real police have this all under control. Don’t go chasing after Vixens, understand? They’re much more powerful than you can imagine. Leave them to the professionals,” she said.
I agreed, but only for as long as it took to walk out the door. The professionals were taking an awfully long time to solve this mystery, and it felt as if I still had to wait a lifetime before I could meet my sister. At some point I wanted to actually spend time with her, and there was no way that was going to happen while Kyle and Henry’s case was still unsolved.
Quinn didn’t show up to escort me to the dance hall, but that didn’t bother me. In fact, I probably would have been annoyed if he had, since I knew the way perfectly well.
The trip to the dance hall for the Young Witches meeting was quick and pleasant. I saw several locals, including Mikey and Mindie Carthright. Mikey was dancing a jig, not even the tiniest bit sober.
I waved to them as I went by and they waved back.
An ominous cloud hung in the air of downtown Twinkleford. There weren’t many townsfolk out, and I found the deserted streets a little creepy. Hannah never had to care whether the streets were creepy or not, because she was driven to these meetings in a Rolls-Royce.
Jackie was waiting for me outside the dance hall, smoking a long pipe with pink smoke coming out of it. I had never seen her smoking before. When I raised my eyebrows she said, “New invention. You can smoke candy. Sugar in vapor form. I love it.” With a slight grin, she took another drag on the pipe.
“I bet your mom loves to see you doing that,” I said.
“She was so mad, I bought five more. That’s how our relationship goes,” Jackie shrugged.
“Nice clothes,” she said, glancing at my shoes and then up to my hat. She herself was wearing normal clothes.
“Thanks. Figured I’d take them for a spin,” I told her. “Anyone else here yet?”
“Most of the others are in there, yes,” she said.
“Should we go in?” I asked.
As I said it, a breeze blew the smell of flowers in my face, and that reminded me that I would join Lowe at the farmer’s market later, and help her sell her wares. For that we were allowed out, but even so, Bethel would be there to supervise. My grandmother was teaching us about gardening a little at a time, though she said that if I managed not to kill the plants it would be a miracle. Mostly she supervised with the critical oversight of a gathering of judgmental unicorns as the backdrop.
“We’ll go inside in a minute,” Jackie said, “but first there’s something I want to talk to you about. I did a bit of snooping on your behalf. Well, really Kelly’s, but you know, it’s the same thing. I looked up Professor Burger’s lab. Her assistant is someone who lied about a lot of her experiments back in the day. The full name she went by was Gael Hillback. She wasn’t an assistant to Burger at the time. In fact, she was in Canada. Her records were very difficult to get, but I managed it, that’s just one of the benefits of working where I do. I started looking into it in the first place because I thought something was off about her. Usually the assistant to someone so important has a bio on the website and all that, but she didn’t. Anyway, I finally found out why. She was thrown out of school for using resources to do experiments that she shouldn’t have been doing.”
“With what?” I asked breathlessly.
Jackie’s face darkened. “Owl feathers.”
I gasped. “So she knows all about that!” I paused and thought for a moment, then said, “I’m not surprised. She gave us strange looks every time we went there. But she could easily have done a deal to get more illegal owl feathers and pearls. Once she had those, she could continue doing experiments!” I was excited now.
Just then Jackie raised her eyebrows, and a split second later there was a footstep behind me. I turned around to see Damien coming up the steps and was relieved that she appeared not to have heard our conversation.
My mind was turning. Burger’s assistant had acted unfriendly every time we’d seen her, and now, in retrospect, her demeanor seemed downright sinister. If Kyle and Henry had threatened to report that she was buying feathers on the black market, she’d have had a motive to kill them. She had already gotten kicked out of school once. Twice would be unforgivable.
“Who else knows about this?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I haven’t told anyone. I figured you could tell the sheriff. He might already know, but I doubt it. The woman clearly went to a lot of trouble to keep her tracks hidden. I would too, I suppose, if I happened to want to do illegal stuff. I’m just surprised that Professor Burger gave her another chance,” said Jackie.
“Maybe she didn’t know,” I mused.
“I suppose she might not,” agreed my friend.
“We should get inside before anyone wonders where we are,” I said. The last thing we needed was for Kelly to come looking for
us and get in trouble for it. She had enough on her plate.
I turned to glance over my shoulder one more time. There was a fence separating the dance hall parking lot from the next building and its parking lot, and there were several men loitering along the fence. To see men in workmen’s gear was a bit strange, because for the most part I saw only witches and the occasional man in dancing shoes around town. Then again, this was Twinkleford, where everything still seemed a bit out of the ordinary.
I hurried into the dance hall. It had taken me long enough to get inside as it was, and I was now nearly late. There was Hannah to deal with and another meeting, then I could worry about this new development in the case. Hannah was already going to be furious about the swamp incident and our failure to do anything useful; I didn’t want to give her even more ammunition.
Most of the Young Witches were already seated. Hannah and Taylor had their heads bent together over a crisp white piece of paper, presumably hard at work devising more projects for the rest of us to work on while they got manicures.
I took a seat in the back and Jackie sat next to me. On my other side was Kelly, who whispered, “Hannah’s in fine form today. I don’t know what her problem is, but be ready when you tell her about the swamp. She’s going to be furious.”
I glanced at Hannah’s blond head and wondered how much hair spray was holding her curls in place. A lot, was my guess. But after what Jackie had just told me, I couldn’t bring myself to worry about it. We finally had a breakthrough in the case! And that was really all that mattered.
When Hannah started droning on, I barely listened. My shoes were itching and I was the only one wearing my witch hat. I had already gotten several odd looks.
Then, out of the blue, Kelly stood up. I hadn’t noticed how tired she looked, with her brown hair wild around her face. “Why are you going on about this nonsense?” she cried, glaring at Hannah.
Interrupted in mid-sentence, Hannah ceased all movement. Her eyes went wide as she stared at her fellow witch. “Excuse me?” she managed to choke out.
Someone was trying to pull Kelly down, but she wasn’t having it.
“I am going to stay standing, thank you very much! And you heard me. Just what do you think you’re doing? We’re in a crisis here! One young man was murdered. My brother is unconscious. And you’re talking about beaded hemlines and whether we can perform a spell to make them magically adjust!” She was crying now, and nearly yelling as she resisted the other witches’ efforts to get her to calm down.
Hannah’s eyes sharpened. To say that she did not look pleased would be a vast understatement. “You have no right to interrupt this meeting. I will have order. Like I said, I was chosen to be in charge, and . . .”
“Oh, higgle piggle! Your mom put you in charge!” Kelly cried. “Probably all to distract us from real problems.”
Through the dance hall window in which Kelly’s head was framed, dark clouds were racing to gather. It was a strange sight; there had been no such clouds when we started the meeting. Then I looked at Jackie, who was watching our friend with concern. I knew what she was thinking: crossing Hannah was a terrible idea. The Carlisle witch loved to make others pay.
Taylor stood up. In high heels and a black leather pencil skirt, she waddled toward Kelly.
“Sit down!” she commanded. It sounded more like a whine than an order.
“Oh, be quiet!” Kelly scoffed.
Taylor paled. She clearly had not expected that response. “How dare you!”
“I dare! We’re all witches here! You aren’t any better than I am! I work hard! I deserve to be heard, and if I’m worried about my brother’s well-being you, had better listen.” Kelly swiped angrily at the tears streaming down her face.
I felt guilty. If we had solved the case by now she might not have had to do this.
“Excuse me, but these meetings have a purpose, and it isn’t personal! Did you make any progress with the swamp?” Hannah demanded angrily. She looked at me and read the answer on my face. “No, you didn’t. I said there was toxic material in there!” she cried.
“We were told that we weren’t allowed in,” I said. My voice sounded pathetic and I cursed myself.
Hannah looked furious. Her curls were swinging around her face and she was leaning forward as if she wanted to fly across the room and attack me.
“On whose authority?” she demanded.
“The sheriff’s,” cried Kelly. “As if he didn’t have enough to do, he also saved us from Sammy.”
A wave of murmurs and gasps went around the circle. It took me a minute to realize that Kelly was talking about the monster.
“I thought you’d be more than able to deal with a little thing like a slug,” Hannah retorted.
“He’s over twenty feet long now,” said Jackie.
Even Hannah appeared to pale at that news. Sammy must have grown since the last time she saw him. Sometimes that happens.
“I will have order at these meetings. We cannot waste any more time.” Hannah shook her head and tried to continue.
Kelly still wasn’t having it. “Not until we talk about my brother!”
A murmur of agreement went up around the room. Kelly wasn’t the only one who wanted to deal with the problems facing Twinkleford instead of hiding them under the rug.
“What about your brother?” Hannah demanded.
“He’s unconscious. They’re trying one spell after another to wake him up. It will probably take weeks,” she said.
“I heard that was because he was dealing on the black market. He shouldn’t have been doing that, and you know it as well as I do. If he had stuck to farming, none of this would have happened,” said Hannah.
That created an uproar. She had essentially just said that Henry would still be here and that it was his own fault he was dead, and not the Vixens’.
We were now in disarray. Someone threw a shoe at Hannah, forcing her to duck. The room descended into chaos and yelling. Kelly appeared to think she’d gotten her point across and merely stood there smiling.
Then a crack split the air, forcing us to be silent. The sound of a yell outside was our only warning before the windows went black.
Chapter Thirty-One
My heart was hammering so hard I was afraid it would drown out anything I tried to say. “What happened?” I asked Jackie.
She shook her head. Her eyes were wide and staring as she looked toward the window. A cold air circled around me where moments before I’d been warm. The other witches were turning from side to side. None of us could figure out what had just happened. I could barely see Kelly on my other side, but I could tell that her face had paled.
“Vixens,” she whispered.
“What would they be doing here?” I whispered back.
She shook her head. “I have no idea. You’d think they’d leave us alone. Kyle is at the hospital, after all, not here.”
“You’d think,” murmured Jackie.
Hannah glanced at the window and bit her lip.
“You have to tell us what to do. Either we’re following you or not,” Jackie told her.
At her words Hannah straightened and cried, “Man the defenses! Two on either side of the door! Another at the windows. Be ready for anything!”
Taylor started pointing, making a show of enforcing Hannah’s orders. There were enough witches that I didn’t have to move, but that made Hannah’s eyes skate back to me.
“Well, Rhinestone, are you going to do something useful, or just stand there while the dance hall is torn down around our ears?” she said.
Suddenly, the windows started shifting. Like, the panes of glass literally moved. In the place where the windows had been there was just blank wall. The witches who had gone to guard the windows were left to scramble to new posts, bumping into each other and knocking each other down as they tried to rearrange themselves.
I looked toward the bright red doors and was shocked to see them literally melting into the floor, so that they seemed like
ly to end up under our feet. In the place of the doors was simply wall. I swallowed hard. The four witches who had gone to guard the doors exchanged confused glances. They had no idea what to do.
A clanging sound filled the air and everyone was panicking.
The entire composition of the dance hall was shifting, as if it were melting from within.
When the boards under our feet suddenly moved, Kelly yelled, “What now?”
Hannah, our fearless leader, stood frozen, her mouth slightly open as she stared at the place where the red doors used to be.
“We have to run!” I cried. If no one else was going to say it, then I would.
The dance hall had a cafeteria downstairs and offices upstairs. “Half go up and half go down,” I yelled. “We have to abandon the dance hall! We’ve already lost it!”
I half expected Taylor and Hannah to argue, but they were so shell-shocked, they didn’t even respond.
Some of the witches raced for the staircase that led to the second floor, but I had no interest in going back up there. My foray into the murdered Jonathan Quickgrace’s office, and my long-term borrowing of the pearls I’d found there, left me reluctant to go back. For me, downstairs was the next step.
I held my breath as I led the way in the race for the stairs. When I glanced back, the windows, the doors, and some of the loosened floor boards had started after us.
“Are we under attack by building parts?” I gasped. This was like a house builder’s nightmare.
“I don’t know,” Kelly cried. “Kind of looks that way.”
“Hurry up!” Taylor yelled, shoving her way past me. Once she and Hannah were in the lead, they nearly flew down the dark staircase, with no concern at all for what might happen to the rest of us. Even worse, wearing high heels made them slower than we were. When Taylor stopped halfway down and kicked her heels off, Hannah hesitated for a moment.
For the first time in their friendship, Taylor got sharp with Hannah. “There’s no time! We can come back for the shoes.”
Rhinestone Way Page 20