"There's something you should know," I said, ready to come clean, but then I felt a stab in my ankle.
Mew! Pudgie had emerged from the backpack to claw me.
"Little monster!"
"Excuse me, dear?" Regina asked.
"That was my kitten." I lifted my foot to show them. Pudgie clung to my leg. He mewed. I'd forgotten he was in my backpack and he'd complained by attacking me. He seemed to have reverted back to his monster personality. "I should really take him home."
"Oh, we love animals," Regina said. She and Theo shared a look.
Really? They weren't at least annoyed?
"A kitten? Let me see," Theo said, leaning down to my leg.
Pudgie mewed again, looking innocent and very sweet. I picked him up and held him in front of me, petting his back while Theo took a closer look.
"Aww," Theo said, tickling Pudgie with one finger.
"Very nice," Regina said. "But, dear, why is a kitten here with you in the hospital?"
"I had him with me when I found Nate. I just didn't have time to take him inside before coming here. We rode over in the ambulance."
Theo nodded as if it made perfect sense to bring a kitten to an emergency room. Could these people be any kinder?
Regina sat down in a chair by Nate's bed. She pulled a tangle of knitting needles and blue yarn out of her handbag and lifted her eyebrows. "When I'm stressed, I knit," she explained to me.
"Have you ever had hand-knit socks? There's nothing finer in damp weather," Theo said.
"No, I don't think so," I said. My phone chimed. I'd received a text from Cormac, asking me to call him.
One second, I texted back.
"I'm sorry but I need to go," I said to Theo and Regina. "You're all okay here, right? You have this under control. And Nate is getting good care. I shouldn't even be here."
"Oh, no! We were just getting to know you." Theo said. "Of course you should be here!"
"She's busy like everyone her age," Regina said to Theo. "It's okay, dear. You go. Thank you for spending as much time with us as you did."
"No, it isn't that. I'm enjoying meeting you more than you'll ever know. It's just that I have to go. Also, I’m not actually—"
"Will you come back later? Join us for dinner?" Regina asked abruptly.
"Dinner? No." I shook my head. "The thing is—"
"Of course, she'll come!" Theo said, smiling kindly.
I'm not your son's girlfriend! I wanted to scream. Why wouldn't they let me get a word in?
"Please, dear?" Regina said, looking up from her knitting, her expression benevolent and eager. How could I deny them something so simple?
Theo continued, "Jake is bringing fish and chips for us. Takeout. Do you like fish and chips?"
"It's actually my favorite." I couldn't deny it. I wanted to be a better person, a more honest person, but I kind of loved this family. I wanted just a little more time with them. Did that make me a bad person?
"Hey, Regina! Her favorite meal is fish and chips!"
"You really must come back, then," she said.
My phone chimed again. "I promise I'll come back," I said, "but I have to go now."
Regina nodded and went back to knitting, her fingers flying across the needles like hummingbird wings.
Theo gave me one last hug and turned back to Nate, releasing me to go.
I walked out.
They really liked fish! And Jake was a fisherman. Maybe they all were fishermen? But, honestly, Theo and Nate looked more like wealthy businessmen than fishermen. Their hands were smooth and soft. Their clothes looked pricey.
"I'm so happy that Nate has finally found a nice girl!" I heard Regina say as I walked down the hall.
The Serranos were going to hate me once they realized I was not Nate's girlfriend.
Not even close.
In the lobby, I called Cormac and arranged to meet him at the Shaggy Puppy at 3:30 p.m. I wanted to go home to take a shower, and it looked like I'd have just enough time, as long as I drove straight there.
As soon as I hit the ER exit, though, I remembered that I didn't have my car since I'd ridden to the hospital in the ambulance.
I groaned as I walked across the street to the bus stop.
Public transportation in Enchanted Shores was reliably unreliable and it would take some luck to get a bus anytime soon. I wasn't having a lucky day. Not at all. I sighed. Would Cormac be upset if I was late?
There was nothing I could do but wait. I sat on the bench.
Dark clouds churned overhead, and I heard distant thunder. Excitement built up inside me. Now that I knew I could control water, I wanted to play with the rain and see what was possible.
Could I, for instance, keep the rain from hitting me and never need an umbrella again? I had a feeling that might work. Or could I have the rain wash my car for me? That would be so cool.
Would I ever have to wash my own dishes again?
Or mop the floors?
Pudgie mewed and pawed at me.
"You're a sweet pea, aren't you Pudgie?"
He mewed back and hissed.
"Are you hungry?" I pulled a can of kitten food out of my backpack.
I popped open the can and held it in front of Pudgie's nose while he ate. When it was empty, he closed his eyes and licked his chops, running the back of his paw over his whiskers to tidy them. I just about melted, he was so cute.
"What a good little monster!" I said, stroking behind his ears. I took him to a little patch of grass and he relieved himself tidily, scratching dirt to cover up his mess.
As I waited for the bus—and the rain—I checked the transportation schedule on my phone. A bus wasn't even scheduled for another forty minutes. The police would just have to wait.
I texted Cormac that I was delayed but would be there as quickly as I could.
I slid Pudgie back into my backpack. He purred and kneaded my wallet.
"My life isn't always this exciting," I said to Pudgie, reaching my hand in my backpack to pet him. "Until today, I lived a pretty boring life."
He rubbed his face on my hand, so I lifted him back onto my lap. Maybe I should call the shelter now.
I pulled out my phone and got the number for the shelter again. I dialed. When they answered I asked if anyone had reported a lost kitten.
"Did you find a kitten? Describe it." The man had a low monotone voice.
I described Pudgie. "So did someone lose him?"
"We do have a report of a missing kitten, lost in Enchanted Shores last night, but I don't know the color or gender yet. What time can you be here to drop the kitten off?"
"I don't want to drop him off!" I cried. I wanted to keep Pudgie; I'd grown so attached to him.
"So why did you call me?" he asked.
"I called to see if someone lost him. But if he's not already someone's kitten, then I want to keep him."
"Let me take your number. I'll call you when I get more information."
"Okay," I said. I gave the number, but now wished I'd never even called the shelter. I didn't want to give up Pudgie. I kissed his head, and he meowed up at me.
"Do you want to stay with me, Pudgie? Do you want to be my kitten?"
He mewed and purred harder, nudging my hand with the top of his head. He could be so cute when he wasn't being a monster!
"Sometimes you sound just like you're answering me, you know that?"
He hissed and spit, kneading his claws into my leggings.
"Stop that!" I pushed his claws away. He settled on my lap.
In a way, I didn't mind waiting for the bus. It gave me a chance to think about this day. So much had happened with Marcy and Nate that I hadn't really thought through the woman in the ocean, and the whole water thing.
If I did have power over water, then why? And why now? I had to think it started when I went into the ocean—except the thing in the kitchen was before that.
Was that why I had always been afraid to go in the sea? Did I know on some leve
l that it would happen? I tried to recall earlier interactions with water, but I couldn't remember a single incident.
Maybe I'd known for a very long time that I had a powerful connection to the ocean, but it scared me for some reason. After all, I had been lost at the Ocean World theme park when I was a toddler. Why was the ocean so significant?
In a way, I was glad I didn't have the time to sit and worry about this. I had more practical concerns. I needed to deal with Nate and Marcy's death and even Pudgie. I still had to figure out what to do with my tax bill. With Marcy gone, I had to win that hairdo-off. I could still ask for an extension from the town clerk, but if that didn't work then the hairdo-off looked like my last chance. What if I really lost my house? Where would I go?
The bus finally showed up, and I took it straight home, running from the stop to my house. Pudgie bounced along, mewing at me as I ran, holding him tight.
"Sorry, little guy!" I told Pudgie, as we closed in on my house. "I need a shower!"
At the top of my driveway, I heard thunder rumble and looked up. A cloud had formed overhead, and it began to rain.
Did I just say I needed a shower?
My jaw dropped as I stared at the cloud. Lighting cracked as the cloud dumped rain all over me. I sheltered Pudgie in my arms and let the rain come for as long as I could stand it. This was one way to take a shower. Finally, a shiver shot through me. "Enough!" The rain stopped. I blinked.
I was going to have to be way more careful about what I said.
"Fly away, cloud," I whispered. The cloud drifted off. "Thank you!"
This whole magic thing was going to take some getting used to! I dashed inside.
Finally! I threw my backpack on the sofa. I ran into the kitchen and poured a bowl of milk for Pudgie, just in case he was still hungry. I was happy to see that the kitchen had been returned to normal. I took a peek under the sink. Pipes had been connected again. I turned on the faucet and water streamed out. That was a relief. I hoped the shower worked too.
"You're coming with me, little monster." I kissed the top of Pudgie's head as I carried him into the bathroom and closed the door. I set his bowl on the floor and he lapped eagerly.
I turned on the shower taps—yes, hot water!—and stripped off my wet, sandy clothes. It felt so good to be out of them.
While I shampooed and soaped up, I tried to think of something fun to ask the water to do. Finally, I just said, "Rinse!" and let the water rise on its own from the spigot. It gently rinsed away the suds while I turned around in a circle.
Honestly, controlling water was a lot of fun. I shut off the taps and laughed.
I felt another headache coming on. Was the headache connected to controlling water? It seemed to happen after every event.
Maybe it had dehydrated me?
I stepped out of the shower and poured a cup of water. I drank it as I dried off. The pounding stopped, so I found my water bottle, filled it, and shoved it in my backpack. I'd have to remember to keep drinking it.
After getting ready, I drove to the Shaggy Puppy and parked out front. I checked my watch: only a few minutes late.
When I walked into the salon, I almost bumped into Cormac, who was waiting for me just inside. He had a hand cart and a stack of boxes beside him as if he was ready to move furniture. The salon was in disarray, with drawers askew and clips on the floor. The police must have finished their search.
Cormac's expression was fierce. Something terrible had happened.
"What is it?" I asked. "What did you find?"
"Someone killed Marcy Rawson."
Chapter 6
Sadie
Poor Marcy! I sank into a chair.
"How?"
Cormac fiddled with the hand cart as if he didn't want to tell me. But finally he did, his voice tender. "She was beaten. When we found the body, we knew she was bruised, but someone had cleaned her up pretty good, gotten rid of any visible evidence of the beating. The coroner told us she suffered a heart attack. That likely killed her."
"So not murder."
"They're waiting for labs. We'll know tomorrow."
Poor Marcy.
"Who would do such a thing?" I couldn't believe it. Enchanted Shores had always seemed so safe.
"What are your thoughts?"
"I can't think of anyone who would hurt Marcy. We're around children all day. And their parents."
"Do you know where Marcy came from? Where she lived before Gwen hired her?"
I shook my head. "She never talked about herself."
Cormac scratched his chin, the whiskers bristling and making a sound like sandpaper on wood. "No one in town seems to know much about her."
"I just don't know. Did you find out who owns the Shaggy Puppy? They must have employment records." In retrospect it seemed so strange that I didn't know these things, but I had never thought about them. Gwen just took care of everything. Then Marcy did.
Who would take care of everything now?
"It appears to be owned by a shell company set up to hide the ownership of this and a few other businesses in town."
"How weird." It sounded like something from a big city, not a small town like Enchanted Shores.
"There's a few things I can check out." Cormac scowled, then he patted the hand cart's handle. "We got the search warrant, and my team just finished going through the salon. We couldn't get into the filing cabinet, so we're removing it and taking it to the station to open."
He pushed the hand cart back into the office and I followed. He slid the cart's lip under the cabinet and pulled, but the cabinet didn't move.
He pushed and shoved and grunted. Nothing.
"Here, let me help." I pulled the cabinet while he tilted the cart. But it still didn't move. Finally, we both stepped back and looked at the cabinet. It was solid and made from wood. It did seem old, but why was it so heavy?
"No key?" I ran my fingers over the back of the cabinet.
"Not that we could find."
"I'll keep my eye out for one." Maybe it was lying around somewhere in the house, but I didn't want to mention it or the police might search my house the way they had the salon. I noticed that the big book was missing. "Did you take that book? The one on the desk."
"It's on its way to a scholar in the city. Maybe it's nothing, but maybe it's a clue." We walked back toward the front door. Cormac continued, "I'll bring a locksmith in tomorrow for the cabinet. If you notice anything, let me know." He looked at me sideways as if he didn't quite trust me.
"What?" I asked.
He tucked the cart in the break room and turned to me. "Just stay safe."
"Am I in danger?" That hadn't even occurred to me.
"Everyone might be in danger until we find Marcy's killer."
"I will. I'll be safe." I breathed deeply.
After Cormac left, I locked the door and wandered through the salon, petting Pudgie.
The Shaggy Puppy felt ransacked. Even though the police hadn't trashed the salon, nothing was quite where it should be. Everything was just a little off.
It was hard to accept that Marcy was gone and would never be back.
Who would hurt her?
I shivered. We're all so much more fragile than we think.
I locked the door and headed out.
The Enchanted Shores Center for Senior Folks was directly across the street from the Shaggy Puppy.
The center resembled a smart apartment building, with a doorman and a marble-floored lobby. But each floor had varying levels of care for the residents, from the second floor for independent seniors who could order room service when they didn't feel like cooking, to the top floor, which was a unit for the memory impaired and provided residents with three hot meals per day and near-constant supervision. The top floor was where those who had dementia lived.
Mrs. G was on the second floor and her ex-husband, Mr. G, resided in the memory-impaired top floor.
Many of the seniors couldn't manage coming into the salon. Those little chairs c
ould be a bit much, even for someone who didn't suffer from arthritis and had bad eyesight, like so many of the seniors. I was happy to go to them.
I pressed the elevator call button and waited a minute until it arrived.
Mr. and Mrs. G had divorced twice and remarried once, but Mrs. G always told me she still loved him dearly. They got together every day at cocktail hour and she enjoyed having a brand-new hairdo each night. She and I had a standing appointment at four o'clock each afternoon.
Because of his dementia, Mr. G never remembered her from day to day, but he always fell in love with her again by the end of the night. It was the most romantic thing.
"Hello, Mrs. G!" Her door was ajar, so I entered, touching the cat statue on the way in for good luck. It was a nice apartment, filled with antiques from Japan, which was where Mrs. G’s parents had emigrated from in the 1800s.
Mrs. G was ready for me, as usual. She had set up a stool in her living room.
"Lovey, I told you. Call me Sparkplug! Everyone else does."
I'd never heard anyone call her Sparkplug, even though she was incredibly energetic. She had to be at least eighty years old. I set Pudgie on the floor. He mewed and then crawled under the coffee table.
"Who is this?" Mrs. G leaned down, ignoring her creaking knees to pet Pudgie. "What a sweetie!" She had been a pyrotechnician for the town of Enchanted Shores when she was young, and still had a blunt, bold personality, which she told me went with the profession.
Still, I couldn't call her Sparkplug—though I had tried.
"This is Pudgie. I found him on my doorstep this morning."
"Of course you did!" She laughed down at him.
He mewed at her furiously.
I laughed too. "I've never heard him so talkative!"
"Oh, he has a lot to say, doesn't he?" She tickled his head as he mewed.
When she tried to rise, Mrs. G stalled halfway up. "Help me, lovey!"
Mrs. G was as tiny as a bird. But once she bent over she could never get back up. I gave her my arm, so she could rise back to standing.
"Oh, thank you, lovey," she said. "Tell me everything that happened to you today."
Mrs. G sat on the stool and I wrapped a towel around her delicate shoulders. She was by far my favorite client. Not only did she ask me to dye her hair outrageous colors like fuchsia and neon blue, but she was kind and supportive. I thought of her as my fairy godmother. I'd go anywhere to style her hair.
Shifting and Bewitching (Enchanted Shores Book 1) Page 4