Mudflaps and Murder

by Tegan Maher

  “Of course!” I said. Not only would it distract her for a while, but it would give me a chance to think about asking her to move in when there were already so many changes taking place. Then it occurred to me that Matt was moving out, so the apartment would be empty. That appealed to me more than offering her a room in the house, because it would give us both more privacy. Since I was planning to ask Hunter to move in, things were going to be shaken up enough without adding another person to the mix.

  She helped me feed then left to do her thing. I’d just about finished sweeping when Shelby popped in. She looked tired. Dark smudges stained her eyes, and she wasn’t wearing a stitch of makeup. She wasn’t exactly a diva, but she was a teenager. She rarely left the house without at least swiping on some eyeliner.

  “You okay? You look a little ragged.”

  “Thanks,” she said, one side of her mouth turning up in a half-smile. “And you look lovely yourself. I love the bits of hay you’ve added to your hair. It really gives it that extra little something.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You know what I mean. Are you sleeping enough?”

  She lifted a shoulder. “It depends on what you consider enough. I’ve got my first round of mid-terms coming up, plus I’ve got some other ... stuff going on. Extracurricular activities, I suppose you could call it.”

  “You mean like you’re playing sports or something?”

  “Or something.”

  She turned her head to give Missy a scratch, and I noticed a bruise on her throat. “Where’d you get that bruise?”

  “What bruise?” she asked, pulling at the long sleeves on her sweatshirt.

  “The bruise on your neck.”

  “Oh. Probably from the self-defense course I’m taking.”

  I knew her inside out, though, and she was lying.

  “Okay. Where’d you really get it?” I knew it hadn’t come from Cody, but obviously it had come from somewhere she didn’t want to tell me about.

  She heaved a big sigh. “Just let it go, okay? Nothing’s wrong. I’m okay. I got it practicing magic with a friend. And yes, part of that involves self-defense.”

  I shook my head but didn’t press. It was just a bruise, though I was more worried about the fact that she wasn’t telling me something than anything else.

  Addy popped in. “There’s my girl! What are you doing home?”

  “Hey, Auntie,” Shelby said, her face lighting up. “I just figured I’d stop in and say hi. I had a minute, and as much as I hate to feed your egos, I missed your faces.”

  She wandered over to the box that held the old knobs. “Hey! Where’d you get the whip?” She reached in the box and pulled it out, then unfurled it and stepped a few feet outside of the barn and drew it back. When she let it fly, though, it didn’t just let out the loud crack I’d expected. No, nothing that simple at all.

  Streaks of pink magic wrapped around her hand and shot down the length of the whip, and the crack it made sounded more like a thunderclap than a whip. The earth shuddered beneath us, and firey pink flames shot from the tip of it, leaving a scorched patch of ground where she had aimed it.

  Dropping it, she stumbled backward and tripped, landing on her butt. I was rooted to the spot, unsure what to do or what to make of what I’d just seen. Addy, however, seemed to understand exactly what was going on. She floated over to her, and I leaped forward, offering her a hand up. She took it, and I pulled her to her feet. Brushing off the back of her jeans, she stepped forward and picked up the whip. It gave a little pulse of soft pink light, then faded back to normal.

  “It looks like you just found what you’ve been looking for,” Addy said, her voice heavy with a meaning I didn’t understand.

  “What do you mean?” I snapped. “What’s going on, here?”

  Shelby sighed and glanced at Addy, who shrugged. “It’s your story to tell, but think carefully.”

  “There’s nothing to think about,” I barked. “Somebody tell me what’s going on right this instant.” I slammed my hands across my chest and waited, glaring them both down.

  “I can’t,” Shelby said, her face downcast. “I wish I could, but it’s complicated. Just ... trust me, okay?”

  “Does this have anything to do with Camille coming to ask me to crawl into somebody’s mind at the council?”

  “She came here and said they had a prisoner—Katrina’s nephew. She wants me to break into his brain while he’s asleep for information.”

  Addy and Shelby exchanged a long, pregnant glance.

  “Absolutely not,” Shelby exclaimed, shaking her head.

  “You have to,” Addy said at the same time, and I looked back and forth between them. My temper was rising, and I’d had enough of the secrecy.

  Shelby glowered at our aunt. “You know how dangerous he is. I do not want to risk him catching her and tracing the link back.”

  “Tell me right now what’s going on,” I demanded. Now I was not only mad, I was scared for Shelby, too. “I’m not playing.”

  One more glance, and Shelby huffed a breath out through her cheeks. “Sit down.”

  I jumped up on my tailgate and stared at her. “Start talking.”

  She chewed on her lip for a minute, and I waited her out. I recognized the lookShe paced in front of me, not saying anything. I waited her out because I knew her well enough to realize she was composing her thoughts, not coming up with a lie.

  “Understand something, okay? I can’t tell you everything. I just can’t. They’re not my secrets to tell, or at least not just my secrets. But here’s the bottom line. There’s this thing called the scepter of life. It holds four stones, one for each element. Those stones are carried by a chosen witch, then given to the Mother Goddess, or Mother Earth, or whatever you choose to call her, every hundred years. She reads them, and if she doesn’t pick up any impure magic, she gifts us—all magicals—with another century of magic.”

  The whole thing sounded bizarre, but her expression was dead serious. “Shelby, what have you gotten yourself into?”

  She shook her head. “Let’s just say that I’m part of an organization that helps keep people—both regular people and magicals—safe.”

  I started to protest, but she held out her hand. “I’m not telling you more than that. I can’t, so please, just go with it, okay?”

  Pulling in a deep breath, I asked the most critical question. “Are you safe?”

  She ran her tongue over her teeth. “As safe as I can be, and my teammates are powerful. And I’m doing this by choice.”

  My mind raced to absorb the information she’d given me. “So what does all that have to do with Sebastian?”

  “He and his faction have stolen the scepter and stones. The ceremony is in six days. If we don’t get it back in time to present it to the goddess, we lose our magic.”

  So, no pressure, then.

  “Noelle, you have to do it. I don’t know Camille thinks you’re the one for the job, but if she came to you, then I trust her decision.”

  I sighed, resigned. “Okay. I’ll tell her.”

  It looked like I was climbing into bed with the council after all. But at least now I knew why.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  It had only taken Camille about five seconds flat to get to the house after I gave her a mental call to let her know I was willing to help. Since we were waiting for him to go to sleep, she’d waited until after girls’ night to pick me up. Rather than bore you with the details, I’ll summarize.

  I did manage to get into his head, but I don’t know if I gleaned anything of value. I picked up vivid mental images of several places, one of which was a castle. He’d also had a conversation with Katrina, and I’d had the weirdest sensation that I was eavesdropping on an actual conversation rather than watching a dream. They spoke of the scepter but didn’t mention any details. They had mentioned some names, though, and Camille seemed to recognize them.

  In a move that was classic Council, they wouldn’t give me any more informat
ion than what I learned from Sebastian, but Camille did tell me that they were all witches, and that they suspected they knew where the castle was at.

  “Look, Noelle,” Camille had said once we were back at my place. “I know you’re worried. So am I—Emma’s involved, too, and though she’s powerful, she’s just a regular witch. No super-juiced angel powers, so trust me when I say I know how you’re feeling right now. If I could give you more information, I would, but I literally can’t. I’m bound by an oath, and you know those are unbreakable.”

  Rather than rail against her and the entire Council like I wanted to, I accepted it. For then. I wasn’t giving up, though. I’d find it all out eventually, and it would be sooner rather than later. For the time being, though, I had a barbecue to host, and though I was worried to death about Shelby. I had to have faith, though.

  Since I’d promised Justin he could come to the farm that night, I went ahead and invited the rest of the crew, too. Everybody, including Bobbie Sue and Earl. Since they’d adopted Justin, they’d also stopped working so much, which I was glad for. They’d busted their humps all their lives, and they deserved to take it easy sometimes.

  “Hey, woman,” Raeann said, giving me a hip bump as she stepped up beside me at the sink where I was taking the shells off about a million boiled eggs. “Good job on solving another one, but I’m dying to know how it went down. You still haven’t said.”

  My brain was so stuck on Shelby that it took me a second to realize what she was talking about. Oh yeah, the murder.

  “Seriously?” Hunter said. He waved the potato peeler he was wielding. “I think I should probably get the credit on this one.”

  Rae laughed and held up her hand. “Fine, then. I’m just tickled pink that none of us almost died this time around.”

  “You and me both,” I said, shucking the skin off of another boiled egg. “I mean, I hate that there was any murder at all, but I’m especially glad it wasn’t me. Or you, or Gabi, or any of us. I’ve almost died enough times to last me to a ripe old age.”

  “As to why she did it,” Hunter said, skinning another potato and chucking it in the bowl, “it boils down to teenage delusion. Daisy was under the impression they were a thing. She’d been sneaking off to spend time with him, and then she caught wind of the fact he’d been spending time with Evie. She went to confront him, and he was in a rage, throwing things and screaming about the money being gone. Rather than do the smart thing and back away until he calmed down, she still confronted him about it. He made fun of her and called her stupid for believing she was anything but a side piece to him. She called him an old man and said he should be lucky she’d even looked twice at him. Daisy said he lost it and came at her. When he raised his arm to backhand her, she picked up the nearest thing she could find, and she stabbed him.”

  Raeann just stared for a second, then shook her head. “So what’s gonna happen to her?”

  Hunter lifted a shoulder. “She’s at the mercy of the judge. My guess, though, is that given his history of violence, she’ll get off on self-defense.”

  It was a sad situation all around, but to be honest, I figured he’d had it coming. “I talked to Gabi last night about it. She knew him from when she worked at the diner. One of the girls she worked with dated him for a bit, and showed up for work more than once with bruises, and even a black eye once. Gabi knew what was going on, but the girl used the standard, I fell into a door explanation.”

  “Speaking of Gabi, where’s she at?” Rae asked after digesting that information.

  I shrugged my shoulders. “Off with her mystery man, I suppose. I haven’t seen much of her lately.”

  She frowned, and little worry lines creased her forehead. “I respect her privacy, but given our histories with men, I think it’s best if neither of us has secret relationships. I’m gonna have a chat with her about that.”

  “Speaking of men,” Hunter said, “Where’s Dave?”

  “He’s coming in a little bit,” she said. “He put thirty-three stitches in a ten-year-old kid who wrecked his bicycle into a rotten fence post last night, and he wanted to stop and check on him.” She shuddered. “Apparently there were rusty nails and lots of splinters involved, and he’s worried about infection.”

  Just hearing that made me cringe. I’d had my share of stitches growing up, and my heart went out to the little guy.

  A truck rumbled up the driveway and I leaned back so I could see who it was.

  I grinned when I saw Will’s truck. He was another workaholic who didn’t take nearly enough personal time. He had a great sense of humor, at least now that he was finally on an even keel from losing his wife to a prison cell. That’s another long story you might be interested in. At any rate, he really hit a wall when that had gone down, but he’d been slowly coming around over the last several months.

  He climbed out of his truck, a bottle of wine in one hand and a twelve-pack of beer in the other. Hunter smiled appreciatively.

  “C’mon in!” I yelled when he knocked.

  “I wasn’t sure whether to bring beer or wine, so I brought both,” he said. “I didn’t figure either of them would go to waste.”

  “You’re not wrong,” I said, smiling. “As a matter of fact, I could do with a glass of wine if you wouldn’t mind.”

  More tires crunched outside.

  “Gabi,” Hunter said, leaning forward from his spot at the table to check out the window.

  “It’s about time,” I said, huffing a breath out through my nose. “Is she alone, or did she finally bring the mystery man with her?”

  He leaned forward again. “Nope. Alone.”

  I growled in frustration, then turned to Will. “Has she mentioned anything at work?”

  Before he could reply, Gabi bound into the house, a huge smile on her face.

  “What’s up with you?” I said, scrunching my face in bafflement. She was a happy-go-lucky person, but she looked, as Addy would say, like a mule eating briars.

  “Nothin’,” she said, bouncing over to see what I was doing. “Want some help?”

  “Sure,” I said, scooching over. I still had at least a dozen eggs to peel Between potato salad and deviled eggs, we kept the chickens busy.

  “So, where you been?” I asked. “Another hot date with the new secret boyfriend? I’m starting to think there’s something weird about him. He’s super short, isn’t he? Chronic halitosis? An incurable addiction to comic books?”

  “Hey now,” Hunter said, “don’t go throwin’ shade on comic book nerds. I happen to be one of them.”

  “C’mon Gabs,” Rae said, joining in. “What’s up? Two left feet? Three? Is he a chronic nose picker who wears suspenders without shirts? Tube socks with shorts and sandals?”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Will exclaimed. “Enough, already. I wouldn’t be caught dead in suspenders, whether they were over a shirt or not. And I don’t even own a pair of tube socks. I do pick my nose every once in a while, but never in public. And aside from requiring an occasional breath mint after eating Italian, I’m pretty sure my breath is okay.”

  Everybody in the kitchen froze. Except for Gabi, that is. She laughed and closed the gap between them, then snaked her arm around his waist. “Man, am I glad that’s out in the open. You guys were killin’ me.”

  Rae looked every bit as floored as I was, but in retrospect, I don’t know why I was so shocked. Maybe it was just because there really wasn’t anything wrong with him. I sort of had the same reaction to Dave, Raeann’s boyfriend. Even after a year, I was still about half waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  “Well,” Hunter said, clearing his throat. “Speaking of weird bodily things, would anybody like to know what Jackson was doing with all the money he kept borrowing?”

  I swiveled my head back to him, deciding to follow his lead and draw the attention away from Gabi and Will. They deserved happiness. “You had this information and chose not to share it, why? You know that’s been making me crazy.”

&nb
sp; He held up his phone. “I just now got the email containing the autopsy report.”

  Silence filled the room as we waited for the news. He looked back and forth between us, drawing out the suspense. His eyes were almost watering with the effort to keep from laughing, and finally, he broke.

  “Implants! He blew it all on implants!”

  “Wait, what?” I asked, utterly confused.

  “Implants. You know, Butt cheeks, chin, hair plugs, teeth. The guy put himself bankrupt shoving stuff into various parts of his body.”

  Gabi looked at me, and we all burst into laughter. Though it wasn’t anything like what I expected, it wasn’t even a little bit shocking once I thought about it. He was one of the most arrogant people I’d ever met, so it followed that he’d want to get rid of anything he perceived as a flaw.

  The screen door screeched open, and Anna Mae and Matt poked their heads in, cutting the laughter short.

  “Why don’t y’all come outside for a minute. We got somethin’ we want to share with you,” Anna Mae said, then glanced at Gabi and Will. “Oh, good. You finally came out of the closet. It’s about time, ’cause I’m not sure who you thought you were foolin’.”

  “Right?” Hunter said, raising his brows. “It’s so obvious, and Noe’s been beating her head against the wall worried about you. I was about to spill the beans, but didn’t want to in case I was wrong.”

  Rae and I looked at each other and shrugged, but I could see the curiosity burning as brightly in her eyes as it surely was in mine. At least I wasn’t the only clueless one.

  I peeled the rest of the shell off the egg in my hand and dropped it into the bowl. After I rinsed it, then poured Anna Mae and Raeann glasses of wine. Carrying them, along with the one Will had poured for me, I joined them on the porch.

  “Thanks,” Raeann said when I handed her the wine, but Anna Mae just smiled and shook her head. “None for me.”

  I raised my brows. I’d never heard Anna Mae turn down a glass of wine in my life.

  “Actually,” she said, gazing up at Matt, who was beaming at her. “That’s what I—we wanted to talk to you about.”