I rolled my eyes at myself as I realized how insane I sounded.
Nevertheless, I needed a second opinion to help organize my thoughts. A second opinion from someone who was sharp, but didn’t think in exactly the same way I did. And I knew just who fit the bill perfectly.
As soon as my feet touched the ground at my house, I texted Diana.
Chapter 5
As I made my way into the B&B, the hisses and snarls of two very displeased felines reached my ears. I rolled my eyes, sending a text to Diana before looking over the mess the cats had inevitably made. I was hoping she’d reply quickly. She usually did, being the kind of witch who preferred to keep all her ducks in a very neat row. Of course, it helped that she was usually in full-blown caffeine-manic mode.
Instead of texting me back, she called me. I pressed the green button just as I walked into the kitchen to find Luna and Lara’s cat hissing at each other from opposite counters. I put a finger to my lips to shush them before speaking to my sister.
“Hey, Di.”
“What in the name of the moon is going on, Arti?” she exclaimed. I winced. The news had not landed well.
“I know. It’s crazy.” I sighed, leaning back against the counter next to Luna. The little black cat nuzzled my shoulder, casting a smug look across the room at Lucy, who just turned away and started licking her tail, ignoring us.
“How did you manage to fall right into this one, too?” Diana asked, sounding just a little bit exasperated. I bit my lip, wondering just how to answer.
“Uh, well, it’s complicated. I swear I didn’t go looking for trouble,” I said slowly.
Diana groaned and I could just picture her pinching the bridge of her nose. “Look, I’ve got a lot going on this morning here at the school, but I would rather discuss this stuff in person, you know? Why don’t you come up here to my office and you can give me the full rundown?” she suggested.
I hesitated at the thought of heading back out into the cold, but I knew she probably wasn’t going to let it go until I agreed. Luna was shaking her head, having overheard Diana’s request.
“Don’t go. Don’t you leave me here with this bi-”
“Okay,” I said quickly, interrupting Luna. “I’ll head back out and be up at the Academy as soon as I can. You sure you have time to meet with me today?”
“No, I don’t have time. Not really. But I’ll make time, as always. You’re my sister, after all,” she replied. I could hear the sound of papers being shuffled around and the faint ring of a school bell in the background. “See you soon, and please be careful. Looks like our sweet little town is getting dangerous.”
“See you soon,” I replied, hanging up. Luna fixed me with a pouty glare.
“You’re really leaving again? You just got here!” she whined, pawing at my arm.
“I need to see Diana. Besides, it’s a rare day off. I need to get as many errands done as possible, I suppose. Better today than tomorrow,” I told her, wrapping my scarf tighter around my neck and fluffing it.
“You haven’t even filled me in on what happened yet,” she protested. “You can’t leave me here in the dark! With her.”
“Hey,” I said, waggling a finger at my little familiar. “You had better be nice to her. Lara is in rather bad shape, Lu. Lucy will be staying with us until she gets well enough to see her. So you two need to work this out and get over it. I’m way too busy to play referee with you guys.”
Luna rolled her beautiful green eyes and wrinkled her nose as she looked over at the fluffy white cat. I had never seen such potent distaste on an animal’s face before.
“Looks like we’re going to be roommates for a little while, so how’s about a truce? I won’t scratch you if you don’t bite me,” Luna said, rather unexpectedly, to Lucy.
The white cat turned slowly and languidly, narrowing her eyes at Luna, who stood her ground. Finally, Lara’s kitty let out a singular mew. I didn’t know what she said, but Luna seemed satisfied with the response.
“Cool. We’re cool,” Luna said, shrugging as she looked up at me. “Peace declared, at least for now. So get a move on, Arti, your sister is waiting for you. I promise the Manor will still be in one piece by the time you get back.”
I grinned and scooped her up to pepper her soft little face with kisses. She recoiled and batted at my face with her paws, trying to resist my affection.
“Ew! Stop! Don’t make me regret being so nice!”
Giggling, I set her back down on the counter. Luna didn’t skip a beat, immediately getting to work licking her fur back down and glaring at me.
“So embarrassing,” she muttered, shaking her head.
“Whatever. You love it,” I said, poking my tongue out at her. “I’ll be back later. Hold down the fort, kitties.”
“We’ll do our best.”
“Meow,” Lucy replied as well. Luna nodded in agreement with whatever she said.
I braced myself for the cold, cast a warming spell over myself once again, and headed back outside. Grabbing my broom, I hopped on, taking off down the street to make the chilly journey to the Moonlight Cove Academy campus. As I flew past the street where Lara’s house was located, I got a jolt of nerves at the sight of magical caution tape: a long, serpentine, glittering streak of “tape” cordoning off the area. I was never one-hundred-percent sure how magical police tape worked, but I had an inkling that if anyone were to pass through it, the police would probably be automatically notified somehow.
To my immense relief, there were only a few groups of onlookers hanging around the neighborhood, easy to spot by the way they whispered to each other conspiratorially. The police must have done a thorough job of scaring most of them off. I knew it was the kind of hot gossip a sleepy town like Moonlight Cove rarely got. A pretty young local murdered, and a beautiful celebrity badly injured in her home. Money, fame, intrigue, mystery. It had every component of a premium gossip thread.
Still, things were usually pretty boring here, so I couldn’t totally fault them for being so interested in the story. It didn’t take me long to get to the Academy, which looked gorgeous and wintry with the tall towers and stone structures caked in a glistening thin white layer of frost. The grounds were icy and crinkly underfoot, the trees barren and stark against the silvery-blue sky. I set my broom against a tree and hurried to Diana’s office, breathing a sigh of relief at the rush of warmth that hit me as soon as I was inside the building. I raised a hand to knock at the door, and for the second time that day, before I got a chance to, it swung open.
Poor Diana. She looked like a wreck, if I was honest. Her chin-length brown hair, usually perfectly coiffed and smooth, was sticking up in odd places around her head. There were faint purplish bags under her eyes and she looked as though she might literally be trembling.
“Uh, hi,” I began slowly, stepping into the room as she closed the door behind me. “Quick question, Diana: how many cups of coffee have you had today?”
She shrugged and began counting on her fingers, losing count somewhere around six.
“Di, that’s not good,” I said, walking over to put an arm around her shoulders.
“It’s fine. I’m alright. Just one of those crazy mornings, you know,” she said, waving off my concern as always. “Anyway, tell me everything. I want every detail.”
I sat down in the chair opposite Diana and picked up a cup of tea that Diana magically conjured up while I told her what happened, sparing no detail. She flinched and gasped her way through the telling, her eyes wide and her face ashen. Getting up, she poured herself a seventh cup of coffee, but I quickly confiscated it before she could caffeinate herself into a coma.
“So you’re telling me that Lara Lancaster’s cat is in your house right now?” she asked at the end of my spiel.
“Yes. Why does that seem to be the part everyone is most interested in?”
“Luna doesn’t seem like the sort of cat who plays well with others, so I’m curious as to how that’s going to end up. Anywa
y, I have another question. A more pressing one.”
“Okay, shoot,” I replied warily, eyeing her with suspicion. I didn’t like the way she was approaching this question, whatever it was.
“Do you know anything about Arianna’s family?”
I tilted my head to one side. “No, not really. I mean, I went to school with her, but I never knew her well enough to meet her family.”
She bit her lip. “Well, her brother works here.”
“At the school?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
She nodded. “Yeah. He’s a janitor. He’s on shift right now, actually. I’m sure the news has already gotten to him. I’m trying to decide whether to send him home or not.”
“Well, if it were me, and I’d just found out that you were killed, I think the last place I’d want to be is work. Especially if my job was to clean toilets and stuff,” I remarked sadly. Not that being a janitor was all that bad in the magical world. A simple list of spells and magical objects did the vast majority of the (quite literally) dirty work. But it was still not totally pleasant, even though it was definitely one of the most important jobs in any society - magical or non-magical. I shuddered to think what the world would be like without the kind, patient souls who cleaned up after the rest of us.
“See, that’s where we’re different,” Diana said. “If you were killed, I think I would rather stay at work. You know, to stay busy and keep my mind distracted while I sorted through my feelings and stuff.”
“Wow, that’s weird,” I commented with a snort. “You wouldn’t totally melt down if I died? What a great sister you are.”
She stuck out her tongue at me. “Hey now. You know I’d be crushed. Obviously. I’m just saying people grieve and deal with things in different ways. And I don’t know which way is best suited for Jackson Long,” she said, wringing her hands.
“Maybe just let him come to you. If he wants to be sent home, he’ll probably tell you. Does that seem fair enough?” I suggested. She nodded.
“I suppose so. I wish there were better protocol for this kind of thing. But I just never expected it would be an issue. Not here. Not in Moonlight Cove.” She sighed, taking a sip of her herbal tea. “Oh! That reminds me.” A more serious look appeared on her face.
“What?” I asked.
“One more thing. Arti, I want you to stay out of this business, okay? For real, this time. I know you were already kind of involved this morning because of the cat and all. But whoever hurt Lara and killed Arianna clearly isn’t messing around. This is serious, Artemis. I don’t want you nosing into trouble and getting hurt. All this talk about sisters dying - it’s scaring me. You’re my best friend and I can’t bear the thought of you being roped into this,” she said firmly.
I reached across the table to give her hand a squeeze of reassurance. I wasn’t sure if I could quite follow her command, but I would try. For her.
“Of course. I’ll be careful.”
“Be more than careful, stay out of it. The bell’s going to ring in twenty minutes and I’m already behind on my paperwork for the day,” she said, standing up to lead me out of the office. “Don’t let yourself get wrapped up in the mystery, Arti. Keep your head down.”
“I got it,” I told her with a smile. “See you later, Di.”
“Bye, Arti.”
Stepping out of her office, I walked back down the hallway, my mind racing. So Arianna’s brother worked here at the school. I wondered what kind of relationship he and his sister had. Were they close like Di and I were? I could barely imagine what he had to be going through. Just then, I heard a loud groan and a sniffle from around the corner. It sounded like someone crying.
I stepped around the corner and saw a tall man wearing a white uniform, crying into his hands. There was an enchanted mop hovering beside him, waiting for instruction. My heart sank. Clearly, this was Jackson Long.
“Excuse me?” I piped up before I could stop myself. The man looked over at me, his face all pink and puffy from crying.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said, wiping his eyes. “I’m a mess. Forgive me.”
“No, no. Don’t worry,” I said, walking up to him. “Are you, um, Arianna Long’s brother?”
He looked at me, blinking back tears. “Yes. How did you know?”
I gave him an apologetic look. “Well, you’re crying. And my sister mentioned you work here at the school.”
“Ah. I suppose that would make it pretty easy to put two and two together,” he said, sniffling. “I just can’t believe it, you know. My little sister. She was so young and happy. Finally making something great out of herself.”
“I am so, so sorry for your loss. Listen, I’m sure if you go speak to Diana she’s going to give you the rest of the day off. But if you don’t mind my asking, how did your sister know Lara Lancaster?”
“She was working as a personal assistant for Miss Lancaster. Bookkeeping. Appointment scheduling. She even helped color-code her wardrobe and stuff. They got along great. They almost seemed more like friends than boss and employee,” he said, his chin trembling.
“Hmm. And there wasn’t any animosity between them?” I asked, trying to keep my voice casual and sympathetic.
He shook his head, tears still rolling down his cheeks. Poor guy.
“Nope. They worked well together. Arianna had just gotten the job a few weeks ago, I think. They just clicked instantly.”
“Do you know of anyone who was angry with your sister?” I asked, unable to resist. I could hear Diana’s words of warning in the back of my mind, but I just couldn’t stop myself. That investigative bug was in me, and it was unstoppable.
Jackson grimaced in confusion. “No. Nobody. Definitely not. Arianna got along with everybody. Whoever hurt her - killed her - only did it because she was in the way. Lara Lancaster had to have been the real target. No one would have wanted to kill Arianna.”
My heart broke for the man.
“Thanks. I’m sorry for your loss,” I told him softly.
Chapter 6
This part wasn’t going to be easy.
Drifting back home on my broom, the more time I had to think, the more worked up I was getting.
I still wasn’t convinced Lara was the real target. Watching Jackson’s face through our conversation had been really heart-wrenching, and I was sure that he knew his sister better than just about anyone, but that didn’t necessarily mean that he knew everything about her. That would have been especially true if Arianna had been working as Lara’s personal assistant. Sure, I didn’t know a whole lot about what life was like working with Hollywood personalities, but was that going to stop me from assuming it was as dramatic and dangerous as TV had led me to believe? No, of course not.
For the time being, though, I had another fish to fry, and I was dreading it. It had been hard enough to talk to Jackson about his murdered sister, but at least Jackson had known about everything before I talked to him.
Now, I had to update the cats.
I shivered as I got to the front door and stepped inside, feeling warm relief wash over me the second I entered the familiar wooden living room. I was used to cold weather up here in Washington, sure. But what I always looked forward to more than anything in the winter was the very specific feeling of coming into a warm home after being out in the cold for a while and feeling the heat close in around me like a warm blanket.
As soon as I crossed the threshold both cats began circling around me like sharks. Lucy meowed urgently, but Luna’s voice came through loud and clear, albeit no less grating on the ears.
“Arti! Arti! Arti!” When I got my familiar, I found out quickly that sometimes, the things animals were saying could be guessed from their natural noises pretty easily. “Come on, what did you find out, master detective? This is important! Give us the details.”
I made my way across the living room toward the kitchen, with the cats twirling under my feet so much I was worried I was accidentally going to step on one of them. Or maybe both. “You
weren’t this concerned over the other two murders - or this complimentary, for the record.”
“Yeah yeah, whatever,” Luna said. “That’s because they weren’t as important as this one. Cat people are definitely a class above non-cat people, as far as humans go.”
“Why does hearing that from you not surprise me?” I said with a sigh as I rolled my eyes and got to the kitchen. I pointed a finger and muttered a couple of spells to whip out a big green mug and float it over to the counter beside me, where the carton of milk from the fridge floated out and poured itself into it. I did the same with a little chocolate powder, whipping it straight out of its container in a string of brown powder in the air that I swirled in a loop before sending it into the milk and tapping the mug with a final spell to heat it up and give me a piping-hot cup of hot cocoa.
If I was going to make something to drink with magic, then I was at least going to do it with panache.
Luna hopped up on the counter and pulled open one of the cabinets, then pushed herself up far enough to grab the bag of little marshmallows in her teeth and drag it toward me.
“You’re not getting marshmallows, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“No, but I know you humans have to have dumb stuff like hot chocolate to warm up to make up for the fact that you don’t have a natural fur coat, and I want to hurry this up. Lucy’s been worried sick.”
As I swirled my finger and muttered a spell to make the little marshmallows waddle their way in a single file out of the bag and into the mug, I arched an eyebrow at Luna.
“You’re feeling awfully compassionate today, aren’t you?”
Luna flicked her tail impatiently.
“What? No! I mean…” she glanced at Lucy, who was fidgeting anxiously on the floor, trying to look prim and proper but obviously worked up. “It’s a familiar thing, you wouldn’t understand.”
“I think it’s more like a ‘being a decent cat’ thing,” I said with a smug smile at Luna, who made an angry spitting noise in response.
Thank my Lucky Spells Page 4