by Rose Pressey
With broom and dustpan in hand, I moved my way across the floor and out the front door. “Exactly what it looks like: someone broke into the café.”
“I see that part. What’s missing?” His brow furrowed in concern.
“How do you know these things? And don’t you dare say magic.” I frowned. “You know what’s missing without me telling you, so why are you asking? Just to torture me? To make me say the words out loud?” I continued sweeping the shards of glass.
He remained straight-faced. “This is a very serious situation, Elly.”
Chapter Thirty-One
“I realize that.” The clinking of the glass when it hit the metal dustpan made me cringe.
“I’m not sure if you do. You’re not acting all that worried.” He studied me.
I threw my arms up and the broom fell to the ground. “What am I supposed to do? Can’t you sniff it out with your bloodhound nose?” I made air quotes with my fingers. “Can’t you sense it with your magic?”
“It doesn’t work that way.”
“How does it work?” I whispered as an officer walked by. “Why don’t you tell me because I’m a little confused. My grandmother leaves me this place and she, along with all you magic people, expect me to just know what to do. Well, I don’t know what to do. So why don’t you quit blaming me and help me?” I poked at his chest. Just as I’d suspected, it was hard as a rock.
“I plan on helping you, Elly. The only reason I’m here is to help you.” His eyes held a sadness that I hadn’t seen before.
I inhaled and slowly exhaled. “You could have fooled me. I thought the reason you were here was to close the café.”
“Well, you’re wrong. I can’t lie and say that won’t happen, but I want to help you so that it doesn’t happen.”
I steadied myself with a deep breath, then picked up the broom and stared at him. “That was actually very sweet of you to say. Thank you.” I swept more glass into a pile. “So what do I do now? The book is gone and so are the spices.”
“We’ll have to close until we find them. If we find them soon enough, then the boss doesn’t even need to know about this. But even if we find the book, that still doesn’t leave us much time to remedy the other situation.”
He didn’t need to remind me. The pain of my reality sat on my chest like an elephant.
“Can’t you get in a lot of trouble for not telling your boss about the missing items?”
He shrugged. “A little.”
“A little?” I raised a brow.
“Okay, a lot. But what’s one more thing, right? I think you’re worth it.” He moved closer and my stomach dropped.
What was he doing? His tone had changed. He no longer sounded like my magical warden.
He placed his hand on my arm. “I want to help you, Elly. Now quit being stubborn and let me, okay?”
I took in a deep breath and his spicy scent hit my nostrils. “Okay. I’ll do whatever you say from this point forward.”
“Like I said, we need to close until we locate the magic.”
“I thought you’d close the café for good this morning, anyway. Aren’t my forty-eight hours up?”
He stared at me. “You have until this afternoon.”
I nodded, not sure of what to say. Tears threatened to fall from my eyes. My throat ached from holding them back and I bit my lip to keep it from trembling.
“You need to replace the glass, anyway.” Tom reached for the dustpan. His tanned arm flexed as he reached down. “That should give us time to find the book and spices.”
“You think a couple hours will really help? It sounds as if we’ll be looking for a needle in a haystack.”
“You’d be surprised. Mystic Hollow is a small town, remember?” He shook his head gently.
“Whatever you say, but I’ve never been a sleuth, so I don’t know how we’ll locate them.”
“All we can do is try, right?” He touched my arm again.
“Right.”
Footsteps caught my attention and I spun around. Rory approached us. He frowned when he saw Tom’s hand on my arm. Tom noticed Rory’s glare and a sly smile appeared on his face. I wriggled out from under Tom’s hand and walked toward Rory.
“Are you okay?” he asked with a frown aimed at Tom.
“I’m all right, but someone smashed the café window out.” I tilted my head toward the broken glass.
“Did they steal anything?” He shoved his hands in his pockets.
“No, not that I know of.” What a liar. If only I could tell him the truth. It would feel so much better to confide in him. I’d never been a good liar, anyway.
“Do you need help cleaning up the mess?” He gestured for me to hand him the broom.
“I think I have it under control, although I’m not sure of what to do with the gaping hole in the front of the café.”
“I’ll get a few boards to nail over the broken part until you can have it replaced.” Rory moved closer, inspecting the window frame.
“That would be wonderful. Thank you, Rory.”
“Think nothing of it.” He smiled as if to say ha to Tom.
Why did they dislike each other so? The only common denominator was me.
“I’ll be back soon.” Rory frowned while he gave Tom a departing glance, as if he didn’t want to leave me alone with him. But leaving the café wasn’t an option, and it didn’t appear Tom was going anywhere, either. Didn’t he need to start searching for the book? On a good note though, while Rory went for wood, Tom and I could discuss how we’d find the book…if we’d find the book. I hoped he had a good plan.
Rory drove off and I turned to Tom again. “So, where do we start?” I asked.
“First things first. We need to find out who knew about the magic.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
“You want to explain to me how you know who is aware of magic and who isn’t?” I asked.
“We have a list.”
I stared for a beat. Was he pulling my leg? “So when I became aware of magic, was I added to the list?”
“Absolutely. The person telling you about the magic has to call in with your details.”
“This is weird.”
“I never said it wasn’t. It’s just the way it is.”
“I know, I know, like the sky is blue and birds fly, blah, blah, blah.”
He laughed. “Exactly. Now you’re catching on.”
“That’s debatable.” One thing was for sure, I wanted to get him out of there before Rory returned to repair the window. The last thing I needed was more heated looks and sneers back and forth from them.
“Why don’t you go ahead and start while I clean up here?” I leaned against the brick building, suddenly aware of my too tight T-shirt when I noticed Tom’s eyes fixated on the area. I held the broom in front of my chest for some semblance of coverage. “I won’t be long and then I can help you in the search. Call me if you find out anything.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Okay, you’ll be all right here?”
“I have been before. I’ll be fine now.”
He nodded. “I’ll call you soon. We need to be on top of this and move as quickly as possible. No waiting around for the answer to find us.”
Too bad he didn’t feel that way about reversing the spell.
“Gotcha.” I saluted.
Tom walked toward his car and I finished sweeping outside. While I waited for Rory to return, I’d clean up the mess in the kitchen. Standing in the middle of my once-clean kitchen, I ran my hands through my hair and let out a huge sigh. I couldn’t believe the mess. It made no sense. Who would want to do something like this? As I set the dustpan on the kitchen floor and started sweeping, Mary Jane entered.
“Where’ve you been?” I asked.
“I had to run home real quick and check my house. I was worried someone might have broken into my place, too.”
“I don’t think you have anything to worry about. This person isn’t targeting you. They want
the magic.”
“What?” She looked at me wide-eyed.
“The magic book is gone and so are the spices.” I pointed to where the book and spices had rested for years until I’d been left in charge.
“Are you kidding?” She glanced at the shelf.
“Nope. I wouldn’t kid about something like this.”
“Does your grandmother know?” Mary Jane moved her finger across the spot where the book had been.
“No, she doesn’t, but Tom does. He showed up not long after I got here. I didn’t want to tell him, but he knew. Somehow he knew….”
“He’s kind of creepy like that. It is strange having them sense the magic, huh? Tom should be able to find the book and spices easily, though.” Mary Jane grabbed the dustpan.
“You’d think so, but he said it wasn’t that easy. He can trace it somewhat, but not completely. The person will use the magic to hide. They have a list of people who know about the magic, so he’s going to start there. He said we’ll have to close the café until we find who did this. But we have to hurry, or this afternoon it’ll be permanent.”
“Let me help you,” she said and grabbed the broom from my hands.
“Oh, and Rory is on his way to repair the window.”
“That’s sweet of him. I’m surprised the evil woman hasn’t showed up looking for him already.” Mary Jane dumped the contents of the dustpan in the trash.
“She probably will before he’s done. The sooner we get this over with, maybe the sooner I can get her out of town. She doesn’t want to be here anyway.”
Mary Jane frowned. “I think she’d suffer through anything right now. She has a plan to get Rory back and nothing will stop her from doing that.”
I wiped off the counters and looked at the clock. Rory should be back soon. I just wanted to get that window closed before anything else happened. Although how anything worse could happen, I didn’t know.
After another five minutes, Rory returned through the kitchen door.
“I’ve got the boards.” He smiled. “They’re on the back of my truck.”
“Oh, thank you.” I followed him outside the café.
“Can you give me a hand while I nail them in place?” He slid a board from the back of his truck. His muscles flexed as he carried the wood over to the broken window.
“Sure.” I tried not to stare. “And again, I can’t thank you enough for helping me.”
“It’s what I do. No thank you necessary.” He pulled the hammer from his back pocket.
It wasn’t exactly the answer I’d been looking for. I’d hoped he’d say something like: anything for you. His words made me think he’d help everyone and I was nothing special to him. But that was the thing with Rory. He would help anyone, even if they didn’t deserve his help. Or his attention, like Kim and her stupid car. I held one side of the boards while he hammered in the nails one after the other, all the while admiring his biceps with each swing of the hammer. The bright sunshine lit up the area giving me a fantastic view of his body.
Forcing myself to look away from Rory’s first-rate physique, I studied the street in front of Mystic Café. Why hadn’t anyone seen the person who’d done this? If it had been during the night, the streetlight right in front would certainly not have allowed them to use the cover of darkness. The whole area was awash with light in the evenings.
“That should do it until you get the window replaced. The hardware store can get you a replacement fairly quickly. I can stop by there sometime this morning, if you’d like?”
He snapped me from my musings. “No, you have too much to do.” I shook my head.
“I’ll be going by there anyway, it’s no big deal.” He placed his hammer back in the cab of his truck.
I stood beside his truck, leaning against the bed. “If you’re sure it’s no trouble.”
He flashed his dazzling smile. “Anything for you, Elly.”
Had he read my mind? They were exactly the words I’d wanted to hear. So much for listening to Kim’s warning about leaving Rory alone.
My breath caught as he ran his finger across my cheek. “I need to get going, but I’ll be back later. You’ll call me if you need anything?”
With a smile spread from ear to ear, I said, “I will.” I felt like a giddy teenager.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“I have the list,” Tom said. “I’ll interview everyone and see what I can find out.” He waved a couple sheets of white paper through the air.
“What can I do in the meantime?” I’d been staring at the old picture on the wall and wishing grandma was here when he walked in.
“Would you like to help me interview people?”
“I’m not sure I’m cut out for the sleuthing game. I never thought I’d make a good private investigator.”
“There’s nothing to it. You just ask questions. With the magic, they’ll be more truthful. But they can still try to hide things from us, so we’ll have to be thorough.”
“They can break your magic and lie?”
“Some might be able to, but I pride myself on my magical investigation abilities. How do you think I got this job?” He wiggled his eyebrows.
“No comment.” I flashed a big smile. “But seriously, I hadn’t thought about how you became an investigator. Bad luck? You drew the shortest straw?”
“Very funny. I like your wit.” Tom waved his index finger at me. “You’ve got spunk.” He smiled.
“When do we start?”
“Right now. I’ll take this half of the list.” He separated one sheet from the other. “And you take this half.”
“What about the magic? Where does that come in?” I looked over my shoulder to see if anyone was listening.
“I’ll find a way with each of them, leave it to me. Sometimes it’s as easy as saying an incantation, with others it can be a little harder.”
“How will I know if they’re being truthful?”
“You’ll know. Trust me.”
Again with the ‘you’ll know’ business.
“It’s worked so far, hasn’t it?” He pushed the sheet of paper toward me.
“I suppose.”
I studied the list of names. “Six? Only six? I thought there would be at least fifty.”
He shook his head and a lock of dark hair fell across his forehead. “Oh no. Six for you and six for me.” He combed his hair back with his fingers.
At the top of the list was Mr. Hanley from the barbershop, the one with the magic scissors. If Tom thought I was getting a haircut just to talk with Mr. Hanley, he had another think coming. Mr. Hanley had been in yesterday and had eaten a slice of peach pie so I figured I’d take him a piece in an attempt to get the information I needed out of him. After talking to him, I’d swing by the little boutique around the corner.
“Kiki Adams knows about the magic?” I raised a brow.
“She sure does. Her grandmother had the magic skills, but they weren’t passed on to her. She found out by accident.”
“And you expect me to believe that a lot more people around Mystic Hollow aren’t finding out by accident?” I asked.
“It’s very rare.”
“I really find that hard to believe.”
Tom’s raised eyebrows let me know he thought my skepticism was a little unnecessary. “Well you’ll have to trust me on that one, because it’s the truth.”
I grabbed my purse and scooted out from the booth. The thought of closing the café made my stomach twist into a knot, and a lump formed in my throat. With each passing minute, it looked more and more as if Mystic Café was in its final hours, so I’d better get used to it. Soon, I’d be seeking employment elsewhere. Grandma Imelda still wasn’t aware of the latest incident. But that call was at the top of my to-do list, honest. She wouldn’t be happy. I’d probably interrupt her receiving a massage from some guy named Sven while she enjoyed a Piña Colada.
“We’ll meet back here in a few hours, if that’s okay with you?”
“I hope I
have enough time to talk with everyone.” I studied the list again.
“Don’t worry if you don’t, we’ll get around to all of them. Let’s just get started.” He motioned for me to move with him.
Don’t worry? Had he forgotten about the time restraint? Had the urgency of the situation temporarily slipped his mind?
“Where are you headed?” Mary Jane stepped out from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dish towel.
“Apparently, I’m going to talk to people who know about the magic to see what I can find out.” I adjusted my purse strap and pasted on a smile.
“Do you need my help?” she asked.
Tom cleared his throat, drawing our attention to him. He raised a brow. “As a matter of fact, Mary Jane, I need to talk with you.”
“Mary Jane? She doesn’t know who did this. If she did, she would have told me.”
“I understand that, but she’s on the list and if you’re on the list, then I have to talk with you.”
She waved off my objection. “It’s okay. I’ll talk with Tom. If you need me when we finish just call me, I’ll come help you.”
Mary Jane didn’t know anything and it was a waste of time to ask, but apparently these magical law enforcers had their policies and weren’t about to break them.
I hugged her. “I think I’ll be okay, but I’ll call you if I need anything. Don’t let him try any funny business.” I waggled my finger in Tom’s direction.
He didn’t appear threatened by my words of warning.
I left the two of them at the table and made my way to the Mustang, still parked next to the curb. It seemed as if Tom had kept the easy list and I’d gotten the more colorful characters. Mr. Hanley never liked to talk with women, and he only chatted with the men if they were getting a haircut. I pictured myself with a shaved head. No way.
I slipped behind the wheel and pulled away from the curb. Through the rearview mirror, I glanced back at the Mystic Café sign dangling above the door. My stomach turned. I’d miss that place. I’d only been back for a short time, but it hadn’t taken long for me to get used to the place again, and the people. I’d just started to get the hang of things. A chill ran up my spine when I realized the sign would soon no longer be a fixture in town. It had been there for so many years. Within hours of my arrival back in town, things had changed forever.