He gave a firm nod. “There, got it recording.”
I sucked in another deep breath, this time shakier, and in hindsight, wished that I’d thought to dose my own coffee with something to slow my pulse. It felt like my heart was trying to activate some kind of launch sequence and rocket right out of my chest. “Okay. You ready?”
“I feel like I should be asking you that. You look a little…green.”
I nodded. “I’m fine.”
“Holly, if you—”
“I’m fine.”
“Okay, okay. Yeesh.” Nick stepped forward and pulled open Gretta’s shop door. “Here goes nothing.”
I scoffed as I swept inside the shop. “I love your confidence.”
Nick chuckled but followed after me. Whatever happened next, he was in.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
NICK AND I STEPPED inside Gretta’s Garden and Gretta looked up from where she was crouched in front of the small counter at the other end of the store. The counter had a large cash register, nearly identical to the one we used next door. Beside the register, there was a basket of marigold seeds that were on special that week. Gretta appeared to be working to assemble a display of trowels, carefully hanging the small tools on the silver pegs fastened to the front of the counter. The earthy scents of potting soil and mulch mixed with the pungent smell of fertilizer as we strolled further into the store.
“I’m not open yet,” she said, her tone sharp and frustrated. She slammed another trowel onto the peg. “My hours of operation are clearly posted on the door.”
Nick shot me a wide-eyed look.
I nodded and casually sipped my coffee. Yeah, she’s a real peach.
I plastered on my warmest smile and stepped closer. “Good morning, Gretta. I know it’s a little early—” Technically, we had arrived ten minutes before opening, “—but I thought I would bring you over a coffee. Things have been a little crazy around here since everything…I noticed you haven’t made it over next door for one in a while.”
She pushed up from the floor and brushed her calloused hands on the apron that hung around her thick waist. She was dressed casually, as always, in well-worn jeans, a dark blue turtleneck, and her embroidered apron that had the name of her shop scrawled across the deep pocket, in sunflower yellow. Her dark brown eyes alternated between Nick and me for a moment. “What is it?” she asked, gesturing at the extra cup in my hand.
“It’s your favorite, a caramel latte with extra vanilla.” I smiled sweetly, offering it to her.
“Hmm.” She hesitated a moment and then lunged like a greedy badger and snatched the cup from my hand. She pressed her eyes closed for a moment and took a long, lingering sniff from the opening at the front of the lid.
Now drink it. I silently pleaded. I needed her to get enough of the potion in her system before I could get to the meat of my visit.
“Who’re you?” She asked, jutting her round chin in Nick’s direction. “You Holly’s newest boyfriend?”
The question surprised both of us. Nick took a full step back. I bit back a scoff and forced myself to laugh good-naturedly. “No, not at all, Gretta. And newest? What in the world does that mean?”
Six months in and I was the town harlot. Excellent work, Holly.
“Everyone thinks you’re with Adam St. James.”
“Aha. And why is that?”
She pursed her lips, as though my question was ridiculous. “People have seen you tootling around town together, looking cozy.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at the way she said cozy like it was a curse word. If Phillip Tanner was a drill sergeant wrapped in a fleece blanket, then Gretta McCoy was a cactus with a teddy bear.
“And here I thought you were above such idle gossip, Gretta.”
She shrugged.
“Well, I hate to disappoint everyone, but no, I am currently unattached.”
Gretta snorted. “I guess it’s true what they say about redheads then…”
“Excuse me?” I crossed my arms. “And just what is that supposed to mean?”
Gretta’s smile twisted into a cruel grin. “Oh, nothing. It’s just an expression, I’m sure.”
My nostrils flared. I stood up an inch taller and leaned over her so I could look down into her beady little eyes. “I’ll have you know—”
“Holly.” Nick cleared his throat and tugged at my elbow.
I swallowed back the rest of what I’d been about to say and took a step away from Gretta. She smiled victoriously. This was her idea of playtime. I grit my teeth and gestured at Nick. “This is Nick Rivers, he’s new in town.” I gripped my coffee cup tight enough that beads of coffee were popping up through the opening in the plastic lid.
Yup, definitely should have thrown in a scoop of tension tamer for myself.
Live and learn.
“Ma’am, I was hoping you could offer me some advice,” Nick said, shifting the topic while I cooled down.
“What kind of advice?” she asked, her eyes springing back to him.
Nick smiled. “Gophers, ma’am. I just moved here, and the place I’m renting has got a whole bunch of gophers in the backyard. Any ideas on how to get rid of the little buggers?”
I pressed my lips together. All I wanted was for her to drink the blasted coffee so we could get down to business. So far, she hadn’t even touched her lips to the lid. She’d been too busy insulting me.
Nick must have hit the right button, because Gretta lit up like a New Year’s Eve fireworks show. Her face turned a spectacular shade of purple. “Oh! Those little twerps!”
She took an excited gulp of her coffee and relief flooded through me. If Nick could keep her talking, she’d have the whole thing down in no time. I wandered away, letting Gretta sip at her coffee in between raving about gophers. I looped around the store, looking over the racks of shovels, rakes, containers, raised bed kits. By the time I circled back around, I had relaxed enough to try questioning her. As a fringe benefit, I also knew where all the sharp objects were located in case she decided to run her mouth again.
I stifled a laugh, when I came back and found Nick standing at the counter with an armful of traps and bait. Gretta tipped her cup back to get the last drops and I smiled to myself.
Here goes everything.
As she started ringing up the gopher gear, I set my coffee cup down and then leaned in to prop my elbows casually against the counter. “So, Gretta, what do you think about Peg’s murder? You’re the one person that I haven’t asked about it. Seems like that’s all anyone wants to talk about anymore.”
Gretta paused, a trap in her hand, hovering above the scanner. Her expression shifted, the corners of her mouth turned down into a severe frown as her eyes met mine. “Why would you ask about that? Honestly, Holly, you’re the oddest girl I’ve ever met in my whole life.”
Ouch. Considering she was drugged up on truth potion, I guess that officially made me odd.
I shrugged and pushed off the counter. “I was just curious. Everyone has a theory and I’ve always considered you a well-informed person.”
I tried not to gag on my own words. Flattering Gretta McCoy was physically painful.
She went back to scanning but then slammed the trap down against the counter. “Peg got what was coming to her!”
Nick’s eyes popped open. He blinked twice, as though unsure he believed what he just heard.
“Is that so?” I nodded thoughtfully, gathered my coffee cup, and took another sip.
Gretta growled. “Yes. That’s so. Peg Holloway was an arrogant, selfish woman who only ever cared about herself! She was that way since we were kids. We went to high school together. Did you know that?”
I nodded politely.
Gretta sneered. “Yeah, well, she was always bullying people into giving her whatever she wanted. She wanted to be the homecoming queen and she got all her little friends to bully the rest of us to vote for her. Then she did the same thing for prom queen. She never cared. You should ask that man
over there—” she paused and thumbed her hand in the direction of Siren’s Song.
“Who?”
“Phillip Tanner.”
“Phillip?” I asked, my brow furrowed, struggling to put together the pieces.
Gretta nodded, her lip protruding like a bulldog. “That’s right! He went to school with us. Peg wanted him for herself but he wasn’t having any of what she was selling. Years later, he came back around and went off and married her little sister instead. Woo hoo hoo! After that, Peg cut off all ties with Denna. I heard she even stopped paying her for her rightful half of the business when Denna refused to leave Phillip. She was a cold-blooded monster. You mark my words!”
I blinked furiously while the puzzle pieces rearranged themselves. So, Phillip Tanner had been Peg Holloway’s high school crush? Who ended up falling for her little sister?
Nick was tracking on the same page. “What about the accusations? About the way Phillip treated Peg’s sister?”
Gretta waved a hand, dismissing the comment. “Load of crap. Denna never reported a thing. Peg just spread those lies because she was jealous.”
“Wow,” Nick and I both marveled in unison.
“Mmhmm. And really, that was just the tip of the iceberg. I wouldn’t be surprised if Peg was the one stealing from her own business and pinning it on that poor girl she was always trampling over.”
My head was spinning from all of the new information Gretta was firing off. When she stilled and reached to brush her hands along her forehead a sense of panic bubbled up inside of me. The potion could be wearing off. We had to hurry.
“So, what you’re saying is there could be a number of suspects that the police aren’t even looking at?” I asked, gently steering the conversation back to the confession I was hunting for. “Any idea who did it though? It was pretty barbaric from what I hear.”
“Weren’t you the one who found the body?” Gretta asked. She dropped her fingers from her forehead and her eyebrows shot up. “That’s what everyone is saying.”
“That’s true. But Peg was already dead. Whoever killed her must have done it right before I got there,” I lied, hoping to trap her into correcting me.
Gretta laughed. “Is that what the police are saying? Those morons wouldn’t know good police work if they tripped over it! Peg was killed hours before you got there!”
“How do you know that, Gretta?” I leaned in and dropped my voice low. “Do you know who killed Peg?”
Gretta paused and shook her head, like there was water lodged in her ears. The effect of the potion was definitely fading.
“It was you, wasn’t it, Gretta?” I whispered.
Gretta’s eyes popped open wide. Her pupils were dilated to the point of making her eyes look black. Hateful.
I could feel Nick’s nervous energy as he shuffled his feet.
All of a sudden, Gretta’s eyes narrowed into black slits. “Peg deserved that bottle to the back of her head!” she hissed, her voice unlike anything I’d ever heard before. Sharp and scratchy.
I backed up a small step and Nick set a hand on my back. The glint in her eyes was pure evil.
“Like I said, she never cared about anyone but herself!” Gretta roared. “She had the audacity to move in next door to my shop and act like this was her place all along! She was always undermining me. Doing things on purpose to piss me off!”
“So you killed her. Didn’t you, Gretta? You had to stop her.”
“That night, she was up to her same old tricks, running the exhaust on her car and blowing that poison right into my open door. That stuff could kill all of my plants. She was trying to put me out of business!” Gretta growled. The feral sound sent shivers clawing up my spine but I stood firm, waiting with baited breath for the rest of the story to pour out.
“When I told her to turn off her car, she screamed at me. We argued and she slapped me across the face!” Gretta paused to fume at the memory. She shook her head, as though still in disbelief. “I couldn’t let her go unchecked. Someone had to stop her. Someone had to make her pay!”
I drew in a steady breath. “So what did you do?” Gretta eyed me another long moment and dug her fingers in her ears. I was losing her. She was slipping back into her right mind. I leaned closer and locked my eyes with hers. “Gretta, what did you do? How did you make her pay?”
Gretta’s sneer shifted into a cold smile. “I killed her! I took one of her stupid bottles and tried to hit her across the face with it. She dodged it and it hit her car instead. She probably messed herself after that!” Gretta laughed. “She tried to run but I got her. The next swing hit its mark.”
It matched perfectly with what Gary said he witnessed.
I backed away and stood at Nick’s side. His face was white as a sheet. I elbowed his ribs to rouse him. “I think we’re done here, Nick,” I whispered out of the corner of my mouth.
Gretta blinked hard and shook her head again. Nick flashed me a strange look. He was completely clueless and obviously terrified. Gretta’s eyes went wide as she realized what she’d just told us. Nick and I crept backwards but she flew around the counter. “Where do you think you two are going?”
“I have to get to work. Nick too,” I answered in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Oh no, you’re not!” Gretta twisted and grabbed one of the trowels from her new display on the front of the counter. As she lifted it above her head, light gleamed off the sharp metal point. She waved the trowel at both of us. “You’re not going anywhere!”
Nick sprang into action. He tugged on my arm, pulling me back a step, out of the way of Gretta’s makeshift weapon as she swung it at the spot where I’d just been standing.
Magic buzzed in the palm of each hand. I grit my teeth together to keep it in check. “Go call the police, Nick! I can handle this.”
He didn’t move. “Holly! You can’t be serious.”
I shot him a look. “Go, Nick.”
He stepped in between me and Gretta. I reached for the back of his jacket and pulled but he stood firm. “Gretta, there’s no need for more violence. You’ve already confessed to one crime. There’s no reason to add to the trouble that you’re already in.”
Gretta cackled. “No one’s going to believe you anyways, Holly! The whole town thinks you’re weird.”
“Well, at least I’ll be weird and free. You’re going to spend the rest of your life in a little steel box!”
Nick craned around and shot me a look. The meaning was clear, back down.
My cell phone was in my pocket. I grabbed it out and dialed the police.
A dispatcher answered and I hurried to explain the situation. “Send the police to Gretta’s Garden. Gretta is assaulting my friend with a trowel!”
Nick lunged forward, knocked the trowel from Gretta’s hands, and twisted her around so that her arms were pinned behind her.
“Please hurry. And make sure Chief Lincoln comes.” I clicked off the phone.
Gretta kicked and stamped her feet. “Let me go, you brute!”
“Go, Nick!” I cheered. “Impressive maneuver there.”
“Thanks.” Nick grimaced from the struggle of keeping Gretta in his grip as she kicked and flailed. “See if you can find something to tie her up with.”
I went around to where the ropes were hanging. I grabbed one and tossed it to Nick. He held Gretta with one hand and unwound the rope and got her secured with the piece of braided nylon. “Now, I wouldn’t struggle, ma’am. That stuff will burn your skin right off.”
Gretta shouted a string of expletives and I sighed. “So much for remorse, huh?”
Nick shrugged. “I guess I should have studied harder in criminal psych class.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
SIRENS WAILED IN the background and within minutes, blue and red lights were flashing on the other side of the large storefront window that was painted with smiling daisies and the same logo embroidered on Gretta’s work apron. Nick held Gretta’s arms to keep her from struggling out of her mak
eshift cuffs. “Looks like your ride’s here,” he said, pointing out the window as Chief Lincoln hopped out of his black sedan. He raced into the shop first, weapon drawn, and started barking orders to his deputy who followed right on his heels.
Nick passed Gretta off just as a squad car squealed into the lot. Everything moved in double speed once the police took over the scene. Gretta was properly cuffed and escorted out to the waiting squad car. She didn’t go quietly. She kicked her feet and screamed at the two officers tending to her. Her shouting was only muffled once they got her in the backseat and shut the door. The deputies came back into the shop and started taking notes. Nick spoke with Chief Lincoln first and I took the deputies on a tour, explaining how everything played out. When I peeked over at Chief Lincoln, Nick was showing him something on his phone and I nibbled on my lip, hoping he’d caught every word of Gretta’s angry confession.
When they finished, Chief Lincoln came to take my official statement. He held up his notepad and leveled me with his gaze. “Holly Boldt.” He shook his head, as though still in disbelief. “How in the world did you manage to get so tangled in this case? You know, I’m not sure, but I don’t know that any other officer I’ve met has worked a case where the person who finds the body is also the one to wheedle the confession from the killer.”
I stared up at him, unblinking. “Well, I didn’t feel like I had much of a choice, since everything I heard seemed to be implicating my best friend. You know, I still can’t believe that after all the time you’ve known Cassie, you could even think twice that she had anything to do with this.”
Chief Lincoln bristled. “I don’t expect you to understand my job. But I would appreciate it if you didn’t presume to know how it all works.”
I held his gaze for a long moment and then held up my hands. There was no point in making enemies with the chief of police. I didn’t intend on needing his help in the future, but as Nick had once said, there was no benefit in stirring up bad blood when you live in a small town. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Chief. It’s just that Cassie is the best friend that I’ve had in a while. Maybe ever. And I tend to get a little protective.”
Murder's a Witch: A Beechwood Harbor Magic Mystery (Beechwood Harbor Magic Mysteries Book 1) Page 18