Son of a Witch: A Witch Squad Cozy Mystery #2

by M. Z. Andrews

  “Ohhh,” Jax pouted.

  “His name is Chesney,” the lady told Jax.

  “Oh, Chesney! That’s so cute!” said Jax, scooping him up. He nuzzled her cheek and then licked her face. She giggled like a five-year-old. “I love you, Chesney.”

  “I guess it’s settled, we’ll take the dog,” I told the sales lady, pulling my mom’s credit card out of my back pocket.

  We spent fifteen minutes on adoption papers and picking out a few toys and some food for the puppy and then left with him in my arms.

  “I can’t believe you bought a dog,” Alba groaned as we walked back to the car with Chesney cuddling my neck.

  “You like him, I know you do,” I pointed out with a big grin.

  “So, that doesn’t mean anything, dogs are a lot of work.”

  I shrugged and rubbed my face against Chesney’s soft fur. “We’re in college, it’s not like we’re working 60 hours a week or something. One of us is always around.”

  “We better hustle, Elena is probably already over at the bar,” said Alba.

  We all hustled to the car and exactly three minutes later we were standing in the middle of Jimmy’s Bed & Brew with Chesney in tow. Elena was, in fact, waiting for us at the bar when we got there.

  “There you are,” Elena said as she turned around with a glass of ice water in her hands. “I thought you were coming straight over.”

  I held up Chesney. “Sorry, we got distracted.”

  I nudged Holly in the ribs as we got closer to the bar.

  “Hi Jimmy,” she purred excitedly.

  Jimmy scanned the five of us. He recognized us immediately. “What are you doing back here?”

  “We came to see you!” Holly exclaimed. “I brought you a piece of pie, I hope you don’t mind!”

  Jimmy looked at the pie and then at Holly. She was wearing a sweater that cinched just under her breasts, causing them to plunge forward more than usual. One of these days those breasts were going to hurt someone. Jimmy’s mouth curled up into a small grin as she seated herself at the bar right in front of him.

  “I’d eat a piece of your pie,” he told her. “I just hope you didn’t bring that trouble making murderer back with you.”

  That caused Elena’s gaze to shoot up towards me. “What trouble making murderer?”

  “Reign Alexander, the guy Harper was fooling around with, we were interviewing him earlier,” I told her. I didn’t think it was necessary to tell her that Reign was my brother. That might make her clam up and right now, we needed her talking.

  “Oh,” she said. Then she stood up and walked over to me and whispered in my ear. “I’m ready to go see Harper now.”

  “Ok, just give me a minute with her first. I’ll come and get you when she’s ready to see you.”

  Elena nodded and sat back down at the bar with Sweets, Holly, and Jax who were already seated and working on devouring their pie. Alba gave me a little nod as she leaned against the counter at the end of the bar.

  While Holly had Jimmy properly distracted I made a mad dash with Chesney for the stairs. Quietly we made our way to the second floor and back to the room that I knew Harper would be waiting for me.

  “Harper,” I whispered loudly as I entered the room and shut the door behind me. “Harper!”

  I heard a small noise come from the closet. I opened the door and found Harper seated on the floor of the closet again, hugging her legs. “Harper! Why are you in the closet again?”

  She stood up and gave me a sad face. “It’s dark in the closet. I just want it to be dark. I’m so sad that I’m dead. I don’t want it to be bright and sunshiny all day.”

  My heart sank for her. It would be such a horrible thing to be dead and still running around as a ghost so you knew you were dead. “I brought you two surprises,” I practically sang to her, trying to lure her out of the closet.

  That did the trick. Harper lunged forward out of the closet and into the room.

  “Oh! A puppy! You brought me a puppy?” she asked as a brilliant smile covered her face. “What am I supposed to do with a puppy Mercy? I’m dead!”

  I laughed. “I just brought you the puppy to see. I’m not going to leave him here. Isn’t he cute?”

  “He made me smile, that’s for sure,” she agreed. Then she looked down at her hands. “I wish I could pet him. I can’t touch anything.”

  “Have you tried?” I asked her. “Some ghosts can, you know.”

  “I’ve tried touching things in the room. It doesn’t work.”

  “Well, I brought you a better surprise anyway,” I told her.

  “You did? What?”

  “Guess?”

  “Did you convince Elena to come and see me?” she asked excitedly.

  “Yes! I did! She’s downstairs right now,” I told her.

  “Well bring her up!”

  I scratched my scalp as I debated how to break the bad news to her. “I wanted to talk to you first. Here’s the thing, Harper. I have a suspicion and I thought maybe you could kind of hint around with Elena and find out if it’s true.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Elena told us that she’s never met Vaughn. Is that true?”

  Harper put a hand on her hip. “No, she met Vaughn. Elena came out to see me once in Connecticut. That was about two years ago. She met him then for sure.”

  “Why would she lie to us about that?” I asked Harper.

  “I have no idea. Maybe she just forgot she’d met him. It was a while ago.”

  “Elena also mentioned that you and Vaughn have an open – well an open relationship,” I finally just spat out.

  Harper’s jaw dropped open. “Sort of. I mean how did she…? I never told Elena that!”

  “You never told Elena that you and Vaughn had an open relationship? Then how did she know that?” I asked Harper.

  Harper shook her head. “I have no idea! I can’t believe she told you that I told her that!”

  “But did you?”

  “Did I what?”

  “Have an open relationship with Vaughn?”

  Harper’s pale face blushed pink. “Sort of. It was complicated.”

  “Were you allowed to sleep with other men?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “Was he allowed to sleep with other women?”

  “Do we have to talk about this?” she asked, I could tell this line of questioning was making her uncomfortable.

  “We don’t have to, but I’m trying to understand why Elena would have lied to us,” I pointed out.

  “Yeah,” she said softly.

  “Should I bring her up here? You can tell me what I should ask her.”

  “Ok, I’m ready,” Harper said nodding her head as she sat down gently on the bed.

  I nodded and sat Chesney on the floor. “I’ll be right back,” I said to the two of them.

  Carefully I peeked my head out the door and then tiptoed down the stairs. Holly was rattling on and on to Jimmy about how hot Tom Cruise was in the movie Cocktail. “Can you pour drinks like that?” I heard her ask as I cautiously made my way down the stairs.

  When I was almost to the bottom, I peeked my head around the opening to the first floor and caught Alba’s eye. I nodded at her and she, in turn, poked Elena in the back. Holly, knowing what the plan was, worked at getting Jimmy’s attention to follow her as she moved around the other side of the bar. “Oooh, what kind of drink is this, it looks yummy,” she cooed as she picked up a bottle from behind the bar. Jimmy swung around to take it out of her hands while Elena hightailed it up the stairs unnoticed.

  “Hurry, in here,” I whispered from Harper’s room.

  Elena slunk into the room and I shut the door behind her. “Where’s Harper?” she asked immediately.

  “She’s in here,” I told her. “You just won’t be able to see her, but I can communicate between the two of you.”

  “That’s kind of awkward,” she told me.

  “Tell her not as awkward as that night she a
ccidentally tripped over the sprinkler head and broke her ankle when we were on vacation in Florida,” Harper said to me.

  “Ha!” I said with a little laugh.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Harper said to tell you that it’s not as awkward as that night you accidentally tripped over the sprinkler head and broke your ankle on vacation in Florida.”

  Elena’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head. She clapped a hand over her mouth.

  “I told you, Harper’s here,” I said with a little laugh. Being an intermediary between ghosts and people they used to know could be fun sometimes.

  “Wow! Hi Harper,” Elena said shyly.

  “Tell her I said hey sister-sister,” Harper sang with a smile.

  “She says ‘hey sister-sister’,” I passed on the greeting.

  Elena smiled behind wet eyes. “That was from a show we used to watch. She used to call me sister-sister. Wow. I can’t believe she’s here. Tell her I miss her so much.”

  “She can hear you,” I whispered to her. “You just can’t hear her.”

  “I miss you Harper and I love you so much and I’m so sad that you’re gone,” Elena told the dead air around her.

  I pointed at the bed. “She’s sitting on the bed.” I scooped up Chesney and the two of us sat down at the little table and chairs underneath the window.

  “Tell her I love her and miss her too.”

  I repeated her sentiment to her sister.

  “Ugh, this is so hard,” Elena said as the tears began to really fall down her cheeks.

  “I know,” I agreed.

  Harper looked equally pained as she sat on the bed, but I knew she wasn’t able to cry no matter how much she wanted to. “Ask her why she told you that she’d never met Vaughn before.”

  “Harper wants to know why you told me and the girls that you’d never met Vaughn before.”

  Elena looked down at the wooden floorboards and shrugged. “I don’t know. It just came out that way.”

  “Ask her how she knew about the open relationship thing,” Harper instructed.

  “Harper asked how you knew about the open relationship she had with Vaughn. She said she never told you that,” I told Elena.

  Elena took a deep breath as color flooded her cheeks. “I’m sure she told me.”

  Harper shook her head insistently. “Nope, I know I didn’t. I thought she’d tell me I needed to leave Vaughn. I knew my family wouldn’t like that.”

  “She’s insistent she didn’t tell you. Maybe Vaughn told you?” I suggested lightly.

  Elena didn’t speak.

  “Harper wants to know why Vaughn is staying at your apartment right now,” I said. Harper’s head snapped back to stare at me open mouthed. I hadn’t gotten around to telling her that, but I needed to know the answer.

  “Vaughn is staying with my sister?” Harper asked, stunned.

  I didn’t respond to her. I wanted to take in Elena’s reaction. She shifted nervously from foot to foot. “She knows Vaughn is staying with me?”

  I nodded.

  “How does she know that? Has she been to my apartment?” Elena’s face was crimson red.

  “Yeah, she has,” I lied.

  Harper trained her eyes on her sister.

  “Oh my gosh,” Elena cried, her hands covered her face and she backed up against the wall and slid to the floor. “She saw us together, didn’t she?”

  Harper’s jaw dropped. “Are they sleeping together?”

  “Harper said she knows you’re sleeping together,” I half whispered to Elena.

  Elena’s shoulders began to shake with her sobs. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry Harper,” she bawled. “I didn’t mean for it to happen, but it happened.”

  Harper stood up and went to the window. She couldn’t look at her sister anymore.

  “It was Vaughn! He made a pass at me the weekend that I stayed over at your house two years ago. And he pursued me!”

  “Ask her if they’ve met over the last two years,” Harper whispered to me.

  I swung my eyes sadly towards Elena. I hated seeing what was happening between the sisters, but I knew this was getting us closer to solving Harper’s murder. “Harper wants to know if you and Vaughn had any meetings over the last two years.”

  Elena’s eyes were wild and distraught now. “Yes. But it was Vaughn. He wouldn’t let up.”

  “Where?” Harper asked.

  “She wants to know where.”

  “We went to Vegas a couple of times,” Elena admitted.

  “How many times?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, maybe two or three?” she suggested.

  “You mean three or five?” I corrected.

  Elena shrugged. “Ok, it was a lot. We met a lot. And it wasn’t just Vegas. I flew out to Connecticut twice and he met me out here once. I don’t know how many times we met.”

  Harper spun around. “Vaughn came to Aspen Falls?”

  “Vaughn came to Aspen Falls?” I repeated.

  Elena’s face crumpled. “Yeah, once. He didn’t meet anyone. We stayed hidden away in my apartment the whole weekend.”

  “Ask her if she did this to me, Mercy. Ask her!” Harper yelled.

  Sadly I looked at Elena.

  “What does she want to know?” Elena asked, despondently.

  “She wants to know if you did this to her.”

  “No!” Elena yelled at the air. “I swear, Harper. I loved you.”

  “Then Vaughn did this,” I answered back.

  “No, he couldn’t have. There’s no way. He would never hurt either one of us,” Elena cried.

  “But you don’t know that. It all makes sense. Vaughn saw an opportunity to pin the murder on Reign and he took it so he could be with you,” I pointed out.

  Elena shook her head and buried her face in her hands. “No!”

  As her shoulders shook I turned to Harper. She was visibly shaken. I hated what had been done to the relationship between Harper and Elena, but I felt like the truth had to be revealed.

  “Make her go,” Harper whispered. “I can’t look at her anymore.”

  { Chapter Thirteen}

  The girls and I left Elena, crying at the bar, for Jimmy to deal with as we took Chesney and made a beeline for the door. On the way to the police station, I told the girls of the newest revelations. Tensions in the car were high.

  “So you’re sure Vaughn killed Harper?” Sweets asked as she tore around the corner at full speed.

  “I’m sure,” I bounced my head as if to punctuate my declaration. “Now we’ve established motive. We already had opportunity.”

  “What about means?” Holly asked.

  “She was poisoned. How hard is to get your hands on poison?” I threw that question out to everyone in the car. I had no idea. I’d never tried to poison anyone before.

  Jax and Holly shrugged.

  “Mmm, speaking purely from a potion maker standpoint, you can order just about any obscure ingredient on the web these days,” Sweets offered as her tires squealed into a parking spot at the station.

  “So you’re saying he would have had to order something off of the internet to kill her?” I asked. “Sounds like premeditated murder to boot!”

  “No, I’m just saying that he could have ordered poison off of the web. I don’t know what she was poisoned with; maybe it could be purchased locally.”

  “I’m not sure they have that back on the toxicology report or not, we can ask Detective Whitman,” I said. “Come on, let’s go.”

  “Are you bringing Chesney with you?” Alba looked down her nose at Chesney disdainfully.

  “Yes, I’m bringing Chesney with me. He’s a baby. We can’t leave a baby in the car!” I barked at her.

  “Geez, I was just asking,” Alba growled back.

  We breezed inside. The twin cats were still perched high atop Officer Vargas’s eyes. “Hello Officer Vargas,” I sang as the wind blew the door shut behind us.

  He rolled his eyes. “Not you gi
rls again. Don’t you ever go to class?”

  “Of course we do, silly,” Jax said with a grin as Chesney licked her chin.

  Alba eyed Officer Vargas. “We need to speak to Detective Whitman again, please. It’s very important, we have new information in the Bradshaw murder.”

  “Fine,” said the officer. He picked up his phone and dialed a number. “Those girls are here to see you again.” He said, girls, as if it were a dirty word. “Ok.” He hung up the phone. “You can come back.”

  “Thank you,” I nodded as he pushed the buzzer to unlock the door. “No need to walk us back, we know the way!” The five us marched through the central offices back to Detective Whitman’s office where we filled his office to capacity.

  “So the Witch Squad is back,” he said, leaning back in his chair.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “How did you know the girls at school call us that?”

  “Who do you think told me?” he asked with a chortle.

  “Stone?” I asked.

  “Of course.”

  “Do you and Stone have a thing together or something?” I asked him, gauging Jax’s reaction out of my periphery.

  “A thing?”

  “Yeah, like a romantic thing,” I asked gesturing with my hands.

  Detective Whitman leaned forward in his chair and flipped through the day planner on his desk. “I’m sorry, I don’t have any appointments scheduled today to discuss my personal life.”

  “Touché,” I said.

  “Tell him,” Holly whispered. “I want to get home, I have things to do!”

  “Yeah, tell him,” Jax agreed.

  “Tell me what?” Detective Whitman asked suspiciously.

  “We have some new pieces of information that we think will solve this case.”

  “Oh really. I think I’ll have to be the judge of that.” He leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers.

  “Did you know that Vaughn Carlisle and Elena Bradshaw were having an affair behind Harper’s back?” I asked.

  The detective’s eyebrows shot up. “No, I didn’t know that. How did you discover this and are you sure.”

  “Yes, we’re 100% sure. I happened to see Vaughn last night in the alley behind Elena’s apartment. So, today the girls and I paid her a visit. She lied to us about knowing Vaughn. She said she’d never met him before.”