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

by M. Z. Andrews

  Detective Whitman nodded. “That’s exactly what she told me too.”

  “Well, that’s not true. We went and visited Harper’s ghost and she said that Elena spent a weekend with her and Vaughn in Connecticut about two years ago. So I confronted Elena about it. With Harper in the room, she was forced to admit that she did indeed know Vaughn. I continued questioning her until she admitted that she and Vaughn had been having an affair ever since that weekend two years ago.”

  “Interesting,” he said.

  “I asked Elena if she killed Harper and she claims that she didn’t, but she also lied to us about knowing Vaughn. So I asked her if Vaughn killed Harper and she claims that she doesn’t know. She doesn’t think he did, though. So there you go, Detective. You’ve got motive and opportunity nailed down. Is the toxicology report back in yet?”

  “Not the complete report, that takes a little time. But preliminary reports are showing arsenic poisoning. It’s looking like you’re making a solid case against Vaughn and/or Elena. Where is Elena now?”

  “We just left her. She was down at Jimmy’s. I’m sure Vaughn is in her apartment.”

  “Oh!” Jax hollered excitedly. “I just about forgot! When I went to the bathroom in her apartment I found this!” she pulled a men’s deodorant stick out of her back pocket. “I assume it’s Vaughn’s unless Elena likes smelling like a man!”

  “Jax! You stole that?” I asked her.

  “What? I thought we might need evidence that Vaughn was in her apartment!” She reached out and handed it to Detective Whitman.

  He took the stick and set it down on his desk. “Um. Thanks?”

  “You’re welcome,” Jax said proudly. “Now you can test it for like DNA or something!”

  “Ok, so, now that we’ve cracked the case for you is my brother off the hook for this murder?” I asked him pointedly.

  “Without solid evidence that Vaughn or Elena actually were the ones that poisoned Harper, we aren’t completely out of the woods yet, but it does look like we have more of a case now against them. I’ll have officers go out and bring them in. You can tell Reign that I’ll ease up on him a little bit.”

  “Good!” I exclaimed.

  Jax jumped up in the air. “Yay!”

  “Woohoo!” Holly cheered.

  Sweets clapped her hands excitedly. “Awesome!”

  “Whoopie,” mocked Alba in a flat tone.

  Just hustled out of the office and waved at everyone to follow her. “Come on girls, we need to go break the good news to Reign!”

  “Yeah, let’s go,” Holly agreed following Jax out.

  I shot Detective Whitman a thankful smile. “Thanks Detective, keep me informed once you get the case locked down for sure against Vaughn.”

  “Will do, thanks for all your help ladies,” he said as we left the room.

  “Bye Detective Whitman,” Jax called back. “I’ll tell my mom you said hi!”

  ***

  Reign answered the door shirtless. His thick black hair was tousled and his cheeks were red from the apparent nap we’d just woken him up from. “Hey ladies,” he said as the five of us piled into the room he was renting.

  Holly, Jax, and Sweets each had a hug for him as they passed him by and in turn, he gave them each a kiss on the cheek. Alba just glared at him as she passed by with her hands firmly entrenched in the pockets of the hooded sweatshirt she was wearing.

  I was the last to enter. “Napping?” I asked him as I sailed into the room with Chesney slung over one shoulder.

  “Whoa, who’s this guy?” he asked, reaching out to touch Chesney’s paw.

  “This is Chesney, he’s mine.”

  “You got a dog?”

  “He’s a puppy,” I corrected him.

  “You realize a puppy is a dog, right?”

  I shrugged. “We’ve got news for you.” I eyed the girls as we stood about his bedroom in a circle. I wondered who was going to break it to him first.

  “We know that Vaughn killed Harper!” Jax exclaimed excitedly as she threw her skinny little arms around Reign’s neck. Reign’s arm instinctively encircled her middle, practically enraging Holly.

  “What?” Reign asked in disbelief.

  Not to be outdone, Holly stepped forward. “Her sister, Elena, was having an affair with Vaughn and that’s why he killed her. We just told Detective Whitman! They’re going to go arrest them both. You’re pretty much off the hook. Isn’t that exciting?” As Jax let go of Reign’s neck, Holly launched herself at him, catching him off guard, they tumbled backwards onto his bed and she landed squarely on top of his bare chest.

  “Oh, hey there,” she said with a giggle as her breasts tumbled forward, practically knocking him out.

  “Hey there yourself,” Reign said, giving her a little pat on her ample bottom.

  “Ok, ok,” I grumbled and pulled Holly off of my brother. “Enough of that. Detective Whitman says you’re probably off the hook. He agrees that this was likely a whole affair gone wrong thing.”

  “That’s so great, I’m so relieved! Thanks sis, I really owe you,” said Reign as he threw his arms around my shoulders and squeezed me and Chesney tightly. I stood there woodenly on the receiving end of affection from a brother I’d only just met two days prior. I realized I still didn’t know this guy. We were related by blood and I didn’t even know him. It made me sad. Stiffly, I flopped an arm onto his back and patted it as if he had a disease I didn’t want to catch.

  “She’s really not much of a hugger,” Jax whispered to him.

  He smiled at me, flashing his straight white teeth. Dammit, why did he get all the good genes? I wondered. “Yeah, I’m not much of a hugger either,” he admitted. “But I owed her one for all the sleuthing she’s done. Hell, I owe you all a hug for everything you’ve done for me.”

  Jax was the first in line to accept a hug from Reign. He lifted her clean off of her feet, squeezed her tight and spun her around twice. Jax giggled the whole time.

  He pecked Sweets on the cheek and then enveloped her in a bear hug, causing her face to flush crimson red. I knew she’d be giggling the whole way home.

  When Reign got within five inches of Holly, she planted a smack on his lips before he could hug her, causing him to flush red and Jax and Sweets to fume silently. He tried to hug Alba but with a hand out in front of her, she stiff-armed him. “No hugging zone,” she growled, pointing at herself with her other hand.

  Reign winked at her. “Got it.” Then he let out a heavy sigh. “Now things can get back to normal. You have no idea how relieved I am. You know, Mercy, there’s some stuff I’ve been meaning to talk to you about. Maybe now that we’ve got all this murder stuff behind us, I can tell you.”

  I shook my head and waved a hand in the air. “Oh no. I’ve had enough, ‘Mercy, I need to tell you something’ to last a year. How about we get Vaughn and Elena behind bars and let a week or even two slide by before we introduce any more drama into my life. Ok?”

  Something dark flashed behind Reign’s onyx eyes making me fearful of what it was he had to say. I needed to be in a better place before any life changing revelations were made. And I needed to talk to my mom and fill her in on all the details. I was sure she’d be back in our dorm room when we returned.

  “We should go ladies. Reign, let’s have dinner together soon and we’ll do all of the brother-sister stuff. Like wrestle or make fun of each other or whatever it is that brothers and sisters do. Alright?”

  Reign nodded. “Most definitely. I have no plans to leave Aspen Falls for awhile. I came to get to know my sister and I have nowhere else I’d rather be right now.”

  Holly, Jax, and Sweets shed a sigh of relief.

  I pulled Alba aside as we left Reign’s room. “We have got to work on that spell.”

  “Tonight,” she promised.

  ***

  After supper that night, Alba, Chesney and I found ourselves tucked away in the school potions lab with the spell book that Sorceress Stone had loaned to Al
ba.

  “This spell has got to work,” I told Alba as I nibbled on my lower lip.

  “It will, we’ve got everything we need here.”

  I looked at Chesney nervously. “It’s not going to hurt him is it? Because if it is, I just couldn’t…”

  Alba shook her head. “No, I asked Stone, she said it doesn’t. She said animals used in these kinds of spells only feel like they are in a fog or haze. We’re essentially putting a veil over his eyes. It won’t hurt at all and it’s only temporary of course, so when you aren’t conjuring he will just be a normal dog.”

  “Good,” I said as I scratched the top of Chesney’s head. “He’s such a cute little guy.”

  Alba rolled her eyes but then relented and scratched Chesney’s head too. “Yeah, I guess he is. Ok, here’s the list of what we need. Ginger root,” she called out.

  I scanned the length of the spice cabinet behind us. “Got it!”

  “Dash of empherisious leaf,” she added.

  “What letter does that start with?”

  “E.”

  “Got it,” I said and slammed a little bottle down on the lab counter.

  “Half a teaspoon of hogstooth extract.”

  “Hogstooth extract, got it!” I sat the liquid down next to the other two jars.

  “And two spider eyes,” she said.

  “Eww, well that’s gross. Tell me I don’t have to drink this!”

  “No, it cooks down into a paste. We’ll encircle both of your eyes with the potion and you’ll have a chant.”

  “And then I’ll be able to use Chesney like mom uses Sneaks?”

  Alba nodded. “That’s the goal.”

  I opened the little containers and carefully put each item into a small cauldron of boiling water and we watched as the bubbling water enveloped the ingredients. “Ok, now what?” I asked.

  She shrugged, peering down at her spell book. “Now we wait. The water needs to boil the eyes down and that ginger root takes a little while to absorb the rest of the ingredients.”

  “So what do you want to do while we wait?” I asked her, scratching behind Chesney’s ears.

  “Sit quietly and relax?” she suggested.

  “Or we could talk,” I countered. “I know something’s been bothering you, Alba. Care to share?”

  She looked at me with annoyance. “What do you think?”

  I sat Chesney on the counter and jumped up to sit beside him, letting my legs dangle off the edge of the counter. “I think you’re missing your family.”

  “I think it’s none of your business, Red.”

  “You can confide in me, you know,” I told her sincerely. “I can keep a secret.”

  “I bet you tell that cowboy everything,” she spat as she hopped up on the counter across from me.

  “I tell him some stuff, but I don’t need to tell him everything. Sisters before misters, eh?”

  That made her laugh. “If you say so.”

  We sat quietly, swinging our legs and lost in thought.

  Finally, I looked up at her again. “Nothing to share?”

  She shrugged.

  “Ok, well, I’ll share then. I’m frustrated with my brother.”

  Alba didn’t look surprised. “Why is that?”

  I shrugged. I didn’t know if I should tell her what was really in my mind or if I should sugar coat it. Finally I just said it. “Because he exists, I guess.” Once I had spoken the words, I immediately regretted putting them out into the universe, but it was too late to take them back.

  Alba gave me a half smile. “That’s not really his fault, though.”

  I looked down at my shoes and then squeezed my eyes shut tightly to keep any tears away. “Yeah, I guess not.”

  “Look, Red. Family is family. They are really all we’ve got in the world. It’s not Reign’s fault that he didn’t get to grow up with you and your mom. I bet if he could pick right now, he’d choose to have grown up with you. But he didn’t get to pick. He didn’t get to choose being born either. Now, I’m not Reign’s biggest fan, but I feel like he really wants to get to know you. That’s got to count for something, right?”

  I nodded solemnly. Maybe she was right. Maybe I was just being a brat.

  “Alright, so give the guy a chance. Get to know him. I think the fact that we had this whole murder surrounding your meeting has really skewed your opinion of him and that’s not fair to Reign. I know you’re confident he didn’t kill Harper, but there’s probably still got to be that lingering doubt.”

  “A little bit,” I admitted. “I can’t help it.”

  “Yeah, see there’s the problem. If Reign had come to Aspen Falls, riding in on a white horse, I don’t know if we’d be having this conversation right now. You’d probably have taken to him. But the fact that he came in under such mysterious circumstances has really clouded your brain. Maybe you should give him a chance.”

  “Ok,” I said quietly. “Thanks Alba.” I gave her a thankful little smile.

  She nodded at me.

  “How’d you get so smart?” I asked her.

  She laughed. “I’m hardly smart, Red. I just have a bit of life experience.”

  “You do?” It really hit me then that I knew very little about Alba’s life before the Institute. “Tell me about your family.”

  “What’s to tell?”

  “I know your family has a furniture moving company. Who is in the business?”

  “My pops started the business. My two older brothers, Jerry and Vinnie, work for him and this other guy, Tony. I used to work for him too, until I moved here.”

  I noticed Alba’s eyes shifting when she mentioned the other guy, Tony. My spidey senses went a little crazy and I thought maybe now would be a good time to answer some of my questions about Alba.

  “What made you decide to go to college if you have a family business back home?”

  “Pops said one of us needed to be able to run the business if we are ever going to let him retire. The boys didn’t want to do it, so they volunteered me.”

  “What did your mom think of that?”

  Alba shrugged. “I don’t know. She didn’t say much. My grandmother and my Aunt Gloria live with my parents too. I think Mom was just happy to have one less mouth to feed for awhile. When I move back to Jersey I’ll be moving out of the house.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Really? You’re going to live all by yourself in the city?”

  She flinched. “I’ll probably get a roommate.”

  “You’ve got girlfriends back home?”

  She snorted at the thought. “No.”

  “So then who would you live with?” I pressed. I could tell there was something just underneath the surface of this conversation that I was missing.

  Alba jumped off the counter and went to the cauldron to stir it. “Geez, Red. Nosy much?”

  I pulled my legs up and sat on them pretzel style, then spun myself around to face Alba. “Sorry, I’m just wondering who you’re planning to live with after college. Why’s that such a big deal?”

  “It’s not a big deal.”

  “Well then who are you going to be living with?”

  Alba paused for a moment before finally just saying it. “I’ll probably live with Tony.”

  My mouth opened. “Why would you and Tony live together?”

  “Geez, what’s it to you?” she barked, meeting my eyes.

  I just stared at her, waiting for her answer.

  “Fine!” she hollered. “Because Tony’s my husband!”

  My jaw dropped again. “Alba, you’re married?” My mind was reeling. There was no way I would have ever guessed that in a million years. I’d thought she was going to tell me she was living with a girlfriend! No wonder she never had an interest in Reign or meeting any of the wizards next door.

  “It’s not a big deal,” she said quietly.

  “Yeah, it sort of is,” I disagreed. “How long have you been married?”

  After stirring the pot, she put the lon
g handled spoon down and shrugged. “I don’t know. We got married when I turned 16.”

  “SIXTEEN? You’re twenty-two. You’ve been married for SIX YEARS?! Alba, this is crazy!”

  Alba rushed me and threw a fist under my chin. “Red, so help me, I’ll cream you if you tell the girls.”

  I pushed her fist away, “Ok, ok! Jeesh. I told you I can keep a secret.”

  “You can’t tell Hugh either, or your brother,” she said, pointing her finger at me.

  I held up my right hand. “I swear! Why can’t anyone know?”

  “Because I don’t want anyone to know,” she jeered in a mock high voice.

  “Whatever, Alba. It’s your secret to keep. I won’t tell. Gosh, I can’t believe you’re married! Are you and your husband in a fight or something? Is that why you’re so grumpy lately?”

  “You really don’t know when to zip it, do ya kid?”

  I shrugged. “All this time I thought you were into girls and were crushing on Holly or something. I had no idea you were married.”

  Alba nearly spit out her gum. “You thought I was a lesbian?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “How many lesbian witches do you know?”

  “Well, I thought I knew one!” I answered honestly.

  “Yeah, well, I’m not a lesbian. And if I were a lesbian, I certainly wouldn’t be interested in Holly. She’s too – too – I don’t know, HOLLY!”

  My mind was reeling, trying to catch up with all the new information it was being afforded. “So, what does your husband think of you going away to college?”

  “I don’t really know,” she said quietly.

  “Well, what did he say the last time you talked to him?” I asked her.

  She shrugged. “He said, see you at Christmas.”

  “The last time you talked to your husband was before you left?” No wonder Alba was so moody lately!

  She turned her back to me. I’d struck a nerve. I jumped off the counter, plucked up Chesney and sat him on my hip and raced around to face Alba. “Oh, I’m sorry, Alba. I didn’t know!”

  Alba threw a stiff arm my way. “Nope, I’m good,” she said, stifling back her emotion on the subject.

  “It’s my fault, I was digging around…” I began. I didn’t know what to do to make her feel better.