Wicked Weaves

by Lavene, Joyce

  She shook her head. “There’s only me.”

  “Then don’t you think it’s odd Abraham was here, too, for the first time in twenty years? And Joshua just happened to die?” I felt a little like one of those shows about lawyers on TV. I didn’t know any lawyers personally, except for Chase, of course, and that was too new to tell if he ever really talked like that.

  Mary stood up. “Mind that grass and your tongue. You don’t know what you’re saying. Too much can be a bad thing said.”

  “And what about Ham?” I pulled the question out of my brain like a magician pulls a rabbit out of his hat. “I know about your cousin, Mary. Are you trying to protect him?”

  “Ham is my brother. I’ve had enough, Jessie. Go tend to that customer in the shop and leave me be.”

  She walked off with her pipe, leaving her half-finished basket on the steps. I felt bad because I could see she was upset. On the other hand, she was obviously protecting someone, even if it meant her own life would be ruined because of it. I wasn’t going to let that happen.

  Six

  Two hours later, I was sitting in Sir Latte’s Beanery next to the tart shop across from Wicked Weaves. Between the TV and newspaper reporters and the crime scene people, they had all but closed the basket shop down. The yellow lines of crime scene tape blocked off the alley and extended to both sides of the area where we’d found Joshua.

  Chase was taking a break with me over a couple of iced mochas when Debby decided to join us. I didn’t mind so much. She was my best history student and always a big help in class. Chase and I were having conversational problems. Most of what we had to say revolved around what had happened to Mary rather than what had happened to us.

  Debby grabbed a cup of coffee, and the three of us sat at the window, watching the police and media circus that had come to Renaissance Faire Village. “What do you think they’re looking for?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. I gave up watching detective shows a long time ago. I could never figure out who did it.”

  “They’re looking for pieces of material, hair and skin samples, anything that might’ve been overlooked yesterday. Something they can use to make a case against Mary.” Chase took a sip of his drink, never taking his eyes off the scene in the street.

  “I’m surprised they didn’t make all of them dress like us.” Debby pointed at one of the blond reporters whose short skirt and sexy blouse was hardly something you’d find during the Renaissance.

  “They were out of costumes this morning,” I observed. “Besides, I’m sure the strain of outfitting that many extra people would’ve popped Beth’s buttons.”

  Chase laughed and looked across the table at me for the first time (at least it seemed that way to me). “You’re probably right. I don’t think the police officers would’ve gone for it anyway. Can you imagine them in tunics and tights?”

  Tony, minus his armor but still attached to the pretty fairy, entered the coffee shop and glanced around until he saw me. He and the fairy made a quick dash through the long line waiting for coffee. “There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you.”

  I was surprised and moved by his show of brotherly love. It never occurred to me to tell him what had happened yesterday. I didn’t think he’d care. “I’m okay, thanks. It’s been crazy, but I think I’m in the clear anyway. The police said I might have to testify, but they know I’m innocent, even if it was my weave that killed Mary’s husband.”

  His clear brown eyes looked startled at first then confused. He drew up a chair and the fairy perched on his lap. “What are you talking about?”

  “I thought you heard about Mary and the dead guy.”

  “What dead guy?”

  I drew a deep, ragged breath. “Why were you looking for me?”

  “It’s kind of complicated, Jess, but I was wondering if you could loan me a few dollars until payday.” He smiled and nodded at Chase and Debby, checking Debby out with the fairy sitting right there.

  This was one of many times I wished I was adopted. That way I wouldn’t have to claim Tony as my brother. It makes it much worse that he’s my twin brother. You know all that stuff they say about twins thinking alike and finishing each other’s sentences? That’s never happened with us. I can only assume it’s because when the egg split, he got all the good looks and I got all the brains.

  “I can’t believe you.” I sipped my iced mocha and turned my head. “Everything that’s happened and you want twenty bucks to make it through the week.”

  Tony smiled, while Debby and Chase looked the other way, probably pretending they didn’t know us. “Actually, I need more like forty, Jess. I have a few necessary expenses.” He put his hand on the fairy’s glittery thigh, and she giggled.

  “I don’t have any money. Except for that hundred you already owe me. If you have necessary expenses, I suggest you get a second job. A real job.” I knew it sounded harsh, but I had to draw the line somewhere.

  “Jessie, you’re embarrassing me here.” Tony smiled at the fairy and nodded at Chase and Debby.

  “Too bad. Find someone else with money.” I wondered how the fairy he didn’t even bother to introduce felt about my loser brother. “Maybe your friend has some in her costume.”

  Tony shot to his feet. Chase joined him. He took some money out of his pocket and gave it to my brother. “Maybe that’ll hold you.”

  Tony grinned and pocketed the money. “Thanks! I voted for you for bailiff, by the way. It’s nice Jessie has made some friends. She’s never been very good at that.”

  Chase didn’t blink. “Don’t ask her for money again, or you might find yourself in the dungeon for the night.”

  “I don’t think you have that authority.” Tony laughed, and the fairy joined him. “Don’t worry about it anyway. We’ll get paid soon, and then Tammy and I are off to Vegas. We’re gonna score big and never come back to this dump. Well, we might visit and buy a few pretzels or something.”

  I didn’t say anything until Tony and Tammy the fairy were gone. I appreciated what Chase had done, but I was really embarrassed by it, too. We were about to have our first fight.

  Debby, maybe sensing the hostility in the air, despite the small of mocha and cinnamon, took her coffee and said she’d see me later.

  Being an assistant professor, I was used to bottling up my frustration and anger without showing a thing on the outside. “Let’s walk for a while, Chase.” My voice was a model of calm and control. I was very good at not showing emotion. You could ask any of my old boyfriends.

  “Come on, Jessie, you can’t really be angry that I warned off your brother, the leech.”

  “I didn’t say anything about that.” Not yet anyway. I was waiting for the right time and place, definitely not in here where everyone was listening.

  “I know you’re mad,” he continued. “Just say it, and we can talk about it.”

  “I’m not going to be mad on your schedule,” I ground out through clenched teeth. “Will you please step outside?”

  He smiled. Chase has this really cute way of smiling where he kind of tilts his head a little and his braid falls to one side. I can’t really describe how it makes me feel, but this wasn’t the time or place for it, either. I was mad, and no cute smile or hair trick was going to make me feel better.

  “I just wanted to help you.” He took my hand. “I’ve known you for a while, remember? Tony has been like this since I met you. He needs to grow up. It’s not gonna happen as long as you baby him. The guy needs to stand on his own for a while.”

  I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Even worse, while Chase was holding my hand, he started playing with my fingers, and it didn’t take long before I wasn’t thinking about Tony anymore. That really cheesed me.

  “You can’t solve my problems for me.” I wanted to snatch my hand back, but I wasn’t up to that. Instead, I glared at him, and we stood there like idiots looking at each other.

  “Okay. I won’t ever try to solve any of your problems
again.” He grinned and brought his head close to mine. “Want to go back to the dungeon for a while? I’ve still got some time, and from the look of that crowd out there, you do, too.”

  I couldn’t even say how much I wanted to go back to the dungeon at that moment. I wasn’t even sure my legs would hold me up getting back there. Chase might have had to carry me. That made things even worse. “I forgive you. Maybe we could go back to the dungeon for a while.”

  But before I could throw my cup away, Detective Almond ducked his head into the coffee shop pretty much the way Tony did and spotted us. “I was looking for you two.”

  Everyone in the coffee shop stopped what they were doing to look at us. I dropped my cup in the trash; the urge to go to the dungeon left me. “I don’t know what else I can tell you. I think we went through it all yesterday.”

  “That was yesterday, Miz Morton.” He smiled in a way that made me wish I could follow my cup into the trash bin and hide out there for a while. “I think we might have a little something more to talk about today.”

  Chase and I followed him across the street to the crime scene. Photographers snapped our pictures, wondering who we were, and TV reporters hailed Detective Almond, trying to get some answers.

  I looked around for Mary but didn’t see her. Queen Olivia was there with Roger Trent and Fred the Red Dragon. They were recounting their stories about what they’d seen before Livy found Joshua.

  I wasn’t sure what else I could say that would make any difference. I still wasn’t motivated to tell him things about Mary that could be bad for her. I looked up at Chase, and he shook his head. I felt like we were on the same wavelength. He wouldn’t say anything either.

  Detective Almond finally led us behind the privies and stopped at an area enclosed by yellow crime scene tape. “We think this is where Mr. Shift was killed. There were traces of the chemical used in the toilets on his clothes and this mud on his shoes and trousers. We found some seepage back here. If you look close, you can see where there was a struggle.”

  I looked, but I couldn’t see anything except a lot of footprints that looked like everywhere else in the Village that wasn’t grassy or cobblestoned. Maybe it took a trained eye to see something more. “I’m not sure why you brought me here, Detective. This doesn’t look any different than the muddy area by the stocks.”

  Chase nodded. “Except there wouldn’t be chemical over there.”

  “Exactly, Mr. Manhattan.” Detective Almond leaned down the best he could in his tight pants (why didn’t the man go up a size?). “We found some other things out here I’m not ready to divulge as yet. Suffice it to say, it could be enough to implicate someone for this crime.”

  “Could be doesn’t get it,” Chase reminded him. “What is it you want from us?”

  “I want to give you both a chance to recant your statement that you were with Ms. Shift the whole day. See, I kind of figure she was alone long enough to kill her husband.”

  “You know, that theory is a little stupid.” I ignored Chase’s warning look. “Have you really looked at Mary and at her husband? How in the world would she be able to hold him by the throat with some basket weaving until he was dead? I’m not a cop, but common sense dictates that she’s half his size. Wouldn’t he have fought back?”

  He chuckled. I didn’t like the sound. It told me he knew something I didn’t know. I don’t really like anyone to know things I don’t know. Especially when it has something to do with something I should know.

  “That’s a mighty good point, Miz Morton. I’m glad you brought it up.” He snorted hard, obviously congested. He adjusted his pants and narrowed his eyes. “I’m gonna go out on a limb right now and tell you something I shouldn’t. I’m doing this so you can understand the error of lying for your friend.”

  Besides being disgusted by his hygiene habits, I didn’t think there was anything he could tell me that would change my mind about lying for Mary, including him knowing I was lying. He’d have to prove it, right?

  “We both need to get back to work.” Chase spared me a glance that pointedly reminded me to be quiet. “Can you get to the point?”

  “I sure can, Mr. Manhattan.” Detective Almond chuckled again. “Say, is that Manhattan like New York City or Manhattan like Kansas?”

  “I’m sure you have more important things to do than discuss my lineage,” Chase said. “So do I.”

  “Settle down, young fella. Just making a little small talk. No harm done.”

  I was about to jump in and demand he quit dragging out everything like a bad soap opera, when he continued.

  “Okay. I’ll level with you.” He looked around like Suzy Snow from the cable news channel was listening. “What if I told you a kid could’ve strangled Mr. Shift?”

  I tapped my foot. If he was waiting for an indrawn breath or a loud dun-dun like in some horror movie, he wasn’t getting it from me. “What does that mean?”

  “It means Mr. Shift was inebriated. His blood alcohol was almost enough to kill him. He wouldn’t have been too steady on his feet. Anybody, including your little friend, could’ve taken him. We don’t think he did this on his own either. There was evidence of blunt force trauma to the back of his head, and we think he was force-fed the alcohol from the marks on his mouth, but we don’t know how yet.”

  Detective Almond stared at Chase and me, waiting for some revelation from his announcement. Chase looked at me. I looked down at my feet, wondering if I was ever going to be able to get that chemical smell off my sandals.

  “That doesn’t change anything for me,” Chase finally said. “I’m sticking to my story.”

  “What about you, Miz Morton?”

  “Ditto.” I meant to leave it there. I mean, that said it all. I just couldn’t stop myself from adding, “Just because Joshua was drunk doesn’t make Mary a killer.”

  “But it evens the odds in that supposition you made,” he said. “How was it possible some little woman could kill a man twice her size? Get him stinking drunk first.”

  I felt like we were wasting our time. “If that’s all you have, Detective, I need to go.”

  “That’s it.” He held up his hands. “I just don’t want you to come crying back to me that you never had a chance to make it right. I’m sure your lawyer friend here can tell you what the penalty for withholding information or outright perjury is in this state.”

  “I’ll do that, Detective.” Chase took my hand. “Thanks for the information.”

  We double-timed it out of the crime scene area. Chase walked around the throng of people in the alley, not stopping until we were on the other side of Wicked Weaves by the Pope’s Pot, a nice pottery shop I was considering apprenticing to at some time.

  “That was lame.” I was the first to say it. Visitors were already cramming into the streets, leaving the pottery shop with their purchases. “I mean, really, what did he expect us to say?”

  Chase drew me down to a bench beneath one of the few large trees in the Village. Because this had once been an Air Force base, most of the trees were put in as an afterthought. “Seriously, Jessie, were you really with Mary all day? They said Joshua was killed about two hours before we found him. Were you with her that early yesterday morning?”

  “No! But I didn’t have to be with her to know she didn’t kill Joshua.”

  “How? You barely know her. She’s been here a while, but she’s not like Trent or Daisy, where everyone knows all about them. Mary has always kept to herself. Are you really sure, like jail time sure, she wouldn’t kill anyone?”

  I didn’t like the way the conversation was going. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw people leaving the Three Chocolatiers. I wanted some chocolate so much it made my eyes water. It had been a stressful day. The mocha at Sir Latte’s wasn’t enough. I needed the real thing, preferably in dark bar form.

  “I’m sorry.” Chase apparently misunderstood my chocolate craving for a deeper emotion due to his guilt over questioning my loyalty to Mary (I minored in psychol
ogy). “I didn’t mean to badger you over your statement. If you stand by it, I’ll stand by you.”

  This worked for me in more than one way. As he spoke, Chase swept me into his arms and pushed my nose into his chest. He smelled really good, like clean linen and fresh air. My chocolate craving was replaced by other feelings. Spending time with Chase was better than chocolate, and it didn’t make my face break out.

  “Thanks.” I leaned closer to him and hoped he was feeling the same way. It wasn’t far to the dungeon. We could probably make it there and back in a few minutes. Okay, an hour with the time spent there. “Chase, I was thinking about what you said about going back to the dungeon.”