by Jill Nojack
She stood and looked at her accusers as Officer Rogers pulled the door shut behind her with a distinct click in the otherwise quiet room. “Well?” she said. “I assume you’re letting me go. Although I wouldn’t mind an apology for the inconvenience.”
Denton’s face tightened and the fingernails on one hand drummed down hard just once on the tabletop in a woody rat-a-tat.
“If you could take a seat, please, Ms. Taylor,” he boomed, nodding at the chair across the table from him, “and we’ll get started.”
She took the seat, but her narrowed eyes didn’t leave his as he interlocked his fingers in front of his puny chest. “Mrs. Li was kind enough to retrieve the video from her security company this morning and bring it in. However, she seems to think that you’re redeemable and would like to talk to you before she provides us with the evidence.”
Natalie’s eyes moved to Ling’s, but they gave nothing away.
“I see,” she said. “That would be fine. I’d be glad to get this straightened out.”
“Mrs. Li, please let the officer outside know when your conversation is done. I’ll come back to hear what you’ve decided to do about the break in.”
Natalie waited for the door to close before she said, “I’m sure you realize that I was just checking on the shop when I found the door open.”
“Of course I have not realized that. Because it is not true. I do have video, just as I said, and I could have brought it here last night. But I wanted you to have time to think about what you have done. Do you feel no remorse for your crime?”
“I...”
“I will give him the video.” Ling’s face was blank.
“I see,” Natalie replied, settling back into her chair. “I assume you want something from me to keep the video to yourself and drop the charges?”
“Oh yes. I do. I simply want us to be friends. Can you agree to this?” Ling smiled then, but Natalie thought it looked sharklike rather than friendly. “Of course, for such a thing to be, we must agree that friends do not break in to each other’s places of business. What were you looking for that you thought I would not supply to you?”
“I didn’t believe you about the bottle. I thought you still had it.”
“And now?”
“I couldn’t find that out, could I? My investigation was interrupted.”
“Yes. And I will tell you truthfully, in the interest of our friendship, I do not have the bottle. You can tear my shop apart, but you will not find it there. And if you wish to go free today, to not have this video delivered to our good chief of police, then you will not bother me or my family about this again. I have been nothing but honest with you.”
“What does this video supposedly show?”
Ling took her phone from a pocket and pointed the screen toward Natalie as she tapped the video play button. On it, Natalie approached the shop door from the outside. The door was obviously secured, but Natalie grasped the knob and tried it. It didn’t give until a misty shower of tiny blue sparks flared in the darkness at her fingertips and the door opened on her second try. The camera had a good view of the entry and the entire shop from somewhere behind the counter. It captured her walk toward the cash register.
She took a deep breath.
She thought about the threat to the town’s witches if the bottle really was causing the strange deaths.
She thought about Marcus.
And then she thought about Marcus again.
She nodded. “I accept your terms. I’ll keep my investigation away from you and your family.”
If Ling discovered somehow that Natalie had no intention of ceasing her investigation, Ling would at least have to expose herself as a witch. Otherwise, how would she find out about the very literal fly on the wall?
***
“Yes, I am so sorry that I could not just tell you last night that I did not wish to press charges. But you see, Natalie and I, we had one of those silly disagreements that sometimes happens between strong women.” It impressed Natalie; Ling looked utterly sincere. Denton would buy it. “I blame myself, and I hope you will forgive me? It is the fault of my own actions she entered the shop as she did, and this time, I will allow it. But we will leave the reason for our dispute there. It is best to be no more discussed.”
“If it’s what you want, Mrs. Li, I have to respect your wishes.” He glared at Natalie as he finished, “But you let me know right away if she gives you any more trouble.”
“Yes. But I do not think I will need to bother you. Neither of us wants such burden between friends hanging over us during the Midsummer Festival. It is good that we now understand each other. It is exciting to me to be able to participate in my small way in my new community, even though I have nothing ‘magical’ to add to the event.” She punctuated with air quotes and beamed at Natalie as she said it. “Are we both free to go?”
Denton assented, and Ling Li led the way as Natalie walked behind her. The buzz of a fly near her ear was annoying but comforting just the same. Very much like William in his human form. She allowed herself a self-satisfied smile.
As she turned toward downtown to walk to the shop and Ling turned the other way to her car, Natalie smiled as the buzz trailed the other woman after a barely audible, buzzily transmitted goodbye.
She made a mental note, one that was likely to be overwritten straightaway by more pressing jottings, to try to be nicer to William.
20
“Well, gosh, Nat, what do you want me to do? I wasn’t going to spy on her taking a shower! What could she do in there that would be suspicious? No, I draw the line on invading her privacy to that extent, so I popped back for a cup of tea. I’ll go back when I think she’s done and dressed.”
William picked up the whistling kettle and poured it into his cup. The scent of lavender filled the air. He dumped in several spoonfuls of sugar—it wasn’t like he had to worry about getting fat—and blew on it to cool it. He’d bought the tea on sale from Cat’s specifically for its soothing, calming qualities and picked it up before stopping in at the shop. He was sure he would need it now.
Natalie steamed behind him as his cup steamed in front. Maybe if he just never turned around?
“Fine,” she said. “You’re right. If you’d stayed, you’d never stop blushing about it.” He turned to see that her expression was pleasant. Welcoming.
“Make me a cup of that,” she said. “It smells good. I’m just disappointed that she hasn’t led you to the bottle.”
When they were sitting across from each other, he finally dared to ask, “Why are you being so nice?”
“Am I?”
“You know you are.”
She paused before answering, looking like she’d just chomped on a lemon before her face relaxed and she said, “This past week has given me a lot of food for thought. A feast of it. And I realized that...”
She stopped, a look of—what was that? Anxiety? Fear? Gosh no, not on Nat’s handsome face. Never.
“Nat?” he prompted, concerned.
“It’s just...if this was the last minute of my life, and there was nothing beyond...”
“Are you sick? If you are—”
She shook her head. “No, nothing like that. Just in general, I...I’m no new rose, but I don’t want to be a thorn bush, either. So, if this was the last minute of my life,” she said as she reached her hand across the table for his, “it would be foolish of me to spend it pushing you away.”
All he could do was smile and hang on tight to her hand. He felt like his heart would explode with joy.
“Are you saying that the answer—”
She cut him off. “Don’t go crazy just yet. I’m saying we can discuss various names and arrangements for what this relationship is when things settle down a little. That’s something, isn’t it?”
“It’s a lot of something. Sure is.” He continued to beam.
She glanced at her watch. “Ling should be done with her shower by now. Time for you to get back to work.”
<
br /> “I promised I’d be there to set up for the festival tonight, so I’ve got to be at the town square by four. I can’t keep an eye on her after that.”
“Yes, that’s fine. With festival preparations and the festival tonight, it’s unlikely she’ll be able to leave her shop, anyway. I’ll be ready for my report when I see you after the festival.”
“I don’t know, Nat, I still think you’re wrong about her. She seems ordinary to me. I didn’t feel any signs of magic like I do around you and the other witches.” He pitched slightly forward, taking a brief bent-knee Groucho walk around the kitchen, his hand tapping an imaginary cigar, as he said, “I mean, I had a good peek behind her curtains, and it didn’t make me tingle.”
“You just keep your eyes and ears open, dear.” She smiled and stood up as he stopped at her side, leaning in to kiss him lightly on the lips, another surprise. “You let me worry about whether she has the spark. Now, off with you. I need to help the rest of them get the shop ready for this festival.”
***
Natalie still hadn’t shown up for the shop’s preparations for the Witching Faire, even though she’d called to say they had released her, which meant that Cassie would be spreading herself thin all day. She wished she knew a spell that would split her into two so she could be in the shop and the gallery at the same time. No, skip that—she’d split herself into three and the final clone would take the nap she so desperately needed.
After Cassie made sure that Gillian and Twink had enough festival prep on their list to keep them busy for an hour or two, she ducked out and hustled down the street, dodging around stalls in various stages of preparation. She wanted to check how Dash was getting along with the final arrangements for the gallery to make sure that he could get along without her until later. Along the way, she felt the buzz of energy that charged the town. Festivals were fun times; everyone got into the spirit, and sales increased in the downtown shops for weeks afterward.
In fact, the news of the “great show” the town had put on during the Witching Faire last fall had upped the projected attendance. She knew there were a lot of townies and out-of-towners alike expecting something similar to its exciting but nearly catastrophic spectacle, and she hoped that “dueling” witches and warlocks on the rooftops at sunset would satisfy them.
It had been hubby Tom’s idea, and it was an amazing one, like all of Tom’s ideas. Like everything about Tom. She sighed and hoped the honeymoon never ended. She turned to scan along the downtown rooflines but didn’t find him; he was scheduled to be on a rooftop somewhere, rehearsing with a laser pointer in lieu of being able to wield his own magic. Darren, the town’s vet, and two of the other coven members would be ready to go with real magical streams exploding from their prop wands. They were much more likely to heal than harm, but they would make enough light to look wicked cool.
She looked both ways before crossing the street, then forgot what she was thinking about when Dash’s surgically-masked face greeted her as she hustled through the front door.
“Dash! Why are you wearing that again?”
“Oh dear, I just, I...all these people, and you never know where they’ve been, do you? Alive one day, a mummy the next.”
She grasped both of his hands in her own as she looked into his eyes. “I told you. This thing...it can’t hurt you. I promise.”
“But...”
She squeezed his hands gently, her eyes still locked on his, “Dash, I really, truly promise. I wouldn’t lie to you if you were in danger. This can’t affect you.” She searched his eyes for any sign that it reassured him, and maybe there was some relief there. “But if you’re wearing that mask when people come into town tonight—” she glanced at her watch to check the time, “—in about six hours, you’re going to start another panic.”
“It’s so frightening, though. I watched the video again. If you’re saying that I can’t be hurt, is there still danger to others? Why not me then?” He freed one of his hands, and it fluttered to his chest.
“It’s complicated,” she said, wishing she could tell him it only affected witches. But the coven was on the down low—lots of people didn’t need much of a reason to treat people who were different than they were badly. And unfortunately, the mouth beneath the town’s most well-known mustache could be a veritable gossip machine, and Dash was so kind that his heart just skipped over seeing most of the cruelty in others. There’s no way he could keep the secret about the deaths if he knew, even if he meant no harm. “Just believe me, please? You and Jon are in no danger. None at all.”
“If you’re sure,” he said, relaxing visibly when she brought Jon’s name into it; she’d been right that his partner was who he was worried about.
“Look, think about this—there’ll be lots of people in from out of town tomorrow who don’t know what an excellent gallery Giles has. And with the new show opening, if we get the last of these paintings hung,” she gestured around her, “it could put the place on the map. Isn’t that what you’ve been working for all these years?”
Dash reached up and untied his surgical mask, leaving a heavily waxed but badly smashed, unhappy mass of whiskers straggling across his cheeks in disarray. He gave her a pout, but the adrenalin was draining away. “You’re always such a sensible girl.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Now go fix your face while I rearrange the watercolors to make the extra space we talked about for the new paintings. I’ve got a few minutes before I have to get back to the shop.”
But it wasn’t like she wasn’t thinking about the danger, too, with Natalie no closer to finding the killer after three deaths. Both hands moved to her belly, forming a protective shield around the new witch life she carried.
She took a deep breath while she stepped back from the wall of watercolors, calculating distances and symmetries for the arrangement while her heart beat a steady rhythm of anxiety. If only she could convince herself that Tom and the growing child within her were in no more danger than Dash.
***
Tom stepped up to Robert and swept a hand toward the white-washed widow’s walk of Cat’s Magical Shoppe where Marcus was setting out the smoke pots exactly as they were lined up on the graph he consulted. Robert’s eyes followed his hand, and he squinted at the preparations.
“This will be as good as the show during the Witching Faire last year?” the mayor asked.
“Better,” Tom said, wondering if Robert was making a dry joke or if the “minor” memory problems which Robert had confided about were worse than his friend had made out. “Lots of flash and bang, but no wandering dead and no demon goddess trying to suck the living into the Summerlands with the dead.”
“Good. Good,” Robert responded. “I’d love to leave a robust economy as my mayoral legacy. Events like this one help.”
“You’re not throwing it over yet, are you?”
“We’ll see. I’ve got a month or so to decide. But I’m tired, Tom. I’ve been Mayor for twenty years. Time for some new blood.” He raised a hand to his eyes, shading them from the sun that was heading slowly for the roof line of Cat’s as the summer sun slid toward the tail of its busy day. “Is that young Marcus up there? Heck of a worker. Does a great job with the yard and the pigs. He’s got that black Lab of his trained up nice, too.”
“He’s a groovy kid. He’ll be orchestrating lighting and effects from the bakery roof. I wouldn’t mind seeing a little more rebellion from him, though. It’s unnatural for a teenager to be so well behaved.”
“You ever see him handle Natalie?” Robert dropped his eyes from the activity on the roof and winked as he moved his gaze to Tom. “I think that young one will be just fine.”
Tom chuckled. “You have a point. The kid can take care of himself.”
A warning voice-clearing came from behind, causing both men to turn as Natalie said, “Humph. The rest of the townfolk are keeping themselves busy instead of lollygagging around gossiping. You’d think you two would set a better example. I even saw your pi
psqueak of a police chief making himself useful.”
Another throat cleared behind Natalie, and this time, she was the one to turn.
“Evenin’ Mayor, Sanders.” Denton’s booming voice rose above the surrounding hubbub, catching the attention of many more of the workers than he intended as their heads turned toward to the commanding sound, then turned away again when they realized it wasn’t summoning them. He wasn’t big in stature, but he definitely had a presence.
He nodded last at Natalie. “Ms. Taylor.” His eyes then swept the crowd as he said, “Just getting a feel for how I can place my officers to provide the best security, figure out any blind spots once the stalls are up. You never know when a supposedly solid citizen will turn out to be something different.” His eyes snapped back to Natalie’s face.
Hers narrowed as she responded to the snipe. “Surveillance, hmmm? Maybe Tom can find you a footstool or a booster chair to help you out.”
Robert interrupted, standing up straighter, mayoral in every fiber. “Can you two spar later? Let’s agree that we’re all invested in the festival going well and get to it.”
Denton and Natalie nodded grudgingly with dark looks at each other as they did, but they headed off in separate directions as Robert slapped Tom on the back, then ambled down the street, surveying the preparations.
There were hours still to go before everything was in place for the festival, and the players had to run through the final dress rehearsal with all of the effects as a final check for their readiness for the night-time performance.
What could possibly go wrong with magic flying helter-skelter over people’s heads?
***
Natalie didn’t notice that her phone was ringing until she stepped into the shop and the door drifted shut, slowly lowering the volume on the sounds of work and merriment out on the street.
Cassie looked up from the counter and said, “It’s about time, Nat. We’ve still got a million things to do to get this place ready. Gillian’s making tea to keep us hopping, and Twink’s bringing up the trove of festival stuff from the basement so we can decorate the place. I could really use a hand up here.”