“You know what else is strange?” I said. “That she called Jeff after I left the first time. I keep imagining that the thieves were already at her place when I was there, lurking on the other side of the door, but maybe they weren’t. Maybe she was being threatened by someone else.”
“What are you talking about?” said Greer. “Who else would threaten her, and why?”
“That’s a really good question,” I said.
We moved on to what had happened for the rest of the week, since her disappearance.
“The police kept it quiet for like a day, then the story leaked,” said Charlie. “Ever since then her picture’s been all over the front of every paper, but it was kept quiet at first.”
“Then once everyone found out, they were a lot more likely to get information. Anyone spotting Gracie or strange vehicles in the area would report it, but no one has seen anything,” I said.
“That we know about,” said Charlie. “We’ve been contacting the police pretty often, but as far as I can tell they don’t have any leads.”
“They’re just as stumped as we are,” said Greer. Charlie and I nodded.
“How does Jeff fit into this?” I asked.
Deep in thought, Charlie tapped the white marker against her mouth.
“Gracie and he had a relationship, then she disappeared. There’s a good chance she was using him, but she also cared enough about him to let him know she was going to be gone. We know he wasn’t involved in her disappearance, because he’s been moping around ever since.”
“I’m just going to bring up the elephant in the room,” said Greer, scratching Charger’s ears. “Was Gracie really kidnapped?”
“Big, old, gray elephant,” Charlie muttered.
Chapter Twenty-Two
I took a deep breath. “I don’t think so. I think it’s more complicated than that, but I’m getting a clearer idea by the minute.”
“It certainly doesn’t have the marks of the kidnapping cases I’ve read about in our back files,” said Charlie. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense that both the pearl and Gracie are gone and there’s been no ransom demand.”
“Exactly,” said Greer. “She called Jeff, her room was messy, but nothing else was taken. It’s all so strange.”
To add to the list of Gracie’s odd behaviors, I told my two friends about the conversation I’d had with Jasper at The Daily Brew about the time he saw Gracie in the bank and she was acting all strange.
“She was hiding something,” gasped Charlie. “She was hiding something there and she hid her identity as best she could because she didn’t want anyone to know what she was doing.”
“Yes,” I said, “and I think I know exactly what it was.”
“What?” Greer and Charlie both leaned forward with excitement.
“I can’t say right now,” I told them, “other than that I think Gracie’s been plotting something for a while. She was going to use Jeff to make it happen, but something changed. Maybe she realized she liked him too much to use him, that is, she isn’t a totally horrible human being, or maybe she was forced to put her plan into motion faster than she intended and that meant she couldn’t take him with her.”
“Do you have any idea where she might be?” said Charlie. “We have to find her! If she was threatened and went into hiding, she’s still in trouble and she needs our help.”
“Whoever thought you’d be advocating helping Gracie Coswell?” said Greer, shaking her head.
“I’d have helped her in high school . . . I’d have given her a swift kick in the rump to help her out the door,” said Charlie. “Now’s not the time to hold grudges, though. She’s out there all alone somewhere.”
“So, what about the Pier Pearl?” said Greer. “Does Gracie have it?”
“Maybe it’s in the safety deposit box?” I said. “Maybe she just wanted to make it look like a robbery, so that whoever was threatening her would leave her alone.”
“Do you think the same person who killed Mr. McCoy threatened Gracie?” said Charlie.
“Mr. McCoy died a long time ago, so I don’t know how that could be true,” I said. “Unless . . . “
Blocks were rapidly falling into place in my mind, or, more accurately, blocks were crashing down on my head like chunks of concrete. The more I was understanding, the less I wanted to.
“Paws . . . “ I said, “why does Mrs. Goodkeep sneeze when she’s chasing you?”
“In the ghost realm she is allergic to cats,” said Paws.
“Does that mean that in the human realm she was as well?” I asked, but I already knew the answer.
“Yes indeedy,” said Paws, stretching, “it sure does.”
I jumped to my feet. “Back in the car,” I yelled, and then I realized that might be a bad idea. “Who wants ice cream?”
“Huh?” said Greer. “If you want dessert I’ll pop some cookies in the oven.”
“No, no,” I said, “um, ice cream is where it’s at.”
“I don’t want ice cream,” said Charlie, crossing her arms over her chest.
But Greer looked at me funny for a few beats and finally said, “Ice cream would be okay. I think we should go out and get ice cream.”
Charlie frowned, looking between us, then her expression cleared. “Me too. Let’s go.”
The three of us headed back out again, looking terribly smug.
As we reached the car, a voice stopped me in my tracks.
“Just where are you headed so late this evening?” said Mrs. Goodkeep. She was standing by the porch, broom slung over her shoulder as usual. To beat back the dark forces of a cat, as she had once put it.
“Ice cream,” said Charlie cheerfully.
“It’s kind of cold to be getting ice cream,” said Mrs. Goodkeep, eyeing us. “Weren’t you out earlier? Couldn’t you have stopped for ice cream then?”
“We didn’t know we wanted it then,” said Charlie, falling into reporter mode. “Really, Mrs. Goodkeep, it’s just a little ice cream. I appreciate your concern for our health, all that sugar, but I promise I’ll get a small. Maybe chocolate.”
“Definitely chocolate,” said Greer.
Mrs. Goodkeep was still eyeing me skeptically. “Do you have any news about Gracie’s whereabouts?”
I shook my head. “No, Mrs. Goodkeep, I’m really sorry, but I don’t. Hopefully I’ll know something soon, though.”
Paws ran scattering past Mrs. Goodkeep, and she howled in surprise.
“It’s my flesh and blood and she’s in danger,” said Mrs. Goodkeep. “I just don’t see how you can get ice cream and chat about boys at a time like this.”
“I like chatting about boys,” Greer muttered.
“She’ll be fine. I promise. I figured the ice cream would clear my head,” I said. “We’ll be back soon and I’ll totally fill you in on what we come up with.”
“Probably more of nothing,” said Mrs. Goodkeep waspishly. She turned around and stomped away.
“That was close,” said Greer out of the side of her mouth. “Nicely done, Charlie.”
“Why, thank you,” said our blond friend as she hopped into the back seat. Paws jumped onto her lap and I started the car and drove away.
“You going to explain what all of that was about?” said Charlie. “Why did we have to lie to Mrs. Goodkeep?”
“She started it,” I said. “She definitely lied first.”
“Just because her behavior was bad . . . “ said Charlie.
“Gracie is in danger,” I said. “I was just protecting her.”
“But why couldn’t we tell Mrs. Goodkeep that?” Charlie asked. “She’s her relative and she’s the one who brought the problem to you in the first place. She should know, especially since she might be able to help.”
When no one in the car said anything, Paws decided to speak up.
“She’s the problem,” he said.
Charlie gasped. “So, where are we going? You said you knew where Gracie was. So we’re leaving the hous
e because you thought Mrs. Goodkeep might be listening in on us, and you didn’t want her to know where we were going?”
“Exactly,” I said. “I was about to say it in the living room, but then I realized it was a terrible idea to say it within reach of Mrs. Goodkeep, so I suggested ice cream.”
“Where are we going, then?” Charlie persisted.
I sighed and glanced at Paws, who wasn’t going to like it. “We’re going to check on a cat.”
Charlie sat back and sighed. “Now I do kind of want ice cream.”
We parked on the street at Mrs. Mews’ house so Gracie wouldn’t know we were coming. A guess about where Gracie might be had been forming in the back of my mind ever since we’d talked to Jeff and he had said that Gracie was sneezing when she called. The fact that Mrs. Goodkeep also sneezed made me think they both had a cat allergy.
Now, Gracie could be anywhere with a cat, and it wasn’t a solid enough lead, except that last time I’d come to check on Lily, she hadn’t wanted to eat, and it had finally occurred to me that it might be because someone else was feeding her. Mrs. Mews would never stand for mice in her house, and Lily was too lazy to chase them anyway, so it likely wasn’t that.
“I think Gracie knew Mrs. Mews would be away this week. She knows that Mrs. Mews travels a lot, because she buys her antiques.”
“Wow,” whispered Charlie. “She’s been in Mintwood this whole time. She put the pearl in the safety deposit box and went to hide out. Who threatened her, and with what?”
“That she’ll have to explain,” I said, as the four of us got out of the car. We closed the doors as quickly and quietly as possible. Mrs. Mews’ house was dark as we walked up the driveway.
“I’ll go around back,” said Greer, disappearing.
“I’ll go with her and keep her safe,” said Paws, who trotted off after her.
“I wonder who will keep whom safe there?” Charlie mused.
I eased my key into the front door and opened it gently. I didn’t want to startle Gracie, and I didn’t want her to run, either. The other times I had visited Lily I hadn’t gone upstairs. There was no point in looking through the whole house when the cat was sitting in the living room, so it would have been very easy for Gracie to just hang out in one of Mrs. Mews’ upstairs rooms with no one the wiser.
This time when we walked into house there was no cat sitting waiting for me, but I could hear music playing. Charlie and I exchanged looks.
The pop tunes were coming from the upstairs.
We had found Gracie Coswell.
Up the stairs we crept, the blue carpet silencing our footsteps. The moonlight streaming in the window at the landing highlighted the lovely maple wood of the banister.
Just as we reached the landing something brushed against my legs, causing me to scream and grab onto Charlie’s arm. I looked down just in time to see Lily saunter off, stopping once to glare over her shoulder at me.
“Nice cat,” Charlie whispered.
“She’s nice like a kicked hedgehog is nice,” I muttered.
Suddenly the music stopped and both Charlie and I froze.
“Did she hear us?” Charlie whispered in my ear. From our place at the top of the stairs I could see a sliver of light coming from the door directly in front of us. Neither of us dared to move or breathe, and after several seconds the music resumed and I exhaled.
Then there was a creeping noise behind us, and I spun around to see Greer, her dark hair blending into the inky night so that only her pale skin was visible. Paws sat at the bottom of the stairs, just gazing at us.
“He doesn’t want to come up because of Lily,” said Greer. “I guess when he’s on a case he tries to not harass real cats, but he says once he sees them it’s very tempting to play his practical jokes.”
“So good of him to try and contain his silliness,” I said. “Should we knock?”
“No, we should just open the door,” said Greer.
“I’m always trying to be polite and I’m always overruled,” I muttered.
“We don’t know what that room leads to,” said Greer, “and we’re pretty sure she faked her own disappearance. She doesn’t think anyone knows she’s here, so either way we’re going to scare her half to death, and if we knock we give her a chance to run. Or get a gun. And I don’t like those options.”
Steeling myself, I walked up to the door and opened it. I don’t know exactly what I expected to see, but what but I did see was truly shocking.
Britney Spears was playing, and a woman was sitting in a comfortable-looking yellow chair, her long legs stretched out and her feet up against the table in front of her as she painted her toenails a vivid red. Her blond hair was piled in a towel on top of her head and there were several spots of zit cream on her chin.
The moment I opened the door, Gracie Coswell screamed. When she saw who it was she stopped screaming, but when Charlie walked into the room and then Greer, she gave a terrified little hiccup.
The table was covered in newspapers from the last few days, with Gracie’s perfect smile plastered across the front page and the word “missing” sticking out. She’d been reading about how much everyone was looking for her while she sat and ate cookies. By the signs, Gracie had spent a lot of time in Mrs. Mews’ guest room in the last few days. There were empty boxes of cookies everywhere, and chips galore, and a large stack of DVDs sitting by the TV.
“What are you doing here!” she cried.
“Gracie,” I said, “we’ve been looking for you.”
She sighed and put down the nail polish.
“Yeah, I know! I couldn’t figure out why, but you’ve been pretty persistent. I suppose you just want the pearl too,” she said.
“No, we don’t,” I said, surprised that’s what she thought, though after a moment’s reflection I realized it made sense. The reason she hadn’t wanted to talk to me in the first place was that she thought I was greedy, like so many other people she’d had to deal with.
“Who was in the bathroom with you that day when I came by? I thought you were in trouble,” I said.
Gracie blew out her cheeks and started to screw the top back on the nail polish, looking guilty. When she didn’t answer right away I prodded, “Well?”
“It’s complicated,” she said, glancing past me as if calculating her chances of getting away. “I can’t believe I’ve ended up here.”
“What are you talking about?” I said.
“I’m too good for this,” she said. “It’s not like I was like all of you in high school. I mean, Greer’s pretty, but she never cared about her looks, and Charlie’s too smart to be popular.”
It was a darn good thing for Gracie that I stood between her and my friends.
“I think you should tell me what’s going on. Just try me,” I said, ignoring the insults.
“Why should I confide in you? It’s not like we were friends in high school or anything.”
That was true, very very true. Gracie had been my least favorite classmate, to say nothing of her attempt to become valedictorian in place of Charlie.
“Because I’m here to help. I went to a lot of trouble to track you down, didn’t I?” I said.
Gracie appeared to think about this for a minute while I stood there waiting.
“My stupid cousin Archibald and his dad Larry are black sheep,” said Gracie. Then she paused again, her doubts obviously still nagging at her. But after another pause, at last she took a breath and said, “Okay, I’ll explain everything. The pearl was handed down to me, but I never had much use for it. It’s been in my family for generations, but it’s not my style and we have a lot of family heirlooms. There are just so many to choose from. After I heard that a man had been murdered and the pearl stolen at the same time, I got scared. The murderer was never caught, and my parents had always hidden that part of the pearl’s history from me. I’d been wanting to go traveling, and my parents weren’t going to give me the money, so I decided to sell the pearl and let someone else enjoy i
t for a change. That’s when everything went sour. My cousin suddenly showed up talking about how he wanted the pearl. I barely know this cousin, and here he is saying the pearl is his? My parents have a will saying that it will be mine, and they’ve said they consider it to be mine, so I can do what I want with it. My cousin said the pearl had to stay within the family, or else. Well, I wanted to sell it, but he scared me. That day in the bathroom wasn’t the first time he’d come by, so I panicked. He left not long after you did, Lemmi, and told me not to go anywhere, so of course I packed as quickly as I could and left immediately.”
There was a bright pink coat hanging on the door, and my mind flashed back to the evening of the day I first went to Gracie’s. I had seen a woman walking along the road in a pink coat with the hood up, even though the day was nice and warm. Now I knew that had been Gracie, trying to get away from her cousin just as I was going back to see if she was all right.
“I’m sorry you were frightened,” I said. “How do you think your cousin knew you were looking to sell?”
“That’s just it,” said Gracie, “I have no idea. I did some computer searches about how much money I’d get, but I never told a soul.”
“Did you do these searches in the evening after work?” I asked, and Gracie nodded. If she had done them at night, a ghost could have easily seen what she was doing.
“Look, Gracie, it’s going to be okay,” I said. “I promise. By tomorrow your cousin will have been arrested, and you’ll be able to do whatever you want with the pearl. At the very least he’ll leave you alone. I promise.”
Gracie blinked her big brown eyes at me and nodded gratefully. “Thanks.”
Greer and I exchanged glances, while Charlie looked on in unbridled disgust.
“But you should stay here until we get this taken care of,” I added.
“Okay,” said Gracie happily.
Just as she said it, the lights went out and an ominous silence descended over the house.
“What’s that!” cried Gracie.
“Shhhh,” Greer, Charlie, and I chorused.
Witch Way to Mintwood (Witch of Mintwood Book 1) Page 17