Haven Witches

by Emma Watts

  “You mean mine?”

  “He viewed the agreement, yes?” I asked.

  “That’s right.” Matt said. “His name is Markus Wright. He’s located at 113 Main Street.”

  “Open on Saturdays?”

  “I believe so. The guy works crazy hours.”

  I left there with more questions than answers. Liam certainly would have stood to gain much more had Daniel unearthed the gold from that wreckage. Then again, if Gloria and Matt had been kept out of the loop about the wreckage but discovered the map later, perhaps they killed him so they could get out from underneath Liam’s agreement and then unearth the coins and keep it all to themselves.

  Chapter 14

  A quick phone call to the lawyer’s office and using a magic spell to get my voice to sound like Gloria’s soon answered whether or not Daniel had added Nina’s name to the will — she was no longer in the will. Daniel had her name removed the day before he died. Nina had been under the impression she was in his will and that everything was okay in their relationship, and yet according to Sylvia her father was about to break up with her over something he had discovered. What was that? And had Daniel told Nina that he was removing her? Now call it a gut instinct, or perhaps the guidance of my mother, but something dawned on me in that moment. I had the cameras down at the archives. Wouldn’t that have recorded events in the town over the last few days? I made a beeline for the library and had a spring in my step as I came out of the elevator.

  “Barb, I’m going to need to access to the bat cave.”

  “Good heavens, please tell me that is not what you’re calling it.”

  I chuckled. “On a side note, what happens if the library is not open? How do I access this place?”

  “I’m guessing that’s another thing Ivy didn’t fill you in on. I swear I’m going to slap that woman’s hands. I’ll give you the alternative opening before you leave.”

  Upon entering the room, I brought up the screen and all the cameras around the town. “Okay, where is the camera for the harbor?”

  “It’s being fixed.”

  “What?”

  “We had a big storm a couple of months back and with your mother not here, no one was in a hurry to fix it.”

  “Are you kidding? So there is no footage of anything down in the harbor?”

  “I’m afraid not. However, there is some great footage of a hot guy that lives on Main Street. Let me bring that up.”

  “Barb!” I said in a firm tone.

  “Right. Sorry.”

  I turned my eyes back to the video cameras and had her bring up the last twenty-four hours. I scanned through hours of footage looking for anything that seemed out of place and then I saw it. In the late hours of last night, two familiar faces. Nina sat on a park bench in the center of town gazing down at her hands. She looked off to her left and right, glanced at her watch as if she was waiting for someone. Then, from across the street, Rick Moon hurried over, dodging traffic and making his way through the trees. Under his arm was a brown folder. He came up behind her and placed his hands over her eyes.

  “Can we get audio on this?” I asked Barb.

  “Unfortunately no, though we can have that included in the upgrade.”

  “How on earth did my mother ever solve any of these murders with archaic equipment?”

  “Magic and old-school charm, I think.”

  I couldn’t tell what they were saying but I could see what was going on. He removed his hands and came around and sat down beside her. He handed her the envelope. She unfolded it and pulled out a sheet of paper that looked to be a map.

  “Barb, zoom in on that.”

  “Darlin’, you can do that yourself. Just tell it to zoom in.”

  “Zoom in on the map.”

  Immediately it did. Sure enough that’s what it was. A map that appeared to show the location of the wreckage.

  “Zoom out.”

  I watched as she got up to leave and Rick grabbed her hand and pulled her down towards him for what looked like a kiss, except she brushed off his advance and hurried away. Rick sat there looking despondent before he banged his fist against the bench and trudged away. My eyes scanned to the next video, which showed her returning to a vehicle. Standing there, waiting for her was Gary. She tapped the air with the map in hand and he came around and gave her a kiss. They hugged and both of them slipped into the vehicle and drove off. I looked at the time. It was taken not that long after I’d seen him stumbling around in the middle of the road acting like he was drunk. He certainly had sobered up real fast. And why was Nina with him? Wasn’t it over? Or had Daniel confronted her a day before he died and told her it was over between them? Had she been playing Rick as well? Maybe that’s what Sylvia was on about. Perhaps Daniel had uncovered that Nina was just using him. Perhaps he learned about her seeing his son Rick? Maybe this was just some plan concocted by Nina and Gary.

  “Well, I’ll be. Barb, how do we get this footage onto a flash drive? I think I might be on to something.”

  She leaned back in her leather chair and spun around like an eight-year-old. “You don’t.”

  “What?”

  “I mean you can’t.”

  I frowned. “Of course I can. Just hook up a flash drive to this baby and take what we’ve seen in the last few minutes and copy it over. We’ll have this case wrapped up by the end of today.”

  “It doesn’t work that way.”

  I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. “What’s the point of having this if we can’t use it?”

  “It’s to aid in your investigations. It can’t be used as evidence.”

  “Why not?”

  “It would raise too many questions. Where did you get the footage? How were you able to record them? It would break too many privacy laws. Besides, it would draw attention to our work here and that cannot happen.”

  “You are joking, right?”

  “Nope!” she said hopping out of the chair. I stared at her in disbelief. What was the point of having all this cool equipment if none of it could be used in a court?

  “Well, then I can’t prove what I have just seen.”

  “You might if you can locate that map or prove to the police that they were involved in some way.”

  I turned back to the camera and forwarded the footage to see where the vehicle went with Nina in it. It returned to her home. Both of them went inside and didn’t emerge from the house until the next morning. The only connection to them was Rick. So that’s where I decided to go to next.

  * * *

  It was busy down at the harbor. Fishermen pulled in their nets with what they’d caught earlier that morning. As I made my way down the dock, I asked one of the fishermen if they’d seen Rick around. They motioned towards the boat at the end of the slip, said he’d come in only a few hours ago. The smell of the ocean filled my nostrils, and a few seagulls screeched overhead. I’d considered buying a boat instead of an apartment. With the good weather that California got all year round it might have been a good idea if it wasn’t for the fact that I got violently sick when I went on boats. Memories of my childhood came back to me and I began to feel my stomach turn.

  “Rick. Rick Moon,” I yelled from the dock. There was no answer. I climbed up onto the back of the boat and called out again but didn’t get a response. I looked off towards the officers, wondering if he’d headed over there, but I couldn’t see him. I wasn’t really sure about boat etiquette. Were you meant to knock on the side of the boat, or just waltz in? I figured I could blame it on big city living if Rick took offense to me bursting in. Hopefully he didn’t have a woman over. I held the railing as I descended the steps that led into the lower half of the boat. I gave a knock on the double wooden doors and waited. No response. I contemplated coming back later but decided that enough time had been wasted already. If he was involved in the murder of his father, he might consider bolting and what then? Was I to handle the guilt of a soul not finding peace? Nope. “Do whatever it takes,”
Ivy’s words echoed in my mind as I tried the handle and pushed the door open. As soon as it was open, I wished I’d walked away.

  My eyes widened.

  Lying in a puddle of blood with a knife stuck in his back was Rick Moon.

  Chapter 15

  Attempting to cover up murder by making it look like suicide was one thing, stabbing someone in the back with a knife was another. It was going to be hard for whoever was behind this to wiggle their way out. They’d made a mistake, no matter how you looked at it, and I had a good idea of who was behind it. I just needed the means to prove it. And with no footage of the harbor and not even being able to submit what I had already, it was going to make things even more difficult.

  When the police arrived I was sitting on a wall near the harbor with several fishermen gathered around. Liam looked as if he was about to burst a blood vessel. Two murders in a matter of days and all occurring on property he owned or was at least in possession of. I imagined it wouldn’t be long before people would say the boat was cursed, never mind the town.

  Detective Hunter got out of the cruiser and Liam went over to him and spoke for a few minutes before pointing towards me. He cast a glance at the medics who were carting away Rick’s body on a stretcher. Fortunately, the fiery redhead Hazel Roberts wasn’t with him. He worked his way through the crowd and told a few officers to clear everyone out. He ducked under the yellow caution tape and approached.

  “Well, it seems we keep meeting each other. How are you?”

  “I’ve been better.”

  “Yeah, not a good day for Haven.”

  “But you must be used to this, right?”

  “All the murders? Yes and no. Listen, can you tell me why you went to see Rick?”

  And there it was, the question that would no doubt lead to more questions and then eventually a reply that would be something along the lines of keep your nose out of our police work. I could have lied and for a few seconds I contemplated saying I was there to find out how much it would cost to learn scuba diving but instead I just came out with it. Now as I look back on it, I’m not sure why.

  “I wanted to ask him about the day his father was murdered.”

  “Murdered? Who told you it was murder?”

  “C’mon, Scott. Rumors travel fast in this town. But if you must know, Tobias.”

  He clenched his fist. “I told him not to say anything.”

  “Well he did.”

  “Okay so you were hoping to…” He waited for me to fill in the blanks. I never responded, so he continued, “help us in the investigation?”

  “Something like that.”

  He tugged on his ear and looked around, placing a hand on his hip. “You know, my father warned me today about this. He said you were likely to get involved. Now I have to ask myself, why would my father warn me about you?”

  “I don’t know, maybe it has something to do with the picture he has of my mother.”

  “Your mother?”

  “Well, I’m guessing that’s the woman he has in a framed photo. The one you said looks like me. Doesn’t it?”

  He stared blankly at me but didn’t respond to that, instead he shifted the topic away.

  “Listen, I appreciate the help but really this can be very dangerous work. In future it’s probably best you leave the investigation to us.”

  “And how’s that coming along? Got any leads?”

  He grimaced. “Not exactly but it’s still early days. We are interviewing suspects.”

  “Learn anything new?”

  He locked his gaze on me and smiled.

  “Why do I get a feeling that you have?”

  “You’re aware that Daniel was in an agreement with Liam?”

  “Yes I’m aware.”

  “But do you know the conditions?”

  “We haven’t got around to that yet.”

  “You should as in the event of his death that agreement would become null and void and whatever property belonged to Daniel would return to the owners of Dan’s Scuba & Charter — aka Gloria and Matt.”

  “That I wasn’t aware of.”

  “Or how about that Daniel had found a shipwreck, and had he made it known to Liam, under that agreement Liam would have been entitled to everything that was found.”

  “I wasn’t aware of that either.”

  He looked over his shoulder towards Liam who frowned, no doubt wondering what we were talking about. “How long have you been interviewing suspects?”

  “Oh, not long.”

  “Better question, how have you managed to pull it off without them questioning you?”

  My lips formed a thin smile.

  He ran a hand around the back of his neck. “This is going to be a long day. Look, just do me a favor and don’t get involved any further. Like I said, these things can get dangerous and I really don’t want to see you hurt.”

  “Detective. Do I detect a hint of concern?”

  “Well, we still haven’t finished our conversation, and I was really hoping we might. You know over coffee, or dinner, or just a walk.”

  “That sounds a lot like a date.”

  “No. Not a date,” he shook his head. “I barely know you.”

  “Exactly. I don’t date people I don’t know.”

  “So you know River Hudson then?” He asked.

  I looked at him. “Have you been following me, detective?”

  “No, I just happened to see you out the other night.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I um…” He was quick to change the subject. “I should go check out the crime scene. So you’re okay, yes?”

  “Yes, I’m fine, detective.”

  “Call me Scott.”

  “Detective Scott.”

  He smiled as he walked away and I caught him say, “You are going to be trouble.”

  A few minutes passed. After medics checked me out to make sure I hadn’t entered some form of deep shock, I was free to go, though I was told not to go too far. Like where was I going to run to? I had nowhere to stay and less than a thousand bucks in the bank. Which reminded me, I needed to speak with Ivy about wages. She’d never mentioned how much she was going to pay. I’d just accepted the position without hesitation. Had that been another one of her spells? As I made my way up the hill, I saw Liam glare at me. Yeah, something about him didn’t sit well. I couldn’t put my finger on it but I would, eventually. Ivy came hurrying down the road.

  “I just got the news. Are you okay?”

  I threw up a hand. “I’m fine. But you really need to talk to Barb about that surveillance equipment you have installed. It’s of no use to me if I can’t show the police what I saw on it.”

  “Yes. I forgot to tell you about that,” she said slipping her arm around mine and guiding me back to her store. “It’s just there to assist you. Nothing more. Nothing less. None of what we can do can be submitted or used in a case as evidence, or it would…”

  “Raise too many questions. I get it. Mom’s the word!”

  As we were heading up the road a dark car passed by on the way down and I noticed Nina and Gary inside. I turned back and Ivy followed my gaze. “What is it?”

  “The surveillance footage showed Nina collecting a map from Rick Moon yesterday in the center of town. That map has the location of a shipwreck with gold coins. Nina looked as if she brushed off his attempt to kiss her, she also returned to her car and who was there? Her ex-husband. I think she was involved in Daniel’s death.”

  “You think she had Rick steal the map from Daniel and kill him?”

  “I’m not sure about killing him but yeah, I think that’s about it.” I sighed as we continued until we were inside the store. “Now if I could present that video footage to Scott, perhaps they might discover the connection. You see, I looked at the list of people that were on that boat that day and the only ones that could have done it were Gloria, Matt or Rick. It was Rick who found his body. Maybe he changed over the tanks. Matt and Gloria would have been busy with those they were training. He
ends up dead, he hands over the map to Nina thinking that she is going to want to be with him and instead she turns away from his advances.”

  “Back to her ex-husband.”

  “That’s my guess.”

  Ivy paused bringing a finger up to her chin. “And so you think either Nina or Gary returned and finished Rick off because he was the only one linking them to the theft of the map.”

  “Exactly. I mean think about it, Ivy. What reason would Tobias have to kill him?”

  “Perhaps he played a role in getting him fired?”

  “No, I don’t buy that.”

  “But what about Gloria and Matt?”

  “With Daniel dead, the business would return to them and they would no longer be paying Liam any money.”

  “Paying him?”

  “Long story. There is an agreement in place after Daniel fell into debt. It also had a bit in the agreement that stipulated if Daniel found gold it would be the property of Liam Vaughn because essentially he owned their business. They were paying him money every month just like a mortgage. It’s all written up.”

  “So it’s possible they could have killed him?”

  “And kill Rick? No. According to those I spoke to he was a momma’s boy. She loves her son.”

  “Which means he might have been willing to cover up for them.”

  “Then hand over the map to Nina? No.”

  Ivy tapped me on the shoulder. “Well, you have your work cut out for you.”

  “I thought you were going to assist me?”

  “I am. Now how about a lovely cup of tea?”

  “What? That’s it?”

  “My dear, I’m getting too old for all this.”

  “I think I understand now why my mother walked away.”

  “No, no, you don’t,” Ivy said walking into the back to put on the kettle.

  “Ivy, who is William Hunter?” I heard her go quiet. “And why does he have a photo of my mother? At least that’s what I think he has.”

  “Don’t you worry about that. Focus on the case at hand otherwise you will get sidetracked.”