“Mercy,” Jax whispered nervously.
“Yes, indeed I was,” he agreed. “None of you were where you should have been. It is my school and I’ll punish as I see fit.”
“You’re poking a bear, Red,” Alba whispered in my ear, while pulling me away from Merrick and his sister.
“Maybe we should all go outside and discuss this,” Merrick suggested, with a devious smile playing around the corner of his lips.
Reign suddenly stepped into the center of the action, separating me and his father with his body.
“That’s a great idea, Mercy. Maybe we should take it outside,” Reign suggested with a fake smile plastered on his face. He pointed at the DJ and gave him a signal. The music suddenly quieted even more. “In fact – if everyone would like to step outside, we are going to have the unveiling of the new business name on our brand new sign!”
The crowd cheered and immediately the whole group began moving as one towards the front door of the restaurant. Guests poured out onto the street. The Witch Squad and I became part of the massive movement and slowly we worked our way outside, passing by two police officers who were stationed by the front door.
As the crowd spilled out into the street, they instinctively formed a semi-circle around the front door, waiting excitedly to hear the new business name and see the new sign. As I pushed my way out, with the Witch Squad following closely on my heels, I noticed my mother, Reign, and Detective Whitman were standing underneath the covered sign already.
Libby, Cinder, Sabrina, Heather, and all our dates were just up ahead, waiting for the unveiling as well, just off to the left of the entrance. Libby waved me over, so I veered off from the crowd and led the Witch Squad towards them. “This is so exciting,” Libby gushed as I squeezed in between her and Cinder.
Jax, Holly, Sweets, and Alba filled in the rest of the gaps in the crowd, with Holly pressing herself in between Sabrina and Heather. I glanced back at the crowd, wondering where Merrick and Sorceress Stone had wound up, when all of a sudden I caught a glimpse of Holly. Her eyes had rolled back in her head and she was crumbling to the ground slowly.
“Holly!” I screamed.
{ Chapter Twenty-Two}
Sabrina and Heather looked down at Holly, startled that she had fainted. “What’s wrong with her?” Heather asked fearfully.
“She must have fainted,” Sabrina said.
Sweets and I rushed to her side and grabbed her under her armpits. Detective Whitman motioned to the two police officers and in seconds they had the crowd moved back further and we were able to lower Holly to the ground.
“Jax, go get her some juice or a cookie or something,” I hollered and pointed towards the restaurant.
Jax nodded her witchy green face and took off towards the front door.
Detective Whitman bent over Holly and checked to see if she was breathing and felt for a pulse. On my knees next to her, I looked up at him. “She’s going to be ok, Detective. We’re used to this. It’s what she does.”
“What do you mean, it’s what she does? Is this a seizure, does she have a heart condition? What’s going on?”
I shook my head. “She’s having a vision.”
He looked down at her, his panic only mildly relieved. “A vision? Why now of all times?”
I shrugged and looked around. “Who knows? Anything could have set her off. Usually, she touches something and that’s what sets it off, but it could be because she’s in a familiar place or maybe she’s getting a blast of something to come. We won’t know until she wakes up.”
“But she comes out of it ok?”
Jax returned with a small glass of orange juice and a frosted Halloween cookie in the shape of a witch. “Here Mercy,” she said, handing me the snack.
I held onto it, just waiting for Holly to come to. “She does. Sometimes it takes her awhile to come out of it. Sometimes it’s fast. We never know. Her blood sugar always drops because of her visions though, we have to have a snack ready.”
“Does she have visions a lot?”
I nodded and tipped my head back and forth on my shoulders. “I don’t know what your idea of ‘a lot’ is, but she’s probably had a dozen or so of them since I met her.”
“When did you meet her?” he asked.
“On the first day of school, in September.”
“In September? Six a month? I’d say that’s a lot. That’s more than one a week. You girls need to start carrying around snacks for her. What if this happened somewhere you couldn’t get food to her?”
“Sweets usually has us covered,” I said, looking up at Sweets who was standing over me. “Don’t you Sweets?”
She patted my shoulder and gave me a smile and a wink.
Suddenly we heard Holly moaning as she struggled to come out of her mystically induced coma.
“She’s waking up,” Detective Whitman announced, holding her head up.
“Here Holly, take a drink,” I said quickly, holding the glass to her lips.
With her eyes closed, she managed to take a long sip.
“You want a cookie?” I asked her.
She shook her head. “Juice,” she whispered.
I handed the sugar cookie up to Sweets and then helped Holly finish off the rest of the juice while the Witch Squad, the boys, and the rest of the crowd stood around and watched the scene quietly unfold. When she was done with the juice, she opened her eyes. “Help me up?” she asked softly.
Detective Whitman and I grabbed her under her arms and pulled her to her feet. She swayed woozily and held her head for a second. “Are you alright?” he asked anxiously. “I can have a medical team here in under two minutes.”
Holly smiled and met my eyes. “No, I don’t need a medical team. I’m going to be alright.”
The crowd clapped when they heard her say she was going to be alright. Holly held up a hand to silence the crowd and she grabbed Detective Whitman’s arm. “I saw Ronnie,” she said in a loud hoarse whisper.
Detective Whitman’s head spun around to meet her eyes, quickly. “You saw Ronnie in your vision?”
Holly nodded and swallowed hard. “He was in the potions lab.”
I nodded. “I knew it!” I said excitedly. I knew she’d eventually see what had happened and would be able to prove that Merrick and Ronnie had been in the lab together.
Holly pouted out her bottom lip and shook her head at me. “It was in our potions lab,” she said sadly.
Alba stepped out of the shadows with Hugh, Tristan, and Philip right behind her. “Ronnie was in the Winston Hall potions lab?” she asked with surprise.
Holly nodded. “Yes.”
Suddenly the memory of the filthy potions lab came rushing back to me. Someone had left it in a hurry. We should have caught onto it. It wasn’t the men’s potions lab that we should have been looking for clues in, it was our potions lab.
“But, why would the killer have brought Ronnie to the girl’s dorm to kill him?” Sweets asked, completely confused.
Holly looked up at the crowd behind me. “Because it was a girl that killed Ronnie.”
My eyes widened, as did everyone’s eyes around me. “It was a – girl? You saw her?”
Holly’s head nodded, but her eyes didn’t move from the crowd behind me. I turned around to see who she was staring at, only to see Sabrina and Heather in her line of vision.
“Who did you see?” Detective Whitman asked.
“I saw Sabrina kill Ronnie Edwards,” Holly admitted, slowly lifting her pointed finger towards the girl.
All eyes swiveled to Sabrina. She shook her head wildly. “This girl is delusional, obviously. I didn’t kill Ronnie. Why would I have killed Ronnie? He was my friend!”
Philip moved protectively towards his date. “That makes no sense. Sabrina couldn’t have killed anyone!”
Alba narrowed her eyes as she glared at Sabrina. “She’s lying!”
Sabrina shot Alba an annoyed glance. “Shut up. I’m not a liar. I’m telling the truth!”
Alba shook her head. “She’s lying. I can read minds, Sabrina. You’re lying. You killed Ronnie.”
Detective Whitman snapped his fingers at his officers. They began closing in on Sabrina.
She panicked and began holding up her hands out in front of her, defensively. “No, you don’t understand. I didn’t kill him intentionally. It was an accident.”
Philip’s face contorted into that of shock. “Sabrina?”
“So you admit that you killed him?” I asked her.
“It was an accident!” she cried, tears immediately sprang forth and she began sobbing.
“You killed Ronnie?” Philip asked, looking at her with disgust in his eyes. “You were going to let me take the fall?”
Sabrina shook her head wildly. “You don’t understand. It was all an accident. Ronnie was helping me with my homework. I didn’t mean to kill him. I messed up on the potion. There was an explosion and we ran – I thought Ronnie was right behind me, but when I got upstairs, he wasn’t there! So I went back down to get him, but he was lying on the floor. I – I thought he was dead!”
“So you took him up to the roof and pushed him off to make it look like he fell off his broomstick?” I asked.
Sabrina nodded as she continued bawling.
“That’s so morbid,” Libby said from the crowd.
“How’d you get him all the way up to the roof?” I asked her, dumbfounded that after all of that, that was how Ronnie had been killed.
Sabrina turned her head towards Heather. “Sorry Heather,” she whispered to her friend. “I knew Heather could perform telekinesis. So I went to our room and got her and she helped me get him to the roof. We pushed him and his broomstick off together.”
Detective Whitman looked at the two girls sadly. “You realize that he didn’t die of asphyxiation. He died of a broken neck. The final autopsy report just came back this morning. While we did find the mystery substance in his lungs, what ultimately killed him was the fall. So by trying to cover things up, you actually killed him.”
The words caused Sabrina to sob harder. Heather glared at her friend angrily. “I can’t believe you told them that I helped you. I only did it because you were my best friend and you told me he was already dead. I would have never helped if I knew Ronnie was still alive!”
Sabrina threw her hands out in front of her, “You think I would have pushed him off the roof if I knew he was still alive? We both thought he was dead. I checked for a pulse and didn’t feel one.”
Detective Whitman hung his head. I knew what he was feeling because it was what I was feeling too. We had both hoped that we were going to be able to put Merrick Stone somewhere where he couldn’t hurt my mother any longer and now here he was in the clear.
Philip stepped towards Detective Whitman. “This proves I didn’t kill Ronnie. You know that now, right?”
Detective Whitman nodded. “Of course. You’re cleared,” he said to Philip, before looking up at his officers and pointing towards Sabrina and Heather. “Take them away, I’ll deal with them later, down at the station.”
The officers nodded and took the girls away.
“See! You all owe me an apology,” said a loud voice from the crowd, as Merrick stepped forward. Sorceress Stone was nowhere to be seen. “Since that boy was murdered, you’ve made me your number one suspect. And now we know it wasn’t me. Where’s my public apology?”
Detective Whitman laughed. “Stone, it’s going to be a cold day in hell before I apologize to you. Just because you didn’t kill Ronnie Edwards, doesn’t mean you haven’t been trying like hell to terrorize Linda.”
Each of Merrick’s hands grabbed a handful of his dark hair and pulled upwards, like he was going mad. “You’ve got to be kidding me? I’m found innocent of the murder and you still think I’m the one terrorizing Linda? Why would I terrorize her? I’ve loved that woman for over twenty-five years! Why would I want to chase her out of town or hurt her in any way?”
“Stone, no one knows why you do the things you do. I’ve never tried to pretend I understand the inner workings of a criminal’s brain.”
Reign positioned himself between the two men. My poor brother’s face was red with fury, but he did a good job of trying to keep it together in front of his audience. “Now is not the time or the place for this. We have an unveiling to do. How about we get on with the show?”
My mother clapped her hands together. “That’s a terrific idea, Reign. I’m ready if you are?”
“Father, if you can get back,” Reign instructed, pointing towards the crowd. “We’re going to pull down the curtain.”
Merrick’s face was still red as he moved towards the crowd.
Detective Whitman moved towards my mother and Reign under the sign. He stood behind her, with two hands planted firmly on her shoulders, as if claiming her in front of Merrick. I watched with interest as my mother covered one of his hands with her own and gave him a gentle squeeze. She looked up at him adoringly, and with great surprise, I saw him lean over and give her a peck on the cheek. “For good luck,” he said, just loud enough for me to hear.
My gaze spun back towards Merrick, who had caught the tender moment between the two of them as well. His face flashed a furious shade of red.
“Is everyone ready?” Reign asked excitedly.
The crowd went wild cheering for the unveiling of the new sign.
“Drum roll, please,” he hollered. Someone outside pushed a button which ignited a drum roll sound from the speakers inside the restaurant. He smiled broadly then pulled on the long braided roped that dangled from the sign above. The large tarp covering the sign, floated gently towards the ground, revealing a beautiful new sign with the words Habernackle’s Bed, Breakfast & Beyond scrawled across it.
The crowd cheered once again.
Then out of nowhere, a burst of white lightning cracked open the sky and struck one side of the sign. The metal fixture holding the sign to the front of the building shattered and it went careening towards the ground. An enormous collective scream emerged from the crowd as they all moved further back into the street to avoid being hit by the sign as it tumbled down. My heart jumped into my throat as I watched Detective Whitman and Reign lunge towards my mother.
{ Chapter Twenty-Three}
Detective Whitman and Reign fell on top of my mother, shielding her from the falling sign with their bodies. The three of them tumbled to the ground as the sign swung towards them, just grazing their backs, still suspended in the air by one chain that hadn’t broken.
Alba stepped forward and threw her powers into motion. With two hands, she was able to lift the sign up from over my mother and brother’s heads and high into the air above the doorway. With one quick jerking motion, she pulled the sign away from the wall, breaking the other chain free, sending small pieces of brick crumbling towards the ground. Then without a word, she easily lifted the sign up to the rooftop and set it on top of the building where it wouldn’t be able to fall again.
The crowd erupted in applause for Alba’s quick thinking. Even I found myself clapping for her.
“Yay, Alba!” Jax cheered.
“Woohoo!” Sweets cried out. “Way to go Alba!”
I ran to Mom and Reign immediately after the initial shock wore off. “Mom! Reign! Detective Whitman, are you guys alright?” I asked.
Reign piled off of Detective Whitman who piled off of my mother and then grabbed her arm to pull her to her feet. The three of them were covered in a layer of dust from the bricks that had pulled away from the outer wall. “What in the heck was that?” she asked, pulling her hair out of her eyes as she tried to collect herself.
Detective Whitman shot forwards towards Merrick, who was still in the crowd. “It was him!” he said, lunging towards Merrick.
Merrick threw his hands in the air and then slammed then down on his thighs. “Oh for the love of Harry Potter! How can this be my fault?! I was standing right here! Did anyone see me move from this spot?”
�
��Then you did it telepathically,” Detective Whitman insisted.
“How about you stick to what you know best and leave the magic stuff to me,” Merrick said to him, grinding his teeth.
“That’s what happened, isn’t it? You did it in your mind.”
“I did no such thing and until you have proof that I’ve done a bloody thing to Linda, then you’ll just leave me the hell alone,” Merrick strutted back towards the restaurant. “Where’s SaraLynn? We’re leaving!”
“Finally you get the hint,” Detective Whitman called after him.
“Mark – ,” began my mother softly.
Mark? Since when was Detective Whitman, Mark? And since when was he kissing her cheek for luck? Obviously, something had changed in their relationship that I wasn’t aware of.
Reign quickly addressed the crowd. “I hope everyone is alright? I really appreciate everyone who has decided to stick around, there are still refreshments inside and the haunted house is still open for business if anyone would like to continue the party!”
Hugh grabbed my arm before I followed the crowd back inside. “Are you alright?”
I nodded, swallowing hard. It had been a long night, but I was going to be just fine. “Yeah, I’m glad we got Sabrina to admit what happened.”
“I’m still in shock. So is Philip. He’s not feeling so well. The guys and I are going to take him and the twins back to the Institute.”
“I understand. It’s been a crazy night. We’ll talk tomorrow, ok?”
Hugh nodded and gave me a soft kiss. “G’night, Mercy Mae. Don’t go doin’ anything I wouldn’t do.”
I winked at him before I joined the crowd filing back into the restaurant. The Witch Squad was gathered just inside the door.
“Have any of you seen my mother?” Jax asked loudly, over the music. “I saw her inside earlier with Merrick, but then I didn’t see her when we went outside.”
I looked around. “She’s got to be in here somewhere. I’m sure she wouldn’t have left without your uncle. He came in here looking for her.”
Witch Degrees of Separation: A Witch Squad Cozy Mystery #3 Page 20