She arched an eyebrow and cocked her hip. “I know stag and hen parties are no fun, but you totally abandoned me last night. You said you’d be gone half an hour.”
I squeezed my eyes shut for a second. “Forgive me.”
She chuckled. “What happened?”
“I ran into an angel, and she blasted me with magic and shoved me into a cell.”
Merrie’s jaw dropped open. “It sounds like you need a coffee.”
“With a big dollop of stardust.” I hopped onto a stool. “Long story short, I went to question Petra, and one of her customers freaked out when my magic sparked. They called Angel Force, thinking I was threatening Petra. The next thing I know, I wake up behind bars and get hassled by Dazielle.”
Merrie poured out two coffees and handed me a mug. “She hates you.”
I shrugged. “I try not to take it personally. I think she senses Frank. Angels and demons never get on.”
“Talking of demons,” Merrie said as she cocked her head to the right, “Axel has been in here for the last two hours. He was waiting to come in before I opened the doors.”
I shifted in my seat and turned around. Axel was a regular, but I’d never seen him here so early. “What’s he into?”
“The usual mushrooms.”
“How many times has he been in this week?”
“Every night,” Merrie said. “And he’s having home deliveries too.”
My mushrooms weren’t addictive. That was the beauty of them. You got a lovely natural buzz, and all your cares washed away, and there were no nasty after-effects. Well, in ninety-nine percent of cases. There was always that one infuriating percent that liked to mess it up for everybody else. Maybe Axel was going to be that annoying one.
I took a big gulp of coffee. “Did you say every night?”
“Always. That’s his favorite booth.”
“Does that include the night Deacon was murdered?”
“I’d almost guarantee it,” Merrie said. “Axel is a regular. When he’s not here, I think it’s strange.”
“Yes, it is strange.” Strange that he’d lied to me about where he was the night Deacon had been murdered. Axel had told me he’d gone to the gym, ate dinner, and then watched a movie. He never mentioned coming to Cloven Hoof. If he was lying about that, he could also be lying about having nothing to do with Deacon’s death.
Coffee just wasn’t doing it for me. I dumped in more stardust and swirled it in the mug.
“Is everything okay with you?” Merrie asked.
I patted my stomach as it gurgled. “The usual demon issues.”
“How about a lemon drop? They always calm Frank.”
“That would be perfect. Super-size me.”
“Are you sure?” Merrie grinned at me. “My lemon drops are strong.”
“I’ll be fine. I need a big hit of energy. I’m off to tackle Angel Force and get Aurora out. I can’t have Frank getting loose in the middle of a room full of angels.”
Merrie chuckled again as she mixed her speciality drink. The recipe was a secret she kept closely guarded. It was a customer favorite and left everyone with a warm glow and a shot of energy.
She placed a small shot glass that glowed bright yellow in front of me.
I raised it and downed it in one. The sharpness of the lemon was cut through by a sweet aftertaste. I smacked my lips together. “Just what I needed.” I placed the glass down as a loud burp shot from my lips.
“Excuse you,” Merrie said. “I told you to be careful.”
I covered my mouth with my hand. “It’s not me; it’s Frank. He hates this. The last time I had a lemon drop, he told me it made him sleepy.”
“Which is what you want. No demon is coming out to play today.”
I held in another burp as I nodded goodbye to Merrie and headed out with Wiggles to face the angels.
Cassiel was on the desk as I walked into Angel Force. She raised her blonde eyebrows. “You’re here to see Aurora?”
“Unless you’ve already let her go.”
“She’s still here. I don’t think she’s going anywhere soon.” Cassiel gave me a sign-in pad on which I pressed my thumbprint.
“We’ll see about that.” I followed Cassiel into a quiet room with a table and chairs and waited a few minutes until Aurora was brought in.
“Tempest! I’m so glad you’re here.” She hugged me before sitting down.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“I don’t know what happened,” Aurora said, her bottom lip jutting out. “I was in the store, when all of a sudden, the angels turned up. It was so official. They arrested me and brought me here.”
“You do know why you’ve been arrested?”
“They said Petra was attacked. They’re sure I did it.”
“The evidence is conveniently convincing,” I said. “You left a shoe behind and some hair.”
Aurora’s hands traced over her blonde curls. “Hair?”
“A big ball of the stuff. Where were you last night?”
“In the store.”
My eyes narrowed as I saw Aurora’s nose twitch. I glanced at Cassiel, who’d remained by the door. “You didn’t go anywhere near the Ancient Imp?”
“No, I was at the store all night.”
“Doing what?”
“Tidying up. Making sure it looked lovely for the next day.”
“That wouldn’t take you all night.”
“No, of course not. After that, I had dinner and went to bed.”
“Alone?”
“Tempest! Of course, alone. You know I’m not in a serious relationship.”
Aurora was seeing someone, though. She’d admitted that to me when I’d come back to Willow Tree Falls. Maybe he was the reason she was keeping quiet. I glanced at Cassiel again. If Aurora wasn’t going to reveal to me who she was with last night, she wasn’t going to tell Angel Force.
I leaned across the table. “You’ve got to come clean. There’s no point in hiding anything. You’ll only get in trouble if you do.”
She waved a hand in the air dismissively. “I won’t get in trouble. I know nothing about the evidence at Petra’s, but she’ll stick up for me. She couldn’t have seen me there because it wasn’t me.”
“Petra’s no good to you. She didn’t see her attacker. It was dark, and she was shoved over and kicked. It could have been you on a magic high.”
Aurora bit her bottom lip. “I promise you it wasn’t me. I’ll see Petra when I get out and explain everything.”
Cassiel shifted her feet and shook her head. “Best if you stay away from Petra for a while, at least until we get this matter sorted out.”
Aurora’s eyes widened, and she looked at me. “They think I did it.”
I sighed and sat back in my seat. Maybe Aurora had done it. She was hiding something, and whatever it was didn’t want to shift anytime soon. Perhaps a few nights in a cell would get her to start talking and stop being so stubborn. She needed to tell somebody before it was too late.
“You look guilty. Angel Force has evidence, and they’re clinging to it. They will charge you if you don’t watch yourself.”
“Tempest, you have to get me out of here.” Aurora’s eyes flooded with unshed tears.
“No crying.” I rubbed my forehead. “It’s not going to be so easy this time. I can’t help you if you’re hiding things from me.”
“You have to. I can’t stay here.” She grabbed my hand.
I glanced at Cassiel. “Are they mistreating you?”
“No, of course not. The angels are all being lovely. But I’m in a cell and being accused of something I haven’t done.”
I nodded as I stood. “It sucks, but I’m not sure how to help you. You need to come up with solid proof that you were at Heaven’s Door on the night of Petra’s attack.”
“Isn’t my word enough?” Aurora looked from me to Cassiel.
Cassiel shook her head. “Not with the evidence we have.”
“Are you sure th
ere’s nobody who can vouch for you? You didn’t see anybody else that night?” I asked her.
She looked away. “No one.”
I sighed. There was that nose twitch again. I was done. My sister was lying to me and making a whole mess of this situation. Since she wouldn’t come clean, there was nothing I could do to help her.
Mom would complain that I’d abandoned her, but this wasn’t my fault. Aurora was hiding something. Whatever it was, it was a big enough secret to hide it from her family and risk jail.
I moved toward the door. “I’ll make sure to come to see you during your weekly visiting privileges.”
“Tempest, wait!”
I turned and looked at Aurora. “Is there something you want to tell me?”
Aurora bit her lip again and shook her head. “No, nothing.”
“Enjoy your life behind bars.” I stomped out behind Cassiel and back to the main doors where Wiggles waited for me.
“No Aurora?” he asked, looking over my shoulder.
“Nope, and she deserves to be in here.” I ushered him out the door and away from Angel Force. “I don’t know what she’s gotten herself into, but Aurora is hiding something, and it’s something big. Something she’s prepared to stay behind bars for.”
“Maybe Heaven’s Door is in trouble,” Wiggles said. “She’s always giving stuff away when a magic user pleads poverty, and she hands out free candy to her customers.”
“Which is why people love Heaven’s Door,” I said. “The locals buy most of their magic supplies there, and the non-magicals get all their tourist stuff from there. My sister is rolling in money. It’s not that.”
“She’s got a secret addiction to dark magic,” Wiggles said. “Behind that fluffy blonde exterior lies the dark heart of an evil witch intent on bringing Willow Tree Falls to its knees.”
I laughed. “Aurora is about as dark as a bright summer’s day. The darkest magic she’s been involved in is helping me bring you back to life.”
“That’s gray enough. It could have tipped her over the edge. Aurora might have been waiting for an opportunity to sink into dark magic.”
“It’s not that. It could be something to do with this secret guy she’s dating. Maybe he’s someone she thinks I won’t approve of.”
“He could be married.”
I grimaced. “Then she’d never go near him, no matter how hot he was.”
“He could be ugly.”
“As if I’d care about that, so long as he made her happy.”
“He could be an angel.”
“That would be hard to forgive, but I’d get over it, so long as the angel wasn’t too bright and sunny.”
Wiggles glanced at me. “Or Aurora really did do it. Maybe she fell in love with Deacon, and it all went wrong. Deacon could have rejected her, gone back to Petra, and your sister snapped.”
“Aurora has her naïve moments, but she’s not the kind of woman to snap over a guy. There’s no way that evidence in the Ancient Imp is legit. Somebody else is involved. Someone who wants to take Aurora down.”
I slowed as I saw a squat figure hurrying into the Romer’s telegram store.
“What’s on your mind?” Wiggles asked. “Have you got a snow globe message to send?”
“No, but that was Mannie Winter, one of the mayoral candidates. Petra pointed the finger at him for Deacon’s murder.” I changed direction and headed toward the telegram store. “It’s time we put the thumbscrews on our friendly neighborhood second-hand merchant and see what he knows.”
Chapter 13
The telegram store smelt of vanilla and mothballs. It had been run by the Romer family for generations. Giovanni now ran the store. His mom, Mila Romer, was semi-retired but kept a stronghold on the business from her perch in the apartment above the store. She was forever pestering Giovanni to work harder and raise the prices of the snow globe telegrams.
These weren’t your average telegrams. We all used the system in Willow Tree Falls. They were like the freaky mobiles used by non-magicals. We sent messages via the Snow Globe communication route that ran across the world. It was easy enough to use snow globes if you had to send a local message. Anything going out of Willow Tree Falls made things complicated because of the magic barrier keeping non-magicals from seeing what was really going on.
That was where Giovanni and his skills with the globes came in handy. If you needed a message sent, no matter where in the world it had to go, Giovanni was the warlock to do it.
I edged closer to the counter where Mannie stood. I couldn’t catch everything he was saying, but the message he wanted to send was confidential and urgent.
Mannie Winter was a slick salesman, who ran the Magic Second Time Around second-hand store. Whatever you needed, Mannie could get it for you so long as you didn’t mind paying through the nose.
It looked like he ate most of his profits and was a rotund dwarf, who took great pride in the long luxurious beard that sat over his stomach.
I waited until he’d finished his transaction with Giovanni, stepped into the walkway, and bumped into Mannie.
“Oh, Tempest. How are you?” He smiled up at me and smoothed down his oiled beard.
“I’ve been better,” I said.
His expression grew sympathetic. “Of course, your poor family is going through so much. And your sister has been arrested for the second time in as many days. It’s hard to believe; she’s such a lovely girl.”
“She has her moments,” I said. “You must be feeling conflicted by everything that’s going on.”
“Conflicted how?” His smile remained friendly.
“Deacon was a thorn in your side. Everyone thought he would be the new mayor. It must have been a relief to get him out of the way.”
Mannie cleared his throat. “I was happy to fight fair, so long as he did. Besides, I never considered Deacon real competition. He was a bright young man but lacked experience. I have years on him. I know everyone in Willow Tree Falls. When people come to vote, they’ll realize they need someone experienced and knowledgeable, someone with strong roots and a long foundation.”
“The Feathers family has been here for five-hundred years. I’d say that’s pretty deep roots.”
“Not Deacon. He’s only been here a decade. He spent years traveling around the world and seeing what magical delights he could enjoy. We can’t afford to have a play boy in a position of authority. It wouldn’t do Willow Tree Falls any good. As tragic as it is, Deacon would never have made mayor.” Mannie stepped closer to me. “I heard he was thinking about withdrawing because he knew he didn’t stand a chance and couldn’t face being humiliated when the results came in.”
“Is that so?”
“Indeed. And he was thinking about leaving Willow Tree Falls.”
“No kidding. Where was he going?”
“I’ve no idea.” Mannie smiled and stroked his beard. “My customers are never wrong, though. That’s what they were telling me just before Deacon died.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Were you information gathering on the night of Deacon’s murder?”
Mannie’s fingers twisted into his beard. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“Who were you with? Where were you?”
His expression shifted from friendly to cautious. “I don’t see how it’s any of your business.”
“Given that my only sister is in a cell, I made it my business.” I smiled brightly. “I’m sure you’d do the same for your own family if they were wrongly accused.”
Giovanni hurried out from behind the counter. “May I be of service, Tempest?”
I kept my attention fixed on Mannie. “No, thanks.”
“Do you have a telegram to send? I’m doing a twenty percent discount on all long-distance messages this week.”
“I came in here to have a chat with Mannie.”
Giovanni swallowed noisily. “Excellent, excellent. As lovely as it is to have you in here, perhaps you could take your chat to the cafe? I don’t want to
distract the other customers.”
I looked around. Other than the three of us, the telegram store was empty. “I’m sure they won’t mind.”
“Of course. You’re right. Even so, I don’t want any trouble.”
“Tempest won’t cause any trouble. She knows it’s not wise to get on the wrong side of the future mayor,” Mannie said.
“A potential mayor who doesn’t have an alibi for the night someone was murdered,” I said. “Maybe you won’t be mayor for long when the rumors get out.”
Mannie pulled himself up to his inconsiderable height. “Very well. I was at a campaign meeting that went on until midnight. Actually, it might be of interest to you. We discussed the problem of a number of venues in Willow Tree Falls that have late night licenses. Residents have concerns that people have been leaving late and causing too much noise. We cannot afford the peace and tranquillity of Willow Tree Falls to be disturbed. There was mention of adjusting the license, so you must close by ten o’clock.”
“You are kidding me.” I took a step toward Mannie.
“Now, now. Nobody needs to get angry. I’m sure it was a healthy discussion with people suggesting different options, nothing more.” Giovanni worried around us as I continued to give Mannie a death stare.
“There doesn’t sound anything healthy about that discussion,” I said. “I extended my license after a public petition. People want Cloven Hoof open late. They’re the ones who demanded it, not me. I’d be happy to curl up in bed at ten o’clock and put my feet up for the rest of the night.”
“I’m sure you would. What a charming image that is,” Mannie said. “Still, I must consider the needs of my new supporters. If they’re not happy, I’m not happy.”
I glowered at him. My growing anger made Frank shift inside me. I almost wished I hadn’t had that lemon drop. It would be fun to watch Frank come out and terrify Mannie with a splash of fire and brimstone.
“I will check your alibi. And I want the names of everyone who doesn’t think Cloven Hoof should open late.” Even if Frank wasn’t in command, I’d be happy to shake down a few suckers for not liking my business. They needed to tell me to my face that they weren’t happy and not hide behind this smug-faced dwarf and let him do their dirty work.
Luck of the Witch (Crypt Witch Cozy Mystery Series Book 1) Page 11