by Paula Lester
Snores approached her. “I’ll sit outside his door if you want me to. I can sound the alarm if he comes out.”
Zoey had to hide a laugh behind a fake cough. The poor elderly man was likely to sleep right through another escape attempt. “Thank you for offering,” she said. “But I don’t want to interfere with your sleep. I’ll set a magical ward. I should have done that the first time.”
Nodding, he shuffled off toward his suite’s hallway while Zoey did a quick spell that would give her a little buzz on the wrist if Georgio’s door or window opened. She scolded herself for not thinking of it before. It was an easy, elegant way to make sure they didn’t lose the djinni again while they tried to figure out the situation.
When she got back to her room, she was too tired to read the chapter in her mystery book. Instead, she fell asleep trying to puzzle out the real-life mystery right in front of her. Where was Howie and how had Shawna gotten the djinni into the complex and called him out of his bottle? Why couldn’t he remember anything?
Her dreams swirled with possible answers and even more questions, and when she woke the next morning, it didn’t feel like any actual rest had happened. Her brain felt sluggish just like her eyelids. Still, she leapt out of bed, ready to do what she could to figure out what was happening at the retirement home.
When she got downstairs, Zoey went straight to the kitchen. Steve was already there, sipping coffee out of a giant mug that said Witches Have the Best Brews. Flopping onto a bar stool, she smiled thinly at Ashley, who brought over a cup of black coffee in a plain brown mug and set it in front of her. “Thanks. I’m going to need plenty more where this came from.”
Ashley nodded. “I figured. I made some breakfast too. I’ll get you a plate.”
“That sounds heavenly.” Turning toward Steve, Zoey said, “I think we need to talk to each resident individually. Ask them what they know about the djinni and Howie’s disappearance. We’ll have to try and figure out who’s telling the truth and who’s hiding something.”
Steve nodded and stood up. “I’ll get Kelli to organize everyone and send them into your office one by one so we can talk to them individually.”
“Thanks.” Zoey was pretty sure it would take all morning to talk to everyone, what with the tangents the residents often went off on. She dug into the plate of pancakes and sausage Ashley had put in front of her, finishing within five minutes.
“You were hungry! Want more?”
Zoey shook her head. “I’ll take more coffee, but I’m good on food. It’s time to get to work.”
Carrying her full mug of hot coffee, Zoey headed toward her office where Steve waited with Snores. She noticed her employee had picked up the herb concoction from the floor and put it on her desk.
“He was in the common room sleeping, so I nabbed him for the first interview.” Steve grinned.
“Works for me.” Zoey settled into a chair at the round table across from Snores. Over the next hour, she and Steve interviewed each of the residents, asking them the same two questions.
Zoey asked, “Did you summon the djinni?”
Snores answered, “Nope. I remember a day when the Djinn were everywhere. Why, I spent many days at my job on the force just chasing djinnis all over the place. They can be nasty buggers, you know. Always saying they’re there to listen to your wishes and make your life better but then being tricky about how they grant the wish. I mean, they do it, but it’s not quite the way you were expecting, and, in fact, it usually makes your life worse somehow. I was glad when they were collected and contained, and I would never call one.”
Ester answered, “There’s a djinni loose? Oh, dear! What are we going to do? Maybe Susan will make it some cake to appease it?”
Maria answered, “No, but I think he’s really a dear, don’t you? And handsome too! That blue skin and those tattoos—so striking.”
Jerry answered, “I definitely know how to call and handle a djinni. After all, I was a powerful dark sorcerer for two decades. Why are you looking at me like that? I didn’t call this one—I just want to make sure you understand that I could.”
Travis answered, “Why would I call a djinni? I have all the riches anyone could want in my vault. Now, I suppose I might call one and then wish for him to remind me of where the vault is, exactly. But I didn’t think of that, unfortunately. So, no, it wasn’t me. But now that he’s here, maybe I’ll make that wish.”
Shawna answered, “No, but he’s mine now. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Zoey asked, “Do you know where Howie is?”
Snores answered, “Did anyone check the basement? It seems like there’s a lot of junk down there. Maybe he’s looking for old exercise equipment.”
Ester answered, “Howie’s missing? Oh, dear! We should try to find him.”
Maria answered, “No, and it’s quite distressing. Poor Howie. I hope wherever he is, he’s getting enough food and water. And has room to do his jumping jacks.”
Jerry answered, “No, and when I find out who made him disappear, they’d better watch their back. The little guy is annoying, but he’s my best friend, and I’m slightly lonely without him here bothering me constantly.”
Travis answered, “No. Someone probably grabbed him for the ransom money. Maybe you should offer a reward for his safe return. Of course, I can’t contribute anything to that fund unless I’m able to find my vault first. And even then, I’m not actually interested in donating anything to that fund.”
Shawna answered, “He probably spirited himself away somewhere. He’s a bit of a dolt, isn’t he? I’m not trying to be mean or anything, but honestly . . .”
Once they’d talked with everyone, they sat staring at each other over the table. “Did any of that give you a clue as to who’s behind all this?”
Steve shrugged. “They all said about what I expected them to. I’d say Shawna and Jerry are the main suspects, but Jerry seems truly upset about Howie being gone.”
Zoey nodded. “He does. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t call the djinni and then lose control of it.”
“Makes sense. But what would his motivation be? Shawna’s is that she wants to get out of here.” Steve adjusted his glasses.
Zoey tapped the tabletop with her fingertips, focusing on them. “I guess they could have worked together, but at this point, it seems like Shawna’s our prime suspect.”
“I agree,” Steve said. “But how did she make him forget everything? And why?”
“It seems like she doesn’t know much about that. She’s as surprised as anyone that he has amnesia or something.” Zoey stood up and paced over to the window. It was a lovely sunny day.
“Maybe it was a mistake. Some kind of spell gone wrong type of thing,” Steve suggested.
“Or maybe someone else did it. Like Jerry. Or Snores could have come upon the djinni while he was sleepwalking and attacked it with a spell that backfired, thinking he was back in his detective days.” Zoey sighed and turned toward Steve. “I guess it doesn’t matter that much at this point who or what made Georgio forget everything. We need to focus on how to fix it. Any ideas?”
Steve shook his head. “No, but I can start doing some research. You have a bunch of books on spell-work here, and I can dig around on the internet too. In the meantime, what are you going to do about Shawna?”
Zoey bit her lip. “I’ve been thinking about that. I guess it’s time to get some backup on that situation. Much as I don’t want to.” She crossed to her desk and ran her fingers over the old-fashioned Rolodex until she found the number she wanted. Picking up the receiver of her desk phone, she punched the numbers in and listened to it ring.
Steve gave her a questioning look.
When a male voice answered, Zoey said, “Hi, is this Anton Belle? It’s Zoey Rivers over at Sunnyside Retired Witches Community. I need you and your sister to come in for a meeting this morning. Your mom doesn’t want to stay here anymore.”
Chapter 17
Her stomac
h felt like it might not keep the sausage and pancakes down as she paced back and forth across her office floor. Pretty much the last thing she wanted to do was talk to Shawna’s kids. When they’d initially toured the retirement home, it had been obvious they both had issues with their mom. The oldest, Anton, looked a lot like Shawna except he was taller and had a thinner face. His younger sister must favor their father. She had auburn hair to her shoulders and sharp, angular features. Her name was Cora, and Zoey didn’t remember her speaking while she was at the complex. After Zoey had shown them the entire place, including the suite that would be Shawna’s, they’d all sat at the round table in Zoey’s office to chat. Except no one had much to say. There were no questions about activities or meals from Anton and Cora. No discussions about visiting hours or the monthly family meal. Instead, Anton had brusquely demanded the paperwork to sign “for Mother’s admittance.”
While she had felt uncomfortable with the family dynamics, Zoey had welcomed Shawna’s presence at the retirement home. She thought the woman was sharp-witted and could add something to the place. She’d seemed particularly interested in the cat, Sophia, who had emerged from wherever she normally hid to scrutinize the newcomers. Shawna had knelt and held out a hand to the kitty, who had sniffed it before sticking both her tail and nose haughtily into the air and stalking off. Shawna had grinned, and Zoey saw a spark of the woman she was under the broodiness. And she was no stranger to dealing with a bit of sadness around the edges when new residents checked in to the complex. After all, it was a new chapter in their lives. Probably one of the last. Who wouldn’t be a tiny bit melancholy?
After Shawna moved in, neither Anton nor Cora ever came back to visit her. In fact, no one had visited the poor lady at all. Though something niggled at her mind about that. Zoey couldn’t put her finger on it, but she had a vague memory of seeing someone visiting with Shawna sometime. She shrugged it off.
At the beginning of her stay, Shawna had been quite mischievous, seeming to do anything she could to incite chaos and try to meddle with the calm of the place. But as time went on, she’d developed more of a dark outlook. Her tricks disappeared, and she simply sat and stared outside, a dark look on her face.
It had worried Zoey.
So, when she’d declared she wanted to leave and all the djinni business had started up, Zoey wasn’t completely surprised. Irritation had replaced much of her worry. Why couldn’t the woman just settle in and behave? Why did she have to create a chaotic situation they all had to endure?
A light knock on her office door brought Zoey out of her reverie. She hurried over to open the door and greeted Anton and Cora brightly. They didn’t return her smile, and only Anton replied with a grunt. Then he said, “What’s this about? I need to get back to work.”
A flash of irritation so strong she had to work to fight it down flashed through Zoey. How could this guy be so callous about an issue with his mom?
“Have a seat,” she invited, and they all sat at the round table. “Your mom isn’t happy here. She’s made me promise to let her go.”
For the first time, emotion was evident on both Anton’s and Cora’s face, but they weren’t the expressions Zoey had hoped for. It looked like they were both angry.
“We pay good money every month for you to keep Mom here,” Cora said.
Zoey raised her eyebrows, surprised to hear Shawna’s daughter speak. Nodding, she said, “Yes, you do. But she doesn’t want to be here. She feels independent still. And, recently, we’ve had an issue. We think your mother summoned a djinni, and he’s been wreaking havoc on the complex. In fact, another of our residents is missing, and we have reason to believe the djinni is responsible.”
Anton waved a hand, scoffing. “That doesn’t mean our mother had anything to do with it. How could she call a djinni anyway? She’d need a djinni to call in the first place. Where would she get one?” He paused and aimed a hard look at her. “Here, probably. If it’s true at all, the djinni bottle must have been here from the beginning. Just sitting somewhere in this complex like a ticking time bomb, waiting for our poor mom to find it and accidentally release a horrible creature.”
“Georgio seems kind of nice, actually,” Zoey mumbled.
Anton narrowed his eyes, clearly not amused. He glanced at his sister. She shrugged and leaned back in her chair. He returned his attention to Zoey. “Why did you call us here? We’re busy people. This seems like one of the things we pay you well to take care of for us.”
“I called you because you’re her next-of-kin. You’re both on the emergency contact list.” Zoey hardened her voice. “And I thought you’d want to know that your mom’s having a hard time.”
Cora jumped up. “I’m not going to listen to any more of this. If Mother is having a hard time, it’s because you aren’t doing your job.”
Nodding, Anton rose too. “Definitely. If she’s bored, talk to that Social Director of yours and figure out something that will keep her occupied. She used to like fiddling with plants, didn’t she, Cora? What kind of flowers were those she had all over the house?”
“Violets,” Cora mumbled. “African violets.”
Anton clapped his hands together. “There you go. She likes African violets.” He turned toward the door, holding out a hand as invitation for his sister to follow him, which she did. Over his shoulder, he said, “That’s all the help you’re going to get from us. Our money pays for you to handle Mother. And if you have a djinni problem, call an exterminator. Leave us to our lives.”
Zoey clenched her fists, not bothering to stand up and see them out.
When he got to the doorway, Anton stopped and let Cora get a few feet down the hallway before he turned back and said in a low voice. “You keep our mother in this building. I don’t care what you have to do, but she isn’t to be let out.”
Zoey didn’t answer, and he walked away without seeing that she stuck out her tongue at his back. “Jerks,” she muttered.
Okay, so Shawna’s kids weren’t going to help with the situation. That was fine. Shawna was one of her charges, and the fact that her family members didn’t seem to want anything to do with her cemented even more for Zoey that she needed to help the woman.
She felt someone approach the doorway and looked up, bracing for more terse words from Anton. She felt only slightly better when she realized Hope Vega was standing there. “Hey,” she said.
“Hey, yourself.” Hope entered the room, looking around. “I figured the herbs were done and came to check on them.”
Zoey got up and crossed to her desk. “Here they are. They sat in the moonlight all night. Oh, and the goofer dust line really did the trick. Two of my residents tried to get the djinni out last night, and it kept him on our property until Steve and I could get out there and collect them.”
Hope smirked, but she didn’t say anything. Zoey was impressed the other woman was able to hold in the gloat that obviously wanted to come spilling out.
The shop owner poked at the herbs with a delicately manicured nail and then sniffed them, wrinkling her nose and making a gagging motion. Then she smiled and held the bowl out to Zoey. “Yep, they’re ready.”
“We think Shawna called the djinni. So, I guess I’ll take this to her room and see if I can get anything to react.” Zoey paused, looking at the bowl in her hands. Her eyes darted up toward Hope’s face and she raised her eyebrows.
Hope pursed her lips and tipped her head to the side. “Would you like my help?”
A vision of Hope giving her almost the exact same look after she’d won the school’s debate tournament flashed into Zoey’s mind. But she swallowed hard, swatted the image away, and smiled as genuinely as she could. “Yes, please. You seem to know more about djinnis than Steve or I do, and you definitely know more about this herbal concoction.”
“Fine.” She lifted a delicate wrist to consult her watch. “I need to be back at my shop by one, so let’s make this quick.”
Nodding, Zoey slipped past the other woman and led
her down the hallway toward the main common room. On the way through, she collected Steve, who had been playing checkers with Travis. Once they were out of earshot of the miserly retiree, he said, “Thanks for rescuing me. He wanted me to bet on that game, and I was having trouble slithering out of it.”
Chuckling, Zoey explained to Hope how Travis claimed to have a dragon’s supply of riches stashed in a vault somewhere, just waiting for him to remember where it was. The occult shop owner looked shocked. “Wow! Maybe the next mystery you should try to solve is that one.”
Steve’s eyebrows shot up, causing his glasses to bounce on the bridge of his nose. “That’s actually not a half-bad idea.”
Zoey rolled her eyes as they arrived at Georgio’s room. She knocked softly, and the door cracked open. Blue skin, black hair, and glittering tattoos peeked through the space. He didn’t say anything, but his face held a questioning look.
“Can you please come with us? We’re going to Shawna’s room to see if we can straighten things out. You know, get your memories back and all that.” For a second, she worried that he might throw some strange spell at her, but instead, he nodded and opened the door wider to step out. A tiny buzzing feeling on Zoey’s wrist reminded her she’d set a ward spell to let her know if the djinni tried to leave.
The motley foursome continued to Shawna’s room. She didn’t answer when Steve knocked twice, so he slowly opened the door and peeked in. Then he pulled the door all the way. “Shawna!” he called. “Are you here?” There was no answer, so they went in and looked around.
Zoey looked at Hope. “What do we do?”
“Look for things that might be his container.” She glanced at the giant blue man and shifted her feet back and forth before dropping her gaze. “You’re quite large up close, aren’t you?”