Son of a Witch

by K. J. Emrick

  “What? That’s what he is, isn’t he?”

  “Well, yes, but you don’t have to be so insensitive about it.”

  Willow pouted. “I’m just calling a spade a spade.”

  “Mac is a friend of ours. He deserves to be treated with a little respect.”

  Having regained her composure, Kiera raised her hand, calling them back to the matter at hand. “We will respect his privacy as long as he doesn’t harm anyone in town. When the rest of this is settled, then we will all sit down with Mac and discuss his… condition. Perhaps we can help him further.”

  Alan was watching them, turning his head from Willow to Addie to Kiera as the conversation moved. His eyes were keen with interest. “Wow. I really didn’t expect my mother to be living such an… exciting life.”

  Laughing, Willow slid back into the couch cushions. “Stick with us, nephew. You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

  That one word—nephew—caught Addie’s attention. She and Willow were aunts now. Alan was the nephew they never knew they had. It made her feel warm inside, thinking about it. Ever since their parents had died it had been just the three of them, the Kilorian sisters. Now they were four. Alan was their family.

  Unfortunately, there were still questions. Family or not, those questions would have to find answers. Like, where had Alan been all this time, from his accident until now?

  And at the same time, they were all studiously avoiding any mention of Alan’s father. That was a deep dark well that none of the sisters wanted to delve into. The secret of their witchcraft was one thing. Kiera’s ex-lover was another matter entirely.

  “Wow.” Alan seemed to be saying that a lot. “It sounds to me like you’ve eliminated all the suspects but one. Right?”

  Addie was still a little reluctant to talk about these things with Alan in the room, family or not. “Well, possibly. I mean, I only thought that Mac might be involved because he was so late getting to the debate.”

  He nodded thoughtfully. “That makes sense, I guess. I really don’t know. I mean, I’m new to the town. I don’t know what’s out of the ordinary for anybody here. If it’s unusual for this Mac guy to get to things late, then yeah. I guess that makes sense. Unless you were just suspecting anyone who got there late?”

  “Well, of course not.” Willow rolled her eyes as if that was a silly thing to say. “There were other reasons, too. Besides. Mac was the only one late yesterday. Right Addie?”

  “Right. He was…” No. That was wrong. “Actually, no. He wasn’t the only one.”

  All her questions this morning had come up with only a very few clues, but this was one of them. A big one. There had been one other person who she knew was late for the debates yesterday. In fact, she was the whole reason why things started late like they did.

  Irma. She was bringing the question cards for the First Selectman to read for the candidates, and she wasn’t there on time.

  Several things clicked together in Addie’s mind. The puzzle was beginning to make sense, but there were still a few pieces missing. Big pieces.

  Thankfully, she knew how to find them.

  “You know what?” she said with a smile for Alan. “You’re just as smart as your mother. It’s going to be nice having you around.”

  He beamed under her praise, but then his expression bunched up in confusion. “Wait. What did I say?”

  Outside the town hall, Addie and Willow found Lucian Knight already waiting for them. He was all business today in a dark blue suit with a matching tie, under a heavy wool coat. Addie didn’t think it was that cold out, but the temperature had been dropping steadily during the day. Walking back to Stonecrest earlier, she’d actually felt the chill of the wind against her face. Now it was almost six o’clock and the sun was already starting to set.

  “He looks cute in that coat,” Willow said, leaning forward in the passenger seat of Addie’s Jeep. “Not my type, but cute.”

  “Yes,” Addie agreed. “He does, doesn’t he?”

  “He, uh, looks pretty steamed too.”

  “Yes, he does.” Addie sighed. “Doesn’t he?”

  Addie parked at the curb, and shut the engine off. She didn’t get out yet.

  “It’s okay, sis,” Willow promised. “He came. That’s the important thing.”

  “I guess. I was just hoping that reaching out to him like this would be enough to get him to forget his ruffled feathers. I didn’t have to call him. We could have handled this ourselves, like we always do.”

  “Oh, but where’s the fun in that,” Willow teased.

  “You know what I mean,” Addie muttered.

  “I do, but you know how men are. They’ll stay mad over the smallest things, until they need something from you.”

  Addie rolled her eyes at her sister’s advice. Willow’s relationships had all been of the purely carnal variety, even the one she had going now with Gary, the ex-football jock. She certainly wasn’t with the man for his scintillating conversation. They’d all heard the same stories about the same “big games” twenty times already. Addie wasn’t going to put a whole lot of stock in her dating advice. Still, she might not be far wrong in this case.

  She had called Lucian before they left Stonecrest, explaining what she had figured out, or rather what she was guessing to be the truth. He had argued with her, and then listened to her, and then admitted that she could be right. That was when Addie had invited him to be with them when they put their theory to the test.

  Her second call had been to Irma Franklin. If everything went according to plan, she should be here soon, too. Then the fun could begin.

  For now, there was Lucian, looking so cute in that coat.

  “I suppose,” Addie said with a sigh, “I should get out and talk to him.”

  “Duh,” Willow snarked. “Although I suppose you could just sit right here and text message with him. That might be romantic, you know, in a bad rom-com sort of way.”

  “Shut up,” Addie told her reflexively, but there was no heat in the words. She wasn’t mad at Willow. She was mad at herself for having to be who she was, all the time, to the point where it was pushing Lucian away from her.

  More than that, she was angry at Lucian for being such an obstinate example of every member of his gender.

  She watched him for just a heartbeat longer, standing there looking so perfect, and then she opened her door to get out. Regardless of what was going on between the two of them there was still a murderer to catch. She wanted to be ready for Irma when she arrived.

  Willow stayed in the Jeep, which Addie was grateful for. The last thing she needed right now was her sister’s constant sarcastic wit. Without an audience, she could walk right up to Lucian and talk to him for a few minutes without having to drop a Cone of Silence around them.

  She huddled into her hoodie sweater, the purple one with the cute tie-dye cuffs. Winter was definitely going to come early this year if the weather continued like this. The look in Lucian’s eyes wasn’t much warmer.

  “Thanks for calling me,” he said, without a smile. “I suppose you have this whole mystery figured out and us dumb cops will just be following along?”

  Her eyes narrowed, and in the pockets of her hoodie she was clenching her hands into fists. “I didn’t deserve that, Lucian. I am what I am, and you knew that before we started being anything other than two people from neighboring towns.”

  “You’re a witch,” he said.

  “And you’re a cop.” She shrugged. “In my book, that puts us on the same side.”

  She saw that sink in, and she saw the way his eyes softened as they looked into hers. “Addie, you can’t just go around doing whatever you feel is right. Not when there’s a murder to investigate.”

  “Yes,” she insisted, “I can. Because I am a witch, and part of the coven of Shadow Lake, and I protect this town.”

  “So do I,” he insisted.

  “There, you see? We are on the same side.”

  “Addie…”

  �
��Lucian, I called you first before I did anything tonight. Let that count for something, please? Irma’s going to be here any minute. I wanted to settle things between us before that happened, you know? We work great together, and we have this sort of chemistry between us that is simply awesome, but you’re going to have to accept who I am if you and I are going to continue. If not, then we can go back to being just me and you and none of the kissing stuff. That’s the way it is.”

  She put a strong emphasis on the part about “just me and you” so there would be no question about what she meant. Even though she liked all the kissing stuff the rest of it had to be there for her, too. No relationship was worth being made to feel like you didn’t matter.

  Even if the kissing stuff really was nice.

  When she’d been back there sitting in her Jeep, it had come to her just how very much she missed being held in his arms, and kissing those lips. Even now, when he was angry at her and they were carefully arguing with their voices lowered so no one would hear them, she could still feel the way being this close to him sent a thrill through her. He affected her. He was supposed to be in her life.

  Just not if he was going to act like the backside of a donkey. Whatever fate they were supposed to share together could burn to ash as far as she was concerned if he wasn’t going to respect her, and who she was.

  After a long moment he nodded, and shrugged his shoulders in his coat. “I guess I have a bit of a learning curve still. Remember, I only just found out that witches are real. Give me a chance to come up to speed?”

  “Sure,” she told him. Her hands relaxed in her pockets, and she drew a deep breath, relieved beyond words that he didn’t want to break up. They might have some rebuilding to do, but like he said. There was a learning curve. For both of them. “Just stop trying to solve the problems in my town without me, okay?”

  “I’m here, aren’t I?”

  “Only because I called you,” she reminded him.

  “Your tip about the poison panned out, by the way. When my guys were collecting evidence, they found Seth’s coffee mug. They bagged it from the bathroom along with the trash. The lab swabbed what was inside and they found trace amounts of poison there, but the autopsy showed enough of it in his system to choke an elephant. It was only a matter of time before he died, either on the stage or somewhere else.”

  “I think that’s what our killer was counting on,” she said, “and I think I know how to trap them in their own lies, too.”

  “Have you ever considered,” he asked her, “maybe becoming a cop?”

  “I have a job,” she said sweetly. “I own a café.”

  “No, I’m serious. There’s rules of evidence and procedures to these things, and I think you’d be really good at it.”

  Same argument, different verse. “Lucian, this is what I’m talking about. I’m a witch, and I do things my way. You have to accept that about me.”

  He looked like he was about to argue some more, but then he stopped himself. Well, it looked like some men could be taught after all. Would wonders never cease. Lucian Knight was a rare specimen.

  One who was worth fighting for.

  “Hey, look,” he said to her, motioning with a tilt of his head down the street. “There comes Irma now. This is your play, Addie. Arrest her now, or later?”

  Addie watched the short woman coming up the street. She was carrying a large ledger book in her arms, just like Addie had asked her to do.

  “We’re not going to make any arrests just yet,” she said. “Not before we ask a few questions.”

  Chapter 12

  It didn’t take long for Maria Stiles to answer when they knocked on the door to her office.

  “It’s about time,” she grumbled, stepping back to let them in and then taking her place in the seat behind her desk again. “When you called you said you were going to have Detective Knight make an arrest today. I didn’t realize that would mean I had to sit in my office for over two hours waiting for you to find me.”

  Lucian gave Addie an appreciative look. “You really were going to give me the arrest?”

  “Of course,” Addie said, taking a seat on this side of the desk. “I called you, remember?”

  “Yeah. You did.” He leaned his back up against the wall behind him, crossing his arms over his chest. “I guess I just needed to hear it.”

  Addie rolled her eyes. “You’re such a guy.”

  “That’s what you like about me, isn’t it?”

  Addie was enjoying the playful banter, but she could tell that Maria was slowly steaming as the minutes passed. She smiled apologetically at the First Selectman, and leaned forward in her chair. “Sorry, Maria. I know you’re anxious to hear what we found out. So. We called Irma and had her meet us outside. We had a few questions for her.”

  Maria’s eyes went wider. “Irma? Really? I never would have imagined… What did you ask her? What happened? Is she all right? I imagine she’ll want a lawyer. The town will pay for one, of course, if it comes to that.”

  “That’s very generous of you,” Lucian told her. “We don’t have anyone under arrest just yet, though.”

  “What?” Maria looked at each of them in turn, confused. “Why not? You said you had Irma here. What was all that about? What have you been doing?”

  “Asking questions,” Lucian explained. “See, there’s just a few things that don’t add up. So, we figured we would ask Irma for some answers first.”

  Maria flipped a pen into the air and let it drop with a tiny clatter on her desk. “Fine. I suppose waiting a little longer won’t matter at this point. What did she have to say for herself?”

  “We wanted to know why she was late to the debate.” Addie figured that would be as good a place to start as any. “After all, we were accusing Mac McDougal of possibly being involved for the same reason. They weren’t there when the debate began. So of course that brought up the question. If they weren’t here, where were they?”

  Maria’s eyes narrowed as she struggled to keep up. “Mac McDougal? Are you saying that he…?”

  “No,” Addie assured her. “Not at all. He didn’t have anything to do with this,”

  “How do you know?”

  “I know.” That was all Addie was going to say. She wasn’t going to go into specifics. Everyone knew Mac had some sort of medical condition but now that Addie knew the reality he was living with she was going to do everything she could to help keep his secret. Mac deserved a chance to be, well, human.

  Maria drummed her fingers impatiently. “That doesn’t tell me how you know he isn’t involved with this.”

  Addie gave her a smile. “We know that he’s not, because we know who is. You’ll just have to take our word for it.”

  From the corner of her eye, she watched Lucian. She hadn’t told him about Mac, either, and she never would. The evidence and the clues they had gathered all pointed at the murderer. That was good enough for him. Mac wasn’t even on his police radar.

  “All right then,” Maria mused. “What about Irma?”

  “Ah,” Lucian said dramatically, “now we’re getting to it. The key to this mystery is exactly the reason why Irma was late,”

  “Then get on with it, won’t you?”

  Lucian pushed away from the wall, reaching into the inside pocket of his coat. What he took out was a blue six-by-six index card. “Irma was supposed to bring these to you, Maria, before the debate began. She was late getting them to you. That was the delay that made us all wait until well past six o’clock before you called the candidates out on stage.”

  “Which was the moment when Seth died,” Addie pointed out.

  Lucian waved the card back and forth. “Right. Now, I’m thinking that the killer was hoping the poison in Seth’s system would have killed him before he ever made it to the stage. Funny thing about poison, though. You can’t know exactly how long it will take to kill someone. There’s too many factors in play. The person’s weight, how much of the poison they ingest, whether they ea
t or drink anything else with the poison, just a whole bunch of things. Including, of course, how much stress a person is under. That’s a big one. It was just dumb luck that Seth made it to the stage at all, even with the delay.”

  “Well, sure,” Maria seemed even more confused, but she was doing her best not to show it. “I mean, Irma’s become more and more unreliable of late. The thing with those cards was just the last straw. That’s why I had to fire her.”

  Lucian stepped closer, right up to the desk, and when he did he turned the index card around for Maria to see. “Was that the real reason why you fired her? Or was it because of… this?”

  Addie already knew what the card said. It was very satisfying, however, to watch Maria’s reaction to the handprinted words.

  “Are you now, or have you ever been, in an affair with someone who is married?”

  Maria lifted a hand to take the card away, but Lucian quickly flipped it back around and slid it into that inner pocket again. That was a key piece of evidence and they weren’t going to let anyone touch it. Now Addie knew why Maria had stumbled over that first question card as the debate was starting. It had been this question, and it had taken her completely off guard.

  It was a question that Irma had added herself. She’d done a few little last-minute rewrites on the debate questions. That’s why she was late.

  That was also the real reason why she got fired.

  “That question was directed at you,” Addie said. “You, and Seth. Now that Irma isn’t working for you anymore, she had a lot to say. You probably should have thought about that before handing her a pink slip.”

  Maria’s reaction was immediate, and overdone. She threw her hands in the air and rocked back in her seat, with her lips pursed so tight that little lines like cracks formed around her lips. Her eyes looked everywhere, except at them. “That’s preposterous! Irma’s lying! She’s a liar! I mean, yes, Irma flubbed the cards and took forever to get them to me but that’s just… that’s nothing. That question means nothing to me. I have a husband who I love very much and I would never… never… do something like that. What you’re suggesting is just ludicrous, that’s what it is.”