Break Ups and Break-Ins

by Raven Snow

  They had their grand opening this weekend, Rowen remembered suddenly. They had said they would be there to cover it, but that was before all the chaos with Margo. Rowen groaned. “I didn’t think we were going to have to do actual work today.”

  Rose sighed. “I forgot about them.”

  Inside, Blanche was standing in a semicircle with Willow and Peony. She had her hands shoved in the pockets of a sleek leather jacket. They were laughing while they talked. That was a good sign.

  Peony was the first to notice Rowen and Rose. “Hey.” She raised her hand in a wave. “That was quick.”

  “Did you bring us anything?” asked Willow, eying Rowen’s cup of coffee.

  “Didn’t think about it,” said Rowen.

  “Sorry,” said Rose. “We were in a hurry.”

  “And we’re still, like, half asleep,” added Rowen.

  Willow groaned. “Maybe I’ll head out and get something for myself then.”

  “Oh, can you pick me up a latte?” asked Peony.

  “Are you here about your grand opening?” Rose focused her attention on Blanche, changing the subject. “I’m sorry I haven’t gotten back to you about that. There’s been a lot going on.”

  Blanche shrugged. “It’s fine.”

  “It’s really not. I remember seeing an e-mail from you in my inbox. I never did reply to it. That was unprofessional of me.”

  Blanche shrugged again. She did not strike Rowen as someone who cared much about the family business. “It’s cool. Dad just wanted me to stop by on my way in, so… Here I am.”

  “Well, I’m sorry it came to this. You shouldn’t have had to drop in. We should have been more communicative.”

  “He just wanted to know if you were coming to the thing. We’re not sure if Channel 2 is coming by anymore. I guess there’s a lot of stuff going on that’s way bigger than a stupid ice cream place.”

  “It’s still news,” said Rose, smiling kindly. “Plenty of folks are interested in that sort of thing around here. Besides, it’s nice to have a spot of good news in the middle of all this… chaos.”

  “I guess.”

  Rose looked to the faces around the room. “We can probably send a couple of people.” She paused. “No, we definitely can. Tell your dad we’ll be there.”

  “Sure.” Blanche pulled her hands from her pockets and gave Willow and Peony a wave as she turned and headed for the door. “Bye guys.”

  “Bye,” said Peony while Willow waved back. “Don’t be a stranger.”

  “Making friends?” asked Rowen once the door was closed and Blanche was partway down the sidewalk.

  “She seems cool,” said Peony.

  “Sort of,” said Willow. “She reminds me of a young Margo.”

  Rowen snorted. “So, stuck up then.” She could definitely see that. The nice clothes, the bleached hair, the blasé attitude. “Do you seriously think we have time to cover the opening of an ice cream shop?” She asked that last part to Rose. She had been surprised by her response. It wouldn’t have been the one she would have given.

  Rose shrugged and began walking towards her office, coffee cup in hand. “I feel bad that I didn’t return the e-mail they sent me. Besides, it’s news. We can’t shut everything down just because of what’s going on.”

  “Really? I’m not sure anyone would judge us for it.” Rowen followed Rose to her office. She could hear Willow and Peony behind her.

  “I would,” Rose said calmly. She went around her desk and sat down. “It’ll be good to have some normalcy.”

  “Who’s gonna go?” asked Willow.

  “I don’t want to go,” said Peony.

  Rose rolled her eyes. “We’ll decide all of that later. Has anything happened this morning?”

  Peony and Willow exchanged a look. “Someone from Channel 2 called.”

  “Julia?” asked Rowen.

  Peony shook her head. “Naw. It was someone who works for her. I forget his name. I think he’s like a secretary or something.”

  “And?” prompted Rose. Details like that were unimportant.

  “And they wanted to schedule another meeting.” Willow went to sit on the edge of the desk, ignoring the perfectly good set of chairs a couple of feet away. “Julia does, I mean. She wants to talk to Margo and Rowen too, I think.”

  “And Eric, probably,” added Peony.

  Willow nodded. “Yeah, probably him too.”

  “She couldn’t call us herself?” Rose turned on her computer monitor. “She seemed so concerned last time.”

  “The guy said that she was on assignment or something,” said Willow. “I had the news on before that girl came in. She’s doing a story about the drug bust. They’re interviewing people at the school today. They got permission to talk to some of the students.”

  Rose sighed. Rowen could read annoyance on her face. She was usually a pretty calm person, but she still got annoyed. It was usually a little subtler than it was with most people. She bit her bottom lip. “We should be doing more with that story.”

  “Instead of… like not doing anything at all?” Peony asked slowly.

  Rose sighed again, louder and longer this time. “Yeah. That.”

  “It’s okay.” Rowen wasn’t sure how many times she could say that. “It’s only been a few days. There’s a lot going on.”

  “Exactly,” said Rose. “There’s a lot going on.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “I know, but it doesn’t change the facts.” Rose turned on her monitor and waited for her computer to boot up. “As soon as Margo gets here, we need to make a plan of attack for the day. Ben and Sutton are doing their jobs. We need to make sure that we do ours.”

  ***

  Margo didn’t take long to arrive. It probably helped that Sutton had dropped her off on his way to work. She didn’t have time to stall. That said, she did look surprisingly put together. Her makeup had been carefully applied and her hair was styled. Rowen realized with a start that she must have forced someone to go back to the house and pick up some of her things. She very much doubted Margo had gone and done that herself. Poor Sutton. He didn’t know what he was getting himself into.

  “I’m doing an interview with Julia at two.” Those were the first words out of Margo’s mouth as she entered with her coffee cup.

  Rose poked her head out from the kitchen. “Oh, so she called you personally?”

  “Of course.” Margo removed her designer shades. “We’re friends. She was concerned.”

  “She didn’t call me,” Rowen muttered.

  “Well, she wants to do another interview and I said yes.”

  “You didn’t think that maybe you should ask us?” Rose didn’t look angry, just disappointed.

  “Is that a problem?”

  “You haven’t even done an interview for us yet.”

  “Well, it’s still early.” Margo motioned toward the clock on the wall. “If you want to sit down and talk, let’s talk.”

  Rose left the kitchen and the coffee that was brewing there. Today was a day where a lot of caffeine was necessary. She led the way to her office, motioning Margo along.

  Rowen didn’t need to be asked. She grabbed her laptop and entered the office as well. The interview was stuff she already knew. She took notes and recorded the whole thing for good measure. Some of the questions were aimed at her, and she answered them to the best of her ability. The police hadn’t instructed her to leave anything out. They knew her line of work. They would have said something if there was an aspect of all this that needed to be kept secret.

  “That should be good,” Rose said, just a little under an hour later. “I can do something with all that.”

  “Are you going to write it now?” Rowen had assumed they had more important things to talk about, but she could see Rose already opening up a blank writing document.

  Rose looked up with a frown and a raised eyebrow. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I? You heard Margo, her interview is at two. I need to get
this up before Channel 2 does their story.”

  Rowen couldn’t say that she was too worried about getting a scoop on Channel 2, not with everything that’s going on. “So, what do we do about this?”

  “About what?” asked Rowen.

  “About the… you know. About the investigation?”

  “The police are taking care of that.” Rose was sticking to what she had said earlier, it seemed. “We’ll know more when they know more.”

  “We should do something,” Rowen insisted.

  “If you have any ideas, I’m open to them.” Rose met Rowen’s gaze. “Seriously, if you know where to start, please do. As soon as you have a lead, you’re welcome to drop everything and go investigate it.”

  Rowen took a deep breath. She wanted to argue, but Rose was right. She had no actual leads. Still, she felt like she needed to do something.

  Rose must have read her expression. “Maybe we’ll figure out something tonight,” offered Rose.

  Margo raised an eyebrow. “What’s tonight?”

  “Oh, that’s right.” Rowen realized they hadn’t told Margo about their aunt’s plans. “We’re doing a ritual tonight. We’re going to try to use magic to figure out what’s going on.”

  “Magic?” Margo inclined her head and leaned back in her chair, thoughtful. “What kind of magic?”

  “We don’t know yet,” said Rowen.

  “They’re going to figure that out before tonight,” Rose added quickly. “They’re good at this. It’s their thing. They’ll figure something out.”

  Margo didn’t say anything for a moment. Finally, she raised her shoulders in a shrug. “Sure, I think I want to be there for that.”

  Rowen snorted. “It’s cute that you think you have a choice.” If Margo didn’t come by choice, Rowen had no doubt her aunts would drag her there physically.

  ***

  The day was surprisingly normal given all that had happened last night and the night before that. There was a lot of work to be done, and Rowen made sure that they did it. As frustrating as it was to be forced to focus on something else, it was also kind of a nice distraction. Even Margo decided to pitch in. She didn’t write or edit any articles, but she did moderate comments on the blog. That was something. It was certainly more than Rowen had expected her to do with her day.

  It was nearly time for Julia’s interview when Rowen’s cell phone rang. She had to hurry over to her desk. She was busy moving some furniture around so that there would be room for the camera. Margo was trying to move the most photogenic potted plant and a bookshelf into where she assumed the frame would be. It was important to her that the office look presentable. Rowen heard some books tumbling to the floor as she answered the phone. “Hello?” It was Ben. She had seen his name on the screen.

  “Hey. Are you alone right now?” Ben’s voice was serious, more serious than she had been prepared for. She tried not to let her surprise show on her face as she looked around the room. Peony and Margo were there but neither of them were looking at her. “One second.” Rowen walked to the kitchen and towards the supply closet. She opened a cabinet and took out a mug, making it sound like she was after another cup of coffee just in case someone wondered what she was doing. No one spared her a second glance. “What’s up?”

  “You’re alone?”

  “Yeah.” She was more or less alone. He was making her nervous. Why wouldn’t he call Rose with something serious like this? “What’s up?”

  “Are you busy right now?”

  “I mean… I’m at work.” Rowen glanced around at her surroundings, like she needed to confirm that for herself. “But, if you found something out, I’m not doing anything super important. Did you find something? What did you find?”

  “I’m at your house right now. Do you think you could come join me here?”

  “At my house? Yeah, I… What is it? Can you tell me over the phone?”

  “Hey, Rowen!” Margo called from a room over. “Where did you go? I still need help moving this chair!”

  “Are you sure you’re alone?” asked Ben.

  Rowen winced. “I’ll see if I can slip away and head over there… Are you sure you didn’t mean to call Rose?”

  “I know who I called. I’ll see you soon.” With that, he hung up.

  Going to Rose and asking to be excused for an hour or two was a little awkward. “Can’t it wait?” she asked. “Julia is about to get here. She’s going to want to talk to you too.”

  “Well, she didn’t ask me to stay. If she wanted me to stay, she could have called me instead of just Margo.”

  “You know she’ll want to talk to you, though.” Rose was twirling a pen in her fingers as she frowned at her cousin. “Can this wait?”

  “I really don’t think it can. I need to get to the house.”

  “The house?”

  “My house.”

  “I got that. Why?”

  “Because… There’s something wrong with the plumbing.” Rowen cast a quick glance over her shoulder to confirm that Margo wasn’t there. Margo wouldn’t believe her lies for a second.

  Rose didn’t believe them either, it seemed. “What’s wrong with the plumbing?” Rose asked the question wearily, like she had already decided that whatever answer Rowen was about to provide her with would be unimpressive.

  She was right. “I don’t know… Ben didn’t say. He just said that he needed me down there.”

  “So you were on the phone with him just a little while ago? I can call him back, ask him myself.”

  Rowen caved. “Look, it’s about the stuff with Margo. Don’t say anything. I’m not sure I was even supposed to mention it to you.”

  Rose sighed again but didn’t pry anymore. “He was always uncomfortable telling me about this stuff. It’s gotten really bad ever since we married. I don’t see how getting you involved isn’t just as questionable.”

  Rowen shrugged. She really couldn’t guess at what was going on in his head. “There’s a degree of separation there, I guess. Can I go or not?”

  “Yeah.” Rose motioned her toward the door. “It’s probably important if he called you about it. I don’t know how I’m going to explain this to Julia. Don’t say anything to Margo on your way out. I never realized what a crappy liar you were.”

  “I’m going to have to say something to her.”

  “Tell her… I don’t know. That your dog got loose or something.”

  Rowen took a moment to practice that lie in her head. “Got it.” She nodded and headed out of the office.

  “Be careful,” Rose called after her, keeping her voice down.

  Rowen didn’t think she would need to be. She doubted Ben would call her into any sort of danger. Of course, that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be headed into it afterward if he had some sort of lead for her. “I will,” she swore anyway. She began to cross toward the door.

  “Rowen,” snapped Margo as she passed. “Come on. Help me move this chair.”

  “Can’t,” Rowen said, speaking in a rush. “Gotta go home.”

  “Home?” repeated Margo. From the corner of her eye, Rowen saw her straighten up. “You can’t go home, not without someone with you.”

  “Not home-home,” Rowen said quickly. How had she already screwed this up? “I have to go to Rose’s. Eric called. Apparently, Chester got out.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah, so I’m kind of in a rush.”

  “Chester got out? Oh no!” Peony straightened up as well, sounding genuinely alarmed. “Poor Chester! Do you need me to come with you?”

  This was falling apart. She should have picked an easier lie. “No, it’s probably fine. He’s a good boy. I’m sure he’ll come if we’re both out there calling him. You stay here and help Margo.”

  “Okay,” Peony said slowly.

  Rowen was out the door before anyone had a chance to ask more questions. She was tempted to call Ben back while she was headed down the road, but she resisted that urge. It wouldn’t take long to get home. She j
ust needed to remember to call Eric and tell him about the lie she had just told. Things had the potential to really go sideways if he didn’t know to back her up.

  There was some yellow caution tape around Rowen’s yard but only a couple of cop cars out front. Rowen saw Ben standing around the side of the house with another officer. He raised his hand in a small wave as she parked on the curb. He said something to the officer beside him, and the man headed inside. That was a relief. Rowen wanted to talk to Ben alone.

  Her heart was in her throat as she got out of the car and closed the distance between them. “Well, I’m here,” she said, stating the obvious. “Why are we having a super-secret meeting?”

  Ben threw a look over his shoulder, taking in their surroundings as if to make sure the remaining officer really had gone inside. “I’m sorry about making you come all this way. It’s just that you came to me privately, so I thought it best that this remain between us before any… official action is taken.”

  “About what?”

  “You remember what you said to me about Jasper?”

  Rowen’s pulse quickened. “I didn’t say much of anything. I didn’t have anything to go on. It was just a precaution.” She almost didn’t want to prompt him to go on. “Why?”

  “I was looking into it.” Ben folded his arms across his chest and leaned back against the siding of the house. “I didn’t go very deep. Mostly, I just checked with the hotel where he was staying. It seems that he got in very late the night all of you were attacked.”

  “What?”

  “No one could say what time he left, but there’s a teenager who works the front desk at night.”

  Rowen nodded. She wasn’t allowed at the hotel. She had busted in there more than once for work-related reasons. She did, however, remember the bored kid who worked there in case someone checked in late.

  “He remembered Jasper getting in well after midnight.”

  “Okay,” Rowen said slowly. “He was with Margo, though. He came when Rose called him about what happened. That’s a normal time for him to be getting back to the hotel, right?”