The Witching Hour

by Anina Collins

  Tamara frowned and lowered her head. “I wanted something more serious, and she didn’t.”

  “How did that make you feel?” he asked.

  “It broke my heart. That’s how it made me feel. Then she started dating that man and my heart broke all over again.”

  In a low voice, I said, “Stephen.”

  “Stephen,” she repeated in a tone full of sadness. “He never cared about her. Not like I did. But she wanted something more traditional.”

  “Do you have anyone who can prove where you were Thursday night between eight and ten?”

  She shook her head sadly. “No. All I can say to you is that I would never hurt Amy. We may have fought at times, but that wasn’t because I hated her enough to kill her. It was because I loved her so much and couldn’t stop her from turning away from what we had.”

  “That’s why you called your fellow witches when you found out what had happened, isn’t it? Because you loved her,” I said.

  Tamara nodded sadly but said nothing.

  Alex flipped the cover over on his notepad and slipped it into his pocket. “Thank you, Miss Ridgeway.”

  I watched him turn and walk out of the Third Eye Mind and Body Center, so after giving Tamara a smile, I followed him out to the car, surprised he had stopped the interview when he did. I caught up with him just as he opened his door.

  “Is she still a suspect?”

  He nodded and simply said, “Yes.”

  “I thought you’d have more to ask her.”

  Leaning against the car, he sighed like talking to her had exhausted him. “I didn’t see any point in continuing. She lost someone she loved, and like I told Craig before, it doesn’t take away from what we do to have sympathy for people.”

  “So you believe her when she says she loved Amy and would never hurt her?”

  “I don’t know if she would hurt her, but I do believe her when she says she loved Amy. For now, she stays on the list of suspects. Let’s get back to the station and see what Craig has for us.”

  Chapter Twenty

  “Since we don’t have time for a real lunch, why don’t you grab us some coffee and a few danishes while I bring Craig up to speed on what’s going on? Cheese for me, please.”

  He turned to ask Craig if he wanted one, and unlike earlier, our new partner jumped at the chance for a snack. “Thanks, I’d love one!”

  “Cherry or cheese? I know you don’t want a coffee, heaven forbid,” I teased him.

  “Cherry, please.”

  “Give me five minutes and I’ll be back with the goodies.”

  I headed across Main Street and grabbed the two coffees and three danishes, cheese for Alex and two cherry for Craig and me. As I reached the front doors to the station, Alex came charging out, nearly knocking me over. Since I knew he couldn’t have been that eager to get his black coffee and cheese danish, I wondered what had happened to make him like this as I quickly juggled the cardboard cup holder in my left hand and the paper bag in my right hand so nothing spilled out of its container.

  “What is going on with you?” I exclaimed as he grabbed the coffees from me and practically yanked me into the building.

  “Come with me. I want you to see something Craig just pointed out to me,” Alex said excitedly.

  It wasn’t like him to become agitated like this over any small thing, so his behavior piqued my interest and I hurried with him into his office. Craig sat in one of the chairs in the front of his desk waiting for us, and as we practically ran in to join him, he stared at us with a wide-eyed look of anticipation I imagined resembled what I looked like at that moment.

  “What happened?” he asked in a nearly frantic voice. “What did I say to make you run out like that?”

  Alex deposited the tray with our coffees on his desk, spilling some of mine as he set it in front of him, and sat down hard in his chair. Pointing at a sheet of paper in Craig’s hand, he said, “I want you to tell Poppy what you just told me.”

  Craig drew his eyebrows in, clearly confused by the way Alex was acting, and looked down at the sheet of paper in his hand. “I spoke to the person who worked the ticket booth at the movie theater, Dick Montanga. He said he recognized one of the witches from the tarot readers convention from her handout Poppy gave me. Said she came to The Colonnade the night of the murder and saw the nine o’clock showing of An Affair to Remember. Also said she bought a big bucket of buttered popcorn and a box of those chocolate covered raisin candies.”

  He turned to look at me like I had the answer as to what Alex found so interesting in that report, but I had nothing. Had he been upset because Craig hadn’t mentioned everything she ate when he first told us the details?

  “Okay. So she eats a lot for a two hour movie.” I looked over at Alex and asked, “Are you angry because he didn’t tell us about the raisin candies the other day?”

  “No. I’m not interested at all in what Melody Chamberlain ate at the movies that night. I’m more interested in the person who provided her with an alibi. Recognize the name?” he asked.

  I racked my brain to think of how I would know this Dick Montanga person, but as far as I knew, I’d never met him. “I don’t. Should I?”

  “Remember Richard, the unhappy ticket person at the movies last night?”

  Since Kellen Martin had outnastied him by a mile, I’d all but forgotten about that cranky guy. “Oh, yeah. He was pretty miserable. Okay, so why does that matter?”

  “So you remember what he was doing when we got there?” Alex asked, clearly more interested in Mr. Montanga than I understood, but why?

  I shook my head as I tried to figure out where he was going with all of this. “No. Reading a magazine? I remember he got startled when you tapped on the glass in front of him.”

  Alex nodded. “Close. He was looking at a greeting card he’d gotten from someone. A female someone. You didn’t see it?”

  “No, but good for him. He’s got a girl.”

  I didn’t give one fig about this guy or his girl, but at the moment, my partner looked like I’d succeeded in completely frustrating him the way he stared across the desk at me like I should be saying something different than the words that were coming out of my mouth. I had a feeling if I said one more flippant thing, Alex might throw his hands up and declare I was the world’s worst partner.

  “I’m sorry, but I didn’t see who the card was from, and I’m clearly not getting where you’re taking me. Instead of slow walking this whole thing, what if you just told me what you obviously saw so we all can figure out what you mean?”

  “M. The card was from someone named M.”

  The way he said that sentence made me feel like he thought all the pieces of this puzzle of his would fall into place for me immediately, but unfortunately for all of us, they didn’t. I still had no idea what was going on.

  Craig stared at me almost helplessly while I tried to understand the importance of our interaction with the ticket guy at the movies. Finally, I threw my hands up in frustration.

  “I don’t know what that means. So this person who gave him a card is called M. Maybe he’s dating Judi Dench?”

  Clearly disgusted with my lack of help, Alex narrowed his eyes to angry slits and glared at me. “What? Who’s that?”

  That question I knew the answer to. “She plays M in the Bond movies.”

  Alex leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I usually love your cute comments, Poppy, but I have to admit I’m not crazy about them today.”

  I looked over at Craig and saw worry settle into his eyes. I wasn’t worried about Alex being upset, but I did feel bad that his day was turning out to be pretty rocky. To reassure our new partner, I patted him on the forearm.

  “It’s okay. We do this kind of thing all the time. Some days we aren’t on the same page, but we get there eventually.”

  Mumbling, Alex said, “This is one of those different pages days.”

  Craig cleared his th
roat and tentatively said, “Are you trying to say that Dick Montanga is dating one of the suspects?”

  My eyes flew open as the realization of what my partner had been alluding to finally became clear. Snatching the paper out of Craig’s hand, I scanned it in a hurry to find the three tarot readers’ names and there on the very top they were listed.

  Jerilyn

  Susie

  Melody

  Alex lurched forward and leaned across his desk, pointing at the paper I held in my hand. “Not a suspect until you started to read me what you’d found out again this morning. If Melody Chamberlain’s alibi is actually her boyfriend, which he might be if she’s the person who gave him a card signed Love M, she might have just jumped to the number one spot on our suspect list. I think this is a lead we need to check out immediately.”

  Finally understanding, I became as excited as Alex and jumped to my feet. “So what do we do now? It’s Saturday, so the movies opens early, but Richard or Dick might not be working today since he was working last night.”

  Alex stood too and came around his desk. “Craig, I want you to go to that tarot readers convention in Caston and keep an eye on Melody Chamberlain. Today’s the last day it’s being held, so I’m betting she’ll be there. Poppy and I are going to The Colonnade to find out more about Mr. Montanga. Call me if Melody isn’t there or leaves at any time during the day.”

  Craig nodded and hurried out the door to leave, but I called after him, “Do you still have that pamphlet of hers I gave you? I think her picture is on the back.”

  He spun around and waved the pamphlet in front of him. “I got it! I’ll let you know if she doesn’t show or tries to get away!” he said excitedly as he ran out of the building.

  Alex smiled at his enthusiasm, but I felt bad that I’d let my partner down. “I’m sorry I didn’t get what you were trying to say before. I should have picked up on that so much earlier.”

  “I thought you had seen what I saw on that card last night. I didn’t mean to make you look like you didn’t know what was going on in front of Craig. I’m sorry about that.”

  Tapping him on the arm, I brushed off any idea that I had been bothered by Craig seeing me in the dark. “It’s fine. You don’t have to apologize, Alex. As long as we’re on the same page now is all that’s important.”

  He smiled in that sexy way he usually reserved for when we were in private. “Time to go check out Richard the cranky ticket taker. I hope the theater is open.”

  We parked in front of The Colonnade and saw two female workers going through the front doors, so Alex and I headed inside to look for the manager who might be able to help us find out more about Melody Chamberlain’s alibi. The lobby of the theater looked different during the day than it did at night. The dark blue carpeting beneath our feet appeared far more worn than it had when I glanced at it not twenty-four hours earlier, and the walls covered with framed old movie posters looked quite bland without the lights beneath and above showcasing them. In the light of day, the lobby reminded me more of some hobbyist’s collection kept in their attic than the grand entrance to the old theater.

  Behind the concessions counter stood the two young women we’d seen come through the door a minute ago. We approached them, and the one cleaning the glass on the inside of the candy case looked up as we stopped in front of her.

  “We’re not open yet. Sorry.”

  Pressing his badge to the glass, Alex said, “We need to speak to someone in charge. Is there a manager around?”

  The woman stared up at his badge for a moment and then quickly stood up to point toward a door at the far end of the lobby. “That’s his office. He just got in.”

  Alex and I hurried over to the manager’s door and before he could even lift his hand to knock on it, the door flew open and there stood Richard Montanga, the unhappy ticket man from the night before.

  “You’re quite the jack-of-all-trades, aren’t you?” Alex said as he showed the man his badge.

  One look at it and all the blood drained out of his face until he looked pale like he’d just seen a ghost. He opened his mouth to say something and then shook his head.

  “I don’t know what this is about, but I’ve done nothing wrong.”

  “Mr. Montanga, I’m Officer Alex Montero and this is my partner Poppy McGuire. We need to ask you some questions regarding someone you said you saw in the theater on Thursday night. Her name is Melody Chamberlain, and you told another officer that you saw her that night at the nine o’clock showing of An Affair to Remember.”

  I watched the man as Alex spoke. Even before he mentioned Melody’s name, Richard Montanga’s face froze in an expression of complete and utter fear. I waited for him to claim he knew nothing about seeing her that night, but when Alex finished, he simply averted his gaze to the floor and kept it there.

  “Do you remember this, sir?” Alex asked.

  “I think so. I mean, I do remember a woman paying to see that movie,” he mumbled.

  “Mr. Montanga, do you know Melody Chamberlain on a personal level?” I asked, hoping to get a reaction from him with my blunt question.

  He didn’t give it to me, though, and continued to stare down toward his feet. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  Alex took a step forward, crowding his space. “What she means is is Melody Chamberlain your girlfriend?”

  Richard Montanga continued to focus on the floor, so Alex crowded him even more and barked, “I want an answer! Is she your girlfriend?”

  The man’s head snapped up, and he looked at Alex right in front of him with terror in his eyes. “I…I didn’t mean any harm. She told me to say she was here seeing a movie if anyone came around asking. I didn’t ask why. It didn’t seem like a big deal.”

  Glaring down at him, Alex said, “Well, sir, it is a big deal. What you’re saying is Melody Chamberlain wasn’t here Thursday night for the nine o’clock movie?”

  The manager shook his head. “No. I didn’t see her until close to midnight after the last movie let out and we met at my apartment.”

  “You’ll be expected to testify to that. For now, do you have anything else you want to tell us about when you saw her that night? Was she nervous or upset about anything?”

  I waited with bated breath to hear his answer to Alex’s question, but Richard Montanga simply stammered out that he just remembered her being happy to see him. He didn’t seem able to recall anything else, so we left him looking shattered outside his office and headed toward the car.

  Alex called Craig on our way there. “Is she there?”

  I heard Craig answer, “Yeah, she’s reading someone’s cards.”

  “Okay. Don’t let her leave. We’re on our way.”

  Alex’s phone rang almost as soon as he finished speaking to Craig, but this time it was Derek calling. I watched confusion settle into his face for a moment before he said, “Okay, Chief. Thanks.”

  “What was that about?” I asked, curious as to what Derek could have said to him to make him look so nonplussed.

  “The lab got a fingerprint that wasn’t Amy’s off that malachite stone found at the scene. It belongs to someone named Morgan Tillerson. Derek says this woman has a rap sheet from when she lived in Ohio. She got caught passing bad checks and stealing credit cards.”

  Now I was the one who was confused. “So? Do we know where this Morgan Tillerson was the night Amy was murdered? Is she another suspect?”

  Alex stopped walking and shook his head. “Not another suspect. Morgan Tillerson goes by a different name. Melody Chamberlain.”

  I opened my mouth to speak, but the words didn’t come out as I sorted through what he was telling me. Finally, I said, “So Melody is really Morgan, but we still have no reason to believe either one of them disliked Amy, so what reason would she have to kill her?”

  Shrugging, Alex leaned against his side of the car. “I don’t know, but without an alibi and her being Morgan, she’s at least as good as Tamara, who has no alibi, and better than
Kellen since the phone records showed his mother was right about her call to him. The fact that Melody lied to us and had Richard in there lie so she’d have an alibi makes her my number one suspect. I guess we’ll see what she has to say.”

  So Melody had no alibi and could be our murderer, but the question remained. Why would she kill Amy Perkins?

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The midday heat pressed down on me as we walked into the building where the tarot readers convention was still going on for another few hours. The weatherman had promised a break in the heat wave by today, but if he thought this was a reprieve, he and I had vastly different definitions of what cooler meant.

  As usual, Alex looked fresh and crisply dressed, as if the scorching temperatures and humidity didn’t even affect him. While I wiped the sweat from my brow that had formed there in the matter of less than a minute that it took to get from the car to the building, I looked at him with part admiration and part resentment, wishing I could look that cool in these temperatures and as I was about to solve a big case.

  “You ready?” he asked with a wink as he held open the door to Jacob’s Hall for me to walk in.

  “I’m ready for air conditioning. As for this Melody and Morgan thing, I have to say I’m still a little confused and more than a little worried,” I replied as we walked into the main hall where all the tarot readers’ booths stood. “She’s a witch, so who knows what kind of hocus pocus she could whip up. What if she turns one of us into a toad?”

  He stopped and looked at me like I’d said something amusing. Laughing, he shook his head. “That’s one of the many reasons I love you, Poppy. You make me see the lighter side of things. I wouldn’t worry about her turning anyone into a toad. I don’t believe in any of that anyway, so stick with me and you’ll be fine.”

  Whether or not he believed in witchcraft didn’t matter. If she was backed into a corner, who knew what Melody would do?

  Craig met us halfway between the door and her booth, looking more bored than anything else. “She’s just been reading cards and drinking diet soda like all the other tarot readers since I got here.”