“What now?” I groaned.
“Here, let’s try these. Where’s the pump?” She started shoving boxes out of her way to get further back into the shed.
“We’re never going to get out of here. Bethel is going to come back and there’s going to be no sign of us. It’ll be sad,” I grumbled, still pulling scraps of paper and rags of cloth away from the bike.
Lowe ignored me and continued rummaging ever deeper into the piles. Finally I heard a triumphant noise. “Found the pump!” she called.
“Thank goodness for that. Here I was worried this wasn’t going to work,” I said sarcastically.
“No worries there. It definitely will!” said Lowe, reappearing with a pump that looked just as old as the bike.
“I doubt that still works. Bethel’s own grandmother probably bought them together,” I said.
“No need to be so negative,” said Lowe.
She started to fumble with the pump, while I bent down to unscrew the cap on the valve. Unsurprisingly, the cap was stuck. It took grabbing one of the old rags to use as a grip to unscrew it. Meanwhile, Lowe had stuffed some of the purple berries into the base of the pump.
“Are you sure about this? You think blueberries are going to power me past angry townsfolk?” I asked. I tried to say it in such a way that my opinion of the outcome should be obvious.
“These aren’t blueberries, silly. They’re something that Bethel grows specially. Blasting berries in unicorn dung soil. Nothing else like them in the world.”
“Which is why I’m the only one who’s going to die trying to ride a bike,” I offered.
“Look! If you don’t like this idea, we don’t have to do it!” said Lowe, exasperated.
“What’s my other option?” I asked.
“It’s either this or try and shrink yourself to fit into your crystal ball. Then I could roll the ball past the trailer park. It’s risky. Might work, though.” Lowe did not sound convincing. Or convinced.
I shook my head at the wonders of magic. And the limitations.
“Okay, fine. Let’s try it. What about a helmet?” I asked.
Lowe pointed to the back wall of the shed. Hanging against it was something that looked vaguely like an old riding helmet.
“Just be sure to ask the spiders living inside it if it’s okay to take it,” said Lowe.
“I’ll risk it without a helmet, thanks,” I muttered. I was doing a lot of muttering these last few minutes.
Lowe started pumping the tires, and suddenly the bike was standing upright. It still looked dilapidated, but the tires were so full that now I was worried they might burst.
When we wheeled the bike outside at last, it made a terrible racket.
“If we had time we could oil some of the squeaky parts, but I don’t think we do,” said Lowe.
I guided the bike through the yard to the edge of the road.
Lowe said, “Ready?”
I sighed. “Ready.” I didn’t really have a choice.
Lowe nodded. “Let’s do this thing.”
I got on the bike. It had been years since I’d ridden. “How do I get these blasted tires to work?” I asked.
“You just go,” said Lowe.
“Right. Great. Here I go. Be careful and I’ll see you before dinner,” I promised.
Lowe smiled. I saw a glint in her eye and realized that she was morbidly curious about how I would do. I wished she’d stop it.
“You really need to go study cauldron experiments at the university,” I told her.
She snapped out of her reverie.
“Why?” she said.
“No reason,” I said. Then I pushed off.
I rocketed forward with a loud yell. Out of the corner of my eye I saw some unicorn heads turn sideways. They already thought I was an incompetent idiot, so that was unfortunate. The bike shook under my hands, and I felt as if the rickety contraption was going to shatter into twenty pieces at any second, and I was going to land on the hard, cold ground.
The frigid wind blasted my face as I felt the hot flame at my back. Of all the ridiculous things I had done, this was by far the worst. I was careening down the road at a terrifying clip. Birds scattered as I wobbled from one side of the road to the other. What was the point in getting around the trailer park, I wondered, if I died in the process?
I managed to navigate the turns, but only barely. Then the trailer park came into view. Most of the residents had left the side of the road. In fact, I could see them gathered on the far side of the park, sitting around a fire. Goldie was standing in front of the group and appeared to be speaking to her neighbors.
She was pressing one fist into her other hand, and she froze that way when she saw me. Her eyes gleamed and she swayed a bit and everyone else turned to stare. No one moved as I continued my death-defying ride. When I reached the trolley station not a single person had come after me. I was still half expecting them to run around the corner as I worked feverishly to secure my bike (they had bike locks there).
When I saw the gleaming pearl and orange trolley chugging around the corner, the intensity of my relief was almost embarrassing. The trolley doors had barely had a chance to open before I scurried on. No way was I going to stand around on the trolley platform for another second while Goldie decided whether or not to come after me.
To say that we’d better solve this mystery quickly or rotten tomatoes would be the least of our problems was an understatement.
Chapter Eighteen
The trolley had a couple of many-headed goats on it and a jolly serpent. Otherwise it was empty. I sat near the front and tried not to stare at the goats. As always, though, I wanted to. There were just so few of them and yet so many all at the same time.
I was meeting Jackie and Kelly in Midnight. From there we planned to go on to Greely, where most of the bird feeders were located. There were only about twenty in all, so hopefully we’d finish the project quickly.
Jackie and Kelly met me at the trolley stop in Midnight. Jackie was still wearing work clothes, but carrying a large hamper. Kelly looked like her normal self in an old cardigan, her nails slightly dirty from farm work. What was most surprising was that they were both wearing helmets. On top of the hamper was a third helmet.
“What’s that for?” I asked as I descended the trolley steps. My legs were already feeling slightly wobbly from my mad dash bike ride.
“This way,” said Kelly as I reluctantly took the helmet. How did so many things around this town suddenly involve the possibility of a head injury? Who ever heard of dangerous bird feeders? I was about to find out.
We didn’t have far to go. The trolley station was next to a park, and in the park was the first bird feeder.
I didn’t even know what it was at first. We walked up to an oval globe as tall as I was and hanging from a sturdy branch. The globe was silvery and smooth.
“Why is there a spaceship in this park?” I asked my friends.
They exchanged glances. Then I knew why there was a spaceship in this park.
“Tell me this is a bird feeder?” I said, shocked. I walked up to the smooth pod and just gazed at it, transfixed.
Indeed, said Kelly, it was a bird feeder.
“There are twenty of these?” I gasped. They were huge.
“Yup. And we have to check them all. The good news is that this one looks fine,” said Jackie. “If that can be considered good news.”
Jackie set the hamper down and handed out three smocks. Mine had images of red ducks on it and smelled like roses.
For the record, I should have seen this coming. Hannah would never have given me an easy assignment at a Young Witches meeting. If my name wasn’t Taylor, she wasn’t about to do something nice for me.
Worse, I was a Rhinestone, and Hannah saw the Rhinestone witches as a life problem to be crushed into a fine and probably sparkling powder. I was thinking about actually becoming one. That would show her.
Kelly went to the bird feeder and pressed a hidden release.
When the feeder snapped open, a pungent odor met my nostrils and I nearly gagged. Inside the pod was a gum-like material. Around the other side was a place where the birds could gather to eat.
“What’s the gummy material?” I asked.
“That’s what’s left of their food,” said Jackie. “I’d say we can mark this feeder down as working properly and in need of more feed.”
The feeder were so big it made me wonder about the birds . . .
We were getting a few strange looks from passersby. I thought that was rich. How anything could be strange enough to get a strange look in Twinkleford I had no idea.
“How are there birds as big as this feeder and I’ve never seen them?” I asked.
“They aren’t allowed to fly through town. There are ordinances against that,” Jackie explained. “One was enacted in 2010 and another in 2006.”
“Of course you’d know the exact numbers,” Kelly laughed, then she coughed. “That smell is strong, huh?”
“Why would anyone agree to have one of these on their lawn?” Jackie muttered.
“We can discuss that later. Right now we should get moving. We’re never going to finish at the rate we’re going,” said Kelly.
Jackie agreed, and the three of us put our heads down and got to work. We had checked sixteen of the feeders before we lost steam.
“You keep checking your watch,” said Jackie. I glanced at her guiltily.
“Quinn’s coming for dinner tonight. I just don’t want to be late. I also don’t like leaving Lowe home alone for so long with the trailer park people furious,” I said.
That made Jackie’s ears perk up. We had gone all the way to the Greely borough by now, because that’s where the rest of the feeders were. The conductor of the trolley hadn’t batted an eyelash when we’d gotten onto his vehicle in smocks and helmets, but the vampire sitting in a seat further back had rolled his eyes. Oh, to live in a town without judgment.
At Greely we checked a couple of feeders before we paused to consider stopping for the day.
“Why are the trailer park people angry?” Jackie asked. She had bent down to organize some of our supplies.
I told them about the arrest.
My friends were shocked. “He just came and arrested Lester? Do you think Lester did it? What proof is there? That was fast,” Kelly said, running her questions together in her shock.
“He was there with Joy. I don’t know if Lester did it. I thought it was a Vixen because of the vapor,” I said. “I don’t know about evidence, either. I haven’t talked to Quinn at all since then.”
“Maybe we don’t have to worry anymore,” said Jackie. “Was Lester at the party that night?”
I thought back to the evening and shook my head. “I didn’t see him, but I’m not certain I saw everyone there. He might have come and gone without my noticing.” Even as I said it I didn’t like it. “What about the Vixen vapors?” I asked.
“They don’t necessarily have to be used by a Vixen,” Kelley pointed out. “But also, there are all kinds of magical vapors, so this one could have been one of the non-Vixen-related ones. It might also have been a remnant of something of your grandmother’s. It might not have had anything to do with the murder at all.”
Now that she’d said it, that seemed an obvious possibility. I was frustrated that I hadn’t thought of it myself, long before now.
“Right. I think we have more work to do. Maybe we should finish the last four bird feeders in the morning,” said Jackie.
“Let’s just do them now. If we wait until tomorrow you have to bring the smocks back and everything,” I said.
“True. Okay, Let’s go,” said Jackie.
We finally reached our last feeder site at the home of a wind wizard and his spell casting cat, both of whom were out of town. The wizard had eccentric taste and high shrubs, and in amongst the shrubs we found our last feeder. Just like all the others, this one was in excellent condition. The pilot program was obviously going well.
It was now officially late afternoon, and I needed to get home. I rushed through the paperwork, marking every single one of the feeders as being in perfect condition. In the morning the refill guys would come and make sure the birds had more food. Now that we had gone to all this trouble, I wanted to see the birds in person, but Jackie said that would be very difficult.
We were just finishing up when I turned my head sideways and saw a familiar silhouette disappearing behind a nearby bush. Leaving Jackie and Kelly discussing the best way to turn cauldron dust into gold flakes, I went to snoop. Just as I had suspected, the large man walking along the other side of the hedge was the same scary fellow I had seen with Cynthia Merchant and Mr. Fairview.
Carefully I peered through the bushes, but the branches were so thick that it was hard to see anything on the other side of the hedge. With just a tiny sliver of daylight coming through a gap, I leaned closer to get a better look. Snow had covered the tops of the shrubs and crept down the sides. My nose was cold as it stuck against a branch.
I was amazed at what I saw when I finally got a good look. Cynthia Merchant’s thuggish companion was talking with Mr. Fairview! The lawyer was bundled up in a thick coat, but he was unmistakable as he stood there waving around something he was holding in his hands.
The two men appeared to be going to considerable pains not to be noticed. They were standing behind a massive old tree in the garden next door to the house where we were working. When I looked more closely I saw that the neighboring property wasn’t a house at all, it was a library with a sign that said “Closed today.” I had never thought about Twinkleford having libraries! I wondered if every borough had its own branch. That would be something I might enjoy looking into.
I shook my head. I had to remain focused. The Twinkleford University certainly had a library if I needed one, but I didn’t have time to worry about that right now.
The men were speaking in hushed voices so as not to be overheard by prying ears.
Too bad they couldn’t avoid the prying eyes.
Ha!
Now Mr. Fairview was trying to fish something out of his pocket. But just as he was about to pull it out my vision went a little hazy, as if there was smoke burning the bottom of the bush I was peeking through. I sniffed, but there was no smell. I looked again at Mr. Fairview and his companion, but they were harder to see than ever. Even worse, the sky had suddenly gone dark and the air in front of me was getting thicker, to the point where I couldn’t even see Mr. Fairview’s large head any longer. I stared forward for a few moments more before I gave up. I was just about to rejoin my friends when someone tapped me on the shoulder.
I cried out in surprise and immediately regretted it, fearing that Mr. Fairview was close enough to hear me on the other side of the bush. I spun around to look guiltily at Jackie and Kelly.
“We finished up, in case you were wondering. Looks like you were busy,” Jackie said dryly.
“Sorry,” I said, my guilty feeling strengthening. “I didn’t mean to leave the rest of it to you.”
“We didn’t have much to do. The container and clip are in good working order. Given that all twenty feeders were just fine I’m starting to wonder why Hannah sent us on this assignment in the first place. It feels remarkably like the waste of an afternoon,” said Jackie as we fell into step together.
I would have agreed with her except for what I had just witnessed.
“What were you doing peering through the bushes, anyway?” Jackie asked.
“Oh, um, I thought I saw something, but I think I was mistaken,” I told them. I wasn’t sure how much to reveal about our strange interactions with the lawyer. Lowe had been there both times when I’d seen the thuggish guy, but Jackie and Kelly hadn’t. I didn’t want to alarm them – or give too much away, for that matter.
“Oh, I see,” said Jackie, quickly moving on.
I couldn’t, though. I wanted to know exactly what Mr. Fairview had to do in Greely. And what was so secretive about it.
“Of course not. Neighbors have all kinds of spells in place for secrecy, especially a wizard,” said Kelly. “At least it wasn’t one of those spells that squirts gross liquid in your face. That happened to me once when I was a kid.” She shook her head at the memory.
The three of us had worked hard. Hannah would surely be satisfied with what we had accomplished. Now it was time to return to snooping.
Chapter Nineteen
We didn’t linger. Jackie was worried because she had taken a whole afternoon off work. Kelly always had something to do at her family’s farm, even in the cold months. I wanted to hurry home as well, if for no other reason than that I needed time to get ready for an evening with Quinn.
When I got off the trolley in Mountain Misdirect, I had half a suspicion that there would be trailer folk waiting to pounce on me. But my bike was still locked up on the rack in peace. I unlocked it as fast as I could and raced for home.
My second ride on the magic bike went better than the first, but that wasn’t saying much. I still nearly hit a tree; this whole magic tires thing was dangerous. But I made it in the end and parked the bike out front.
As I threaded a path through the pixies and fairies, I saw thick puffs of smoke coming out of our chimney. At least Lowe had a good fire going, I thought gratefully.
The pixies had made another snow castle and were busy defending it. The fairies were attacking on all sides. Spunk was waiting for me at the front door.
“Are you here to take my coat?” I asked the cat.
He just looked at me quizzically and then trotted alongside me as I headed inside.
For once Lowe wasn’t in the kitchen, but the fire was stoked and the cottage was hot. I glanced at the clock. Since I had only about an hour before Quinn was supposed to arrive, I went straight upstairs, stopping at Lowe’s room on the way to my own.
I found her playing music with her headphones on. She had a paintbrush in her hand and she was making abstract art.
I tapped her on the shoulder.
The Rhinestone Witches Omnibus: Books 1-3 Page 57