Whole Latte Magic

by Samantha Silver

  Jean made a non-committal noise in her throat. She wasn’t opening up at all, so I tried again. “Did you hear about what happened to Karen? She was stabbed. Did she ever make it in to see you?”

  Jean looked at me carefully. “I’m afraid I cannot talk about current clients, or in any way confirm or deny that Karen was even a client of mine.”

  I sighed, and Jean looked at me carefully. “What are you, really? A reporter? You’re not married, are you?”

  Great. She had seen straight through me, and I’d barely even done anything. I really was a bad liar.

  “No, I’m not a reporter,” I replied. I decided to go with the truth. After all, lies hadn’t gotten me anywhere so far. “My cousin Leanne and I were the ones who found Karen when she was stabbed. Leanne feels terribly because she hit Karen with her car slightly when Karen ran out into the road to flag us down, and we decided that we want to try and find the person who hurt her, especially with her coming into town. We know that she had an appointment scheduled with you for the day after she was stabbed, but it doesn’t say what about. Her husband Kyle is one of our main suspects, and I was hoping you’d be able to tell us what she was meeting you for.”

  A smile flittered across Jean’s lips, which surprised me. “Well, that’s not the strangest story I’ve ever heard.”

  “Really? It’s not?” I was honestly surprised. Jean took the complete change of face super well considering she had been expecting a client who wanted a divorce from her estranged husband, not a client who was looking for information to solve a stabbing.

  “I’ve been practicing law on this island for nearly thirty years. You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve seen. I’ve had to go to court in front of a judge and argue that it be stated in the divorce agreement that my client’s ex-wife wasn’t allowed to teach their parrot to insult him. I’ve walked in on my client and her ex doing it on the conference room table during a break in depositions. This change in conversation doesn’t even make the top ten list of weird things to happen this year, and it’s not even summer yet.”

  “Well, in that case, can you help me?” I asked.

  “Sorry,” Jean said with a shrug. “Regardless of your reasons, I still can’t tell you anything about Karen’s case. That would be a huge breach of confidentiality.”

  I frowned slightly. “Can you at least tell me if she was here to discuss something about her husband?”

  “I’m afraid I can’t say one way or the other,” Jean said, holding her hands out in apology.

  “Alright, thanks,” I said dejectedly, getting up from my seat.

  “If you ever do find yourself in need of a divorce attorney, please come and see me again,” Jean said as I left. I nodded and made my way back to the waiting room, where I made a thumbs down motion to Leanne as I headed towards her. She frowned as she stood up and made her way towards me.

  “So it didn’t go well?”

  I shook my head. “Wouldn’t tell me anything.”

  “Alright,” Leanne said. “Well, it was worth a shot.”

  The two of us left the law firm and went back out into the street, where we almost immediately ran into Aunt Lucy.

  “Where are the rest of the Floozies?” Leanne asked.

  “Busy with stuff,” Aunt Lucy said. “So I thought I’d find my favorite nieces and see how their investigation into a murder is going.”

  “Badly,” Leanne admitted. “We know Karen had an appointment with Jean, but she won’t tell us anything about it. We want confirmation that it was about a divorce. I’d like to have a look at that computer, but the receptionist is glued to that chair.”

  Aunt Lucy grinned, and I had a bad feeling about what was about to happen.

  “Go back in there and ask her something,” Aunt Lucy said. “I’ll take care of the rest.”

  “Would Kaillie be ok with what you’re about to do?” I asked cautiously.

  “Kaillie is never ok with anything I do,” Aunt Lucy replied. “That doesn’t mean it’s not fun.”

  “Fun wasn’t what I was worried about,” I muttered as Leanne grabbed me and dragged me back towards the law office. We went back inside and the receptionist looked at us once more.

  “Yes?” she asked.

  “Sorry, I was just wondering if you have a business card for Jean,” Leanne said smoothly. “I have an aunt who is looking into getting an attorney, and I wanted to recommend her.”

  “Of course,” the receptionist said, leaning over and grabbing a card from a pile on the desk and handing it to Leanne.

  Just then, there came a rumbling from outside. I spun around just in time to see a sinkhole open up in the middle of the street. A late-model blue sedan was headed towards it, and must not have seen it in time, because it drove right into the hole, falling about three feet with a huge clang.

  Chapter 15

  “My goodness!” the receptionist said, jumping up from her chair and rushing out into the street. I stood, glued to the spot, horrified while Leanne immediately jumped into action. She ran to the receptionist’s desk and began typing away while I eventually regained my senses and followed the receptionist out into the street to see if there was anything I could do to help.

  I stopped short when I saw who was in the car: it was Ariadne Stewart, the cantankerous owner of one of the local gift shops and the woman who had a feud with Aunt Lucy going back decades.

  She had gotten out of the car now and was standing in the bottom of the sinkhole, surrounded by concrete.

  “I know this was you, Lucy!” she shouted out as people tried to get down into the hole to help her out. Her hands were on her hips as she yelled. “I know it was you!”

  “Hold on, Ariadne,” Aunt Lucy called down. “You must have hit your head in that crash. People are coming down to help you. Just wait for them, ok?”

  “You always were catty,” Ariadne replied. “Don’t you know how much this car costs? Of course you don’t; you haven’t worked a day in your life. You always were a lazy piece of crap. Well, let me tell you, this car is worth more than anything you own, and I swear I’m sending you the bill for repairs.”

  “I’m fairly certain no body shop is going to believe that I have the ability to create sinkholes, as much as I consider it a compliment,” Aunt Lucy replied calmly. “I may be clever, but altering the island’s geology is beyond even my own skills.”

  Ariadne seethed, stomping her feet on the ground. “You would resent me for being so successful. It’s not my fault you’ve failed at everything you ever tried. But that’s no reason to take it out on my beautiful new car.”

  “Listen to what you’re saying, Ariadne,” Aunt Lucy replied, shaking her head. “I think we’re going to need an ambulance here. She might have a concussion,” she called out.

  At that point, a couple of men managed to climb down and reach Ariadne.

  “Are you alright, ma’am?” one of them asked, reaching towards her, and she moved her arm away.

  “Of course I’m not alright! My poor car has been completely destroyed!”

  Destroyed was probably a bit of an overreaction. To be honest, it looked in pretty good shape considering it had fallen about three feet into a hole. There was a dent on the front right bumper, and the left panel seemed to have been scratched up by a piece of loose concrete, but apart from that the car looked pretty much fine. I was fairly certain a body shop wouldn’t have too much problem restoring it right back to new.

  “Your car is just a car,” the man replied. “There’s an ambulance on its way to take care of you.”

  “Just a car?” Ariadne screeched. “It’s not just a car. This car is the reward I get for being a job creator in this town. I deserve it for everything I do for people. But I couldn’t expect you to understand. I bet you’re just a laborer or something. People like you, who aren’t actually successful at anything, wouldn’t know real success if it hit you in the face.”

  “You know, maybe you should just wait for the EMTs if you want help gett
ing out of this hole,” the man muttered, taking a step back and heading back out to street level.

  “What, you’re just going to leave an old lady like me stranded here?” Ariadne harrumphed, her hands on her hips.

  “Some life advice: don’t be mean to people trying to help you,” Aunt Lucy called down. “It might go a bit better for you.”

  “Why don’t you just keep your opinions to yourself up there?” Ariadne called back.

  A minute later an ambulance pulled up to the hole, with the crowd of people that had gathered around moving to make space for it to reach. The professionals sprang into action and I realized I’d completely forgotten about Leanne and the receptionist. I looked around to find the receptionist still standing on the edge of the hole, watching in awe as the scene unfolded. I dared to glance inside the office to find Leanne just making her way towards the door. A moment later she sidled up next to me.

  “Have I missed anything fun?”

  “Just Ariadne blaming Aunt Lucy for creating the sinkhole.”

  “Well, she’s not wrong.”

  “That’s true. We’re the only ones who know that, though. Everyone else thinks Ariadne is insane. She then insulted the man trying to help her.”

  “That sounds about right.”

  “Did you find out anything on the computer?”

  Leanne nodded. “Yes. There were a couple of notes in the file on Karen’s appointment. She was definitely seeing Jean about getting a divorce from Kyle, and there was a note about gambling debts.”

  “Gambling debts?” I asked, my eyebrows rising.

  “Yeah. That’s all it said. I guess maybe Kyle was addicted or something, and my guess is that was why Karen wanted to leave him.”

  “Wow,” I said, watching as Ariadne insisted on being loaded up onto the stretcher and taken to the hospital, and telling everyone within earshot that she would be suing Aunt Lucy for doing this to her. “I’m surprised. I would have thought we’d have seen some sort of evidence of it in the financial documents.”

  Leanne shrugged. “My guess is Kyle had his own secret set of accounts. Or maybe he was selling some family jewelry for cash, something like that. The sort of thing that doesn’t show up on ordinary financial documents.”

  “I guess so,” I said. “Well, that makes him our prime suspect as far as I’m concerned.”

  “Agreed,” Leanne replied. “Although I also still want to know what the argument between Karen and Andrew was about.”

  “Right,” I said. “We need to get a look at Kyle’s car as well. They should be back this evening. My guess is he’ll be parked at the hospital.”

  “I think so,” Leanne said. “I know his car. It’s a black truck; he keeps all his work stuff in it. Karen drives a blue Honda.”

  “We should check them both, just to be safe. Neither car was at the house the other day.”

  “That’s true,” Leanne said. “Maybe she left it at the school.”

  The ambulance doors closed just then, with Ariadne being driven off to the hospital, and Aunt Lucy came towards us.

  “Was that enough of a distraction for you?” she asked.

  “That was perfect,” Leanne replied.

  Aunt Lucy cackled. “I was just going to set a tree on fire or something, but then I saw Ariadne driving down the street and I just couldn’t help myself. Of course, she shouldn’t have her license anyway. They should have taken it from her years ago. She’s blind as a bat, she doesn’t look where she’s going, and she has the reflexes of a snail that’s smoked a little too much pot. She was a good thirty, forty feet from the sinkhole when it opened and she still didn’t manage to stop in time, even though she was going ten miles an hour, tops.”

  “She doesn’t know you’re a witch though, right?” I asked. “After all, she was blaming you for what happened.”

  “That’s because blaming others is easier than blaming her own terrible driving,” Aunt Lucy replied. I didn’t point out that it was Aunt Lucy’s fault that the sinkhole opened in the first place. “The only reason she bought that new car is because she drove the old one onto the beach and straight into the water last summer. She claimed someone moved the signs for the parking lot so she thought she was still on the road, and that because it was foggy she didn’t see the water until it was too late.”

  “Of course, it was a perfectly sunny day out,” Leanne said to me. “And no one else saw that fog except for Ariadne. Everyone else knew she was driving into the ocean. She even ran over a kid’s sandcastle on the way there. The only reason she didn’t drown was because the lifeguard on duty ran in and managed to save her.”

  “Wow,” I said. “That’s crazy!”

  “She tried to sue the county for moving the signs, but obviously it didn’t work,” Aunt Lucy said. “I’m sure I’m going to be named in a suit. I guess if any one of us needs a lawyer right now, it’s going to be me. Ah well, it was completely worth it.”

  I laughed as Leanne and I left Aunt Lucy and made our way back down the street.

  Chapter 16

  The two of us decided to walk towards the school. After all, Karen’s car hadn’t turned up. Maybe that was the car she had been in when she was stabbed, but maybe not. We ended up reaching the parking lot around noon, and the sound of children shrieking and laughing as they played outside reached our ears long before the single-story brick building came into view.

  At the front of the building was a small parking lot, and sure enough, in one of the spots about thirty feet from the front door was a blue Civic.

  “That’s got to be it, right?” I asked Leanne, who nodded.

  “Yeah, surely.”

  The two of us made our way up to the car and peeked inside. Sure enough, it was a regular Civic interior. No blood or anything of the sort on the seats. No sign of any stains having been recently cleaned, either. Three booster seats in the back. The fact that the car was still sitting here in the parking lot indicated to me that Karen had left the school without her car.

  “There’s Gary’s green Corolla,” I said, looking at the other cars in the lot. It was parked next to Karen’s Civic. It looked to be about five years old, with a number of bumper stickers on the back: protect our winters, meat is murder, stop drunk driving and love is love. I peered inside to see the seats looking completely normal. It was a tan interior, too, so it wasn’t like it would be possible to hide the blood, and a couple of old stains in the fabric proved that Gary Vanderchuck hadn’t gotten the upholstery changed in the last couple of days, either.

  Between that and the fact that he was apparently at a conference in Seattle the night Karen was stabbed, I was pretty much ready to write him off completely as a suspect.

  “Excuse me,” a voice said a moment later, and I looked up, startled. The man walking towards us was tall, of medium weight, wearing a polo shirt and slacks and walking with the confidence and authority of someone who was used to being in charge. “What are you doing near my car?”

  “Mr. Vanderchuck,” Leanne said, and as soon as he saw my cousin his expression changed.

  “Leanne Stevens,” he replied. “It’s been quite a few years since I’ve seen you, but given as I saw your cousin just the other day, I assume you’re here for the same reason?”

  “More or less,” Leanne confirmed. “We were just checking to see if Karen’s car was still here.”

  “Yes, it’s been here in the lot since I got back,” Gary confirmed. “I heard she’s being brought back to the island this afternoon. I’m so glad she’s going to be alright.”

  “We are too,” I said. “You said you were in Seattle for a conference when she was stabbed?”

  “Yes,” Gary replied. “I can’t believe anyone would do something like this to a woman like Karen. As I told Kaillie and her friend, we might have had disagreements about how to treat the children, but the reality was she cared a lot about her students, and that’s the most important thing.”

  “Who do you think might have done this to her?�
�� I asked, and Gary shrugged.

  “I couldn’t tell you. I can’t believe anyone would have such a grudge against Karen that they would try to kill her.”

  “Do you know how her family life was going?” Leanne asked.

  “We weren’t that close,” Gary replied. “Sorry.”

  “Do you know anything about gambling in town? Anyone involved in it?” Leanne asked, and Gary frowned.

  “Gambling? No, I’ve never heard of any happening here. I mean, I’m sure people do it on the internet and stuff, but that’s all. Why?”

  “No real reason,” Leanne replied. “Just something we heard.”

  “Well, I can’t say I know anything about that.”

  “Alright, thanks,” I said, and Leanne and I left, the bell sounding a few minutes later to let the kids know their lunch break was over and that it was time to head back into class.

  “Did you see the inside of the car? Kaillie and Sara already said it looked fine.”

  “Yeah, and it does,” I confirmed. “It doesn’t look new, either. What about Andrew?”

  “He should be at the recreation center now,” Leanne said. “After all, it’s a weekday. I don’t think we should bother him, though. He seemed pretty nervous about talking the other night, and I think we might get more out of him if we spy on him instead.”

  “Spy on him?” I asked, my eyes widening.

  “That’s right. Do you want to learn how to cast the spell that lets you eavesdrop on people?” Leanne asked with a grin. “I heard Aunt Lucy cast it so many times in my life even I know the incantation for it.”

  “I don’t know,” I said carefully. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to do it.”

  “Well, if it doesn’t work we can always text Aunt Lucy and ask her to do it for us,” Leanne offered. “But consider this your magical lesson for the day.”

  “What if something messes up?” I asked, thinking about what Tina told me. It wasn’t easy to say, but I took a deep breath and continued. “It’s not like you’re going to be able to reverse it. I think right now I’m better off practicing where it can’t hurt me.”