by M. J. Caan
“What are you doing skulking about up here?” asked Fionna.
“I heard about the death of the witch. I knew who she was.” He gave Torie a sorrowful look. “I wanted to make sure you were okay, and maybe to pay my respects.”
Torie flinched at his openness. He seemed genuinely upset at her loss; and that made her suspicious.
“You seem almost…guilty,” Torie said. “Why would that be?”
“And where’s your friend?” said Jasmin, looking around.
“Oh, he…he’s not here. And he’s not really my friend.”
“Oh, bullshit on that. You’re practically inseparable. As a matter of fact, I’ve never seen the two of you apart,” Taylor said.
“He’s my alpha…I don’t have a choice,” said Elric.
“What do you know about what’s going on around here?” asked Torie.
“Only what I’ve heard from Max. He said something is hunting shifters in this area.”
“And that doesn’t scare you?” said Fionna.
Elric huffed. “Hardly. There’s not much out there that can hurt a wolf.” He gave Torie a nervous, sideways glance.
“Why do you keep looking at her?” asked Taylor.
“Her magic,” said the wolf, “I can smell it on her.” He then glanced at Jasmin. “Yours too. Like I said, there isn’t much that can hurt us…except witches really.”
That caught their attention. It was like being a child and learning that a night-light was all it took to keep away the boogey man.
“Why are you up here?” said Jasmin. “I hear that Trinity Cove is more your speed.”
Elric shuffled his feet. “It was. But things got a little rough down there; even for us. There are some powerful witches running things in that town. And the biggest one of all isn’t too keen on wolves; even though rumor has it she keeps one as a pet.”
Jasmin looked at Torie, her eyes lighting up with an idea. “Elric, if we ask you something, will you answer us truthfully?”
He nodded, urging her to continue.
“Where were you and Max the morning Alva was killed?”
He took a step back, gray eyes narrowing. “You think we did this?”
“We don’t know what to think,” said Torie hastily. She took a step toward the wolf, showing him that she wasn’t afraid. “But we need to find out who killed my mother and our friend.”
“Well it wasn’t us,” he said. “You know, Max said at some point we would be blamed, but I promise you we had nothing to do with it.”
Jasmin nodded. “He’s telling the truth.”
The certainty of her words made Elric flinch. “Did you just use magic on me?”
“A harmless revelation spell. It would have alerted me if you were lying.”
“Wait, you can do that?” said Taylor. “And you never told us? Geez, that would have saved me from going on a lot of dates that ended badly.”
“You shouldn’t be dating at your age anyway,” said Fionna, teasingly.
“Maybe not all of us are ready to settle down and pull the dirt over our bodies,” she said. Immediately she realized just how much of her foot was in her mouth and gave an ‘I’m sorry’ look to Torie.
“One of these days I’m really going to buy you that muzzle,” said Jasmin.
“It’s okay,” said Torie. The more time she spent with these women, the more she realized it was impossible to be upset with them. They had nothing but the best intentions for her, and coming from her previous life, that was something she truly appreciated. “But I’m not sure standing around out here is getting us anywhere.”
They agreed and headed back to the house, Torie leading the way, Elric bringing up the rear.
“Where do you think you’re going?” said Jasmin, turning to the wolf.
“I just thought maybe…” he stammered.
“It’s okay, Jasmin,” Torie said. “Let him come in.” She stopped at the threshold, looking back at Elric. “So, do I have to invite you in or something?”
Jasmin rolled her eyes. “He’s not a vampire, Torie.”
“Yeah, and that doesn’t work with them anyway,” Elric said, “they can pretty much go wherever they want.”
All the women turned to look at him with blank faces.
“Well, that’s a pleasant thought,” said Jasmin under her breath. “The more you know I guess.”
“So, what now?” asked Taylor. “If a wolf isn’t doing this, then we are pretty much back at square one.”
“Well, maybe not,” said Jasmin. “Maybe we are looking too far ahead. Trying to figure out who the killer is without having enough to go on.”
“Go on,” said Torie as she put on a kettle of water.
“Well, maybe we need to look at why the killer changed their M.O.”
“M.O? What’s that?” asked Taylor.
“Method of Operation,” said Fionna. “What? I watch Law and Order…it’s on every channel, you know.”
“Yes,” continued Jasmin. “Up until this point, the killer has exclusively gone after shifters, right?”
There was murmured agreement just as the kettle began to squee loudly. Torie took out multiple cups and a selection of teas. Each of the women picked out the ones they wanted and added it to their cup.
“What about you?” said Torie, glancing at Elric. “What kind would you like?”
He seemed confused and made his way to the island. “What is it?”
“It’s tea,” Torie said. “Have you never had it before?”
Elric shook his head, his slightly too long salt and pepper hair catching the light streaming through the windows.
“You look like an Earl Grey kind of guy,” said Torie, plopping a bag into the cup and adding the water. “Give it a few minutes to steep then give it a sip.” She turned back to Jasmin, motioning for her to continue.
“So, if the killer is only interested in shifters, why kill Alva? She’s a witch. And then why kill Ellie? She was human.”
“Well, maybe the killer did it to throw everyone off their trail?” offered Fionna.
“But that would mean that we were on their trail to begin with,” said Jasmin, “and we weren’t anywhere close to learning who they were.”
“Maybe they knew something that scared them,” said Elric as he slowly took his first sip of tea. His gray eyes lit up and he smiled as the warm elixir hit his throat. “Okay, this is awesome.”
“What did you say?” said Jasmin.
“I said this is awesome.”
“No, before that.”
“Oh, maybe the killer changed his pattern to protect himself. You might not have been close, but maybe Torie’s mom, or the other lady you mentioned, were.”
No one said anything as they all regarded his words in silence.
“My mother said she doesn't remember anything,” said Torie. “And as far as I know, Ellie isn’t floating around here for us to ask her.” She hesitated before turning to Jasmin. “Is she? Hanging around here I mean?”
Jasmin shrugged. “No idea. But that would be highly unlikely. She would have no personal attachment to this place; nothing to anchor her.”
“What was it she was doing the night before?” asked Torie, snapping her fingers as she paced the kitchen to jog her memory.
“She was taking Eddie’s lab samples to Trinity to get them analyzed,” said Fionna. “She always thought we were dealing with some type of poison or something like that. She thought that was how the killer was incapacitating their victims.”
“That’s right,” said Jasmin. Suddenly, Elric’s hypothesis held a lot more weight. “If she found something, something that could be related to the killer, or gave her a clue…”
“Then she would be someone to take out,” said Torie. “But why my mother? She didn’t know anything.”
“Maybe she wasn’t the target,” said Taylor. “Maybe she just happened to be here, and the killer somehow knew this was where Ellie would show up.”
“Good thinking,”
said Jasmin.
“Really?” said Taylor, her features lifting at the compliment.
“Yes, really. See, this is why our collective brainpower is needed for this. Now, we need to figure out what Ellie could have known.”
“Hey, I’m sorry, but…can I have some more?” said Elric. He had turned up his entire cup and drained it.
“Umm, sure,” said Torie, “though you might want to take it easy at first.” She laughed, happy that someone was enjoying this space where her mother had so recently passed away. The thought made her sad again, but then she remembered her mother wasn’t completely gone. That would take a lot of getting used to, but it also made her wonder just where her mother was.
“Mom?” she called out, looking around. “Where are you?”
Elric stood as still as a board, his spine ramrod straight as he watched the women look about the house. What was happening here? Did they not realize that the old witch was gone?
“Hey, what are you doing?” he asked. “She’s…you know, gone.” He wasn’t sure what to say. Maybe this was a human thing. Wolves did not mourn their dead, and they certainly didn’t call out for them after the fact.
“She’s a ghost now,” said Taylor. Her matter-of-fact tone made the hair on the back of Elric’s neck stand up. “You’re looking like you see one now.”
The wolf narrowed his eyes. “I have seen my fair share of ghosts, or haints, as the wolves call them, when I was in Trinity. They are strange, ephemeral creatures that floated about in the woods, wailing in longing, always searching it seemed, but no one knew what they were searching for. As a young pup they used to freak me out; and even now, as a full-grown shifter, I still shiver at the mention of them.”
He joined the women in looking around at thin air, even though he had no idea what he was looking for.
“Is she…in the house?” he asked.
“Well of course she is,” said Torie. “Where else would she be?”
Elric had no answer for that. Truthfully, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
Torie started to panic. “What if she has moved on? She said she had no idea how long she was here. I mean, I barely got to see her as it was.”
Before she could work herself into a full-blown panic, she heard the now familiar soft tones of her mother.
“What is all this carrying-on about?” she asked, materializing in front of Torie.
“Mom, I thought…I don’t know what I thought. But you’re still here.”
“I am. For now, it seems.”
“Alva,” said Jasmin, “where were you?”
“I don’t really know. You left the house, headed for the woods, and I knew I couldn’t follow. Once you left the house and I was here alone, I just…went back.”
“Back? To where?” Torie asked.
“I don’t know. I just wasn’t here anymore. Then I heard you calling for me and I…well, here I am.” She turned around, taking notice of everyone around her, before locking eyes on Elric. “A wolf. As I live and breathe, a werewolf standing here in my own home.”
Elric fought the urge to flee out the back door, forcing himself to take a step forward. He bowed at the ghost, nodding his head in deep respect. “Ma’am, I’m Elric, and it’s nice to meet you.”
Alva nodded in return. “And you as well.” She turned her attention back to the women. “Well, what did you find up there?”
“Not much,” said Taylor, “just this stray.”
“But we might have a plan for our next step,” said Jasmin. “Alva, I know that you don’t remember who did this to you, but I need you to think hard about this. Did you tell anyone that Ellie was coming here to check on Eddie?”
Alva seemed to pause, the light of her ghostly form seeming to pulse slowly as she considered her old friend’s words.
“I…I don’t know. I think…maybe, but I don’t know. I feel like I should know, but it’s just not there.”
“That’s okay, Mom,” said Torie. “Don’t strain yourself.” She was about to say something else when her phone buzzed. She took it out of her pocket and her face went ashen at the text she was reading.
“Torie,” said Fionna, rushing to her side. “What is it? What’s happened?”
“It…It’s the coroner’s office. They said they have the autopsy report back on…” She looked at her mother’s form. “They said they want me to come to the medical examiner’s office and they will give me the details, the death certificate and…and I can make arrangements for her funeral.”
Despite the fact her mother was floating not two feet away from her, the news brought on not only her own tears, but somewhere, behind the ectoplasmic form she had become, her mother cried as well.
13
The funeral was a somber affair. It had taken Torie less time than she would have thought to do all the paperwork needed to close out her mother’s death. Of course it helped that the cause of death printed on the paperwork had been listed as suicide.
Torie had been too shocked when she saw this to speak. She felt like someone had punched her in the stomach and driven the last vestiges of oxygen from her lungs. The world around her had slowed and dropped away when the coroner told her their findings. Jasmin and Fionna had immediately jumped on the Medical Examiner, yelling in tandem that he had lost his mind. They had known Alva for a decade and there was no way this woman would have taken her own life.
Torie didn’t fight it. She didn’t have the strength. During the chaos, everyone yelling at the coroner, all tears and rage, she simply reached across the desk, took the certificate, folded it and placed it in her purse. Then she got to her feet, holding the edge of the desk to steady her, and plodded slowly towards the door.
“Torie? Torie, where are you going?” It was Jasmin. They were in the same room, but she might as well have been yelling to her from another building. Everything receded from Torie’s senses and all she wanted was to be out of this space that smelled like too much disinfectant and breathe some fresh air.
Once outside, she gulped in several lungfuls, then headed slowly for Jasmin’s Subaru Outback and tried to open the locked door on the passenger’s side. The fact that it would not open enraged her and she began to beat at the window with her purse, screaming at the door. She fell against it, trying to no avail to force the lock open. Slowly, she slid down the car until she was a heap on the asphalt, sobbing uncontrollably.
The hand on her shoulder was like an emotional balm, helping to reduce the sting of emotions that had been rubbed raw lately.
“Torie, it’s okay. We are going to get this worked out,” said Fionna, dropping to her knees to hug her friend.
“I…I don’t want it worked out,” said Torie. “What I want is to get the bastard who did this to my mother.”
“We will. I promise you we will.”
“But let’s get you home first,” said Jasmin, her voice full of concern.
Torie shook her head while wiping her face with her sleeve. “No. Not yet. We need to make the arrangements.”
“Honey, are you sure?” said Jasmin. “That can certainly wait until tomorrow.”
“No. I want…I need to get this over with. Please.”
Jasmin glanced at Fionna before nodding. “Sure thing. Let’s go over to Doc Smith’s. He owns the local mortuary. I’ll make sure we get a good deal on everything.”
Torie sighed and allowed Fionna to help her to her feet, grateful for the comfort of the leather seats that cradled her once she was inside the car.
The trip to Elysian Fields, the funeral service owned by Doc Smith—who, as it turned out, was not a doctor of any kind, but simply kept the nickname he was given as a child because he was considered a know-it-all in class—was made in complete silence. Torie’s face pressed against the window as she watched the world flash slowly by her.
“First, let me say that I am so sorry for your loss. I can’t begin to imagine what you’re feeling right now,” said Doc Smith. He had cleared his other appointments for the af
ternoon so Torie and her friends had the funeral home to themselves. She wasn’t exactly sure how to feel about that; granted, she had lost her mother, but everyone that came to a business like this had lost a loved one as well. Why should she take precedent over them? Still, selfish as it may have felt, she was grateful for the solitude inside the white Victorian that sat just off the main street of Singing Falls.
She nodded, swallowing hard and mumbled something about thanking the funeral director and all he was doing for her.
They settled into an office at the back of the home, a room with tasteful flower arrangements and a strategically placed box of Kleenex on a large desk that they gathered around.
After a minute of reflection, the funeral director leaned forward, his fingers interlocked on the desk as he addressed Torie.
“Have you thought about what kind of service your mother would want?”
Torie almost snorted. It hit her then that maybe she should have asked her mother what she wanted. She could still do that but decided against it. She shook her head instead, not trusting how her words might sound at that moment.
“Well, that’s okay,” he said, giving a quick look to Fionna and Jasmin. “Your mother was a special woman. I considered her a friend, and I grieve at her passing.” He reached over and slid the box of tissues closer, sensing the conversation to come would be trying, to say the least.
“She would not want anything too grandiose,” Torie said. “That wasn’t who she was.”
“No. It wasn’t,” Doc Smith echoed.
“Um, I also don’t want her embalmed. I know she wouldn’t have liked the thought of her body being pumped full of chemicals meant to preserve her.”
The funeral director took out a pad and pen and began scratching out notes. “Of course. Whatever you think is best. That will mean a closed-casket celebration. You understand that, right?”
She nodded. It was weird that they considered this a celebration. What were they celebrating? The death of a loved one she would never have a chance to know; at least not in this lifetime. She knew that her friends would celebrate, but that was different. They knew her mother in this life, new her in a way that Torie did not. To them, she was a force of nature, her passing something to be remembered with reverence and awe.