Portion Disaster

by Zoe Arden

  "And Trevor was a warlock," Wilma went on. Now that she saw she was making headway, she wasn't about to stop. "How is a non-magical waif like my niece supposed to have taken down a six-foot tall—"

  "Trevor was six-foot-two," someone shouted.

  "Thank you!" Wilma cried, her face lighting. "A six-foot-two former football champion? Does anyone believe that's possible?"

  Several people scratched their heads. "If she had a wand," Megan ventured but the lack of conviction in her voice was clear.

  "She didn't have a wand," Lucy’s voice had dropped several pitches. "Just a knife."

  "If you, uh, saw it happen," Otis Winken said gently, scratching his head, "then why didn't you say anything? I didn't hear you shout or, uh, anything."

  Otis was petting his familiar, Tadpole, who was still perched on his shoulder. Tadpole was a skunk, the only known skunk familiar in Heavenly Haven, possibly the world. No one had ever heard of such a thing before but everyone in town loved Tadpole.

  Tadpole stood up on his hind legs, balancing on Otis' shoulder, and took a bow. A few people giggled. Tadpole suddenly leaped into the air, did a somersault, and landed safely back on Otis' shoulder. Several people clapped. Tadpole was good at easing tension.

  Lucy let out a long sigh. "I guess I didn't shout because I was scared. It happened so fast. I didn't know what to do."

  Sheriff Knoxx walked over to Lucy. "Why don't you come in back with me and Detective Hudson? You can tell us what happened. Alone."

  "No," Lucy said. "I won't have people saying I'm a liar because I'm not. I know what I saw." She took a deep breath. "The lights in the bakery were out but the candles were glowing. Ava made her wish then went to blow her candles out."

  She took another breath. Her body was as rigid as a surfboard. I was afraid that if her tension didn't ease up soon, she might go to bend at the waist and break herself in half. "Just before Ava blew out her candles, I saw Polly sneak up behind Trevor."

  "Wasn't Trevor standing against the wall?" Natalie asked, frowning.

  "He'd stepped away from it." Lucy’s hands began to shake again. "He was smiling." Her voice broke. "Th-Then Polly j-ju-just stabbed him and he fell to the ground."

  Colt shot a look to Sheriff Knoxx. I knew what they were thinking. Lucy's story didn't make sense. If Polly stabbed Trevor, why didn't he put up a fight? He wouldn't have just dropped to the ground like that.

  "Excuse me," Calista said, her voice soft. She was raising her hand like she was in school. Her mother, Blossom, forced her hand down but everyone had already seen it.

  "Mama," Snowball said again. I picked her back up and stroked her chin as she began to purr. Tootsie was busy clawing at Trixie's feet. Rocky was still sitting by Eleanor. He kept looking at her every other second, his long tongue falling out of his mouth as he panted.

  "What is it, Calista?" Colt asked.

  "Well, it just seems to me like Lucy is making it sound as if Polly stabbed him once, maybe twice. If that had been the case, he might still be alive. I mean, he died in a matter of seconds, right? The lights went out and, when they came back on, he was dead."

  "True..." Colt said, trying to be careful with his words.

  "Could Trevor have died that fast?" Calista asked. "Maybe Lucy's trying to protect someone by blaming Polly." She looked directly at Sheriff Knoxx when she said that. He looked intently back at her.

  "Who do you think she's protecting?" Sheriff Knoxx asked.

  Calista opened her mouth but Snowball chose that moment to let out a loud meow that made the entire room turn in her direction. She jumped from my arms and landed right next to my cake. Tootsie and Rocky bounded to her side.

  "Familiars know what happened," Snowball said. "Familiars saw it all. Lucy Lockwood lies."

  I gasped and looked at Lucy, who'd gone five shades of white.

  "Snowball!" I hissed, trying to call her back over to me but Snowy was ignoring me now.

  "What did you see?" someone asked.

  Snowball, Tootsie, and Rocky all turned to look at Calista.

  "Calista," Snowball said.

  "Calista," Rocky agreed.

  "Calista," Tootsie piped in.

  "She is the killer," Snowball said. "The familiars saw it all."

  * * *

  CHAPTER

  TEN

  .

  .

  .

  * * *

  * * *

  .

  "QUUUUIIIEEETTT!" Sheriff Knoxx roared. Even his thunderous voice could not immediately silence the rumble of talk that had erupted around the room this time.

  Polly looked triumphantly at Lucy, who looked like she might fall over at any second, her face was so ashen. Calista looked scared.

  I saw Colt mutter an incantation and press his finger to his throat. Suddenly, his voice erupted through the room, sounding like a bull horn. It was a classic spell, often used by law enforcement. "SILENCE!" Colt yelled. His voice was so loud it hurt everyone's ears. People plugged their ears with their fingers before he could yell again.

  The room settled down.

  "They're liars!" Calista's grandmother, Edith yelled.

  "That's right!" Blossom cried. "That's Ava Fortune's familiar, why shouldn't she lie?"

  "Snowball does not lie," I yelled back at her, scooping Snowy into my arms.

  "Neither does my Tootsie," said Trixie, taking hold of her fluffy orange fur ball.

  "Nor my Rocky," said Eleanor. She tried to scoop the wolfhound into her arms but he was too big. She fell on her butt and Rocky sat on her.

  Sheriff Knoxx was scratching his head. "This doesn't make sense," he said, more to himself than to the room. "Calista's even smaller than Polly and just as non-magical." He looked up at her. "Can you even use a wand?"

  She shook her head. "I can't even conjure a rabbit."

  "No sense whatsoever," he muttered again.

  "Darn right it doesn't make sense," said Blossom. She looked furious. If looks could have killed, half the room would be dead. She didn't seem to be distinguishing those who were actually accusing her daughter of murder from those who were on her side. As far as Blossom was concerned, anyone who wasn't her family was the enemy.

  "Snowy," I said quietly, "if you all saw what happened, why didn't you say something right away?"

  "Snowball tried," she said. "Mama promised tuna if Snowy was quiet. So, Snowball was very quiet." She licked my nose and I groaned. This was all my fault. I should have listened when Snowball tried to talk to me.

  "What exactly did you three see?" Sheriff Knoxx asked Snowball, Rocky, and Tootsie.

  "Calista picked up knife." Snowy’s voice was tinny and small, yet she could be as loud as a lion when she wanted to be.

  "Calista stabbed poor man in back," Tootsie said, shaking his head sadly. His voice was deeper than Snowball's but not nearly as deep as Rocky's. Rocky sounded like thunder when he spoke.

  "Rocky saw woman with pigtails stab Trevor," Rocky said and licked his paw. Eleanor gently shoved him out of her lap and stood back up.

  Sheriff Knoxx looked from one familiar to the other, his eyes confused. He walked over to Colt, who let Polly out of her handcuffs, to many people's surprised gasps.

  "Did anyone else see anything?" Sheriff Knoxx sounded tired. "Any other killers out there?"

  "Yes," Calista snapped, stepping forward. Her hands were on her hips. Blossom tried to pull her back but she shrugged her mom off.

  "Who?" Sheriff Knoxx asked, his face serious.

  "You," Calista said, her voice cold.

  Whatever Sheriff Knoxx had thought she was going to say, it clearly had not been that. He cocked his head to one side. "Excuse me?" he asked, tugging at his ear as if he had a blockage in it. He must have thought he'd misheard her.

  "I saw you kill Trevor Bailey," Calista said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

  The room had tired of growing silent each time a new confession was made. Now, it erupted with questions.

 
"Is that true?"

  "He's big enough, isn't he?"

  "Do you really think it's possible?"

  "How much goblin is in him?"

  I felt bad for the sheriff as his face began to twitch. "Listen," he said. "LISTEN!" But the room kept talking.

  Colt cleared his throat. "LISTEN!" he shouted, and the room quieted down. It was hard to ignore the bullhorn voice when it was used. Colt looked at the sheriff, who nodded his thanks.

  "Now then," Sheriff Knoxx said, still scratching his head and tugging at his ear. It looked like he was trying to communicate through a series of signals, like a pitcher and a catcher. "Something about this doesn't add up."

  The room looked blankly back at him.

  "I didn't kill Trevor," he said, letting out a long, exasperated sigh. "Don't you see that? We have two women of different ages who saw two different people stab Trevor. We have three familiars, two felines and one canine, who saw yet a third person commit the murder."

  Sheriff Knoxx looked around the room, as if expecting people to understand where he was going with this.

  "So?" Brenda Lockwood, Lucy's mom, called out. "What's it mean?"

  "It means that dark magic is being used here."

  People began to look less greedy for gossip and more frightened.

  "It would have to be extremely dark magic for it to affect the familiars," Natalie said.

  Colt's gaze met mine. He looked worried. I wanted to reassure him that I was fine but I knew that until he got me alone, where he could hold me in his arms, he would remain worried.

  Sheriff Knoxx looked around the room. His eyes drifted from Snowball to Rocky to Tootsie. "You three got to the party just before we brought out the cake, right?" They nodded. "Did you eat anything while you were here?"

  The familiars shot quick glances to each other. "Mama never said not to eat," Snowball said.

  I rubbed her head and held her tighter to my chest.

  "It's okay," I told her. "Snowy's not in trouble. Just tell Sheriff Knoxx what you ate and you can still have tuna when we get home." I felt Snowball relax almost instantly.

  "Snowball does not know what it's called. It was coconut."

  "Macoon," Tootsie said, licking her lips. "That's what Tootsie's Mama called it. Tootsie heard her."

  "Rocky thought it was raccoon cookies," he said, and the other familiars made an icky face.

  "Racoon!" Snowball giggled. "Mama does not make cookies from raccoon! Tuna might be good, though." Snowball looked hopefully up at me. I scratched her chin. Sometimes my cat had a one-track mind.

  Sheriff Knoxx was sweating now. "Do you three mean... macaroons?"

  Snowball, Tootsie, and Rocky nodded. He looked around the room.

  I got a sinking feeling in my gut.

  "Who else here tonight ate the coconut macaroons?" Sheriff Knoxx asked.

  Slowly, several people raised their hands.

  I looked around the room and gasped. Lucy's hand was up. So was mine. So were Eleanor's, Trixie's, my dad's, Calista's, and Polly's. Sheriff Knoxx rubbed his temples and slowly raised his own hand.

  "Anyone else?" he asked.

  I found it hard to believe no one else had eaten the macaroons but then I remembered that my father had kept running off with them.

  "Did those of you with your hands raised see anything unusual?" Colt asked. His brow had formed a deep V in it. I knew his concern for me had just risen fifty-fold.

  "I saw a giant raccoon walking around outside," Sheriff Knoxx said, his cheeks reddening. "At the time, I thought it was the cider."

  "That's what I thought, too," Eleanor said. "I took him outside for some air and he seemed better."

  "What about you, Ava?" Colt said. I wished he would stop looking at me like I was an infant about to fall out of its crib. I didn't want to tell him that I'd seen Polly's eyes go all black; I was afraid he'd check me into Sweetland Hospital and never let me out.

  I shook my head. "No. I didn't see a thing." It was almost true. I mean, I hadn't hallucinated a murderer, had I? So what if Polly's eyes had gone black for a second or two? It wasn't nearly as weird as seeing giant raccoons or imagining cold-blooded killers.

  Colt's eyes lingered on mine a moment longer than I cared for, like he knew I wasn't being totally honest. Then they turned to Eleanor and Trixie, who confirmed they hadn't seen anything unusual.

  "I thought I saw a couple of ten-foot lobsters crawling up the wall," my dad said. "Does that count?"

  There were a few snickers. "I think that counts as unusual, Eli," said Colt.

  "I saw those, too," Polly said, her voice small. "Only I thought they were giant shrimp." I couldn't help staring at her. "I thought it was a party trick," she said.

  My dad smiled sheepishly. "Me, too. I thought it was one of Trixie's charms."

  "Unless the lobsters and shrimp were covered in glitter," Trixie said, "I had nothing to do with them."

  "Well, at least now we know," Sheriff Knoxx said.

  "Know what?" asked Natalie Vargas. "We're back to square one."

  "No," Sheriff Knoxx and Colt said together, shaking their heads.

  "Now we know what's going on here," said the sheriff. "Someone used dark magic to tamper with the macaroons. They were probably hoping more people would eat them; we're just lucky they didn't."

  "But we didn't see anything unusual," said Eleanor and Trixie.

  "You probably will, though," he said. "Or maybe you just got lucky. Ava, too. The point is, the only people who did see anything strange tonight all ate them."

  "But what does that tell us?" Natalie asked.

  "Whoever tampered with those macaroons is our real killer. They must have placed some sort of hallucinatory spell on them, hoping that there'd be so many suspects, so much confusion, that they could escape unnoticed."

  "Well, I guess it worked," Natalie said irritably.

  Sheriff Knoxx heaved a sigh. "For now. That doesn't mean they won't get caught."

  "How?" Megan asked, her voice still squeaky. "Murderers were being spotted left and right."

  "She's right," said Natalie. "Now what do we do?"

  Sheriff Knoxx looked at Colt. "Those of you who didn't raise your hands can go home after we get your statements," the sheriff said. "Everyone else, stay where you are. Dr. Dunne will need to check you all out."

  "Dr. Dunne?" I whispered to Lucy, scrunching my brow. "I feel fine."

  "Don't you get it?" Lucy whispered, her voice in full panic mode. "We've all been poisoned. Who knows what was in those macaroons? Thank God I only ate one. How many did you have?"

  My stomach churned. "I don't know. I stopped counting after eight."

  * * *

  CHAPTER

  ELEVEN

  .

  .

  .

  * * *

  * * *

  .

  Now that Sheriff Knoxx and Colt had finally given the party the all clear to go home, no one wanted to go.

  "Who's getting arrested?" several people wondered as they were ushered out the front doors after giving their statements. "Do you need any help? We can stay." Their eyes searched the room for clues, hints... dirt. They wanted to be the first to get the story so they could be the first to spread it.

  Apparently, people were still assuming Trevor's murderer would be caught. Tonight. Anyone with half a brain could have seen the unlikelihood of that but then I wasn't sure everyone in Sweetland had half a brain. Oh, they were good people but gossip mongers rarely stopped to think.

  Sheriff Knoxx, Colt, and Lincoln had to gently remind people that this was a matter for law enforcement. When that didn't work and people continued to linger, Colt told everyone that whatever spell had been cast on the macaroons could have gone airborne by now. It was bogus but it did the trick. People shuffled out of the bakery at a much quicker rate.

  I saw Tazzie Singer slip out the door with William Carney. He and Melbourne were co-owners of the Coffee Cove, where Lucy worked. By the way he and
Tazzie were holding hands, I thought they might be going home together. Tazzie lived in Mistmoor Point, though. As Mistmoor's mayor, I wasn't sure how a relationship with someone in Sweetland Cove would go over in her town. I had enough of my own problems to worry about for the time being, though, so I dropped the matter from my mind.

  An hour later, we were still sitting in the bakery. At least Dr. Dunne's examinations had gone quickly. None of us were dying. None of us were sick. Whatever the effects of the spell had been, they appeared to be short-term.

  The main problem for me now was my birthday cake. It remained uncut. It stood there, taunting me with its sugar and buttercream. My stomach rumbled.

  "Why can't I just have a little?" I asked. "It's my birthday."

  I knew I was starting to whine but I didn't care. I was tired and cranky. My birthday had gone from an all-out celebration to an all-out disaster. Even though not everyone in Sweetland had been in attendance—and even fewer people from Mistmoor—by this time tomorrow everyone in town would know what had happened. I just hoped it wouldn't affect Mystic's sales. It seemed a strange thing to worry about just now but ever since Eleanor and Trixie had given me my mother's share in the bakery, I couldn't help but consider the business side of things.

  Snowball curled up in my lap as I sat at a table. She purred loudly, trying to soothe my nerves. I had to admit, it helped. I wasn't sure whether Tootsie and Rocky had the same effect for Eleanor and Trixie but there was something about Snowball's fur and her soft little voice that could ease my fears and worries.

  "Ava, I'm sorry," Colt said, squeezing my hand. He kissed my cheek and I felt my cheeks turn a light shade of pink. "You can't eat your cake—or anything else—until it's been checked out. The macaroons may not have been the only things that were compromised."

  I hated it when Colt made sense. It made it impossible to argue with him. I folded my arms across my chest and glared at him. Snowball climbed from my lap to his. Traitor, I thought but laughed when she began to nibble playfully on his thumb. He stroked Snowy's head and drew in a breath.