by Sharon Pape
It took me longer than usual to center my mind. Teleportation required more than the casting of an average spell. It was essential to gather the energy of my body and marry it to a sharply focused mind for it to work properly. Being held captive and fearing for my life were not the best circumstances under which to attempt teleportation. Especially if I didn’t want to wind up inside a wall, at the bottom of the sea, or underground. I chose my shop for my destination, and waited until I had it together, mind, body and soul, before reciting the spell.
From here and now to there and then
Attract not change, nor harm allow.
Safe passage guarantee to souls
As well as lesser, mindless things.
When I opened my eyes, I was standing near the counter in Abracadabra. I looked for Sashkatu on the tufted window ledge, but it was empty. I didn’t really expect to find him there, it was a reflex born of habit. He was probably with Tilly and Merlin. I spent a moment retracting the fire and ice spell in case it was still active. Then I ran next door, pausing at the connecting door to make sure I wouldn’t be interrupting my aunt in the middle of a reading or tea. What was I thinking? Once she realized I was missing, she would have cancelled any appointments she had.
I walked in and found Tilly in the middle of a baking marathon. Trays of cookies covered every flat surface, including the tea tables and the palms of Merlin’s hands. The combined aromas of peanut butter, oatmeal raisin, and chocolate chocolate chip filled the air with a heady perfume. Sashkatu was sound asleep at Merlin’s feet. All present and accounted for. Relief made my knees rubbery. I leaned against the kitchen doorway.
When Tilly saw me, she was so excited she forgot she was holding a tray she had just taken out of the oven. As the tray started to slip from her oven mitts, she valiantly tried to save it, juggling it for a good ten seconds before it flipped into the air and executed a neat spiral dive to the floor, throwing hot pecan sandies everywhere. Merlin leaped into action with the reflexes of a much younger man, catching some of them midair with the tray he was holding. The commotion woke Sashki, who darted into the kitchen to nibble at the cooler edges of the ones that hit the floor.
My aunt threw off the oven mitts and grabbed me to her bosom. “Thank goodness you’re all right!” she cried. “I had no place left to put more cookies and my feet are screaming at me.” I helped her over to a chair. She wasn’t actually complaining. When she was upset or worried, baking was the only thing that kept her sane. The quantity of baked goods she turned out at any given time was a reliable measure of the depth of her love and the width of her concern. They also made for a yummy welcome home celebration.
“You’d best call Travis,” she said, trying to catch her breath. “He’s nearly as distraught as I was. He threatened to break the story of your kidnapping on the evening news and lambast the police for not doing enough to find you. Duggan threatened to throw him in jail for interfering in police business. So Travis threatened to tell the public your kidnapping was tied to the death of Ava Duncan. And Duggan threatened to end his career. It was like a high stakes poker game. To be honest, I’m not sure if Travis is in jail or not.”
I picked up Sashki, who’d had far too much sugar, and carried him back to Abracadabra with me. He was on his ledge fast asleep in no time. I called Travis and waited anxiously for him to pick up. He must have seen my name on caller ID, because when he answered the phone, questions poured out of him.
“Are you okay? Where are you? What happened? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, but if you want answers you have to give me time to talk.”
“Right. I’ll be there in forty minutes and you can answer me in person.” He hung up without saying goodbye, but called back from the road to ask whether he’d find me at home or in the shop. I said I’d be home. I didn’t have the energy to open up, even if there were four hours left of the afternoon.
“Have you checked in with the police yet?”
“No.” I sighed, knowing what he was about to say.
“I’m sure you’re tired, but it isn’t optional. Go down to the substation in New Camel. Hopefully that will spare you an interview with Duggan, at least until tomorrow. I’ll meet you there.” I went home, got my car and drove down to the New Camel police station. It was absolutely the last thing I wanted to do.
Hobart was on duty. When I walked in, he jumped up and came around the desk to help me into a chair as if I was made of Baccarat crystal and might shatter at any moment. Maybe I was his first kidnapping victim. He took a minute to notify the rest of the Watkins Glen police force that I was no longer missing. He offered me water, which I accepted. I didn’t realize how thirsty I was. I took a sip and couldn’t stop until I’d drained the glass. He asked if I needed medical attention, which I declined.
“I’ll try to make this as quick as I can,” he said, resuming his seat. “Your loved ones believed you were kidnapped. Is that what happened?”
“Yes.”
“So glad you’re okay,” he said in the tone of a friend. But then it was back to official police-speak. “I’ll need you to give me a detailed account of exactly what happened from the moment you were abducted until your escape.”
“I don’t suppose this could wait until tomorrow?” I tried to sound desperate, which wasn’t hard at that point.
“I understand how exhausted you must be, but we have to go after these guys before they can try this again with you or someone else.”
I did my civic duty and recounted everything I could remember, except for two things. I left out the spell I’d used to keep them away from me and I lied about how I escaped. In the version I gave Hobart, I ran off while my captors were fighting with each other and hitchhiked home.
“You know hitchhiking is dangerous,” Hobart pointed out. He must have realized how ridiculous he sounded given the circumstances, because he quickly added, “Normally speaking, that is.”
“Yes, well I didn’t have my phone to call an Uber, so let’s just say it was the lesser of two evils at the time.” We were wrapping up when Travis arrived.
“Tomorrow you’ll have to go through some mug shots and maybe sit down with a sketch artist,” Hobart said. “For now, go home and get some rest. I’m glad you’re safe.”
Travis waited until we were in the parking lot before gathering me into his arms and holding onto me for so long that he might have broken Tilly’s record. “I’m not by nature a pessimist,” he murmured against my cheek, “but I was really afraid I’d never see you again.”
“No worries—if that ever happens, I promise to come back and haunt you.”
He laughed, loosening his arms around me, without letting go. “Not as an energy cloud please. They’re kind of freaky.”
I stopped at my shop to pick up Sashkatu who was still sleeping off his sugar coma. He didn’t wake when I put him in the car, which was a good thing. I really wasn’t up to a knockdown, drag out fight about it. Travis was waiting at my house. The other cats came out of their hidey holes to see what had brought me home in the middle of the day. They must have held a meeting and determined that Travis could finally be treated like family, because they rubbed against his legs with uncharacteristic abandon. Sashkatu woke up when I set him down on the couch. He looked around, saw where he was and promptly closed his eyes again.
I headed for the kitchen. “On the way here, it hit me how hungry I am.”
“You sit down and I’ll fix you the best grilled cheese you’ve ever eaten.”
I collapsed onto a chair. “That’s quite a statement from a man who’s been fortunate enough to have grilled cheese at The Soda Jerk.”
“I’ll let you be the judge.” He rummaged in the fridge and came away with cheddar, Swiss and shredded Romano. What can I say? I love cheese. My stomach gurgled with anticipation. The finished product was as good as I’d ever eaten. He watched me devour the sandwi
ch without saying a word, then led me to the couch in the living room. “I’m sorry to make you go through your ordeal again, but I need to hear everything you told Hobart as well as the parts you left out.” Sitting there cuddled against him with his arm around me, I didn’t mind the retelling. What had been a chore at the police station, was now cathartic. I didn’t have to watch what I was saying.
Although I was finally relaxing, Travis seemed to be absorbing my tension. I felt his body tighten as he listened to my story. “Other than the driver hitting you that one time, how did they treat you?”
“They weren’t great in the hospitality department, but they didn’t do anything else to harm me. I would have loved to see their reactions when they opened the bathroom door and I was gone.”
“How about when they have to admit to their employer that they bungled the job? My motto is never go cheap if you want something done properly.”
“They were seriously under qualified for the job. Their talents were better suited to a vaudeville act. They missed their calling by a century or so.” He kissed my forehead, then tipped my chin up and kissed me on the mouth. Every nerve and synapse in my body snapped to attention—Travis’s own brand of magic.
“I don’t know anyone else who would have bounced right back with your spirit and sense of humor after what you went through today,” he said.
“I appreciate the accolades, but I have the advantage of magick. It’s easier to be brave knowing you can probably teleport out of a situation if you need to.” I’ve always been uncomfortable with praise if I don’t think I’ve earned it. Travis didn’t try to argue with me. He seemed to be brooding about something.
“I wish we knew their ultimate purpose in abducting you,” he said. “Were they told to keep you in that abandoned house until the boss arrived to take care of you? Or was the whole thing designed just to scare you into dropping your investigation into Ava’s death?”
“The latter, I think. They could have saved their money, because I have no intention of tucking my tail and hiding under the bed. I keep wondering who would ever hire such bumbling fools.”
“Someone without the resources to pay for proven talent or someone who’s never been involved in criminal activity.”
“Well these guys were bargain basement,” I said. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t help narrow down our list of suspects—none of them is exactly rolling in money.”
Chapter 31
The time I spent looking at mug shots the next day paid off. Boscoe and the driver had several previous arrests and incarcerations for lesser crimes. They’d stepped things up substantially by kidnapping me. Travis tagged along for moral support. As it happened, Paul Curtis’s shift in New Camel started that morning. I wondered if Travis called ahead to find out who would be on duty. If the answer had been Hobart, would he have already been on the road back to Watkins Glen?
He dropped me at home so I could fetch Sashkatu before opening my shop. I didn’t have the strange emptiness in the pit of my stomach that I sometimes felt when Travis drove away and I knew why. Our date with Elise and Jerry was scheduled for the following night.
It was a beautiful day with pretensions of summer. I left the shop door open, with the help of Morgana’s dragon statue. The temperature coaxed people from the greater Glen area to come to New Camel for lunch or ice cream and a stroll around our quaint town. The flashy dragon beckoned them to check out Abracadabra. I wasn’t overrun with customers like on tour bus days, but I had to eat my PB&J in spurts between helping newbies and chatting with regulars, both of which I always enjoyed.
When the school day ended, mothers left to ferry their children to other activities, and I finally had a chance to sit down since opening. Tilly toddled in from her shop, bearing a hefty wedge of her new chocolate crumb cake for me to try. Once I’d proclaimed it “decadent and homey at the same time,” she left with a satisfied smile. Apparently, Merlin had quibbled about it being too sweet. After a year of ingesting every sugary confection he could squeeze into his stomach, he now considered himself something of a critic. If he wasn’t careful, Tilly might decide to cut him off.
I was eating my last bite of the not-too-sweet-at-all crumb cake when a group of five middle school girls walked in. They moved as one, like a multi-limbed organism conjoined by some vital organ. Three of them were giggling nervously, the other two looked like they wanted to bolt. I asked if I could help them.
They whispered to each other, before the tallest girl spoke up. “Are you a real witch?”
I flipped the question back to her. “What do you mean?”
“You know—do you have powers?”
“Can you fly like on a broom?” another girl piped up.
“Can you change people into frogs?” a third girl asked timidly.
“Where did you hear this stuff?” I laughed. I’ve learned to evade questions I don’t want to answer by asking questions of my own. It does a masterful job of detouring a conversation.
“It’s going around the school,” said the tall girl.
“My little brother heard it too, and he’s only in the third grade,” said one of the others.
“But you’re a good witch, right?” asked the timid girl. “I know you saved that little boy’s life.” I’d already had a good idea where the rumors started, but now I was sure—Tess Webster. I doubted her intentions were to sing my praises. Although I’d saved her son’s life, she was afraid of me. Maybe she had some twisted, Rumpelstiltskinian notion that one day I’d come to claim him as my own. When he ran over to me in the Grotto, it must have convinced her that I already had him in my thrall. I had so hoped that Bronwen and Morgana were wrong to be worried about the fallout from my good deed.
“The little boy’s family is moving,” said the girl who’d been quiet up to that point. “I think they’re making a big mistake.” She spoke deliberately, as though she’d put a lot of thought into her words. “If anyone had saved a child of mine, I’d consider them my hero and I’d want to stay as close as possible.” The other girls murmured their agreement. While we talked, their tight little group had loosened. Now the tall girl wandered over to the table with the crystal display. The timid girl asked if she could look around, and the others followed. Soon they were scattered around the store, asking about all the merchandise, giggling and calling to each other to come see this or that. It seemed like a tiny turning point—a baby step or two in the right direction. Even so I knew my mother and grandmother would advocate caution.
* * * *
The long awaited double date was upon us. This Little Piggy, the new barbecue place halfway between New Camel and the Glen, was the winner of our where-to-eat debate. We all wanted a laidback atmosphere and nothing was more casual than eating barbecue. It was impossible to put on airs or be judgmental with barbecue sauce dripping from your chin and fingers.
Elise and I arrived first and were shown to a table in the corner, which the hostess assured us was the quietest spot in the restaurant. The guys came separately, but arrived at the same time. They introduced themselves when they realized they were walking to the same table. Elise did the honors for me. Jerry Fletcher DDS was tall, graying at the temples with an engaging smile. We all hit it off immediately and were so busy chatting that we forgot to look at the menu. We apologized to the waitress when she came by for the second time and promised to be ready if she gave us two more minutes. We all went for the ribs with corn bread, beans and cole slaw—half racks for Elise and me, full racks for the men. This Little Piggy got four sauce-covered thumbs up.
Dessert was coffee and individual blueberry cobblers with vanilla ice cream. Jerry cajoled the waitress into making the scoops extra-large. He and Travis started talking sports, leaving Elise and me with some girl time. She looked at me with a quizzical eyebrow that clearly asked for my verdict on her new guy. I answered with an enthusiastic nod and a grin, glad that he was exactly as advertise
d. It would have been awful if I’d found him wanting, because I’d never seen her happier.
“So, what’s happening with the case?” she asked. “I feel like I’m out of the loop on this one, and Lolly is weighing on my mind.”
“Well you’ve been kind of busy with work and the boys—and Jerry,” I added sotto voce.
I told her about Brock keeping tabs on Ava, and about Liam’s issues. “Nothing new on Dani. But she just can’t be the killer—it would destroy Lolly.”
“Did you ever find out what went sour between Ava and Angie?”
I took a sip of coffee and set the cup down. “No, but I found out that about a month before Ava was killed, Angie and her kids left town with no forwarding address.”
Elise wiped a drop of blueberry pie from the corner of her mouth. “What about her parents? They might know where she went and why.”
“I have no idea where they live or how to reach them.”
“Maybe Eagle Enterprises still has her in their files. If they do, there should be an emergency contact number, and since she’s divorced it’s probably her parents or a close friend.”
“You are brilliant!” I must have spoken louder than I intended, because the guys stopped their conversation to see what had me so excited. “Jerry,” I said, “I hope you know how lucky you are to have this woman in your life.”
He chuckled. “So everyone keeps telling me!”
* * * *
The phone roused me from a deep sleep. By the clock on the night table it was close to two a.m. My heart was already pounding when I heard Tilly’s fretful voice. “Merlin is missing again.”
I flew out of bed, throwing my feline bedmates into a tizzy of their own. Only Sashkatu remained on his pillow. He’d lived through enough human craziness that he was able to take a little more in stride. “How long ago?” I asked, pulling on jeans and a sweatshirt against the colder night air.
“I don’t know, I can’t be sure. I was on my way to the bathroom for the second time and I peeked in his room like I usually do, but he wasn’t there. I searched the house. What if he was kidnapped like you were?”