by Sharon Pape
There were two other people in the theater, napping or wasting time like we were. As it happened, Travis and I had never gone to a movie together. It was weird sitting beside him in the darkened theater. If not for Whitney, he might have put his arm around me; I might have reached for his hand. The dumb comedy was dumber than we’d imagined. We didn’t laugh once, but our moods may have been to blame for that. We walked outside into blinding sunlight with another hour to kill.
We were out of things to do and I, for one, wasn’t interested in anymore pointless conversation. The only other option was to start the stakeout early. Travis parked at a curve in the road from which we had a decent view of the house, but anyone inside would have had difficulty seeing us. I was drained from the emotional turmoil of our relationship. Spending the entire day with him under these circumstances was exhausting. He seemed worn out too. There was no point in discussing why we were tired. Instead I proposed we take turns napping. I let him go first and I kept watch. Fifteen minutes crept by. It was my turn, and since no good deed goes unpunished, I had just drifted off to sleep when Angie came home.
She parked at the curb in front of her parent’s house and sprinted across the lawn to the front door as if the boogey man was after her. For all we knew, maybe he was. “Does that look like a woman who’s been held hostage for weeks?” Travis asked.
“Nope,” I said. “That looks more like a woman who doesn’t want anyone to find her here.”
“The question is why? Did she rob a bank before leaving the Glen? Embezzle money from Eagle Enterprises? Abscond with proprietary information?” Since catching her before she ran into the house was no longer an option, we’d have to ring the bell and try to convince her to talk to us. One thing was clear—her mother was a gifted liar.
We waited another ten minutes to give Angie time to let down her guard and hopefully be more receptive to our visit. Susan answered the bell. “What are you doing here again? If you came back to call me a liar, I’m not the least bit sorry I misled you. I did it to protect my family. Chris was right. I should have slammed the door shut in your faces. Well no more questions—you are not welcome here and if you keep harassing us, I will call the police!”
I had one last card to play—the commonality of motherhood. “Susan, you have every right to your privacy. But can you spare one thought for a mother who’s grieving, who wants to know why her daughter is dead? Angie may have information that could bring her some peace.”
“I’m sorry for her—I truly am, but I have to concentrate on my family now.” She shut the door on us for the second time that endless day. Travis and I looked at each other. Now what? We were turning to leave when the door opened halfway. Angie stood in the doorway, her mother behind her, glaring at us.
“You want to know about Ava Duncan?” Angie asked.
I stepped forward. “Yes. If you have any information, any theories about who killed her, we’d be really—” Angie grabbed my arm and pulled me into the house. Travis didn’t wait for an invitation. He cleared the threshold a second before she shut the door. Susan Neumann walked off, muttering and shaking her head.
Angie led us into a small living room with furniture that was too bulky for the space. It reminded me of a store with too much inventory. A television was playing in another room. I figured that’s where the children were. It was a good bet that Chris Neumann was still at work.
Travis and I sat at one end of the sectional couch; Angie chose a chair to our right. “I’ll try to help you,” she said, “but I have to be careful about what I say. I hope you understand.”
“We’ll be grateful for anything you can tell us,” I assured her.
“Please forgive my mom—she’s a lot more sociable than she seems. She’s trying to protect me and the kids. My sudden homecoming has been hard on her and my dad. They should be nominated for sainthood. They went from a serene empty nest to a rowdy full house overnight without a single complaint.”
“You’re a lucky woman,” I said.
“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it. I sure don’t feel lucky having to uproot my kids and leave behind everything I worked for in Watkins Glen.”
“Why did you feel the need to do that?” Travis shot straight to the heart of the matter.
Angie took a deep breath “In order to answer that, I should give you an idea about my tenure with Monroe Enterprises. I took the job there, because the salary was higher and there were better benefits than at the other firms I’d looked into. It was a financial decision pure and simple. When you have two kids to support that’s how it is. Monroe, and later Eagle, made it clear that security was a priority, because they were working on a federally funded project. I’m sure you ran into the armed guards at the gate if you tried to get in there.” We both nodded.
“I’d been working there for about six months,” she continued, “when Ava joined the staff and took an apartment in the building where the kids and I were living. We became instant friends. Things were going great. I should have known it couldn’t last.” Her mouth curved up in a rueful smile. “Isn’t that the way life goes?” I murmured agreement.
“We heard the company started laying off people,” Travis said when she seemed lost in thought. She shifted her focus back to us again.
“Right. The government funding for the project had been cut. Rumors circulated that we were heading for bankruptcy. We were living in limbo for a good few months. I can’t tell you what an enormous relief it was when we found out the company had new funding for the project and all our jobs were safe. That’s when the name changed from Monroe to Eagle Enterprises. Living through those scary days, Ava and I became very close—like sisters. At least that was how I thought of her.” A deep sadness colored her tone.
“We heard your relationship hit a rough patch sometime after that,” I said. “Can you tell us what happened?”
Angie closed her eyes and wagged her head as if she still couldn’t believe it. “Ava and I had a horrible argument. We’d both applied for the newly vacated position as the head of accounting. It paid more and had better benefits. Given that I had seniority there, I’d hoped she would back off. But Ava was competitive, a real go-getter. Her philosophy was may the best woman win. I didn’t want to lose her friendship, but I needed the money more than she did—she was only supporting herself. It created a wedge between us.” Angie bit down on her lower lip as if debating how much more to say.
“Before we found out who got the promotion, something happened at work that made me realize I didn’t want to continue working there. I told Ava about it and suggested she consider leaving too. She blew up and accused me of making up the story to get her out of the way.” Angie’s voice wobbled; tears glistened on her lower lashes. “That was the end of our friendship.”
“What happened at work that made you decide to quit?” Travis asked.
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Did someone threaten you?” Seated side by side as we were, I couldn’t catch his eye to tell him to drop it. I put my hand under his elbow and squeezed it as discreetly as possible. He pulled away. Maybe I was overreacting, but I didn’t want this to turn into pizza with Liam all over again.
Angie put her hands up as if to stop the questions. “I… I told you there were things I can’t go into.”
“It’s getting late, Travis,” I said pointedly. “We should let Angie get dinner ready for her kids.” I stood up so he’d know I meant business. He seemed about to protest, but Angie had risen too. He was outmaneuvered.
She walked us to the door. “I hope someday the circumstances will be different and I’ll be free to tell you everything.” I said I understood. Travis thanked her for seeing us, but there was an edge of irritation to his words.
“I thought we were on the same team,” he said when we were driving home. We hadn’t said a word to each other for the first fifteen minutes of the trip.
“How many more opportunities to question her do you think we’ll get? We wasted an entire day with nothing to show for it.” He took one hand off the wheel and ran his fingers through his hair the way he did when he was frustrated.
“That’s not true. We learned what broke up her friendship with Ava. We know she’s worried about her kids’ safety—worried enough to leave everything she worked for and start over again. But I don’t think that’s because of Ava. It’s more like two different issues that are somehow linked.”
“Is that women’s intuition?” he asked dryly.
I didn’t answer him. I knew he wasn’t just arguing with me about Angie. He was lashing out because he was caught between Whitney and me. But that didn’t mean I had to sit there and take it. I did some deep breathing to relax and when I reached the proper state of mind, I took a shortcut home.
Chapter 38
Travis called the next morning before I left for the shop. When I saw his name on the screen, my heart twisted. I much preferred the happy dance it used to do. “I just got off the phone with one of my contacts,” he said after a quick hi. “According to him, Eagle Enterprises did lose the government contract—he doesn’t know why. They were about to go belly-up when they got new funding. He’s been trying to find out if the infusion of capital came from a private source or if Washington just had another change of heart.”
“That agrees with what we’ve been told by everyone from the Duncans to Angie.”
“Yes, but he also told me something interesting. The original contract Eagle Enterprises had with the government was to develop and produce a new class of weapons using magnets—things called coil guns and rail guns and electromagnetic pulse bombs—the stuff sounds like science fiction.”
“Wow—I’d hang on to this guy of yours, at least until the government catches up with him. Then deny ever knowing him—deny, deny, deny.”
Travis chuckled. “Yeah, he’s one of my higher-class contacts.” Despite the subject matter, for a moment it felt like we were having one of our old comfortable conversations, where we didn’t parse every word before speaking—the kind we used to have before Whitney showed up.
As the laughter wound down, a heavy silence rushed in to fill the void. It was getting awkward again fast. One of us had to say something, so I repeated the obvious. “I wish we knew what Angie discovered about Eagle Enterprises that made her leave.”
“Wait a minute—didn’t she say that she told Ava about it, but Ava didn’t believe her?”
“You’re right.” My mind shifted into overdrive. “It’s possible Ava passed it on to her parents. They knew about her argument with Angie. But another trip to Williamsville isn’t in the cards right now with our day jobs. I can call the Duncans and see if they’re willing to talk about it over the phone.”
“It’s worth a shot. You’re good with people—empathic. They can feel that you care.” He’d never said anything like that to me and this was a heck of a time to start. It rocked me back on my proverbial heels. “Kailyn?” he said when I didn’t respond.
It took me a second to reel my thoughts back in. “Right—I’ll call them after the tour bus leaves. Speaking of which, I’ve got to run.” I shoved my feet into a pair of flats. They weren’t as classy-looking as stilettos, but tour bus days were hard on my feet. Was this how my aunt Tilly had started the slow slide from sexy chic into bunion-kind footwear? I shook the thought from my head and tripped over Sashkatu, who’d fallen asleep on the braided mat by the door. To avoid hurting him, I made a last second course correction that twisted my ankle and sent me crashing down next to him on the hardwood. He opened one critical eye that said, You really must pay more attention to clocks. “Thanks, that’s a big help,” I said, pulling myself up from the floor.
We arrived at the shop in time to answer a tentative knock on the front door. I unlocked it and greeted my first customers of the day, a senior couple who teetered in, arms entwined so that if one fell the other was sure to follow. They both had short white hair and the years had whittled away at their features until they appeared elfin-like. With a mischievous twinkle in her eye, the woman whispered that they’d never been inside a real magick shop before. I asked if they were looking for anything in particular. She took me aside.
“Would you have something to help Bobby’s hearing? I’m ever so tired of repeating things,” she said without resentment. A minute later Bobby whispered to me, “Maybe you could give Fanny something to make her voice stronger? She thinks I don’t listen, but I can’t listen to what I don’t hear.”
“I told them each that I had just what they needed. Now there’s a chair at the counter and another one behind it if you’d like to sit down. This will only take me a minute.” I left them to it and headed for the first aisle. I plucked two products off the shelf and took them back to the supply room. For Bobby’s hearing, there was a mixture of gingko biloba, rosemary leaf, passion flower, plantain leaf and yarrow flower. For Fanny’s voice, there was propolis, collected by honeybees from tree buds and sap. I opened the bottles and added a little spell of Morgana’s to ensure they’d do the trick:
Let not ear or voice grow dim,
Rather may this keep them clear.
Be for her and be for him
All they need to say and hear.
I found Bobby in my desk chair and Fanny in the customer chair. She was speaking so softly that I barely heard her. There was little chance that Bobby could, but he was smiling at her and nodding. I wondered what secret, what formula had brought them to this late stage of life together, not without problems, but without acrimony. Even if I could replicate that formula and even if it wasn’t considered black magick, I knew in my heart that it would never work on any other couple. It had to be as unique as the individuals themselves.
I explained the ingredients to them and printed out the spell. They would need to rewrite it in pencil before using it, and then recite it three times. If the benefits faded, they should recite it again and if that no longer worked, they could recite it up to ten times. Beyond that they would have to return to me. They spent the next twenty minutes browsing through the aisles. Bobby didn’t appear all that interested, but he followed dutifully behind his wife. They left with a tote bag full of remedies to treat everything from hiccups in humans to hairballs in cats.
By the time they left, the shop had filled with customers, and when the bus drove away at three p.m. sharp, I had a lot of empty shelves to restock and my register was flush with cash. I’d recently instituted a ten percent discount to encourage customers to use cash instead of plastic and it seemed to be working.
In the quiet that followed, it occurred to me, or more specifically to my stomach, that I hadn’t eaten lunch. I poked my head next door to see if Tilly had any leftovers from her teas. She always baked more than she needed, but since Merlin’s arrival, it was no longer a foregone conclusion that there would be anything remaining. I found her asleep, head down on one of her tea tables. A full day of baking and readings was becoming too much for her. She should think about cutting back. But whenever I broached the subject, she pooh-poohed my concerns. I’d recently walked in on a discussion between Morgana, Bronwen and her. They’d stopped talking the moment they realized I was there, but not before I’d heard Tilly say that she worried about the time when I’d be left on my own, adrift in the world without the anchor of family.
The following day, my mother had popped in when I was giving the familiars their dinner. Her cloud was an indistinct mixture of colors and she got straight to the point. “There’s no need to beat around the bush, Kailyn. You’re aware of our concerns for the future. We’d hoped that you and Travis wou
ld get married and have a family. But to be frank, what matters most is that you have a child or better yet, children, to continue the Wilde magickal genome as well as to provide you with family as you grow older.”
“You’re having this conversation with the wrong party,” I’d grumbled, realizing my mistake a second too late. “But don’t you dare say anything to Travis!”
“I had no such plans. If he’s not the one, then you need to move on.”
“I intend to,” I had assured her, although my heart still hoped that he’d come to his senses.
I left Tilly sleeping and found Merlin in the kitchen watching baseball on his iPad. I made a point of not asking when he’d found this new interest. All I wanted was a snack. He pointed out the three mini Linzer tarts he hadn’t eaten. I wrapped them in a napkin and headed back to my shop. Sashkatu was snoring on his window ledge, exhausted from the nonstop parade of tourists. I downed the tarts as if I hadn’t eaten in a month, and with the sugar swirling through my blood stream in the guise of energy, I was ready to call the Duncans.
Valerie answered my call and asked permission to put me on speaker so that Teddy could be a part of the conversation. I told them I needed to discuss certain matters pertaining to Ava, along with the fact that neither Travis nor I could make the trip up to see them in person in the foreseeable future. Valerie didn’t want to speak about private matters on the phone. Teddy was more receptive. “Privacy is an illusion these days,” he said. “Big Brother is the reality. But if my Val is more comfortable speaking to you in person, there is another possibility. What if we were to come down to the Glen?”