Adventure Magic (Tabby Kitten Mystery Book 3)

by Constance Barker

  “Did you believe him? When he told you that?”

  “No,” Mira said gravely, shaking her head. “Not even a little bit. I was just being stubborn, I guess. I gave him the bracelet Max gave me, told him to give it back to Max until he was ready to really be with me.”

  She took her hands away from Thea and let her head fall into her open palms.

  “That’s why I haven’t talked. I... I felt so guilty over not listening to Tony, not believing him.”

  Suddenly, she was crying, voice thick with tears.

  “If I had, I mean... who knows? Things might have been different. Tony might still be alive.”

  “No,” Thea cut in insistently. “That’s not true at all, Mira. What happened to Tony is not your fault. And I’m sure Max knows that too.”

  Still, no matter how Thea consoled her, Mira continued crying, unable to stem the tears as fast as they were flowing.

  Chapter 25

  When Thea first entered the interrogation room, Blaine stood behind the two-way mirror to watch her in action. He couldn’t help but be impressed by how Thea handled herself in the conversation. Before not long at all, she had gotten Mira opening up, revealing all kinds of new information and insights into the case they hadn’t had before.

  After a few minutes of Blaine’s watching the exchange, however, Mira broke down into inconsolable tears, and Blaine started to feel a little uncomfortable looking on as Thea rapidly switched into soothing caretaker mode.

  He left the viewing room and addressed the nearest uniformed officer, hooking a thumb at the interrogation room door.

  “Don’t let anyone interrupt them in there,” Blaine ordered.

  “Sure thing, detective,” said the officer.

  “I’ll be in my office when they get out, or if they need anything.”

  With that, Blaine retreated to his desk, closing the door so he could get a little peace and quiet.

  This case was a well of endless paperwork. He had to take a lot of care, making sure that he personally did all of the filing and produced all the relevant reports himself. He couldn’t risk letting any of the mundane officers encounter any information that might arouse their suspicions as to the nature of the case—or the real identity of its victim.

  As such, he had a whole stack of files waiting for him on his desk.

  “Now’s as good a time as any to get to these,” he mused aloud, tackling the nearest file.

  Under normal circumstances, such a considerable volume of paperwork might have made him cross-eyed with boredom. But today, he couldn’t help but feel relieved at the distraction.

  Lately, he’d been absorbed with this disagreement that had been developing with Thea. Anytime he was with her, he could feel his bear instincts rise up like a tide inside of him, insisting that he protect her with every scrap of his being.

  And anytime he wasn’t with her, the feeling was even more severe. Worrying, obsessing over what might be happening to her in his absence.

  It didn’t help that she did seem so skilled at getting herself into scrapes with dangerous murderers. Her interrogative nature and natural detective skills were part of what made her so attractive to him. But they had some nasty side effects, as well.

  Blaine knew that his protective urges were well-intended, even natural. But Thea seemed to resent them. Why was that the case?

  “Think about it from her perspective,” he muttered to himself, no longer pretending to pay any attention at all to the report he’d just skimmed for the third time in a row.

  Well, of course, she doesn’t see it as me centering her safety, Blaine considered. She thinks it means I doubt her abilities.

  Blaine didn’t not trust Thea’s abilities. He knew she was a witch who came from a powerful magical family—two powerful magical families, as a matter of fact. And that she was growing more self-possessed of her own powers every day.

  He wanted to see her come into her own as a considerable force, capable of taking care of herself if anyone ever threatened her.

  But also, he wanted to be there with her whenever danger came around. Just to make sure.

  “All right,” he groaned. “I can see why she might think I doubt her.”

  He sighed, setting down the file he’d been holding and rubbing at his eyes, which felt suddenly tired.

  Just then, the officer he’d positioned on the interrogation room door stuck his head in.

  “Detective Coburn? They’re done in the room. I think one of the ladies wants to talk to you?”

  “Sure,” Blaine said. “Show her in.”

  He turned to straighten his papers. What greeted him first was the wafting cloud of jasmine perfume, cloyingly strong to his sensitive bear nose.

  “Mira,” he greeted, taking just another second to make sure the tall stack of files wasn’t about to tumble over. “How are you feeling?”

  He turned and, to his surprise, saw Thea standing in the office doorway.

  Thea raised one eyebrow. “Mira?”

  “Sorry,” Blaine said quickly. “It’s just... I guess I smelled her perfume on you and got confused.”

  Thea chuckled. “Your olfactory senses are very important to you shifters, aren’t they? Maybe I should choose a special, signature scent of my own.”

  “Please don’t,” Blaine urged, wrinkling his nose in distaste. “It’s very strong for me.”

  Thea couldn’t help but smirk as she stepped into the room and closed the door. “I want to give you a rundown of everything Mira told me. Do you have a minute?”

  “Of course.”

  Blaine nodded and gestured for Thea to sit down. She did so, then summarized all that she’d heard from Mira in the interrogation room—including how the difficulties in her relationship with Max had been caused by Mira’s wanting to go public, and how Tony had tried to encourage Mira to stay with Max.

  All of this, Blaine had heard already, but it was helpful for him to take it in again, reprocessing it all.

  “So what does this mean?” he finally asked once Thea had caught him up to speed.

  Thea shrugged. “I’m still chewing it all over. In the meantime, Mira’s pretty distraught still. I was planning to give her a ride back home.”

  She paused, watching Blaine warily, as though half expecting him to insist on coming along.

  But Blaine only nodded, smiling faintly. “That’s a good idea. I know she’s in good hands with you.”

  Thea smiled gratefully, rising and drawing closer. When she was near enough, Blaine reached for her and pulled her close, hugging her tightly, then leaning down for a gentle kiss.

  When they parted, he looked directly into her eyes. “I love you,” he said, voice soft but firm.

  Thea let out a faint, pleased noise and rocked forward to kiss Blaine again.

  Chapter 26

  Thea drove Mira back to her house. Mira got out of the car and went inside.

  Watching her best friend’s younger sister go inside, Thea couldn’t help but let her mind wander back to the case.

  She didn’t think Mira was capable of committing the murder. She wondered if perhaps the fact that Mira happened to be related to her best friend could be clouding her judgment.

  “There’s got to be something I’m missing,” she muttered.

  As she drove she thought deeply about this. She believed Mira, but she wasn’t immune to trickery. However, she really did think it was likely that Mira was telling the truth.

  If Mira was involved in the murder, she would have a good reason to lie, but Thea didn’t think that was likely to be the case.

  Thea’s thoughts drifted to the other suspects in the case as she drove. Trees passed her through the windows, and she made careful, slow turns along the town streets.

  She kept going back to Ada. The old woman was too frail to have completed the attack on her own. However, that doesn’t mean she couldn’t have found help.

  Ada certainly had reason to dislike Tony. Her previous injuries from them would no
t be so easily forgotten.

  The rift between the wolf shifters and the fox shifters ran deep. It made Ada an obvious suspect.

  However, Thea knew that Ada was not her main suspect either. With Ada’s old age, unless there was an entire conspiracy, it’s unlikely that she was the killer.

  Her mind then landed on Max. She thought about the love triangle that had occurred in their investigation. Max, Tony, and Mira certainly had a tangled web together.

  If Mira and Tony were secretly seeing one another while Mira was also seeing Max, it could drive one brother to turn against the other. It was possible that Tony could have been the victim of jealousy and the actions of a man with a broken heart.

  However, this theory was all predicated on the idea that Mira and Tony had a secret relationship. Mira said that Tony approved of her and Max’s relationship, and there was no love triangle, as the others had suspected.

  Thea sighed. She believed Mira, and she knew that believing Mira meant Max’s name was also cleared.

  With each of her three main suspects eliminated, Thea began to feel hopeless.

  She stared out to the road in front of her, as if willing the answer to appear in the street. She knew there had to be something obvious that she wasn’t seeing. There were always clues. She didn’t understand why the pieces didn’t fit together.

  She took a deep breath, trying to soothe herself. As she did, she got a giant whiff of a flowery scent.

  It took her a moment to identify it. The scent was floral and full and warm.

  Jasmine, she thought to herself. She realized she was smelling Mira’s perfume.

  She smiled to herself. If the scent was this strong to her even after Mira left the car, she couldn’t imagine what it was like for Blaine.

  The bear shapeshifter was sensitive to smells. The animal part of him could pick up just about anything.

  She knew it was probably the same for the wolves. With their canine noses, she was sure that Mira’s perfume would be overwhelming. It may even be enough to throw them off of more delicate scents.

  She wondered how Max could handle it. She thought that it was likely something like being snow blind after going inside on a bright wintry day.

  Snow blindness, she thought. You might not be able to tell who’s really in front of you.

  The gears in Thea’s mind were turning. She thought about Blaine’s mix-up with her and Mira earlier.

  Shapeshifters weren’t like other people. While many people relied almost solely on their eyes to identify someone, shapeshifters were equally dependent on their noses.

  So anyone Mira had interacted with would have smelled strongly of jasmine—including Tony. Someone might have attacked Tony thinking he was Mira.

  No, that didn’t make sense. Even clouded by scent, the killer should have been able to tell a male wolf shifter apart from a female fox shifter.

  But it would have been easy enough to mistake one male wolf shifter for another. Especially under the fog of jasmine perfume.

  Then, the pieces finally clicked into place.

  Thea immediately pulled her car over. She grabbed her phone and quickly dialed Blaine’s number.

  “Thea? Is something wrong?” he asked. He didn’t expect her to call him so soon after her departure.

  “Nothing’s wrong. I’m fine,” she quickly explained, trying to reassure him. “But I need you to do something for me.”

  “Yeah. Anything. What’s the matter?”

  “I need you to meet me outside of the woods in twenty minutes.”

  “Outside of the woods? Sure, but can I ask why?” he asked. He was already rushing to meet her there.

  “I think I’ve figured out who the killer is.”

  “What? Who is it? How did you figure it out?”

  “I’ll explain more when we get there,” she said, practically breathless with anticipation. “But I don’t think Tony was the target.”

  “You don’t think Tony was the target?” Blaine repeated. “Who was the target then?”

  “I think that the victim was supposed to be Max. Tony was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  And smelling strongly of jasmine.

  “So if we find who wanted to kill Max...”

  “We’ll find the killer.”

  “And we can confirm it by checking who has a bad case of poison ivy,” Blaine chimed in. “I have a feeling I know who fits the bill.”

  “I think so too,” Thea said. “I have to get back on the road. I’ll meet you there.”

  Thea hung up the phone and placed it back in the seat next to her before driving off. She went as fast as the speed limits in the sleepy town allowed to get to her destination.

  She knew that once they got to the woods, they would be able to find the killer and bring them to justice.

  She gripped the steering wheel tightly. Her heart thumped in her chest. She wondered if the shapeshifters would be able to tell how nervous she was when she was set to arrive.

  She just hoped she could get there before someone else got hurt.

  Chapter 27

  Thea pulled up to the edge of the woods. The trees made a seemingly impenetrable wall, separating the road from the wolf commune within. Though the trees usually looked warm and welcoming, now they loomed large and seemed almost sinister.

  She saw Blaine, already out of his car, waiting for her arrival.

  She got out of her car and nodded at him. He gave her a small smile in return.

  “Are you ready for this?” he asked.

  Thea took a deep breath to steady herself. She went over to Blaine and took his hand. She smiled up at him.

  “I’m ready,” she reassured him. “Let’s do this.”

  They walked into the woods together hand-in-hand. They quickly found the path they needed to take.

  The dirt path wound through the woods. It was man made, but a bit overgrown. In the dirt, they could see footprints, shoe marks, and wolf paw prints all alongside one another.

  Thea wondered if any of the prints could belong to the killer.

  They followed the path to the wolf-shifters’ commune. Standing outside of the commune was Gregory and Max. The two stopped their conversation as soon as Blaine and Thea approached.

  Gregory and Max looked at Thea and Blaine suspiciously.

  “To what do we owe the pleasure of this visit?” Max asked, his eyes darting between the two. They weren’t expecting visitors. Though Max was friendly to outsiders, the others weren’t so open-minded. This would especially be the case after Tony’s death.

  Thea looked at Blaine before looking back at Max and Gregory. She knew that wolf shifters were powerful, but she felt more confident with Blaine by her side. Still, she couldn’t help but feel a little fearful about what would happen if their conversation didn’t go well.

  “Well, I realized something,” Thea said, finding her voice.

  “Oh,” Gregory said, standing tall over her. “And what did you realize?”

  “Well, it’s about Mira’s perfume.”

  Both of the wolf-shifters in front of Thea tensed.

  “Now, if you think she did something, you’re wrong,” Max said defensively. “Mira would have never done that to Tony.”

  Blaine shook his head. “Not Mira. Someone else.”

  Max frowned and cocked his head. “Someone else? What on earth does that mean?”

  Thea chimed back in. “It means that we don’t think Tony was the original target. You were.”

  Max’s eyes got wide. “I was the original target? But why? I don’t understand.”

  “I think we have to start from the beginning. Then things will come together,” Thea explained.

  “Yes, of course,” Max said.

  “Well, unfortunately I think that Mira does have something to do with it, but not in the way that you think. I think that it was the smell of her perfume that confused the killer.”

  “What?”

  “When Tony was in the woods, I think tha
t the killer thought they were smelling you. However, by the time they killed Tony, it was too late. They had to run off fast. And they did so through a patch of poison ivy.”

  Gregory rolled his eyes. “Do you have any actual proof, or is this all wild speculation?”

  Blaine spoke next. “We’ll have proof when we find the person with the poison ivy rash.”

  “They were going off of smell? So that means...” Max’s eyes grew wide as he put the pieces together. “The killer was one of us. Another wolf.”

  “Don’t listen to these guys, Max,” Gregory said. “They don’t know anything. They’re just outsiders trying to get us to turn on each other.”

  “If our theory is nonsense, then you wouldn’t mind proving to us that you don’t have a poison ivy rash, do you?” Blaine said. He was using his cop voice to encourage Gregory to comply.

  Thea tensed. She feared the situation may soon escalate.

  Gregory looked surprised and then laughed. It was a deep, unhappy laugh.

  “Fine. If you’re so curious, I’ll clear my name right now.”

  Gregory hiked up his pant legs. He turned around so that everyone could see the front and back of his legs.

  “See?” he said. “No ivy rash.”

  Thea looked at him quizzically. “Can we see your shoulders?”

  He looked taken aback. “My shoulders? What do you need to see my shoulders for? I already showed you I don’t have the rash.”

  “If you were running through as a wolf, the plant would have brushed your shoulders, not your legs.”

  Gregory paled. Max looked confused.

  “Gregory, just show them. The sooner you do, the sooner we can find who did this.”

  There was a pause where no one did anything. Realization passed over Max’s face.

  “You can’t show us, can you?” Thea asked. “You know it’s there. We all know it’s there.”

  “Gregory? What are they talking about? Just show us already.”