by Mara Webb
“Why wouldn’t she?” Darcy grinned.
“Your sister calls you after every sale and gives you a blow-by-blow of what every customer bought?” I asked, skeptically.
“Not every customer, just you,” she said. “It seems pretty normal that two sisters would talk about their favorite niece, doesn’t it?”
Wait, what?
16
Do you ever have conversations with a person and get the impression that they have glossed over the most important details? Or maybe tuned into a TV show you like and start to get the impression that you’ve missed a few episodes because you have no idea what’s going on? That was a feeling I was all too familiar with at this point, but even I was surprised by this revelation.
“Hang on,” I said, after several minutes of sentence false-starts where I said a word or two then floundered for the next thing to say. “So, you’re my aunt? Sage is my aunt? I have aunts?”
“You sure do,” Darcy grinned. “I don’t know why you are so blown away by this information, surely you’ve been told that you have family here.”
“I mean, it was vaguely mentioned that I had family in Hallow Haven, but no one has actually pointed people out to me, or given me addresses or whatever,” I ranted. “I have a cousin, or had a cousin, I mean she’s a ghost now and I still talk to her, so maybe ‘have’ is the right word, but then—”
“Sadie, take a breath,” Darcy laughed. “I know time is a-ticking, but if you don’t take in some oxygen, you’re gonna pass out.”
“Okay,” I said. Deep breath in through the nose, out through the mouth. Once more for good luck. “I have a cousin; her guardian was her father. I’ve met him, my Uncle Walter that is.”
“Good,” Darcy nodded. “Who else?”
“I think that’s it,” I replied. “We went to his house and he wasn’t there, Greta said both her parents lived there. My uncle is my mom’s brother.”
“And we are your father’s sisters,” Darcy nodded. “I was under the impression that you had a family tree painted on the walls of your dining room, no?”
“I mean, yeah, but I tend to eat on the couch, and I find the pictures scary, so I haven’t looked at them all that much. Now that you mention it, maybe that would have been useful,” I sighed. I really have just had my head in the clouds since I moved to the islands. All my life I’d dreamt of having a big family and even when I was told that they existed, I hadn’t put in the effort to track them all down.
Outside the sound of ringing bells pierced the air, announcing that it was four o’clock.
“Darcy, are they really going to try and kill me?” I asked. “I don’t understand this place, I haven’t really been kept as a prisoner. They’ve let me wander out of the house I woke up in, no one had been following me. Maybe I’ve made it all up from nothing, because the healer said that my presence on the island made me a good option for the sacrifice, no one has said anything directly to me about it.”
“I’ve heard them talking,” Darcy said, her expression suddenly solemn. “Once you were found on the beach and they had revived you, they decided it had to be you. There’s no use locking you up, but they have been following you, it’s worrying that you haven’t noticed!” She chuckled briefly, but then pointed at her front door. “They can’t get in here, but your whereabouts will have been reported to the elders.”
“Will you get in trouble?” I asked. This prompted laughter.
“Trouble? Me? No one can see me; how can they punish me?”
“What should I do? I can’t leave here without Miller, but I don’t know where he is,” I said.
“Everyone will be gathering at the town square soon, your best chance of locating him is to just grab him there,” Darcy explained. “You won’t have long, I’m sure they anticipate that you will try and make a break for it.”
“You said something about lucky heather, right? Will that help me find Holly’s killer?” I asked.
“Hmm,” Darcy paused. “When you have a fifty-fifty chance of making the right decision, for example whether you should turn left or right at a fork in the road, the heather would help you turn those odds into more of a sixty-forty split. Does that make sense?”
“I guess. I’ll take any advantage I can get at this point,” I grinned.
“Then let me find you a good bundle, something you can easily stuff into your… ah, you don’t have pockets in that dress. I’ll find a chain or something so you can wear it like a necklace.” Darcy wandered out of the room and left me sitting alone, looking around the kitchen at the decorations. A photograph caught my eye.
I peered down the hallway that Darcy had just walked down, checking to see if she was on her way back yet. The coast was clear. I stepped closer to the picture frame on the wall, recognizing Sage immediately. I could see The Sand Witch behind her, Darcy standing to her right and my adoptive mother between them both.
Movement behind me made me flinch, and I darted back across the kitchen quickly. I picked up the teacup and took a sip, trying to mask the adrenaline rush that was flooding my body with ideas. They knew my adoptive mother. More importantly, my adoptive mother knew them. Should I say something?
“Here you go, one lucky heather necklace,” Darcy said, slipping the jewelry over my head. I lifted it up to inspect the dried flowers.
“Thank you,” I smiled. I let the silence hang. Did she know what I’d just seen? If I didn’t bring it up, would she mention it? My adoptive mother, the woman that had raised me by herself, was in a photograph with two women that just so happen to be my father’s sisters. Why was there so much secrecy? Where was my father now?
“What’s on your mind?” Darcy finally asked. “Your mind isn’t in this room with you, it’s a million miles away.”
She was right.
“It’s a lot to process. Two aunts? A few months ago, I didn’t think I had any family at all, now here I am, pretty much tripping over relatives,” I sighed. “Why was I sent away?”
It was such a colossal question that I was surprised to hear it escape from my lips, but I’d said it now. There was no taking it back. Darcy’s eyes briefly darted to the picture of her, Sage, and my adopted mom. I pretended not to notice.
“It’s not my place to say,” she finally answered. “I know that sounds like I’m trying to dodge the question, but it wouldn’t be right for me to speak on behalf of other people.”
“So, who will tell me? Who should I be asking?” I said, my tone now curt.
“You’ve been to Hallow Haven before, you remember that don’t you?” she asked. I nodded. I’d been a guest at a funeral, my adopted mom had brought me along and I had hated the place. Miller had been invited to that funeral too, it was the reason he ended up moving here. I couldn’t even remember who’d died. “I thought they might tell you then, but…”
“Who? Who might tell me?” I demanded.
“Your parents,” she replied. “They were there that day; you were surrounded by your family and we had to keep our distance. I know your dad is just waiting for the right time.”
“Do I get to know about this mysterious timeline? Or should I just stay in the dark and let everyone else make decisions for me?” I complained.
“Sadie, there is a lot that you don’t know, and I understand why you find that frustrating, but it’s for your own good,” Darcy said, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. “You need to focus on the problems that are lying ahead of you tonight and worry about everything else once you are out of harm’s way.”
She was right, of course, but that didn’t make it any less difficult. Somewhere a small dog was yapping wildly, and it brought me out of my thoughts and back into the room with Darcy, my Aunt Darcy.
“When will people be gathering in the square?” I asked. “Will people be there now? Will Miller be there?”
“I don’t know about Miller specifically, but I think they are serving food ahead of the… event,” she grimaced. The event was a reference to the part of the ni
ght that involved me dying, again. I couldn’t wait to tell Effie and Kate about this adventure, not least the part where I had drowned and been brought back only to be threatened with death again. Kate would find that pretty funny, I was sure of it.
“Okay, well I will go there and find him, then Kane, then I’ll be leaving. I haven’t figured out that part yet, but I’m sure I’ll think of something. How do I contact you once I’m gone?” I asked.
“Sage has a way,” Darcy smiled. “I will be with you in the square, keeping an eye on you.”
“Like a guardian angel?” I teased.
“Sure, why not,” she laughed. Darcy wrapped her arms around me, and I reciprocated. I was surprised that she was so solid after having seen her walk-through objects multiple times. Greta was a ghost, and I couldn’t hug her like this. What was Darcy? “Be safe out there.”
“I’ve already died once this week,” I said. “I’m not looking for a repeat performance. Unless of course a different person appears once you’ve died a second time.”
“Oh, you do not want to meet that guy,” she muttered. I laughed, assuming that she was joking, but the look on her face was serious. The less time I spent dwelling on that the better. I walked over to the front door, unlocked it, and stepped out onto the street. I took one last look at Darcy’s face, wondering if I would ever see her again. Maybe she was thinking the same thing about me.
A flock of birds had been pecking at the ground outside the house, the sound of my approaching footsteps caused them to race up to the sky in a fluster. I thought about the phrase ‘dead man walking’ and how the idea of a condemned man, or woman in this case, walking to their own doom was a twisted one.
Were it not for the fact that Miller was on this island, then I would probably be walking in the opposite direction and trying to escape this place. If I did that now, then what sort of life would I have? It was very much a ‘damned if I do, damned if I don’t’ situation. Every step I took was taking me closer to the town square where danger lay in wait for me.
I was following the sound of revelry, each cobbled street brought greater volume as I approached the music and chatter.
A vision struck me. It was a memory of crouching in the shrubbery with Miller and Fleur, we were talking to each other as we spied on Holly’s husband, Curtis. Why was I remembering this? It had to have significance, if I was thinking about it just as I was turning the final corner to get to the festivities, but what did it mean?
What had we been doing there? What had we seen? The other woman. We had watched Curtis kissing someone else, his mistress, and when we had knocked on the door, we had heard the chaos as she tried to get out of the house unseen.
I had only caught a glimpse of her, her silhouette in profile, but maybe we should have asked more questions about her identity before we had left Curtis the first time. Another woman could have a motive to kill Holly if she was seen as competition. I didn’t think Curtis was much of a catch, personally, but maybe his lover thought he was worth killing for.
I blinked the images away, and saw the crowds gathered in the square. I recognized the back of Miller’s head; he stood a few inches taller than the woman around him and there was no mistaking that hair. It was only then that I realized that I had no idea what Kane looked like. When he had come to the café to go through our finances with Effie, I hadn’t been there.
I could see a few men from where I was standing, but how would I know which one was Kane? I had the lucky heather, so maybe that would help me out. Was that wishful thinking? Probably, but I was almost out of time to be weighing up the options.
Holly had been strangled and she had fought back against her attacker, it had been her final act. I spotted Len as he approached the hog roast, he was currently the only other suspect I had, other than a mystery woman, but on an island that was predominantly female that wasn’t helpful in narrowing things down.
I glanced back at Miller and saw that short woman staring in my direction, his fiancé was clearly unhappy that I was here. I felt for the silver clam necklace on my chest and held it in my fingertips. Miller had given me this, and I wasn’t leaving this place without him. Finding Holly’s killer was the key to getting out of this mess.
I had to take a chance.
17
“Len,” I said. I had walked up behind him and spoken before he’d seen me, causing him to recoil at the sudden sound.
“Sadie,” he replied. He was looking around nervously, and I wondered if I’d been too quick to jump to the conclusion that it was Curtis’s mistress that had killed Holly. Why did Len look so on edge?
“I need to speak to you.” I gestured for him to step away from the food area so that we could converse, he followed reluctantly.
“You shouldn’t be here, it’s dangerous for you now. Why haven’t you used your magic to…?” he asked, making his hands mime out a small explosion.
“I need to find out what happened to Holly, that’s why,” I answered. “Did you know that Curtis was seeing someone else?”
The question seemed to have come as a surprise, which made me feel as though I wasn’t going to get any useful information out of him.
“I didn’t know that. I mean, he’s cheated more times than anyone could count, but they are usually one-night events, if you get what I mean” he sighed. “Do you think that’s why Holly was… did he kill her so he could be with this other woman?”
“I don’t think so, but I think maybe his girlfriend had something to do with it. Call it a hunch,” I explained. “If you had to take a guess at who she might be, what would you say?” I watched as Len gave it some thought. He appraised me, as if trying to assess whether or not my comments were an attempt at misdirection.
From his pocket he retrieved a small case; inside were a pair of glasses and a polishing cloth. He idly cleaned the spectacles as he continued to consider my question.
“He’s a carpenter, the only one on the island,” he began. “That’s not necessarily helpful, but it means that he is going in and out of people’s homes and businesses all the time. He would have had plenty of opportunity to sneak around with someone under the guise of working for them. When did this relationship start?”
“I think it’s recent, he gave the impression that he didn’t begin a relationship with anyone else until after he found out about you and Holly,” I said.
“If he is claiming that he only found out about us when he followed us up to the cliffs, then he’s known for a few weeks at most,” Len sighed.
“Do you happen to know where he was working around that time?” I asked. It was a long shot, but Curtis seemed like the kind of guy that liked to brag about everything, so maybe we could work backwards to find out who he was spending time with.
“I know he was working for one of the elders, he all but had it printed in the newspaper,” Len said.
“Are there many elders? Do you know which one he was with?” I pressed.
“Oh, I know which one he was with,” he replied. He had finally finished cleaning his glasses and put them onto his face, pressing the bridge up the slope of his nose. Once in place, the glass was alive with the flickering reflection of the flames behind me. The mirrored image of the hog roast made it look as if his eyes were ablaze.
I turned around to look back at Daphne as she laughed along with some of the customers as she served up portions of pork and ale.
“Daphne lives in the house with one of the elders, doesn’t she?” I mused aloud.
“Yeah, I think Curtis was working on the attic or something. I think he was improving the storage or increasing the insulation, it sounded boring so when people tried to tell me about it, I just tuned it out,” he said.
I stepped away from Len, and closer to Daphne. She was wearing an apron over her long-sleeved dress, the same one I’d seen her in earlier, only now she had pushed the fabric up to her elbows so that she could serve food without the risk of getting it dirty. Even from a dozen or so feet away I could see the s
cratches on her arms.
There was a moment of calm, like the quiet before the storm. I saw Daphne notice me, then look down at her own arms to see what I was looking at. I watched the panic flash across her face, just for a second, as she realized that I knew what she’d done.
The pig over the fire was tied with butcher’s twine, the same thing I’d seen her use to tie the legs of a chicken with that morning. That could easily be the same type of twine that had been wrapped around Holly’s neck. Daphne must be the woman that Curtis was having an affair with.
How was I supposed to prove anything? I couldn’t just accuse Daphne, could I? She was trying to avoid making eye contact with me now, looking away at the customers that were huddled around waiting for food.
“You think it was Daphne?” Len asked, watching me stare in her direction. “You think she killed Holly?”
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to think,” I admitted. I looked down at the heather on a chain around my neck. I needed to do something bold, but what if I was wrong?
“Sadie, can you come this way?” a voice asked. It was a calm request, the same way your doctor might call you in from a waiting room or a waiter would show you to your table. I turned to see who had spoken to me; it was Bryony, the older woman who had talked to me at breakfast.
“Why?” I asked defensively.
“Surely you know by now,” she said. Behind her I could see rows of faces looking at me, expressions neutral. The chatter had died down and I hadn’t noticed it. A stage in the center of the square had been adorned with flowers, bells for ringing and a pyre. Did they really expect that I would willingly lie down on that thing?
“No,” I whispered. “Don’t do this. You don’t have to do this.”
“I don’t want to, but it’s part of our tradition. Don’t make this harder than it has to be,” Bryony whispered. She wrapped a hand around my wrist and tried to pull me in the direction of the stage, the crowd parting to allow us to travel through. I tried to dig my heels against the cobbles, my bare feet protesting at the pain of the stone.