by Mara Webb
“Come on, let’s go and get some of this pear cake before Drew eats it all,” he said. We walked through the gate, down the path beside the contentious hedgerow and to the front door. It was opened before we had the chance to knock.
“A peacekeeper! Please come in, come in. I have tea, coffee, lemonade, and I think some fizzy water, but I don’t know how old that is!” The woman in the doorway looked to be of a similar age to Drew and had an enormous smile on her face; this had to be Beth.
“Let them in before you start hosting them, Beth,” Drew called from behind her. “They haven’t stepped inside yet, and you are bombarding them with drink options!”
“I heard a rumor there would be pear cake,” Ryder smiled.
“Oh! Drew, that was going to be a surprise!” she gasped, turning to slap at her husband’s knuckles. It was a scolding that neither of them took seriously. “It’s just cooling on the windowsill in the kitchen, but in ten minutes it will be perfect. Drew, show them through to the good room, will you?”
The good room? I turned to see Ryder who was already striding into the house, I followed behind and felt Beth give my upper arm a gentle rub as I walked past her.
“It’s so good to have young faces in this house, it’s why we help out with the hikers,” she smiled. “It keeps you young at heart!”
“This kind of hospitality could even get me interested in camping,” I laughed.
“Oh, it’s not so bad. I’ve been camping a time or two and I always pack as if I’m off to the moon! I’m a car camper, none of that backpacking business. I need an air bed, a machine that inflates it for me, a cooler full of good food and a bottle of wine for every night I’m away!” she laughed. “You can’t get that sort of luxury to fit in one bag.”
“You’re a woman after my own heart, Beth,” Ryder grinned. The ‘good room’ was at the back of the house and was bathed in a golden glow as sun burst through the windows in the ceiling. Drew was sitting on an armchair with a slice of pear cake already and he held his right index finger to his lips, indicating that I should keep it a secret. He winked mischievously as Beth entered the room behind me.
“We’ve got a few regulars out back today,” Beth announced, pointing through the large glass doors that allowed you to see out over an enormous grass field. I could see six tents and a couple of chickens. “The weather is so lovely; they are probably down on the beach enjoying the water. Not that beach obviously…” she trailed off.
I’d almost forgotten why we were here, but Beth’s comment had reminded me.
“You said you saw Wyatt and Cindy arguing?” I asked, lowering myself into a chair.
“Two days ago, yes,” Beth replied, picking up a knife. “It was— Drew Daniels, have you already taken a slice of this cake before the guests?”
“I can’t resist your baking, Beth. You know that,” he smirked.
“Anyway,” she continued. “Yes, we saw them fighting about something. He was really angry it seemed. We would have stayed to sneak a listen, but one of the hikers in the back yard needed our help with something so we got called away. When we went back to have another look at them, they were gone.”
Ryder met my gaze. We both knew that Wyatt had lied about when he’d last seen Cindy, what could they have been arguing about?
“Do you know who was staying on your land over the last week?” Ryder asked. “Maybe one of them overheard this argument too.”
“Oh yes, we keep a guest book for people to write in. It’s mostly in case travelers leave things behind by mistake and we have a contact number to call. You’d be amazed how many folks leave their passports on the grass!” Beth chuckled.
She passed Ryder and I a slice of cake on a floral plate, then walked over to a large book that was bound with string sitting on an end table. She passed it to Drew, who passed it to me. I opened it on my lap and began to search for the dates that corresponded with the last week. There had to be dozens of names here. We weren’t even sure when Cindy had been killed. This was going to be tough.
11
The CCTV tapes didn’t have audio. All we managed to gain from looking at the footage was that Wyatt and Cindy had definitely had a heated debate about something, but then Wyatt had gone back towards his house and Cindy had stayed at the edge of the cliff for another five minutes by herself before walking away.
The main problem was that the cameras were set up to monitor the hedge, that was their entire purpose. It was only by chance that the argument with Cindy and Wyatt was visible at all, in the top left of the screen you could faintly see a shape that was Wyatt in his signature overalls arguing with a slim blonde that Ryder identified as Cindy.
Using the gate of Wyatt’s house as a landmark, it seemed that the part of the cliff where Cindy fell was not going to have been in view of the CCTV system.
“Thanks for this cake, Beth, you never cease to amaze me,” Ryder smiled as we made for the door.
“Oh, nonsense. I’m sure this charming young woman of yours can rustle something up in a heartbeat that is better than anything I make,” Beth replied. “When food is made with love it just tastes better.”
“We’re not—” Ryder tried to say, but Beth had already turned around to yell something at her husband.
“Drew, you get yourself out in the truck and give these fine folks a ride into town would you. I can’t have them hiking around by themselves when there could be a killer on the loose. Although, we reckon that Wyatt is the killer, so you’re actually in more danger if you stay here…” Beth trailed off.
“I’m getting the keys, what did you think I was doing back here, sucking eggs?” Drew called back. “I notice how you didn’t so much as blink when I said I was walking to the café on my own, but now that you’ve made friends with these two it’s suddenly dangerous to be outside on your lonesome? You’re just angling for an invite to their wedding. I know you too well Elizabeth Daniels.”
Ryder looked at me awkwardly, I’m sure he was also growing tired of everyone assuming we were a couple. Perhaps word had gotten around that the peacekeeper was dating her guardian, and no one had caught wind of the new gossip about the new peacekeeper and the guardians being all swapped about. I had been there when it was announced, and I was struggling to keep up myself.
“It may seem like he is slowing down for the potholes, but he is just a slow driver,” Beth whispered to me.
“Stop trash talking me to the guests!” Drew teased.
“Get moving old man,” Beth ordered, giving Drew a peck on the cheek as he walked by.
“The truck is out this way, come on now,” Drew said, beckoning for us to follow him. The hour was growing late, and I felt as though we were no closer to figuring out what had happened than we had been this morning when we found Cindy’s body.
“Before you go!” Beth called, slowly chasing us across her own front lawn. “I made copies of the guest book for the last seven days, it should make life a little easier for you if you needed to contact anyone. It means you won’t have to keep coming up here to spend your afternoon with us!”
“Nowhere I’d rather spend time,” Ryder said, charm oozing out of him. “But thank you.” I took the papers from Beth, and we climbed into a truck that didn’t look roadworthy in the slightest.
“I won’t put the radio on if you don’t mind, it’s important that I can hear the engine,” Drew explained. He struggled to pull his door closed on the driver’s side and I looked at Ryder with concern.
“We probably won’t die in this car,” he teased. “You’ve already died once this week, no one can be that unlucky.”
“Don’t go into motivational speaking, you’re terrible at it,” I complained.
Ryder pulled the passenger side door opened and I climbed in. It was one long seat, like a booth in a diner, and I was sandwiched between Ryder and Drew as the engine spluttered to life. Okay, this was now officially more dangerous than just walking back home. I’d rather take my chances in the wilderness with a ki
ller on the loose than stay in this thing.
“Do you get travel sick or something?” Ryder whispered. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”
“I’m just nervous. Wes’s car barely made it over this terrain and his taxi is a little more—”
“Modern?” Drew finished, laughing as the car bounced up and down wildly as we rolled down the hill. “I don’t take offense to it, this car ain’t no spring chicken but it gets you from A to B with minimal hassle.”
One particularly large hole in the ground caused the whole car to tip as the front left tire sank into it. It was only for a second, and before we knew it all four of the wheels were back on the level ground, but in that instant, I had squealed and grabbed hold of Ryder’s hand.
As the moment passed and I realized we were still in one piece, I spotted my hand gripping onto his. He was squeezing back. His fingers were rough from rock climbing, calloused on a few of the fingertips from supporting all of his weight on thin ledges. The back of his hand was smooth though, the longer I stared the more freckles I could count on the skin.
I looked up at him, he was staring out of the window. Somehow it meant more that he had held my hand to comfort me, without trying to attach anything else to it. The connection between us became evident as I looked at the side of his head and one of the sun kissed streaks of gold in his hair glowed blue. I let go quickly, but it was too late.
It was only a couple of strands, but the blue was clear as day. I had a thick blue streak in my own hair from a surge of magic when Miller and I had kissed. This felt equally intimate, and I knew as soon as Effie or Kate saw it that they would know something was going on.
I asked to be dropped off at the edge of the beach by my house. Ryder, thankfully, suggested that he went home to shower off the day. We made plans to pick things up again tomorrow, ‘things’ meaning the investigation, not the hand holding.
I waved goodbye to Drew and Ryder, turned and almost collided with Effie who had crept up behind me. She had a wicked smile on her face, and I had no idea what was about to come out her mouth.
“Well, well, well,” she began. “You are a dark horse.”
“What are you talking about?” I mumbled, stepping onto the sand to make my way back to the house.
“To think that I was here to tell you all about my date,” she tutted.
“How have you had your date already? It’s late afternoon,” I complained.
“Jared said he might have to do a work think tonight so we rescheduled. He actually took me to a spot up on the cliffs and we had a picnic, a little shaded spot so we didn’t get sunburn. He’s thoughtful like that. Normally I’d complain about sitting on the floor for too long, but with him I didn’t seem to mind,” she smirked.
“Why do I get the feeling that you are about to tell me you got to first base?” I replied. “Feel free to keep some of the details to yourself.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” she gasped. “Have you ever seen a picture of Jared?”
“Up until this morning I don’t think I even knew he existed,” I reminded her.
“Picture Ryder, but covered in tattoos,” she said. That was quite an image. “He has his nose pierced, not a ring like mine, but one of those metal studs and I think he used to have his lip pierced but he took it out. Apparently, you aren’t allowed to have facial piercings for some service industry jobs and he travelled around Europe waiting tables and stuff.”
“Oh,” I nodded.
“Yeah,” she sighed. “I can still smell his cologne; his neck smells amazing…”
“You are wandering over the line of ‘TMI’,” I warned her, grinning as she laughed. “I assume you wanted to tell me about this date when Ryder wasn’t around.”
“They don’t get along, and I can’t pretend to know the full story, but they are not on speaking terms,” Effie said. “Anyway, enough about me. I want to hear all about your day.”
That wicked smile was back again as we approached the front door of the house. I reached into my bag, fumbling about for the cool touch of the metal key that would let me in. Effie raised a hand, no doubt to use her magic to burst through the door, but I made an ‘ah-ah’ sound to stop her in her tracks. I slid the key into the lock and twisted.
She had her own key, in fact everyone that worked in the café had their own key. I just wanted to set an example that we shouldn’t just be walking into my house. It was like screaming into the wind, though. Clearly Greta had adopted more of an open-door policy with her home, and I now lived in the same building that she had.
“Well, it turns out Ryder used to date Cindy Saco, the photographer. Did you know that?” I asked.
“Everyone knows that,” she replied, closing the door behind her and flicking on the hallway light. “Those two were really hot and heavy, then it just imploded for some reason, and it was done. What’s that expression? The brightest stars burn out the fastest?”
Something about the thought of Ryder being intimate with someone else made me feel strange. I was just thankful that it was Effie in my house right now and not Kate, Effie couldn’t read minds like her sister so I could keep my thoughts to myself.
“Well, it looks like she was killed,” I continued.
“What?!” Effie shrieked. We were in the living room now and Effie had slumped down onto my sofa, kicked off her sandals and was now reclining with her feet up on the foot stool. By all means, make yourself at home. “I just walked past the exhibit space she’d set up. The place is packed with people. If she was dead then there’s no way the show would still be going ahead, right?”
“Fitz and Brielle compared Cindy’s dental x-rays to ones they took of the body we found,” I explained. “They said it matched up.”
“Okay, well did anyone tell Cindy’s team? They are popping champagne bottles in there, it looked like a Drake album launch party,” she huffed. With a wiggle of her fingers the curtains that were pulled across the living room windows moved aside, letting the golden sun bathe her. Had I not even opened the curtains this morning?
“I should call Miller,” I muttered.
“First of all, yeah you probably should. B, you should just walk over there and see it for yourself, and three, Miller isn’t your guardian anymore.”
I considered pointing out that the naming convention she had adopted for that little rant-list had flipped several times, but I let it slide.
“Furthermore,” she continued. I flopped down into an armchair to hear her final point. “When are you going to tell me what happened between you and Ryder?”
“N— nothing happened,” I lied.
“Oh, you aren’t convincing anyone,” she laughed. “Look at that blue streak in your hair, look at it!” I let my eyes glance over at the hair that I’d let loose from the bun on top of my head, the thick blue stripe catching the sunlight. “You got that when you kissed Miller, right?”
“Did I tell you that?” I asked.
“I can’t remember, but up until recently Kate said that reading your mind was alarmingly easy, so she probably told me,” she smiled. “Anyway, what should I see on Ryder as I’m wandering past that truck earlier?”
I gulped, knowing exactly what she was about to say.
“Ryder had blue in his hair, it’s the modern ‘lipstick on your collar’, Sadie,” she said. “Did you and Ryder kiss? Did you break up with Miller? Or are you sowing your wild oats?”
“He kissed you?” The voice sent a shock through my body like I’d been in a car as it stopped suddenly. Miller was standing in the living room doorway looking at me with an expression I hadn’t seen before. He had planned to come over tonight, we were going to have dinner and he was staying over. I hadn’t even noticed the time.
“N—no it’s not—” I stuttered. Effie was looking at her feet and no doubt wishing she could be anywhere else. Miller took a step back and disappeared into the hallway. I stumbled onto my feet and hurried after him, but he was gone. The front door was wide open, and I co
uld see four large footprints in the sand. He’d shifted.
“Did you know he could do that?” Mabel asked. Of course, Mabel was here, why wouldn’t she be here? She was standing on the beach peering into the house, and I ran my fingers through my hair, pressing my hands against my scalp as I tried to calm myself. I hadn’t kissed Ryder, but if he had tried to kiss me today, I don’t think I would have stopped him. That’s the problem.
The blue streak in my hair darkened to a maroon color for a moment and the front door swung shut, slamming loudly as my magic closed it with Mabel still on the other side.
12
Some social skills can’t be taught. Mabel didn’t seem to have taken my door-slamming as a sign that I didn’t want to speak to her and began knocking almost immediately. Effie eventually took it upon herself to go and have a word with Mabel that it wasn’t a great time and to try again in the morning.
Sure enough, at first light, someone was knocking on my front door. Maybe it wasn’t Mabel though, maybe it was Miller to come and break up with me formally, or it was Ryder telling me that he had plans to run off with Cindy’s ghost and get married. Okay, that last one is ridiculous, but not so ridiculous that it couldn’t happen. Especially not here.
I was alone in the house, staring at my bedroom ceiling and thinking that I should go find the paint place and get a giant bucket of white, just to give everything a freshen up. At the thought, a thud echoed across the room and when I looked over I saw a can of paint and a roller sitting in the corner. Well, I guess I’m painting today then.
The knocking that rattled through the building reminded me that I wasn’t going to be having a leisurely day to take care of errands.