“No! I don’t need to hear any more.” I waved both hands in the air. I patted my belly, which was calm and flat, even after all the food. “I’m pretty good at the general healing spell. That should be enough. I use it on myself all the time. Can I use that rune to do the spell on you?”
She carefully pulled her purse into her lap and dug out the rune to hold out to me. “Sure. You don’t have to hold the rune, but it will help, especially while we’re getting the hang of using it. And perform it like you would for yourself, but keep your intentions on me while holding the rune.”
“You were up until all hours of the night, learning how to use this, and that is all the instruction I get?”
“There’s a lot more to it than that to make it the most efficient, but this should get the job done. I could explain more, but I think I’m going to barf.” She covered her mouth and started making little erping noises like Patagonia made before coughing up a hair ball.
I grabbed the rune in both hands and cleared my mind for the spell. In a split second, Patagonia was pressed into my calf, and I cast the spell. The aura of my magic flared up around me. Setting my thoughts on Vanessa, I felt the spell slip away from me and into both the rune and her. It was easier than I had expected, like slipping down a slide into the pool. Perhaps I was fueled by all the sugar or my earlier healing, but it didn’t feel nearly as exhausting as I had expected.
My eyes were still closed when Vanessa let out a belch that made the whole room smell like frosting.
“Oh man, I feel so much better.” She rubbed her stomach, and I swore it looked smaller than it had a few minutes earlier.
“First off, you are so gross sometimes. Secondly, did you learn a lesson?”
“Yes, I did. I am never letting this rune out of my sight. I can eat like a cow, and you can fix me right up.”
I slapped the rune into her outstretched hand. “That is the wrong lesson.”
Patagonia sauntered around the office, sniffing papers and rubbing up against the corner of the desk. She would give the room a thorough inspection. I followed her and trailed a hand along the filing cabinets. The thought of going through them one by one seemed overwhelming. Maybe I could find an angle to explore and start there.
“What do you think all the ‘special supplies’ were about?” I gave finger quotes around the words to give them emphasis.
“I don’t know. Kickbacks maybe? Black market?”
“But Ellen said she had all the paperwork, and is dragon-heart wine illegal? And why do so many mage products have dragon in the name?”
“Dragons are cool. I don’t think dragon-heart wine has anything to do with dragons directly. It’s just a cool name. The wine isn’t illegal, just hard to get. Though paperwork could be forged for the ingredients Ellen gets. Maybe someone is stealing it or faking it then selling it as real and making a profit.”
“And maybe Ned got a cut, and he brought supplies to specific stores, and if they didn’t agree to take the supplies, then he kicked them out and got new stores to move in? That works, but it’s kinda convoluted.”
Vanessa’s and my phones each chirped with the sound of an incoming text. I groaned. “I can’t look. It’s probably Tiffany.”
Vanessa pulled out her phone. “Yep. She says that she expects the bachelorette party to start at eight p.m. on the dot and wants us to bring something special to drink. Well, we definitely have that covered with a bottle of the wine. Don’t tell her we have more than one. I’m going to save the other two for something special. I’m worried that having Tiffany around will sour the wine.”
“I understand. Where is the party? Oh, and tell her that we are together so she doesn’t harass me about not responding.”
Vanessa tapped out the message, quietly saying words as she wrote. Then my phone sounded again as she sent out the group message.
I continued to poke around the office, pulling out a drawer and finding an old-school set of books. Most places used computer accounting programs, but he was a mage and probably found paper and pencil to be more reliable. I flipped through one of the books and tried to get oriented to his method, as it certainly wasn’t what we were taught in school. He seemed to use his own system, but because of the nature of the business, it wasn’t too complicated since the money coming into the business appeared to be only rent. Most of the entries were around a thousand dollars. Expenses were low and clearly marked. Nothing stood out as suspicious.
I would need to sort through it more and see if anything weird showed up. My years in auditing should make this the easiest part of the job. I hoped at least.
Our phones chimed, but I ignored it, letting Vanessa handle the texts. She was my secretary, so why not?
“No. No. No. Tiffany is out of her mind.”
“Good news?” I teased.
“Apparently the bachelorette party location is our job?”
I blew a raspberry. “That’s ridiculous. I’m not having it at my place.”
“No. She expects, and I quote, a fun place to dance and drink, and it has to be nice.”
“Or what? She’ll kick us out of the bridal party?” After a few moments, my cool exterior dissolved. I didn’t want to spend the rest of the week fighting with Tiffany about everything. “It’s a Tuesday in October, someplace has to be free. Plus, and I hate to admit this, so never ever repeat it, the wedding is a little bit of a big deal, and I think some place will want to host the party. But we aren’t paying. Put it on her parents’ tab.”
Vanessa looked no happier about the decision to help but clearly agreed that it wasn’t worth the fight. “I’ll let her know.”
I had been hearing the rattling of papers, but just then, it clicked in my head what was going on. I rounded the desk, and there was Patagonia, on the floor, systematically shredding a check. The ground was freckled with small squares of paper.
I snatched it from her and only sustained a minor scratch on my hand. Half of the check was gone, though the upper left corner with a name and address had survived. “Dang it! You ate someone’s rent check, you flea bag?”
Patagonia narrowed her eyes and gave a warning meow before lying down to lick her nether regions clean.
The address that showed was for the apartment building behind the strip mall. I could pop over and ask for a replacement check and use the encounter to ask some questions of the tenant, a Linda Harris.
“Oh great, she wants it on the Avenue. That severely limits our options.” Vanessa flopped down in the desk chair and let out a rather loud and raucous fart that sounded like a balloon leaking air. “Oops, excuse me.”
I pinched my nose shut and backed up to the open door, imagining how awful it was going to smell. “Why don’t you make some phone calls while I get a replacement check?” Patagonia raced out past me, coughing and wheezing as she went.
***
The apartment building behind the strip mall was as boring a structure as I had ever seen. It was a two-story rectangle. The doors to the apartments opened straight to the outside. There appeared to be only about a dozen units, and I probably needed to take the time to question all the occupants, but I could schedule that for another time or day.
I knocked on the closest bottom unit that faced the back of the mall. The charms at my wrist sounded like little bells, and I took a moment to admire them. I was running a finger around a pair of dice that Thomas had picked out after I told him a story about catching a group of guys cheating at a craps table when a voice startled me.
“Can I see it?” The door to the apartment was open, and inside was a little white girl. By white, I meant not only her general ethnicity but rather everything about her. She had a complexion so pale that she had a blue cast to her skin. Her hair was a startling white blond. She didn’t immediately appear to even have eyebrows and lashes until I got my bearings and looked closer. She wore pink pajamas covered in hearts, and she clutched a pink stuffed unicorn to her chest.
She looked to be seven or eight, or at least
that was my rough guess with zero knowledge about children. I could probably be off a few years either way and wouldn’t know it.
I extended my wrist to her, and she touched the charms, leaning in close enough that I could feel her cold breath on my wrist. I shivered a little as her fingers grazed my skin.
Finally, she had seen enough and stepped back to watch me. Patagonia walked in the door and rubbed against her side, looking like a panther in comparison to the little girl’s small frame. Patagonia was not overly friendly with most people but seemed to instantly warm to others.
The little girl giggled, and when Patagonia stood on her back legs to lick the little girl’s nose, the girl screeched in pleasure, a warm-pink color coming to her cheeks.
I smiled. “I’m looking for Linda Harris.”
She reached out and petted Patagonia. “That’s my mom. Why?”
I peered into the apartment, hoping to see an adult I could speak to, but I didn’t see any.
“My cat ate this check with your mom’s name on it. I wanted to see if she could replace it.”
“Do you work with that man? He was bad.” She wrinkled up her tiny button nose.
“I’ve never met him. I, uh…” I wasn’t sure on the etiquette of telling a strange child that someone was dead.
“He won’t hurt anyone anymore. He’s dead. I saw him last night.”
So that was a little creepy, but that was how kids were, right? A little blunt. I turned around, and the office door, which came out on the side of the strip mall rather than through the store fronts or the back alley doors, was visible from the apartment, but only just barely. She would have been able to see them wheel his body out of the building.
“You were here last night,” she said.
She must spend a lot of time at the window. “Yes, I was. I’m going to help the owners with the stores and this building until they hire someone new.”
“And you are going to find out all the bad stuff he did?”
I crouched down, hoping to appear less threatening. “Like what?”
She shrugged and avoided my eyes, suddenly shy. Hugging her unicorn tighter, she twisted back and forth so her hair spun out around her. “I don’t know. He was mean to Mom. I didn’t like that. And he hurt people. They told me, but they’re dead now.”
She was one step away from “I see dead people” level of creepy. I was going to try to get more information, when a woman walked in and was clearly shocked to see me kneeling by her daughter.
I stood up and tapped my thigh to get Patagonia’s attention and call her to my side. She had been helping herself to a glass of milk on the coffee table. “Are you Linda Harris? I’m Ella, and I’m taking over as property manager until they hire someone new, and my cat ate your rent check, I think. I was just asking if you were here.” The words all tumbled out, probably from guilt. I shouldn’t try to grill kids on information about a dead guy. Especially a little girl with an active imagination.
She gave her daughter a look that only they understood, and the little girl skipped over to pick up her glass of milk and gave me a wave as she turned down a hall.
The woman was clearly related to the girl. They shared the same nose and coloring though the woman’s blond hair and skin were just a few shades darker. She extended her hand cautiously. “I’m Linda. I’m confused. You have my check?”
“Yes.” I handed it to her. “Sorry, I’m making a mess of this. I was just talking to your daughter—”
“Why don’t you come in?” She gestured, and I followed her in. “I’m sorry if I seem out of sorts. It’s been a crazy few days, and I didn’t realize that Sally had opened the door. She doesn’t normally talk to people.”
The room was cold, even with my jacket. “Is your heat okay? I noticed your daughter’s hands were pretty cold. If you have any problems with the apartment, please let me know. I’ll make them fix everything.” I handed her my card. I certainly wasn’t going to work for a slum lord without exerting some pressure.
She gave me the first smile I had seen and seemed to relax. “Actually, it just broke yesterday. I was going to talk to Ned about it, but… you know.”
I grabbed a pen from my purse and jotted down the apartment number and wrote the word HEAT in all capital letters. “I’ll let them know right away.”
She wrote up a new check and handed it to me. She was clearly waiting for me to leave.
I hesitated, looking for an angle to continue the conversation, and settled for a direct approach. “Your daughter said he was a bad man. Do you know why?”
I felt her unease ratchet up immediately, but she kept her face smooth. If it weren’t for my ability to read strangers’ emotions, I never would have guessed. “You know how kids are. He yelled at her a few times over stupid stuff.”
I watched her without responding. Perhaps she worried I could read her, as I felt her shield her emotions.
She let out a sigh. “And he was just kinda sketchy. I told Sally to stay away from him and that he was a bad man, but I don’t really know that he was bad. Sometimes you just feel something in your gut. It is only the two of us, Sally and I, and sometimes she doesn’t listen to me like she did her father.”
I nodded. It was a reasonable explanation, even to someone like me who didn’t have kids. There was nothing in her words that was suspicious, and yet I still was. Maybe I was having a gut feeling of my own, but I was sure there was more to her story than just a mother warning her daughter.
“Do you know why he was killed?” It was a stab in the dark and one she was ready for.
“No. Poor man. I do hope they catch the killer.” She blinked her wide, innocent eyes at me.
There was nothing else to say right then, but I would have to try again later. Maybe when I learned more, I would have some leverage. I thanked her for the check and left.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
I pulled out of the parking lot, amazed that my car was clean after the horror of the crow invasion. Patagonia was nibbling on a long black feather that she found on the ground outside the car.
Vanessa fidgeted in her seat. “Is Bear going to be mad that we didn’t finish all the interviews?”
I turned the car toward the far side of town, where the hospital was located. “He’ll understand. Dr. Trout called with news on Legacy. That takes priority. Plus, I want to think a bit. We got some good information, but it doesn’t mean much yet.”
After I had returned from Linda and Sally’s apartment, I had hit the rest of the stores to give out my cards while Vanessa called around, looking for a location for the bachelorette party. I had had better luck than she did.
While no one had anything direct to say about Ned’s death, I did find out some things. What those things meant, I wasn’t sure. I was at the last store when I received a call from Dr. Trout asking when I could come over. I had scooped up Vanessa and gotten into the car.
“Can you take some notes while I tell you what I found out? And did you find somewhere for us to have this stupid party tonight? And why did she put this off until the last minute?”
Vanessa dug into her purse. “Sure thing. And no, I didn’t. And apparently she vetoed every idea the previous bridesmaid had so we are stuck. Lucky us! Everyplace is booked up. I even pressured Olivia for someplace at the Golden Pyramid Casino, but she said, short of the broom closet, they are full. I hate to even suggest this, but… do you know anyone at the Magia Casino you can ask? Not Thomas obviously… but maybe Emily?”
I had gotten Emily a job with Thomas as his personal assistant. He had told me on many occasions since then that she had been a lifesaver and just as often had complained about her. She had the ability to know things ahead of time but didn’t seem to have the tact to know how to use the gift. And she wasn’t intimidated by Thomas in the least bit, which he found unusual and a bit unsettling.
We chatted every once in a while. I would send over some homemade potions—a hobby we both shared—to her work, which would forward it to wherever
in the world she was working for Thomas. She would text me to say thank you and complain about Thomas. They bickered like siblings, but I think she loved it. She had come from a big family that was torn apart when her parents died. She found the dynamic comfortable.
I didn’t like asking for favors, but really it wasn’t that big a deal. And Tiffany was going to have a royal fit if we didn’t find someplace soon. “Can you dial Emily for me?”
She grabbed my phone. “You have, like, no one in your phone. It’s pathetic. Here.” She put it on speakerphone and held it up near my head. My own personal hands-free setup.
Emily answered the phone in a distracted voice. I could barely hear her over a cacophony of noises. “Hey, Ella. Just a heads up, I’m probably going to lose you in a second.”
“Oh well. It’s no big deal. I’ll check you later.”
She gasped in surprise. “This is about the Snakebite Room, isn’t it? I can’t even tell you how relieved I am to figure that out.”
Talking to her was always a case of conversational gymnastics. She tended to know the future in bits and pieces that suddenly appeared. It was most often a few seconds before I actually vocalized what I needed.
“The Snakebite Room or anywhere else that could host a bachelorette party tonight. Vanessa and I were last-minute conscripted into a bridal party.”
“Hey, Emily!” Vanessa shouted.
“Hi, Vanessa. You are in Tiffany’s bridal party? You have my sympathies. The Snakebite Room is all yours. I booked it a month ago but had no idea why until now. I was actually starting to freak out, thinking that I had screwed up the date or something. I’ll text the events office to add your name to the reservation. Who’s going to pay?”
“You are a lifesaver. And tell them that Tiffany’s parents will foot the bill. I owe you.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll pay me back in no time. Hey, I got to jet.” She hung up before I could respond.
Vanessa tossed the phone into my lap and grabbed her own to pass on the information.
“We’re almost to the hospital. Can you take those notes before I forget?”
Casino Witch Mysteries Box Set 2 Page 25
