A moment later, Jemma reappeared with the lemonade.
The pitcher and both glasses were covered with yellow and white daisies. She carried them into the room on a bright pink wood tray and set it down on the glass and wicker table right in front of us.
"Thank you,” I said as Jemma handed me a cool glass.
"So, what did you want to know about Astra?" Jemma asked as she handed Reggie a glass. She then sat down in the chair to our right and smoothed her... interesting dress over her knees. "There's so much material there, I'll let you tell me where we're starting."
"I actually have something specific I want to ask you about. It has to do with you,” I said.
"Oh, the gnome she stole." Jemma's eyes narrowed and her entire expression darkened. "How did you know about that? Was she bragging about it? I bet she was bragging about it."
And just like that, Jemma was near hysterics. It did look highly suspicious that she was getting so bent out of shape so fast. I could see her going nuts and killing someone. Thankfully, at the time, she wasn't angry with us.
Or, so I thought.
"She left a letter from you sitting out in her shop, and I happened to see it,” I said and was amazed at how fast the lie dripped off my tongue. I reasoned with myself that the police lied to suspects all the time. It wasn't that my character was being eaten away by the darkness.
"Were you hanging around in her shop or something?" Jemma's answering of my question with a question did not escape my notice. "I thought you didn't like her. Maybe I misunderstood."
"No, you didn't. I've had to go into her shop a couple of times to confront her about things she's done. I saw it one of those times."
Jemma visibly relaxed. "Oh, I see. Okay. Well, yes. I did have to write her a letter. I hope you won't think less of me because I had to write a letter instead of confronting her face to face the way you did."
"Not at all. You're quite an excellent writer." I hoped that flattery would get her talking.
"Thank you,” she said with a huge grin. "How's the lemonade?"
"It's delicious,” I said and took another sip.
"Yeah, it's great,” Reggie said before stretching her arms above her head and yawning. "Oof. Sorry about that. I guess I didn't sleep well last night."
"Have another glass," Jemma said and refilled Reggie's glass before she could say anything. "The sugar will perk you right up."
"Thanks,” Reggie said before downing half the glass.
"Are you sure you're enjoying it?" Jemma asked me. "I can get you some tea instead."
"It's very good,” I said. "Some of the best lemonade I've ever had. I'm just not as thirsty as my friend."
When I took another drink, Jemma seemed pleased. Why her preoccupation with us downing the lemonade didn't strike me as odd, given what we knew about how crazy she was, it should have been a red flag. At the time, I just took it as her being weird. Which given our surroundings and our host, wasn't weird anymore.
"So, yes, I wrote her the letter," Jemma continued. "I went out to my garden one morning, and my favorite gnome was missing. The little dickens can't just get up and walk off on their own."
Jemma let out a weird laugh. It sounded like it bordered on the verge of madness, but there was something else as well. It was almost as if she knew she'd let something slip. She was watching us too. Perhaps wanting to know if we'd caught it. I'd caught that there was something, but I wasn't sure what?
Was she hiding that the gnomes could move on their own? But, that couldn't be right. That would mean that...
Before the idea could fully form in my mind, Reggie slumped back in her chair. I looked over at her to see what she was up to, and she started to snore. I began to feel a little tired too, so I quickly sat the glass of lemonade down.
I healed myself from the effects of whatever she'd put in the lemonade as Meri jumped up on the coffee table and put himself between me and Jemma. "You drugged us,” I said.
"Why isn't it working on her?" Jemma demanded, but she wasn't talking to me.
I looked to the side and saw that she was talking to a row of garden gnomes lined up on a side table against the wall. While I expected that at any moment, they might come to life and pull little knives from behind their backs, they just stood there staring at her. I shook my head as if to clear it of the dumb idea that the gnomes might actually come to life.
Jemma reached for Meri, but he swatted her hand away with his tiny paw. It probably wouldn't have worked except that he scratched her good.
"Leave my cat alone,” I said. "You try to touch him again, and you're going to find out my claws are far worse than his."
"Why didn't it work on you? It should have worked on you. You're like her... aren't you?"
"I'm going to need you to sit down and shut up,” I said. "I'm calling the sheriff."
Meri hissed at Jemma, and she plopped down into the chair. She kept babbling about how her lemonade didn't work on me while I called Thorn.
"What are you doing?" he asked after I told him where I was.
"I saw a letter from this Jemma Crane lady to Astra. I wanted to ask her about it. Anyway, she drugged Reggie and she tried to drug me. She's nuts."
"I'll be right there,” he said. "Are you okay? Are you safe?"
"Of course. Reggie's got a gun in her purse. I'm going to wake her up now,” I said.
"She's got a gun?" Thorn asked. "No, wait. You can tell me later. I'm getting in my cruiser now. I'll be right there."
As soon as he hung up, I put my phone in my pocket and used my magic to bring Reggie out of her stupor. "What! What's going on?" Reggie asked as she sprang up off of the sofa.
"This crazy... lady drugged you. You need to get your gun out of your purse and hold it on her,” I said.
"Wait, but how did you not pass out? How did you wake me?" Reggie asked as she rubbed her eyes with her fists.
"We'll talk about that later. Thorn's on his way here, and I figured you could put that gun to good use. You said you knew how to use it, right?"
"I do,” Reggie said proudly.
She got the gun out of her purse holster and held it on Jemma. I started to wander around the room and look at the garden gnomes. I could swear they were looking at me. It was an odd feeling, but their eyes weren't moving.
"I'm going to go in the kitchen and see if I can figure out what she drugged us with,” I said. "Are you okay?"
"I'm good,” Reggie said. "If she tries anything nutty, I'll shoot her."
"Did you hear that, Jemma? She's going to shoot you if you don't sit there and behave."
Jemma just kept babbling about the lemonade not working. I offered Reggie a shrug, and she motioned for me to go.
The kitchen was about what you'd expect. Gnomes stood at attention lined along the counters with their backs pushed against the backsplash. There were a couple on top of the refrigerator and three more sitting near the back door.
On the counter near the sink sat a small bottle with a cork stopper. Inside were dried purple leaves. I pulled the cork out and sniffed the leaves. I couldn't identify the smell, but it definitely wasn't regular flower petals. Since I didn't have time to identify the contents before Thorn arrived, I stashed the bottle in my purse. I'd figure it out later.
I heard a car pull up in the driveway and looked out the kitchen window. It was Thorn's cruiser, so I went out the back door and signaled for him to follow me in through the back door.
"She's in a sunroom-type parlor,” I said. "I'll show you."
I led Thorn into the room, and Reggie put her gun away. Jemma was still there babbling to herself.
"Do you have any evidence she drugged you?" Thorn said.
"Well, I told you she drugged me. So, there's that." I found myself a little annoyed that he even asked.
"I know, and I believe you, but if you want me to arrest her, I need something proving she drugged you,” he said.
"You could take the lemonade glasses,” Reggie said calmly. "It was
in there. I'm also verifying that I indeed passed out after drinking it."
"All right. I'll bag the glasses and get them over to the state police lab,” Thorn said.
I also had the little bottle of what I assumed she used, but I had my doubts that they would be able to identify what it was. Something was off about Jemma, but I hadn't put my finger on it yet. I didn't want to hand the entire supply over to Thorn because I wouldn't be able to figure it out myself. Plus, I didn't have proof that it was what she used. I'd just found it in the kitchen. The lab could analyze the glasses using their methods, and I'd use my methods.
"Ma'am, can you tell me what happened here?" Thorn asked.
Jemma turned her head toward him, but she looked past him. Again, it seemed she was looking at the gnomes behind her.
"It didn't work on them,” she said. "Well, it worked on that one." Jemma pointed at Reggie, but then she turned to me. "But it didn't work on her. That one is weird. She's not right. It should have worked. This is the second time it hasn't worked. Would you like some lemonade, Sheriff?"
When Jemma asked the last part, the cloudy confusion left her eyes. She plastered a huge smile on her face. Suddenly she was back from wherever she'd gone.
"No, thank you. Can you tell me what happened here today? These ladies say you drugged them. I need you to tell me about that."
"That's crazy. We were just having a chat about my ex-neighbor,” she said. "How did you get in here?"
Thorn turned back to me. "I'm going to call an ambulance. I think it would be better if I had her taken in on a psych hold for right now."
"The hospital!" Jemma said and practically leapt out of her chair. "I don't want to go to the hospital again! NO! NO! NO! I can't leave my babies!"
Thorn ended up having to put her in cuffs while we waited for the ambulance. He took her out to his squad car to wait, and I looked around. Thorn wanted us to leave the house with him, but on the off chance that by "my babies" she meant pets, he let us look around.
As I expected, there were no pets. She must have been talking about the garden gnomes. I took one last look out the back door before we left. When I'd gone out there to let Thorn in, I noticed something that caught my attention.
In the center of the yard was a stone pillar with a rectangular top. It was almost like an altar, and it was empty. It had to be the place where her favorite gnome sat until it disappeared. There were circular rows of purple flowers around it and in between those were more gnomes. They were set up to look like they were dancing around or worshiping whatever was on the altar. The purple flowers were most likely what was in the bottle in my purse. They didn't look like any flowers I'd ever seen before. I almost picked one, but thought better of going near them. Instead, I took a few photos.
The ambulance finally arrived, and Jemma went wild. The paramedics had to sedate her and then strap her down. I watched them give her three shots of whatever it was when the first one had no effect and the second barely stopped her thrashing, kicking, and biting.
She scratched Thorn across the face, and I had to heal him once the ambulance was gone and Reggie was in the car scrolling through her phone. The wound was weird too. It smelled almost floral, and Thorn said it burned worse than any other scratch he'd ever gotten. "It's like acid."
There wasn't any time to discuss it further as Thorn had to follow the ambulance to the hospital. He said he'd had it happen too many times where the paramedics didn't agree with his assessment, so the hospital let the patient go. He wanted to make sure Jemma was held for the full seventy-two hours. The only way to know for sure was to sit in the ER with her and make the doctor see his point of view.
I walked back over to the car and let Meri in. After I slid behind the steering wheel, Reggie put her phone down in her lap. "The cat can talk, right?" she asked.
I wasn't sure what to say, so I just looked at her.
"Don't lie to me, Kinsley. Please don't lie anymore. I'm starting to feel like I'm going insane when I'm around you, and I don't like that. Something is different about you and that cat. I know it."
I didn't want to lie to her anymore, and it made me uncomfortable that she felt like I was gaslighting her. I'd never intended to make Reggie feel crazy, but it didn't help that the magic veil that protected humans from feeling this way around us didn't seem as effective on her.
"You think the cat can talk,” I said. "What else?"
She narrowed her eyes at me and seemed to be searching my face for clues about what I was getting at. "I know I've seen ghosts. It's not pareidolia or whatever nonsense fake psychological thing they make up to explain it away. They're real. I've seen them. There's a creepy one that hangs out in the back of the shop. That, and I've seen people around Coventry do things. I don't know how to explain it, though. I've seen them do unexplainable things, but everyone else ignores it. Am I nuts? I'd have accepted that I had some sort of mental illness, but it doesn't happen anywhere else. At least, I've never been or lived somewhere else that it happened... And all these tourists and ghost hunters flock to Coventry like they're drawn to whatever it is, but then it's all in good fun. They find what they're looking for, and then explain it away themselves. It's insane. Do you know how many YouTube videos I've watched where people in Coventry have actually caught paranormal activity on camera, but they don't believe it. Even the people in the comments make jokes or just say it's fake. But it's not!"
"You're right,” I said.
"I'm right?" Her eyes widened. Reggie hadn't expected me to just agree. "All of it?"
"All of it,” I said.
"Yeah, she's telling you the truth," Meri piped up from the back seat. "Now you're in on it."
"Holy crap. He can talk,” she said. "So, what does that make you?"
"I'm a witch,” I said with a shrug.
"Holy crap,” Reggie said. "Back in school... Those girls who were bullying you... They said you used some sort of power on them, but nobody believe them. You really did. That's why you got pulled out of school?"
"Yeah,” I said. "I was only allowed to go to regular school as long as I didn't do anything like that, and then I did."
"They had it coming,” Reggie said.
"They did, but I knew better. I lost my temper."
"So the stuff that you sell in the shop, it's really magical?" Reggie asked.
"It is and it isn't. Magic is all around us, Reggie. Whether something is magical or not is really in the hands of the person using it."
"Why are you telling me this?" she asked. "Why don't more people know?"
"I'm telling you because you're my best friend, and I can't let you go on feeling crazy around me. It's not right. I was going to tell you eventually anyway, but I had to heal you from whatever Jemma gave you. I figured I wasn't going to be able to put it off any longer."
"I just don't understand how this hasn't gotten out."
"Because there's a magical veil over Coventry that makes regular people ignore paranormal things they see, but there are people like you who it doesn't work as well on. That's one of the reasons ghost hunters flock to Coventry. It's why it has a witchy reputation. Over time, there have been enough like you that the word has sort of gotten out. It's just that when people get there, they have a good time and nothing else. The magic keeps them from seeing anything that could be concrete evidence."
"But you moved away from Coventry? Why?"
"That's a long story about me not wanting to be a witch. I'll tell you on the way. We'd better go back and see if Dennis is done with the windows."
Chapter Six
The temporary windows were done when we got back, and Dennis was sitting in his truck drinking coffee and eating a croissant sandwich from the Brew Station. There was also a woman standing at the door waiting for us.
I walked over to Dennis first. "Do you know who she is? Did she say anything to you?" I asked after he rolled his truck window down.
"No. I figured you knew her. She's been standing there for a while."
"I don't recognize her at all,” I said. "That's okay. I'll talk to her. Do you need anything else from me?"
"No, ma'am. I'm just finishing up my lunch. I'll let Castor know when I'll be back with the permanent windows, okay?"
"Sounds good,” I said and left him to finish his food.
"Can I help you?" I asked the woman standing by my shop's door.
She was dressed in all black, but the dress looked Victorian, as did the little pointed leather boots on her feet. She looked at me over the top of her tiny round spectacles, and I could tell right away that she was a witch. Not a Skeenbauer or Tuttlesmith, though, and not from Coventry.
"My name is Fortuna Barclay,” she said and sniffed the air as if she smelled something foul. "I'm related to Astra Argent. I'm here to handle her burial arrangements, and I was told that you were who I should talk to about her death."
"Who told you that?" I asked. I wanted to make a mental note of who to be wary of and also to possibly turn into a goat.
"The funeral director who took possession of her body after the coroner released it said that you were the one who killed her. He also said that you were a rival businessperson."
"Why don't we step inside?" I said.
She didn't seem particularly friendly, and I was concerned that her statements would draw attention. If Fortuna was going to accuse me of murder, she could do it inside where no one would hear her. At least until I had some customers come in. I left the closed sign up and locked the door behind us to ensure that didn't happen, though.
"I'd go in the back and give you two some privacy," Reggie said, "but I'm not doing that. I'll be over there dusting shelves."
She grabbed the duster from behind the counter and started dusting shelves as far away from the front counter as she could get without actually going into the back. Meri followed behind her, but he stayed where he could see me.
"I'm sorry..." I started to say.
"Don't say you're sorry about my loss when we both know you're not," Fortuna interrupted. "Honestly, I didn't know Astra that well anymore, so I can't say it's even that much of a loss."
Midnight Magic Page 9
