"What?" I asked.
"Yeah, Kinsley. The call we got about suspicious activity came from inside the club. The whole thing was a setup. What I haven't figured out yet was why," Thorn said.
"It was the same night my windows were smashed," I said to Thorn. "Did you have something to do with that?" I asked Azriel. "Did one of your men call the police to lure them all out to the clubhouse? Were you helping Astra?"
"I did no such thing," Azriel said. "I wouldn't do that to you. I'll get to the bottom of this."
"No," Thorn said. "I'll get to the bottom of this. You don't need another reason to come sniffing around here."
"I don't think that's up to you," Azriel said. "It's up to Kinsley, and I don't think she likes you telling her who she can and cannot see."
My anger had stiffened the empathic link and Meri must have been helping too, but I felt its tentacles reaching out for me again. It had begun to feel less like a mutual link and more like something invading me.
"I know what you are," I said to Azriel. "You're not just a vampire. You're a psychic vampire." I reached down unconsciously and grabbed the bag hanging from my belt loop. "You fooled me for a while, but you won't fool me again. All I want from you is my stuff back."
"Now, Kinsley, don't be that way," Azriel said.
"She's spoken her piece," Thorn interrupted. "All you need to do is tell the lady how you intend to return her property, and then you can be on your way."
"I don't have any of her property." Azriel was growing angry, and he was barely keeping it under wraps. "I have the property she gave me. I won't be returning that. It was a gift, after all."
"That's not what happened," I said.
"You might not want to play it that way," Thorn said. "Please don't forget who you are dealing with."
"Thorn, I think you're right. I don't know that Amelda would like the way he's acting," I said.
"I'm not sure that Brighton would be too happy either," Thorn said. "But really, he should be even more afraid of you."
It was obvious that either Azriel had forgotten who he was dealing with or he believed his hold over me was much stronger that it actually was. The realization crept across his face until his eyes lit up for a split second with fear.
"This is your decision?" Azriel asked me.
"So much for you not wanting me to make a decisions," I said. "Everything you said to me was BS, wasn't it? Never mind. Don't bother answering that. Yes, this is my decision. I'll expect delivery of my bags and decorations tomorrow. You can have your men bring them to my storeroom. I've no need to see you."
He looked like he was about to say something else, but Thorn cut him off. "There's nothing more to discuss here. Send your men with her property tomorrow, and I will contact you about our meeting."
Azriel stormed off after that. I was thinking about the connection between the anonymous call and my shop being broken into when Thorn closed the door.
I didn't get to say anything before he pulled me into his arms and kissed me. "I think we're going to be okay," he finally said.
While that was a huge relief to me, the break-in and Astra's death still weight heavily on my mind.
Chapter Eight
The next morning shortly after we opened, Fortuna came into the shop. I had a huge envelope of cash that Meri had helped me find in the books in the attic. I showed Fortuna the receipts and totals, and when she agreed to the price, I slid the manila envelope across the counter to her.
"I found the laptop..."
"No, don't," she said. "There's no reason to discuss it."
"I did find something on it that I have to ask you about," I said. "If that's okay."
"Go ahead. Though I don't know how much help I can be."
I opened it back up again. "This folder is called photoes," I said and clicked on it. "It's full of pictures of people. Do you have any idea what it was about?"
"That is unusual," she admitted. "But I have no idea. I don't know what Astra was into."
"Well, thank you anyway," I said.
"No, thank you. You've really helped me out by buying these things," she said and fished a ring of keys from her purse. "Here are the keys to the shop. The lease is paid until the end of the month. I assume you can retrieve the items by then? At the end of the month, the landlord will come here to get the keys. I've already given her the instructions."
"Yes. We'll get everything tonight most likely. I'll hang onto the keys until the landlord gets them."
"Thank you again," Fortuna said before leaving.
When she was gone, Reggie came up to the counter. "Are we really getting all that stuff tonight. Do I get overtime for that?"
I laughed. "Of course you do. If you want to help, that is."
"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Reggie said.
It was a fairly slow day, and several times I considered closing the shop so we could get a head start on moving all of Astra's goods over to my store. But, every time I'd be ready to do it, a ghost tour would end and a few people would trickle in. Azriel's men showed up early in the afternoon and carried the boxes containing my swag bags and decorations to the storage room. Azriel didn't make an appearance and neither did the ghost, so the whole thing went smoothly enough.
By the time the store was ready to close, I wasn't much in the mood for moving a bunch of stuff. "I just want you to know that I'm going to use magic to pack up her store," I said to Reggie. "I can't use magic to move it over here, but I can use a spell to make the boxes feel lighter. Thorn's going to come with his truck."
"Let's do it," Reggie said.
"You're going to be okay watching me use magic?" I asked. "I'd think it would be a bit shocking at first."
"I'm looking forward to it, actually," Reggie said. "I'm curious to see if it's anything like the movies."
"Well, I hope I don't let you down," I said.
We walked across the square and I used the key to get into what had been Astra's shop. Reggie watched with fascination as I used a current of magic to float the boxes from the back to the front door. From there, we grabbed them and walked them out to Thorn's waiting truck.
"I can't believe how light this is," Reggie said. "It's like there's nothing in this box, but I can see it with my own eyes."
"Much better than schlepping boxes the hard way," I said.
Meri cleared his throat. If a cat can clear their throat. It was more like he mimicked the sound of a person clearing their throat. "Personal gain."
"Oh, man," I said. "I mean, is it really personal gain? I'm just making it easier for us. I'm not profiting."
"You're probably right," Meri said. "Guess we'll find out."
"You are such a butt," I said.
"Yeah, don't be such a square, Meri," Reggie said. "It's the same as using magic to do cleaning. Oh my gawd! I bet cleaning is so easy for you."
"I try not to use magic unless I have to," I said. "Well, except right now. I guess that rule is going right down the drain."
"I knew it would never last," Meri snarked.
"Quiet, cat," I said but I laughed at him nonetheless.
"Let's get this done," Thorn said. "You and the cat can fight it out later."
"I'd totally win," Meri said.
"I'm sure you would."
It took a few hours to take all of the truckloads of boxes over to my store. When the boxes from the storeroom were mostly moved, Thorn and Reggie finished loading them while I used magic to pack up the stock that was out on the shelves. Around nine that night, we were just about done moving things.
I went into what had been Astra's office and found that Fortuna hadn't cleaned it out. I hadn't paid for anything in the office, and I had no use for Astra's old paperwork, so I just left everything. The landlord would probably take the cleaning fee out of whatever deposit Astra had paid. Either way, it wasn't any of my business.
Something did catch my eye as I was shuffling around the folders on her desk. One of them had a word written across it in black S
harpie. "Charitie."
"That's weird," I said. "Something else she misspelled."
Unable to avoid my curiosity, I opened the folder. They were tax statements from a charity. More specifically, a cat rescue charity. Under the tax statements were photocopies of canceled checks from the bank. Astra had made the checks out to "Familiar Paws Kat Rescue" but the name of the charity was actually Familiar Paws Cat Rescue. She'd misspelled the word cat on every check.
"Huh," I said and closed the folder. I didn't know what it meant, so I made the executive decision to take the folder with me.
Reggie yawned and stretched after we carried the last of the boxes into my store. "I'd ask about getting something to eat, but I think I'm too tired. I'm just going to go home and shove some Fritos into my mouth with both hands before falling into bed."
"Sounds like a plan," I said.
When she was gone, Thorn asked me, " What about you? Do you just want to go home and eat some chips, or would you like to have a late dinner at Bella Vita with me?"
"Maybe just some toasted ravioli and a glass of wine," I said.
“That sounds excellent,” Thorn replied.
"I guess I'll just walk home then," Meri said sarcastically.
"You can come with us and stay in the car," I offered.
"No thanks," Meri groused.
"Hey, we'll take you home first," Thorn said. "You don't have to walk."
Meri just stared at him for a moment as if Thorn had three heads. "Fine," he finally said. "If it's not, you know, too much trouble."
We took Meri home and then headed to the restaurant. They were open until midnight, so even though it felt really late to me, they were still going to be serving for a couple more hours.
"It's a good thing I don't have to get up early for work," I said as Thorn pulled the truck into the nearly deserted Bella Vita parking lot.
"We don't have to do this if it's too late," he said. "I do have to be up early for work, but I figured another hour wouldn't hurt. Tomorrow's not a run day for me."
"I should do that too," I said in response. "Get up early and run every other day."
"I could come over the mornings I do it and we could run together," Thorn said.
"Whoa." I chuckled as I unbuckled my seatbelt. "It's still in the thinking-about-it stage right now. Let's not get ahead of ourselves."
That made Thorn laugh. He came around and opened my door for me followed by helping me down out of the truck.
We went inside and took a seat at the bar. There were only a handful of people inside the restaurant, but it still didn't feel right to take up a table when we were just getting drinks and an appetizer.
"I saw that your gift bags and decorations were back in the storeroom," Thorn said after we had our drinks and the bartender had put our order into the kitchen. "Did he give you any problems?"
"He didn't show up," I said. "Two of his men brought the stuff back and put it in my storeroom. They didn't even look at me sideways."
"That's good."
"So, how did you find out the suspicious activity call came from the clubhouse?" I asked.
"My guy inside tipped me off. He told me I should look into the source of the call, so I did."
"I think it's weird that happened and then my windows got smashed. Do you think Astra could have been working with someone in the MC?"
"And you think one of them killed her because she knew too much about their part in the theft of your gift bags?" Thorn asked.
"It sounds stupid when you say it like that," I admitted.
"I'm not saying it's stupid," Thorn said. "I just don't think that's why she was killed. And I don't think Jemma did it either. I'm not sure what happened to Reggie, but the state police didn't find anything in that glass. She might want to schedule a check-up with her doctor."
"They didn't find anything because it's a magic drug," I said. "I know it is. I just need to figure out what it is."
"Well, either way, I think those are dead ends when it comes to Astra's murder. I think she just paid someone in the MC to make that call so we'd all be at the clubhouse when she smashed your windows, but I don't believe she was killed over it."
Chapter Nine
I didn't feel like sleeping after Thorn dropped me off. My mind wouldn't let the whole thing with Jemma go, but the potion I'd made to help identify the flowers would take time to work.
I sat down on my sofa and picked up the laptop. Maybe there was more in there I missed, or perhaps if I studied the "photoes" harder, I could figure something out.
When I moved it, I revealed Astra's notebook. I'd either grabbed it by accident or completely forgotten I had it.
Frustrated at the lack of solid suspects in the case, I began to leaf through the pages again. Maybe Astra had left a trail to her killer. I could only hope.
I thought about doing a seance to contact Astra, but I knew it was unlikely she'd remember her killer. Plus, I didn't want her around. And the Midnight Magic Festival was coming up fast. I wanted the whole murder business out of the way before the festival.
The drawings were quite good. I hadn't appreciated them before, but upon further inspection, even I had to admit that Astra was an excellent artist.
One of the drawings clearly depicted Jemma. The detail and shading work were astounding. So good in fact that there was no dispute it was her. Nor could there be any question that the flower sticking out of the drink in her hand was one of the purple ones in the garden. The illustration was in black and white, but she'd captured the shape of the petals perfectly.
At some point, she must have offered Astra a glass of the lemonade she'd tried to use on Reggie and me. But why? Obviously, the event had left an impression on Astra because she'd drawn such a detailed picture of the event.
But what did it all mean?
The wine, heavy food, and long day started to catch up with me. I didn't even feel like walking upstairs to my bed, so instead I curled up on the sofa and pulled the afghan hanging over the back down over me.
When I woke up the next morning, I'd overslept by an hour.
My phone had gone dead because I hadn't put in on the charger when I went to sleep like I normally did. The only reason I didn't sleep longer was because Meri's hunger finally roused him.
I got him some breakfast, threw on a clean pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and went into the kitchen to see what I could make into a quick breakfast.
In the end, I decided it would be faster just to go to the Brew Station and get coffee and a sandwich. Fortunately, I was late enough that the morning rush was mostly over.
Viv got my latte and croissant sandwich in record time and even threw in a side of extra bacon free for Meri. "You look like you've already had a rough morning," she said with a smile.
"Do I look that bad?" I lamented.
"No, but you might want to redo your ponytail. It looks like you slept in it."
"Oh, crud. I didn't even look at my hair this morning. Thanks, Viv."
"What are friends for?"
I made a mad dash across the square and managed to get inside before Reggie showed up for work. I fixed my hair in the shop's bathroom and ignored the ghostly specter of a woman in a white dress with black hair standing behind me the entire time.
"Not today," I said. "Sorry."
When my hair no longer looked like ferrets had been wrestling in it, I went into my office to wolf down my sandwich and get some of my latte into me.
In between bites, I sent a text out to my Mom. It was a long text explaining the potion I made to identify the plant I found in Jemma's garden. When I checked the potion that morning, it had turned black. I had no idea what that meant, but I hoped she would.
I kept staring at the phone waiting for her to text or call back, but she must have either let her phone go dead or been busy, because I didn't get a response before it was time to open.
What I did have time to do was call Thorn and tell him what I found in the notebook. "I really think she had som
ething to do with it, or at the very least, there was something more going on there than just Astra stealing her garden gnome," I said.
"Yeah, but what proof do you have, Kinsley? I need more than magical evidence and theories to make an arrest. I'm sorry. I will look into it further," Thorn said.
"Well, at least she's locked up," I said.
"She's not," Thorn said.
"What?"
"She was released. There's some sort of bug going around and the hospitals are overcrowded right now. The psychiatrist decided that she was fine and released her."
"So, I have to watch my back," I said.
"From what I understand, she was released into the care of a relative. Jemma's not coming back to Coventry right now. I've got some time to figure this out before you're in danger from her."
"Okay," I said. "I'm protected here anyway."
"Call me if you need me?" Thorn asked.
"I will."
"Hey, Kinsley."
"Yeah?"
"I love you."
"I love you too."
It was time to open the shop, but Reggie still hadn't shown up yet. I was about to call her, but I started walking to the front of the store to put out the "open" sign.
When I did, I saw her coming out of the Brew Station. She was walking quickly in my direction, but it took me a second to notice she didn't have a coffee or a bag in her hands.
Reggie burst through the door. "We have a problem."
"What is it? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, but Viv is gone," she said breathlessly.
"What do you mean, Viv is gone?"
"Hank, the guy who's working with her today, said she went out back to take the garbage out, and she never came back in. He said she's gone. He's tried calling her phone and her house. She's just gone."
"Maybe she had to run an errand," I suggested, but a feeling of cold dread had formed in the pit of my stomach. "She might not be answering her phone because she's driving."
"They had a line to the door, Kinsley. She wouldn't have just left without saying something to Hank. I think something happened to her."
"Okay. Stay here. I think I know where to go," I said.
Midnight Magic Page 11
