by Mara Webb
“Yeah, that doesn’t sound nuts at all,” Effie laughed. “Dude, if you start going full bunny-boiler on the guys round here then it reflects badly on me too. Men will assume I’m as high maintenance as my sister and then we will both die alone, casting spells in our house and knitting pajamas for cats.”
“Hello?” I said, waving my arms. “First off, you are both giving off a very ‘high maintenance’ energy, so you can hardly blame Kate,” I laughed. “Secondly, we are supposed to be dropping off an envelope full of cash in the next half an hour. We haven’t got time to sit around chit-chatting.”
Everyone looked up at the wall clock in Brielle’s office and then turned back to me. Miller’s eyes seemed to have returned to their original color and he was no longer growling under his breath. Jeff pulled an envelope out of his cardigan and waved it about in front of us, it was chunky as if stuffed full of money.
“I’m ready when you are,” Jeff sighed.
I jumped off the examination bed a little too enthusiastically and had to steady myself by grabbing onto Effie’s arm, a move that didn’t go unnoticed by Miller. What had Ryder been coming over to say? It felt as if the image of him was stuck in my mind and I couldn’t shake it loose. Kate was a mind reader, there was no way she didn’t know what I was imagining.
“Sadie, this is a bad idea,” Miller said.
“If we want to make any progress with this whole thing then we need to get to the bottom of the blackmailer,” I replied. “Someone is taking Jeff’s money; we have to put a stop to that.”
I summoned all the strength I could muster and marched out of the room; Miller so close behind I could smell his cologne. Effie and Kate were either side of Jeff like bookends, he seemed more than happy to listen to their rapid-fire anecdotes about the Furby adventures they’d had since the parcel arrived.
I wondered if Miller was so close in case I fainted again. It would be really bad luck to black out for a third time this week. At least I could blame the first one on that mystery gas cannister, I had no explanation for what had happened outside the doctor’s office.
I was sucking air hard as we hiked up the cliffside. Miller didn’t even look slightly out of breath, which was annoying, I didn’t have as much experience walking around the islands as he did. I wished that I had Kate’s ability to read minds, even just for a second, so that I could know what Miller was thinking.
“What is the usual procedure?” Miller asked Jeff once we got to the cliff top.
“I shimmy down the path there,” Jeff said, pointing to a jagged ledge barely wide enough for a squirrel. “Drop the envelope in the alcove bit of the rock, then get out of sight as quickly as I can. It isn’t quite as narrow as it looks, Sadie dear.”
He could clearly read the look of utter horror on my face at the thought of it.
“I think we do everything as normal,” Miller announced. “Jeff makes the drop and leaves, then we hide in wait. We are still early enough that this could work.”
“If you say so,” I winced. My eyebrows were almost touching my hairline in disbelief, my confidence had been lost at some point between the doctor’s office and the cliff top. The thought of an elderly man navigating a thin ledge so soon after a major head injury was making my heart race.
Kate and Effie had linked their arms through Jeff’s like they were accompanying him into some grand ball room. They released him and came to join Miller and I as we searched for a suitable hiding spot.
“Dang, they don’t make cliff tops like they used to,” Kate joked. “Where’s the big fire hydrant, or a random redwood tree for me to stand behind.”
“What about a random tent?” Effie said, gesturing over to the questionable camping location set up by a group of ambitious hikers. “Excuse me, can we lurk behind your tent for fifteen minutes?” she asked the two strangers sitting out front with a portable gas stove.
“Sure, man,” the guy grinned, throwing a huge thumbs-up our way. Okay, well we had a place to hide. Now for the hard part.
18
I was sitting cross legged on the grass behind the camper’s tent. It wasn’t the best position if my intention was to leap out and catch a bad guy, but crouching had caused my feet to cramp up and I was almost crippled with the lingering ache as it was.
Miller’s hard expression had softened dramatically since we reached the cliff top. I felt as though he suspected that there was something to my encounter with Ryder that I was keeping from him. Every big Hollywood movie I’d ever watched had led me to believe that incredible good-looking men are relatively straight-forward; Miller was more complicated than anyone I knew. I suppose that’s what happens when the werewolf life is thrust upon you though.
“How much longer do we have to wait?” Kate grunted.
“As soon as Jeff get’s back off the ledge, you two take him back to Brielle,” Miller said. “She said she needed twenty-four hours of observations, didn’t she?”
“Yeah,” Effie nodded. “She didn’t mention any gravity-defying crimes as part of his treatment plan though.” She stuck her tongue out at Miller who rolled his eyes at her and returned his gaze to the narrow path at the edge of the cliff.
After a gut-wrenchingly long five minutes, Jeff re-appeared.
“Come on, old-timer,” Kate said, linking her arm with his again. “We’ve gotta get you back to the smart one in the family.”
“But you’re already right here,” Jeff grinned.
“Stop flirting with my sister!” Effie laughed. The three of them disappeared back down the slope toward town and Miller and I remained hidden behind the tent; alone.
“I’m sorry about earlier,” Miller mumbled.
“Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that,” I teased.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated, louder. “I seem to have this weird feeling every time I see Ryder that I can’t explain. I haven’t experienced it before but it’s making me act like someone I’m not.”
“Wait, do you have a crush on Ryder? This is quite the plot twist,” I smiled.
“No, I’m not talking about anything like that,” Miller said, shaking his head with a grin. “I haven’t been jealous before, of anyone. The thought of him trying to—” he cut himself off. “I am trying to be someone that you want to spend time with, I don’t want to frighten you off. Or at least not yet,” he chuckled.
“Miller, I have locked you in a cage in your house to prevent your werewolf form from bursting loose and attacking the whole island. I can handle whatever you throw at me,” I replied.
“What?” the male camper yelled, standing up from his portable stove and peering at us both over the roof of the tent. “Are you a werewolf? Not cool, man!”
“Oh, pipe down!” I dismissed. “This is a private conversation, Jeez.”
Something about my response to the nosey camper sent Miller into a giggle fit, but it came to an abrupt end when we saw a hooded figure shuffling down to the jagged ledge that led to the drop off point Jeff had described.
“Wait, what’s our next move?” I asked.
“There’s one way in, one way out,” Miller replied. “We follow them and make a confrontation.”
“Oh, I was hoping that we had a different plan, one that didn’t involve anything to do with climbing or shuffling or balancing eight thousand feet above the pointy rocks below,” I groaned.
“Eight thousand feet? Your ability to judge height is alarmingly bad,” he said.
“Sorry I’m not a pilot,” I grunted. “Or… or someone else that has to deal with altitude a lot. Shut up,” I said, playfully punching his arm. Miller stood up first and I followed him, somewhat reluctantly, to the edge of the cliff. Okay, it was obviously not eight thousand feet high, but it was high enough that we wouldn’t survive falling off it.
The ledge curved round the cliff meaning that we couldn’t see the entrance to the little cave Jeff had described. It wasn’t as narrow as it had first seemed, but still was hardly a walk in the park to traverse. Miller was almos
t brazen in his strides while I made anxious side-shuffle movements, facing out towards the ocean with my hands gripping onto any bit of rock that I could find behind me.
Couldn’t they have been exchanging envelopes of cash by a park bench or something? Why go to all this effort? Miller was the first to reach the cave entrance and I could hear a familiar voice from inside.
“You haven’t done anything stupid, have you Jeff?” the voice called out. They didn’t know it was me and Miller. “If you’ve told that stupid police officer and his annoying accomplice what we’ve been doing here then you’re in for it. This time I won’t stop until the job’s done.”
The threat seemed to suggest that this was the person that had attacked Jeff in his home.
“It’s over. Put your hands up where I can see them,” Miller commanded. I was still trying to shimmy along the ledge but was reluctant to move any faster out of fear of falling.
“Oh, it’s you,” the voice replied. “It seems our beloved mailman has made a big mistake.”
“No, you have,” Miller said. “Step out of the shadows and keep your hands in the air.” I took the last few side steps and turned to face into the cave. The voice from inside had belonged to Tony, the man with two spades.
“Oh great, you brought her,” he sighed.
“What’s going on? Why have you been blackmailing Jeff? Did you… did you hit him in the head with a spade?” I asked.
“Seems like the most appropriate weapon for me to use, doesn’t it?” he scoffed. He had a point I suppose.
“Did you kill Robert Barton? I don’t understand,” Miller interjected.
“No, of course not!” Tony laughed. “I was a kid when that happened.” Another good point. “I’m just left with the consequences, that’s all.”
“What do you mean?” I said. I was feeling a little lost and wasn’t sure how Tony could possibly be connected to everything.
“I just want it on record that I absolutely didn’t kill Robert,” he repeated. “I just…” he let out a long, pained sigh. “I’m pretty sure my dad killed him, not that I can exactly prove it at this point.”
“Your father? Why?” I asked.
“It seems like this Robert guy was rich, right? My parents didn’t have a lot of money, but one day we suddenly had enough money to go on a vacation. I know my dad had a gun and, well, do you see where I’m going here?” he said.
“You think your father killed Robert for his money?” Miller guessed.
“Yeah, Jeff would have had records of us all getting passports, I’d seen him writing our names down in his little book.”
“How did you get into blackmailing him exactly?” I pressed.
“Oh, that was just fortuitous,” he laughed. “I’d followed my dad once when he went on one of his weird, secret trips. I guess somewhere along the way, my dad found a new way to make money. Jeff is a soft touch; it can’t have been hard to trick him into handing over money to begin with. He was the one collecting little packages of money from Jeff, so when my dad died, I just picked up where he left off. It’s been a nice little boost to my landscaping salary, I’m telling you!”
Landscaping? “Where do you work?” I asked.
“Well, I’m the resident gardener at Pete’s estate, he has a lot of land to cover so I take care of it,” he said.
“Why didn’t Pete tell anyone that the treasure had been found? People were still looking for it,” I replied. Hang on…” I thought for a second. “Resident gardener? That means—”
“Yeah, I live behind that big house. If you’re wondering who gassed you last night… it was an automated security service, not me! I simply dragged you both back to the guest house once the smoke had cleared. See, I can be a gentleman! Don’t say Tony-two-spades is a monster, now! Oh, and Pete loves a good story, so he was never going to tell anyone to stop digging for treasure even though there was nothing to find. He loves the theatrics of the treasure hunt too much.”
“So, you were the one setting the fire over the bunker? Why?” Miller asked.
“I didn’t know if my dad’s prints would be all over it, honestly. I don’t know much about crime stuff, but I figured if the whole thing was on fire then that would make it harder, right?”
“That wasn’t a regular fire,” I said bluntly. “I saw it, there was magic involved.”
“Not from me! I was as freaked out as anyone when I saw what was happening. I’ve had my fair share of knocks to the old hat-stand,” he said, tapping the top of his head, “but I know a bad situation when I see it. I wasn’t standing about waiting to find out what those weird flames were gonna do.”
I thought back to seeing a light pass over the pit and wondered if this had been magic, that would explain why the flames changed color and why Tony had no idea what had happened.
The ring on my finger was glowing again. What was this thing trying to tell me this time?
“Tony, you are under arrest under suspicion of the assault of Jeff the mailman. Sorry, I can’t remember his last name at the moment,” Miller said. “You do not have to say anything, but anything you do—”
“What’s that sound?” Tony interrupted. His face had lit up like a kid on Christmas morning and he was staring over my shoulders to the ocean water in the distance. “It’s beautiful, like an angel is singing!”
Tony stepped forward and didn’t seem to notice that Miller was reaching toward him with a pair of handcuffs. I watched as he stepped closer to me, I was still standing with my back to the water and was perilously close to the edge of the cliff. I felt that the glowing ring might be indicating that I was unsafe.
“Stay there, don’t come any closer!” I yelled. It was too late. Miller reached out to grab Tony’s arm, but everything happened so fast, and he couldn’t hold him back. Tony began to run towards the cave entrance and barreled into me as he leapt out into the sky. I heard a shout, deep and gravelly, become a ferocious roar.
I was falling backwards through the air, my hands flailing for something to hold on to. My powers had acted on instinct in the past, and this time was no different. I opened my palms up to the sky and felt my descent begin to slow. Above me, an enormous wolf was leaping from the cave and hurtling in my direction. Miller.
I spun around to face the ground, but I was no longer falling at any great speed. I had control, my powers were lowering me softly towards the sand and it seemed that I had extended my spell to Tony, who was caught up in my magic and falling at the same speed that I was. Miller, however, was not.
I could feel a pull on my body, like my spell was being altered. I looked over at Tony and it seemed that he was drifting away from me and being pulled slightly towards the water. My trajectory had been aiming to land feet first onto the soft sand of the beach; Tony was headed into the ocean. It looked like a small whirlpool was forming and it was luring him in.
I reached out to pull Tony closer, the water getting angrier below him. Miller landed safely on the sand a few moments before I did, thankfully. I used a spell that Greta had taught me and summoned the handcuffs from the cave where Miller had dropped them. With a swift movement I clicked the handcuffs around Tony’s wrists and tried to take a breath.
The water was still frantic, I squinted at the shoreline as it lapped closer to us up the sand. It… it looked like hands clawing at the beach. What? The peridot ring was so bright that I couldn’t even look at it, so I pulled it off my finger and threw it into the ocean. Suddenly everything was still.
I could hear Kate and Effie charging towards us, screaming all the while. Greta faded into view in front of me and I could sense Ryder’s eyes on me, he was close. Where had Miller gone? I collapsed down onto my knees, one hand still gripping Tony securely.
I looked left and right. Miller was no where around, but now Ryder was charging toward me behind Kate and Effie. He was a werewolf hunter, after all. As much as I wanted to pretend that the rivalry between him and Miller was just because they were fighting over me, there was something
deeper behind it.
“Sadie, stay awake,” Greta pleaded. “It’s all gonna be okay, just keep it together.”
Was she right?
19
The sound of chatter downstairs woke me. My house seemed to be the central hub for all socializing, so it was no great surprise that Kate and Effie were downstairs debating something loudly as Greta tried to calm things down. Even in death, Greta acted like she was still the peacekeeper. She seemed to naturally take on the diplomatic role in the group.
My body ached from all the exertion of the magic I’d used the previous day. I’d slept for over twelve hours if the clock on my nightstand was accurate, and the sun was blazing through the windows onto the bed sheets. I must have forgotten to shut the curtains, or maybe someone had been in here already this morning to open them.
My dreams had been… interesting. It felt as if a huge portion of my sleep had been dreamless and peaceful, but then my brain had continued down the road of trying to guess what Ryder had wanted to say to me outside the doctor’s office. Had we kissed in the dream? All I could remember now was that I hadn’t wanted it to end.
“You’re awake! Sweet!” Kate hollered as she barged into the room.
“Oh, please come on in, don’t mind me,” I teased.
“Me casa es su casa,” she grinned.
“Yeah… but it’s my house,” I mumbled.
“You’ve been out for so long I figured I should come and check you weren’t dead. That would have been awkward,” Kate said as she jumped onto the bed and sat by my feet.
“Awkward? My death would be awkward? Jeez, I’m so glad I didn’t die then, I’d hate for you to feel mildly inconvenienced,” I smiled.
“Miller’s fine, FYI,” Kate said. The smile from my face faded and I sat bolt upright, my eyes searching her for more information. “He came by earlier, but you were still asleep. You have to admit, it was pretty hot for him to go full wolf-mode in the middle of the day to try and save you. I mean, he clearly forgot you are a witch that is capable of saving herself… but it was hot none the less.”
