“You know, I had such a good time the last time I was here I just thought I’d stop by again.”
“Can I help you with anything in particular?” Celestial asked, secretly hoping Nettie wasn’t planning to come in just to talk to her. She wasn’t sure how she would react if this turned into Nettie begging Celestial to find some way of absolving Tommy of the crime.
To Celestial’s relief, Nettie nodded. “Yes, I was hoping you could give me some guidance here. You see, I’m hosting a party for a friend of mine--just a little get-together, you see--and there are some games I’ve organized. I wanted to give prizes away to the winners. Your products are so very popular, I thought I could pick something up here.”
“That sounds lovely,” Celestial said honestly. “If you’re looking for some small prizes, I’ve got a few selections of soaps right here. If you wanted something more substantial, I have a display of gift baskets over by the door.”
Nettie looked through the soap bars Celestial pointed her to, cooing excitedly over all the scents. “These are just marvelous. You really have a talent.” She beamed at Celestial. “Tell me, you wouldn’t be interested in coming to the party, would you? I’m sure the girls would be just thrilled to have the artisan herself present when they see their lovely prizes. I imagine you’d be able to make a few excellent sales there, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.”
“Oh,” Celestial said. “Thank you, but–”
“You don’t have to think of it as a networking event, either,” Nettie cut in, as if worried she’d offended Celestial. “You could just kick up your heels, have a bit of fun. I’m cooking for the event. We’ll be having all sorts of my famous family specialties--honey-glazed parsnips, pineapple parsley chutney, that sort of thing. My dishes are just to die for, if I do say so myself.”
“Thank you,” said Celestial again, slightly more sincerely this time. “I appreciate the invitation, I really do. But I don’t think I’ll be able to make it.”
Nettie, still smiling, merely shrugged. “Naturally, if you can’t make it you can’t make it. I host little soirees regularly. Maybe you’ll be able to join us sometime in the future.”
Nettie let Celestial help her pick out a handful of soap bars, some lotions and teas, and two large gift baskets, all of which added up to a pretty substantial purchase. When Celestial asked Nettie if she needed any help walking her purchases out to her car, Nettie only flapped a hand and said, “I’m not some feeble old lady, you know. You just watch your store, sweetheart, I’ve got all this.”
* * *
A little later on, Nikoli came in and found Celestial going over the week’s sales. “Hello, Detective,” she said, happy for the excuse to close up her accounts book and set it aside. Her eyes had been starting to cross. “What can I do for you?”
“I needed to get out of the police office. Stretch my legs. Get some fresh air.”
“We do have the freshest air here at Herbal Heaven.”
Nikoli managed a smile, though he looked exhausted. His hair was in slight disarray, and his face was a little uncharacteristically pale and drawn. Celestial wondered if he’d been sleeping properly since this case began.
“I was hoping we could talk through the case a little,” he admitted. “Compare notes.”
“Sure thing,” Celestial said. “Here, have a seat. I’ll make you some tea.”
“No, don’t worry about that,” he objected as he took a seat, though he didn’t actually stop her from getting up and heading over to her electric kettle, which Celestial took as encouragement enough.
As the tea steeped, the two talked through what they knew so far about the primary suspects in the case. Most of their attention was spent on Tommy and, to Celestial’s distaste, Jody. The discovery about Tammy’s involvement in Jody’s recent romantic disappointment had evidently greatly influenced Nikoli and his colleagues’ thinking on how seriously to consider Jody as a suspect. Celestial wanted to stand up for her friend, but she kept most of her defensive comments back, trying desperately to remain objective.
Still, she was relieved when talk turned to Elaina Chavez, who she was surprised but thrilled to know Nikoli was taking seriously as a potential person of interest. “Oh, I almost forgot!” she said. “I wanted to show you this.”
Nikoli watched over his steaming tea as Celestial dove for her purse, rummaged, and withdrew the lighter.
“What’s this?” he asked her, leaning forward to take a look as she held it out to him.
She explained what it was and where she had found it, then showed him the initials. “Jardín Rico,” she suggested.
He stood, frowning, and already drawing a small plastic bag from his jacket pocket. “You shouldn’t have been handling this bare-handed,” he said. “We might have gotten prints off of it.”
Celestial’s heart sank. Sure, she had a tendency to get caught up, to forget about non-magical detective methods, but she didn’t like being chastised. “I’m sure you can still run prints,” she said. “You just have to eliminate mine. There might be something on there.”
He hummed, clearly not convinced, then held the mouth of the bag open for Celestial to drop the lighter in. “This is a good clue to follow up on,” he conceded. “In fact, it might be a good idea to follow up on it sooner rather than later. Want to take a quick trip with me?”
Chapter 20
Nikoli had Elaina’s address written down in the notebook he kept for case notes. Celestial was delighted when she peeked over Nikoli’s shoulder and saw that Elaina’s contact information had been written down just below Jody’s. Hopefully, that meant that Elaina was being taken as seriously as a suspect as Jody was.
It was a short drive out to Elaina’s house, which was squat, attractive, and trendy. They walked down a paved path that led them through a nicely kept front garden, all the way to a red-painted front door. Nikoli knocked his confident police officer’s knock, which always drew people to the door quickly. Sure enough, a few seconds later, Elaina opened up with a cautious expression on her face.
She looked over Nikoli, then flicked her gaze over to Celestial with an unimpressed sneer. She cocked an eyebrow at Nikoli. “Can I help you, Detective?”
“May we come in?”
She raised a single shoulder in a shrug. “I don’t see why not.”
Elaina let them both in but didn’t invite them to sit down. She sat herself, though, in a complicated-looking squiggle of an armchair that looked like something out of an architectural magazine. “Do you have something you’d like to ask me?”
“Yes,” Nikoli said. He withdrew the evidence bag Celestial had dropped the lighter into earlier, held it aloft so that Elaina could see it. Celestial and Nikoli both carefully watched Elaina for a reaction. She leaned forward, squinted at the lighter, but didn’t seem phased by it.
“What is that supposed to be?”
“It’s a lighter,” Nikoli explained. “Bearing the initials of your restaurant on it.”
“Haven’t seen it before.”
“Are you sure? Maybe you’d like to take another look.”
Elaina scoffed. “I don’t have to take another look to know that it’s not mine, if that’s what you’re implying. I don’t own a lighter because I don’t smoke.”
This was a clear lie: there was an ashtray scattered with cigarette butts sitting in the middle of the table. Celestial and Nikoli’s eyes met. She tried to silently signal to him to push harder on this point, but for his own reasons he seemed already to be withdrawing. Maybe he was hoping the sight of the lighter, and the knowledge the police had it in evidence, would be enough to rattle her. Maybe he was playing some kind of longer game.
“Do you recognize it from any other context?” Nikoli pressed. “Perhaps one of your employees…?”
“Afraid not,” she said, voice sharp. To Celestial, she sounded downright dangerous.
“Well,” he said, “if that’s the case then thank you for your time.”
“Do
n’t mention it.” Elaina rose from her chair and saw them both out the door. She shut it a little too firmly after them.
Somehow, Celestial was able to wait until they were back in the car to turn to Nikoli and say urgently, “You’ve got to get back in there. Test those cigarette butts or something.”
Patiently, Nikoli answered, “You know I can’t do that.”
“I know nothing of the sort.”
“First,” he said, holding up one finger, “there’s no proof Elaina was lying when she said she doesn’t smoke.”
“No proof?” Celestial cut in, eyes widening in disbelief. “You saw perfectly well that there was an ashtray in there! Full of cigarette butts!”
“Which might not have been Elaina’s. You and I see an ashtray, we assume it’s there for the house’s owner. But Elaina’s a popular woman. She probably has friends over all the time. She could keep the ashtray there for her smoking friends to use. All of those cigarette butts could perfectly well belong to someone else. Or several someones. You want me to try to lift prints off of a half-dozen cigarette ends when we can’t actually verify who was smoking them? Even the worst defense lawyer in the world would be able to blow a thousand holes through that evidence.”
Celestial huffed in annoyance. “So, what, that means you can’t even challenge her on her obvious lie? Even though I know you don’t believe her?”
“These things take time,” Nikoli explained. “You can’t just go busting in all guns blazing. Even if I were to get a warrant, it’s not like Elaina wouldn’t be expecting it. Anything she wanted to hide, she’s probably gotten rid of it already. But the fact that she knows we’ve got this lighter… it might just make her nervous enough to make a misstep, if she really does have something to hide.”
Celestial felt a little like a petulant child, with how frustrated and impatient all of this was making her feel. Still, she managed not to fume too much as Nikoli drove her back to the shop. But Nikoli must have picked up on her displeasure, because when he got out to open up her car door for her he said, in that almost parental tone he put on sometimes, “Don’t do anything stupid, okay? Like I said, the important thing is just to wait it out. Wait for Elaina--or whoever is responsible for Tammy’s death--to make a misstep.”
But what if that misstep costs someone else their life? Celestial didn’t ask this out loud. She was worried Nikoli would tell her she was being paranoid--or, worse, that she was too deeply involved and should take a step back. Instead, she nodded. “Fine,” she conceded, nodding absentmindedly. “I promise I’ll be careful and won’t do anything stupid. As long as you promise you won’t just let Elaina get away with whatever she’s hiding.”
“I promise,” Nikoli said. He sounded sincere, but as he got back into his car and drove away Celestial couldn’t help but worry that the bureaucratic police processes he so passionately believed in were going to allow too much opportunity for someone like Elaina to slip the hook.
Elaina was clearly lying. And Celestial could keep her promise, and remain careful, while still working to figure out the truth.
It would just take a little patience.
Chapter 21
That evening, back at home, Celestial watched the clock, waiting for it to strike 7:30. According to Jardín Rico’s website, this was their busiest time (“Be sure to reserve a table at least 24 hours in advance if you do not want you and your party to wait to be seated”), which meant Elaina was almost certain to be at the restaurant herself.
Which meant her house would be empty.
“I don’t like this,” Athena said. “Weren’t you going to be collaborating with Nikoli when it came to figuring out if houses were empty? Don’t you think you should ask him if this is a good idea? If he can give you a little support on this one?”
Celestial shook her head. “I got the distinct impression Nikoli didn’t want me going near this one. At least, not in the usual way.”
“Then maybe you should take that seriously? If Nikoli is worried, it seems like it’s pretty risky.”
Celestial dug through her entryway closet, where she kept most of her outerwear. She wanted to wear something that wasn’t too colorful, something that might help her blend into the shadows a little more. Unluckily, most of her wardrobe was pretty distinctive, but hanging near the back, pressed far against the wall, she found an old olive-green jacket that she hadn’t worn in months. She had initially bought it because she liked the gold lion-detail double-breasted buttons, but in practice the jacket wasn’t very flattering on her, turned her whole body a little lumpy and amorphous.
Then again, lumpy and amorphous was probably a plus tonight. She didn’t want people recognizing her, anyway.
“Celestial,” Athena said insistently. It wasn’t like Celestial to ignore her familiar. Athena was worried. She hadn’t seen Celestial this single-minded in a while, particularly focusing in on something so reckless. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“Fine,” Celestial said stubbornly, pulling the jacket on over her shoulders. “Then you can stay.”
And, with that, she abruptly disappeared into thin air.
Celestial didn’t bother apparating outside of Elaina’s house to check to see whether it was empty. Elaine lived in a busy, trendy neighborhood, and Celestial figured it would be riskier to appear in the garden, where any of the neighbors might have seen her, than to just go straight to the source. Besides, she was feeling pretty confident that Elaina would be wrapped up in her busy job at Jardín Rico.
Indeed, the house was dark and silent. Only a single grow lamp, angled down over a shelf bursting with leafy houseplants, illuminated the front room. Celestial paused for a moment, straining to hear whether there was anyone else in the house. There didn’t seem to be.
The first place she checked was the coffee table where she had spotted the ashtray before. As Nikoli had guessed would happen, the ashtray had been removed, and there was no sign of either it or the cigarette butts anywhere in the living room.
First I’ll find the cigarette butts, Celestial thought. Bag them up to bring to Nikoli. Then I’ll look around elsewhere to see if there’s any other useful evidence.
Celestial made a beeline for the nearest garbage can, which she found in Elaina’s neat, expansive kitchen. If Elaina had thrown away the cigarette butts today, they were likely to be somewhere near the top of this heap. Celestial bent closer, then tentatively started to sort through the food scraps near the top of the can.
So absorbed was she in this task that she didn’t hear when someone else walked up behind her. She did, however, feel when that person abruptly grabbed her jacket, moving to turn her around roughly. There was a sudden tearing sound as part of Celestial’s jacket came away, and this noise coupled with the violent handling startled Celestial into suddenly apparating away.
Heart in her throat, trying to get her breath back, Celestial didn’t even realize where she had gone until she heard Athena pleading with her. “What happened?” she asked. “Are you all right? Celestial, your jacket!”
“I’m fine,” Celestial said when she had managed to gather herself. “I’m fine.”
Still, it took three cups of chamomile to get her comfortably off to sleep that night.
* * *
Her first customer of the day when Herbal Heaven opened the next morning was Elaina, looking somehow both furious and smug. She approached the counter with confident, clicking steps and, without a word, withdrew something from her pocket and dropped it onto the countertop right in front of Celestial.
It was a torn piece of olive fabric, bearing a single gold lion-emblazoned button.
“Are you missing this, by any chance?” she asked, faux-sweet tone barely covering an undercurrent of fuming rage.
Celestial blinked at the fabric. “What’s this?”
“This,” Elaina said, scooting the fabric closer to Celestial in an accusatory gesture, “was in my home last night. On a jacket that was being worn by a trespasser. Someone who h
ad let herself into my house in order to snoop around.”
Celestial managed to keep calm and shrugged. “I don’t own anything that matches this,” she said, going apologetic. “It’s not a good color on me.”
“I’m sure your detective friend would recognize it if I were to show it to him,” said Elaina. “I bet he notices what you wear, doesn’t he? If not, I might just have to see about filing a report. Getting a warrant, even, to see if I can find the jacket this little scrap belongs to.”
Celestial straightened, crossing her arms across her chest defensively. “I’m afraid this shop is for customers only. So if you aren’t planning to buy anything, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
Elaina flashed an angry grin. “Oh, I’ll leave all right. Believe me, I’d be happy if I never saw you again.” She turned to go, then shot back over her shoulder, “As a matter of fact, I’m going to have to ask you to stay out of my business, Miss Meadows. You don’t want to end up like Tammy, do you?”
Chapter 22
Celestial was still rattled by her encounter with Elaina that morning when Tamara and Dakota came by over the lunch hour. They were both carrying take-out boxes from Jody’s. Dakota handed her one. She peeked inside, smiling to find that he had ordered her a gorgeous, lush-looking salad. Sure, maybe Tommy wasn’t working at Jody’s Diner anymore, but Jody and the rest of her staff could still at least put together an acceptable lunch menu.
“I’m glad you two are still supporting Jody’s,” she remarked.
They gave each other a guilty look, which Celestial caught.
“What?” she asked. “What is it?”
Brooms and Brains (A Hocus Pocus Cozy Witch Mystery Series Book 5) Page 7
