Preliminary tests had revealed those capsules to be cyanide.
That was the last update I’d received from Nick, hours ago. Now there was an all-out manhunt going on.
Womanhunt.
Witchhunt.
I hated thinking of Vivienne on the run. Hated thinking she’d tried to kill Baz. That she’d killed Natasha. . . .
Baz hadn’t been worth it.
No one was worth it.
Missy tugged hard on her leash, veering to the right. Looking that way, I saw it was Lady Catherine who’d captured her attention.
“Good evening!” Marigold called out, all smiles, as she approached us.
Lady Catherine trotted over to sniff Missy and Twink, her long thin tail wagging happily.
“Looks like she’s none the worse for wear after her adventure,” I said, patting Lady Catherine’s head.
“Not worse at all.” Marigold loosened her grip on the dog’s leash. “I think we’re both ecstatic she’s back home. I’m so thrilled that Ivy found her at Fairytails. Lady Catherine loves that place, so I wasn’t surprised to hear it.”
I hadn’t heard from Godfrey yet about the surveillance footage I’d asked him to view. With his current snit, I wondered if he’d even remember to check it. If I didn’t hear from him tonight, I’d check in with him tomorrow.
Before any more pets went missing.
“I love a happy ending.” Starla knelt down, and Lady Catherine licked her face. “It’s too bad there won’t be a Pawsitively Enchanted calendar this year. I would have loved to see Lady Catherine on the cover. She had such a good chance at winning.”
“You never know in those situations,” Marigold said, obviously trying to be modest, “but I also thought she had a good shot. Ivy suggested that perhaps I seek representation for Lady. To do commercials and the like. She said she’d help because she thinks Lady’s a star.”
She’d help, all right. For a fee, I’d bet.
Thinking of Marigold and Ivy, I recalled what Baz had said about Natasha not having had anything to do with his food poisoning. “Hey, Marigold, kind of a strange question, but I’m wondering about your accident a couple of years ago at the Extravaganza. How did it happen?”
Starla glanced up at me, a question in her eyes.
“That is a strange question,” Marigold said. “Why do you ask?”
I skirted the truth. “After what happened to Natasha at the Extravaganza, there have been rumors going around the village that your accident might not have been an accident, that you might have been pushed. You know how people talk. I just wanted to set the record straight. . . .”
Marigold called Lady Catherine to her side. “Please put your mind at rest, Darcy. My accident was just that. An accident. It was my own fault. I’d been drinking a bottle of water, and spilled some as I was walking down the steps.” She gave me a wry smile. “I don’t think there’s a more slippery surface on earth than wet marble.”
I knew I shouldn’t have taken this case. It had been nothing but a wild-goose chase, all because Ivy was paranoid about her precious Extravaganza, which was rather ironic considering I was now suspicious that she was petnapping the entrants. Talk about a backfire. “That’s good to know,” I said.
“Well, if I’m going to get Lady home before dark, I should get going,” Marigold said, eyeing the sky. “You two girls have a good night.”
We waved as she and Lady Catherine wandered off and continued our walk.
Crickets were chirping loudly as Starla looked at me. “Are you still thinking Ivy had something to do with stealing Lady Catherine in the first place?”
“I hate thinking it, but I do.”
“But why would Ivy bring her back to Marigold?”
“The reward money was probably a lot more than Lady Catherine could be sold for online. And now that talk about helping to get Lady Catherine into commercials? I’m sure she’ll charge a commission. Lady Catherine might just be the gift that keeps on giving for the cash-strapped Ivy. I just need a little evidence before I confront her about it.”
“Ivy’s smart. You think she left any evidence?”
“I can only hope.”
Suddenly, Starla groaned. “Ugh, look who’s coming.”
Looking ahead, I saw Clarence pulling Glinda our way.
“I’m out of here. I’ll see you later, okay? Text me if you get any news on Vivienne,” Starla said, turning away.
“I will,” I promised.
In a flash, she scooped up Twink and walked off in the other direction.
Starla didn’t offer forgiveness as easily as I did, and I couldn’t blame her. Glinda had treated her badly. Horribly. Much worse than she’d ever treated me. And Starla had never received an apology, not that I thought it would help.
Clarence didn’t give me a second look once he spotted Missy. He danced all around her, his tail wagging furiously.
Glinda was watching Starla’s retreat. “She’s going to hate me forever, isn’t she?”
“Probably.”
She sighed. “I deserve it.”
“I know.”
Sending me a sharp look, she said, “You didn’t have to agree with me.”
I shrugged. “Sorry. I’m glad to see Clarence is okay. Did Liam happen to get a look at the petnapper? I have this theo—”
“No,” she said, cutting me off. “Not at all.”
I studied her. She wouldn’t look me in the eye. “Not even a glimpse?”
“Nothing.”
“Why do I feel like you’re keeping something from me?”
“Not sure. Clarence, don’t eat the grass!” She sighed at the dog’s antics. “Liam isn’t even sure now if someone did try to steal Clarence, or if Clarence simply escaped again. You know how he is.”
“Liam or Clarence?”
She sent me a withering look. “Clarence.”
She was acting odd, but I had no idea why.
“I was hoping to run into you,” she said.
“The pen is at As You Wish. I haven’t had time to put the footage on disk yet.”
“That’s fine. I’ll come by tomorrow morning for it. No rush now that Vivienne’s wanted for murder. That puts divorce proceedings on the back burner. Which is why I wanted to talk to you.”
“About divorce? You and Liam aren’t even married yet.”
She sighed heavily. “About Vivienne. She didn’t do this to Baz. She wouldn’t do this. You need to talk to Nick, get him to listen to reason.”
“The evidence is pretty overwhelming. Baz even saw her driving.”
“He didn’t even have his glasses on from what I heard. He wouldn’t have been able to identify her if she’d been standing ten feet in front of him.”
Word spread fast in this village, but she did have a point about the glasses. He’d been squinting to see me, and I’d been right in front of him. “Cyanide pills were found in her car.”
“Someone’s framing her, Darcy. She didn’t do this. Someone must’ve stolen the car from the Pixie Cottage.”
“It wasn’t reported stolen.”
She flushed. “I know, but that’s what happened.”
“How do you know? Have you talked to Vivienne?”
“It doesn’t matter how. Listen, it makes no sense that Vivienne would run Baz over or poison Natasha. She wanted out of that marriage. We have the evidence she needs for a big payday, so why would she try to kill him?”
“If he’s dead, she probably gets a lot more money than a divorce would bring, even with the cheating evidence. He’s worth a gazillion dollars, isn’t he? She’s probably his main beneficiary.”
Glinda snapped her mouth closed, frowned, then said, “Maybe so, but she certainly wouldn’t have used her own car to run him down in broad daylight. That’s just plain stupid.”
It was my turn to frown. She made a good point. “Then maybe she’s just a woman who’s been pushed over the edge. There’s the whole anger and revenge angle to consider,” I went on. “Alina Norcliffe said Vivienne had threatened Natasha. Scratched her car up, broke in to her house, warned her off dating Baz.”
Glinda shook her head. “That makes zero sense. Vivienne didn’t even know it was Natasha who Baz was seeing until yesterday at the Extravaganza. Not until I told her after we saw them in the hallway.”
Yesterday. It seemed forever ago. “Do you know that for certain?”
“Know what?”
“That Vivienne didn’t know about Natasha? She could have hired you just so you’d tell people she hadn’t known. You’d be part of her alibi.”
“It wasn’t Vivienne,” Glinda said stubbornly. “I refuse to believe it.”
“Well, okay, then. Let’s say you’re right. Who else is there?”
She glared at me in dismay, then took a deep breath. “I don’t know. The only other person I can think of is . . .”
“Chip,” we both said at the same time.
“He definitely has motive if he loved Natasha,” Glinda said, latching on to the idea.
“But he’s in the hospital. He couldn’t have run over Baz.”
“Is he still there? I heard he was getting released today.”
Nick had mentioned Chip could be let out early. . . . Had that happened? And if so, what time?
“All I know,” Glinda said, “is that Vivienne is innocent, and I refuse to let her take the fall.”
“Do you know where Vivienne is?” I asked point-blank.
“I, uh—” She looked over my shoulder and snapped her mouth closed. “I have to go. I’ll be by tomorrow morning for that video.”
I turned to see what had scared her off and found Nick walking my way.
Missy happily circled his feet, barking until he paid her some attention. He flopped her ears and scratched her back, and she happily rolled in the grass.
Nick gave me a long kiss and said, “Why’d Glinda rush off when she saw me?”
“She thinks Vivienne is innocent, and probably doesn’t want to hear any evidence you have against her.” I explained Glinda’s reasoning for thinking Vivienne was innocent, including Baz’s nearsightedness and supposedly not knowing Natasha was his mistress until yesterday.
As we walked across the green, Nick said, “I don’t know what to think. I don’t exactly have suspects coming out of the woodwork, and Vivienne’s not talking because no one can find her.”
I was going to say she would turn up, that people didn’t just vanish, but around this village, they did. “Disappearing isn’t exactly innocent behavior, is it?”
“No.” Nick shook his head.
Even so, I felt duty-bound to follow up on Chip. “I don’t suppose Chip was released from the hospital earlier today, was he? Before Baz’s accident?”
“Why?”
Missy walked ahead of us, and I retracted her leash a bit as we neared the road. I explained to Nick what Glinda and I had talked about. “He’s the only other person who has motive for killing Natasha. If he killed her, maybe he was just as angry at Baz?”
“But that would mean Chip poisoned himself. You said yourself that he didn’t look like he knew his smoothie had cyanide in it.”
I fidgeted. “Maybe he’s a better actor than I gave him credit for? Maybe he drank only enough so he’d get sick but wouldn’t die. So we wouldn’t suspect him.”
Nick rubbed at his five o’clock shadow. “That’s a lot of maybes.”
It definitely was.
“I’ll call the hospital, just so we can cross him off the suspect list once and for all. Oh, and I got all five of your messages about Archie’s abduction.”
I smiled. “Yeah, sorry about that. Do you know if the sack was found?”
“Waiting on a call back from the officer who took the original call,” he said, yawning. “There was nothing in the evidence locker.”
“You must be ready to drop,” I said, noting the weariness etched around his eyes. “Are you off work now? How’re you feeling?”
“I’m on call if anything happens with the case, but technically I’m off for the next twelve hours. And I’m fine. Really. Just had the wind knocked out of me earlier, is all. It probably won’t be the last time.”
I prayed it was the last time. I never wanted to see him hurting ever again.
“Have you had dinner yet?” he asked.
“Not yet. I was waiting for Ve and Mimi, but they haven’t gotten home yet.”
“They ate,” he said.
“How do you know that?”
“Mimi texted me.”
“Where are they?” I asked, thinking it would have been nice to get a text, too.
“Now? At the movies. Ve’s going to drop Mimi off at my place afterward. It’s a school night, or I’m sure Mimi would have talked her into a double feature.”
Summer break was just around the corner, and Mimi was champing at the bit for staying up late and sleeping in.
“If you’re hungry, come with me,” Nick said, taking my hand.
“Where to?”
“If you’ll just follow me . . .”
I smiled at him and cleared my throat. “‘To the ends of the earth.’”
A half smile twitched at the corners of his lips. “I’m not Archie.”
“I know, but you set me up perfectly. You used a line from—”
“Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.”
I playfully punched his arm. “You sly devil. So you weren’t sleeping all those times I made you watch that movie.”
“Not all the times. Just most of the times,” he conceded with a smirk. “Even when I’m sleeping, the movie seems to sneak into my subconscious. Sometimes I catch myself whistling ‘Bless Her Beautiful Hide’ at work, and you should see the looks I get.”
I gazed up at him. “I think I just fell in love with you a little bit more, Nick Sawyer.”
He nudged my chin. “It’s that easy? A Seven Brides reference?”
“I’m kind of a pushover when it comes to you.”
“Ditto, Darcy Merriweather. Ditto. Now come on.” He kept hold of my hand and led me across the street to the construction zone that was my new house.
“Why are we here?” I asked, looking around.
“Watch your step,” Nick said, guiding me around a wheelbarrow on the front walkway.
I stopped and picked up Missy. The area was littered with the remnants of the old shingles, and I worried there were roofing nails hidden in the grass. “What’s going on?”
“Dinner, remember?” Nick headed up the front steps, across the rotting porch, and swung opened the front door.
“Tell me that wasn’t unlocked.” There was thousands of dollars’ worth of material being stored inside the house.
“It wasn’t. Elves came by earlier to set things up and left it open for us.”
“Elves?” I walked through the front door and immediately felt a sense of peace, which was entirely unjustified considering the state of the living room. The interior walls had been gutted to replace ancient wiring, install new insulation, and update the heating and cooling system. It seemed everything inside the house needed to be brought up to building and fire codes, which made sense, since the previous owner hadn’t allowed anyone in the house for decades.
No doubt about it: The place was an absolute mess.
But yet it still felt like home.
“Mimi and Ve helped me out,” he confessed.
Ah. So this had been part of the errands they were running. As far as my aunt’s avoidance tactics went, I had to approve of this one.
The scent of freshly cut lumber filled the air, and a fine coat of dust covered everything in sight. I couldn’t
help running down a mental checklist of everything that still needed to be done from floor refinishing to refacing the fireplace to picking out paint colors.
He led me to the back of the house, and I stood in awe. Not at the sight of the addition and all the space it had added, but at the plaid blanket spread across the filthy subfloor where my kitchen would one day be located. The space was currently a gutted shell made up of wooden studs, copper pipes, and an electrical-wire maze, but the walls could have been made of solid gold and I wouldn’t have noticed. My attention was fixated on one thing only.
The picnic basket sitting on the blanket. Two candles in tall hurricane lamps flickered in the dim light.
“Dinner,” he said simply. “I didn’t want another day to go by without us spending a little quality time together.”
I couldn’t have stopped the goofy smile on my face if I tried. I set Missy on the floor and she took off to sniff around.
Nick held my hand, helping me lower myself to the blanket. He opened the hamper. “Ve and Mimi went to the North End today and picked up some dishes from your favorite Italian restaurant. Stuffed mushroom appetizer, pasta al pomodoro, garlic bread, tiramisu.”
“Special occasion?” I asked, eyebrows raised.
“Is it too cheesy to say every dinner with you is a special occasion?”
I laughed. “Yes, yes, it is.”
“Then let’s just say I missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too.” I dished out a couple of plates of food and gave a meatball to Missy. I’d just have to be more patient about the moving-in thing. I could do it. I was nothing if not patient.
Nick poured two glasses of wine and then glanced around. “Actually,” he said, “I’ve been wanting to ask you something important for a while now. . . .”
“Oh?” I noticed my hand holding the wineglass was shaking a bit, so I carefully set the glass down.
Nick glanced at me, held my gaze. What he said in that look was more than I’d ever dreamed. It wasn’t often he let his guard fully down, but he was letting it down now, allowing me to see the love he had for me.
Gone With the Witch Page 22
