by M. J. Caan
The words federal stuck in Torie’s mind. What if they focused in on her because of her previous dealings with them because of her husband? He had taken the fall for a massive Ponzi scheme that was orchestrated by his lover, a fae woman with whom he had had a child. While Torie had been completely cleared of any involvement, she wasn’t so sure that they wouldn’t use this as an opportunity to open another file on her. That kind of scrutiny was the last thing she needed right now.
“Max, have you identified the other person on the message?” asked Jasmin.
“No, not yet. We have no clue who she is.”
“Well, that sounds like a good place to start. Let us help you. What happened to the mayor is a tragedy; but right now, you’ve made this personal. Just give us a couple of days to work on this, and if we don’t get you any information, I’ll walk Torie down to you myself,” Jasmin said, looking over at her friend. “But I promise you it won’t come to that.”
“Max, there has to be a way you can slow this down, just for a couple of days,” said Elric. “You owe us that.”
Torie stepped between them, once again pleading for calmer heads to prevail. “Look, it’s no big deal. I have nothing to hide. If Max needs me to come down to the station, then I will. I don’t have a lawyer, however, so I’ll need help with that.”
Max looked from Torie to her friends and took a deep breath.
“Once your name is tied in any way to this, things will get messy for you. The feds are going to want someone to pin this on and, honestly, in a small, backwater community like this, they might not care who. I’ll keep you out of this for forty-eight hours. Bring me something I can use.”
“You can use me,” said Elion, walking slowly back into the room.
Max flinched and narrowed his eyes at the vampire.
“I could not help but overhear what was happening. I think I can be of some help to you. Have your labs been able to identify the toxin that was used on your mayor?”
“No. So far it doesn’t match up with any known poisons in our database.”
“Ah, well in that case, maybe I can help you identify it.”
“How would you do that?” asked Torie.
“I need to taste a sample of the victim’s blood,” Elion replied in an almost nonchalant way. “I will be able to taste everything that was in his system at the time of his death, right down to where the beans in the coffee he drank for breakfast were grown.”
“That sounds gross,” said Jasmin.
“Trust me, it is not something I am looking forward to. Sampling a dead man’s blood is not a pleasant thing. It would be like you drinking milk that has clotted, soured and then been left out so long it has grown fungus. Times ten. But I will be able to identify the elements that make up the poison. At least that will be a start for you.”
Jasmin nodded. “And in the meantime, we can start tracking down this mystery woman on the phone.”
“Where would we even start?” asked Torie.
“That’s easy. His mother is staying here. Granted, she was pretty much held prisoner by him, but maybe she would have a clue about her son’s comings and goings. Plus, I’m pretty sure we can nudge her memory a little if need be,” said Jasmin.
Torie frowned. “That seems like it would be an invasion of privacy.”
“It will be a last resort, I promise. Plus, it might help her in the long run too.”
“Alright, so we have a plan,” said Max. “Or at least the bare bones of one. Elion, how do you want to do this? It’s daylight out there. I know the sun won’t kill you, but do you really want to risk a severe burn right now?”
“What if you bring the car into the garage?” said Torie. “That way he can get into it without direct exposure.”
Max was nodding. “That could work. Then, at the medical office, we can pull into the bay there, so again you’re not in direct light. What do you think?”
“I think that sounds like an excellent idea,” the vampire said. “Plus, it will give the two of us time to catch up.” He patted Max on the back and headed for the back of the house where the mudroom led to the garage.
“Oh, Max, can you send that message from the mayor’s phone to my phone?” asked Torie.
Max frowned before answering. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. But here—” He sat the phone down on the coffee table. “Keep it. I’ll just need it back in a couple of days.”
Torie thanked the sheriff as he nodded to them and then followed Elion down the hall.
Once there was just the two of them in the room, Torie turned to Jasmin.
“Fionna should be back with Effie anytime, but before we speak with her, I want to call her sister. I’d like to give Effie some good news after everything she has been through,” Torie said.
“That’s fine. You do that. I’m going to start putting dishes into the washer for you and cleaning up the kitchen.”
Torie started to protest but knew that it would fall on deaf ears. Instead, she gathered Leo onto her shoulder and went back into the office where she had left her notebook with Effie’s sister’s contact information.
She double checked that the number she put into her cell was the same and then settled back onto the small loveseat that occupied a corner of the room.
The phone rang a few times before a pensive voice answered.
“Hello, Effie?” said a woman’s voice.
Torie was taken aback but managed to speak up after clearing her throat.
“No, my name is Torie Bliss, I am a friend of your sister’s. Is this Hattie?”
“Yes, yes it is,” said the woman, the pace of her speaking was picking up in excitement.
“It is very nice to speak with you, ma’am. I wanted to let you know that your sister is here with me at my home and, well, she wanted me to reach out to you and let you know she is safe. She also wants to inquire about how you are doing.”
“Oh, thank goodness she is alright! I have been so very worried. May I speak with her? Please?”
“Well, of course you can. She is out on a walk with a friend of mine, but they should be back any minute now. And can I ask…how did you know that I was calling about your sister?”
“She is the only person that has this number. We don’t have any other family so my phone only rings when it is her. And it hasn’t rang in so very long. Why, I was starting to fear that my no-good nephew had done something awful to her.”
Torie didn’t say anything, letting that hang in the air. She wasn’t sure how to respond, but as luck would have it, she was rescued by the sound of Fionna and Effie returning.
“Hattie, one moment, I think your sister just stepped back in.” She placed Leo in his makeshift cave and left the study, closing the door behind her.
She could hear Fionna laughing lightly at something Effie said and was able to catch them as they headed down the hall toward the guest room.
“Effie,” she called after them, holding her phone in the air, “I have your sister on the line. She would like to speak to you.”
Effie spun in place to face Torie. She held out her hand, her face overcome with excitement.
“Hattie? Is that really you?” she asked.
Torie could not make out what was being said on the other line, but she could see the tears running down the older woman’s face. She was nodding along to whatever Hattie was saying to her, the occasional, “yes” and “of course” slipping out.
“Oh, Hattie, you just don’t know how terrible it’s been. You know poor Terry has died in a terrible accident. This nice woman has been kind enough to open her home to me until I can go back to my house. Yes…oh I know…yes. Okay, I can ask but I’ve already been such a bother.”
She took the phone from her ear and turned in Torie’s direction.
“Torie, you have been so good to me and I hate to ask one more favor, but would it be possible for my sister to come visit me here? She said she can help me get back on my feet and will stay with me at my house as long as sh
e is needed.”
Torie looked at Fionna who just shrugged, and then back to Effie.
“Of course she can. I would be honored to meet her,” Torie replied.
The tears flowed down Effie’s face. “I don’t know how to thank you for this.” She placed the phone back to her ear. “You hear that, Hattie? You can come visit.” She nodded and exchanged a few more pleasantries with her sister before handing the phone back to Torie. “Can you give her your address? I’m going to go lie down again. I fear all this excitement has been a bit much for me.”
Torie took the phone as Effie gently grasped Fionna’s elbow and was led back to her room. A couple of minutes later, Torie ended the call after providing the requested information to Hattie and walked back into the kitchen.
“What was all that about?” asked Jasmin.
“You know Effie’s sister I mentioned? Well, that was her. She’s coming to visit Effie and has offered to stay with her at her own house as long as needed to get Effie back on her feet.
“You mean the sister that doesn’t exist according to a police database?”
Torie waved her off. “Please, you know as well as I do that the police in this town are just this side of useless. I mean, they just pegged me as a person of interest in the murder of a man I’d never heard of until we found his dead body.”
Jasmin laughed. “Well, we really need to get started on making sure he knows to not even pull your name into this. So, that means, it’s time to talk to your houseguest back there and see what she knows.”
“Do we have to do it right now? She’s exhausted from her walk and the excitement of being reunited with her sister.”
“Oh, I don’t know, Torie. Do you want to stay off Max’s murder radar or would you rather wait until later?”
Torie tsked at her friend. “You don’t have to be sarcastic, you know.”
“I just don’t want you getting caught up in something you have no business being a part of. I do have another idea though.”
“What’s that?”
“Why don’t you and I head over to the mayor’s house and look around? I want to try and get a better feeling for the magic that was used on his mother. I still can’t figure out how a human could conjure up something like that, and why he would use it to bind his aging mother to a bed. I have a feeling that his death is tied to that.”
“That sounds like an excellent plan. But can we stop at the specialty market on the way back? I have an idea for a special candy I want to create for the festival contest. Plus, I need to place the order for flowers for Fionna’s party.”
Jasmin shook her head, smiling in admiration. “I don’t know where you’re finding this energy, but so be it. What about your dragon? Do you trust him here alone?”
Torie hadn’t thought about that but knew there was no way to take him with her.
“I’ll leave him in the study. Fionna can watch Effie and keep an eye on Leo. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Jasmin arched a single eyebrow. “Don’t ever say something like that. Especially not where Fionna is concerned.”
They finished cleaning the kitchen, and Torie went in to check on Fionna and Effie. Effie was resting quietly on her bed while Fionna was curled in the reading chair next to the window. Rather than wake her, Torie scribbled a note and left it on the table next to the napping shifter. Then she checked in on Leo and found him curled in a ball in his little hideaway. She gave him a scratch on the head and left the office, pulling the door shut behind her.
14
The drive to the mayor’s house was uneventful, and they passed the time listening to one of Jasmin’s favorite 80s stations. While it wasn’t Torie’s favorite, they both agreed it stood head and shoulders above the awful pop music that lately seemed to dominate the airwaves.
Easing into the long driveway that led to the home, they were greeted with yellow police tape cordoning off the front porch. Torie had forgotten it was an active crime scene, and entering it made her all the more nervous.
“What if I leave a hair or the feds come in and find my fingerprints? Won’t that make me look like more of a suspect?”
“No, because we were already in the house, they will have established trace evidence from both of us and discounted it.”
“Still, I wish we had come at night.”
“It’s not like there is any surveillance here, so no one is going to see us. And if you’re worried about leaving hair or DNA, I’m pretty sure that would still happen even if we were in the dark. Probably more likely then, because I can’t see anything at night anymore without my glasses.”
They walked up to the house and slipped under the police tape before reaching the front door. There was another band of tape, this time red, that spanned the width of the door. Torie knew there was no turning back now; once they broke the tape by opening the door, they would officially be breaking the law.
Jasmin waved her hand, her magic tearing through the tape and forcing the locked door open. Inside, the house was deathly still and quiet. It was amazing how lonely a house could feel once its human occupants left it to its own devices.
Torie reached out with her magic, sending a thread of her hex power snaking through the house to make sure they were truly alone. Satisfied there was no one else there with them, she nodded to Jasmin and together they made their way deeper inside. The house was a center hall colonial, so there were open spaces to the left and right of the staircase.
“You take the right side, I’ll take the left,” said Jasmin. “Look for his office or any space that might look like somewhere to hide something.”
Torie nodded and moved off to her right, into the dining area. There was a small rectangular table in the middle of the room, flanked by two chairs on either side. A long sideboard took up one wall and arranged on top were tiny sculptures and decorative canisters. Looking through them she realized they were all empty and purely for decoration. The cabinet space beneath the sideboard contained stacks of china and a box containing silverware.
She moved on into the kitchen and began looking through the drawers and cabinets, not finding anything that didn’t belong in a kitchen. Just as she was about to close the last cabinet, she felt something.
It was like a shadow that she didn’t see, but rather felt, as it glided swiftly by, passing through the room. It was so abrupt that had she been holding a cup it would have dropped to the tile floor and shattered. She bolted from the kitchen, back to the stairway where an equally startled Jasmin was standing, looking around in concern.
“I thought you said this place was empty,” said Jasmin.
“I thought it was. I don’t remember sensing any presence, human or otherwise.”
Jasmin looked up the stairway. “I think it went up there.”
Torie nodded, letting out a deep breath. She could feel the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand up as they slowly ascended. Once at the top of the landing, each of the witches probed the space, trying to home in on the source of the disturbance they felt.
“I don’t feel anything,” said Torie. “Just like before. Could we have imagined it?”
“Both of us? Imaging the same thing at the same time? Doubtful. No, whatever it is, it’s up here.”
“Okay, but we are not separating to look for it,” said Torie. “That’s how people that are too stupid to live end up dying.”
Jasmin nodded in agreement as they decided where to go. Jasmin pointed to the room at the end of the hall from the landing. That was where they had found the mother mystically bound to her bed, so it was the most obvious choice.
The door to the room was closed, secured with another piece of police tape. This time, Jasmin kept the blue streak of magic at the ready after using it to push open the door. The room beyond was exactly as they remembered it; the only difference being the closet door had been flung open and obviously searched.
Torie extended a hand and wrapped the bed in magic.
“No trace of anything. Wha
tever he was using to bind her is no longer here.”
Jasmin dropped her magic, placing her hands on her hips. “It just makes no sense. Where would he get such power, and why would he use it on his mother? The woman is old and blind. All he had to do was lock the door and she couldn’t go anywhere. This just feels like overkill.”
“Come on, there are two more bedrooms on this floor. Let’s check them.”
Together, they moved down the hall, coming to a second door. This had obviously been a guest room as it was made up impeccably. Plenty of plush, decorative pillows were piled on top of the bedding and the nightstand next to it contained an empty glass water pitcher and two glasses. There was a rocking chair in one corner with freshly folded towels placed on the seat. Again, neither of the witches felt anything out of place.
That left one last room at the far end of the second floor.
Opening the door, they walked into the master bedroom and both were met with a stench that made them gag. Covering their nose with their elbows, they looked at each other and summoned a protective shield that only partially obstructed the putrid smell.
“What in the world is that?” asked Torie.
“Something old and dead.” Jasmin’s eyes narrowed as she peered into the room.
The windows were covered with heavy drapes that blocked out any light, making the room appear hazy and gray. The space was large, with an unmade bed against one wall facing the window. The two nightstands were both overflowing with papers, charging cables, paperclips and electronic vaping cartridges. There were dirty clothes and socks on the floor strewn about. The room had not been dusted in some time.
“What a mess,” said Jasmin.
“It’s almost the opposite of the rest of the house. I would not have expected this. Is that…is that a half-eaten sandwich there?”
On a plate, half covered by a Home and Gardens magazine was indeed an unfinished sandwich. Torie didn’t even want to guess how long it had been there.
“Whatever smells so bad seems to be coming from the closet,” said Jasmin, jutting her chin in that direction.
