“I looked into Ralph Hartley,” he said. Thea had nearly forgotten about Ralph and Marie.
“What did you find?” Thea asked, feeling a surge of hope. Maybe Blaine had some information that could help them. Maybe they were on their way to a lead about Marie’s disappearance.
“He’s been in prison before. He has a history of violent offenses. And he was put away for some illegal gambling. Lots of low-level crime stuff.”
“Were you able to track him down? Ask him about Marie?”
“We were. We asked him about her. Really drilled him about things, but he was pretty tight lipped. He knows we don’t have enough for an arrest or a warrant, so he was pretty stingy with his information. But he says he was at home the night Marie disappeared.”
“Of course he was. And, let me guess, there’s no one who can back up that story,” Thea said, feeling the hope drain out of her.
“Yeah. No one to corroborate the alibi.”
Thea sighed and rested her head against the passenger seat.
“I thought we would have something. I hoped after this day of asking questions and tracking people down that we’d at least find something.”
“We found information. That’s the way this works. We just keep pulling threads until one of them gives.”
“Can’t you bring him in again? Question him more?” Thea asked, desperate to take some action. She couldn’t help thinking of Danny curled up in his bed inside. He was in a stranger’s house, and his mother was missing. Thea couldn’t ignore the ache of sympathy she felt as she thought back to her own days without her parents.
“Thea, right now we’re not even sure there’s a crime. She could have run off.”
“She wouldn’t leave her son,” Thea insisted, suddenly fighting tears. What was with her today? She felt like her emotions were all over the place. Blaine took her hand and squeezed.
“I promise we’ll keep looking. Tomorrow I want to talk to Shannon, see what she’s willing to tell me about the group. Maybe I can figure out if she’s really the leader like Eileen thinks.”
“Let me do it,” Thea suggested, turning to face Blaine again. “There could be trouble. Some magical danger.”
“And you don’t think I can handle myself?” Blaine asked. Thea smiled at him. She had to acknowledge that Blaine knew how to take care of himself. But something about this felt like her fight. It was personal, and she wanted to be the one to talk to Shannon. She wouldn’t admit it, but she couldn’t help wondering if there would be more to learn about her parents.
“Just let me give it a try. Witch to witch, you know?”
“Alright. But please don’t blow up any more houses. Or at least send a text if things are moving in that direction.”
Thea smiled at him and leaned over to kiss him.
“I promise.”
“And can you text me before you go? And then when you’re done, just so I know you’re alright?”
“Yes, mother,” Thea laughed.
“Hey, don’t blame me for being protective. How would it look if something happened to you right before our wedding? Everyone will say you were looking for a way out. It’s really my ego I’m protecting here.”
“Yeah, sure,” Thea said. “Don’t worry. You can’t get rid of me that easy. If I’m going to disappear, I’m taking you with me.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” Blaine said. “Do you want me to walk you in? Answer to Sybil about why I have you home so late?”
“It’s like eight o’clock,” Thea laughed. She leaned over and kissed Blaine one more time before opening the car door and heading inside with a new-found determination. Thea had some questions for Granny, and she was ready to find some answers.
Chapter 10
Pressing her lips into a thin line, Thea watched silently on the porch of her house as Blaine drove away. The details of their conversation still lingered with her. She was determined to find out more about what happened to Marie. At the same time, she wanted to see how that rebel group was intertwined in everything.
Something in the back of her mind told her that Granny was holding information from her. She didn’t understand why, but the thought kept gnawing at her. Fortunately, there was only one person she needed to talk with to get some answers.
One step through the front door and Thea caught a glimpse of her with Danny. They were focused on a tough game of Scrabble as Sybil and Charlie ran circles around the dining room chairs, chasing after one another. Meanwhile, Danny let out a victorious squeal as he managed to create a particularly lengthy word.
“You’re good at that,” Granny said. She tapped on her head with a finger. “I can’t handle when the words get too big. It’s discombobulating.”
“Okay, bookworm,” Thea quipped, taking a seat on the couch to watch as they played. She sent the boy a small wave as she did so.
Granny waved her off playfully as Danny giggled. “Shush. You’re disrupting my focus.”
The two of them continued with their game. Eventually, Danny managed to win with ease as he hit Granny with various eight letter words near the end. Thea was almost taken aback by the performance.
“Well...” Granny dusted off her hands, accepting her defeat with a gradual nod. “I guess I have to concede.”
“Sheesh... he mopped the floor with you, Granny,” Thea noted, crossing her arms and sending Danny an impressed grin. “And considering you’re the one who spends most of your time at the library, this is even more amazing.”
“Oh, please,” she replied, holding onto the nearest table leg and pushing herself to stand. “I was... just a little rusty, that’s all.”
Thea nudged Danny’s elbow. “That’s your cue. Take over her position at the library, you’ve usurped her.”
“Hey, stop teaching him complicated words. He’ll remember them and then use them to beat me in future rounds of Scrabble,” Granny joked. She rested her hands on her hips. “Alright. You get a reward for winning, Danny.”
His eyes lit up. “Really?”
“Yes. A good night’s rest is your prize,” Granny responded, gesturing towards his bedroom.
Even though the boy was somewhat disappointed that he didn’t get an actual reward, his face still brightened up with a smile. He said his good nights to both Thea and Granny before departing into his room. Once they heard the sound of the bedroom door shut, Granny immediately shifted her attention onto Thea.
“What’s going on with the investigation? With Marie? I see that look on your face, Thea. You know something.”
Setting her things to the side, Thea slumped further into her seat. This made Granny raise a brow.
“To be honest with you, we don’t know that much. We have a few leads here and there, but nothing definitive just yet.”
“And those leads are...?”
“Well, on one hand we have Ralph Hartley. Apparently, Marie’s husband owed him some money, but with his departure, that debt was assumed by Marie. And she had been struggling to pay it off for quite some time.”
Granny gave a disapproving hum. “The things people will do for money.”
“And on the other hand, we have Shannon Mercer. The head of the rebel group.”
Thea hoped that mentioning that would evoke some sort of response from Granny. However, the only thing she received was a pensive look as Granny thought about the details of the case. Thea’s fist clenched in her lap, wondering what else she had to do to get some information out of her.
“And do you think Marie might have chosen to disappear? If she was fearing for her own safety, it seems plausible,” Granny said.
Thea scoffed. “And leave her son behind?”
“Or.” Granny lifted up a finger, acknowledging Thea’s reproachful expression. “Maybe somebody else helped her disappear. Like this Shannon woman. She must have some more answers to explain whatever happened the night Marie disappeared.”
With widened eyes, Thea shot up to her feet. “Granny, why did you tell me you didn’t know
anything about that rebel group? Were you lying to me?”
Wincing at her tone, Granny sighed. “To be fair, I never said I didn’t know about them. The opposite is true, in fact.”
“Wha– And you’re only deciding to tell me this now?!” Thea spluttered out, taking a moment to recompose herself. She felt her face heat up from the frustration.
“Thea, I didn’t think my knowledge would be that useful–”
“Any kind of information would be useful in a case like this, Granny! Why are you being so difficult about this?” Thea blurted out in exasperation.
The stunned glint in Granny’s eyes was telling. Remembering that Danny was asleep in a nearby bedroom, Thea made an effort to lower her voice.
“All I’m trying to do is help find Marie. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less,” she said with a cutting edge to her words. “I’m not going to allow Danny to end up alone without his parents. I’m not going to allow another young child to go through what I had to go through.”
Before Granny had the chance to respond, a small noise was heard from the doorway connecting the living room to the dining room. With a timid expression, Sybil emerged. Her paws delicately pattered across the floor.
“If you’re that caught up about finding Marie, why don’t you use some of the tricks you have up your sleeve?” the familiar asked, tilting her head to the side. “A scrying ritual. You know the one.”
Thea and Granny exchanged stunned looks. In spite of all their bickering over the investigation, the solution to their problem was right under their noses. If they wanted to find Marie, they could perform a scry on her. It only took a small, smug kitten to get them to realize that.
Chapter 11
It took some scrambling to gather all of the necessary materials needed for the scrying ritual. While Thea and Sybil prepared the circle itself, Granny disappeared into the kitchen to fetch a shallow dish to fill with water. When she returned, they were all but ready to start.
“Nervous?” Sybil asked softly as she positioned herself near the circle.
Thea sighed. “I’m just trying my best not to get my hopes up, y’know? In the case this doesn’t end up working.”
“I’m sure everything will be alright,” the familiar reassured. “We’ve done this a billion times before and it’s worked nearly every time.”
Thea smiled. The only instances in which the ritual didn’t work was when there was something blocking the scry. When that didn’t happen, Thea had near perfect accuracy when it came to scrying. With Sybil’s help, of course.
Once Granny placed the water dish within the circle, Thea and Sybil focused their energy on materializing an image within its ripples. After a few moments, the water splashed around in the bowl. However, no image appeared.
“Granny,” Thea said. “Can you get a map of Ardensville, please? And a map of the entire nation?”
With an incredulous laugh, Granny shook her head. “A map isn’t going to help you–”
“Just do it anyway,” Thea interjected. She startled herself with how brusque her words were. Sending Granny an apologetic glance, she smiled. “Please?”
Albeit reluctant, Granny wandered through the various rooms of their house to find the maps Thea wanted. When she came back, she handed them over to Thea, as well as the lead weight needed to identify locations through the ritual. With an eager wisp of breath, she set the maps over the water dish and hovered the weight above them.
Taking a deep breath, Thea watched in anticipation as the lead bob swung in circles sporadically over the maps. She figured that this was normal and that it would eventually settle in a specific location. And yet, after a whole minute of waiting, the weight continued to move aimlessly above the maps.
“It’s not going to work, is it?” Thea asked in a whisper, already knowing the answer to her own question.
Eventually, they decided to end the ritual. Frustration was teeming off of Thea in waves, even though she didn’t say a word. Granny, with her sympathetic disposition, returned to the kitchen to boil some water over the stove. She planned to make Thea some tea.
“It’s not your fault, you know,” Sybil pointed out, sitting with her paws tucked underneath her body. “We already talked about this.”
“I know, Sybil,” Thea replied. She gazed at the floorboards, trailing her finger across its various patterns. “Still. It doesn’t make me feel any better.”
“C’mon, Thea. We still have a lot of time left to find Marie.”
“I guess so.”
The sound of footsteps coming from the kitchen snapped her out of her daze. She accepted the cup from Granny, carefully wrapping her fingers around the handle. The steam from the liquid brushed across her cheek.
“What does this mean for Marie?” Thea asked, staring into her cup of tea.
Granny sighed. “It’s clear that someone is blocking the spell from working effectively. If this is the case, they don’t want her to be found.”
Pressing her lips into a thin line, Thea’s grip tightened around the mug. This case was impacting her profoundly. She didn’t have to take a shot in the dark to figure out why.
“Either that... or it could also mean that she is no longer in this world with us,” Granny continued.
Thea turned around to look at her directly. “So you’re saying she’s dead? That’s it?”
“Or she’s in another dimension,” Granny replied calmly. “That could be another possibility as well.”
Sybil noticed the underlying distress in Thea’s words. The familiar perked up, batting her tail across the floor.
“I think the most likely scenario is that she’s hiding from some danger. That’s all,” Sybil reasoned. The cat earned a narrow-eyed look from Thea, which she disregarded. “Think about it for a second, Thea. Marie probably set off on her own because–”
“No, I don’t want to think about that,” she burst out. The tea in her cup sloshed around violently. “I don’t even want to imagine it. Don’t you get it? This entire situation doesn’t make any sense! Marie left her child alone. No good parent would leave their child alone. That–”
Thea’s breath faltered. Her vision was muddled significantly by the tears forming in her eyes. They spilled freely, down her cheeks and onto the floor.
“T-That doesn’t happen,” she managed out, setting her cup to the side.
Slumping over, Thea sobbed into her hands. Penting up her emotions for so long finally got the best of her. Granny and Sybil sat wordlessly, understanding why the investigation was messing with Thea more so than all of the ones before. This was hitting too close to home.
Whenever Thea looked at Danny, she could see herself. She knew, better than anyone else, what it was like to live without parents. The sadness in the little boy’s eyes was mirrored in her own.
“Thea.”
That was Granny’s voice. Firm, but with its familiar gentleness still present.
“I need you to understand that whatever happened to your parents... they didn’t mean to leave you behind. That was never their intention.”
Thea didn’t have the heart to respond to that, so she didn’t. Her shaky breaths were her only reply.
“I’m sorry things turned out this way,” Granny whispered out, running her hand along Thea’s head. “I’m sorry.”
Swallowing thickly, Thea rubbed at her eyes and shook her head. She sniffled, feeling a migraine already beginning to settle.
“I’m going to bed,” she said, voice raspy. “Goodnight, Granny.”
Despite the weakness in her limbs, Thea managed to pick herself off the floor and make her way to her bedroom. Sybil stayed on her trail, following her until they reached the foot of her bed.
When Thea collapsed onto the covers, still wiping away at her eyes, Sybil hopped on top of her covered legs and laid down. Her behavior evoked a bit of a weak smile from Thea.
“Tired, Sybil?”
The familiar readjusted her position. “Yeah. My bed is a little more com
fier than yours.”
Thea snorted, closing her eyes.
“But I think you need someone by your side tonight. And I’m happily volunteering to be the one to do so.”
Sybil didn’t receive a response from Thea, but that was alright. The familiar purred softly as she snuggled into the covers, content by the fact that Thea was sleeping soundly.
Chapter 12
The heaviness and sadness from the night before disappeared by the time Thea awoke the next morning. Mostly, at least. There was a grogginess to her limbs and a weight on her eyelids that she attributed to her breakdown.
It was nothing a splash of cold water to the face couldn’t fix. The life returned to her again, almost instantly. She felt rejuvenated, ready for a new day.
The melancholy in her heart remained. Fortunately enough, the rest of the world didn’t have to know that. When she left for work, she said her goodbyes to Granny, Sybil, and Danny with a wide smile on her face. They reciprocated with a similar cheerfulness. The only difference was that theirs was more genuine.
She was hit with a sense of serenity as she unlocked the front door to A Stitch in Time and made her way in. Setting her bag to the side, Thea glimpsed around her shop and mentally began listing the various things she wanted to get done that day. Rolling up her sleeves, she was determined to get started.
That was until a familiar pair walked through the door. Their boisterous laughter cut into the still silence within the store.
“Thea! Look what I’ve got!” Pippa exclaimed in a sing-song voice, waving a piece of paper in the air.
Leaning on the counter, Thea eyed the document suspiciously. “What have you been up to, Pippa?”
The girl let out an exaggerated gasp. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m always on my best behavior.”
Raising an eyebrow, Thea looked to Jesse to see if he was willing to confirm that. He scratched the back of his head, averting his gaze. That was telling enough.
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