by Ruby Loren
“Melissa,” Tristan said, sounding thoughtful at the mention of her name. If only I had someone who would say my name like that… like it meant something special.
Boy, was I down in the dumps today. I needed a rom-com marathon complete with ice cream.
I pasted on a brighter smile and patted Tristan on the shoulder. “Do you want me to shout and scream at you so it’s really obvious we’re over?” I asked - admittedly a little hopefully. I’d always wondered what it would be like to be in a dramatic break-up scene.
“Uh… do you think that’s something that would realistically happen?”
I looked at Tristan and then I considered myself. “I suppose not,” I concurred. “But I could flounce out!”
The ghost of a smile played on his lips. “Flouncing would be great, but you ordered a muffin.” He lifted it up off the plate he was carrying to show me. “It might ruin the effect. And no, I don’t think you could throw it in my face.”
“I don’t think I could either. It looks far too good.” I contemplated the muffin for a few moments longer, before I took it from him and jammed it into my mouth whole. I mimed something about putting it on my tab for the month (which came out of my tea sale profits) before I flounced out of the room, and then out of the bakery, with bulging cheeks.
“Is she sick?” I heard Melissa ask as I passed the detective and the crime specialist without a backwards glance. Sure, my exit may not have been dramatic in the way I’d hoped, but at least it had been dramatic, I consoled myself.
I was still trying to work through the muffin in my mouth when I saw Jesse coming the other way down the street. Unfortunately, it was too late to hide in a bin and pretend I hadn’t seen him.
“Hazel! You look stunning as always,” Jesse said, already mocking me.
I contemplated spitting half-masticated muffin on his shoes, before deciding it was a waste of a good muffin. I swallowed. “How’s Hecate?”
“She’s been keeping busy,” Jesse said, in the most ominous way he possibly could. “How about you? Have you stayed out of trouble?”
I glanced back at the bakery and then considered what I’d been up to last night. “Absolutely.”
“Glad to hear it. I’ve been busy, too - thanks for asking. Business is booming! By the way, were you talking to Melissa?” The way he said her name so casually made me think he knew her.
I looked questioningly at him.
Jesse smiled mysteriously. “She just came into my shop for some advice about a case. Nice lady. I think she has a bit of a crush on your boyfriend.”
“Ex-boyfriend,” I said, knowing that word had to be put about in order for Tristan to move on and be happy with Melissa now that he’d found the right woman for him. Jesse was the perfect gossip for the job.
“Good thing, too, I thought you were going to end up fake married to your fake boyfriend. Tragic.”
I glared at him. I knew that he’d guessed the truth. He’d even been in a fake relationship of his own, but he didn’t have to rub my romantic failings in my face.
“Did you know that feverfew makes a great love spell? If you add it to a potion, you can spritz it over things, like letters, to get the recipient to fall for you. It works equally well in a sachet slipped into someone’s pocket at an opportune moment - like when they reach over to put a cup of coffee in front of our good friend Detective Admiral.”
I turned back to look at the bakery and watched as Tristan did exactly that… and nothing untoward happened.
I glared at Jesse, furious that he’d even planted the seed of doubt in my mind. “Melissa is normal. She doesn’t strike me as someone who’d even entertain the notion of the supernatural!”
“Is that so?” Jesse said, looking more thoughtful than he had any right to.
I ground my teeth together, already more annoyed than I’d felt all day - and it had been a pretty annoying day. Jesse certainly knew how to press all of my buttons. “What have you been so busy doing? I had no idea Wormwood had so many mysteries that needed solving.” I was hoping to divert the conversation back to something else, but instead I’d thrown Jesse a great big bone.
He grinned. “You should know the mysteries better than anyone! We’re practically mystery solving celebrities in this town. We should get t-shirts with our pictures on, or something.”
“No,” I said, thinking of no better way to get my feelings across.
“Touchy!” he replied, raising his hands. “Honestly, whilst my clients do keep me busy with their individual cases, I’ve had other more pressing mysteries on my mind.”
He turned his amber eyes on me. “Have you noticed that this town is changing? At first, I thought it was just the hellhounds and the strange gathering storm we felt that night when I rescued you from the vampire.” (I frowned at the incorrect nature of that statement.) “Now, I’m certain it was only just the start of worse things to come. And Mayor Starbright is behind it all.” His eyes darted back and forth, as if saying the words out loud would make the man himself materialise. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to go…” he said, and then, with uncharacteristic nerviness, he walked on down the street with haste.
“Huh!” I said when I observed that he wasn’t showing even the slightest bit of smugness. Something was up with Jesse. He was more paranoid than a man trying to hide the evidence of a disastrous DIY project from his house-proud wife.
It was definitely suspicious.
That was why I followed him.
14
The Small Print
It was tricky following someone who was suddenly showing the signs of extreme paranoia that Jesse was exhibiting. He kept stopping and looking round, so I had to hang back and stay out of sight. It helped somewhat that Wormwood wasn’t exactly a large town… and I was pretty sure I knew where he was going. I wasn’t at all surprised when he disappeared around the corner of the street that I knew led to his shop.
I waited a few moments and then sauntered along to the building on the corner of the road and peered past it, giving myself a good view of Jesse’s private detective agency.
My eyebrows lifted when I realised there was a queue of people waiting for him to reopen his agency - and on Easter Sunday of all days! Jesse hadn’t been lying about being busy. Perhaps I should have started a detective agency, I thought figuring my own track record was better than Jesse’s. It just irked me that I knew he was definitely taking full credit for things he hadn’t done.
I watched as the people filed in one by one. Brief discussions were had and then Jesse would pass over a piece of paper to each of them. They would sign and he’d shake their hand. They always left the shop looking a little dazed, but happy.
Too darn happy.
I was sure that if you had a mystery that needed solving, enlisting someone’s help would be a weight off your mind, but there was something iffy about this whole situation. I considered the shop front. Jesse hadn’t done anything other than remove Hellion’s notices from the window. It didn’t even say that it was a private detective agency… I’d just taken his word for it.
“Am I really this stupid?” I muttered to myself, as I finally started to add things up.
If I was reading the situation correctly, the ‘cases’ Jesse was taking on weren’t mysteries at all. Instead, he was taking advantage of desperate people.
He was making deals.
“I don’t believe it!” I growled and then, seized by a fit of annoyance, I marched out into the open and strode down the street to confront the devilish fiend.
His smile slipped a little when I barged past the people waiting in line and muscled my way into the shop. “You’re making deals!” I said, looking at the stack of contracts on his desk. It wasn’t a question. I reached out to take one of them and Jesse slapped my hand away.
“Don’t touch a devil’s deals,” he said with a grin that glinted with something nasty. I’d never seen that in him before.
I folded my arms and gathered my magic to me… just in ca
se. “Why did you lie to me?”
For just a second, I thought I saw a flash of regret in his amber eyes. “I knew you wouldn’t approve. We can’t all be as well intentioned as you are, my dear Hazel.”
I made a sound that expressed what I thought of that. He was not going to use me to justify his dark ways!
“It’s my job. It’s my nature,. And it’s my only protection against the new devil in town,” he explained, looking just as nervous as I’d seen him appear when I’d followed him back to the shop. “In case you’re wondering, that crack lawyer you told me about is definitely a devil, and she’s definitely in cahoots with the mayor.”
He looked out of the window, his face lined with concern, before turning back to me. “If those marauding hellhounds I hear howling every night and can sense prowling around Wormwood are her pack, we’re all in a lot of trouble. All I’m doing is trying to defend myself in the only way I can.” He gestured to the bookshelf and the spell books he’d stolen from me. “Don’t you think I’m trying to find a different way?”
“Try harder,” I said.
“Again, it’s all well and good for you to say that. You don’t have obligations…”
“Because I didn’t make a deal with a devil. Hooray for me. It’s obvious that you realise whatever deal you once made was a mistake, but you’re passing your mistake on to other people and making them do the same thing you did!” I wasn’t sure why I was trying to appeal to Jesse’s morals. He didn’t seem to have any.
“Sometimes people need to learn lessons the hard way,” he said with his usual wicked smile. “I don’t force anyone to do anything… and they get what they want. Or at least - what they think they want.”
I shook my head. A Stephen King novel had been playing out in Wormwood right under my nose, and I’d been naive enough to believe Jesse had been running a detective agency. The question was… what was I going to do about it? I did know a great piece of magic that opened up a tear between dimensions and sucked baddies into it…
“Don’t look at me like that. I’m doing this for the good of the town! The mayor has a long reach, and I don’t yet know what deal he’s made with that she-devil. If it’s as ambitious as the one he made with me… let’s just say it would be bad news for everyone.”
I folded my arms. He wasn’t saying what I wanted to hear.
He shook his head at me. “We should be in this together, not against one another. Especially as…”
I raised my eyebrows at Jesse, wanting him to finish that sentence.
His lips twisted in an infuriating manner. “We might not be so different, remember? Caught between worlds,” was all he said.
“If you know anything more, tell me.” But I knew it was in vain. Jesse kept his cards so close to his chest I suspected he’d used a staple gun to stick them there.
“I’ve already told you all I know.” His fists clenched and he got that faraway look again that I knew meant he was thinking about the mayor.
“Let’s get back to the point… did you make any deals recently that resulted in the disappearances of Sarah May and Helen Regal? Think very carefully before you answer that.”
Jesse raised his hands in defence. “I swear I’ve done nothing along those lines. My deals are mostly non-vendetta based.” He smiled lopsidedly. “I just want to give people their dreams!”
“But for a price,” I said, still deeply unhappy about the viper’s nest I’d uncovered. “What kind of prices are we talking about?” I reached again for the contracts, but Jesse pushed them back.
“Just little things. There is one way you could find out. Tell me your heart’s desire…” He made his eyes glow when he said it.
I rolled mine at him in return. “Don’t even try it. Wait… unless I could wish for you to lose all of your devil’s charms? That might be a good deal…”
Jesse paled. “On second thoughts, I don’t think you’re ready. The price would be too high. I’d never try to trap a friend in a dastardly contract!” He looked past me to the queue of people who were all peeping curiously into the shop. “Ignore what you just heard! I’m just trying to placate this crazy woman. She’s not a customer!”
“Jesse!” I growled, just as Hecate strolled into view. “Maybe I don’t need to make a deal after all. I could just ask her. I think she likes me more than you.” Hecate had started wagging her tail as soon as she saw me. If you ignored the glowing red eyes, she was kind of cute.
“You’re so funny,” Jesse said, still looking past me at his customers, who wouldn’t be able to see the invisible hellhound.
I tilted my head at him. “Do they know the price of breaking their deals?”
“Sure, it’s all in the contract. This is a legal transaction.”
“Yes, but… how many of them actually read the small print?” I pressed.
Jesse rubbed his lightly stubbled chin. “Considering the number of films there are where the main character gets in trouble for failing to do exactly that… surprisingly few of them.” He looked at me. “But they hardly need to worry. I only have one debt that I’m trying to collect.”
“The mayor,” I filled in, to save him from going all round the houses again on some rant about how Gareth Starbright was cheating the system.
“The mayor… and the new devil in town. She’s moved in on my turf and on one of my clients. You are not supposed to be able to make another deal when you’ve already made one! Trust me, I’ve looked into it.”
“Ever stop to think you might be getting a taste of your own evil medicine?”
For the first time in this conversation - and possibly ever - Jesse looked annoyed. I’d finally got to him. “I’m not evil. And stop acting so high and mighty!”
“Why don’t you stop wallowing in self pity?”
We both glared at each other.
“Get a room!” Someone shouted from the door. I nearly threw a magical knife at them. But it was enough to break the spell of the tense conversation. I threw Jesse one last disgusted look that summed up exactly how I felt about being lied to. “I hope your conscience is as clear as you think it is,” I told him, before turning around and leaving the shop.
For once, I’d got the last word.
I stalked back down the street with my fists clenched by my sides. So many angry thoughts were stomping around in my head. If Jesse had been making deals behind my back, what else was he guilty of? I still wasn’t sure what sort of payment a devil’s deal required - aside from the deal Jesse had made, which had made him into a devil. I just hoped the ‘little things’ Jesse was asking for hadn’t led to bigger crimes. He’d have some serious blood on his hands.
“I don’t want to have anything more to do with him,” I muttered, mentally tearing up the agreement we’d had for him to be featured in my magazine. I wondered how he’d intended to pull that off and decided it would probably have been through more lies and favours added to the devilish deals he was making with everyone. What was a few added lines of ‘string Hazel along’ added to a contract? I’d have been a laughing stock! Everyone in town would have been reading about Jesse’s heroics whilst knowing the truth about his little shop of horrors.
I frowned, knowing that was what I’d always mentally referred to Hellion Grey’s premises as being when he’d owned the same property. Maybe there was just something about the grim black shop at the end of the street that attracted nasty things to it, like flies to a corpse.
I was still thinking dark thoughts when someone called to me as I crossed the High Street. I glanced around and froze like a rabbit in headlights. Gareth Starbright was walking towards me waving like we were old friends overdue a catch up.
Jesse had implied plenty of terrible things about the mayor. I’d personally witnessed him shaking hands with the new devil in town. I also knew he kept a gun in the drawer of his mayoral office. I believed that he was unaware of my knowledge.
“Hazel Salem… it’s been way too long,” he said, sparkling at me the way I vaguely rem
embered him doing at other girls in my school year.
“What can I do for you?” I said, remembering my ‘good shop owner around town’ manners. The mayor probably wasn’t here to accuse me of knowing his dirty little secrets and wreak vengeance on me for snooping. This was probably something totally mundane…
“Have you been to see Jesse Heathen?” he asked, all innocence and blank expressions. The man was good at concealing his true feelings.
“We don’t get on,” I told him, speaking the truth, but not answering his question. Perhaps I could have a career in politics, too.
“I don’t blame you! You’ve always struck me as a sensible young woman. I’m still shaken that the man I hired thinking he was a reputable investigator was, in fact, a con artist. I’m glad you’re being careful. I only wish it were as easy to convince the rest of the population that, but I believe they’ve been taken in by his charms - the same way I once was.” Gareth looked genuinely pained when he said it.
“I’m surprised you haven’t shared your views with the town in a public manner. You are, after all, the mayor,” I said, smiling brightly at him. He’d annoyed me by talking down to me (we were of a similar age!) and I wanted to test the waters.
He squirmed. “I would, you see, but there are complications involving a… retainer. It was something I signed when I initially employed Mr Heathen. Unfortunately, I didn’t realise the legal mess I was getting myself into, and he has some rather intimidating lawyers. I’m doing all I can to resolve the matter, but if you wouldn’t mind keeping it between us, that would be so very helpful. I can rely on you, can’t I, Hazel? You surely understand how the town might react if they discovered that their mayor isn’t as infallible as they like to imagine.” He flashed me an office-winning grin. “I’m kidding about that, of course. But it would give my political enemies all the ammunition they needed to take me down the next time I’m up for election.”
I frowned. “Who could even credibly stand against you?” Wormwood was pretty much devoid of any community stars. Gareth Starbright did most of the town’s business accounts and had gained a lot of respect that way. He had Wormwood eating out of the palm of his hand.
