The Chakra Outline

by Angie Cabot

  “Second thoughts?” he asked. He was several paces into the snow ahead of me.

  I nodded.

  He trudged back. “You don’t have to do this,” he said. “It would be better to remember your aunt as she was. Maybe not as she was yesterday. Might want to go back however many years you need to in order to find a positive memory.”

  “People are who they are,” I said.

  “So you don’t have any positive memories?”

  “I do. And I only have to go back to yesterday when she hugged Aunt Clara goodbye.”

  “Good. No sense covering that with what you’ll see out here. She doesn’t look good.”

  I didn’t want to see her.

  I stared at the snow. I stared at her shoe. I stared at Balthazar.

  He had sympathetic eyes.

  “Let’s go back inside,” he said, stepping back onto the porch.

  I shook my head, and steeled my nerves. “No,” I said, and stepped off the porch.

  I sank to my thighs in the snowdrift. I pushed through to the tracks Balthazar and Carl made earlier, and followed them around.

  My aunt’s body was covered with a layer of snow. I could make out part of her dress, and a bit of skin, which looked gray. And I noticed one other thing.

  “The knife is gone,” I said.

  “Say what?” Balthazar asked.

  “The athame. It’s not in her chest.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” he said, and followed the tracks to join me. His brow furrowed. A gust of wind blew his silver pony tail over his shoulder.

  “See?” I said, pointing.

  He nodded. “I see,” he said, and studied the tracks in the snow. He pointed. “Someone else came out here after Carl and I put the body in the drift. You can see where they didn’t quite follow our tracks right there.”

  Sure enough, extra tracks were visible inside their tracks.

  “Someone came out here to get the knife,” I said.

  “Why? Everyone has their own athame inside. Well, Carl and Zen don’t. Theirs are outside. And mine and Diana’s are in the Jeep. But—”

  “Fingerprints?” I asked.

  “We can’t check fingerprints.”

  “No, but the police can.”

  “That takes weeks,” Balthazar said, “and what are the odds of pulling any decent prints off a handle exposed to the elements? Gotta be slim.”

  He scanned the blanket of snow in the backyard.

  I followed his gaze.

  “What are you looking for?”

  “Seeing if maybe someone threw the athame out into the snow somewhere. Might be easier to see from one of the upstairs windows, though.”

  “Someone wanted the knife,” I said.

  “Great,” he said. “Now we have to sleep with one eye open.”

  “You think the murderer will come after one of us?”

  “I didn’t think anyone would actually kill Elizabeth. Might want to lock your door when you go to bed tonight. Everyone should.”

  “I’m the one who’s been asking all the questions to try to figure out who did it.”

  “That’s why you should lock the door,” he said. “Don’t trust anyone. Not even me. Let’s get back inside. I’m getting an extra chill just thinking about someone maybe using the knife again.”

  I tried to study the extra tracks, but I couldn’t tell whether the person was short, tall, small footed, large footed. Too much snow had filled in, and if not for the missing knife, I doubt we’d have noticed the additional tracks.

  “Who had time to get out here without being seen?” I asked.

  Balthazar gave me a grave look. “All of us.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Nico purred as I pet her. She cuddled up beside me on the bed while I tried to keep my dread under control.

  Of course I knew that when I was asking questions of everyone that at some point, I would be talking to the person who murdered my aunt. I also knew they all had athames, and that those blades were sharp. But knowing the killer had gone back to get the knife used to kill my aunt really bothered me.

  The idea of the murderer wanting to kill me was certainly in the back of my mind, but now it grabbed hold of my stomach and wouldn’t let go. I was trapped in the mansion with someone who was willing to take my life.

  Everyone had motive and opportunity. But who among them was actually willing to follow through on it?

  They had to hate Aunt Liz. And now they had to hate me. Or at least worry that they would get caught because of me. Once you’ve killed someone, maybe it gets easier. I mean, what’s another murder? Right?

  I never felt like I was in any real danger until the murder weapon disappeared.

  Now I couldn’t even think straight.

  I kept petting the cat, and she kept purring.

  “Of course, you’re purring,” I said. “No one wants to kill you.”

  Nico meowed.

  “All right,” I said. “Maybe they don’t want to kill me either, but I haven’t left them any choice.”

  Nico got up, stretched, then jumped off the bed.

  “You don’t want to be near me when it happens?” I asked.

  Nico sauntered out of the room, and headed down the hall toward the stairs.

  I stared at the open door.

  Should I close it?

  Should I leave it open to see if anyone tried to come get me?

  I didn’t know what to do.

  “Dinner time!” Emma yelled up the stairs.

  Well, there was no way the murderer would kill me at dinner in front of everyone, so I got out of bed, and headed downstairs.

  Everyone gathered around the dining room table for another sandwich night.

  Nobody paid any extra attention to me that I could see. Balthazar grumbled about the food, but prepared a couple of sandwiches, and passed the deli tray to Diana.

  Zen came into the dining room, followed by Carl.

  I sat at the far end of the table. Zen sat between me and Diana so Carl couldn’t sit by her. He sat across from her instead.

  Emma brought in a pitcher of tea and Jenn brought a pitcher of water and some plastic cups.

  Sandra sat at the head of the table, and Morgan sat to her right.

  “Are you going to join us?” I asked Jenn.

  She shook her head. “Emma and I already ate. We’ll be back in a bit to clean up.”

  “What a lovely feast,” Balthazar said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

  “At least we have some food,” Sandra said.

  “If you call this food.”

  “I do,” she said.

  Diana pushed the meat and cheese trays toward Zen.

  “Thank you,” Zen said.

  She wrinkled her nose at the meat tray and passed it over to me. She made herself a cheese sandwich.

  The ham was all gone. The roast beef was all gone. I had my choice of bologna or turkey. I opted for turkey, taking the last of it, and passed the meat tray to Carl.

  “I hate bologna,” he said.

  “If you’d prefer turkey, I’ll trade with you,” I said. I didn’t like bologna either, but if Carl was the killer, maybe I’d get Brownie Points for giving him something better to eat.

  “What I’d really like is a steak,” he said.

  “Can’t help you there,” I said.

  “It’s all right. I’ll choke down the bologna.”

  I passed him the cheese tray. “Bury it in enough cheese and you won’t taste it,” I said.

  “It’s one meal. I’ll live.”

  “I really will trade.”

  He shook his head. “I had the turkey last night. It wasn’t very good either. Even in death, Elizabeth is punishing us.”

  “Does anyone else want any vegetables?” Zen asked. “There’s not much left. Just some celery and broccoli pieces.”

  “You can have it,” Morgan said.

  “What happens if we’re stuck here for another night?” Sandra asked.
r />   “We’ll be eating cereal,” Balthazar said. “There’s plenty of that. Barring cereal, Nico might share her cat food.”

  “Only if it’s turkey and giblets,” I said.

  Diana laughed. “We tried to force her to eat it, but that cat would rather starve.”

  “It might be better than the bologna,” Carl said.

  “Any luck figuring out who killed Elizabeth?” Sandra asked.

  “No,” I said.

  “We talked to everyone,” she said. “Are we sure she didn’t just kill herself?”

  “Pretty sure,” I said.

  “How so? I mean, there was no love lost, but I can’t imagine any of us killing her. It’s such a violent thing to stab someone in the anahata.”

  Balthazar chuckled.

  Everyone stared at him.

  “What?” he asked.

  “You shouldn’t laugh.”

  “Sorry. I couldn’t help it. I just thought someone tried to help her clear the blockage by poking a hole in it.”

  “You were thinking it sounded dirty,” Diana said.

  “Maybe a little.”

  “It’s inappropriate.”

  “Yeah, well, whoever did it went back to get the athame.”

  “Say what?” Carl asked.

  “The murder weapon is gone. Whoever killed Elizabeth must have gone back for it.”

  “Why?” Carl asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe they want to use the knife on one of us? You tell me.”

  “I can’t tell you because I didn’t even know it was gone.”

  “My money is on you, Carl,” Balthazar said. “You tossed your athame out the window with Zen’s because it’s the closest you’ll ever come to being with her.”

  “My money is on you,” Carl said, pointing at Balthazar. “Your window was wide open, so you took our blades and chucked them out to cover for the fact that yours were gone.”

  “Ours were in the Jeep, you moron,” Balthazar said.

  “But there was an empty case in your bathroom.”

  “Because you put it there.”

  “When would I have had a chance to do that?” he asked.

  “When you went looking for a phone.”

  Everyone looked at Carl. “It wasn’t me. I could never kill anyone.”

  “I couldn’t either,” Sandra said.

  “You’d be amazed what you can do given the right circumstances,” Diana said. “Push anyone too far, and they can snap.”

  “Including you?” Carl asked.

  “Including me,” she said, but she looked at Balthazar.

  Zen shook her head. “Well, whoever did it, I don’t appreciate having the case put in my room later.”

  I looked at Diana to see if she’d confess to the case, and she looked at me. She gave her head a minor shake and held my gaze. I figured I could keep that secret for now.

  “Don’t worry, Zen,” Balthazar said. “You and Sandra are off the hook. Neither of you is big enough to overpower Elizabeth.”

  “They could have surprised her,” Morgan said. “Stabbed her before she could defend herself. She could have been minding her own business, looking in the refrigerator for a snack, looked up and thwack, there’s a knife in her chest.”

  “She knew there were no snacks in the refrigerator,” Balthazar said. “She made sure there wasn’t anything good to eat here at all.”

  “I’m just saying that a petite person could still stab someone.”

  “You could, too,” Diana said.

  “I could, but I wouldn’t.”

  “I think it was Carl,” Balthazar said again.

  “It wasn’t me,” he said. “And I’m getting really tired of you trying to blame me for it.”

  “You want to step outside and settle this like men?” Balthazar asked, rising from the table.

  He outweighed Carl by at least fifty pounds.

  Carl gulped. “I think you should turn yourself in.”

  “For a crime I didn’t commit? You should turn yourself in.”

  “Boys,” Diana said. “There will be no fisticuffs in the dining room.”

  “I asked him to step outside,” Balthazar said.

  “It’s cold out there,” Zen said. “And I don’t think fighting is cool.”

  “Not cool,” I said, trying to deescalate things, “but definitely cold.”

  Zen grinned.

  Nobody else heard me.

  My stomach twisted more. Confrontations bothered me. My ex-husband liked to raise his voice because he knew how it affected me.

  Balthazar glared at Carl, whose knee shook so hard it rattled the table. I reached over and put a hand on his leg to try and steady him.

  “Don’t push me,” Carl said.

  “Push you?” Balthazar said. “I’ll snap you like the twig you are.”

  “Todd,” Diana said. “Let it go.”

  “Snapping him isn’t the same as hitting him,” he said, sounding defensive.

  “Sit down.”

  He obeyed her.

  I took a deep breath because I was pretty sure Carl had been talking to me for putting pressure on his leg, and not to Balthazar.

  Diana turned to me. “Is there any chance you can clear anyone at all?” she asked.

  “I know I didn’t do it,” I said. “Beyond that, I can see that everyone holds animosity toward Aunt Liz, but I haven’t heard anything that I’d think would rise to the level of murder.”

  “Even losing a job after just buying a house to try to impress a girl who doesn’t even know he exists?” Balthazar asked, pointing at Carl.

  “There are other jobs,” I said. “And odds are, they pay more.”

  “You have to find one first. And be honest, who here would hire Carl to do anything?”

  “I would,” I said.

  “Little Miss Goody-Two-Shoes,” Balthazar said. “Let me guess, you’d hire any of us.”

  “Based on how you’re acting right now, I’m not sure I’d hire you,” I said, even though I wanted to crawl under the table.

  He glared at me. “You sure you want to go down that road?”

  I held his gaze because if I didn’t stand up for myself now, no one would respect me.

  “I’ll go down any road I have to,” I said.

  “You won’t like where that road leads,” he said, rising again.

  “Todd,” Diana said. “That’s enough.”

  He kept glaring at me, but he sat down anyway.

  I looked around the table to judge reactions.

  Zen looked embarrassed.

  Diana was furious with Balthazar.

  Balthazar was angry with both me and Carl, but holding it in because Diana had put him in his place.

  Sandra looked like she wanted to be anywhere else but here.

  Morgan had an odd grin on her face, but that could have been a residual high, or even a note of fear based on her eyes, staring so hard at Balthazar, and her knuckles were white where she gripped the edge of the table.

  Carl wiped a bead of sweat from his brow, and tried to control his breathing. He stared at Balthazar, too, but his eyes held a note of fear.

  I tried to eat my sandwich, but my stomach didn’t want to cooperate, so I set it down, and sipped some water instead.

  Balthazar stuffed the rest of his last sandwich into his mouth, pushed away from the table and said something unintelligible around the food before walking out of the room.

  Diana shook her head. “I apologize for my husband’s manners.”

  “I hope he chokes on that sandwich,” Carl said.

  Diana laughed. “That might be worse on the etiquette front. Rule ten is don’t die with your mouth full.”

  Nobody laughed.

  “Tough crowd,” she said. “I’d best check on my man.” As she said the last, she shot a look at Zen.

  She wiped her mouth with a napkin, patted the table, then went after her husband.

  “I think I’ve lost my appetite,” Sandra said.

&n
bsp; “Yours may be hiding,” Morgan said, “but I’m famished.”

  “Don’t get yourself all pitta-provoked,” Sandra said.

  “I’m more kapha,” Morgan said.

  “Then you shouldn’t eat enough to feel full,” Zen said.

  “Who asked you?” Morgan said.

  “You got your kapha in my pitta,” Zen said with a grin.

  “Okay,” I said, standing. “I’m done. You folks enjoy yourselves.”

  As I walked away, Carl said, “Hey, Zen, want to shoot some pool? They have a nice table in the game room.”

  “I’ll pass,” she said.

  “Figures,” Carl said.

  If he said anything more, I was out of earshot.

  But as I walked past the first staircase, I heard Balthazar and Diana yelling at each other in their room.

  Nico ran down the stairs and meowed at me.

  “Parents fight,” I said.

  Nico looked back up the stairs, then followed me to the other staircase.

  “All right,” I said. “You can hang out with me.”

  Nico meowed again. Her tone suggested that she wasn’t giving me any choice, and that I should be honored that she would lower her standards to be seen with me.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Sleep crept up on me, but then slipped away, teasing me with the possibility of resting. Nico hopped onto the bed and decided my legs were the perfect place to sleep, and every time I started to shift, she’d give me a soft growl of warning that she was comfortable and as such, I was not permitted to move. I didn’t mind.

  My door was locked, but I heard people talking downstairs until close to eleven. Around eleven fifteen, I listened to footsteps in the hall.

  “Good night,” Morgan said.

  “Good night,” Sandra said.

  Two doors closed.

  Two locks clicked into place.

  I drifted off for a bit, then woke up in darkness. Nico’s weight still held my legs in place. I listened intently. Air blew out of the heating vents. I thought I heard footsteps, but I wasn’t sure. It could have been my imagination.

  I sat up, and Nico stirred. “Sorry,” I whispered.

  She wasn’t impressed. She curled up and went back to sleep. Must be nice.

  I reached over to the nightstand and fumbled for my phone. I thumbed the button to reveal the time. 2:41. I set the phone down, and sat there for a time, but didn’t hear anything else.