All's Fairy in Love and Murder

by K. M. Waller

  “I can’t right now,” I said and ran away from him toward Fairyland Flowers. If Brianna planned to sail away on her boat before I could prove she was involved, the police might not catch her.

  I needed a car. Mossy’s was parked outside the square in case she needed it before they removed all the barricades. She’d put the keys above the visor telling me that in the twenty years she’d owned it no one had ever tried to steal it.

  The beast loomed in front of me like a dragon needing to be tamed. Even with the magic to know things in the human world, driving a car meant putting myself and others in danger if I got even one step wrong.

  But my need to get answers surpassed that. I slid into the driver’s seat and cringed at the hot vinyl that I could feel through the thin fabric of the skirt. I put the keys into the ignition and cranked it. The engine turned over with a growl.

  I still didn’t know my way to the dock.

  The driver’s door opened and Callan leaned down. “Emory told me they think you’re having a psychic episode. I think psychotic might be the right word, but I don’t want you stumbling into another scene like with the mayor and the hitman.”

  “Can you get me to the closest boat dock near the beach? I can explain everything from there.” At least I could try.

  “Scoot,” he said.

  I crawled across the bench seat to the passenger’s side.

  Callan guided the car onto the road and followed the signs that pointed toward the beach and dock.

  “You have to tell me something before we get there,” he said.

  “My deductions were all wrong,” I started. “Sherlock would not be impressed. I assumed John’s death to be about what he knew about the mayor but it’s about money.”

  “How do you mean?” Callan pulled into a small parking lot in front of a long wooden walkway that led to a scattering of different sized boats parked in boat slips. At the end, a white sailboat with a swirly B swayed gently in the water.

  “If that sailboat belongs to who I think it belongs to, then I think I know who stole John’s inheritance money and all the petty cash.” I climbed out of the car but leaned back in to finish. “I think Brianna killed John because he accidently took her laptop from the mayor’s office and she thought he knew about her stealing money. But he didn’t yet. He only knew about the mayor’s plans to kill her husband.”

  “You can prove this?” He asked exiting the car and joining me on the path to the boat docks. “If so, proper police procedure needs to be followed for chain of evidence. We can’t break and enter and find something that could be thrown out of court later for being mishandled.”

  “I just need to see something first.” I couldn’t connect it exactly in my head but I knew that the laptop Brianna had in the office was the same one that I’d seen on John’s coffee table. She’d told the mayor that John had all their laptops for updates. What if John had taken the wrong laptop from the office when he’d meant to take the mayor’s? His laptop had never really been missing at all. There has to be a clue that makes it all fit on the boat. My instincts were sure of it.

  We walked out onto the dock and came up to the sailboat. I called out, “Anyone there?”

  Callan crossed his arms. “We shouldn’t.”

  “No, you really should,” said a voice from behind us.

  Brianna checked to the left and right before fully extending her arm and showing her gun. B.B. stood at her side and whimpered.

  Did everyone have a gun? “How did you know we were coming here?”

  “I didn’t.” She dropped the leash in her other hand and it fell to the dock. “I came straight here from the festival to force B.B. to get over her fear of water, but she wouldn’t get out of the car. Then I saw the two of you pull into the parking lot and realized that B.B. had told you what happened to John.”

  “She really didn’t,” I said, a little frustrated at how easily the people of Lilac Cove believed I had a psychic ability.

  “Get on the boat. Both of you,” she said. “I told you there wouldn’t be a final warning, Juniper. I’m doing this town a favor by getting rid of you. Out of every nosy person in Lilac Cove, you are the worst in that you won’t let things go.”

  I stepped over the side and onto the boat. “My best friend Iris says that I have that problem too.”

  “Found out by a pet psychic.” She waited for Callan to get on the boat before she unloosed the rope attached to the metal cleat. “I should have stayed away from that stupid festival.” She turned a glare on B.B. “This is your fault.”

  “I’m not really a pet psychic,” I said wanting to put an end to that lie. I didn’t want her to hurt B.B. either.

  “There’s no other way you could have known all the things you know.” She left B.B. on the pier and stepped over the railing onto the sailboat. “But they will die with you at the bottom of the ocean. I’ll start a quick rumor that you and the dispatch guy have run off together. The gossip hags will love that.”

  Callan glanced at me and back at Brianna. “I don’t even know her. Why would I run off with her?”

  “The people in that town will believe anything now that Mayor Caldwell has tried to have my sweetie bumped off. And as soon as William cleans out his shared bank account, we’ll be sailing this boat into the sunset.”

  Another dose of fairy dust would have been real nice right about now.

  “Daddy, if you’re watching, I could use some help,” I called out into the air.

  “You are as weird as your aunt,” Brianna said and shook her head.

  I’d known that probably wouldn’t work. Dad couldn’t risk exposing the fairy godparent world to save me. At least I’d tried.

  “How are you going to sail us out to the ocean with a gun in your hand?” Callan asked.

  I knew he stalled for time. Good idea.

  “I could work this boat with my feet,” Brianna answered.

  “Really?” I asked and moved close to the edge of the boat to peer over the side into the water. “Show me.”

  She moved close to me and put the gun near my stomach. “I’m going to shoot you first.”

  I needed to stall for more time like Callan. “I need to know I’m right about how things happened.”

  “I don’t owe you anything. It’s not like you’re going to have the chance to tell anyone.”

  “But you’re the one who stole the petty cash right and set up my aunt? And you stole John’s inheritance money too? That’s how you can afford this sailboat.” I flickered my eyes toward the boat dock. What were the chances that someone would come down to look at the boats with the festival going on and see us? “Were you born awful or did something happen to make you this way?”

  She lowered the gun as if my question had struck a sensitive nerve. “I’m awful? Mayor Caldwell was going to kill William. John couldn’t mind his own business to save his life— literally! I’m surrounded by awful. At least now I’ll live the life I’ve always deserved.”

  From my peripheral vision I could see Callan edging backwards toward the front of the boat. I had to give him time to get out of her line of fire.

  I couldn’t let Callan die and leave Olivia without anyone to raise her. I’d thought I could walk into the human world and fix the mess I’d made but I’d only made it worse minute by minute. My dad had been right. If I’d left things alone then even if it had taken months, the police would have had a better chance of seeing through Brianna’s lies.

  “One last question. Why did you hit John with a brick?” I asked. “He didn’t even know about the theft.”

  “I didn’t know that. I only used my key to sneak in and when I got to his living room he was on the phone with the police. My laptop was open on the coffee table. How was I supposed to know he’d meant to take the mayor’s laptop instead? He could have ruined everything.”

  And now I was out of options. Except for one. At least one of the Sherlock Holmes stories I read gave me a real solution. The one where Sherlock goes over
the edge of a cliff to take down his nemesis. I prayed that with all the magical knowledge bestowed upon me to know what to do in the human world, swimming would also be one of them. As soon as Brianna noticed Callan moving and turned the gun away from my stomach, I grabbed her by the arms and pulled her with me over the side.

  We hit the water in a tangle of arms and legs. I held my breath and flailed, slapping my way to the top. Brianna hadn’t dropped the gun and she held it above her head.

  B.B. barked and barked and with a graceful leap, jumped into the water and paddled her way to us. As soon as she reached Brianna, she bit her hard on the shoulder.

  Brianna screamed and the gun fell from her hand.

  I sputtered and drank a mouthful of saltwater. My throat stung and I yelled to Callan who’d watched us from the sailboat. “I don’t think I can swim.”

  He jumped over the side and grabbed me under the arms. The four of us swam to a ladder at the end of the dock. I held on to the side while Callan pushed B.B. onto the wooden walkway.

  Brianna scrambled up the ladder and broke into a run toward the cars. She held a hand over her bleeding shoulder.

  Callan climbed up first and then extended a hand to me. “That was brave and stupid at the same time.”

  I sat on the ground and coughed, my chest and throat hurting.

  B.B. licked my face.

  I lifted an arm and pointed to the parking lot. “What do we do about her?”

  Callan shook his head. He pulled his phone out of pocket. “Good thing I sprung for the new waterproof cell phone.”

  He stepped away and told someone on the other side what had happened and to be on the lookout for Brianna, who’d probably need stitches on her shoulder.

  I patted B.B.’s white curly fur on the top of her head, now wet and dripping water. “I knew you weren’t scared of water. You just didn’t like her.”

  Callan hung up the phone and helped me to standing, my fake wings bouncing behind me. He shook his head. “Are you always followed around by this much bad luck?”

  My shoulders shook as I chuckled. “I’m meant to bring good luck if you want to know the truth.”

  The person who’d gotten the worst of the luck had been John Bleaker.

  Sirens blasted in the distance.

  Callan squeezed my hands before letting them go. “I don’t think Brianna will make it very far with Officer Quick on her trail.”

  “Thanks for believing in me,” I said.

  “If you aren’t a psychic then how did you know?”

  I couldn’t tell him the truth even if I wanted to. And I wanted to. I pushed wet hair out of my face. “Would you believe me if I said all my detective skills come from reading Sherlock Holmes?”

  “I’m still not okay with Olivia following you into the mayor’s office, so don’t be surprised if I don’t ask you out for coffee any time soon.” He turned his back to me and headed toward Mossy’s car, seeming to let the question of how I’d figured out Brianna to be the murderer go for now.

  I trudged forward in the soaked costume, the skirt dripping water onto the pier. It didn’t matter about the coffee date, I told myself. Amaranth would be here for me tomorrow anyway. I smiled despite the scary turn of events. I’d solved John’s murder and he’d get justice. All without my magic wand. And only the tiniest smidge of fairy dust.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Mossy chose not to be there when Amaranth came to collect me, so we said our goodbyes in the main flower shop. My father hadn’t set a designated meeting place for my return to Juniper Springs, so I stood alone in the middle of my aunt’s one-bedroom apartment. Waiting. If Dad was still watching me through the fountain, he’d know where to send his captain of the guard.

  Officer Foster had been the one to track down and arrest Brianna. Dr. Caldwell had denied any involvement in her plans according to the information Chief Rayburn passed along to Mossy.

  Callan had chosen to forgive me enough to allow Olivia to say goodbye. She’d given me a hug and apologized for causing so much trouble. I’d whispered in her ear that I thought her to be just as good a detective as Sherlock Holmes. Then I asked her to take good care of B.B. I’m pretty sure giving Olivia a dog put me right back on Callan’s bad luck list. But he’d given me a wink and goodbye wave before they’d turned away.

  Two of the three gossip club members had also stopped by to wish me well. Gladys had yet to forgive me for letting another tent win the Most Donations Received plaque at the festival but Emory and Allondra said she’d get over it with time.

  Pip climbed the back of my dress and hung onto my shoulder. I couldn’t leave my new friend behind. “Pip, Pip. Hungry.”

  “As soon as we get to Juniper Springs, I’ll have Dad restore your ability to say complete sentences.”

  He flicked his tail in response.

  I turned in a slow circle, unsure how I felt about going home. A heaviness rested on my shoulders, as if I had unfinished business.

  In a glamorous poof of pink sparkles, my mother appeared. She glanced around and immediately wrinkled her nose. “Interesting.”

  Pip bounded off my shoulder and ran toward his cage.

  I couldn’t help my grin even though I chastised her. “Don’t be a snob, Mom.”

  She opened her arms wide and I rushed into them.

  “How I’ve missed you these past few days,” she said.

  “I missed you too.”

  She held on for a few beats more before pushing me away and searching my face. “You appear less fragile than before.”

  “I’ve never been fragile,” I said.

  “That’s how your father and I see you. Our little girl trying too hard to fly from the nest.” She peeked around me. “Where’s your aunt?”

  “She didn’t want to be here.” I gestured over my shoulder to the flower shop. “I think seeing real fairies pop in and out of her apartment brings up old feelings. Not so good ones.”

  “I can imagine.” She led me to the sofa and we sat facing each other.

  “Why didn’t you tell me Aunt Mossy gave up the throne?”

  “It’s a sore subject with your father. He didn’t want to be king. He liked being a prince who could get away with coming and going as he pleased.” She wiggled her perfectly manicured eyebrows at me. “Reminds me of you.”

  “You would never guess. He shoulders the responsibility so well.” I ducked my head. “How angry is he?”

  Her smile never faltered. “That you put your life in danger twice? Very. That you asserted your independence? He’s slowly getting over it. We’re very impressed with you.”

  I drew an imaginary circle on the couch with my finger. “Well…I’m ready to go back now. Can I have my wand?”

  “Not just yet.”

  “What? Why not?”

  “Your father and I have decided that your argument about being too sheltered is valid. We’re going to do what some human parents do and consider this sending you abroad for a semester. Or something similar.” She cut her hand through the air as if she didn’t care if she got the reference correct.

  “You want me to stay in Lilac Cove?”

  “Only through the remainder of summer and into fall. We’ll expect you home before Christmas. And absolutely no more of this inserting yourself into crime solving.”

  I shrugged, trying to hide my delight at sticking around. “What are the chances of that happening again?”

  She withdrew her wand and waved it in the air as plastic cards and a couple of keys began poofing into existence and dropping to the floor. Pip came away from his cage and picked at the edge of one of the cards.

  “I’ve won one major argument against your father. You are royalty, and shall live as such. Here is the key to your cottage near the beach, the keys to your convertible should you choose to learn to drive, your wallet full of credit cards and a bank account in your name.”

  “Huh?”

  “Pip, Pip?” Pip said.

  “We’re fairy godparents
, sweetie. We can be as wealthy as we want in the human world.” She picked up the wallet from the floor and picked out a card. “This is your identification card. It allows you to drive.”

  I read the name out loud. “Juniper F. Airie?”

  Her tinkle of a laugh filled the room. “I came up with that one myself.”

  “I’m shocked.”

  She stood and unfurled her wings. “Get this human world stuff out of your system. Then come home and focus on the important things.”

  I had to admit the idea of sticking around Lilac Cove filled me with an anticipation I hadn’t expected. The humans were complicated beings and understanding them would only benefit the way we handled our fairy errands.

  “One more thing,” I said and pointed to Pip.

  “Do you really need a talking squirrel, Juniper?” she asked.

  “Please?”

  She tapped his head with her wand three times. “Speak only to Juniper.”

  “Thank you.” I stood and hugged her again whispering against her shoulder, “Are you sure I can’t keep a little fairy dust on hand for emergencies too?”

  “Check your underwear drawer when you get to the cottage,” she whispered.

  We broke apart. “Tell Dad I love him.”

  “He knows.” She tapped her wand on top of her head and said, “Home.”

  With a poof, she vanished.

  I sorted through the materials on the floor thinking of all the good I could do in the amount of time I’d been given.

  Pip hopped around me. “What should we do first?”

  I held up the keys to my cottage. “Watch out human world, here we come.”

  COMING SOON

  Want more of Juniper and Aunt Mossy? Disappointed that there wasn’t enough Pip or Iris? Don’t worry, that entire crew will be back in Curiosity Killed the Fairy: A Fairy Godmother Mystery #2.

  Did you enjoy Book 1? Please consider leaving a review at any of the book review sites and feel free to share it with me on Facebook.

  Preorder your copy of Curiosity Killed the Fairy today!