“Seriously?”
“No. I don’t even know what I’m saying. I’m just embarrassing myself. Please ignore me,” I continued, looking down at my sandwich and taking a big bite, since at least if I had my mouth full I wouldn’t be able to embarrass myself any more by talking.
Chase looked at me for a second, and for a little bit I thought he was going to get up and leave. I stared at my sandwich intently while chewing, refusing to look at him. At least I wouldn’t be able to see if he walked out on me.
Instead, he burst out laughing. “You’re hilarious, you know that, Alice? Not everyone has to be amazing at everything. Besides, you’re brave in your own way, like when you faced those murderers and still managed to get away instead of freezing up and panicking. Cat’s good at mountain biking because she grew up here, and that’s what people do around here.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Sorry for being so… weird. Apparently Cat isn’t the only one of us who sounds insane when she’s sleep deprived.”
“No problem. Now, I have to go. I have a meeting with the medical examiner in Portland.”
“Thanks for coming by,” I said. “It was nice, even if I’m not convinced you didn’t just come here to see if I was up to anything.”
Chase pretended I’d stabbed him in the heart. “Can’t I just enjoy spending time with you?”
“I guess there’s always that,” I grinned.
Chase leaned in and gave me a quick kiss. “Take care of yourself. And don’t worry, I think you’re super sexy regardless of whether or not you know how to ride a bike.”
I was so shocked I covered my face with my hands and even forgot to check out Chase’s butt on his way out.
Chapter 9
As soon as five o’clock rolled around I closed up the shop and made my way upstairs. Luckily, there were lots of Chinese food leftovers–Cat had apparently decided to order one of everything on the menu–and I nuked a bowl and was just getting ready to sit down and eat it when Cat appeared in the doorway. I supposed one advantage of having a witch for a cousin was I never needed to go down to unlock the door for her.
“Are we going to scout again tonight?” she asked as she walked in, helping herself to a bowl and scooping some chicken chow mein into it.
“I think I’d probably die,” I admitted.
“Ok, fine. Let’s have a nap, first. It’s only five-thirty. We can sleep until say, ten. Thieves aren’t really that likely to strike before then; the odds of running into someone are too high.”
“Sure,” I relented. After all, I really did want to find the thieves. “We’ll eat some food, sleep until ten, and then we’ll do the same thing all over again.”
The problem was, as well-intentioned as Cat and I were, our bodies were completely spent. Even with a few hours-long nap, there was no way we were going to manage to spend another night staying up and watching absolutely nothing happen down below.
I completely slept through my alarm, and when I finally woke up, in a panicked daze, it was just after two in the morning. I climbed out of bed and made my way toward Cat, who was sleeping on the couch, opting not to take the guest bedroom.
Her pastel purple hair was draped over her face as she slept, and she looked so peaceful I decided not to wake her. I figured I could take the first watch.
Looking out the window I gazed down to the bike rack where we’d left Cat’s bike… only it wasn’t there anymore. My veins turned to ice as reality set in: the bike had been stolen, and we had no idea who had done it!
“Cat, wake up!” I hissed to my cousin, shaking her shoulders.
“Ugh, what is it?” she asked.
“We slept in,” I said. “And your bike’s gone.”
Reality set in then and Cat’s eyes flew open. “Seriously?”
“Yeah,” I replied as she shot up from the couch and made her way to the window.
“I swear, if this is some stupid joke, I’m going to murder you.”
“It’s not. I just got up too, and I went to have a look at the bike, and, well…” I trailed off.
“We have to go out and have a look,” Cat said. Nodding in agreement, we both made our way downstairs, heading into the dark night. It was definitely summer now; even in the middle of the night we didn’t need so much as a light jacket.
“Yup, it’s gone,” Cat said dejectedly, looking at the empty bike rack. I walked around the nearby area, checking bushes and alleyways just in case someone had dumped the bike nearby. Unfortunately for Cat–and for me–there was absolutely no sign of it.
“I’m sorry, Cat,” I apologized when I made my way back to her. “It was a stupid idea.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Cat replied. “Besides, I could have always taken Peaches’ bike if I wanted to; she never uses it. It was my call to use my own bike, since it was worth more I figured it would be a more attractive target to thieves.”
“Well, you were right,” I replied dryly.
“Let’s call it a night. Tomorrow I’ll take Peaches’ bike. If we can catch them stealing that one, maybe we can follow them and get my bike back.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I replied with a small smile. I actually thought that was a terrible idea–what if they stole Peaches’ bike too?–but didn’t say anything. I didn’t think Cat was in a mood to be contradicted.
I couldn’t believe it. I’d managed to kill one of The Others coming for my soul, and yet Cat and I had just been outsmarted by a bike thief.
Dejected, I made my way back up the stairs and decided to go to bed. If there was one silver lining to the bike being stolen, it was that at least I was going to get a full night’s sleep tomorrow. Oh, and I was going to get to go see Chase, although not for the reason I’d hoped for. I was definitely going to get a lecture about trying to catch bike thieves on my own.
Sighing, I lay back down in bed, and despite the fact that my mind was racing with possibilities of what had happened to the bike, and what if I’d been awake earlier, and that sort of thing, the creeping exhaustion of the all-nighter took me over and I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
I woke up the next day feeling a lot more refreshed than the day before. I opened up the shop, helped about a half dozen customers–a new record, it seemed word was getting around about my new, more modern selection–and then when lunch came around I put the sign up saying I’d be back at one, and made my way out into Sapphire Village.
My first stop was at Pete’s bike shop; I wanted to see if Sally was there, and also get a new lock. When I walked in, though, it was Peter working once again.
“Still no Sally?” I asked, and he shrugged.
“What can I say? Sometimes employees don’t give their two weeks’ notice. I haven’t heard from her, anyway. What can I do for you?”
“I need one of those SecurLocks you showed me the other day.”
Peter raised his eyebrows. “Taking up mountain biking?”
“Something like that,” I replied with a smile. “Actually, it’s for my cousin’s bike. I figured she could use it.” I didn’t want Pete asking too many questions, and I certainly didn’t want to explain how we’d lost Cat’s bike, and the lock that went with it.
“Cool,” Pete said, ringing up the order. “I gave you local’s discount on both, too.”
“Thanks,” I said with a smile. “Hey, do you have an address or something for Sally?”
“Wow, you really want to speak to her, hey? Unfortunately, all my employees’ personal information is private.”
“Oh, of course,” I replied. That made sense. I thanked Pete again and left, wondering how I could get that information.
The fact was, I was actually wondering if Sally, maybe, had something to do with Sapphire Sam’s death. After all, he would have likely passed by her shop that afternoon, and then he was found dead soon after.
It was unlikely, I knew that. Chances were Pete was right–Sally had just decided she’d had enough of working there, and left the job without giving notice. Still,
with a murder at stake, I figured it was worth following up on.
Unfortunately, I knew there was no way to look her up on social media. After all, Sally was a common enough name, and I had no last name for her.
On a hunch, I checked out Pete’s Bike Shop’s Facebook page. There was a picture there of a woman with medium-length brown hair tied back into a ponytail, who I assumed to be Sally. At least now I knew what she looked like.
Of course, I knew there was one place where I’d be able to get all the information about her I’d need: the police station. Although there was absolutely no chance that Chase would just give me access to the DMV database he undoubtedly had access to. I was going to have to do this with magic.
Plus, I was way too impatient to wait until night time. Looking at my watch, I still had forty minutes of my break left. That was enough time, probably.
I was tempted to ask Cat to join me, but figured she was probably too busy running the cupcake shop. Besides, this was going to be an exercise in finesse, not brute force, and two people rather than one would likely double our odds of getting caught.
That was something I absolutely could not risk happening.
I made my way down the main street before ducking into the woods behind one of the buildings as I got closer to the building that housed the police station. When I was absolutely certain I was alone, I imagined myself becoming completely invisible, and pointed a finger at myself.
A field of energy inside of me grew, before finally releasing from my outstretched finger. When I finally opened my eyes, I looked down and saw, well, nothing. I was invisible.
Success!
Now the first step was getting into the building. I walked back out onto the main path, and a man walking the other way almost walked straight into me!
“Hey, watch it!” I almost called out, catching myself at the last second. After all, there was no way he could have seen me. At least I knew my spell had worked. I was ready to break into the police station and get some information.
Chapter 10
Peering in through the door, I saw that Chase was in his office, and there were two other officers sitting at the desk near the front having a conversation. Andi, the receptionist, was at her desk looking at her nails.
I was hoping the building would have been empty, so that I could simply walk through the door. But, that was out of the question; I didn’t want anyone noticing the front door randomly opening and closing without anyone coming in.
Looking to the side of the building, however, I spotted an open window about halfway down the length of the building. It was open about two feet, and was about three feet up; I figured even someone unfit like me could probably slide through without too much trouble.
I made my way to the window and looked through. Sure enough, the two cops having a chat were the closest, but they were still about twelve feet away. There was a desk underneath the window, and if I was subtle enough, I figured I should definitely be able to make it through without being noticed.
I hoisted myself up against the edge of the window and leaned over, putting my upper body through the window. My hips were on the edge, and I realized–a little bit too late–that I hadn’t actually figured out exactly how I was going to get through here without being able to slide my legs over.
I figured maybe if I walked along the desk with my hands a little bit, allowing my lower body to make it through the window as well, I’d be able to make a graceful entrance.
Unfortunately, the plan and the execution were two entirely different things.
I walked along the desk with my hands, sliding the rest of my body forward, when all of a sudden the fact that I hadn’t been to the gym, in, well, an embarrassingly long time came back to haunt me. My arms gave out and I face-planted onto the desk before sliding off it and onto the ground, dragging the piles of paper onto the floor with me.
The pain that coursed through my body was intertwined with the immense fear that I’d be discovered. I quickly rolled under the desk as the two cops popped up from their chairs to see what was happening.
“Josh, I told you to keep that stupid window closed. Look at this mess.”
“It’s like a hundred degrees in here when there’s no air coming through,” Josh replied. “Come on, it’ll take two minutes to clean up, and at least it won’t feel like we’re in an oven.”
The other cop grumbled as the two of them made their way toward where I was lying. My back was absolutely killing me; I had a feeling that there was no getting away from it now, I was going to have to go see Cat’s magical healer down in Brixton Road.
As the two police officers bent down to retrieve the papers that had fallen off the desk, I breathed in as though that would make me disappear into the wall. I was completely frozen, not from being some sort of super spy, but entirely out of fear. I knew the men couldn’t see me, but if I made a sound, or if one of them reached over and touched where I was, I knew they’d be alerted to my presence, and I absolutely couldn’t have that.
Not only was I breaking into a police station, but Cat had told me it was imperative that witches keep their existence away from humans. I figured it was kind of an X-men thing; if it became common knowledge that witches lived in the human world, we’d be ostracized… or worse.
It felt like it took the men hours to pick up all the sheets of paper, when in reality it was probably under two minutes. When they finally got up and left, I let out the breath I’d been holding and finally allowed myself to relax just a little bit.
I crawled out from under the table, wincing as the muscles I’d hurt in my back voiced their displeasure. It was so weird, walking around the room and not being seen at all. I kept half-expecting one of the cops to shout out “hey you, what are you doing?” rather than being able to make my way to Chase’s office without being seen.
The next issue was getting Chase out of there. After all, I wasn’t exactly going to be able to use his computer if he was still sitting at his desk. I needed a distraction, something more than papers flying off the desk; it looked like he hadn’t even glanced up when I’d fallen out of the window and into the station.
More than anything, that made me curious. What was it that he was looking at which involved so much concentration? Was it something about the case? Maybe he was going through a report that could help me find out about Sapphire Sam’s killer as well.
I decided I needed to see what Chase was working on. I moved as quietly as I could into his office. Luckily, the floor was made from that same dense carpeting that seems to exist in every government building ever, so it was pretty easy to keep quiet.
All the same, as soon as I got within three feet of Chase’s desk, he looked up, as though he could sense that there was someone in the room. I paused, not moving, not breathing. I didn’t dare do either. A moment later, when Chase decided he was definitely alone, his eyes moved back to the screen of his computer. He had good instincts, that was for sure.
I carefully moved around his desk and behind him so I could look over his shoulder. As soon as I saw what he was looking at, my eyes widened. Chase wasn’t looking at anything related to the case at all! He was looking at flowers. Were they for me?
All of a sudden I felt a little bit awkward, and guilty for having spied on him. After all, what if he was buying flowers for me? Not that he really had any reason to. Maybe his mother’s birthday was coming up, something like that. In fact, was I overdoing it by immediately assuming they were for me? What if they were for someone else? It wasn’t like Chase and I were in a serious relationship. We’d only gone out a couple of times. And sure, we’d saved each other’s’ lives a couple of times by now too, but that didn’t mean we were going to get married tomorrow. And Chase didn’t even know that I’d saved his life.
Nope, I was overdoing it. I was panicking about my relationship, and overthinking it like crazy. I supposed I should be used to it; I didn’t exactly have a ton of experience with healthy relationships. I decided it was safest to a
ssume he was buying the flowers for his mom, or something, and I quietly left the office, swearing to myself that I was going to do my best to forget this ever happened.
Right. Like my brain was going to let that happen. Still, right now I had other things to focus on. I needed a distraction. It was almost the middle of summer, right? There was a trash can across the street from the police station. I focused on it and felt the energy building up inside of me as I imagined the garbage can being set on fire. As soon as I pointed my finger to the garbage can the energy released, and a second later I heard a yelp come from Andi.
“Chief!” she shouted. “There’s a trash can on fire outside!”
Chase leapt up from his chair almost as fast as the flames leapt from the trash outside. My eyes widened; I hadn’t expected to make that big a fire. He grabbed a fire extinguisher from the side wall as he ran toward the front door, the other two cops trailing behind him, and I knew I couldn’t watch Chase in action; I had some information to gather.
I really, really hoped Sally had a drivers’ license.
Luckily for me, Chase was already logged in to the police program that allowed him to check DMV records. I clicked a button and did a search for first name “Sally” with a registered address in Sapphire Village. I figured I could extend the search further out if I needed to.
There were only three women with the first name Sally in the system, and the second one looked exactly like the woman I’d seen in the Facebook picture. Sally Wentworth. That absolutely had to be her.
I memorized her address quickly–she lived in one of the residential neighborhoods just outside of the main part of the village–and quickly closed the information, leaving the computer exactly as I’d found it. Glancing outside I saw that Chase definitely had the fire under control, and I figured it wouldn’t be too long before he came back in.
I quickly got back out of his chair and made my way back into the main part of the police station. One of the cops came back inside, and I took the opportunity to slip out behind him without being noticed, finding myself back out in the open world.
Death Quixote (A Paranormal Cozy Mystery) (Magical Bookshop Mystery Book 4) Page 6
