by Cat Larson
“Misty used to love my bread. I couldn’t make it fast enough.” She giggled. “I used to tease her that she was turning yellow and sprouting a stem.”
“You must really miss her,” I said, sincerely. Since Misty had been her only family, I wondered if she’d been driven mad with grief and just wanted to see someone enjoying her banana bread again. Stranger things had happened. I should know, I had the evidence croaking in the bedroom.
“Miss her? You have got to be kidding. She deserved everything she got.”
“I know she wasn’t the nicest person, but as you said yourself, she was family…” My throat was tight. Water… I needed water.
“Ha! Family doesn’t turn on you like that.” I made a move to get a bottle from the fridge, but she grabbed my arm. “Don’t even think about it. Stay right here.”
“I only want some water.”
“Remember how I said the bread wouldn’t hurt you? That is true, but only on its own.”
Warning bells were clanging away in my brain. I’d been underestimating her, making excuses for her odd behavior because this was Amy Evans. I’d known her my entire life, and she was the kindest person you could ever meet.
“Have you tried one of those special lattes from Bigfoot Café yet? If not, you’re in for a treat. That’s another thing Misty loves—oops!—loved.”
“It was you,” I whispered. “You killed her.”
She giggled again, and I wanted to throw up. That actually sounded like a good plan. Whatever chicaweed was in me via the bread, I needed out.
“She was after my man. I couldn’t have that.”
“Your man?”
I had to keep her talking then distract her somehow. She was a little thing; I could’ve taken her easily if it weren’t for that blasted gun in her coat. But if I could knock it away, then—
“And now you’re after him.”
“What?”
She tsked, shaking her head. “I liked you a lot, Samm. I really did. How could you betray me like this?”
“Amy, I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She let out an exaggerated sigh. “Mike. You think I didn’t notice the way he looked at you at my house? He was there to check up on me, to make sure I was doing okay, but instead, he focused on you. Then I find him parked outside the shop all night? That was the final crushing straw.”
“No, you don’t understand—”
“Oh, I understand perfectly.” She was beginning to resemble a rabid dog, and since my nervous system was firing off like gangbusters, it must’ve been contagious. “And you can’t take him from me. I simply won’t allow it.”
“I have a fiancé. I don’t want Mike. Please, believe me.”
“Now, that’s rich.” She laughed. More like cackled. “You know what? Everyone thought of Misty as the bad one, but you two are more alike than you realize.” I was thinking the exact same thing about her. “Would you betray your own sister too?”
Violet. The nausea intensified, and I covered my mouth. No, this was a good thing. I needed to get it out, but I worried that all the fear coursing through me would make me pass out first.
“Just a friendly public service announcement,” she said, all peaches and cream. “If you puke, you’ll be eating it up, since you already declined more of my delicious bread. I bet you’re kicking yourself for that now.”
“What did you do with Violet?”
The entire time I’d suspected she’d had a hand in Misty’s death because of what she’d done to Fernando, but the possibility that my sister might be another one of Amy’s victims just became very real.
“I didn’t do anything with Violet. She’s one of my favorite people.” She appeared genuinely distressed over the question.
“Then where is she?”
“How should I know? But what I do know is that you should be thanking me right now. I did you a favor.”
“A favor?” This woman not only switched personalities quicker than a psychologist’s dream case study, but she also had more bats in her noodle than a vampire’s macaroni art project.
“Misty was going to do away with Violet during the grand reopening of the ice festival. Had it all planned out and everything. And I stopped her.” Amy lifted her chin like she was proud of herself. “I used her own spell against her. She never saw it coming. If it weren’t for me, your sister would be dead right now instead of mine.”
My head was in a wind tunnel. “What do you mean by ‘spell’?” There was so much getting thrown at me, I couldn’t possibly dodge it all.
“Misty had worked on it all week. Poor thing. It made her so weak. I guess she wasn’t as powerful as she thought.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Not everyone is so lucky.”
I needed to sit down, but I didn’t dare lower myself to a more vulnerable position. “Worked on what all week, exactly?”
“The freezing spell for Violet. Misty hated her, you know. Your sister got in her way all the time, so she finally decided to do something about it. The potion she created and planted in Violet’s iced tea was supposed to freeze her lungs, but I couldn’t let that happen. Unfortunately for Misty, she’d just eaten my herbal banana bread. The chicaweed was circulating in her system just like it’s currently doing in yours.”
From what I’d read in the library, I understood the connection between high doses of the herb and carbon dioxide, but how did a spell fit into all of this? Misty wasn’t a witch.
“I’m not drinking one of those stupid lattes.” As far as I knew, she didn’t have one stowed away alongside her gun. Did she think she was going to drag me into a public coffee shop and demand I buy one?
“Weren’t you listening before? You’ve offended me again, and I’m starting to take it personally.” She chomped on more bread, turning my mouth sour. “I said baking—which means heat to you non-bakers—destroys the poison. It has to be cold. But did you know those special smoky lattes can also be cold-brewed? They don’t advertise it because they’re even more difficult to make, but you can ask. Poor Misty. Too bad she didn’t know as much as me. She didn’t know that my secret weapon was ticking away inside her stomach while she hid in the tunnel, while she waited to activate the spell at the exact right moment before Violet was due to show. If only she’d known about the chicaweed, she would’ve known all that was needed was a special iced drink to finish the job. A special drink I made sure we picked up from the café before arriving.”
“So, this really had nothing to do with a spell.” Misty could’ve been delusional when in the end, it’d all boiled down to science. “And what about that one rainforest fern you had to mix with the chicaweed—where’d you get that from?” Please don’t say Violet’s shop.
“I’m not sure if you’re that daft or that arrogant.”
“You left out baffled as one of the options.”
“I don’t know what this fern is that you’re yabbering about, but of course, it had to do with a spell.” Amy rolled her eyes. “Misty was so wiped out from casting it that she became dizzy and had to sit down, and my being the helpful, loving sister that I am made sure she drank plenty of liquids, in the form of her favorite coffee, of course. Although…” She tapped her lips. “I have to admit it worked out much better than I expected. I only planned to anesthetize her enough to be able to force the spelled tea into her, ending her the same way she’d intended to do to Violet, but the combination of all three forces intensified each other. It didn’t just freeze her lungs; it froze her entire body into the tunnel wall.”
Holy crud. Talk about psychotic. “That, uh, sounds like a lot of work.” She made it sound like she was boasting about it, like she deserved a prize for her accomplishment. Maybe I could use that to my advantage.
“Well, I couldn’t exactly be scatterbrained about it, that’s for sure. I kept my head together and reaped the rewards. My sister is no longer a problem, yours is alive and well, and Bay Ice Sculpture is going to be held responsible. After Misty froze, I slipped out
the exit with the evidence, went home and destroyed it, and no one’s the wiser.”
Except me. “Why are you telling me all your secrets?” I already knew why and it made me shudder. I was aware of what she wanted to do to me, but I didn’t know how she was going to do it. I had to buy time.
“Because, despite you double-crossing me, I feel a kinship with you. Enough to want you to be aware of exactly how you’re going to die. You should feel honored. I didn’t even extend the same courtesy to my own blood.”
“Honored?” I gurgled out a laugh.
“I didn’t destroy all the evidence. I saved some of the spelled iced tea, and now I think it’s time to take a little walk to the park. Nice day for it too. The sun is shining. Spring is coming. You can feel it in the air. The sculptures aren’t safe right now. If someone is foolish enough to go inside one, they could suffer the same fate as my poor sister.”
“I’m not going with you.”
Her coat rose higher, and I stepped back. “It appears that my friend disagrees with you.”
A crash against the front door startled us both, and I took that opportunity to slam into her. She stumbled back, and before she regained her bearings, the door burst open. Damon and Griffin.
“Be careful,” I yelled. “She’s got a—”
A curved, yellow object plopped from her coat onto the ground.
A banana?
“You have got to be kidding me!” I screeched, all the built-up tension racing to get out of me. “A freaking banana?!”
Griffin put his arms around me. “It’s okay, Sammi. You can relax now.”
“I can’t believe you did this to me!” I shouted over his shoulder. “You know where you can shove all your precious bananas.”
Damon was hauling Amy off as she yelled back at me, “All that work for nothing! You don’t know what it’s like, you don’t know how hard it is—you’re magical everywhere, and you don’t even care. We need to use the town’s energy, and it’s still not easy!”
“Quiet,” Damon hissed.
The last thing I heard when Damon dragged her out the door was, “Hey, is Mike with you?”
“Wait!” I tried to shimmy out of Griffin’s hold. “I have stuff to tell him. Important stuff. There’s so much he needs to know. Amy killed Misty.” I yanked harder. Why wasn’t he letting me go?
“Calm down. He already knows.”
I stilled. “How?”
“We were able to get everything from your call. Quick thinking, by the way, hitting the speaker. As soon as we figured out what was going on, Damon was able to reach the station and get it on record.”
“My call? What are you talking about?”
“What are you talking about? You called me right after Amy arrived. Fortunately, Damon was over and we were both able to hear it.”
“Griffin, I didn’t call you.”
“Well, someone did.”
My dead haunted cell phone sitting on the corner table rang once, startling the bejeebers out of both of us.
I jumped from his arms, and this time he released me. There was absolutely no reason why he should’ve been holding me for that long, and we both knew it.
He cleared his throat. “I guess that’s it, then.” I nodded, still staring at my phone. “I’m glad you’re okay, Samm.”
“Me too. Someone must be watching out for me.”
Ring.
Translation: You’re welcome.
Epilogue
“I guess this means you’re going back to Chicago soon.”
I was curled up on the couch in a blanket, sipping the strong, hot coffee that Griffin had been kind enough to bring me that morning. Fernando was frolicking in the bathtub.
“You’d think.”
That was what someone with a normal life would do, but I didn’t have a normal life. Not anymore. I was no longer on town arrest, but I wouldn’t be going anywhere until I had my man back.
“You’re not? Why?”
“It’s complicated.” I really hated when people gave that type of canned response, but in this case, it was the best choice of words.
“What about your fiancé?”
“I still have one, if that’s what you’re asking. And I’m warning you—don’t even think about bad-mouthing him.”
Wow. That’d come out way snippier than I intended, but in my defense, it’d been less than twenty-four hours since the whole Amy fiasco, and I’d been tired and cranky since. In retrospect, I hadn’t been in much danger, but I didn’t know that at the time. I hadn’t a clue she was packing fruit instead of heat.
He put his hands up. “Don’t shoot. I come in peace.”
I sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. It was really nice of you to take time out of your day to fuel me with caffeine. Thank you.”
“You’re forgiven and you’re welcome.”
“Especially because you’re probably swamped with work. I bet you’re in the middle of a really great scene, and I’m preventing you from finishing.”
“Nah, it’s all right. I’m flexible. I’ll get my writing in later.”
“What did you say your pseudonym was again?”
His lips curved up. “I didn’t.”
I drummed my fingers on my knee. “So… you were engaged, huh?” His eyebrows rose, and I shrugged. “Sage may have mentioned it.”
“Are you asking me a question you already know the answer to, or is there more to it?”
Okay, this was crazy, and so was Sage and her theories. The things she came up with. Why would it bother me if Griffin moved on without me? I’d expect it. I’d insist upon it. When I left town all those years before, I had no intention of ever coming back. If I wanted him to spend the rest of his life alone, that’d be just plain cruel.
“Yes and no. Never mind.”
“Does it bother you?”
If it did, it’d be because I wanted him to be happy, and according to Sage, the woman was an evil shrieking harpy who ate puppies for breakfast. Or maybe that’d been my interpretation. But she did say his ex-fiancée was no one I’d care to know, and I trusted her opinion. Unless that opinion extended to how much said engagement upset me.
“Why would it bother me? That’d be silly. Especially, since I’m engaged right now.”
“I’m well aware.”
I gnawed on my lip a while before blurting out, “What happened between the two of you?” Since we were on the subject, I was going to combust if I didn’t at least ask why they were no longer together.
“I’d tell you but it’s too complicated.”
His smirk told me I’d deserved that. I was mulling over an equally smart-alecky response when there was a bang at the door.
“That’s probably Sage,” I said. “When I talked to her last night, she said she was stopping by today.” I pulled back the shades and checked out the window. Definitely not Sage. “It’s your brother. Any idea why he’s here again?” I liked to be prepared.
“Nope.”
Officer Damon had already paid me a visit once Amy was safely locked away in a cell—or wherever they put a person who’d just confessed to murder. Along with more of his police-y questions, I’d also learned the rest of the scoop. It turned out Jed the attendant was keeping a secret, but not for Bay Ice Sculptures, Inc. It was for Misty. She’d blackmailed him into closing off the tunnel exhibit for a couple of hours or else she threatened to tell his wife about the little affair they had. But once he’d heard Amy’s confession, he broke down and spilled everything.
Damon and I had no more ground to cover, unless he was there to speak to me about Violet. Again. He’d noticed the red coat I’d taken from the coffee house, and of course, recognized it immediately. I hadn’t meant to get his hopes up like that, but I had to explain why it was here without Violet inside it.
And surprisingly through it all, never once had Damon or Griffin ever questioned Amy’s mention of spells or magic. I chalked it off to them thinking it was the ramblings of a hysterical kille
r who’d ingested too much chicaweed.
“He’s not going to leave until you let him in.”
“Right.” I opened the door and smiled. “Damon. What brings you by this fine morning?”
“Samm.” He came inside, pausing when he spotted Griffin. He glanced back and forth between us. “Am I disturbing anything?”
Griffin held up his cup. “Just swung by to bring Samm some coffee.”
“How considerate.”
There was an unspoken conversation going on between the two brothers, and I didn’t like it. I cleared my throat. “What’s up, officer?”
Damon turned back to me. “I just came from having a little chat with Clare. She swears Violet gave her the coat.”
“Why would she do that?”
“I don’t know. Clare said she likes to… collect things and she earned it fair and square.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? I’m not giving her back the coat. I don’t believe her.”
“She has some quirks, but I have no reason not to give her the benefit of the doubt.”
“Then you do that, but I’m not.”
“It’s not as if we have Violet here to confirm or deny. Speaking of…”
I shook my head. “No, I haven’t heard anything since you last asked me eight hours ago. I guess she’s still avoiding me, but I can’t imagine it’ll be for much longer. She has a shop to run.”
I said the same words I’d been saying on repeat, explaining to everyone why Violet wasn’t around, but they were starting to lose credibility in my head. The pit in my stomach was growing larger, and I was trying my hardest not to read anything into it, but the more I tried to reason with my brain, the more my gut suffered.
“It’s been five days. That must’ve been some fight.”
“Believe me, it was.” He looked like he was about to fire off more questions I didn’t want to answer, so I redirected. “What about Clarisse Jones?”
“What about her?”
“Did you follow up on what I told you?”
“That you believe she was lying about being sick? That’s not a crime, Samm.”
