After the shock left her face, Annie grinned. “Are you sure he wasn’t under the influence of faerie dust or somethin’? It simply doesn’t sound like Devin, at all. He’s a down-Mainer more than anyone else I know, and to think he’d ever consider leaving this area permanently, let alone the state itself, is questionable. He’s got a great reputation as a carpenter and as a person, and besides that, he’s well known in these parts.” She shook her head and sighed.
“You’re right,” I said as I followed Annie into the kitchen. A place setting was laid out with a side salad, a bowl of minestrone soup, and a couple tasty-looking biscuits. My stomach growled, I chuckled when Annie gave me a wide smile as she settled in the chair opposite from me.
Between bites, I said, “I had wondered as much when he rambled on and on about moving, and how wonderful it was at Ida’s. When I flatly refused, he didn’t even seem to hear me. Maybe it was faerie dust, after all it can make you quite giddy and nonsensical.” I chuckled and finished the bowl of soup.
With her no-nonsense attitude, Annie grumbled, “He’d better not bring that subject up while I’m around, or I’ll bend his ear about you two not leaving Maine.” She snickered. “I’m just glad he’s coming home.”
“Me, too. There’s been too much going on that I can’t handle, along with the Junction. My business and staff are important to me, and by gosh, nobody’s going to take that away.”
“Now that you’ve eaten, tell me what brought you by tonight, Luna.”
The bowl and salad plate were empty. I pushed them away and pulled forward the glass of ice water Annie had poured and took a few sips. She waited patiently, and though I knew Annie understood that magical critters lived near my shop, it was still a bit awkward for me to discuss them with her. When she looked about to demand an explanation, I relented.
“Okay, you can get that determined look off your face,” I said with a hand up to ward off any words she might say. “There were two incidents when I closed the shop this afternoon. First a faerie warned me about Calis – as well as a bad faerie friend of his – being a danger to us all. She’d have said more if Calis hadn’t chosen that moment to appear. We had words, and he left in a huff. If that wasn’t bad enough, a pixie arrived not much later and offered his take on what he feared might come, and he even intimated Arianna was working with Calis. Before he disappeared, he said the fae will do what they can to help.”
Intent over what I’d said, Annie leaned forward and gasped. “It’s a good thing I know you aren’t crazy, Luna. This is the strangest thing to happen yet – even considering fae folk is beyond the scope of some folk’s understanding. I do find this a bit odd. Do you think there’s any merit to these warnings?”
“As far as that goes, I think the fae are right on the mark. They would be fearful of losing their homes and all, so in answer to your question on the merits of the warnings, I’d have to say yes. When this whole drama began to unfold, the day I went to Ari’s and told her of the theft, she said a pixie was in her studio watching over her. I was taken aback by the news, especially since pixies don’t care to be indoors, and my concern over why a pixie would do so has bothered me. I have no clue why Ari would make up such a story, but there was definitely an air of tension in the studio. Someone else might have been lurking in the shadows, or it could have been Calis, for that matter. Ari quickly rushed me from the building, so I didn’t have a chance to check it out.”
“Hmm, there has to be a good explanation for all this, Luna. Not a faerie explanation, but a reasonable and real explanation. You’re in touch with things I can’t see, and I don’t question that, but I do know humans are often predictable. So much so, that they make the same mistakes over and over. Why not have Stephanie run checks on both Arianna and Carlos to see what they’ve been up to, who’s been calling them, and that sort of thing? Cops dig deep when there’s mischief afoot, you know,” Annie said, followed by a nod.
Her advice was always sound and I agreed to speak with Stephanie as soon as I could. Annie’s ability to make sense out of any issue was one of the reasons I liked her so much. From the doorstep, she waved as I drove toward the police station.
A couple police cruisers sat outside the station as I drew up to the curb. I passed an officer in the corridor as I walked up to the dispatcher’s desk and waited until Stephanie got off the phone. She glanced up, smiled, and asked what I needed. It didn’t take long to explain Arianna’s odd behavior and that I thought Carlos might be hanging about as Calis. I finished my request with, “I know this sounds crazy, but after sharing this with Annie, she advised me to ask for your help.”
“You did the right thing by coming to us, Luna, especially since Ari is a person we keep an eye on. Your break-in has us on the look-out for suspicious characters and abnormal actions, so I’m glad you stopped in. I’ll present this to the chief when he’s on his shift later tonight. I’ll give you a call after that, all right?”
“Great, I’d appreciate that. Devin’s return this coming week will take this anxiety off my shoulders, too.” I bid her goodnight and left the station, relieved to have asked someone of authority for help.
Chapter 11
Nothing out of the ordinary happened during the next two days, until we readied to close up shop on the second day. A nondescript car wheeled into the parking lot, stopped outside the front steps, and a man stepped from the driver’s side door. I noticed he wore cowboy boots, jeans, and a jersey underneath his blazer. Tall and reed-thin, he glanced around, plunked his cowboy hat on his head and turned his gaze to the front door of the shop, to exactly where I stood.
In two long steps, he climbed the steps and I met him face-to-face as I swung the door open.
“We’re getting ready to close for the day,” I said apologetically.
“Though I’m told you serve the best cupcakes hereabouts, and your business is doing very well, you’ll want to hear what I have to say,” the man said with a slight twang.
The clanging noises from the kitchen suddenly ceased. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Annie peer around the serving doorway, while Dilly gawked from the kitchen entry. I gave them a shrug, and turned back to the stranger.
“You may as well come in, then,” I said and waved him forward.
“Thanks, ma’am. You must be Luna Devere, is that right?”
“Correct… And you are?”
“I’m Carlos Moreland, the owner of the land between here and Arianna’s. You knew my father, Frank Moreland, didn’t you?”
Dumbstruck, I stood with my mouth open and must have looked completely ridiculous. When I found my voice, I nodded and said, “Why, yes, to both of those questions. Please, have a seat.” I motioned him to the nearest table and excused myself for a moment. I scooted into the kitchen, asked the girls to finish the workload and to stay until Carlos left. I’d been given too much confusing information lately to consider being alone with this man.
I returned with a tray filled with cups of tea and a dish of cakes, which I placed between us. “Help yourself, Mr. Moreland.” I motioned to the array of goodies and sat in the chair across from him, awaiting enlightenment.
As he indulged in a cake and sipped the brew, Carlos explained that he’d been contacted by the police department concerning his father’s property and his own whereabouts over recent weeks. “Carlos, please call me Carlos. I live in Dallas, now and was preparing to come here and look over the land when the sheriff called. It was perfect timing, really.”
“Stephanie Jones, the police dispatcher, is a friend of mine. I mentioned I thought someone might be passing themselves off as you, but by another name. Stephanie offered to check with the sheriff and then called the other night to say the sheriff was looking into things. She’ll be in touch as soon as there’s any information to share. I’m pleased to meet you, Mr. Moreland – uh, Carlos.”
“Why would you think someone would pretend to be me, Ms. Devere?” Moreland asked.
“Call me Luna, everyone does,”
I said with a smile. “Frankly, there have been odd goings on around here and I was afraid that I was the center of a hoax.”
Moreland leaned back, dusted his fingertips off and stared at me with a narrowed gaze. “What kind of odd things, Luna?”
Reluctant to mention faeries and pixies to the man, I searched for a way to tell him without seeming a nutcase. “This business was broken into not long ago and certain art work was stolen. When I explained the theft to the artisan, I was told there were strange things happening in these parts – unexplainable things.”
Again, he peered at me and waited. I floundered for a better explanation, but came up with nothing. I’d opened my mouth, when Annie stepped forward and said, “She the butt of a prankster, plain and simple. Arianna is at the bottom of it, and for what it’s worth, I think she’s off her medication.”
Carlos turned in his chair, looked at Annie for a moment and said, “Annie, I haven’t seen you in years. You never change.” His chuckle was matched by her own as she glanced at me.
“Thanks, or maybe not, since I’ve aged since you were in this part of the country. You look totally different. Where’ve you been, Carlos?”
“After I left town, I went to Chicago and from there I went to Texas and got a job as a foreman on a dude ranch. Now I own the ranch and several more like them. It’s good to see you,” he said.
She studied him a moment and then said, “Somebody is trying to scare the wits out of Luna. Devin, her fiancé, is due back within a few days, and thank goodness for that, but in the meantime, somebody has been parading around as a guy name Calis. We began to think it was you since you used to be an actor,” Annie remarked.
He laughed out loud. “The only acting I get to do now is when we put on a show at the ranch. Other than that, I have no time for it. I’d worked in a small theatre group in Chicago until I realized I wasn’t star material, and would likely starve to death if I didn’t find a suitable job.”
He pulled his wallet from his pocket and showed us pictures of the ranch and his family. As he flipped the wallet closed, I glimpsed his driver’s license. It claimed he was Carlos Moreland. Relieved that he was who he said, reality struck and I was back to the same problem I’d had before he arrived. Who was Calis? And who was the almost human faerie who’d wandered through the Junction like she owned it? What were they up to? And could I believe anything Calis and Arianna said?
I sighed, slugged down a cup of tea and poured another like I would a shot of whiskey.
While Annie urged Carlos to talk more and more about his life, I realized she was fishing. She’d egged him on until he finally stopped talking and turned to me.
“Tell me, have you been talking to the faeries and pixies? They’re wily, you know.”
Warily, I studied him and slowly nodded. “You see them, too?”
“Hell, yeah. Ever since I was a kid. Ari does, too, though I think her split personality has more to do with her relationship with the fae than her sense of reality does. Somewhere along the line, Arianna’s schizophrenia took over.” He appeared momentarily sad, and then said, “It was difficult to see her as her true self one moment and then someone altogether different, the next. I knew I had to leave town to make a life for myself and regretted leaving her behind, but frankly, other than the doctors, there wasn’t much anyone could do for her. She was manic.”
“She behaves a bit oddly, though she is a marvelous artist,” I said. “Molten glass is her medium and Arianna produces the loveliest window decorations and glass ornaments I’ve ever seen. Lately, she’s been a bit off, which is quite concerning.”
“I’ve yet to stop in and see her, which I’ll do tomorrow. Tonight, I need to get some rest and will be at the farm. Here’s the phone number I can be reached at, call if you have any questions, Luna .” Carlos glanced around the shop and then asked, “This is your business, then?”
“Mine, and mine alone. Dilly and Annie help me out along with a part-timer, who comes in everyday.”
Carlos grinned, rose from his chair, and placed the hat on his head as he bid us good-bye.
The instant the door closed, Dilly was at the table, her eyes wide and her nose twitching as if she had news she couldn’t wait to share.
“By golly, he’s changed a bit. So much for that Calis fella being Carlos, huh?”
I gave her a slanted glance and then said, “Let’s finish up for tonight, shall we?”
With a snort, Annie went on with the chores she’d left hanging, leaving Dilly to follow suit. While they prepped the Junction for the next day, I heard Dilly ramble on and on. Whether it concerned Carlos, or Calis, or anything else in particular, I couldn’t tell, but I had enough on my mind without thinking of what came out of her mouth.
When they shut the door, I was finally alone. I stood staring out the window while scratching the cat’s ears and murmuring niceties to him as he balanced his fat butt on the window sill. Purring like an idling boat motor, he turned his head to the front lot. Together, we watched Annie and Dilly drive away. They hadn’t quite reached the road when Stephanie’s car cruised to a stop, turned into the lot, and parked at the front steps. Would the flow of people ever stop? I muttered as much to Riddles and went to greet her.
Unable to read her facial expression, I stared into her eyes hoping for a glimpse of what went on behind them. No luck there.
“Hey, Stephanie, come on in. I was getting ready to pack up the last of the cupcakes for the nursing home, would you like to take some to the station?”
“No, thanks, Luna. Would you sit down? We need to talk,” she said in a serious tone.
“O-okay,” I stammered and plopped into the closest chair available.
When she sat across from me, Stephanie said, “There’s been an incident.”
I nodded, and waited with bated breath. What the hell had happened now?
“We found Arianna on the ground just in from the edge of the woods that are between here and her place.” Stephanie pulled her cell phone from her pocket and swiftly brought up a photo that she showed me. “Arianna was covered with sticky, sparkling, web-like material. Do you have any idea what it is?”
I let out my breath and hauled in another as I asked, “I-is she, um, uh, unconscious?”
“No, she’s not. I’m sorry to tell you this, Luna, but Ari’s dead. Do you know anything about that?”
I glanced from Stephanie to my shaking hands and back again. Then I took her phone and enlarged the photo by pushing two fingers across the screen. When the image became clear, I studied it, moving it around the small screen a tad to get a better look. Done with inspecting Arianna draped in a web of faerie dust, I pushed the phone away.
“You’ll think I’m crazy, but I’ll be honest and tell you what this is.” I took a deep breath and blurted out that Arianna had been killed by faerie dust.
“You’re kidding, right?” Stephanie asked with a look of disbelief.
Somberly, I assured her, “Not at all.” While she mulled over the information, and realized I wasn’t joking, Stephanie sat quietly with her hands folded atop the table.
“What else do you know about Arianna?” she asked.
Hoping she’d believe me, I told her of Calis, the faerie witch-woman who’d strode through the Junction like a queen, all that had happened of late to me on the wooded path, and then I summed up my visits with Arianna.
Her eyes went wide, and she gasped aloud when I mentioned Carlos Moreland’s visit.
“That can’t be, Luna. We received a call from the Texas authorities. We were told Carlos Moreland is dead, that he died in a sky diving accident a year ago. Someone is impersonating him, and we’ll look into that. You said he’s at the farm?” Stephanie had picked up her phone and was on the line with the police station while I nodded. It didn’t take her long to tell the officer to dispatch a car to the Moreland farm, and take the man into custody on grounds that he was posing as Carlos Moreland. Satisfied with the answer she received from the officer, she en
ded the call.
“What else can you tell me?” she asked evenly, while she stared at me.
With a shoulder shrug, I said it depended on what she wanted to know.
“Who is this Calis fellow?”
I said, “I haven’t a clue. He’s mysterious, afraid of my cat, and shows up whenever he pleases. I admit I’ve never felt threatened by him. Calis is a weird sort, but I think he’s fairly harmless.”
Stephanie nodded. “Are you certain?”
“Fairly… At least, I’m not fearful when he’s around. I’m baffled, and curious, but not scared. He says things that wouldn’t make sense to people who don’t see fae folks, but to me, he’s sensible.” I sighed, leaned back and raised my hands in the air and let them flop back on the table. I said, “I can’t explain it, but that’s how it is.” I went on to recall the first meeting Calis and I had with Arianna. “Calis was angry at Ari’s treatment of the faeries and made no bones about letting her know. She was frightened of him, and nervous, too.”
“What did this Moreland character say to you about Ari?”
“He said she was a schizophrenic. He also said he’d stop by to see her tomorrow.” I leaned forward and said, “If you had been gone from town for years, and returned suddenly, wouldn’t you go see the person who’d been your best friend throughout your childhood? It struck me as odd that he hadn’t seen her right away, but I thought maybe he had jet lag or something. And, why come here? He’s never met me, I wasn’t around when Moreland lived here. Do you think this is a con of sorts? He didn’t strike me as a con artist, but then, that’s the point of being a con artist, the mark isn’t intended to know, right?”
I rubbed my forehead, then my temples. A fierce headache was on the rise, and close on its heels was a walloping case of trepidation. With a heartfelt sigh, I said, “I’ll miss Arianna. She was a bit off-kilter, but a nice person and a fabulous artisan.”
Faerie Dust Dead (The Luna Devere Series Book 2) Page 11
