by Kelly Ethan
“Revenge never wins. Karma always rebounds,” Lila intoned the words in a deep voice and then dropped the serious act. “That’s what mom says. On the other hand, Elspeth is a whiz at revenge. That’s why the old ducks won’t let her enter the annual pie contest any longer.”
“Because she kept winning?” What did pie have to do with revenge?
“Nope, because every time the contest came up, Elspeth would bake a pie with a spell mixed in. One year she had them clucking like ducks, another she laid a truth spell and don’t get mom started on the chaos caused by the naked spell.” She shuddered. “I couldn’t eat pie for ages after that.”
Xandie ignored Lila’s deviation into Elspeth whining and asked Priss a question. “Where are the artifacts you stole?” Xandie wondered what other mayhem headed their way.
“I returned the gnome and the lantern. I didn’t realize what taking them would cause. There’s a snow globe from the gift shop I left in the gallery when Archibald died. Also, a large goblet thing from the funeral home and I left that in the dragon hoard.”
“Oh no.” Holly closed eyes for a moment. “Was it dented and rusted? And larger than a normal cup, you’d have to use two hands to hold it?”
Priss nodded.
“That’s not a goblet. It’s a small cauldron.”
“How is a small cauldron a problem?” Xandie knew she’d regret asking that question.
“Because the people who run Elysian Fields Funeral Home are necromancers. They collect anything to do with death. The goblet’s one of them.” She sagged against the couch, staring off into space.
“For God’s sake, Holly. Spit it out. Enough with the dramatics,” Lila yelled, unable to stand the suspense any longer.
“The goblet is Celtic and belongs to the god Dagda. It can raise the dead.”
“Oh crap.” Priss and Xandie mouthed the words together, eyes wide.
“The cauldron had protective spells put on it by Elspeth. I hope stealing it didn’t rupture the spells. Or...” She trailed off, and then carried on with an audible gulp, “Or Elspeth’s killer ceramic garden gnomes will seem like a garden party compared to supernatural zombie residents.”
“Ah, the joy of Point Muse keeps on giving.”
“Enough, Lila,” Holly snapped at her cousin. Her quiet nature dissolved when confronted by the walking dead.
Xandie stalked to the front window of Lila’s apartment and stared out over Main Street. One thing after another. Whoever killed Penne was a step ahead. Frustrated, Xandie laid her forehead against the glass. A red glow behind Main Street caught her attention. “We have another problem.”
Lila and Holly ran to Xandie, leaving Priss to follow.
“Near the bed-and-breakfast, wouldn’t you say?” Xandie pointed toward the smear of rusty red in the early evening sky.
Lila confirmed Xandie’s guess. “Not near. That is Hazel’s place.”
“We need the artifact from the gallery, and we need to put the fire out at Hazel’s. Someone set Hazel’s alight to destroy any evidence that Melinda had a child.” Xandie grabbed Priss and dragged her to the front door. “We’ll break into Malones. Harrows, get to Hazel, make sure she’s safe and save our evidence. If we get the globe, we can stop the fire straight away.”
Xandie and her new friend headed to the gallery and an icy end to the fire.
“Just one more push. We don’t have time to wait.” Xandie hung over the windowsill, panting. A sad case of déjà vu shivered along her spine. What was it with windows and her hanging out of them?
Priss slapped a hand on Xandie’s behind and gave an almighty shove.
Xandie flew through the window space and collapsed on the floor. Someone had left the window open in a storeroom. Without Priss and her upper body strength, she’d never have clambered inside. “That was too easy.”
“Try being on the shoving side. It wasn’t so easy.”
“I’m ignoring you.” Xandie switched her phone’s light app on and shone it around the storeroom. “I’ll see if I can open a door. Iris so needs a security system.”
“No need.” Priss eyed the window and backed up. She took a running leap, grabbed hold of the sill and heaved herself through the open window. Unlike Xandie, the fencing instructor dismounted with grace and then bowed to a pretend audience.
“Hate you and your coordination right now,” she grumbled at the way-too-perky murder suspect. “Where’s the artifact?”
“In the kitchenette where I found Penne dead. It was in my fencing bag with my workout stuff.”
“Why bring your workout gear to an art showing?” Xandie slid into the hallway.
“I had a last-minute meeting arranged with Archibald. He caught me at the end of a workout. I had enough time to change, but not drop my stuff back at Hazel’s. He thought I was lying when I first told him about my mom or being a hybrid. But something must have interested him because he contacted me and asked for a meeting. I went straight to the gallery. And you saw what happened next.” She followed Xandie.
“So why did he want to meet?”
“Some evidence he found made him believe my story. He wanted to help. Stick it to the clan. At least that’s what he told me. But then I walked in and stumbled over the poison bottle and earned a stint in jail.” She searched the room, looking for her gear. “No bag, no globe. It should be here.”
“Unless Iris, the gallery owner, found your bag. Let’s search her office.”
Priss led the way. “The office is windowless so we’re good for lights.” She flicked the switch and light blazed through the messy overfilled room. “Iris Malone’s a packrat.”
Xandie toed a box open. “Mass-produced tourist gifts. Maybe she was selling them as originals?”
“Who knows? I just need my gear.” Priss rifled through the other boxes.
Moving boxes aside, Xandie searched through the desk. Lots of overdue bills, but no bag. She shoved at a pile of catalogs and a red leather book hidden in the middle of the stacks slid off the desk. Xandie snatched it before it hit the floor. Her necklace tightened before releasing a second later. The library had been right about the dragon information. Maybe the red journal was important?
“Xandie?”
“I might have found something.” She opened the journal and thumbed through the pages. It was a running tally of artifacts. Each entry described the artifact and had a dollar amount, along with two letters. “Ha.”
“Xandie,” Priss called out again.
Spinning, she waved the notebook at Priss. “I found something interesting.”
“Ditto.” Priss lifted the globe with one hand and a dragon’s fang with another.
“Okay, you have a morbid obsession with teeth the same as Holly?”
“I watched Penne drop off boxes to the gallery owner at odd times. I was so focused on getting even, I didn’t pay too much attention.”
“Sooo?” Xandie drew the word out, waiting for an explanation.
“This fang looks like a dragon tooth. Feels like a dragon to the touch. It might be a side effect of my hybridness, but I know this tooth isn’t real. It’s not the same one on display the night of the showing. This is a fake.”
Bingo. Iris Malone’s motive. “This is where the red book comes in.” Xandie held up the red journal. “It’s a list of artifacts and dollar amounts.”
“Malone and Archibald sold dragon artifacts?”
“No, I think they were selling fakes to the suckers in town, then selling the originals on the witch market. There’s an initial against each entry. P.C. I’m sure it stands for Penne clan. They were running a scam right under Ronald Penne’s nose. The fight between the two of them was about the scam. Archibald didn’t need her contacts anymore. He wanted to sell direct. Iris may have killed him to keep him quiet.”
“Wow.” Priss looked impressed. “What do we do now?”
Xandie took the journal underarm. “We need to deliver that snow globe to the fire at Hazel’s. Then we go to the police
and get you off the hook.”
Priss pocketed the fake fang before they climbed back through the window.
Daylight dawned on the snowdrift surrounding Hazel’s bed-and-breakfast. “Trust you lot to get involved. Zach’s gonna lose his shift when he comes back. And you’re lucky Ms. Hazel had her naked poker game at the Inn last night.” Deputy Melody Braun pouted over her chipped blood-red nail polish before glaring at the Harrows and Priss. “Tell me you didn’t set fire to Ms. Hazel’s place.”
Why did people believe the worst of her? Xandie cleared her throat. “Deputy Braun, we had nothing to do with setting the fire. But we have information that will affect the case of Archibald Penne’s death.”
Melody Braun groaned. “Another murder? You were almost killed on the last one. Zach was a grizzly the whole time.”
Lila smirked. “Chief Braun’s a bear shifter, anyway.”
“Not a grizzly, we’re black bears. Big difference.” Melody shifted large muscled shoulders and glared. “Fine, everyone in. Mother can sort you out.”
The girls clambered into the cruiser.
Priss leaned forward and whispered in Xandie’s ear, “Her mom’s in charge?”
“Trust me. Agatha Braun runs the family and the station with an iron paw.” If anyone can sort this out, it was Agatha.
Hopefully before Police Chief Zach Braun stuck his oh-so-appealing nose in.
Seven
“Let me get this straight.” Agatha Braun ran a calloused hand through her frizzy grey chin-length bob. “Makepeace here is innocent of murder. You broke into the gallery, found evidence of Iris Malone and Archibald Penne running an art fraud black-market business. And you think Iris killed Penne and firebombed Hazel’s because there was evidence there of Makepeace as a long-lost Penne heir?”
Priss laid out her letter in front of Agatha. “This was written by Marjorie and banishes my mom. She never wants to see her again.”
“Bull poop. Marjorie Penne adored Melinda. She wouldn’t care if your father was a serial killer. She’d never have banished her.”
“My dad was a dragon slayer. Apparently, that tipped her over into banishing my mother.” Priss laid a hand on the desk. “Mom came back after she had me to tell Marjorie, but never made it. She collided with a crop duster outside of town.”
Agatha sat back in a chair and crunched on a beef jerky strip. “That was during old man Wolf’s reign of fire hydrant terror. My mate, the previous police chief, was away on a joint task force. Wolf was acting chief. He made such a mess of things in Point Muse the paranormal investigator group was called in for clean-up duty. But I’m telling you. No way would Marjorie cut Melinda off.”
Xandie leaned forward, putting as much unwavering trust for Priss as she could dredge up into her voice. “Agatha, Priss didn’t kill Archibald. Trust us. Malone is in it up to her money-hungry armpits. We just need time to find the evidence to prove it. That’s all we ask.”
Agatha slapped her desk. “All you had to do was ask, sweet Xandie. Why, I think of you as a daughter-in-law.” Agatha winked as Xandie flushed bright red.
Priss dumped all the evidence in front of Agatha. “Thank you, Mrs. Braun.”
Agatha smiled at Priss. “You know, you do look a little like your momma. In fact, I think you have Marjorie’s stubborn chin. Now scatter, the lot of you. And stay away from Malone; we’ll track her down. Now get.” She flapped a hand at the two women to get them to leave.
As the girls trundled out of the station, a worried Priss whispered to Xandie, “Can she help me?”
“There’s not much that gets past Agatha Braun. She just needs evidence to make it stick.”
All they had to do was track down Iris Malone...
“Two days, Theo. Two days of patiently waiting.” Xandie shelved a book with extra oomph. “All Agatha tells me is to shut it. She’ll call me when she has something concrete on Malone’s location. The wait is driving me crazy.” Xandie blew her hair away from her face.
“So what? Not your place to hunt Malone down. Take her advice.” Theo ran his tongue over Horatio’s hairless head. The imp chattered to Theo as the cat groomed him.
“Priss and Lila are doing okay rooming together. But who knows how long Lila’s good mood will last?” Xandie moved a pile of books off the desk and opened the appointment book. “Right, library, let’s go.” Xandie flicked to the requests for admittance and wrote them into the book. The library decided whom it wanted inside it. Some of the requests disappeared, and then appeared written at different times during the week. Some were noted information only. Those requests meant Xandie had to dig the information out and copy it. The library then sent the information on.
Xandie ducked as a scroll flew overhead to land with a skid on the library desk. Grabbing it, Xandie headed to the office to copy the scroll. “Mating practices of a Basilisk is done and dusted.” Xandie shuddered at the thought of mating with a lizard that killed with a look.
The library phone rang, shocking Xandie from the images of a basilisk mating. Her hand flew to her chest as her heartbeat raced. The ley lines around the town interfered with phones and Internet reception. She’d become used to the silence as opposed to the constant strident ringtones of her phone. Elspeth had a charm to ensure phone reception, but her grandmother wasn’t a fan of sharing. Snickering at her silliness, Xandie grabbed the phone. “Xandie Meyers. How can I help you?”
“I need to talk to the old broad. Put her on the phone, would you?”
Low, gravelly, smoke-a-pack-a-day male tones flowed through the line. By old broad did he mean her late great-aunt? “Do you mean Sera Meyers?”
“What I said. Time is money, girl. Hurry it up.”
Xandie narrowed her gaze and drummed her nails on the library desk. No one over twenty and under sixty enjoyed being called girl and at twenty-five she was no exception. What made it worse is that now she had to explain to a complete stranger about Sera’s death. “I’m sorry, but Sera died a few months ago. I’m her great-niece, Xandie.”
“Scandinavian skipping skunks.” The man cursed a blue steak. “The old girl owed me. I’ve spent time and money on this case.”
Case? What on earth was the weird swearing man rambling about? “I have no clue what case you’re talking about. Sera never mentioned anything before she was killed.”
Dead silence.
“Killed? Huh, I’m not surprised. That librarian had a cranky streak and held a grudge more than any troll woman I’ve ever dated. But she was a good poker player. Respect for that.”
“You knew she was a librarian?”
“I’m a troll, not a moron. It’s my job to know my clients. I’m a private investigator, Trollish Investigations Inc. You lose ‘em, we find ‘em.”
What the heck would Sera need an investigator for when she had the library?
“Say, you said your name was Meyers, right?”
Xandie’s skin prickled and she adjusted the phone in her hand, wary at the troll’s sudden interest. “Yes, why?”
“That’s the case. The old girl had me looking into your mother, Miranda Harrow’s disappearance.”
Stiffening, Xandie’s breath caught momentarily. “My mother’s disappearance was twenty years ago. When did Sera contact you?”
“Six months ago. She wanted the investigation kept quiet. She paid half my fee up front and the rest on delivery of my findings.”
Xandie’s thoughts raced as she tried to make sense out of his words. Why would Sera get a private investigator to investigate years after her mother’s disappearance? Why six months ago? “Why would Sera contact you now?”
The troll sighed on the other end of the phone. “Look, love. All I know is what the librarian told me about the case. Something had come up recently that had her thinking about the chick. She wanted me to look into it. So, what about the rest of my money?”
Had Sera realized the Knight of Sanguis had caused Miranda Harrow’s death or was it something else? “If Sera owed you money, t
he library will pay it. But it’s pointless now, we know the Knights of Sanguis caused her death.”
“Her supposed death, you mean. I heard about the Knight murders in Point Muse. Nice catch of the killer, by the way. Maybe you should be a P.I.”
Supposed death? Xandie bit tears back. She’d finally come to terms with the loss of her mother. Now this pushy troll was throwing words like ‘supposed’ into the mayhem of her world. “The knight chased my mother off a cliff. I think that’s pretty definitive, don’t you? Plus, what mother would desert her child for that long?”
“In my line of work, you’d be surprised. All kinds of lowlifes out there. In fact, with your case…”
Xandie cut off the troll’s words with a growl through gritted teeth. “My mother was not a lowlife.”
“Hey, no offense.” The troll backpedaled. “I was gonna say your mother’s case was different. But you cut me off. I’m just saying there’s some questions raised about the circumstances around your mother’s disappearance. It’s all in my file, if you want it?”
Did she? She’d buried her mother figuratively and literally. Especially if you counted the memorial service her father had held in Andrews, seven years after her mother was declared legally dead. The Harrows had probably had something in Point Muse too. But if there were questions unanswered, maybe she should look at the file. “Fine, send it. Send an invoice. You’ll get your money when the library deposits it.”
“That’s the way to do business, sweetheart. I’ll be in touch when the gold clears my account at Witch and Creature Financial Holdings.” The troll hung up without another word.
Lowering the phone, Xandie stared at it as if it were snake ready to strike. The pit of her stomach churned, a mess of knotted feelings. She thought she’d solved her mother’s death, but now Sera and that damn troll had cracked open that can of emotional worms again. Xandie dropped the phone and laid her head against a wall. “And I still have Archibald’s murder to solve and Priss’s name to clear. I don’t need this.”
