Brewing Trouble

by Sara Bourgeois

  “Okay, Lady. Get it together. This is what we need.” Jezebel said and hopped up on the back of the sofa so she could address me directly. “We’re looking for something to tie this little tart to her scary Russian boyfriend’s death. It would also be super convenient if we found something that linked both of them to the other scary Russian’s death. Even better would be if we found some evidence that wrapped the whole thing up in a neat package with some mob ties and a pretty pink bow on top. Then, you could write yourself a story that might make the national news. Does that about cover it, lady?”

  It did.

  “There doesn’t appear to be anything even indicating a human being lives in this house in the living room, so I’m going to go poke around the rest of the house.” Was my response.

  The problem was that there wasn’t one shred of evidence in the house that Sofia was involved in anything illegal let alone a mob hit. I looked around for signs that she hated Nikolay. Maybe it had nothing to do with the Mob, and she just wanted to be rid of him while keeping all of the comforts he’d provided her so far.

  I got to her bedroom just in time to find her laptop open and awake. I guessed that I had mere seconds before it went into sleep mode and I might need a password to access it again. I crossed the massive master bedroom with surprising alacrity and hit the space bar before breathing a sigh of relief.

  If Sofia was anything like me, all of her accounts would be logged in, and I wouldn’t need her password to access any of her personal information. You’d be surprised how many people do this, myself included, under the assumption that no one will have physical access to their computer.

  “We have to go,” Jezebel said from the window sill. I hadn’t even seen her hop up there.

  “No, I just got access to her computer. We can’t leave. I’m sure there is something in here.” I said.

  “Well, then I guess you can explain that to Sofia because she just pulled into the driveway.”

  “Carp,” I grumbled. “I need to go through this thing, but I’m sure she’ll notice if I swipe it.”

  “You helped your weirdo friend bring a dude back from the dead, and you can’t figure out how to make a copy of a computer.” Jezebel said while she still stared intently out of the window.”

  “You mean you want me to manifest a copy of her computer out of thin air?” I said sarcastically.

  “Look at your hands, lady.”

  Sure enough, there was what I could only assume was an exact replica of her laptop in my hands. My heart raced at the possibilities this new found power opened for me.

  “Leave the copy, take the original,” Jezebel said and jumped down from the window. “Just in case. We don’t want to have to break and enter again. Now, let’s get going, Barbie down there has her bags out of the SUV and she’s headed for the front door.”

  We made it out of the house without a problem. Mostly because Sofia dropped her keys and couldn’t figure out how to pick them up without setting down all of her grocery bags.

  “You’d think a high-maintenance little tart like her would have someone to do the shopping for her.” Jez mused.

  “Well, she’s got everything Nikolay gave her while he was still alive, but they weren’t married, so she’s cut off.”

  “That’s got to suck,” Jezebel said and flopped down in a beam of sunlight spilling into the newspaper’s office from the big window.

  I’d brought the laptop I’d stolen from Sofia’s house back to my work office instead of home. Somehow it felt safer. I can’t recall ever having pinched anything before. Even when I was new to celebrity gossip, and I was desperate to prove myself. Stealing was always off limits.

  But, this wasn’t technically stealing. I’d only borrowed the computer, and I had left Sofia with a magical copy that would function exactly like the original. At least, I hoped it worked.

  As Jezebel fell asleep in the sunlight, I opened the laptop and booted it up. I expected that upon startup the computer would require a password, and I was right. Instead of trying to figure out the password, I closed my eyes and typed open into the box.

  It worked like magic.

  The computer desktop came to life in front of my eyes, and I started studying the icons. There wasn’t much there. At least I couldn’t see many icons, and I doubted that Sofia was computer literate enough to have hidden files. I closed my eyes and imagined any hidden files coming to the surface, but when I opened my eyes, there was nothing new. I felt reasonably confident that what I saw was what I got.

  The desktop files were nothing more than photos of Sofia and her friends. None of them looked like mobsters. It was mostly young women doing things like hanging out at the beach and eating at restaurants.

  The last photo in the file was the one that caught my interest. There was an older woman in this picture. She had her head turned to the side, and a hand held up to protect her from the camera. The woman gave me the feeling of familiarity, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I knew her, but without seeing her face, I couldn’t identify who she was.

  I opened the web browser and used the history to find Sofia’s email account. It looked like she only had one, so that would make things easier. Thankfully, there was no password needed to get into the email, not that it would have stopped me at this point. The web page loaded and her inbox was opened for me.

  Sofia was one of those people who didn’t clean out her inbox, so it was full of hundreds of emails. A brief scan told me that it was full of coupons and advertisements from clothing and luxury companies. Of course, those would be the things she’d want to keep, but what would Sofia want to throw away?

  If I was lucky, she’d be one of those people who moves things to the trash without emptying it. Click. I was right. Her trash had at least one page of emails in it. They were all from one email address. It was most likely a dummy email address given the name and the content of the emails.

  watchingyou@gmail.com

  The emails were as startling and creepy as you’d expect. I suddenly realized why Nathan was freaking out so much about his stalker being back. Yeah, I knew the situation sucked for him, but I hadn’t been nearly empathetic enough. I was a jerk for even worrying about myself and our relationship. I should have been more worried about him. I should have accepted whatever he needed with absolute trust. I hoped that I’d get the chance to apologize.

  But, back to Sofia’s trashed emails. The first thing I noticed was that the last email was sent the day Nikolay died. After that, Sofia’s email stalker had left her alone. That didn’t bode well for her innocence. Had she killed Nikolay to protect herself? I was going to have to read every one of the emails to get to the bottom of this.

  Two hours later, I’d started to get a headache, and I still had zero evidence that Sofia had killed Nikolay. In fact, the person sending her the emails had been trying to use her to get to Nikolay, and Sofia refused to involve him. She’d never even told him that someone wanted to intimidate her.

  Since I was without a fiancé for the time being and without any more clues, I decided to try and tie Nikolay and Viktor’s deaths together. I still didn’t have any proof that their murders were related. It was unlikely that two Russian men of approximately the same age would die so close together, and have it be a coincidence, but it wasn’t impossible.

  Then, I found something. I scared the heck out of Jezebel when I jumped out of my chair and yelled “Yes!”

  “What’s going on?” Jez asked as I shut the laptop.

  “Come on, cat. We gotta go.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  I was just about to crack this case wide open, and I knew it. But, fate wasn’t going to let me off that easily. I was racing towards the Inn when I got the first call. It was Esme. I didn’t want to pull over because I had some questions I needed answered. But, she called again. In fact, she kept calling me until I finally pulled over on the shoulder and responded to the 9th call.

  “It’s Nathan. Shut up and drive to the hospit
al now.”

  I wanted to ask questions. I needed to know what was going on, but Esme had hung up. Whatever it was, I had to get there now. It was bad enough that there wasn’t time for questions.

  The murder mystery was forgotten as I got back in my Jeep and put the pedal to the floor. When I got to the hospital, I turned to ask Jezebel what I should do with her or if she’d be okay, but she was gone. I swear I felt one paw lovingly press against my leg, though, before I jumped out and ran towards the emergency room doors.

  As soon as I entered, Esme came running towards me. She grabbed me by the hand and dragged me towards a room in the Emergency Department. My heart was hammering in my chest, and I felt like I was going to be sick all over the floor. He was dying, and I could feel it.

  “Someone ran him over, Lenny.” Esme blurted out as she dragged me the rest of the way down the hall. “Someone drove their truck into the park and ran him down. He’s about to go into surgery, but they don’t think he’s going to make it. I used what magic I could to hold him in stasis until you got here and slow the doctors from taking him too soon. This might be goodbye, Lenny. I couldn’t let him go unless you got to see him. But, my magic can’t hold him in stasis for much longer. Not when the other side is calling. You’ve got to get in there. You have to tell him you love him before it’s too late.”

  She didn’t know what she was saying. Esme didn’t know that I had to make amends and say goodbye at the same time. She’d been working so much that I hadn’t had a chance to tell her about Nate and Irene. My heart was shattering into a million pieces, and I was furious with myself.

  If I hadn’t been so wrapped up in Nikolay’s request, and I hadn’t used investigating Sofia’s house as a way to push Nate out of my mind, I would have known that my fears earlier about never seeing him again were a premonition. I could have saved him.

  I won’t go into detail about the way Nate looked when I walked into his room. But, I will tell you that my knees buckled the instant I saw him, and Esme had to hold me up. She whispered in my ear “as love sees him,” and suddenly he looked healthy again. He just looked like he was sleeping. All the tubes, wires, and injuries were gone. She’d allowed my mind to block it out and see him the way I remembered him. I turned to her and mouthed “thank you.”

  Seeing him looking strong and whole gave me strength. I walked up to the side of his gurney and sat down on a stool a doctor had left there. I took his hand and kissed it.

  “I love you, and I’m sorry.” Was all I got out before a team of doctors and nurses rushed into the room and all but pushed me to the side.

  Esme’s illusion spell faded, and I could see that he’d flatlined. A nurse led me out of the room, and I waited in the hallway while they tried to bring him back. I cried out when I heard the machine pick up a heartbeat.

  As soon as it did, they rushed him out of the room and down the hall for surgery. I leaned against the wall and tried to steady my breath. Brad appeared at my side just in time to catch me before I slid down the wall. He helped me to the elevator and to the waiting room for the surgical ward.

  “Don’t you have to investigate this,” I said, but the words sounded like they came from somewhere else. “Don’t you have to find out who did this?” My voice started to raise, and I felt myself get a little hysterical.

  “Shh. It’s okay, Lenny. It’s going to be okay.” Brad held my hand tightly. “I wanted to. I want to find the monster that did this, but the State Police took over almost as soon as I got on the scene. So, I came here to be with you.”

  It felt like we waited forever. Brad and I took turns running to the machine for coffee. We didn’t eat until our stomachs both growled audibly.

  “I’ll go to the cafeteria. You stay here.” Brad said firmly.

  I wasn’t sure if I could hold any food down, but I knew I needed to keep my strength up. It had already been six hours, but from what I understood, it could be several more.

  Brad returned twenty minutes later with grilled cheese sandwiches, fries, and two sodas. I opened the take-out box and started to eat on autopilot.

  “I hope it’s okay. They didn’t have much that looked edible.” Brad muttered.

  “It’s good. Thank you.”

  We ate, and I did feel better with my stomach full. I hadn’t realized how low my blood sugar had gotten. I thought I was just shaking with nerves. Once we’d eaten, I felt calmer and able to focus.

  I used that focus to imagine Nathan healing. In my mind, I could see him surrounded in a white, therapeutic light. Brad closed his eyes, and I wasn’t sure if he was doing the same thing or praying.

  Exhausted, I eventually drifted off in the uncomfortable waiting room chair with my head on Brad’s shoulder. We napped for a couple of hours until Esme got off work and joined us. Brad got up to get us all coffee, and that gave her and I a few minutes alone to talk.

  “I wish we could get in there with them so we could use magic to heal him,” I whispered. “Maybe we could just stand outside the room and use our magic from there.”

  “Lenny, I wish we could. We have to wait until he makes it out of surgery.” She said with tears in her eyes. “If he’s meant to live, we can heal him. But, if it’s his time, we’d be subjecting Nate to necromancy.”

  At that, I burst into tears. I had all of these powers, and right now when I needed to use them the most, I felt completely helpless. Brad came back, and after setting the coffees down, he pulled us both into a hug.

  We stayed like that until my arms started to fall asleep. After that, we just sat quietly until the doctor finally came in to talk with us. Technically he was only supposed to talk to family, but Esme being a witch who could get people to give her what she wanted and an employee of the hospital had its advantages.

  “He’s alive. We’ve repaired as much of the damage as we could. He’s going to need more surgery, but he’s stable for now. We’re going to admit him to the ICU, and if he makes it through the night, we’ll need to go back in and repair more injuries tomorrow.”

  “Can we see him?” I asked hopefully.

  “No visitors tonight, I’m afraid.” The doctor said regretfully. “And, it’s policy that only family can visit people in the ICU, but I’m sure that Esme will be able to get you in to see him tomorrow.”

  “Please.” I pleaded, but the doctor just shook his head no.

  Esme followed him out into the hallway. She spoke with him heatedly for a few minutes and then retreated back into the waiting room.

  “We can’t go in, and security is sitting outside of his door because the person who tried to kill him is still on the loose.” She said, and I started to cry all over again. “But, one of the nurses in the ICU will bring you into the nurse's station so you can at least look at him. You won’t be able to stay long.”

  The ICU was an octagon shape with a nurse’s station in the middle and the rooms laid out around it. All of them had glass walls, and privacy was maintained with curtains. The curtains facing the station in the middle were all open so that the nurses sitting in the middle could see every patient.

  As I looked through the glass at Nate, I wasn’t shielded from his injuries by Esme’s spell. He looked even paler and weaker after the extensive surgery he’d just undergone, and it broke my heart. The nurse who let me in to see him said I only had a minute left before I had to go.

  I did the only thing I could think of and put my hand on the glass. I closed my eyes, and for my minute, I did everything I could to beam healing energy to Nate. Even though I was only able to do it for a short period of time, I felt completely drained.

  Healing magic may be the most powerful magic there is, and you can feel that when you use it. I had nothing left to give, and I wasn’t sure I had the strength to make it out to my car let alone fix all of Nathan’s injuries. I felt even more defeated.

  Esme walked me out to her car and said I had to come with her. She took one look at me and knew I was in no state to drive. I let her lead me to her car
as everything around me started to feel like a bad dream.

  I fell asleep as soon as Esme pulled out of the hospital parking lot. I’d wanted to stay at the hospital, but Esme and Brad said I needed to get some rest in a real bed.

  “You’re not going to do anyone any good trying to sleep in a waiting room chair. You can’t go into his room anyway, Lenny.” Brad had said before leaving.

  He would attempt to get some information on the case, and then go to bed himself. Esme promised to call him if we found out anything. I could tell by the look in his eyes he didn’t want to leave us.

  The drive to Esme’s house should have been a short one because she didn’t live that far from the hospital. But, when I opened my eyes and looked at the dashboard clock, it had been twenty minutes since we’d left the hospital.

  I was about to ask Esme what was taking so long, but I realized we were pulled over on the side of the road. Esme’s door was open, and she wasn’t in the car. I looked ahead, and another vehicle with its hazard lights on was pulled over about two car lengths ahead of us.

  Things were still pretty fuzzy for me, so it never occurred to me not to get out and go look for Esme. I’d gotten about halfway to the blue sedan and hadn’t seen Esme or another person. Then I noticed the trunk was open. I thought that was strange since no one was around. I was about to call out to Esme when I heard a rustling behind me. Before I’d turned all the way around, something hard and substantial hit me in the back of the head.

  First, there was an explosion of stars before my eyes, and then everything went black.

  Chapter Fourteen

  My head was throbbing, and I could feel someone moving around next to me in the dark. I tried to get up, but I realized that my hands were tied behind my back and my feet were bound too. Oh, and I was in the trunk of a car.

  “Esme,” I whispered.

  “Yeah, I’m here.” She whispered back. “Hang on.” She said, and then the bindings on my wrists and ankles disappeared. “I was just about to do that when you woke up.”