by Lilly Graves
“It doesn’t matter,” she says. “My minions do what I say, and I don’t have to explain myself.”
Sounds about right. “Alrighty then.” I clasp my hands together and blink. I step toward the door.
“You don’t expect me to leave already, do you?” She stands with hands on hips.
I’m confused. “What?”
“You want to know about the night of Raven’s death, don’t you?
My heart leaps. “You mean you know…?”
“I’ve been around forever, can’t you tell? Of course I know things.”
I sit at the desk while Maggie sits at the foot of the bed. Sebastian sticks around out of interest.
“I was Head Nurse back then, just like I’m Head Nurse now, so I’ve got the skinny on Sy’s history.”
“Go on.”
“The night of Raven’s death, the psycho got into a fight with his father, mauling him.”
I can’t believe it. “He mauled his father? What?”
“Sure did. It was ugly, but he survived. Instead of charging his own son with assault and battery, he told me to never let his son out of my sight. He even bribed me with cash. I didn’t need the bribe, even though I took it. I’d be stupid not to take twenty-thousand big ones. I would have gladly kept him forever anyway.”
“Why would he attack his father?”
“Because he’s crazy? He really shouldn’t be roaming free. Someone’s gonna get hurt and they may not live this time around.” She stands up with an exhale. “Whelp, that’s it. I’m gonna head back to work now.”
Maggie leaves and I can’t get the thought out of my head about Sy hurting his own father. “Mauling him” to be exact.
I spend the day walking around town, keeping my eyes peeled for Sy’s appearance. I tread and retread the back alleys of Wildes, head down to the beach and go back to the lighthouse. Still no trace of him. I stare at the old, abandoned structure in thought, the sea breeze ruffling my black bangs.
Sy hurt his own father.
No wonder his dad signed him into the facility, took off to Lodi and never looked back. Had I made the biggest mistake of my life when freeing him? I stare up at the moon, the full moon, patches of its surface sparkling like magic. I imagine my mother is looking down on me.
“Did I make a terrible mistake?”
There’s silence in response.
Head down, arms crossed to bar the chill of night creeping in, I head back to the steep steps. At Wildes, stores are starting to close down for the evening. I realize I’m starving by this point =. Aunt Willow had given me some money for my work down at the paper, so I order a croissan'wich at The Coven’s Cup cafe. The scrambled egg filling sounds tasty to both my cat and witch side.
Hal, the owner, is busy in the back of the cafe while a young worker helps with my order. He looks to be in a bad mood, but that’s Hal for you. A moody warlock. I thank her and drop a tip in the jar. The jar looks just like Maggie’s she’d lived in overnight. It’s been a crazy couple of days, that’s for sure.
I hear the back door slam and it makes both me and the barista jolt in surprise. “We were just a little short staffed today,” she explains. “It’s been a long day.”
“That can be hard,” I say. Being short staffed.
As the last customer, I sit for just a couple of minutes in a corner to eat. I finish the last bite outside, passing the Mystic Cove Mirror. As I’m walking by Marney’s Moon pies, a shrill scream steals my attention.
Not another bad vision. They’re becoming more and more commonplace.
I enter the store, out of curiosity, and see the back door wide open.
“She’s dead!” a voice cries.
My heart jumps. I run to see outside. Lying limp on what is now a stack of empty pallets is a small woman, red seeping down her dress. Her face is unrecognizable. I look away in shock.
“Call 911,” Marney tells Sandra. “Hurry!”
Sandra runs back into the store to use the landline. She quickly gives Dispatch information and then stops. “I-I don’t know who she is.”
“Her name is Maggie, from Shady Pines,” I blurt.
The baker casts a glance at me, before repeating the information.
An ambulance blares as it pulls into the back alley, parking so that its front bumper nearly rams the pallets that Maggie’s lifeless body lays across. EMTs jump out and immediately assess her condition. It’s no use. She’s dead. Sy killed her, didn’t he? I hate that my conscience confronts me with that question.
Next, cop cars pull right up. Inevitably, Julian comes onto the scene with several officers, his eyes determined. Crime scene tape is put up due to curious bystanders closing in on the space. Me, Marney and Sandra are the only ones inside of the perimeter with law enforcement and medical help.
“You’re here,” Julian states matter-of-factly as he steps over to me.
“Yes, I’m here. I just happened to be walking by when I heard the blood-curdling scream.”
He doesn’t respond, turning to Sandra instead. “You told dispatch you know this woman as Maggie from Shady Pines.”
“I don’t know her.” The baker points at me. “She does. Honestly, I don’t know if I could make her out, even if I did know who she was, considering her wounds.” She visibly shakes.
Julian casts his eyes back at me with a knowing look. He’s connecting the dots. He knows I did have something to do with Sy’s escape, and now the head nurse is found like this. I’m the only one around who could possibly identify her. It’s her dress, her stockings, her clodhopper shoes that all match. Not to mention, the size of her tiny body.
“Don’t go anywhere,” he tells me.
“I wasn’t going to.”
“I’m going to need to question each of you.”
Julian pulls me aside first, between some shelving within the bakery. No notepad or recording device in his hands. The only thing he holds is a disapproving stare. “What do you know? No secrets.”
I put my hands up a touch. “I’m going to need you to be really open-minded about what I’m about to tell you.”
“Don’t tell me how or what to think. My job is simply to get the information I need to solve the case, and then professionally assess it like the lead detective that I am. Got it?”
“Okay, Julian. I did go to Shady Pines. By now you know that much. That’s where I saw the head nurse, Maggie, torturing Sylvester Moon. My gut instinct told me to release him, so I did.”
“What do you mean by torturing him?”
“So, she had this huge syringe with a cocktail of meds, and she was singing a really creepy off-tune version of The Pina Colada Song.”
“The horror,” he says flatly.
“I guess you had to have been there. I promise, it was awful.”
“You’ve really gone too far this time, Chloe.” Julian shakes his head and clenches his jaw. “It looks like this not-so-innocent patient you let loose on Mystic Cove killed a woman.”
“It does appear to be that way.” I look up at Julian under my brows. “I’m sorry.”
“A sorry isn’t good enough, when it comes to the law. You’ve put me in a really bad position right now. A really bad position. Just… stay here.”
“I said I was staying here. I’m not going until you say so.”
Julian pulls Marney aside by the stainless-steel sinks, and I can hear every word of her response. “I just went out back, after wrapping things up here at the shop, and there she was. I saw her lifeless body sprawled out there.”
“Did you hear anything beforehand? See anything?”
“I didn’t.” She pauses. “I mean, some of my customers have seen things. There have been visions, from-from my moon pies. They saw the same thing. A woman murdered, unrecognizable. Mind if I sit down a moment? I’m feeling lightheaded. It looks like a wild animal or something got her. The poor woman.”
Wild animal… Maybe Sy really is a wolf. Boris had said shifters are real. His witch, CeeCee, searched f
or Tom Dodd’s treasure, the power to shift.
I eye the stacks of moon pies in the shelves that I’m sandwiched between and a thought comes to me. Multiple customers have had the same vision. Maybe I could too. Maybe I can see who the killer is. Maybe it wasn’t Sy. Maybe it was an animal.
I lift the lid off one of the moon pie boxes and peek in at desserts. Slowly, I pluck one out and inhale sharply. I want to see what the others saw. I’ve got to see what the others saw. I bring the dessert to my lips and some pale magical sparkles suddenly emanate from the chocolate coating. Opening my mouth, I think, Here goes nothing. Then I take a bite.
Just as soon as I swallow, Julian comes over to me, handcuffs out. “Chloe, I’m not saying Sylvester Moon is the killer, but it’s highly likely he is, given what you told me. What I do know is that you confessed to illegally releasing a known madman onto the community. For that, I’m sorry to say you have the right to remain silent…”
Chapter 12
I blink. Detective Pierce is arresting me? As he continues reciting the Miranda rights, he clinks the metal bracelets over my wrists and starts pushing me toward the back door.
“Julian,” I say. “Julian, you can’t do this.”
He doesn’t respond. Suddenly we’re outside and all eyes are on me. I feel a flush of embarrassment heat my face.
“They’re going to think I did this,” I say to him. “I didn’t do this!” I announce to the crowd watching me.
Several witches start whispering to each other.
“I didn’t do this! This isn’t why I’m being arrested!”
Julian brings me to his car and opens the back seat for me to get in.
“Tell them I didn’t do this, Julian. I don’t want them to think I’m a murderer.”
But he doesn’t. Instead, he says, “Get in.”
I didn’t kill the woman, but I’m sure my eyes rival the anger of a killer as I spit, “I can’t believe you’re actually arresting me. I hate you.”
“Get in, Chloe, before I have to force you in.”
“I hate you,” I repeat. “Aunt Nova is right. You shouldn’t ever trust a man.”
Julian’s brow furrows as he stares into my eyes for a long moment. Is that pain reflecting in them? Then, suddenly, his face clouds, like a literal patch of mist takes over, and when it dissipates, he’s gone. Julian vanishes, just like that.
I look around.
Where is he?
What just happened?
Instead of the crowd and cop cars, I’m once again surrounded by stacks of moon pies. Holy Hogwarts, I’m back inside of the bakery, right where I was standing just before being arrested. Did I just have a vision?
It sounds like Julian is wrapping up his interview of Marney.
“Yes, Detective. I wish I had more info for you. Sandra found the body just laying there, freshly wounded. We don’t know anything else. We’re both in total shock over it.”
I take the free moment to hurry out the back door. Not so much that I’m running. I don’t want to draw attention to myself from one of the many officers. I even smile and nod at one as I pass.
I won’t let Julian arrest me.
My heart feels like it’s up in my neck, pounding. When out of sight of the cops, I make a run for it. I round a corner down an alley and just as I do, I knock into someone. I yelp and step back. It’s a vagrant with a bottle of alcohol. They aren’t too common around here. Mostly they hang around the other side of the tracks, by Seventh Street. “I’m sorry.”
“You got me in the ribs.” He winces, rubbing the spot.
“I’m really sorry.”
I think to bolt again but stop. Where will I go? I can’t go back home tonight. I can’t be found by Julian. I have to think things through. More than ever, I have to solve my mother’s murder, and now Maggie’s. Unfortunately, all signs do point to Sylvester, and for that I feel a sadness come over me. But if I could find him, I could tell Julian, make a trade, a deal.
“Again, sir, I’m so sorry I bumped into you.” I extend a hand to shake. “My name is Chloe Wildes.”
He reaches out a dirty hand and we shake. “Nice to meet you, Chloe. Boy, you sure are pretty.”
I continue holding his hand, shaking it and smiling. Just a couple more seconds. This is the perfect opportunity. He won’t remember this, and even if he does, he’d question the reality of it because the alcohol is strong on his breath. “Thank you. Are you having a good night?” I ask.
“It’d only be better if the liquor’d go down slicker. Know what I mean?” He stumbles a bit, threatening to rip away from my grasp.
I feel the magic tingling within. It’s working. I copy his drunken movements so that I don’t lose him.
Just then a bright conduit interrupts us, lighting the sky directly above us. I lose my grasp of the man as I’m taken away in awe. There’s something familiar about this. What’s happening?
“Holy mother of Earl,” says the vagrant.
“Pearl,” I whisper, still taken by the light.
“Huh?”
“Holy mother of Pearl.”
“No, I knew an Earl once and his mother was a saint!”
From the conduit, to the tinkling sound of bells, feet clad in white lace-up boots appear coming down. Then legs in pink stockings, followed by wide hips embellished with a matching tutu.
Oh my gosh. Annabelle is coming. My freaking fairy godwitch. Right in the middle of this dirty alley, no less. Great timing!
My guess is confirmed as the rest of a thirty-something year old fairy is birthed from the opening between worlds, holding her star-topped wand. Her red hair is fiery bright, and she looks at me with a funny childlike smile. “What are you doing, Chloe?”
“Uh.” I look over at the homeless dude I’m hanging with and he looks back at me bug-eyed over the whole scene. “I was shaking this gentleman’s hand.”
“Wrong!” She bops the top of my head with the wand. “You were wanting to shift.”
I rub the spot that smarts. “Okay, yes, yes, I was wanting to shift. Is there a problem with that?”
“No, not necessarily.”
“Then why the violence?”
“You’re running from Julian. You saw a vision.”
“Yes, so?” I turn to my new alley friend for moral support. “If a cop was about to arrest you, wouldn’t you run?”
“Oh, defa-tin-ly.” His words come out slurred. “That I would. That I would. Wh-who is that?” He points.
“That’s someone who never comes when I actually need her, not even when I’m holding a seance or getting shot by a murderer.” I roll my eyes, thinking over events during the last mystery I had to solve.
Annabelle lowers to the cracked and dirty sidewalk and tilts her head like a disappointed schoolteacher. In her usual sweet tone, she says, “Oh, but you do need me. I’m here to warn you that your mother broke the rules of the Afterlife. If you continue to follow her unlawful prompting to solve her murder, you, too, could end up imprisoned. Or worse, in a similar scenario that she had experienced while down here on Mother Earth. If you catch my drift...”
“All I know is that my mother needs me, and there isn’t anything that will stop me now in my pursuit. Which is why I’m running the heck away from Julian.”
Her eyes draw to the bottle of alcohol in the stranger’s hands, then back to me. “Things aren’t what they seem. The same person who murdered your mother murdered Maggie. Julian putting you in prison might be good for you, in comparison to what can happen.”
“At first you warn me that I could go to prison if I continue on this path that I’m on. But then you say that if I’m imprisoned, it might be good for me? How can you be my inspiring fairy godwitch? Unless you can give me tips on how to solve my mother’s murder, this meeting is a waste of precious time.” I cross my arms, shaking my head at her.
Giving into temptation, Annabelle snatches the stranger’s bottle of alcohol and takes a long swig. “Goddess, so often this is such a tha
nkless job.”
“You have other witches you watch over? The poor souls.”
“Hey, don’t say that.” She shakes the bottle at me and the amber liquid inside sloshes. “I’m still appointed to you for a reason. You should respect that and not be so rebellious.”
I snatch the liquor out of her hand and give it back to the original owner, as if I’ve done something noble. “This is coming from someone who just stole a homeless man’s drink. I know it’s liquor and not good for his liver, but that’s beside the point!”
Annabelle’s wand lights up and plays a short tune, like a phone alarm. “Never mind, you do as you wish. I came, I warned, and now I must go take my fifteen-minute shift break.”
“Wait!” Something registers. “You said the murderer from tonight had also killed Raven?”
“Did I divulge that? Deary me.” She waves her fingers just before getting sucked back up the conduit. “Toodles!”
I’m fuming, but I don’t have time for emotion to take over. “Sorry about that,” I apologize to the innocent bystander.
He’s just looking at me, eyes full of wonder. “That was a trip.”
“Nice to meet you again.” I reach out my hand.
No, I am not going to listen to Annabelle over this. I get an alcoholic fairy godwitch who contradicts herself, and I’m supposed to listen to that? The least I can do is bring my mother justice, nabbing her murderer.
The homeless stranger grasps my hand, and this time the magic starts flowing right away, like there had been no interruption. That magical, buzzing sensation hits my ears and the soles of my feet. I let go as I shrink completely into my slinky black cat form.
The man peers down at me. “N-now what just happened?”
“I’m not real. This is just a hallucination. Everything you saw, just forget about it!”
I bound away as my cat persona.
I can’t believe Julian. He was actually going to arrest me! Yes, he might’ve just been doing his job. But I shared with him the secret of my existence, of my mother and her murder, and what was he going to do in response? Just treat me like some criminal from another day at work.
