"Tall, short, fat, skinny? You must at least know that."
"I don’t know...maybe a few inches shorter than Sebastien Plant."
Sebastien Plant was about six-foot-four, so the other man was probably about six feet in height. "So you followed him to the gazebo. Then what?"
"Sebastien Plant was already there. He argued with the guy in the hoodie. They fought and suddenly Plant went down."
I prayed Aunt Pearl wasn't lying again. "What were they arguing about?"
"I wasn't close enough to make out the words. Like I said earlier, when I heard them fighting, I hid in the hedge."
An image of Aunt Pearl crawling in the shrubbery on all fours flashed through my mind. "Not even a snippet of conversation?"
Aunt Pearl shook her head. "Nothing at all."
Selective hearing. Which was weird, considering our supernatural abilities to amplify and all...
Sebastien Plant was famous enough that everyone in town knew about our guest of honor. Anyone against tourism might have a bone to pick with him. Like Aunt Pearl.
"What happened next?"
"The guy ran away."
"You must have seen his face then, when he turned back towards you."
Aunt Pearl shook her head. "I heard him leave, but I couldn’t get a good view from my hiding place in the hedge. I waited a few minutes and then ran back to the Inn. I panicked and even forgot all about getting my wand back. I never set foot in the gazebo, so I didn’t know that Plant never got up and left."
My eyes narrowed. Aunt Pearl had most certainly been in the gazebo when I showed up for my pre-rehearsal rehearsal. She must have guessed my conclusion.
"I swear, Cen. I never saw him until you arrived and we both fell on him. I just remembered something though," Aunt Pearl said. "I couldn't make out Plant's words because he was slurring his words and staggering around. It was even worse than when they checked in."
Plant's drunken state increased the possibility of a smaller man knocking him over. That was interesting, but without a description it was next to impossible to narrow down a suspect.
One thing still bothered me though. "You never came back to get your wand?" It was hard to believe she wouldn't have retrieved it right after we tripped over Sebastien Plant's body. She knew it was there and it was too important for it to slip her mind. She was almost certainly still hiding something.
Her wand was of no use to anyone else, at least not for witchcraft. Despite Mom’s suspicions, I knew another witch would have difficulty unlocking its powers and wouldn't bother with it. Other than our family, there were no other witches in Westwick Corners. "You never go anywhere without it."
"I was scared. But I still didn’t think he was dead, Cen. Maybe knocked out or something. I thought if I said anything, I'd get into more trouble with the sheriff."
"Well you're in a lot of trouble now. You realize that everything points to you?" Aunt Pearl had no alibi, her wand was the murder weapon, and she had a motive: to stop tourism at all costs. But I knew in my heart she wasn't a murderer. "We have to find a way to explain this to the sheriff, without mentioning the magic parts."
"You're going to betray your own flesh and blood?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Aunt Pearl. You have to admit, though, the optics don't look good. Why can't you cooperate?"
"Why should I? If we didn't start this stupid tourism thing, that guy would still be alive."
"Maybe, maybe not. I know one thing for sure, though."
"What?"
"Once we're exposed as witches, life won't be pleasant for any of us."
CHAPTER 21
"Tell me what you know about Tonya." We had barely finished lesson one when I was duly informed that it was just the first of the seventy-seven Pearls of Witchcraft Wisdom that I had agreed to. I didn't remember agreeing, but fighting with Aunt Pearl wore me out too much to argue. I needed caffeine, and fast. "How come I've never heard of her?"
Aunt Pearl crossed her arm and shook her head. "You've shunned the magic world for so long, Cen. When you don't move in the right circles, you tend to miss a lot of things."
"Okay, fine. I'll pay more attention from now on." I was tired of my aunt’s guilt trips, but I was starting to see her point about ignoring my witch heritage. "Tell me what you know about Tonya and Sebastien."
"Tonya's not a very powerful witch. That's probably why you never knew about her supernatural talents. The most dangerous thing about her is her ruthless ambition. Sebastien Plant never had a chance once she set her sights on him. Marrying him was on her to-do list before she even met him."
I knew little about the couple other than they had married after a whirlwind romance. Sebastien Plant had spent decades building Travel Unraveled, and that's where he met Tonya. She worked in the office as a temp before marrying him less than a year later.
Aunt Pearl tapped her wand on the blackboard and everything erased. "Tonya got very involved in Travel Unraveled once they were married. Remember that invitation you sent to Sebastien Plant all those months ago?"
I nodded.
"Sebastien wasn't interested, which is why you never got a reply. Tonya came across the invitation months later. She researched our town and found historical records that mentioned Westwick Corners and the energy vortex. It had been forgotten over the years, but the invitation just resurrected interest. Tonya thought Travel Unraveled should do a major development here. Sebastien vetoed the idea, and soon after they began to have marriage problems."
"How do you know all this?" It would have been useful if she shared the information earlier.
"Hazel told me."
"Hazel was having an affair with him. Of course she's going to say they had marriage problems. She probably exaggerated the other stuff too." I jerked around in my seat, certain I had heard a cough. "Did you hear that?"
Aunt Pearl shook her head. "That's not how Hazel knows about the development. Tonya approached her about relocating WICCA headquarters to Westwick Corners, but Hazel said no."
"I thought Sebastien had already vetoed any development. Did he change his mind?" Tonya probably wanted to pre-sell the development to convince Sebastien. Energy vortexes made for more effective magic, which was both good and bad. One thing was certain: our peaceful existence would be no more.
"No. He had no idea that Tonya was a witch and he knew nothing about WICCA."
It struck me as curious that Sebastien Plant was oblivious to witches, yet had been romantically linked to two of them. I started to see the picture. "Tonya wanted to take over the town first, and then WICCA. She went ahead anyway, knowing Sebastien didn't agree. She could either change his mind, or..."
Aunt Pearl finished my sentence. "Get rid of him. That's why Tonya told Sebastien that she had accidentally accepted our invitation, months after you sent it. At least that’s what Seb told Hazel. It was an excuse to check the place out. And a place to kill her husband. What better place than a small town to kill her husband and pin it on someone else?"
I nodded. "She thinks the small town police will bungle the investigation, and no one will care much about a stranger, even a famous one."
Strangely, it all made sense. Except for one thing. "When did you and Hazel stop fighting?" Maybe Hazel had called the truce to establish an alibi or something.
Aunt Pearl shrugged. "What does it matter?"
"It matters a lot. Hazel's involvement in a love triangle with the murder victim gives her a motive. She might not even have an alibi." I recounted Aunt Amber's comment about having last seen Hazel at six p.m. London time, which equated to nine hours earlier, or nine a.m. in local Westwick Corners time. Since travel time for a witch was practically instantaneous, Hazel also had the means to kill Sebastien, and her whereabouts were unaccounted for. Another suspect.
Great.
"Except the killer was a man, not a woman," Aunt Pearl pointed out.
"You're absolutely sure about that? You said you didn't get a good look at the person in the hoodie."
> "I saw enough to know it was a man," Aunt Pearl said.
"Too bad Hazel’s not here. Maybe she could shed some light on this."
"Ask me anything." Witch Hazel stood in the doorway, looking every one of her seventy years. She wore a track suit almost identical to Aunt Pearl's, except for sequined stripes that ran down the outside seams of her pant legs. A black beret rested jauntily atop her silver hair. I guessed she wasn't in her alter ego right now. "What are you doing here?"
"Trying to save the town, just like Pearl." Hazel tapped her wand on the wooden floorboards as if shaking out the cobwebs. "Speaking of which, we could sure use your help."
CHAPTER 22
I still reeled from the shock of seeing Witch Hazel. She and Aunt Pearl stood together at the blackboard looking like fast friends. It was obvious they had patched things up and they were back to normal. Well, at least what constituted normal for them. I was just relieved their months-long feud had ended.
"We've decided to let bygones be bygones." Hazel beamed as she looked at Pearl.
"That's great news," I said. "While you're here, you can change Alan back to his human form. He'll be so excited."
"We'll deal with Alan later. First things first." Aunt Pearl dismissed me with a wave. "We don't have much time to stop Tonya."
But I had questions for Hazel that couldn't wait. "You were here all day Friday?" That changed everything, since Hazel was here at the time of Plant's murder.
It also meant that not one, but three witches had motives to kill Plant.
Hazel nodded. "I was with Pearl since about 9:30 Friday morning."
"She's my alibi, Cen. I couldn't tell the sheriff, because Hazel made me promise not to tell anyone she was in town."
I brightened at the thought of Aunt Pearl's alibi, but just as quickly realized it meant almost nothing. "You both have a motive to kill Sebastien. You want to quash tourism and Hazel is—or was—part of a love triangle. You two could be accomplices rather than each other's alibis."
Hazel shook her head. "Seb planned to leave Tonya for me. She can't find out that I'm here. At least not until we can disable her. She's very dangerous right now."
"I thought you said she wasn't a very good witch? Surely you can overpower her."
"We can, but we can't overcome public opinion. She's very good at manipulating the facts and getting people—and witches—on her side. People don't realize that she uses deadly methods to get results. We have to pin the crime on her, and we need your help, Cen. You need to expose her as the killer."
"Why me? Just talk to the sheriff and come clean." I didn't want to get involved in any of their crazy plans. "Aunt Pearl, you checked them in. If Sebastien was so drunk, what was he doing out walking alone in the middle of the night?"
"Sebastien drunk?" Hazel grabbed Aunt Pearl's arm. "That's impossible. He never touches the stuff."
"He was definitely drunk," Pearl grumbled. "He slurred his words and could barely stand."
"Yet he walked to the gazebo," I said. "He was still drunk hours later when he argued and fought with the mystery man in the gazebo. If he was in such bad shape, how did he even make it to the gazebo in the first place?" Most drunks just passed out.
"Tonya did something to him, I just know it," Hazel said. "You've got to get the sheriff to investigate her."
"I'll do no such thing," I said. "Aunt Pearl, you have to come clean with the sheriff. You're just wasting his time with your avoidance tactics and making yourself look guilty in the process."
My aunt just shook her head and looked expectantly at Hazel. That was the weird thing about their relationship. Aunt Pearl never deferred to anyone, but she respected Hazel immensely.
"We're not asking you to do anything deceitful," Hazel said. "Just steer the sheriff in the right direction, and we'll take care of all the background stuff."
"What do you mean by background stuff?" I worried about what they were up to. But sometimes knowledge was a dangerous thing.
"You don't want to know, Cen. Don't ask, don't tell," said Aunt Pearl.
I reluctantly agreed to put our plan into action just as soon as I had some breakfast. One thing was crystal clear. I had to get to the bottom of things before Sheriff Tyler Gates did.
CHAPTER 23
I followed Aunt Pearl into the Inn's dining room, still grumpy from losing almost two hours from my day right from the start at Pearl's Charm School. It had yielded interesting results, but at the expense of my breakfast. I was ravenously hungry, and ready to commit criminal acts for a dose of caffeine.
Except I couldn't risk eating in the dining room if Aunt Pearl's and Hazel's claims about Tonya's potion were true. My stomach rumbled in protest.
I reached in my pocket and fingered the Walmart receipt. I reviewed the items in my mind and stopped short at the antifreeze. Antifreeze’s main ingredient was ethylene glycol, a toxic substance that also happened to be alcohol. It was a lethal form of alcohol, but it probably produced the same symptoms as an excess of booze.
Sebastien Plant didn't drink alcohol, but perhaps he had unknowingly ingested antifreeze. I flashed back to the trash from the Plants room. What if the half-empty bottle of lemon-lime Gatorade wasn't what it seemed?
The Walmart receipt burned a hole in my pocket, and I was anxious to hand it over to the sheriff. I didn't want to follow Aunt Pearl's lead and withhold evidence, especially a potential clue removed from the Plants' room. It was a very good clue, since Walmart stores also had surveillance cameras. Though we had removed the receipt, the cameras could still trace the purchase back to Tonya.
Aunt Pearl headed straight for the kitchen, and I made a beeline for the small counter outside the kitchen door. I inhaled the rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee and poured myself a nice steaming mugful.
At last.
I sipped my strong black coffee and scanned the room. I almost choked when I spied Sheriff Tyler Gates sitting at a window table. I started to walk towards his table to give him the Walmart receipt when I saw that he wasn't alone.
He sat across from Tonya Plant in the dining room, his back to me. Tonya's face was clearly visible. At first glance she appeared grief-stricken. I wouldn't have given her a second look if not for Hazel and Aunt Pearl's accusations.
She dabbed her eyes with a tissue, but even from twenty feet away I noticed her perfectly made-up face and hair. Judging from her body language, she didn't seem hysterical or even look like she had been crying. And she had eaten all of her eggs Benedict. Everyone handled grief differently, but few grieving spouses finished a hearty breakfast.
I tried to imagine how I would feel if something happened to Brayden. Even now, with my second thoughts on the wedding, I couldn’t imagine sitting down for breakfast if something had happened to him. I would be inconsolable with grief, unable to speak or function. I definitely wouldn’t be scraping hollandaise sauce off my plate.
My stomach growled until I remembered Tonya's secret plans to bewitch us with her magic potion that removed our powers. I couldn't risk eating something that could be tainted. My mouth dropped open as I realized she could have spiked the coffee I had just drank. I grimaced as I thought of Sebastien Plant and the antifreeze.
The coffee station was in the dining room just outside the kitchen door. It was easily accessible by all the guests. Surely she wouldn't slip her potion into the coffee where other guests could drink it too.
Why not? The potion didn’t affect anyone other than witches. I felt a bitter taste in my mouth as I realized I had already ingested some of the coffee.
I placed my mug on the counter as I watched them at the table. I strained to hear their conversation, but it was impossible over the din of the dining room.
I grabbed the coffee carafe and headed towards their table. Tonya's breakfast plate was empty as was the breadbasket. She swirled her half-empty coffee cup absent-mindedly as she talked. Sheriff Plant had only an empty coffee cup in front of him.
"Mrs. Plant, I'm very sorry to hear abo
ut your husband. Would you like some coffee?"
Tonya nodded.
I picked up Tonya’s coffee cup in slow motion, determined to remain at the table as long as possible.
Tonya turned back to the sheriff and let out a small sniffle. "As I was saying, I didn't even realize he was gone. I was busy unpacking. I had insomnia the previous night, so I decided to have a nap. I took a sleeping pill and fell asleep within minutes. He was still in the room when I fell asleep."
"So you were in your room by yourself?" I refilled Tonya's cup.
Tyler Gates glared at me. "I'll ask the questions if you don't mind."
I turned to the sheriff's empty coffee cup and refilled it as slowly as possible, the dark liquid a mere trickle. "Anything else I can get you?"
Tonya Plant sipped her coffee and looked up at me. "Maybe a small plate of fruit I can take to my room."
I exhaled a huge sigh of relief. The coffee wasn't tainted since Tonya had just drank it.
I stared at her empty plate. She had a very healthy appetite considering she had just lost her husband.
Sheriff Gates looked up at me questioningly.
"Yes?" I waited.
"Don't you have other things to do? You must be extremely busy."
I shook my head. "Not really." I needed to hover as long as possible. If Tonya Plant's claim of being asleep was true, it was understandable that she might be short on details. But that also made her short an alibi.
"Thanks, Cendrine." Sheriff Gates spoke a little louder than necessary as he waved me away.
I reluctantly headed into the kitchen, where Mom and Aunt Pearl talked in hushed tones by the grill.
"Did you find anything out, Cen?" Mom was a worrier, but in this case she wasn't overreacting. The Westwick Corners Inn was in jeopardy in more ways than one. Still, I got the distinct impression that my aunt hadn't spilled the beans about Hazel.
"Tonya said she was sleeping and wasn't aware Sebastien had left the room." My stomach grumbled as I inhaled the eggs and bacon breakfast aromas from the grill.
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