Witching for the Best

by Samantha Silver

  “Oh, I’m so sorry,” I said, rubbing my head. “Are you alright? I didn’t hear you coming.”

  “I don’t think there’s any permanent damage,” Lara said with a faint laugh, rubbing the red spot on her head. “I think most of that crack came from your head, though, are you alright?”

  “Fine, yeah,” I said with a nod, “I’ve been through worse this week alone.”

  “Sounds like a heck of a week,” Lara said with a smile.

  “You have no idea,” I said with a roll of my eyes, and I returned her smile. “Glad I didn’t take my broom out if I was going to roam around distracted.”

  “I suppose I appreciate that,” she giggled. “Are you sure you’re okay? We could go get some willow bark tea if your head still hurts. Or I have some ibuprofen, if you’re into human remedies,” she added with a glance over her shoulder to make sure nobody else was listening. It could be a little passé to use human treatments when herbal ones witches used were readily available and effective.

  And I’d have been lying if I said I didn’t break down and sneak some migraine medicine when I was in a pinch.

  “I’m fine,” I assured her, and I couldn’t help but feel grateful for the kind, apologetic look on her face, even if I was a little surprised. I expected most starlet-types to be uptight about this kind of thing. “I was just-”

  We were both distracted by a loud, shrill hiss at our feet.

  “Hey pal, how about you watch where you’re going?!” Luna snarled as she and Lara’s white cat circled each other, teeth showing and hair standing on end for both of them. The white cat hissed something back, and Luna swiped a paw through the air at her. “No, that was YOUR mother, you stuck-up little-”

  That was that. The telltale growling squawk of a catfight pierced the air, and the two leapt at each other, claws flashing and legs kicking and teeth biting wherever they could find purchase on each other.

  “Lucy, get off her!” Lara shouted at her cat.

  “Luna! Come on!” I joined in.

  “Don’t worry, I got her! This spoiled brat couldn’t fight her way out of a pet store!” Luna insisted with bloodthirsty delight.

  “No, I mean back off!”

  Luna got Lucy into what looked like some kind of feline headlock and was using her hind legs to kick furiously into Lucy’s belly, while Lucy was chomping down onto Luna’s front leg and shaking her head as much as she could, both their tails flicking wildly as the sounds of the catfight filled the street and started to draw attention from bystanders.

  Lara pointed her finger at the two with a nervous look on her face, “Do you think a separation spell could force them apart?”

  “Uhhh,” I stammered, genuinely not sure, “I don’t know, but I don’t think this is a good time to try it!” But when Lucy got the upper paw and started digging into Luna’s underbelly, I was tempted to turn my own finger on them both and blast them across the street to get them to stop.

  Where was Diana and her calming power when she was needed?

  Lucy broke away from Luna and darted down the street, and Luna was on her tail in an instant. “Oh no, don’t you start something you can’t finish!” Luna snarled, and she barreled after the white cat down toward the cafe.

  “Shoot,” I hissed as I started to take off after them, but to my surprise, Lara whipped her hat off and reached into it, drawing her broom out. I’d heard about hats that act like magical storage systems, but I didn’t think anyone still used them - they were kind of an 80s thing that must have been making a comeback.

  “Get on!” she snapped as she got on her broom, and instead of waiting for me, she zipped up under me and nearly lifted me off the ground onto the broom. I yelped and held onto her as we zoomed after the cats.

  The two of them were really starting a stir, pedestrians and broom-flyers diving out of the way with shouts of terror as the blur of claws and fur zipped past them, until they got to a bench underneath which Luna cornered Lucy. There was a moment of a tense standoff before Lucy lunged out to swat at Luna, and the two were on each other again in a tangle of loud snarling.

  Lara hadn’t even brought her broom to a full stop when I jumped off and staggered toward the cats, and without even thinking, I thrust my hands down into the mess and tried to separate them.

  It was breaking like, the first rule of cat ownership, but hey, I was desperate!

  I immediately felt claws and teeth on my hands, and I cried out with a hiss of pain as I got more than a few cuts on my hands and forearms while I struggled to get the two off each other.

  The next moment, Lara jumped in beside me, and between the two of us, we got a hold of our cats’ scruffs, pulling them off each other.

  “Oh, sure, go crawling back to Mama!” Luna hissed at Lucy, who returned the hiss even as she snuggled into the crook of Lara’s neck. “I got your number, punk!”

  “Stop that!” I shouted at Luna. “What on earth were you thinking?”

  Luna just grumbled, letting me hold her a little more gently while I gave Lara the most apologetic look I could muster.

  “I am so sorry. I don’t know what’s gotten into them. Luna’s normally not like this.”

  “I’m sure it’s Lucy’s fault,” Lara said with an equally apologetic smile. “She can be a little bully sometimes; it’s probably good for her to have someone stand up to her.”

  “More like punk-ass brat,” Luna grumbled, and I gave her a quick pinch on the side.

  “Well, I don’t think there’s any permanent damage to either of them,” Lara said after looking her cat over, who wouldn’t look her in the eye and had a familiar, grumpy look on her face. I suspected that was Lara’s familiar, but it was impolite to ask.

  “Except to her ego,” Luna scoffed. Lara put her cat down and smiled at me, smoothing her dress out.

  “You know, we should get coffee sometime,” Lara said, and my eyes fluttered in surprise. “You seem like a decent person, I’d hate to get off on the wrong foot. And maybe if we’re friends, our cats will settle down a little.”

  “Fat chance,” Luna whispered.

  “Oh! That sounds nice!” I said with a sincere smile. “It would be a pleasure.”

  “I’d say right now, but I just came from there. I’m not that much of a caffeine addict,” she said with a laugh before looking down at Lucy. “You will be staying home for the first time though, if you don’t improve that attitude.”

  “I’ll do the same,” I said with a meaningful scratch on Luna’s back, which she wiggled away from. “I’m Artemis, by the way. Call me Arti, though.”

  “Artemis Mani, yes!” Lara said to my surprise, extending her hand and shaking mine. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound creepy; I’ve heard about the B&B. I’d stay there myself, if I hadn’t moved to town! I hope you don’t mind, I liked the look of it so much I might have name-dropped it to a few of my friends.”

  My heart skipped a beat. Celebrity guests? Oh dear.

  “Um, wow! No, that’s great, thanks!”

  “Here, take my card,” she said, digging through her purse and taking out a simple white card with a name, number, and agent’s number on it. “Ignore my agent’s number, unless you happen to be producing a Hollywood blockbuster in the near future,” she said with a wink.

  “You know, I was just thinking of a role with your name on it,” I said with a playful smile and a nod, acting along. “My people will call your people.” Oh goodness, did I really just make that joke?

  But Lara laughed good-naturedly. “We’ll talk over coffee.”

  “Sounds good,” I said.

  Lara picked her cat back up and gave a wave. “See you around then, Arti!”

  “Bye!” I replied with a wave, and when they turned the corner at the end of the street, I finally set Luna back down and bent down to glare daggers at her. “Okay now what on earth were you thinking?!”

  “What?” Luna asked, flicking her tail. “I just don’t like that white cat. Do I need a better reason? She’s
a huge jerk!”

  “Ok, but I don’t start fights in the street with people I don’t like!” I said.

  “Maybe you should give it a try sometime, it does wonders to keep things settled down. If more witches worked their problems out with fistfights, maybe this town wouldn’t have so many murders all of a sudden.”

  “You know that’s not how it works,” I sighed, shaking my head. “Well, let’s not do that again, okay? You are so lucky Lara seems like a nice person, because if you’d picked a fight with a meaner celebrity’s cat, you’d be in way more trouble than I could get you out of.”

  Luna turned her back and flicked her tail, turning her nose up. “Oh, I see how it is, just because her owner’s nice to you, my feelings get second priority. Hmph!”

  I opened my mouth and closed it, squinting at her. “Okay, two things. One, you still owe me for nearly killing me as a squirrel. Two, they’re our neighbors now, so you can either learn to get along with her, or you can get used to getting into a fight every time we leave the house.”

  “Until I teach that little snot-nosed punk to learn her place, you mean!” Luna snapped back.

  I groaned and rubbed my eyes with my hand. When I lowered my arm, I frowned at it. “And look, thanks to you two, I’ve got scratches on my arm. If I get cat scratch fever, I’m turning you into a frog. If you ever do that again, I’m not letting you out of the house again.”

  “If you get that, it’s from that white cat,” Luna said defensively, turning around and giving my scratches a sniff. “She’s probably so filthy she wallows in garbage every night.”

  Somehow I doubted that, but nonetheless, I continued the rest of the short walk to the cafe and stepped inside, making my way quickly to the bathrooms after a quick wave to Elisa so that I could wash the cuts while they were still fresh.

  Hot water ran over my forearms in the shallow sink, and the soap stung my scratches as I lathered them thoroughly. I had a friend whose mother was a veterinarian, and she always ranted about how important it was to wash after getting scratched by a cat, so I had a complex about it.

  But as I washed away the soap and looked at the clean cuts on my arms and hands, I stared at them for a moment. This looked familiar somehow. Where had I seen scratches like this recently?

  I remembered a pair of rough, workman’s hands that had such strange-looking scratches on them.

  Ryan, Elton’s son.

  I paused, looking at the scratches on my hand. I’d played with Luna in the past, but never really gotten scratched up badly by her like this. Now that I saw them, my scratches looked a lot like the ones Ryan had on his arms, just smaller and closer together.

  I furrowed my eyebrows. I hadn’t given it any thought at the time. Mechanics got scratched up at work all the time, right?

  Holding my left arm, I raised my right hand up to where Lucy had raked a long scratch that broke the skin. I held my own fingers close together and mimicked the motion, “scratching” down toward my hand, and my eyes widened. Those weren’t mechanical scratches on Ryan’s arms, they were human!

  I rushed out the bathroom and went straight to Elisa, who was at the counter taking orders.

  “Elisa!”

  “Oh, hey Arti,” she said. “How is-”

  “The Kolbecks,” I interrupted her, my heart racing. “Susanna was seeing Elton. Do you know where the Kolbecks live?”

  “Um,” she hesitated, blinking. “Sure? It’s the last house on Windy Street, at the top of the hill on the west side of town. Red roof, can’t miss it. But what does-”

  “Thank you!” I spilled out before rushing for the door without so much as a goodbye.

  I burst out of the cafe, startling Luna as I grabbed her and hustled to the door.

  “Woah, woah, what’s the matter? I thought we were getting coffee!” she complained.

  “Change of plans,” I said, not even bothering to give the confused barista a wave as I left the cafe and stepped back out into the rain. “We need to go see the Kolbecks. Now.”

  Chapter 19

  My heart pounded in my chest as I raced down the street. Luna was running along beside me, panting and trying her best to keep up on her tiny legs. “Artemis!” she exclaimed. “Slow down!”

  “I can’t,” I said, breathing hard as we turned a corner and started running down Windy Street. “I’ve had a break in the case, Lu. I know who killed Susanna Andhrimir!”

  “And we didn’t have time to stop by the Manor and get your broom?” she asked plaintively. “Come on, Arti! At least pick me up, I’m dying here!”

  “Ugh!” I groaned in frustration. I stopped short and knelt down to pick her up. “You’re becoming a little bit of a liability, you know that?”

  “Hey! It’s not my fault I can’t keep up,” she said, clearly offended.

  “Well, maybe if you hadn’t wasted all that energy on getting into a fight with Lara Lancaster’s cat, you wouldn’t be so exhausted now,” I scolded her. She rolled her eyes as she climbed up to perch securely on my shoulder. Her claws only barely dug into my sweater to keep holding on, even though she probably wanted to actually claw me for being so short and snippy with her. But I was finally onto something. I mean, really onto something.

  My instincts were all ablaze, on fire, telling me this was right. All arrows pointed in the direction of the Kolbeck residence and I had nothing else in my mind right then. I just needed to get to Ryan Kolbeck as fast as possible, and I dearly hoped he wouldn’t be at work at the mechanic repair shop.

  “Please be home, please be home,” I muttered as I began to break into a run again. I had to hand it to her, Luna had a point. I would have gotten here a whole lot faster if I’d had my broom with me. But there was no time to waste now. I was getting so close. I felt like I was honing in on a target that could bounce away and disappear into the sky at any moment. I had to strike now, while my adrenaline was pumping and my witchy instincts were propelling me onward.

  Even if it meant I was potentially - no, probably - leaping right into danger.

  There was no time to wait around for backup. If I called Xander Forsetti, he would just tell me to stand down and wait for him or one of his colleagues to show up and take care of it. But Elisa asked me to take care of this, for her aunt, and I was not about to let her down.

  By the time I stopped running and stumbled to a halt in front of the red-roofed house that most definitely belonged to the Kolbeck family, I was out of breath and a little dizzy. I was not in what anyone would call “good shape” even though I was slim and pretty healthy overall. I was not a runner. Not even a jogger. But this was different. This was life or death, this was so important it couldn’t wait another second.

  But I needed to be a little bit careful. If Ryan Kolbeck was, in fact, capable of the kind of crime I was going to accuse him of, then he was a truly dangerous man. I needed to watch myself, keep my guard up. I began walking up the driveway, my heart still hammering away.

  “Arti,” Luna whispered. “I don’t know if this is a good idea.”

  “Sorry, Lu. I have to do this. That man, I think he’s the one.”

  “I know. That’s what I’m saying. He’s dangerous. If you really think he’s your guy, then isn’t it incredibly stupid to just approach him like this unannounced with an accusation of murder?” she hissed through gritted teeth.

  “Look, if you’re scared, you can stay outside. I won’t hold it against you. But I have to do this, with or without you,” I told her honestly. I stood in front of the door, trying to decide whether I should knock or ring the doorbell. What was the polite protocol for coming over to someone’s house to accuse them of a heinous crime?

  “Of course I’m not leaving you. Arti, you need me. Just be careful, okay?” she mumbled. I nodded and lifted a shaking hand to ring the doorbell.

  It chimed sweetly, a light tune that was totally at odds with the gravity of the moment. Luna and I waited patiently for several minutes. At first, I started to think maybe he wasn’t
home, after all. Maybe I had rushed over here half-cocked for no reason.

  Just as I was about to ring the doorbell again just to be sure, the door creaked open.

  Ryan Kolbeck stood there In a pair of grubby-looking pyjamas. His hair was sticking up all over the place and there were dark purplish bags under his eyes. He had a few days’ worth of stubble on his jaw and a sour look on his face.

  He looked like crap.

  His eyes narrowed in confusion at the sight of me. “Artemis Mani?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, Ryan. It’s me. We met once before at the Senior’s Center.”

  “When Dad was having that fight with Tony Byrd. Yeah, I remember,” he said, his voice low and rough like gravel. “But why are you here?”

  I swallowed hard, realizing in this moment just how much bigger he was than me. He had to be well over six feet and he was broad-shouldered, his body the clear result of years of hard manual labor. He could have physically snapped me in half with ease.

  “I, uh, just wanted to have a little chat with you. If that’s alright,” I said lamely.

  He wasn’t convinced. “A chat? With me?”

  “Um, yeah.”

  “A chat about what, exactly?” he asked pointedly.

  Great. What was I supposed to say? I didn’t have any elaborate plan here.

  “Just something I’m working on. An investigation of sorts,” I told him, trying not to sound as nervous as I felt.

  “Look, Arti. I’m grateful to you for helping break up that fight with Tony, but I’m really not in the mood to entertain a guest right now,” he said, sighing.

  “Is your father home?” I asked. He frowned.

  “No. He’s at the Senior’s Center. Where he lives. Why on earth would he be here?”

  Okay. So, I didn’t have to worry about anyone else getting caught in the crossfire if something was to go down here. It was just Ryan and me. Well, and Luna.

  “Good, good. Uh, can I please just come in?” I asked, not wanting to make a scene right here out in the open. I had come here hoping I could just persuade Ryan to confess and turn himself in, but I had a feeling that wasn’t in the cards.