by Tegan Maher
"I can't wait to tear into it," Emma said, putting her nose in the air and sniffing. "Our pizza place up there has passable pizza, but there tiramisu is frozen stuff they get shipped in. You have no idea how often I've craved a piece of this."
Shelby gave her an indignant look. "Why didn’t you say something? It would take me all of two seconds to teleport here and grab us all a pan. I thought I was just the one bein’ the pig. I dream about that stuff at night."
"What, is this stuff magical?" Devon asked. "That little bakery by the apartment building has amazing pastries, and they might even have tiramisu. I've never checked because I don't think I've ever even had it."
"Wait till after you've had some of Noelle's pastries and see if you still have the same opinion," Shelby said as we stepped onto the porch. "She's a kitchen witch, or at least that was her main magic up until all the stuff happened with us. Once you've had one bite of her triple berry turnovers or her blueberry muffins, everything else you ever put in your mouth will be inferior."
My heart warmed a little. She was right. My primary skill, and love, was infusing my magic into everything I baked. It was my Zen place. I could get in the rhythm of folding pastry and kneading dough and lose myself for hours. It really was my first love, and the reason I'd never opened a bakery. I didn't want my passion to become work, though I found almost as much satisfaction in repurposing thrown-away objects for a living.
Addy popped in just as we were entering the house.
She slammed her fists on her translucent yet ample hips and scowled at us as she floated two feet from our faces. "What? Nobody bothers to tell me when the whole family's in the house again? Somebody better do some explainin'."
Devon slowed a little bit, but Shelby waved Addy off. "Chill out. We just got here a couple hours ago, and I took Emma, Cody, and Devon for a ride. I was going to holler at you as soon as we made it to the kitchen with the pizzas if you weren't already here. Besides, you just saw me day before yesterday."
Addy hmphed, her expression only partially appeased. “Fine, but did somebody let Beth know you’re here? She worries about you.”
One thing about living in the South was that family was huge. Shelby being home was as much cause for a get-together as the wedding was. “No, I just got here a few minutes ago, and I didn’t know she was home. Will you go tell her?”
Addy disappeared, and ten seconds later, she reappeared at the same time that Aunt Beth, her sister and Raeann’s mom, teleported into the kitchen. Once all the hugs and introductions were made, we dug into the pizza. About halfway through, Raeann and Dave showed up. As they snagged a couple pieces of the only remaining pizza, I smiled. My house was utter chaos, and I couldn’t have been happier.
17
The sun was shining the next morning, but it had rained overnight and cooled things down a bit. I made a cup of coffee and was startled to see Devon already sitting outside on the deck sipping her own cup.
“Mornin’,” I said, smiling at her. “How’d you sleep?” I’d put her in Raeann’s room, and I knew that mattress was extra comfortable. She was in a strange place, though, so it was hard to tell.
“Awesome,” she replied, her smile going all the way to her eyes. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a room to myself, or at least a room where nobody else was supposed to be, too.”
I nodded in sympathy. I’d shared a room in college, and even the half of the room that had been designated to me had never quite felt like my own space.
She nodded to the bracelet on my arm. “Is that the one Shelby told me about? The one that helps you harness your psychic stuff?”
I wiggled my wrist so that the charms tinkled, then held it out for her to see. “It is. The stones are my mother’s and two aunts’ birthstones.”
“Does it work?” she asked, leaning over for a closer look.
“It does, actually.” I took a sip of coffee and stared across the pool to the pasture beyond. “I know I should get control of it myself. It’s just that as soon as I master one skill, it seems like another pops up.”
She nodded and followed my gaze. “That is odd. I’ve never heard of it happening unless a person got an angel mark. I wonder what it means.”
I shrugged, shoving thoughts of my dreams about my father from my head. He hadn’t appeared to me in months, and I was to the point that I half thought I’d imagined him.
The door to the house slid open, ending our musings. “Hey, ladies,” Hunter said. “Beautiful morning.” He dropped a kiss on top my head as he passed me and took the chair beside me.
“It is, actually,” I said, not feeling the same morning grumps as usual. “Hopefully, we can solve a murder and move on with our lives.”
“Speaking of,” he said, “I just got word from Mr. Merkel down the road that Clara just passed his place.”
I glanced at my phone. “It’s only eight-thirty. Where did she go that she’d get home this early?”
He lifted a shoulder as he took a drink of coffee. “Beats me, but what say we go find out? I hate to drag you away, but I have a feeling she’ll respond better to you. Also, I don’t have a lot of faith that she’s going to come clean with me. I could use your lie-detecting skills.”
Devon grinned. “So, Shelby wasn’t lying? You really have a bullshit detector?”
I laughed. “I really do. I’ve always had it, and it’s almost always dead on.”
She shook her head. “You Flynns are the oddest family I’ve ever seen. I’m gonna go up and jump in the shower before anybody else gets up. You two do your thing, and good luck!”
We finished our coffees, and I made us each one to go. The ride to Clara’s was quiet, and sure enough, when we pulled up, her champagne Buick was parked in the drive.
The woman herself was sitting on the porch, a cup of coffee in her hand. She stood when we climbed out of the truck.
“I was wonderin’ when you’d get around to me,” she said, judgement scrawled across her face. She wasn’t very tall, but she had a commanding presence that I recognized from most matrons. And by that, I mean bossy, old Southern ladies. Her lip was curled, and her nose tilted up just enough to let us know she figured she was better than us.
“Well, we’re here now,” I said, taking the lead. She’d started the conversation off on that foot, so I’d walk that path with her. “We would have come to talk to you about your missing daughter and dead son-in-law yesterday, but you were busy socializing. Then we came right when you should have been home from that, and you weren’t here.” I didn’t see the need for us to rat out Mrs. Kelly and admit she’d told us Clara had gone out of town. Plus, now she didn’t know we knew.
She sucked in a little indignant breath. Direct hit. Rather than come back at me, she sighed and took a seat in her porch swing. “I deserved that, I suppose. And I’m glad you didn’t come callin’ on me at the meetin’. As a matter of fact, that might be part of why I went. I was hopin’ you’d wait.”
“But why?” I asked. “Why wouldn’t you want to talk to us right off the bat and let us get your side? Surely you knew people were gonna tell us about how you and Curtis go at it like two possums in a poke. And where did you go last night?”
I didn’t think she was gonna answer for a minute, but then all the air seemed to go out of her. “Take a seat. Ain’t no use standin’ in the sun when it’s fifteen degrees cooler up here.” She motioned to two rockers, and we did as she asked.
“To be truthful, I was hopin’ Valerie would call and let me know where she was before I talked to you.” She chewed her lip and fussed with her floral skirt. “I’m worried about the girl, and from what I’ve heard, you’re lookin’ at her as a suspect rather than a second victim.”
Hunter nodded as he leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. “That’s true, but only because she’s statistically the best suspect.”
Clara glared and flapped a hand at him. “Statistics ain’t people, and I can tell you, my Val ain’t no killer. As much as it pain
s me, she loves the boy. That’s where I went last night—to see if she was hidin’ out at either of her brothers’. For the record, she wasn’t.”
“Which brings us to you,” I said with a pointed look.
She waved a hand. “Oh, believe me, I knew I’d hit the top of your list. Anybody who knows us knows there ain’t no love lost between me and Curtis. As luck would have it, though, the Good Lord was smilin’ on me. I was with my knittin’ group all day yesterday. We’re workin’ on our Christmas mittens for the shelter.”
Hunter sighed. “And I assume you can give us names that’ll back you up?”
She nodded. “Yup. About a dozen.”
“Okay, then. We’ll take those, and then we’ll be on our way. Do you have any idea where Valerie might have gone?”
“I don’t.” Clara pressed her lips together. “I’ve called her sister and even went to see her brothers, and I even called a couple cousins. Nobody’s seen her.”
Hunter’s phone rang, and he held up a finger. “Excuse me for just a moment. This might have something to do with what we’re talking about.”
He walked away, and Clara and I stared at each other for a minute.
“I didn’t kill him,” she said, her tone flat. “So, I don’t know why you’re lookin’ at me like that.”
“Maybe not, but you did your level best to kill their marriage, didn’t you? Not only did you force your will on her before she was married, you took it up about twenty notches after she and Curtis started their lives together. You made them both miserable just because you didn’t want to let go. Who are you to decide who she gets to love?”
Maybe it wasn’t my place to get into that, but there was no reason to be so hateful, and if nobody else would call out her bad behavior, I would.
A few emotions flickered across her face, and the first was anger. She opened her mouth to argue, then snapped it shut. Anger faded to irritation, irritation to guilt, and guilt to resignation. “You’re right. I guess I never looked at it that way before. All I saw was a man I didn’t like, so I thought I knew best.”
To my utter shock, a tear tracked down her cheek, and she shook her head. “Who told you I was like that before she got married?”
I scoffed and decided if I was in for a penny, I was in for a pound. “Oh, come on. You can’t be that self-unaware. You know how you run roughshod over people, and it’s not just your kids. You rule with an iron fist, and when you don’t get your way, you make everybody miserable.”
She furrowed her brow. “Is that really how people see me?”
I gave a sharp nod. “To a person. Everyone we’ve talked to has told us the same thing, and now Val’s missing.”
Before she could say anything else, Hunter returned, glancing at her. I knew him well enough to know he was turning something over in his head. “What’s up? Do we need to go?”
He shook his head. “No, I think I’m okay to say this here. Maybe Clara can help.”
I turned my gaze to her, and she wiped a knuckle under her eye. “I’ll do whatever I can.”
“Valerie just used her credit cards in Cable Cross. She bought gas and some food. Do you have any idea where she’d go?”
Clara thought for a moment, then her face lit up. “She went to see Yessi. I can’t believe I didn’t think to check there.”
“Who’s Yessi?” Hunter asked, climbing back onto the porch.
“Her best friend from high school. She met a guy up there and moved away a couple years ago.” For the first time, her expression held hope.
“Do you have an address for her?” Hunter asked, and she nodded.
“Just gimme a minute. I don’t use all that fancy tech stuff you kids always have on you. I gotta get my address book.”
She came back a couple moments later with a flowery little book, and flipped through a few pages, licking her fingers in between page turns. “Here it is,” she said, scrolling down a page with her finger. She rattled off an address, which Hunter wrote down on his phone.
“Sheriff?” Clara said, a plaintive note to her voice.
“Yes, Clara?” Hunter said, pausing as he strode down the steps.
“Bring her back safe, okay? She’s mournin’, and I have a lot of makin’ up to do.”
He gave her a brisk nod and climbed into his truck, and I did the same. Hopefully, something I’d said had sunk into her thick skull, and she might be able to help her daughter get through it. If so, maybe there was hope for their relationship yet.
18
Hunter made some calls and then suggested we go to the farm and hang out with the kids. Cable Cross was an hour away, so it would be at least that long before they could get her here, and that was assuming she was at her friend’s house. He’d called local law enforcement and asked for their help since it was out of his jurisdiction.
“Wow, what a trip that woman is,” he said once we were home.
I made us both another cup of coffee, and we settled in to wait. I decided I wanted to be there for Val when she arrived. I figured a non-cop, friendly female face might be welcome.
“How’s the investigation goin’” a perky voice said, and I about jumped out of my skin.
I glanced up, and Cheri Lynn cringed. “Sorry ‘bout that, sugar. I forgot to be courteous.” Usually, she faded in slowly before she ever said a word so that she didn’t startle us.
“It’s okay,” I replied as my heart settled back into my chest. “How was your getaway?”
“Oh, it was great,” she said, hovering above the dining table. “Addy had a great time. It was all I could do to pull her away from Dixie, but weirdly enough, Ms. Carter asked me to bring her the next time we came.” She shook her head. “If I do that, though, Belle’s gonna find some way to cross me over into the light or dark or whatever’s waitin’ for me.”
I kicked off my flip-flops and stretched my feet. “Yeah, I specifically avoided Coralee’s all day yesterday just because of that. Did it get ugly?”
“Oh, ugly’s bein’ generous,” she said, rolling her pretty, brown eyes. “The woman about tore apart the salon before Coralee got a handle on her. I swear, for a woman close to a hundred years old, she sure don’t have much control of her temper.”
“No, that’s not one of Belle’s strengths,” I replied with a wry grin.
She waved a hand. “Enough about that old bat, though. I hear more important things are goin’ on than Belle havin’ a hissy. How are things goin’ with the murder?”
“Not awesomely, though we did at least finally find the guy’s wife. We don’t know if she did it or not yet, but just knowing where she’s at is a step ahead of where we’ve been so far.”
“Who was it?” she asked. “I’ve heard all about the murder, but nobody mentioned their names.”
I told her, and a frown marred her gorgeous features. “I know Valerie. We went to school together. Did you talk to Evan Snodgrass? They dated forever, and he’s the type I could see killin’ somebody.”
“We did, and he has an alibi,” Hunter replied. “And we talked to her mom, who was the next on our list. About the only person left is Valerie.”
She shook her head. “No way. She was in love with him. I’ve seen them around town. Plus, she’s not the sort. If she was gonna kill anybody, it woulda been her mama.”
I huffed a breath out through my nose. “Amen to that. I gave her a Come-to-Jesus talk while I was out there. Hopefully it stuck because if Valerie didn’t kill him, she’s gonna need a support system, not somebody tellin’ her how much better off she is.”
Hunter’s phone rang, and he answered it, then listened to it for a few seconds. “I see,” he said. “Thank you for helping.”
He disconnected and closed his eyes for a second right before his phone rang again. Before he answered it, he said, “She left to come home a little over an hour ago, according to her friend.” He didn’t get to finish because his phone rang again.
“This is Hunter Woods,” he said after he slid his finger ac
ross the screen to answer the call.
He pulled the phone back from his ear, his eyes wide from the voice yelling at him.
“You gotta get here now, Sheriff!” I recognized Ms. Margaret’s panicked voice. “He’s killin’ her!”
“Calm down, Ms. Margaret, and tell me what’s going on.”
“Ain’t no time to calm down,” she yelled, her voice a couple octaves higher than it had been just a second before. “She’ll be dead by then!”
He glanced up at me. “I’ll be right there.” He hung up and held out his hand. “I hate doing this, but can you teleport us? If she’s right, there’s no time to drive.”
I didn’t even take the time to answer; I just took his hand and focused on the hallway outside Valerie’s department. In a few seconds, the familiar pulling feeling behind my belly button receded, and when I opened my eyes, we were exactly where I’d been aiming for. I silently cursed when I saw Ms. Margaret standing in her doorway wringing her hands.
She flapped a wrinkled hand in dismissal. “Don’t fuss about that. I’m eighty-two years old and have known you Flynns for most of them. I’m just glad you have that gift. Go!”
A scream sounded from behind Val’s door followed by crashing. If I had to bet, it had been something heavy like a bookshelf. Cheri Lynn had come with us, and she swooped through the door.
“You gotta hurry!” she cried as she came back through the wall. “She’s outta things to throw at him and has no place to hide.”
Hunter didn’t bother knocking. Instead, he tried the knob, and luck was on our side. It was unlocked.
He rushed forward, gun drawn, and I stayed behind him but off to the side where I could see and use magic if I needed to.
“Freeze!” Hunter barked before I could even process the scene in front of me. Charles from across the hall was straddling Valerie on the floor and had his hands around her throat.
Rather than release her like Hunter had commanded, he tightened his hold. I glanced at Cheri Lynn. For once, not a single spell was in my head, so brute force would have to do. I focused on his hands and envisioned yanking them loose. I thought for a second it wasn’t working, but suddenly his hands snapped from her throat as he howled in anger and pain.
