by Diana Orgain
“Ah! Wanda, cut it out! What’s got you all excited? Did you miss me?” Maeve asks.
She knows! She knows, she knows, she knows!
She knows she’s a witch! How long has she known? When did she realize it?
Ah, who cares!
So long as she knows now. Step one is complete.
Now comes the bigger challenge–explaining to her that I’ve been cursed. Step three would be her figuring out how to change me back, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. I will be a man again soon enough.
As Maeve sorts through her book, a picture suddenly slips out from between some of the pages. She reaches for it and picks it up, and this very sad look appears on her face. I calm myself down and sit, glancing over her shoulder. It’s her and some guy. It takes me a moment before I realize it’s Frank, her stupid ex. Normally whenever Maeve comes across something of his during her casual unboxing, she throws it out or gets angry.
This time she doesn’t.
My ears go back. I don’t do well with emotional women–not that Maeve is usually emotional. Her lip quivers slightly, and she closes the book and continues to look at the picture. “Idiot,” she says under her breath, but I can hear her voice crack.
“Oh, jeez, don’t cry. Women crying makes me really uncomfortable,” I say–not that she can understand me. It comes out as a whine.
She sets the picture down on her nightstand and turns off the lamp before lying down. I can hear her occasionally sniffle, but she holds it in like a champ. I lay my head down right next to hers on her pillow so close that my nose touches her cheek. She wipes her eyes, so I scoot closer. Her arm goes around me.
“Good girl,” she says, and after a few minutes, she falls asleep cuddling me.
I hate seeing her like that. She seems happier in her sleep. I think I might have actually made her feel better, and honestly, that makes me a little sad.
I might be a better dog than I am a person.
<><><>
Early the next morning, Maeve and I arrive at her coffee shop. Donnie is waiting for us when we arrive, and Maeve smiles approvingly at him for showing up to work early. We enter, and I go and plop down at the reading nook area in the corner.
“Glad to see you found Wanda,” Donnie says as the two of them start putting down chairs.
I then have to listen to Maeve talk about the creepy movie actor, Chuck Lowry, and how he found her dog and somehow broke into her house last night.
Awesome.
Gracie arrives shortly after, and Maeve laughs and thanks her for showing up. “Do you want to work here, Gracie?” Maeve asks, and then Gracie tosses a filled out application her way. Maeve chuckles.
I nod approvingly. Gracie, Maeve, and that little former punk Donnie make a pretty good team here. “So listen, guys,” Maeve says as she starts up the espresso machine. “I’m going to have to go to L.A. soon. They want me there next weekend, but I’m going to see if they will give me a couple of weeks. Not sure how long I can put this off.”
“Why do you have to go to L.A.?” Donnie asks.
“To talk to the local police,” she says, and Donnie’s eyes widen.
“You been misbehaving, Maeve?” Donnie asks, and Gracie elbows him.
“Her ex-fiancé is missing. Don’t tease her about it,” Gracie warns, and Donnie nods along, embarrassed.
“I need help,” Maeve says. “My café has been open for less than a week, and I’m going to have to leave for a few days.”
“You want us to run the shop?” Donnie asks excitedly.
“Pretty much,” Maeve says. “If you two think you can handle it.”
“Totally!” Gracie shrieks as though she has been bestowed with the Medal of Honor.
“Good,” Maeve says happily. “Then I’m going to have to really train you guys on everything in the next few days to make sure you can handle it without me.”
The morning crowd comes barging in as soon as Maeve puts up the open sign. For the next two and a half hours, the place is packed. But then it just abruptly dies as the morning crowd disperses. It will be a good while before a lunch crowd arrives. Maeve goes through some things with Gracie and Donnie in preparation for their weekend alone that will be coming up soon. After a while, she sighs and looks at the clock. “Listen, you two, do you think you could handle the shop for a few hours without me?” she asks.
“We got this,” Gracie says. “Where are you heading off to?”
“The police are still looking into me about Mayor James,” Maeve admits. “So looks like I’m on the case now too.”
“Cool,” Donnie says under his breath.
“Does Joseph know?” Gracie says.
Maeve sighed. “Well … not exactly.”
Gracie presses a finger to lips. “Your secret’s safe with us, right Donnie?”
Donnie presses a finger to his nose and salutes Maeve. They all laugh and then Maeve heads to the door.
“Actually, I’m going to check in with Joseph now. Come on, Wanda!” she calls out to me.
I jump up and follow behind. We head out to the parking lot and tuck into her little purple Volkswagen. When Maeve tries to start the car, it stutters.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she moans and knocks her head against the steering wheel.
Suddenly, she bolts upright with a determined look on her face. She takes a breath, smiles, then flicks her wrists toward the dashboard.
The engine comes to life.
My tail wags excitedly yet again.
My little witch is learning.
Chapter Seven
Maeve
There was a slight pinch in Maeve’s gut as she drove her now possessed vehicle toward the police station. She’d never attempted to use her magick to power any sort of electronic device let alone a car–and quite frankly, she was new at just about every bit of magick there was. So, driving a vehicle down the road while it was running strictly on her magick made her anxious. She tapped her fingers on the wheel, hoping they managed to make it across town in one piece.
By some miracle, she was able to park her car in front of the station without any trouble. Once she switched the engine off, she breathed deeply. Reaching over to pat her trusty sidekick, she whispered, “I think it would be best to have a mechanic look at the car, don’t you? I still can’t fix Rodney–better not trust myself too much with this stuff just yet, right, girl?”
Wanda shook her head as though to disagree, and Maeve laughed. “You know, sometimes I really do feel like you and I are having a conversation,” Maeve said.
She thought back to the night Eleanor cornered her in her home, and remembered Wanda barking and sending Eleanor flying back.
Is it possible that Wanda is a witch too? she wondered, but she shook the thought away.
No, it was probably just me that night not knowing how to control this crazy magick.
What about mother? Maeve thought. She’s the one who gave me the magick book in the first place … Is she a witch? Did this sort of thing run in the family?
Wanda scratched at the car door, jarring Maeve from her thoughts.
“You’re right, Wanda, we should go in and see Joseph.” Maeve hopped out of the vehicle, and Wanda followed.
They headed inside and located Joseph by his desk filling out some paperwork. He looked up as they approached, and practically beamed with excitement to see her. Maeve plopped herself down in the empty chair in front of his desk, and Wanda slumped down on the ground next to her.
“What brings you two to the station?” Joseph asked. “You’d think this is the last place you would want to be with everyone up here gunning for you.” He reached around the side of the desk in an attempt to pet Wanda, but Wanda jerked her head away. Joseph frowned. “Why doesn’t your dog like me? Normally I’m great with animals.”
“Be nice, Wanda,” Maeve warned. Maeve took a moment to glance around at the other nearby desks to make sure no one was eavesdropping. Then she leaned forward, propping he
r elbows up on the table. “What can you tell me about Mayor James?”
“I wish you’d trust me. I’m not going to let these clowns pin this on you.”
“I do trust you, Joseph, but we’re on the same side,” Maeve said. “It’s best we share information with each other because everyone else in this station is looking to turn this on me, and you know it.”
“I know, but …” Joseph said.
“If you don’t tell me anything, I’m just going to go around town and talk to everyone. I’m going to help you solve this thing one way or another. Why not make it quick and painless?”
Joseph snickered. “You’re very stubborn, aren’t you?”
Maeve laughed. “I’ve been called worse. But you don’t think someone can make it in Hollywood if they turn tail the first time they’re told no, do you?”
Joseph fingered the manila folder on his desk. “I don’t know much. I did, however, get the lab results back from James’s autopsy.”
“Anything interesting?” she asked.
“I’d say,” Joseph grumbled. “Looks like our mayor was popping pills left and right.”
“You’re kidding?”
“No, I’m not,” Joseph said. “And believe me, the local courthouse is trying to keep this quiet. James had traces of just about every type of opioid you can get. Fentanyl, oxycodone, and hydrocodone were all in his system. It’s no wonder James always insisted on a driver. The man would have been driving stoned.”
“So he O.D.ed?” Maeve asked. “Then it’s not murder. Why are you all investigating this as a murder?”
“Because the opioids aren’t what killed him,” Joseph explained. “He was killed by something called pentobarbital. We’ve pulled up some medical records and found James broke his leg about two years ago. As far as we could tell, he’s been popping those pills ever since. Probably was prescribed them for pain and then wasn’t able to kick the pills. Pain medicines like that are really addictive. Anyway, from what we’ve learned, he was a really heavy user. The amount he had in his system at his time-of-death was chump change compared to his normal routine. It was definitely the pentobarbital that did it for him.”
“What is pentobarbital?” Maeve asked.
“It’s normally used to treat epilepsy and seizures in emergency situations,” Joseph said. “I think some people use it for insomnia and anxiety-type thing too, but it’s only given in low doses. The State of Ohio just started using the stuff for lethal injections of death row inmates.”
“So unless we’re looking for someone who works at the Ohio State Prison, unlikely way out here, we’re probably talking about someone with access to the local hospital?” Maeve suggested.
“Maybe,” Joseph said. “It’s not exactly something you can just buy over the counter.”
“So what are you thinking? You think someone switched out his pain pills and put pentobarbital inside his pill capsules? James was probably slowly killing himself and didn’t even know it,” Maeve said, and Joseph nodded in agreement. Maeve realized that this was as far as Joseph had gotten in the investigation thus far. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good enough for her. She rose to her feet. Joseph stood up as well.
“You leaving so soon?” he asked, gently reaching out to touch her. Immediately Wanda stood up and pushed between the two of them.
Joseph shook his head. “I really don’t think Wanda likes me.”
“I think she’s just a jealous little thing,” Maeve said. “She doesn’t like anyone else giving me attention!” Maeve laughed. “Also, I think she’s a girly girl. She doesn’t seem to like most guys.”
“So you’re all about girl power, is that it, Wanda?” Joseph questioned, looking down at Wanda. Maeve noticed Joseph suddenly had a surprised look about him.
“Everything okay?” Maeve asked.
“Yeah … I just thought your dog rolled her eyes at me for a second there,” Joseph said, shaking it off.
Maeve bid him farewell and headed back to her car. Wanda hopped into the passenger’s seat, and Maeve sat in the driver’s seat for a moment, contemplating her next move.
“You know what’s kind of suspicious, Wanda?” Maeve said, and the dog seemed to look at her as though to ask, “What?”
She chuckled to herself and continued, “How Eleanor’s ex-husband comes back to town the night before the mayor dies. And you and I both know that Mayor James is the one who broke up their marriage. Is this a revenge story?”
Maeve pulled out her cell phone, calling Gracie to see if she knew where she could locate Christian. Gracie, never one to disappoint, told Maeve that she heard Christian was at his and Eleanor’s old place taking what he could before he left town again.
Maeve hung up and turned to Wanda. “Sounds like Christian doesn’t plan on sticking around too long.”
Maeve headed toward the neighborhood that Gracie said Eleanor, the insane former hairdresser and murderer, had once lived. She parked near the mailbox of the lovely French-style home. A large moving truck was parked out front, and she spotted Christian carrying items from the home to the driveway.
“Let’s go say hello, Wanda,” Maeve said, climbing out of the car with her trusty canine at her heels.
The man looked up as he was placing a box down next to the truck. He was dressed in jeans and a button up shirt that he had rolled up to his elbows –the top buttons undone to allow himself some breathing room while doing some heavy lifting. “Morning,” he said to her as she made her way up the long driveway.
“Morning, Christian,” Maeve said. “I don’t know if you remember me, but I’m-”
“Maeve O’Dare,” he said. “Yes, I remember you from the coffee shop. Hard to forget the face of the woman your ex-wife tried to kill.”
Maeve’s mouth went dry. She wasn’t sure whether the man was laughing about it or was annoyed with her. He was difficult to get a read on. “Yeah … well … I’m sorry about all of that.”
“Sorry?” he questioned and then laughed. “You made all this a lot easier on me. You realize that everything we owned together was in my name, and I just left her here with all my stuff because I didn’t want to deal with it? Ha! Now she’s in prison, and I don’t have to deal with her whining about me coming to get my things. This is my house. Those are my cars in the garage. And I left this town in embarrassment after everything that went down between us. Took me a while to realize that I wasn’t doing myself any favors by rolling over and playing dead.”
“You’re not planning on moving back in, though?” Maeve asked, nodding toward the moving van.
“I got myself a new place in Newville; it’s the next town over. I’m going to sell this place,” he said.
“Well good for you for moving on,” Maeve said, and he smiled.
“Thanks,” he said. “It certainly isn’t easy. Eleanor and I were married for eight years before the affair. We were finally talking about having kids, you know?” His smile faded, and he looked off in the distance.
“I was hoping you could tell me more about what happened between you two and Mayor James,” Maeve said. “To be honest, since the mayor died at my coffee shop, it has me a little bit on edge. Just trying to … make sense of it all, I suppose.”
Christian shrugged as he reached for a water bottle sitting on the sidewalk. “Not really much to tell. She cheated on me with James. They met at her salon … the salon I bought her … whatever.” He took a chug of water and wiped his brow. “I was reading baby books and going to fertility clinics, and she was off meeting him whenever I was working. I probably never would have even found out about it if she hadn’t outright told me. Sat me down, told me she and James were in love and that she was going to leave me. I was devastated. And, truthfully, I was a little maniacally happy that James denied the entire relationship to save face and left her in the dust. James admitted it to me, but he would never admit it publicly. Just told everyone it was rumors.”
Christian suddenly paused. An almost frightened look appeared on hi
s face. “You don’t think anyone will believe I did this, do you?” he asked.
“Well … he did break up your marriage,” Maeve said.
“Is that why you’re here?” Christian asked, suddenly sounding very defensive. “Because you believe I killed James?”
“No,” Maeve said quickly. “I was just looking to shed a little light on the situation. Sounds like there are a lot of people who didn’t exactly like him.”
“Definitely,” Christian said, calming down slightly. “I can’t stand him, but I would never hurt anyone … well …”
“Well what?”
“Honestly, when I first found out about the affair, I went to James’s house and I may have knocked him down a flight of stairs,” Christian admitted. He tangled his hand in his hair and sighed. “He didn’t call the police because he didn’t want anyone to know about the affair and was afraid of that getting out.”
“You knocked him down the stairs?” Maeve asked, a smirk on her face.
Christian pointed at her. “You’re smiling!”
“Sorry,” she said, blushing. “My fiancé … well, before I moved here, he left me. And I recently found out he was a cheating dog.” Wanda let out a sharp bark. Maeve laughed and patted Wanda’s head. “Sorry, Wanda. No offense.” She looked back up at Christian and said, “Anyway, I get the fury.”
“I felt bad about it,” Christian admitted. “I even drove the jerk to the hospital.”
“Broken leg?” Maeve asked, recalling her conversation with Joseph earlier.
“Yeah, how did you know?” he questioned.
“Lucky guess,” Maeve said. “Have you spoken to Eleanor any since her arrest?”
Christian frowned. He took a moment before responding. “Yeah, once … I wasn’t totally honest when I said I’m here for her court date. I came to speak on her behalf. Her lawyer is trying to get her sent to an asylum instead of prison. She’s been acting kind of nuts since the night she got arrested. I’ve been second guessing myself about doing it, though.”
