Luke arrived a few minutes later. Tess watched him as he came in the door. He was cute, she supposed. She hadn’t paid much attention to him before, when she was busy delivering meals. He had light brown hair and an easy smile, which lit up when he saw the women waiting for him. It wasn’t until he got closer that she saw how tired he looked. She felt bad for him. She couldn’t imagine losing someone close to her to such senseless violence.
She was opening her mouth to greet him when the piece of jewelry in her pocket suddenly grew burning hot. Wincing, she thrust her hand into her pocket and put it on the table. It felt like she was holding a coal. Shaking her hand in an effort to cool it off, she looked up to meet the curious gaze of her friends, and saw a surprised look on Luke’s face.
“Where in the world did you find my cufflink?” he asked.
Chapter Thirteen
* * *
Tess was speechless. Belatedly she realized how stupid she was—of course the little engraved piece of metal was a cufflink. She didn’t know anyone who actually wore cufflinks, which was why she hadn’t recognized it right away. The LC on it must have stood for Luke Colt.
“Where did you find it?” he asked again, frowning now. “I could have sworn I lost it while I was at my dad’s.”
“Um, I found it by the curb,” she said, thinking fast. “In the snow. It must have fallen off outside somehow. I completely forgot I had it in my pocket until now.”
“Well, I’m glad you picked it up,” he said, reaching for it. She winced, expecting him to get burned, but he didn’t react as he put the link in his pocket. “My father got me these when I got my degree. Especially now, it means a lot to me to have it back.”
Tess nodded, her mind working a million miles a minute. How had she not remembered this before? She had met Luke, not even a week before his father had died. She should have realized what the initials stood for right away. The cuff link was his, and she had found it in the room where his father had died, only feet away from the scene of the crime. Did that mean that Luke was the killer?
“Come on, sit down,” Jackie said, indicating the empty chair next to Tess. “I know it’s been a rough couple of days, so everything is on us.”
“Thanks, Jackie. It feels unreal, still. We both knew his time was coming—that’s why I was planning on moving back—but I never thought it would be like this. I just couldn’t sit in that hotel room any longer; I needed something to distract me, so thanks for inviting me out. It’s a shame Jeff couldn’t make it.”
Tess let the words of their conversation wash over her as she thought. She was sitting close enough to Luke to feel the heat coming off him. Or was that her magic, trying to warn her about something? Was that even possible? There was still so much she didn’t know. It was hard to focus on anything with the knowledge that she might be sitting next to a killer planted in her brain.
Would Luke have a reason to kill his father? That was the question. She knew nothing about the man. If she had made the connection sooner, she could have asked Deidre or Jackie about him in private. She didn’t even know if he was in town on the night of the murder. When she had seen him Wednesday, had he mentioned how long he was staying? She didn’t think so.
“What about you, Tess?”
“Hmm?” She blinked and looked up to see three pairs of eyes looking at her. “Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”
“I said, I’m thinking of ordering another basket of wings. Do you want some?”
“Oh, sure,” she said. “Sounds good.”
She made herself pay attention to the conversation for the rest of their outing in case Luke let something slip. She noticed that when no one else was looking at him, the smile slipped from his face and he looked impossibly sad. No one brought up the subject of his father; instead, they skirted around the subject, talking about meaningless things like the weather and work. Deidre mentioned the incident with Ann and the fish tank, and everybody laughed—everybody except for Tess, who was too busy wrestling with her urge to try some sort of spell to get the truth out of Luke. If only her aunt was here to tell her what to do.
“Are you okay, Tess?” Deidre asked. “You haven’t been saying much.”
“Yeah—I’m just tired,” she said. “I think I’m going to go.”
Her friends looked disappointed. She felt bad, but she was just too confused and conflicted to keep sitting there. She needed to go home and figure out what she was going to do. Maybe Aunt Loretta was right and she shouldn’t have gotten involved. Her small success so far had raised more questions than answers, and she certainly didn’t feel any better.
“I’m going to get going, too,” Luke said. “Thanks, you guys. It was a good mental break from everything that’s going on, but it’s time for me to face reality again.”
Tess walked stiffly to the door with Luke right behind her. Was he following her for a reason, or had he just piggybacked on her leaving so he could get out of there himself without seeming rude? She tensed as the cold outside air hit her, then turned to look at him.
“Well, good night,” he said, offering her half of a smile. “It was quite the coincidence meeting you for the second time. I’m sure I’ll see you around again.”
“Right. You too,” she said. “Have a nice evening.”
She felt like an idiot as he walked away. Have a nice evening? she thought. Right, what’s he going to do, enjoy sitting on his hotel bed and thinking about his dead father? She was beginning to think that maybe she didn’t handle stress very well.
Tess returned to her car and started it. She could see Luke get into his own vehicle across the parking lot. She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel while she waited for her engine to warm up. As he pulled out of the parking lot, she had an idea. She could follow him, figure out what hotel he was staying at, and then later when he was gone maybe she could sneak into his room and find something incriminating. She wasn’t sure if her powers would work on one of the modern electronic locks, but there were still a few old motels that had physical locks. With any luck, he would be staying in one of those.
She followed a good distance behind Luke, not wanting to alert him that anything out of the ordinary was going on. If he realized that she was following him, well, at best she would be looking forward to an awkward conversation with her friends. She wouldn’t think of the worst, that the police might be investigating her death sometime soon.
She was relieved when Luke turned into the parking lot of an old motel on the outskirts of town. Not only did it look like the sort of place that would have been slow to update their security system, but the doors were also on the outside of the building, so she had a clear view of the room Luke went into when he got out of his car. She fixed the number firmly in her mind, then pulled out of the parking lot and started back towards town. There was one last stop she wanted to make before going home.
Chapter Fourteen
* * *
Tess parked her car around the corner from Frederick Colt’s house, in the same spot she had used last time. She wanted to look around again, this time to see if she could find anything that hinted at his relationship with his son. Luke seemed like a nice person, but she no longer trusted her perception of things. One thing her aunt had taught her was how easily the human brain could be tricked. Sometimes the nice guy might be the killer, and she was determined to find out if Luke was the cold-hearted person that she feared he was.
She walked down the sidewalk towards the house with her hands in her pockets. It was late, but not as late as it had been the last time she had poked around. A few houses still had lights on inside, and she saw the strobe of TV screens in quite a few windows.
Just as she was thinking she would have to be careful about getting inside, she saw something that made her stop in her tracks. On the other side of the road from Frederick’s house, a few houses down, a police cruiser was sitting at the curb with its lights off. She couldn’t see through the windshield from so far away, but she was prepared to bet the
re was an officer inside with eyes on Frederick’s house. Maybe they had noticed something off after her last trespassing excursion, or maybe they were just grasping at straws, but either way, she was not going to be getting inside tonight.
A bit disappointed, but glad that she would be able to get home and be done with all of this sooner than expected, Tess turned around and began heading back towards her car. She had only made it about halfway to the corner of the block when she heard an engine start from behind her. She turned her head just enough to see the cop car out of the corner of her eye. The headlights were on, and it was rolling slowly down the road towards her.
Tess’s heart immediately leapt to her throat. If she was caught here, sneaking around so near to the scene of the crime, it would definitely arouse suspicion. She had no valid reason to be here, and while she might not be breaking a law, she had the feeling Detective Vance would jump at the chance to put her in that interview room again. It must be frustrating that they hadn’t found the killer yet, and if she made a good enough suspect then she very well might end up behind bars, at least until her lawyer figured things out.
She sped up, moving from a quick walk into a jog. She rounded the corner before the police car caught up with her. Her first thought had been to hop in her vehicle and drive away, but she would surely just get pulled over if she tried that. She slowed down to a quick walk again and peered over her shoulder. The police vehicle was about to round the corner, and she was running out of options. She could—
“Ooof.” Tess stumbled backwards. Arms reached out to steady her. She looked up to find herself inches away from a familiar face.
“Are you alright?” Linda asked. “Oh, you’re that new girl, Tess, right?”
“Yeah. Sorry about that—I should look where I’m going.” They had only met in person once, when Tess had first signed up for Meals on the Move. Linda was a middle-aged woman with the beginnings of wrinkles and a hint of grey at her temples. She seemed to have the sort of boundless passion for charity that Tess could only dream of. She had been the one who had convinced Tess to commit to two nights of deliveries instead of one.
“Do you live around here? For some reason, I thought you were on the other side of town.”
“No, I was just going for a walk,” Tess said. She realized how nonsensical that sounded, but the other woman didn’t seem fazed.
“So was I,” she said. “It’s such a nice evening for it. The sky is beautiful and clear. It reminds me of when I was a girl and spent nights out in the country with my grandparents.”
“Yeah.” Tess glanced behind her again. The whole exchange had only taken seconds so far, but she was running out of time. She needed to find a way to get off the street, and fast. “Um, actually, could I use your bathroom? Sorry, but like you said, I live on the other side of town and I just drank a whole thing of coffee.”
She was lying through her teeth, but Linda didn’t hesitate.
“Sure thing,” she said. “My house is this one right here. We’ll just make a pit-stop inside.”
Tess followed the other woman, trying to hurry her without seeming suspicious. They made it inside just as the police car rounded the corner at the end of the block. She closed her eyes in relief. That had been a close one. She had really lucked out.
“Nice house,” she said when she had gathered herself. An idea occurred to her. “Have you heard about the murder that happened just down the street?”
Linda raised an eyebrow. “Yes, as a matter of fact. You’re talking about poor Frederick Colt, correct? I heard from a family member who called to tell us he would no longer need our services. It’s a pity, the poor man.”
“Do you have any idea who could have done it?” Tess wanted to ask directly about his son, but wasn’t sure how to explain why she suspected him.
“Not the faintest. He seemed like a nice man, I can’t imagine why someone would want to do him in. Now, the bathroom is just down this hall, to your right.”
Tess remembered her lie and nodded her thanks before making a beeline for the room. She used the toilet, then turned on the water in the sink. While she was waiting for the water to warm up, she looked at herself in the mirror. What had gotten into her lately? She never used to be this reckless. She really didn’t have any business investigating a murder. Here she was, huddling in a stranger’s bathroom while waiting for the police to leave, still completely clueless about the murder and more frustrated than ever. Loretta had been on to something when she advised her not to get involved.
She washed her hands, then reached for the hand towel by the mirror. As she did so, something caught her eye. The shower curtain was partially open, and she could see something in the tub. Mildly curious, she finished drying her hands, then turned around and pulled open the shower curtain. What she saw was puzzling. There was a large hunk of black rock, a container of bleach, and a scrub brush.
Frowning, Tess reached out and brushed her fingers across the rock. “What are you?” she muttered. Unexpectedly, a blinding pain flashed through her head. She gasped and touched her temple. When she pulled her hand away, she thought for a moment that it was covered in blood, then her vision cleared and the image of red went away. The old Tess might have dismissed the sudden stab of pain, but the Tess that knew magic was real couldn’t ignore that sort of coincidence anymore. She had asked the rock a question, and she knew it had answered her. The rock was a murder weapon.
Chapter Fifteen
* * *
“Hi, my name is Tess Quinn, and I have information about the person who murdered Frederick Colt.”
“I’m going to transfer you to the detective in charge of that case. Hold on.”
“Okay.”
Tess was sitting on the closed toilet, holding the phone close to her mouth and speaking quietly. She had left the water in the sink running in order to make it harder for Linda to hear anything if she was standing near the door. She could always make up some fib about having a little bit too much to drink at the bar if the other woman questioned how long she was taking. What was important now was getting the police out to Linda’s house, and fast.
“Detective Vance.”
Tess repeated herself, giving her name and why she was calling. She could sense the eagerness in his voice when he spoke again.
“What information do you have?”
“The murderer’s name is Linda Carey, she lives just around the corner from Frederick and is the Meals on the Move coordinator. She killed him with a big rock.”
“Wait, a rock?”
“Yes. It’s in her bath tub. There’s bleach and a scrub brush. I think she was trying to clean off evidence.”
“How do you know this? Did she confess this to you?”
“No, I just remember seeing it at her house.” She didn’t want to be there when the police showed up. If she was wrong, she wanted to avoid the major embarrassment of having called the police on the volunteer coordinator. Even if she was right, she needed more time to figure out the answers to the questions they were bound to ask.
“What leads you to believe the rock is the murder weapon?” He sounded skeptical.
“I…” Tess trailed off. What could she say? She touched the rock and got a headache? She couldn’t say she saw blood, since there wasn’t any and that would be evident to anyone who came to investigate. “I recognize it from his house,” she said at last. “It’s heavy enough to have killed him. It must be what she took off his mantel.”
“How did you know something was missing from the mantel?” he asked, his voice laced with suspicion again.
“I just have a good memory,” she said. It sounded flat, even to her, but there was nothing for it. She couldn’t tell the truth, and she was too freaked out to lie properly.
“I’ve got units on the way. I’ll be in contact with more questions. For now, just sit tight, Ms. Quinn. We’ll get to the bottom of this one way or the other.”
He ended the call, and Tess slid the phone into her pocket.
She was relieved that the police were on their way—at least, until she remembered the squad car that was just down the street. If that was the unit that he meant when he said one was on the way, then that didn’t give her very much time to get out of there undetected.
Tess shut off the water and opened the bathroom door. She jumped when she found herself face to face with Linda for the second time that night. The woman looked like she had been about to knock.
“I was just coming to see if everything was alright,” she said.
“I’m fine.” Tess gave her a smile that she hoped looked more real than it felt, and slid past the woman. Linda’s hand shot out and grabbed her around the wrist. Tess looked back, and followed the woman’s gaze to the bathtub. She gulped. She had forgotten to close the shower curtain, and the rock was in plain view.
“I see you discovered my meteorite,” Linda said. She sounded suspicious, but not as angry as Tess had feared. She might be able to talk herself out of this yet.
“I was just admiring it. It’s, um, very nice. Worth quite a bit, I expect?”
“About twenty grand,” the woman said. She let go of her wrist. “Have you ever seen anything like it?”
She asked the question casually, as if she were simply admiring the hunk of rock, but Tess had the feeling that the question had deeper meaning. She shook her head. “No. I’ve never seen a meteorite in person before.”
Mystical Murder: A Whiskers and Witches Cozy Mystery, Book 1 (Whiskers and Witches Cozy Mysteries) Page 6
