Linda nodded, looking relieved. “I’m just getting it cleaned up before selling it. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention it to anybody. I wouldn’t want it to get stolen.”
“Of course,” Tess said. “I really should be going now. I’ve got an early day tomorrow.”
“I’ll walk you out.”
They had only gone a few steps down the hall when a knock sounded at the door. Tess shot a panicked glance at Linda, which unfortunately the other woman caught.
“What did you—”
“Police! Open up.”
Tess winced at the sound of the shout. This entire ordeal had been a terrible idea. She should never have gotten involved in Frederick’s murder. She should have gotten far away from Linda’s house before calling the police. A thousand other should haves rushed through her mind in that instant.
“Shh,” Linda hissed. Her fingers dug into Tess’s arm. There were no windows in the hallway, so no hope of the police seeing them. Tess weighed her options; yell and shout and risk this obviously crazy woman doing something to hurt her, or stay silent and try to talk herself out of this when the police left? She decided to hedge her bets on the latter.
The police knocked twice more, then fell silent. Linda pursed her lips and waited another few minutes before turning Tess roughly around and shaking her.
“You dirty little liar. You should never have gone snooping in someone else’s bathroom. You know exactly where that meteorite is from, don’t you?”
“S-sorry,” Tess said. “The curtain was open, and I just saw it.” She tasted blood; she had bitten her tongue while the woman was shaking her.
“I can still salvage this,” Linda muttered. “You need to disappear. As soon as I sell that stone, I’m home free. I’ll have to leave tonight. I can find somewhere to auction it off in one of the big cities, then leave the country for good.”
Somehow, she didn’t think Linda letting her overhear her plans for escape was a good sign. Maybe the police will come back, she thought. If I can just keep her talking for long enough…
“Did you kill him just for the meteorite?” she asked, trying to keep her voice from shaking too much.
“Frederick? I didn’t intend to kill him, he just came downstairs for a glass of water at the wrong time. You weren’t supposed to be there that night, either.” Linda frowned. “That was my own fault. I intended to switch the schedules around so no one would be delivering to Fred that night. You just didn’t get the email.”
“I don’t understand. Why would you steal from him?”
“Are you kidding me? He had no idea what was sitting on his mantel. He was using a twenty-thousand-dollar rock as a paperweight. I need the money; he never would have missed it.”
“There was other stuff missing too…”
“I took a few other valuable items so the police wouldn’t focus too much on figuring out why I had chosen to steal a stone. I figured the less attention I drew, the better. Now stop talking. Walk towards the kitchen, and don’t say a word or make any sudden moves.”
Tess felt a sharp prod in her belly. She looked down to see a knife poking her. It was just a small pocket knife, but it looked sharp enough to do some serious damage if it needed to. She gulped and began walking backwards slowly, as she was told.
Are you a witch, or aren’t you? a small voice in her head whispered.
Tess took a deep breath. She was a witch. She wasn’t a very good witch, but she was far from being an ordinary person. She wasn’t powerless; she was in control of her fate. And she was determined that her life didn’t end here.
She closed her eyes and scrunched up her face, thinking of the heavy rock in the bath tub. She imagined it floating… no, she believed it was floating… when she opened her eyes, she would see it bobbing through the air, coming towards her and Linda…
Her eyes snapped open. Sure enough, the heavy meteorite was bobbing gently in the air a few feet behind Linda’s head. She felt a moment of pure joy and exhilaration. She had done it.
Something must have showed on her face, because Linda frowned and turned around. When she saw the rock floating in midair, she let out a short shriek and stumbled backwards, into Tess. Tess took advantage of the woman’s surprise and wrested the knife away from her. Linda hardly seemed to notice.
“How…?” she whispered. “What…?”
At that moment, the front door burst open with an almighty crash. Tess whipped her head around to see two uniformed police officers rushing towards her. She heard the rock thump to the floor behind her—the spell must have broken when her attention had been diverted.
“Hands in the air!” one of the officers shouted. “Both of you, put your hands up and don’t move. Bykowski, cuff them. We’ll bring them down to the station and let Vance sort this out.”
Epilogue
* * *
A midwinter thaw had hit Elk Hill, Wisconsin. Most of the snow had melted, and the lawns had turned to mud. An almost spring-like breeze blew through town. Tess took a deep breath, enjoying the feel of warmer air on her face. She felt like she had a new lease on life, and was enjoying every minute of it.
“Are you sure you have to go?” she asked her aunt. “You can’t stay longer?”
“You know enough to take care of yourself for now,” Loretta said. “I promised my sister I would visit her before I head back to Europe. Poor Jan is probably at a loss without me. I don’t think he even remembers how to do laundry the old-fashioned way anymore.”
“There’s still so much I don’t know, though. I’ve already made a mess of things—it was just plain luck that everything turned out the way that it did. What if something happens and I need you, but you aren’t here? Is there some sort of, I don’t know, magical talisman, I can use to get in touch with you?”
“It’s called a cellphone,” the older woman said, winking. “I’d think this whole mess would have taught you one thing, at least.”
“What’s that?” Tess asked.
“Most problems are solved a lot more neatly without magic.”
Tess thought that was probably true. In retrospect, her powers had only served to complicate things. If she had just stepped back and let the police do their jobs, they likely would have caught Linda when she tried to auction off that rock. Tess would never have been caught up in the whole mess. In the end, the only magic that had actually helped her was the levitating meteorite. The floating rock had caused Linda to shriek, which had given the police waiting outside for a warrant enough cause to break down the door. It had been pure, dumb luck that everything had played out as it had, but Tess wasn’t complaining.
She hugged her aunt, then pulled back and bit her lip nervously.
“What is it?” Aunt Loretta asked with a sigh as she hefted her overnight bag.
“It’s just… what do I do now?” Tess asked. “I mean, I’ll practice everything you told me to, and I’ll try not to get involved in anything dangerous again, but what do I do? How can I keep living a normal life after finding out that I’m a witch, and that magic is real?”
“Well, what other sort of life would you live?” her aunt asked. “Do what makes you happy, keep your head down, and be smart. Just live. You’re still the same person you were before. The magic is a part of you, but it shouldn’t define you.”
“I think it will take me some time to find balance,” she said. “Goodbye, Aunt Loretta. And thank you. For everything.”
She watched as her aunt walked past the car parked in the driveway. The older woman stopped at the sidewalk. She turned to wave to Tess, then with a snap of her fingers, disappeared.
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Mystical Murder: A Whiskers and Witches Cozy Mystery, Book 1 (Whiskers and Witches Cozy Mysteries) Page 7
