Bedtimes and Broomsticks

by Amanda A. Allen

  Gus sighed and Lex snorted, and Scarlett said, “I might not know what I’m doing, but… I can’t stay unless we find the real killer and whoever hexed Luna. And…by the stars, my path leads here. To this building. To this bakery. To this town. I don’t want to lose my path and what’s right for us.”

  “We won’t let that happen,” Gus said. He wrapped his arm around Scarlett’s shoulders, and she laid her hand on his arm. It was a move they’d done a million times, but with Lex’s eyes on them—it was suddenly awkward. Or maybe it was awkward because of that flash of desire that Scarlett was pretending she didn’t feel. Or maybe it was because Scarlett was confused and lost and she felt so very alone, stumbling through an investigation that wasn’t her responsibility in a town she’d avoided since she was barely a breath beyond childhood.

  “What about Gus and Harper?” Lex didn’t even flinch asking that question in front of Gus, and Scarlett stared. They’d been chummy—mostly—until a moment ago.

  “I didn’t kill Lacey,” Gus growled as he took another pull from his beer.

  “Why do people wonder if you did?” Scarlett asked, not even bothering to hide the way she searched his face. Her phone rang as she spoke, she pulled it out, saw Grant’s name, and then she shoved the phone back into her pocket.

  Lex and Gus both looked askance, but she didn’t bother to explain. Her problems with her ex were none of their concern.

  “These are my real questions,” Scarlett said, “How did Lacey really get to be mayor? And who did she infuriate staying mayor? What’s the deal with Lacey and Abby? What happened between her and either of you? And what about Kelly? I mean…is she really the first lieutenant to the meanest girl in town—still? Surely she’s made her own life by now? And if not, why not? And I can’t help but think…everything that I know…it isn’t worth killing over. But Lacey—she was foul. Anyone could have hated her enough to kill her.”

  “She wasn’t so bad,” Lex said.

  Gus snorted and Lex countered, “You dated her too.”

  “And I should have known better,” Gus said. He leaned back against the wall and snapped his mouth shut, making it clear he wasn’t expounding on what had happened.

  Lex and Scarlett’s gazes met, Scarlett shrugged, and they both took a drink of their beer.

  “Henna told me Lacey manipulated her way into office,” Scarlett said, looking at Gus.

  Gus grunted and then nodded, saying, “It was like that first year when she was trying to be class president. She came to high school all smooth and sweet. Then her true colors came out.”

  Scarlett remembered that—the lollipops that Lacey had handed out, the way she’d cheerily said hello to people she’d never bothered to speak to before, the way she had pretended interest in activities she’d mocked the year before. Scarlett hadn’t even bothered voting then—not buying the act, but also not caring who was class president.

  “Did you vote for her?” Lex asked Gus.

  Gus’s silence was enough to tell Scarlett he had. He didn’t reply though, he shrugged and said, “I have a truck. I can bring it over, and load it up in the morning.”

  “What about in high school,” Lex asked.

  Gus and Scarlett looked at each other and Scarlett started giggling. “We thought we were so funny.”

  Gus shook his head, admitting, “We wrote in names.”

  “You big faker, trying to pretend that you don’t remember who,” Scarlett nudged Gus and then told Gus, “We wrote in pro-wrestling names. We used to watch them together and eat pizza and drink…”

  “…root beers,” Gus finished.

  Scarlett sighed and then told Lex, “Those were fun days.”

  Gus nodded as Scarlett looked him over and said, “We had a good childhood together.”

  Gus cleared his throat before he answered, and there was something in his gaze, something he wanted to say. But all he said was, “We did.”

  Lex’s face was unfathomable as he watched the two of them and finally Scarlett asked him, “What was the deal with you and Lacey?”

  There was some tension in the apartment that had come and gone over the course of the night that she didn’t quite understand. They might be interested in her. Scarlett wasn’t letting herself take too much note of that given that she figured it was more the two of them and one of her. It was probably their nature. The magical in them. Something like that, maybe.

  Lex didn’t answer. Scarlett tried to somehow move past her irritation that he wasn’t answering. But she couldn’t waste this time—not with Luna on the line, so Scarlett shoved her irritation aside and asked Gus, “Were Lacey and Kelly really as close as they were in high school?”

  “They seemed to be,” Gus said. He shoved his hair back and glanced over. He seemed almost baffled, “I never really got them. Why would anyone run around like Kelly did for Lacey?”

  “Why did she when we were 17? Why would she as she got older?”

  Scarlett had wondered that for a long time too. She always assumed it was some sort of witch thing. Most of the witches she knew were a bit more high strung than druids, but to be honest—druids were the most…zen of all the species. Lacey and Kelly were both witches, but Scarlett didn’t think that either of them were particularly powerful or well-learned.

  “Tell me what happened between you and Lacey, Augustus,” Scarlett ordered, hoping it would work. It didn’t.

  “We dated. It ended.”

  “I want the middle part of the story,” Scarlett said softly.

  “You don’t trust me?”

  “I need details about Lacey. Look—don’t be ashamed, you dated her, Lex dated her, I freaking married that jerk Grant. This is a no shame zone.”

  “I’m not ashamed of having dated her,” Lex said, and both Scarlett and Gus gave Lex a disgusted look.

  “No,” Gus said. “It’s almost midnight. You better get to bed.”

  Scarlett looked around her apartment—it was empty without flooring of any kind, but her mom would bring over the black walnut flooring and probably the cousins to put it in. No one could beat a druid for skill with wood. Her family could take care of it in a morning.

  Which was good—because Scarlett had things to do. Like find a murderer and make a ridiculous amount of cookies and bread.

  “This is what coffee is for.”

  “And energy drinks.”

  Gus took an energy charm from his bracelet and said, “I bet you’ll need this.”

  He set it down on the counter. It was a little wood ball—he’d chosen charms made by druids. She put her finger on it, and let it roll around, let the feel of it touch her soul, and felt the warmth of him in it. His essence had melded with the wood just a touch. And it was a good essence.

  Not, she believed, the essence of a murderer.

  Believing it, however, didn’t change anything. She wasn’t trusting anyone with the safety of her daughter. No chances were acceptable.

  Her phone buzzed and she saw that Grant was calling again. She clicked the power button to silence the call, knowing that both Lex and Gus had seen the name on the screen. And the picture she still hadn’t deleted. It was an old one. He’d been sitting under the willow tree that Ella loved with their oldest daughter in his lap. Luna, at only a few days old, was held by Ella. Ella and Grant had been staring down at the baby Luna and the rays of the sun had lit up Scarlett’s family.

  It had been a perfect moment. And losing those moments had left a hole in Scarlett that may never fill again. She opened the door to her apartment and gestured the men out. Gus was right—she needed sleep. And she needed to curl up around the picture of her family and wish that it hadn’t all fallen apart.

  Chapter 14

  Scarlett left her own place in a huff. She’d spent a fruitless day trying to get more information, including driving out to Brad and Kelly’s house—no one was home. Scarlett had tried Brad’s mom’s house after Henna had said something, but again—no one was there. She’d come home to find Le
x and Gus waiting for her.

  They’d brought in the flooring her mom had sent without a word. That was the last time they’d been quiet. The sniping had started with something that Gus had said about warlocks. It was like listening to children fight about Pokémon versus Batman. It made no sense. And yet they were sniping at each other until she’d been forced to flee.

  Didn’t they know druids were supposed to be calm and zen? Truthfully, Scarlett hadn’t felt calm since before Grant left her family, but the murder had escalated her anxiety to a whole other level. Having those two fight was not helping. She stomped past the bakery, paused, and glanced down the alleyway where Lacey Monroe had been murdered.

  Maybe Scarlett shouldn’t feel as if she couldn’t walk down there, but suddenly, Scarlett wasn’t going to have an entire side of her building stolen from her any longer. She wasn’t going to be trapped by the crimes of another.

  Scarlett entered the alleyway wondering if she’d feel something. Some sort of effect of what had happened there. Maybe she’d discover regret for what happened to Lacey, but the truth was Scarlett only felt that in the most generic of ways. She stomped into the alleyway, moving fast enough to hopefully outpace her fears, but as she moved, something else moved too.

  She froze and then caught sight of a flickering light near the ground. Scarlett took a slow, shuffled step forward and then another. But this time, something moved again, and she about jumped out of her skin. The wind flew through the alley, swirling around her and making the flicking light almost go out.

  “It’s just me,” someone said as if that would be comforting. She didn’t know that voice and suddenly wanted to run away.

  “Me, who?” Scarlett demanded. Her heart was racing and the wind was blowing, and she had accessed her abilities and the strength of the garden in a panic.

  “Me, Brad Day,” the voice said, and Scarlett caught something familiar finally. That it was Brad was not comforting though. She could see him as the killer simply because he’d known Lacey so well.

  She stepped forward using the light on her phone to shine it in his face and found the same bluff, blond face she’d known forever. But now he was softened by enough fat to give him a second chin while still leaving him a giant of a man—like he’d been a giant of a boy. His eyes were bloodshot, his face covered in stubble, he looked like he’d been on a several day bender and smelled like it too.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Thinking of her,” Brad said. “You remember her. She was part of our lives since forever. Don’t you miss her like you’d miss a piece of your arm?”

  Scarlett paused, staring at him for a long moment and realized he was serious. She hadn’t seen either of them in years. Of course, she didn’t miss Lacey like that. Scarlett hadn’t even liked Lacey. Not the tiniest bit. Goodness, she thought, staring at Brad. Did he love her?

  Scarlett glanced around and realized that someone had put a picture of Lacey where the body had fallen. There were some flowers, a few candles that were burning causing the flickering light she’d seen. There was a teddy bear and some other things piled up.

  “Are you all right?” She only asked it because she didn’t know what else to say, but his heartbroken, sarcastic laugh was answer enough. “Come inside…”

  “No,” he said. “No. I feel closer to her here.”

  “This isn’t where she is,” Scarlett said, gently, touching his arm. “Lacey was…”

  Scarlett paused, struggling as she searched for something that would sound sincere. Brad might be a witch, but he wasn’t stupid. Maybe he was blinded enough by grief to buy…

  But he finished for Scarlett. “Lacey was brighter than this. Beautiful. I know she’s not. But where is she? Where can I feel her?”

  It was the heartbroken whisper that made Scarlett realize how much he loved that shrew, Lacey. But his wife was Kelly. The mother of his children was Kelly. The woman he’d been supposedly building his life with was Kelly. Did he love Lacey like a woman or a friend? Was his true love Lacey, the dead woman? Or maybe it was like losing your best friend. Maybe all of this emotion was for the person who’d been a huge part of his life since forever.

  Scarlett had to admit she might feel as broken as Brad sounded if something happened to Gus. Gus—he was a piece of her soul, and the only reason she hadn't talk to him daily had been because she thought it was better for everyone given her marriage. He colored nearly every memory of her childhood. Scarlett could see, if she projected those feelings on Brad, why he’d feel so heartbroken over Lacey. Maybe it wasn’t love love.

  And with that realization, sympathy flooded her to an extent that had been entirely lacking before.

  “Brad,” she said gently, and the feelings were in her voice. It seemed to reach him since he squeezed her hand.

  Then he struggled to say, “Don’t worry about me, Scarlett.”

  “Of course I’m going to worry about you,” Scarlett said, and in that moment, the feeling was real. She wasn’t sure it would survive the light of day, but in the darkness, with his grief so stark, the dislike she’d felt for him for most of her life faded. “Let’s go inside. Let me get you a…”

  Not a drink. He smelled like a bar that hadn’t been cleaned in years.

  “…a cup of tea.”

  “Don’t bother over me,” Brad said, “I don’t deserve it. I…”

  Scarlett tried tugging lightly, but she couldn’t move him. He was a big, block of a man and there was no budging him.

  “Let me call Kelly for you?”

  “No,” Brad said quickly. “No, I don’t want her to worry.”

  Scarlett would have liked to search his face, but she’d stopped shining the light in it a while ago and couldn’t turn it back to him again now.

  “I’ll go to my parent’s house. It’s mine now. I’ll…I’ll…clean up before I go home. Kelly doesn’t…don’t worry…”

  “Brad, I…” Scarlett tried once again to tug him away from the scene, but he shook his head.

  “No. It’s ok.”

  “Do you want me to walk you home?”

  He laughed that sarcastic laugh again and said, “If only someone would have been with Lace…maybe…” He cursed, sniffed and then cleared his throat manfully.

  “If only she hadn’t been alone. Maybe she’d be ok now. If only she hadn’t cut through here. If only…”

  “Brad,” Scarlett said again, “if only’s don’t help anyone to ask these questions. Don’t do this to yourself.”

  “How can I not? Someone told Wally to talk to me about Lacey. As if I’d kill her. I mean..who would say that?”

  Brad shrugged off her hand on his arm and stepped away from the little shrine to Lacey. He made his way to the opposite end of the alley and Scarlett aimed her light at the shrine she’d only glanced over before. Given the hearts of the people of Mystic Cove, Scarlett would have expected something bigger. That this was such a sad little thing with only a few flowers and a few candles told Scarlett how disliked Lacey had been.

  She looked over her shoulder to where Brad was disappearing. He would walk two blocks down and be at the old white house that his parents had owned. It had been a cute little house. He must be taking care of it for his mom. It was weird though, wasn’t it? That he was staying in his mom’s old house rather than going home to his wife. Was there bad blood there? Had they fought? Or had he been drinking too much to drive to the big house that he and Kelly owned in the countryside outside of Mystic Cove?

  Maybe he and Kelly were estranged? But no…Scarlett would have heard if anything different were happening there. Unless…unless…this wasn’t unusual. Unless he stayed in his mom’s house so often no one really thought much about it anymore. Scarlett could see how a second place for a couple would be nice. She and Grant had more than one uncomfortable night when they’d ended the night fighting only to lay stiffly next to each other, neither wanting to be in the bed, neither wanting to be the one who ended on the couch. Surely whoever
ended on the couch was the one in the wrong. But if you could escape the house entirely? To a different place, a different bed, a different feel to the air? Scarlett would have definitely taken advantage of something like that during her fights with Grant.

  She bent over and blew out the candles and then walked back down the alley to Arbor Avenue going inside the bakery and up the back steps to her apartment. While she’d been gone, Gus and Lex had emptied the trash out of the apartment and into Gus’s truck. She walked softly up the steps wondering if she’d catch them fighting again.

  But they weren’t. She walked into the apartment and both of the men were standing, looking at their handiwork, hands on their hips, actually speaking reasonably to each other. It did look good. The flooring had been laid. It had taken the apartment from horrible to lovely. With patched walls and fresh paint, her daughters would be happy here. She’d need to get new windows, but that could wait. New cabinets, of course, and appliances before the girls got home. But—the wooden paneling on the walls, the nasty carpet were gone. With the refreshed air and the other changes—it could be lovely now.

  “So are you only jerks to each other while I’m around, or did you bond while hauling trash out?”

  Gus started while Lex snorted. They turned as one to face her and both had put on innocent faces which weren’t so very different from Ella’s when she’d been caught with the cookie jar in her room.

  “Thanks for your help, go now,” Scarlett said, “I have to be up at 4:00 am to do the baking.”

  “Your caffeine addiction has to be insane,” Lex said, glancing at his watch. Scarlett didn’t need him to tell her it was past midnight.

  “I can’t sleep when my kids aren’t with me and are in danger,” Scarlett told Lex. “There isn’t going to be any sleep until I am so tired I hurt. Which is now. So shoo.”

  Lex started to object, but Gus cleared his throat. The two men eyed each other. They weren’t so much facing off as silently arguing and Gus won with one tap of his index finger on his watch.