by Iris Kincaid
Mickey did his best to look vacant.
“That’s why it falls on me to make all the decisions about his money,” Simone continued. She looked at Dillard meaningfully. “I just need a little help sometimes, to get through all the legal hoops. And I don’t mind paying for it.” She winked.
Then they convened in Mr. Dillard’s office, where Simone “auditioned” him as a co-conspirator in siphoning off her grandfather’s money without raising any alarm bells amongst the rest of their relatives. Before she could make a decision about this bank, Mr. Dillard was going to have to prove his usefulness.
She wanted to buy a new luxury car with cash, which was technically a violation of managing her grandfather’s account. It was specifically for his living expenses. This was going to have to be done without a paper trail. The car dealer told her that she needed an attorney or banker present. If Dillard would be so kind as to help her out, she would give him their business. And she would certainly be able to throw a few bucks his way. Maybe a lot of bucks.
It was Albert Dillard’s favorite kind of arrangement. He readily agreed.
*****
Gillian waited impatiently at the dealership, hidden from sight, crouched behind a large van. Morty stood by, on high alert. She suspected that he could feel her tension. She wondered where Officer Cochran was. Surely, he should have been given her message by now. The recorded plotting from Dillard’s office was probably enough to qualify for a search warrant. This time around, without police resources, she’d had to arrange that wiring with the same security company that put the cameras in the coffeehouse.
But to make sure this plan worked, it was best if Dillard could be caught accepting a kickback from Simone for illegally taking money from an elderly man’s savings. Good thing that the car dealer was willing to play along. Simone had gotten her red Lexus from him.
Gillian watched Simone and Mickey Woodward chatting together, waiting for Dillard. Mickey was actually a lot more sociable that she would ever have suspected. But finally, Dillard’s car drove up and he got out. He walked over to Simone and Mickey with a suspiciously strained smile on his face and a suspiciously loaded gun in his pocket! He pulled it out and pointed it at Simone, ordering her and Mickey to come with him over to a wooded area behind the dealership. Gillian’s heart was pounding. What could she do? She darted after them.
“Come out, Ms. Swann, or I’m not going to be very nice to your friends here,” Mr. Dillard shouted.
Gillian couldn’t abandon her team. She was responsible for getting them into this mess. She came out quickly.
“You couldn’t leave well enough alone,” Dillard snarled at her. “You thought you could put me away for the rest of my life.”
“You killed Byron. Why would you do that?” Gillian asked, wondering how they were going to survive this situation.
“He and I had a good thing going. A blind woman doesn’t need money. There was really no harm in our putting it to better use. I sure knew what to do with it. My wife spends like there’s no tomorrow. Thought she was marrying a rich guy when she married a banker. We don’t make the big bucks that everyone thinks.”
“So I heard,” Gillian said, wondering when the cops would show up.
“And Byron had big plans for his share. Nothing wrong with that. He was taking good care of you, wasn’t he? It was a good arrangement. But then he lost power of attorney and couldn’t access your money. That should have been the end of it for him. Game over. But the greedy idiot wanted more money. My money. My hard-earned money. Said that he would rat on me to the police if I didn’t pay out. No sir. I gave him what he deserved.”
So, it was okay for Byron to steal from Gillian but not for him to steal from Dillard? Of course, this wasn’t the time to point out hypocrisies.
“How did you . . . how did you know what we were doing?”
“You left a message at the police department for Officer Cochran. Only he never got that message. I have a good friend over there who takes some big-ticket items from the evidence room from time to time, makes a little money, and needs a place to hide it. Which I’m happy to help out with, for a fee. Now that’s a good partnership. He gave me a heads-up about your little plan.” He pointed the gun at the frightened trio. “It wasn’t such a good plan after all, was it?”
Out of the blue, there was a blur of violent action leaping onto his face. It was Morty, not at all happy to see Gillian in such distress. Dillard took one hand and flung the cat off him. But it gave Gillian the time that she needed.
“Rah deet esculpa finon.”
Dillard let out a panicked yell and dropped his gun. “What’s happening?” he screamed. “Why can’t I see? Why can’t I see?”
Heart racing, Gillian retrieved the gun before he could remember it. Together, she and Simone wheeled Mickey back to the dealership with amazing speed, away from the angry screams behind them.
“What did you do to me? I’m going to get you for this. You can’t do this to me!”
As soon as they got to the parking lot, Gillian called Officer Cochran directly and told him to come and collect Byron Curtiss’s murderer.
*****
The murder weapon had long been disposed of, but the faint dust surrounding it in its former home in Albert Dillard’s tool shed indicated an exact forensic match with the murder wound. The spot could easily have been missed, but fortunately, Gillian insisted on tagging along, and Finn Cochran gave the go-ahead.
That dust imprint and the wire that Simone had been wearing made for an open and shut case. Dillard was going to spend the rest of his life in prison, blind as a bat. The police were at a loss to understand the sudden blindness, but highly-renowned local surgeon, Dr. Harold Svenson, explained to them that sometimes, these things just happen.
*****
As for telling Vaughn that Gillian was a witch, it went a whole lot better than she could have anticipated. Sure, there were a few days of disbelief and shock. But seeing is believing. Gillian’s abilities were undeniable—as was Vaughn’s deeply entrenched affection for her.
The novelty of witnessing the range of Gillian’s abilities soon became a source of fascination to Vaughn. Not to mention, entertainment.
“Can you see me now?” he shouted through a closed bedroom door.
From Vaughn’s living room, Gillian shook her head at how he never seemed to get tired of this game. “You know I can see you.”
“What am I holding up?”
“A pair of scissors . . . now the alarm clock . . . now a pillow. Get in here.”
At the library, Vaughn gleefully scoured the aisles until he found the most promising book.
“This looks good. James Joyce’s Ulysses. You could recite it word for word and freak people out.”
“And never get invited to another party, ever again,” Gillian noted.
“Okay, okay. How about this? You read everything in here, and then apply for Jeopardy.”
“Why don’t I just sit at a poker table and look at everyone’s cards?”
“Hey . . .” Vaughn considered.
“That was most definitely a joke.”
But Gillian didn’t mind his enthusiasm. There were going to be so few people whom she could talk to about what her new life was like, how the part of her that was a witch was starting to become a treasured part of herself. It was pretty great that Vaughn was going to be one of them.
As for Vaughn, every unpleasant thing that had happened to him in the past few years was being swept away in a tidal wave of exhilaration. Even before he knew that she was a witch, Gillian was the most unique person he had ever met. The witch stuff . . . well, it kind of felt like back in the day when people were just finding out that the world was round. At first, it’s unbelievable. But then, it offers you a tantalizing new world you can’t wait to explore.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: EPILOGUE
Vaughn’s hunch that Dillard had exploited the elderly was right on target. He finagled access to the bank, with the help of an audi
ting team, and wrote an expose of Albert Dillard’s long history of theft and embezzlement, which quickly got national coverage and another book offer. The story didn’t fail to mention the three local heroes involved in Dillard’s capture, Simone Valentine, Gillian Swann, and senior Mickey Woodward.
Mickey quickly discovered that he had to take down those belligerent signs from his wheelchair. After all, he was a celebrity hero now, the pride of the senior community, and naturally, everywhere he went, people wanted to hear the tale of how he faced down a ruthless killer and helped to bring justice to the most shocking crime Oyster Cove had ever seen.
One of Mickey’s favorite hangouts to tell his story was Café Au Lait, whose recently hired manager/head cashier was his new buddy, Simone Valentine. Sharing life or death experiences can lead to a very lasting bond.
Not to mention that Gillian Swann had said that his tab was on the house for life. Nice girls. It was almost like having a couple of long-lost nieces show up in his life. He also enjoyed his frequent chats with Delphine, who had showed up at the café one day and selectively blocked the memory of Gillian blinding a man from Mickey and Simone’s memory. It seemed like the best idea for all concerned.
*****
As for Simone, she had long assumed that no one would ever give her a job again—much less trust her with a cash register, much less put her in charge. The salary was really generous, and Gillian had said that if she saved enough, she could buy a partnership in the coffeehouse. Owning a business! She had always dreamed of that. Finally! She couldn’t imagine a better life for herself. And the snickerdoodles!
*****
Abby’s sacrifice in allowing herself to be arrested brought about some unexpected dividends. She had previously been frustrated with herself for not being able to decide on a firm career path. Vaughn’s springing into lawyer mode was an inspiration. She could do that! In fact, she had a hunch that she’d really be great at it.
Thankfully, the police department didn’t want to nail her on obstruction of justice for the false confession. In fact, after Albert Dillard was taken into custody, a lot of officers couldn’t help but admire Abby’s loyalty to her cousin—including one cute rookie cop who shyly asked her out for a cup of coffee.
*****
With the Byron Curtiss case in the rearview mirror, in no small part, to the efforts of Gillian Swann, Finn figured he owed her a big favor—an introduction to his girlfriend, Margo Bailey. Hmmm. That was always how he felt about introducing his girlfriend to anyone—as if he were doing them a big favor and bringing something terrific into their lives. The three of them convened on the pier.
“Gillian Swann, this is my girlfriend, Margo Bailey, proprietor of Margo’s Movie House, right next to your café, and, uh . . . an art lover. Yeah, she puts art exhibits up in the theater lobby every month. I thought you might like that, being an artist and all.”
“I’ve been looking forward to meeting you, Gillian, like you wouldn’t believe,” gushed Margo.
“You have?” Gillian said, pleasantly surprised.
“Yes, I’ve always wondered if Dr. Svenson had other transplant patients . . . you know, who had a little of Lilith Hazelwood in them.”
Gillian gasped with surprise. That was the reason for Margo’s athletically robust heart. Another transplant witch, just like herself!
“Yeah, you two have yourselves a good talk,” Finn said, backing away. “You heard that we caught Dillard’s cop partner, right? Big mess to clean up.” And with that, he left the two young witches to begin a long and fast friendship.
Their questions for one another came fast and furious. It was just such a relief to speak openly about the perks of their new powers, the difficulty of secrecy, the tenuous relationship they held with Oyster Cove’s indigenous witch community, and their feelings about their benefactor, Lilith Hazelwood, who by all accounts, was a piece of work but who was also responsible for giving them their lives back.
“Tell me more about Vaughn,” Margo urged. “You two sound like a great pair.”
“He’s very compassionate. And he loves theater and sailing,” Gillian said.
“Oh, my guy loves surfing. We should all go out on the water sometime.”
“Oh, no. Oh, no. Are you saying that I have to become friends with Bad Cop?” Gillian wailed.
“Yes, you do! You absolutely do,” Margo insisted, laughing.
Gillian scoffed in mock protest. But it was all in good fun. There was nothing about her new life that didn’t thrill her. Love and magic. Friendship. Vision. And trust. Becoming a witch was the best thing that could have happened to her.
Lilith Hazelwood watched her two donor recipients with mixed feelings. Their powers needed honing, direction, if they were ever to be of any use to her. Although she had never had need of any partners herself, it was perhaps useful, for her own purposes, that these two should form an alliance.
The Hatch sisters had revealed their deep resentment and dislike of herself. The power that they were able to summon when they were together could certainly have been strong enough to strike against her. They had revealed their plan to dispose of her, steal her spell book, and supplant her as Oyster Cove’s supreme monopoly on power. Well, perhaps they hadn’t really made an outright confession. They were, however, the likeliest culprits.
They had also made her mindful of the strength to be found in numbers. Here were two promising elements of a plan to uncover her murderer. Her heart and her eyes—courage and vision. This Gillian Swann was already alerted to the danger of the Hatch trio. She also had it in her to defend herself and had acted without hesitation in blinding that worthless killer. Very promising, indeed.
Still, there was more of her body and her powers that had yet to be rejuvenated. There was no telling what future resources she would have to draw on to exact her vengeance—what alchemy these beneficiaries might have if banded together. Time to check in on Dr. Svenson and meet Oyster Cove’s next newest witch.
Notes from the Author
Be sure to check on Amazon.com for the entire One Part Witch Series.
Next up: The Witch's Voice – coming in December 2017
And The Witch’s Beauty – coming in January 2018
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Iris Kincaid
