“Oh?” I asked.
“He said that he actually loved the fact that Karen had so much passion and determination, and that he wished there were more teachers out there like her,” Sara continued. “He said that even though they disagreed on this particular topic, the fact that she fought for her students and fought for what she believed in was the most important thing to him, and he hoped more than anything that she was going to be ok.”
“Did you believe him?” I asked, and Kaillie nodded.
“I mean, I did, initially. But of course, I wasn’t just going to take his word for it. So we asked him where he was the night Karen was stabbed. It turns out Gary wasn’t even on the island. He was on the mainland in Seattle for some sort of school administrator’s conference. He told us if we didn’t believe him we could ask his wife; she was at home the whole time and he wasn’t.”
“Oh,” I replied. “Well, that eliminates him as a suspect, I guess.”
“I think so,” Sara replied. “Plus, we asked him what he was driving, and on our way back out, we looked at the inside of his car, just in case. A green Corolla. Sure enough, there was no sign of blood or anything to indicate that Karen was stabbed in it.”
“We need to get a look at Kyle’s car,” I said.
“We do,” Leanne confirmed.
“Well, we’ll leave you to it, as we do need to get back to Western Woods and we have a bit of a trip ahead of us,” Tina said, standing up. “I hope you don’t feel as though we intruded here.”
“No, not at all,” I replied warmly. “Thank you for coming. You have no idea how much your advice and wisdom has helped me. I’m really grateful that you were willing to take the time to come here.”
“Not a problem,” Ellie replied. “We don’t come to the human world enough. It’s fun here, in a quaint way. I bet this would make a great holiday destination, one where we can relax and just leave our wands at home.”
“Yeah, that sounds nice,” Sara said, nodding. “Although I don’t like the treadmills here.”
“Don’t worry, neither do I,” I replied with a laugh.
“Let us know what happens with the investigation,” Ellie said.
“Will it work if we call you?” I asked, and Sara nodded.
“It certainly should. Let’s swap numbers and we can stay in touch.”
“Good idea,” Tina said, and the six of us spent a few minutes making sure we all had each other’s’ numbers.
“If you meet anyone important, you could suggest to them that our family doesn’t deserve its exile anymore,” Kaillie said. “We’d really appreciate it.”
“The odds are low – Western Woods isn’t really an important town and we don’t get many visitors from high up, but if we get the chance, we’ll do it,” Tina promised. “Hopefully we’ll get to see you in the paranormal world sometime.”
“I hope so,” Kaillie replied earnestly.
“In the meantime, thanks again for coming,” I said. “You have no idea how much your words have helped me.”
“I’m just glad I was able to help,” Tina replied. “You keep doing what you’re doing. Keep being yourself.”
I nodded and gave Tina a hug. “Take care of yourself.”
“You too.”
A few minutes later the Western Woods witches left, leaving the three of us in the living room on our own once more.
Chapter 14
“I’m really not sure this is going to work,” I said the next day as I got dressed in the fanciest clothes I owned – a blouse and a pair of slacks that I had bought for my job as a receptionist.
“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine,” Leanne said. “We need to confirm that Karen was going to see Jean McKinney about a divorce, and there’s no other way to do it except to go into the office.”
“Yeah, but why do I have to be the one to pretend that I have a long-lost husband who no one can find?”
“Because literally everyone in town knows Kaillie and me. No one knows you, though.”
“Yeah, but won’t everyone find out about this if that’s what I tell the lawyer?”
“That’s what client confidentiality is for,” Leanne replied. “Your lawyer isn’t allowed to tell anybody anything you’ve told them, so no, your secret will be safe.”
“It’s not a secret, it’s a lie.”
“Po-tay-to, po-tah-to.”
“You know, the more time I spend with you, the more I’m starting to understand why Kaillie has the reputation of being the good one in the family.”
“Yeah, that’s probably fair enough. Now come on, let’s do this.”
Leanne and I walked into the office on the ground floor of one of the commercial buildings on Main Street. It was plainly decorated, basically exactly what I would have expected from a small, generalist law firm. The walls were beige, the furniture simple and obviously inexpensive. When we walked in, a receptionist with curly brown hair who looked to be in her early forties looked up at us.
“Hello, do you have an appointment?” she asked.
“Yes, my cousin here made one this morning,” Leanne replied. “She needs to see Jean for an initial consult. Eliza Emory.”
“Of course,” the receptionist said, all business. “Please have a seat, and we’ll call Mrs. Emory up shortly.”
Eliza and I sat down in the waiting area, joining a man who held a manila folder full of documents close to his chest, as if he were worried that if he released his grip on the files at all they’d vanish into thin air.
I probably looked just as nervous as the man was. I wasn’t a good liar. Actually, scratch that. I was a terrible liar. I didn’t like misleading people, but Leanne was right. We needed to get as much information as we could. It could really prove that Kyle had the perfect motive to try and kill his wife, especially given as her appointment was the day after she was stabbed.
The receptionist called the man in after about three or four minutes, and then five minutes after that, she called my name.
I stood up, Leanne flashed me a confident smile and gave me a thumbs up, and motioned for me to get in there.
I followed the receptionist through a short hallway, and she led me into a decently-sized office occupied by a woman in her fifties, with her grey hair tied back into a bun, her glasses reflecting the screen of the computer she stared at. As soon as she heard me enter, Jean McKinnie looked up and gave me a warm smile.
“Hello, you must be Eliza.”
“That’s me,” I said quietly.
“I’m Jean. Please, have a seat.”
I did as she asked, carefully sinking into the comfortable chair across from her desk.
“So,” Jean started, wasting no time. “What can I do for you today?”
“Well,” I started, stammering slightly. “See, I’m new in town. I come from San Francisco. And the thing is, when I lived there, I was married. I left him, but we’re not divorced.”
“And you’d like to take care of the paperwork?” Jean asked. I nodded. “Well, that’s not a problem at all. I’ve been doing divorces for years. What kind of assets do you have?”
“Ummm… nothing, really.”
“No house? Either separate or between you?”
“No.”
“What about kids?”
“Definitely not!”
That earned a smile from Jean. “Good. That will make things easier. Were either one of you cheating on the other?”
“Errmmm… no,” I finally managed to stammer. Boy, I was really not good at this whole lying thing. Then, I interrupted, since I needed to get the conversation to Karen. “My friend Karen referred me here, you know. She was supposed to have an appointment here the other day.”
Jean made a non-committal noise in her throat. She wasn’t opening up at all, so I tried again. “Did you hear about what happened to Karen? She was stabbed. Did she ever make it in to see you?”
Jean looked at me carefully. “I’m afraid I cannot talk about current clients, or in any way confirm or den
y that Karen was even a client of mine.”
I sighed, and Jean looked at me carefully. “What are you, really? A reporter? You’re not married, are you?”
Great. She had seen straight through me, and I’d barely even done anything. I really was a bad liar.
“No, I’m not a reporter,” I replied. I decided to go with the truth. After all, lies hadn’t gotten me anywhere so far. “My cousin Leanne and I were the ones who found Karen when she was stabbed. Leanne feels terrible because she hit Karen with her car slightly when Karen ran out into the road to flag us down, and we decided that we want to try and find the person who hurt her, especially with her coming into town. We know that she had an appointment scheduled with you for the day after she was stabbed, but it doesn’t say what about. Her husband Kyle is one of our main suspects, and I was hoping you’d be able to tell us what she was meeting you for.”
A smile flittered across Jean’s lips, which surprised me. “Well, that’s not the strangest story I’ve ever heard.”
“Really? It’s not?” I was honestly surprised. Jean took the complete change of face super well considering she had been expecting a client who wanted a divorce from her estranged husband, not a client who was looking for information to solve a stabbing.
“I’ve been practicing law on this island for nearly thirty years. You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve seen. I’ve had to go to court in front of a judge and argue that it be stated in the divorce agreement that my client’s ex-wife wasn’t allowed to teach their parrot to insult him. I’ve walked in on my client and her ex doing it on the conference room table during a break in depositions. This change in conversation doesn’t even make the top ten list of weird things to happen this year, and it’s not even summer yet.”
“Well, in that case, can you help me?” I asked.
“Sorry,” Jean said with a shrug. “Regardless of your reasons, I still can’t tell you anything about Karen’s case. That would be a huge breach of confidentiality.”
I frowned slightly. “Can you at least tell me if she was here to discuss something about her husband?”
“I’m afraid I can’t say one way or the other,” Jean said, holding her hands out in apology.
“Alright, thanks,” I said dejectedly, getting up from my seat.
“If you ever do find yourself in need of a divorce attorney, please come and see me again,” Jean said as I left. I nodded and made my way back to the waiting room, where I made a thumbs down motion to Leanne as I headed towards her. She frowned as she stood up and made her way towards me.
“So it didn’t go well?”
I shook my head. “Wouldn’t tell me anything.”
“Alright,” Leanne said. “Well, it was worth a shot.”
The two of us left the law firm and went back out into the street, where we almost immediately ran into Aunt Lucy.
“Where are the rest of the Floozies?” Leanne asked.
“Busy with stuff,” Aunt Lucy said. “So I thought I’d find my favorite nieces and see how their investigation is going.”
“Badly,” Leanne admitted. “We know Karen had an appointment with Jean, but she won’t tell us anything about it. We want confirmation that it was about a divorce. I’d like to have a look at that computer, but the receptionist is glued to that chair.”
Aunt Lucy grinned, and I had a bad feeling about what was about to happen.
“Go back in there and ask her something,” Aunt Lucy said. “I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Would Kaillie be ok with what you’re about to do?” I asked cautiously.
“Kaillie is never ok with anything I do,” Aunt Lucy replied. “That doesn’t mean it’s not fun.”
“Fun wasn’t what I was worried about,” I muttered as Leanne grabbed me and dragged me back towards the law office. We went back inside and the receptionist looked at us once more.
“Yes?” she asked.
“Sorry, I was just wondering if you have a business card for Jean,” Leanne said smoothly. “I have an aunt who is looking into getting an attorney, and I wanted to recommend her.”
“Of course,” the receptionist said, leaning over and grabbing a card from a pile on the desk and handing it to Leanne.
Just then, there came a rumbling from outside. I spun around just in time to see a sinkhole open up in the middle of the street. A late-model blue sedan was headed towards it, and must not have seen it in time, because it drove right into the hole, falling about three feet with a huge clang.
Chapter 15
“My goodness!” the receptionist said, jumping up from her chair and rushing out into the street. I stood, glued to the spot, horrified while Leanne immediately jumped into action. She ran to the receptionist’s desk and began typing away while I eventually regained my senses and followed the receptionist out into the street to see if there was anything I could do to help.
I stopped short when I saw who was in the car: it was Ariadne Stewart, the cantankerous owner of one of the local gift shops and the woman who had a feud with Aunt Lucy going back decades.
She had gotten out of the car now and was standing in the bottom of the sinkhole, surrounded by concrete.
“I know this was you, Lucy!” she shouted out as people tried to get down into the hole to help her out. Her hands were on her hips as she yelled. “I know it was you!”
“Hold on, Ariadne,” Aunt Lucy called down. “You must have hit your head in that crash. People are coming down to help you. Just wait for them, ok?”
“You always were catty,” Ariadne replied. “Don’t you know how much this car costs? Of course you don’t; you haven’t worked a day in your life. You always were a lazy piece of crap. Well, let me tell you, this car is worth more than anything you own, and I swear I’m sending you the bill for repairs.”
“I’m fairly certain no body shop is going to believe that I have the ability to create sinkholes, as much as I consider it a compliment,” Aunt Lucy replied calmly. “I may be clever, but altering the island’s geology is beyond even my own skills.”
Ariadne seethed, stomping her feet on the ground. “You would resent me for being so successful. It’s not my fault you’ve failed at everything you ever tried. But that’s no reason to take it out on my beautiful new car.”
“Listen to what you’re saying, Ariadne,” Aunt Lucy replied, shaking her head. “I think we’re going to need an ambulance here. She might have a concussion,” she called out.
At that point, a couple of men managed to climb down and reach Ariadne.
“Are you alright, ma’am?” one of them asked, reaching towards her, and she moved her arm away.
“Of course I’m not alright! My poor car has been completely destroyed!”
Destroyed was probably a bit of an overreaction. To be honest, it looked in pretty good shape considering it had fallen about three feet into a hole. There was a dent on the front right bumper, and the left panel seemed to have been scratched up by a piece of loose concrete, but apart from that the car looked pretty much fine. I was fairly certain a body shop wouldn’t have too much problem restoring it right back to new.
“Your car is just a car,” the man replied. “There’s an ambulance on its way to take care of you.”
“Just a car?” Ariadne screeched. “It’s not just a car. This car is the reward I get for being a job creator in this town. I deserve it for everything I do for people. But I couldn’t expect you to understand. I bet you’re just a laborer or something. People like you, who aren’t actually successful at anything, wouldn’t know real success if it hit you in the face.”
“You know, maybe you should just wait for the EMTs if you want help getting out of this hole,” the man muttered, taking a step back and heading back out to street level.
“What, you’re just going to leave an old lady like me stranded here?” Ariadne harrumphed, her hands on her hips.
“Some life advice: don’t be mean to people trying to help you,” Aunt Lucy called down. “It might
go a bit better for you.”
“Why don’t you just keep your opinions to yourself up there?” Ariadne called back.
A minute later an ambulance pulled up to the hole, with the crowd of people that had gathered around moving to make space for it to reach. The professionals sprang into action and I realized I’d completely forgotten about Leanne and the receptionist. I looked around to find the receptionist still standing on the edge of the hole, watching in awe as the scene unfolded. I dared to glance inside the office to find Leanne just making her way towards the door. A moment later she sidled up next to me.
“Have I missed anything fun?”
“Just Ariadne blaming Aunt Lucy for creating the sinkhole.”
“Well, she’s not wrong.”
“That’s true. We’re the only ones who know that, though. Everyone else thinks Ariadne is insane. She then insulted the man trying to help her.”
“That sounds about right.”
“Did you find out anything on the computer?”
Leanne nodded. “Yes. There were a couple of notes in the file on Karen’s appointment. She was definitely seeing Jean about getting a divorce from Kyle, and there was a note about gambling debts.”
“Gambling debts?” I asked, my eyebrows rising.
“Yeah. That’s all it said. I guess maybe Kyle was addicted or something, and my guess is that was why Karen wanted to leave him.”
“Wow,” I said, watching as Ariadne insisted on being loaded up onto the stretcher and taken to the hospital, and telling everyone within earshot that she would be suing Aunt Lucy for doing this to her. “I’m surprised. I would have thought we’d have seen some sort of evidence of it in the financial documents.”
Leanne shrugged. “My guess is Kyle had his own secret set of accounts. Or maybe he was selling some family jewelry for cash, something like that. The sort of thing that doesn’t show up on ordinary financial documents.”
A Cauldron of Hot Coffee: Enchanted Enclave Mysteries Books 1-3 Page 24
