“I guess so,” I said. “Well, that makes him our prime suspect as far as I’m concerned.”
“Agreed,” Leanne replied. “Although I also still want to know what the argument between Karen and Andrew was about.”
“Right,” I said. “We need to get a look at Kyle’s car as well. They should be back this evening. My guess is he’ll be parked at the hospital.”
“I think so,” Leanne said. “I know his car. It’s a black truck; he keeps all his work stuff in it. Karen drives a blue Honda.”
“We should check them both, just to be safe. Neither car was at the house the other day.”
“That’s true,” Leanne said. “Maybe she left it at the school.”
The ambulance doors closed just then, with Ariadne being driven off to the hospital, and Aunt Lucy came towards us.
“Was that enough of a distraction for you?” she asked.
“That was perfect,” Leanne replied.
Aunt Lucy cackled. “I was just going to set a tree on fire or something, but then I saw Ariadne driving down the street and I just couldn’t help myself. Of course, she shouldn’t have her license anyway. They should have taken it from her years ago. She’s blind as a bat, she doesn’t look where she’s going, and she has the reflexes of a snail that’s smoked a little too much pot. She was a good thirty, forty feet from the sinkhole when it opened and she still didn’t manage to stop in time, even though she was going ten miles an hour, tops.”
“She doesn’t know you’re a witch though, right?” I asked. “After all, she was blaming you for what happened.”
“That’s because blaming others is easier than blaming her own terrible driving,” Aunt Lucy replied. I didn’t point out that it was Aunt Lucy’s fault that the sinkhole opened in the first place. “The only reason she bought that new car is because she drove the old one onto the beach and straight into the water last summer. She claimed someone moved the signs for the parking lot so she thought she was still on the road, and that because it was foggy she didn’t see the water until it was too late.”
“Of course, it was a perfectly sunny day out,” Leanne said to me. “And no one else saw that fog except for Ariadne. Everyone else knew she was driving into the ocean. She even ran over a kid’s sandcastle on the way there. The only reason she didn’t drown was because the lifeguard on duty ran in and managed to save her.”
“Wow,” I said. “That’s crazy!”
“She tried to sue the county for moving the signs, but obviously it didn’t work,” Aunt Lucy said. “I’m sure I’m going to be named in a suit. I guess if any one of us needs a lawyer right now, it’s going to be me. Ah well, it was completely worth it.”
I laughed as Leanne and I left Aunt Lucy and made our way back down the street.
Chapter 16
The two of us decided to walk towards the school. After all, Karen’s car hadn’t turned up. Maybe that was the car she had been in when she was stabbed, but maybe not. We ended up reaching the parking lot around noon, and the sound of children shrieking and laughing as they played outside reached our ears long before the single-story brick building came into view.
At the front of the building was a small parking lot, and sure enough, in one of the spots about thirty feet from the front door was a blue Civic.
“That’s got to be it, right?” I asked Leanne, who nodded.
“Yeah, surely.”
The two of us made our way up to the car and peeked inside. Sure enough, it was a regular Civic interior. No blood or anything of the sort on the seats. No sign of any stains having been recently cleaned, either. Three booster seats in the back. The fact that the car was still sitting here in the parking lot indicated to me that Karen had left the school without her car.
“There’s Gary’s green Corolla,” I said, looking at the other cars in the lot. It was parked next to Karen’s Civic. It looked to be about five years old, with a number of bumper stickers on the back: protect our winters, meat is murder, stop drunk driving and love is love. I peered inside to see the seats looking completely normal. It was a tan interior, too, so it wasn’t like it would be possible to hide the blood, and a couple of old stains in the fabric proved that Gary Vanderchuck hadn’t gotten the upholstery changed in the last couple of days, either.
Between that and the fact that he was apparently at a conference in Seattle the night Karen was stabbed, I was pretty much ready to write him off completely as a suspect.
“Excuse me,” a voice said a moment later, and I looked up, startled. The man walking towards us was tall, of medium weight, wearing a polo shirt and slacks and walking with the confidence and authority of someone who was used to being in charge. “What are you doing near my car?”
“Mr. Vanderchuck,” Leanne said, and as soon as he saw my cousin his expression changed.
“Leanne Stevens,” he replied. “It’s been quite a few years since I’ve seen you, but given as I saw your cousin just the other day, I assume you’re here for the same reason?”
“More or less,” Leanne confirmed. “We were just checking to see if Karen’s car was still here.”
“Yes, it’s been here in the lot since I got back,” Gary confirmed. “I heard she’s being brought back to the island this afternoon. I’m so glad she’s going to be alright.”
“We are too,” I said. “You said you were in Seattle for a conference when she was stabbed?”
“Yes,” Gary replied. “I can’t believe anyone would do something like this to a woman like Karen. As I told Kaillie and her friend, we might have had disagreements about how to treat the children, but the reality was she cared a lot about her students, and that’s the most important thing.”
“Who do you think might have done this to her?” I asked, and Gary shrugged.
“I couldn’t tell you. I can’t believe anyone would have such a grudge against Karen that they would try to kill her.”
“Do you know how her family life was going?” Leanne asked.
“We weren’t that close,” Gary replied. “Sorry.”
“Do you know anything about gambling in town? Anyone involved in it?” Leanne asked, and Gary frowned.
“Gambling? No, I’ve never heard of any happening here. I mean, I’m sure people do it on the internet and stuff, but that’s all. Why?”
“No real reason,” Leanne replied. “Just something we heard.”
“Well, I can’t say I know anything about that.”
“Alright, thanks,” I said, and Leanne and I left, the bell sounding a few minutes later to let the kids know their lunch break was over and that it was time to head back into class.
“Did you see the inside of the car? Kaillie and Sara already said it looked fine.”
“Yeah, and it does,” I confirmed. “It doesn’t look new, either. What about Andrew?”
“He should be at the recreation center now,” Leanne said. “After all, it’s a weekday. I don’t think we should bother him, though. He seemed pretty nervous about talking the other night, and I think we might get more out of him if we spy on him instead.”
“Spy on him?” I asked, my eyes widening.
“That’s right. Do you want to learn how to cast the spell that lets you eavesdrop on people?” Leanne asked with a grin. “I heard Aunt Lucy cast it so many times in my life even I know the incantation for it.”
“I don’t know,” I said carefully. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to do it.”
“Well, if it doesn’t work we can always text Aunt Lucy and ask her to do it for us,” Leanne offered. “But consider this your magical lesson for the day.”
“What if something messes up?” I asked, thinking about what Tina told me. It wasn’t easy to say, but I took a deep breath and continued. “It’s not like you’re going to be able to reverse it. I think right now I’m better off practicing where it can’t hurt me.”
Leanne nodded. “Ok, that’s totally cool. If you’re not comfortable with it that’s fine, I’ll text Aunt Lucy. She’ll
help us. I don’t want to push you into something you’re uncomfortable with.”
“Thanks,” I replied, a wave of gratefulness washing over me. Tina had been right when she had told me to trust the people around me. I wasn’t comfortable with using magic in public yet, and rather than pressure me to do it, Leanne had completely understood.
I really did need to learn to trust more. Leanne had already saved my life. And she had just proven that she was completely comfortable going at my pace when it came to learning magic. I had grown up with just Dad and myself, and I still found it so difficult to trust others. But Tina had told me to rely on the people I was close to now, and time and time again, they came through for me.
“No problem,” Leanne said, pulling out her phone and typing away. To be completely honest, I wasn’t totally sold on the idea of inviting Aunt Lucy. Leanne seemed completely fine with her brand of chaos, but one person had already been taken away in an ambulance because of her today. Even if she did seem completely fine.
Maybe Kaillie had a point about the fact that we needed to be better witches to be invited back into the paranormal world. On the other hand, there were no guarantees that would ever happen even if we were good, and surely solving an attempted murder would be more important than casting a few erratic spells that negatively affected Aunt Lucy’s worst enemy.
“She’s coming, she’ll meet us there,” Leanne told me, leading me away from the school. I had yet to visit the Enchanted Enclave recreation center, and it turned out to be on one of the side streets off Main Street, not far from the center of town. The building featured a pool, a gym, some squash courts and a basketball court as well as a few diverse community rooms. It was nice that even a small place like Enchanted Enclave could have somewhere like this for kids – and adults for that matter – to get some exercise in, especially when the weather turned ugly.
When we walked in, Aunt Lucy was sitting at a plastic table near the small concession stand, eating fries from a cardboard container. She waved us over when she saw us, and the two of us made our way over, sitting in the plastic chairs across from her. Leanne grabbed a fry from the container and munched down on it.
“We need you to cast a spell for us,” Leanne explained to our aunt.
“Is that all I am to you? A vessel through which to perform magic?”
“You also take my side whenever I’m arguing with dad,” Leanne replied. “Most of the time, anyway.”
“That is true. What spell do you need?”
“We want to eavesdrop on Andrew,” Leanne said. “Have you seen him?”
“He walked to his office about five minutes ago,” Aunt Lucy said.
“Perfect,” I replied.
Aunt Lucy pulled her wand from her purse and pointed it towards a door to our left, making sure to keep it under the table so that no one nearby could see it. Leanne put a hand on Aunt Lucy’s arm and motioned for me to do the same, which I did.
“Saturn, god of plenty, enhance Andrew’s voice and make it loud as a banshee,” Aunt Lucy muttered. A second later I gasped. I could hear a man’s voice inside my head; it was like he was standing right there next to me.
“No, you don’t have to worry about it. It’s all taken care of,” the man said.
“That’s Andrew,” Leanne mouthed at me from the other end of the table, and I nodded.
There was a pause, and the man spoke again. “Look, I know you think she’s going to tell everyone what she knows, but I’m telling you, it’s not a problem anymore. Karen has way more important things to deal with now. We’re a low priority. You don’t need to do anything. But I’m telling you, I’m out. I can’t do it anymore.”
This time, the three of us exchanged glances. I had suspected Andrew was talking about Karen, but now there wasn’t a shadow of a doubt.
“Look, she’s in the hospital. Goodness knows how long she’s going to be there. She’s supposed to pull through, but you never know with medical stuff. I had an aunt with pneumonia a few years back. The doctors told us she was going to pull through, that she was going to make it, then bam. One day, her heart just gave out. You never know. So no, I’m not going to do anything about it right now. I’m going to let it play its course. We’re not in any trouble right now. I’m telling you.”
There was another pause. “Fine. Do that. But if anyone comes to you asking questions, you clam up, ok? I’ve already got those meddling women from that coffee company coming around asking me about Karen. Like they’ve got any right. But they don’t know squat, don’t worry. They’re just snooping. They’re nothing we need to bother with.”
My veins turned to ice as I heard those words. Sure, we might have been ‘nothing to bother with’ right now, but I couldn’t help but feel a little bit worried. Who was Andrew on the phone with? What if that person decided that we were trouble and decided they were going to do something about it?
“Right,” Andrew continued after another pause. “We need to just keep acting like nothing’s happening. Besides, I’m telling you, the cops up here are idiots. They’re not going to catch on. It’s been a year, and they still don’t have a clue that we’re doing it. Leave the Karen situation to me. She’s not going to be a problem, I’m telling you. But I can’t keep doing this. It’s too much pressure. There’s going to be an investigation, and I can’t get caught, you got me?”
There was silence for a couple of minutes, and then Andrew started muttering to himself. “I swear, I should never have done it. Why I thought I could get out of things this easily…” His voice trailed off, and a minute later the door Aunt Lucy had pointed the wand at opened up, and a short, stout man with a thick black beard walked out, looking at the ground, obviously wrapped up in his own thoughts.
“Well, that was certainly more enlightening than I was expecting,” Aunt Lucy said. “It sounds like Andrew is mixed up in something he shouldn’t be.”
“I want to know who he was on the phone with,” Leanne said. “Hopefully it was his cell phone so that would mean there’s a record of it. Although, we’d still have to get access to the phone to look at those records.”
“That’s very easily stolen,” Aunt Lucy said. “I can cause another distraction and then Eliza can cast a spell to make his phone float over here.”
“No, Eliza doesn’t want to use magic in public until she gets the hang of it a bit more,” Leanne explained. I had honestly expected Aunt Lucy to fight that a little bit, but she just shrugged.
“Alright, well, no rush in teaching her spells I guess. It’s not like it matters that she’s behind the rest of us when we’re among the only five witches in this world who can use magic at all. How are you going to get his phone, then?”
“I don’t know,” Leanne admitted. “Maybe that’s a problem for the future. If Karen is back in town, I’d like to go and see her. Although, I don’t know if she’ll see me.”
“Alright, well, I’ll leave you to it then. Carmen says Carolyn Doyle is getting her hair dyed blue, and we all want to see how it turns out, so I made an appointment at the salon at the same time, and have to get going. I’ll show you pictures tonight. A teenager showed me how to take selfies to spy on people without them noticing the other day, so I’m going to try that out.”
Aunt Lucy waved and walked off, and Leanne shook her head.
“Who’s Carolyn Doyle?” I asked.
“A woman Aunt Lucy went to school with. They didn’t get along in high school, and have had a low-key rivalry ever since. Nothing like Aunt Lucy and Ariadne though. That feud is a whole other level of crazy. It’s best to stay out of it.”
“Fair enough,” I replied. “Let’s go to the hospital and see if Karen wants to see you, or if she’s happy to pretend you never existed.”
Given the look on her face, Leanne was very worried about the second option being reality.
Chapter 17
“Look, I’m sure it’ll be fine,” I said for what felt like the millionth time during the ten minute walk from the recreation
center to the hospital. “She ran into the car looking for help, and you did your best to avoid her, and then you saved her life. That has to count for something.”
“It probably would have counted for more if I hadn’t hit her at all,” Leanne said with a sigh. “I wouldn’t blame her if she absolutely hated me. Come on, we have to stop at the florist first. I can’t show up empty-handed.”
The Enchanted Enclave florist was on Main Street, a small shop absolutely teeming with green life. As we walked in, a woman behind the counter smiled at us as she trimmed the leaves off some long-stemmed roses. Her long red hair flowed down to her waist, and her light brown eyes were friendly and warm. She looked exactly like what I imagined a fairy who lived in the woods among the trees and moss would look like, and here in the middle of a store surrounded by plants she looked in her element.
“Hello there,” she greeted us in a soft voice. “How can I help you?”
“Hi,” Leanne said. “I’m looking for a simple bouquet of flowers to give to someone.”
“Do you have an occasion in mind?” the woman asked. “I can definitely help you.”
“It’s kind of a sympathy thing.”
I had to smile at the idea that the florist had a whole section of “sorry I hit you with my car” flowers just sitting around.
“Alright, I can help you with that,” the florist said, nodding as she made her way to the wall on the left, which was lined with buckets with various flowers. “If this is for someone to get better, I like to go with happy, hope-inducing color combinations, like purple and yellow. Look at these daisies, for example. Don’t you think they’d go well with these peonies?”
“Yeah, I do,” Leanne said. “That’s perfect.”
“Excellent. And what price range were you looking at? I can make you a custom bouquet based on that.”
“Um, I don’t know,” Leanne said. “What do people normally spend on someone who they hope gets well soon but that they didn’t know, when it’s their fault they found themselves in that situation?”
A Cauldron of Hot Coffee: Enchanted Enclave Mysteries Books 1-3 Page 25
