Bewitched Murder (Inept Witches 3)

by Amanda A. Allen

  “Hey,” he said.

  It was such a weighty little word when he said it like that. Weighty and painful.

  “Hey,” she said back. She smiled like she wasn’t dying inside a little bit. But maybe he knew because he tucked a stray piece of her hair behind her ear. His fingers lingered by her face, and she barley kept herself from curling into the palm of his hand.

  “You and your sandals look lovely,” he said.

  “I”m going to Prague,” she said. “I’m not exactly sure where that is, but I’m going.”

  He smiled at her and she realized that she’d given everything away. Yes, yes. She had softened. Yes. She wanted him back. Yes, she forgave him for investigating her for the crime that he absolutely should have investigated her for. And yes, somehow, she had forgiven him for loving her and making her love him back.

  Was she scared?

  She was terrified. It was why she was going to go to Europe to be sure… but she was also pretty sure that she would miss him so much it hurt the entire time she was gone. Even though she was certain of all of those things. And maybe to make sure that she’d rather love him than not, she was going to run.

  For a while.

  She looked Gabe up and down and said, “Hello, my pretty. I’m here to offer up my mad, mad skills at witchcraft. And also to tell you that the Dean dude that Autumn said was on the island all the time is here.”

  “Wait what?”

  “He’s here. With big eyes and flirty ways and making my dove Em all glittery and wanting.”

  “What?”

  “I mean…if I had my guess, I’d say he flirted with Em hardcore, given the level of her glitter, she probably kissed him. He definitely left her wanting. Like wanting, wanting.”

  “Glitter?”

  “Um…he made her aura sparkly?”

  “I don’t understand anything you are saying.”

  “It was like he lit a fire inside of her. She’s burning up for him.”

  “Ohhhhhh,” Gabe shook his head at her and then tugged the same strand of hair he’d put behind her ear. “So, Emily is attracted to this Dean fellow.”

  “And he was hitting her up for information about the island and the coven and what not.”

  “Well…”

  Ingrid knew he had listened to her. She could almost see his brain file the information away, but he wasn’t convinced.

  “You don’t think that’s ominous and evil?”

  “I think Emily is beautiful. And Autumn says this guy is on the island a lot. If he’s just met Emily and he’s single, he’s going to flirt with her.”

  “Get your eyes off my best dove.”

  “He just needs to keep his eyes and flirting to Emily, and we’ll be fine.”

  She smiled at him, enjoying that hint of threat in his voice, even though she'd kill him if he ever thought he could actually be territorial.

  “Except if he killed Mary’s mom.”

  “Right.” Gabe frowned and led the way into his office. “Please say you have coffee in that giant bag of yours.”

  “Course I do,” Ingrid said, not mentioning she had a thermos of coffee and a thermos of coffee with a touch of truth serum. And by a touch, she meant 2 vials. Also known as a complete overkill of truth serum. “So, let’s go talk to Gallery Guy. He’s all arrested right?”

  “We’re more in a silent standoff where he refuses to talk and I refuse to arrest him, but in a joint agreement that if I don’t arrest him then I might have to look at arresting Mary.”

  “Wasn’t she like … 12?”

  “Yes. Ingrid,” Gabe pushed his hand over his face and looked haggard for a second. It made her want to wrap him up in her arms again and have some tacos delivered and other things.

  But she couldn’t.

  It was like she was physically incapable of pushing past her fear of him. Even though she wanted to and knew that, eventually, she’d lady up and trust him. He was utterly trustworthy.

  Maybe her problem wasn’t him at all. It was her. It was how she’d been with Harrison and how she’d let him control her and leave her dreams behind. She hadn’t had all that many dreams. She’d wanted to travel and love and maybe have a family. But he’d nixed two of those so thoroughly while also taking away things like magic that she didn’t care about that she found herself…still broken and still crushed in her heart.

  So she smiled at him, and then walked into his office, making herself at home across from his desk and pouring them both a cup of coffee. All the while pretending that she wasn’t a tornado inside of herself.

  “Let’s talk to Gallery Guy. Maybe he’ll talk if I’m there.”

  “He hates you.”

  “But I know what’s happening with his daughter.”

  “You have truth serum don’t you?”

  “Who,” she said with a wide-eyed innocent look that he didn’t believe for a second, “me?”

  CHAPTER 9

  Darren or Samantha?

  Emily let Ingrid head to the sheriff and update on super jerk-Dean’s possible plans to kidnap Mary, she decided it was time to relax with a pedicure and some gossip.

  “Hi, Kimmie,” Emily called out as she walked in. “Can you fit me in? I need to relax and, you know, hear all the dirt.”

  Kimmie looked up and grinned and then looked past Emily for Ingrid. “Just you?”

  “Ingrid is over torturing the sheriff with her pretty face…pretty eyes…”

  “Pretty body…” Kimmie finished with Emily.

  “They have it so bad for each other,” Kimmie said. She pushed her bleached blond hair behind her ear and looked down at herself. She was cute, super cute, but in the heavy, perfect makeup, and skinny jeans kind of way. She was not really Gabe's type, but who'd have guessed that Ingrid would be? “I'm pretty jealous about it to be honest.”

  “Yes! We should beat her down and love potion him.” Emily didn’t tell Kimmie about how Ingrid hadn’t even been sleeping in her bed since she and Gabe split. She’d lit the last one on fire and then slept on the couch for the last few weeks. And she didn’t say how if Ingrid didn’t fix things with Gabe soon, Emily was either going to punch her best friend right in the throat or love potion the two of them and leave them to it.

  Kimmie pointed at an empty chair. “Pick a color and have a seat. I’ll be right there.”

  Emily kicked off her shoes and rolled up her jeans and placed her feet in the tub. Her mind drifted as she watched Kimmie check her last customer out. Figures that such a sexy man was a child kidnapper. Maybe worse. Emily was thrilled that she got to leave Dean with a case of frosty blue balls. He deserved it.

  But Mary.

  There was something going on with her family and Emily didn’t like being in the dark about that. She was certain that the answer to this mystery was wrapped up in the secrets that died with Mary’s mother.

  Kimmie came over and turned the hot water on, and Emily sighed in relief. “Perfect, Kimmie. Thanks.”

  “Sure. What gossip are you after?”

  Emily laughed. “Am I that predictable?”

  “Yep. Plus you did confess that you were here for the dirt.”

  “Ha. Fine. But if you tell everyone else my secrets, I’ll curb-stomp your entire face. Or possibly talk Ingrid into setting up a new nail place in our building.”

  Kimmie didn’t look worried but then again, they’d been setting up that bookstore for months and months.

  “Fine. Okay, then. I guess we’ll just get to it. Mary’s family. Specifically her mother. What do you know about her?”

  “She moved here from Seattle to get away from her crazy parents. Or maybe an ex. She was super nice. Never got her and Doug.”

  “Who?”

  “Mary’s dad.”

  “Oh, yeah. I can never remember his name.”

  “So she and baby came to the island, and she eventually married Gallery Guy?

  “No, Mary was an infant when she and Gallery Guy moved here.”

  “Re
ally? Do you know if Mary ever met her grandparents?”

  Kimmie shook her head. “I doubt it… Jill was very insistent on leaving her old life behind. She didn’t talk much about it. Just said they were crazy dysfunctional. Why are you asking about her anyway? She took off years ago.”

  “Oh,” Emily had forgotten that it wasn’t common knowledge that Jill’s body had been found. Gabe would freak if she were flitting around town blabbing confidential information. And Ingrid would kill her again for messing up Gabe’s affections. “Mary’s going through a rough patch. She’s been working for Ingrid and me at the bookshop and we sort of like the little rascal. We are trying to help her out.”

  Kimmie stared her down, clearly not believing her. “Yeah, okay, sure. Whatever you say. Jill was an odd one. You wouldn't have liked her. I mean…she was buddies with Autumn.”

  Emily cocked her head, shocked. No one liked Autumn. Even Hazel got a tight look about her eyes with Autumn and Hazel was fiercely protective of every single coven member.

  “No, she wasn’t.”

  “She was!” Kimmie nodded as she massaged Emily’s feet.

  “She was not. No one likes Autumn. Ever. No one.”

  “Oh she’s not that bad,” Kimmie said. But the grin on her face said that Autumn had short changed Kimmie one too many times on her tip.

  “Don’t play games with me.”

  “She seemed to really help Jill and Mary for a while. It didn’t last long. Honestly, Jill was pretty anti-magic and Autumn seemed to just get disgusted.”

  I knew Autumn killed her, Emily thought. Those snake eyes. Those are the eyes of a cold blood killer. But really, I mean, we all know that Autumn is the killer. Or at least, a killer.

  Emily resumed her questioning of Kimmie. “What about these grandparents. I mean, Gallery Guy acts like they’re one step from taking Mary away, but he’s had her forever.”

  “Honestly?” Kimmie asked.

  “Yes, obviously. Honestly with a large helping of dirt and sarcasm.”

  “Ever since Jill ran out on her family,” Kimmie raised her eyebrows, not falling for Emily’s distraction techniques, “the grandparents have been filing lawsuit after lawsuit against Gallery Guy. I think it’s why he is so angry all the time. Anyway, they always lost and now Mary’s old enough to have a say with the court so they apparently stopped trying for custody. Finally.”

  “Weird. Who’d have even thought that creepster Gallery Guy was even going to fight for her for so long.”

  “I know. Except all reports seem to say that he is a good guy to Mary. Just giving every other human being ever the willies.”

  Emily was going to have to talk to Dean again to figure out what necromancy had to do with this. Or maybe Hazel. She’d have to learn more about death magic no matter how much she wanted to get to Prague. That gorgeous Charles Bridge with its statues felt farther away than ever.

  Emily abruptly pulled her feet out of the water. “I gotta go. Sorry. I just remembered somewhere I have to be.” She put her wet feet into her shoes, threw a fifty dollar bill at Kimmie, and raced out of the nail salon. She had the sneaking suspicion she was going to regret making an enemy out of Dean via his private parts now that she needed his help to solve this damn mystery.

  She pretended she wasn’t excited but if Ingrid were here she’d be making some lazy comment about a lusty dove and Ingrid could just shove it.

  Ingrid and Gabe were nowhere around the station when Emily got there so she texted her instead.

  “Ingrid. Dean was working for the grandparents. Sort of. He was actually working for something called the Presidium. Mary is the heir of a really powerful necro bloodline, that’s why they want her so bad. Maybe this Presidium group is responsible for Jill’s murder. I don’t think Dean was really here to kidnap Mary. I think he had something to do with her mom’s murder. And that’s gonna make me really angry because he is a super fantastic kisser. Shit.”

  Ingrid’s reply was quick and to the point:

  “Slut.”

  •••

  Ingrid and Gabe entered the conference room. It wasn’t terrifying at all. Just some crappy chairs and a crappy table with a recorder on it. Come to think of it. This was probably where Gabe yelled at her that one time. Her eyes narrowed on him as she remembered, but he wasn’t even looking at her. His attention was all on Gallery Guy, who was already sitting there with a cup of coffee.

  Ingrid took it immediately and said, “You don’t want to drink that trash. If they arrest you for real, you may never get good coffee again.”

  “Don’t lie to me,” Gallery Guy said. “You have truth serumed me too many times.”

  “But Gabe is here,” Ingrid said. “He’s drinking my coffee right now.”

  Gabe lifted his cup and said, “The sky is a brilliant pink. Also, you’re not under arrest. This isn’t an interrogation. You can ask for a lawyer, but really, we’re just trying to get a handle on things as they are.”

  Gallery Guy watched suspiciously as she took her thermos from her bag and topped Gabe’s cup.

  “This table is nasty,” she scolded Gabe, putting the thermos back in her bag to wipe the table down with a napkin and pulled it back out again to fill his cup. Sure, it was a different thermos. But she wasn’t evil. She’d drink the truth serum coffee with Gallery Guy.

  That way dosing him could have been a mistake.

  Or … probably that wouldn’t work since she’d likely confess. But at least, they’d be on even ground.

  “Don’t be such a fussy little guy," she told Gallery Guy sweetly. "You want to talk to me. I got your dove settled. She's resting.”

  Gallery guy scowled at Ingrid. She grinned back watching the effects of the truth serum flow over him. It made you just a little more relaxed. You really did sleep well after taking it. She wasn’t saying she’d been drinking it when she’d been home alone and unable to sleep without Gabe. But then again, she might have bought more truth serum from Saffron than normal. Even with Emily’s addiction to randomly truth seruming people who let her give them a drink.

  People were idiots. That was for sure. They should have all learned by now to not accept anything from Emily ever when she’d been alone with their drinks.

  “So, Gallery Guy,” Ingrid said.

  “My name is Doug Martin,” Gallery Guy said savagely.

  “Really? Doug? I don’t care for that.”

  “Refusing to learn my name is offensive. But you’re a worthless stretch of humanity, so I am not surprised. The only thing that surprises me about you is how people who should know better seem to like you.”

  His eyes widened and then narrowed.

  “You truth serumed me.”

  “I told you no truth serum,” Gabe said to Ingrid.

  She smiled at both of them and did not drink her truth serumed coffee. If Gallery Guy was going to be like that, he was on his own in truth land.

  “Look,” Ingrid said. “I have bags to pack. I have a continent to visit. Possibly I will buy too many things and send crates of wine and weird coffees and chocolates home. Did you kill your wife?”

  “I don't have to answer these questions,” Gallery Guy said, eyes narrowed as he fought the serum.

  Gabe leaned forward, shocked. Gallery Guy was trying not to answer. Was it because he had killed his wife?

  “Did you kill her, did you kill her, did you kill her?”

  Ingrid asked and asked and asked until Gallery Guy finally blurted out, “No!”

  She looked at Gabe and back at Gallery Guy. “So you really think your kid did? At like what? 12? Was Mary such a hot mess at that young age that she could have murdered her mother?”

  “How else can she know what happened?” He sounded so sad. So…broken. It might have made Ingrid sad for him if he hadn’t just called her worthless.

  “Don’t play games with me,” Ingrid snapped. “You know there is magic. You know that your wife was involved with it. You know that other things were possible. Are yo
u stupid?”

  “Look,” Gallery Guy said, dropping his face into his hands. “I loved Jill. I loved her and we decided together to leave magic behind when we came to the island. Even though it ruined Jill’s relationship with Autumn. Even though her parents stopped speaking to her. Even through the desire to use it…”

  “Oh my holy hells,” Ingrid said, staring at Gallery Guy with dawning horror. “YOU are the Samantha. No way…where is my phone? Where! Em is going to crap her pants!”

  Gabe cleared his throat and asked delicately, “Samantha?”

  “You know!” Ingrid was bouncing as she spoke. Maybe she should wait. Then she could see the look on Em’s face. Oh my goodness. “Remember at Autumn's? He was the Bewitched guy! He gave up magic for love. He left behind a huge piece of himself for love.”

  “You gave up magic for your husband, I heard.”

  “Whoa,” Gabe started to defend Ingrid, but she laughed.

  “Please, if I’d cared about magic I’d have known how to do more than make good coffee by the time I graduated college. Also, and this is the important part, skin this perfect doesn’t get that way with years of neglect.”

  “What?” Gallery Guy was dumbfounded, staring at Ingrid like she had stopped speaking English.

  “What she is saying,” Gabe said patiently, “is that she continued to practice the magic she wanted to.”

  “Yes, unlike Samantha over there.”

  Gallery Guy’s eyes narrowed as she quoted, “Thou shall not suffer a witch to live.”

  Ingrid laughed as Gabe’s eyes widened. Ingrid spoke through her laughter. “Ironic, don't you think, Mr. Witch?”

  Gabe’s voice was very sheriff-like when he asked Gallery Guy, “Are you threatening Ingrid?”

  “He’s trolling us,” Ingrid said. “Your wife has been gone forever, why do you still live like this? Without using your magic?”

  “I don’t disagree with the choices we made,” Gallery Guy said with a touch of… humanity. Ingrid could almost see a flash of something in him that made her realize that there must have been more to him once. More than this obsessive, creepy stalker guy who took boring pictures for boring tourists to remember their somewhat boring vacation. Sage Island was a great place for retired couples to visit for excellent food and comfortable beds.