“What did you talk to Reggi about that night?” Bobby asked, reaching across the table to take Laura’s hand in her own to comfort her.
“I just wanted to know what she bought,” Laura explained with a sniff. “I was trying to figure out what ingredients she was using in her stuff, so I could find a way to make legal, healthy, non-addictive products of my own. I was just trying to be familiar with my competition.”
“And what did you do when you found she bought dragon’s tooth?” The words slid off Don’s tongue as if he were perfectly familiar with the item before Bobby informed him on what it was.
“I panicked,” Laura confessed. “I panicked. I thought she was going to use it to kill me!”
“So you killed her first!” Don yelled.
“No!” Laura cried. “I didn’t! I didn’t do anything!”
“You should have reported something like this, Laura,” Bobby said softly. “You have to understand how this makes you look.”
Laura let her head slump down to her chest. Her shoulders shook as she sobbed.
"It seems like you don't know how this makes you look," Don said haughtily. "Well, let me tell you. It looks like you took the dragon's tooth from Holly, used it to make your own special potion, and then slipped it to her. You later realized that someone might realize that Holly had purchased the dragon's tooth from Reggi. I mean, their meetings weren't that private, were they? You knew about them. Tammy, the ‘bitch' knew about them. So, you staged a break-in to make it look like various items were stolen from Holly's shop, the dragon's tooth among them."
Don’s quick summation of the situation impressed Bobby. It did make sense, somewhat. There were still holes, though. She still had questions and doubts, but she held them in as she waited to see how Laura would respond.
Her hands began to shake as her emotions soared past fear to pure terror. “I thought she was going to kill me! But, no! I didn’t kill her!”
"You're one of the only witches in the town capable of breaking into her shop," Don said firmly. "One of the only witches that knew the true power of the dragon's tooth." He was guessing there, but, it turned out he was spot on. Very few people knew the true power of the deadly ingredient. Usually, the only people who did specialize in potions and spells—people like Holly and Laura. Bobby only knew because of her training.
Laura looked at Bobby, desperation in her eyes. “I didn’t do it,” she sobbed.
“I’m sorry, Laura. I want to believe you. I really do,” Bobby said, pushing herself up. “But unless you can give us another explanation for how the dragon’s tooth ended up in your shop, that is the only scenario that adds up.”
Chapter 28: It Just Doesn’t Sit Right
Bobby filled out her final report to send to the Witch Council. She had stuck to her word and sent back regular updates to her superiors all throughout her time in Pinecreek. As she sat, writing out the details of her interview with Laura, mixed with the confession they eventually wrestled out from Reggi that Holly did, in fact, purchase the $2,800 dragon’s tooth from him, something in her stomach twinged.
Regardless, she sent the report. It wasn’t more than twenty minutes later that she received a call from Mr. Spellman.
“Great work, Bobby!” Mr. Spellman’s voice bellowed over the line.
“Thank you, sir,” she replied humbly.
Pressing the phone close to her ear, she paced back and forth in her hotel room. She still had yet to begin packing her bags, not convinced she was ready to do so just yet.
“You closed this case in record time!” her boss continued to gush.
“I’m not sure if the case is closed just yet,” Bobby mumbled meekly.
“What?” Mr. Spellman replied with a laugh. “You’ve arrested someone, haven’t you? Your report says…”
“I know what the report says, sir,” Bobby said. “But, I’m not satisfied with the outcome.”
“That’s the reality of the job, Bobby. We’re rarely happy about what we have to do.”
“It just doesn’t add up, sir. Why would she go back to the shop days after the victim died? She had to know that was taking a huge risk.”
“Criminals are dumb. That’s why we continue to catch them. If they made smart decisions and didn’t do stupid things, it’d be a lot harder to figure out who they were.”
“Still, I’m not convinced about the motive. I don’t think that Holly would want to kill Laura over a business dispute.”
“Bobby,” Mr. Spellman’s voice took on a stern, fatherly tone, “it’s done. You got her! Take the rest of the day today to collect your things and center your thoughts. The first one can be a little difficult, I understand that. But, crime doesn’t stop just because we’re tired. I expect to see you in my office tomorrow morning, 9:00 sharp. I’ll begin preparing your next case.”
“Mr. Spellman, I…”
“I will see you tomorrow, Bobby,” he said cutting her off.
She didn't have the chance to attempt objecting again because he hung up. Letting out a frustrated grunt, she threw her phone down on the bed.
“You’re awfully upset for someone who just closed their first official case,” Don said.
She spun around quickly. “How did you get in here?”
“You didn’t lock the door.”
“So you just let yourself in?”
“I was going to knock, but I heard you on the phone. You don’t think Laura did it?” he asked. He sat down on the edge of the bed, watching her as she paced back and forth nervously in front of him.
“No,” she confessed. “It doesn’t add up.”
“Your boss seems to think it does.”
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Bobby said quickly.
“Whoa,” Don replied with a stunned laugh. “This, coming from the person who arrived basically worshiping the ground those bearded men on the Witch Council walk on?”
“I still respect him, of course, I do. He just wouldn’t listen to me. I was trying to say that…”
“You were trying to say that something just doesn’t sit right. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Exactly,” Bobby said, slumping down on the bed next to him. “We still don’t know why Holly was so upset the last few months. I just don’t believe that a disagreement with an employee would make her angry and hostile with others. I don’t believe that fear of a little competition would be enough to drive her to kill.”
“What if she thought that Laura was going to out her for her methods?” Don asked.
Bobby shot him a confused, borderline offended look. “I thought you were on my side.”
“I am,” he replied. “I’m just playing devil’s advocate here. We need to approach this from all angles if we’re going to figure it out.”
“Yeah, and figure it out in the next 17 hours,” Bobby said, glancing down at her watch.
“Seventeen hours?”
“My boss expects me back in my realm tomorrow morning.”
“Well, then,” Don said, slapping his hands on his knees. “We have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it. So, where were we?”
“You brought up a good point, about Holly worrying that Laura would out her.”
“Did it hurt you to say that? To admit I said something intelligent?”
“This is no time for tit-for-tat exchanges.”
"You're right," Don said with a sigh. "I get that way when I'm nervous." Before she could ask what he was nervous about, he answered. "I came here to say goodbye, and…" he sighed again, "to apologize. I feel like there has been some weird tension between us lately. It's my fault; I shouldn't have kissed you without at least filling you in on what was going on. And this morning, I shouldn't have gotten so close to you."
"I could have stepped away," she replied softly. "In the station today, I could have stepped away from you."
“You did.”
“Not right away. I hovered. I could sense that you were feeling attracted to me and I didn’t do
anything about it—not immediately, at least.”
Don ran his fingers through his shaggy, dark hair and shot her a charmingly boyish smile. “So, we’re okay?”
“We’re okay,” she replied, smiling back at him. “And we’re on a time crunch, so let’s get back to business.”
“So, the fact that Laura might potentially expose Holly’s methods could have driven her to want to shut her up before she had the chance,” Don said, reiterating his previous point.
"But, still, the timeline doesn't add up. Holly was angry and acting strange way before she fired Laura, meaning something triggered her personality shift way before the thought of Laura betraying her ever came to her mind. I feel like we're back at the beginning with all of this," Bobby said, slamming her hands down on the bed next to her and letting out a frustrated whine. "We have more information, but it seems like we also have more questions."
“Well, how can we get some answers?”
“First we need to figure out which questions are important enough to answer,” Bobby said thoughtfully. She got to her feet and began pacing around the room again. “Laura continuously claimed that she didn’t steal the items from Holly’s shop, and yet, they were found in her shop. How did they get there if Laura didn’t put them there? If we can figure that out, we can prove that Laura is innocent.”
“And whoever put them there, if not Laura, is probably our killer,” Don agreed.
“I think we need to go to her shop,” Bobby concluded. “I want to see where these things were found.”
Don smiled at her and pushed himself up. “Let’s get to it, then. We only have 16 hours and 45 minutes to get to the bottom of this.”
Laura’s shop was just two blocks down from Holly’s. It was a smaller space, although it felt much larger due to being sparsely stocked. The cages lining the walls were empty, although they were set up and ready to receive their temporary occupants. The shelves in the center of the room contained only a handful of items.
Bobby began scanning the food, treats, bowls, and toys. Picking up a bright pink bag of catnip, she turned the package over to read the ingredients list. Everything appeared to be legal substances. And under the list, in bolded font were the words "Made with love, care, and only natural, safe ingredients.”
“She was planning on opening in a few days,” Don said, looking around. “She even had shipments scheduled to bring the first batch of animals in.”
“For when?” Bobby asked absent-mindedly. She returned the catnip to the shelf and moved down to a bag of dog treats “guaranteed to motivate your dog the healthy, safe way.”
“Day after tomorrow, I believe,” Don replied.
“How do you know that?” Bobby asked, turning around to face him.
He was standing behind the check-out counter. He held up a sheet of paper he had found there, indicating his source of information.
Bobby turned her attention back to the items around her as Don continued to shuffle through documents. Everything repeated what appeared to be Laura's motto of "safe, healthy, natural" ingredients. It was clear that she was trying to separate herself from Holly's methods of feeding and training the animals.
She walked slowly up one aisle then the next. As she turned down the rows of shelves that led directly to where Don was standing at the register, she heard a soft creak under her feet.
Looking down, she saw that the floorboard was lifted then later replaced. “Where did they find those things from Holly’s shop?” Bobby asked, bending over to lift up the board.
“Right there, I believe,” Don said, coming around the counter and walking towards her. “They said they found a loose panel in the floor.”
Bobby inspected the small, hidden storage space. It was a roughly dug hole, but big enough to store up to twelve little potion bottles.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Bobby said. “Why would she hide them here? Here of all places? She makes her own products, she obviously has her own workshop. Why not hide them among the items there?”
“Maybe she assumed that’d be the first place someone would look.”
“Maybe,” Bobby said, pushing herself to her feet. “Where is her lab? I want to look around there.”
“It’s back at her house,” Don replied. “This space was too small to install one here.”
“At her house?” Bobby asked, her mind suddenly filling with realization.
“Yeah, what’s so important about that?”
Bobby ran towards the front door of the shop quickly. “Was she home when they went to do the search, or here?” she asked.
“She was home,” Don said, following her quickly.
When she reached the door, Bobby pulled it open. She released it and let it slam shut. She then opened it again. Her eyes widened as she turned around and stared up at Don.
“How did they get in here?”
“She gave them the keys. They showed her the warrant. She didn’t have much choice.”
“But she didn’t come here with them?”
“No,” Don said.
Bobby opened and closed the door again, peering at the doorjamb as she did so. Don looked at her as if she were crazy, but an idea was quickly forming in her mind.
“How did we get in here today?” she asked.
“With the key,” Don said, his tone confused. “Bobby, are you feeling all right? What are you doing?”
“There was no protection spell put on the shop,” Bobby said softly.
“What?”
“The shop—here—there’s no protection spell. But, why would there be? There’s almost nothing here. Her lab is back at her house with her supplies and her stock, I imagine. Why would she put a protection spell on this place until she actually filled it with things to protect?”
“She wouldn’t, I guess. She didn’t, obviously.”
“But,” Bobby said, pushing past Don and walking quickly back to the opposite end of the shop, where the hole in the ground was still exposed, “if she had all of these stolen items in here, she would have a reason to put up a spell.”
Don remained at the front. He leaned back on the doorframe and crossed his arms over his chest. "Unless she didn't know they were here," he said.
“Exactly!” Bobby exclaimed, jumping up so quickly she got a little light headed. She reached out to take hold of the shelf nearest her to steady herself. “We based our entire case against Laura on the fact that she—and only she—could be the one to break into Holly’s home because she—and only she—had the ability to control and manipulate a protection spell as advanced as the one Holly used. If she had those abilities, she surely would have used them to protect this space as well. That way, at least if someone did come here looking for the items, she’d have to be the one to let them in. Maybe she could detour them away from this area. But, no. They were right here, under a creaky floorboard, in a room that anyone with a key can get into. Or,” Bobby added thoughtfully, “anyone with a bobby pin could break into. The lock on the door isn’t very high-tech. Of course, it wouldn’t need to be, because she’s just going to put a spell on the place eventually.”
She began walking slowly towards Don as they both became lost in their thoughts, trying to make sense of the information they had just acquired.
“It’s still a factor, though,” Don said, still leaning against the doorframe.
“What?”
“The question of who broke into Holly’s shop. If Laura didn’t do it, and it’s surely looking like she didn’t, who did? Is it possible that there’s another witch or warlock in Pinecreek with the ability to do so and the motivation to kill Holly?”
“The only other witches and warlocks we’ve spoken to were Holly’s closest friends and family,” Bobby remembered. “Her friends didn’t seem powerful enough to break the protection spell, and I highly doubt her parents would do something like that to their own daughter.”
“There’s always the chance that something went bad with her parents again,” Don offered. “The
y did mention that she had been distant recently. Maybe that was a slip. Maybe that was their way of saying they had a falling out. Even Barry said that the change in Holly’s demeanor could have been caused by her relationship with her parents.”
“That’s it!” Bobby exclaimed, pushing past Don and bursting into the warm afternoon sun.
“What’s it?” Don asked, following behind her.
“You don’t have to be a witch or warlock to get past a protection spell,” Bobby said, slowing down just slightly so he could catch up.
“But I thought…”
“You don’t have to have magic if you’re granted access by the person who cast the protection spell,” Bobby said. Her eyes were dancing with excitement and her hands were shaking with the rush of realization.
Don opened his mouth to speak, but Bobby didn't give him the chance. She turned and continued down the street, rounding the corner to the Town Square and beelining for Holly's shop and home.
She stormed up to the front door and began banging on the wooden frame loudly. “Barry!” she yelled.
“What are you doing?” Don asked, running up behind her.
“Barry!” she yelled again.
“Bobby, you need to talk to me here,” Don said, setting a hand on her shoulder.
“Think about it, Don,” she said spinning around to look up at him. “If Holly put a protection spell on her shop, she was, in turn, putting one on her home. Who else needs to be able to have access to her home? Who would she need to allow to pass through the spell whenever they wanted to?”
“Barry,” Don said, stepping back, his eyes widening.
“Barry!” Bobby yelled, turning around again and banging on the door.
After a few more bangs and few more yells, there was still no answer. Bobby spun around and grabbed onto Don’s arm, scanning the square. A few people had stopped what they were doing and were now staring curiously in their direction. She increased her grasp on Don’s wrist as she marched around to the side of the building.
“Where’s the back door?” she demanded
“Around here,” Don said, taking the lead as they walked down a long alleyway.
Bobby Sparks Witch Detective: Pet Shop Puzzle ( A Paranormal Cozy Mystery) Page 17
