by Raven Snow
“So you contacted the Stonewalls?”
Again, Larry nodded.
“Did they seem surprised?”
Larry raised an eyebrow but gave the question some thought. “I’m not sure I would know if they were.”
“So, that’s a ‘no’ then, right? They didn’t seem surprised?”
“I guess not?” Larry didn’t really want to commit to an answer, but Rowen didn’t press him for one. She had gotten what she needed. It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough to point her in the right direction.
“Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it.” She stood, ready to leave.
“Sure.” Larry still looked a touch confused about his role in everything. Had he not been as young as he was, he might have been angrier at her for wasting his time. Rowen got the impression that he wasn’t all that experienced.
Rowen headed for the car, her entourage lagging behind. “Did you even get any new information?” asked Eric, once they were back at the car.
“I know what I need to do next. Flint isn’t going to like it though.” There was no response from Flint at that, and Rowen looked around. “Where is Flint?”
It took another minute or so for Flint to join them at the car. “Sorry,” he said, climbing into the back seat. “Lawyer talk.”
Rowen rolled her eyes but made sure that he didn’t see it. She wanted to be on his good side for what came next. “So, I have a favor to ask.”
“No,” Flint said automatically. He was teasing her. At least, Rowen hoped he was teasing her.
“I’m serious.” Rowen turned in her seat to look at Flint. “You heard what I did back there.”
“Yeah. Not a whole heck of a lot.” Flint looked at Eric. “Did you hear anything helpful?”
Eric threw his hands up like he was going to stay out of it. “I wasn’t even part of the conversation. I’m just tagging along to make sure neither of you get into any trouble.”
“We did learn something,” Rowen insisted, not letting Flint convince her otherwise. She knew he’d caught on to the same things she had. “Your parents weren’t surprised to find out they had inherited a large sum of money from my grandmother.”
Flint shrugged like that didn’t say a whole lot. “Not much surprises them, in my experience. They usually see most things coming. It’s in their nature, what with being witches and all.”
Rowen had considered that. She shook her head. “My aunts didn’t see Grammy’s death coming. Neither did I. My mother sensed something, but she didn’t know the specifics. I don’t know a witch that’s so powerful they foresee every little detail. Your parents would never predict Grammy was about to leave them a large sum of money for no good reason. They knew this was coming.” The more Rowen talked, the more confident she felt in her theory. “And you would have picked up on that. You were at the reading. Were your parents surprised?”
Flint frowned. Rowen recognized the frown, the way his lips pursed slightly, petulantly. This was something he had already considered. He just hadn’t shared it with her. He hadn’t wanted to and wouldn’t have given the option not to.
“So, they weren’t surprised and you find that as suspicious as I do,” Rowen inferred. “I wish you would just be straight with me from time to time. It would save everyone a lot of trouble.”
“I don’t think my family-”
“Yes, you do. You just don’t like saying it out loud.”
Flint glanced at Eric, like he might offer some help. “Look, I don’t want to get in on this, really… But can’t you just ask your parents why they inherited that money? Tell them flat out that Rowen wants to know.”
“You know I’ve already asked,” Flint snapped. “They more or less told me it was none of my business. They said that if I spent more time with the family, maybe I would know.” He took on a very sulky tone at that last bit. “They resent me for leaving a lot more than your aunts resented you for moving out of Lainswich.”
He was trying to play the pity card, and Rowen wasn’t going to let him. She pitied herself and her poor, murdered Grammy too much for that. “So, we don’t ask them,” Rowen said the words with emphasis, like they should have been obvious. “We go to the people who still live in the Stonewall household.”
“Not his grandparents,” Eric said quickly, his eyes wide. “I’m not ready to talk to them again. That was so awkward.”
Flint laughed. “They don’t live with my parents. Geez, can you imagine? It would be a nightmare if they did.”
“We question your brother and sister,” Rowen stepped in before things could veer off topic.
Flint glared at Rowen, against the plan without even discussing it. “We do what now?”
“Question Jasper or Amber. Preferably, we talk to both.”
“That sounds like a chore,” Flint muttered. “You know I’m not very close to them either.”
“You said Jasper has been coming to you for advice.”
“I’m not sure that a sibling coming to you only when they need help is a universal sign of affection or anything.” Flint sighed. “I guess I can trick them into going out to dinner or something. Jasper will be easy to get, and he wouldn’t be surprised if you ambushed him. After everything with Margo, he’s become certain you’re going to curse him or something.”
Rowen snorted. “Curse him? I would never do something like that. I mainly blame Margo, not him.” She hesitated. “Though, my aunts might blame him if they ever find out. Her dad would be especially mad. Better warn him to stay away from my uncle… But aside from that, he’s perfectly safe meeting with me!”
Flint had already pulled out his phone. It looked like he was sending a text message. “Amber might be a little tougher.”
“Why is that?” asked Rowen.
“She spends a lot of her time making herself busy,” Flint explained. “Mom and Dad always pushed for us to be active in the community, and she really took that to heart. She’s always helping out somewhere.”
“Like volunteering at Lainswich Correctional?” Rowen still had her suspicions about that. It felt too convenient to just be a coincidence.
“I really wouldn’t read too much into that. She seriously volunteers everywhere. I don’t see how she does it.” Flint looked up from his phone. “So, how do you want to do this?”
“We can do lunch with Jasper tomorrow,” said Rowen. “You don’t have to tell him we’re coming. We’ll just be a happy surprise.”
“And Amber?”
“Get her schedule.” That seemed obvious enough to Rowen. Maybe it was on the extreme side of things, but she didn’t see much of a way around it if she wanted to find anything out. “We’ll meet her on the job somewhere.”
“Classy,” said Eric. He definitely wasn’t looking forward to tomorrow already.
“I guess I can make that happen.” Flint punched something else into his phone. “I’ll text you later with the details.”
***
They headed back home. Eric insisted the whole day had been a silly waste of time Grammy would have berated them over. Flint thought the day would have been better spent trying to coax some sort of magical response out of Eric. Rowen disagreed with the both of them. She had found plenty out. She just needed time to put her clues into action.
Back at the house, there was a car in the driveway. Rowen recognized it immediately. “What’s Margo doing here?” asked Eric, before she could ask a similar question herself.
“I’ll just get out of your hair.” Flint might have stayed for drama had it not been Margo. His presence would no doubt be more than a little awkward given that it was his brother she was having the affair with. As soon as they parked, Flint headed for his car. “I’ll give you a call tonight and let you know what I can work out.”
“I appreciate it,” Rowen called after him. She headed for the front door. It seemed that Margo had let herself in. That was a very Margo thing to do. Rowen wished she hadn’t told her about the extra key under the ceramic gnome. “What do you t
hink this is about?” asked Rowen, glancing back at her husband as she slowly pushed open the door.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Eric grumbled back sarcastically. “Could it have something to do with my brother?”
“I was shooting for something more specific than that, but yeah. It’s probably about your brother.” She stepped the rest of the way inside. “Margo?” she called. “You in here?”
“Yeah! I’m in here.” Margo’s voice was coming from the living room. Rowen followed it to find Margo seated on the sofa, scratching Chester between the ears. Some guard dog he was. In Margo’s other hand she was playing on her phone. She quickly pocketed that when Rowen entered the room. “Sorry to just let myself in,” she said, standing. “But it was getting sort of cold outside.”
“You could have called us to let us know you were coming,” Eric pointed out. “We could have been here to let you in.”
“Sorry,” said Margo. “I thought you would be here already. You guys don’t really get out much.”
Rowen opened her mouth to argue with that, but she couldn’t really. Outside of work, they spent a lot of their time at home. To be fair, Rowen divided her time between the Inquirer, detective work, and her aunts’ New Age shop, so that really was quite a lot in the work department. “Still, you should have called.”
“Sorry.” Margo didn’t really sound like she meant that. She knew that there wouldn’t be any repercussions if she did it again. “I was in the neighborhood and thought I would swing by. We should probably talk.”
“About what?” Rowen asked even though she had a good idea. She and Eric both sat on the love seat across from Margo.
Margo frowned at her cousin. “About… you know.” Her eyes flicked over to Eric for a moment. She didn’t want to say it out loud.
“About cheating on my brother,” Eric said for her, his expression a wholly unamused one. “I assume that’s what it’s about, right?”
Margo licked her lips. She looked away again, her eyes going anywhere but in the direction of the people she was speaking to. “Right.”
“So, what about it?” Rowen prompted when Margo didn’t get right into things.
“I just wanted to explain myself.” Margo sat up a little straighter, like she was gathering up her courage. “I know there’s not an excuse for what I did, but I wanted to let you know that I’m going to break things off with Jasper. That only seems fair.”
“Why?” asked Eric.
Margo looked at Eric, silent for a while, like she expected him to elaborate. “What do you mean why?” she asked when he didn’t.
“Are you staying with my brother? Is that what you want? If you were willing to cheat on him, it doesn’t sound like the two of you have the best relationship. What if this happens again?”
“It won’t happen again,” said Margo, though it didn’t look like she had an answer for the rest. “I care about him. I just…” She looked at the floor again, like whatever it was she wanted to say was difficult to put into words.
“Is it the distance?” asked Rowen. She and Eric had had a long-distance relationship for a while there. She knew how tough those could be. David left town a lot on business, and Margo was about as high maintenance as they came. For a while there, Margo had joined him in his travels. These days, she found her personal fulfillment in public relations. She was good at the work, too. Rowen didn’t want her to give that up for a relationship. She doubted David would want that either. “Is that the problem? I remember it gets lonely.”
“Maybe.” Margo glanced briefly at Eric again. “I know that’s not an excuse. I’m going to meet up with David for dinner after this. I just—I wanted to talk to both of you first.”
Rowen looked at her husband, trying to gauge how he felt about it. She had seldom seen him looking so annoyed. “I’m not sure our opinions matter here.”
Margo nodded. She didn’t really seem sincere in that either. It was like she had ulterior motives for being there. It was almost as if she wanted to try out being repentant, take it on a test run before she did the real thing. “David was really sweet coming back here for the funeral and all. I remembered what it was I liked so much about our relationship. I have a history with him, and it’s a lot nicer than the history I have with Jasper.”
“You know you don’t have to date either of them, right?” Rowen didn’t really feel like reassuring her cousin about her situation. “How did this thing with Jasper get started anyway?” She might as well ask some questions of her own. She had already been told, but she wanted to hear it from Margo.
Margo hesitated. She probably didn’t want to tell the story with Eric sitting right there. “I was visiting Grammy,” she said finally. “He was there volunteering with his sister.”
Rowen leaned forward on the sofa. “Does he volunteer there often?”
Margo raised one well-shaped eyebrow. “I don’t know. I guess he does sometimes. He says he fills in for his sister when she can’t go, when she’s under the weather or something. I’m not sure how often that is. Why?”
“Just curious.” Rowen wanted to tell Margo why she wanted to know. She wanted to tell her whole family the theory she had about Grammy being murdered, but that seemed like it would complicate things. She could probably tell Margo without risking the rest of the Greensmiths finding out. There was a large part of her that wanted to do that, but she couldn’t bring herself to blurt it out. She was too mad at Margo for that. “Look, do what you want with your love life. I’m not sure what you want from me.”
Eric nodded in agreement. “I’m not really going to give you my blessing either way. You’re family and all, but I’m still on my brother’s side on this one. Sorry, Margo.”
“That’s fine.” Margo stood with a sigh. “Sorry for breaking in. Thanks for listening, I guess.” She headed for the door.
“Hey, Margo.” Eric stood, catching her attention before she could leave. “For what it’s worth, I’m not sure you should get back with my brother. If it’s something you have to think this hard about, it probably wasn’t meant to be.”
Margo nodded, her expression unusually soft and thoughtful. “So,” she began finally, “should I stay with Jasper?”
“Are you kidding me?” Eric pointed her to the door. “I don’t care about Jasper! Just go! Go on.”
At least Margo took the hint that time. She didn’t say anything else about her relationship woes. She just hurried out the front door. Less than a minute later, they heard the sound of her car pulling away.
Eric shook his head and turned to look at his wife. “Can you believe her?”
“Absolutely.” Rowen had known Margo all her life. Granted, this was the first time she had known her to cheat on someone as an adult. She had assumed that sort of juvenile behavior had been left behind in high school. “She’s always been self-centered. Did you hear what she said about Jasper?”
“What?”
“He was spending time at the prison, too. You know what that means don’t you?”
“Yes,” said Eric, with an ill-disguised groan. It occurred to Rowen then - not for the first time - that, perhaps, her entire family could be a touch single-minded.
Chapter Nine
It was Jasper that Flint set them up with first. Rowen got the phone call the next day. “He seemed really open to having lunch somewhere. Is that outdoor café place downtown alright?”
“That’s fine.” Rowen would have agreed to just about anywhere. She would have even driven to Tarricville if necessary. “What time?”
“One would be good for me.” Flint fell quiet then. It was a heavy kind of quiet, like he was debating something internally before saying it. “A quick word of caution, though. He’s kind of a mess right now. I think the only reason he wants to talk to you is because he wants a shot at getting back with your cousin.”
Rowen groaned. She had almost forgotten the details of the talk she had had with Margo. “She dumped him, didn’t she?”
“That’s what I gath
er.” Flint didn’t sound thrilled. He sounded like a man who had gotten very little sleep, likely because he’d been up talking with his brother for most of the night. “I kind of used that to convince him to talk to you. I might have told him Margo was too emotional to talk, that she had some additional thoughts on the matter that she wanted to communicate through you.”
Rowen physically cringed. “Why would you tell him that?”
“I don’t know. What else was I supposed to tell him? Was I supposed to go ahead and tell him that you just wanted to talk so you could decide whether or not he was a murderer?”
Rowen couldn’t say that was what she wanted, but surely there was some better middle ground. “I appreciate it,” she said finally. “I’ll see you then.”
