by Molly Fitz
Of course, I hadn’t ever conversed with Harold outside of work, and it was perfectly probable that some scandal in his personal life had led to his forced demise. Given my butt was on the line here, though, it made sense to at least consider the clues I’d picked up.
First, there was the fact that his long-lost daughter Kelley had recently reappeared in his life. And that Kelley’s mother had tried to prevent this reunion. Kelley was also present when Harold took his last breath, but she was too obviously distraught to even be considered a suspect.
Drake had been there, too. Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen him since. Was it possible he hated our boss so much that he’d slipped him some poison?
I’d definitely have to look into that later.
The coffee house had been mostly empty besides the three of us and Harold. Only one customer had sat in the corner sipping her coffee, and she’d left as soon as we asked her to.
Hmmm.
Another thing to consider was that the poison could have been meant for me, and Harold was merely collateral damage. The more I thought about it, the more I feared this could be the case. I’d only just witnessed Merlin’s magic for the first time before rushing into work. That had been a test, he’d told me, to see if I was ready to serve as his familiar. Then later that night he had revealed himself to me.
I already knew he had an enemy in Luna, and she lived very nearby. She was also crazy enough to kidnap me and brew some kind of voodoo potion, which she forced me to slip to my cat last night.
Was this because her first attempt to get at me had failed when Harold took the poison instead?
Officer Dash had hinted at a toxicology report but never shared the results. Had it been completed? Did we know for sure we were dealing with a poison—or could some kind of magic be at play?
So many questions, and literally no one to ask. Maybe if I was careful about how I spoke with Merlin, I could suss out some answers about Luna indirectly. I finished my coffee and lowered myself to sit beside him on the living room carpet.
“Do you have any idea who might have killed Harold?” I asked him softly.
Merlin kept his eyes closed, but his whiskers twitched, telling me he had heard my question but didn’t much like it. “Do you want to break into the morgue?”
I shivered at the thought. “Can you go without me?” I asked, preferring that option much more. “Just teleport in, check things out, and come back.”
“I could,” he said, squinting one eye open to look at me. “Except I don’t know which one is him.”
Crud. I really didn’t want to go sift through a bunch of cold corpses, but I also really didn’t want to go to jail. Could I suck it up for the greater good?
“Got a picture?” Merlin asked, rolling onto his feet and standing on four shaky legs.
Ooh, a picture. Smart! Why hadn’t I thought of that?
“Let me search the coffeehouse’s Facebook page. I’m sure there’s at least one useable shot there,” I told him and then trotted off in search of my tablet.
Why hadn’t we thought of this option sooner?
Well, better late than never, I supposed…
17
It didn’t take long to find a clear photo of Harold on the company’s Facebook page. Even though Harold’s House of Coffee only had a handful of likes, its former owner wasted no opportunity to get in front of the camera and show everyone how important he fancied himself to be.
“I can work with this,” Merlin informed me when I shared the image with him. “I can’t teleport directly into the morgue, so this little fact-finding mission may take me a while.”
“Why can’t you?” I asked, uneasy at the thought of being away from him—and his magical protections—for an extended period.
“Same reason I took us outside of Luna’s house, then flashed us in through the window. If you’re going someplace you can’t see and don’t know well, you risk getting yourself stuck in a wall or in some other precarious situation,” the novice feline witch explained.
“Oh,” I said stupidly.
“Lesson number four. Magic is much harder to wield than it may look to outsiders,” he announced and cracked his neck to either side.
“I’m beginning to see that.”
A knock sounded on the front door, and I briefly glanced over to it. By the time I turned back to Merlin, he had already vanished.
I groaned and headed to find out what Officer Dash wanted. Because, yes, I already knew it would be her. She’d bothered me so much the past couple of days that I readily recognized the unique cadence of her knock.
Bang. Bang. Tap, tap, tap. BANG!
I flung the door open, reminding myself that if she didn’t behave more professionally in this exchange, I’d be taking a trip to the station to issue a formal complaint. That at least brought me some satisfaction as I came face-to-face with my current least favorite person in all the world.
“The toxicology report came back,” Officer Dash informed me as she hooked a finger into her belt loop.
I crossed my arms and remained planted in the doorway, not allowing her into my house. “And?”
Officer Dash hooked her other thumb in her belt loop and rocked back on her heels. “Gas Line Antifreeze. Not something most people need for a summer in Elderberry Heights. Say, you’re from up north, right?”
“Michigan,” I managed as my stomach roiled. “What’s your point?”
“And is that your car in the driveway there?”
“Yeah.” I definitely did not like where this was headed.
“Huh,” the policewoman said simply.
“C’mon. You can’t honestly think that this proves anything! Antifreeze is readily available. Even here in Southern Georgia, I’m sure.”
Out came that stupid notebook of hers. “Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And how do you happen to know that?”
“I didn’t kill Harold,” I said between gritted teeth.
“Sure, you didn’t.” She smiled. “I’ll be back with a search warrant. Oh, and I wouldn’t leave town if I were you.”
Fantastic.
I slammed the door shut as soon as Officer Dash sauntered away. She looked like the cat who was about to eat the canary, so happy with her upcoming kill she couldn’t see anything else… Like the fact that I was not guilty!
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I took it out to find a next text from Kelley.
I told my mom I’d be meeting you for lunch. She insisted on coming along.
Hmm. So Kelley’s mom was now in town and causing problems for her.
Where? I texted back.
The BBQ Shack at 12.
I’ll be there.
I still thought Officer Dash was grasping at straws, but if her antifreeze theory played out, then I knew at least one other potential suspect who’d come from colder climates.
And I was about to have lunch with her.
18
Despite my ardent hope, Merlin didn’t return before I had to leave for my impromptu lunch date. I wished I could call him back now that Officer Dash had told me the exact cause of death, but unfortunately I had no way of getting in touch with him.
He’d find out soon enough, I supposed. And I could rest a little easier knowing that our dear Harold hadn’t been killed by magical means.
I applied my normal going-out face of makeup. Then, hating what I saw, I washed my whole face clean. The striking blue eyeshadow I normally wore to complement my dark brown eyes appeared clownish when paired with my new forest green irises. I’d have to add a trip to the drugstore cosmetics aisle to find something more fitting to my lengthy to-do list… or I could just get used to going everywhere fresh-faced.
Haha, right. It’s not like I had many wrinkles or pimples to cover up, but the simple act of applying my daily powders and glosses gave me a special kind of courage. Knowing I looked good helped me get through the day. I’d never been a great beauty, but I liked showing others that I cared about my appearance and thus myself. It was a rou
tine my mom had taught me while I was quite young. I still fondly remembered those middle school mornings spent applying our foundation and blush side by side in the massive bathroom mirror.
I smiled as I thought of Mom all the way back home in Michigan. Once this investigation was officially closed, I’d have to give her a call to catch up. Unfortunately, if I called any sooner, she’d see right through any attempts I made to downplay my anxiety.
And so it would have to wait.
In all the talk about Harold and the non-talk about Luna, I hadn’t managed to eat breakfast, so by the time I reached the restaurant my stomach had begun to sing a mournful tale of neglect, one growl and one grumble at a time.
The BBQ Shack was something of a local legend and often boasted a long wait for anyone to be seated. I hadn’t yet been, but the moment I stepped inside and smelled the sweet, tangy scents of barbecue, saliva began to pool in my mouth.
Kelley was already seated at a table toward the front and motioned for me to join her. She stood when I arrived and motioned between me and her mother, a dour-looking woman who was so thin, her cheeks appeared sunken in. “Gracie, this is my mom. Mom, Gracie.”
Kelley’s mother remained seated but extended her hand for a limp shake. I couldn’t tell whether I disliked her or whether I simply had a bad reaction to believing she didn’t like me. Whatever the case, I immediately became very uncomfortable. The only saving grace was that the noisy revelry of the other diners was enough to drown out the sounds my singing stomach.
Nobody said anything until the waitress arrived to take my drink order. Kelley and her mom had already settled in with a couple Arnold Palmers, so I ordered the same.
When it became clear that Kelley still didn’t know what to say and her mother had no desire to start a conversation herself, I folded my hands in front of me and did the deed myself. “So what do you think of Elderberry Heights, Mrs.…?” Shoot, I didn’t even know Kelley’s last name.
“Carmine,” my friend supplied with a tight grin.
“And it’s Miss, thank you very much. I never married after a certain boyfriend turned me off of love and marriage forever.” She sniffed and grabbed the small mesh container that housed packets of multi-colored sugars and artificial sweeteners.
“Mom,” Kelley whined, kicking her heels back against her chair with a thump that resonated through the table. “You promised you wouldn’t talk about Dad anymore.
“Well, it’s not my fault, your friend brought him up. Also don’t call him ‘Dad.’ that man was never a father to you.”
“I didn’t… I mean, I’m sorry if—”
“No, no. Don’t apologize,” Kelley said gently to me, then turned her head to glare at her mother. “Stop trash-talking him. I get that what happened between you wasn’t great, but the man is dead. Just let it go.”
Ms. Carmine snorted and dumped two packets of Splenda into her cold drink, taking care to stir them vigorously with her straw.
Seeing as things were already tense, I decided to prod a little. “What did happen between you?”
Kelley’s eyes widened and her lips puckered, but she made no move to argue. The look on her face said it all, though. I’d betrayed her in the worst possible way.
I hated that I’d hurt my new friend, but I could apologize for that later. She’d thank me once I helped to bring her father’s murderer to justice—even if that murderer ended up being her own mother.
“What happened between us?” Ms. Carmine repeated, her voice pitchy and agitated. “What happened between us?”
Kelley placed a hand on her mother’s shoulder and mouthed something I couldn’t decode. “Same old girl loves boy, boy cheats on girl, and they lived unhappily ever after story,” she told me, then raised an arm and shouted, “Waitress! I think we’re ready to order.”
“He didn’t just cheat on me,” Ms. Carmine bit out. “He did it with my roommate who also happened to be my very best friend. I had nowhere else to go, so I left town. I vowed if he ever turned up at my door again, I’d kill him with my bare hands.”
“Mom!” Kelley cried, jumping to her feet. “Enough!”
Ms. Carmine silently sipped at her tea. To her credit, she was in a much better mood for the remainder of our meal after she’d gotten whatever that was off her chest.
And the whole time we ate and made small talk, I kept on wondering: Had Kelley’s mom just confessed to Harold’s murder?
And if so, what should I do next?
19
When I returned home from my lunch outing, I found my cat waiting for me by the front door.
“Where were you?” he demanded with an angry flick of his tail.
“Something came up, and I had to help a friend,” I explained as I crossed the room and flopped down on the couch.
“You smell like barbecue sauce,” Merlin accused. His nose twitched unhappily.
“That help involved taking her out to lunch. But that’s not what’s important here.” I leaned forward and steepled my fingers. “I think I know who killed Harold.”
Merlin jumped up onto the sofa beside me and allowed me to run my fingers through his thick double coat. “So you’ve got it all figured out, do you? Enlighten me, then.”
“It was Ms. Carmine. She’s the mother of one of the other baristas, Kelley. And Harold was Kelley’s father. There was no love lost between them, let me tell you. Add in the fact that Harold was poisoned with gas line antifreeze and that Officer Dash is convinced someone from out of state did the deed, and the fact she all but confessed over lunch, and there you have it.”
“Interesting,” Merlin said from his place beside me. “One hundred percent wrong, but interesting, nonetheless.”
“Wrong?” My heart sank, and I pulled my hand away. “Why do you think that? I’ve already thought really long and hard about this, and Ms. Carmine definitely did it.”
“I don’t merely think you’re wrong. I know it.” He sat up and puffed his furry chest with pride. “I just paid a visit to our old friend Harold, and I can say with absolute certainty that he was poisoned by a magical potion. Not… what was it you said? Antifreeze?” He chuckled quietly and shook his head.
“But Officer Dash said—”
“Officer Dash lied,” he said flatly.
No, this didn’t make sense, and I’d tell him that if he would just let me finish a sentence. “Why would a police officer lie?”
Merlin hung his head, his ears thrust back in consternation. “That’s a good question. You can’t exactly ask her. She’ll just lie again.”
“I’m going to the station,” I said, shifting back toward the door. “Something’s not right here.”
“I’m coming with you,” he insisted.
“Are we going to teleport? Because the station is on a pretty busy street. Someone will see.”
Merlin jumped off the couch and then turned to face me. “You drive. I’ll meet you there. First I have some business with my cauldron.”
“What are you going to do? Can’t we just drive together? I’d feel safer if I had you with me.” I was in a sad state considering I felt that I needed my cat’s company in order to stay safe.
He didn’t budge despite my pleas. “I’m a cat, Gracie. Cats don’t do cars. Besides, I’ll already be at the station and waiting by the time you get there. I just need a few minutes to mix a truth potion. Since I’m a sky witch, I can deliver it by air. All your officer… what was it? Nash?”
“Dash,” I corrected. “She’s the one with the bad attitude and permanent scowl, remember?”
He grimaced then, showing off one pearly white fang. “Dash, okay. But how could I remember when I have yet to meet her?”
“She’s already been here two times in less than twenty-four hours. How is it you haven’t been here for any of her little visits?”
“Dunno, but don’t worry about it too much. My truth potion will be a gas rather than a liquid. I only need to breathe it out and she to breathe it in for her to fall und
er its spell. We’ll know everything within a matter of minutes.”
“Great, because I am already so sick of this investigation.”
Merlin shook his head. “We still need to toughen you up. You’ll deal with much worse than this serving your role as my familiar.”
I rolled my eyes hard. “Oh, goody. I can hardly wait.”
Merlin clearly didn’t appreciate my attitude, but that didn’t stop me from feeling exhausted, afraid, and in a foul mood.
“Stop with the sarcasm. It’s not very becoming for a familiar,” he hissed.
“I’m more than just a familiar. I’m a person, too,” I reminded him, not exactly sure where this was coming from. I guess I just had things to say, questions that had gone unanswered for too long, even though it hadn’t been long at all.
“Why did you choose me?” I blurted out.
Merlin turned to stare at me head on. He blinked slowly, then stopped. “I didn’t choose you, Gracie. I chose your grandmother. Remember, I was already here when you showed up.”
“So you wanted her but got me. Right, I’m just one big mistake,” I pouted. His confession hurt far more than I’d have expected it to.
“An accident, yes. Mistake, no. I watched you for months before revealing myself. I had to make absolutely sure,” he confessed softly. “I hadn’t planned for it to be you, but I’m glad it is.”
I chanced a smile. “Really?”
“Really. Now enough with the mushy stuff.” He moved toward the door and stopped in front of the pet flap. “We need to focus on the task ahead. I want you to drive straight to the police station. No pit stops or detours. Straight there, and I’ll be waiting with the truth potion ready to go. We’ll go in together.”
“Yes, boss,” I said with a nod. Our short chat just now had given me a renewed sense of purpose. Merlin hadn’t chosen me initially, but he chose me now.
As it turned out, that mattered a lot.
