Aunt Pearl had gotten it by magical means.
And Tyler was in trouble.
My heart caught in my throat. Where exactly was Tyler?
Aunt Pearl was becoming unhinged, and I had to stop her before it was too late. Freaking out would only escalate the situation. I needed a strategy to disarm her instead.
My eyes met Aunt Amber’s. She was thinking the same thing. She backed away slowly so as to not attract Aunt Pearl’s attention, then slipped out into the living room.
“Put the gun down, Pearl.” Mom stood behind me.
I couldn’t convince Aunt Pearl to disarm but maybe Mom could. Mom rarely confronted her sister, but the current situation demanded action. Mom had my back, literally. I just hoped things didn’t escalate further. Sibling rivalry was one thing. Sibling supernatural rivalry was quite another thing altogether.
I frowned. “It’s not like Tyler to remove his holster, except when we…” My voice trailed off as I felt eyes upon me.
“Except when you what?” The corners of Aunt Pearl’s mouth turned up in a smirk. She held the gun steady. “You want to enlighten us?”
“No.” I kept my voice level and calm. “Never mind. Just put that thing down.”
Aunt Pearl lowered the gun just as Aunt Amber returned, followed by Tyler. He looked tired and disheveled but otherwise unharmed. Aunt Pearl had obviously incapacitated him with witchcraft in order to steal his gun.
“Hey, that’s my gun.” Tyler lunged at Aunt Pearl and within seconds disarmed her. He replaced his recovered gun in its holster and put it on. Then he pointed at my two aunts. “You two, go sit in the living room. Amber, make sure she doesn’t go anywhere.”
Aunt Amber clamped a hand on Aunt Pearl’s bony shoulder and steered her toward the doorway.
“Get ready for a lawsuit, Sheriff. This is police harassment.” Aunt Pearl paused in the doorway and swore under her breath.
Tyler ignored her.
“C’mon, Pearl.” Aunt Amber pulled Aunt Pearl into the living room.
Aunt Pearl lunged toward the doorway. “You can’t order me around, Sheriff. I’ll go wherever I like.”
“No you won’t.” Aunt Amber guided Aunt Pearl to the sofa with an iron grip. They both sat down.
I was relieved that Tyler was okay but fearful that Aunt Pearl had taken the extreme measure of tricking Tyler when we already faced a killer in our midst. Witchcraft and weaponry were a deadly combination. Aunt Pearl knew very well that she had taken things too far. What the heck was wrong with her?
“She’s not going anywhere,” Aunt Amber yelled to Tyler in the hall. She turned to Aunt Pearl. “The sheriff hasn’t arrested you, but that doesn’t mean I can’t. You’re under WICCA house arrest, Pearl.”
“You’re arresting your own sister?” Grandma Vi hovered above the dining room sideboard. She looked at her daughters in disdain. “Amber, really…that’s an abuse of power. Can’t you two girls get along for once?”
I smiled despite the gravity of the situation. My geriatric aunts were forever young girls in Grandma Vi’s eyes.
Our bickering woke Brayden but not Dominic and Gail who still snoozed peacefully.
Brayden rubbed his temple and frowned. He had overheard snippets of the conversation. “Tyler gave you his gun?”
Aunt Pearl nodded. “He didn’t give me his gun. I stole it.”
“Tyler! Get over here,” Brayden barked.
Tyler appeared in the doorway. “Yes?”
Brayden turned to face him. “Is what Pearl says true? You got tricked by a little old lady?”
Aunt Pearl glared at Brayden. “I’m not old.”
Tyler began to speak, only to be interrupted by Aunt Amber.
“Leave Tyler out of this,” Aunt Amber said. “You know what Pearl is capable of, Brayden. Aside from that, stealing a gun isn’t the worst thing that’s happened here. Not by a long shot.”
“You mean Merlinda? The sheriff should have prevented that too. Merlinda was killed right under his watch.” Brayden shook his head in disgust.
“You were there too. We all were.” I neglected to mention that Brayden had been unconscious at the time. Because it was a spell, he remained blissfully unaware of that fact.
“Maybe so, but I didn’t do a single thing to contribute to tonight’s tragedy.” Brayden worried about himself first and political fallout second. Anything and anyone else placed a distant third. As far as he was concerned, Merlinda’s tragic death wasn’t really his concern. Death had quickly cured him of his infatuation.
“I strongly disagree. None of this would have happened without you, Brayden,” Aunt Pearl said. “You provoked Dominic, and then he killed Merlinda in a fit of jealousy.”
“That’s a lie. I barely even noticed Merlinda.” Brayden’s eye twitched, a sure sign he was lying.
I glanced over to where Gail and Dominic were still passed out against the wall, nestled awkwardly into each other.
There was no sign of Earl, though. He must have made himself scarce when Aunt Pearl grabbed Tyler’s gun.
“Quit changing the subject, Pearl,” Tyler said. “And keep your hands off my gun. We’ve all had enough drama for one night.”
“Well, next time, don’t leave your gun lying around, sheriff.” Aunt Pearl snapped. “I can’t be held accountable for your carelessness.”
“But I didn’t—oh, never mind.” Tyler turned away. “I’ve got more important things to do than argue with you, Pearl. I know I never removed my holster or my gun.”
Mom frowned. “Keep messing with Tyler and you’ll have to answer to me, Pearl. Got it?”
“Got it.” Aunt Pearl sighed, defeated. She was outmatched by her two sisters for once.
Grandma Vi floated a foot above Tyler’s head. She winked at me and whispered, “Ooh…magic.”
I ignored her. “Let’s talk about Merlinda. We were all here at the table and ate most of the same things. Nobody left the table, except for Merlinda. How could she have been poisoned? By something slow-acting? If so, then she could have ingested it hours earlier.”
Mom and I exchanged nervous glances. I knew that despite Earl’s explanation, she was still a little worried about the flour she had used for the Christmas cake. Mom had absolutely nothing to gain from Merlinda’s demise though. And everything to lose, with a guest dying at our Inn. She would be quickly eliminated as a suspect.
On the other hand, Mom was a known expert in herbal potions, some of which were actually poisonous. She was also the Inn’s cook and had prepared all of Merlinda’s meals. She had the means and opportunity to poison Merlinda but no real motive. Still, the police would have to investigate her in the absence of any other leads. We needed to explore all those leads in order to rule her out.
I flashed back to the green powder that Dominic had given Merlinda. He could have added something to the health food supplement. Maybe it was tainted with a hidden ingredient just like Mom’s cake was.
But maybe Dominic’s powder wasn’t tainted with something harmless like peanut butter. As Merlinda’s husband, he certainly had a motive.
I turned to Tyler. “What about Merlinda’s room? Maybe there is something there that could have harmed her?”
“Let’s go.” He headed upstairs with Mom and me close behind.
21
Ten minutes later Tyler, Mom, and I stood in the doorway of Merlinda’s room. We had inspected her room, being careful not to touch anything. Her suite was spotless and devoid of personal items. The only sign of Merlinda was her purse, which sat atop a neatly made single bed. Other than a few toiletries and clothes in the bureau drawers, there was little evidence that the room was occupied, let alone signs of Merlinda’s three-month stay.
Tyler and I had to at least probe the supernatural leads so the Shady Creek police didn’t start the investigation by chasing red herrings. It wasn’t exactly by the book, but it was necessary with four witches and a ghost in the mix.
“It’s kind of strange that Mer
linda had no pictures or mementos of Dominic.” Tyler rummaged through Merlinda’s purse. He pulled out her phone and studied the screen. He held it up for us to see. “Her screen picture is of another man. Not Dominic, her new husband. Most people keep some reminder of their significant other when they’re away from home.”
“Maybe she kept the pictures hidden away on her computer because she didn’t want questions.” I could understand Merlinda hiding pictures of their secret wedding, but there wasn’t a single photograph of Dominic anywhere in the room. Then again, she had kept him secret from us too.
Tyler dumped the contents of Merlinda’s purse on the bed. He sifted through her wallet with a gloved hand. He turned up nothing but a lipstick tube, a small amount of cash, and a Vanuatu passport. “Not even a wallet picture of the wedding. If that part is actually true.”
“Maybe they weren’t as serious as Dominic claimed. Merlinda could have just played along with the wedding story.” I recalled Merlinda’s odd behavior. “Could the marriage be a sham?”
Merlinda hadn’t exactly seemed enamored of Dominic. In fact, she had seemed shocked by his arrival. If it was a marriage of convenience, only Dominic could tell us what that convenience was. Except he wasn’t talking.
We searched the rest of the room—or rather Tyler did while I videotaped his search with my cellphone. He had turned up nothing but an empty teacup with a smattering of still-damp tea leaves. It must have been Aunt Pearl’s tea from earlier in the day. Tyler placed the cup in a plastic baggie with his gloved hand.
I just couldn’t fathom who had wanted Merlinda dead. Certainly not Aunt Pearl. Her star student was a walking advertisement for Pearl’s Charm School. In fact, the short time Merlinda had spent in Westwick Corners had revolved around Pearl’s Charm School, and she had kept to herself most of the time. She had no local friends and until tonight, barely even spoke to anyone. She hadn’t even met Brayden before tonight. I kept going back to Dominic. He had to be involved somehow.
“What’s the slowest acting poison around?” I asked.
Tyler shrugged. “I don’t know. What I do know is that anything lethal normally triggers a quick reaction, like within minutes. Something slow-acting would have produced symptoms over a longer period of time. It wouldn’t result in the sudden reaction Merlinda had.”
“That’s right,” Mom said. “Herbal tinctures work exactly the same way.”
“Merlinda was just fine until dinnertime,” I said. “No symptoms or complaints.”
Something else troubled me. Merlinda had been a last-minute addition to our Christmas Eve celebration since she had planned to be a on a flight home. She was only here because her holiday plans had fallen through. If it was a crime of opportunity, who stood to gain?
None of us, except possibly Dominic. As her newly wedded husband, he probably stood to inherit. Merlinda’s family was fabulously wealthy.
Come to think of it, Westwick Corners was the perfect place to do away with Merlinda. Few knew her here, and those that did would just assume she had gone home for the holidays. Only the people in this house knew that she had missed her flight.
We headed out into the hallway. As I shut Merlinda’s door behind me, it slammed shut with much more force than I had used. In the same instant, a gust of wind blew toward us. I ran to the stairs with Tyler and Mom close behind me.
Tyler and I exchanged glances as we stared down the stairs to the front door. The door was wide open and banged against the wall with each new gust. The wind swirled around and fluttered the papers on the hall table out onto the empty porch.
Another storm was brewing, and I felt powerless to stop it.
22
I stood on the front porch with Mom and Tyler. The snow had stopped falling, but it was still bitterly cold with a biting wind.
“Hey, look at this.” I pointed to the footprints that started on the porch and led down the stairs. They were women’s footprints. Since Mom stood beside me, they had to belong to either Gail or one of my aunts.
Dominic’s Cadillac Escalade was missing too.
Aunt Pearl.
I ran into the living room and found Aunt Amber struggling to free herself. She was tied to a chair with a string of Christmas tree lights.
Earl walked in from the dining room at the same time. “What the heck—?”
My heart thumped in my chest as I scanned the room. Gail was now awake and sat in the armchair. But Dominic was gone.
Gail, unlike Aunt Amber, was unrestrained. She played a game on her phone, so engrossed that she didn’t even look up. Or maybe she was purposely ignoring us.
“What happened?” I quickly untied Aunt Amber’s hands and feet while Tyler, Earl, and Mom searched the house for any sign of Aunt Pearl and Dominic.
“Pearl tied me up, and now she’s on the run.” Aunt Amber glared at Gail as she rose to her feet. “Thanks for nothing, Gail.”
Gail shrugged. “Why would I help you? You knocked me out cold.” She turned back to her phone screen.
“Where did Dominic go?” I asked.
Aunt Amber shrugged. “I don’t know. He must be with Pearl. She knocked me unconscious before she tied me up, so I didn’t see what happened. Next thing I knew he was gone too.”
My mouth dropped open. “She kidnapped him?”
“Either that or he kidnapped her. Or maybe they’re in cahoots with each other.” Aunt Amber sighed. “I just don’t know anymore. Pearl’s acting so weird.”
It also struck me as odd that Aunt Pearl had used a string of Christmas lights instead of witchcraft to restrain Aunt Amber. On the one hand, it was probably more effective to tie up Aunt Amber than rely upon a spell she could potentially undo. On the other hand, Aunt Pearl always claimed she could out-spell anyone, including Aunt Amber. Her use of physical restraints seemed a little out of character.
Aunt Amber followed behind me as I headed back to the front porch.
“Pearl knows it’s her tea,” she said. “You saw her get sick from it too. She’s guilty as sin.”
“It was an honest mistake.” I couldn’t believe that Aunt Pearl planned to kill Merlinda on purpose, by accident, or otherwise. I flashed back to her milk thistle, or rather, mistletoe, tea remedy. She had hidden most of her symptoms, but the tea had sickened her too. “If it was a mistake, then why didn’t she just own up to it?”
“She’ll never admit that, Cen.” Aunt Amber sighed. “She’d rather be a fugitive from justice.”
Mom confirmed our worst fears when she returned to the front porch, breathless. “She’s gone. We’ve looked upstairs, downstairs, everywhere. We’ve got to find her.”
Aunt Pearl was AWOL. She had stymied the investigation, held us at gunpoint, and now she was a fugitive on the run.
It was a dumb move. Her negligence wouldn’t attract new students once the secret got out. Which it was sure to now that she was a missing person.
Instead, her incriminating behavior implied she had intentionally poisoned her own student.
Brayden joined us. “I checked the basement but there’s no sign of Pearl. She could be anywhere. Running away makes her look guilty.”
Brayden was right about that, but I was more worried about Aunt Pearl’s survival. She was still weak from the poisoned tea, and with hardly any body fat, she wouldn’t survive in the frigid temperature outside.
What really troubled me was how Aunt Pearl had tied up Aunt Amber. Was that a sign that her supernatural abilities had decreased from the effects of her tea? If she had resorted to using mortal restraints to tie up Aunt Amber, then her witchcraft was either compromised or possibly no longer worked at all. Or even worse, maybe the poison made her spells go haywire with serious, even deadly, unintended results.
I turned to Mom. “I don’t think Aunt Pearl is firing on all cylinders, if you know what I mean.”
Mom was frantic. “I’m afraid I do. Pearl isn’t being rational. Who drinks their own poison just to prove a point?”
Aunt Amber sighed.
“That’s Pearl, I guess. She always has to be right no matter what the consequences. Even if those consequences result in her undoing.” She shivered and pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders.
Tyler and Earl stepped onto the porch. Tyler talked into his cell phone, providing details of Aunt Pearl’s escape to the Shady Creek Police. He put his phone back in his pocket. “I’ve alerted the Shady Creek police, though I doubt it will do much good. The roads are still closed, so she can’t drive anywhere.”
Earl slowly shook his head. “I doubt she took the Escalade. You know how Pearl hates driving.”
I had to agree with Earl. Aside from the impassable roads, driving wasn’t Aunt Pearl’s favored mode of transport. That’s exactly what worried me. Teleporting while impaired from the tea could have unintended results. The thought of her airborne and hell-bent on revenge was troubling to say the least. Aunt Pearl could be anywhere.
Tyler’s eyes met mine, his face tinged with worry. His sheriff abilities, no matter how good, couldn’t hold a candle to a desperate witch on the run.
“We’ll find her somehow,” I reassured him. As a witch, Aunt Pearl had plenty of travel options. That meant she was unlikely to freeze to death, but she could certainly get into a whack of trouble.
“Being on the run really complicates things,” Mom said. “I never figured Pearl would be a fugitive from justice.”
“Me neither,” Aunt Amber agreed. “What can we do?”
Tyler patted Mom’s shoulder in reassurance, but his expression remained doubtful. “I doubt Pearl planned ahead, so she probably won’t go far. We’ll find her. The Shady Creek police have an all-points bulletin out.”
“She could have an accomplice waiting somewhere.” Brayden’s attempt at helpfulness fell flat. He was trying to help in his own weird way, but his suggestion only upset us even more. He was already convinced of her guilt.
Earl’s face fell as realization dawned. Pearl had left him behind too. “I was supposed to be her partner in crime, but nothing turned out as planned.”
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