by Zoe Arden
My dad is right. I'm too reckless.
"Snowy!" I yelled, and she turned back around. She saw me running and let out a loud, fierce growl, charging the guy chasing me.
The man stopped running, startled as Snowy leaped into the air, her claws extended. "No, Snowball!" he shouted. "It's me!"
But it was too late. Snowball landed squarely on his head, sending him to the ground. She was little, but she packed a powerful punch when she got going.
"Snowy, wait!" I shouted. She stopped attacking the man's face. She stood back on her haunches, sitting on his chest, triumphantly licking her paw.
"Mama," Snowy said when I approached. "It is detective man. Why is he sneaking on you?"
"I don't know," I told her, picking her up off Colt's chest and setting her back down. "Why doesn't he tell us?"
Colt wiped a speck of blood from his cheek where Snowy had scratched him. I still couldn't believe it was him. He stood up and brushed himself off.
"Snowy is sorry she hurt detective man," Snowball purred and butted her head against his leg.
"It's okay, Snowy," he said, reaching down to pet her. "I deserved it."
I didn't know whether to scream at him or kiss him. After a second of debate, I decided on the latter. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him close. My lips found his and when he kissed me back, I felt my anger melting away.
I pulled away from him, reluctant to let go but knowing I had to. I needed answers.
"Where have you been? Why won't Dean tell me anything? Do you know how worried I've been? Where have you been?"
"You asked me that last one twice," he smirked.
"That's because it's the most important one," I snapped. "So? Where have you been?"
He took a breath. "I can't tell you."
I blinked. "You can't tell me?"
He shook his head. I bit my bottom lip.
"But you're back now, right?"
He hesitated. "Not exactly."
"Not exactly? What does that mean?"
"I can't tell you."
I felt my anger returning. "What can you tell me?"
"I need you to stop asking about me. Stop looking for me. I'm safe for now, that's all you need to know."
"Safe for now?" I asked. "Colt, what's going on? Does this have anything to do with Zulubar's disappearance?"
"Ava, I can't tell you anything. It's for your own protection, trust me. There's more going on here than you know."
"Yeah, but Colt—"
"Tell me that you'll stop trying to figure this out. Don't look for me, don't break into COMHA again, don't look for Zulubar."
"So, this does have something to do with Zulubar."
"Ava," he sighed. "Promise me."
I drew in a breath. He put his hand to my cheek and caressed my face. "Fine," I said grumpily. "I promise."
"Good. Now I have to go. Don't try and follow me."
"When will I see you again?"
"I don't know. I'll try and send word to you if I can just to let you know I'm all right. If I'd known Dean wouldn't give you my letters..." He shook his head. "If you really need to get ahold of me, ask my dad."
"How come your dad gets to know where you're at but I can't?"
"He doesn't, but he can find me if he needs to. He's a vampire. They're natural hunters."
I nodded, and he kissed me goodbye. He pulled his hand away from my face and I automatically reached for it, already missing his warmth. I stopped when I saw his hand. Burned into his palm, fading but still present, was a four-leaf clover.
He saw me looking and pulled his sleeve down to cover it, but it was too late. "I burned myself cooking," he said and gave me another kiss. Then he was gone, and I was furious with him all over again.
* * *
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
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Eleanor warned me about Sheriff Knoxx at the bakery, before I'd even left for the station.
"He's still in a mood."
"Doesn't matter," I told her, getting together a box of her peanut butter dream bars. They were the sheriff's favorite dessert. "I need to talk to him."
"He's grumpy."
"I can handle grumpy."
She shook her head. "Not this kind of grumpy."
I felt my eyebrows lift in a question. "Define 'grumpy' for me."
She puffed her chest out and scrunched her face up till it turned red. If she'd scrunched it any tighter, steam would have come out of her ears. She let loose with a loud grunting noise that sounded like a bear caught in a trap.
I drew in a deep breath and let it out.
"I've still gotta talk to him." I hadn't told her or Trixie about Colt. I couldn't. I was afraid of what they might say, or worse what they might or do. Even with the mark on his palm, I couldn't believe that he'd been the one I'd shot that night in the forest. The one who'd chased me. The one who'd tried to kill me.
"Impossible," I muttered.
"What?" Eleanor asked.
I looked up and realized I'd been talking to myself.
"Nothing."
The truth was that Eleanor, Trixie, and I had made little headway in our search for Zulubar. There were too many roads to go down and all of them seemed to lead nowhere.
"Ava, is there something wrong? Other than the obvious, I mean?"
I bit my bottom lip and shook my head. I'd sworn Snowball to secrecy and knew there was no way she'd tell anyone that we'd seen Colt.
"No. It's just that Perx is going to be checking in with us soon, and we've got nothing to tell him. We promised to help, and I feel like we're failing him." That was all true, and it neatly avoided the Colt issue. Sheriff Knoxx and Colt had come to be friends... well, more likely friendly acquaintances. They had a mutual, professional respect for each other.
If Colt really had been the one I'd shot in the forest that night, maybe he'd killed Bisnunk against his will. He could've been hexed for all I knew. Maybe Sheriff Knoxx could help me figure it out before Colt killed again. The problem was, I didn't want to tell the sheriff anything about Colt. I needed him to help me clear Colt's name but without realizing what he was doing. If his temper was as bad as Eleanor said it was right now, I couldn't risk him getting upset and spouting off about Colt to someone he shouldn't.
If I could just convince the sheriff to help me find Zulubar, I was pretty sure the mystery around Colt would start to unravel, too. Call it witch's intuition.
"Good luck," Eleanor told me before I left for the sheriff's station. "He won't talk to me about the goblins, if you can get him to then you're a genius, and I demand you come back here at once and tell me your secret."
I assured her I would if things worked out that way. It was a short walk to the sheriff's station. It was near the center of town—the ideal location so that he could get to the west side or east side in just about the same amount of time.
I opened the door and a banana peel went whizzing by my head. It flew through the open door and landed on the stoop outside.
"Don't tell me no," Sheriff Knoxx roared, "just tell me yes."
I peered inside but couldn't see anything; I was too far back. I picked up the banana peel and tossed it into a trashcan, walking slowly and quietly into the station. Poor Elwin was standing there with his face red as a cherry. It looked like he was about to pop.
"But Sheriff," Elwin said, "the answer is still no."
Sheriff Knoxx picked up a banana—not just the peel this time but the whole banana—off his desk and flung it across the room at him. Elwin ducked just in time.
"It's not my fault your favorite TV show was canceled," Elwin shouted back at him, showing a little courage. "It's not on anymore, just accept it." He spun on his heels and left the room.
Sheriff Knoxx sighed. His eyes moved to the doorway where I was standing.
"When did you come in?"
"Just a minute ago," I said.
>
He looked at me a moment. "Did Eleanor send you down here?"
"No. I came on my own. I need to talk to you."
"If this is about that darn king again—"
"It's not," I said quickly, hoping the lie wasn't obvious. I offered him the peanut butter dream bars and he offered me a seat at his desk. I took it. My mind went into overdrive trying to come up with a way to get through to him.
"Um, I wanted to talk to you about Bisnunk."
He blinked at me. "Who?"
"The goblin who was murdered a few days ago."
"Oh. Yeah." He seemed distracted. Normally Sheriff Knoxx knew every crime that went down in Sweetland Cove and even Mistmoor Point. He stayed on top of those things like they were his nourishment.
"Well... I need your help to figure out who killed him," I continued.
Please don't be Colt, please don't be Colt.
"Why can't the goblins figure it out?"
"Because... they're not as smart as you." I smiled brightly and hoped he didn't see right through that.
He puffed out his chest and ran his fingers through his hair. "That may be true, but I don't have time to look into the murder of a goblin, unless there was some link to our own community, of course."
I bit my bottom lip, wondering if maybe I should tell him about Colt after all. Maybe that would be the push he needed to get involved.
"Well, actually..." I started.
Just then mail carrier Rorkin came strolling in. "Good afternoon, Sheriff," he said, handing him a bundle of letters. "Got another of those shiny letters from the goblins for you." He took a long gold envelope from his bag. It had been kept separate from the other letters. "Has the official castle seal and everything. How many is that now? Three? Four?"
Sheriff Knoxx grabbed the letter from him, his eyes going so dark that Mr. Rorkin took a step back.
"Uh, I'll just be going then," Mr. Rorkin said and took off running.
Sheriff Knoxx crumpled the letter up and threw it in the trash without even looking at it.
He turned around and it looked like he was surprised to see me. "You're still here?" he barked.
"What was that letter about?" I asked him.
"Nothing. Goblins are pests, that's all."
"Why are they sending you official letters from the castle? Is it to do with Zulubar?"
"How should I know?"
"Haven't you read any of the letters you've gotten from them?"
He glared at me. "I'm not helping the goblins, I'm not helping King Zulubar, and I want nothing to do with the goblins. Now go." He stepped away from his desk and almost collided with Elwin when he came into the room.
"Watch where you're going!" Sheriff Knoxx snapped at him.
"You almost knocked into me, Sheriff."
"Can't everyone just stay out of my way?" he yelled.
The crumpled letter was just sitting on top of the trash. I looked at the sheriff, who was preoccupied, and leaned forward ever so slightly. I pulled it out and went to stick it in my pocket. The sheriff was on me almost in an instant. He held his hand silently out, and I handed the letter back to him.
He pulled a book of matches from his drawer and set the letter on fire, letting it burn out in his coffee mug. Then he picked a peanut butter dream bar out of the box I'd given him and took a bite.
"Nice visiting with you, Ava," he said.
I got up and left, stunned by his behavior and even more confused than ever. There was a new mystery to add to my pile, maybe the biggest of them all.
What the heck was in that letter?
* * *
CHAPTER
TWELVE
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I walked into the bakery and was greeted with a plume of black smoke. The smell of burnt peanut butter saturated the air.
"Don't shut the door!" Eleanor shouted as I stepped inside. "For witch's sake, leave it open."
Trixie and my father were coughing in the corner. My dad was pushing one of the bakery's few windows open wider. Trixie had a broom and was using it to try and sweep the smoke out of the window.
"I can't believe you burned the peanut butter cookies again," Trixie said.
"I didn't burn them," said Eleanor.
"You're saying they burned themselves?"
"No, I'm saying there's something wrong with the ovens."
"You're always making excuses," Trixie snapped.
"Will you two cut it out already?" my dad yelled.
I stood momentarily stunned. Everyone sounded on edge. I couldn't remember the last time Eleanor had burned peanut butter cookies, or any other type of cookie for that matter.
"What's going on here?" I asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Eleanor snapped at me.
The smoke was starting to clear. Trixie's broom seemed to be working and with the front door hanging open, the smoke had two outlets now instead of just one. If it was this bad out here in the front of the store, I wondered how smoky the back room must be.
Eleanor shook her head and looked at me apologetically. "I'm sorry," she said. She looked at Trixie and my dad. "Eli, Trixie, I'm sorry." She shrugged. "I guess Zane's bad temper has rubbed off on me."
She picked a napkin off the counter and honked loudly into it with her nose. She tossed it in the trash bin and let out a loud, shaky sigh.
My dad stepped away from the window. "Do you have any idea what's gotten into him lately?"
Eleanor shook her head. "Nothing out of the ordinary."
"I might have one," I said. I walked directly to Eleanor. Now that my father knew as much as Eleanor and Trixie regarding the goblins and Zulubar's disappearance, there was no point in trying to hide anything from him. I could speak openly. Well... as openly as I could without mentioning Colt. I still wasn't ready to tell any of them about him. The sheriff, however, was another matter altogether.
"While I was talking to Sheriff Knoxx just now, a letter came for him. It was from the goblins. To say that it upset him is putting it mildly."
"Another one?" Eleanor asked. She looked distraught. "That must be the fourth or fifth letter in the last two weeks. And those are just the ones I know about. He keeps trying to hide them from me."
"Why didn't you mention that sooner?" Trixie asked.
"I didn't think it was important."
"Do you know what they're about?" I asked.
"Eleanor shrugged. "I assumed they were about Zulubar. Probably Perx trying to talk him into joining us in our investigation."
"That would make sense," said my dad. "The whole reason he asked for your help to begin with was that he really wanted Sheriff Knoxx's help, wasn't it?"
"That's true," said Trixie.
"I think it's more than that," I told them. "You should have seen the way he reacted when the letter came for him. He actually set it on fire."
"Fire?" my dad said and jumped as if a flame had just shot out and nipped his heels. "That's not normal behavior." He looked at me and his brow tightened.
"He actually did that?" Eleanor sounded worried.
I nodded. "If he could have, I think he might have shot it into outer space. That's how far away he wanted to send it. I don't know what's in those letters the goblins are sending him, but whatever it is it can't be good."
Eleanor, Trixie, my dad, and I all looked at each other. Variations of the same thought passed across each of our faces—is Sheriff Knoxx losing it? Maybe just a little.
The fire alarm suddenly sounded from the back room.
"Oh, my roses!" Trixie screeched.
"Will someone please make that stop?" Eleanor yelled. She was holding her hands over her ears, her face tight and pained.
"I'll get it," shouted my dad.
"I'll help," said Trixie.
They ran into the back room, leaving me and Eleanor alone together.
"What else happened at the station?" Eleanor asked. "Aside from the lett
er, I mean. Would he talk to you?"
I thought about all the yelling he'd done at poor Elwin, the bananas that had gotten thrown around, and what appeared to be Sheriff Knoxx's unhealthy obsession with a canceled TV show, and wasn't sure that I could use the word 'talk' as Eleanor meant it.
"Not exactly," I finally said.
She sighed. The alarm turned off.
"Thank the witches," Eleanor said. "I thought my head was going to explode."
"Eleanor, you know Sheriff Knoxx better than anyone. Can you think of any reason that a letter from the goblin castle would upset him so much?"
Eleanor shrugged." I wish I could." She reached for a chocolate chip fudge brownie and took a big bite out of it. Her next words were muffled as she chewed and talked at the same time. "I juss dun know whut to tell you. I canth fink of a fing."
"You said he's been getting letters at home, not just the station, right?"
She nodded.
"Do you think there are any still lying around that you could get your hands on?"
"No." She shook her head. "He threw them all away. I don't think he wanted me to see them."
"But if he's still getting them, the chances are good that another one will come to the house."
"I suppose," said Eleanor.
"The next time it does, take it."
Eleanor's eyes widened. She started shaking her head. "Oh, no, I couldn't do that."
"Why not?"
"He's my husband. He trusts me. I can't invade his privacy."
"He does trust you, so why won't he tell you what's going on?" I saw her eyes sparkle with a combination of irritation and intrigue. "He's supposed to share everything with you. So why isn't he sharing this?"
Eleanor bit her bottom lip. "I don't know."
What if he's involved with Zulubar's disappearance somehow?" I asked.
Eleanor shook her head violently. "Of course, he's not. How could you even suggest that?"
"I don't mean that he kidnapped Zulubar or anything like that, just that maybe he knows more about what's going on than he's letting on. Wouldn't you want to know if he did?"
