Rags to Witches

by Colleen Cross

  “You pissed off a mobster. You just made it my business.”

  Carolyn waved me off. “No time for that now. We better make ourselves scarce.”

  Wilt walked zombie-like towards a nearby slot machine. He rummaged in his pockets, finally turning them inside out, empty. Carolyn beckoned him over and he fell in behind us. We headed out of the casino and towards the hotel lobby.

  The lobby bustled with hotel guests, most of whom probably had no clue about the earlier gunfire.

  “I’m not letting up until you tell me more about your relationship with Manny. Was this before or after he married Carla?” I felt underdressed beside Carolyn, though my casual dress matched just about everyone else in the lobby.

  “Before, but I don’t see why that matters. We met at one of Carla’s parties, back when she still lived in Westwick Corners. Manny was in town for a few days on business. He was immediately attracted to me.” Carolyn smiled and ran her fingers through her long blonde hair.

  “Attracted to Pearl, or attracted to Carolyn?”

  “What does that matter?”

  “It matters a lot. Does he know about your Carolyn act?”

  “Uh-huh. He knows everything. And don’t call it that,” Carolyn sniffed. “Carolyn is very real to me. I can assure you she is very real to a lot of people around here. Including Manny. He thinks it’s kind of sexy.”

  I covered my ears. “Too much information.” I didn’t want to imagine my elderly aunt—even in her Carolyn alter ego—getting intimate with a member of the opposite sex.

  I turned and saw that two of the bachelor party men still followed us, hovering back a few feet. “I know you’re flattered by all the attention, but this is getting creepy. It’s like they’re stalking us.”

  Wilt snapped to attention and marched towards the men. “I’ll take care of them.”

  Carolyn waited until he was out of earshot and leaned closer. “At least they’ll keep Wilt occupied for a while.” She winked at the two men and followed me to the elevators.

  I rolled my eyes, pressed the elevator button, and prayed for the doors to open before either Wilt or Carolyn found any more trouble.

  My prayers were answered as the elevator doors opened and I stepped into the empty elevator.

  Carolyn followed me in. “Jimmy was card-counting too. That’s why he was so furious. He wasn’t supposed to have any competition at the table. Manny will think I helped Wilt.”

  “You did help him.” My mouth dropped open as the larger implications of Carolyn’s statement sunk in. “Wait a minute. Are you saying that Jimmy was card counting with the casino’s knowledge?” That implied that Rocco was involved somehow.

  “The casino has to know. They monitor everything, so how could they not know?” Carolyn dropped her head and muttered to herself.

  “Hey, wait for me!” Wilt jumped in the elevator just as the doors closed behind him. Whatever he had said to our admirers had worked, because they were gone.

  “How is witchcraft worse than counting cards? Either way is cheating.” As far as I could see, Jimmy had been beaten at his own game and was a sore loser. I didn’t see what it had to do with Manny, or why witchcraft was worse than counting cards. Both were forms of cheating in my eyes.

  “Maybe, but Manny doesn’t see it that way. Card counting is how Manny and his guys make some of their money. Any witchcraft that undermines his business is something he won’t tolerate.”

  “The card-counting seems awfully labor intensive. Jimmy would have to win a lot to make it worthwhile.” I wondered if Rocco knew what was going on at his own casino.

  Carolyn rolled her eyes. “They look for high rollers like Wilt appears to be.”

  “What are you guys talking about?” Wilt rubbed his forehead. “Who was card-counting?”

  “Never mind, we’ll talk about it later.” I turned to Carolyn. “Manny won’t know you were involved.”

  Carolyn shook her head. “The surveillance cameras. Anyone watching will see that everything here on the floor froze with my rewind spell. It’s obviously magic.”

  “I doubt it. Most people would think the temporary freeze is a technical glitch with the camera or something.”

  “Except that not all of us were frozen,” Carolyn said. “Don’t you see? That in itself proves we are witches. Anyone reviewing the surveillance footage will see us moving around while everyone else is frozen in place.”

  “Oh,” I said. “I hadn’t thought of that. But that’s okay. We’ll just tell Rocco. He already knows we’re witches, and he can just erase the footage.”

  “Hmmm.” Carolyn frowned.

  “What’s wrong with that? Manny doesn’t work at Rocco’s casino, so he’d never see the footage anyways.”

  “I guess I forgot to mention that part.” Carolyn paused and drew a deep breath. “Manny has already infiltrated the casino. A few of his men are now on security detail here. Now that Carla’s gone, nothing is going to stop him from making his takeover official.”

  Chapter 31

  I stepped out of the elevator and trailed behind Carolyn and Wilt into the suite. After all the clanging and people downstairs, the stillness of the suite infused a strange sense of calm. I hated to admit it, but it was beginning to feel like home.

  “We can’t stay here. Let’s pack up our things and leave.” Carolyn headed for the stairs, but froze suddenly in her tracks. “Manny’s people will be tracking our every move.”

  My mouth dropped open. Christophe sat beside Mom on the sofa, a bottle of beer in hand. It seemed strange to be drinking on the job, but maybe things worked differently in Vegas. Even stranger was his choice of beverage, given his penchant for mixing fancy drinks.

  But it was the man sitting opposite Christophe in the armchair that caught my attention.

  “Tyler! You’re here!”

  He grinned and rose to greet me. “When I didn’t hear from you, I got worried. These crime families are dangerous, so I thought I’d better drop by. I caught a flight over.”

  As if it was the easiest thing in the world.

  “How did you find us?” I rushed over and kissed him on the cheek.

  He shrugged. “It wasn’t that hard to figure out. Just go where the Racatellis are.”

  Carolyn shook her head, clearly not pleased to see Tyler. “Siding with the law. How could you, Cen? You’ve changed sides.”

  Tyler frowned. “Do I know you? You look sort of familiar.”

  “I don’t think so,” Carolyn stared after Wilt as he walked out onto the patio. “I’ll be right back.”

  “I’m coming with you.” I trailed behind Carolyn as she headed outside.

  “We have to get out of here, Wilt.” Carolyn beckoned him with a wave of her hand.

  “I just met you.” Wilt paused in the doorway. “You’re pretty and all, but I barely know you. Why would you want to run away with me?”

  Carolyn exhaled and threw her hands in the air. “Tell him, Cen.”

  “Tell him what?” I certainly wasn’t about to explain that Carolyn was just a witchy disguise conjured up by Aunt Pearl. “You created this mess. You’ll have to get yourself out of it.”

  Wilt shook his head slowly. “You two can argue as much as you want. I’ve got to get out of here before that guy comes looking for me. I’ll just take off somewhere in the RV. Maybe I’ll hide out in the desert.”

  “In a giant RV?” Carolyn snorted. “Yeah. Like nobody will notice that at all.”

  “You don’t need to be sarcastic,” Wilt said.

  I caught up with them and grabbed Wilt’s arm. “Are you crazy? You’re no match for these thugs. Even if you leave Las Vegas, they’ll probably come looking for you.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Cen. Wilt can easily disappear for good.”

  “For good?” He suddenly looked doubtful. “I don’t see how. I have nowhere to go. I’m no good at anything. I even lost Miss Pearl.”

  I glared at Carolyn. “Can’t you do something?”
r />   “You mean, like change back—”

  “That’s exactly what I mean.” I turned to Wilt. “Promise me you’ll stay right here until I come back. I think I might know where Aunt Pearl is.”

  Wilt looked doubtful.

  “I can’t help you unless you cooperate, Wilt.”

  “Do what she says,” Carolyn added as she followed me back inside. She smiled indulgently. “Wilt needs a bit of fresh air, so we can just let him stew for a bit. I think he had a little too much to drink. Speaking of which, I could use a Cosmo, Chris. No one mixes them quite like you do.”

  Christophe frowned. “I’ve never made you a drink before.”

  I waved my hand in dismissal. “I might have mentioned you and your mixology skills to Carolyn.” I glared at my aunt.

  “A man of many talents.” Tyler smiled. “At least you ladies have been in good hands with Christophe protecting you. Might be best to stay in the suite for the next few hours.”

  “No can do,” Carolyn said. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

  Tyler’s eyes narrowed. “You sure we haven’t met before? I could swear I’ve seen you in Westwick Corners.”

  My pulse quickened as I steeled myself for Carolyn’s response.

  Carolyn batted her eyelashes. “West-what?”

  “Never mind.” Tyler turned to me. “Things are about to come to a head. Promise me you’ll stay here in the suite?”

  “We aren’t going anywhere,” I answered for both of us.

  We headed upstairs and marched into the bedroom. “Change back into Pearl right now.”

  “Can’t it wait?”

  “No, Aunt Pearl. Do it now.”

  For once she listened to me.

  I breathed a sigh of relief as glamorous Carolyn slowly faded and no-nonsense Aunt Pearl solidified before my eyes. She wore a white tennis outfit, not exactly her normal attire. The short skirt exposed slim, wrinkled legs with a touch of sun damage. “Good. Let’s go downstairs and get Christophe to help Wilt.”

  “Do we really have to involve the police?”

  I glared at her. “I don’t think we have any choice.”

  “All right. Have it your way.” Aunt Pearl hoisted a huge white duffel bag off the bed and onto her shoulder.

  “We aren’t going anywhere,” I reminded her.

  “I know, I know.” She looked like she was heading out for a tennis match with her gear slung over her shoulder.

  I followed behind my aunt as we descended the stairs.

  “Sheriff Gates, what a surprise!”

  “Going somewhere, Pearl?” Tyler asked.

  Aunt Pearl shook her head. “Nope. Just getting my stuff ready for my tennis match tomorrow.”

  “That’s good. I think we all need to stay inside for a while.”

  Chapter 32

  Imprisonment in a luxury Vegas hotel suite wasn’t so bad after all, now that Tyler was here. I wouldn’t even mind prolonging our stay a little longer. I was really touched to know that he had traveled so many miles, just to make sure I was safe.

  No man had ever done anything like that for me before.

  Maybe we did stand a chance after all.

  I smiled at him.

  Tyler returned my smile. “It’s wasn’t that hard to track you down since I knew you were visiting Rocco Racatelli. I figured you’d show up at his hotel sooner or later.”

  Rocco.

  Tyler.

  I felt nothing for Rocco right now, but that was because he was nowhere near me. Would the attraction spell take over my free will again? I was worried about what that meant for Tyler and me.

  “But how...” My eyes darted to Christophe and then back to Tyler. They had apparently already introduced themselves. A good thing, since I didn’t know quite how to explain our strange butler to Tyler.

  Tyler seemed to read my mind. “Christophe is a former colleague of mine. His sole reason for being in this suite is for your protection.”

  “You were a mobster too, Sheriff Gates? Never would have guessed.” Mom’s eyes widened in shock as she slid to the opposite end of the sofa, away from Christophe. She looked to me for reassurance.

  “He’s fine. Mom.” Mom’s reaction seemed over the top, especially considering her bad boyfriend choices.

  Tyler laughed. “Don’t worry, Ruby. Christophe and I worked together as undercover cops. Before I came to Westwick Corners, I worked here in Vegas.”

  “I knew you were too good to be true.” Aunt Pearl paled as she eyed Christophe. “But you make such great martinis. What a crying shame.”

  Christophe smiled. “What can I say? I’m a man of many talents.”

  “Why do we need protection?” I knew exactly why, but wanted a straight answer from Christophe. If the police considered Carla’s death accidental, Christophe’s presence made no sense.

  “Nothing you need to know at the moment,” Christophe said.

  “How did you even know that we would be here?” I asked. “What about Rocco? He’s the one that really needs protection right now.” I wanted answers, but I wasn’t getting very far.

  “Don’t worry about him. He’s covered. We’ve taken care of everything. Now let me do my job and you’ll all be fine,” Christophe said.

  “We don’t need protection,” Aunt Pearl protested. “We’re perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves.”

  I grabbed Aunt Pearl and pulled her into the kitchen. “Here’s our chance to get justice for Carla. We need to show that autopsy report to Christophe.”

  “We can’t do that. He’s probably just as crooked as the rest of them. They’re convinced that Carla’s death was an accident, so I don’t want to make waves. There’s not much I can do about their incompetence.”

  “Of all people, I thought you would try harder to get justice for your friend. You accuse me of not applying myself with my magic. Well, you don’t put much effort into real life.” I shook my head. “I thought Carla was your friend. Don’t you care about her?”

  “Of course I do. But there are other ways to see justice served.”

  “None of your ideas have worked so far. In fact, you just get us into more and more trouble. And poor Wilt now has to run for his life, all because you mixed him up in your crazy card-counting scheme. You need to stop your witchy antics right now, before you screw up whatever it is the police are actually investigating.” I still wasn’t clear on what that was and hoped to get some information from Tyler.

  “Give me the autopsy report.” I held out my hand.

  Aunt Pearl backed away, her palms outstretched. “I seemed to have misplaced it.”

  “You better find it. Unless that autopsy report was something you just made up.”

  Aunt Pearl’s eyes moistened with tears. “Of course not. I would never fabricate something like that. That would be horrible.”

  “I’ll give you one chance to make things right, Aunt Pearl.” I pointed towards the living room. “On the other side of that door are two people that can help. Will you give them proof that Carla was strangled, or are you going to hide what you know?”

  “Okay, fine. We’ll do it your way.” She shooed me towards the kitchen door and pushed me through it. “We’ve got no time to waste. Jimmy’s going to come after us.”

  “I’ll get Wilt.” I brushed past her and headed to the patio to get Wilt. I opened the patio doors and stepped outside. I circled the deck but found no sign of him. I broke into a run as I retraced my steps, checking and rechecking every corner and alcove of the wraparound deck. I leaned over the railing and looked down onto the street far below, where specks of people milled around the hotel entrance.

  Wilt had disappeared without a trace.

  I ran towards the doors and almost ran into Aunt Pearl. “He’s gone.”

  Aunt Pearl’s bottom lip trembled. “How can that be?”

  “You helped him, didn’t you? Because there’s no possible way he left the 26th floor of this hotel unless magic was involved.”

  �
��Maybe.” Aunt Pearl’s eyes darted back and forth.

  “Running away doesn’t solve anything, Aunt Pearl. In fact, it makes things worse for Wilt. He’s on his own, and he’s not even thinking clearly. Find him, Aunt Pearl.”

  Wilt was far too sloppy and disorganized to pull off any crime, let alone murder. He couldn’t even follow Aunt Pearl’s convoluted card-counting scheme.

  But maybe that wasn’t Wilt’s fault after all. I flashed back to Wilt’s comments in the elevator. He had seemed completely oblivious to the card counting. Aunt Pearl’s claims had so many inconsistencies that I just didn’t know where to start. “Let’s go inside and tell them.”

  Aunt Pearl crossed her arms. “No.”

  “Wilt might evade the police, but he can’t run from the La Manna organization forever. Wherever he goes, they will find him and retaliate. Then it will be too late. At least with the police, he will be protected in custody.”

  For the first time, Aunt Pearl wavered. “I guess you’re right. They’ll track him down and I can’t protect him with my magic forever.”

  “Good. It’s settled.” I clamped my hand around her bony arm and steered her towards the door. “I want you to tell Christophe and Tyler everything.”

  “You sure? Everything?”

  “Leave out the witchy parts, of course. Tell them everything else, including the romantic relationships and Carla’s marriages, sham or otherwise.”

  I stepped inside and announced the news. “Wilt’s gone.”

  “That’s impossible. He would have had to walk right past us. And he couldn’t jump that many stories and survive.” Mom’s hand flew to her mouth as she grasped what had really happened.

  Aunt Pearl coughed.

  “You didn’t,” Mom whispered as she squeezed her sister’s arm. “You helped him, didn’t you?”

  “Ouch!” Aunt Pearl slapped Mom’s arm. “I had to do something. Otherwise, Wilt’s as good as dead once Manny gets his hands on him.”

  Tyler’s mouth dropped open. “You helped Wilt escape? But he was just outside...”

  Tyler’s comment struck me as odd, since he couldn’t possibly know what had just transpired down in the casino. “We’ll find him. We can discuss details later, but Aunt Pearl has more pressing news for you. Right, Aunt Pearl?”