Nick nodded slowly before meeting her gaze. “The police found an ID card in a small card holder in her back pocket. It’s not public yet, but the girl they found was Katerina, Paisley’s cousin.”
Cassie pressed both hands against her mouth to muffle a gasp. A low, moaning sound followed and tears slipped past her dark lashes. “Oh my gosh. That’s awful!”
I wrapped an arm around her and she leaned into me, still crying for her friend’s loss. “Does the family know? Does Paisley—”
Nick swallowed hard. “Yes. I accompanied Chief Lincoln to Paisley’s aunt’s house and we told her in person. Paisley was there visiting, so she knows too.” Nick shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “She’s still there as far as I know.”
Cassie straightened with a sniffle. “Holly, can you watch the front? I’m going to go call her.”
“Of course.”
Cassie thanked Nick for stopping by and then scurried off to the back room to make the phone call.
“Bat wings…” I sighed. “Do they know how it happened?”
“They still need to do an autopsy, but—” Nick stopped and glanced around, making sure no one could overhear us, and then leaned in closer. “But it looks like she was pushed off the cliff. There were broken branches just off the trail. The footprints need to be processed, to rule out those from the rescue crew, but there are a few fresh ones past the spot she fell. They might indicate that Katerina was there with someone else. It also looked like she has defensive wounds on her hands and scratches on her arms that looked like they were made from fingernails, not tree branches or rocks.”
“Stars…” I shook my head slowly, the horror fully sinking in. “Who would do such a thing?”
“I don’t know, but I plan to find out. Starting with her live-in boyfriend who hasn’t even filed a missing person report.”
My eyebrows shot halfway up my forehead. “Oh?”
“Yeah. A little sketchy, if you ask me. If my girlfriend didn’t show up and was missing for a few days, I’d be frantic, running all over town, calling the police. The whole nine yards.”
“I bet you’re a great boyfriend,” I said, the thought passing from my mind to my lips before I could reign it back in.
Nick quirked a brow at me. “Well…I suppose so. I mean, that’s just what you do!”
I pushed away from the counter, suddenly needing to be away from him and the smell of his cologne and the way it mixed with the pine tree and earthy scents he’d picked up from working the crime scene along the hiking trail all day. “Mocha?”
Nick gave me a strange look, but blinked it away, and nodded. “Yeah. And something to snack on too. I haven’t eaten all day.” I glanced over at him as he zeroed in on a veggie wrap. “Let me get one of those too. I don’t have any cash on me though. Can you add it to my tab?”
I smiled and passed the hot drink across the counter, sure to whip my fingers back before he reached for it. I grabbed the wrap and placed it into a take-out box. “I’ll add it. Not a problem.”
“Thanks, Holly.”
“Sure.” I wiped my hands off on my apron. “So, what’s the plan? You’re going to go talk to the boyfriend?”
“Yeah. I need to go home and shower first. I figured I’d drive out to his place after that. He’s a little ways outside town.”
I nodded. “Do you want someone to go with you?”
Nick laughed. “You are angling for a job! I knew it!”
I rolled my eyes. “Actually, I was thinking that it might not be smart to go accuse a guy of murder without backup.”
“So, you’d be the muscle in this scenario?” Nick sputtered, still laughing.
“Hey! I’ll have you know that I recently joined a gym and have very good intentions on going sometime. Soon.”
He only laughed harder while I scowled. Eventually, it melted away and I laughed with him. He had one of those contagious laughs and I couldn’t help myself from joining in.
“Fine, you don’t want back up, that’s on you, Rivers.”
Nick collected himself. “All right, you’ve got a point. I can wait for you to get done here before going. What time are you done?”
“We close at seven instead of six, because of all the late business. But I could probably leave right at closing if I get the cleaning done ahead of time.”
Nick nodded. “Tell you what, I’ll swing back by at six thirty and help you guys clean up, and we can leave as soon as everything is done.”
“You’re a saint!”
“Saint Nick? I think that one’s already taken,” he teased, his blue eyes twinkling.
I laughed. “You’re right. You don’t really have the beard for that one…”
“Or the belly! I might add,” he said, running a palm over his flat stomach.
“Keep it up with the daily mocha and you’ll be on your way.”
He chuckled and sipped at his drink anyways. “Don’t let your boss hear you saying that. Bad for business.”
I waved a hand. “Nah. I’m not worried. She needs me.”
Nick smiled. “See you in a few hours,” he said, making his way out the door.
I watched him go, catching myself when my staring had gone on for a beat too long. “What is wrong with me?” I whispered, pushing away from the counter. I had to clean something. I grabbed the broom and started sweeping the front, mumbling to myself with each swing. “You have a boyfriend, Holls. Remember him? Tall, dark, ridiculously handsome? Yeah, that one.”
“Holly?”
I whipped around so fast I lost control of the broom and it smacked me in the shin. “Bat wings!”
Cassie was staring at me, wide-eyed. “You okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. Fine. I just wasn’t…” Cassie smiled sadly and I stopped. “How’s Paisley?”
Cassie’s smile fell away. “She’s devastated. I told her not to worry about coming in until she’s ready. But you know how she is, stubborn to a fault. She said she’ll be in tomorrow for her normal shift.”
“I’m always terrible in these situations. I never know what to say.”
“Me either.”
I nibbled on my lower lip for a moment. “We could get her a card at least.”
Cassie brightened. “That’s a good idea!”
“I can run out and grab one when Nick comes back.”
“Back?”
“He’s gonna come by and help us close up.”
Cassie blinked twice. Her brows knit together. “Why?”
“So that I can go with him when he questions Katerina’s boyfriend. I’m the muscle.”
Cassie’s lips twitched into a smile but the puzzlement remained. After a moment, she waved her hand. “All right.”
She dropped the issue and started rattling off a list of ideas for the big summer bash we were planning to hold at the shop. I listened—mostly—as I continued to sweep. Somewhere in the middle of Cassie’s list, an idea had popped into my head, and I knew exactly what to do to get Nick out of my head. Tonight, when he came back, I could dose him and Cassie with the Fated Flirt and then leave them alone while I went to get the card for Paisley. By the time I got back to the shop, they’d be consumed with each other. Then Adam couldn’t complain about the way Nick looked at me.
And I could stop worrying that it was true.
During my afternoon break I went to the employee cupboard and retrieved my purse. I wanted the vial in my pocket, waiting for the right moment. With a Fated Flirt, each party had to get a sip of the potion in order for it to work. Something about pheromones. Once each of them had enough potion, they would be acutely aware of the other and unable to stop thinking about them.
It would be the perfect opportunity.
My fingernails scratched around in the bottom of my purse like a deep sea trawler, fishing back and forth, trying to locate the smooth glass vial. When I came up empty for the third time, I resorted to going into Cassie’s office and dumping the contents out onto her desk. Everything else was there:
wallet, house key, lip gloss, a thousand hair elastics, and a pair of socks (don’t ask me why) but that was all the purse held.
The vial of Fated Flirt was gone.
At six thirty on the dot, Nick strolled back into the coffee shop, and after asking Cassie how Paisley was holding up, he dove right into work. He helped take out garbage bags, restock sugar packets and napkin containers, and even cleaned the small bathroom.
Cassie finished with the last customer, and her attention drifted to Nick as he started mopping in the far corner of the shop after checking with the tables of lingering patrons to make sure that they didn’t need anything else.
I shot her a sideways smile. “You over there mentally planning your guys’ wedding?”
Cassie giggled and smacked my arm. “I don’t know about marrying him, but I’m thinking we should at least get him on the payroll.”
“Except that if he was here all day, you’d probably never get anything done.”
She smacked me again—harder—and stalked off to collect the two pitchers of ice water from the front table. “What’s he doing here again?”
“I’m going with him to talk to Katerina’s boyfriend.”
“Why?” Cassie wrinkled her nose.
“Apparently they lived together but he hasn’t filed a missing person report or even called the police to see if they could track his girlfriend down. It just seems off. So, Nick wants to start there.”
She dumped the leftover water down the sink beside the espresso machine. “That does seem odd, but I don’t understand why you two have to go talk to him. Isn’t that kind of the police’s job?”
“I’m sure he would be more willing to talk to one of us instead of the police. We’re less threatening. Besides, Nick is technically still working for Katerina’s mother. He wants to see the investigation through.”
“What does Jeffery think of that?” she asked, on a first name basis with the police chief as they’d attended school together since their elementary years.
“Nick and Chief Lincoln get along these days. You heard him say that they went together to inform Pearl and Paisley about Katerina’s death.”
“That’s true. Still, I’m not sure he would be happy if he found Nick investigating leads. You remember how he got when you two were poking around in Peg’s murder.”
I shrugged. “He wasn’t so bad.”
Cassie shot me a look and I laughed, holding up my hands. “Okay, so he was about as friendly as an angry porcupine, but it all worked out in the end, didn’t it?”
She sighed. “For everyone except Peg.”
“Okay, morbid.”
“Sorry.” She sighed. “I still can’t believe Paisley lost her cousin. I mean, I’d never met Katerina, but she was just a few years younger than us. It’s just hitting me a little hard. That’s all.”
“I hear ya, Cass.” I gave her a solemn nod. “That’s why Nick and I want to find out what happened, so that Paisley and her whole family can have some closure and move on as best as they can.”
Cassie gave me a small smile. “You’re not going to leave me here alone and go work for Nick, are you?”
I laughed and shook my head. “Not a chance. I like coffee. Coffee is simple.”
“Cheers to that!” she said, holding up her own cup that she’d had stashed behind the counter most of the night. I didn’t want to think about the reason why she was dosing herself with caffeine. According to Kirra, she needed sleep. But, I wasn’t going to nag her about it. At least not tonight.
When Nick finished mopping, the last group of customer’s left, waving their thanks as they went. Nick returned the mop to the back room and came out to the dining room, spinning around to consider all his work. “Lookin’ good, ladies.”
“You’re a lifesaver, Nick. I needed to get out of here on time tonight.”
I shot her a look. “Please tell me it’s because you have something better to do than a mountain of laundry.”
She laughed and a tinge of pink flooded her cheeks. “I have a date.”
“Cassie!” My heart jumped and I lunged for her arm. “What? With who?”
“Jeffery…”
“Oh my stars! Cassie!” I shot her a dirty look. “How long has this been in the works? Why am I just hearing about this?”
She laughed as I shook her arm. “It just happened today. He stopped in while you were on your way out for your break and asked what I was doing for dinner. It’s so not a big deal, so please, contain yourself!” She pawed my hands off of her and started counting the till, the final task on the list.
“Um…we will talk about this tomorrow. In detail, woman.”
Cassie laughed and waved us off. “Go, have fun playing detective. Don’t get into trouble.”
Nick went to the door and held it open for me. “Have a good night, Cassie. Chief Lincoln’s a lucky guy.”
I cut a look back at Cassie and noticed her smile falter a fraction of an inch. She put it back in place and waved goodbye. “Thanks, Nick.”
As Nick and I set out into the parking lot, I breathed a sigh of relief that I hadn’t actually been able to dose Cassie and Nick with the Fated Flirt.
That would have been an epic disaster, sending her on a date with Chief Lincoln with Nick swimming around in her thoughts.
Though, it still raised the question as to who had run off with the vial of love potion. I had a pretty good idea, but proving it would be difficult without ruffling some feathers and fur around the manor.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“I DID A LITTLE MORE digging into Bobby,” Nick announced as we got into his silver sedan. It was some foreign brand that I knew nothing about. I didn’t have a car and didn’t bother to keep track of the different brands or features. All I knew was that Nick kept his shiny and the interior smelled like citrus, courtesy of a small orange cardboard tree that hung from the rear view mirror.
“Anything juicy?” I asked, buckling up.
Nick pulled out onto the main road that would eventually lead us out of town. “His full name is Robert Price. He and Katerina were sharing a home that’s situated on the back acreage of a ranch. Robert, or Bobby, works the land in exchange for the house and a small salary.”
“What about Katerina? Where was she working?”
“She worked at a bar just down the county road from the ranch. Lou’s Whiskey Well. She tended the bar in the evenings and on the weekends.”
I nodded, adding it to the pile of facts in the back of my mind. I planned to check with Gwen and Posy first, but figured that it might help jog Katerina’s memory if I could start filling in some of the blanks about her life. “Okay. We know that she and her mother were estranged. Did Pearl give you any insight into that relationship?”
“She said the two of them had an argument a ways back in regards to her relationship with Bobby. Pearl wasn’t a fan. Although I wasn’t able to get the specific reasons why. All she would tell me was that he wasn’t good enough for Katerina.”
“Hmmm. I wonder why. Sounds like a hard-working guy. I mean, being a ranch hand isn’t a walk in the park.”
“No. There has to be another reason.”
“Maybe he cheated on her?” I suggested.
Nick shrugged. “We might never know. If we can get Bobby to talk to us, my biggest question will be why he didn’t report her missing.”
“Okay. And if he won’t talk to us?”
“We’ll go down to Lou’s and see if her co-workers can give us the scoop. You gotta figure that they know something. It’s pretty hard keeping secrets, working in a little place like that.”
I laughed nervously. Siren’s Song wasn’t a bar but it was a small, tight knit staff. My walls were starting to come down, but I had to carefully maneuver and phrase things to make sure none of my secrets leaked out.
I glanced over at Nick, smiling. “Is that why you work alone? Keeping those secrets to yourself?”
Nick laughed. “You caught me.”
“Seriously,
don’t you get lonely? I don’t know if I could work all by myself.”
Granted, potion making was usually a solitary profession, but that wasn’t the same as having four office walls to stare at all day.
“It doesn’t bother me. I’m used to working on my own. Lone wolf, I guess.”
I relaxed back into the soft upholstered seat, enjoying the cool air piping in from the vents ahead of me. Night was falling, and while the temperature was dropping, it was still fairly warm outside, and I hadn’t gone home to change out of the jeans and sneakers I’d worn up the hill with Evangeline that morning.
“Well, if you want my advice, it’s nice to have friends,” I said, rolling my head against the seat to look at Nick’s profile. His jaw was strong but not too angular. It was a lot like his personality, solid. He looked freshly shaved compared to his slightly scruffy look that morning at the crime scene.
Had he cleaned up on my behalf? And if so, why?
And, more importantly, why was I even wondering about it?
I couldn’t figure Nick out completely. When we’d first met, we couldn’t have been on more opposite sides. But as we’d worked together to solve Peg’s murder, things shifted and we turned into friends. We never spent time alone, other than when investigating, but we saw each other most every day at Siren’s Song or around town, in the grocery store or outside the bank.
Lately though, I’d been thinking about him more often and noticing him. I wanted to chalk it up to our friendship growing, but there was a nagging thought in the back of my mind that told me it was something else. That there was more to it. Maybe it was just because things with Adam had been topsy-turvy lately.
But what did it mean? Did I see myself with Nick? Instead of Adam? Or was I just getting cold feet and looking for an excuse to bolt?
“I still talk to my friends back in California,” he said, bringing me back to the conversation. “And then, I have you and Cassie. I’d like to think we’re all friends by now.”
He glanced over at me and our eyes met. A flurry of emotions swirled around my stomach. I nodded. “Of course we are.”
Twice the Witch: A Beechwood Harbor Magic Mystery (Beechwood Harbor Magic Mysteries Book 2) Page 9
