The Midsummer Murders

by Jill Nojack

  Daria was there, too, along with Cassie’s husband, and Gillian with her partner, the mayor. They all clapped when she blew out the candle.

  Tom and Cassie gave her her presents first. Their gift was a super-classy picnic hamper with two gift certificates for catered picnics from the diner that she could use any time she liked. Which was a pretty nice gift. She and Marcus could definitely use it when they had time off together. The diner was a popular place, people even came in from out of town in the evening. It was always packed, and the food was really good.

  Tom gave her a hug afterward, telling her he had to get back for the show. He apologized for Marcus not being there—he was double-checking the effects and sound systems to make sure nothing went wrong.

  That was okay with her. They had their own celebration planned, sitting out by the lake in Corey Woods under the bright, three-quarter, midsummer moon. As tired as she was, she was sure it was going to be her best birthday ever.

  After Tom left, she scored a few more nice things—a stone mortar and pestle from Gillian and Robert, complete with small packets of every herb the shop carried, even the rare ones that were pretty expensive. She beamed when she saw it.

  “Thank you, guys!” She gave Robert a quick hug, then Gillian a longer one. “I can really use this stuff!”

  Daria gave her a charm bracelet that matched the one that glittered from her own wrist, laughing as she said, “You can use this for charms that can’t get you into trouble.” The only charm on the bracelet was a locket which, when she opened it, contained a favorite picture of the two of them.

  She threw her arms around her cousin in a hug after Daria had fastened it on her wrist. “I love it, D! I can hardly wait to add to it.”

  When it came to Natalie’s turn, she tried not to look dejected about the unwrapped, flimsy, slightly worse-for-wear white cardboard box she was handed. But she knew it wasn’t working for her; her face was all about the disappointment.

  Until she opened it.

  The comb. Natalie was giving her back the comb.

  Which meant that the crow was already dead. She went from happy surprise to slumped shoulders.

  “Thanks, Nat. I—”

  “Why so glum? A girl with a beautiful comb and a fine familiar like that crow out there—” Natalie nodded toward the window where the big crow bobbed its head toward them, “—ought to be a lot more excited about the things she’ll be learning this summer.”

  “You trust me with a familiar? I told Cassie I was ready for the responsibility, but Cassie said you...”

  “Cassie said what I told her to say. Didn’t want to ruin the surprise.” She paused, her mouth compressing into a line for a moment, then relaxing before she said, “And yes, I trust you. Or I at least trust myself to keep a weather eye on you so that you don’t have an opportunity to step out of line.”

  “Thank you, Nat!” She lunged toward her mentor and threw her arms around her without thinking about it; by the time she realized she was hugging prickly old Natalie, Natalie was hugging back—stiffly, but she was hugging back all the same.

  Twink backed off, feeling a little awkward, but Natalie smiled at her. Whew. No being turned into a toad in her sleep. Maybe.

  “Your time as the mistress of this familiar begins now,” her mentor said, moving to the shop door. “I’ll need the comb back momentarily, along with a fingernail clipping. Just a sliver. Hold out your hand, please. Gillian, could you light the candle?”

  Natalie pulled the jeweled athame from a pocket and said, “Well? Your hand?”

  Twink looked down at her perfectly shaped and polished nails for a moment, then held out her right hand. Natalie held it gently as she shaved a tiny piece of nail from the tip of her pinky finger. It didn’t look too bad. She could get it shaped up just right again.

  “There’s a compartment here—” Natalie ran her index finger over the back of the comb and the lid to a tiny compartment popped open. “Hold this now, while I transfer the familiar to his new mistress.”

  Twink held out her hand to take the comb and Natalie spoke in a near whisper as she began the ritual. “From the dead to the living. From the one who can no longer be helped to the one who needs a helpmate. From bound to bound and end to end. So mote it be.”

  She let loose the clipping above Twink’s hand, and it drifted slowly down to the compartment in the comb as the clipping it already contained drifted up until the exchange in position was complete.

  When Twink’s nail settled into the comb, the hatch closed, leaving no visible seam. Natalie snatched the original clipping out of the air and dropped it into the flame of the waiting candle where it burned bright red in a burst and then extinguished.

  “You can put it on now.”

  Twink swept up one side of her hair and affixed it quickly. When Natalie opened the door, the crow hopped in, keeping eye contact with Twink as it moved closer.

  “It won’t be confused anymore about who its mistress is. Tell it what it needs to know about being your familiar.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I think you do. You know the damage this bird caused and why. Tell it what you expect from it.”

  “Oh.” Twink did know. She looked the bird in its shiny black eyes and said, “You can never hurt anyone just because I’m mad at them.” Twink looked up at Natalie.

  Natalie cleared her voice, an eyebrow raised. It was clear she didn’t think Twink was finished.

  Twink thought hard for a minute, then continued, “I mean, you can never hurt anyone or anybody in any way, even if I tell you to.” She looked at Natalie. “Which I will not, by the way. Because that’s always wrong, and I won’t mean it. I’d just be upset and say it without thinking. And if you do hurt someone because you think that’s what I want, then Natalie will break the spell, and I think you know what happens if she does.”

  The crow cawed loudly and flapped its wings, bobbing its head. She guessed that meant it understood. But how would she know? She’d never even had a goldfish, so having a magical bird that would pretty much do anything she wanted to do was big.

  But she was ready for it. She was sixteen.

  The first blaze of magical light lit the street outside and Tom’s voice rang out on the loudspeaker, “You dare challenge me, Mistress of the Light? Your white magic is no match for my darkness.”

  They all hustled out the door to catch the show. The crow followed her, then took wing to roost on the Giles Corey statue down the street, waiting for her instruction if she wanted to give it one.

  But all she wanted to do tonight was be proud of her boyfriend’s role in the show overhead that was half Star Wars, half witchcraft, and totally corny. But Tom looked hot (for an old guy) in his tuxedo and cape as he twirled his laser pointer and laughed an evil bwa-ha-ha, so the ladies would love it as much as the guys.

  The crowd ate it up, oohing and aahing as each magical burst flew from real or prop wands.

  When good triumphed over evil with a focused blast from the rooftop coven and a smoke bomb detonated as the evil wizard shrunk away, his suit and cape collapsing onto the roof, they cheered and laughed. They loved it.

  They loved it even more when a black cat emerged from the pile of clothes, hissing and spitting, then darted for the side of the shop, shimmied down the tree that ran along its side, and ran off into the back yard to Daria’s apartment and jumped through the window that had been left open for him, where Tom had stashed his clothes earlier in the day.

  The town’s vet, who Twink had met once when she went with Marcus to take Einstein in for shots, appeared on the rooftop next to the shop, one of the “stages” that had been used for the show with the rest of the thespian witches ringed around him. Tom appeared again on the shop roof shortly after, having gone out the attic window to the widow’s walk, and the audience roared when the spotlight moved to him for his bow.

  “That’s it, folks! Don’t forget to come back next year to find out if the evil wizard dis
covers a way out of his dilemma and threatens our town again.”

  There were cheers and clapping and laughter, but her eyes were only on Marcus, who was taking his bow with the cast.

  He looked real fine up there.

  And then she saw Mindy Li in front of the diner looking up at him, too. She darted a glance at the crow.

  No, he was staying put, even though she could feel the jealousy creeping into her shoulders and back, making them stiff. He cocked his head toward her with an evil glint in his eye.

  She mouthed, “You stay away from her.”

  The bird nodded and furled its wings before tucking them back against its body, then pulled its head and neck in tight with its beak facing down. Anyone else would think it was going to roost for the night, but there were other crows starting to move in now, gathering in loose clumps of two or three in the rooftop shadows, quiet but not settling. Old Mr. Crow wasn’t fooling her. She’d watch him, that was for sure. He was her responsibility now.

  She took a deep breath and relaxed. See, she thought, Natalie was right to trust me.

  22

  The woods were darker than a city girl was ready for. Twink kept a firm grip on Marcus’s hand as they followed the path to their favorite picnic table overlooking the lake.

  When they arrived, she stepped up to sit on the tabletop, looking out over the lake that reflected the bright moon above and the lights from the houses along the lakefront on the other side. She was way glad of the moonlight.

  They wouldn’t have a lot of time, but that was okay. This was the perfect end to her perfect birthday.

  Marcus sat his backpack on the wooden bench and reached inside, pulling out an envelope, almost shyly. “Happy birthday. I hope you like it.”

  She opened it to find a card with a bunch of roses on it and your basic Hallmark cliches for a joyous day. And inside, a gift certificate. For eToonz. Not even video. Just music.

  She felt happiness turn in to what she knew was a petty, greedy impulse that she didn’t want to have, but she’d thought he knew her better than that, and it was so hard to realize he didn’t.

  A rustle and parting of air interrupted her thoughts as her new familiar landed on the table beside her, bobbing its head at Marcus.

  “You remember what I told you,” she said. But she didn’t say it with genuine enthusiasm. She just wanted to go home now and be depressed about her boyfriend not knowing her at all after all this time. Or maybe he just wasn’t into her anymore. Maybe he had his eye on someone new...

  “Thanks,” she said. “It’s nice.”

  “Don’t be so sad, girl.” He lifted her eyes to his with a gentle hand beneath her chin and grinned. “That’s not your present! That’s just an appetizer. I brought a multi-course dinner.”

  He reached into his bag and pulled out a box. A small, square one that had a red bow on top.

  She tore the wrapping off and opened it to find a charm—a delicate one shaped like a heart with her initials on one side and his on the other. She smiled widely. Lots better.

  He helped her attach it to her bracelet as he said, “Daria let me know what she was getting you, so we coordinated. Oh, and you probably want to open these, too....”

  There were five more boxes with five charms in all. One was a round gold cage filled with rhinestones that matched her new responsibilicomb. The others symbolized the places she and Marcus always said they’d go together: a silver-wrapped glass ball with sand for Florida, a silver elephant for Africa, and a shimmery moon for their once half-serious plans to be its first colonists so their families couldn’t keep messing things up for them. It seemed like a hundred years ago that they’d watched the same moon that lit the woods around them now from the porch of Marcus’s foster home and wished they could go there right away.

  “You know, we don’t have to go to the moon anymore,” she said. “I like it just fine here. Especially with you so close.” She held out her arm with its new bling and shook it a little to hear the jingle. The crow cawed when she did. Guess he liked it, too.

  She pulled Marcus in for a giant kiss that only ended because of a peck on her arm from the bird. She moved back, giving it a warning look, and it hopped to the edge of the picnic table, out of reach.

  “You stay out of it,” she told it. “Otherwise, you can stay at home in a cage when I go out. How would you like that?” Maybe the threat would encourage better behavior.

  Instead, he took flight, circling around them to Marcus’s bag, grasping a strap so it spilled open onto the ground as it fell. She was getting ready to really lose it when she saw that there was still one present left. A bigger one. No way was it a charm.

  A smile crept up her face again. Marcus’s eyes moved to it, too.

  “Oh,” he said, his expression saying he was supposedly surprised. “I forgot. There’s one more thing.” He put the gift in her waiting hands.

  Maybe he hadn’t given it to her with the others because it was something stupid again like the gift card and he’d decided not to mess it up after he’d done good with the charms. She took firm control of her facial muscles to make sure she didn’t show disappointment.

  But she didn’t need to.

  “You’re amazing,” she breathed as the opened box revealed a perfume bottle. A tingly perfume bottle. The perfume bottle. “I love it! I love it! How did you get it?”

  “It came back to the shop and Mindy Li called me first thing because she knew how much you wanted it. I went down that same night to get it.”

  “That was nice of her,” Twink said reluctantly. “I mean, maybe she’s not so bad. Maybe.”

  “I keep telling you that. I mean, yeah, she flirts like crazy, but that’s not just with me. I remember seeing her at school with guys last year, and she’s like an equal opportunity flirter. Just for full disclosure, she made me drive her to Salem for ice cream as payment for opening the shop at night...” His shoulders and back stiffened. “...but she ran off to talk to a group of guys while we were there. I ate my ice cream alone. She just likes attention.”

  Twink still had control of her facial muscles, so she didn’t react. She didn’t want a fight.

  Marcus relaxed again. “But my attention?” He paused as he pulled her close. “That’s for nobody and nothing but you.”

  His mouth moved toward hers, but she held him off for a minute as she whispered, “And for your schoolwork, genius boy.”

  “And for my schoolwork. But never before my beautiful girlfriend whenever she needs me,” he whispered back.

  She read his smile with her mouth and warmed her hands against his chest until they had to hurry back through the darkness to make it home before curfew.

  ***

  As Twink surveyed the room for anything that could serve as a perch, the impatient caw at the open window behind her broke her happy mood. She turned to glare.

  “It’s not all about you, you know! It’s my birthday, and you’re supposed to help me, not be a pain! You can stay outside if that’s the way you’re going to be about it.”

  The bird tilted its head and shrugged its wings.

  She couldn’t help but laugh. “You look so human sometimes!” she said. “Okay, I’ll get a perch for you as soon as I can. Until then, I guess you can go hang out with your buddies overnight. Or, if you want,” she surveyed the room again, “I’ll take the hats off the hat stand and you can sleep there. I guess that would work. But no droppings, got it? The stand comes with the apartment, and it’s an antique, so I don’t want to pay for it or the carpet if you make a mess.”

  The crow was across the room and atop the hat stand with two flaps of its wings after she moved the hats to the closet.

  “You know what’s weird, crow?” Twink asked as she took her best birthday present ever out of its box. “I don’t remember this bottle having anything in it when I first saw it, but now it’s full.” She tried to unscrew the cap, but it resisted her best effort, so she gave up and set it down on top of the vanity. “That look
s so cool here, doesn’t it? And I’ll be careful while I try to figure out what the magic does. So don’t you go blabbing. It’s not like I’ll use the spell or anything. I just want to figure out what it does.”

  It sure looked like the crow’s head nodded in response to show he had no plans to be a narc.

  She laughed again, then yawned, her hand moving to cover her mouth, although she was still smiling. It was bedtime now after a long day with lots of fun surprises. She was gonna sleep great. She didn’t need the charm under her pillow at all.

  And Monday, Daria was going to take her to get her learner’s permit. She’d even promised a driving lesson in the campground parking lot in Giles Woods afterward. Everything was perfect, perfect, perfect.

  ***

  Marcus closed the door behind himself quietly, but when he turned around, he found out soon enough that the quiet hadn’t been enough. Natalie stood there, her foot tapping.

  “You’re late,” she said. “Didn’t I give you the lecture about making sure you don’t break that ridiculous town curfew until the council has time to sort it out?”

  “I’m sorry, I just...”

  “No excuses,” she said, handing him a tissue from the box on the hall table. “And wipe that trace of lipstick off your mouth. It’s not a good look on you.”

  He wiped, then she continued, “There. Presentable again. So, I take it that Twink liked your gift?”

  Natalie turned back to the mirror above the hall table as she waited for his answer, checking her outfit, and hiding the twinkle in her eye that didn’t match the tone of disapproval in her voice. She was wearing the new-to-her black and red Furstenberg wrap dress for her midnight meeting with William. He’d had to patrol during the cleanup shift downtown, but he should arrive any minute now.

  “She sure did, Gram.”

  “Glad to hear it. What did you get her now that the big secret has been revealed?” He started talking, but she was listening with only half an ear. Her own plans for the night were too distracting; it was only a walk, she told herself. A brief walk in the moonlight. She’d marry him, but she would not take a single drop of his blood. She would not experiment with dark magic in a selfish attempt to extend her own life. It might not even work. And he was right; it didn’t matter how long their life together lasted. She wanted this second chance with the only man she’d ever loved.