by Tess Lake
I sort of double-blinked at Jack, seeing him in a new light. Although I knew he’d been a police officer and then a private investigator, there was some part of me that sort of forgot it given that most of the time I was around him, he smelled like wood shavings and often had flecks of paint on his clothing. In my mind he was a builder first.
I decided to bring my half-formed idea out to the light.
“I was thinking that someone is trying to sabotage the film so they could get a huge payout somehow. Like an insurance scam, or something like that,” I said.
“Well, who would benefit from that?” Jack asked, putting the eggplant risoni into the hot oven.
“I guess Gustaf Hemingway benefited from Mattias dying, because he picked up his role and I think he’s getting paid about a million dollars. I don’t know about Cyro – would he still get paid if the entire film was shut down? Then there’s the actors themselves. I think they get paid either way, at least for the big ones like Bella. But I’d think that they would want the film to come out rather than being shut down. She needs the attention and the publicity,” I said.
Jack washed his hands in the sink and after drying them took a sip of red wine from his glass. Talking with him about these things had produced a small measure of calm inside me, and outside the storm was responding, starting to quiet.
“One of the things I learned from being a police officer is that sometimes there can be a lot of coincidences around one central crime. Someone will rob their employer, but then you’ll find all these other things, like the accountant having a drug problem, or someone else being behind on their house payments, or someone else supporting an entire secret second family. For all we know, Mattias died of a heart attack, Cyro is in debt because he spends recklessly, Gustaf is the guy they called in to replace Mattias, and maybe the actual only crime here is some small-time nut bar who sabotaged some brakes and maybe someone else who stole a movie star’s clothing to make some quick money online,” he said.
“I get a really strange feeling about Ru as well, though.” I told him about visiting the mansion, hearing Cyro and Bella fighting and then Ru demanding I not ask any questions whatsoever about what I’d witnessed.
“I don’t think Ru is only her assistant. I’m fairly sure she used to be a bodyguard or in security,” Jack said.
“Why do you think that?”
He shrugged and took another sip of wine. “Something about the way she holds herself, the way she moves. She’s always looking for the exits, puts herself in a position where no one can sneak up behind her. But it’s not unusual that former security forces go to work as bodyguards. It’s practically mandatory.”
While the risoni cooked in the oven, we chewed over various ideas but didn’t really get anywhere. It was only when I mentioned the blue car and the guy I’d seen stealing the shirts again that I saw that curious expression appear on Jack’s face again.
“You’re planning to follow him and stake him out, aren’t you?” Jack said. The risoni was ready by now, so he took it out of the oven and placed it on the counter before getting our plates to serve it up.
“Maybe, I haven’t decided yet,” I said, again telling a small white lie, given that I had clearly decided to follow that guy whenever I got around to it to see if I could find a script or something else Mattias might be tied to.
“If you go on a stakeout, try to be more subtle about it than those cousins of yours,” he said.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, feigning ignorance.
“I was talking with Sheriff Hardy, and he seems very aware that your cousins have been doing their own investigation into the coffee machine theft. He knows that they’ve been staking out some of the builders and carpenters who worked on the renovation,” he said.
I wondered briefly if Aunt Ro had told Sheriff Hardy but then decided immediately that she probably hadn’t. It wasn’t an official family motto or anything, but given that all of the Torrent witches were quite willing to lie, were somewhat secretive, and were annoyed by and loved our family in equal measure, we definitely put family first.
Although, on the other hand, if Aunt Ro had been worried about Molly, perhaps she’d told Sheriff Hardy so he could shut down what might potentially be a dangerous situation.
“I promise if I go on a stakeout, no one will even know I’m there,” I said and crossed my heart. Jack served up the eggplant risoni, which, although it was pretty much pure carbs, we ate with a side of crusty bread and more wine. After getting some of those thoughts out of my head and talking about them, and probably from being around Jack for some time, I’d calmed down entirely and the storm had dissipated. We finished dinner and Jack was rummaging in the refrigerator for some ice cream to serve with the apple pie he had in there, when he announced that he might have a snoop around the set himself.
“Maybe I can find the saboteur. After all, if they’re successful, then someone could be hurt or killed,” he said.
“I guess you could look into it,” I said, thinking about what Benton had said to me. He’d warned me not to investigate whatsoever and not to talk about it with anyone. Today, Cyro had told me not to talk to anyone about the idea that Mattias had been murdered. But Jack was a former cop. Surely it would be safe for him to investigate?
“Who knows? I might find something. Or it could all be a coincidence,” Jack said, finally emerging from the fridge with some vanilla ice cream and the cold apple pie.
“Dessert?” he asked and gave me that smile that made butterflies flutter around my stomach.
Chapter 13
“What do you mean you put it all in the punch?” Molly hissed to Luce over the sound of the music playing from the back of Traveler.
“The bottle was slippery, it wasn’t my fault,” Luce said.
Luce and Molly had done the seemingly impossible and managed to get every single person who had worked on the Traveler renovation to come to a party at Traveler to celebrate. I guess the free alcohol and free food might’ve had a lot to do with it too. The party was in full swing and Luce and Molly’s plan had been working well. Luce was manning the punch bowl and had put the smallest droplet of truth serum in the bottom of all the plastic cups. When she served out the alcoholic punch, Molly then approached the person a minute or two later and asked them if they knew anything about the coffee machine being stolen. Because of the dose of truth serum there was only a small window when Molly could ask them a question. So far she’d gotten through about fifteen people and none of them had known anything about the coffee machine being stolen. But not everyone was interested in drinking punch, so Molly had taken to getting Luce to fill up a cup and then Molly would take it to someone and insist they try it. It was on one of these trips away from the punch bowl that Luce had fumbled the entire bottle of truth serum into the punch.
“Do you think you can overdose?” I asked.
“Wait, who’s watching the punch bowl?” Molly said in alarm. As one, we all turned to the long counter where all the food and drinks had been set up. It seemed like every person within sight was holding a red plastic cup in their hand, full of punch. One of the young apprentices was behind the counter, serving up cups of punch using a giant ladle and handing them out to people. It seemed like some type of drinking game had erupted in the brief moment that Luce had walked away from the punch bowl.
“Oh goddess. This is a disaster. Quick, we need to ask everyone if they have any information about Stefano being stolen,” Luce said.
“When did they get here! Who invited them?” Molly wailed, pointing a finger across Traveler. On the other side of the room, Will and Ollie were standing with red cups of punch in their hands, talking to a couple of the builders. Molly whirled around to look at us.
“Did you invite them, either of you?” she said.
“No way,” Luce said.
“Not me,” I said.
I looked around the room, but thankfully, Jack was nowhere in sight. As far as I knew, he was at
home. It was a good question as to why Will and Ollie were at the party. Had the mothers been meddling again?
“Harlow, your job is to get Will and Ollie out of here right now. Luce, you need to start asking people about the coffee machine. I’m going to stop people from drinking the punch,” Molly said and rushed off before we could agree on this plan.
“I love your wife, I think she’s beautiful!” a builder said in a loud voice from over near the counter. Luce and I turned in horror to see he was talking to another builder and his wife.
“Oh goddess,” Luce whispered.
“I find you quite attractive too and would definitely consider going to bed with you,” the wife said and then clapped a hand over her mouth in surprise.
“I think that would be exciting,” the husband said and then frowned as though he couldn’t believe the words that had come out of his mouth.
“Go, go, go, we have to get Will and Ollie out, and everyone else too. We need to get people away from their friends and other people. Did Aunt Cass tell you if there was any antidote to this?” I asked Luce.
“She said be careful with the dose, that’s all,” Luce said.
“I hate wearing clothes!” a builder yelled from over near the long counter, and ripped his shirt off.
I rushed across to Will and Ollie.
“Hey, Harlow, great party,” Ollie said. “I’m really afraid Molly and I are going to break up if she doesn’t stop being so mean,” he said, all with a smile on his face.
“Put down your punch and come with me,” I said.
“I’m going to marry Luce. I love her,” Will said, scanning the room for my cousin.
If only everyone telling the truth was saying things like what Will said, but with the noise level rising in Traveler, evidently that was not the case. I saw two women across the room, frowning at each other as they spoke. They looked like they were about to start fighting. I looked over towards the counter to see Molly shoving the young apprentice who was serving the punch out of the way. Maybe there was something in the truth serum that made it extra delicious as well, because people were now reaching into the punch bowl with their cups, trying to get more of it. Molly slapped their hands away for a moment before deciding to simply push the entire bowl of punch straight off the counter. The giant crystal bowl shattered on the floor and punch splashed everywhere. I jumped at the sound, anxiety spiking, and immediately a bolt of lightning cracked down from the sky somewhere outside. There was a crackle of electronics and the music died as something short-circuited in the back of Traveler. Things were getting out of hand, and I had to get everyone out of there before people started telling the truth to each other about all kinds of things.
“Party’s over! Everyone get out and go to your homes, separately!” I yelled out.
“No! Wait a minute!” Luce yelled. I heard scuffling as she shoved her way through the crowd until she got to the counter and then climbed up on top of it.
“Did anyone here steal our coffee machine or give anyone any information about it so they could steal it?” she yelled to the assembled crowd.
I’d never seen a truth serum in action before, but my general understanding of them was that if someone asked you a question, you were compelled to truthfully answer it. This resulted an entire room full of people speaking at once. Most people said some variation of no, no, nothing like that, but there were others who were nodding and waving their arms around in agreement. I saw at least three of four of the builders calling out to Molly. One of them said that he’d told his cousin there was an incredible coffee machine in Traveler and his cousin was a well-known thief. Another confessed he’d thought about stealing it himself to fund his gambling problem. Then he got drunk so fast every night that he didn’t get the time to do it.
“One at a time, one at a time,” Luce called out, desperately trying to listen to everyone at once.
“I love you, Luce!” Will yelled across the room. That caught her attention. She stopped in place and her eyes widened.
“Really?” I heard her say before she was drowned out by the rising noise again. The storm that had formed outside above Traveler had come on with such force that there was now lightning crackling in the sky and thunder booming after it. There was no way I was going to be able find calm, and we had to get everyone out of Traveler as fast as possible, so I did the only thing that I could think of and prayed that it would work: I cast the spell that Molly had used on that girl during the stage production, the one that produced severe digestive distress.
The magic around me roared in response. I was intending to make everyone feel a little sick, feel an urge to get home as fast as possible in case they needed to go to the bathroom, but again it was one of the problems of being a slip witch. I could barely cast a concealment spell these days without feeling dizzy, but other magics had strengthened beyond all imagination.
I hardly pushed at all and the magic responded with a roar of power so fast and so quick that every single person around me clenched their stomachs and groaned simultaneously. This included Will and Ollie and also Molly and Luce. As one, the crowd ran for the door, bunching up and groaning, yelling for others to get out of their way. The whole of Traveler was empty in a minute flat and I rushed outside into the howling storm to see people running to their cars, clenching their stomachs and moving as fast as they could. Clearly, not everyone made it. I saw a couple of builders walking very awkwardly, hunched over and holding their pants, their faces pale.
“Oh goddess,” I groaned. The lightning cracked above me and once again Harlot Bay was thrust into darkness as the power shorted out across the town. I walked back inside the darkened Traveler, sat in the booth and put my head in my hands, wishing for probably the thousandth time in my life that I wasn’t burdened with this curse of being a slip witch. My tears dripped down onto the table and the rain outside doubled in intensity as though competing with them.
Chapter 14
I was sitting in my car waiting for filming to finish for the day, and you could definitely say that I was in a mood.
For starters, I was on day two of Molly refusing to speak to me after the Traveler truth serum fiasco.
Man, we were having a lot of fiascos lately.
Molly and Luce had been hit by my spell that had gone out of control and had to rush home with serious digestive distress. They were some of the lucky ones – they made it home in time before something bad happened. Many of the builders and carpenters and their partners weren’t so fortunate. Molly had called and apologized to each and every one of them and blamed a bad batch of fruit punch, but still the word had spread around town that there had been a party at Traveler where every single person had been food poisoned all at once. Despite the fact that they had next to no customers anyway, that was definitely something that Traveler didn’t need. So instead of being thankful that I’d figured out a way to get every single person out of Traveler as fast as possible, Molly and Luce apparently blamed me now for the complete failure of the plan.
Hence me sitting by myself in my car, waiting for filming to end, rather than having my cousins by my side.
Luce was far more forgiving and understanding. She’d agreed in the end that it been the best course of action, even though it had some very messy results. Of course Will being dosed with truth serum and yelling out across Traveler that he loved Luce had certainly improved her mood.
Despite that, she had decided to stay at Traveler given that she didn’t trust Molly there alone. I didn’t know the full details yet, but apparently Molly was coming up with some even more extreme plan to discover who had stolen the coffee machine. She was definitely blaming the proprietors of the Magic Bean and that wasn’t a good thing.
I let my thoughts drift over Molly and Luce and the stolen coffee machine, and all of the other things that were happening in our lives. The moms were still trying to run their bakery via home delivery, but even that was starting to taper off. The initial community support was starting to fade away
because honestly people found it a lot easier to simply go down to the main street and buy a loaf of bread while they were on their way to do something else. The fact was that home delivery simply couldn’t match that kind of service, so they were steadily losing home delivery customers by the day. Aunt Ro was still cleaning, and dragging an increasingly despondent Molly along with her. Molly, of course, was refusing to return to Bella Bing’s mansion, and who could blame her? Life was humiliating enough, and it was bad enough that her business was failing, but to then be forced to clean her high school archrival’s house was the final straw.
There was one bright spark in all of this, though, and his name was Jack Bishop. We’d been seeing each other every opportunity we could get, and although I couldn’t tell him yet, his calming influence was certainly helping me deal with my out-of-control storm powers. If he hadn’t been around, I think I might’ve had to exile myself out to Truer Island and hide back in that cave again. It was getting so bad that this morning when I’d stubbed my toe against the bathroom vanity, a small crack of lightning had come down and hit one of the trees in the forest behind the mansion. It hadn’t started a fire, but it had split the tree right in half. I was musing over this and counting down the minutes till filming finished at around two, waiting for Mattias’s thief to emerge from the film set, when there was a sudden rap on the window.
It was Aunt Cass. She pulled the passenger-side door open and got in, slamming it shut behind her.
“We need to find whatever Matterhorn is tied to,” she said.
Her nostrils were flaring and she was breathing heavily, as though she’d been running.
“Did something happen?”
Aunt Cass didn’t answer, because right then a call came in. I hadn’t noticed but she had a small earpiece clipped on.
“Torrent, go,” she said. I heard some faint chattering and saw Aunt Cass gritting her teeth, her jaw muscles bulging.
“Listen to me, Alejandro, they’re not illegal in the country where they were grown. Do you understand? Not illegal in the country where they were grown. So get it done. Torrent out,” she said and pressed a button on the earpiece.
