by Maggie Mundy
“Tonight, I realized his aura reminds me of Seth’s. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something wrong with both of them. Those guys are really fucked up. I know you don’t want to hear that, but be careful.” Matcher hugged her.
Daniel called out, “Who’s totally fucked up? I want to know. I’m jealous. Not that I’ve the energy right now.”
Cara grabbed another bottle of wine and headed back. “I’m not saying a thing. This is your area, Matcher, you go on.” Cara sat down and sipped on her glass of red.
Matcher walked back and settled next to Rachel in the big bean bag. “You all know I see auras. I get that some of you think I’m full of crap. It really doesn’t matter. I see them whether you believe in them or not.” He raised his glass to Cara.
Jeff leaned forward. “I know you mentioned it. To be honest, I sort of see it like reading your stars. You’ll believe it, if it says something good,”
“What’s mine like?” Daniel asked enthusiastically.
“See what I mean?” Jeff replied, shaking his head.
“Daniel, you have an aura that’s bright and full of energy. When you and Jeff are together it’s like your auras meld. There are some dark patches on Jeff, but that’s understandable because of his operation.”
“What about me?” Rachel asked eagerly. Cara was surprised he hadn’t mentioned his talent to Rachel. Perhaps, Matcher worried he might scare her off.
“The red shows you’re sensitive and caring, but your blue layer has some dark spots. When we’re together they almost disappear. When you talk about your family they get bigger.”
“I’ll just have to stay close to you to keep the dark spots away then, won’t I?” Rachel leaned in and kissed him.
“Sounds great.” Matcher put his arm around her.
“So, who were you talking about earlier?” Jeff asked, glancing at Cara.
What could she say? How much would she tell them before they thought her mad, or rather, more mad? “He’s talking about Vincent. The last time Matcher saw him, he said he could see his aura was different. Tonight when he saw Seth, he says his aura is strange as well. That’s not a good thing. I know why Seth’s is different.” Cara took a gulp of wine.
She had gone this far, she might as well go the whole way. Matcher kept watching her and nodded. He had never liked Seth. What would he think now? She took a deep breath. Then, she told them everything and no one interrupted. They just sat there absorbing the information. When she finished, she expected someone to start laughing at how absurd it all was. Daniel just looked at Jeff and shook his head.
Matcher smiled with an, “I told you so” look on his face. “I knew it would be something like that. It makes sense. From what I’ve seen, most people’s auras are constantly changing. Those two are stuck.”
Daniel leaned forward, ready to give his five pennies worth. “Come on, Matcher. You don’t really believe this. Your aura stuff is harmless, but this is mad. People don’t live that long. I can understand how you might be taken in by this, Cara. You’ve been through so much recently. I know you really like the guy. This is crazy. It’s goofy like the stuff in your grandmother’s book.”
“Enough, Daniel.” Cara doubted this would cause their business to go down the drain but she had to say something. She loved Seth. She really did. “Look, you don’t have to accept this. You’re probably sane. I may not be. I do believe it though. From what Matcher’s said, we’re finding out a bit more that will lead us to who killed Shona. If Vincent murdered her, I want him to rot in hell.”
“Does Seth know about the book? Is that why he was there?” Matcher asked.
“I haven’t told him what I’ve found out. He would attack Vincent, beat the information out of him, or kill him. I want to find some way the police can deal with this. I just haven’t figured out how to go back and get more evidence.”
“That’s nuts. Why would you go in there when you think he kills people? I can’t believe I just said that.” Daniel shook his head.
“The book said if Seth tries to kill whoever killed Rosie, then he’ll die himself. I can’t risk that. If I die, he’ll live. Without me, he won’t control the anger. He’s already told me he’s afraid of what he will do.”
Silence. No one spoke and she couldn’t blame them. The door buzzer broke the silence and they all jumped.
“Cara. It’s Seth. Can I come up?”
Cara didn’t look at any of them. She stood up and pressed the intercom button.
“Yes, Seth. I’m not alone.” If she had to choose between her friends and him, it would be him. She went to greet him at the apartment door. Silence greeted them as they walked into the lounge room.
Everyone stared at Seth. He turned. His gaze searching hers. Cara drew a deep breath. “I’ve told them about you.”
Seth nodded. He smiled at her and then looked to the others. “And do you believe her?”
“I do. I’ve always known you were different. Now, I know I’m not barmy,” Matcher said. “Still don’t know if you’re good or bad shit though.”
“That’s a question I ask myself regularly. If you find the answer out before I do, let me know,” Seth said, smiling.
Daniel stood up with his arms crossed. It was like David and Goliath, Seth with his huge frame and Daniel with his fit but slight one.
“I think this is a load of crap. Come on Cara. You don’t really accept this rubbish he’s telling you. Look, Seth. I don’t know what your game is, or why you’re trying to hurt her with this rubbish story, but she’s been through enough.”
“Daniel, stop it. He isn’t hurting me.” Cara said as she held Seth’s hand.
Seth turned to her. “How important is it to you that they accept this?”
“I want them to, but if they don’t, it won’t make me change what I know.” Cara sat down and so did Daniel. He was on the couch with Jeff. Matcher and Rachel were at the end of the coffee table on the beanbag. It felt as if she was facing off against her friend and she didn’t want that.
Seth went to the kitchen. He took a knife from the drawer and then walked over to the couch. She thought he was going to cut himself again, but instead he handed the knife to Daniel. The action did not reassure her.
“What the hell do you expect me to do with this?” Daniel started to place the knife on the coffee table.
Seth stopped him. He grabbed the hand holding the knife and pulled Daniel towards him. It all happened so fast. Daniel couldn’t stop Seth. The knife was embedded in Seth’s abdomen up to the hilt. Rachel screamed. Matcher leaped out of the bean bag. Jeff tried to move, but winced and sat back down. Seth let go of Daniel’s hand.
“You’re fucking mad,” Daniel yelled, as he stared at the knife.
Blood oozed around the hilt of the knife and stained the front of Seth’s shirt. He pulled out the knife. Matcher had returned from the kitchen with a towel to press against the wound. Then, Seth lifted up his shirt. As they watched, the wound healed. The blood was still there as evidence of what had occurred but the skin edges joined leaving nothing but a smooth line. Then he sliced across his palm and up his arm to the elbow. The cut went so deep that the muscle bone and sinews could be seen. Again it closed. Each layer slowly reaching out and pulling its opposite edge until the wound was healed
“Do you want more?” Seth offered the knife to anyone who wanted it.
Daniel and Matcher sat down, shaking their heads. Daniel trembled. Jeff placed an arm around his partner’s shoulders. Seth sat down next to Cara. He took her hand in his; entwining their fingers. If what he had done had hurt him he didn’t show it. At that moment she realized he would do whatever he had to if it meant being with her.
“I love Cara. I’d never hurt her. I am who I say I am and I can’t change that.” Seth looked at her, his gaze obviously searching her
face for a glimmer of what she might be feeling. She hoped her care for him showed through.
“I love Seth too. I also want to find out what happened to Shona.” Cara squeezed his hand.
Seth leaned over and kissed her gently on the lips. Her heart swelled. She couldn’t keep the smile from her face.
Jeff shook his head. “I think we’re all going mad and having a joint hallucination. If that’s not the case, we’ll help in any way we can,” Jeff said. “Right, Daniel?”
After a moment, Daniel nodded reluctantly. “I need a drink and a big one.” He went to the kitchen and came back with a bottle of whiskey and six glasses.
“So, what did you find out, Seth?” Cara asked.
“His collection is impressive. He even has some of my earlier pieces. I haven’t seen a few of those for over one hundred years. He’s commissioned a piece from me for a friend. He also gave me a dagger to repair.” Seth pulled a package from inside his jacket and handed it to Cara. “He might be able to help us find the killer.”
Her stomach clenched in a knot when she unwrapped the item. Horrified, she found the dagger she had seen so many times in her dreams. If she had ever doubted being a witch in the past the thought was gone. The dagger held power and she could feel its evil influence. It was reaching out like a suffocating vine to grab her. Her body went cold and her hands clammy and if she didn’t put the thing down she would pass out. She placed it back on the table.
Seth reached across and squeezed her hand. ”Are you all right? You look pale.”
“I’ll be fine. What are you going to do?” Cara sipped her drink. The whiskey burned the back of her throat. She never wanted to feel that clawing darkness again.
“I’ll fix it. I made it a long time ago and it led to Rosie’s death. I won’t make that mistake again. I’ll go back and find out who asked him to have it repaired. If he won’t tell me, then I’ll beat it out of him,” Seth replied.
“You had a copy at the forge. Couldn’t you just give him that?” Cara asked.
“I destroyed it.”
Cara wondered why he would have done such a thing. Was there something else he wasn’t telling her?
“I’ll go back to the forge in the morning to start the repair.”
“Promise me you’ll let me know when you’re going back to Vincent’s.” Cara caught his hand with hers.
“I promise,” Seth said.
Jeff and Daniel had gone home. Rachel and Matcher were on the pull-out sofa in the living room. After Seth had made love to her, he slept but Cara couldn’t. Was she right not to tell him everything about the book and that she suspected Vincent was the killer?
After all Seth had lost someone too. Didn’t he have a right to know? Cara hesitated. She couldn’t lose him. Someone loved her, and for the first time in her life she was starting to like herself. She would go back tomorrow and find something that would make Detective Seps accept Vincent was the killer.
As Seth slept beside her she considered that none of this made sense. What did make sense was that she wouldn’t let Seth die. This way she might have thirty or forty years with him rather than two days.
Seth turned over and opened his eyes. “You’re awake. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, nothing at all.” Cara pulled back the blankets and moved on top of him.
Chapter 23
Before Seth left, Cara made him promise again not to go to Vincent’s alone. To keep her mind occupied, she made Matcher and Rachel pancakes. Why couldn’t everything be like cooking? It was simple and made sense. If you added the wrong ingredient things turned out differently? Sometimes it worked sometimes it didn’t. She wasn’t prepared to take that chance with Seth’s life. Matcher turned on the television to watch breakfast news.
“Do you want lemon juice or maple syrup?” Cara called from the kitchen. They ignored her as they stared at the television screen. Hearing the words the newsman spouted brought bile to her throat.
“The woman’s body was found at Avonmouth. Police suspect the victim was thrown from the Coronation Road footbridge. The perpetrator must have hoped it would go out to sea on the strong tides. Police have not clarified yet. It is believed the body was mutilated in a similar way to the other recent slasher murders. It is thought she might have been there at least three days.”
The newscast continued with news on a by-election in the area. Cara mechanically placed the serving dish of pancakes down on the table. Rachel looked pale and didn’t touch them. Matcher loaded his plate and topped it with syrup.
Rachel kicked him in the shin. “How can you eat?”
“What?”
Rachel shook her head. “Guys. I’ll never understand them.”
“He’s a killer, you know that. I’m sorry, Cara. It’s months since Shona died. Any evidence would be long gone. With this recent murder, he may have left some clues. You have to work out some way you can convince the police he’s involved.” Matcher shoved pancakes in his mouth, syrup running down his chin.
“We left some platters behind.” Cara’s hands shook. Suddenly, she didn’t feel so brave anymore. Will you come with me, Matcher?”
“Sure. I’ll take Rachel home and then I’ll be back.”
It wasn’t lost on Cara how Rachel stiffened at the mention of home. From what she had heard her mother and stepfather were fighting and she was caught in the middle.
They parked outside of Vincent’s and sat. If they were going to do something, they needed to do it now.
“What you gonna do then?” Matcher said biting his nails. His fringe was back over his face. “Go home?”
“No, we have to do this today.” Cara took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s move.”
Stephan answered the door. Some people spent their lives looking down their noses at others. This man was one of them.
“We were passing, and thought we could pick up the platters. I know Vincent said he would have them returned, but I thought we would save you the hassle.”
“Mr. Blatchford is not in at present, but I suppose it would be acceptable. They’re in the kitchen. Follow me.”
Cara had expected Vincent, but Stephan might be easier to handle. She could keep him talking while Matcher went searching on the pretense of using the loo. When she listened to the conversation last night, she discovered that Stephan thought he was a worldwide authority on wine.
“Are these some of the special wines you mentioned? There were quite a few people appreciative of a good drop. When I was leaving the platters in the sitting room, several faces lit up when you said you planned to open a bottle of red.”
Cara knew she had hit the right spot with the grin on Stephan’s face. She didn’t miss the fact he looked towards the kitchen door.
“I’m sure Matcher will be back in a minute. He’s on one of those organic vegetarian high fiber diets. New age stuff. As a cook, I know all you need to eat is a good range of decent food, but he won’t listen.”
Stephan screwed up his nose, but his attention soon went back to the wine in front of him. “That would be the Grange Hermitage you heard everyone discussing. It’s an Australian wine but some people are so insular and refuse to look outside of Europe.”
“I love Australian wine.”
Matcher walked back in and Stephan gave him the appropriate look of distaste. She noticed the almost imperceptible shake of the head from Matcher.
“I presume you’re ready to go then,” Stephan said, picking up a case of the wine.
“Do you need some help to take these back to the cellar? We could help before we go.”
“Thank you.”
He looked at Matcher’s hands as he touched one of the cases. He probably thought the wine was contaminated forever. Cara followed him and Matcher down the stairs to the cellar.
She d
idn’t like the smell. It might have been faint but as a cook she could pick up the slight odor of blood. There was so much wine. Racks covering most walls of the room. Down one side was a table on which she placed her two bottles. Her head spun. Her bag fell to the floor as if in slow motion. Her vision blurred.
The blood enticed her to another level of ecstasy. Her nostrils flared at the stimulation. Staring at her hands, she saw blood coating them with a red hue. She gazed down at a dressing gown.
She was in Vincent’s mind reliving the murder. The body of the woman in front of her was already mutilated, but she felt the frenzy build. She had to rip the woman apart. Rings, a necklace and bracelets were torn off and thrown aside.
This filth shouldn’t be adorned by such precious metals. She grabbed the blade and stabbed repeatedly. Slashing the abdomen with such force the dead body jolted with each stab and thrust.
“Cara? Are you all right?”
Matcher’s voice brought her back to reality. She knelt on the floor, her bag’s contents strewn nearby. She couldn’t stop shaking at what she had seen in Vincent’s mind. She never wanted to go there again.
“You look pale.” Matcher’s face was full of concern.
“I’m fine, just a bit dizzy. Skipping breakfast will do it every time.”
Stephan ushered them up the stairs, to the kitchen for their platters and out the front door. Cara took in a deep breath of fresh air as soon as they were out of the house.
“Okay, what the hell was that all about?” Matcher said the words under his breath as they walked to the gate.
“I’ll tell you in the car.”
“So?” Matcher folded his arms across his chest as he scowled at her. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“I had one of the visions I told you about. In this one, I was in Vincent’s mind. He was in that cellar killing a young woman. She had a bracelet with the name Melanie engraved on it.”
