“This is your fault,” he spit, before decking Holden right in the nose.
I turned to see why Kane wasn’t doing something about the scene unfolding in front of us. He wasn’t there. “Where’s your brother?” I asked Blossom.
“I don’t know. He must have gone to the bathroom or something. I can’t believe he’s missing this.”
“My fault?” Holden asked. “I think you’re projecting. You’re a criminal, and there’s not a doubt in my mind that you murdered my sister,” Holden said before returning the punch.
Seconds later, the chapel was filled with the sounds of grunting and cursing as the two of them fought each other. By the time Kane got back from the restroom, they were on the ground, wrestling dangerously close to the pedestal where the casket rested. A few more seconds of the fight and they probably would have knocked it over.
“Who started it?” Kane asked Blossom as he hurried by.
“Definitely Dirk,” She returned.
Kane deftly made his way to the front of the chapel and yanked Dirk off of Holden. To my surprise, he had his cuffs hidden under his jacket. Before anyone was badly injured, Kane had him secured and was taking Dirk out to the car.
“I’ll come back for you guys as soon as I can,” he said.
“It’s okay. It’s a nice day for a walk if you get held up.”
“Please don’t make me miss her funeral,” Dirk pleaded. “I’m sorry.”
Kane thought about it for a moment. “We’re sitting in the back. I’m leaving the cuffs on, and you’re going to jail the second the service is over.”
“Thank you,” Dirk said through his tears.
It was a touching gesture on Kane’s part. Another thing that had become obvious was that, despite the violence of his entrance, Dirk was genuinely heartbroken.
Maybe he hadn’t been trying to flee. Had I looked in the boxes when we were in his trailer? What if he wasn’t moving? What if those boxes had held Becky’s things? She’d moved out of the resort, but what if Holden had been storing her things? He would know if she’d recently collected them because she’d moved in with Dirk. There was only one way to find out.
Unfortunately, when I tried to find Holden after the service, he was off in an alcove, having what looked like a very heated discussion with Ashlyn. She tried to kiss him. He gently, but firmly, pushed her away. She held up the ring and pointed at it, but he actually rolled his eyes at her. I felt my spirits lift a little, but it was short-lived.
“You’re being creepy.” Blossom startled me when she walked up behind me.
“Oh gosh, I am,” I said and turned away quickly.
“It’s okay. What’s going on with them? Let’s hear the scoop.”
“I don’t know because I can’t hear what they are saying, but it doesn’t look good.”
“I’m not surprised about that one bit. Holden has been trying to move on from her for a while now, but she got her claws in him good this time. I wonder if she thought he’d actually be happy about being trapped.”
“I don’t know. He doesn’t look happy,” I said.
“Serves him right. If you don’t want to pay the mechanic, keep your dipstick in the engine,” Blossom said.
She was right. It was time for me to let Holden lie in the bed he’d made. How had I let myself get so twisted up over a man?
Chapter Ten
A couple of nights later, two women who’d been at the funeral came in and sat at the bar. They were regulars at the Blue Saloon, but normally they sat at a table in the corner. I wondered why they were at the bar, but then I glanced over at their usual table.
Some college kids who’d come in a while ago and ordered hurricanes at the bar were seated at the table. Cynthia and Loretta probably hoped that the kids would wander off and they could get back to their usual spot.
“Hey, Sol. Looks like we’re riding the bar with you until the kindergarten bus takes those mainlanders back where they came from,” Loretta said.
“I’m glad to have the company,” Sol said with an amiable smile.
“Did you hear about the fight at Becky’s funeral?” Cynthia asked Sol.
“I did. I’m sorry I wasn’t there, you guys. I just got back to the island this morning. I wish I hadn’t missed her funeral.”
“How is your mom?” Loretta asked.
“She’s doing much better. They let her go home from the hospital after only a day. My sister moved in with her. That’s why I came back so soon. There wasn’t much room left for me in my Mama’s little house.”
“We’re glad to have you back,” Cynthia said and they toasted.
“To Becky,” Loretta said and they toasted again.
A couple more patrons came in and I busied myself making their drinks. While I was turned away from the bar, Loretta and Cynthia kept gossiping.
“So, did you hear that Ashlyn’s up to it again?” Loretta loud whispered.
“Up to what again? She’s always up to something,” Cynthia retorted.
“Don’t you remember when she got that Dale Crocker guy to take her back by telling him she was pregnant. The whole thing was a crock of spit. She was never pregnant, and when he refused to marry her before they went to the doctor for confirmation, her whole story fell apart.”
“I do remember that,” Cynthia said. “I’d almost forgotten. Do you think that’s what she’s doing to Holden?”
“Yeah, totally,” Loretta retorted. “She’s trying to land herself a husband with a good job.”
“Surely she wouldn’t pull the same trick again.”
“Don’t call me Sherly,” Loretta said with a cackle, and just like that, the conversation about Ashlyn and her former fake pregnancy were over.
I was about to call Blossom and ask her to confirm what I’d heard when Dirk walked into the bar. His face was a bit swollen and one of his eyes was slightly bruised. Holden had clocked him good, but all I felt was sadness for him.
“I’m not sure if it’s a good idea for you to be here,” I said as he approached the bar. Everyone in the place was staring at him.
“Just a beer and then I’ll go. I won’t be any trouble. Sheriff Kane has me on a short leash.”
“That’s fine, but I get to ask you a question. Well, two questions actually.”
“Okay, shoot,” Dirk said with a relieved smile. I imagined that he didn’t get much kindness these days.
“The first is what’ll you have?”
I poured his beer and brought it back to him. He slapped a five-dollar bill down on the counter. “Keep the change.”
“Thank you. Now, about my second question.”
“Go on,” he said after taking a long draw from his drink.
“I was at your house the other day, and when I looked through the windows, I noticed that you had a bunch of boxes everywhere. It looked like you are moving away. Is that what I saw?”
“You did more than look through my windows,” he said with a wink, and I blanched. “Mrs. Turning next door said she saw you girls go inside my place. Now, don’t worry. I’m not going to call the law or anything. You didn’t take anything, and I’d be lying if I said that I hadn’t done much worse in my lifetime. And, no, I’m not packing up to leave. I’ve got nowhere else to go. This island is my home now.”
“So, were those Becky’s things? Was she moving in?”
“How did you know that?” Dirk asked.
“Just a hunch.” And a touch of psychic powers. If they still worked...
“Yeah, we were talking about getting married, too. She was going to try again to get a job. We were going to make a real go at just being boring regular people. Never going to get that chance now.”
“I’m sorry. I know it must be hard.”
“Yeah, well, you and I are both prime suspects from what I hear around these parts.”
“I don’t think you did it,” I said.
“I don’t think you did it, either.”
Chapter Eleven
The next
day, I woke up to the sound of someone in my kitchen. Presto wasn’t on the bed with me, either. I heard two voices, and instantly I knew who it was.
I shot out of bed and ran to the kitchen to find Esmerelda and Juniper making pancakes. “Oh my gosh! You guys are actually here!” I ran and hugged them both. Esmerelda seemed a bit stunned, but she accepted my hug just the same. “How is the baby?” I asked Juniper.
“She’s doing great.”
“You know it’s a she! How?”
“Magic, silly. How else would I know?” And then it hit her. “Oh right, our powers don’t seem to work very well here. Right. I hope you aren’t forgetting who you are. We wouldn’t want you to accidently become a normal just because you forgot you’re a witch.”
“I’ll never let her forget,” Presto said as he sauntered into the kitchen.
“Well, I see the cat can still talk,” Esmerelda said. “Not everyone’s powers are completely drained.”
“I was able to use a bit of healing magic on my sunburn the other day. I can’t do anything lifesaving, but some of my magic still works a little.”
“That’s encouraging,” Esmerelda said. “That means this place is still viable for a magical colony.”
“More witches!” Blossom said and stepped out of her hiding spot in the guest bathroom.
“Oh right,” Presto said. “You guys, Blossom is here.”
“You knew a normal was here and you didn’t warn us?” Juniper asked.
“She’s not a normal. She’s an alien,” Presto said, and it was obvious that he was pretty proud of himself for allowing a little chaos into their day. Sometimes, cats, even the ones who were powerful witches stuck in a cat body, could be so smug. “She’s not going to tell anybody anything. She already knows about Starla.”
“Is this true?” Esmerelda asked.
It was apparent that she was freaked out about not being able to use her powers to correct the situation.
“That she’s an alien or that she knows I’m a witch with a talking cat?” I asked.
“Both. Either.” Esmerelda was flustered.
“They are both true. Well, Blossom says she’s an alien. I haven’t asked her much about it.”
“Okay, full disclosure,” Blossom began. “I am an alien, but I’m also a witch. I think. The details are fuzzy.”
“What are you talking about?” Juniper asked.
“So, here goes. I’m from a planet very much like earth in a solar system that’s on the other side of the universe. When I was a kid, I was messing around with interdimensional magic one day while my nanny was having a nap. I sort of opened up a rift and didn’t know what to do. Orion, that’s my brother for those who are new here, fell through it while I was trying to wake the nanny. Naturally, I went through it too because I had to get him back. Well, it dropped us here, where we have almost no powers. Orion and I have been stuck here since we were little. A family adopted us because they assumed that we’d been abandoned. Orion was a couple of years younger than me, so he forgot everything from our old world. He has no idea about any of this.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were a witch, too?” I asked Blossom.
“Because this is a totally embarrassing story. Oh, and I feel guilty because I let my little brother fall through an interdimensional rift and get stranded in a world where we have no magic.”
“Why not leave the island? There are many places in this world where magic still works,” Esmerelda said.
“We can’t leave the island. There is something here that’s either keeping us tied to the remnants of the rift or is protecting us. But if we get too far away from the island, we start to die. Orion and I are lucky that we discovered it on a sailboat ride that didn’t go very far off the coast. If we’d been on a plane or a cruise ship, it would have been curtains for us. Thankfully, whatever is holding us here or protecting us kept our adoptive parents from trying to take us on a vacation away from the island. It’s like, after that day, they never even thought of traveling again until we were grown.”
“I wonder if what I’m looking for can set you free, too,” Presto said.
“I wonder if what you’re looking for is the key to setting magic free on this island,” Esmerelda said. “That is now your main objective. You are to find the source of whatever is keeping the island under this spell and release it.”
“What about the mermaids?” Blossom asked, and everyone’s head swiveled around to her direction.
“Mermaids?” Esmerelda asked.
“Well, I don’t have any proof, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them. I think Starla saw one the other day, too.”
“You knew that wasn’t a shark? You didn’t say anything.”
“We’d just met. I’ve been feeling you out. If not for finding out that you have a talking cat, I might not have told you any of it.”
“That’s understandable.” And it was. Something dawned on me. “Esmerelda, how did you get here? How are you going to get back? How did the Grand Coven get my stuff here and arranged so fast?”
“It was all done using portals that are tethered to the other side back in Stone Church. As long as the magic originates in Stone Church, the island can’t totally block it.”
“Can you leave a portal open so that I can use some magic here?”
“Unfortunately not, dear. The island seems to be adapting and getting better at blocking our powers. It was very strong when the Grand Coven and I moved in your belongings, but it’s waned considerably. In fact, I think that Juniper and I need to go or we’ll have to fly back. I can feel the portal weakening.”
“Enjoy the pancakes,” Juniper said and gave me another hug. It felt even more like goodbye that time. She had another life back in Stone Church, and I wasn’t so much a part of it anymore. “It was nice meeting you, Blossom. When Starla here sets you free, you’ll have to come visit us in Stone Church.”
Moments later, Esmerelda and Juniper were gone. The only evidence left that they’d even been there was a huge stack of blueberry pancakes.
“We should go to the cave tonight,” Blossom said. “I think it’s time, and I feel a lot better going in if I’m not alone.”
“I think that’s a splendid idea,” Presto said.
“Sure. We should do that, but first, why don’t we have some pancakes.”
“Let’s eat,” Blossom said. “One other thing, Starla. I think I saw a monster go into the cave once. Do you own a gun?”
I didn’t own a gun, and I’d reconsidered going to the cave. I wasn’t going to get off the hook that easily. As it turned out, Blossom had a gun. So we stopped by her place before going to the cave.
“Do you know how to use that thing?” I asked as she slipped the revolver into her purse.
“Starla, my brother is the sheriff. Of course he taught me how to shoot.”
“That’s reassuring. You know what? You’ve never told me what you do for a living.”
“I wanted to be a vet, but I couldn’t leave the island to go to college. I work in a gift shop at the cruise port. Well, I manage it, but it’s a small shop so it’s mostly just me and one other girl during the day. Someday it will be mine, though. The owner and I have a contract, and I sock a small amount of my salary into an escrow account. In a few years, the place will be mine, free and clear.”
“You’re literally never at work,” I said with a giggle.
“That’s because I come see you on days when there is no ship coming in. Candice handles the shop on those days. I go in early in the morning and do the books on slow days, and Candy handles the customers. We get a few tourists who wander up that way, but it’s nothing like the days when the cruise lines dock.”
We walked past the witch circle and made our way to the cave’s opening. “I wish we had some magic,” I said as I stared into the gaping black maw.
“We’ve got the gun. That’s all the magic we need,” Blossom said as she pulled the revolver from her purse.
Something strange happ
ened when I stepped inside of the cave. I felt a buzzing under my skin, and it took me a moment to realize what it was.
Magic.
“I should have come in here a long time ago,” Blossom said. “Can you feel that?”
“I can,” I said. “I wonder if the same thing that kept your parents from taking you on vacation kept you from coming inside the cave.”
“You mean it made me see a monster that wasn’t real. So, whatever it was didn’t want me to die, but it also wanted to keep me away from the magic.”
“We need to get Presto,” I said.
“Let’s look around first. What Presto needs to get out of the cat may or may not be in here. We need to see what’s here first.”
“Okay,” I said and flipped on my flashlight.
“We can do better than that,” Blossom said. She raised her hands above her head. “Illuminati!”
“Blossom, do you know what the Illuminati is...”
I trailed off as the cave was suddenly illuminated by a million specs of tiny blue light. The cave had come alive at Blossom’s command. She’d found a pocket of magic on the island.
“Okay, we definitely need to get Presto,” I said.
“Starla, keep it together. You had magic back in Stone Church, right? And that wasn’t enough to free Presto. Keep your head on. Just bringing him here isn’t going to set him free. Let’s see what’s in this cave.”
The area that we were standing in was large and open, but along the far wall was an opening. I could have been imagining it, but it looked like a deliberately carved doorway. Had the witches that had inhabited the island in the past made this cave, or was the tunnel’s shape just a coincidence?
“I just hope it’s not an extensive cave system. We could get lost in here and never be found.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” Blossom said as she came to an abrupt halt. “This is it?”
We’d reached the end of the tunnel, and it went nowhere. “That can’t be right,” I said. The sting of disappointment was deep. I’d wanted there to be more to this cave. I’d hoped it contained at least some answers.
Mojitos & Murder Page 6
