When I'd arrived in Columbus a week ago, I'd written it off as a zombie town--dead but still functioning. With the sawmill closed, it was dying. There was no doubt of that. But it was still a town and the people there had become real to me.
I'd wreaked havoc here. I hadn't meant to. But I hadn't seen through Leah's ploy until she'd killed the others. I hadn't solved the case fast enough to stop her before she could send proof of Paula's guilt to the police. Then Paula was arrested and her granddaughter, Kayla, was shuttled off by social services.
So as Adam drove us into town, I sunk into my seat. The real Savannah Levine seemed to have fled with my powers, leaving a shell as nervous and fretful as any Coven witch. When he tapped the brakes, my arms flew out, as if bracing for a high-speed collision.
"Isn't that Paula?" he said.
"Wh-what?" I twisted to look up and down Main Street.
He backed up the Jeep and pointed. "There."
I followed his finger to the diner. Through the window, I could see the server, Lorraine, at the counter, filling coffee for two of the regulars. It was as if the past week never happened and I was right back where I'd started, waltzing in, cocky as ever, thinking I'd trick the ignorant locals into sharing a few tips about the murders.
"That is them, isn't it?" Adam said.
My gaze tripped across the diner patrons and stopped on two at a corner table. A tiny nine-year-old girl with a blond ponytail and her forty-year-old doppelganger shared a Belgian waffle dripping with strawberry sauce.
"Oh, my God," I whispered.
The last time I'd seen Kayla--was it only yesterday?--she'd been getting into a social worker's car, refusing to look at me, being trucked off to a foster home while her grandmother sat in a jail cell.
"This doesn't mean you really cut a deal with the Fates," Adam said.
"What?" I blinked at him, and it took a moment to realize what he was saying. "Bail," I whispered.
"No, I don't mean--"
"But that would make sense, wouldn't it?" A lot more sense than giving up my powers so she could be home with her granddaughter.
"I think it's too soon for bail. My guess is that they realized it was an accident and dropped the charges--without any divine intervention." He parked and swung open the door. "One way to find out."
I let him get to the diner, then thought of Kayla and Paula glancing out to see me hiding in the Jeep. I owed them an explanation--or the best I could manage under the circumstances.
Adam heard the clunk of my door opening and waited for me. As we walked into the diner together, Lorraine called out a hearty "Hello!" Paula turned first. Her gaze met mine and my heart stopped.
Paula said something to Kayla. The little girl glanced over her shoulder. I braced myself. She saw me and her thin face broke into a grin. She leapt up as if she was going to hug me, catching herself at the last moment, to stand there, staring up at me with her solemn blue eyes.
"I'm sorry I was mean to you yesterday," she said. "I made a mistake."
I stared at her, thinking, It's real. This is real. Paula isn't just out on bail. She's free.
The smile disappeared from Kayla's face and her eyes clouded. Worried that her apology hadn't been accepted.
I quickly bent and gave her a hug. "We all made mistakes," I whispered. "I'm just happy this one has been fixed."
Kayla slid into the booth. She looked at the spot next to her, then at me. Any other child would have patted the seat and urged me in. Kayla wasn't any other child.
I smiled and sat beside her. Adam took the spot beside Paula. Lorraine brought over coffee for Adam and me, and promised bacon and eggs to follow.
"Breakfast of champions," she said. "For our champion detective."
Paula smiled and reached out, her hands resting on mine. "Thank you, Savannah. I knew you hadn't done what they said. I wouldn't blame you if you had, but I knew you hadn't."
"So what happened?" I asked.
She glanced at Kayla. "Could you run next door to the drugstore, honey? Get us some toothpaste? I think we're out."
"We aren't."
"I'd like--"
"I know all about what happened, Grandma. The social worker lady explained it."
"Just humor me then, okay?" Paula took a five from her purse. "Get some candy for yourself, too. Just nothing hard or sticky."
"If I'm getting toothpaste, I don't need to worry about my teeth."
Paula sighed and waved her off. Once the little girl was gone, Paula gave us the short version of events.
Ginny's lover, Cody Radu, had been blamed for the murders. All of them. The police had received an anonymous tip, searched his house, and found a discarded suicide note confessing to the murders. They'd also found the gun that killed Ginny and Brandi, plus evidence that Cody had been the one who'd accused Paula. The police theory was that he'd planned to confess and kill himself, then realized he might still be able to get out of it by framing Paula. When things went wrong, he'd killed the guard and homeless man to cover his tracks, before realizing suicide was his only option.
Was it a perfect theory? No. But it was reasonable and blamed a dead guy that everyone had hated, while freeing a beloved member of the community. Good enough.
"So they let me go," Paula said as Kayla returned. "Not only that, but while I was talking to the officer doing my release paperwork, we got to chatting about my days working for Sheriff Bruyn. This officer told me how they'd just lost their cleaning lady. Next thing I know, I've got the position." She smiled. "I bet I'm the first person to walk in there in handcuffs and leave with a new job."
"That's great," Adam said. "When do you start?"
"Next week. In the meantime, I'm going to look for a new place to live. Get Kayla and me out of Columbus and start fresh, just like I wanted." Another smile, one that made her look as young as her granddaughter. "I keep pinching myself, thinking I'm going to wake up back in that cell. It's amazing how much can change in a day."
How much indeed.
Kayla returned. We ate breakfast and talked. Then, before we left, I excused myself to use the restroom and Paula followed.
When we got inside, she lowered her voice and said, "I don't know if you had anything to do with this--"
"I--"
"I don't know and I'm better off not knowing. But Cody was already dead, and he did kill the others. He must have. That guard and Michael and Claire Kennedy, maybe even Tiffany. Part of me is always going to feel like I got away with something I shouldn't have, but I do believe Kayla is better off with me free."
"She is," I said. "Infinitely better."
Paula dropped her gaze, then squeezed my arm and murmured, "Thank you."
Back at the table, I gave Kayla my e-mail address and she made me promise to come see her in her new home.
Once we were back in the Jeep, I said to Adam, "I'd really like to stay in contact with her. I know this sounds weird, but earlier, before all this happened, I started thinking I wanted to . . . make a college scholarship fund or something for her. With my trust fund, I have the money."
"I don't think it's weird at all. I'd say I think it's nice, but I might get smacked for that."
"Don't worry. I'm not in a smacking mood." And probably wouldn't be for a while. I took a deep breath. "So, I guess I'm screwed, aren't I? I offered a deal and the Fates took me up on it. I don't think I'd back out now even if I could."
"If the Fates really did this, then they're the ones who screwed up. You didn't make any deal. You were upset and vulnerable. Yes, you wanted to fix this problem, but not at that cost. If they took advantage of that--"
The heat of his fury simmered between us, and I basked in it. I wanted this so badly. Someone to say it wasn't my fault. To be angry for me.
He reached out, his warm hand squeezing mine. "We'll fix this."
I looked at him, his eyes dark, his voice harsh with determination. God, I loved him. I could insist I was okay with just being friends, that I'd find someone else and get ove
r him, but I was fooling myself. There was no getting past this. I loved him, and fifty years from now we could be married to other people, never having exchanged so much as a kiss, and I'd still look into his eyes and know he was the one. He'd always be the one.
He leaned across the seat, pulling me into a fierce hug. "It'll be okay. I promise."
One last squeeze, then he released me and put the Jeep into gear. "Let's get back to the motel before the manager calls a tow truck to remove the motorcycle parked inside one of his rooms."
"Hey, I wasn't leaving it outside at a place like that. Can we hold off on the motel, though? There's one more stop we need to make."
three
The stop was the cookie cult--a commune outside town that sold gourmet cookies online. Hey, if you're going to have a house filled with young women, you might as well get them baking.
The de facto leader, Alastair Koppel, was Ginny's father. He'd taken off before Ginny was born, only learning he'd had a daughter--and granddaughter--when he came home to set up his commune.
The real force behind the place was Megan, a former Wall Street drone who'd seen a much better entrepreneurial future with Alastair, running the cookie business while he played therapist and commune leader.
It was neither Alastair nor Megan who brought me back now. My witch-hunter had become a commune girl to get access to the community and kill Cody's wife, Tiffany. Then she'd discovered there was a second witch in town in need of killing. Namely me.
I'd come by yesterday to confront the girl--Amy--but she'd already moved out. While I was certain Amy was a fake name, there's often some truth in a false identity. It makes the lies easier to pull off. So I wanted to see Amy's application. Yet I knew better than to waltz up to the door and ask. Yesterday, Alastair had run me off. Megan could be a little more reasonable, if it was in her best interests, but I wasn't taking the chance.
Considering it was ten in the morning, a breakin required finesse. Or a distraction. I used Adam again. If you want to distract a household of young women, nothing quite does the trick like a hot guy.
"Forgetting something?" He handed me a set of lock picks as I climbed out along the roadside. "You're going to need these."
"Right."
"Do you remember how to use them?"
He got a pfttt and an eye roll for that.
"In other words, no, you don't. You weren't paying attention when Lucas taught you, because you have your unlock spell." He turned off the engine. "Let's switch. You can distract the girls while I--"
"I'm the one who's had the grand tour, including Alastair's office. And I might be out of practice, but I do remember how to pick a lock."
Adam hesitated. He'd hate to suggest that I was less than competent without my spells. So I set out for the house before he could stop me.
I honestly thought I remembered how to use the picks. But Adam knows me well. As with the self-defense lessons, I'd barely listened to Lucas's tutorials because I figured I didn't need them. After five minutes of fussing with the side door lock, I jangled the handle in frustration . . . and discovered it had been left open.
"You lost your spells, Savannah," I muttered to myself. "Not your brains."
I slipped inside. I was at the far end of the house, away from the kitchen and front rooms, where I could hear girls giggling as Adam held court. I crept to the closed office door, then stopped and listened. Inside, it was silent.
My kingdom for a sensing spell.
Scratch that. From now on, I needed to be really careful what I wished for and what I offered in return.
I wondered how someone without a sensing spell ensured a room was empty. I had no idea. I'd never foreseen a time when I'd need to do it any other way.
I rapped at the office door, strained to hear any sound, ready to sprint if I did. Yes, I felt ridiculous, like a five-year-old playing Nicky Nine Doors--knocking on a door and running away. It worked, though. When no one answered I turned the knob only to discover that I did need the picks here. Damn.
Luckily, it was just your standard home door lock, easily thwarted by anyone with a paper clip. Once inside, I locked the door behind me.
My goal was in plain sight. The filing cabinet. Now, I just had to hope they kept paper copies of their admission forms.
They didn't. Or so it seemed as I leafed through sparse files of packaging mock-ups and media pieces. Then I spotted a second, smaller filing cabinet. One with an electronic lock.
Admission forms hardly seemed to require such security. But Alastair was also a therapist and a place like this attracted girls with problems. Whatever Alastair's faults, he seemed to take that aspect of his role seriously, so I wouldn't be surprised if application forms were locked away, along with counseling notes.
The problem was the lock. It was a combination, and I didn't have a hope in hell of figuring it out in the next few minutes. I tugged on the door, just in case it wasn't latched. No such luck.
As I fiddled with it, footsteps sounded in the hall. I backed against the bookshelf. Someone tried the door and I congratulated myself for having the foresight to lock it behind me. Then, after a test jangle, a key turned in the lock. I quickly cast a cover spell. Only as the last words left my mouth did I remember that it wasn't going to do any good.
The door swung open. In walked a young woman with a blond ponytail and the kind of Nordic beauty normally seen only in skin care ads. Megan. When her gaze fell on me, I stiffened, but her brows only lifted in the barest expression of surprise.
"I--" I began.
"Savannah," she said. "I expected I'd find you in here. Tossing a good-looking guy in the front door? About as obvious as dangling a steak over the wall to distract the guard dogs."
"It works."
"Only on the bitches who are starving."
She picked up a pair of scissors from the desk. When my hands flew up, she shook her head.
"Stabbing really isn't my style." A sly smile. "Not from the front, anyway. I need these to open a delivery box." She glanced at the file cabinet, the top drawer not quite closed. "I presume you're still interested in Amy."
"I--"
"I never trusted her. It was Alastair who insisted we let her in. Damaged, he said. Playing damaged, I said." She looked at me. "She picked a very convenient time to leave, didn't she? I suspect that means she had something to do with what happened. The murders. You were investigating. You came asking about her. The two cannot be unconnected."
"I--"
"You won't find her files in the cabinet. We keep the girls' records a little more secure than that." Her gaze shifted to the locked one, then lifted to mine. "Do you know how much our cookies cost?"
"Your cookies?"
"Nine-ninety-eight a dozen. We're avoiding breaking that tendollar mark, obviously. A small thing, but important for marketing purposes."
At the door, she turned. "A word of advice, Savannah. If you're breaking into a place and you hear the door opening? You're supposed to hide."
She left and closed it carefully behind her. I walked to the locked cabinet and entered 998 on the keypad. The lock whirred and the door popped open. I found Amy's file and got out of there.
Abject humiliation didn't set in until I was sitting at the roadside, waiting for Adam. I'd screwed up on the kind of breakin I'd done dozens of times before. The kind of breakin we might need to do again before we caught this witch-hunter.
I'd been lucky. Insanely lucky.
The next time I screwed up, we might find ourselves explaining things from a jail cell. Or worse. Until I got my spells back, I had to shift into the backseat and let Adam take the wheel.
As Adam drove us back to the motel, I read through Amy's application. For future reference only. Adam had already decided we could hold off on following up on the information. First, we needed to fix my power outage.
"You've got some crazy assassin chick hot on your trail," he'd said. "Hell, yes, you need your spells."
Getting in touch with the Fa
tes isn't easy. We aren't supposed to know anything about them. I only do because Paige took a nosedive through a portal six years ago and had to deal with the Fates to get back.
From that, I knew they made deals, which is why I was sure they were responsible for my situation. The last time, though, the person who actually made the bargain was my mother. So that was whom we had to talk to. Not easy when she's been dead for almost ten years. But I knew a way.
By evening, we were in Seattle, having left my bike and Adam's Jeep at Lucas and Paige's place, then caught a plane from Portland. It's only a three-hour drive, but both our vehicles were still in rough shape from separate accidents in Columbus. Adam could have left his Jeep at his apartment, but he was hoping for Lucas's help fixing it. Or at least his tools.
A drizzling rain started as we drove downtown in a rental car. Enough to be annoying. Not enough to actually make a pit stop to buy an umbrella.
The people lined up outside the theater weren't happy about the weather either, not when they had another twenty minutes before the doors opened. The marquee read WORLD-RENOWNED SPIRITUALIST JAIME VEGAS. ONE NIGHT ONLY. A banner across it announced that the show was sold out.
Jaime always sold out. If she didn't, she'd book herself into a smaller venue the next time. She figured that as long as people knew it wasn't easy getting tickets to her show, they'd keep coming, and she'd have a reason to keep touring, which she loved.
We walked along the line. When we turned to head into the theater, a middle-aged woman stepped into my path.
"The line starts back there," she said, pointing.
"No, actually, it starts right there." I gestured to the front. "Which is where we're going."
As I circled past her, Adam whispered, "That's why we're supposed to go in the back door."
"This makes me feel special. Right now, I really need to feel special."
"You'll feel really special when you're fighting a lynch mob without your spells."
"No, I'll leave that to you. One spark, and with all that polyester, the whole mob will go up in flames."
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