by Zoe Arden
"Mary, please quiet down," Natalie said, taking deep breaths.
"Cookies!" Mary squealed with delight and ran to the counters. "I want a cake, too! A cake and cookies!"
"You can't have both," Natalie said. "One or the other. A mini cake or a few cookies." Mary's bottom lip puckered out, and tears began rolling down her cheeks almost as if on cue.
"What a baby," Billy said and shoved his sister.
"OWWWW!!!!!" Mary cried and her tears flowed that much faster. She hit him back. He hit her back, and all-out war erupted.
"Stop!" Natalie cried, her face flushed. She looked like she hadn't slept in a week. "Stop it, both of you!"
Her voice cracked and instead of continuing to yell, she started to cry. Her children stopped, confused. They'd clearly been expecting her to yell some more, not burst into tears. They didn't know what to make of this turn of events.
"Mom?" Billy asked tentatively as Natalie let out a big, honking sob and wiped her nose with her sleeve. I grabbed a box of tissue and ran over to her as Eleanor gathered up the kids. They'd been in our shop enough times that they knew us all by name.
"All right, Mary, Billy, come along with me now," Eleanor said.
"Where are we going?" Mary asked.
"For ice cream," Eleanor said, thinking quickly as Natalie collapsed at one of the few tables and chairs we had spread around the place and buried her head in her arms.
"Is Mommy okay?" Mary asked.
"Yes," Eleanor lied. "She's just... um..."
She looked to me and Trixie for help. My dad had the day off. He was taking Sadie on a picnic.
"She's just sad because she stubbed her toe and it hurt," Trixie said.
"That's a silly thing to do," said Mary and went to her mother, kissing her cheek. "I'll bring you back an ice cream cone. That'll make it better." She looked at Eleanor to make sure that was okay.
"Of course, we can," Eleanor said. "Let's hurry. The faster we eat our ice cream, the faster we can bring some back for your mom."
Billy and Mary shot one last look at their mom, but the promise of ice cream was too great to let anything else distract them. When they were gone, Trixie and I came around the table to her.
"Natalie," I said tentatively.
She looked up at me, weepy. "What?" she said and took a tissue from the box. She made a loud honking noise as she blew her nose in it.
"Um, is everything okay?" I asked.
"Does it look like everything's okay?" she snapped.
"Is anyone... that is, has anything... has someone tried to hurt you again?"
"No, but it would be better if they had. Bill's mad at me." She shot me a look. "Thanks for that, by the way. Going to his office to rat me out was a brilliant idea."
"I didn't go down there to 'rat you out,' " I told her.
Trixie shot me a questioning look. Other than the car that had tried to run Natalie over, I hadn't told either her or Eleanor what was going on. I was afraid they'd worry and tell me not to get involved, as they frequently did whenever I fell into these problems.
I ignored Trixie for now. I'd have to explain everything to her and Eleanor later now, for sure. There would be no escaping it.
"I was just trying to figure things out," I told Natalie. "You know that Mack was killed with a dagger, right?" She nodded. "It could have been the same dagger that tried to kill you."
Trixie's eyes widened.
"Why is someone trying to hurt me?" Natalie asked, so pitiful sounding that I was almost ready to forget every rumor she'd ever helped to spread about me.
"I don't know," I told her and hesitated before asking my next question. "When was the last time you talked to Mack? Before he was killed, I mean."
She looked at me, her eyes red, and took a deep breath. "He came to see me a few days before he was murdered."
"He did?" Trixie said, then clamped her hand over her mouth. Now that Natalie was talking, we didn't want her to stop by breaking in with questions she might already be on her way to answering.
"I didn't tell anyone because I was scared they'd think I had something to do with it," she said. "Then when I realized the same people were after me... I panicked. I thought if I kept quiet, they'd go away. But they're not."
"Something else did happen, didn't it?" I asked, holding my breath.
"I got a phone call this morning," she said, "after Bill went to work. Th-They said to give them the box and they'll go away."
"What box?" I asked but thought I already had a pretty good idea.
Natalie shrugged. "I don't know exactly. Mack had a box that he said someone was after. He asked me to hide if for him. I don't know what it was in it."
"Did you hide it?" Trixie asked.
Natalie shook her head. Her bottom lip trembled. "I-I-I told him n-n-no. And then they killed him." She broke into a fresh round of sobs. I put one arm around her, trying to comfort her. When her sobs finally let up, she brushed my arm off.
"Are you sure you don't have any ideas what could've been in the box?" I asked her. "Think. Maybe a weapon of some sort? Or... money?"
She shrugged. "I don't have a clue, but whoever's after me must think I do. They must think I have it."
"Is it possible he hid it with you and didn't tell you?" I asked. "Maybe he snuck into your house when you weren't there, or your purse or car or something?"
She shook her head. "I thought of that already. I've checked everywhere, searched the house top to bottom. There's nothing."
"Crud," I said.
"Yep," Natalie said. "Double crud."
* * *
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
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The next couple days were uneventful, which was a nice change of pace after everything that had been going on. I was even starting to think that maybe whoever had been after Natalie had decided to leave her alone. Maybe they'd finally realized that she didn't have whatever it was they wanted.
I'd finally filled in Eleanor, Trixie, and my dad on everything that had been going on with Natalie and Mack. I'd even told them I was supposed to meet with Mack the day he'd died. They'd told me to keep that bit of information to myself, at least for now.
Although they'd been irritated with me for keeping things from them, they hadn't been quite as mad as I'd feared they'd be. And the irritation had quickly passed, especially when I'd promised to keep them informed of anything new that happened. The next time someone tried to kill Natalie, I was supposed to tell them first thing.
"Sadie says that Dr. Dunne told her Mack was a mishmash of all kinds of paranormals. That's why he looked so odd," my dad told us during a lull at the bakery.
"A mishmash of what exactly?" I asked him.
"Let's see, he was something like one-twentieth vampire, a quarter warlock, a quarter fairy, part goblin, part elf, and... oh right! Part water sprite. She might've said something about leprechauns, too."
I stared at him with my mouth hanging open. "Are you serious? Leprechauns? I didn't even know leprechauns and vampires could... you know... come together like that."
"Most paranormals can reproduce together," Eleanor said. "Look at Zane. His mother's side was all witches and warlocks, while his father's side has that goblin history. He's a bit of a mishmash himself, though nothing quite so severe as Mack from the sound of it."
The door opened just then, chiming merrily, and Lottie walked in. She was scowling, which wasn't exactly new for Lottie, but I couldn't imagine why she was focusing her scowl on me this afternoon.
"This is all your fault," she said, storming over to me and attempting to stare me down.
"What is?" I asked.
"Natalie's been arrested." Lottie snapped her head around to look at Eleanor. Her scowl only deepened. "Your husband arrested her like... like... like some sort of common criminal."
"Now hold on, Lottie," Eleanor said. "If Zane arrested Natalie, that
I'm sure he has a very good reason for it." She didn't look as certain as she sounded.
"Yeah. He's still mad at her for saying that he was really half goblin instead of just an eighth. He's never forgiven her for that."
Lottie began to cry, and we all looked at each other.
"You need to talk to him," Lottie said, looking at Eleanor. "Tell him to let her go. He'll listen to you. You're his wife; he has to listen to you."
Trixie laughed and quickly covered her mouth when Eleanor shot her a look.
"I can't interfere with something like this," Eleanor said. Her face was tight and pinched. "Though Zane should certainly know better than to go arresting people without good cause." She shook her head. "I'm certain he has a perfectly good reason for what he's done. At least he'd better if he knows what's good for him." She was holding a cake knife and dug the tip of it into some fondant she'd been rolling out.
"Why don't I go down to the sheriff's station and talk to him?" I said.
"What good will that do?" Lottie snapped. "He only tolerates you because your Eleanor's niece."
A flash of anger passed through me. "Sheriff Knoxx and I might've had our differences in the past, but he's my uncle now, and we worked all that stuff out long ago."
That was, for the most part, true. Though Sheriff Knoxx and I had butted heads when I'd first come to Heavenly Haven, he had apologized to me since then and we generally got along now. Heck, even Colt and I had butted heads when we'd first met. I just seemed to have that sort of effect on people.
"I'll call when I know more," I told my aunts and dad and headed off for the sheriff's station despite Lottie's insistence that it would do no good.
The first thing I realized when I got there was that Natalie had not been arrested. Lottie had been exaggerating, as usual. Natalie was seated at Sheriff Knoxx's desk, answering his questions as his deputy took notes. If she'd been arrested, she'd have been behind bars.
"Why didn't you tell me that you met with Mack just before his death?" Sheriff Knoxx demanded.
"It wasn't just before his death," Natalie said. "It was a few days before, and I didn't think it was relevant."
"Not relevant?" he scoffed. He turned to his deputy, Elwin Muster, and told him to make sure and write that down.
"I didn't kill him," Natalie said, pleading.
"I didn't say you had," the sheriff replied. "Now then, what can you tell me about this rumor I've been hearing that he gave you something to hold for him during your little meeting?"
Natalie sighed. "He didn't give me anything. I swear it."
"Then why does everyone think he did?"
"I don't know. Because people believe what they want to believe, but that doesn't always make it true."
"You mean like how half of Sweetland Cove thinks I'm half goblin when you know perfectly well that I'm only an eighth? I might even be a sixteenth. I haven't worked out the math exactly."
"People in Sweetland Cove think you're half goblin because you're next in line to the throne if something happens to the goblin king, not because of any rumors I spread."
"I'm not next in line, I'm second in line. That's a big difference. And you're trying to change the subject. Just tell me what it is that Mack gave to you before he died."
"I'm telling you he didn't give me anything. And if he did, I certainly wouldn't be spreading it around. People are trying to kill me."
Sheriff Knoxx and Elwin looked skeptically at each other.
That was it. I stepped toward them, catching them off guard. All three of them, even Elwin, had been so absorbed with the interrogation they hadn't noticed me come in.
"Sheriff Knoxx, Natalie's telling the truth," I said.
The sheriff stood up and puffed out his chest like he was a peacock getting ready for a fight.
"And how do you know that?"
"Because I was there when it happened. Someone tried to kill her. Twice. The first time they tried to run her over with their car. I told you about that, remember?"
"I remember," Sheriff Knoxx said. He glared at Natalie. "I also remember that you denied that was anything other than an accident."
"I was scared," Natalie said.
"The second time," I said, continuing as if they hadn't spoken, "was with a dagger."
There. That had gotten his attention.
"A dagger?" He looked from me to Natalie. "Mack Heathrow was killed with a dagger."
"I know. It might've been the same one they tried to use on Natalie. I was standing right next to her when it came sailing past us. It almost took her nose off, it came that close to hitting her."
Natalie's face paled at the memory.
"It seems to me like you both know a lot more than what you've been letting on. I ought to lock you both up just for withholding information."
"You can't lock me up," Natalie said. Her eyes were wild.
"Oh, can't I? By not telling me what you know, you're interfering with a murder investigation." He paused. "In fact, maybe a night behind bars is just what you need."
Bill Vargas Sr. came bursting into the sheriff's station just then. He looked furious.
"What do you think you're doing questioning my wife without a lawyer present?" he demanded of Sheriff Knoxx. He pounded his fists on the sheriff's desk and rounded his shoulders back, puffing out his chest in imitation of Sheriff Knoxx.
Elwin looked like he was about to wet his pants he was so frightened. Bill Vargas might only have been a dentist, but when he got mad, he was a scary dentist.
"This isn't an official interrogation," Sheriff Knoxx said.
"It's not?" Natalie asked. "Then what am I doing here?"
"My question precisely," Bill said.
Sheriff Knoxx cleared his throat. His cheeks had turned a light shade of pink. "I merely brought your wife in for questioning. I mean, for an interview. She hasn't officially been charged with anything." He glared at her. "Yet."
"Then I'd say we're done here," Bill said. "Come on, Natalie." He helped her out of her chair, and they headed for the door. Bill paused and turned back to me. "What's your involvement with all this?"
"I just came down to help Natalie."
He narrowed his eyes at me, then hurried Natalie out of the station.
"Ava," Sheriff Knoxx said when they were gone. His cheeks had turned that much redder. "Is your Aunt Eleanor angry with me over this?"
I hesitated before answering. "If I were you, I'd stop and buy her some flowers on the way home."
* * *
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
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I stayed home from the bakery the next day. Eleanor and my father told me to take the day off and try to relax. Eleanor had been in a better mood when I'd seen her in the morning—she'd stopped by the house I shared with Trixie and my dad for breakfast. She told us that Sheriff Knoxx had come home last night with a dozen red roses.
"It was a good thing for him," Eleanor had said over bacon and eggs, "because I was preparing to wring his neck."
I'd smiled and tried not to laugh.
"Why don't you stay home today, Ava?" Eleanor had said after she finished her plate. "It seems like you've had a lot going on lately and could use a break. Besides," she said with a twinkle in her eye, "I think my new cake flavor is ready, and I want to try adding your blemish buster extract to it today."
"Shouldn't I be there for that? " I asked.
"I want to surprise you with the finished product," she said.
So, I'd stayed home.
Snowball walked over to me as I sat on the couch and curled up in my lap, purring. I scratched her head, and she purred even louder. "Did Snowy get enough breakfast this morning?" I asked her.
Snowball nodded. "Rocky ate bacon when no one was looking," she said, ratting out Eleanor's familiar.
I laughed. "You didn't have any tuna, did you?"
Snowball looked innoce
ntly up at me. "Snowball likes tuna."
I laughed again, knowing full well just what that answer meant.
Staying home from work had sounded like a nice idea at the time Eleanor suggested it, but now I was bored. There was nothing on TV, and I didn't want to just play with my phone all day. Snowball was too sleepy to play with, and Tootsie and Rocky had disappeared somewhere.
I was just thinking that I would pay Lucy a visit down at Coffee Cove when there was a knock on the door. I gently laid Snowy aside then got up to answer the knock as it repeated itself.
"Bill," I said, surprised to see Bill Vargas standing there.
"May I come in?" he asked.
I hesitated then opened the door wider for him.
"Thank you," he said. "I'll keep this short. I promise."
"How did you know I was here and not at the bakery?"
"I didn't. I went by the bakery first and didn't see you there, so I took a chance you were at home."
"Good guess," I said.
He shrugged. "It wasn't really a guess. It was a deduction."
We stood awkwardly in the foyer. "Er, do you want some coffee?" I finally asked him.
"No, thanks," he said. "Sorry. I just... I came to ask a favor of you, but now that I'm here, I'm not quite sure how to ask it."
"Is it anything illegal?" I asked.
He laughed and shook his head.
"Then just ask it," I told him.
He took a deep breath. "I was hoping you could keep an eye on Natalie for me."
"Keep an eye on her... or spy on her?"
"You're sharp," he laughed.
"Not that sharp," I said. "I can't imagine why you would want me to spy on your wife for you."
He hesitated. "With everything that's been going on, I'm worried about her."
