Witches Just Want to Have Fun

by Amanda M. Lee

  28

  Twenty-Eight

  Barbie looked calm. Too calm, really. I’d expect someone in her position to be fearful. She didn’t look that way at all, though. Of course, her face never moved, so it was hard to grasp what she was feeling. All that stared back was a blank mask of human flesh.

  “How did you get in here?” Wesley asked, glaring at Barbie.

  “The back door was open.”

  Wesley shot me a look. “Why was the back door open?”

  That was a good question. “I … don’t know. I didn’t really think about it. The house is full of people.”

  “And now there are two more,” Booker pointed out. “They even brought guns for their visits.”

  “It was an accident,” I muttered. “I really didn’t give it much thought.”

  “Next time, huh?” Lilac was unnaturally bright as she snagged my gaze. I didn’t understand how she could remain perky under this particular set of conditions. “I bet you won’t forget again.”

  “Definitely not,” I agreed, my fingers busy as they massaged my knee. “How did you even know to come here, Barbie? I mean … Madame Selena faked her death. How could you possibly know she was coming here?”

  “I faked my disappearance,” Madame Selena snapped. “Disappearance! Get it right.”

  “Yes, because that’s what’s important,” Booker drawled. “Still, Hadley has a point. How did you know to come here, Barbie?”

  Barbie shifted to give Booker a weighted look. “I’m a genius.”

  “Why really?” Lilac challenged. I couldn’t help being surprised at her bombastic attitude. She should be quaking with fear at being caught between two delusional women, but she didn’t look worried in the least. That was odd, right? “You had to be tipped off somehow.”

  “It wasn’t as difficult as you might think,” Barbie said breezily. “Like I said, I’m a genius.”

  For some reason I could see the truth in her head. Whether from magic or an inherent ability to read people, I knew exactly how this occurred. “You were watching the lighthouse. You knew Madame Selena would come back because she can’t stay away from the book. She thinks that book will make her powerful, and you knew she’d come back at least once more in an effort to get her hands on it.”

  Barbie smirked. “Maybe.”

  “No, she’s right,” Wesley said. “That’s exactly what you did. Everyone assumed Selena was hurt in the golf cart crash, that someone went after her and dragged her away. The assumption was she was already dead or injured. You were her partner, so you knew that wasn’t the case because you didn’t have her. That meant you had to watch for her to show herself, and the lighthouse made the most sense.”

  Barbie pursed her lips. “Maybe I’m not the only genius here, huh?”

  “That wasn’t genius deduction,” I countered. “It was common sense.”

  “You say potato.”

  Ugh. She might fancy herself a genius, but she was obviously a moron. I had to distract her until I could come up with a plan. I didn’t think Madame Selena was half the threat that Barbie was. That didn’t mean Madame Selena wouldn’t start shooting if she thought it could serve as a distraction and she could make her escape. I had to be wary and careful, two things at which I wasn’t very good.

  Thankfully Booker seemed to be thinking along the same lines, because he put his full focus on Barbie. “Why did you kill Trish?”

  Barbie snorted. “Oh, don’t act like you care. We all know you didn’t love Trish.”

  “I never said I loved her.” Booker remained calm. “But I didn’t want to see her die. She was a good person, a bit rough around the edges. She didn’t deserve what happened to her.”

  “Then she should’ve thought better about threatening me.”

  I knew it! When I mentioned to Madame Selena earlier that I’d grasped what was going on, that wasn’t an exaggeration. I’d figured it out … although how was anyone’s guess. “Trish found out that Ashley wasn’t Henry’s daughter, didn’t she?” The question was out of my mouth before I thought better about uttering it.

  Barbie pinned me with a hateful expression. “I have no idea what you mean.”

  “There’s no sense denying it at this point.” I opted to be pragmatic. “We’re all in this together. I think we’d all like to understand exactly why we’re here.”

  “And I think you should shut your hole,” Barbie snapped. “You’re the reason we’re in this situation. If you’d simply let things go, not used your feminine wiles on Galen to keep him investigating, we wouldn’t be here.”

  Feminine wiles? Good grief.

  “No, but your daughter would still be in jail for something she didn’t do,” Lilac pointed out.

  “That can’t be my concern.” Barbie turned icy. “It’s Ashley’s fault for remaining friends with that girl. I told her from the start that it was a mistake, but she refused to listen. She said ending the feud was the most important thing.”

  “She didn’t realize she was partially at the center of the ongoing feud, did she?” I challenged. “She didn’t realize Gus was her father. I guess he lied about you guys having an affair. And here I thought we were having a moment at the bar.”

  “It was a very long time ago, and I wouldn’t call it an affair,” Barbie sneered. “It was at a party at the Elks lodge and there was some drinking going on.”

  “Man, these Elks people must party like it’s the eighties,” I groused. “It seems like all they do is drink and have affairs.”

  “That’s not all they do,” Booker said. “That’s only the tip of the iceberg. You don’t want to know the rest of it.”

  He was probably right. I licked my lips as I regarded Barbie. “When did you find out Ashley was Gus’s daughter?”

  “When I saw the results of some blood work when she was a teenager,” Barbie replied. “I believe she was getting her routine exam before her freshman year of high school. The doctor insisted that we all get tested again because something wasn’t right. He thought it was a clerical error. I talked him out of it and convinced him to fix the chart.”

  “Fix it, huh?” I felt mildly sick to my stomach. “I’m sure that would’ve gone over well if Ashley had a medical emergency down the road.”

  “Oh, don’t worry. I had the doctor alter Henry’s chart. It didn’t even cost that much. Five-hundred bucks and the possibility Henry might get the wrong blood if he was ever in an accident. It was well worth it.”

  Yup. Now I definitely felt sick. “How did Trish find out?”

  “She and Ashley gave blood together at one of those drives they hold downtown every few months,” Barbie replied. “They found out they had the same blood type – or I guess it was the same Rh-negative factor, which is rare – and thought it was weird. Apparently Trish thought it was weirder than Ashley and did some digging. She found out Henry’s real blood type – I’m still not sure how – and confronted me.”

  “Ashley was her sister. That would’ve been a big deal to her.”

  “Ashley was her half-sister in blood only,” Barbie countered. “They weren’t sisters. They never should’ve been friends.”

  Something about the story didn’t sit right with me. “Why did you even care after the divorce? I mean … once you got your settlement from Henry, a guy you obviously don’t like, why not tell the truth?”

  Barbie turned haughty. “What makes you think he doesn’t know the truth?”

  I was dumbfounded … but then I remembered the vision I had when leaving her house. “You told him at some point.”

  “I did. We were in a fight and I blurted it out. By then he loved her. She was a teenager, after all. He said blood didn’t mean anything.”

  “And then he turned around and had an affair with Maureen,” I deduced.

  “Pretty much. It was payback.”

  “He conveniently left that part out of his story,” I muttered. “It might’ve saved us some time if he’d simply told the truth.”

  �
�Oh, he would’ve never done that,” Barbie intoned. “He didn’t want Ashley to think of him as anything other than her doting father. He wanted her to live her entire life in the dark.”

  “Did he know Trish had found out the truth?”

  Barbie shrugged. “I don’t believe so. She came straight to me. She was too sympathetic to approach Henry in case he didn’t know. She wouldn’t want to break apart his world.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. “What about Gus? Why did you kill him?”

  “Wait … forget the why of it.” Booker held up his hand to draw Barbie’s attention. “We know the why. Hadley was pressing for further information. You believed she was pushing Galen to keep digging, and you didn’t want that. You were more than willing to sacrifice your own daughter if it meant you got away with it.”

  “Pretty much,” Barbie agreed. “Ashley has been insufferable since her teenage years. I really don’t have much love for the girl. I wanted to protect her a bit, make sure she didn’t find out the truth because it would’ve resulted in a lot of whining. And Henry would have demanded some of his money back from the divorce because he made sure I got more than I deserved in exchange for keeping the secret. But I’m willing to sacrifice her to keep myself safe.”

  “You thought killing Gus would distract Galen, didn’t you?” Booker pressed. “You enticed Madame Selena to help you pull it off. You wanted Hadley confused so she wouldn’t know if she somehow killed Gus, and you wanted Galen focused on her above everything else. If Hadley was in trouble, he’d stop looking into Trish’s death.”

  “Basically.” Barbie was blasé. “It didn’t even have to be Gus. I just needed someone to get Hadley out in the open. I saw Gus down the beach and approached him. He was a wreck, sunburned and crying. He was broken-hearted … showed me his gun. I saw my opportunity then and sent him in Hadley’s direction with a little help from Madame Selena.

  “She was supposed to control Hadley just as easily,” she continued. “Unfortunately, Hadley broke from the spell before I could put the gun in her hands. She broke right before the shooting. I saw it on her face and I knew trouble would follow. Selena did, too. She ran before I was even off the beach.

  “That was a big problem for me,” she said. “I knew that Selena was prone to talking if she thought it would get her out of trouble. I couldn’t allow that to happen. I couldn’t lose everything because of her big mouth.”

  Madame Selena was affronted. “Hey! I don’t have a big mouth. I never would’ve said anything. You could’ve trusted me.”

  “Even though you were Hadley’s first suspect?” Barbie challenged. “Galen knew right away what had happened on the beach. He knew who to go after. He also knew that someone was breaking into the lighthouse, and it was easy enough to figure out who would have the motive for that.”

  Madame Selena looked like a kid caught with her mother’s makeup. “They didn’t know.” She looked to me for confirmation. “You didn’t know, right?”

  “We didn’t technically know, but it wouldn’t have been that hard to put together,” I replied. “I mean … you were only interested in May’s books when you stopped by. We performed a séance to call May, and she said someone was trying to keep her from the lighthouse. Only a few people could do that, and you’re the first to jump to mind. It wouldn’t have taken long to figure out.”

  “Oh, well … .” Madame Selena broke off and licked her lips. “Fine. You’re right. I totally would’ve turned you in to save myself.”

  “See.” Barbie knowingly bobbed her head. “I told you I was a genius.”

  We were getting off course. “So, what’s your plan now?” I challenged. “We know the truth, and you’re outnumbered.”

  “I have this.” Barbie held up the gun. “I can do anything I want with this.”

  “Madame Selena has a gun, too,” Lilac pointed out. “It’s not as if she’s going to sit back and watch you kill everyone – including herself – and not do a thing about it.”

  As if realizing for the first time that she was in a vulnerable position, Madame Selena quickly leveled her gun at Barbie. That allowed me the space to breathe a little easier, although we remained exposed.

  The good news was that Barbie and Madame Selena were nowhere near as smart as they thought they were. In fact, they were both a little idiotic. Things wouldn’t end well for them. They wouldn’t get away no matter what. That didn’t mean, however, that they wouldn’t inadvertently take us along for a very bad ride.

  “Don’t point that thing at me!” Barbie snapped, her eyes flashing. “I’m in no mood for your games.”

  “This isn’t a game,” Madame Selena fired back. “This is my life and I want to protect it. I’m not going to fight it because you’re a money-hungry B-I-T-C-H.”

  I looked around, genuinely confused. “Who are you spelling for?”

  Madame Selena sent me a frustrated look. “I have to spell bad words when I run a tent at a festival because kids are always around. Parents don’t like it when you introduce the little ones to bad words. It’s become something of a habit.”

  “Oh, well, that’s good, I guess.” I really didn’t know what to make of it. “You should definitely take her out if you’re worried she’s going to kill you. You know … be proactive.”

  Booker widened his eyes to comical proportions as he met my gaze. “What are you doing?”

  I ignored the question and remained focused on Madame Selena. “I’m serious.” A plan had formed and I was determined to get Wesley, Booker and Lilac safely out of this situation. I was pretty keen on keeping myself safe, too. I didn’t care what Madame Selena and Barbie did to each other. They were horrible individuals who had earned whatever was coming their way. “You should totally shoot her, Madame Selena.”

  Barbie’s mouth dropped open. “What are you telling her to do?”

  I refused to back down. “She has to protect herself.” I was serious. “You’re here to kill her and us, Barbie. Madame Selena has to be the first to go because she’s armed. Even though she’s a terrible person – and I do mean terrible – I don’t want her to die.”

  “I’m not a terrible person.” Madame Selena adopted a whiny tone. “I just want to be a more powerful witch. Is that too much to ask?”

  “You can’t be a more powerful witch,” Wesley answered. “You’re not a born witch. There’s a ceiling that learned witches can’t move beyond. I’m sorry. I don’t make the rules. There’s nothing any of us can do to help you.”

  Madame Selena wasn’t ready to give up. “If I could just take the book I know it would help. May cast a spell so I can’t, but I think if Hadley puts a little effort into it she could lift the spell. Then I’ll take the book and be on my way. No harm done.”

  And leave us with crazy Barbie in the process, I thought. No thank you. “That’s not going to happen.” I chose my words carefully. “I don’t know how to lift the spell and I’m much too worried about surviving to do it. You should be worried about surviving, too. I mean … look at that woman.” I gestured toward Barbie. “She has murder on the mind, and you’ll be the first one she takes out. I promise you that.”

  Madame Selena balked. “How can you possibly know that? She can’t make an expression – her face is frozen in time – so how do you know what she’s thinking?”

  Barbie beamed. “Thank you.”

  “I’m pretty sure she didn’t mean that as a compliment,” Booker offered. “You look like a science experiment gone wrong.”

  “I look young,” Barbie shot back.

  “Fine.” Booker was deadpan. “You look like a young science experiment gone wrong.”

  Barbie made a screeching sound as Madame Selena searched my face for answers.

  “How do you know?” Madame Selena asked, her voice barely a whisper. “How do you know what she’s going to do?”

  “Because I’ve seen inside her head.” That was kind of true. “You’re first on her list. Then she’ll go for the rest of us. You
have to protect yourself.”

  “But … .” Madame Selena broke off and chewed her bottom lip. “Maybe this situation can be salvaged. Maybe we can work together.”

  “She used you to bewitch the father of her daughter,” I pointed out. “She killed him just to give herself some time. She’s fine with her daughter going to prison for something she did. What do you think she’s going to do to you?”

  That was enough to break through Madame Selena’s foggy brain. She widened her eyes at the words and pointed her gun directly at Barbie’s chest. “She’s right. I didn’t even think about it.”

  It was time to act. I gathered my nerves and courage and tugged on the energy I could feel whipping through my body. It felt fragmented, not yet ready to come out and perform, and yet I knew I had to force the wisps into something complete and powerful.

  “Don’t be an idiot,” Barbie said. “I don’t want to hurt you, Selena. She’s making that up.”

  “You came here to hurt her,” Booker pointed out. “You don’t care about us any longer. You only care about Madame Selena. She’s the only one who can hurt you.”

  “He’s right.” Madame Selena was furious. “You’re a murderer, and I’m next on your list. Do you think I’ll allow that?”

  “I don’t think you’re in a position to allow anything,” Barbie barked. “I’m in charge.”

  “No, I am.”

  They faced each other, guns pointed at chests and eyes wild with suspicion. Wesley and Lilac realized what was about to happen and scrambled out of the way.

  “You’ve ruined everything,” Barbie screeched. “You’re a complete and total idiot. I had it all figured out, but you ruined everything!”

  I exchanged a quick look with Booker, hoping he’d somehow grasp what I was about to do. He simply nodded at me, ready.

  “You ruined this,” Madame Selena said. “You had to take things too far. You’ve always been like this. Even when we were in high school you took things too far. That’s why everyone hated you.”

  “They hated you. I … .” Barbie trailed off, making a face as she stared at her gun. “What’s going on here?”