Break Ups and Break-Ins

by Raven Snow

  “It is,” Ben said with a nod. “But, like I said, no one remembers him leaving.”

  What Ben was getting at sank in slowly for Rowen. “Oh.” She didn’t like the sound of that. “You mean…”

  “He found out what was going on when Rose called him, and he rushed over from the hotel. That was what we were led to believe at any rate, but now it sounds as if he was already out and about when the shooting went down.”

  “Maybe he was at the store?” Rowen ventured. She certainly hoped there was a perfectly reasonable explanation. “He came here from Tarricville. He probably needed to buy some groceries, maybe some toothpaste or something.”

  “This is Lainswich,” Ben said plainly. “What stores are open that late at night?”

  “I think there’s a twenty-four hour convenience store somewhere around here.” Rowen tried to make a list of similar establishments in her head.

  “There aren’t many. I can ask around at them.”

  “Did you ask Jasper?”

  “Not directly. I don’t want to make him suspicious. He did mention that he came from the hotel, though. I don’t know why he would lie about that unless he had something to hide.”

  “Maybe he just wanted a bag of chips late at night and didn’t think it was worth mentioning.” Rowen racked her brain for other possible excuses. “Maybe he knew that it would make him sound suspicious if he told you he wasn’t at the hotel. Maybe he wants to keep focus on finding the actual culprit rather than wasting time on him.”

  “Maybe.” Ben didn’t sound convinced. “I certainly hope that’s the case.”

  “Do you want me to go talk to him?” There had to be some reason Ben had called her here. She assumed it was for that.

  “You don’t have to.” Ben fixed Rowen with a serious look. “I don’t want to put you on the spot, and I certainly don’t want to put you in any sort of danger.”

  “I don’t think I’m in any danger.” Rowen wasn’t sure that was true, but she wanted it to be. “He really doesn’t seem like the type.”

  “They never do.”

  “Sometimes they do.”

  “Well, yes. Sometimes they do.”

  “Where is he right now?” Rowen was willing to go question him. She wouldn’t be outright lying. She wasn’t bad about skirting the truth or trying to get answers out of people. It wasn’t her specialty or anything, but she felt comfortable with the idea of getting him alone.

  “At his hotel last I checked. I don’t have eyes on him. I thought it would be a little soon to involve too many people in this.” Ben frowned and shifted his weight from foot to foot. It looked like he was having second thoughts. “I don’t have any problem with you calling Eric. I trust his discretion—and yours. If I thought about it, I would have asked him to stay. He was here just a little while ago grabbing some things.”

  “It’s fine.” Rowen wasn’t sure that Eric would feel the same, but she wanted to do this on her own. Eric would insist on coming with, and she would have a harder time explaining why she needed to bring him along for something as simple as meeting Jasper over coffee. “I’ll meet him in a public place. Seriously, it’s fine. I don’t think he’s responsible for this and, even if he was, it’s not like he’s some kind of crazed serial killer. He’s not going to jump over the table or pull me into a dark alley.”

  “Even so…”

  “I’ll be careful.” Rowen went ahead and pulled out her cell phone. “I have an idea.”

  Rowen didn’t put that idea into action before she had approval from Ben and before she had gotten to her car. She dialed Jasper’s number. It took a couple of rings, but he picked up, “Hello?” Rowen didn’t call him often. He sounded uncertain, like maybe she was calling with bad news.

  “Hey. How are you doing?”

  “I’m… okay.” Jasper still sounded confused. “How are you? Is everything all right.”

  “Everything’s fine… Well, as fine as it can be with what’s going on. You know how it is.” When Jasper didn’t respond immediately, she continued, “Margo and the others are at work. Channel 2 is doing an interview. I had to run to the house to get some stuff, but I’m on my way back now. I was wondering… If you aren’t super busy, do you want to meet me at the coffee place? I’m gonna pick up some coffee for everyone, and I was thinking maybe we could check in with each other.”

  There was some more silence, like Jasper wasn’t sure why they would need to meet in person. “Yeah,” he said finally. “I guess that’s fine.”

  “Great! I’ll meet you there in fifteen.” Rowen hung up before he had a chance to change his mind.

  ***

  The drive took less than fifteen minutes, but Jasper still managed to beat her there. He was seated in a booth, a steaming paper cup in front of him already. “Hey.” Rowen tapped the tabletop with her fingernails. She jumped when he did. It seemed she had given him something of a start. She shot out a hand to catch his coffee before he knocked it over. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.”

  Jasper shook his head. “It’s fine. Sorry. I’m just tired, I think.”

  “Oh, God. Me too. Hang on. Let me order and I’ll join you.” Rowen headed up to the counter and ordered some drinks. It cost her a pretty penny. She hadn’t intended on buying everyone at the Inquirer a coffee, but she had told Jasper that was what she was doing. There wasn’t a way out of it now. At least they probably wouldn’t go to waste. She paid, gave her name, and sat down. “Did you get any sleep last night?”

  “Not really.” Jasper did look tired, now that she was getting a closer look. He wiped at his eyes. There were dark circles beneath them. “Between everything that happened and being in a new place, who can sleep?”

  “I crashed last night,” said Rowen. “I probably would have slept into the afternoon if no one had woken me up.”

  “You didn’t get the day off?”

  “There’s work that needs doing and Rose thinks we should stay busy. She’s probably right.” Rowen shrugged. “Though, I won’t lie. I would have liked a day off.”

  “Margo’s there too, huh?” Jasper took a sip of his coffee.

  Rowen nodded. “She wants to keep busy too, I think. Plus, there’s that interview with Channel 2. You know how she is with being on TV.”

  Jasper smiled, though it didn’t really reach his eyes. “Oh, I definitely know.” He paused. It looked like there was more that he wanted to say. “How’s she doing?”

  “Okay considering. We want to figure this thing out. Speaking of which…” Rowen leaned a little closer to the table and lowered her voice. It wasn’t like she needed to. No one in the coffee shop cared about what they were talking about. “My aunts are coming over tonight to do a ritual. They haven’t decided on one yet, but they’re working on it.”

  That got Jasper’s attention. He leaned in closer as well, brow furrowed. “No one’s tried magic yet?”

  “Not that I know of. Not a ritual anyway. Anyway, I was thinking… This involves you too, and you know your stuff. Do you want to come by tonight and help?”

  Jasper nodded. “Yeah. Of course. What time? Where?”

  “It’ll be at Rose and Ben’s place. I’ll text you directions and the time when I get a better idea of when it’s going down.”

  He nodded again. “All right. I’ll be there. It’s not like I have anything else to do.” He sighed. “Will Ben be there?”

  “I don’t know.” She really didn’t know. If she told him that Jasper was coming, he might make time. “Between this and the drug case, he’s pretty busy. He might be, though. Why?”

  “I don’t know.” Jasper pushed his cup along a few inches with his finger. “I get the impression that he doesn’t like me much.”

  “Ah.” Rowen wondered if she should say something to Ben about that. Jasper might be on to him. “I think that’s just what he’s like. You’ve never really had reason to be around him much. He’s… he can be a little grumpy.” Rowen smiled to try and lighten the mood. “I da
ted him in high school. Him being so serious was part of the reason why it didn’t work out.”

  Jasper gave a small shrug, like he wasn’t entirely sold on all of that but wasn’t invested enough to argue with her. “Do you think I should come with you to the office?”

  “Hmm.” That was a good question. If Jasper was under suspicion, was it better to keep him away from Margo or close so that they could all keep an eye on him? “Everyone is busy with work right now, but—”

  “It’s fine.” Jasper put an end to that possibility before Rowen had even had a chance to finish considering it. She was frustrated with herself for inadvertently talking him out of it so fast. “I should probably try and get some sleep if we’re going to be doing a ritual tonight.”

  “That’s probably a good idea.” Rowen felt like she should probably try and get a little more information out of him. She needed to stay and talk with him a little longer at the very least. She had called him out here after all. “Were you still awake when you got the call last night?”

  “Hmm?” Jasper looked up blearily from his coffee cup. “Oh, yeah. I hadn’t made it to bed yet.”

  “I’m not sure if that’s better or worse. I was asleep when it all started. Rowen shook her head, still troubled by the memory. “At least you made it there pretty fast.”

  “Yeah, well…” Jasper trailed off, pausing to take a sip from his coffee. “The hotel isn’t far from where you live. Lainswich is a small place.”

  “That’s true.” Rowen forced a smile. He was lying. She knew he had to be lying, but there wasn’t anything she could say about it without tipping him off. God, why was he lying? Maybe he really did have something to do with all this.

  The barista called Rowen’s name, snapping her from her thoughts. “I guess I should be getting back to the office,” she said, rising from the table. She didn’t trust herself to sit there and continue pleasant conversation with him for much longer without tipping him off. “Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?” Now she really did want to keep an eye on him. “I’m sure Margo would love to see you.”

  Jasper gave a mirthless chuckle. “I’m not so sure about that.”

  Rowen didn’t go to the counter just yet. She stayed standing at the table. “What do you mean?”

  That question got Jasper to raise an eyebrow. “I think you know what I mean. You and Margo might as well be sisters. You’re close. You know we’ve been drifting apart.”

  “That’s not…” Rowen bit her bottom lip. Her first instinct was to downplay the whole thing and reassure Jasper, but that felt wrong. Even if he was the person behind everything that was going on, it felt like it would just make everything worse if she wasn’t straight with him. “I don’t know. She can be like that. You’ve known her for a long time too. She can be difficult, hard to be around. I know she’s giving you the cold shoulder because of you taking so long the night all of this started. She’s given me the silent treatment for less. Not that you did anything wrong. I thought she was being unfair. I told her that.”

  “It’s been going on for longer than that.” Jasper didn’t look reassured by anything Rowen had just said. He hesitated then looked up at her. His brow furrowed, and he set his jaw in a serious expression. “Do you know if anything has been going on between her and that Sutton guy?”

  For some reason, Rowen hadn’t been prepared to be hit with that particular question. She gaped at Jasper, willing her thoughts to catch up with whatever it was she was going to say next. “Huh?” she grunted lamely.

  “Sutton. That’s his name, right? Detective Sutton? I’m not sure I ever caught his first name.” Jasper nodded for Rowen to answer him. “He was at your house last night. Margo is staying with him right now. I know you know him,” he continued when Rowen didn’t have an immediate response. He didn’t look angry. It was more that he looked resigned than anything else, like he had already made up his mind about what was going on.

  “I don’t know what’s going on with them,” said Rowen. It was the truth. She had her suspicions, and those suspicions felt well founded. She couldn’t swear that was what was going on, though. Truthfully, she wasn’t certain they were having any kind of explicit relationship. Margo seemed interested, but whether or not Sutton returned those feelings was another matter entirely.

  “I know it’s probably hypocritical of me to get mad over this stuff. I mean, she was cheating on another guy with me when we first hooked up.” Jasper slumped back in the booth. He was beginning to sound more annoyed than tired. He looked up, swearing under his breath and rolling his eyes before he continued. “I know she’s capable of cheating on someone and not having any moral hang-ups about it.”

  “I think she’d have some moral hang-ups about it.” Rowen wanted to give her cousin a little credit.

  Jasper continued like she hadn’t said anything at all. “But I wish she respected me enough not to treat me like an idiot. I feel like I’m a backup just in case whatever’s going on with this Sutton guy doesn’t work out, like she just doesn’t want to be single. It’s insulting.”

  “Have you talked to her about it?” Rowen heard the barista call her name a second time. She held up a finger. She didn’t want to leave the table at a moment like this. Her cousins could live with lukewarm coffee if it came down to it.

  “She’s been avoiding me,” said Jasper.

  “But have you asked her?” pressed Rowen. “I know cheating isn’t something you want to go accusing someone of, but have you talked to her about the other stuff? Like, you think you’re drifting apart, right? Have you talked to her about that?”

  Jasper didn’t have an immediate response. “I’ve tried to mention it once or twice… She shut down the conversation like I was being ridiculous though.”

  Rowen considered that. “Then… Have you thought that maybe breaking up with her would be a good thing?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Maybe it’s a good thing. Sometimes relationships just don’t work out. Margo seems like an exhausting person to be in a relationship with. I know she was married once, but I’m really not sure she’s the sort of person who needs to be. I love her, but I wouldn’t want someone like her as a romantic partner through life.”

  Jasper frowned. He looked back down at the table. “I love her, though,” he said softly.

  “I believe that. I’m sure other men have loved her. Heck, I’ve loved guys before. It doesn’t always work out, though, and I think that’s okay. Sometimes you grow apart from people. You just need that relationship for a certain part of your life. You drift away after that, or maybe your relationship changes.”

  Jasper took another sip of his coffee. He didn’t say anything, and it was difficult to tell what he was thinking.

  “I’m not saying your relationship is over, but if it is… I don’t think it’s the end of the world. I really hope it doesn’t put any more of a strain between our families. I think we work well together.”

  “It definitely wouldn’t help the relationship between us.”

  “Well, hopefully it wouldn’t hurt it too bad either.” Rowen tried to put on a reassuring smile. “But, like I said, I don’t know that that’s the case. Maybe the whole thing is a misunderstanding. Margo can be capricious like that. Maybe all of this will blow over once there’s less stress on everyone.”

  “Maybe.” Jasper didn’t sound so sure of that.

  Rowen took a step back toward the counter. She felt weird leaving things at that. “Are you all right?”

  Jasper took a deep breath and sat up straight. “Yeah.” He didn’t sound very convincing. “Yeah,” he said with more conviction. “I think I’m fine. Like I said, I’m just tired. I have to get some sleep before tonight.”

  Rowen nodded. “Well… all right. I guess I’ll see you tonight then.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ll text you all the info.”

  “Right.”

  “Okay, well… see you later.” Rowen nearly forgot her coffee on her wa
y out the door. There was a lot on her mind.

  Chapter Twelve

  The ritual was a big to do. Rowen was used to them being commonplace. They were something that had happened no less than once a week in her life growing up. Her aunts did rituals for anything from aiding a recovery from an illness to making dinner a little more savory. With few exceptions, they were casual affairs. Tonight was one of those exceptions.

  Aunt Lydia and Nadine both came in crushed velvet robes. They didn’t wear them often. Ceremonial clothing didn’t have much of an effect on magic. At most, it helped with the caster’s state of mind. It helped to alter one’s mood, helped them get into the headspace they needed for spell casting.

  “Don’t you have something else you could wear?” asked Lydia when she arrived, looking Rowen up and down with disapproval.

  Rowen looked down at her own sweater and jeans. “Sorry. I didn’t exactly pack any ritual gear when I was fleeing from my home.”

  Lydia sighed and turned her gaze to Rose. “Do you have anything she could borrow? A silky bath robe, maybe?”

  “A silky bath robe isn’t going to help me any. It’s just going to make me sleepier.” Rowen was already sleepy enough as it was. She was having trouble keeping her eyes open. The scent of the cup of coffee in her hands was helping but not by much. God, she’d had a lot of caffeine today.

  “I’m not going to change into anything either,” said Rose.

  Nadine frowned. “I bought you a robe for Christmas one year. I know I did.”

  Rose’s face colored and she glanced away. “Yeah… but I forgot to pack it when I moved.”

  Lydia gave a little huff. Rowen didn’t doubt that she had forgotten it. It was probably packed up in a box in the attic back at her aunts’ place. “It’ll be fine,” said Uncle Norm, coming up behind his sisters and placing his hands on their shoulders. He wasn’t wearing any ritual gear either. He had on a polo shirt and jeans. That was about as far from ritual gear as someone could get. “We’ve been doing this for long enough. We don’t need it.”