“He doesn’t like it because of the murder. Thorn is more worried about my relationship with Remy than with the Norse god working on my garage.”
“Should he be worried about Remy?”
“No,” I said. “I was confused at first about the whole thing, but I’m not anymore.”
“I suppose Remy made that easy for you. I swear, Brighton, I’ve been so close to Remy my whole life and I have no idea what got into him.”
“So you know?”
“About him using magic on you and spying on you and Thorn? Yeah. My whole family knows. Grandmother would have put him on lockdown too, but he’s redeeming himself by taking care of those creatures.” Annika shivered. “He’s got one chance to shed that darkness that’s taking root in him, and if he doesn’t, the Skeenbauer matriarchs will purge it from him using the old ways. It’s one thing to use a little dark magic from time to time, but it’s another to take it into your heart.”
“You really think it’s gone that far?”
“Wow, your radar is way off when it comes to these dudes, Brighton. I demand that you take me to meet this Grey Bane immediately so that I can evaluate him for myself.”
“Yeah, I bet you want to evaluate him,” I said with a chuckle.
“Hey, I’m just looking out for my best friend,” she said. “So is he at your house now?”
“No, he went home for the day. Cassidy at the inn said he’d moved to the little yellow trailer in Sunnydale Estates.”
“Oh, I see how it is. You’ve been hanging out with Cassidy while I’ve been in witch prison,” Annika teased.
“No, Grey left his phone on his toolbox at my house. I went to the inn to give it to him, and Cassidy told me he’d checked out and rented the yellow trailer. But that’s not all she told me,” I said.
“Ooh, gossip. Spill.”
“The victim was Brittany Hargrave. Apparently, she and Cassidy did not get along in high school.”
“Yeah, I heard some of that, but I was already out by the time they were in,” Annika responded.
“The main thing is that Brittany stole Cassidy’s boyfriend, and then proceeded to torture her for the two years they went to school together.”
“Right,” Annika said. “His name was James Beecher. He still lives in Coventry. Works at Tapped Out. It’s the tavern. A far cry from his high school glory days.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, he was a big-time high school football star for those people into that stuff. He peaked in high school, though. James was supposed to go on to play college football and people talked like he was destined for the NFL, but he got injured at the end of his senior year. He tried to cover it up so he didn’t lose his college scholarship, but all that got him was addicted to prescription painkillers. He never did well in school because he thought football was his meal ticket. Now he manages the tavern. Probably why Brittany moved on to your brother.”
“You know the FBI thinks that a serial killer murdered her, but she sounds like the kind of person who makes a lot of enemies. Do you think they could have been wrong about the whole serial killer thing?” I asked.
“Of course they’re probably wrong about that. They’ll figure that out in a couple of days and turn the case back over to Thorn. To me, this just sounds like a case of someone who ticked off a lot of people reaping what she sowed,” Annika said.
“That’s kind of dark.”
“It is. I’m sorry. It’s just being cooped up for so long after almost dying has made me a bit cranky. Why don’t you take me to the little yellow trailer in Sunnydale Estates so I can meet this hunk o’ contractor you’ve got working for you.”
“You just want to show up at his house?”
“Yeah. Why not? What’s wrong, Brighton? You lost your edge while I’ve been away?”
“No,” I said with a huff. “Fine, I’ll take you.”
“Awesome! Let me…”
A car pulled up in front of the house and it cut Annika off. I turned around to look out the front window and immediately saw why. It was Amelda. Someone had ratted us out.
Chapter Seven
After Amelda chased me off so she could have a talk with Annika, I went home to check on Brody. I found him in the living room doing research on his laptop with Meri curled up next to him. It appeared that they had become fast friends, or at the very least, Meri didn’t hate him.
“Hey, Brighton.” He gave me a small wave when I walked through the front door.
“Hi,” I said. “What are you up to?”
“Oh, I was just doing a little research on Coventry. There isn’t a lot online about the history, and when I called the archives, they told me that the person who ran that department was on a short personal leave. So next I called the Coventry Historical Preservation Society, but when I told that Ralph guy who I was, he hung up on me. I take it you guys aren’t friends?”
“Okay, well, since you seem to be taking the whole witch thing and magic in Coventry thing well, I guess I can tell you,” I said.
“Tell me what?” Brody cocked one eyebrow.
“There’s a magical library in the attic. The entire history of the Tuttlesmith witches is contained in those books as well as generations of spell books. Ralph Badersmith hates me because he owns a rare and antique book shop. I won’t sell him any of our family books.”
“What? There’s a library of rare history books in your attic and you didn’t tell me?”
“I mean, I totally would have if it hadn’t slipped my mind. I’m sorry.”
Brody closed the laptop and stood up. “Come on?”
“You want me to take you up to the attic? Sure. I can show you around, but if you want to read most of the books, you’ll have to let me do a spell on you so you can read the witch language.”
“That’s all well and good, but we’re running an errand first.”
“An errand? I’d have thought you’d want to get right into those books.”
“I do. I mean, I will. But you have to understand something, Brighton. I can get lost in research for days. I need provisions, and while I was researching Coventry, I started looking into what’s around town right now. There’s a place called Prue’s Chocolate Treasures? I want to go and buy some candy.”
“You want to go buy chocolate before you see the library?”
“Yes,” he said as if it was the most natural thing possible.
It seemed strange given how much he loved research, but Brody was still grieving. Plus, Prue was a kitchen witch. Perhaps something about her website had called out to him. Maybe she had something he needed to heal. Far be it for me to stand in the way of that.
“All right. I’ll drive you over there. We’ll get some chocolate.”
“Could you be a dear and get some of her tuna fudge treats for me?” Meri interjected.
“Ew. What?” I asked.
“Tuna fudge treats. There’s no chocolate in it. She just makes special treats for pets,” Meri said with a flick of his tail.
“Okay,” I said. “We can do that.”
“Whatever.” Meri closed his eyes and went back to snoozing.
“Whatever,” I retorted as we headed out the door.
“The talking cat is a trip.” Brody buckled himself into the passenger side as I started my car. “He’s a feisty little bugger too.”
“Yeah, but he’s saved me more than once and he can obliterate demons like you wouldn’t believe. So I deal with his attitude,” I said with a shrug.
“You love that cat,” Brody teased.
“Don’t ever tell him that.”
The ride over to Prue’s shop was quiet. We parked in the square so that Brody could get a look at the statues out in front of the courthouse, and when he was done taking pictures of them with his phone, we walked over to Prue’s Chocolate Treasures. There were a couple of customers ahead of us in line, so Brody perused the case to see what he wanted while I located the bags of tuna fudge for cats on one of the shelves.
I
grabbed two of them and made my way back over to where Brody stood in front of the cases. He’d stopped in front of a pile of pecan praline fudge that was studded with big, fat whole pecans.
“That looks good,” I said.
“Yeah, I’m thinking of getting this one and some of that s’more fudge in the case over there.”
“Both very good choices,” I said. “And hey, if you share a little, I’ll buy.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Brody said sheepishly.
“It’s okay. I know that grad school is expensive and you can only work part-time,” I said and leaned over to whisper in his ear. “Plus, we live in a magic house. Sometimes you’ll just find money or other things you need stuffed in books or in a jar in the kitchen.”
“Seriously?” he asked with wide eyes.
“Totally.”
“That’s awesome.” Brody smiled for the first time since he’d come back.
I was about to tell him that it was awesome, and that he was welcome to stay and research for as long as he wanted, when the door over Prue’s shop rang and a furious-looking man with tousled curly brown hair and red-rimmed green eyes stepped through the door. And by tousled, I meant messy and uncombed.
“You,” the guy said and pointed at Brody.
“Brody, what’s going on?” I instinctively took a step in front of my younger brother.
“Is that?” Brody looked around me and squinted his eyes at the guy. “I think that’s James Beecher. Brittany’s ex,” he said to me.
“Ding. Ding. Ding.” Apparently, James said. “She must have talked about me a lot if you know who I am.”
“Actually, very little,” Brody snarked.
“You’re a murderer,” James said.
He took a step toward Brody and I. Brody walked around me, and within seconds, the two of them were almost nose to nose. James’s nostrils flared, and I could feel the contempt seeping off of him as he stared furiously at my brother.
“You’re nuts,” Brody said. “I loved her. I didn’t kill her.”
“You loved her, huh?” James needled. “She didn’t love you. She didn’t want you anymore. That’s why you killed her. Brittany was coming home to be with me. She was done with you, and you killed her for it. My beautiful girl is dead because of your jealousy.”
“I didn’t kill her, James. What do you mean she was coming here to be with you?”
“She called me after your argument. Brittany said she had to see me and that she was going to be in Coventry by morning. I don’t know how you found out she was coming here to be with me. You must have spied on her.”
“I had no idea she was talking to you. As far as I knew, you were the past. She and I were going to be married,” Brody said, but he had begun to sound defeated.
“I wasn’t her past. I was her future. Not you. I was her first love, and you never could have replaced me. You were just a distraction. You were a mistake.”
Brody’s hands balled into fists. He had calmed for a moment, but when James called him a mistake, my brother began to shake with rage. I could just sense that they were about to come to blows.
Just as I took out my phone to call Thorn, the door to Prue’s shop opened again. Prue had her phone in her hand, and I assumed she was about to call Thorn as well. But she put the phone back in the cradle when Grey walked in. He commanded the attention of the whole room including Brody and James.
Without even asking what was going on, Grey was able to size up the situation. He stepped between Brody and James, gently pushing them apart.
“Gentlemen, I think you need to take a moment to calm down,” he said in a commanding but peaceful voice. “There’s no need to fight in this establishment.”
“Who the heck are you?” James snapped.
“My name is Grey Bane. I’m just a customer here like you, but I hope I can help you gentlemen sort this out. I’d hate for Brighton or the young woman behind the counter to have to call the police on you because you can’t work this out like civilized adults.”
“That jerk killed my girlfriend, and you want me to be civilized,” James spat.
“She wasn’t your girlfriend,” Brody growled. “Brittany was my fiancée.”
“Whoa, guys,” Grey said and put his hands out to keep them from pouncing on each other. “Are you talking about the young woman who died recently?” Grey looked over at me, and I nodded my head yes to confirm.
“I saw her pull into that grocery store parking lot that morning on my way to Brighton’s house. I didn’t see anyone who looked like Brody around. In fact, I didn’t see anyone around. I wish with all of my heart that I’d stuck around to make sure she was all right,” Grey said.
“Hey, maybe you did it,” James said and turned his attention to Grey.
“Brighton can confirm that I was outside her house working on the garage during the time the girl had to have been killed. There’s no way that I could have killed the young woman and been over to Brighton’s and working on her garage that fast.”
I nodded my head yes. It would have been nearly impossible for Grey to have been the murderer without using some serious magic, and from what I could tell, he wasn’t a witch. Plus, I’d seen the video of her murder and the man in the video wasn’t as big as Grey.
“I don’t think there’s any way it was Grey,” I said. “I couldn’t see the face of the man in the surveillance footage Bob got, but it just couldn’t have been Grey.”
James’s shoulders slumped and he let out a sigh. Without another word, he turned and left the shop in defeat. He’d come in so sure that he knew who had killed Brittany and left just as confused as I was.
One thing was for sure. I would have to get involved in solving Brittany’s murder. I’d have to steer clear of the FBI, but I needed to find the real killer to protect Brody.
If Brittany was still talking to her ex-boyfriend behind my brother’s back, and if she was running to James whenever she and Brody got in an argument, then James wouldn’t be the only one who thought Brody did it. The revelation that Brittany might not have been faithful would only serve to make Brody look more guilty.
Brody and I purchased a few boxes of candies from Prue. We’d bought the pecan praline and s’more fudge we wanted with the tuna treats for Meri. I also paid for the candy for the other two customers who’d witnessed the confrontation between Brody and James as a gesture of good will. And I’d given Prue a huge tip in her tip jar.
“She was cheating on me,” Brody said as we drove back to Hangman’s House.
“Did you know that before today?” I asked as gently as I could.
“I’d had reservations, but she’d get so angry anytime I would question something suspicious she’d done. She’d end up making me feel awful for even asking,” he said.
“You were being manipulated,” I said.
Chapter Eight
When we got back to the house, neither Brody nor I could hold still. We were driving each other nuts pacing the floors and trying to stay busy. He’d pick up a book to read and then close it with a sigh. I wished I had more work lined up so that I had something to do. Part of me considered going outside and trying to work on the garage myself, but that seemed like a terrible idea.
“I’m going to be arrested,” Brody said out of nowhere.
“What?”
“I don’t know,” he said and stood up. “It’s a feeling I have. Does that mean something?”
“Meri?” I asked our familiar who had been sitting beside Brody on the sofa.
“It’s probably his intuition kicking in,” Meri said.
I looked out the window and didn’t see anyone. “There’s no one outside.”
“Well, that’s good,” Meri said. “It means you have some lead time.”
“We have to do something,” I said. “We can’t just sit here and wait for them to arrest you. We’ve got to try to clear your name.”
“How can we do that?” Brody asked.
“I don’t know. Do yo
u have a key to Brittany’s place? We could go look for clues. She wasn’t living with you, right?”
“She stayed at my place a lot, but technically she still lived in the dorms.”
“We should go there. Do you have a key?”
“I do. I keep the keycard to get into the building and her room in my wallet,” Brody said. “Do you think it will still work?”
“I doubt anyone would have thought to shut it off. Especially if she didn’t tell anyone she gave it to you. What about a roommate?”
“She didn’t have one. Her father paid for a private dorm. Brittany wanted an apartment, but he wouldn’t pay for that even though it probably would have been cheaper. It would have given her too much freedom, and he couldn’t have that.”
“She could have gotten a job and paid for her own apartment,” I said.
“Brittany mentioned that once, and he said if she did, he’d stop paying her tuition,” Brody said. “He was a control freak, Brighton. It’s why I forgave her so often. I figured she was just rebelling and that she’d grow out of it. I can see now that I shouldn’t have ignored the stuff she did. In the end, I didn’t help her.”
“What happened to her is not your fault, Brody,” I said. “Unless there’s something you’re not telling me.”
“No,” he said quietly. “I just tried to love her.”
“Nothing we can do about it now except try to prove it wasn’t you,” I said. “I’ll let you drive since you know where her dorm is.”
“Won’t I get in trouble for leaving town?” Brody asked, but he still grabbed his car keys from the end table.
“You’re not leaving-leaving,” I said. “We’ll be back in a couple of hours. In time for dinner even. Thorn will be over after work, so it’s just a quick in and out.”
“I’m coming too,” Meri said. “I won’t leave you two to your own devices. I have a feeling nothing good could come of that.”
“Fine,” I said and got the tote bag I carried Meri in down from the coat rack. “Get in.”
We piled into Brody’s car and headed for the college campus. The whole way there, Brody kept looking in the rearview mirror. I think he expected to get pulled over and arrested, but he seemed so nervous that I didn’t want to ask.
Wicked Witches of Coventry- The Collection Page 29
