Magic & Mystery Page 6

  Nathan took a sip of his coffee and let out a satisfied sigh. “I don’t think I’ve ever had coffee with a real writer before.” He said before taking another drink.

  “That’s hard to believe. You had to go to college to be a forest ranger, right?”

  “I did, but I don’t recall having any writer friends. None as pretty as you, anyway. I’d remember that for sure.” He said with a wicked smile.

  “Oh, now flattery will get you everywhere with me.”

  It’s a good thing that Chai doesn’t have much caffeine in it because we sat there together long enough for me to drink three of them. We talked about college, our families, and our careers. When it was time to go home, he walked me to my car and kissed me on the cheek.

  “Can I give you my phone number?” He asked more shyly than I expected.

  Of course, I said yes, and he recited the number as I put it into my phone.

  “Text me when you get back to the inn, and let me know you made it home okay,” Nathan said as I got into my car.

  I couldn’t believe I’d met someone so wonderful my first day in my new town. I was glad he didn’t bring up the murder, but I guessed we’d have to talk about it eventually.

  The past two days had seen a dramatic shift in my life. All of it hit me as I was pulling into the parking lot of the bed and breakfast. I needed to sleep on everything.

  When I got inside, I gave Jezebel her evening snack. I found another pair of pajamas in my bags and got ready for bed. Jezebel ate quickly and then snuggled into the bed beside me.

  “Night, lady.”

  “Night, cat.”

  It was then that I realized I’d left all the lights on. But, that wasn’t a problem for me anymore. Was it?

  “Lights out.”

  Nothing…

  “Please?”

  A satisfied smile crossed my face as the room went blissfully dark.

  Eight

  The next morning I woke up, ate breakfast, gave Jezebel her cream, and got ready for work in record time. I was in a hurry to get to the paper and tell Charles everything that had happened.

  It was terrible that someone was murdered, but I thought that perhaps I could help solve the crime and impress my new boss with my very first story. I was not at all prepared for how Charles was actually going to react.

  I got into the office, made some coffee, and then sat down at my desk with my shiny new laptop. Inspiration hit, so I was clicking away furiously at the keys when Charles finally looked up from what he was doing and acknowledged that I was there.

  “You seem enthusiastic today. What have you got?” There was a pitch of apprehension in his voice that I didn’t expect.

  “Working on a story about the murder at my Aunt’s place,” I said without looking up from my laptop screen.

  “Oh, dear. I thought that might be the case. I’m just wondering if maybe you should go for something a little more light-hearted for your first story.” Charles said.

  That did make me stop typing. I felt all of the confidence I’d built up over the last couple of days run out of me like water through a sieve.

  “I thought this would be an excellent way to show off my investigative reporting skills. It’s also huge news, so won’t people think it’s strange if the only local paper doesn’t cover the story?” I asked hopefully.

  “I have to go. I have a doctor’s appointment. You can stay as long as you like, but I would encourage you to consider another story.”

  And then, Charles was out the door. Not knowing anything about this town or why the Editor-in-Chief of the local paper would get emotional about the death of a widely disliked handyman got my curiosity up.

  I took out my phone and gave Nathan a call. I wanted to bounce all of this information off someone, but I also wanted an excuse to talk to him.

  “Where are you?” I asked when he picked up.

  “Well, hello to you too.”

  “Sorry, that was rude. Hi, Nathan. It’s Lenny. How are you today?” I asked.

  “I’m good, thank you. How are you?” I could hear the smile on his face in his voice.

  “Pretty good. Thank you for asking. Now, where are you?”

  “Haha. You’re hilarious.” Nathan laughed.

  After some back and forth banter about how he was in the woods, he happily agreed to meet me. Nathan said that he was close to Lester Crumbly’s place again, and I said I’d be right there.

  When I pulled into Lester’s driveway, there was a green jeep parked in the driveway. The vehicle had a National Park’s logo on it, but it did not have a handsome forest ranger inside.

  I got out of the car and went around to the back of the cabin, but there was still no sign of Nathan. It made me incredibly nervous that there had just been a murder, and now the person I wanted to talk about the crime with seemed to have vanished. I was just about to panic when I noticed there was a path at the end of Lester’s yard that led into a wooded area.

  The trail was short, and it went to a small clearing with a picnic table. Nathan was sitting at the table writing in a notebook. I fought the urge to walk up and hug him from behind. Everything about him made me feel comfortable and familiar, but I wanted to avoid looking desperately crazy too soon.

  “Hello,” I said.

  “Hi, Lenny,” Nathan said as he stood up from the bench. “I figured you’d be a few more minutes. You must have a lead foot. Anyway, sorry I wasn’t up there waiting for you in the driveway.”

  “It’s okay, and you’re right. I should probably start obeying the speed limits instead of viewing them as a suggestion.” I snortled at my own joke and then felt my cheeks turn bright red.

  Nathan started laughing too, and I felt relieved. The relief was short lived. We both turned our attention up the path towards the house as we heard the door to the cabin slam shut. The next sound was that of a car door slamming and tires squealing as whoever it was backed out of the driveway by putting the gas pedal to the floor.

  “What the heck?” Nathan said, and he took off running towards the house.

  I chase after him, but by the time we make it back up the path, the car is gone. That’s when I notice that there is a piece of paper stuck to the door with a knife. The sight of it makes my blood run cold because now I know that not only am I being followed, whoever is following me is trying to scare me too.

  “Stay here,” Nathan says firmly and then walks towards the door.

  I watch him lean over a bit and read the note without pulling the knife out of the door. He shakes his head and then heads back over to where I’m standing.

  “What did it say?” I ask, but I’m not entirely sure that I want to know the answer.

  “It said to be careful, or someone would be reporting your death next.” Nathan practically growled as he spoke the words. “I have to call this in to Sheriff Hanson. He’s probably going to be peeved that we’re here again, but I still have to tell him.”

  “Yeah.” Was all I could muster.

  Nathan took my hand and held it until we saw Brad’s cruiser pulling up the driveway. The Sheriff looked upset, and he held a hand up to us as we started walking towards him.

  “You two stay right there.” He said.

  Brad read the note and then got an evidence bag out of his car. I watched him slip on a pair of gloves and then wiggle the knife free from the door. He put the note in a separate bag that was stuck to the back of the first.

  I didn’t like the expression on his face as he walked towards Nathan and me, and I wished that Nate was still holding my hand. I took a deep breath and tried to push down the bad feeling that was bubbling up inside of me like acid.

  “This knife came from the same set as the one that killed Lester Crumbly,” Brad said grimly.

  “That means that she’s in danger,” Nathan responded as he protectively took a half step in front of me.

  “She was in danger. I’m sure she’ll be okay now. This incident gives me what I need to arrest my number one suspec
t.” Brad wouldn’t look me in the eyes as he said this.

  “Well that’s good, right?” Nate countered.

  “Look, normally I wouldn’t tell you guys this as this is still an active investigation, but I feel bad letting Lenora get blindsided.” Now Brad was looking right at me, and I realized that I liked it better when he was watching his shoes. The look in his eyes gave me chills. “The knives came from a set at the inn. Normally that wouldn’t mean too much, but this particular set was stored in a place that only Kara had access to.”

  “Aunt Kara?” I felt like I was going to be sick.

  “I’m sorry,” Was all Brad had said before he turned to leave.

  The bile rising up in my throat threatened to choke me. My vision started to close in just as white starbursts started going off in front of my eyes. It felt like I couldn’t take a deep breath, and the last thing I remember was a pair of strong arms catching me as I fell.

  When the world started to come back into focus, it became apparent very quickly that I was in the hospital. The antiseptic smell was overpowering, and I could feel the burning and stabbing sensation of the IV needle in my arm.

  My first inclination was to claw at it and get it out of my skin, but I resisted. I could hear the beeping of a monitor right next to me, and I could hear several more in the distance. I looked around the room as my vision started to clear, and I was happy to see Nathan sitting in a chair with his notebook.

  I watched him for a couple of minutes before I said anything, and I discovered that he wasn’t writing at all. He was drawing. It almost looked like Nathan was bringing a picture of a leaf to life with his lines and shading.

  “Did you call my Aunt Kara?” I stretched, and I’d apparently forgotten everything that happened before I passed out.

  “Lenny, you’re awake,” Nathan said.

  He got up and came over to my bedside. His eyes looked troubled as he gently brushed a strand of my hair off my forehead.

  “Did Brad arrest my Aunt?”

  “I’m afraid so,” Nate said.

  “Nathan, she didn’t do this. Aunt Kara didn’t kill anybody.” I tried to sit up, but I felt woozy.

  “Whoa, Lenny. Try to relax. The nurse said that you’re dehydrated and your blood sugar was low. That’s why you’ve got an IV.”

  I tried to think back over the last couple of days. I knew that I’d eaten, but I guess I hadn’t been paying attention to how little. I’d rushed this morning and only had a banana and half of a carton of chocolate milk. I couldn’t remember eating anything but breakfast yesterday, either. Normally, I’m not the kind of person who forgets to eat.

  Ever.

  “I’m sorry. I hope you’re not getting yourself in trouble with work by being here.” I said and rubbed at the spot where the IV went into my arm.

  “You don’t have to be sorry, but you do need to take better care of yourself. Your IV bags are almost empty. Now that you’re awake, hopefully, the doctors will let me get you out of here. We’re going straight to Tilly’s Table and getting you a proper meal.”

  I started to protest, but Nate was right. If I was going to help Aunt Kara, I needed to take care of myself. I wasn’t any good to her if I let the stress drag me so far down that I ended up in the hospital getting IV fluids.

  “Okay, but then I have to figure out how to help my Aunt,” I said as Nathan handed me my shoes.

  “I’ll help any way that I can. I am at your service.” Nate said and gave me a little bow.

  I really appreciated him trying to cheer me up, and I was grateful for the help too. My doctor discharged me a half an hour later after Nathan promised to take me to eat as soon as we left.

  He drove us to Tilly’s Table on the other side of Tree’s Hollow. The lunch rush was starting to leave, and there were only a couple of tables occupied inside the cozy restaurant.

  The smell of cooking food made my stomach grumble audibly. I couldn’t believe how hungry I’d let myself get. We sat down, and I grabbed a menu out of the condiment/menu holder. I was happy to see that Tilly’s served breakfast all day, and it took me about five seconds to settle on French toast with eggs and bacon. Nathan ordered blueberry pancakes with sausage, and I made a mental note to order that the next time I ate here.

  “I don’t know where to start with exonerating Aunt Kara,” I said mournfully after the server took our orders.

  “I guess that if they arrested her, she didn’t have a solid enough alibi. So, we probably need to find a way to prove that someone else had access to the knives.” Nathan said as he folded his napkin into the shape of a bird.

  Nine

  The food at Tilly’s was delicious, and I felt much stronger after I got my belly full. Nathan needed to go check in at work, so he took me back to my car and promised to pick me up for dinner.

  “I’ve got to make sure you’re eating. It’s my gentlemanly duty.” He said before kissing me on the cheek again.

  Once he was gone, I realized that I was alone with Lester’s house again. The temptation to try the back door was too strong to resist, so I figured I’d have a look around.

  As I turned the knob, part of me wished it wouldn’t open. No such luck. The doorknob clicked, and I was able to push it open. I stepped inside the house, and I was relieved that the dread I’d anticipated feeling never showed up.

  Lenny Brewer is not afraid of a little breaking and entering. Okay, so I didn’t exactly do any breaking, but I was still feeling pretty bold about my secret mission. I searched through the living room first, and the only interesting thing I found was an Egyptian Book of the Dead in the coffee table drawer.

  It was only interesting because I’d never read it and it seemed out of place. My intuition told me it didn’t have anything to do with the murder, so I shut the drawer and decided to order a copy of the book when I got home.

  There was some high blood pressure medication in the bathroom cabinet, but for the most part, the rest of Lester’s house was completely unremarkable. I checked the knife block in the kitchen, and all of them were present and accounted for.

  In Lester’s bedroom, I found a box of unsent letters to Constance Piper. I opened one up to see why Mr. Crumbly had written a bunch of letters to the old advice columnist. To my surprise, they were love letters. I considered sitting here reading them, but that was completely impractical.

  I made the decision to take the box of letters with me. I was already guilty of breaking and entering and trespassing, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to add burglary to my rap sheet.

  Nick was working the desk at the bed and breakfast by the time I got back, and he looked like he was about to become unhinged. He asked me a hundred different ways if I knew what was going on with Aunt Kara, but I didn’t have any answers for him yet.

  I’d stopped at the market on my way home and picked up some canned cat food for Jezebel. It was some sort of tuna feast that I figured she’d like. I was right, and she gobbled it down while I read a few of the letters.

  “Your boss came by the inn today,” Jezebel said as she licked the last of her food out of the can.

  “He did? When?”

  “He was in here a little while before Sherriff Brad came in and arrested Kara,” Jezebel said, and then she sniffed the can for any morsel of food she’d forgotten.

  “Wait, how do you know the person was my boss? You’ve never seen him before.”

  “Kara called him Charles, that’s your boss’s name, and he said he wanted to talk to her about writing an article about the inn’s history. I put two and two together, lady. God, you act like I’m a dog or something.”

  “It’s not nice to say dogs are stupid.” I chastised.

  “At least I didn’t say you were stupid.” Jezebel ran into the bathroom before I could respond.

  The unsent letters were all earnestly written declarations of love. Although they weren’t exactly poetry, I could tell how much affection Lester had for Constance. I began to wonder why he never sent them and if she kne
w about his feelings for her. I searched through the box, but there weren’t any letters from Constance to Lester.

  I had the box of “Dear Constance” letters that Charles had given me, and I started to wonder if there was anything helpful in there. I looked through the box, but there were hundreds of envelopes. It was going to take me forever to go through them all unless I found a way to narrow them down.

  “Hey, cat,” I called into the bathroom.

  “What?” Jezebel responded without coming out.

  “Can I use my magic to say… I don’t know… Make someone more willing to talk to me?”

  “You mean can you use your witch powers to mind control other sentient beings?” She snarked back at me.

  “Well, when you say it that way it sounds so awful. I just want to make someone who doesn’t know me a little more willing to open up to me in conversation.” I responded sheepishly.

  “You know, when you put it that way, it doesn’t sound any better. But that doesn’t matter because yes you can use your powers to get someone to spill their beans. Be careful how you use it, though. Magic has consequences.” Jezebel’s head peeked out of the bathroom.

  “What do you mean?” That sounded terrifying, and I thought that maybe I should never use magic again.

  “The Law of Three applies to everything you do,” Jezebel said.

  “The Law of Three?”

  “Yeah. Goddess help me. You’re hopeless. I’m not sure why the universe chose you to be a witch.” Jez said and rolled over on her back.

  “Just spill your beans, cat. Or, I’ll have to use a little bit of my magic on you.” I tried to sound menacing, but she looked too adorable.

  “Whoa, lady. Nobody likes a salty witch. Anywhoo, whatever you use your powers for comes back to you times three. Whatever you put out into the world, the universe triples it and returns it to you. Three times the good and three times the bad. The goddess and the universe can’t tell you how to use your power, but they can encourage you to use it for good.”