Chapter 29 Willow
WILLOW
“Wait, we solved it? Yay!” Josie claps. “Celebratory spider cookies for everyone!”
“It’s Lenore. Lenore poisoned Jonah and Taylor Grace,” I muse.
Lilith peers at me. “Excuse me, Lenore?”
“Yeah, we saw her brewing a witch’s potion,” Hughes explains.
“Lenore is not a witch,” Lilith sneers.
“Yeah, but she has access to poison through you. She’s a good enough witch to kill someone.”
“No,” Lilith states. “She isn’t. She’s barely able to keep up in potions class. She can’t tell mint from tarragon, and she ordered eye of newt on . They sent her plastic shrimp, and she couldn’t tell the difference. She is not the murderer.”
“We have text messages. She and Taylor Grace were fighting, and she had all these poisonous leaves.” Hughes waves his phone.
Lilith picks up a twig, which might be her magic wand, with feathers through the leaves. “These are what you found at the murder scene?” Using two black fingernails, Lilith plucks a leaf.
“Yes.”
“Then you’re the murderer.”
Josie and Hughes gasp.
“No, I didn’t kill her!” I cry.
“You bought these,” she tells me.
“Wait, I what?”
“These are the leaves from the blend to brew mulled wine,” Lilith declares.
“Oh! For the Christmas party.”
“So how did they end up in the shop?” Hughes asks.
“Don’t look at me.” Josie shrugs.
“I don’t have the answer,” Lilith sniffs.
“But you said that we’d solved the murder, so you must know something,” I argue.
“No,” Lilith says, “but the cards said you will solve the murder today. So I assumed you had.”
“Do they say who did it?”
“The cards are not that specific. You will have five children, however—they did tell me that much.”
“Wow.” I feel lightheaded.
“Also, Josie, the next time you misplace your baby, you’ll find him in a strawberry patch.”
“What about me? Do I get a fortune?” Hughes jokes.
“Yes, you’re going to die relatively soon.”
Hughes looks at me askance.
Lord Mycroft lets out a cry of “Eep.”
“No, Salem, do not eat the overweight guinea pig.”
The black cat hisses.
“Oh, did you already eat all your lettuce?” I coo at Mycroft.
Lilith gives him a handful of seeds. The guinea pig snarfs them down.
Salem looks much too interested in my pet.
“Damn, Lilith,” Hughes says, sounding tense. “My last day on earth, huh?”
“Don’t listen to Lilith,” I tell Hughes. “Sometimes, she just says crazy things. It’s all that incense—it’s not good for you.” I take his hand. “Besides, she said I’m having five kids, so that means you’re going to stick around.”
“Unless you donated sperm that we don’t know about,” Lilith adds.
“I mean, it is cold, so you could dig the condom out of the dumpster,” Josie jokes. “Probably still good.”
Hughes picks up the guinea pig and snuggles him to his chest. He scratches Mycroft’s ears as we head through the market.
“Lydia and Travis are at the ice-skating rink,” Josie tells me.
I take a breath of the cold spice-and-juniper-filled air. “Let’s go see if we can get a confession out of her.”
“We’re close. I can feel it. I could also be hungry. Right, Lord M?” I scratch the guinea pig’s cheek.
Lydia is leaning against the barrier to the ice rink, whispering to her husband.
“Hey!” Josie puts on her extra-happy face. “Lydia! Oh, the kids look so cute in their little skating outfits!”
I hug Lydia and wave to Travis.
“Oh my gosh,” Josie says, “so Willow and I went to talk to Maris today.”
“Ugh, I tried to go talk to her before Taylor Grace—”
“Went to hell,” Travis mutters.
“Oh, Travis.” But Lydia doesn’t seem super angry. “Anyway, how is she?” she grimaces. “Taylor Grace really screwed her over.”
“Well, it turns out she didn’t murder Taylor Grace.”
“Yeah, we pulled Taylor Grace’s phone records,” I tell her, “because we were hoping to find something to uncover the murderer.”
Lydia blanches.
Travis’s eyes bug out. “The police have her phone records?” He sounds upset. “They haven’t cracked her phone. They asked us for the password, and they said they couldn’t crack it without that.”
“Well, we have a computer wiz.” I point at Hughes.
“So I guess you saw—” Lydia sags.
“The call? Yes.”
“I didn’t kill my sister, I swear. I mean, yeah, it’s not a secret that we’re happy she’s not here anymore. I mean, she was nuts.”
“Josie told me.”
“She wanted our kids to be her emotional support animals. I think she was gearing up to take them from us,” Travis says stubbornly.
“I don’t know about that. Taylor Grace doesn’t actually like kids.” Lydia tugs at her hair.
“She likes drama.”
“I called her because I wanted to talk to her. She was going nuts, complaining that Josie, Hollis, and Maris were all trying to take her away from me,” Lydia explains. “It began because Hollis and I started hanging out.”
“And Taylor Grace is the one who initiated it,” Travis interjects.
“Yeah, but Hollis loves kids! She’s such a wonderful friend.
Taylor Grace got jealous. Said Hollis wanted to steal me from her.
You should have heard her when she and that therapist ganged up on me.
” Lydia sags against the skating rink wall.
“Then Maris came back to town, and Taylor Grace found out that I was trying to get in contact with her, and she just flipped out, accused me of being a traitor. Same thing with Josie—said she and Willow were trying to steal me and the kids from her.”
“Did she say anything when you went to talk to her?” Josie takes her hand.
“Taylor Grace wanted to meet in the shop, and when I got there, she was dead,” Lydia admits. “I just walked away, went to the party.”
“Who knew you were going to meet her at the shop?” I ask.
“Well, Travis did…” Lydia looks at him.
“I didn’t kill her. I was at the Christmas market, nearby, waiting for the meeting to be done.” Travis crosses his arms.
“No one thinks you killed her.” Lydia pats his leg. “The thing is, though,” she says slowly, “she wasn’t shot when I got there. She was face down on the floor, dead, but no gunshot wounds.”
“And you didn’t see anyone else when you were coming or leaving?”
“No.” Lydia shakes her head. She looks teary-eyed. “I guess you’re going to go to the police?”
“Can’t. There’s no evidence.” I shrug.
“But I’m on the video.”
“No, the video cut out.” Hughes frowns.
“Oh, thank God. I mean—” Her eyes shift. “Oh no, now we don’t know who killed my sister.”
“See, Lydia, I told you, you were worried for no reason. The murderer obviously would have thought of the cameras,” Travis says. “That’s why Jonah was hung in the tree. The branches would obscure the cameras.”
“This is the same MO.”
“Ugh, what are we going to do?” We walk back through the market. “We are completely at a dead end.”
“Enjoy the Christmas market, eat cookies, regroup tomorrow. You two can get started on the five babies.” Josie skips beside me.
“I need to go help Hollis.” I take back Lord Mycroft.
“She’s the MVP. You need to get her a really nice Christmas present.”
“Half of me wants to just give her the shop,” I confess. “She’s basically earned it.”
“What will you do instead?” Hughes asks.
“Maybe just work there part-time.”
“Have babies.” Josie pokes me.
“Hughes! Hughes!” someone calls.
Then Mary Lou is rushing up, flustered. “Oh my god, something horrible has happened!” she cries. “You have to come with me at once.”