Chapter 3
I hurried to the woman, quickly taking in her appearance.
She was the same woman I’d glimpsed in the conference room, the one who’d worn a pantsuit and a sour expression.
She was about thirty, with short, curly blonde hair and a slight build.
Her face was pale, lips tinted blue. Pieces from a shattered mug lay beside her on the floor, its jagged pieces glistening with coffee.
An EMT would assess her vitals, but I went straight to what I did best, magical healing.
My healing gift allowed me to connect with a person’s spirit, to see what was wrong and how to fix it.
I placed my palm on her shoulder and delved into her essence.
It was very dim. A wrongness seeped into her lifeforce like a filmy oil spreading over water.
Poison. I grasped for it, but before I could seize it, her spirit slipped through my hands and faded away.
I shook my head, and Jane covered her mouth with her hand. I wanted to pull her into my arms, but with the way we’d left things, that was probably the last thing she wanted. “Are you okay?” I asked.
She nodded.
“What happened?” Herb asked, feeling for a pulse and confirming what I already knew. The woman was dead.
Jane’s voice shook. “I came to pick up the coffee machine. Volleyball practice just ended and Bill—the rec center director, wanted to lock up, so I thought I’d check to see if you guys were done with it.
Brittany said she thought her meeting would be over by now.
” She took a couple of bracing breaths. “When I came in, I saw a woman staggering down the hall, so I ran to her to see if I could help. She dropped her coffee cup and collapsed. Then you two came out. That’s all I know. ”
The urge to comfort Jane grew too strong to ignore. I wanted to take her in my arms, hold her, let her cry all over me. I settled for placing a hand on her trembling shoulder. Herb produced a linen handkerchief from his vest pocket and handed it to her. I wished I would have thought of that.
It felt wrong to leave the body lying on the cold tile floor, but I knew the police wouldn’t want us to contaminate the scene. We went to the conference room where the dryad and goth were collecting papers from the large table that dominated the room.
I glimpsed a map showing the animal shelter and the surrounding wooded area before the dryad scooped it into a stack.
“Brittany, there’s been an incident,” Herb said. “Jeanine’s in the hall. She’s… she’s dead.”
Brittany gasped, and the goth man covered his mouth with one hand.
They hurried out, presumably to see for themselves.
Herb followed, but Jane stayed in the conference room with Jaro and I.
She sat heavily in a low armchair in front of a fireplace.
The room was bright and clean, except for a smattering of something gray and sandy on the floor.
I looked around for the telltale litter box but found none.
It wasn’t exactly the aesthetic I would have pictured for an animal shelter, though it made sense for an old house that had been converted into one.
I sat beside Jane, but was at a loss for what to say to her, so I petted Jaro, who lay calmly by my feet.
“What brought you to town?” Jane asked.
“This dog, actually. I inherited him from a nice man I met when I was here in September.” Hopefully she wouldn’t ask me how long I would be in town for, because I had no idea.
“That’s great, Charles,” she said. A flush covered her cheeks, but Jane’s expressions were a language I had not yet learned to read.
Was she pleased to see me? Embarrassed to run into me unexpectedly?
Angry that I just waltzed back into town after not texting her since I saw her last?
Or did her expression have nothing to do with me and everything to do with the fact that she’d just witnessed a death?
Jaro walked over to Jane. She buried her fingers in his thick fur, and he rested his head in her lap.
Some of the tension drained from her shoulders, and the muscles around her eyes and forehead visibly relaxed.
I pushed away the part of me that was jealous of a dog. It was good that she felt comforted.
The others joined us a moment later. Brittany was on the phone with the police, but the other two joined us. “The police are on their way,” the goth said. “They told me to keep everyone in the building, so I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you and your young man to stick around for a while.”
Jane’s eyes darted to me and her face went crimson. “He’s not my young man. This is Charles Bingley. He’s—” She paused, and I felt all my hopes and plans hang on whatever she would say next—“just a friend.”
That’s exactly what I was, but it still felt like a punch to the gut.
“I’m Terence,” he said, shaking my hand firmly.
“It’s nice to meet you, Terence,” I said, clinging to social conventions as though there weren’t a body lying in the hall.
“Terence is the shelter’s veterinarian," Jane added, then gestured to the older man. “And I think you’ve already met my dear friend, Herb.”
The divide between “just a friend” and “dear friend” seemed miles apart. Maybe Darcy had been wrong and Jane didn’t have any feelings for me at all.
“Yes, we’ve met,” Herb said.
“Did any of you know the victim?” I asked.
Terence nodded slowly. “Not well. We’ve had a couple of interactions with her. She was here tonight because we had a meeting with her.” He averted his eyes. “Her name is Jeanine Curtwell,”
“What was your meeting about?” I asked, the part of me that had been head of security warring with the part of me that hated sounding nosy.
“We’re her tenants,” Terence said, trying and failing to keep his tone nonchalant. “We were discussing our lease.”
“The police will be here any minute,” Brittany said, joining us. The silence stretched long, and Jane was the first to break it.
“Did you see any interesting birds today, Herb?” Jane asked.
Herb sat in one of the chairs around the table, his knees creaking at the movement.
“Today I saw a white-breasted nuthatch—that’s not the interesting part, they’re quite common—but I watched it take several trips to the feeder and back.
So I walked out to the wooded area behind the shelter, hoping to observe the behavior they’re named after, and—sure enough, she was smashing the nuts into the tree trunk! ”
His enthusiasm was infectious, and I went from having no interest in birds to speak of to wanting to see this for myself. “That’s fascinating,” I said. “Do you think she’s still out there?”
He shook his head. “No, they’re diurnal, meaning active in the daytime. Although I did see a black-billed magpie this evening, and they’re not from around these parts. So who knows what you might see.”
I pulled out the little notebook I kept in my pocket. I’d been trying to improve my vocabulary, so I kept a running list of new words I encountered. I wrote down “diurnal” and the context in which I’d heard it.
The bell above the shelter dinged, and two cops and two EMTs entered the room.
I recognized one of the policemen, Officer Herrera.
We’d worked together briefly when I’d been in Austen Heights before.
He gave me a curt nod of recognition before following Brittany to the hallway.
The rest of us stayed put, not wanting to crowd the area.
“What do you think the cause of death was?” Jane asked.
I didn’t know how much I ought to disclose with the two men standing there. Herb was Jane’s friend and Terence seemed like a good guy, but the likelihood of one of them being the poisoner was high. Either one of them, or Brittany. But I supposed I could glean some information from their reactions.
“She was poisoned,” I said, watching the other two men.
Herb’s eyes widened, his expression reflecting shock. Terence frowned, thoughtful. I wasn’t sure how to read it.
The police came back into the room with Brittany and began asking questions. Darcy and I had worked closely with the police department when I’d been the head of security for the fae crown prince, so they all knew me.
They pulled me aside first and I was able to answer their questions easily.
I’d never met the victim and I hadn’t seen or heard anything unusual before we found her in the hall.
I informed them that my magical assessment led me to the cause of her death—poison—though I couldn’t identify the poison specifically.
They thanked me and promised to give me an update when they found out more information, a professional courtesy.
Next, they pulled Jane out to question her. The three shelter employees sat nervously at the table, which had been cleared of all the meeting notes and pens. I drummed my fingers on the table. Jaro sensed my nerves and rested his head on my feet. I stoked his thick fur, feeling calmer.
Jane returned to the room, and Herb left for his turn to be interrogated.
I rested a hand briefly on her shoulder. “Hey. Are you okay?” I asked softly.
Her smile was a little shaky, but still stunning. “Yes. They asked me a lot of questions about why I was here and seemed particularly interested in the fact that I brought the coffee machine over. Do you think the coffee was poisoned?”
“I don’t know.” I turned to Brittany and Terence. “Did either of you try the coffee?”
“No. Neither of us drink coffee, and neither does Herb. That’s why we asked to borrow the coffee machine from the rec center. We were hoping to soften Jeanine up a little.”
I frowned. It didn’t look good for Jane if she was the person who brought the poisoned coffee over. “Did you brew the coffee?” I asked Jane.
“Yes, but I didn’t do anything unusual. The water I used was from the tap here at the shelter and the pod was sealed. I can’t think of when the coffee could have been poisoned.”
Maybe right before the meeting, while Jane was at volleyball practice. Any of the shelter employees could have slipped some poison in, knowing that the others wouldn’t drink it.
Time slipped by as the others were questioned. There was so much I wanted to say to Jane but now wasn’t the time. Finally, the police told us we were free to leave. As I was walking out, I saw a police officer taking a sample from the coffee machine.
“Can I give you a ride home?” I asked Jane.
“I’m good, thanks. I drove.”
“Oh, great.” I hesitated. Should I hug her? My indecision cost me because she gave me a quick wave before striding off to her car. I’d missed my chance. I couldn’t help but wonder if that was a bad omen.
I walked Jaro out to my car. “So, are you a front seat or a backseat kind of dog?” I took off his leash and opened both doors. He jumped in the front seat. “All right, then. Let’s get you home.”
The porch light was on at Netherfield, which I took to be a very good sign that the enchanted house had forgiven me for my long absence.
I opened up the passenger door and Jaro sprang out, his tail wagging.
He sniffed around as we entered the house and walked toward the living room, but he didn’t stray far from me.
“I should have asked so many more questions at the shelter,” I said. “Like, how old you are and whether or not you’re house trained.”
In the distance, the door to the kitchen slammed shut. Apparently Netherfield was not happy I hadn’t gleaned that information.
We made our way to the den, and I settled on the couch. Jaro looked at me questioningly. I patted the seat next to me and he jumped up and made himself comfortable at my side.
I took a long pull from my water bottle and checked my phone. Officer Herrera had messaged me.
The coffee tested positive for rat poison.
Thanks for the update
Got a Person of Interest Yet?
Jane Bennet
My heart skipped a beat. And I fumbled to type the words
It wasn’t her
The response came quickly.
Not saying it was, just keeping our eyes on her
Let us know if you find anything out
I will
I rubbed my hand over my face. I had no desire to be drawn into another police investigation. Solving the murders at the convention in November was enough sleuthing to last me a lifetime. But if they suspected Jane, I had no choice. I was going to have to find out who the real killer was.