Chapter 28
Chapter twenty-eight
"Thanks," I said.
"No worries." He bent over to stroke Cosmo. "Hey, buddy. Good to see you out and about again."
He raised his head. "I'm really sorry about your aunt. She was cool."
"She was," I said.
"I'm going to miss dropping in to see her at the library."
I hadn’t picked him as a reader, but then again, she always knew exactly what reading material people needed in their lives.
"Willowmere certainly feels different now," I said.
He grimaced. "I heard that you're open for business again."
"I am, in the afternoons." I would have stopped longer to have a chat with Kyle, except that I noticed Detective Stone driving past.
In the passenger seat of his car was a woman I hoped was the elusive Pamela. Now, wasn’t that interesting?
"I'll see you around," I said. "Feel free to drop in and check out the books."
What a shame there was no way I could listen in on the conversation at the police station. On the other hand, it didn’t really matter, as long as everything was right again.
On our way to the car, there were a few other people who stopped us to fuss over Cosmo, including a couple of toddlers. Which meant he had to show all the patience in the world to put up with grabbing little fingers and childish shrieks that might have hurt his ears.
Above him, in the trees, birds fluttered and sang.
Which was interesting.
Not a single person mentioned anything about my aunt having had a fight about Cosmo, and the birds all ignored him. Which kind of confirmed what he’d said. He’d never touched a bird on Jake’s property or anywhere else.
That was another good thing.
This day shaped up to be the best I’d had in a long, long time.
Back home, I treated myself to a hot chocolate.
I hadn’t bought the slab of pie that I had promised myself, but the sweet drink should do the trick.
Cosmo stretched himself on the counter and rolled over to have his belly massaged. "That's the spot," he said. “What was that about the tree incident?”
“I couldn't resist, and they didn’t hurt her much. They only dinged her pride."
"Well, still impressive. Three chestnuts."
I preened a little. “You don’t want to tell me off for using witchcraft to indulge myself?"
"If you promise not to do it again. It’s a slippery slope."
"Good. Honestly, I shouldn’t have given in to temptation, yet it felt so right to do that. I’d been wanting to do something like that for ages."
"You and about half the town," he said.
"She is pretty obnoxious, right?"
"Hmm. She’s probably just bored. Also, she’s not smart enough to be obnoxious."
"That is very true. At least now I got my frustration with her out of my system. I mean, who was she to talk about my hair, my weight, and my private life? That woman is botoxed and liposuctioned within an inch of her life. I’ve seen Barbie dolls with a lot more expression.”
"True," he said when I ran out of steam.
"And now? More baking?" I asked. “Or spell work?”
I had to admit, I was starting to look forward to it. Since I’d spotted Pamela next to the detective, I was on top of the world. My patience, and my sleuthing with the aid of my sidekicks, had produced results.
Bex, Cosmo, and the rest of the coven: 1.
Vile, murderous forces: 0.
"Lunch would be acceptable," Cosmo said. "I think you’ve done enough for today."
He devoured the last morsels of his cat food when the crunch of tires outside and the ringing of my phone made me jump. I shouldn’t still be this nervous.
On the other hand, I hadn’t quite settled in completely. And it had been a stressful period. I answered. "Yes?"
"You won’t believe it," Harper said.
"Believe what?"
I wandered over to the window. My jaw dropped.
A car had stopped in front of Jake’s house, and a woman climbed out.
That had to be the cousin. Shouldn’t she be behind bars?
I saw the detective hand her the keys to the house and return to the car to drive off.
"We got it all wrong?" I asked. "Because I can see her, this very moment, walking into Jake’s house.”
“Then go over and talk to her," Harper said. "If you want, bring her over to the Blue Moon for a drink or a meal. Or whatever."
"How is that possible?" I asked. "I was so sure. Unless the cops got it wrong again."
"Go now," Harper said again. "Don’t you want to hear what’s going on?"
I did. And so did Cosmo. We ran downstairs as fast as we could.
Outside, a gust of wind cooled my hot face. I didn’t want to appear too rushed.
She’d already entered the house when I rang the doorbell. It echoed in my ears.
She opened it, looking surprised. There were dark rings under her eyes, and it looked as if she’d been crying for weeks.
Her skin was slightly blotchy, and she had a baseball cap pulled low over her face. It didn’t suit her. I got the impression it wasn’t her usual style.
She hadn’t worn it in the car.
“I’m sorry to disturb you," I said. "I live next door."
"You’re Bex Merriweather," she said.
"That’s right."
She gave me a faint smile. "My cousin and your aunt were great friends."
"They were."
We both fell silent for a moment. I should have thought of a reason to come over beforehand, but I hadn’t, so I had to improvise.
I quickly scanned her. She was by no means off the hook with me yet. But if I could cross her off, it would help. She seemed nice enough, older than me, but not by too much. And well-preserved. Nothing ostentatious or blingy about her.
But also, nothing that said she needed money so desperately that she would kill for it.
She gazed at me, waiting for something to come out of my mouth.
"Mind if I come in?" I asked.
“Sure.” She stepped aside to let me through.
I followed her through to the den. Turkish carpets lay on the floor, their colors muted with age. Everything was pristine.
Jake must have had a cleaner, unless he was a lot tidier than me, I thought. Why hadn’t I thought of that before? That would be another person with access.
Which gave me an idea. "As you probably know, my aunt passed away," I said awkwardly.
She confirmed it with a nod.
"And I hate to bring it up at a time like this, but your cousin kept a spare key for her. And I don’t know what you plan to do with the house, but I’d rather have it back."
"Of course," she said. She turned on her heel and opened a silver box. "That’s weird." She rummaged around in it some more. "The key should be here."
"Are you sure?" I asked her, because that was proof that she knew exactly where to find it. But why admit it if she could have as easily pretended to have no clue.
Hmm. If her behavior was trying to tell me something, I couldn’t decipher it yet. I’d have to talk it over with somebody else.
"Maybe Jake returned it to her," she suggested.
"Then it would have been in the house."
“That is weird. And frightening," she said. “What the heck is happening in this town?”
She gave me a startled glance, which proved she too understood the possibilities when it came to the missing key to my aunt’s house.
Because with the right kind of information it might have been easy enough to break into the place of an elderly gentleman, even one as smart and alert as Jake.
But my aunt was a witch. And she had a familiar.
I figured either the killer used her absence, which would have meant having a key and choosing a moment when she had Cosmo with her, or they had somehow managed to sneak into her bathroom during library hours. Which, frankly, I did not believe.
After all, there was a downstairs powder room, and it would have been incredibly risky to take the staircase and sneak into her private quarters.
"I’ll have another look," she said.
"I’d appreciate that."
I hesitated. I really didn’t want to leave without properly talking to her, but I couldn’t very well ask her if she had poisoned two people. There was one thing I could ask her, though. "I hope you haven’t heard anything bad about my aunt?"
She arched her eyebrows. Huh. Her skin was remarkably wrinkle-free, to a degree that almost rivaled Linda’s.
"I heard from the detective that some people say they were fighting. But honestly, I told him that was ridiculous.” I smiled at her.
Pamela agreed. "I knew that they were raising their voices a lot more lately, but that was because your aunt and my cousin were both getting deaf.”
"You believe that what might have looked like a shouting match to people who didn’t know them, was just an ordinary conversation?”
"I bet you dollars to doughnuts."
Now I really did warm to her. That made it harder to test a new theory and blurt out, "Somebody saw you a few days before he died. Here. At this house."
“Oh.” She reached for the desk to steady herself. Or was she reaching for the letter opener?
Nervously, I backed off a little. She didn’t seem to notice.
"Shoot," she said. "Who told you?"
"Does it matter?"
She moistened her lips. Her shoulders slumped a little. I assumed there wasn’t a confession forthcoming. "I need a drink," she said. "But not here."
"I know the right place," I said. I closed the silver box for her. Inside was a small cut-glass perfume bottle. It looked empty. Other than that, I spotted an old cigarette lighter and a war medal.