CHAPTER FOUR
To my surprise, I felt myself shoved out and away from the house, like a slamming door—or more likely a shielding spell—had slapped into place. It was forceful enough that I felt the impact like a punch straight to the solar plexus.
Shaken by what I’d experienced, I closed my fist around the black obsidian I held in my physical hand and began the journey home to my body.
The labradorite pendant warmed up where it rested against my chest, and I focused on that as a sort of secondary guide to ensure I went back to where I belonged.
I landed back into my body with an unexpected thump. Slowly I opened my eyes and then immediately laid down, right on my living room’s hardwood floor. One, so I wouldn’t pass out and two, because placing my back against the floor helped me to ground, center, and regulate.
“Wow,” I said staring up at the ceiling and trying to catch my breath. “That was a hell of a trip.” I stayed there for a good fifteen minutes, thinking over what I’d seen and letting my body settle.
Eventually I sat up, extinguished the candles, and opened the protective circle.
When I rolled to my feet, I staggered and had to grab for the sofa to keep from pitching over. Using magick like that came with a physical price, and I needed to get my blood sugar level back up right away.
Making my way carefully to the kitchen, I snagged a bottle of sports drink from the fridge and a package of pre-sliced cheese. I pulled out a kitchen chair, sat, ate and refueled.
By the time I arrived back at New Moon Books it was almost four o’clock in the afternoon. And the store was packed with a long line at the check-out counter. Hustling over, I saw Dex ringing up a purchase, while Taylor bagged the books.
“I’m sorry that I was gone for so long,” I said.
“It’s cool.” Taylor smiled, her long ponytail bouncing. “I hopped over from The Apothecary Shoppe to give Dex a hand.”
“No worries,” Dex said. His blue eyes met mine, and in that one glance I understood that he already knew about the theft of the funds for the ball.
Tucking my purse under the front counter I turned to the next customer and realized they were one of the Witches—and a coven leader to boot—from Five Points South. In fact, as my eyes traveled over the other six folks in line, it soon became clear that they were all from the magickal community.
And they all knew.
Taylor moved out from behind the counter and went straight into the stacks, picking up stray books. As Dex and I worked on ringing the customers up, Taylor competently tucked any rogue books back into their correct place.
Once everyone had been rung up, Dex put his hand on my elbow to get my attention. “I’m going to ask Taylor to watch the floor for a few. We need to talk.”
“Yes, we do need to talk,” I agreed.
Dex called Taylor over and she was happy to stay a bit longer.
“I’m going to pay you time and a half for the hours you’ve put in here today,” I told her.
“Not gonna argue with that,” she said, shooing us toward the back room. “Y’all go have your meeting. I got this.”
While I truly appreciated Taylor pitching in, I was beginning to realize the time had come to add a part-time employee. Perhaps I could find someone who had some office experience and also have them take over Shelby’s position... I’d have to think some more on it.
Dex followed me into the back room, and I walked directly over to the chair at my desk. I dropped down in it, closed my eyes and sighed. “Imagine you’ve heard about the money from the Witches Ball being stolen.”
“Hey,” Dex said.
I opened my eyes to see that he’d knelt down in front of me. He was holding out a bottle of water. “Drink this, you could use it. You look beat.”
Taking the bottle, I twisted the top off and took a big drink. “Thank you.”
“This situation is way bigger than the ball,” he said, pulling up a folding chair beside me. “I can’t quite see the details, which is odd for me. It’s like there’s been a glamour thrown—”
I coughed mid-swallow at the term glamour. A glamour was typically the Fae term used to describe a concealment or an illusion spell.
“—and I can’t see the details,” he continued. “But I have this feeling in my gut. Has there been a death?”
“There has,” I said and then told him most of what I knew. However, I did not mention my astral projection trip to Shelby and Sawyer’s house, and once again I left out the information that the stolen book from Montgomery’s collection was actually a Fae manuscript.
The comment Dex had made about a glamour was making me very uneasy. Was Fae magick at work in this whole mess? I wondered.
Dex sat silently for a long moment after I finished speaking. “I’m trying to wrap my mind around Sawyer and Shelby being involved in something like this,” he said. “But I have to admit, it certainly doesn’t look good.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“I’m glad you went and saw Nash,” Dex said. “It was the smart thing to do.”
“Well sugar, I try.”
He grinned at my sass. “When is Ruth coming tonight to discuss how to try and save the ball?”
“About six,” I said. “After close.”
“Think it’ll be okay if I go ahead and head out for the remainder of the day?”
“Of course,” I said, rising to me feet. “No problem. You were supposed to have the afternoon off anyway.”
“Don’t worry Lorna.” He stood and gave me a one-armed hug. “It’s going to be fine.”
“I surely do hope so,” I said.
***
Ruth Thomas arrived right before six that evening.
She slipped in and headed up to the second floor, while I made the final check of the sales area to make sure everyone was cleared out.
I locked up, started the closing paperwork, and hit ‘run program’ for the daily sales on my point of sales program.
It only took me about ten minutes, and Ruth was uncharacteristically quiet upstairs.
To be honest, I’d expected that she would pop down and chat with me while I did the paperwork.
I switched off the sales floor lights and headed upstairs. To my surprise, Ruth was sitting at one of my long tables that we typically used for snacks at the monthly meetings. Before her the bank paperwork was spread out, and she was scrolling through her cell phone.
“Ruth?” I called her name softly, not wanting to startle her.
She lifted her head and turned in her chair. “Hey there,” she said, sounding tired. There were tears in her warm brown eyes.
Typically, I was not overly demonstrative with the members of the community, but right then, it was more than appropriate. I headed over and slipped my arm around her shoulders. Leaning down, I rested the side of my face against the top of her braided hair. “Crazy day, wasn’t it?”
Ruth reached up over her shoulder and gave my arm a squeeze. “I’m so sorry, Lorna. I feel responsible for all of this.”
“No, you are not,” I said, taking a seat beside her.
“I should have set up the bank account that there couldn’t be any withdrawals unless both of us signed off on it. But I didn’t do that. Because it was Shelby. Our Shelby.”
“It hurts that it was one of our own who stole from us,” I said. “I’ll admit it also makes me pretty angry.” Hearing my own words, I suddenly began to understand Charles Montgomery’s attitude.
“What are we going to do?” Ruth wondered out loud. “The majority of the money in the account was from fundraising and pre-sale tickets for the ball.” She stopped and pressed her fingers to her eyes. “I told you that already. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize.”
“I filed the report with the police and they were sympathetic, but I don’t expect there’s much they can do at this point...and yes, they did explain to me that Shelby and her boyfriend Sawyer are both missing and that their roommate had been—” She gulped. “Murdered.”
“And have you talked about the murder with anyone?” I asked gently.
Ruth’s eyes flared. “Gods no! It scared the crap out of me. Realizing that the person who robbed us is also suspected in a murder… I went straight home and didn’t say anything to anyone in the community about that.
” She blew out a breath. “I did contact the other members of the committee for the ball and informed them of the theft. I felt that was only right.”
“It was,” I said. “And as to the other matter, I imagine it’ll be all over the news soon enough. Homicides typically are.”
“Exactly,” Ruth agreed. “I did talk to my husband about the money—he’s an accountant—and while we do have event insurance for the ball, it won’t cover this. That’s more for the night of the event and so on.”
I heard footsteps on the staircase and turned in time to see Dex coming up the stairs. Since his apartment took up the back half of my second floor, I figured he was on his way home.
“Hi, Dex.” Ruth smiled at him, but her typical energy and enthusiasm weren’t there.
“Ladies.” Dex smiled as he walked over. He reached in his back pocket, pulled out a piece of folded paper, and handed it to Ruth.
“What’s this?” she asked, unfolding it. And then she gasped.
My eyes swung to what she held in her hand. It was a cashier’s check for eight thousand dollars.
“It’s a gift,” Dex said. “I wanted to help.”
“Very smooth, Dex,” I said, as Ruth jumped up and grabbed him in a big hug.
“Where in the world did you get this amount of money?” Ruth asked.
Dex patted her shoulder. “I sold some stocks recently at a healthy profit. I was looking for a charity to donate to, and I felt this was a much better use of the money.”
Ruth had fresh tears in her eyes—but now they were happy ones. “Thank you, Dex! You’re an angel.”
“All I ask, is that I stay anonymous as the benefactor, and that you set up a new bank account for the ball—at a different bank,” he said. “And make sure that no one person can make any withdrawals going forward.”
“Done,” Ruth said. “I’ll make sure it takes at least two people. Maybe three. In fact, how would you like to be a Witches Ball committee member?”
Dex appeared to think that over. “I could do that.”