Chapter 25 #2
“Her new little girl decided it was time to make an appearance yesterday,” Hazel interrupted. “Roya Grace is a darling. I’m making this for her.” She held up a small blanket with pastel green and yellow stripes. “That baby girl and her momma need a little extra love right now.”
While Hazel had been talking, Eugene pushed the murder board closer to the table. We all turned to look at it.
“Let's go through everything we know,” I said. It felt empowering to do something instead of waiting for another shot to be fired. “What have we found out since the last time we met?”
Eugene was drawing shadow circles around something on the murder board.
“What’s Eugene pointing at?”
Sandy was closest to the board, so he squinted at the paper Eugene seemed so excited about. “Oh. Eugene’s identified the people who’d made those posts on social media. FermentationFiend44 is Beckett, and GrainGeek71 is Malcolm.”
“That’s really helpful, Eugene,” I said, even as I wondered what kinds of laws he’d broken to find that out. It was probably better not to ask.
“We can eliminate a few people, including Beckett, obviously, as the possible gunmen, because we saw them at the finish line at the time of the shooting,” Gideon said.
“My gut or my magic or whatever is telling me Beckett was the target,” I said. “So I think that’ll help us figure out the motive.”
“Excellent,” Elwood said, sounding proud.
My cheeks heated, but I felt a little fluttering sensation in my stomach at his praise.
“And as we were running to safety, I saw Kim and Caesar. Although, they weren't really suspects, right? Kim is moving her yoga studio, whether the sale goes through or not. And I don’t think Caesar could’ve faked his shock at finding out his boss was dead in that vat of beer. ”
“Beckett told us Kettlebrook is going to choose between him and Donny for the contract,” Gideon said. “With Nadia telling everyone she stacked the odds in Roy’s favor, they don’t want to be connected to the bad publicity.”
Az snorted. When we all turned to him, he shrugged. “If they’re worried about bad publicity, they won’t want to choose Donny.” We must have looked confused, because he went on to add, “He’s a bookie over in Springside. Takes bets on just about anything and usually comes out on top.”
I wanted to ask how he knew that, but no one else seemed surprised. Did Az have a gambling problem? Did we need to stage an intervention? Or was it just a demon thing to know about shady people?
“The competitors who’d been hexed might be bitter they aren’t getting another opportunity to impress Kettlebrook, too,” Gideon said. “Although, I don’t think Tessa cares much, one way or the other. She has her pottery studio, and I get the sense that beer making is just a hobby for her.”
“But it isn’t a hobby for Ivan and Malcolm.
” I said what we are all thinking. “Ivan has been vocal about how pissed he is. And Malcolm…” I sucked in a breath to steady my nerves.
“I told Gideon this already, but sometimes I can see through Licorice’s eyes.
It’s new, and I don’t know how it happens, but after the shooting, I…
I saw someone—a man—running across a roof.
I think it was the shooter. And I think…
” I pushed my chair back. I crossed the room to the murder board and studied the picture Eugene had printed of Malcolm.
I jabbed my finger at the picture. “I was right… the t-shirt they were wearing had Malcolm’s brewery logo on it.
I knew I recognized it.” The logo was distinctive with its bull’s-eye target.
Everyone stared at me for a long moment.
“Malcolm was upset,” Gideon said. “He’d banked on this competition turning his business around.”
“Then his beer didn’t get in front of the judges because his application was hexed,” Elwood continued where Gideon’s thoughts left off.
“Although anyone could have purchased his t-shirt,” Sandy said. “He was selling them at the festival last weekend.”
From the other room, the sound of Elwood’s printer coming on made me jump.
“Is someone else here?”
Before I could investigate, Gideon was out of his chair and charging into the other room. He returned a moment later, clutching a piece of paper. He frowned at Eugene. "Did you print this?”
Eugene’s shadow crept up the white wall. The movement was slow and reluctant, and I got the sense he was a little sheepish. Then the shadow took the shape of a body and nodded.
Gideon tacked the paper on the murder board.
“What is it? Oh. It’s a newspaper article from the Ravenstone Gazette.
It says, ‘local brewer opens Bull’s Eye Brewery, giving a nod to his sharpshooting history.
’ So, Malcolm is a sharpshooter? That’s pretty damning…
” I leaned closer. One of the article’s photos showed Malcolm and three other men holding a trophy.
The caption said their team had won a national competition.
The picture was several years old, but one of the other men was familiar.
His sunglasses and long hair hid part of his face, but there was something about his nose. “So there was a whole team?”
“Oh, yes,” Hazel said, not looking up from her blanket. “The others were all quite good, too. Almost as good as Malcolm.”
Sandy’s stomach gurgled. I could hear it all the way from where I was.
“I need to grab something to eat,” Sandy said, rubbing his belly. “Please don’t forget the treats next time, okay?”
“Okay.” I nodded.
“I need to leave, too.” Hazel tucked her knitting needles into her bag before shaking out her top skirt.
In a flash, she had it wrapped around her waist and secured in place.
“My mister is anxious about what happened yesterday and doesn’t want me lingering too long in this part of town.
” She shook her head and smiled fondly. “You’d think we lived in the city with the way he was carrying on last night.
I had to wrap him up tight in my web so he’d calm down. ”
I shuddered at the thought of being wrapped in Hazel’s web. Nope. Not for me.
Soon, the only ones left were Gideon, Elwood, and Eugene. Well, and the familiars, they were there, too. I stared at the murder board a bit longer. Something was niggling at me.
Then it came to me. I spun toward Gideon. “What if…?”
“What if… what?” he prompted when I didn’t finish what I was saying because now that one of the pieces of the puzzle had fallen into place, I was getting a picture of what’d happened.
I glanced back at the board again. “I think I know who the next target will be.” I grabbed Gideon’s hand and tugged him toward the door.
“We gotta go to the conference center before it’s too late. ”