Chapter 3
“What are you talking about?” I blinked at Mary, trying to process her words. “Don’t be ridiculous. I saw Graham a few hours ago. He can’t be dead.”
She squeezed my hand. “I heard the news at my internship. Some ladies from the congregation were having their monthly book club at the church, including Graham’s mother, when she got a call,” she said. “I guess his roommate got home and found him.”
My breath hitched like her words had sucked all the air from the room.
“What happened?” I whispered. I was lucky I could still move my lips at all, considering how numb I was.
“I don’t know. That’s all she said before she left, and I came home right after to tell you.” She glanced at her watch. “That was like half an hour ago. So she got the call around 8:00.”
“I-I have to go.” I pulled my hand free and turned toward the door.
Mary’s eyes widened. “Go where?”
“To Graham’s house.” I took a few steps, but my shaking legs hardly felt like they could support me.
“Let me go with you.”
“No, I need to go alone.” I grabbed my purse from the couch and headed for the door. I had to see for myself—to know for myself.
“Kitty?” Mom called behind me before the door closed with a click.
The golden pool of light from the streetlamps guided me down the road, the fallen leaves lying like dying piles of embers.
A jack-o’-lantern leered at me from the shop next door as I ran by, and I pushed myself faster.
The slap of my shoes against the pavement echoed the frantic beating of my heart.
Once I turned the corner onto Graham’s street, I stumbled to a stop.
Flashing blue and red lights from cop cars painted everything in vibrant, ominous hues.
Jaxon talked to a police officer by the door, and Graham’s mother was wrapped in a blanket, crying as a female officer with a blunt bob cut spoke with her.
My stomach clenched, and I fought for breath. I couldn’t bring myself to move any closer, but I also couldn’t leave. The night swaddled me with chilled fingers, and I wrapped my arms around myself to fight off the ice in my chest.
I caught scattered words through the crackle of a radio and a distorted voice from a nearby police car. Graham Duvall. Twenty-three years old. No visible injuries. The roommate wasn’t home. Magical tox screen showed poison.
Someone poisoned Graham? My stomach twisted at the thought.
A man wheeled a gurney from around the side of the house, and a thin, white sheet barely concealed the unmistakable shape of a body.
The moment of uncertainty shattered, leaving nothing but the bitter truth.
Graham was dead.
I fell to my knees, and my stomach lurched.
Graham might not have always been the best boyfriend, but he didn’t deserve this.
I pressed a hand to my mouth, and tears rolled down my cheeks as memories assaulted me.
Graham kissing me after he won his lacrosse game.
Shopping for his little sister’s birthday present together.
Him helping me study for an economics test.
How could he be gone? My brain couldn’t wrap itself around the idea that I’d heard from Graham just a few hours ago, yet now I’d never hear from him again.
I forced myself back onto my unsteady legs and turned, putting the terrible sight of the grieving, the police cars, and the body behind me.
Without really knowing where I was going, I took off running again.
After a few minutes, I pressed a hand to the cramp in my side, but I didn’t slow until I passed our bakery on Main Street.
I continued by it and headed to Elaine’s house, which was in the same building as their family boutique.
I went around to the street behind their shop and rummaged through my purse. Had I forgotten my phone at home? No, it was there, hiding under the bag of cookies. I shot Elaine a text letting her know I was outside, and soon her window opened.
She stuck her head out, her eyes wide. “Kitty, I just texted you. Are you okay?”
“So you heard?”
Elaine nodded, a frown pulling at her lips. “It’s terrible.”
“I know,” I said. But knowing about Graham and knowing about how he died weren’t the same thing. Did she know about the poison? Would her thoughts jump to the same place mine had? “Can I come up?”
“I’ll come down,” she said. “There won’t be any privacy inside. My sister has a bunch of friends over, and they keep barging into my room.”
“Okay.” At least that way I wouldn’t have to see anyone else.
Elaine shut the window. Wind whistled down the street, and I shoved my hands in my pockets.
I’d rushed out of the house without so much as a jacket, and now that I wasn’t running, the October air sliced into me.
It blew the loose leaves down the street with a rustling scrape, as if even they were murmuring about what happened.
A minute later, Elaine opened the front door and slipped outside. Before she closed it, her little sister ran through the living room and yelled, “Could you please tell Caleb to go home? He’s been here since 7:00, and he keeps going into the kitchen to eat all my favorite snacks—”
“Shut up, Isla.” Elaine firmly shut the door. Juggling two mugs, she came down the steps. “Here, take this. It’s freezing out here.” She handed me a mug, then gave me a quick hug, enveloping me with the subtle scent of her maple-scented lotion.
“Thanks.” I cradled the steaming mug in both hands to warm them. “How did you hear?” I took a tiny sip, letting the sweet spicy warmth wash down my throat.
She took a drink from her cup and pulled Caleb’s burnt-orange leather jacket tighter around her. “My mom is in the same book club as Graham’s mom. She was at the church when…”
My throat tightened. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”
“Me either.” Elaine blinked, her blue eyes sparkling with unshed tears.
“None of it makes sense.” My lips trembled, but I had to tell Elaine what I’d heard to see if she thought it was a possibility too. “I went to Graham’s house just now.” After a moment’s hesitation, I added, “And I overheard the police say he was poisoned.”
Her mouth fell open. “Poisoned! Are you sure?”
“As sure as I can be.” I shrugged, but even that slight gesture felt like it might shatter the pieces of me that were barely hanging on.
Nearby, a neighbor opened their door, and laughter and the smell of cinnamon and apples broke free into the night.
Two women strode down the street, their conversation about the upcoming Spooktacular Showdown drifting to us on the breeze.
It was far too cheerful considering the tragedy that had just struck.
“You don’t”—I tightened my grip on the mug—“you don’t think I might have…”
My unspoken question had barely settled between us before Elaine shook her head. “That you poisoned Graham with that cookie or something? No way. Just because you messed up those potions before doesn’t mean you’d do it again.”
But what if I had messed up again?
My potions almost always worked the way they were supposed to, but mistakes weren’t unheard of.
Last month had proved that. But could I have messed up so badly that I turned a harmless potion poisonous?
Even now my magic felt slightly off, as if reminding me how easy it would’ve been for me to make a mistake.
It roiled inside me like it wanted to help calm me down, but even it couldn’t give me the peace or balance I needed.
“What if I did?” I whispered.
“That would never happen, Kitty.” Elaine tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear and gave me a small smile. “There’s got to be another explanation.”
I looked down at my cup, letting the steam swirl around my face. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” So why didn’t I feel more reassured? Nausea bubbled in my stomach, and I swallowed hard.
It couldn’t be true, could it? I would’ve known if something was wrong.
But even if it had been an option, Elaine was too loyal a friend to let me entertain the idea.
It was like the time I got into an argument with a girl from class.
Elaine didn’t even know her, but she spent the rest of the semester scowling at her anytime she got close.
I could trust Elaine with my life, but could I trust her to tell me the truth even if it was something neither of us wanted to admit?
Elaine’s window opened, and Caleb poked his head out, his black hair blending in with the night sky. “Are you two okay?”
“No, but we need a moment alone,” Elaine said. “I’ll be up in a second.”
Caleb frowned and fiddled with his maple leaf necklace. “I’m sorry about what happened, Kitty. Graham didn’t deserve this.”
“Thanks.” My throat was still trying to close up.
Caleb hesitated another moment, then slid the window shut again.
I bit my lip and focused on Elaine again.
“Even if it wasn’t me, this still looks bad.
The police will realize I was Graham’s last relationship, and they might even find out I’d suspected he was cheating on me.
People always blame the exes in those murder shows, and we both know my family doesn’t have the best reputation right now.
” I glanced at her. “What do you think I should do?”
Elaine sucked in a breath, and her hand that held the mug shook slightly.
“Maybe you should talk to the police. Tell them everything and get it out now so it doesn’t look like you're hiding anything. Then they won’t suspect you, right?
I mean, what murderer would confess all that stuff right after someone died? ”
“I don’t know. They aren’t exactly my family’s biggest fans.
” I ran a hand down my face, trying to think, but my racing pulse and the hollow feeling in my chest made it hard to focus.
Elaine was probably right, though. Hiding anything would make me look even guiltier, especially since I’d given him the cookie in a public place with multiple witnesses.
“What if they arrest me? I probably look really guilty.”