Spell Booked (Retired Witches Mysteries Series Book 1) (8 page)

“This isn’t an interview. This is your husband and Elsie’s friend asking what you remember of the encounter. Did he rush at you? Did he have a weapon?”

Elsie excused herself to go to the ladies’ room. I glared at Joe after she was gone.

“It may not be an interview, but it feels like more than friendly questions from my husband.”

“I’m sorry, sweetie. I was discussing this with Lisbet. It’s hard to believe that
none
of you screamed. How did he push you off the boat?”

Lisbet.
I knew they were going to talk about us. It was a little annoying but not unexpected.

“It’s difficult to describe.” I frantically tried to come up with a reasonable explanation. “For one thing, we were afraid of him. We’re convinced that he killed Olivia.”

He nodded. “But not afraid enough to call me when you saw him? I was standing right here by the dock. You have a cell phone. I’m pretty sure all of you have cell phones. One call, Molly. That’s all it would’ve taken.”

“I didn’t think of it.” That was the truth too. I
did
think about staying out of Joe’s radar. Not that I would’ve called and endangered his life.

“Do you know this man? How long do you think he was dating Olivia? Were the three of you friends with him? Is that why you don’t want to tell me who he is?”

I realized that he sincerely wanted to understand what had happened. I wanted to help him, but I could only mislead.

“None of us had ever seen him before. He strolled into the shop one day, and Olivia helped him look for what he wanted. They took a fancy to each other and left together. Does that sum it up for you, Detective Renard?”

He sat back in his chair and frowned. “You make me feel like you’re hiding something. I’ve known you a long time, Molly. You’re not a good liar.”

It was all I could do not to laugh.
Not a good liar?
He had no idea.

I wasn’t proud of the fact that I had lied to him since the day we’d met. It wasn’t my wish to keep him in the dark about my activities as a witch. But it was necessary, and I’d become very adept at it.

I glanced down at my plate, the sun reflecting off the white china. What was I missing that Joe was picking up on? I knew he was good at his job, but this was surprising. We’d never had a clash of this type before. Was I handling it wrong?

Elsie returned as lunch was served. She ordered another glass of wine and shrugged as I wordlessly questioned her intentions. Was she trying to get tipsy? Wasn’t that going to make talking to Joe more difficult?

“Do you think the two of you could help a sketch artist with a drawing of this man?”

“Of course.” Elsie dug into her chicken salad as though it were the most important thing in the world. “I got a good look at him.”

Elsie winked at me, and I shook my head. She obviously didn’t understand the plan. What was she saying? We couldn’t sketch Brian for the police and help them find him.

Despite the dark, despite the night.

I seek the truth, to bring the light.

I see through lies, I see through pain,

The truth shall rise, reveal the way.

Elsie drank more wine and polished off her chicken salad. She kept making observations about people walking by on the street and boats moving back and forth on the river. What Joe had said seemed to have no effect at all on her.

But then he wasn’t
her
husband.

It was a different story for me. I had never been so angry with Joe. He’d treated us like we were suspects in Olivia’s murder. I saw no sign of him backing down from it either. Between him and Elsie—we’d be ruined.

After our regrettable attempt at a pleasant lunch together, Elsie and I drove to the police station in front of Joe’s car, as though he were escorting us. I had to go along with his suggestion that we might be able to identify a photo of the mystery man Olivia might have been dating or help draw a sketch of him. Not to do so would’ve meant yet another accusatory conversation.

Besides, there was still a possibility of finding the man who’d heard Olivia scream in the alley. We had a better shot at it being at the police department—if I could keep Elsie from spilling the beans about
everything
. I was a little angry at her too.

“What was that all about?” Elsie’s words were a little slurred.

“I don’t know. I don’t like it.” I realized I was gripping the wheel so hard that my knuckles were white. “I know he’s upset about the case, but I didn’t like being interrogated—especially not by my own husband.”

Elsie squeezed my hand. “Molly, we want the same thing—Olivia’s killer. We’ve never faced a threat like this before. Maybe we should let Joe help us.”

That made me laugh. “We’ve never faced
any
threat before.”

“That’s true.” She giggled in her high-pitched schoolgirl voice. “I think the only threat we’ve ever had as witches was keeping those terrible big rats out of the cave. We came up with a permanent spell to take care of it, as long as we leave the cauldron down there.”

I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. Hyperventilating wouldn’t help. “I know you’re right. I know we’re not experienced in dealing with this kind of thing and Joe is, but we can’t involve him. I don’t want Cassandra paying him a visit and wiping away all of his memories to be sure he doesn’t know anything about magic.”

“You’re right. I don’t know if we could get those memories back.” Elsie gazed out the window.

“I remember that time Cassandra wiped away poor Walter Slabs’s memory. His wife was a witch too. What was her name?”

“Sylvia.”

“Yes, Sylvia.” I glanced in the rearview mirror at Joe. “The four of us managed to retrieve most of his memories after the council took them away. I don’t know of a fourth witch we could work with again.”

“True. I think Sylvia moved to Jamaica with Walter.”

“I’d like Joe and me to make it to Boca while he still has all his memories.”

“I know you would, dear. But we’re never leaving Wilmington if we can’t find our spell book.”

“And we can’t find our spell book unless we figure out who killed Olivia and took it.”

“That’s right. Eyes on the prize, my husband used to say. Sometimes I miss him saying that ridiculous stuff. I always miss him sleeping next to me at night, even though I had to wear earplugs so I wouldn’t hear his snoring.”

“I can’t tell Joe that Olivia was a witch and was killed by another witch. I also don’t want him and Lisbet to somehow get lucky and find Brian. They wouldn’t stand a chance against him. We have to get a case together that we can present to the council. They could handle him.”

Elsie rolled her eyes. “I’m not sure we could’ve handled Brian, even when the three of us were young. He was very strong. I’ve never felt so much strength. And why didn’t he kill us? He could have.”

“I think he was giving us a warning,” I whispered back. “He knew we couldn’t hurt him. He was mocking us.”

“I wish I understood any of this, Molly. I’d like to know why Olivia called out Dorothy’s name as she was dying too. I know she really liked the girl and wanted her to take one of our places, but surely her dying thoughts wouldn’t have been of her.”

“I know what you mean. There are too many things that don’t make sense.” I parked the car outside the police station. Joe was waiting on the sidewalk for us.

I felt the faintest prickle of distrust in his attitude, as though he had waited because he was afraid that we wouldn’t come inside.
Where did that come from?

It unsettled me and made me wonder exactly what was wrong. It felt like something more than him just being angry because we were trying to find Olivia’s killer without his help.

Joe led us into the conference room rather than an interrogation room. That was sweet of him. I wouldn’t say it changed my feelings about the way lunch had gone, but being guilty of not being able to tell him the truth had put me in a forgiving mood.

“Can I get you some coffee or soda?” His tone was pleasant.

Elsie nodded as she sat down. “I’d like a coffee, please. A double espresso would be nice. Do you have any aspirin? My head is starting to hurt.”

“I’ll see what I can find,” he promised. “Molly?”

“Nothing, thanks.”

He left us, closing the door behind him. The bigger room, where I’d attended birthday and retirement parties in the past, didn’t put me more at ease.

Especially when Lisbet came in to question us.

“Ladies.” She tossed a thin file on the table and adjusted her duty belt that held her gun, badge, handcuffs and pepper spray as she sat down. “I only have a few questions for you about the death of your friend. I’m sorry for your loss. I’m sure we all want to find her killer.”

Lisbet’s long black hair was held back in a ponytail holder, the only way I had ever seen her wear it. She was totally dressed in black—the good black that hasn’t been washed too much and become gray. She wore knee-high boots with at least three-inch heels all year long, regardless of the hot summer weather. She was thin and short, even shorter than Elsie’s five feet, but she was tough.

“We’ll do what we can to help,” I assured her.

She opened the file and rifled through the papers in it. “Olivia had no family, is that right? No one to inherit her property.”

“That’s right.” I wondered where Joe was. Maybe he’d sent Lisbet in because of our argument during lunch.

“What about an ex-husband or a live-in lover?”

“No. She always lived alone.” I glanced up when Joe returned with Elsie’s plain coffee and aspirin.

“Sorry.” He apologized as he set down the paper cup. “We were fresh out of espresso.”

“Oh, that’s fine.” Elsie smiled at him. “Thank you so much, Joe.”

He took a seat at the far end of the table beside Lisbet. Elsie and I were together at the other end.

No doubt this was their normal procedure when they worked together, I assured myself. It wasn’t a personal slight.

“What about the two of you?” Lisbet continued her questioning. “Has Olivia left her property to one, or both, of you?”

What is she getting at?
“The only thing she left us was her part of our shop, Smuggler’s Arcane. I don’t know who she would’ve left her personal possessions to.”

Lisbet nodded and continued to peruse the files. “Joe tells me she’d gone out on a date with someone before she died.”

“We don’t know that for certain,” Elsie corrected her. “All we said was that she may have been dating someone. It may not have been that night.”

I knew she was trying to throw off the questions to protect Joe and Lisbet. I didn’t think it was going to work.

“And you said his name is?”

“We don’t know,” I quickly answered. “She never introduced us.”

“Thanks.” She smiled at me.

Elsie glanced at me, frowned and took her aspirin.

“And you encountered this same man again on the riverboat today.” Lisbet looked at me and Elsie. “Tell us
exactly
what happened.”

Two hours later, Elsie and I swept out of the police station, thoroughly disgusted. We’d been mentally poked and prodded by Joe and Lisbet. We’d looked through books containing pictures of felons—of course Brian wasn’t in them. And we’d helped draw a sketch of Brian that looked nothing at all like him.

But we’d also managed to learn the name of the man at the dock the night Olivia was killed, the one who’d heard her scream. His name was Colt Manning. He was a commercial fisherman.

“I am not happy about this, Molly.” Elsie clutched her green bag to her.

“I’m not either. I’m sorry I said anything to Joe. If I weren’t so worried about him going after Brian, I wouldn’t have.”

But we didn’t know the half of it yet.

Aleese was waiting outside by my car. As soon as she saw us, she ran to her mother’s side. “What in the world were you two thinking? First you get attacked on the riverboat, and then the police bring you here for questioning. What have you been doing?”

“The police didn’t arrest us, dear,” Elsie assured her. “No need for any drama.”

“No need to worry about my seventy-year-old mother falling into the river and coming home soaking wet? You could have died. This has got to stop. It’s bad enough the three of you sit around that depressing, dusty old shop all the time. No telling how many viruses are spread in there.”

“
Sat
around,” I corrected. “Olivia is dead.”

“Did you tell her about Joe catching us at the crime scene?” Elsie ignored her daughter’s tirade.

“No. Did you?”

“No way. You see how hysterical she gets over the least
little
thing.” Elsie fumed. “Joe probably called her for my own good.”

“I’m talking to
both
of you.” Aleese focused on us. “Neither one of you should be at the shop anymore, like Joe said. You should sell it and move on.”

That made me furious again. Joe had not only called her about us being in the police station, he’d said something to her about us selling the shop. I couldn’t imagine what was wrong with him.

“I’m taking you home, Mom.” Aleese grabbed her mother’s arm and started pulling her toward her car. “I’m beginning to think Molly is a bad influence on you.”

“I’ll talk to you later, after we’ve settled this.” Elsie went along with her daughter.

“All right. I’m going to see Dorothy at the library. I hope she isn’t completely put off by everything that’s happened.”

“Give her my best.” Elsie waved as Aleese closed the car door.

“Okay.”

Aleese’s eyes were riveted on me as she went around to the driver’s side. She seemed genuinely afraid I might snatch Elsie out of the car before she could spirit her away.

I got in my car after Aleese and Elsie were gone and drove to the downtown branch of the library. I pulled into the parking deck, grabbed my bag, and locked the car doors.

“There you are, Molly.” Cassandra appeared on the hood of my car, lying across it like a fashion model. “I’ve been looking for you.”