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“Show-off,” Elsie muttered.

  “Can’t witches fly?” Dorothy’s eyes were excited by the idea.

  “We can,” I explained. “But we need a conveyance.”

  “Like a broom?” she asked.

  “It could be a broom. Mostly they show witches on brooms in old texts because women always had a broom with them. It could be anything that has been spelled to take us where we need to go.”

  “But it takes a lot out of you,” Elsie added. “I haven’t flown in years.”

  “Anyway, a novice can’t do it. You have to build up your magic,” I finished. “I think we should take the car today.”

  “Couldn’t the car be spelled to fly?” Dorothy wondered.

  Elsie shrugged. I shook my head. It was much easier teaching a child as they grew into their magic.

  Cautiously, we left the shop after locking and spelling the door behind us.

  I glanced nervously around the parking lot. There was no one around. I unlocked the car and we all quickly climbed inside. Even Olivia flew in through a window, as though someone were chasing her.

  Elsie laughed at her. “I don’t think anyone can hurt you now, dear.”

  “You don’t know that.” Olivia hovered in the backseat with Dorothy. “Ghosts can be exorcised or spelled. We know that.”

  Not seeing anyone around us made me feel safer, but I went ahead and started the engine so we could get away. Who knew how long the calm would last?

  As I prepared to back up, the car suddenly shut down and all the doors locked at once.

  “This can’t be good,” Elsie muttered.

  CHAPTER 17

  Be gone irritating pest.

  Your presence affronts me.

  I cast you away—north, south, east and west.

  Leave me be.

  “What’s happening?” Dorothy glanced around. “Did you do that, Molly?”

  “I didn’t do anything.” I hoped I hadn’t done anything. I could never be completely sure.

  “I didn’t do anything either,” Elsie said.

  “Me either,” Olivia agreed.

  “Of course not,” Elsie added. “You’re dead.”

  “Oh! I see. That’s why you said she wasn’t a witch anymore.” Dorothy nodded. “You lose your power when you die.”

  “Which is normally not a problem because witches don’t come back.” I scanned the parking lot as we sat, but there was still only us. I tried to start the car again, but nothing happened.

  “Were you ladies going somewhere?” Cassandra appeared in the narrow gap between me and Elsie in the front seat. Only magic could have put her there, even as thin as she was. “You should think about staying somewhere safe.”

  “Hello, Cassandra.” Olivia grinned and waved.

  “I don’t speak with ghosts.” Cassandra shuddered. “They are the lowest life forms. Not even a life form, really. A shadow. What is she doing here?”

  I opened my mouth to explain and thought better of it. Cassandra was the one who needed to explain. “Why have you locked us in here?”

  “Because people have been trying to kill you.” She waved to Dorothy. “Hi, newbie!”

  “We can’t stay here,” I argued. “We have other things to do besides keeping safe. We’re going to take another look at Olivia’s house where our book was stolen.”

  “The council will deal with that when they deem it appropriate. Go on. Get out. Go back inside.”

  “When did it become your job to protect us?” Elsie wondered.

  “Yes,” Olivia added. “Since when does the council care what we do?”

  “Don’t be stubborn, ladies.” Cassandra turned on the charm. “This is bigger than you can handle. Let the council do its job.”

  “Is that what the council does?” Dorothy chipped in. “I was wondering.”

  “We’re going to Olivia’s house.” I’d made my decision. Elsie nodded in agreement.

  Cassandra shrugged. “I can’t protect you if you leave the shop.”

  “You’re not offering us any answers. We have to do what we think is right.” My heart was racing. I had never spoken to Cassandra or any member of the council this way.

  I knew their magic was strong—a lot more so than mine, Elsie’s or Dorothy’s. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was only a witch from Wilmington, nothing special.

  But I felt like I had to stand up for what I believed. I hoped that wouldn’t cause me to end up spending the rest of my life in some unfocused netherworld.

  “All right,” Cassandra agreed. “The council needs you to stay out of the way and not make the problem any worse.”

  “So they admit there is a problem.” Elsie straightened her beret. “That’s nice.”

  “Is this about the witch that you said killed Olivia?” I asked her.

  “Not Brian.” Olivia made sure her opinion was heard.

  “I never said it was Brian.” Cassandra heaved a bored sigh and made a few sunbeams dance around her. “I can’t tell you what’s going on. Just stay out of it.”

  “I guess we’ll have to do it without you,” Elsie muttered. “Like we have all of our lives.”

  Dorothy frowned at the council’s herald. She had no idea what was going on. If she had, she would’ve run out of the car screaming. At least Elsie and I were at the end of our magic. She would have the rest of her life to deal with the council.

  Cassandra didn’t say another word. I blinked, and she was gone.

  “Look at that.” Dorothy pointed at Smuggler’s Arcane. “It kind of glows.”

  There was a charmed glow about the shop. Only those with magic could see it. I was impressed and confused. “Why is she doing this?”

  Elsie said, “Maybe it will scare away Olivia’s killer.”

  “It’s not Brian,” Olivia insisted again.

  “Well, whoever it was.” I started the car. Cassandra’s magic was gone. “Let’s see what we can find out. Without promises of protection for Joe and Mike, I’m still going to look for the killer.”

  “And our spells!” Olivia called out as though she were at a football game.

  We explained everything to Olivia on the way. She cried about the loss of her valued possessions, although technically, they were already lost to her.

  When we reached her house, the drive was empty. No doubt the police had towed Olivia’s car away for further inspection. There was still crime scene tape across the doors. Joe had said he wanted us to look around. I was taking him at his word.

  I scanned the yard carefully before I got out of the car, even though I realized that Brian might be able to appear as suddenly as Cassandra had.

  Oh, to have that kind of power. Not that I ever had.

  “Looks clear to me,” Elsie said. “I didn’t expect anyone to be here. With our book gone, there’s probably nothing of any real value inside.”

  Olivia took offense to that. “I beg your pardon. I spent my entire life collecting exactly the right items to add to what my mother and grandmother had brought into the house. There are antiques in there worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

  “That will go to the council now because you have no heir,” Elsie reminded her.

  “I have Dorothy. Did you think I didn’t provide for her?”

  “You did?” Dorothy stared at her. “You mean this house is mine now?”

  “The council will demand proof of lineage,” I said. “But that shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “That’s right. All this is yours, Dorothy. It’s your birthright. I even made out a will so it would be all nice and legal for you.”

  “I’m a witch, and I own one of these cool old houses.” Dorothy leaned her head to the side to take a better look at her inheritance. “I hope I can afford the taxes.”

  “I’m afraid I didn’t include
my Mercedes,” Olivia said. “I made out the will a few years back, and I’d been thinking about trading it. I’m so sorry.”

  “I think a lawyer can take care of that.” I still felt uncomfortable outside, as though someone were watching us. “Let’s go in.”

  The protection spells were broken for good on the doors. The front door was locked, but the back door, where someone had broken in, was still wide open.

  Olivia complained about the sloppy work the crime scene techs had done, leaving the door open. “I don’t understand why a witch would have kicked in the door—unless he or she was having trouble with their magic too.”

  I agreed with her. “Once you were dead, the spells that remained were weak. If those could be bypassed, a witch would have used a spell to walk in, without breaking anything.”

  “Maybe it wasn’t only a witch,” Elsie suggested. “Maybe it was a witch—and an impatient person without magic.”

  Dorothy brought the staff and we went inside.

  “Why would anyone want to destroy these beautiful antiques?” Olivia mourned her loss.

  Elsie agreed for once. “Why do any of this if you’re a witch? I would have used a search spell to find what I was looking for. It confirms my theory.”

  “So it wasn’t a witch?” Dorothy put a broken Tiffany lamp back on an antique table. “Could a non-witch have killed Olivia?”

  Elsie and I mulled it over.

  “It’s possible. But sneaking up on a witch isn’t easy to do.” I thought about Olivia’s diminished magic, but even drained as we were, it would be difficult.

  “Especially sneaking up with malevolent intent,” Olivia said. “I would have felt that a mile away. That’s why most witches aren’t murdered.”

  “Why were you out in the alley?” I asked her.

  She rubbed her forehead. “I don’t really know. It’s kind of fuzzy right now.”

  “It’s probably one of the drawbacks to being dead.” Elsie nodded sagely.

  We tried to do a spell that would show us what had happened in the house after Olivia’s death. It was a simple spell, but it completely fizzled out.

  “Maybe someone made this mess so no one could tell what was missing, like Joe said, in a nonmagic way,” Elsie said. “Another thing a witch wouldn’t have done to hide her tracks.”

  “Are we saying a witch killed Olivia, then broke through the spells here for a person with no magic to come in and steal the book?” I shrugged. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

  Olivia flitted around the open area in the foyer near the stairs. The antique chandelier above us made a crystal tinkling sound as she moved.

  “Why would someone do that?” Dorothy asked.

  “Maybe if you wanted to mask your movements,” I considered.

  “So the council wouldn’t know exactly what you were doing!” Olivia swooped down to say.

  “Maybe that’s why Cassandra wasn’t quite sure what was going on.” Elsie inspected a broken figurine of a Springer spaniel. “Either a witch is using a person without magic to shield her movements, or vice versa.”

  “Why would a witch help someone without magic?” Dorothy tried to have some input.

  “Maybe Brian has a girlfriend who likes magic tools.” Elsie was happy with her idea.

  “Not Brian!” Olivia defended her former lover.

  “I think we should see what else we can dig up about Brian. I know you don’t think he’s guilty, Olivia, but he’s the best suspect we have right now.” I opened the front door, and there were Joe, Lisbet and Lieutenant Matt Smith.

  “Hi, Joe.” I tried to act like everything was normal. I was only doing what he’d asked to help the case. “We looked through the house again. Nothing is missing, as far as we can tell. I’m sorry we couldn’t be more help.”

  I’d hoped to get away quickly so we could follow up on the idea we were nurturing.

  “Molly, is there something you need to tell me?” Joe’s eyes were sad and confused.

  Olivia’s ghost was hovering beside me. Dorothy was holding the staff as though she might be about to attack someone with it. Elsie still had her sword under her coat.

  “No.” I could feel my pulse flutter a little as I lied to him. It certainly wasn’t guilt. I didn’t feel guilty about trying to protect him from the witch who’d killed Olivia. “Is something wrong?”

  Lieutenant Smith, the officer in charge of the Breaking and Entering division, stepped forward. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Renard, about the loss of your friend and all. But we found this brooch hidden in the flour canister at your house after the break-in.”

  “My diamond brooch?” Olivia peered close enough at it that I could see Matt’s hand behind her face.

  “I didn’t even think about it until I had a look at Olivia Dunst’s list of insured valuables,” Lieutenant Smith continued. “She had it listed for two hundred fifty thousand dollars. Care to explain how it came to be in your possession?”

  CHAPTER 18

  That which was liquid, turn to solid.

  As water becomes ice, so shall it be.

  There was a reasonable explanation for how the brooch got to be in the flour canister. Joe, Lisbet and Lieutenant Smith wouldn’t understand it. I knew whoever had broken into the house must have left it there to make me look even worse, if that was possible.

  It was probably the sole purpose for breaking into my house. The brooch had been taken from Olivia’s house and hidden at mine.

  I couldn’t explain that to Joe because it would imply that I had some idea of who’d done it. The risk to Joe and Mike was greater than ever. I couldn’t let them get involved, even if it meant becoming a real suspect in Olivia’s murder.

  I sat at the police station again, waiting for them to talk to me. This time I was actually in an interrogation room. It was very small and a terrible shade of brown. There was a table and three chairs. That was about it.

  “This whole thing is crazy.” Olivia fluttered around me.

  Elsie and Dorothy were waiting outside. I’d tried to get Dorothy to drive Elsie home and then go to work in my car. There was no telling how long this would take.

  Instead, Olivia had persuaded Dorothy to stay at the station with the staff so she could hear everything that was said.

  “You’ll just have to tell them that I lent you the brooch but insisted that you keep it in the flour canister for insurance purposes. That should do the trick,” Olivia said. “They can’t prove a thing, Molly. I have the name of a good lawyer too, if you need it. He’s handling my estate. Very discreet—and fluent in both the magic and the mundane world.”

  I couldn’t answer her. There were cameras in the room. I didn’t want Joe to think I was crazy too.

  I wish I could have told her that this was so much worse than them finding her brooch in my house. It was all I could do not to cry at the way Joe had looked at me. It all seemed to fit together, and yet it was all a terrible mistake.

  One that I couldn’t explain.

  Joe had barely spared me a glance when we’d left the house. Lisbet had apologized for taking me to the station in the police car. Joe hadn’t said a word.

  “I overestimated how much that old brooch was worth for the insurance company anyway.” Olivia laughed. “It’s better to get too much than not enough, right?”

  I closed my eyes and tried to find my center. It wasn’t easy. There was too much noise going on in my mind. I needed some calm. I whispered a little spell for calm and quiet while I held my mother’s amulet.

  The door opened and Lisbet came in. “I’m so sorry about this, Molly.”

  “So am I.” I opened my eyes and faced her. “Does Joe really think I’m capable of doing something like this?”

  “It’s out of his hands right now.” She shrugged. “Lieutenant Smith is only letting us sit in as a courtesy.”
/>   Lieutenant Smith joined us. He put a file on the table and sat down. “Everything okay in here?”

  “I’m not sure what your definition of ‘okay’ is,” I snipped. “But this probably isn’t it, at least not for me.”

  Joe came in, nodded at Lieutenant Smith and sat down. His handsome face that I loved so well was set in grim lines.

  “Mrs. Renard.” Lieutenant Smith smiled at me. “May I call you Molly? We should’ve known each other better by now. I apologize for that. I’m new in town.”

  “Yes, I know.” I didn’t respond to his request. Let him say what he wanted. That was what he was going to do anyway.

  Joe reached across the table and held my hand. “Just answer the questions, Molly. Everything will be fine.”

  Lieutenant Smith shrugged and opened the file, starting again. “There have been some odd circumstances surrounding your friend’s death. Detectives Renard and Hernandez have had no luck with anything involving this case. The Dunst home was broken into after the murder, and then your home was broken into. I’m wondering what the key is to all of this.”

  “I have no idea.”

  “I think it might be you, Molly.”

  “And you think the brooch you found at my house ties it all together. Is that right?”

  He nodded. “Do you have another explanation for it?”

  I was really good and mad by this time. My husband was sitting across the table from me, his eyes beseeching me to tell the truth. Lisbet looked like she was going to cry. I’d had enough.

  I looked up at the camera that was in front of me. “I have a very good explanation for it. My friend lent me that brooch. I’m sure if you look carefully enough through the rest of my things, you’ll find other items that belonged to her too. In fact, you can probably find some of my belongings at her house as well. And don’t forget my fingerprints—they’re everywhere at her place. But then hers are everywhere at my house too!”

  “Molly.” Joe frowned and shook his head.

  “No. Let me finish. You’re blaming me because your efforts haven’t worked out yet. May I suggest, Lieutenant, that you try to find someone who is guilty?”