Witch Comes First, a Halloween Novella
Hey there, friends! Over the course of a few weeks, I sent out a few chapters at a time of the paranormal cozy Halloween novella, Witch Comes First. In this post, you can read the whole thing at once. It’s part of the Superior Bay Witch Mystery series. Enjoy!
Chapter 1
“I can’t believe you offered up the farm for a harvest party.” My BFF Julia wrinkled her little button nose, as though she’d gotten a whiff of something sour. “You had to have known the guests would make a horrible mess. Humans are pigs.”
I grinned and made a wand-waving motion with my finger in the air between us. “I have a secret weapon for cleaning, remember?”
Julia barked out a laugh. “Okay, you got me there, Magic Girl.” She gestured at my costume. “Original.”
I cocked a hip to show off black fishnets, a thigh-length skirt, and a flowy peasant shirt with wide sleeves, then adjusted my pointy hat. “Hiding in plain sight. It’s supposed to be ironic.”
She raised a perfectly arched eyebrow. “Irony, thy name is boring. And speaking of the most non-creative among us…” She smirked as our friend Crosby approached, carrying a pint of beer while dressed in his everyday cop uniform.
A giggle erupted from my throat as I greeted him without commenting on his lack of Halloween costume ingenuity.
“This is a great party.” Crosby took a gulp of beer, leaving a bit of foam above his upper lip as he looked around. “Everybody’s having a nice time. I still don’t get why you invited those folks from Red River Veterinary, though. They’re the enemy, right?”
With a playful slap on his arm, then a gentle swipe of my finger to get the foam off his face, I shook my head. “They’re veterinarians just like me. I want us to get along. It’s better for our clients if we work together.”
Julia patted her red hair, even though there wasn’t a single bit out of place, and addressed Crosby. “You know Willow’s always nice. She doesn’t want to leave anyone out, even though she’s been losing clients left and right to those Red River jokers.”
I grimaced. She was right. People in Superior Bay seemed to have decided my vet clinic wasn’t the place to spend money and were traveling one town over to Red River to pay them to mend their pets instead.
Lifting my chin, I said, “Hopefully, this party will help remind folks that I grew up here and that they know and like me.”
Aunt Dru and I had spent a few days decorating the barn, and the effect was magnificent, if I did say so myself. A portable dance floor covered some of the wooden planks in the main area. Twinkle lights hung strategically from the rafters, giving the whole place an indigo glow reminiscent of moonlight. The horses and sheep were hanging out in the field, away from the party, so their stalls were deserted, and a band played stomping, hooting country music in the corner.
“I can’t deal with this noise anymore. Let’s go get a drink.” Julia flounced toward the exit, glittery rainbow-colored fairy tutu and wings catching the light and creating prisms as she went.
It was quieter outside, in the moonlight. Clusters of people chatted in the driveway, on the farmhouse’s stately wraparound porch, and along a lantern-lined path to the food tent in the meadow.
The scent of charred meat drifted past my nose, and I groaned. “I’d kill for a burger right now.”
A dark shape hurtled out of the shadows next to the house, crashing into my arm as it shot past.
“Hey!” I twirled like an out-of-control top to keep my feet under me and frowned at the black cape of a vampire costume billowing behind the runner as I rubbed my sore triceps. “What’s the rush?”
“Probably had some of Steve’s hot fries and needs a bathroom.” Julia snorted.
An alarmed shout from the direction of the tent shut down our laughter. Other voices joined the first one until a chorus of terrified wailing had replaced all the party noise.
Crosby shot toward the din like a loosed arrow. Julia and I stumbled along slower. A crowd clumped at one end of the tent, but it parted like butter sliced with a warm knife to let us through.
Julia gasped. “What in the world?”
I didn’t answer, fixated on the prone body on the floor that stared, unseeing, at the tent’s peak high above.
Even though his features were twisted in perpetual pain and shock, I knew the man. It was Dr. Edward Thorne, one of the veterinarians from the Red River clinic.
Chapter 2
“It looks like he was bitten by a vampire,” Julia whispered.
I pointed at his neck. “Sure, right. If a vampire only stabbed someone with one tooth.” Dr. Thorne had an enormous, angry wound on his neck, a single diamond-shaped hole with a ragged, torn edge along the bottom.
And the blood it released hadn’t been lapped up by the attacker like a vampire movie would lead you to believe it should have been. It pooled in a vast puddle under the veterinarian’s body, leaking out onto a wider area with every second that passed.
Crosby nudged me aside. He wore latex gloves—where had those come from? The life of a cop, I supposed. Always prepared, like a Boy Scout but with only one badge instead of multiple ones decorating his shirt.
Gently, Crosby checked the unravaged side of Dr. Thorne’s neck for a pulse.
“Is he…”
“He’s dead,” Crosby announced with a nod, loud enough for the partiers closest to us to hear and react, which they did in a big way. Gasps, screams, and sobs erupted from nearby guests, who included a lion, Elvis Presley, and a princess wearing a huge, puffy, pink ball gown. She tried to turn around, presumably to run away, but her hoop skirt rammed into the T-rex next to her and they both tottered dangerously on their axes, threatening to go down in a heap of tulle and rubber. A rock star with a painted face next to the princess managed to grab her and keep her on her feet, and the T-rex plunged through the crowd. The terrified sounds of the guests nearest the body rippled outward to those at the farthest reaches of the tent, as though the news had been a pebble tossed into a pond.
Or a coin tossed into a puddle of blood.
I squinted at a glint of metal in the liquid next to Dr. Thorne’s arm and pointed it out to Crosby, then grimaced when he reached in and grabbed it.
Latex gloves, man. Lifesavers. Note to self: Bring a box full of those suckers home from work and never go anywhere without them. Non-Boy Scouts—and non-cops—could be prepared too, especially when they found themselves around dead bodies as often as I did.
Crosby lifted the coin and twisted it back and forth until the glow from the twinkle lights rounding the top or the tent bounced off its edges. “It’s not regular money.” He tipped it for me to better see a raised, stylized cross stamped on one side and a calligraphy-style S on the other.
A woman sank to the ground next to me, rivulets of tears making twin pale pathways down heavily made-up cheeks. She was dressed like a sexy cowgirl, with a short brown leather skirt and sleeveless top sporting fringe at all the edges, but through the costume, I recognized Mrs. Thorne, the wife of the deceased. “Oh, Edward! What happened?” She clutched his arm with trembling fingers.
Crosby slipped the coin in a plastic bag—where did the man keep all this extra stuff?—then stood and held up his hands. The crowd’s murmurings fell silent. “I need everyone to leave the tent. Please move in an orderly fashion, with no pushing or shoving. Head across the yard and enter the barn doors. Do not leave the premises until you’ve been cleared to do so by me or another officer.”
As the crowd began to thin, following Crosby’s instructions, Julia helped Mrs. Thorne to her feet, whispering comforting words as she guided the sobbing woman out of the tent. Elvis slipped in to support the grieving woman’s other side, and they joined the flow of people eager to get out of there.
Crosby removed the gloves and wandered to the edge of the tent. Using a radio clipped to a shoulder-holster, he called police headquarters and requested back-up investigators, forensics, and an ambulance.
I took the opportunity while he was distracted to kneel next to the body again, focusing on the wound, though that was the last place I wanted to look. Something about the pattern was nagging at me. I recognized it somehow but couldn’t yank that recognition up out of my subconscious enough to examine it.
“Willow! What in the world happened?”
I glanced over my shoulder as my friend Alyson approached, dressed as Dorothy, wringing her hands around the handle of a rectangular wicker basket. Her eyes, heavily coated with black mascara, were wide, and her pale face was accentuated by bright red lipstick and a set of braids lining both sides.
She kept her gaze averted from Dr. Thorne. “I was in the house using the bathroom. Was there an accident?”
“I don’t see how this could be anything but purposeful.” I scanned the body and the area around it once more to make sure nothing had escaped my notice. “Why is his hand like that?”
Alyson hesitated, then wrinkled her nose and bent at the waist to peer at the deceased’s hand. “He’s clutching something.”
I reached for Thorne’s fingers, pried one open, and snatched out a piece of shimmery black cloth.
“What’s that?” Crosby sauntered over, releasing the radio button. “And why are you touching things?” He held out his hand and made a gimme motion.
I dropped the swatch into his palm and scanned Thorne’s clothes. He was dressed like the Jolly Green Giant. No blue-black cloth in sight on his costume. “It’s not from his outfit.”
“Is everyone okay?”
We all turned to watch Dr. Jeremy Miller jog into the tent. Alyson let out a strangled laugh and covered her mouth, grabbing my arm and squeezing as though to keep from being buffeted by wind, though it was a calm night.
I pressed my lips together to hold in the guffaw threatening to erupt. My associate veterinarian wore short-shorts and a rhinestone-studded black midriff halter top with a brown frizzy wig. “Are you Richard Simmons?”
He grinned and made a muscle with his right bicep, then shouted, “Are you ready? Okay! Come on, now, follow me!” He started running in place, then shifted to jumping jacks, then beamed at us. “You’re doing great; I love you all so much!”
Alyson and I broke into peals of laughter, and even Crosby grinned a fraction.
Jeremy stopped when he caught sight of the body, the smile sliding off his face. “Is that…” He moved closer. “That’s Dr. Thorne! What happened?”
“He was murdered,” Crosby said.
“Huh.” Jeremy screwed up his face in a grimace, as though someone had shown him an overly complicated math problem that needed solving. “Well, maybe now someone else’ll run the business side of Red River Veterinary and stop undercutting all our prices.”
With a nonchalant wave, he turned and jogged into the darkness.
Eyes wide, Alyson whispered, “Is it me, or was he way too chill about this?” She gestured toward the body.
A line appeared between Crosby’s eyes as he stared after Jeremy. “Yeah. He was.”
Chapter 3
Two hours later, everyone had been cleared off the property, including Dr. Thorne’s body. Each person at the party had endured a quick interview by one of the cop, even me. I would have preferred to talk to Crosby, but he’d seemed to be in a million places at once, and I understood there might be a conflict of interests, so I’d done my interview with another officer and told her about the vampire-costumed person in a major hurry to leave the tent because they had to have had something to do with it or at least it warranted consideration of who that had been and why they’d been rushing so much.
After I turned off the twinkly lights in the tent and the barn and let the pasture animals back into their stalls, I retreated to the house with my best friends, Julia, Alyson, and Crosby.
Okay, okay. The feelings between Crosby and I were more than friendship, but we were best friends first and longest, ever since we were kids.
“Here you are, dears.” My aunt Dru set a tray on the large, worn, wooden kitchen table. The four of us helped ourselves to chamomile tea and lemon cookies and settled in.
I swept off my witch hat and tossed it to the side. In a flash, Dragon was on it, growling and thrashing the thing like it was an enemy of the state. With a giggle, I grabbed the costume piece and wrestled it away from the puppy. He sat at my feet and delivered the saddest canine look in the land, complete with saggy beagle ears and huge brown eyes. I huffed at the unfairness of him pulling out that adorableness to use against me and tossed the hat back to him.
“He’ll ruin it, you know,” my aunt said.
“I know. It’s fine. I’m never wearing this outfit again, in case it got Dr. Thorne’s blood on it.” I winced. Even though I routinely got all manner of icky substances on my clothes at work, none of them were human blood.
The corners of Aunt Dru’s mouth drew down. “It’s terrible what happened. And after we planned this party to prove to people it was safe to come to your clinic.” She clucked her tongue. “I guess that really backfired. How was the poor doctor killed?”
Alyson’s face distorted into a grimace. “It was horrible. Like a furious, one-toothed vampire got him or something.”
Aunt Dru fumbled her teacup, sloshing liquid on the table. Crosby jumped up to fetch a tea towel as she righted the cup, but her fingers quivered.
My eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing. Nothing.”
Aunt Dru met my gaze, and I raised one eyebrow at her in what I thought was a pretty good approximation of the look she’d always given me when she wanted me to come clean about something.
She sighed and her shoulders slumped, as though she’d made a sudden decision. “Okay, it’s something. The reference to a vampire.” Her eyes darted to Alyson, then me as Crosby wiped up the spill. “My date tonight was a vampire.”
“You mean someone dressed as one?” I thought of the costumed person who’d almost bowled me over. They were dressed like a vampire, in blue-black material, just like the swatch we’d found in Thorne’s hand.
My aunt shook her head. “No. I mean, yes.” She rubbed her temple as though it was possible to straighten out the thoughts beneath her fingertips. “He’s a real vampire, and he was dressed as one tonight.” A slight smile curled her lips. “He thought it was funny. Ironic, you know.”
Julia waved her hand at the remains of my witch outfit. “Yeah, she gets it.”
“I thought real vampires didn’t bite people.” I’d had a run-in with a vampire recently. He’d siphoned my magical ability and kept it in an amulet for a while. I shuddered at the memory of that misery.
“They don’t usually, but they can.” Aunt Dru poured new tea water into her cup. “My date, Darwin Swanson, doesn’t bite people, though. He feeds on natural magic, like the energy surrounding running water sources and trees. It’s more work for him to get enough nourishment that way, but he’s gentle and kind and doesn’t want to hurt anyone.”
Was she trying to convince us? Her tone suggested it. Maybe she was trying to convince herself. Either way, I wasn’t sure she had the right read on this Darwin dude.
Crosby rubbed the back of his neck. “If it’s a…supernatural crime, I’m going to have a hard time keeping it under wraps from the other cops.” He glanced at me. “And I could use a hand with those aspects of the case.”
I nodded without hesitation. “Let me handle any paranormal leads, okay? You stick to human ones. I’ll talk to Darwin first.”
He shot me a relieved look that, fast as a water snake in a current, turned wary. “I don’t know. I don’t want you putting yourself in danger. Plus, it’s probably not right for me to ask for help when you’re not on the department’s payroll.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ll be fine. It’s not the first investigation I’ve done. I know how to fly under the radar. And don’t worry about the pay. This happened on my property, and it’s going to make folks think I’m not safe—even more than they already do. I need to find out who did this to prove to everyone that it’s safe to come to my clinic with their pets. That’ll be payment enough.” I gave him a reassuring smile and turned to Aunt Dru. “Do you know where Darwin was when Dr. Thorne was killed?”
A shadow passed behind her eyes, and she dropped them to her teacup. “I don’t know, exactly. We were chatting away, and then it seemed like he saw someone he knew. He said he’d be right back and disappeared into the crowd. I took the opportunity to visit the refreshment table and didn’t see where he went.”
I glanced at Crosby. His concern over this news that Aunt Dru had lost sight of Darwin during the time of the murder was clearly evident on his face. This meant there was no alibi for Darwin, at least from Aunt Dru. And we both knew the refreshment table was on the other side of the tent from where Dr. Thorne’s body had fallen. She wouldn’t have been able to see Darwin if he was with Thorne.
“You didn’t talk to him again after that?” I asked.
Aunt Dru shook her head, twirling the cup in her hands. “No. I guess he got swept into the barn with the rest of the crowd when Crosby cleared us out of there.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Actually, he may have taken off before that. Someone dressed like a vampire was sure in a hurry to get out of there, right before Thorne’s body was discovered, anyway. Where does Darwin live?”
“In those townhouses next to the docks. Number four-seventeen. Should I go with you, dear?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’ll go by myself.” I gave Dragon one last pat on the head now that he’d abandoned the witch hat to lean into my legs, and then I climbed to my feet. “I’ll call you when I’m done, Crosby.”
He nodded, jaw tense. “Be careful.”
Twenty minutes later, I rapped on Darwin’s door. The man who answered looked like a regular guy, with thinning light brown hair on top of his head but falling thick to his shoulders, glasses perched on the end of his nose as thought he’d been reading and a tightly cinched bathrobe over green and red dragon slippers. “Oh! You’re Dru’s niece, the veterinarian.” He peered over the glasses. “What are you doing here?”
“Could I possibly chat with you for a few minutes? It’s about Dr. Thorne’s death.”
“I answered questions about that already.”
He did? Did that mean it wasn’t him running away and he’d been present for the questioning session in the barn? I sure didn’t remember seeing him there but then again, there were a fair number of people I didn’t know, and I might have simply overlooked him. With a smile, I said, “I have a few more questions if that’s okay. You know, additional ones from the paranormal side of things.”
He studied me for a second, then sighed and turned on his heel. I followed him into a tidy but dingey living room with several mismatched pieces of faded and threadbare furniture. I perched on the edge of a flowery armchair and waited for him to settle on the couch before asking, “Did you know Dr. Thorne?”
Darwin removed his glasses and studied me. “He was my vet for a while. Nice guy but kind of bossy. Lectured me all the time about Circe being too fat.”
I followed his gesture to an enormous, fluffy gray cat curled up on the other end of the sofa. “Yes. I see.” I tried to bite my tongue but couldn’t resist adding, “Being overweight can lead to a shorter lifespan and more health issues for cats.”
“I know that. I’m not an idiot,” Darwin snapped. “But Thorne didn’t have to be so rough about it.”
“My aunt said you left her suddenly at the party and never turned up again. Can I ask where you went?”
His gaze dropped. “I saw someone I knew and went to have a chat.”
“Oh? Who?” This could be the alibi I needed to take him off the suspect list.
“None of your business.”
So much for that. Not only was this guy being difficult about the questions, but his sour nature was rapidly earning him my disapproval as a suitable date for Aunt Dru. “I’m trying to establish that you weren’t able to have been the one who killed the doctor. I’d think you’d want to cooperate with that. Darwin, did you rush out of the tent around the time of Thorne’s death, wearing a blue-black vampire outfit?”
He pulled off his reading glasses and set them on an end table. “I don’t bite people. Your aunt knows that. And why does it matter what I wore? As for running, I remembered something I needed in the car. A gift for Dru.”
“But you never came back and gave it to her?”
“There was an uproar going on by the time I started to. As you know, people like me can find themselves in hot water with humans pretty fast. They may not know why they have a bad feeling about me, but they do. I didn’t kill Thorne. I just didn’t want to stick around to get accused of it. I’ll tell you who you should check out. His wife.”
“Really? Why do you think so?”
“Because I saw them having an argument when I was…talking to someone.”
“And you were talking to…”
“An associate. I don’t see why I have to divulge my private matters to you. You aren’t in law enforcement, right?”
“I’m not. But I’ve been asked to help with this case, since there are potential paranormal elements to it. Or at least paranormal people close to the event.”
“Ah. So, your boyfriend asked you to handle the big, scary vampire, huh?” Darwin rose creakily and headed for the door. “I’m afraid Circe and I are tired now. I’ll have to ask you to leave us to our bedtime routine.”
I trudged past him, stopping to deliver a stern look. “I’m trying to get you cleared of this, you know. You could be more helpful.”
“As I said, Mrs. Thorne is the one you should be questioning, not me.”
Two seconds later, I stood blinking at the closed door in front of my face, with no alibi for Darwin and a bad first impression of my aunt’s new beau.
Chapter 4
“You’re sure this is the Thornes’ place?” I squinted at the imposing three-story house on at least ten sprawling acres. Something like this would be way out of my budget. How did Thorne’s clinic do so well while mine barely scraped by?
“Yep.” Crosby headed for the front door.
Whatever. I loved our family farm and the hundred-year-old farmhouse I shared with Aunt Dru. And, bonus, it didn’t have a mortgage for me to worry about.
Dr. Thorne’s wife answered the door. She’d exchanged last night’s cowgirl outfit for shorts, a pink-and-white striped, collared shirt, white short-shorts, and white tennis shoes, as though a tee-time approached at any moment. With a sharp gaze, she took in Crosby’s uniform, then narrowed her eyes at me. They were rimmed with a tinge of red. “What are you doing here?”
“We have some questions about your husband, ma’am,” Crosby answered. “I know it’s a hard time for you right now, but we’ll only take a few minutes. Dr. Morgan is here in her capacity as a special consultant to the police department.”
Her lips thinned, and I thought she’d argue the weak excuse for my presence. After all, really, my only job was to advise Crosby on any paranormal aspects that came up in the case, and Mrs. Thorne was human as could be. But of course we couldn’t explain that nuance to her. Thankfully, instead of asking why a veterinarian was a special advisor on her husband’s murder case, she pushed the door wider and stood aside. “Come in.” Her tone was clipped.
The inside of the house was as impressive as the outside, all marble, mahogany, and glass. The color scheme was white, silver, and teal, and I had a hard time keeping the drool in my mouth.
Holding her chin up higher than looked comfortable, Mrs. Thorne led us to a three-seasons room off the back of the house. “You’ll have to forgive me for not offering refreshments. I have to leave soon.” She checked her watch.
Rolex, blast it! Whatever. I didn’t even like Rolexes. It would be too stressful trying not to lose it all the time.
“Mrs. Thorne—”
“Sadie.”
Crosby started again. “Sadie, did you and your husband have an argument right before he was killed?”
Her jaw clenched in time with one fist, then she relaxed them both and arched one well-plucked brow. “Argument’s the wrong word. We’re married. We bicker on occasion.”
I noted the present tense, which jabbed at my heart. Poor lady hadn’t adjusted to her husband being gone yet, and who would expect her to have done so? It had only happened a handful of hours ago. Frankly, I was surprised she was dressed and out of bed. And where were all her friends and family? Shouldn’t someone be here with her?
“Was last night’s party such an occasion?” Crosby pressed.
She nodded once, curtly. “He had too many whiskey sours. I didn’t want to drive home because I don’t see well in the dark, so I encouraged him to switch to ice water with plenty of time before we planned on leaving. He wasn’t happy with what he considered to be me ordering him around.” Her mouth twisted on the words.
“I see. So, you had an argument?”
“We bickered for a moment,” she corrected. “Then he got pulled away. He took his fresh whiskey sour and left me standing there.”
I perked up at that. “Who pulled him away?”
She shrugged. “A vampire. I assume it had something to do with that club Eddie’s involved with. Seems like the only thing he’s been interested in for the past few months.” She rose smoothly to her feet. “I’m afraid I have to go now. I have a tee-time.”
Ha! I knew it!
As we followed her through the house back to the front door, Crosby said, “What kind of club has Eddie been focusing on lately?”
“Oh, something to do with investments. I don’t understand all of it. I tune him out when he rambles about it like he does to me when I talk about my garden club.” She smiled, finally, and there was sadness in her expression for the first time. “People married for a while do tend to take each other for granted, don’t they? Until suddenly, one of them is gone.”
“Sadie, do you know who killed your husband?” I asked.
Her eyes unfocused for a moment, then she gave a flippant shoulder shrug and opened the front door. “The vampire, I suppose.”
Chapter 5
“What do you think?” I asked Crosby as he drove us back to Superior Bay.
“She didn’t seem as upset as I’d expect a twelve-hour-old widow to be.” He drummed a little beat on the wheel and cocked his jaw back and forth a few times.
“I thought the same thing. But she was sad at the end there, and her eyes were red. Maybe she’s putting on a brave front. Or she’s in shock. Isn’t that a thing? One of the steps of grief?” I’d taken Psych 101 in undergrad and knew the mind could do some interesting things to protect itself from trauma.
“It’s a thing, yeah. Maybe that’s all it is.” He didn’t sound convinced.
I thought about how no one was with Mrs. Thorne after such a traumatic event in her life. Plus, she had a tee time. Wouldn’t a normal, non-guilty-of-murder widow cancel golf the day after her husband was killed?
“I’ll need to talk to Darwin.” Crosby put his palm an inch from my face to head off an argument. “Sadie said Edward talked to a vampire. It’s my job to follow up on that lead, even though you already talked to him. Even though he’s paranormal. Because you’re not actually a cop, remember? I can’t really put in my report that I’m ignoring a lead because he’s a vampire and my bestie, who’s a witch, already talked to him.”
“Okay, okay, I get it. But there had to have been other vamp costumes at the party too. The officers probably recorded who was wearing what when they interviewed people in the barn, right?” I widened my eyes in innocence when he shot me a flat look. “I’m only giving you other ideas to make sure we don’t miss something.”
“Fine. I’ll look through the notes and make a list of vampires at the partyut I still need to talk to Darwin too. What are you going to do next?”
I leaned on the head rest and grinned. “I have another paranormal witness to interview.”
***
I sat on the swing in the middle of what Aunt Dru and I called the back forty. It was the rear part of our cleared property—we owned past that, too, into the woods in that direction. To my left was pasture, and to my right was the tent. The company that had set the tent up was scheduled to tear it down later that day. Aunt Dru puttered around inside it, tossing food and paper dishes into an industrial-strength garbage bag.
Crosby had fixed the swing recently, and it felt solid as I swayed back and forth. “Did you see what happened last night? In the tent, I mean. Someone was killed.”
The border collie glued to my side tipped her head back to regard me with warm brown eyes. “Yes,” she said.
My main witchy power was understanding animals, and I had probably the longest history of talking to my very own dog, Juliet. She rarely missed anything that happened on our farm, but chatting with animals wasn’t always as straightforward as talking to people, so I had no idea whether she’d be able to help me. Couldn’t hurt to try, though, and if I’d learned anything in the past few months, it was that I needed to use all the resources at my disposal when trying to solve a murder.
My heart clicked along faster at her answer. “You did see what happened,” I breathed. “Tell me what you saw please.” I tried to keep my excitement at a reasonable level, knowing Juliet probably couldn’t tell me exactly who had killed Dr. Thorne. Often, animals had a hard time giving exact descriptions or identifiers of humans they didn’t know extremely well.
“Everyone was dressed funny,” she began.
“Yes. We were having a Halloween party. You remember Halloween, right? The kids come knock on the door, and Aunt Dru gives them exactly three pieces of candy each. The real holiday is in a couple of days, but we had a party early.”
“I love kids.”
I snuggled her closer. “You sure do, you sweet thing.”
“Everyone was dressed funny, but they smelled normal. Except the human who was bad.”
“You mean the one who killed Dr. Thorne? What did they smell like?”
She tipped her head, as though she’d heard a threat to the sheep, though I knew better. If that were the case, Juliet would have streaked off already. She took her job seriously, and we hadn’t had a coyote or wolf around the property since she came to live with us.
“They smelled…” Juliet moved her head to the other side, then back again, and finally gave a nervous yawn.
She was having trouble coming up with the word she wanted, and I stroked her head slowly and calmly, not pushing her or offering suggestions.
“It smelled…unnatural,” she finally answered.
“Unnatural.” Forget going too fast; that made my heart skip and dip. I brought a hand to my chest, as though that would stop the palpitations. “What do you mean?”
But Juliet only snuggled into my armpit deeper and didn’t answer. I knew from experience that meant she didn’t have anything more to add—no human words to better describe what I wanted to know.
“Good girl.” I dropped a kiss on her soft head.
Unnatural, huh. Like, perhaps, a vampire?
Chapter 6
“No. No way. It’s too dangerous.” I crossed my arms to emphasize the words.
Aunt Dru gave me the look. The one she’d used on me since I was three, when my parents disappeared, and she became my guardian. It involved tight lips, slightly raised eyebrows, and a clenched jaw. The look sent dread up and down my spine.
Involuntarily, I backed up half a step, as though she may hit me with the broom she held. She’d never done that, but the look indicated she might. Still, I shook my head. “I’ll follow Darwin and see what I can dig up. I don’t want you going on a date with him, trying to get intel. He may figure out what you’re doing, then you’d be in serious doo-doo.”
“Willow Morgan!” Her tone mimicked my first-grade teacher, when she caught Joel Stoddard breaking crayons on purpose. “I’m a witch, too, in case you’ve forgotten, not some doddering old lady with no way to defend herself. I know he could be dangerous.”
“I still don’t like it.”
“Too bad. I didn’t give the decision to you to make.” She lifted her chin, eyes glinting a challenge at me.
A challenge I wasn’t going to take. After all, she was still my aunt. I respected her like no one else. “Fine. But I’m going to be close by.”
She heaved a sigh like someone had told her she had to put up with eating her least favorite vegetable, lima beans, at every meal every day for two months. “I suppose I can’t stop you.” She grabbed her purse and opened the door. “You can drop me off a couple blocks from the Landing.”
“I wanna eat at the Landing,” I whined.
“Then get your own date to take you.” She winked over her shoulder to take the sting out of the words.
“Maybe I will,” I muttered. “As soon as we prove Darwin Swanson killed Edward Thorne.”
I parked a few blocks from the Landing Bar and Grill and let Aunt Dru walk in alone. I went around a couple blocks in the other direction and took up a seat on a bench across the street, positioning myself behind a lamppost, so Darwin wouldn’t see me.
Aunt Dru wasn’t there yet, but I spotted Darwin, wearing plaid pants and a burgundy sweater, perusing the menu at a round table by the restaurant’s front window.
I wondered what my aunt saw in this guy. She’d never struck me as someone who’d fall for a man in plaid pants before. But maybe my opinion was skewed by his rough way of speaking to me the night before.
Or by the fact I was almost positive he’d killed Dr. Thorne.
Aunt Dru sauntered into view a moment later and accepted a peck on the cheek from Darwin. He pulled out her chair, then re-seated himself.
I tried using my witchy super-hearing to listen in, but the building’s thick walls blocked it. I didn’t see much point in using a spell to amplify my abilities, since Aunt Dru would report everything to me afterward anyway. My purpose was to make sure Darwin didn’t lose his cool and attack her. If he did, between my aunt and me, he’d be vampire toast.
Of course, the run-in I’d had with another vampire kept me a tad nervous. That guy had been strong, magically. Super strong. I hadn’t been able to do anything against him.
I’d learned a lot more about my power since then, though. I was learning from Aunt Dru, finally, after I couldn’t be bothered to spend time on studying magic for most of my life.
Until a couple of murders had jump-started my motivation.
And now we were working on a third investigation. Superior Bay was a small place—three murders in less than a year was unheard of. But that was neither here nor there. A third murder had occurred, right on my property, and I intended to solve it as fast as possible, so I didn’t lose even more business.
That made me wonder how Thorne’s death would affect my vet clinic. Who was going to take over Red River Veterinary now that he was dead? I had to assume it would be Dr. Sanderson. He was the junior partner in that business, after all. I supposed Sadie Thorne could retain a portion. Though it wasn’t settled law in Michigan yet, most people agreed a veterinary clinic’s majority owner needed to be a licensed vet.
It took Aunt Dru and Darwin a long time to eat. Like, a ridiculously long time. I jerked awake when my chin hit my chest, and I toppled sideways, banging my elbow painfully on the bench. I bit back a curse and realized the couple was leaving the restaurant.
They turned toward each other on the sidewalk, and I bumped up my magical hearing while trying to make myself as small as possible.
“Thanks for lunch,” Aunt Dru said.
“You’re very welcome, Druida. By the way, I hope your niece isn’t planning to continue the line of questioning she started with me after the party last night. I have better things to do than entertain such nonsense.”
She crossed her arms. “Willow has her own mind, and I don’t control her. She’s trying to be helpful. I’m sure she’ll be looking elsewhere now that you’ve answered her questions so truthfully. But, I did wonder, did you see what happened to Dr. Thorne, since you were talking to him right before he was killed? It seems so strange that no one would have seen anything, as crowded as the tent was.”
Darwin scratched the back of his neck, jostling a leather cord. It probably held the amulet he kept his stored energy in, from streams and trees, according to Aunt Dru. “When we finished talking, Thorne headed back toward his wife. Stopped to talk to a guy who looked like an exercise nut with crazy hair. I turned away to look for you. I heard the screams a moment later and whirled around to find Thorne crumpled.” He lifted one shoulder and dropped it. “There were lots of people standing around. I don’t know which one did the deed.”
Okay, so Thorne was the person Darwin had left Aunt Dru to talk to, but he’d told me he’d gone to his car immediately afterward, not stood around looking for Aunt Dru. But that wasn’t the part of what he said that bothered me the most. It was the part about the exercise nut.
My aunt frowned. “Such an awful thing to happen.”
He nodded. “I have to run, but let’s make plans for Friday night. I’ll take you wherever you want.”
She nodded, but I could tell she wasn’t thinking about their next date. He kissed her cheek and took off down the sidewalk.
After he’d rounded a corner, I jumped up and hurried across the street.
“Did you hear that?” she asked.
I had heard, of course, and the squeezing feeling in my chest hadn’t let up since he’d described Dr. Thorne talking to Jeremy. “Did he say anything else, inside the restaurant, that we can use?”
“He said he was talking to Edward about their club that night. It’s a weird thing—they pool their money to make more powerful investments together. Stock market, development property, that sort of thing. They get bigger returns than doing it alone.” She glanced in the direction the vampire had gone. “He seemed vague about it if you ask me.”
I started after Darwin.
“Where are you going?”
“I don’t trust him, and I want to know what he’s up to.”
Aunt Dru hurried to catch up. I braced for her to try to talk me out of it, but she remained silent and simply walked next to me. We rounded the corner and caught a glimpse of Darwin turning again, a couple blocks ahead of us. I increased the pace, jogging up to the corner before slowing to peep around it. Darwin entered a squat building.
When we got there, I gaped at the front door. My aunt, panting, caught up with me. “What is it?”
I pointed to the symbol carved into the wooden door. It was a stylized cross exactly like the one on the coin next to Dr. Thorne’s body.
Chapter 7
Crosby rubbed the spots above his eyebrows viciously, as though they’d personally offended him. “Exercise nut with crazy hair. It has to be Jeremy Miller who Darwin saw Thorne talking to. That was around the time the murder would have happened.”
“Jeremy didn’t kill Dr. Thorne.” I said it with conviction because there was no way my associate vet—who I’d actually dated a time or two before realizing we weren’t meant to be together—could have done something so vicious.
But in the back of my mind, something stirred. Jeremy hadn’t acted all that upset or surprised about seeing Thorne dead. And he’d said that pretty rude thing about Red River’s prices after he learned of the death. That comment had even made sweet Alyson raise her eyebrows. Yeah, Jeremy hadn’t been upset about Thorne’s death at all, that was for sure.
No. Nope. Uh-uh. I wasn’t letting my mind go down that road any farther than it already had. Jeremy was a kind man. He wasn’t a murderer.
Even though he’d been wearing a sparkly black halter top. Did it match the bit of cloth in Thorne’s hand, I wondered?
I shoved away that thought too.
Crosby sighed. “I don’t think he did it, either, but this presents a problem. I’m going to interview Darwin, like I said, and he’ll probably tell me the same thing he told you about the exercise nut sighting. Then I’ll have to haul Miller in for questioning. It’s my job.”
“I get that. Can you hold off, though? Just give me some time to find out more about Darwin first. That building he went into—it had the same symbol on it as the coin by Thorne’s body. The two of them were in the same weird club. How about if you interview the other vampires from the party first?”
Crosby sighed and got to his feet. “There weren’t any other vampires at the party.”
“What?” Shock rocked me back in the seat.
“Yep. Only Darwin was dressed as a vampire. I checked the list of guests twice.”
“So, he must be the one who almost ran us over running away from the tent after all. And then he left, which is suspicious behavior. He wasn’t getting a present for my aunt like he said—he never gave her one, so that was a lie. And he lied about what happened after he talked to Dr. Thorne. He told me he went to the car immediately but told Aunt Dru he stood around looking for her and noticed Thorne talking to Jeremy. Plus, Darwin’s costume was black, so that’s probably what was in Dr. Thorne’s hand. Crosby!” I bounced up. “You have to arrest him.”
He chuckled. “I have to question him first. I should have gone along when you talked to him. I can’t believe I let the word vampire throw me off my game so much.” He grabbed his belt off a hook and settled it around his hips.
I was momentarily distracted by said hips, which looked even better with the utility belt slung around them. Blinking myself out of distraction, I groaned. “I should go with you.”
He shook his head. “Not this time. You’ve already done enough when it comes to Darwin. Let me do my job now. But let’s take this conversation up where we left off later, okay?”
“Okay.” I watched him leave the office, feeling frustrated but enjoying his rear view for a minute before I followed him.
Outside, I trudged to my clinic, brightening when I got there. I greeted my receptionist, Catherine, at the front desk on my way through and then said hello to my vet techs, Korbin and Theresa, in the treatment area.
“Hey, boss,” Jeremy said, glancing over his shoulder at me from where he sat on a stool in front of a microscope. “You’re not scheduled to see patients this afternoon.”
“No, I know. I have some admin work to do. But I can help with clients if you’re getting backed up.”
He snickered. “You just don’t want to look at spreadsheets.”
I drooped. “Never.”
“Dr. Morgan?” Catherine appeared in the doorway. “There’s someone here to see you. It’s Dr. Sanderson from Red River Veterinary. I told him you’re not scheduled today, and I’d have to see if you’re available.”
I didn’t miss the way Jeremy’s spine stiffened. He spun the stool around. “What’s that guy want?”
“Guess I’ll find out.”
Hurrying to my office, I dragged on a white jacket and swung a stethoscope around my neck. I wanted to look doctorly for the meeting with Sanderson. I’d only had maybe two conversations with him over the years. Why was he here?
When Catherine dropped Sanderson in my office, he didn’t waste more than two sentences on pleasantries after dropping into the chair across from me. Then he said, “I have a business deal for you to consider. The Red River clinic will be mine when the lawyers are done with the paperwork. I want to buy your clinic too.” He raised a hand, palm out, to hold off my answer. “You can keep your job. Your associate can too. You’ll be the medical director here, and everything will work the same way it does now. You’ll make all the calls when it comes to medicine, medications…all of it. I’ll be a silent investor only.” He leaned forward. “Think of all the ways you probably want to update the place.” He looked around, nose twitching like there was a bad smell, at my outdated office décor. “The building, the equipment. Whatever you want. No one even has to know I own it. Nothing will change.”
“Except you’ll take most of the profit and reduce me to salary,” I said, keeping to myself the obvious question about where Sanderson planned to get all that money. “Why are you coming to me with this now?”
“Because Thorne didn’t want to do it. Said you should be left alone and allowed to have your little baby.” He gestured at the building around us. “He was short-sighted. We could have owned all the clinics within a two-hundred-mile radius. He was happy with one clinic. I’m not.”
“I see. Well, I’m sorry you wasted a trip to Superior Bay…Tucker, right?”
His lips thinned at my use of his first name, but he nodded tightly.
“Yeah, Tucker. Well, you wasted a trip. I’m not selling.”
He tossed a manila folder at me. “Look this over. It includes salary and perks. I’m sure you’ll change your mind and call me before the week’s out.”
He stood abruptly and strode for the door.
“Hey, Tucker!”
He turned, a glower on his face.
“I’m sorry I didn’t see you at the party. I love Halloween, don’t you? What did you dress up as? I’m always looking for new costume inspiration.”
“Elvis. The king. Costume’s at the dry cleaner, but you’ll have a second chance to see it at your town’s party on Halloween night.” He pointed to the file. “Look it over.”
Then he was gone, and I sat staring at the space where he’d been.
Chapter 8
After that conversation, I couldn’t focus on spreadsheets and wandered out of my office.
The treatment room was deserted, and I found Jeremy in the surgery suite, working on a patient.
“What ya got there?” I threw on a surgical mask and leaned on the door frame.
“Laparoscopy,” he answered, pulling a pointy-ended awl from a canula and setting it on the surgical tray. He took up a tube with a tiny camera on the end, fed it through the canula, then watched a screen in front of him as the picture came to life. “I’m getting some biopsy samples of the liver because this poor guy’s been vomiting and has had high liver values on his blood work for a while. Ah. Look at that. See that mass? That’s the culprit. Poor guy. I’ll get some samples.”
But I wasn’t looking at the mass on the screen. I was staring at the awl on the tray, my mind exploding with connections.
The diamond-shaped hole in Dr. Thorne’s neck, at least on top where the tissue wasn’t shredded—that’s why the wound had been familiar. “It was a trocar,” I mumbled, my eyes snapping up to Jeremy’s face.
“Hmm?” His attention didn’t waiver from the screen.
Dr. Thorne was killed by a bigger version of the trocar Jeremy had used in the laparoscopy. I tried to swallow, but my mouth and throat had decided to impersonate the Sahara. “Do…do we have bigger trocars than that?”
Theresa turned to regard me from her spot at the dog’s head, where she monitored the dog’s anesthesia. “No, this is the biggest one. The only bigger ones available are for large animals—cows and horses, so we don’t keep them around.”
“Right.” I whirled and headed across the treatment area, ignoring Jeremy calling my name behind me.
***
“So, you think a veterinary surgical instrument killed Dr. Thorne.” Crosby sat forward, elbows on his desk and fingers steepled.
“Yes. Someone stabbed him in the jugular with a trocar. A big one, like you’d use on a cow’s abdomen.” I felt bile rise at that, stinging its way up my chest and into the back of my throat. I swallowed hard and took another sip of water from the bottle I’d grabbed at the clinic before rushing to the police department. Crosby hadn’t been thrilled when I’d called him to meet me back there so soon after he’d left in the first place, but he’d done it. “I knew the pattern of the wound was familiar, but we don’t use trocars too often, so it didn’t come to me until I saw Jeremy using one.”
Crosby’s eyes narrowed. “You think Miller killed Thorne?”
“What? No!” I plunked the bottle on the desk. “That’s not what I think at all.”
“Well, he said that thing about Red River Veterinary undercutting your clinic. And he was wearing a glossy black shirt.”
I shook my head. “I know, but…”
“And Darwin told me the same thing he told Dru. That, after he talked to Thorne at the party, the doctor talked to a guy dressed like Richard Simmons, and that was Jeremy. Before you ask, yes, I checked the records and there wasn’t another one of those at the party either.”
“OK, great. But…”
“I know you don’t want to believe Miller is capable of this, but I think we have to keep an open mind.” Crosby dropped his hands to the desktop. “He had motive and means.”
“Actually, we don’t have a trocar big enough to make the wound on Thorne’s neck at my clinic, so he didn’t have means.” Ha! So, there.
Crosby rolled his eyes. “I don’t think it would be hard for Miller to acquire a big trocar without your knowledge. He may even own one from vet school or something.”
Dangit.
We sat in silence for a moment before I thought of something else and brightened. “The piece of cloth in Dr. Thorne’s hand wasn’t actually like Jeremy’s shirt. Jeremy’s had rhinestones. The one Dr. Thorne was holding was just shimmery, blue-black.”
Crosby was thoughtful, then said, “You’re right. But we don’t know for sure the cloth is from the killer’s outfit.”
I surged to my feet. “The coin! I saw the same logo on the door of that building Darwin went into. It has to do with their club, right?” I waved my hands, suddenly too excited to be still. “And the other side of the coin had a stylized S on it. That could be for Swanson! Crosby, Darwin Swanson is hiding something.”
“I know. He’s hiding the fact that he’s been swindling the other members of his weird club.”
I blinked a few times. “What?”
“I researched the club—the Court Jesters.” He waved off my snort. “I know it’s a stupid name. They pool their money to make investments in developments and the stock market. I think Darwin was skimming money off the profits. I can’t prove it yet, but I have a team working on breaking that down. Thorne and his wife were in the Jesters too. I guess Mrs. Thorne didn’t really have much to do with it.”
“Okay, so maybe Dr. Thorne was on to the fact that Darwin was doing something shady, so Darwin killed him.” My brain stuttered when another thought hit me. “Or the S is for Sadie. You thought she wasn’t sad enough about losing her husband. Maybe she’s the one who did it. She could have gotten a trocar from her husband’s clinic.”
Silence fell, and my brain kicked back into gear, cruising along at breakneck speed until it delivered another idea. I headed for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“The dry cleaner. Wanna come with me?”
Confusion flitted over his face, but then he stood up. “Since you don’t ever buy anything that needs dry cleaning, I assume I’m going to want to be there for this.”
Chapter 9
“Don’t do anything stupid.”
I glanced at Crosby, eyes slitted but not against the bright sun in the parking lot. “Define stupid.”
“You know—” He made a weird gesture with both hands. “None of this.”
“Oh.” I crossed my arms and scowled. “Do you mean no magic? Magic is stupid, huh?”
He let his head roll back and stared at the ceiling while he spoke. “I didn’t say that, Willow.”
Dropping my arms, I held up my hands instead. “Okay, okay. I’ll try not to be stupid. No promises, though. Let’s go.”
We entered the building. Crosby flashed his badge at a receptionist who blanched but escorted us into an exam room after he basically demanded it.
Moments later, Dr. Sanderson entered with a pleasant smile. His gaze stayed on me an extra moment, then flittered away. “How can I help you?”
Crosby showed his badge again, for good measure. “We have some questions about your boss’s death.”
“I already answered a bunch of questions the evening it happened.” He turned for the door. “I have a busy schedule.”
Crosby reached for the handcuffs clipped to his belt. “Then I’ll haul you in, so you can answer from a jail cell instead.”
“Tucker,” I interjected. “Why’d you do it?”
I ignored Crosby’s deep sigh and kept staring at Tucker Sanderson.
“Do what?” The fingers of his right hand rubbed against each other like he was handling money.
“Kill your boss.”
His eyes darted between us. “What are you talking about?”
“You were a member of the Court Jesters,” Crosby said. “Everyone gets a coin when they join, and I verified that Sadie Thorne still has both hers and her husband’s, with Ts on one side. Darwin Swanson has his too. Where’s yours, Dr. Sanderson? Can I see it?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I lost it.”
“Good news,” I quipped. “We found it for you. Along with the chunk of fabric missing from your shimmery Elvis outfit. The nice lady at the dry cleaner’s let me make sure the piece matched, so don’t worry. I’m sure a good seamstress could fix that right up for you.” I glared at him. “I remember now, you standing front and center when Crosby announced Dr. Thorne was dead. And being so helpful with Mrs. Thorne, getting her out of there. The only thing left for us to do is check your hospital’s inventory. I’m willing to bet my farm that we’ll find a missing trocar, big enough for cow surgery. Or to drain someone’s jugular vein fast.”
Sanderson stepped back, reaching behind him for the doorknob.
Crosby slid forward. “You’re under arrest for the murder of Edward Thorne.”
The doctor twisted away, reached into his pocket, and brought out a loaded syringe. Before I even noticed his other hand moving, he’d torn off the needle’s cap, held the syringe in his fist, and pointed it at Crosby. “Stay back.”
Crosby froze, hand on the butt of his Taser.
“What’s your endgame, Tucker? You stab one of us with that, the other runs out and gets help. Or you somehow manage to incapacitate us both, and then what? How do you get away, and where do you go?” I raised a hand, pulling on a thread of magic to prepare myself, just in case. “Why’d you do it?”
“Because Edward was a goody two-shoes. He figured out I wasn’t following all the ridiculous investment rules in our little club. I was skimming some of the profit off the top. I offered to cut him in on it, but he was going to go to the cops.” Sanderson raised the syringe higher. “As for where I’ll go, I have that all ready. I’ll disappear, and you’ll never find me.”
He lunged for Crosby, syringe aimed at his neck.
I cast a tiny spell to change the momentum of his hand by an inch, giving Crosby space to grab Sanderson’s wrist. They wrestled, and I lost track of the syringe.
In the next instant, there was a soft, dull thud, and Sanderson’s eyes widened. He stopped moving long enough for Crosby to twist his wrists behind his back and cuff him.
I scooted around the table to grab the syringe from the floor. The needle was bent at a ninety-degree angle. “What happened?”
“It hit him in the leg but seemed to bounce right off. It surprised him.” Crosby lifted Sanderson’s pantleg a couple of inches to reveal a metal prosthetic.
Chapter 10
“Is that why Juliet called Sanderson unnatural when she told you who’d killed Dr. Thorne? Because of the prosthetic leg?” Alyson pushed tinsel away from her eye and tugged on a string of lights draped over her torso.
“I think so. My dog needs to take some classes on how to use language appropriately and non-hurtfully. Unnatural is a horrible term for someone with a prosthetic. Nice costume, by the way.” I gestured up and down at her Christmas tree get-up.
“Thanks!” She twirled around and shook her rear end, setting tiny ornaments to clinking and tinsel sailing to the ground. She faced me again, tilting her head. “I see you chose the same costume as last party.”
I rebalanced the witch hat, which was harder to do since Dragon had torn it up pretty good. But I’d washed it thoroughly and was confident it didn’t have any blood on it. “I didn’t have time to find something new.”
Julia sipped a frozen pink drink and gestured around at the decorated gazebo in downtown Superior Bay. “Hopefully, nothing terrible will happen at this party.” She adjusted her halo and took another sip.
“I’m surprised you didn’t go for the opposite vibe.” I smirked.
She widened her eyes. “A girl has to stay true to her inner personality. I’m an angel at heart, not a demon!” She swished her short white-and-gold skirt a couple of times. “Actually, the fairy outfit suited me better.”
A chorus of shouts and squeals made me jump. “Oh, no!” I shoved my way through the crowd of costumed partiers to the makeshift dancefloor, heart pounding as my eyes swept the ground for a dead body.
There was a cowboy lying there, but it only took a second to realize he wasn’t dead. He was breakdancing, to the delight of a bunch of whooping people.
“Is that…” Crosby, dressed in a soldier’s uniform, appeared out of nowhere behind us.
“Yep. It’s Jeremy.”
We watched until he finished his routine and stood, panting, to bow for the crowd.
I turned to say something to Crosby, but then my attention was caught by someone approaching. I stepped forward to greet Sadie Thorne, who was not in costume. She marched right up to me.
Without so much as a hello, she shoved a file at me. “There’s no one to take over my husband’s veterinary clinic since Dr. Sanderson is a slimeball murderer. I’m not a veterinarian, so I can’t own it myself, and I don’t want to, anyway. I’m moving out of Red River—to live closer to my mom now that…” Her voice caught in her throat, and she swallowed the rest of the words, then nodded at the file. “You’ll find my lawyer has offered excellent terms for you to purchase our clinic. Please negotiate directly with him.” She paused, glanced at Crosby, then slid her eyes back at me and spoke in a much softer, lower tone. “Thank you both for catching my husband’s killer.”
And then she was gone.
I studied the file in my hand, then looked at Crosby and raised my eyebrows. “Why me?” I whined.
He chuckled and swept me into his arms onto the dance floor. “Because you’re the best witch vet in the west,” he said. “Er, in the upper midwest, I mean. Don’t worry. You don’t have to make a decision tonight.”
“I guess not.” I settled in, letting Crosby lead me around the floor.
“By the way,” Crosby said, “I arrested Darwin Swanson this afternoon. He was skimming money from club funds too. That’s why he was running from the tent that night. Thorne had figured it out and confronted him. Anyway, then Darwin talked to Sanderson, who indicated he planned to pile all the blame on Darwin. Darwin got spooked and took off. Of course, Sanderson changed his mind and stopped the flow of information at its source instead. Darwin had a pretty good idea Sanderson had killed Thorne. He lied about seeing Thorne talking to Jeremy. He just wanted to stay under the radar and avoid Sanderson killing him too.”
“Wow. The Court Jesters was a terrible club.” I smiled, glad I didn’t have to worry about Aunt Dru dating the creepy vampire anymore. But now I had to find a home for Circe, the guy’s fat gray cat.
I relaxed into Crosby’s arms, enjoying the spooky Halloween atmosphere and dancing to Jailhouse Rock. Crosby was right about putting aside the decision about buying Red River Veterinary for now. Business decisions could come later. I’d solved a murder, caught a bad guy, and now I was gonna dance myself silly and enjoy Halloween.
Someone dressed as a wolf howled at the moon. I tipped my head back and smiled at the stars, then gave my own howl, and soon the whole town of Superior Bay joined in, sending our happy voices up to the sky.
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