A Charming Hex (Magical Cures Mystery Series Book 9) (13 page)

“It’s pretty, isn’t it.” He lifted his chin and looked over the scenery.

“Since when could you do that?” Patience asked in a whisper. She bent down and looked at my finger. “That is one trick I’ve never seen you use.”

“It’s temporary.” My mind reeled with how I could cover up my big boo-boo. Not only had I put a spell on Oscar to agree with what my mind was thinking, I had also let Patience Karima see me do it. A big no-no according to Aunt Helena. “And a big secret. Understand?”

“Understand.” Patience couldn’t take her eyes off my finger.

“Crap.” I glanced over her shoulder, the sun had already set and Oscar was chowing down on the fruit and cheese.

“Good morning.” Oscar was in a chipper mood. He bent down and kissed my head.

He was already dressed and had a cup of coffee on the bedside table next to me.

“Last night was amazing at the Loop.” He stood next to the bed and glanced out over the ocean. “Just look at this place.” There was an infectious smile on his face.

I turned over on my belly and looked out at the view.

“Who on Earth ever thought of putting a hotel room in the middle of the ocean?” he asked. “So.” He turned back to me. “You are going to go and look around Mr. Victor’s office to see what the history of Patrick’s family has been?”

I never thought of that, but it was a good idea.

“And you need to find out where exactly he sent Violet yesterday. So talking to her would be a great idea.” He was so agreeable.

I continued to look out at the calm blue sea while I rubbed my fingers together. Too bad the spell was only temporary because I was enjoying agreeable cop Oscar.

“I’ve got it covered.” I rolled back over. Mr. Prince Charming was lying at the end of the bed curled up in a little ball. “I’ll be safe.”

“You better be.” He ran his hand over my bedhead before dipping his lips to give me a kiss on the top of my head. “I’ve got to go meet Officer Teabody at the lodge.”

“Okay.” I sat up and reached out to pet my ornery familiar who didn’t seem to be too worried about my safety.

Meow.
He finally moved after Oscar had walked across the bridge and was walking down the beach toward the lodge. He walked over to the table and sat next to Madame Torres. Her face floated inside the glass ball. Both of them watching as Oscar kicked up the surf on his way to meet Officer Teabody.

“It’s a shame that we haven’t really been able to enjoy our honeymoon.” I frowned recalling how excited we were to live somewhat of a normal life for the next few days.

“You will.” Madame Torres bounced around inside her ball. Her eyes blinked. Her lids were painted in yellow. Her dark lashes drew up when she opened her lids. The red rouge on the balls of her cheeks matched her lipstick. “It will come when it will come.” She winked. Her face was replaced with a large diamond.

Her words were so simple but held so much more meaning. My eyes narrowed when I noticed the floating gem. Mr. Prince Charming smacked the glass ball with his paw and Madame Torres went black.

There was no time to spare and I needed to help out in any way that I could. I reached over and grabbed the flip phone. I opened it and waited to see what would happen.

“Can I help you, June?” Gene’s young voice asked.

“I’m looking for Violet. Is she there?” I asked.

“Yes, ma’am.” He clicked off. I waited for him to click back on the phone but instead there was a knock coming from the front of the room. There was a shadowy figure on the other side of the flowing curtain.

“Did you ask for me?” Violet asked.

“Please come in.” I got out of bed and grabbed my bathing suit before I headed straight to the bathroom. “I’m going to get my suit on and I’ll be right out.”

I heard her walk into the villa. There wasn’t any more movement. When I walked out of the bathroom, she was standing near my suitcase. My potion bottles were on top of my clothes where I had left them.

“I wanted to ask how you were doing.” I noticed the bags under her eyes were dark and sagging. “I know that it has to be lonely here with no girlfriends to talk to.”

Her broken voice was a mere whisper. “I know you saw us talking yesterday.”

“That was you?” I asked, pretending that I didn’t know.

“I’ve known Patrick since we were children. His family came here for their vacations initially, later it was for Peter. He loves the sand and beach, so they started to spend summers here.” A tear trickled down her cheek. “After we started to get older, our attraction for one another grew and he was and is the only man I have ever made love to.”

I gulped.

“While he was off to college, I was here. My father insisted I learn how to run the island and that I didn’t need a college education when I told him I wanted to go to the states to be with Patrick. Father was beside himself. Neither his parents nor my father knew we had the intimate relationship we did until I told my father about my love for Patrick.” Another tear trickled, but I wasn’t falling for the murderess sympathy card. “His parents still continued to come with Peter. They would go on all day excursions because Patrick’s father was always on the hunt for a diamond mine.”

“Diamond mine?” My gut tickled. My intuition set a big alarm off. Madame Torres was trying to tell me something. I was going to have to get better at reading her.

“Yes.” She turned toward the bay and continued to tell me her tale, “They own P&P Jewels.”

“As in the national chain?” I asked remembering how I would stand in front of the P&P Jewels window admiring the charm bracelets on display. I had wanted a charm bracelet so badly. Oscar knew it. So when Mr. Prince Charming had shown up with the small turtle charm hooked onto his dingy collar, Oscar had given me his mom’s old bracelet to attach the charm.

P&P Jewels was everywhere. And their commercials too.

“Patrick and Peter.” She smiled and brought her hands up to her ears where she played with a diamond stud earring. “Patrick gave these to me the last time we made love.”

“When was that?” I asked.

“A year ago, after his parents died. Peter was having a hard time so Patrick brought him here.” Violet turned to me. “Patrick had slipped away with me for a few hours. He even told me he loved me. We made love and he promised he’d be back. It was the last time I’d seen him until he showed up yesterday with her.”

“Was he with Juliette a year ago?” I asked.

“I don’t know. He didn’t mention her.” She blinked back more tears.

“And she’s why you killed him?” It seemed like a fair question.

“Killed him?” The look of disgust clouded her face. “You think I killed him? Why on Earth would I do that?”

“Scorned woman would probably be at the top of the list.” I rubbed my finger and thumb together to be ready just in case I needed a little help. “You couldn’t stand seeing him with her. Plus I’m now sure that the drinks you accidentally spilled on her was far from accidental.”

“It was an accident.” She shied away. “I had lost all sense of myself when I saw it was Patrick and her together. Father had told me we had a wedding party, which wasn’t unusual for the island. Conveniently, he left out that it was Patrick and her.”

She sat down on the chair and hung her head. It was second nature for me to try to comfort anyone in distress. I laid a hand on her. Instantly my intuition told me that she was broken inside. She was doing everything she could to keep it together. But my intuition didn’t tell me if she was guilty.

“Let me get you some water.” I walked over to the water bottles on the table next to my suitcase and slipped the potion bottle out of my bag.

Violet’s head was still in her hands as she mourned the death of her one and only true love. Lightly I tapped a couple drips from the potion bottle and used my finger to stir it. Since I didn’t have all of my heartbreak potion ingredients with me, I tapped into Violet’s ache and summoned my newfound finger gift to do the magic for me. A bolt of lightning surged out of the tip of my finger and into the glass, creating its own perfect storm of healing a heartache.

“Here.” I handed her the glass. “Drink all of it so you can be hydrated.”

She took the glass. Tears glistened on her heart-shaped face. She almost looked angelic. I believed what she had said but could she really kill the man she loved?

“I have to tell you that Patrick had red hair stuck under his nails and was gripping some red hair as well.” I knew that if she couldn’t explain why, that was she was going to be Oscar’s number one suspect. No matter how much I would tell him that she wasn’t the killer, he went by the hard evidence.

“I’m not sure why.” She shook her head and held the glass with both hands to try to steady her trembling. “I took them night diving because my father insisted. I dropped them off at the dock and they went on their way.”

“What did he say to you yesterday when I saw the two of you at the trees?” I wanted to hear it all. Things that might not be clues to her sometimes were the biggest clues of the case.

“He told me he had written me a few times and they came back as return to sender. He even said that he’d told me about him and Juliette falling in love. Something he never expected. He was happy that his parents had gotten to meet her before they died.” She took another drink. She licked her lips and continued, “I reminded him of our promises to each other and he said that he had Peter to think about and at one time living on the island was perfect for Peter, but now Peter was doing so much better that he wouldn’t have to sell the business and move here. I told him he could move his headquarters here, but he insisted he couldn’t.”

“He was willing to sell the business?” That seemed strange.

“He wasn’t into the diamond mines and he only did what his parents wanted him to do.” She paused for a second. “Like I did with my father. My father saw Patrick leave my villa last night and told me if I didn’t stop Patrick from contacting me, he would. I told my father I couldn’t promise anything and I was going to crash the wedding. Father sent me to the mainland.”

“So that is where you were yesterday?” I asked.

“He sent me to the textile store to pick up more fabrics.” She folded her hands in her lap.

“So this,” I pulled the hanky Patrick had given me out of my bag, “was made by you?”

She took it from my hands. A smile curved on her lips and she pressed the hanky to her cheek. Her eyes closed and she inhaled through her nose.

“It smells like him,” she whispered.  “Now he’s dead.”

She downed the rest of the water and then stood up.

“I’ve taken enough of your time.” She set the glass down on the table. “You don’t need to worry about my problems. Enjoy your honeymoon. My father would die if he knew I told you all of this.”

“Don’t worry.” I reached and grabbed her hands, giving them a light squeeze. “Your secrets are safe with me. I just want you to feel better. And know that I’m so sorry you had to go through all this.”

“What was it that you needed to see me for?” she asked.

“Nothing. I wanted to give you this.” With my back turned, I dug deep into my suitcase until I felt another sunscreen bottle. With my grip around the bottle, I closed my eyes and pictured Violet on the beach, her red hair, her freckles, the sand and the sun. I tapped the bottle with my finger and let the magic transfer to the bottle, sending the perfect SPF into the bottle for her.

“I think this will work wonders for your skin tone.” I turned around and held the bottle out. “It’s a little too much SPF for me, so I thought you could use it.”

“Thanks. I have to go.” She forced a grin and took the bottle. “My father is making me groom the horse this morning while he meets with Teabody. He wants me out of sight. I appreciate your kindness, June.”

As she walked out of the room, the curtain separating the outside world blew in with a breeze.

“What was that about?” Patience appeared on the bridge leading over the water to the villa. Her hands gripped the rope sides and each one of her steps was taken with caution. The bridge swayed back and forth. Little noises of fright escaped her lips.

“I’m not wasting any time. I wanted to talk to her about why she left the island.” I contemplated what she’d said about her father and how he didn’t like hearing of her relationship with Patrick.

“It does make her look awfully suspicious.” Patience amazed me. Sometimes she was so level headed and reasonable and other times not so much.

“Her father sent her to the mainland.” I grabbed my bag and flung it across my body. “Sitting in here all day isn’t going to help solve anything.”

I ran my hand down my bag. The key I’d gotten from Patience last night at the Loop was still in there.

“Now what?” Patience sounded defeated.

“We go look in Mr. Victor’s office.” I patted my bag.

“I can’t.” Her brows dipped. “I’ve got to clean some villas.”

“Well, Mr. Victor is gone to meet with the police which gives me access to the offices without having to worry about him being there.” I had a niggling suspicion I was going to find something very important. My gut told me I had to go and go now.

Rowl! Rowl!
Mr. Prince Charming jumped up on his hind legs and scratched my bare wrist.

“My bracelet.” I hurried back over to the bedside table where I’d taken off my bracelet and clasped it back on.

When I turned back around, Patience was gone and the bridge was swinging back and forth over the water.

“Ready?” I asked Mr. Prince Charming. He swayed his tail in the air and danced his way across the bridge.

Before I followed him, I grabbed Madame Torres and stuck her in the bottom of my bag.