A Witch Before Dying: A Wishcraft Mystery (27 page)

“I need your help. I need to talk to Dorothy, but I don’t know where she lives. I assume you do?”

“What do you need to talk to her for?” he asked, aghast.

“Well, it’s not so much as talk to as it is to see if she hasn’t maimed Ve in some way.” I explained how Ve was going to see Dorothy and hadn’t returned.

He paled. “We must call the police at once!”

I put my hand on his arm. “I don’t think it’s that drastic.” Yet. “Let me just run by and see what I can see. Then we’ll call the police if we have to. Where does she live?”

“She’s moved since we dated. I think…” He scratched at his temple. “I believe she moved to Cauldron Lane. No, Woodland Court.” He threw his hands in the air. “My memory, it’s not so good.” He clapped twice and a little black book appeared.

He had a similar trick for his customer records that never ceased to amaze me.

His finger glided across the page. “Aha! Here it is. Old Forest Lane. Do you know it?”

I knew it well.

It was Nick and Mimi’s street.

O
pposite ends of the street, it turned out. Dorothy’s house, a cute cottage, was the third house on the street, and Nick’s was far on the other side—at the dead end.

For some reason, that knowledge gave me some comfort.

But that comfort was short-lived. As I walked up the driveway to Dorothy’s house, toward the open garage door, what I saw stopped me in my tracks and made me want to turn around and run all the way home, sore ankle and all.

In fact, I thought that was a splendid idea.

I spun around, hoping they hadn’t seen me.

“Darcy!” Nick called out.

Damn, damn, damn.

Slowly, I turned back around and pasted a phony smile on my face. “Hi,” I said, giving a little finger wave.

Glinda glared back at me, looking as pretty as pretty could be in a yellow sundress. “I’m surprised to see you here, Darcy,” she said.

Suddenly I felt like I should have put more care into my denim capris and white tank top as I approached them in the garage. “I, ah, came to see if Ve was still here.”

The two-car garage was spacious and open. On one side, a pair of bikes was parked along with other household riffraff, like the lawnmower and trash cans. The other side of the garage, however, had been fashioned into a woodworking shop. Dozens of chisels sat on a work top, and several pieces of big equipment—planes and lathes and saws—took up most of the space. Along the wall were dozens of handmade wooden items, ranging from brooms to plaques with kitschy sayings, to frames and even baskets. Shelving held freestanding objects, like bowls and statues. All were exquisitely made.

I glanced at Nick. “I’m surprised to see you here.”

He was in casual clothes. Jeans and a T-shirt. His hair was rumpled and stubble darkened his cheeks. He looked fairly exquisite himself.

“Just taking a walk,” he said, “and saw Glinda in here. Thought I’d see what she was working on.”

He had a tone to his voice I couldn’t quite place. I studied him closely and was taken aback when he winked at me. A flash of red across the street caught my eye. Archie was sitting on a tree in the neighbor’s yard.

Ah. I got it now. Archie had tipped off Nick that I was coming over here and he had come as backup—only he’d beaten me here.

“You’re working on something?” I asked her, all sweetness and light, now that I realized Nick didn’t hang around here in his free time. Then it dawned on me. If Dorothy was a Broomcrafter, there was a good likelihood Glinda was, too. “Brooms?”

She lifted a perfectly plucked eyebrow. “A bowl.” She lifted it up to show me. It was beautiful, and I realized I’d seen one just like it recently.

“Do you know Zoey Wilkens?”

Glinda’s eyes widened; then she laughed. “Know her? Of course I do. She’s my sister. You didn’t know?” She rolled her eyes. “I shouldn’t be so surprised you don’t
know. Zoey doesn’t like to remember that she’s part of this family, too. She’s embarrassed of us. Well, of Mom. Why did you ask about Zoey?”

“She had a bowl like yours and said she made it. It was gorgeous.”

“She’s very talented. A natural talent, because she’s not even a Broomcrafter,” Glinda said. Then laughed a little. “She doesn’t know about the Craft at all. She’s not even a Halfcrafter. Jonathan never shared his Craft secret with her when he married her. Zoey’s still a full mortal.”

“How is that possible?” I asked, trying to figure out how Zoey was a mortal with Dorothy, a Broomcrafter, as her mother.

Glinda grabbed a broom—a normal one, found at any hardware store—and started sweeping. “Zoey is the lucky one in the family. She was adopted during Mom’s second marriage, so she thankfully doesn’t share my crazy genetics.”

My head was spinning with all this information. And oddly, during this strange, strange conversation, I also realized that I kind of liked Glinda.

I hated admitting that.

“Mom’s second husband was a mortal, and Mom wasn’t about to lose her powers to tell him about the Craft so he had no idea about our abilities,” Glinda said, still sweeping. “And since it was secret from him, it had to be kept a secret from Zoey, too.”

Magical subterfuge seemed like such a tangled web.

“Isn’t it hard to keep that big of a secret from Zoey?” Nick asked.

“Easier than you think,” Glinda said. “As Crafters, we know how to keep a secret. Some of us more than others.” She sighed. “With Zoey’s talent, she should be woodcrafting as a career, but no. She fell under Jonathan’s spell and insists on staying at the restaurant.”

Jonathan’s spell. Had he really cast one, or was it only a figure of speech? It was something I had to think about. According to everyone, Jonathan and Zoey’s relationship had come out of nowhere…. Had magic been involved? Had he made her fall in love with him just like Geer had made Patrice fall in love with him?

“You don’t like Jonathan?” Nick asked.

“He’s okay.” She reached for a dustpan. “But I can’t understand what she sees in him. Love is blind, right?”

All I could do was nod. “Sometimes.” Which reminded me of why I was here. “Have you seen Ve? Is she still here?”

“I haven’t seen her,” Glinda said.

“Is your mom home?” I couldn’t believe I had the guts to ask. Confronting Dorothy was the last thing I wanted to do. Having the agate ball made me feel a little bit more confident.

“She’s working today.” She set the dustpan on the ground.

“At Third Eye?” I asked.

She nodded and angled the broom to sweep the debris into the dustpan.

“But it’s closed,” I said, wandering over to the workbench for a look at the little wooden snowmen on the shelf. They were adorable. “I was just there.”

Worry crept into Glinda’s eyes. “Are you sure?”

“Very.”

“That’s strange.”

Nick said, “She was there an hour ago when I questioned her about the fire.”

Glinda went pale. “You questioned her?”

Nick folded his arms across his chest. “I had to.”

“What did she say?” Glinda asked.

“She said I had no proof. And she’s right. Unless you know something you want to share.”

With a blank look, she said, “No.”

She finished sweeping and picked up the dustpan. It was filled with wood shavings. My gaze shot to hers, and she quickly looked away.

“Glinda?” I said.

“Hmm?”

I held up the little snowman. “Did you make this?”

Her cheeks colored. “No.”

“Did Zoey?” I ventured.

She shook her head.

“Dorothy?”

After a long second, she nodded.

“And what kind of woodwork is this, exactly?”

When Glinda didn’t answer, Nick took hold of the snowman and examined it.

“It’s been whittled,” he said solemnly.

Whittled. Just like the person who’d been in the woods the night Evan was attacked.

We both turned and looked at Glinda.

She closed her eyes and slowly opened them. “I know what you’re thinking.”

“What’s that?” Nick asked in his official cop voice.

“You’re thinking my mom was the one who assaulted Evan in the woods Monday night.” She looked into the distance, then focused on us again. “And I think you’re right.”

I was still reeling from what Glinda had said in her garage as I pushed open the back gate to As You Wish. I glanced at the woods where Dorothy had been Monday night, whittling while she watched what was going on inside the house.

She hadn’t been lying in wait for me at all, as Evan and Ve had so kindly suggested.

She’d been watching Ve. According to Glinda, Dorothy had been trying to find some dirt that she could take to Sylar so he wouldn’t marry her.

Glinda had dropped even more bombshells during our conversation. Not only had she figured out days ago that her mother must have been the whittler in the woods, but she admitted that she suspected her mom had been the one who stole the wood shavings from her car. Glinda denied knowing anything about the fire, and finally said she really needed to find her mother and talk to her. Very curtly, she had asked me and Nick to leave.

Archie, who’d been waiting for us across the street, then informed us that Ve was back at home, safe and somewhat sound.

Apparently, she had taken ill again.

Had she eaten at the Sorcerer’s Stove and Zoey just hadn’t seen her? Or was this a recurrence of what she had been battling all week?

Returning to As You Wish, I opened the back door, but only silence greeted me. I kept my bag with me, since Ve had me really freaked out about having the agate sphere on me at all times and the Elder had me paranoid about letting Melina’s diary out of my sight.

Stepping into the kitchen, I was about to call out a hello when I heard voices upstairs.

“I wasn’t very happy at first, as you know,” a woman’s voice said. “But I have become accustomed to the idea. It’s rather nice to have a Crafter on the police force. Someone who understands both worlds. I just hope he is careful. For Mimi’s sake.”

It was a voice I recognized, but I didn’t know who it belonged to. I assumed a familiar, though Ve refused to admit we had one in the house. And neither Tilda nor Missy would talk to me, so if it was either of them I didn’t know why they wouldn’t just reveal themselves.

Ve sneezed. “I trust that he will figure out what is going on around here. Which reminds me that I need to cast another protection spell on the house. I didn’t have time to do it properly last night.”

Why were they talking about Nick? And what did Ve mean she hadn’t had time? She was gone for hours. How long did a protection spell take to cast?

“For now you’re resting. Cherise warned you not to do too much too soon.”

Ve said, “I had some big decisions to make today. I needed to speak to a few people.”

“Did you?” the woman asked.

“Some. Not all. I couldn’t find Dorothy.” She sneezed. “I don’t like hurting others.”

“Perhaps it will not hurt as much as you think.”

Ve said, “I believe you may be right about that.”

“You should tell Darcy what is going on.”

“I will,” Ve said.

“Soon.”

“Don’t be so bossy,” Ve said with a laugh.

“It’s my job to be bossy. Now rest.”

I backed away from the stairs and headed outside. I sat on the porch steps and tried to make sense of what I’d heard.

Who was that woman? And what was Ve keeping from me?

L
ater that night, I still didn’t have any answers as Harper and I walked into the Sorcerer’s Stove. Ve was, in fact, unwell again. Her fever had returned, her head was congested, and she wasn’t too happy about it.

I’d called Cherise to see what she had to say. “Darcy, it sounds like a recantation spell to me. Which is alarming for a couple of reasons.”

“Like?” I had asked.

“The number one reason being that someone really doesn’t want Ve to get well. Number two is that the person had to know I was there, casting a spell to cure her. A recantation spell must be cast within an hour of the original spell. Is it possible anyone has been watching your house?”

I’d laughed and laughed until I had tears in my eyes. And when I said, “It would be easier to figure out who hasn’t been watching the house,” she promised to sneak by tonight and cast another spell. I had been ordered not to tell another soul about it—not even Ve. The spell would be cast while she slept. I’d readily agreed.

When I left for the cooking class, Ve had been bundled on the couch watching more
Survivor
episodes with Archie. He was in charge of her while I was gone.

The Sorcerer’s Stove was eerily quiet, with only a few
customers scattered about the large restaurant. I did see Lazarus and Andreus Woodshall in a far corner having dinner. Thankfully, it was a well-lit corner.

When Andreus saw me, he gave a slight nod. I nodded back.

“Who’s that?” Harper asked.

“Andreus.”

She craned her neck for a better view. “Mr. Macabre? He doesn’t look so scary.”

I pushed her along to the classroom. “You’d be surprised.”

We passed the bar, waved to the friendly bartender, and saw Jonathan sitting alone in a booth, poring over several ledgers. He didn’t look too well, and I wondered if he’d seen Cherise yet. If so, I was going to have to start questioning her abilities.

Even though Harper and I were early, Harmony, Angela, and Colleen were already in the classroom. As was Zoey, who gave me a wan smile.

I couldn’t believe she was Dorothy’s daughter.

“So it was love at first sight?” Angela said, her eyes twinkling.

Zoey nodded.

Harper pulled out her stool. “What are we talking about?”

“Zoey and Jonathan,” Harmony said.

Colleen frowned. “Do you really believe in love at first sight?”

Zoey was scooping flour out of a canister. She said, “I suppose it wasn’t first sight. I’ve lived in the village my whole life and have known him for years. He always flirted with me—he flirts with everyone, as you all probably know—but I never thought anything of it. Then one day, I was in here eating lunch with a friend and I looked at him and he looked at me…. It was as if lightning struck. I was instantly in love.”