Crushed (City of Eldrich Book 2) (28 page)

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

T
he official story
was a natural gas explosion precipitated by a freak earthquake. Although rare, earthquakes were not unheard of in Pennsylvania, and—to use Natalie’s name for them—the extra-dimensional stinky space squid had provided the necessary seismic shaking to make the story plausible.

Magical intervention and standard Eldrich denial were sufficient to smooth over the rough spots in the story—like how almost all the windows in city hall had been blown out eighteen hours before the supposed earthquake.

Not everyone returned to a state of blissful denial. Within a week, for-sale signs began sprouting on lawns throughout Eldrich. For many, the reality of life in Eldrich could no longer be denied. They wanted out.

But some people could deny anything. The mayor, for instance. Brian had returned the Escalade to Tony’s driveway with an empty gas tank, blood stains on the backseat, and a note of apology.

Tony never responded. A few days later, he traded in the Escalade for a Range Rover. He appeared to accept the earthquake story without reservation, and pledged loudly to seek state and federal money to rebuild. But the weak cover story would unravel rapidly if subjected to the scrutiny that would accompany a request for disaster funding for such a localized catastrophe.

Owen came through for them again. His employer, a reclusive venture capitalist, generously agreed to donate the necessary funding to restore city hall and to finance Ruth and Eliot’s efforts on behalf of the refugee Fahrayans.

Owen was all over town negotiating sweetheart cash deals with desperate homeowners. At the rate he was scooping up houses, they’d have everybody indoors by Halloween.

Meaghan wasn’t clear on whether Owen still expected her to try to negotiate access to Matthew’s redacted files. Owen told her they could worry about it after they took care of the Fahrayans and processed the events of Labor Day weekend.

“Those things will be back,” he said. “You know that.”

“One crisis at a time,” she told him. “The stinky space squid will simply have to wait their turn.”

Without the influence of the love spell—or more accurately,
spells
— general sanity returned. There were even some happily-ever-after stories—the best one belonging to Tim Lyons, the police officer purloined by the Order in front of Jeff’s garage.

Despite Meaghan’s fears for his fate, the wizards had merely abandoned the magic bus—Lyons unconscious in the back—in the employee parking lot across the street from city hall. Injured, he made his way to the nearby home of a woman he’d known since childhood. Recently divorced, back in Eldrich, and love hexed, she had spent the day mulling over old photos of her childhood friend, Tim Lyons.

Each had nursed an unrequited crush on the other for more than twenty years. When he knocked on her door, dazed and bleeding, it was mutual love at first sight.

“The son of a bitch is getting married. It’s been like two weeks.” Brian shook his head. He was sitting on his front porch with Meaghan. “Tim’s the last guy you’d think would do something that impulsive.”

Meaghan smiled. “He’s known her since childhood?”

“Yeah, but—”

“I guess, once you know, you know.”

Brian gave her a skeptical look. “I guess.”

“How’s Marnie?” Meaghan asked.

Brian had taken Marnie directly to his house from city hall. She was still there, much to Natalie’s chagrin. Natalie had finally fallen for Brian, but he remained unmoved and claimed he was done with her.

He was silent for a long moment, then shrugged. “Considering what they did to her, she’s coping.”

“Are you and she . . . involved?”

He shook his head. “God, no. It’s not like that at all. She’s . . . I don’t know if she’ll ever be able to feel that way about a man again.” His face grew pink. “And I don’t know if I’ll—I wasted a lot of years loving someone who didn’t love me back. I’m not doing that again. She needs me to take care of her and I guess I need somebody to take care of.” He shrugged again. “It works for now.”

Meaghan found Marnie inside, curled in an armchair in Brian’s small guest room, staring out the window. Her hair had begun to grow back, but the gashes healing on her scalp were still visible.

Clad in an oversized Eldrich PD T-shirt and baggy sweatpants, a coffee mug cradled in her hands, she looked small and frail, nothing like the confident, beautiful woman she had been before her ordeal.

Meaghan knocked gently on the door frame. “Hi, got a minute?”

Marnie nodded. “You want to see how I am.”

“Um . . . yeah. Can I come in?”

Marnie gave her a weak smile, but didn’t make eye contact, and gestured at the bed. “Have a seat. There’s some coffee in the kitchen if you want it.”

Meaghan shook her head. “I can’t stay long. But I wanted to drop in and see you.”

Marnie nodded, but said nothing. The awkward silence stretched for a few moments until Meaghan broke it.

“Marnie, if there’s anything you need—”

“I’m better than I thought I’d be,” she said. “Jhoro, he . . . I’m not sure what he did. But it helped.”

“That thing he did in the mayor’s office?”

Marnie nodded. “Yeah. It’s not that he made me forget what happened, but somehow it doesn’t feel so . . . immediate, I guess. It’s something that happened to me, but I know it’s over, and now I can put it in the past.”

“You need to process what happened or—”

“That’s what he did, I think. Brian got me a book on surviving trauma and I think that whatever it is that makes someone keep reliving awful things, Jhoro took it away.”

“Do you still have feelings for him?”

Marnie shook her head. “Not like that. Those feelings weren’t real. I think we both got hexed. I knew he was gay, that he was grieving for Finn. I wasn’t trying to get romantic with him. I only combed out his dreads for the challenge. For a hairdresser, that rat’s nest on his head was like Mt. Everest.”

Meaghan sighed. “I’ve received several confessions from witches in town about casting their own love spells.” She decided not to mention Orinda’s spell for now. “I think you both got caught up in that.”

Marnie bit her lip. “Maybe. I should have known better, but when a god invites you into his bed, it’s hard to say no.”

“Jhoro initiated it?”

Marnie nodded. “Like I said, I wasn’t even thinking about him that way. Not seriously, at least.”

“So why did you cast a love spell?”

“I didn’t.” Marnie finally looked Meaghan in the eye. “I wanted to ease his grief.”

“Make him forget Finn?”

“Not forget. But make it less . . . close.” She gave a small humorless laugh. “I was trying to do for him what he did for me. Make it hurt a little less. Give him some distance.”

Meaghan sighed. “I wish it had worked. He’s a wreck. He’s spending most of his time out in the woods at Finn’s grave.”

Marnie shrugged. “Maybe that’s for the best. You can’t get over something you won’t let yourself feel.”

They sat in silence for a long moment.

“Brian’s a good man,” Marnie said.

“He is. A very good man. One of the best.”

Marnie nodded. “He deserves somebody who will love him back. Not somebody broken.”

Meaghan felt her eyes prickle with tears. “You’re not broken.”

“Yeah, I am. For now at least. Maybe not forever.” She stretched and stood up. “Thanks for checking on me, but now you need to go home and get ready for your date.”

Meaghan was glad she hadn’t accepted a cup of coffee because she would have choked on it. “How,” she spluttered, “do you know about that?”

Marnie smiled, really smiled, for the first time. “I may be broken and traumatized and hiding from the world in Brian’s guest room, but I still hear stuff. Also I gave John a haircut yesterday. He looks good.”

Meaghan headed home. Until permanent office space was found, the solicitor’s office had relocated to her seldom-used formal dining room.

While most of city hall would be habitable once the electrical system and bathrooms were repaired and the windows replaced, Meaghan and her staff would be located off site until January at least. But part of the design and rebuild of the space would involve locating and minimizing mystical hotspots, so it would be worth the wait.

The details of her and John’s date were a secret that apparently everyone but the two of them shared. There had been many whispered, giggling conversations between Natalie, Kady, and Russ, who had become an unofficial member of the staff because “it’s my house, too, and I’ll go anywhere in it I please, and you’re not the boss of me, thank you very much.”

At home, Kady waited for her. “Hey boss. Ready for your date?”

“Not really,” Meaghan said. “I’m freaked out by the whole thing to be perfectly honest.”

“So’s John. At least that’s what Jamie says, but he’s freaked out by the idea of you dating his dad, so he’s probably projecting.”

“Where is everybody?”

“Jhoro’s been gone all day. Jamie and Patrice hit the road after lunch to take the Hummer back and pick up the kids from that Gigi lady.”

Patrice’s former foster mother had been keeping the kids. Liddy had been due to start kindergarten the Tuesday after Labor Day, but she was so fiendishly bright that her parents decided missing the first few weeks wouldn’t be a problem. Jamie seemed to be doing a lot better and Patrice’s new powers appeared to be in remission, but they needed some time together as a couple to get their marriage back on track.

“And the terror twins?” Russ and Natalie, no longer forced to hide their connection to each other from Meaghan or from Kady, who had been let in on the secret, were in a giddy competition to see who could plan the most extravagant evening for Meaghan and John.

“Plotting. Go get ready. Natalie says wear a dress.”

“Any idea what they’re up to? How bad is it?”

Kady smiled. “Not bad at all. Don’t worry. It’s actually quite nice. Natalie swore me to secrecy in a witchy way so I can’t say anything else. I have sealed instructions to give to John when he arrives.” Her expression changed abruptly. “Not again.”

“Morning sickness?”

“All-stupid-damn-day sickness.” Kady ran for the powder room.

Meaghan chose a simple black dress that she knew looked great on her, put on some jewelry and makeup, and even dug out a pair of heels from the back of the closet.

After a moment’s reflection, she stuffed a pair of socks in her hiking boots and carried them with her. It was Eldrich. Anything might happen. Best to be prepared.

John arrived. Kady met him at the door and handed him an envelope on her way out.

Meaghan came down the stairs, her stomach fluttering.

John’s mouth dropped open, and then he smiled. “You . . .
Wow
.”

“I clean up pretty good, don’t I?” She giggled like a teenager, her face flushing. “So do you. Damn. You really wear that suit well.”

Meaghan suspected Owen and Eliot—still on crutches but healing well—had a hand in dressing John. If it had been up to John, he’d have put on jeans and a clean T-shirt. He wore a black suit, perfectly cut, with a simple gray shirt and no tie. Marnie had shaped his shaggy dark blond hair into a sleek mane that framed his face, accentuating his cheekbones and setting off his vivid blue eyes.

“Thanks. I even borrowed a nice car, so we don’t have to ride in my crappy truck.”

John escorted her outside where Edna’s Crown Victoria, freshly washed, sat gleaming in the fading September sunlight.

Meaghan glanced over at Edna’s house. Edna peered back through binoculars and gave Meaghan an exaggerated thumbs-up.

John tore open the envelope and started laughing.

“What? Where are we going?”

He handed her a sheet of thick, high-quality paper, covered in ornate calligraphy:

Welcome to La Petite Maison (aka Natalie’s house)

Your chef, Russell Keele, has prepared a delicious gourmet meal, which you’ll find waiting in the kitchen with simple reheating instructions.

The guest room has been prepared for your comfort.

Have fun, you crazy kids!

We won’t be waiting up.

(Hint, hint.)

“Oh, God,” Meaghan rolled her eyes. “They really want us to . . . you know.”

“Only when you’re ready,” John said, smiling at her.

She smiled back. “I’m starving. Let’s go.”