Dewitched (Witchless In Seattle Mysteries Book 3) (16 page)

“Such an aneemal?” CC spat, her seductive almond-shaped eyes narrowing.

“Okay, sure, that works. If we have to label,
aneemal
seems like it’s a good fit. What did Bart say to you, CC, that upset you so?”

T must be her boyfriend, because he instantly stood beside her in protective mode, wrapping an arm around her waist. “He made ze rude remarks about her breasts! He ees despicable!”

Yeah. It would seem so. But one person’s rude remarks were sometimes another person’s no big deal. So I wanted to clarify.

“He called my breasts ze fried eggs!” CC shouted up at me. “He said he liked fried eggs!”

Ooo. Yeah. That was bad. What else could I do but apologize on Bart’s behalf? “I’m sorry, CC. So sorry that happened. It was rude and crass and had I known, I would have had him removed from the party.”

“You deed not have to. He was removed by ze killer. And now that I do not have ze—ze—”

“Alibi.” T filled in the blank for her, his gaunt face tight as he seethed the word at me, followed up by a dramatic stance.

Her finger shot upward. “Yes! Ze alibi. Ze police call me ze suspect. But I deed not keel zis man! I would never!”

“Well, I believe she deed not keel zis man. What about you, Mini-Spy?” Win said in my ear, his French accent near perfection.

I was certainly leaning that way. “So the police consider you a suspect?”

CC rubbed her arms, her eyes flashing dark. “Oui! Because I cannot account for my whereabouts. I was on a break and no one saw me for sirty minutes total. Ooo, I hate zis state! I want to go back where eet ees warm and no one accuses me of ze murder!”

Another voice from a cluster of the acrobats chimed in. “We did zis for Win! Long live Win!”

My ears perked up immediately, zeroing in on the person the feisty voice belonged to. Yet another gazelle-like woman, this one with fiery red hair and the longest legs possible on someone who wasn’t even five-one.

So she didn’t know he was dead? Hmmm.

“Stevie, take that Sherlock Holmes hat off right now.”

Aw, heck no. This was a real live tiny person who knew Win. Not a chance, buddy.

“You knew Win?” I asked, moving around T and CC to look down at the gorgeous creature.

She lifted her chin and purred. “I deed. He was, how do you say,
amazeballs
.”

I nodded. “Yeah. That’s the adjective I use all the time to describe him,” I said with laughing sarcasm. “So he came to your shows in Vegas?”

“
Oui.
He was most generous to us all. We came to your party as ze favor to heem, and now we are all stuck here!” she yelled, rising to a rigid sitting position, as though being here was a fate worse than death. “It ees reediculous!”

“Stevie. Let this go. We have other, far more important things to deal with.”

Nuh-uh. Now I had ze eye of ze tiger. “How was he generous?”

Her face softened a little as apparently a memory flooded her. “I deed not speak ze language very well when I come to zis country. He saved me from zis man with many hands when I work as ze cocktail waitress, even though I am ze trained ballerina. Zis man’s hands, zey were all over me, and Win rescued me. He found me zis job with ze troupe. I am forever in his debt.”

Aha. “That Win. Always a hero, huh?”

“Yes!” she cheered. “He ees always my hero.”

I had to wonder how Miranda felt about that. “So was he your boyfriend?”

“Stevie Cartwright, stop forcing the woman to kiss and tell and get on with it!” Win demanded.

But the woman shook her head, thrusting her shoulder forward as she smiled a secret smile. “No-no. Eet was not like that. Though, he was deelicious to my eyes and I would have liked it to be so.”

“That’s Win. Yummy-yummy,” I agreed, rubbing my stomach.

“Stop. You’re making me blush,” Win joked.

But the small woman just frowned at me, signaling I’d overstayed my welcome. I thanked her before turning back to find CC and T still behind me.

Blowing out a breath, I gave CC an earnest look. “Is there anything else you can tell me about that night? Anything unusual happen that you witnessed?”

CC shook her head, the tight bun at the back of her head unmoving. “No. I already told ze police everything I know. I told them about what zat peeg said to me, and I told zem about zee other man who argued with heem.”

“The other man? You mean Hardy? About so high.” I held up my arm to indicate Hardy’s height. “Nice head of hair, ruddy complexion? He’s our postman here in Ebenezer Falls.”

She shook her head vehemently. “No. Zat was not heem. I saw zis man deliver ze mail today. Zer was someone else much shorter zan zee postman. Someone ze peeg had ze angry words weeth. I could not see zis man he was arguing weeth very well, but I remember he was very pale and short. He was in ze shadows and zey were yelling.” She rolled her neck and emphasized the word yelling.

Another man? “Are you sure it wasn’t Hardy?” I prodded.

CC used a graceful finger to point at her eyes with flourish. “I have zee eyes. Eet was a different man!”

“Ding-ding-ding! New suspect alert!” Win cheered.

I
nstead of pressing CC for more information, I offered her more apologies for Bart’s bad behavior. “CC, won’t you let me make this up to you? I’d be happy to. I’m sorry Bart was so rude to you. I’m quite embarrassed.” A gift card maybe. A lifetime’s worth of kale and water?

But CC flapped a tiny hand at me like a butterfly wing. “
Merci
. That ees not necessary. It ees really not your fault. I do not wish to cause more pain to you or your mama. Now, I must go stretch. Please excuse me.” She lifted her chin and sauntered off into the small crowd of acrobats.

I turned to leave, a little deflated. As I walked past all these graceful creatures who moved so fluidly, I felt like Godzilla with my big work boots, crushing all the humans in town as I made my way off the terrace—only to run into Officer Nelson.

I stopped under a big oak on the front lawn of the inn the moment he saw me and winked. “Aw, look, Officer Dana Nelson, as I live and breathe.”

He gave me the typical, “Oh God, is there any getting rid of this pest?” look and we proceeded as per usual. “Miss Cartwright. Snooping, I assume?”

I didn’t even try to hide what I was doing. “I am. I mean, after all, it is my stepfather who was murdered. There’s a sense of urgency to that, don’t you think?”

He peered down at me, his gaze ever intense. “Only for you, Miss Cartwright.”

“So listen. Let’s get this out of the way, okay? This murder is personal. I realize Madam Zoltar and Tito were really none of my business—”

“As if that would have stopped you?” he said on a raised eyebrow.

“You’re right. It wouldn’t have stopped me. I’ve solved two murders in this town now—”

“Let’s be fair. You
stumbled onto
two killers—”

“That I’d already figured out were the killers. How I got myself
into
jams with them and how they presented themselves to me is neither here nor there.” Right?

“If that’s the way you see it,” he drawled.

I smiled facetiously. “That’s the way I see it. So, seeing as I’m doing the work of an entire police force, virtually alone, let me have this one, would you please?”

“The entire police force, Miss Cartwright? My, we’re full of ourselves this afternoon.”

“Okay, so maybe not the entire police department, but certainly worthy of at least three good men. So, in light of the fact that I like to snoop and my stepfather is dead, how about I call in my ‘you owe me’?”

“You mean the one from when you saved my life?”

“Yep. That’s the one. Remember? I do. Like it was yesterday. Reminisce with me, won’t you? You, me, the killer I stumbled upon, a tree, a scary gun, you tripping and losing
your
gun, me falling on top of the killer I
stumbled upon
and saving your life because I took a leap of faith…”

He lifted his square jaw and made a show of pretending to recall that night. “Hmmm. It’s vague.”

I planted a hand on my hip. “I’m happy to provide details. Especially the one where you told me you owed me. So in light of the fact that I saved your life, maybe you could let me slip through the cracks on this one? Turn a blind eye, whatever. Just let me snoop.”

Crossing his arms over his broad chest, Officer Nelson of the dark hair and chiseled face—Dana, to his friends—looked at me long and hard. At first, his unwavering gaze had always left me nervous, as though I’d done something bad and he knew about it. But over the course of these last few months, I’d grown used to this tactic, and I served him up some of my own by staring right back.

He broke first, his eyes flashing with the smallest of glimmers. “Okay. But I’m warning you, Stephania Cartwright, you’re not exactly invisible.”

“Did you just call me fat?” I teased.

“I most certainly did not. What I’m saying is, you don’t hide your snooping very well. You’re everywhere. I can only be blind for so long before someone questions why I’m not questioning it. So carry on, and just this once, I’ll leave you alone. But that’s your one-time-only pass.”

“Fair enough. Now, any news on the ruling for Bart’s death?”

“None.”

“Any new suspects besides the obvious ones like CC and Hardy?”

“Wow. You move quickly. Maybe you
should
join law enforcement?”

“And stand next to you? I’d be proud, but nah. You have too many rules.”

“Rules are what keep order.”

“And keep me from snooping. They don’t mix. So, any new suspects?”

“I can’t comment on any new information, but rest assured, you’ve covered most of it.”

“Any calls coming into the police station about Bart’s killer after my mother’s television debut? Any tips? Good tips?”

He rocked back on the heels of his spit-shined shoes. “Ah, yes. Your mother. We now have people working in shifts because of her generous offer.”

“You want to kill her, don’t you? It’s okay. I get it. She’s a lot.”

He rolled his tongue along the inside of his cheek. That meant he was thinking over his words in order to use caution. “Kill is a strong word. Take her phone away is more like it.”

“That’s more than one word.”

Officer Nelson sighed. “Miss Cartwright, are we done here? I have work to do.”

“Almost. What’cha workin’ on?”

“Picking up my date for an early dinner.”

I think my eyes bulged. “
You
have a date?”

“I know you find this hard to believe, but I do have a personal life.”

“I
do
find it hard to believe. I thought you slept in your uniform and ate nails for breakfast.”

“Well, you were wrong. About the uniform, anyway,” he offered with a smirk.

I barked a laugh, my head tipping back on my shoulders. “Anything else of importance you want to share with me?”

His lips went thin, the sure sign he was clamming up. “Can’t think of a thing.”

I could never read Officer Nelson. He was aces at being stoic and keeping his secrets, and nowhere near as easy to trip up as Sandwich, but he always had the good information, making him worth a try.

So I patted him on the arm. “Good talk. Okay, so this is the part where I go snoop until my eyes roll back in my head, and you go away. Nice seeing you, Officer Nelson.”

He tipped an imaginary hat as he moved around me and headed up the walkway to the front door of the Sunshine. “And you, Miss Cartwright.”

I skipped down the sidewalk, the sun beating down on my head as I walked to my car.

“Well done back there, Dove. I’m impressed at how far you’ve come when it’s time to cash in favors and ask questions. You handled the acrobats well, not to mention our fair Officer Nelson, with nary a bump in the road,” Win praised.

I curtsied before I got in the car. “He owed me one. I’m not sure we can chalk that up to my finesse.”

“Still, you cashed it in with clear and concise demands. Accept my praise and like it.”

My cheeks turned red. “So home now, I guess? I called Petula, who said she could squeeze me in later tonight so I could ask her some questions about the other employees she hired. We really need a list of all the waiters and waitresses, the chef’s staff, etcetera. But it’s getting close to dinner and we don’t have a whole lot else to go on right now. Except for that mystery man CC mentioned.”

“Yes, a pale short one. Remember anyone fitting that description?”

As I started the car, I shook my head. “The whole party was such a blur, I can hardly remember any of it until Bart was killed.”

Win tsked me with a cluck of his tongue. “I’m sorry, Dove. I so wanted that night to be special for you.”

“It’s okay. I told you, I’m a Cheese Whiz and crackers kind of girl. We could have broken a bottle of cheap dollar-store peach wine on the porch beam and I’d have been just as happy.” That was the truth. The finer things in life were great, but they weren’t as important to me as Win and Bel and Whiskey.

“I’m determined to teach you to love caviar and champagne and graduate your palate from kindergarten.”

“Newsflash. I’m never, not ever, going to love stinky fish eggs. It’s Cadbury or nothing.”

“Someday I’ll show you myself what you’ve been missing out on.”

I clammed up. That was never going to happen. Not ever. Not even as much as I wished it could happen. Rather than address his comment, I drove, letting the peaceful ride back to the house with the tall pines and boats on the Puget soothe me.

I pulled into the driveway, again silently thanking the pavement gods I didn’t have to rappel up the side of my lawn to get to the steps, and pressed the garage door button.

Yep. I even had a garage now. One that led into the laundry/mudroom with shiny silver appliances, shelves galore and a big sink. No more wet grocery shopping for me.

Whiskey greeted me in the mudroom, his tail furiously wagging, his favorite tennis ball in his mouth. I knelt down and scratched his big head, kissing his muzzle. “After dinner, I promise we’ll play, okay?”

He licked my face in agreement, trotting off to the kitchen to sit in his favorite spot where the sun shone in from the tall windows by the kitchen table.