Gone With the Witch (23 page)

“W
e've already returned the dogs and the cat,” Glinda said as we stepped off the pathway at the opposite end of the village green.

Dark clouds hung low in the sky as we crossed the street and turned a corner onto a beautiful cobblestone lane. The tree-lined street was as familiar to me as my own.

It was Nick's street.

And Glinda's as well.

It was her garage I'd seen in my vision.

As we walked, I was still trying to digest everything Glinda had told me about how she'd become entangled with the petnapper . . . and why she was harboring a murder suspect at her house.

It was Vivienne Lucas I'd seen with Cookie when I granted Angela's wish.

I slid a look at Glinda, who wore a determined expression as we hotfooted it along. For someone who, in
the past, had been fervent about justice being served in all cases, Glinda was doing a lot of colluding lately.

Before we left As You Wish, Glinda had contacted the petnapper with a request to meet with us. I wanted to hear what the woman—and Vivienne as well—had to say for herself before calling Nick.

Birds chirped from high branches as we strode up Glinda's driveway. “We were waiting until tonight to take Cookie home, so as not to arouse extra suspicion. I'm kicking myself that I didn't do it the opposite way.” Giving me a pointed glare, she added, “You wouldn't be here if Cookie had turned up last night.”

We
. Glinda had apparently become Team Petnapper after hearing some sort of sob story as to why the crimes had been committed.

“And what if I didn't find out?” I asked. “She would have gotten off scot-free.”

Glinda opened the tall wooden gate leading into the fenced backyard, and I followed her through the opening. “That was the plan, yes. She's truly remorseful and promises to never do it again.”

“Remorseful or not, you don't think she needs to be punished? She tried to steal Clarence, after all.”

I'd never been in Glinda's backyard and was pleasantly surprised to see how nice it was, with its numerous flower beds, koi pond, and outdoor fireplace. A large oak tree in the corner of the lot provided a leafy canopy for most of the space. As I glanced around, I noticed that some of the flowers had been eaten, which confirmed what I already knew: Cookie had been here. The high fence would have hidden her from any nosy neighbors.

Glinda shrugged. “What she did was wrong—on a lot of levels—but all the pets but Cookie are back with their owners, and she will be soon, too. I figured no harm, no foul.”

I stared. “Lots of harm. Lots of foul! Pets are family.
It's not so much petnapping as kidnapping. Plus, she broke a lot of people's trust.”

“I know. You're right. . . . Maybe I'm just getting soft, but I feel for her.” Glinda slid a key into the lock of the garage's side door, and high-pitched barking started on the other side.

Usually, I was the one with the soft side, the tender heart. But taking pets crossed a line I wasn't sure I could so easily forgive and forget.

The scent of freshly cut wood, undercut by pet odors, filled the air as I followed Glinda into the garage. She quickly closed the door behind us as Clarence dashed over to me, his tail wagging. I took a moment to pet his head and tell him what a handsome boy he was, and he agreed by slobbering on my hand.

At a folding table in the center of the garage sat two women, neither of whom seemed as happy as Clarence to see me.

I didn't blame them. The police had been looking for both of them.

A small dog charged toward me, skidding on the sawdust-covered floor. As I bent to rub Audrey Pupburn's silky ears, my thigh was head-butted by an ornery little goat. “Hey, Cookie. Long time, no see,” I said to her.

“Mehh!”
She head-butted me again.

“Did you miss me?” I asked the goat.

“You two know each other well, then?” Glinda asked.

I rubbed Cookie's knobby head. “We've run into each other a few times lately.”

Even though the garage was spacious, it was feeling a bit claustrophobic, with all the people and animals.

A portable air conditioner buzzed from a small window, keeping the room cool. Above the unit, dim sunlight filtered in through a dusty windowpane, and overhead fixtures provided plenty of light.

The older woman who sat at the table said, “You've
a way with animals, Darcy. Are you certain there are no Zoacrafters in your bloodlines, dear?”

As Reggie Beeson studied me with those clear blue eyes of hers, as if trying to determine the possibility, I walked over to the table. Cookie followed behind me. “Fairly sure, Reggie.”

“It's a shame there's no easy way to switch Crafts,” she said. “You're a natural.”

“I'm happy with my Craft,” I said as I sat in a chair Glinda had dragged over. “By the way, I think I have something of yours at As You Wish, Reggie. A cloak?”

She pressed an age-spotted hand to her chest. “You've found it? Thank heavens. It was Samuel's, and I hated the thought that I had lost it.”

“Actually, the police found it,” I said. “At the pond behind the Wisp, where you dropped it when you tried to steal Archie. Nick gave it to me for safekeeping.”

Reggie Beeson was the petnapper, and I was still having trouble understanding what had led her to do something so despicable.

“Oh,” she said dejectedly.

That about summed it up.

I glanced at the other woman at the table. “Hello, Vivienne.”

“Hi, Darcy,” she said, looking embarrassed, and then she glanced at Glinda with a question in her dark eyes.

Glinda carried over another chair and dropped into it. “Angela Curtis wished to know where Cookie was, and Darcy saw you here when she granted the wish. I had to tell her everything. About you, about Cookie. About Reggie.”

Everything, it turned out, had been quite the tale.

I looked at Reggie. The fiery color in her cheeks matched the red in her hair. “I'm so ashamed,” she said in a whisper.

It turned out that Liam had in fact seen the
petnapper—Reggie—after she tried to steal Clarence. He'd chased her down and taken her home with him to deal with when Glinda arrived. Shortly afterward, Vivienne had shown up on Glinda's doorstep as well, seeking help after hearing about Baz's accident and suspecting she was being framed.

Glinda had had her hands full in the past twenty-four hours.

“Why Archie?” I asked Reggie. “It was such a risk.”

She nervously tapped her fingers against the table. “I know it was, but it had been a calculated risk. I took every precaution. I used Samuel's Crafter cape so mortals couldn't see anything going on. I tripped Terry from behind with my cane so he didn't see anything . . . I had it all planned, but when I heard the police sirens, I lost my balance and dropped Archie. Panicked, I rushed as fast as I could home that afternoon, and had to lie down for an hour before my heart rate returned to normal. Then I realized I didn't have Samuel's cape, that I'd lost it somewhere along the way.”

“But why Archie?” I persisted, not telling her those sirens had come from Archie himself. “If he knew who had taken him, you would be banned from the Craft. . . .”

“For a Halfcrafter, the risk was worth the penalty.”

It was, I realized, sadly true. She wouldn't lose powers, because she had none. . . .

“But why risk it at all?” I asked, not sure what propelled such shocking behavior.

“He's extremely valuable, and I needed money,” she said simply. “Money I need because I love my freedom more than being any kind of witch.”

“Your freedom?” I asked. “I don't understand.” Cookie put her head on my leg, and I realized she was trying to eat my jeans. As I looked around, I noticed that Glinda had moved all of her wood-working crafts out of the goat's reach. Smart.

Reggie entwined her fingers. “I was the caretaker for both my parents, which was why I didn't marry until so late in life. I put their needs before my own. Then when I married, I put Samuel's needs before my own. Then when he died, I put the shop's needs before my own.” She drew in a deep breath. “Don't get me wrong. I'm grateful for the life I've lived. I truly am. Very few people are loved the way I was . . . and am. I don't regret the choices I've made. I'd do them again.”

The emotional strain in her voice was making my heart ache. Clarence must have sensed her distress as well, because he loped around the table to nudge Reggie with his nose.

She smiled at him and rubbed his head, then looked around the table. “But I am ready, for once in my life, to put
my
wants,
my
needs, first, and neither include moving south to be a companion for a woman I don't even know. Life is short. I knew that before my stroke, but it just served as another reminder to me of what I want to do. I'm seventy-six years old. It's time I focus on me. I want to travel. I want to dance in Spain. I want to see Kilimanjaro. I want to feel the spray of Victoria Falls on my face. I want to soak up the sun on an Australian beach. . . .” Her voice trailed off wistfully. “But to do those things I need money. In plain terms, I'm broke.”

Stunned, I blinked at her. “No money? No retirement funds?”

“Retirement funds?” She laughed. “Hardly. There has been barely enough money to keep the shop open, never mind any kind of retirement account.”

Suddenly, I heard Pepe's voice echoing in my head, about how some village shops barely made enough for their proprietors to get by.

“My house was mortgaged to the hilt and fortunately, when it sold, there was enough to pay off the note in full,
but there was nothing extra. Any money I've scrimped and saved over the years went to paying off medical bills after my stroke. I probably would have continued running the shop until my last breath, except I didn't have enough money to renew my lease. I told myself it was the universe's way of telling me it was time to move on. On paper, becoming a companion was the answer to my problems. It would provide a roof over my head, food to eat . . . but in my heart, I know it's not the answer for me. But as the time grew closer for me to leave, I knew I simply could not do it and I panicked.”

“So you took the animals?” I asked, feeling a mix of sympathy and horror.

With a guilty flush, she said, “When taking Archie failed, I was desperate enough to steal the other animals. I hid them in the storage barn behind my house, planning to sell them online as soon as possible.”

“Did you take Lady Catherine, too?” I asked.

She nodded. “However, she escaped from me on the way back to the storage barn. She was just too energetic for me to handle with my cane and all.”

So it
had
been dumb luck that Ivy had found the dog. I sent her another silent apology. Maybe I'd cut my bill by three-quarters. “How did you get Cookie?”

“She came by the shop for a drink of water, and I grabbed her, thinking I could sell her, too. She's terribly cute, and I was desperate. If only I'd found Lady Catherine after she broke free, all this would have been averted. I'd have been the one to receive Marigold's generous reward.”

Cookie was still trying to eat my jeans. It was a very good thing I was used to drool. “Was money your motivation for wanting to sell my paintings at the shop?”

“Sorry,” she said with a wince. “Though I wasn't lying when I said the paintings were beautiful. They are.”

My head was starting to hurt.

Reggie said, “I thought . . . I thought if I could just get enough to start the first leg of my journey, then fate would supply the rest . . . and if it didn't, I'd come back with my tail between my legs and try not to think too hard about my hopes and dreams.”

I rubbed my temples, trying to ease the growing ache. “So what changed? Why were the animals returned?”

Tear suddenly filled her eyes. “I realized the error of my ways, thank goodness. I just couldn't sell those animals. I was doing something that went against everything I've ever believed, everything I ever represented. Pets are family, and I couldn't bear knowing I was responsible for taking them away from those who loved them. It's contemptible. I decided I had to return the animals, no matter what the cost my future. Frankly, I deserve to rot for what I put those pet owners through.” She sighed, clearly disgusted with herself. “I was returning Clarence when Liam caught me and got Glinda involved.”

“Wait,” I said, confused as I thought about the phone call Glinda had received. “He caught you
taking
Clarence, didn't he?”

“No,” Reggie said. “He caught me bringing Clarence
back
. I'd already taken him an hour before, and Liam just hadn't noticed yet.”

Glinda let out a sigh. “When I returned home, Reggie was telling Liam the whole sordid tale.”

“That's about the time I showed up on Glinda's doorstep,” Vivienne said, picking up the story. “It was my idea to help Reggie return the rest of the animals and sweep the whole matter under the rug. After my accident, it was Reggie's suggestion that a dog would help my recovery. I'm not sure what I would've done without Audrey. I owe Reggie for that, so I'm more than willing to forgive her for what she did.”

“Thank you, dear,” Reggie said, patting Vivienne's hand. “If only I can forgive myself. As first I believed
returning the pets would be enough, but I know I've stolen my friends' trust as well as their pets, and I need to fix that, too. As soon as we're done here, I'll be heading to the police station to turn myself in. It's time to take responsibility for my actions and face my fate, whatever it may be.”

“But—,” Vivienne began, her eyes glistening with moisture.

“No, no.” Reggie cut her off. “I have to do it. No arguments.”