A Hiss-tory of Magic: A Wonder Cats Mystery Book 1 (7 page)

I
wish
I could say that I enjoyed that afternoon, spending time with Min Park after a decade apart. In all the ways that mattered, we’d stayed the same, still best friends. The stuff with Ted and the spell book had thrown me for a bad turn, though.

We dropped by the Parks’ grocery store, and I saw the new Min Park rubbing off on his family.

Mrs. Park’s wrinkled face beamed with joy as she loudly declared what an accomplishment her son was.

“My husband is a manager. He doesn’t own this business, you know.”

“I know.” I’d known that since I was young, but I still thought Mr. Park had a decent job.

“Min owned his tech company. He sold it! He is… how do you say… set for life!”

Min gave an embarrassed laugh. “Let’s not be too loud about that, Mom.”

A lot of things had changed since our childhood. Being wealthy wasn’t just a pipe dream anymore. A memory nudged at me, of Min and I wondering what we would do if money were no object. “I guess you can have that UFO built, huh?”

“I can say, with my degree in engineering, that this is completely possible. Give science just another three years to advance, and I’ll bet sound waves and cymatics will bring us closer to a functioning tractor beam than magnetic force.” Min tapped his chin thoughtfully. “We won’t get to go into outer space, though—at least, not with the windshield-like clear panel—because of the radiation. Besides, we’d need to travel faster than light to get anywhere interesting. I’d rather invest in terraforming a planet.”

“But it would look just like earth! There’d be no point!” I exclaimed with a laugh. We’d both known that since we were kids. It was part of the running joke.

“Seriously, though.” Min Park put an arm around his mother. “I think it’s time that I settled down and started taking care of my parents in their old age.”

Mrs. Park hugged him back. “My son is ridiculous. So thoughtful! But no. That’s your money. Your father and I love to manage this shop. We love this town.”

Mrs. Park had the same warmth and reassuring presence as Aunt Astrid. Mr. Park tended to be steelier. He and Min weren’t getting along by the time Min was in his teens. I’d always been intimidated by Mr. Park.

So that’s why, when Min excused himself to go talk with his father, we both understood that would be a private conversation.

I needed to hold my own conversation with Mrs. Park.

“You could have mentioned that Min was back,” I said to her.

“I am sorry.” She did look sorry. Her voice became quiet again. It wasn’t a whisper, but I had to lean close to listen. “I had my reasons. Please don’t make me repeat them. Jake Williams has already interrogated my whole family.”

I said to her, “If you won’t tell your side, Mrs. Park, then other townspeople are going to. I heard one witness say that you wanted to talk sense into your son. Why didn’t he have any sense in him already?”

Mrs. Park sighed.

“He was at the Brew-Ha-Ha before it caught fire, and you knew. Don’t let me keep thinking the worst, Mrs. Park.” I said sincerely, “Please.”

“All right,” Mrs. Park said. “Min hates this town. After he sold the business, he traveled all over the world, looking for nice towns and cities, sending Mr. Park and me postcards saying that we should move there with him. Mr. Park refused him, told him to quit showing off.”

“Well, that’s harsh. Did Min come back as a final act of persuasion?” I asked, looking across the grocery aisle at Min and his father. They were shaking hands.

“No. He knows his father too well.” At last, Mrs. Park mustered up some strength behind her voice. “Still, he came back to this hometown of his, from his travels so far away. He couldn’t sleep. What do you call it? Plane…”

I thought for a moment. “Jet lag?”

“Yes. Thank you. He wanted to go out for a walk. When the other detective came to arrest him, he said the whole thing was suspicious.”

“Blake said so? Detective Samberg?”

“The nerve of that man!”

“He’s suspicious of everything and everyone, though.”

“What about the witness—that teenage boy who said that Min started the fire? What was he doing? Studying the glow-in-the-dark plants and animals in the lake, in the woods, alone? I can’t believe it, but he… that detective—” She cut herself off.

I thought about Cody. When Bea had been his age, she’d been more interested in experimentation and travel than just reading about scientific facts and foreign places. After graduating high school, Bea had planned and saved up to go backpacking around Antarctica, of all things. There’s a fine line between genius and craziness, and I sensed the same attitude in Cody. “I believe both of you. It’s complicated. Cody must have been mistaken.”

Mrs. Park, uncharacteristically, reached out to take my hand. “Thank you. This is the best life we could have hoped for, Mr. Park and I. Still, it’s so difficult in this town! The way people talk!”

I couldn’t tell her how much I understood. Being a witch might have been a private subculture for generations, but you couldn’t tell just by looking at us that we weren’t like everyone else.

On the other hand, once nonwitches knew who was a witch… Let’s just say history doesn’t show that people have a good record of getting over and getting used to it so that witches could just be treated like people again.

At least Min had gotten the chance to shine, to change whatever people used to think about him.

“That’s why,” Mrs. Park told me, “I told him that I would rather he go find a nice Korean girl to settle down with.”

I felt a brief twist of envy, which I tried to disguise as surprise. Min was a friend. Min was a good old friend. “If that’s what Min wants, he shouldn’t have any trouble! He’s obviously a catch, Mrs. Park.”

“It is difficult to catch a fish gone over the falls.” Mrs. Park made no gesture to emphasize what she really meant, so figuring it out took me a while.

“So that’s the real reason that you didn’t tell me,” I said to her. “You think Min likes me?”

Mrs. Park shook her head. “I don’t think. A mother just knows these things.”

“Min and I are friends,” I said, as much to myself as to her. “We even need to get to know each other again. You’ve got the whole afternoon to see that we’re just big kids, and it’s just like before the fire. It’s just like it was before this awful investigation started.”

I wanted that to be true. I’d grown up with these people even if Mrs. Park didn’t consider me an honorary family member. Everyone in every family has their… not secrets, not privacy, just boundaries. Expectations. The Parks didn’t deserve the suspicion of other townspeople.

But I couldn’t help harboring my own suspicions.

A
t dusk
, Bea called me on my cell. I could barely hear her over the background noise and electronic music.

“Bea, where are you?” I asked, standing on the grocery store’s balcony. I guess it was meant for employees on their smoke breaks. It was empty and had a view of the town.

“I’m at the Night Owl. Decent book selection, terrible café. But that just might be today. Everybody who would be at the Brew-Ha-Ha came here instead. It used to be quiet enough to browse and do some reading.”

“How’s Aunt Astrid?”

“Well enough to shoo me outside for a night out with the girls.”

The girls in question hollered their hellos.

I groaned, thinking about that morning. “Has Nadia forgiven me yet?”

“Nadia? I talked her out of reporting you to Detective Samberg for a hate crime, but I’ll tell her that you’re sorry—”

Nadia’s voice rose above the background chatter to cuss me out: “Ruby’s brother is a sore spot with her, you know. If you think he was unpleasant to you at school, imagine living with him.”

“Let me go to the restroom where it’s quieter,” Bea said.

“He was so mean to Min at school,” I said. “And Ruby’s the best friend of the worst bully, Darla Castellan! The only friend, by now.”

“With friends like Ruby, Darla doesn’t need to antagonize anybody,” Bea said.

The background noise became muffled. Bea must have found the restroom.

“Darla killed Ted for fun, then,” I said.

“Oh, don’t start! You know that I only have so much tolerance for mean, insipid gossip.” Bea droned, “Clutch the pearls! Darla strung our Ted along, and that’s why she didn’t divorce until recently! Oh, my stars! Min Park’s so handsome now—and a criminal! He’s sexy now because he’s dangerous! So much chatter in this town.”

“No offense, Bea, but I thought your friends would have a better perspective after Naomi and Ruby got together.”

“Apparently, if you can’t beat ’em, then join ’em.” Bea sighed. “The chef at the Night Owl is willing to stock our pastries once the Brew-Ha-Ha building is back up, by the way.”

“That’s great news.”

“Now,” Bea said, “you tell me something important.”

I told her about a possible fraternity that marked its members with magical pendants.

“And Min was a member?” Bea asked. “You’ve got to bring him over here! We can ask him together! Discreetly, of course.”

“With your friends treating him like an escaped felon when it was only an interrogation?”

“That’ll show more people that it was only an interrogation. And an interrogation is just questions, like we’ll ask him. Bookstore café, police department—just innocent, curious questions to find out the truth—”

At that moment, the balcony door swung open, and Min strode through, talking on his phone, sounding upset.

“No, today—tonight, whatever!” He paused. “I’m not going anywhere. You already know where my parents live and at which inn I booked a room. You should be the one to come to me for follow-up questions.” He paused. “Fine.” Then he hung up.

He told me, “This is just embarrassing. The chief wants me to meet with him for some follow-up questions. It’s not as if they found new evidence in the past six hours.”

“Ridiculous,” I agreed, hanging up on Bea, knowing that she’d heard him. “I told Blake that you couldn’t fight your way out of a wet paper bag. He probably wants to update that information since we aren’t ten anymore.” I laughed. “You know, I can’t even remember that? What was it, a wet paper bag in a pool beside the gym?”

Min didn’t laugh. “It was a burlap sack. Reuben Connors tied the sack shut, hauled me onto a boat, and pushed it downriver toward the falls. He called me ‘pipsqueak.’”

I remembered then. Maybe I’d changed it to a paper bag because the reality was much more depressing.

I had chased after that boat, reached out with my mind for the Maid of the Mist, and begged her to do something. If she had had any part in it, I didn’t see her, but I like to think that’s when I awakened to my power. All the eels and fish and everything in the lake swarmed around to bump against the boat, pushing it away from the rapids and the falls. The boat found a riverbank instead, and I got Min Park out of the sack safely.

Maybe I’d thought it was a swimming pool because I confused myself with how Darla would steal my swimsuit or my clothes while we were swimming in phys ed class. The other girls in my grade, who tried to stay out of it, were probably even worse than the ones who laughed. I’d felt so alone.

All that had been a lifetime ago for me. Min’s face, clouded over with an almost Blake-ish brooding, told me that—despite the wealth, the achievements, and all the new friends he’d met in foreign places—the horrors of his youth weren’t over for Min. I felt terrible for him because I completely understood.

“Reuben wasn’t just a bully,” I realized. “He really liked to make people suffer, and it hasn’t served him well in this town. He’s a nothing, Min. He has no power over you.”

“Right,” Min said. I could tell he was forcing a smile. “We’ve all grown up. Every encounter since high school ended is out of my mind. Reuben who?”

“That’s the spirit!”

“I won’t let him ruin this comeback!”

“Atta boy!”

“However, getting taken into police custody for arson and murder isn’t something that I’d ‘let’ ruin my day so much as it’s kind of a day-ruiner as a point of fact.”

“He did accuse you, then?” I wondered.

Min replied, “He threw a shoe at the police-car window when it passed him, and I was in it.”

“That’s not a statement the cops would find worth considering,” I said confidently. “No one in this town would bend an ear to such a lowlife.”

“And my more respectable accusers?”

“They’ll be proven wrong,” I said with a simple confidence I didn’t feel. I’d used magic for Min. Maybe he’d remembered those strange happenings when I’d let some magic slip or forgot that he wasn’t supposed to know.

Maybe he’d come back for revenge, but he knew we wouldn’t use our magic to help him with that, so he somehow figured out we had a spell book and took it.

I wanted to ask about his father and hear something good about how their relationship would proceed. A growing part of me even wanted to have a moment with him on that balcony, watching the sunset. He seemed so innocent, and I wanted to fight for that innocence if it was true, against all the lies floating around town.

But the truth was that I didn’t know him anymore.

I didn’t know anything anymore.

So instead I said, “Do you want me to come with you to meet with Talbot?”

Min shook his head, still looking glum.

It was on the tip of my tongue to say, “Too bad, I’m coming with you anyway,” but I was too confused and had no plan.

S
o I went home
. I took a detour to the falls to clear my head, though. I’ve seen enough photos and sunsets or sunrises over the falls to last a lifetime, but that time of day when drivers don’t know whether to turn on or leave off their headlights just washes the world in soft blues. It’s nature’s own magic.

I might have accidentally discovered a cure for magic burnout right then. I wonder if nonwitches just feel magic burnout all the time. The static crackle that had been distracting me the whole day smoothed over until I felt more like myself again. My mind flowed out into the world and into all the connections I’d made—as it was meant to.

As my head cleared, an image entered my mind, of Aunt Astrid lying on the downstairs living-room carpet, and my body went cold with shock when I smelled blood through Peanut Butter’s nose.

“Help! Oh, help!”
Peanut Butter wailed in my mind.
“Treacle’s gone, and Grandmommy won’t move! I found her this way, and I didn’t know what to do!”

An image that felt more like one of Peanut Butter’s memories appeared in my mind. He’d followed the smell of Bea’s shoes to a loud place full of people—the Night Owl.

That was interrupted by an earlier memory—Min Park’s formal shoes in an alleyway.

“I thought that Chief Talbot wanted to meet me,” Min said. He must have been speaking to somebody.

“I said that to throw Miss Greenstone off our trail,”
answered a low, gravelly voice. “I really apologize for the inconvenience, Mr. Ark.”

“It’s Park.”

“If things had gone differently, we would be calling one another ‘brother.’”

“Mom!” Bea screamed in the present image. She fell to her knees beside Aunt Astrid’s body. Sobbing, she checked for a pulse then for magic burn, and then she took about four deep breaths to calm herself. She needed a calm mind to do her healing.

The memory flowed back in. Peanut Butter was hiding in some old crate or box in the alleyway, knowing that Treacle was listening in from a nearby fire escape.

“I don’t have any brothers.”

“No. You don’t claim to be part of the Order anymore, right?”

Treacle yowled as he fell to the ground. He landed on his feet, as cats do, and Blake swore and grabbed my cat.

“I didn’t know what to do!”
Peanut Butter wailed again.
“They went away together. They took Treacle with them!”

I snapped out of it, reached for my phone, and dialed for an ambulance as I bolted home. The dispatcher kept asking me questions or giving me directions as if I were actually at the scene, which of course I wasn’t. I could only see through Peanut Butter’s eyes.

As soon as the dispatcher said the ambulance was on the way, I hung up and crossed Main Street into the town square. I didn’t want the dispatcher to overhear the background noise of traffic and people milling about and realize I wasn’t actually at home. Hiding these things had become second nature. I could only hope that was good enough because I might have been getting a reputation with the dispatcher.

The ambulance got there quickly, which was a minor relief, but I wasn’t there with Bea and Astrid to know what was going on, which was a major anxiety.

When I arrived at the house, the door was closed and locked. I took the spare key from the flowerpot hanging on the trellis and went inside. I found Peanut Butter in the living room and Marshmallow still in her cage in Aunt Astrid’s bedroom. All Marshmallow knew was that Aunt Astrid had gone to make herself dinner, and she’d taken the book with her.

Peanut Butter caught me up on Bea’s cover story: she’d found Peanut Butter wandering around outside the Night Owl and decided to take him home. On the way, she met with me. We decided to go to Astrid’s place instead, where we found her. I called the ambulance and went upstairs, out of sight of the paramedics. Bea had called Jake to pick me up.

With a little of Peanut Butter’s help and a lot of Marshmallow’s, we searched the house for the book. The old Greenstone house had a few loose floorboards that Aunt Astrid would hide things under, and Marshmallow knew them all. Peanut Butter and I searched them all.

I had no doubt about it. The real spell book was gone.