It Takes a Witch: A Wishcraft Mystery (26 page)

“Back then, there was no way to track them. I kept waiting for them to return. Over time, I met a nice man, fell in love. And finally, one day, thirty years later, I realized that my daughter wasn’t ever coming back and I wanted to go home.” Her gaze lingered on the coffin. “We packed up our things and moved to the village and bought the Pixie Cottage. I never wanted another man to hold that kind of power over me, so I never told my husband that I was a Crafter. I’d been gone so long no
one in the village remembered me, and I had a new name. It was easy to start a new life.”

“So you never knew what became of your ex and Virginia?” I asked.

“I never did,” she said. “And I suppose now I never will.”

“Was it the birth certificate you were looking for that night Nick and I saw you in Lotions and Potions?”

She nodded. “I’d hoped to find it, but I didn’t. Then you showed up. It was the first time I’d vaporized in almost forty years. You nearly scared me to death.”

I smiled. “You gave Nick quite the start. He still won’t talk about it.”

“He’s a good boy,” she said, patting my hand. Then she looked at it and snatched her hand away.

“I don’t think it’s contagious,” I said, uneasily. “Vince mentioned that you had some hives as well. Did you use any of Alex’s lotions?”

“I break out when I’m stressed. They’ve already healed. See?” She craned her neck. It was wrinkled, but clear of any blemishes.

I glanced at Evan. Maybe he
had
been the cause of the outbreak. It seemed strange that only Vince, Ramona, and I had welts, though. Many people ate Evan’s cakes that night.

“I don’t understand why it took so long for Alex to contact you,” Evan said. “She’d always told me she had no living family that she knew of. Plus, she’s been in the village a few years now. Why seek you out now?”

“I’ve been thinking about this a lot.” She looked between the two of us. “I believe she knew she had roots in the village, but not with whom. The birth certificate I mentioned was not hers, but her mother’s—­I think she only just received it from the state. I’m still not sure how she linked Virginia to me, as no one in the village knew my former name. I have no idea how she found my marriage license.”

But Pepe knew. And if he did, maybe there were others. “Something—­or someone—­led her to you.”

Suddenly, I had an idea of who. Sylar. Had the document he’d been in charge of finding to keep his part of the bargain with Alex been the wedding certificate? It made sense. If Alex knew her mother’s maiden name was Clemson, all Sylar would have to do was search all the marriage licenses with that name—­very easy to do with modern technology. “Eugenia” was a fairly unique first name, so it was probably easy to link Eugenia Clemson to Eugenia Pennywhistle. From there, all it would take was a keen eye—­the resemblance was strong when you knew to look for it. I’d have to ask Ve if she could find out for certain if Sylar had been involved.

Evan said, “If you didn’t find the birth certificate, do you know for certain Alexandra was your granddaughter? Did you have a DNA test done during the, you know…?” He trailed off instead of saying the word “autopsy.”

She patted his cheek. “I don’t need one. I know”—­she tapped her chest—­“in here. If only I’d known sooner…”

We sat in silence for a moment, before I finally said, “The other day at the park—­the wish you’d made. You said you wanted to do something nice for your granddaughter.…You were talking about Alex?”

Nodding, she said, “I wanted to give her a proper burial. It’s the least I could do, and I’d been worried about paying for it. My savings are meager, and my pension is pathetic. But the oddest thing happened. I was cleaning a dresser drawer and found a wad of hundred-­dollar bills I must have tucked away years ago.” She tapped her head. “The memory isn’t what it used to be. There was just enough to pay funeral costs, plus a little extra that I was going to use to hire you.”

“Me?” I asked, shocked.

“I’d like to hire As You Wish to help me clean out
Alexandra’s apartment. When I figured out Alex was my granddaughter, I went and talked to Marcus Debrowski.”

His name kept coming up, and it was starting to make me uneasy.

“He’s handling the legal side of this revelation,” Mrs. P said. “This morning he contacted Alex’s landlord and gave me some options. I can’t afford to carry her lease, so I can either find someone to sublease the place, or the landlord has agreed to break the lease so he can get a new renter in. Either way, I have only till the end of the month to clear things out. Will you help?”

“Of course.”

“Can we start tomorrow?”

“Absolutely.” I had a feeling the rush was not because of any hurry to dispose of Alex’s belongings but to learn more about her from them.

She reached out her hand and took mine, hives and all. “Thank you. Thank you both for being here. I didn’t realize how desperately I needed some friends.”

“Well,” I said, hearing voices in the hallway, “I invited two more. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Who?” she asked, just as Mimi and Nick stuck their heads into the room.

Her hands flew to her mouth. She stood up and Mimi ran to her and threw her arms around her waist.

Evan and I stood off to the side, giving them a little privacy. Nick approached. “Thanks for letting us know about the services.”

I’d left him a brief message, explaining the bare bones of the situation.

“You’re welcome,” I said softly, watching Mimi and Mrs. P mourn together. My heart was full to bursting.

He leaned in, bringing his lips to my ear. My body tensed from the awareness of him being so close. “Now’s not the right time, but I have a few questions for you,” he whispered. “And I hope you have the answers I want to hear.”

*   *   *

Two hours later, I walked into the mudroom, kicked off my shoes, and went to see if Harper and Ve were home. Alex’s funeral had been brief, and I was glad Mrs. P had had some moral support during the services. She’d gone home to rest, Evan had gone back to the bakery, and Nick never did ask me any questions.

I was trying not to worry about it.

Missy bounded up and circled my legs. I scooped her up and rubbed her chin.

I could hear Harper’s voice, so I followed the sound of it, up the stairs, past our bedrooms, and to the bathroom at the end of the hall. She was sitting on the edge of the tub and didn’t notice me standing in the doorway.

“What’s your name?” she was asking something in the palm of her hand.

What in the world? I squinted. It was a ladybug.

“Can you talk? Say something.”

Missy barked.

Harper jumped up. The ladybug flew off. “I was just…”

I held up a hand. “No need to explain to me. I said ‘sorry’ to a honeybee today after swatting it away. There’s no telling who’s who and what’s what around here.”

Eyeing my black skirt, shirt, and shoes, she said, “Where have you been?”

“At Alex Shively’s funeral.”

“I hadn’t heard of any funeral today, not that I would have gone. I didn’t particularly like her.” She followed me down the steps to the kitchen.

“You’re not particularly alone in that. Besides, you might have known if you’d answer your phone. Where have you been? Was Ve with you all day?”

I set Missy down, filled her water dish, and scooped out some kibble.

“Well, first Missy escaped again this morning, so Ve
and I went looking for her. We found her down near Nick Sawyer’s house.”

I looked down at the dog. She was shameless.

“And then we got to talking about Sylar and his predicament and decided to do a little follow-­up snooping on Griffin Huntley.” Her voice rose in excitement. “So we staked out his house.”

“Tell me you do not sell books about how to do stakeouts at the bookstore.”

“No, but I watch
CSI
.”

I tried really hard not to roll my eyes.

“Are you rolling your eyes at me?” she asked. “I’ll have you know that Aunt Ve and I found out Griffin is a big liar.”

“How so?” I asked, washing kibble dust from my hands.

“So, you know how he’s been on the news every night, crying about how the lotion Alex gave him made him lose his hair”—­she dropped her voice—­“everywhere?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Well, we followed him to New Hampshire—­New Hampshire!—­to a Wal-­Mart, where he stocked up on—­”

I gulped. “Nair?”

Her mouth dropped open. “How did you know?”

What I wanted to know was how
Evan
knew. Just how well were he and Griffin acquainted?

“Just guessed,” I said weakly.

“Can you believe it?” she asked. “The little sneak. He’s milking Alex’s death for all it’s worth, especially now that his alibi has been verified.”

“It has?” This was the first I heard.

“He was at the Magic Wand at the time Alex died. Getting some manscaping done. And tanning, too. He hadn’t wanted to fess up at first, but several of the salon stylists verified he was there.”

Manscaping. I smiled and shook my head.

“And I didn’t answer my phone because the battery
was dead, and Ve didn’t answer hers because it was off, because every crackpot in a hundred-­mile radius keeps calling her about that watch and the reward.”

Nick had seen that one coming. “Where’s Ve now?”

“At the jail visiting Sylar with Marcus. Apparently there’s been some sort of big twist involving Ramona Todd. Marcus is hoping to get the whole case thrown out.”

“Because of the fight Alex had with Ramona in the alley behind Lotions and Potions?”

Harper narrowed her eyes. “How do you know all this stuff? And more important, why aren’t you sharing it with me?”

“Harmony Atchison, from the Pixie Cottage, is the one who saw Ramona and Alex fighting. She told me about it when I stopped by to see Mrs. P the other day.”

“Did she say why they were fighting?”

I shook my head. “She couldn’t really hear the conversation.” And for the first time, I wondered why.

“I hope the lead pans out, for Ve’s sake, if nothing else.” She sat down and gave me a sheepish grin. “Vince asked me to go to the dance with him.”

“Are you going to?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. You know how I feel about dances.”

I knew. She hadn’t gone to any in high school.

“Plus, Vince told me he had just gotten out of a serious relationship, and I don’t particularly care to be a rebound.”

“With who?” I asked.

“Ramona.”

“He was dating Ramona?”

I couldn’t keep up with the love lives of these villagers. Seemed like everyone had dated everyone else at some point.

“They broke up a while ago, but she’s not letting it go so easily.”

I wondered if this somehow related to the argument she’d had with Alex. “What about Marcus?” I asked. “Did you ever agree to go out to coffee with him?”

“Not yet.”

I had the feeling she wouldn’t until she figured out where she stood with Vince.

Missy whimpered and zigzagged before heading toward the back door. “You need to go out?” I asked her.

She barked. I took that as a yes.

I snapped on Missy’s leash. No sooner did I open the back door than Archie flew in. He landed on the kitchen counter and bowed.

Harper openly stared at him as if taking mental notes.

My stomach suddenly hurt.

“Darcy Ann Merriweather, you have been found in violation of Wishcraft Law forty-­three, section B, and have been hereby summoned by the Elder for your sentencing. Go tonight at nine p.m. sharp and go alone.” He flew back outside without so much as a whispered movie quote in his wake.

A
little before nine, I found myself once again draped in Aunt Ve’s cloak and on the creepy path to see the Elder.

The walk didn’t take nearly as long this time, since I knew where I was going. The flashlight sliced through the dark damp night, and as I approached the clearing, the tree in its center lit up and emitted a glow.

“Darcy, Darcy, Darcy,” the Elder said. “Sit down.”

A tree stump appeared behind me, and obediently, I sat.

“I warned you,” she said.

“I know.”

“What have you to say for yourself?”

“Honestly, Elder? I have nothing. As soon as the words left my mouth, I knew what I’d done. But it was too late to take them back.”

“It is imperative that you learn to control such temptations as suggesting wishes.”

“I was just trying to help,” I explained.

“I am aware, but you cannot help everyone. The sooner you learn that, the better.”

“Then why have the power in the first place?”

She sighed. “These rules are in place to protect Wishcrafters from potential abuses. You must adhere to them. If you cannot, you might consider renouncing your gift.”

It felt as though my heart had just flip-­flopped in my chest. “I don’t want that. I only just discovered my gift, my heritage.”

“Then you must be very careful. Even the smallest infraction from here on out will be viewed as a severe violation.”

“All right.”

“Please rise.”

I stood.

“Darcy Ann Merriweather, you have been found guilty of breaking Wishcraft Law number forty-­three, section B. No Wishcrafter shall prompt, suggest, hint, evoke, prod, or elicit a wish. Your punishment is as follows: Your powers are hereby revoked for twenty-­four hours, retroactive from the time of your offense. You may go now.”

The tree stump fizzled into glitter and wildflowers sprouted where the sparkles fell. I was still impressed by this bit of magic.

The Elder’s tree went dark.

I headed home. Although I had helped save the Goodwins’ marriage, I felt a bit like a failure.

The next morning, I was up and at ’em early, cleaning out the office, sorting files, and keeping busy. This is what I knew best—­office work. I’d held a job in my father’s dental practice for close to ten years. After last night’s scolding by the Elder, I was beginning to think I should ask Ve for a desk job at As You Wish; I was really flubbing my way as a Wishcrafter. Except being a Crafter made me happier than I’d ever been. It was fulfilling in ways I’d never imagined. I couldn’t make any more mistakes—­I didn’t want to lose my abilities.