Enchanted Island Mysteries : Serena & Grant Page 2

  Chapter 4

  Tamara and I lived in a two-bedroom rental cottage about fifteen minutes from the bakery. There’s a half acre in the back to grow our own herbs and have both a vegetable garden and flower garden. Which is exactly what a green witch like Tamara needed.

  “I don’t feel him inside.” I unlocked the front door and probed the protection ward. If there was anything amiss inside the house, I would know. “He must be gone.”

  Our two cats, Hocus and Pocus, greeted us with stern meows…letting us know they were ready to be fed. “I’ll feed them. You turn on the oven and get it ready to go.”

  It was a little after two. Plenty of time to bake the pies, change into our costumes, and be at the festival by six.

  “What nursery rhyme character will you go as now?” I asked.

  The theme for the Samhain Celebration this year was nursery rhymes. That meant everyone would come dressed as their favorite character. Tamara and Jack were going as Jack and Jill…but not anymore.

  “I’ve decided on Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary.” She gave me a devious grin and handed me a glass of wine. “The bloodthirsty version.”

  I laughed. The thing about nursery rhymes, they were typically cloaked in half-truths and hidden meanings. The version Tamara referred to was the reference of Mary Tudor or Bloody Mary as she was known.

  “But don’t worry,” Tamara said, “I don’t want to scare kids, so I’ll carry flowers from the garden and not thumbscrews and other torture devices.”

  “Very big of you,” I deadpanned. “I’d hate for another bloody mishap like last year to follow us around for months afterward.”

  Laughing, Tamara slipped the two unbaked pies into the oven and set the timer.

  “I’m proud of you.” I filled the sink with water and squirted in a dollop of dishwashing soap. “It would have been easy to be sucked back in by Jack’s persuasive nature. I’m glad you left when you did.”

  “Thanks. You don’t have to do those dishes. I made the mess after all, so it’s only fair I do them. Besides, you know how much I love to look out the window and admire my garden.”

  I snorted. “Braggart. No, you sit down at the table and keep me company. I’ll do them up real quick.”

  “How about I top off our wine?”

  I held my glass out to her, took a sip, then slipped a bowl, a measuring cup, and a spatula down into the sudsy water. Picking up the rag, I grabbed the spatula and started to wash, gazing out the window into the garden. Tamara was right…it was a peaceful scene to view.

  Squinting, I lowered the spatula back into the sink and leaned closer to the window.

  “What’s the matter?” Tamara asked. “What’re you looking at? Do I have new blooms on the winter rose bushes?”

  I sucked in my breath and turned to her. Whatever look was on my face must have been telling, because Tamara stood from the table. “What’s wrong? Oh, my gosh! What? You’re scaring me!”

  “Call 911! Now!”

  “What?” Tamara demanded. “Why?”

  Without another word, I took off toward the back door, flung it open, and sprinted to the garden. When I got two feet from the body, I stopped dead in my tracks.

  “I’ve called 911,” Tamara yelled from the back door. “They want to know the emergency.”

  I could hear her voice getting closer. There was no way she could see this. Turning, I put my hands out to stop her. “Don’t! Don’t come any closer, Tamara. I mean it.”

  “What? Why? The operator needs to know what…”

  She looked around me and stared in horror at the crumpled body of Jack Luckett lying face down in the garden between the rose bushes and the daisies. Next to him lay one of our cobblestone pavers. Opening her mouth, she let out a blood-curdling scream that would make any B-movie scream queen green with envy.

  I barely had enough time to catch her before she hit the ground in a dead faint.

  Chapter 5

  Detective Grant Wolfe arrived five minutes after the entire Enchanted Island Sheriff’s Department. And yes, every lawman really showed up.

  I vaguely remembered Grant Wolfe from when he was a young teenager visiting his grandparents on the island. The last time I’d seen him he was probably thirteen or fourteen years old. Time had definitely been good to him. Gone was the slightly awkward teenaged boy with a shy smile…and in his place was a man with an athlete’s body, broad shoulders, and handsome face.

  I wasn’t sure why Grant and his parents stopped coming to the island when Grant became a teenager, but I figured it had something to do with the whole unfortunate mess of how Grant’s dad came to be raised on Enchanted Island. And I only knew the story because my mom told me when I mentioned one summer that Grant stopped coming for visits.

  Grant’s dad, Walter, had been raised on the island by Tom and Linda Wolfe. Tom’s younger brother, Walter’s biological father, chose to leave the island when he was just eighteen. The wolf gene had skipped over him, and he never felt he belonged on the island. So he left for the mainland, met and married a human woman, and a couple years later they had Walter. Unfortunately, they died when Walter was five, and so he came to the island to live with Tom and Linda. It was a known fact that Walter didn’t inherit the wolf gene either. I assumed that meant Grant was more human than werewolf.

  “I’m going to have you stay here in the living room, Ms. Spellburn,” Grant said, “while I speak to your roommate in the kitchen.”

  Tamara’s huge eyes found mine, and I could read the fear in them. I said a calming spell under my breath and pushed it to her. Immediately I saw the change in her demeanor. She mouthed “thank you” to me and followed along passively as Grant led her into the kitchen.

  Thirty minutes later, notebook clutched in his hand, he strode back into the living room and sat next to me on the couch. Hocus and Pocus wound their bodies around his legs and meowed loudly.

  “Been a long time,” I said quietly. “Do you remember me?”

  His hard brown eyes met mine. “I do. Vaguely. I think you were eleven or so the last time I saw you.”

  I smiled wanly. “Probably.”

  “You okay? Do you need a glass of water or something? I left Ms. Gardener in the kitchen with one of the other deputies. They seemed to know each other, and he was getting her some water.”

  “No thanks. Let’s just get this over with.”

  “First, I want you to tell me what you did today from the time you got up until the time you discovered the body. It was you who technically discovered the body, right?”

  “Yes.”

  And so I went through my whole day from sun up until the time I caught Tamara in my arms before she went down.

  “Let’s talk about the argument in the town hall parking lot yesterday, and then I want to ask you about those texts from the deceased a little more.”

  I groaned. “Did Tamara tell you about the fight?”

  He shook his head. “It’s a small island. I knew about the fight this morning by ten. I didn’t know the couple was Tamara and Jack, but it was definitely the topic of conversation wherever I went this morning.”

  “Dang gossipers,” I grumbled.

  “Tell me what you saw,” he said.

  “I pulled in a couple slots away from Tamara. I saw her and Jack. I lifted my arm in greeting because I had a coffee for her, but I could tell from the look on her face she was upset. Then others started arriving.”

  “Who?”

  “Let’s see. Daisy was already there because she works there, but Martin Wulfton and Rose Winterbourne were there for the meeting.”

  “The meeting with Mayor Stone?”

  “Yes.” I thought about that. “I think you should know two women, Daisy Woods and Rose Winterbourne, are furious with Jack. They pretty much all but threatened his life in my presence, and both women were at city hall yesterday.”

  Jack nodded and wrote their names down. “I think Tamara mentioned maybe one or both came into the shop today and said som
ething about Jack.”

  I frowned. “I think today in the shop was Rose. Did Tamara tell you about the note left on her windshield after the meeting yesterday?”

  “Yes.”

  “Daisy works at city hall, and Rose attended the meeting. Both had access to Tamara’s car.”

  “Do you still have the note?”

  “It’s in my car,” I said. “Do you want me to go get it?”

  “No. I’ll have one of the deputies do that. The less you handle it the better. Maybe we can get prints from it.”

  I grimaced. “Yeah, I thought about that after I read the note.”

  He smiled. “Well, you probably don’t get a lot of crime on Enchanted Island, do you?”

  “No.” I blew out a sigh. “But, still, I did know better. In fact, if my cousin, Shayla, found out what I’d done, she’d never let me live it down. She’s a detective, too.”

  He frowned. “I don’t remember you having a cousin named Shayla.”

  “That’s because she was already gone by the time you’d remember her,” I said. “She’s twelve years older than me.”

  “Let’s talk about the text messages Jack sent Tamara,” he said. “About what time was that?”

  I scrunched my forehead in concentration. “I’d say around one-thirty since we arrived home a little after two. We closed the bakery early and came home to get ready for tonight.” I frowned. “Don’t you know the time of the text? I mean, didn’t you look at Tamara’s cell phone?”

  “Yes. I just wondered if you knew the time.”

  I rolled my eyes. “And I suppose you read the texts?”

  The faintest hint of a smile played at the corners of his mouth. “I did. Tamara says you were the responder to the texts.”

  I straightened my spine and lifted my chin. “That’s right. So you can’t pin that on Tamara. That was all me. Look, there’s no way Tamara could hurt Jack, much less kill him. It’s just not possible. She’s a green witch. Heck, she’s not even your typical green witch. She’s more like—like—I don’t know. I used to tease her when we were little that her family was more like hippie do-gooder witches. I mean, Tamara sets traps around the house for goodness sake. Even for spiders! She refuses to kill flies! She literally cannot hurt a fly. So there’s no way she killed Jack.”

  I ran out of steam, took a deep breath, and was about to go into another tirade, when Grant held up his hand. “I never said I thought Tamara killed Jack.”

  I jerked back in surprise. “What? You don’t?”

  “At this point, I’m merely getting information. I know the deceased and your roommate used to go out. They recently broke up rather publicly, he came here to get his things, she left. She went to the bakery you both own, served up orders, the two of you decided to close early, and then you start getting odd text messages from Jack. Does that sound about right?”

  “Yes.” I could hear the weariness in my voice. “I mean, that sounds about right.”

  “You’ve also told me that Tamara received a threatening note on her windshield yesterday, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m not saying I believe or don’t believe Tamara,” he said, “but I do have to ask myself, if Tamara had killed Jack while he was here this afternoon getting his things…then who sent the cryptic text messages later on?”

  Chapter 6

  My mouth dropped open. “Oh, I hadn’t thought about that. I mean, I guess it does sort of prove that Jack was alive when Tamara left.” The relief and joy that flooded my body was immense. “That’s great news!”

  He gave me a tight smile. “I didn’t say that’s what I believed. Could be Tamara stole the phone after she killed Jack, and you both sent the messages in hopes to cover Tamara’s tracks.”

  I gasped. “Of all the stupi—”

  “I know you saw the body,” he spoke over me. “There’s no way you could have missed how he was killed. It could just as easily be Tamara waited for him out in the garden, she confronts him, maybe he took things from the house he wasn’t supposed to, she gets mad, picks up the cobblestone paver and whacks him across the back of the head.”

  “There’s no way he could have taken anything from the house that wasn’t his,” I said smugly.

  Grant frowned. “How do you know?”

  I bit my lip. “What do you know about the island? I mean really know?”

  “I know I visited here when I was a kid. I know there was always something I couldn’t put my finger on, and I know I’m the only detective that applied for the position here, even though it pays twice what I made on the mainland.”

  “Did your—do you call Tom and Linda your aunt and uncle or grandparents?”

  “Grandparents,” Grant said.

  “Okay. Did your grandparents or parents ever talk about what makes Enchanted Island so special? Or maybe Sheriff Hawkins when he hired you?”

  Telling humans about the true nature of Enchanted Island was frowned upon, so I figured I’d hint around to see what he knew.

  “I know that most people on this island believe themselves to be witches or something like that,” he said. “I mean, you just called Tamara a green witch. So I know about the claim of witches. I don’t go in for that kind of stuff, but I’m not one to say another person is wrong for believing in it.”

  Oh boy. This is going to be tough.

  “You should know, the people that make up Enchanted Island are different than your average citizens in a town.”

  “How so?” he demanded.

  I frowned and thought about what I could and should say. “What if I told you before Tamara left this afternoon, she put a ward around the house so Jack couldn’t physically take anything inside the cottage that wasn’t his?”

  He snorted. “I’d say maybe Tamara believed she did, but—I mean, c’mon? A ward around a house? What does that even mean?”

  “How long have you been on the island now?” I asked.

  He shrugged his broad shoulders. “I don’t know. About three weeks, I guess.”

  “And you haven’t spoken to your grandparents? Or they haven’t spoken to you about maybe the way of things here?”

  He narrowed his eyes, and I could tell I’d struck a nerve. “Of course I’ve spoken with my grandparents. Not face-to-face contact since they’re on a month-long cruise in the Mediterranean, but we’ve spoken. ”

  I sighed. “Look, it’s really not my place to tell you about the ways of the island. That needs to come from your family.”

  “Okay. Fair enough. I’ll ask them specific questions about the island when they return.”

  “Good.”

  I was about to say something else when Deputy Sparks stepped into the room. “Sorry, sir. I just wanted to let you know that Sheriff Hawkins said I could go. I left Ms. Gardener with him in the kitchen.”

  Grant stood, causing Hocus and Pocus to flee the room, hissing in anger. “Thank you, Sparks.”

  Sparks smiled. “I really need to split. My wife and kids will kill me if I’m late for the festival tonight. Are you going, sir?”

  Grant turned to me. “Are you guys going?”

  “Of course. We’re supplying the six pies for the pie eating contest, and besides that, we’ve never missed a Samhain Celebration.”

  Grant turned back to Sparks. “I guess I will see you there. Has all the evidence been bagged and taken down to the station?”

  “Yes. Sheriff Hawkins has it all.”

  Grant and I walked into the kitchen and saw a weeping Tamara crying on Sheriff Hawkins’ shoulder. Sheriff Hawkins and my dad had been best friends growing up, and since Dad’s death, he and my mom have formed a bond. Not a romantic bond, but one of mutual friendship and companionship. Sheriff Hawkins was like a dad to me. He was also good friends with the Gardeners, so I figured the sheriff would be rational and know we had nothing to do with Jack’s murder.

  Tamara stepped back so I could give the sheriff a hug.

  “How’s my girl doing?” he asked. “You
okay? Holding up good?”

  I blew out a breath. “Yeah. I guess as well as can be expected.”

  “Darn shame about Jack,” Sheriff Hawkins said. “Maybe not a total surprise, but still a darn shame. His parents will be devastated.”

  Tamara started to cry again, and Sheriff Hawkins handed her a hanky from his pocket. “Now you just dry up those tears. We’ll figure out what happened, don’t you worry. I have every confidence in Detective Wolfe.”

  “One thing I don’t understand,” I said to no one in particular. “Why was Jack even anywhere near the garden? He never went out there. He was highly allergic to flowers and would complain every time he walked inside the house.”

  Tamara lifted her head from the hanky. “You’re right. Why was he out there?”

  “Could be a piece to the puzzle,” Grant said.

  “I collected the note out of Serena’s car that was left on Tamara’s windshield,” Sheriff Hawkins said. “Have you finished your questions?”

  “I have,” Grant said. “And I’ve decided that I will be attending the Samhain Celebration tonight to watch over these two ladies.”

  I snorted. “Tamara and I don’t need watching over, Detective Wolfe. Believe me, we’re more than capable of handling ourselves.”

  “I’m sure you are,” Grant said in a voice that left no doubt he was placating me. “But has it not occurred to you that Tamara might be in danger? If Tamara didn’t kill Jack, then someone is going to an awful lot of trouble to make it look like she did. Plus, they’ve left a threatening note on her car.”

  “But I thought you said—”

  “I’m not ruling anything out,” Grant said patiently. “It’s my job right now to gather the information, look for clues, and figure out who killed Jack Luckett.”

  “He’s right, Serena,” Sheriff Hawkins said. “Let him do his job. I need to run and get ready for tonight. Your mom will have my hide if I’m late picking her up. Oh, and Dr. Drago said he’d get right on the body.”