“That’s it,” Leon said. “Take him in for questioning. As the mayor, I insist. People need to feel safe in our town. The sooner there’s an arrest, the better. Mr. Wilcox was a pillar of the community. We need this resolved.”
Sheriff King frowned at the mayor. Then, with a sigh, he turned to Elwood. “Will you come in and answer some questions, Elwood?”
“Hey! You can’t railroad my grandfather,” I said.
“Grady’s just doing his job.” Elwood patted me on the shoulder, as if that would soothe away my anger. “It’ll be okay. I didn’t kill Winston. I’m not worried.”
Grady herded us all to the street when his four deputies arrived. He barked out orders at them. I noticed how he steered a couple of them away from the body by telling them to canvas the business owners and residents along the street to see if anyone had noticed anything last night. Those two must be the human officers. Then he put my grandfather in the backseat of his police car and drove away.
The weird popping, fizzling feeling in my chest grew stronger. Everything felt upside down and backwards. At this rate, if someone came up to me and said I was a witch too, I didn’t even think I’d be surprised.
Chapter Six
Wolf shifters, vegan vampires, and more
Gideon
We stood there for a minute and watched as Grady drove off with Elwood in the back of his car. Anyone who knew Elwood knew he wouldn’t kill anyone—at least not without a good reason. Sadly, being a pompous prick wasn’t a good reason for murder. If it was, Winston would’ve met his demise ages ago.
“What should I do?” Declan looked up at me. “Do I need to call a lawyer? Do you know any lawyers? I don’t. Or should I go to the police station to wait for him? Will they just let him go, or will he need to be bailed out? I have some savings, so I can probably come up with bail if I need to?—”
“Take a breath, Declan. Your grandfather will be fine. Grady’s a good sheriff, and he was only doing his job, and he’ll make sure Elwood gets home.”
“I don’t see how anyone could think he did this.”
“I’m sure Grady doesn’t, but the murder weapon came from his shop, and thanks to Leon, he has no alibi. Grady has to at least question him.”
Declan glared across the street where Leon had retreated to stand outside his shop. “What’s his problem anyway? Why would he put the blame on my grandfather?”
“Probably because, with as much as he has complained about Winston ruining his festival, he has the best motive. Why don’t you come with me to the pub and have a drink? I’m sure you’re shaken up after seeing that.”
He let out a breath and nodded. “Yeah, okay. If you’re sure I don’t need to go down there.”
“You don’t. Grady will call me if that changes.” His eyes widened at the thought, so I hurried to add, “But I’m sure it won’t. Elwood will be fine.”
We walked the short distance to the pub, and I pushed the door open and stepped back to let Declan go inside.
“Is the pub even open?” he asked as he went by me to go inside.
“Not yet. We’ll be opening for lunch in about half an hour. Are you hungry? I bet Alvin could throw something together for you real quick.”
He scrunched up his face and shook his head. “No, I don’t think I could eat right now. I wouldn’t mind a cup of coffee if you have any, though. I spilled mine when… well, over there.” He motioned toward the building where we’d found Winston’s body.
“I’m sure I can manage a cup. Alvin usually makes a fresh pot when he gets here. It won’t be peanut butter and jelly or seaweed dulce de leche, but it’ll taste like coffee.”
“Seaweed dulce de leche?” he asked.
“That was Lily’s flavor of the week before the peanut butter one. The theory was, it would taste like salted caramel but be healthier.”
“And how did that one go over?”
“Didn’t see it on the menu, did ya?” I asked.
He chuckled, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes. Understandable, since he’d just watched while a stranger hauled his grandfather off in a police car. Honestly, I wasn’t too crazy about it either. I understood that Grady had to do things a certain way to keep the human population of Ravenstone from getting suspicious, but I also thought the way humans did things was overly complicated. Grady didn’t believe Elwood was guilty any more than I did, so why waste time for appearance’s sake? Why not just solve the stupid murder and appropriately punish the guilty party?
“Have a seat right here at the bar, Declan, and I’ll get you a cup of coffee. Then we can talk.”
I’d seen his face when Elwood had told him Winston was a vampire. I had no idea what his life had been like away from Ravenstone, but I didn’t understand how he could be Elwood’s grandson and not know the magic world was real. More than that, I didn’t understand why I could smell his magic on him if he didn’t realize it existed.
