Leon rolled his eyes at me. “Money, of course.”
“Money…” I repeated slowly.
“I bet he was after the treasure.”
“Treasure,” I repeated, just as slowly. Elwood had said something about treasure, hadn’t he? What was it again? Something about toenails and rubies? “I didn’t think that was real.”
Leon snorted. “Of course it is. Xalvador talked about it all the time.”
What Leon obviously didn’t realize was that Elwood had never been driven by money and greed. He wouldn’t care about getting his hands on a treasure, especially if it came at the expense of a man’s life. His building, which housed both his business and his home, had been bequeathed to him by his grandfather, who’d been one of the founding fathers of Ravenstone. There’d never been a mortgage on it.
And although The Mystic Menagerie might not be thriving by most people’s standards, it did steady enough business to pay for all his needs and contribute to his retirement fund. My father, who was an astute investment banker (a decidedly unusual career choice for a man raised by Elwood), managed all the family accounts, including Elwood’s. So, although most people might not realize it, I knew Elwood had no financial worries.
“Okay. I’ll bite. If it’s real, why would Elwood want it?”
“That wackadoodle store of his hardly sells anything. It’s a wonder he’s lasted this long.”
Well, I wasn’t about to explain my grandfather’s financial situation to him. And wackadoodle? Really? Leon had his tighty-whities in a knot about having everything perfect for themagicfestival, but he had no trouble disparaging The Mystic Menagerie. What a hypocrite.
“And what about you?” I demanded, tired of his attitude. “You looked ready to murder Winston last night.”
Leon jolted back like I’d slapped him. “I’d never!”
“Well, neither would Elwood!”
“I think you should leave now.” He pointed at the door.
Beyond the glass door at the front of the store, a raven hopped up and down, cawing and flapping its wings, as if it was as angry as I was.
“Gladly!” I stormed out of the store.
Despite how desperately he was trying to throw Elwood to the wolves—wait, was that saying derogatory to wolf shifters?Whatever. The important point was that, although I doubted Leon was a murderer, if only because it would put his festival at risk, he was a jerk, and he had a secret. And until I uncovered that secret, he was my prime suspect.
But what if other people suspected Elwood was strapped for cash? Would they think he could murder over an imaginary treasure, too?
I needed to prove my grandfather’s innocence and stop these speculations, because small-town rumor mills were notoriously vicious. Elwood would be heartbroken if his neighbors turned their backs on him. Community was everything to him.
Chapter Eight
Murderous, mourning mermaids
Gideon
Declan’s question—who wanted Winston dead—played over and over in my head while I rushed around taking people’s lunch orders and getting their drinks.
That, and his expression when he realized most of the people in the pub weren’t human. I wished he’d stayed and let me feed him. He was so worried about his grandfather, I wasn’t sure he would actually eat anything on his own.
Elwood had told me that when his son had married a human, they’d chosen to live their lives in the mundane world. He didn’t understand it, but it was their life to live—at least it was until they had Declan. At that point, Elwood had stepped in and made them promise that if their child showed magical abilities, they would come home so the child could learn how to safely use their magic.
You never knew how human/magic matings would go. Sometimes the offspring would have no magical abilities at all, and sometimes they would. As the years passed and Declan hadn’t shown any signs of magic, Elwood had never lost hope that something would awaken in the boy.
Which, I guess, explained why Declan hadn’t had a typical magical education. But it was obvious Elwood had been right. Declan did have some type of magic, even if he didn’t seem to think so. It was good that he’d come here so Elwood could help him learn about our world.
My wolf pushed at my mind, insisting that we should be the ones to help him. Goddess save me, my wolf had taken a serious liking to the pretty young man. He didn’t understand that Declan’s fear and worry were about his grandfather, and he wanted us to do something to fix it for him.
Personally, I wasn’t worried about Elwood. He wasn’t only a well-thought-of member of the Ravenstone community, but he was a powerful witch. He would be fine. What had me worried was the unjust killing of another member of the supernatural community. I might not have liked Winston, but that didn’t mean I was okay with sitting around doing nothing while there was a murderer on the loose.
The alpha instinct to protect those I thought were mine was strong and urged me to rush ahead and find the person responsible and make them pay. Thankfully, Ravenstone was a fairly safe community, so this was rarely an issue.
