“Janis?” Gideon sounded surprised.
“Yeah. That’s the one.” Jim downed the last of his water. “Your time is up. I need to get this stage built before Leon loses his shit.”
As we were walking back through the festival site, Gideon’s phone pinged. He glanced at it, then tapped his screen. He frowned as he read his message.
“Grady texted. They’re finished with the crime scene. They didn’t find anything significant.”
I glanced back at the contractor. “Do you think Jim did it?”
“Hard to tell. He was lying about something.”
“Well, he lied about his alibi for one thing. We heard him over in that store later that night. But the way he talked socandidly about not liking Winston makes me think he isn’t worried about being accused of murder.” I stifled a yawn. Man, I wished I hadn’t dropped my coffee. I could really use it about now. “But we don’t have any evidence to point at someone else either.”
“Let’s see what Janis has to say about her relationship with Winston,” Gideon suggested. “And she might also know who the other bidder on the property was.”
I hoped she had something interesting to say, because if she didn’t, then what?
Chapter Twelve
Yes… It’s a date…
Gideon
As we left Jim working on the stage, I ran the conversation over in my mind. Like Jim said, it didn’t make sense for him to kill Winston before he paid him for the work. It had been obvious he didn’t like Winston, though, and I was sure he’d been lying about something, which meant, as far as I was concerned, he wasn’t off the hook. We’d also heard banging at the Nook after Winston left the meeting, which didn’t make sense if Jim was telling the truth. And he’d know someone would have heard him. Something wasn’t adding up.
“Why don’t we stop at Rue’s place and get you a fresh coffee on our way by?” I’d noticed he’d really been enjoying the coffee I’d brought him, but he tripped and dropped it before he got to drink much. I wasn’t much of one for coffee, but it was obvious Declan was.
“We don’t have to do that,” he said before stifling a yawn.
I chuckled. “You know, little witch, I think we do.”
“I need to buy a coffee pot, is what I need. I have no idea how my grandfather doesn’t have one, and it was fine when I thought I was just here for a visit, but I can’t keep going out for coffee every morning long term.”
My ears perked up at that, and my wolf started to pace, but not in an anxious way. Like he was happy or something.
“You’re staying?” I tried to sound all nonchalant about it, but the truth was I hoped he was. I didn’t know him well, but I wanted to. Not only was he sexy in an adorable kind of way, but something about him called to me in a way no one had before. Maybe it was how determined he was to stand up for Elwood, or the easy way he’d taken the news about the supernatural creatures who lived here in Ravenstone, but for whatever reason, I liked him being here. I looked forward to watching him learn to use his magic. The way it had felt when his body had been pressed up against mine when he’d tripped earlier flashed through my mind. Okay, I was looking forward to a lot of things with Declan, if I was being honest with myself.
“My grandfather thinks this is the best place for me while I learn all about magic.”
I nodded. “That makes sense, but what do you think?”
He looked up at me and smiled. “I think there are a lot of reasons it would be good to stick around for a while.”
I’d never been one to mess around when I wanted something, and knowing he was going to stay for a while removed the last of my reasons to hold back. “Well, I hope I can be one of those reasons.”
“Oh, you definitely are. It’s not every day I find a man who understands my love of coffee.”
Ten minutes later, Declan was armed with a fresh cup of coffee from the Twinkling Thistle Café, and we were ready to go talk to Janis.
“Where do you think we’ll find her?” He took a sip of the coffee and let out a relieved sigh. “Now this is magic.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s just regular coffee—or at least it better be—and I don’t know if Janis will be at the office since Winston’s gone or if she’ll be at home. Let’s try the office first since it’s right around the corner.”
As we walked down the sidewalk, Declan peppered me with questions about Ravenstone. How many of the residents were supernaturals? Did the humans know about magic? Did people outside of Ravenstone know? Then came a list of all the creatures he’d heard of throughout his life. Were unicorns real? No. Pixies? Yes. Gnomes? Also yes. The Loch Ness monster? I didn’t know—maybe. And on and on.
I stopped walking just before we went around the corner. “I thought you were going to ask Elwood all these questions.”
“We really didn’t have time, and he was pretty beat from his time in the slammer.”
