I turned around. “Yes?”
Sykes wagged a finger. “If I do discover that you had anything to do with Crystal’s death, I will kill you. That is a promise.”
With that, he slammed the door and the limo rolled away, leaving me standing on the sidewalk, my knees quaking.
Chapter 15
Right. Well, at least I was alive at the moment. Not that Sykes’s words made me feel much better, because let’s face it, they did not.
The last thing I needed was to have Sykes and his wizard mafia friends tracking me down. I doubted that even a handful of spells in my pockets would be much help against those kinds of goons.
Okay, so the best option was to find the real killer, of course. This meant that I needed to track down Pete Swensen, Crystal’s ex-boyfriend. The only problem was, I had no idea where to even begin looking.
Seeing as how I had decided earlier to bug Malene about the guy, that meant a visit to the library and the ladies quilting bee was in order.
When I reached the library, I found Malene, Urleen and Norma Ray hard at work ignoring me.
“Hey, ladies.” I dropped my purse on the floor. “I’m sure y’all know about what happened to Crystal.”
No one spoke. They weren’t wearing earplugs, and they could hear just as good as a twenty-year-old, which only meant one thing.
They weren’t speaking to me.
I sighed and slumped onto the one free rocking chair in the room. “Okay. What’d I do?”
Norma Ray, who could hear even though she couldn’t see worth a darn, pointed toward Malene.
“Malene,” I said loudly, “why’re you mad at me?”
“I am not mad at you,” she said, poking her needle through a swatch of fabric.
She did not elaborate. “Okay, then. Why aren’t you speaking to me?”
Malene didn’t answer.
Urleen pushed her glasses farther up her nose. “For goodness’ sake. This is ridiculous. If you won’t tell her, Malene, then I will.”
“You do such a thing and I’ll be mad at you for the rest of your life.”
“I’ll risk it.” Urleen pinned her gaze on me. “Malene thinks that you’ve been keeping your magical abilities from her.”
Now I was confused. “What abilities?”
Malene rolled her eyes. “Oh, now you’re going to play dumb, are you?”
“I’m not playing dumb. I’m playing myself. What are you talking about?”
Without looking up, she answered, “It took you a while to tell me about your spell-hunting powers, and then I have to find out from Tuney Sluggs, of all people, that you have the gift of premonition.”
I waited for someone to tell me that this was a joke. When no one said anything contrary, I threw back my head and laughed. “You’re kidding, right? I can’t see the future. That was a total misunderstanding. I have a doorknob that can look at other places. That’s how I knew about Crystal. John and I were together when she was murdered. We witnessed it and tried to explain about the doorknob, but no one understood. It was just easier to go along with everyone thinking that I could see the future than attempt to correct them.”
Malene blinked. “Oh. Well, when you put it that way, I understand.”
“Great.” I exhaled a shot of air. “Listen, I need to track someone down.”
“Who?”
“Pete Swensen.”
