“No. The detective deserves the credit, after all he’s been supplying us with insider information, and he knows me well enough to trust me. Although all he has to do is connect the dots. I’m sure once he knows where to concentrate his search, he’ll dig up enough proof to arrest Champ and clear Candice.”
“Let’s drink a toast to that, but downstairs, with a mocktail from our new zero alcohol drinks menu,” Harper said.
Reina held the strips of paper to a flame. While they burnt, I spoke the first words that came to my mind.
“Innocence shall prosper, evil deeds shall flee, let no harm here linger, so mote it be, so mote it be, so mote it be.”
“So mote it be,” my friends repeated.
Ange asked, “What exactly does this spell do?”
I blew out the candles. “No idea, but we’ll probably find out soon enough.”
***
The next day, the detective received me early in the morning.
He listened to me with more skepticism than I’d counted on. “That’s all very circumstantial,” he said when I’d finished.
“Isn’t that what police work is? You follow leads and gather evidence.”
“We do, but we can’t build a case on your hunches.”
I bit my tongue. My hunches, as he called it, had so far solved every case Cosmo and I had encountered since my return to Willowmere.
He relented. “I’m not saying your theory isn’t worth keeping in mind.”
“But you’re not going to actively pursue it, even though the soil analysis is definitely a lot more solid than the case against Candice.”
“It’s still very thin what you’ve brought me. And it is the case of the Cannon Hill police.”
“The victim lived in your jurisdiction and the body ended up here. Will you at least look at a connection between the two men and the new retirement village?”
“I’ll think about it.”
By now I felt my blood pressure rise. Silently, I counted to ten. And then I did it again. Trey Stone was only following procedure. At least he hadn’t laughed me out of his office.
“Thank you for your time and effort,” I said stiffly. “I’d like to make it up to you and invite you to a drink at theBlue Moontonight? Unless that counts as a bribe.”
“I’ll be there anyway. Louisa and I are celebrating our one-month anniversary.”
His expression softened. He went a notch up in my estimation. A man in his early fifties who showed openly that he was smitten with his girlfriend was a rare thing in my experience. Even more so when the woman in question was successful, accomplished, and probably made a lot more money than he did.
My fleeting irritation with him evaporized. He was a reasonable man. All I had to do was give him a convincing reason why Champ was the main suspect.
I thought it all over while I took care of my library duties. Mornings tended to be quieter than afternoons, although even those hardly counted as peak customer traffic.
It suited me. My aunt’s lending library had been a haven for the town as long as I could remember, and that’s how I intended to keep it. No rush, no stress, and the chance to catch up with a sympathetic soul over a hot beverage and a cookie. I’d always felt the magic of the place. I still did, even though I couldn’t tell if it was because of the special nature of all libraries or because of the specific magic Cosmo, my aunt, and now I contributed.
Today, I relished the dearth of customers while I flicked the duster over the shelves. A few dust motes danced in the air.
Cosmo sneezed.
“Sorry,” I said, without interrupting my cleaning routine.
“You haven’t heard a word I said,” he complained.
“I’m a little distracted,” I admitted.
