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  Truly a ferocious creature.

  I stepped over towards the cat and began patting her, earning myself some happy mews in reply. The whole space was clean, open, and had posters all around with information on taking care of dogs and cats. A moment later a woman with black skin and a natural afro came out from the back with a smile. Her eyes were round and friendly, and her makeup absolutely perfect. She was so pretty I wouldn’t have been surprised to see her on the cover of a magazine. Still, her manner was casual and friendly, and I found myself taking an instant liking to her.

  “Hi there, welcome to the animal shelter. How can I help you today?”

  “Hi, Sasha,” Leanne said, taking the lead. “We were given your name by Jack Frost. We wanted to talk to you about Karen.”

  Sasha’s eyes narrowed just a tiny bit. “I’m sorry, I’m not talking to any journalists about her, for her and her family’s privacy’s sake.”

  “Oh, no, we’re not journalists,” Leanne said quickly. “I was the one who found her. Well, Eliza and I were together. I knew Karen from the coffee shop – our family owns Cackling Witch Coffee – and we want to know what happened to Karen as badly as you do.”

  “I didn’t realize,” Sasha said, her expression softening. “Thank you. I was told the people who found her saved her life.”

  “Well, we don’t want her coming back to town knowing that the person who tried to kill her is still out there, so we thought we’d ask around and see if we could get an idea of who might have wanted to hurt her. Of course, anything we find out will go to the proper authorities. You know what Chief Jones is like, though.”

  Sasha sighed. “I do. The thought that he might not be quite up to this has crossed my mind. After all, you were the one who solved the murder of Leonard Steele, weren’t you?” she asked, looking and me.

  “Yes,” I replied. “I didn’t really know Karen, since I’m new to town, but from everything I’ve heard she was a wonderful person, and I think we need to do whatever we can to find out who did this.”

  Sasha looked at us for a second, made a decision, and nodded. “Yes, you’re right. I’ll tell you what I know in the hopes that you’ll be able to bring the person who tried to kill Karen to justice. Have you heard about the disagreement she had with Gary?”

  “The principal at the elementary school?” Leanne replied. “Yes. We were told that Karen wanted to do more to help a few struggling students, but that Gary just wanted her to let it slide and let the teachers at the high school deal with it.”

  “That’s right,” Sasha said, nodding. “Gary is very results-oriented. He believes that if we simply bump up the grades for weaker students, then he looks like a good principal, despite the fact that the kids aren’t actually learning anything, and that long-term it’s a huge detriment to their education. If a child can’t do addition properly by the third grade, they’re never going to succeed when they have to learn algebra in the eighth grade.”

  “We know about him, and we will be talking to him,” Leanne said. “What about any other teachers? Was there anyone else she was having disagreements with?”

  Sasha bit her lip as she thought hard. “No, I can’t really think of anyone else who had any problems with her. Not at the school, anyway. She was really quite well-respected.”

  “What about outside of work?” I asked. “How was her home life?”

  Sasha shrugged. “I mean, I think they were happy, overall. Kyle and Karen, that is. They seemed to legitimately care for each other, but they did have their issues. With three boys, all six years old now, it wasn’t easy for them. Especially since they had no family in the area. I know Karen was trying to convince her parents to move to Enchanted Enclave to give them a little bit of help. She told me she was feeling overwhelmed since going back to work.”

  “It was all too much for her?” Leanne asked softly, and Sasha nodded.

  “Yes. She wanted to move back to part-time work, but because of the nature of Kyle’s construction job there wasn’t enough financial security for them to do it. Karen was feeling burnt out. She was teaching eight-year-olds all day, then coming home and having to cook dinner, take care of their children, and put them to bed.”

  “Kyle wouldn’t help?” I asked, and Sasha gave me a sad smile.

  “A little bit, sure. But most women I know who work still end up doing the majority of the housework, even after coming home from a day of working themselves. It was a point of contention for Karen – she was always the one who ended up cooking dinner, who bathed the boys, who put them to bed. Please don’t tell anyone I told you this. She’d absolutely hate it if anyone found out. Karen always makes a point of trying to look strong, like she has it all together. She thinks it’s important for a teacher to display that kind of resilience. She always wants to set a good example for her students. Even when she wakes up, I’m sure she’ll be telling everyone she’s fine, and that she doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about.”

  “Yeah, I had no idea,” Leanne said. “She seemed a little bit flustered when she came into the coffee shop, but a lot of people do before they get their daily caffeine intake. It just goes to show, you never can know exactly what goes on behind the scenes in peoples’ lives.”

  “Exactly,” Sasha said, nodding. “Karen is one of the strongest women I know. I’m not surprised that she beat the odds and survived being stabbed. I hope she pulls through, for those boys’ sake. I’m not saying Kyle is a bad father – he isn’t – but a lot of the household responsibilities fell on Karen, and she shouldered a lot of burden.”

  “I think we understand what you mean,” Kaillie said softly. “Do you know if there were financial troubles at all?”

  “Oh, no. I mean, money was always tight for them, like it is for everyone these days, but they got by. If there were any major problems, I wasn’t aware of them. But you know, that does remind me, I think Karen was having issues with someone.”

  “Oh?” Leanne prompted, and Sasha nodded slowly.

  “Yes, that’s right. It’s probably nothing, but I should mention it anyway. I don’t know the details exactly, but I saw Leanne having a heated argument with the head of the rec center here in town. Do you know him? Andrew Lloyd?”

  “I do,” Leanne said. “He stops by the coffee shop from time to time.”

  “Good. I don’t know what the argument was about, and I didn’t want to interrupt because it looked heated. I asked Karen about it the next time I saw her, and she was very evasive.”

  “That’s interesting,” Leanne said slowly. “Thank you for the information.”

  “Anything I can do to help. I do hope you find the person who tried to kill Karen. Where was she?”

  “Down Orca Street, about half a mile away from Main Street.”

  Sasha frowned. “That’s strange, there’s not much out there, is there?”

  “No,” Leanne replied. “I think the closest place is her house, but it still would have been a walk to get to Orca Street from there. And there was the school, but it was still half a mile away. It’s a conundrum for sure.”

  “Alright. Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do. Feel free to find me here, or at the school.”

  “Thanks, Sasha,” I said to her. “Are you going to go to the city to see her?”

  Sasha nodded. “Yes. As soon as I close up shop here I’m taking the ferry across. I’ve already told the school board not to schedule me next week; I want to spend some time with Karen, and also take care of the kids for Kyle for a little bit. He’s going to need some time to himself, I’m sure.”

  “That’s good of you to do,” Kaillie said. “I hope she pulls through.”

  “Me too,” Sasha said. “Thank you again for saving her life.”

  Leanne didn’t say anything, but the guilt was written all over her face. She hadn’t forgiven herself for hitting Karen.

  The three of us said goodbye to Sasha and headed back out, each of us lost in our own thoughts as we got into the car.
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  “It’s Saturday afternoon, my guess is we’re not going to be able to really talk to anyone else tonight,” Kaillie said, and I nodded.

  “Agreed. We can get our thoughts ordered and come up with a plan of action, but I think we have a few good suspects to look at.”

  Leanne put the car into drive as the three of us drove off, leaving the sound of excitedly barking dogs behind us.

  Chapter 7

  “In the name of Saturn, I am exhausted, let’s go eat at Mom’s place tonight,” Kaillie said when we reached the house. Aunt Debbie always made more food than was necessary, since there were often unplanned visitors at the house. I had quickly discovered that it was the unofficial family meeting place.

  “Sounds good, Aunt Debbie’s food is better than yours anyway,” Leanne joked in reply.

  “Hey, keep that up and you’re not getting any more of these cookies,” Kaillie replied, tapping the Tupperware.

  “I’d like to see you stop me,” Leanne replied.

  Kaillie pulled out her wand and tapped the lid. “Saturn, God of time, keep this box sealed from fingers fine.”

  Leanne scowled. “Now that’s an unfair use of magic. No wonder you’re not seeing any invitations to get back to the paranormal world.”

  “Take back what you said about my cooking and I’ll reverse the spell.”

  “Fine. Kaillie, cousin dearest, you are the best cook I have ever encountered. Eating food cooked by you is better than any experience I’ve ever had with a man. You make Gordon Ramsay look like a slob who throws spaghetti at the wall and calls it a meal, and you’re way hotter than he is.”

  I laughed at Leanne’s fawning words while Kaillie giggled and reversed the spell.

  “See, that’s the way you should be treating me every day,” Kaillie said.

  “Only if you hand over the box of cookies,” Leanne said, reaching over, grabbing one and shoving it in her mouth.

  “You’re going to spoil your appetite,” Kaillie said to Leanne.

  “Wow, you really are turning into your mother,” Leanne replied.

  “My body has a separate ‘dessert tummy’ just for cookies,” I said as I reached into the box as well, unable to resist.

  Kaillie shook her head at us, then grabbed one herself. Cleopawtra strutted into the room, making sure her entrances were always more like appearances. She was a queen in both name and in actions.

  “Welcome back, is there food?” she asked. “I can hear you eating.”

  “It’s not for you, it’s got chocolate in it,” I said through a big bite of cookie, and Cleo scrunched her nose at me.

  “You’re not supposed to talk with your mouth full, that’s disgusting.”

  “You lick yourself on my bed at two in the morning. That’s disgusting.”

  “That’s grooming,” Cleo corrected me. “And besides, that’s white chocolate. It’s not bad for cats.”

  “Fine,” I grumbled, tearing off a small piece of cookie and handing it over to Cleo, who very happily ate it. “But only because we’re going to Aunt Debbie’s for dinner, so you won’t have any table scraps to beg off me tonight.”

  “Why would you do that to me?” Cleo whined. “Don’t you know I’m a growing kitten?”

  “Yeah, a growing kitten with her own food bowl that’s filled regularly.”

  “Human food has superpowers that makes you grow stronger, though.”

  “I’m fairly certain that’s not true.”

  “It is, every cat knows it.”

  “Well, I guess you won’t be a supercat tonight,” I replied.

  “Sorry to interrupt what’s obviously a riveting conversation,” Leanne said, “But I think we should sort out our plan for the next couple of days.”

  “Yeah, good plan,” I replied. “We have Gary, Andrew, and Kyle as suspects.”

  “Right,” Kaillie said. “When was it that the two of you found Karen?” I couldn’t help but notice Kaillie pause before she said ‘found’ – I had a feeling she was about to say ‘ran into’, but then thought the better of it, and I was glad for it.

  “Well, let’s see. Yoga class finished at seven, and it took probably eight or nine minutes to convince Eliza to stop crying and get up off the floor.”

  I stuck my tongue out at Leanne. “You’re not the one who was tortured without any warning.”

  “Saturn above, you are whiny,” Leanne said. “It was one yoga class.”

  “And it’s been almost twenty-four hours and I still haven’t recovered.”

  “That’s a sign you need to exercise more.”

  “That’s a sign Janice needs to be locked up for cruel and unusual punishment.” Although deep down, as much as I didn’t want to admit it, I knew Leanne was right. I did need to exercise more. The fact that just an hour earlier I had tried to gauge just how much I really needed to pee since the idea of sitting down on the toilet filled me with dread was probably proof enough.

  “So let’s say we left at five past seven. Maybe add an extra couple of minutes to get into the car, drive off, etcetera,” I continued. “We had to have found her at what, quarter past?”

  “Probably thereabouts,” Leanne said, nodding. “It wouldn’t have been later than that.”

  “And how long do you think it had been since she was stabbed?”

  Leanne and I looked at each other. “It couldn’t have been long,” I said finally. “She was losing blood pretty quickly. Do you think five minutes is right?”

  “Yeah, I think that’s a good estimate.”

  “Alright,” Kaillie said. “So she was probably stabbed around ten past seven. Do you know where she came from?”

  “Well, she was on the left hand side of the road from the car,” I said. “But apart from that, I don’t know.”

  “No, me neither,” Leanne said. “I didn’t see her until we were about a hundred feet from her. I don’t know what direction she came from, or if she’d been walking along the road.”

  “What if we follow the blood?” I asked, snapping my fingers. “Surely there would be traces of it on the road. All we have to do is follow it and see where it leads. Maybe that’ll tell us where Karen was when she was stabbed.”

  Kaillie glanced out the window. “We probably have just enough time to go have a look before the sun goes down and it’s time to go have dinner.”

  “It’s too bad your familiar isn’t a dog; the nose could have come in handy.”

  “Excuse me?” Cleo replied, obviously outraged. “Your friend needs to learn some manners. I am superior to a dog in every respect.”

  “I know,” I whispered to Cleo. “I’m sorry. She doesn’t mean anything by it. We’re going to go out, but we’ll be back soon.”

  “In time for my dinner to be served, I hope.”

  “Of course, how could I ever forget?”

  Satisfied she wasn’t going to starve to death, Cleo curled herself up into a ball and went to sleep while the three of us got ready to go out once more. We were only a half mile from where we had found Karen, so decided that it was easier to walk than to take the car. About five minutes later, we were at the spot.

  At least, I figured it was the spot. Leanne was the expert, having lived here her whole life. To me, this place in the day looked completely different. The trees lining the side of the road were far less ominous-looking, for one thing.

  “This was it,” Leanne said, looking down on the ground. “There. That dark patch there; that had to be where she was when we found her.”

  I looked to where Leanne pointed, and sure enough, there was a tiny patch of asphalt that looked just a bit darker than the rest.

  “Alright, so she came from this direction,” I said, moving towards the trees. “Here’s another spot. We have to just follow this trail.”

  While I had initially thought it would be pretty easy to follow the trail, it turned out that wasn’t the case at all. There just hadn’t been all that much blood that had dripped onto the ground, and even though we were abl
e to find a spot here and there, they weren’t all that obvious, and with the sun edging closer and closer to the horizon, the available light was fading fast.

  “Can you use a spell to find it?” Leanne asked, and Kaillie bit her lip, looking hesitant. “Come on, it’s not like there’s anyone around who will see.”

  “Fine,” Kaillie said, looking around carefully to confirm there were no cars or people nearby. “Saturn, god of wealth, reveal the blood that lays here in stealth.”

  I gasped as Kaillie moved her wand around, and tiny specks on the pavement suddenly began glowing blue. We now had a trail to follow. Kaillie held the wand steady while Leanne and I followed the path of blood, which continued for about two hundred feet before suddenly ending in the middle of the road.

  “That’s weird,” Kaillie said with a frown. “There’s nothing in the forest nearby?”

  “No,” I said, making my way to the edge of the woods and looking in. The darkness made the blue glow from the spell obvious; there was definitely no blood in the forest.

  “She must have been in a car,” Kaillie said, putting her wand away and ending the spell. “She was stabbed in a vehicle, and must have either been pushed out or managed to jump out. Whoever attacked her then sped off.”

  “That makes perfect sense,” Leanne said, nodding. “I think you’re right. Look at that, we have a clue!”

  It was certainly a start.

  Chapter 8

  The three of us headed back to the house, where I quickly left some food out for a napping Cleopawtra before continuing on further down the street to Aunt Debbie’s. The three of us walked right in, and as soon as we did the sound of an argument between Aunt Debbie and Aunt Lucy reached our ears. I raised my eyebrows as my eyes met Leanne’s, and she shrugged.

  “You know you’re not supposed to goad her,” I could hear Aunt Debbie saying.

  “Who says?” came my other aunt’s reply.

  “The fact that you’re almost sixty years old and you’re supposed to be better than that.”