Collards & Cauldrons Read online

  “Excuse me, Fleet and Flit,” Mason spoke in a gentler tone. “But would you be willing to testify to that fact?”

  The pixies didn’t have to speak to David. The half-dryad challenged the detective. “Would it matter if they did? No one’s going to accept the word of a pixie. And if they revealed what they saw, their own lives could be in jeopardy. But they wanted you to know so you wouldn’t worry about whether or not your grandmother killed Priscilla. They’re positive she didn’t.”

  I’d never doubted Nana’s innocence, but I appreciated the gesture. “Thank you for that.” I gave a slight bow of my head to both pixies.

  Fleet rushed over to David and pushed her brother out of the way, speaking in such a high tone I could barely hear her at all. Whatever she conveyed was long, and my knee bounced with anticipation.

  David spoke for the pixie. “She says Molly’s right about the offspring, er, I guess Ms. Peyton. She was arguing a lot with her mother, more than just that night. Also, she wants to know if she and her brother were willing to try to help by talking to the wardens, would you allow them to come back to your town with you so they could stay safe?”

  I almost choked up at the enormity of the offer made by two of the smallest fae. “Of course, you can. Our town was founded as a safe haven for all magical beings who wanted to live in peace with each other.”

  David’s eyes brightened. “Does that offer stand for anyone?”

  Mason spoke up before me. “If you want to come live in Honeysuckle, you can stay with me until you find a place to call home.”

  The detective’s kindness even during a time of crisis bowled me over. I don’t know why I should be surprised. He always had a kind heart. But for some reason, I felt like I was getting to know how much goodness lived inside of him for the first time.

  David jumped out of his seat, toppling the rickety thing over. “Then I need to find you more staff who will talk to you.”

  I stopped him from running off. “You know, you don’t have to do anything to live in Honeysuckle other than want to be there. There’s no debt or anything that has to be paid.”

  The half-dryad’s breath caught. His voice quivered as he spoke. “And for that, I will work hard to find you others who might be able to give you what you need. Not because I have to, but because, for the first time, it’s a pleasure to work for a witch.”

  “You’re not working for us. You’re working with us,” corrected Mason.

  David’s smile spread across his face from ear to ear. “Even better. Maybe the more you have working with you, the better chance you might have in fighting.”

  I followed behind the half-dryad and the pixies. When they made it inside the stairwell, I stopped. “Hey, why does the ward not work on the roof?”

  David turned around to look up. “Because that’s our only space of refuge. All of us fae in the hotel sacrificed a bit of our powers to protect that area. I guess the wardens’ magic couldn’t penetrate it or something.”

  Mason held me back before entering the top floor of the hotel. “I think the fae may still hold more magic than they think. It’s something to consider if we need help in a tight spot.”

  I shook my head. “The witches’ treatment of them is so awful, I’d like to resurrect Priscilla and kill her again.”

  Mason pressed his hand over my mouth. “Don’t say things like that out in the open. You have no idea who might be listening or how they might use that against you.”

  For a brief moment, a familiar heat rose in my body. Wondering if he felt anything at all, I risked looking up at him. His eyes stared into mine as if I were a puzzle he needed to solve.

  “Are you two coming?” David hissed in a low voice.

  Unable to wait, I licked his palm, and he withdrew his hand with a mock expression of disgust. With the brief moment between us well and truly over, I skipped down the last steps and followed the half-dryad.

  For the first time since being stuck here, I allowed hope to come out of the dark hiding place I’d forced it into. My heart beat fast, knowing that my new alliance might be the key to get us out of everything, including a locked down hotel.

  Chapter Eleven

  I grabbed Ben’s face with both my hands. “I could kiss you, you crazy advocate! You are the absolute best, especially when you’re being the worst!”

  “Uh, thanks?” my friend uttered through his mouth all squished from my enthusiastic hold.

  “Hands off my man, girlie,” warned Lily.

  I let go of Ben and stuck out my tongue at her. “Aw, come on. Just a little one?” I teased, pinching two fingers together. “He deserves a medal or something.”

  Ben’s cheeks blushed a bright pink, but the glint in his eyes conveyed his true pride. “Hey, it’s not my fault if the chief of wardens here in Charleston doesn’t protect his case files. If he leaves them sitting on the table in front of me so I can take pictures of the contents, then he’s giving me permission in absentia.”

  “I thought our spell phones weren’t working,” I commented, taking the seat at the desk and trying not to get too nosy about some of Mason’s things laid out on it. A part of me wanted to rummage around the detective and Ben’s room to see if I could learn something new about him, but my excitement over what Ben had to share overrode my curiosity.

  “In the hotel, they won’t work,” corrected Ben. “I think they forgot to check me for my phone before bringing me into the station. I may have been playing up the dumb yokel witch advocate role a bit much so they didn’t take me seriously.”

  “Did you manage to get any calls out?” Mason asked.

  The sides of Ben’s mouth dropped. “I didn’t have much time on my own, and I didn’t want them to confiscate the phone. When I did have a few seconds by myself, I used them to take the pictures. I’m hoping Lee will figure things out so we can make some calls soon.”

  We gathered around while our crafty friend pulled up his clandestine pictures of the case files. It took us a few moments of trying to climb over each other to see to realize we could only look one at a time.

  “Mason first,” I declared. “He knows the warden-ese language.”

  The detective chuckled, accepting the spell phone from Ben. “Warden-ese? I’m multi-lingual now?” He held the phone up for a closer look. “If I’m not mistaken, this isn’t your actual phone, is it?”

  “Lee’s got mine. He wanted to experiment on an older phone first rather than his newer one, so we swapped. I’m actually glad, because this one has a better camera. Can you enlarge it enough to read?” Ben pointed at the screen.

  Mason manipulated the size of the first picture and dismissed it with a swipe. A few pages later, he took a closer concerned look. “The only notes they have at all are the ones taken the night of the murder. There has been no new questioning since then.”

  “No one from Charleston has been interviewed further?” I asked.

  The detective read through more. “No, all of their findings so far are based off the observations from the first night. I’m included as interfering in an unofficial capacity. I guess interfering is what they call insuring everything was secure before they showed up.”

  “You know they’re not going to give you any credit.” I moved around Mason to look over his shoulder and reached over him to point at the screen. “Is there anything in there at all that could give us something to work with?”

  He batted my hand away. “Give me a second.”

  It took the detective a few minutes of reading through all the documents Ben had managed to snap until something grabbed his attention. “This is interesting. I was scrolling too fast before to notice it. It’s an incomplete form, but its contents probably weren’t supposed to be included in the case file. Ben, I think you struck gold.”

  “Good. I’d hate to think I could be disbarred for something worthless.” My advocate friend tried to play it off like he didn’t care, but it would break him if he lost his ability to do the job he loved.

&nbs
p; “Charli,” Mason called out. “I think it’s time to go back to your cousin. It says here that Peyton Legare called into the station and inquired whether or not a certain ring had been logged into evidence along with her mother’s other possessions. There’s a sticky note taped to it with a penciled message. Whichever warden looked into the inquiry found a gold wedding band and a large three-diamond gold ring. But there’s a missing third ring unaccounted for.”

  “Finally!” I exclaimed. “Now, we’ve got something to search for. Are there any details about the ring? The more we have to go on, the more connection Abigail might be able to make to it while searching.”

  Mason checked the images again. “No. Just the notes about it not being with the other evidence they took from the body.”

  “It’ll have to do.” I got on my feet, ready to run out the door and rush upstairs to my cousin’s room.

  Ben grabbed my arm before I could pass him. “Hold on a second. You can’t go trying to find the ring we found out about through a case file I illegally took pictures of and brought to you. What happens if you do locate it? How are you going to explain how you knew about it without involving my actions?”

  My stomach dropped at the choice I had to make. Use the one sliver of information we’d gathered in order to move forward in our quest to save Nana at the expense of my friend’s career? Or ignore the ring and let things play out?

  “We could find it and not tell anyone,” I bargained.

  “As if you could.” Lily put her arm around Ben’s waist. “I know you, Charli. The second you figured out who had the ring, you’d be pushing for the wardens to arrest them and clear your grandmother. I don’t blame you, but if you do that, Ben’s entire career and everything he’s worked for would be over. You can’t do that to him.”

  “You can’t expect me to do nothing.” I pointed at her. “If this were your grandmother, you know you would do anything you could to help her. That’s all I want to do.”

  Ben’s stern expression relaxed. “You know, she’s right. Maybe it’s worth the risk. It’s possible she could have heard about the ring from someone else. They probably couldn’t prove where the information came from in the first place.”

  “Yeah, but even if she finds the person standing in the middle of the Hyperion Hall dancing around naked except for wearing the ring on his or her finger, Charli can’t prove that person actually murdered Priscilla. So why take the risk?” Lily painted a vivid picture I wanted to scrub from my mind with a thousand bars of soap.

  I wanted to argue, but she had a valid point. We all fell silent, contemplating how to handle the situation. I really didn’t want to hurt Ben, but I was desperate to protect my grandmother. And I couldn’t tell anybody in the room, but I wanted to see how Abigail’s magic worked. Did she do things like I do…did? Were her abilities far more advanced than mine? Maybe I wanted to see her in action as a way to feel more of a connection. To feel more related.

  Exasperated, I made my choice. “I’m tired of waiting around in our rooms and making plans. I want to be out there doing something, anything, to move things forward. And now I have a tangible object I can use. I’m sorry, Ben and Lily, but—”

  A frantic knocking on the door interrupted me. Blythe pushed inside the room once Mason let her in. Lavender followed behind with a satisfied grin.

  “That new friend of yours, David, is a truly remarkable guy. He helped us talk to a lot of the kitchen and cleaning staff of the hotel.” Blythe spoke so fast, her voice came out breathy. “It turns out everything isn’t quite so polished and perfect with the Charleston coven as a whole.”

  Lavender jumped in, “Priscilla wanted to present a unified front for the conference, but it seems that some witches didn’t appreciate how she did things and wanted to make big changes not only to their group at large but also to the magical community of Charleston.”

  “So, Charleston isn’t perfect? I’m shocked,” I mocked.

  Lowering her voice as if someone could hear us, Lavender continued. “You were right that some of the staff here go unseen but see and hear everything, Charli. At some event held at the Hyperion Hall two months ago, there was a huge fight that split people into factions of loyalties, not to mention the list of people who Priscilla practically ruined. I wrote all the names down that the people David helped us talk to could remember.”

  Ben held out his hand. “Let me see this list, please. I’ve been hearing so many names while dealing with the wardens and the district advocate, I might be able to identify some of them.” He read through the names and handed it to Mason. “Out of the twenty or so names, I recognize a few. But there’s one here that sticks out.”

  Mason frowned while he inspected the list until he got to the one Ben had noticed. “Wasn’t she the one who was helping Priscilla run the panel in the morning?”

  “Who was? Frances Something? She’s on the list?” I asked, itching to take a look at the names.

  “Unless there are two women named Frances, according to a very shy sprite who was on bathroom cleaning duty at the time, she heard Priscilla yell out that name specifically while fighting with another lady in one of the hotel bathrooms on the first floor,” Lavender confirmed. “Because the sprite was frightened, she couldn’t quite remember what the fight was about, but she said the scary lady said something about the price the other one had to pay to recover her reputation.”

  “When was this?” Mason asked.

  Lavender shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think the poor creature would know for sure. It took a lot of coaxing to get her to talk to me, and, I’m ashamed to say it, I may have invaded her head a little in order to understand what she was saying. This fight could have been last week or last year. Her fear of what might happen to her for divulging anything to us clouded her memories.”

  My friend’s blossoming psychic abilities impressed me, although I knew her grandmother had been diligently teaching both cousins. They had been instrumental in helping as much as possible with Mason’s recovery from having his memories stripped by a rogue psychic. I wished either one of them could read every person’s mind to help us catch the killer, but I’d heard Lavender admit their newer abilities weren’t as reliable and could take a lot out of them when used.

  “That David is really trying to help us. Whatever you said to him, he’s really motivated,” remarked Blythe.

  “He thinks he’d like to move to Honeysuckle,” Mason said. “He seems to think he has to earn his way into our town.”

  “Poor guy, but he’s trying really hard and getting results. I hope he doesn’t get caught by the hotel management. He could lose his job,” Blythe worried.

  I didn’t want the half-dryad to make too much noise or earn himself any unwanted attention. For all we knew, the wardens had people watching us, and he didn’t have the protection of being a witch to keep him from getting in too much hot water.

  “So, we’ve managed to narrow it down to a list of locals who might have reasons to hold a grudge against Priscilla. Unless we can talk to them directly, I don’t what we else can do with the knowledge,” Lily pointed out. When the room grew quiet, she cringed. “Sorry to be the wet blanket.”

  “But you’re right,” I admitted. “We need to figure out how to talk to at least some Charleston folks.” Tapping my finger against my lip, I recalled something I’d heard at the first panel. “I think I have an idea. I’m going to go find my cousin.”

  Lily plucked the hem of my shirt to hold me back. “I thought you understood the potential consequences for Ben if you go looking for the ring.”

  I patted her hand to reassure her. “Not Abigail. Clementine. Tucker said he knew Peyton back in college and that she was pretty nice. Maybe he could come up with a way to convince her to come to the hotel. It’s a long shot, but hey, my whole life has been based on those.”

  “I’ll come with you,” volunteered Mason.

  Everyone quieted down, their eyes bouncing between the detective and me. The t
ension around us grew thick while they judged his motives and my reaction.

  In truth, I wanted him to come with me for no other reason than desiring to be around him in any capacity. Plus, he helped me see things in different ways. I had some of my best “eureka” moments around him. But if I seemed too eager to accept his company, my friends might think there was something going on between us other than building a friendship.

  “If you want to. Whatever.” Inside, I cringed, hoping my fake indifference would make the rest of them stop staring at us.

  Ignoring the audience, Mason closed the distance between us and placed his hand at the small of my back. “You’ve been doing pretty good at taking the lead so far. I’ll follow you.”

  It took a considerable amount of effort to ignore the warm tingles spreading through my body and avoid my friend’s gleeful faces while they watched the detective and I working together. I closed my eyes and prayed to the Fates something could happen to take the attention off of us.

  The door flung open with a bang. “I did it! I got the spell phone to work,” Lee declared.

  “Did you have to almost spellcast the door off its hinges to tell us?” Blythe scolded. “Something like you breaking through the magical enforcement’s wards with the spell phones might be information we don’t want everyone knowing.”

  Lee ignored her and waved around what used to be Ben’s phone. “Mason’s idea was a great seed that planted itself in my brain. If we think about our magic working like electricity, there are different wavelengths—”

  “We don’t have time to understand how you did it. Can you get everybody’s spell phone working?” I asked.

  Our genius pushed his glasses up his nose. “Only those from Honeysuckle. Our spell phones run a little differently due to working with the special magic of our town. I need to do a few more rounds of testing and then I can push through the update. Keep your phones on you and you should receive a text when I finish.”