I smiled as she leaned into my touch.“I love you, Luna, and I will always have your back. Now are you ready to bring in our next suspect?”
8
Luna led our next suspect into the bathroom. She was a sleek Russian blue with long legs and a graceful gait. But because there was more than one Russian blue at the party, I wasn’t certain whether this was the one I’d had an earlier interaction with.
“Greetings, human,” she droned, apparently bored with me already.
Yup, this was definitely the same blue who’d approached me after I’d attempted to explain the toilet paper wedding dress game, demanding to know what she would win when the game was over.
“I asked you to call me Gracie,” I said with a stern look and one hand on my hip. “Remember?”
“Oh, was that you?” She shrugged. “Apologies. All you humans look the same to me.”
“This is Sasha Alexandrovna,” Luna said. This time she claimed the higher ground, forcing the blue to settle on the closed toilet seat. “Sasha, Gracie is my friend and Merlin’s familiar. She’s also the only human here.”
Sasha rolled her large emerald eyes.“Fine, fine. Gracie, it is. Now what do the two of you want with me?”
“We’re questioning all the guests to find out who destroyed the wedding arch and surrounding gardens,” I explained, taking a step closer. “Know anything about that?”
“Well, I was just—” Sasha’s eyes widened; she arched her back and let out a terrible hiss. “What is that thing?” she cried.
Luna and I both glanced toward the far wall, where—sure enough—our resident ghost peeked out from the painted wall. Virginia hadn’t phased all the way through, though, so it looked as if the wall had consumed her, leaving only the tips of her fingers and top of her tilted head visible.
“Oh, don’t you have anything better to do?” Luna cried, throwing in an indignant huff for good measure.
Virginia reached her arms through the wall and the rest of her head and neck followed.“Boo!” she said with a wicked grin.
“Eeeeeh!Ka Chortoo!”Sasha shouted, along with a string of other words I didn’t understand. I was pretty sure she was speaking Russian, though.
“It’s fine. That’s just Virginia. She is literally harmless, even though she wishes otherwise,” I tried to explain patiently.
Sasha slowly lowered herself back into a seated position, keeping her eyes trained on Virginia the whole time.
“Why do you have to ruin my fun?” the ghost whined. “Someone was finally afraid of me for a change, and you just couldn’t wait to mess that up for me.”
“You tried to kill me,” I bit out.“Twice.”
Sasha picked her butt up off the toilet seat and swung her poofed-up tail in agitation.
“Gracie is right, dear,” Luna offered her friend with a supportive smile. “She can’t hurt you. Annoy you? Yes. But hurt? Never.”
“Just try to pretend that she isn’t there,” I said with a sigh. “Now you were saying something before? Something about the destroyed garden?” I prompted. We needed to get a move on if we wanted to make sure we had time to question everyone before sunup.
“What’s this I hear?” Virginia floated away from the wall and hovered near the door, her nearly transparent face filled with delight. “Someone destroyed that hideous thing you’ve been building in the backyard? Well, good riddance, I say. Honestly, who would mix wisteria with lilac? That’s just tacky.”
Luna growled a warning, but Virginia just laughed.
“I don’t have to listen to you anymore, doll. You’re just as big of a dud as me now. Aren’t you?”
Rather than arguing back in her own defense, Luna fell quiet. She’d given up her powers to stop Virginia when her former familiar had been corrupted by a dark illusion witch and tried to murder both me and Merlin.
“Ignore her, please,” I said through gritted teeth. “And answer the question.”
Sasha kept her eyes trained on Virginia, unwilling to look away.“Yes, I know something about it,” she confessed.
“Oh, you poor, stupid kitty,” Virginia ground out. “You don’t just admit everything the moment they ask. Otherwise, what’s the point in even messing with them to begin with?”
Sasha tore her eyes away from the ghost and looked up at me.“I didn’t do it, but I do know something about it.”
“Please go on,” I said, when she didn’t offer anything more.
“Fine,” she said with a humph as she rearranged her position on the closed toilet seat. “I was outside when it happened. I overheard someone talking to herself, but I didn’t look to see who it was.”
Her?That narrowed our suspect pool down by two. If the culprit was female, then it definitely hadn’t been Merlin or Mr. Fluffikins. Not that I suspected them, anyway.
“What was she saying?” I asked.
And at the same time, Luna blurted out,“Why were you wandering around outside?”
“I was angry. With her.” Sasha raised one shaky paw and pointed it my way. “It wasn’t fair that you granted more time for the contest. My team worked hard to get it done within the allotted time. If others couldn’t time-manage properly, why shouldwe be punished?”
“But it all turned out okay. Everyone won in the end, including you,” I pointed out.
She flicked her tail and let out a low growl.“Which really means nobody won. Doesn’t it?”
“You still get the prize,” I said, more than a little irritated.
She just rolled her eyes.“Yes, but it will only taste a fraction as good, knowing that others who are far less worthy will be enjoying the same meal.”
“Are you sure you didn’t do it?” I nudged. “Sure seems like you had an axe to grind.”
“I would have done it if I could ever break out of this awful place,” Virginia interjected.
Sasha glanced toward the ghost briefly, then turned back to me with a hard, steely gaze.“Why would I take my anger out on Luna, when it’s you I’m mad at. By the way, don’t be surprised when you look in your bedroom closet next.”
“My what?” I shouted. “What did you do?”
“The next time you want to wear those red heels, maybe you’ll remember that trying to please everyone ends up pleasing no one.” She jumped off the toilet and marched over to the door with her head held high.
Virginia gave me a slow clap as I went over to open the door.“You’re really bad at this whole cop thing,” she said with a laugh. “But it makes for great entertainment.”
“Please go away,” I groaned.
“Not a chance,” she shot back with an enormous grin. “Not a chance.”
9
Virginia phased into the bathroom mirror and stared out at me with ghostly eyes—and a whole lot of amused judgment.
“I think this might be a good time to check in with the guys,” I muttered, trying my best not to get worked up by Virginia’s antics.
Luna hopped onto the counter and tapped the mirror with partially extended claws.“I don’t suppose we can trust you not to cause any trouble while we’re gone?”
Our unwanted roommate let out a wicked laugh. It was a bluff on her part, I knew that, because in her specter state she couldn’t wield magic or even interact with any objects in the physical world. She could, however, upset the swarm of cats in my living room, leading them to cause mass amounts of damage in her stead.
I wasn’t sure she’d thought that far ahead, but I also didn’t want to take any chances. “Are you okay to hang back here and play babysitter while I catch up with the guys?”
Luna nodded.“I have the most experience with her and with our guests. It makes sense for me to stay.” She eyed Virginia warily. “Only, don’t take too long, please, if you don’t mind. You know how she drives me crazy.”
The ghost’s laughter followed me even after I clicked the bathroom door shut behind me. A few cats turned to look my way with idle gazes of curiosity.
“Everything is fine,” I said in a calm, assertive voice. It was supposed to work with dogs, but it failed to impress the crowd of felines. In the end, cats would listen only if what I wanted was something they already planned on doing anyway.