“You can talk here,” I continued. “I’ll leave to give you both some privacy.”
I squeezed Kelley’s hand and told her it would be okay, then saw myself out. Neither of them tried to stop me.
I waited in the parking lot for a few minutes just to make sure Officer Dash wasn’t honestly planning on carting the poor aggrieved daughter to the station for an interrogation.
Once I was satisfied that she wasn’t, I began the short drive home.
In my distracted state, I almost ran a red light and drove up over the curb more than once. Why did Officer Dash have to be so combative about the investigation? Moreover, why had she come into the coffeehouse that afternoon? Had she been looking for me?
I worried now that if they didn’t find the real killer soon, Officer Dash might even stoop to fabricating evidence just so she could close the investigation and move on.
Scary.
Maybe I should file that complaint against her sooner than later…
One more chance, I decided as I pulled into my driveway. One more encounter. If Officer Dash didn’t start behaving more professionally with her very next visit, I would be heading into the station to discuss matters with her boss.
That small thing decided, I pushed my car into park, took a deep breath, and headed inside to see what new trouble my cat had gotten us into during my brief absence.
13
I crept into the house, not sure what I would find. Merlin had been alone for almost two hours, thanks to my strange shift at work. Funny, I’d never had to worry about what he did while I was away before. Now all I did was worry… about him, about Harold, about life on the whole.
Well, whatever he had gotten up to in my absence, it hadn’t caused any obvious damage. In fact, the house was exactly as I’d left it. Even Luna’s journal still lay open on the couch, exactly as it had been when we’d reviewed it together earlier. He must have taken it, and then brought it back. But why?
“Merlin?” I called as I moved toward the couch and peered down at the filched object. The two-page spread on display was filled with furious illegible scrawl, and I couldn’t make any sense of it.
Yeesh.I’d hoped he would have returned his nemesis’s journal when he was done with it, or at the very least hid it somewhere. It was like he was courting trouble here and doing it on purpose.
I took a quick picture of the journal’s pages on my cell phone, then grabbed it up and headed out to return it myself.
Problem was, I didn’t know exactly how to get to Luna’s cottage, seeing as we’d teleported there and back, but I remembered seeing the crossroads at the edge of the property when we escaped. One of the roads was called Persimmon. I typed the street and city name into my phone’s GPS and got directions to the general location. Thank goodness for modern technology.
Persimmon lay on the other side of town, but still it only took me ten minutes to find Luna’s home and park outside. I tucked the journal into my purse and moved toward the door.
An older woman answered before I even had the chance to knock.
“Hello. Virginia?” I asked hopefully.
“Gracie,” she answered with a sigh, then stepped back and allowed me to enter.
Good. This was good.
Now I just had to find a way to return the journal without her noticing I’d taken it in the first place.
So I put on my best, most cordial smile, and said,“I just wanted to stop by and introduce myself. I know our cats are fighting, but I see no reason why we can’t get along.”
Although she was much older than me, Virginia seemed to possess a grace and easiness within herself that I’d never known. Her blonde hair was an obvious dye job even though I couldn’t see any dark roots peeking through, and her green eyes studied me with a quiet intelligence I found comforting.
“Would you like some sweet tea?” Virginia offered, gliding toward the kitchen.
“Please.” I knew it would rude not to accept, but also kind of stupid to actually drink anything she gave me, given that I didn’t know if we were on good terms. Still, I liked her, despite Merlin’s warnings. There was something I instantly related to, although I couldn’t say what. Maybe we familiars had more in common than just our job. I thought about all this as I stood waiting awkwardly near the door.
Virginia cracked a tray of ice cubes and dropped several into each of two glasses.
Focus. I needed to focus. Remember the purpose for this visit.
Hmmm. Could I just stick the journal on the entry table and call it good?
No, no. Too obvious.
“Come. Let’s have a seat.” Virginia guided me to the tacky floral couch I’d spotted on my first visit, and we both settled in with our sweet tea. She smiled warmly at me as if we were old friends and not new acquaintances.
I placed my purse on the floor by my feet. When she wasn’t looking, I could take the journal out and kick it beneath the couch for them to find later. I just had to wait for my opportunity.
“You’re still very new,” Virginia pointed out. When I looked at her askance, she added, “To the familiar life.”
I bobbed my head and pretended to take a sip from my glass.
Virginia’s casual smile faded at once. Even the soothing green of her eyes appeared to sharpen in an instant. “Our witches’ feuds are ours, too. We don’t have any autonomy in their world. So if our cats are fighting, then we are, too.”
I coughed and set my sweet tea on the coffee table. It seemed there was no need to keep up appearances if she was going to wear her hostility on her sleeve here.
“Are you sure?” I asked with a frown. “It just seems so silly. Shouldn’t we witches and familiars stick together?”
“That’s not our decision. Now that we’ve met, I hope you’re satisfied. You may finish your tea and leave.” Virginia drained hers in a single gulp, then wandered off down the hallway and let herself into a private room.
I had to act fast. Something told me if I wasn’t gone by the time Virginia came back, I might not be able to get away. How quickly she had transformed. This frightened me. Would I one day become like her, too? Was this the life my witchy cat had cursed me to live in choosing me as his familiar?
Desperate to get out of there and fast, I knocked my purse onto its side with my heel, trying to make it look like an accident in case anyone was watching. Then I bent down and grabbed it, taking care to shove the journal as far back as I could.
Satisfied with my work, I took my still full beverage to the kitchen and dumped it down the sink drain, then let myself out into the yard and bolted for my waiting car.
So much for diplomacy.
Whatever our cats’ problem with each other, the two felines would just have to find a way to work it out for themselves.
14
I thought about my strange encounter with Virginia the entire drive home. How she had transformed from pleasant to frightening in the quickest of moments. Merlin had said that familiars themselves don’t possess magic, but Virginia’s personality shift had felt wholly unnatural. Did Luna bespell her somehow?
And, more importantly, would Merlin do something similar to me?
I didn’t like this one bit. Was it too late for me to tell him “thanks, but no thanks” and leave him to find someone better suited to lifelong magical servitude?
I had a feeling that no matter where I ran to, Merlin would find me and drag me back. And other than being a little rude, he hadn’t done a single thing to hurt me. In fact, he’d promised to protect me, at least when it came to Harold’s murder investigation.
Whatever the case, he and I clearly needed to have a long talk before he asked anything more of me. Lesson two said that I was supposed to trust him, but he needed to trust me, too. And he needed to offer some kind of guidebook into my new life if he expected me to assimilate.
Yes, we would have a nice long chat, provided I could find him. I took a deep breath and pushed open the door to my home, more than ready for a heart-to-heart.