Mia had forgotten their cover story. “Not according to the blood tests. I probably was allergic to some skin cream or something.”
“As long as you’re not looking for another job, Idon’t care what your excuse for missing work is. I need you here.” He sighed as one of his chefs tried to get his attention. “George needs me on the line. See how that all works? I’ll be here tomorrow for the start of the reception dinner, then I’m going home to watch football.”
“I never thought I’d hear you say that.” Mia stopped in her tracks and turned to stare at James.
“What? My new beau is a fan.” He waved her off. “Go have a life.”
Christina spied the cookies as she met Mia in the hallway. “For me?”
“Sure.” Mia handed over the bag. “Finn’s still working, so James will bring her home. When do you think you’ll go back to Portland?”
Christina stopped so suddenly, Mia thought something was wrong.
“What? Are you okay?” Mia scanned her friend from head to toe.
“I just realized that I don’t want to be pregnant six hundred miles away from my friends. My mom, maybe. But you and Abigail? How on earth am I going to deal with everything?”
On the way home, they stopped at Magic Brews again. Marsha Fieldstone looked up as they walked in the door. “Second visit in as many days, what did I do now?”
“Maybe we just love your coffee. I want a large coffee to go. Christina?” Mia turned and let Christina order a large hot chocolate with whipped cream and two cookies. Mia didn’t even look at her as she paid the bill. “I forgot to ask you about Suzanne Parker. When did she come into town, Monday?”
Marsha smiled as she made the drinks. “Now you’re trying to trick me. Suzanne came in on Friday night. She often came in on weekends to spend time at her house. Of course she didn’t socialize with the coven because she didn’t want to seem partial, but she had friends who would visit. At least that was the rumor.”
“Friends? Or friends with benefits?” Christina asked.
“Both. She had a very active social life for someone who lived in two different towns. I couldn’t do it. Once I leave here, the only face I want to see is my cat’s. I get too much peopling in the shop.” Marsha wiped her hands on a towel.
“Was she friends with anyone we’d know?” Mia pushed as Marsha set down the coffee and hot chocolate by them and went to get the cookies.
“I’m not sure I know. Suzanne and Cleo were friends. Cleo doesn’t have a lot of them; most people she’s known have passed on. I think it would be hard to make connections, then watch those people age and die. Suzanne and Dorian dated for a while, but that had to be a century ago. I’m surprised your grandmother didn’t mention that. Regarding her current lover, I heard rumors that she and Brandon were close. He can’t trust most witches not to use his coven status for their own gain, but Suzanne was far beyond that. So he didn’t have to worry why she was seeing him. Besides the sex. He’s just average in that department. At least that’s what I’ve been told.”
The bell over the door rang and a bunch of tourists who looked like they just got off the ski runs entered the shop. “Come by anytime to chat,” Marsha said as she turned her attention to the tourists.
As they left the building, Christina started giggling, and Mia joined in. “That was odd,” Christina said.
“Odd is a polite description. So, what did we learn?” Mia settled into Christina’s car and thanked the Goddess for the heated seats. “Suzanne Parker came to town a lot, and she might have been sleeping with Brandon. Is he the one who asked for my testing to be redone?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. He’s being weirder than usual. But then again, I don’t know him very well.” Christina pulled the car out on the street. “Home?”
“Yeah. Coven headquarters is closed until Monday, and I don’t know how else to contact Cleo. There’s something we don’t know about Suzanne Parker, but I’m not sure it has anything to do with her death. On the other hand, if her murder didn’t have to do with her past here, then we’re back to my testing. I know I didn’t kill her.” Mia closed her eyes as Christina drove home.
“What does Mark say?”
“He thinks she was lured out to the cross-country trail, then drugged so she’d be stuck there. They covered her with water to make the hypothermia worse.” Mia looked over at Christina, who looked horrified at the description. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have been so blunt.”
Christina swallowed hard before replying. “No, I asked. Does he have any suspects?”
As Christina pulled into the parking lot, Buddy landed on her favorite tree. “No, but I’m glad Trent isout of the picture this investigation. Now we just need to see why someone would try to frame me for the killing.”
“Sure, easy peasy. Then we can figure out who killed JFK.” Christina waved to Buddy and headed into the academy.
“When there is an obvious answer and a convoluted one, maybe the simple one is right,” Mia muttered as she made her way into the house. “Night, Buddy.”
That night, after dinner and when she was alone in the living room, Mia took out her Suzanne Parker notebook and added the few things that she’d learned. She sighed. It wasn’t much. If Suzanne Parker had lived that many lives, maybe the library could access some sort of written record. Grans hadn’t had time to get into the coven’s archives yet, but if Brandon was involved in this, that information would probably be classified. She really needed to talk to Cleo.
The security alarm went off, and Mia didn’t look at the monitor, assuming James was dropping off Finn. When the doorbell rang, Mia looked up, surprised. Cleo stood at the front door in a black cape and fedora.
Mia hurried downstairs with Mr. Darcy following close behind. She swung open the door. “Sorry, I thought you were Finn coming home.”
