Page 11 of Grimoires & Glamoury

“Correct,” Montgomery said. “It was my understanding that Sawyer shared a house with his best friend, Tadd, and also a girlfriend, a Witch named Shelby Murphy.”

“Oh my goddess,” I whispered.

“Shelby Murphy assists you with keeping notes on the Witch community meetings, does she not?”

“She does,” I said. “But Shelby wasn’t at the New Moon Book Club meeting last night. Are the police looking for her too?”

“They are now,” he confirmed.

“Do you think Sawyer and Shelby took off with the grimoire?” I asked him. “Or are you worried that they were also killed? What did the police say?”

“The police are investigating Tadd’s death as a homicide. They do not know about the missing book from my collection. I merely said that after Sawyer hadn’t come into work and as I hadn’t heard from him for the past three days, I dropped by his home to check on him. Which was true.”

I pressed my fingers to the bridge of my nose. “Which means the police are probably thinking Sawyer and Shelby had something to do with their roommate’s death, or that they are also victims.”

“Yes, but more importantly, we have a dangerous Fae grimoire that is unaccounted for. If it ends up in the wrong hands, the consequences would be dire.”

I flinched at his words. “The level of compassion you have for Sawyer and Shelby’s safety and their poor roommate’s death is overwhelming,” I said dryly.

He scowled at me.

“You said Sawyer was your friend, and that you had trusted him,” I whispered angrily. “Did you even bother to consider what could have happened to have made him take the book? Could he have been coerced or compelled into it?”

The man across the table from me flushed slightly at my questions.

“You never even contemplated that possibility, did you?” I said, knowing that I was right.

“No, I did not,” Montgomery admitted. “At first, I thought there was a mistake, that the book had been misplaced, but after a few days of searching I realized that it had been taken. That’s when I became angry. Angry at the thought of a long-time friend betraying and stealing from me.”

“I hate to ask,” I said, “but when you were at the rental house were there any signs that the attack on the roommate had been magickal?”

“Not that I saw,” he said. “The door was hanging open and so I walked in. I smelled the blood right away and found Tadd’s body off the main room in the hallway. It was obvious that he was deceased and so I called 911 and backed out carefully, trying not to touch anything. Then I waited for the police.”

My stomach churned at the thought of it. “You also said the house was trashed,” I pointed out. “Like whoever took out Tadd had been looking for something?”

“I believe that was one of the theories the police floated yesterday.”

For a moment we both sat there silently, each lost in our own thoughts.

The waiter came back and asked us if we’d like to order.

I politely refused.

CHAPTER THREE

Funny how talk of a violent murder and missing people could make you in a hurry to end your meeting. I left the pretty French restaurant with my mind racing from everything that I’d learned. After sending Dex a quick text telling him that I was going to run a few errands while I was out, I strolled along trying to think of what my smartest move would be going forward.

I’m sure there were plenty of folks in the Witch community that simply assumed I could whip up a spell and fix any problem that came my way. However, as the Magistra, magick was typically my last resort—shocking but true. Magick wasn’t a Band-Aid for every inconvenience, and tossing spells around willy-nilly often created more problems for the caster.

I conserved my power, that way when my magick was required there was much more force behind it. The High Priestess card Circe had pulled for me early was accurate. Serenity, wisdom and restraint, were all qualities required of higher-level practitioners.

Nonetheless, there was something else. Something Montgomery and I hadn’t discussed that was bothering me…

We had a young couple, both involved in the magickal community, each in a position close to power. Sawyer worked for and was friends with Charles Montgomery, and there was Shelby with her proximity to me.

And what were the odds that the secretary to the Magistra of the Witchcraft Community, and the executive assistant of the leader of a ceremonial lodge of magicians were a couple, let alone involved in the theft of a rare book, and possibly the murder of their roommate?

The odds were slim. Though, in my world there were no such things as coincidences.