Page 14 of Grimoires & Glamoury

“How much did she take?” he asked.

“Five thousand dollars,” I said as I pulled the onions off my taco. “The bank said she took it in cash. She basically cleaned them out.”

His eyebrows went up. “Tell me what you know,” he said.

While we ate, I explained the situation. Nash jotted down what little personal information I had on Sawyer and Shelby and their places of employment. I recounted my conversation with Ruth, and he nodded in approval that she was filing a report on the theft.

However, when it came to the stealing of the grimoire, I simply told him that it was a valuable antique book—and left it at that. He didn’t need to know that it was an ancient Fae manuscript that had been pilfered.

Not that he would have believed me. He was still getting used to the reality of Witches and magick. I doubted he’d take it well if I told him there were other races of Supernaturals in the world.

Nash rolled his chair over to the other side of his desk that held a massive computer and began typing. “The murder of the roommate, Tadd, was reported yesterday afternoon, you said? Do you know his last name?”

“No, sorry I don’t.”

“And to confirm, you found out about the theft of the Witches Ball funds this morning? After your meeting with Montgomery?”

“Yes,” I said. “That’s right. Ruth called me after I left the meeting to tell me about the Witches Ball account.” I paused as he shook his head. “As I said, Nash, it’s been a hell of a day.”

Nash opened up a Word document and began typing from the notes he’d taken earlier. “Give me a second. I want to make sure that I have all of this straight in my head, and the timeline.”

“I understand,” I said. “I imagine Ruth is at the police department by now.”

“Okay,” he said, typing away. A minute later he got online and entered in a web address.

I could see his computer screen from where I sat. There was a logo at the top of the new page he’d opened, and it appeared to be a police department website. I opened my mouth to question how he had access to that but decided asking might be rude.

Nash turned his head toward me. “Charles Montgomery was the one to find the body?”

“Yes. He told me he’d gone to confront Sawyer about the theft and when he arrived the door was already open, but Sawyer wasn’t there.”

“Dude’s lucky he’s friends with the DA. Anybody else would have been down at the station a hell of a lot longer, considering he was confronting his employee about theft.”

“He said that he didn’t discuss the theft with the police. Instead, he told them that he was dropping by the house because Sawyer hadn’t shown up for work, and he hadn’t heard from him for a few days.”

“So, Montgomery didn’t lie...he just didn’t tell the cops the whole truth either.” Nash shook his head.

“He did mention to me that he’d spent some time establishing his alibi to the police.”

“Ha!” Nash grinned. “I bet that annoyed the hell out of him.”

Even though I agreed, I didn’t respond and simply took a sip of my soft drink.

Nash hit a button on his keyboard and pages began to print. “I’ll see what I can find for you about Sawyer Weston and Shelby Murphy. But Lorna, surely you realize that the police are doing the same thing too.”

“Understood.”

“Once the information about Shelby clearing out that bank account hits, they’ll look even harder at her.”

I nodded. “Good.”

“Can I ask what your relationship was with Shelby?”

“She acted as a secretary for me, in regard to the community activities. Typed up notes from meetings and later emailed them to me. Shelby was often involved in the running of larger events and festivals...sometimes acting as treasurer.”

“Which was why she had access to the Witches Ball bank account.”

“Yes, she and the ball’s chairwoman, Ruth Thomas.”