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For perhaps the first time in my life, I saw Dean utterly speechless. His mouth hung open, and no sound came out of it. Sherri didn’t seem to notice. “It’s brand-new,” she said proudly. “Y’all are the first ever to eat off it.”
“Well, someone’s trying to score Brownie points,” I continued. “I noticed all that pretty new jewelry Sherri’s wearing. I guess one of your businesses hit the jackpot for you, huh?” Dean couldn’t resist a get-rich-quick scheme. He was the guy all those Internet spam “make money fast” ads were targeted to. And then, almost holding my breath in anticipation, I went in for the kill that was sure to get me a reaction. “It’s lucky you got all that stuff before someone knocked over the jewelry store. It would have been a shame if you’d gotten together the money to buy all these nice things, and someone had swiped them out from under you.”
Their reactions weren’t at all what I’d anticipated. Sherri couldn’t keep a secret to save her life, so I’d expected her to lean forward and whisper to us about buying everything cheap from a guy who’d offered a great deal. Or, if she was our wizard, she’d have started preening, gloating, and acting mysterious. Instead, she nodded sincerely and said, “Yeah, I know.”
Dean’s reaction was even more surprising. He went totally still, only his eyes moving as he looked between Owen and me, then he said in an ice-cold voice, “And I think it’s interesting how the biggest crime wave ever to hit this town just happened to strike the day after your boyfriend showed up.”
I wasn’t sure how to react in order to convey the maximum degree of innocence. Of course, Owen wasn’t the thief, but the mysterious crime wave was related to his visit. I tried for affronted girlfriend and embarrassed sister, which wasn’t much of a stretch.
Meanwhile, Owen went even colder than Dean had been, with the eerie kind of stillness that he got when he was absolutely furious. The last time I’d seen him that angry, he’d almost accidentally sent Grand Central Station plummeting three stories underground after generating a shock wave that could have undermined the foundation. “Are you implying anything in particular?” he asked, his voice even and conversational.
“Dean, don’t be rude!” Sherri said. “Like he’d need to come here to rob the town. If he was a robber, he could have robbed all kinds of places in New York. Now, you apologize right this instant.”
Dean and Owen remained in a staredown, blue eyes locked with green. Under normal circumstances, Owen might have been at a disadvantage because he wore contact lenses and would have to blink, but Owen was anything but normal. I had a feeling that if I’d worn Owen’s magic-detecting necklace, it would have been buzzing up a storm, just from the waves of anger that were coming off him. Dean’s high school portrait that hung on the dining room wall fell to the floor with a crash. There was a strong chance it was pure coincidence and caused by a slipshod job of picture hanging, but I wouldn’t have bet on it.
“Dean, I said stop it and apologize,” Sherri said again, her voice shrill. That broke the standoff, and for the first time since I met her, I actually liked Sherri. “You know he’s not the robber, and besides, your mom was talking about weird stuff happening days before he got here.”
Dean kept his eyes fixed on Owen. “Weird stuff isn’t the same as robbery.”
“Yeah, but still, weird things were happening around town, so it’s not like everything suddenly changed when he got here—except maybe for Katie. I’m sure a lot changed for her.” She looked embarrassed as she said, “I doubt y’all will want to stay for dessert after my husband was so rude. It was just a store-bought cake that I got on special, anyway, and you can bet Lois’ll have something even better when you get back home.” Sherri stood up. “I’m sorry about all this.”
This was one of those times when it was best not to get into an argument, so I got my purse while Owen got his suit coat, and then Sherri walked us to the door. As soon as we were both in the car, I said, “I’m sorry about that. He was a total jerk. I don’t know what his deal was.”
Owen didn’t say anything while he started the car, put it in gear, and then backed out of the driveway.
He didn’t talk until we were halfway home. Then he sighed and seemed to relax a little. “I know he’s your brother,” he began, “and I realize I know absolutely nothing about what it’s like to be part of a family—”
“That most definitely is not it,” I cut in.
“But I think we have to consider him a suspect. It was a classic move—you were getting too close with your questions about all the new things he seems to have acquired lately, so he tried to deflect suspicion onto me. I’m sure if he talks to enough people in town about this, it will be easy for him to make the outsider look like the culprit.”
“Well, considering that he’s got a house full of stuff stolen from the stores in question, and you have nothing on you—and I suspect you’ve arranged it so nothing could be easily planted—that won’t go far. This town may be small and old-fashioned, but we haven’t tarred and feathered a stranger before riding him out of town on a rail since I can remember. And how can he be our suspect? He’s not magical. Remember, my family tends to be immune to magic.”
“I’m not saying he’s our wizard, but I think he may know who the wizard is and may be in league with him. He might not know that magic is involved. He may just be serving as the fence.”
I shook my head. “No, I don’t see it. He can be a jerk, and I could totally see him as a con artist, but I can’t imagine him going that far.”
“So you still think Sherri is our key suspect?”
I sighed. “No, not really, unless her niceness today was all an act and they were doing a good cop/bad cop routine to get us off the trail. But why would they even think we might be on their trail? There’s no reason for them to know that either of us might be investigating magical activity.”
“Not unless they’ve been warned. Idris may have figured out I left New York and must be here.”
“You’re being paranoid. Dean just felt threatened by you. He’s always been the town golden boy, the best-looking guy who could have any girl he wanted. And now he’s having second thoughts about the girl he’s stuck with, people in town have grown immune to the charm and looks so they expect him to actually do something, and then you come along and show him up. You’re better looking than he is—
and don’t go blushing on me because that only makes you cuter. Yeah, believe it or not, you’re hot stuff. Then you go talking about having a doctorate from Yale and a high-powered-sounding job in New York. Sherri was practically drooling all over the table at what a catch you were, and then I went and questioned the goodies he’d gotten her to make her sweet for a little while and ruined that much.”
I sighed. “He had to tear you down to make himself look better.” When he didn’t respond, I added,
“You don’t know him like I do, and like you said, you don’t have any experience with brothers.”
He glanced over at me, looking a little sheepish. “I have Rod.”
“Yeah, and Dean and Rod are practically two peas in a pod, except Rod isn’t allergic to work and never tied himself to any of the bimbos he used to date.”
“Because I wouldn’t let him.”
“Rod feels threatened enough to hide behind an illusion. What do you think he might do if he felt really threatened, if he thought he might lose his standing with someone whose opinion mattered to him?”
