AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, it looks like this place isn’t going to give us anything useful,” I said, and didn’t bother to keep the disappointment out of my tone. I couldn’t even be irritated with Grandma Ellen’s advice, since all she’d said was that I would find the answer I was seeking. At the time, I’d thought she was referring to the mystery of Lilith Black’s death. Now, of course, I realized she’d really been talking about the question of why Calvin had walked away from our budding relationship.
It wasn’t an answer I’d expected, but I could live with it…especially since it looked as though things between us were back on course.
I was just about to add that we might as well leave and try coming back in the daytime — not that I thought a bit of sunshine would provide any more clues than what we’d already found — when a sudden flash of an image appeared in my mind. It was so unexpected that I clapped my hand to my forehead and winced.
“Are you okay, Selena?” Calvin asked, taking a step toward me. Even in the uncertain moonlight, I could see the worry in his expression.
“I’m fine,” I said. “I just picked up something.”
“What?”
For a moment, I didn’t reply. The vision had come and gone so quickly that I didn’t have much of chance to pick out too many details.
“Lilith, standing over there.” I pointed toward a spot a few feet away from the remnants of the midsummer bonfire. “She was arguing with a man.”
“Boden Marsh?” Calvin asked immediately.
A logical response, I supposed, alibi or no.
However, I knew that wasn’t who I’d seen in the vision. “No, this man had brown hair, not black, and it was cut short. He was tall, though — enough taller than Lilith that he was staring down into her face. It must have been after everyone else had left, because I didn’t see anyone but the two of them in my vision.”
“The initial report from the M.E. seems to indicate she was stabbed by someone a lot taller than she was, based on the angle of the wounds and where the knife was found in her back,” Calvin responded, tone musing. “Maybe you saw her killer. You said they were arguing. What were they saying?”
All I could do was give a helpless shrug. “Sorry, I didn’t hear anything. I’m just guessing from the expressions on their faces that they were having an argument. The man was scowling, and she was frowning, too, and had her hands on her hips.”
“Anything else? Any details about the guy?”
I didn’t answer directly, and instead closed my eyes and willed my brain to conjure up the image once again. Yes, there was the man — the lighting made it hard for me to tell for sure, but I thought he was probably a few years older than Lilith, in his late thirties. He wore a dress shirt and what appeared to be nice trousers, not the sort of outfit most people would choose for attending a pagan ritual in the woods. Was that an Apple watch strapped on his wrist, just above where his hands were jammed into the pockets of his slacks?
Dutifully, I related all these details to Calvin, and a frown of his own pulled the straight black brows together. “Whatever they were talking about, it doesn’t sound very amicable,” he said. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen anyone who looked like this guy hanging around Globe lately?”
I shook my head. “No, but I spent a lot of time the past couple of days getting ready for my own ritual, so I wasn’t exactly ‘hanging out.’ No one like that came into my store to get a ticket to my ceremony, though. I know that much.”
“I had a feeling, but I thought I might as well ask.” He was silent for a moment, obviously thinking things over. “Still, it’s a good piece of information. Tomorrow morning we can go talk to Tansy, give her the guy’s description and see if she knows who he is.”
I wanted to ask why we should wait, but I thought I already knew the answer. Although I wasn’t wearing a watch, I knew it was probably close to ten o’clock. While I supposed if the matter was urgent enough, Calvin would go ahead and see Lilith’s assistant no matter what time it was, I had a feeling he’d decided to put the interview off until the morning because he honestly didn’t know whether this lead truly meant anything or not.
Unfortunately, neither did I. Just because the man had been arguing with Lilith didn’t meant he was the one who’d stuck a ceremonial dagger in her back.
And again, I was just reassured that Calvin had said “we,” and wasn’t going to give me any nonsense about this being official police business and something I needed to stay out of.
“Okay,” I said. “Pick me up at ten?”
“Sounds like a plan,” he replied. Even better, he bent and kissed me again, a good, solid kiss that sent tingles all the way to my toes and reminded me once again that I couldn’t imagine being with anyone except him.
He walked me back to my car, and watched for a moment as I drove off. As he disappeared in my rearview mirror, I smiled.
Everything was going better than I could have possibly imagined.
* * *
The next morning, Calvin was promptly at the back door to my building at 10 a.m. This time, though, he was in full uniform, signaling that this was definitely an official errand. Because I’d already guessed his jeans wouldn’t make a reappearance, I’d put on one of my pretty skirts from India and a scoop-neck T-shirt, although the day already promised to be hot enough that a tank top might have been a better choice.
I got in the passenger seat of his official SUV and adjusted my sunglasses on my nose. “Are you sure Tansy will even be there?” I asked as we pulled out of the parking lot that backed up to the shop.
His gaze remained fixed on the road. “She’s already been told not to leave town. And she also said she had no plans to go anywhere until the coroner’s office releases Lilith’s body.”
“Tansy’s taking care of the funeral arrangements?” Somehow, I had a hard time visualizing that pale, silent girl doing anything so practical.
