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Judging by the hard, flat line of Calvin’s mouth and the way his fingers clenched on the knees of his khaki uniform pants, he was less than thrilled by that answer. However, he didn’t try to ask why I hadn’t fought back — after all, Boden Marsh had already amply proved that he was a very dangerous man.
Good thing even he wasn’t up to the challenge of facing down a cursed cat. Archie had alotof anger to work off.
“The guy definitely isn’t firing on all cylinders,” Calvin agreed. “I’m sure they’ll give him a full psych eval to determine whether he’s competent to stand trial.”
I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, if Boden really was suffering from the sort of extreme psychological issues that would prevent him from understanding right from wrong, then a psychiatric care facility seemed to be the right place for him. I didn’t know if that was truly the case, though. He might have been sick…or just plain evil.
Either way, I was fine with letting better minds than mine figure it out.
After Boden had been taken away, I’d made fresh cups of herbal tea for Calvin and myself. I lifted my mug and took a sip, glad of the warm liquid flowing down my throat. Even though the day was boiling hot outside, I still felt cold all over. That had been a close one. If it hadn’t been for Archie….
“But,” Calvin went on, “since Boden Marsh confessed his crimes to you and Emily is still alive to testify against him, he’s going to have a hard time coming up with a workable defense. He’ll be arraigned for the murder of Lilith Black and the attempted murder of Emily Porter, and whatever the outcome, he won’t be going anywhere for a very long time.”
“And that means everything will get back to normal in Globe,” I replied.
“One can only hope.” Calvin’s dark eyes took on a glint I’d begun to recognize. “I have to say that I’m not sure things will ever be completely normal while you’re around.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” I said, and he chuckled.
“Not bad. Just…different.”
“In a good way?”
“A very good way.”
He leaned in and kissed me, his mouth warm and welcome, tasting of vanilla tea. I fell into his embrace, glad of his arms around me, and even more glad to know that there weren’t any more secrets between us.
From somewhere down the hall came an irritated huff of a breath. “Oh, dear lord,” Archie groaned. “Just when I’d hoped this place had started to quiet down.”
Calvin pulled away from me and looked over his shoulder toward the hallway. “Is your cat all right? It sounds like he’s having a coughing fit.”
I tried not to smile. So that’s what Archie talking sounded like to anyone who wasn’t a witch.
“Hairball,” I said briefly, and leaned in for another kiss.
All right, so I might have hadonesecret left…but I’d leave that for another day.
