upload

“Do you happen to know who’s handling his will?” Kelley asked, tucking her hair behind each ear and glancing down. Well, at least I wasn’t the only person intimidated by the brusque policewoman. Still, this was the last thing that poor Kelley needed right now.

“That’s private family business,” Officer Dash snapped, only glancing toward Kelly for a moment before staring me down again.

“I know,” Kelley mumbled as she studied her shoes. “I’m his daughter.”

“If you’re meant to be included, his attorney will contact you,” the officer explained with a hard gaze. “How come you didn’t disclose your relationship with the deceased the first time we talked?”

Kelley shook her head.“I’m still coming to terms with all of this.”

“They were estranged,” I piped up. “Until very recently.”

“Interesting.” Officer Dash pulled out that little steno notebook of hers and jotted a few things down. “Do you mind accompanying me to the station for a few questions?”

Kelley’s eyes widened in horror.

“Is that really necessary?” I argued, moving in front of Kelley protectively. “Can’t you see how upset she already is?”

“Oh, did I hurt your little friend’s feelings?” she asked with a cruel smile. “Silly me, I was just trying to bring a murderer to justice here!”

Officer Dash stomped her foot, and Kelley’s trembling fingers reached for my arm.

I turned to face my frightened young colleague.“You didn’t do anything wrong, which means you’ve got nothing to hide. Even this one is going to see that,” I said, hooking a thumb back toward a very cranky Officer Dash.

“Stay?” Kelley begged.

“I really need to question each suspect separately,” the policewoman informed us.

Kelley gasped.“Suspect?”

“Look, she’s a little rough around the edges—okay, a lot. But she can’t do a thing to you. You have my number now, call me anytime you need me. Any reason.”

Kelley nodded, and I stepped aside.

“Ever ridden in the back of a cop car before?” Officer Dash asked with a bemused expression, sending Kelley shrinking back.

“Enough,” I growled. As soon as this investigation was over, I would be filing a big fat complaint about Officer Dash’s lack of professionalism. Anonymously, of course.

“You can talk here,” I continued. “I’ll leave to give you both some privacy.”

I squeezed Kelley’s hand and told her it would be okay, then saw myself out. Neither of them tried to stop me.

I waited in the parking lot for a few minutes just to make sure Officer Dash wasn’t honestly planning on carting the poor aggrieved daughter to the station for an interrogation.

Once I was satisfied that she wasn’t, I began the short drive home.

In my distracted state, I almost ran a red light and drove up over the curb more than once. Why did Officer Dash have to be so combative about the investigation? Moreover, why had she come into the coffeehouse that afternoon? Had she been looking for me?

I worried now that if they didn’t find the real killer soon, Officer Dash might even stoop to fabricating evidence just so she could close the investigation and move on.

Scary.

Maybe I should file that complaint against her sooner than later…

One more chance, I decided as I pulled into my driveway. One more encounter. If Officer Dash didn’t start behaving more professionally with her very next visit, I would be heading into the station to discuss matters with her boss.

That small thing decided, I pushed my car into park, took a deep breath, and headed inside to see what new trouble my cat had gotten us into during my brief absence.

13

I crept into the house, not sure what I would find. Merlin had been alone for almost two hours, thanks to my strange shift at work. Funny, I’d never had to worry about what he did while I was away before. Now all I did was worry… about him, about Harold, about life on the whole.

Well, whatever he had gotten up to in my absence, it hadn’t caused any obvious damage. In fact, the house was exactly as I’d left it. Even Luna’s journal still lay open on the couch, exactly as it had been when we’d reviewed it together earlier. He must have taken it, and then brought it back. But why?

“Merlin?” I called as I moved toward the couch and peered down at the filched object. The two-page spread on display was filled with furious illegible scrawl, and I couldn’t make any sense of it.

Yeesh.I’d hoped he would have returned his nemesis’s journal when he was done with it, or at the very least hid it somewhere. It was like he was courting trouble here and doing it on purpose.

I took a quick picture of the journal’s pages on my cell phone, then grabbed it up and headed out to return it myself.

Problem was, I didn’t know exactly how to get to Luna’s cottage, seeing as we’d teleported there and back, but I remembered seeing the crossroads at the edge of the property when we escaped. One of the roads was called Persimmon. I typed the street and city name into my phone’s GPS and got directions to the general location. Thank goodness for modern technology.