Chapter 20
I walked up the front steps to my home, relieved that Alder was fine. I looked back at the garden, wondering where my grandfather was. The dripping lilac trees took on a whole new aspect with the knowledge. As I looked, the blossoms shook, releasing a heady scent. The soft white flowers of the baby’s breath shivered by the ancient flagstones as if to acknowledge my presence.
“Hi, Thelma,” I said cheerily to the house as I opened the door. “Marina told me all about you.” I waved, and then felt silly for doing so.
The cats were none too pleased to see me. “Sorry I’m late, guys,” I said, but their only response was to swish their tails in annoyance.
I knew I would get no peace until I fed them, so after throwing my purse and my keys on the coffee table, I hurried to the kitchen and deposited food in their bowls. I knew they would make me pay for weeks for being home late.
I was too tired even to have a shower. In fact, I was too tired to take off my clothes. I had called Ruprecht and Thyme from the airport, and told them the whole story about Selena. Could that woman be the murderer? Surely not. Perhaps she had only lied to me about her identity so I would do the spell for her, or perhaps there was a more sinister reason.
I turned on my bedroom light, and then walked down the hallway to the living room to turn off the TV. The rose ceremony was about to begin, so I decided it would be safer simply to turn down the volume. “I’ve just found out who you are, Grandmother. Err, good to meet you.”
The house shook slightly by way of response. “Would you mind turning off the TV when you’re finished? I’m really tired, and I’m going to bed. By the way, Alder is fine. He was shot and he’s in a hospital in Melbourne, but he’ll be back soon, and he’s going to stay here to recover, if that’s all right with you.”
The lights flickered on and off, which I took to mean that the house, or rather, my grandmother—this would take some getting used to—was happy about Alder staying there.
I yawned and stretched, and was halfway to my bedroom when there was a knock at the door. I pulled my phone from my jeans pocket and looked at the time. It was late. This did not bode well. I walked to the door and called out, “Who’s there?”
“It’s Selena,” came the voice on the other side of the door. “I’m sorry it’s so late, but I’m leaving town right now, and I’d feel bad if I didn’t at least call by and say goodbye to you.”
I still had my phone in my hand, so I sent off a quick text both to Ruprecht and Thyme. As I opened the door, Selena pushed past me before I could say a word. She showed herself into the living room.
She was clutching a wrapped bouquet of roses, and I noticed she was wearing gloves. Most people wore gloves in winter in Bayberry Creek, but certainly not in spring.
“These are for you, as a thank you,” she said, handing me the roses. I had no intention of taking them, but before I could even refuse to do so, the roses vanished into thin air, or that’s how it seemed to me. In actual fact, the house snatched the roses, and held them near the ceiling.
Selena gasped. “Did you do that, Amelia? I didn’t know you could do things as powerful as that.”
“It was someone far more powerful than I am,” I said. “And I assume there was aconite on the roses? When I was researching, I discovered that aconite is absorbed through the skin and quite poisonous. Were you trying to make my death look like an accident?”
Selena staggered backward, horrified. “No! No, why would you say such a thing, Amelia? I didn’t kill Nick. I loved him!”
“In that case, are you happy to prove it?” I asked.
“How?” Her face was ashen, her voice trembling.
“You could take off your gloves and handle those roses,” I said calmly.
Selena backed onto the couch, and then fell backward onto it, clutching her purse and staring at horror at the roses that now hovered in the air front of her.
I stood over her and crossed my arms. “I wasn’t sure it was you,” I said, “not until you came here tonight. Why did you kill Nick?”
A calculating look passed over her face. “He promised he was going to leave Clara for me. He strung me along for years, all the time promising to marry me. I found out he had other girlfriends, but I thought he really loved me, that he was leaving his wife for me. I even sold my store and moved states just for him, and then he laughed at me and belittled me and made me feel like a fool. He said he was never going to leave his wife! He said I was just one of his many playthings.” She sniffed.
“So you killed him.” It was more of a statement than a question.
She nodded, her eyes darting from me to the roses and back again. “I knew he always took his medication before lunch and dinner. He had a habit of placing it on the table as soon as he sat down, so all I did was ask him to order me a glass of water and when he was away finding a waiter, I put the poison in his bottle. It was easy.”
“And you nearly got away with it,” I said. “And I thought you were a nice person.”
“I am a nice person” she said. Her voice held a sharp edge I had not noticed before. “Nick was the one who was not a nice person.”
“How did you get the aconite?”
Selena pointed to her knee. “Arthritis. I see a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner, and I’m prescribed aconite for my arthritis. I went to see several so I could get a large stash, to use on Nick.” She cackled.
Arthritis! I missed that one, despite the fact I knew aconite was prescribed for arthritis, and she had constantly complained about her knee. “Why did you try to kill me?” I asked her. “What did I ever do to you?”
“I didn’t want to kill you, Amelia,” she said. “It wasn’t personal, if that makes you feel any better.”
The roses shook. “It actually doesn’t make me feel any better. Are you going to tell me why?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” I did not respond, so she continued. “I was afraid you’d find out it was me. You’re a powerful witch, so I thought you’d do a spell and discover it was me.”
I sighed. “Real life witchcraft is nothing like the Hollywood version. We can’t use magic to find out who the murderer is.”
She looked puzzled. “But what about using a pendulum, or tarot?”
I shook my head. “Selena, you should know how it works. You owned a witch supply store, so you should know it doesn’t work like that. A person’s own presuppositions get in the way of such things.”
Selena’s eyes darted wildly from side to side, and then she made a mad dash for the door.
The living room door slammed in her face. She swung around, and the roses hovered ever closer to her. She screamed, and ran around the room, as the blare from the TV, still showing The Bachelor, got louder.
As she passed the TV, she aimed a kick at the screen, and then dropped to the ground, clutching her knee.
The rose ceremony was playing. The house separated the roses into single stems, and sent one through the air. It came to rest over Selena. She threw herself back on the floor, and screamed, “Get the rose away from me!”
I bent over her. “When you knocked on my door, I knew you were the murderer. I texted Ruprecht and Thyme to call the cops. If you don’t confess the second you see a police officer, and I mean confess in full, the house will give you a rose, a poisoned rose. You don’t want a poisoned rose, do you? If you don’t confess, the house will give you a rose.”
“I’ll do as you say! I don’t want a rose!” she screamed.
Just then, Sergeant Tinsdell and Constable Dawson burst into the living room. Thankfully, the house made the roses drop on a nearby newspaper at Selena’s feet a split second before they arrived.
“I’ll confess! I’ll confess!” Selena screamed. “Just don’t let the roses near me! I don’t want a rose!”
Tinsdell and Dawson exchanged glances. I suppose it looked a strange sight, Selena writhing on the ground, right in front of the big TV screen which was showing the bachelor handing out roses.
I hastened to explain. “She came here to hand me those poisoned roses.” I pointed to the roses strewn over the floor. “You will find that aconite is on them, so they’re poisonous to touch. At any rate, she’s keen to confess.”
Selena struggled to her feet. “I’ll confess, I’ll confess! I don’t want a rose!”
What happened next was a blur. Detectives Greene and Jones hurried in the door and wasted no time cuffing Selena as Tinsdell filled them in. I followed them to the door, and gave the thumbs up to Ruprecht, Thyme, Camino, and Mint who were standing at my front gate.
Tinsdell was the last to leave. He turned to me, his face grim. “Amelia, this isn’t the first lucky escape you’ve had, is it?”
I shook my head, feeling somehow like the guilty party instead of the intended victim.
“And this time, the murderer thought she was on an episode of The Bachelor.” Tinsdell narrowed his eyes. “She said she didn’t want a rose.”
“Err, um, yes,” I stammered. “Well, the bachelor in that season didn’t really have a personality.”
“If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, Amelia. There’s a reason your house drives people mad. And don’t tell me it’s an allergy to cats.”
I held my breath. Did Tinsdell know?
“It’s mold.”
I nodded, relieved.
“I wouldn’t look so happy about mold, if I were you.” Tinsdell’s face was grim. “You need to get it remediated. I’ve already told you it can cause neurotoxic effects. A certain percentage of people have a genetic predisposition to mold allergy, and given her mental state, this latest murderer was clearly one of them. Luckily you don’t appear to be affected,” he added.