I fumed over the information I got from Tom for the rest of the day, which ended up being busy. The clouds kept the day cooler which meant more people were out and about. Plus, everyone wanted to gossip about Trinity’s arrest.
They say that there’s nothing like a small-town grapevine. Add in magical familiars with telepathic abilities, and in Waverton news travels at approximately the speed of light. I hated that Trinity was the focus of the mess.
It seemed like everyone in town came into the café and wanted to hear what I thought about one of my best friends being arrested. I avoided talking to people as much as I could. Fortunately, the crowds allowed me to avoid answering as many questions as I might have had to if it had been a quieter day.
The crowds, unfortunately, kept me from running off and hiding in the back cleaning litterboxes. Greg was my only other employee that morning and there were far too many people to just leave him alone in the shop. Greg is a good solid worker, but he’s not the faster barista in town.
I let Greg take care of the appointments for the café and getting people settled with the cats. I took money and made drinks because it kept me running so people couldn’t expect me to stand around answering their questions. I probably could have talked more even so, but I didn’t want to. Instead, I listened to the conversations that people had while they waited in line.
I learned that Fiona and Isaac were visiting from Arizona. Those who had encountered them tended not to like Isaac. Apparently, he’d had a tantrum at Ned’s Diner over his breakfast. The eggs were scrambled too hard. Instead of asking nicely, he’d thrown a fit. Fiona and the older woman with her hadn’t helped at all. They’d let him scream and curse at the waitress when she brought out his order.
The second time the eggs weren’t scrambled hard enough and he’d thrown the plate at the waitress. Fiona said nothing.
I heard David Cullins who ran the diner came out from the kitchen, comped the food they’d eaten, and then made them leave. Apparently, he’d told them in no uncertain terms that they weren’t welcome there any longer.
The gossip speculated that the older woman was Fiona’s mother but no one really knew for certain.
Fiona, Isaac, and the woman who might or might not be her mother had gone to Shirley’s bakery, where I get my scones, and had gotten a muffin. Isaac had complained about the muffin being stale. Fortunately, they’d not returned to complain to Shirley. That would have been an argument to see. Shirley had a temper. When she got mad, she had a tendency to throw spells.
Everyone agreed that Fiona spent a great deal of time crying over every little thing.
Rumor had it the group was there for a familiar. Isaac wanted an iguana, but none of the iguanas over at Chet’s had liked him. From what I was hearing, I was unsurprised. Lizards are very astute observers of human behavior and they tend to either completely approve or completely disapprove.
Other rumors suggested the Fiona was looking for assistance with a sick bird familiar, but those weren’t nearly as interesting as the thoughts about Isaac. It didn’t stop me from paying attention, though. Trinity was my friend and I intended to get to the bottom of what was going on.
Everyone said they knew someone who knew someone at the police station last night when the group had made quite a scene. Apparently, Fiona thought that Chief Spader wasn’t taking Issac seriously when he didn’t immediately call for Trinity’s arrest. The chief had attempted to explain that Trinity had an alibi, but Fiona refused to hear him. Instead, she accused him of calling her son a liar.
Suddenly, the mayor’s pressure to have Trinity arrested made sense. The mayor had people in her town putting up quite a fuss.
People lowered their voices when they talked about what Isaac said. I’d had to listen particularly hard and almost missed out on hearing anything because the gossips kept waiting until I started the espresso machine. Still, I had all day, and eventually, I caught on that Isaac had insisted that everyone at the café must have been lying.
Fiona was a bit more politic suggesting that Trinity had set this up to make us think she was somewhere else. All in all, listening to the gossip about the family, I was starting to think Fiona might have been the murderer. It would certainly explain her behavior and the behavior of her son.
I pulled another latte, letting the milk heat in the machine. The line of people had gotten shorter as the day wore on. I suspected that everyone who wanted to ask me questions had come in. Now that lunch approached, they wanted more than just coffee.
By that time I was working by rote and was quite surprised when the name I called belonged to Tyson.
“Busy?” he asked quietly.
“You could say that,” I said. “I didn’t even realize it was you. I’ve been keeping my head down. Everyone wants to know what I think.”
“Downside of a small town. If you have a tragedy everyone wants to be able to say they talked to you about it,” Tyson said.
“I heard your investigator was already here.” I needed to get back to work, but I’d been on the machine without a break except to run the cash register while Greg got the cat visitors settled. I needed to pause, if just for a quick chat.
Greg, perhaps noticing, picked up a few cups and made sure there wasn’t anything he could quickly make or get started.
Feeling guilty, I moved back to the machine and started on the next drink while I chatted with Tyson.
“She is. Right now she’s looking into the eyewitness. I guess his family isn’t the most reliable,” Tyson said.
I wondered if she’d then look at me and at Natalie. I wondered how reliable she’d find us. I mean Natalie had always been Natalie, which meant pushing boundaries and getting her own way. I’d been a bit lost until I founded the café. I’d worked in the familiar shelter but while everyone praised how good I was with the cats and dogs, I’d been written up more than once for saying something I shouldn’t to a potential adopter.
The shelter itself wasn’t very big. It wasn’t like there are tons of witches letting go of their familiars. Sometimes a familiar will get disgusted with the use of negative magic. Cats, especially, can get ticked, and, as Jelliane had proved, a feline could sense when someone was pushing the boundaries of positive magic.
Since I started the café, the current shelter mostly took in dogs. They still had some space for cats, but they tended to keep the cats that were the most socialized and most likely to be placed quickly. I had the others here at the café where they could spend time with people, even if the people weren’t all witches.
“Given that I was nearly unemployed before the café, how reliable am I?” I asked.
Tyson gave me a smile and shook his head. “It wasn’t just you here with Trinity. It was Natalie and a handful of others, including Officer Alsez.”
The fact that Tom Alsez was a police officer was going to go a long way to getting Trinity off the hook.
“I don’t even know how Eric was killed,” I said, hoping to draw Tyson out. I mean, I’d heard the gossip and Mason told me what Dodi Purr knew. Tyson would undoubtedly have more details. Unfortunately, he looked around at the line, short though it was, and shook his head.
I waved as he left, quickly picking up the next drink and calling out a name.
When noon rolled around I sent Greg to lunch and did my best to keep up with the line of people. It had slowed down, but the hour he was gone felt long considering how hard we’d worked. The good thing was that the tip jar was plenty full so he’d be well compensated. I leave tips to the employees. I figured as the owner, I got paid better and had other perks.
By the time Greg returned from lunch, the line was gone and we were down to our usual afternoon lull. I was restocking the cooler and taking inventory of what we were out of.
“That was some morning,” Greg said, putting his apron back on.
“It was,” I said, looking up. “And I’m now starving. I ought to check in with Mason before I grab lunch, though.”
Greg nodded and got to work cleaning up behind the counter. I’d kept it as tidy as possible but it needed a good scrub. Doing a bit more now would make it easier when we did our final clean-up.
I slipped into the cat section of the café. Two young men and two older women were in separate sitting areas. Jelliane was with one of the younger men rubbing her chin against his hand. That was good to see.
I reached up to give Mason a chin rub.
About time, he said leaning his head out.
“Anything in here?” I asked.
Gossip, he said. Most of what he’d heard was similar to what I’d heard about Isaac and Fiona. However, he had more details about Chet. I guess Isaac had insisted he was bonded with one of the iguanas and had pitched a fit when Chet told him no.
Given what I’ve heard, I’m surprised he didn’t try to insist Chet killed Eric, Mason said.
That was interesting. I wanted to know why this young man was so focused on Trinity. So far as I knew, she hadn’t been to Arizona and if the gossip was to be believed, that’s where Isaac and Fiona were from. It seemed like the most important thing would be to learn why they wanted to set her up for a crime she didn’t commit.