15

Natalie drove her car to the police station. Unlike me, who preferred to walk when possible, Natalie drove whenever she went somewhere, even around town. She was absolutely certain it was faster. I still believed there were times when driving wasn’t any faster, but after last night, carrying Mason in his carrier, I was starting to think driving might be easier.

Natalie got lucky and pulled into a parking spot on the street across from City Hall. Someone pulled out just as we were getting close to it.

“You have good parking karma,” I said.

“I put a spell on the car when I purchased it. Parking luck,” Natalie said.

I laughed. Things could be spelled for luck. Natalie had probably focused on parking when she’d spelled her car. My car had spells to keep me from getting into accidents, but I’d never considered one for parking. In a town as small as Waverton, most people don’t, but Natalie did have to go out of town now and again. She attended a lot of conferences. Plus, she checked out other hotels to see what they were offering their guests.

After passing through security, we headed to the desk where Lani Thomas waited. She waved at us. “Mrs. DiAngelo has you all set up. It’s downstairs, so take the elevator around the corner.”

I hadn’t ever been in the elevator around the corner. It sat next to a desk where an officer worked. I vaguely recognized the woman at the desk, but a name didn’t immediately come to me. Waverton is small, but not that small.

Natalie pressed the button which only went down and the elevator doors opened for us. Shiny black walls and dark tile greeted us from a space the size of a janitorial closet. A very small closet. The colors on the walls didn’t help. Looking up, I noticed even the ceiling was black.

“I’m not normally claustrophobic, but I could learn,” I said, looking around.

The elevator, perhaps enjoying my discomfiture, made its way slowly down to the basement which held the jail. Although Trinity had been arrested, she hadn’t had a bail hearing yet. I wasn’t sure if that was typical or not.

When the doors opened, we stepped out into a small vestibule area with another metal detector and two officers manning it. One sat in a chair reading a book. As the doors began to close behind us, he stood up casually, not caring that he’d been caught reading.

Down there everything was utilitarian, from the cement floors to the plain gray painted walls. Overhead, white panels lined the ceilings, and large fluorescent lights made a buzzing sound. I heard the air conditioning click on but I didn’t feel any air. While the basement was cool enough, the air felt stale and still. A light pressure surrounded my head. My arms tingled as if I were too close to another person. Drawing in a breath and not encountering any problems moving, I realized it was a spell to dampen magical energy.

“Are you here for Trinity?” the standing man asked.

I nodded.

Natalie continued to look around to assess the place.

“Place your personal items in the lockers over there,” the officer said. He pointed to the right where gray lockers nearly the same color as the walls sat. I put my purse in one and took the key from the lock. Natalie did the same.

Then we had to walk through the metal detector. We’d already been through one once just to get to the elevator, but apparently, the jail didn’t want to take any chances. They had a conveyor belt there too, but if you had to put your personal items away, I wasn’t sure what it was for. Of course, maybe the attorneys brought in notepads and stuff.

My soft-soled shoes squeaked on the floors. Natalie’s heels tapped gently away. While halls split off to either side, we were led directly ahead and came to a plain metal door, painted gray, of course. I couldn’t help but think that a better color scheme would make people happier. I realized no one cared about criminals, but what about the folks that had to work down there?

When the officer opened the door, I saw Trinity sitting at a table. She didn’t have handcuffs on, at least. There were four folding chairs, all bolted to the floor. I noted faint sigils glowing. Another dampening spell. While I’d been nervous down there, walking inside, my mind calmed and I felt clearer than I had since I’d learned of Eric’s death. Another spell.

No one said a word until we were all seated and the door was closed. I noted a camera in the corner.

“Thanks for coming you guys,” Trinity said. She was in a set of beige pants and tunic that reminded me of the world’s most boring scrubs. Her hair was pulled back but it didn’t have the usual styling. Today, her hair spilled to her shoulders falling every which way despite the band that struggled to keep it away from her face.

“We’ve been so worried,” Natalie stood up to give her a hug.

“No touching,” a disembodied voice said over the intercom.

Natalie glared but sat back down. Cowed, perhaps by the fact that someone might come in and escort her out. I also sat down, having gotten up to take my turn in a hug but not having gotten close.

“Thanks,” Trinity said. “It’s surreal to be here. I was in the café with you two when it happened. At least that’s what we think, but there’s someone who swears they saw me. While the police investigate magic to see if I was actually killing Eric when you two think you saw me, I have to stay here.”

“It could have been someone else magicked to look like you killing Eric,” Natalie said.

“They’re looking into that, too. The chief said it would be faster if they proved that you weren’t taken in by a spell.”

“No one’s investigated the café,” I said. “No one’s talked to me other than about what Mason saw.”

Trinity shrugged as if she didn’t know and had given up on caring. Gone was her easy smile. While there weren’t many in the local jail, I could only imagine how depressing it would be to be there.

“I could lose my job just for being accused, you know,” Trinity said. “Who would trust me again?”

“When they find the real murderer, everyone will understand that you did nothing wrong,” I said. I hoped I was right. “Tyson has Deborah here to investigate your case.”

Trinity sniffed, not unlike Mrs. DiAngelo.

“What’s that about?” Natalie demanded. “Do we need another investigator?”

Trinity shrugged and sighed. For a moment I thought she wasn’t going to answer. Natalie took a breath to say something more but Trinity held up a hand and spoke.

“Tyson used to date Deborah. She’s a good investigator but she didn’t take their breakup well. I think that she spends more time trying to get back with Tyson than she does investigating cases now. Tim doesn’t even use her services any longer,” Trinity said.

My heart fluttered, but I tried to control myself. I mean it wouldn’t do Trinity any good to know that I was revisiting my youthful crush on her brother just as she was arrested. This was incredibly poor timing to suddenly find myself at loose ends, finally having my café up and running and in a routine that allowed me to think about what it might be like to have a date now and then.

Once this was over, and Trinity was cleared, I was going to start putting myself out there and work on meeting and dating eligible men. These feelings for a guy who hadn’t noticed me in all the years we’d known each other wasn’t just foolish, it was rather pathetic.

“Has Tim hired someone else?” Natalie asked. She pushed her hand towards Trinity and then pulled it back.

“No. I mean, Deborah’s a good investigator. I just think she’s got another agenda. I mean in some ways that’s good, right? She’ll want to get the results that Tyson wants.”

“Did you meet a red-haired woman before you left the library?” I asked. “Did you run into anyone while you were there that morning?” I really wanted to know if Trinity recognized either Isaac or Fiona and perhaps that connection might give us a reason they were so intent upon saying she killed Eric.

Trinity was quiet for a few moments, thinking. “Tyson asked me if I had seen anyone that morning, other than Eric. I mean, I always see patrons. Unfortunately, none of them stand out. I think Sarah Meyerson came in that morning but that’s pretty normal. Stacy Redding was in too. She’s been researching Moline’s Syndrome.”

“Isn’t that where familiars start losing their powers?” Natalie asked, looking at me.

I shook my head no. “It only affects large animals. They start absorbing their own magic and it becomes part of their body. They grow bigger, even if they’re adults, but their magic gets weaker. It was named after Josiah Moline who first discovered that it wasn’t actually a spell put on the cow he had taken as a familiar. It was actually a disease. It doesn’t seem to affect any of the smaller familiars.”

“Oh, that’s right. Stacy has that lamb,” Natalie said, suddenly making the connection.

“It’s a sheep, not a lamb,” Trinity corrected. “It’s like eight years old or something now.”

Natalie shrugged. “Anything else unusual about your day?”

“Just the missing book,” Trinity said.

“What was it about?” I asked. It wasn’t impossible that Eric had found the person who actually did take the book and they killed him. Perhaps knowing the subject more specifically would help.

“It a really old book on breeding magic into ordinary household pets,” Trinity said. “Most of the recipes used magic we try to avoid now.”

Meaning the spells used negative magic. That wouldn’t bode well for the household pet that became a familiar. While we bred familiars to keep the magic strong, sometimes people created a bond with an otherwise ordinary creature. There were things the witch could do to take those creatures as a familiar, to help them use magic. It wasn’t done very often any longer, but before the breeding lines had been established, people bonded with animals when they could.

The best feline familiars, we’d found, were bred with ordinary cats. Most of the kittens would be magical in nature, though now and then we’d get an ordinary cat. Someone usually adopted the ordinary kitten at some point. Dogs, we’d found, did best if they were bred familiar to familiar.

Beyond dogs and cats, I wasn’t really aware of the best breeding aspects of other types of familiars.

“We need to find someone who’s overly attached to an ordinary pet,” Natalie said. “That might be a clue.”

“We can’t search the entire world,” I said. “It doesn’t need to be someone who lives here.”

“But they probably stayed in the hotel,” Natalie argued.

“Not if they were within driving distance,” I pointed out. “Let’s face it. If you were going to steal a rare, magical book would you want any record that you had visited the town where it was?”

Natalie’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t know how we’re going to find anything out.”

“I want to know why that boy Isaac insists that he saw Trinity. It’s not like he knows her. He shouldn’t be that certain,” I said.

Trinity perked up at that.

“You know something?” Natalie pressed.

“I’m not sure,” Trinity said. “I feel like there may have been emails to the library by someone named Isaac or maybe about him. I can’t quite remember though, which is weird because it seems all I’m doing is living the last few days over and over again.”

Natalie and I exchanged a look. We’d have to tell Tyson and make sure Deborah knew that. It could be the connection we needed.

The rest of our visit was taken up with trying to talk Trinity out of her funk. I’m not sure how well we succeeded. Natalie, of course, promised her we’d get her out of this mess as if it was just a matter of sorting out a small misunderstanding.

I gave Trinity a small smile and blew her a kiss as I left. I knew I couldn’t offer her magical comfort through it, though I wanted to try, but at least she’d know I cared. By the time we left, even I was depressed. Rather, more depressed.

At least I could go out and talk to people and do something. Poor Trinity was stuck behind bars in that dull gray jail.