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“WHAT?” MADDIE GASPED.
The woman nodded. “A detective has just finished talking to me. They wanted to know if I heard or saw something.”
“Did you?” Maddie asked.
“No.” The woman shook her head, regret chasing her features. “I wasn’t home.”
Maddie was so transfixed by the terrible news that her vision had come true, that she didn’t notice Suzanne subtly nudging her out of the way and beginning to make a black coffee for the customer.
“Do you know how...” Maddie swallowed, “... Joan died?”
The woman nodded, tears beginning to stream down her face again.
“They said she was hit over the head with a crystal vase.” She sniffed. “Joan loved that vase. And apparently, it held red roses from her garden in it. How could anyone do such a thing?” The woman blew into a sodden tissue.
“Where was she found?” Maddie asked, trying to be delicate.
“In her kitchen,” the woman gulped.
Just like her vision - apart from the fact that a vase hadn’t featured in the image that had arisen in the coffee cup yesterday.
“Here you go.” Suzanne handed a steaming paper cup to the distraught woman. “On the house.”
“Oh,” the woman swallowed, as if trying to find her voice. “Thank you, girls. That’s very kind.”
“Do they know when she was ... killed?” Suzanne asked.
“This morning!” The woman turned around, as if expecting to see a potential murderer standing right behind her, but only a puzzled looking senior citizen with tightly permed gray hair waited in line. “Her husband found her!”
Maddie frowned. “Does he work at the library?”
“That’s right. He’s the head librarian.” The woman shook her head. “They’ve been married for so long – even longer than myself and my husband.” She heaved a sigh. “I just don’t know how he’s taking the news. I wanted to go over there and see how he was, but the detective wouldn’t let me.” She sniffed. “They said they were just doing their job, and needed to speak to him right away.”
“I’m so sorry,” Maddie said, guilt running through her. She hadn’t been able to warn Joan in time! She didn’t know if that would have made a difference or not, but what was the point of having the power to cast such a spell if something terrible like this happened and she had no way to stop it?
“Thank you, dear.” The woman took a sip from the cup. “Joan kept telling me how delicious your coffee was, but I’m not a big coffee drinker. This is very good, though.”
“Thank you.” Maddie forced her lips to move upwards in a semblance of a smile.
The woman nodded, then left, allowing the gray-haired senior citizen behind her to place her order.
Maddie numbly set about making a cappuccino on auto-pilot.
She shouldn’t have left Joan’s house until she’d spoken to her last night and warned her about the vision she’d seen. Joan might still be alive if she’d done so. Instead, Maddie had taken the easy way out and gone home.
For the next couple of hours, half of her customers seemed to have heard about Joan’s murder and muttered about it among themselves. One old man with a bundle of library books under his arm even complained about the library not being open when he’d turned up on the dot of nine o’clock. Apparently, Joan’s husband, being the head librarian, was in charge of opening the library in the mornings and closing up at night.
“Now my books are going to be overdue,” the grizzled old man grumbled, before picking up his coffee and taking a little sip before walking off.
When there wasn’t another customer in sight, Suzanne looked at Maddie. “Do you want to close up for the day?”
“Because it’s my fault Joan was killed?” Maddie shook her head.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Suzanne said loyally. “You didn’t kill her.”
“But I didn’t tell her what I saw in my vision.” Maddie slammed a stack of paper cups onto the counter. “I didn’t hang around her house until she came back so I could warn her properly.”
“Even if you had, it doesn’t mean she wouldn’t have been murdered,” Suzanne pointed out. “The killer didn’t know about you having a vision. If he – or she – did, then maybe they would have had second thoughts.”
A sudden thought struck Maddie, chilling her veins.
“Suzanne, don’t tell anyone about my vision. What if word gets out and the killer think I know who did it?”
“You might be next.” Suzanne paled.
Maddie swallowed hard. “If anything does happen to me, promise you’ll look after Trixie.”
“You know I will.” Suzanne nodded.
“Unless ...” Maddie hesitated, “... unless she finds another witch to live with. I often wonder how she just turned up like that, at the coffee shop, and why nobody reported a lost cat.”
“Don’t worry.” Suzanne patted her arm. “If Trixie wants to live with me, I’ll take good care of her. And if she wants to live with another—” she lowered her voice “—witch, I’ll make sure she’s happy there.”
“Thanks.” Maddie hugged her friend, blinking back sudden tears.
“But this isn’t going to happen,” Suzanne injected a bright note into her voice. “Because no one will find out about what you saw.”
“I hope not.” Maddie stiffened her spine. “Because we’ve got a lot to do. Since I feel it’s my fault Joan was murdered, I’m going to find out who did it.”