My gaze flicked from the box to my sister. I couldn’t open it in front of her. She didn’t understand about magic.
This was all a bit much to take. First, I find out that I can have a conversation with my cat, then she tells me there’s a magical key in a box on my shelf that could harm the town, and now my sister is accusing me of being involved in a murder.
Gus was standing in front of me, brows raised, hands on hips, demanding an answer. I knew she wasn’t really accusing me, and I couldn’t blame her for storming in. When it came to investigations, I did get a little overzealous sometimes, and we’d had a few run-ins before. It wouldn’t be accurate to say we didn’t get along. Aside from murder investigations, we got along just great.
I glanced down at the card to see the familiar open book logo and the gold-embossed Last Chance Books lettering. Scribbled in pen was yesterday’s date.
“Did you say someone was dead?” Willa felt terrible that someone had died. “Who?”
“Mary Ashford.”
“Meow!” Pandora practically fell off the counter. I couldn’t blame her. It didn’t take someone who could speak cat to know that her meow translated to “Oh crap!” I felt the same way. The key had been in the recipe book, Mary had purchased the recipe book, and now Mary was dead.
“Oh, no. Mary did come here. She bought a recipe book.” I picked up the card. “She came in yesterday. She’d been on a list in case an old recipe book came in, and I had called her.”
Gus narrowed her eyes. “Did she seem nervous? Did you notice anything amiss? Anyone following her?”
It was just like Gus to interrogate me as if I were a suspect. I was used to it though, so the interrogation didn’t faze me. The fact that Mary was dead, however, did. Pandora, too, if the way she was staring at the box was any indication.
“What was in the book?” Gus asked.
“Just recipes. Do you think something about the book is related to her death?”
Gus narrowed her eyes at me again. “Now, don’t go getting any ideas about investigating. The book probably isn’t related. No one kills over a book, right?”
“Right.” If she only knew.
“But somehow you always seem to be in the center of things.”
“Not this time,” I lied. If Mary was killed because of the book, then I was indeed in the center of things. I could point her in the right direction, though, and maybe if the killer was the person after the key as Pandora said, Gus could arrest them and put them in jail where they couldn’t do any harm. “There is one thing, though.”
“What?”
“Danielle Norden and Felicity Bates were both pretty upset that I sold the book to Mary.”
Gus frowned. “Was it valuable?”
“No, I only charged twenty dollars.”
Gus snorted. “You book people are real drama queens. Imagine Danielle and Felicity being mad over a twenty-dollar book. If you hear anything—and I know what a busybody you are, so I figure you probably will—let me know.”
She grabbed the business card and left.
“This does not bode well.” Pandora said after the door closed and we were alone. “We need to get that key to Elspeth ASAP.”
“You can say that again. I’ll put it in the zipper pocket of my purse and run it right over.” I opened the lid of the box, and we both looked inside.
My stomach plummeted. The box was empty.