I left the bar after convincing Rocco to first call a lawyer and then pay the medical examiner a visit.
Maybe he could coax the truth out of the medical examiner. I hoped he could uncover the truth himself, without resorting to extreme measures. If only he could get a copy of that autopsy report the legitimate way. Then it would help both of us. It was worth a try.
If he couldn’t get answers, he could request to have Carla’s body exhumed for a second autopsy, but that was something I didn’t want to even think about right now.
The death by drowning diagnosis was very troubling. I flashed back to the coffin fiasco. Aside from the lack of water in Carla’s lungs, her serene expression was a dead giveaway. Drowning victims were never expressionless. Their facial expressions were inevitably ones of terror and desperation, frozen at the final moment when they realized that they had just lost the final fight of their life.
Suddenly I felt very sad. Whatever Carla’s deeds in life, they weren’t bad enough to end this way. I also felt sorry for my aunt at losing her lifelong friend, even if she chose inappropriate ways to express her sorrow.
Then there were my strange feelings for Rocco. I had never been attracted to him, yet I found myself thinking about him constantly. Almost as much as I thought about Tyler, in fact.
Tyler.
He had warned me not to get involved, and he was right. I should just go upstairs, enjoy our luxury suite, and watch over Mom until she woke up. Aunt Pearl’s promise to get me back home almost certainly came with strings attached, but at the moment it was my only viable option.
I walked in a daze, still trying to decide whether to track down Aunt Pearl and bail her out of whatever trouble she had found, or just go back upstairs to our suite. I was torn. Soon I found myself a few feet from the lobby elevators where a crowd had gathered.
I craned my neck to get a better look at the source of the excitement. The whistles and excited murmurs from the crowd made me guess that a rock star or Hollywood A-lister was in our midst. I wondered who was performing in the show lounge tonight.
A flash of red sequins and long blonde hair caught my eye and I got a sick feeling.
My fears were realized as Aunt Pearl—or rather her alter-ego, Carolyn Conroe—came into view. She twirled a rhinestone necklace around her fingers as she sang Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend in a sultry voice.
“Who is she?” A teenage girl handed me her phone and pointed to her and her mom. “Will you take our picture?”
Great. Aunt Pearl had not only morphed into her Carolyn Conroe shtick, but she flaunted it, pretending to be a celebrity to boot. I took a couple of pictures of the girl and her mom on either side of a smirking Carolyn before handing the girl’s phone back.
I glared at Carolyn, annoyed at her fan club just as much as my misplaced pity. She seemed oblivious to the events swirling around us. Instead, she just seemed like she was out to have a good time.
Carolyn winked saucily.
I closed my hand around Carolyn’s arm and steered her away from the crowd. “We need to talk.”
“Don’t you ever have any fun?” Carolyn swore under her breath. “Whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. You know that.”
I ignored her comment and gripped her arm tighter. “We’re going upstairs, now!”
“Cen, wait. We can’t go without Wilt. I think he’s in trouble.” Carolyn pouted.
Her expression looked genuine, though I knew better than to believe her. She tricked me every time. “He’s a grown-up. He can fend for himself.” It seemed inappropriate that my aunt, who was supposedly in mourning, should be so flippant with her witchcraft by changing into Carolyn and attracting all sorts of unwanted attention.
Carolyn shook her head. “Uh-uh. He’s a compulsive gambler. I should never have brought him here.”
“You never should have done a lot of things,” I scolded my aunt. “Like bringing me here against my will.”
A slight smile played across Carolyn’s lips. “You just need to have a little fun. Just let me find Wilt first. Then we’ll go upstairs.”
Minutes later we found Wilt at a high stakes poker table. Even from twenty feet away, it was obvious that he was in trouble. His normally pallid complexion was bright red and he was sweating profusely. “He doesn’t exactly have a poker face, does he?”
“Doesn’t matter. All you need is a good hand.” Carolyn dismissed me with a wave. “Mind your own business and let Wilt have a little fun.”
Fun wasn’t anything close to what Wilt was experiencing, though he brightened considerably when he spotted Carolyn. I was immediately suspicious. “You were helping Wilt win, weren’t you?”
“Maybe for a while.” Carolyn flashed both a smile and a little leg for the benefit of the three other men at Wilt’s table. They leered in return. “I had them all so distracted, it just seemed like a wasted opportunity not to.”
“You know that’s not right, Aunt Pearl.” I shook my head. “It’s against WICCA rules to use magic to make money.” The rules were particularly strict about using magic for personal enrichment. Conjuring up money was strictly forbidden. While I wasn’t aware of any specific rules on gambling, I was pretty sure the same rules applied. Aunt Pearl wasn’t exactly printing banknotes, but what she was doing was awfully close.
My aunt rolled her eyes. “I know the rules, Cen. Who said I used magic? I didn’t need any. Just simple arithmetic.”
“You counted cards?” The casino probably had cameras everywhere. Knowing my aunt, she had probably done it blatantly.
“Something like that.” Carolyn inched closer to the table where she immediately caught the attention of a heavy-set man. His thick gold bracelet dug into his fleshy wrist as he fanned his cards, a swarthy caricature straight out of a mobster movie. His smug expression was either a bluff or a dead giveaway that his hand would trump Wilt’s. His other hand rested on his thigh, close to his gun holster.
“It’s kind of fun to pull one over on these wise guys. They think they’re smarter than everyone else. You should try it sometime.” Carolyn tossed back her blonde hair with an exaggerated flourish as she strutted around the table.
Counting cards was bad enough, but checking out Wilt’s opponent’s hand was cheating of the worst kind. I grabbed Carolyn’s arm and pulled her back towards where I stood a few feet behind Wilt. “It’s not going to be fun for long. Wilt can’t afford to gamble like this with a minimum-wage job.” I met her gaze as Wilt pushed a stack of fifty-dollar chips towards the table center. I lowered my voice. “He’s in serious trouble.”
I knew very little about poker, but even I saw that he had a terrible hand. He had no face cards, and not even so much as a pair of low-numbered cards. He was a terrible bluffer with no hope in hell of winning. Whether he was spending his own money, or part of Aunt Pearl’s lottery winnings, the money wouldn’t last long.
Carolyn ignored me.
I stepped closer to the table. “Wilt, finish your hand and let’s go.”
He turned for a split second, just long enough to glare at me. “Leave me alone. You’re throwing off my concentration.”
Aunt Pearl—still in her Carolyn Conroe disguise—swore under her breath. “You heard him. Mind your own business, Cendrine.”
I gritted my teeth. “Focus, Aunt Pearl. Remember why we’re here.”
“You two know each other?” Wilt’s brows arched in surprise.
I nodded, annoyed at having to cover for my aunt’s dual identity.
“Small world.” Wilt turned back to the table and his pathetic poker hand.
“Smaller than you might think.” While I was relieved that Wilt had no idea that Carolyn was really Aunt Pearl—and a witch—her deceptive ways bothered me. Wilt was obviously attracted to Aunt Pearl’s alter-ego, and Carolyn led him to think the feeling was mutual.
I turned back to Carolyn. “I’m doing it for his own good, Aunt Pearl.”
“Sssh—don’t call me that.”
“You said he had a gambling problem.”
“Did I? I don’t remember that.”
“You of all people should know better.” I sucked in my breath as the players around the table matched and raised Wilt’s bet. Arguing was pointless. It just prolonged the horrible train wreck unfolding before us.
Carolyn walked up behind Wilt and placed a hand on his shoulder.
Wilt glanced back at her and smiled, clearly enamored. He was even showing off a bit for his new love interest, which made his card playing all the more reckless. It was obvious Wilt had never had much female interest, let alone from a stunner like Carolyn. He basked in the attention from Carolyn and his envious poker opponents.
Carolyn had caught the attention of the other three men at the table, who leered in her general direction.
“I call,” Mobster Guy dropped his cards on the table and grinned.
A Full House, three aces, and a pair of tens.
I grabbed Carolyn by the arm. “Wilt’s getting annihilated. Make him stop, now.” I couldn’t watch any more of the slow-motion train wreck that was unfolding before my eyes.
“You want me to interrupt before he has a chance to win back his money?” She fluttered her fake eyelashes at me in mock innocence.
“You know I do.”
She shrugged and caught the eye of the dealer and winked.
He smiled back, captivated.
Before I could say another word, everyone at the table was entranced.
Literally.
Carolyn Conroe had placed them all under a rewind spell. A split second later, the same scene played out before us. Only this time, Wilt had a pair of aces.
“Aunt Pearl!” I grabbed her arm. “That’s worse than card counting! Change everything back to how it was before.”
“No can do, missy. You weren’t complaining earlier when you begged me to help you with a spell.”
“But my spell was just to get me back home. It wouldn’t financially ruin anyone.”
“Anybody who gambles takes their own chances.”
I crossed my arms. “What you’re doing isn’t right. Change everything back right now or I’ll report you to WICCA. You know the rules.” Cheating was grounds for immediate lifetime expulsion. No self-respecting witch would risk losing her powers.
“You’d betray your own aunt?” Carolyn crossed her arms and snorted. “For what? This is not cheating, Cen. I only moved Wilt back to an earlier point in time. Both of his choices were made of his own free will.”
“But he chose differently this time,” I protested. “He was dealt different cards.”
“That’s just the odds.”
“You can’t just rewind life over and over until you get the results you want,” I said. “It doesn’t work that way.”
“You’re wrong, Cen. That’s exactly how life works.”