| |
Callista sat in her seat in the interrogation room looking much less vulnerable and weak than she had the last time they’d all spent time together in the room.
Chief Ligurio sat in his usual seat, his computer in front of him and a steaming drink to his left.
Wynona had opted to stand this time, not willing to let go of Rascal’s comfort quite yet. His hand was on her lower back, keeping their touch away from prying eyes, but helping Wynona stay calm, and she was fairly certain Rascal’s wolf side needed the contact as well.
“I don’t have to answer anything,” Callista sneered. Her hands were tied with the hag thread in front of her, but Officer Skymaw was also standing at the door.
It had been his presence in the dining room that had caused Wynona’s bubble to burst and the magical attack to come to an abrupt stop. Wynona really did need to send the officer a thank you card. He’d saved her from the pain of a hex more than once at this point. A note was the least she could do.
“Would you like to walk us through it from the beginning?” Chief Ligurio asked, his hands neatly folded on the desk. “Or do I just get to make my own assumptions?”
Callista’s nostrils flared in irritation, but she kept her mouth shut.
This had been going on for ten minutes and Wynona knew that if they didn’t get a confession soon, Callista’s lawyer would show up and it would all be over. Right now they only had Wynona’s word against Callista’s. They needed more.
“How about if I tell the story,” she offered, stepping away from Rascal, though she didn’t want to. Wynona sauntered to the desk and stood next to the chief. She looked down. “You can tell me if I get it wrong.”
When Callista snorted, the chief’s lips twitched and he nodded. Wynona’s little game was going to drive Callista crazy. Hopefully enough to make her say something she shouldn’t.
Wynona drew a random pattern on the desk. “I do believe that Callista was jealous of her sister.” She paused, but Callista’s only reaction was to turn red. “From the time Indigo and Niam were engaged, Callista began feigning mental illness as a way to stay close to the man she thought she was in love with.” Wynona tilted her head and studied the livid witch across from her. “Callista has always been powerful, but I’m going to guess she was also a bit on the erratic side.”
Bright blue eyes, blazing with hate, met Wynona’s.
“Which is why her parents gave Indigo the marriage contract, rather than Callista.” Wynona narrowed her eyes. “Indigo’s desperation for some love in her marriage eventually gave Callista the chance she needed to set everything she’d been waiting for into motion.”
“She didn’t deserve him,” Callista said through gritted teeth. “My stupid sister had no idea the prize she’d been given.”
Wynona nodded, hiding her glee that Callista was starting to rise to the bait. “Be that as it may, you knew your parents would never allow a divorce, so in order to get what you wanted, you had to get your sister out of the way. I’m guessing that the first plan, the one about faking her death, was actually yours, not Indigo’s.”
A muscle in Callista’s jaw began to tick. “That plan was ridiculous. Like anyone would ever fall for such a prank.”
“Exactly,” Wynona said, leaning onto the desk. “You put together a plan that was sure to fail and made positive you were the scapegoat. It was the only way to make sure there was no suspicion on you when the real murder occured.”
“You can’t prove any of this,” Callista said in a cool tone. Her color had gone back to normal and she relaxed in her chair. “I was in prison when Indigo was murdered, if you recall.”
“Oh, I know,” Wynona said, slowly walking around the desk toward Callista. She heard Rascal give an angry huff, but Wynona ignored him. He was being protective, but in a room full of officers and no available magic, Wynona felt certain the contained witch could do little to her.
Violet nuzzled the back of Wynona’s neck, giving her courage to keep going.
“But we already discussed that you learned a handy little trick from your brother in law,” Wynona said. “Remember that?” She stood behind Callista and glanced at Rascal. He looked like he was barely containing his wolf, but Wynona smiled at him, hoping she could calm him down. “Niam showed us that he could do magic out of sight.” Wynona leaned down near Callista’s ear. “You didn’t need to be at your sister’s side to kill her.”
Callista jerked, but then stilled. “Prisoners are kept from magic,” she said, though her voice betrayed her nervousness. “The whole prison is bound.”
Wynona nodded. “Except you had set up the hex in advance. You knew your sister spent every morning gathering magic at sunrise. You also knew she would take a water bottle with her.” Wynona walked back around to Chief Ligurio’s other side. She was grateful the vampire hadn’t interfered yet, and it gave her hope he was coming to trust her just a little bit. “The hex you put in the water was set to react when the sun rose. Another nifty trick you learned from playing with light magic within the coven.”
Callista’s bottom lip began to tremble and she looked less and less sure of herself. “How did you know that?”
Wynona sighed. “It was the lightning storm. The spell you had used that night was the same kind. Wasn’t it? The light from the lightning set it off so that Indigo could disappear at a specific moment in time, making your story more believable that the out of control nature magic was the cause of the problem.”
Chief Ligurio’s black eyebrows rose up and he glanced at Wynona.
She shrugged. “I read about it...once.”
Callista slumped. “I was so careful.” She sniffled. “Everything went perfectly.”
“Until Niam came back,” Wynona supplied when the other witch paused.
Callista began to cry in earnest.
“You were afraid he would drink the water you had stashed in Indigo’s room. When you had called him about her deceit, you had assumed he and Indigo would fight and leave room for you to slip in.” Wynona’s voice dropped. “You hadn’t planned on him staying the night.”
“He should have come back to the house with me,” Callista cried, holding her fisted hands against her chest. “He was supposed to be mine! I was supposed to comfort him!” Her eyes blazed behind her tears. “But Indigo always got everything. Just because she was more beautiful than I was, my parents used her to pull our family one more wrung up the political ladder.” Her lips curled up in a sneer. “It didn’t matter that I was the better witch. It didn’t matter that I had been in love with Niam since we were kids.” She pounded her chest. “I had to kill her! It was the only way to keep her from controlling the rest of my life! Don’t you see?”
Wynona stepped back as Callista’s screaming grew to epic proportions. Several officers rushed over and held onto the woman, finally escorting her out at the command of Chief Ligurio.
As the door shut, Wynona walked back to Rascal and collapsed against him. She felt him press a kiss to the top of her head.
“You okay?” His voice was gruff with concern.
She nodded. “Yeah. But I think I’m gonna need a vacation after this one.”
He chuckled. “Only if you take me with you.”
Wynona glanced up and smiled. “I can’t say I’d argue with that.”
Rascal’s eyes were just starting to glow when the chief interrupted them.
“I have a few more questions, Ms. Le Doux.”
She sighed and turned. Rascal held her hand as they walked up to the desk. They sat in a couple of extra chairs and waited for the chief to go on.
Chief Ligurio’s red eyes were intimidating to say the least, but Wynona knew at this point that he wouldn’t hurt her. He was definitely a case of “his bark is worse than his bite”. She was slowly beginning to see what her sister found so fascinating.
“First of all...thank you.”
Wynona’s eyebrows shot up. She hadn’t been expecting that.
“I pride myself on getting to the truth and in this case, almost put an innocent woman in prison. So I appreciate your tenacity in setting me straight.”
Wynona smiled. “Of course.”
“Second, I’m still stuck on a few things. I’ll admit that I went along with your plan, not because I believed Ms. Umbra was guilty, but because...” The chief trailed off and cleared his throat.
He didn’t need to say any more. Wynona knew he hadn’t wanted Celia to be guilty any more than she did. But as an officer of the law, he wasn’t willing to use his own prejudice as a reason to keep digging when it seemed like they had the case solved.
“The sapphires are what set me off,” Wynona explained. “You see, Callista had already set up for us to find Indigo’s body. It was her get out of jail card. But when things went sideways with Niam, Callista needed to give him more incentive to let her in.” She straightened in her seat. “Niam had just spent a couple of days alone with his wife and instead of being grateful she was gone, he was now a grieving widower. Callista hadn’t expected Naim to actually care. But when Deputy Chief Strongclaw and I interviewed the two of them, I kept feeling like something was off. At first I just thought it was the relationship between them. Why in the world was Callista still living with her sister’s husband? It seemed strange. But later I realized it was the out of sight magic that was tickling my brain.”
Wynona picked Violet up from her shoulder and held her to her chest, cuddling the tiny creature close. “Once I realized that magic could have been done without the culprit being there, I began to notice other clues as well.”
“And how did the sapphires help with that?” Rascal asked.
Wynona smiled at him. “Callista told me that Indigo never wore jade. She always wore the color of her eyes. Sapphires. The body had shown no signs of a struggle. In fact, odds are that Indigo was dead before she could understand what had happened. So it didn’t make sense for Celia’s bracelet to have gotten broken during the murder. To be sure, I checked Celia’s wrists. There were no scratch marks. Nothing that would indicate Indigo had tried to take the bracelet accidentally or not.”
“Callista’s cut,” Rascal said in awe.
Wynona nodded. “Right. The day Callista mentioned the sapphires, I found a cut on her finger. I thought she’d done it herself because of her long nails, but she didn’t. The metal wire of Celia’s bracelet did it when Callista broke it out in the field.”
“So Callista set up the beads later?” Chief Ligurio clarified.
“Uh-huh,” Wynona said with an eager nod. “The fact is, Indigo’s body wasn’t moved. She died right where we found her.”
“How did Callista get the bracelet?” Rascal wondered.
Wynona huffed. “It was during the coven meeting. When I was checking Celia’s wrists, I asked her if she took it off at all and she admitted she went to the bathroom, taking off her jewelry when she washed her hands.” Wynona’s right eyebrow went up. “I’m fairly certain Callista used another of her out of sight magic tricks to steal it during that time.”
“And the grass?”
“The grass was broken from Callista’s robes,” Wynona said with a shake of her head. “Your crew didn’t miss a thing when they first inspected the scene of the crime. Callista planted the shoes and the beads later. It was those long dresses she always wears that broke down the grass, not a floating body.”
Chief Ligurio leaned back in his seat with a heavy sigh. “That’s quite the tale, Ms. Le Doux.”
Wynona smiled. “I think we can go with Wynona at this point, don’t you, Chief?”
His smile was slow, but eventually he nodded. “Alright...Wynona.” His brows immediately furrowed. “But don’t think that this means we’re friends.” He pointed a pen at her.
Wynona held up both hands in surrender. “Nope. I promise not to make assumptions.”
The chief huffed and looked down at his computer. “It’s late,” he said. “Might as well get home.”
Wynona yawned as she stood. “Thank you.”
“I’ll take you home.” Rascal said, standing with her.
“You’re pulling an all-nighter,” Chief Ligurio snapped. “Come straight back here.”
“On it,” Rascal said, rolling his eyes playfully at Wynona.
She held back a laugh and let Rascal lead her out of the room and down the hall. Using her free hand, Wynona covered another yawn.
“Too bad you can’t just add a little something to your tea to give you energy,” Rascal teased as he helped her into the truck.
His joke made Wynona realize that she hadn’t told him anything about the safety bubble thing during her fight with Callista. She opened her mouth to do just that, then snapped it shut and smiled. “Perhaps a strong green tea in the morning will be just what I need,” she said. She really should probably talk to somebody about her suspicions, but right now she didn’t have the energy. Wynona had no idea what exactly was going on with her, but they’d already solved one big mystery tonight. Hers could wait.
Rascal paused before closing her door. “Are you still going to be good to go Sunday night?”
She frowned and tried to remember why Sunday was important. “Our date!” she cried before she could control her response.
Rascal gave her a look. “Should I be offended that you didn’t remember?”
A blush crept up Wynona’s neck and cheeks. “Actually, I’ve been looking forward to it all week, but what with having to fight an evil witch and all...” She made a face and Rascal chuckled.
“I guess that’s a good enough reason,” he said with a grin. “So?”
“I wouldn’t miss it,” Wynona whispered.
His eyes flashed the beautiful golden color she loved and he winked. “Perfect.”
From the way his eyes roamed over her before he closed the door, Wynona knew his word had been much more than a response to her acceptance of the date. She could barely contain her smile as he drove her home, and even after walking inside and depositing Violet at her little cushy bed, Wynona knew sleep couldn’t come fast enough. She had a wolf shifter to dream about.