As I head to Cody’s Chromeworks, I start to pass by the travel agency but then pause and glance in the window to see if Shauna is there. While I’m here, I should stop in and ask if she has any updates on the mysterious note writer. No one has to know I talked to her again. And then it hits me. A powerful wave of psychic energy that makes me stumble. I put my hand on the window to steady myself, and the scene from when we first talked to Shauna replays crystal clear in my mind. I don’t care that he’s dead. In fact, I’m glad. And I already heard that Chloe, my dad’s former employee, poisoned him. Good for her. She should have done it a long time ago. In fact, I wish I had thought of it.
And then a conversation I had with Drew shortly after Chloe got arrested. What I’m about to tell you isn’t public knowledge. When we searched Chloe’s truck, we found an empty syringe. The lab tested it, and it had traces of cyanide in it. The same poison that killed Morley.
“Oh crap,” I mutter, but as I start to turn around, strong arms grab me from behind. “What the—” as everything goes dark, I realize my attacker has stabbed the left side of my neck with something sharp. They say your life flashes before you when you’re on your deathbed. But instead of my life flashing before me, I picture Neil knocking the plates off the counter at Marcall’s as he was writing the note for Damien because he’s lefthanded.
I don’t know how much time has passed before I regain consciousness. But I realize I’m not dead, so that’s a good thing. But when I try to move, I can’t because I’m tied up. My next thought is idiots, as I attempt to use witchcraft to untie myself but to no avail. “Hey,” I mumble in confusion. Why isn’t this working?
“You’re not the only witch in town, you know,” Neil announces, so suddenly I jump.
“What is wrong with you? Untie me right now!” I demand, as I continuously run through every spell I know that could untie these ropes.
Neil just laughs at me. Why do the bad guys always have that creepy laugh? “You’re never going to get those ropes untied yourself. I could tell when I talked to you in your cafe that your witchcraft is only so so.”
Jerk. It’s one thing for me to criticize my lack of experience. It’s entirely another for someone else to make fun of me like this. “What do you want with me?”
“I wrote you a note warning you to keep out of this, but you just ignored it. Even your cop boyfriend told you to stop interfering in police business, but you just couldn’t leave it alone, could you?”
“You killed Morley, didn’t you?”
“Well, duh. I have to admit, it was rather amusing watching you run around town in a panic trying to track down the killer just so your friend Chloe didn’t go down for it. Excuse me sir, I lost my shoes,” he says, doing what I consider a very poor imitation of me.
“How long have you been watching me?”
“Ever since you showed up at the travel agency to question Shauna right after Haynes died. I knew that Chloe could easily become a suspect. That’s why how we got the idea to plant the syringe on her truck. Actually, considering what a wretched human being that guy was, we could have pointed the finger at just about anybody in town, and people would have believed it. It’s just that the enchanted cupcakes, at the Halloween Festival, and flavored with almond extract, gave us the perfect opportunity to not only kill the guy, but solidly blame someone else on top of it.”
“We?” I ask. “So it wasn’t just you. Shauna was in on it too.”
When the door to my right opens, I realize I’m in the back room at the travel agency. The entrance to my left must lead to the alley. I immediately start to formulate a plan to get out that door somehow. I know it’s my only hope. They obviously won’t let me live after admitting they killed Morley.
“Of course I was in on it,” Shauna says, sneaking in the door. I strain to see if anyone is out in the lobby, but my line of sight is limited. I call out for help anyway when Shauna simply crosses her arms and stands in front of me. “Shout out all you want. I locked the front door, so no one is getting in.”
I scream “Help!” as loudly as I can one more time on the off chance someone walking by on the sidewalk might hear me. I can be pretty loud when I want.
“What are you going to do with me?” The longer I can keep them talking, the longer I stay alive, and the better my chances are of discovering a way out of here. At some point, somebody will realize I’m missing and come looking for me. Although now I’m afraid they’ll look to Owen Munoz and not Shauna and Neil. How’s that for irony?
“We obviously can’t let you live,” Shauna sneers.
“Why did you kill Morley? Aside from the fact you and everybody else hated him.”
“My charming stepfather was holding back my trust fund. A trust fund that my mother set up for me, and he had no right to take it over.”
”Is $200,000 really worth killing over?” I ask.
Shauna barks with laughter. “$200,000? Really? Do you think I’d go to this much trouble for $200,000? Try $2 million, sweetie.”
Then she has the nerve to laugh at the shocked look on my face. “Your friend Chloe tell you it was $200,000? Just because she worked at the mortuary doesn’t mean she knew everything. If you’d known it was $2 million, you probably would have taken the idea of me as a suspect more seriously, wouldn’t you?”
“I thought the trust was set up so you would get it automatically when you turned 28? Why not just wait another year for that kind of money? Why poison your stepdad now?” I ask. This still doesn’t make sense.
“So, Chloe obviously didn’t know the important details, did she?” Shauna sneers. “Somehow Daddy got the terms changed so if I married a Supernatural, ever, I would automatically forfeit all that money no matter how old I was. And even if I married a Supernatural after I got the money, I had to pay it back.”
“You know my parents were about as far from standup citizens as you can get, so believe it or not, I understand where you’re coming from. I understand the frustration and anger.”
Shauna rolls her eyes at me. “Oh, don’t act like you care. I’m not falling for your weird attempts to empathize with me in the hopes that I’ll let you go.”
I turn to look at Neil. “That’s why you just told me you weren’t able to get married before now. I couldn’t understand why you worded it that way. Morley had to be dead in order for you to get married and still get the money.”
Shauna rounds on Neil. “What does she mean you just told her that? What were you doing talking to her?”
“I was at her cafe talking to Damien about catering our reception.”
“There won’t be any reception, you fool!” she cries. “After we dump her body, we have to get out of town! Why do I always have to do the thinking for both of us?”
“You accidentally left the door to Chloe’s food truck unlocked after you planted the syringe, didn’t you?” I point out. Keeping these two fighting may be what’s keeping me alive, and I have a whole lot of ammunition. Pity I just now figured that out, though.
Neil looks at the floor and doesn’t say anything, while Shauna shakes her head with disdain. “I can’t believe the mistakes you make!”
“Actually, it was your mistake that let me realize you’re the one who killed Morley. Although admittedly, I didn’t figure it out until it was too late.”
“What do you mean, it was my mistake?” Shauna asks.
“When we stopped to talk to you the day after Morley was killed. You said you were glad Chloe poisoned him. But at the time, the CPPD and I were the only ones who knew the exact cause of death. Us and the real killers, obviously.”
Shauna glares at me while Neil tries not to laugh at the fact she nearly cost them everything from the very beginning. “Too bad for you then, huh? You could have solved this entire puzzle on day one. And now you’ll pay for it.”
“I have to know where you got the cyanide.” I tell them.
Neil smiles. Who smiles about poisonous chemicals? “You know the cousin in Florida who I just told you about?”
“Where you plan to honeymoon?” I respond.
Shauna groans and slaps her hand against her head. “Is there anything you didn’t tell her today?”
Neil glares at her, but continues. “Even though it’s illegal, they often use cyanide to catch fish in coral reefs. So, it’s pretty easy to get it in Florida if you know the right people.”
“You mean the right criminals.” I clap back.
“Did you destroy her phone?” she asks Neil.
At the word phone I start to reach for it, out of habit, but then remember that I’m tied up. And that’s when I realize it’s not in my pocket. I don’t know where it is. I must have dropped it on the sidewalk when he knocked me out.
“She didn’t have a phone on her,” Neil responds.
“Of course, she had a phone on her. Who doesn’t have a phone on them all the time these days? My 80-year-old grandmother has a phone and a smartwatch that she uses to order coffee and text her crochet club. She,” Shauna points an accusatory finger at me, “had a phone with her, and now it’s out there!” She yells at Neil, flinging her hand in the opposite direction pointing to the outside.
If somebody came across the phone and picked it up, somebody else could realize I’m here. “I left my phone at the cafe when I went out. The battery was dead, and I had to recharge it.”
“Liar!” she grunts.
“I don’t remember seeing a phone,” Neil scratches his head.
“You better hope her phone is still lying on the sidewalk where I’m sure she dropped it when you grabbed her idiot!”
Wow, she must be a ton of fun to live with.
The two of them bicker about why she has to nag him all the time as Neil throws open the back door, and Shauna follows him. Intent, no doubt, on proving him wrong once again. I give it everything I’ve got to get the ropes undone before my only chance at freedom slams shut again, but it’s no use. Whatever kind of spell Neil used on these ropes, it’s beyond my skills to counter.
But I’m convinced I’m hallucinating from whatever drug Neil gave me to knock me out when right before the door closes, a pair of helicopter-eared orange and white rabbits squeeze inside.
“Marshall! Marcus!” I shout.
“Shhhh!” Marcus warns me. “You want to alert the entire neighborhood?
“Uh, kind of,” I tell him.
“Okay, for now, just keep quiet while we work on these ropes,” Marshall says.
“Am I dreaming? Is this a hallucination from the drugs they used to knock me out? Are you two really here?”
The two of them give me their customary look that says they secretly think I’m kind of dumb. Being a human and all. And not a more advanced species like enchanted rabbits.
“You take that side. I’ll take this one.” Marcus tells his brother as he chews on the rope binding my left ankle.
“Oh, you’ll never get those off they’re mag—. Oh. You did it!” Never underestimate a rabbit’s ability to chew through something. What I couldn’t get accomplished with magic these two bite through in a matter of seconds. I hold my hands down to let them bite through the rope binding my wrists.
“Let’s get out of here!” I tell them.
Thankfully, I think to grab the first thing I see, a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall, just in case we run into the murderous wonder twins on the way out the door. But before I can get to the door, it opens. The look of surprise on their faces when they see I’m free would be hilarious in any other situation.
Neil looks down and sees the rabbits and realizes what they’ve done. “Why you little—”
When I realize he’s about to hex my familiars, I go full on angry mom mode. You want to make a lady madder than you could ever fathom? Try messing with her rabbits. “Don’t touch my rabbits!” I bellow, throwing myself between him and the rabbits, blasting him in the face with fire extinguisher foam.
Neil screams and clutches at his face while Marcus and Marshall scurry behind a file cabinet. He was clearly expecting some kind of amateurish spell from me, which he could have easily blocked. What he didn’t expect was old-fashioned fire extinguisher chemicals.
Unfortunately, while I’m relishing my victory over Neil, Shauna seizes the opportunity to tackle me, sending the fire extinguisher rolling across the floor. We go down hard as she knocks the wind out of me. I try not to panic as I struggle to catch my breath. It’s a horrible feeling, thinking that I can’t breathe.
Thankfully, Neil is still clawing at his face and screaming. Not only did it get in his eyes, but he must also have inhaled a mouthful at the same time because now he’s on his knees, coughing and gasping for air. Neil is the least of my problems, though, as Shauna takes full advantage of my breathing struggles by trying to strangle me.
I see stars as my head swims, and I realize I’m about to blackout again, when I remember Neil making fun of my lackluster magic skills, and I get mad. I spy a stapler sitting on the desk and focus on moving it. It must be adrenaline because I manage to fling it at Shauna’s head, clocking her so hard she falls off of me.
Both of us struggle to get to our feet as I furtively look around the room for another weapon. Both of us scream, however, when Drew and the CPPD burst through both of the doors. It’s pure chaos after that as Shauna tries to get away but is tackled by none other than Owen Munoz. How did he get here?
Neil is still on the ground screaming about how I tried to kill him, and they should arrest me. If it were up to me, I’d probably leave him there a little longer, but an officer calls for an ambulance.
After the CPPD secures Neil and Shauna, and ushers them to the waiting cruiser for transport, Shauna shouts back at us. “Ha! The joke is on you guys! We’re married and won’t testify against each other!”
As the car leaves, Drew rushes over to me. He must be thrilled this has happened again. I’ve lost track of how many times he’s had to do this. “Are you okay?” he asks.
“Yeah, I think so. I’m not sure what they used to knock me out with, though. As I was passing out, I was sure it was cyanide and that I was going to die.”
“That’s the stuff nightmares are made of,” Drew responds softly. “You need to go to the hospital.”
“I think I’m okay. Maybe the paramedics could just look me over?”
“Young lady, you need to listen to your boyfriend!” Owen chastises me. “You should see a doctor!”
“Errr, how did you end up in the middle of all of this?” I ask. Just when you think this whole thing can’t get any weirder, my number one suspect seems to be riding with the police.
“It’s a long and complicated story,” Drew tells me. “I’ll explain it all on the way to the hospital, but I assure you, Owen is trustworthy.”
“Wait!” I grab Drew’s arm. “Where are the rabbits? Marshall! Marcus! Where are you?” I’m in full panic mode at this point and feel like I can’t breathe again. If anything happened to them, I’d never forgive myself. Meanwhile, Drew looks at me like I must have hit my head when I call for the rabbits.
“Oh, thank goodness!” I cry, dropping to my knees as the two of them squeeze out from behind the file cabinet and race to my side.
“How did rabbits get in here?” Owen asks.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you!” Drew exclaims.
“You two saved me!” I coo.
“Ahem!” Drew clears his throat.
“You’re a big guy with a gun,” I point out. “They’re just two adorable widdo wabbits wid dere crooked ears,” I go on full baby talk mode; I’m so relieved they’re okay. I swear I see Marshall stick his tongue out at Drew as they climb all over me and jump around. They’re going to milk this one for a long time.
“Hang on a second. How did you two know where I was?”
“We heard you,” Marshall explains. I love how they’re always so matter of fact when I’m clearly looking for more information than that.
“How did you hear me?”
“We were on our way to the Roses Are Red Flower Shop to see if Beatrice had some pansies for us—”
“—no dude, it was roses.” Marcus interrupts.
“Oh yeah, roses. We were on our way to the florist to get roses to snack on.”
So much for matter of fact.
“Annnnnd?” I say, waving my hand in a circle.
“Oh, and we heard you hollering for help. The front door was closed, so we ran around back. Then that lady opened the door, so we snuck in.” Marshall shrugs as if it was all just that simple.
“Remind me to never complain again about you two running around town begging for treats,” I tell them.
“Okay!” they both shout.
I immediately regret telling them that.