All my life, I always dreamed of becoming an artist and a witch, but never in a million years did I think I should have added thief to my résumé.
I was getting really good at it too. And by the rate of breaking and entering I was doing, I’d be an expert by the end of the year.
I’ll admit there was a high about breaking and entering. Breaking into someone else’s house to snoop and take something that didn’t belong to you and not knowing if you were going to get away with it was incredibly exciting. I was definitely losing it.
The streetlights glowed with silver halos as the snow came down, leaving dark shadows where the light didn’t reach. The cold air was speckled with occasional flakes of wet snow that wouldn’t last as it hit the ground.
The sound of keys pulled my attention to Ronin as he stood in front of Gilbert’s Grocer & Gifts’ glass door. The streetlight cast dark shadows across his face as he flipped through his keys. Iris, dressed all in black and looking like a gothic doll with pigtails, black lipstick, and eyeshadow, stood facing the street, her fingers moving in a dark spell in case we were discovered.
I leaned closer. “You have Gilbert’s keys?” I laughed. “Did you steal them? He’s going to be pissed.”
Ronin slipped a key into the keyhole and turned it. The deadbolt rattled dully. “Of course not. These are my keys.”
“Your keys,” I questioned. “I’m not following.”
Ronin glanced over his shoulder at me. “I own the building. Gilbert’s my tenant.”
I stood there staring at my half-vampire friend like an idiot. I knew he’d wanted to buy Marcus’s building because the apartment on the second floor had more square footage. I just never expected him to be Gilbert’s landlord.
“I invest in real estate,” continued the half-vampire. “It’s how I make a living and how I can afford to stay in bed until noon.” He looked over at Iris who flashed him a smile.
I didn’t know the exact date when the two had become an item, but they had been inseparable for months.
“How many other buildings do you own?” I asked curiously.
“A couple more in Hollow Cove and some in Elizabeth Town,” he answered, looking happy that I was interested.
I was impressed. “When you said you had a way in, I thought you meant like a side door or something. Never thought you meant the front door. So, technically, this isn’t breaking and entering since this is your building.”
“Oh, it is.” Ronin pushed open the door. “I can’t just bust in Gilbert’s place of business in the middle of the night without giving him a twenty-four-hour notice. This is illegal.”
Iris squealed and clapped her hands. “We’re so totally doing this.”
Ronin bowed from the waist as he held the door open. “Witches first.”
Iris sneaked through the door. I glanced over my shoulder one last time, making sure no one was in the street watching this display, and followed Iris in. I heard the door shut behind me.
We stood in the darkness, and I waited a few seconds for my eyes to adjust. The streetlight from the outside cast enough soft light through the glass windows and doors to see shapes.
“Where do you think he keeps his records,” asked Ronin as he appeared next to me. “That’s if he keeps track of the stuff he sells.”
“He does. I know he does.” Now that I could see better, I looked past the aisles of food and produce to the back of the store. “In the back. It’s where his office is. It’ll be there.” I didn’t know Gilbert well, but from the little I knew, he was meticulous when it came to his store and the items he sold. I was certain he kept a list of his inventory—especially the exotic kind.
Quickly, I hurried across the store, pulled the office door open, and stepped through. I was met by a solid wall of darkness. There were no windows in this small office.
Yanking out my phone, I tapped on the flashlight icon and flicked it around the office.
“There,” I said, pointing to a small desk sandwiched between boxes of bananas and oranges. I rushed over, angling my cell phone as I was hit by a feeling of déjà vu. “Just like old times,” I said to a smiling Ronin.
Ronin lost his smile. “I hope we find something. For Ruth’s sake.”
My stomach churned. “We will. We have to.”
“Found a laptop,” informed Iris as I spun around and saw her eyes wide, holding her cellphone’s light in one hand while she dangled a small laptop in the other.
“Open it and see if you can find his list of inventory.” I turned back around and searched Gilbert’s desk.
“The dude’s a hoarder,” said Ronin after a moment, standing next to a pile of magazines that were nearly as tall as him. “These National Geographics date back to the nineteen seventies.”
I laughed. “Good. That means he has a record of the black belladonna somewhere. We need to find it. I don’t care if it takes us all night, I’m not leaving until I have it.”
“Me neither,” said Iris as she sat on the floor and flipped the laptop open on her lap. “Don’t worry. We’re going to find something to help Ruth. I can feel it.”
My throat contracted at the mention of my aunt. We didn’t have much time left. If I was wrong, if there wasn’t anything here, I had nothing left.
After ten minutes of searching, dread started to sneak into my head. Ronin was right. Gilbert was a hoarder, which also meant we had piles and piles of papers and magazines and bills to get through. And we were still not close to finding anything.
“Iris? Anything?” I looked down at her.
Iris shook her head. “Not yet. This is just pictures of—oh. Look here. Gilbert’s on a dating app.” She laughed. “Oh, my, god. What a liar. He says he’s five-eight.” She let out a sigh. “I don’t think there’s anything here, Tessa. This is mostly personal stuff.”
“Keep looking.” I spun around, pulled open the first drawer, and began looking through a stack of bills.
“Nice,” said Ronin, and my heart skipped a beat.
“You found something?”
“Yeah.” Ronin held a magazine open. “Playboy 1982. These gals had more meat on them. They were more natural. And a lot hairier down there too. Look. I’m digging the more native style.”
Iris kicked him with her foot. “Don’t be a douche.”
I pushed the drawer back and yanked the next one underneath. A small red book blinked up at me. Fingers trembling, I flipped it open on the desk.
“Found it,” I said, seeing a list of ingredients, names, and dates scribbled at the top of the first page in blue ink and cataloged into neat rows.
“You sure?” Ronin stepped in next to me.
“Yeah. Look. I’ve got names, dates, and the exotic herbs written in neat little rows. This is his exotic herb inventory.”
Iris brushed up on my other side. “Look under B for belladonna.”
I had to bite my tongue not to laugh. “Gotcha.” I flipped through the book. “It’s not categorized alphabetically. It’s by month.” Knowing that all this mess started at the end of October, I flipped the pages back until I saw the month of January of this year written at the top. With my flashlight illuminating the page, I flipped through every month, searching for the herb that had landed my aunt in cuffs and the witch prison.
“There!” I said, my heart thrashing.
Ronin’s shoulder bumped against mine as he leaned closer. “Two people bought the black belladonna.”
“Estelle Watch and Michael Blackwood,” read Iris before I could.
“Ruth’s name isn’t here,” I voiced, every nerve in my body pulsing with our discovery. “She never bought any. No one did until these two in September. It proves she didn’t put it in there.” It didn’t prove that she didn’t drive to another paranormal community to buy black belladonna there, but I was going with what I had. Besides, Ruth hardly ever drove. She didn’t like it, and the closest paranormal community was four hours away.
I looked at the two names. “One of these is the murderer. One of them killed Bernard and has been letting Ruth take the blame.”
“Yeah, but which one?” asked Iris, her voice hopeful.
I glanced at Ronin. “Do you know them? Do the names sound familiar? I’ve never heard of either of these people.”
Ronin shook his head. “No. Sorry.”
I sighed. “It doesn’t matter. We have them. We know who bought the black belladonna.” I let the names settle in my head, knowing that one of these people was the murderer. One of them had let my aunt take the fall for Bernard’s death. Just for that, I’d skin them alive and drop them in a boiling cauldron while I danced around it.
“This is it,” I said, shaking like I was cold, but I was seething inside. “This is how we’re going to prove that Ruth didn’t do it.”
“But how?” asked Iris. “It’s like what Dolores said. It doesn’t prove that Ruth didn’t buy it from somewhere else. If it were me, that’s what I would do if I was planning on killing someone in my town. I wouldn’t buy the stuff here.”
I picked up the book and looked at both of my friends. “We have names now. One of these people killed Bernard. One of them had it out for him. So much so that they were willing to kill him. With a little investigating, I’m going to find out which one.”
“Which one, what?” said a female voice behind me, making me jump.
Iris screamed.
So did Ronin.
The red book slipped from my hands and landed on the floor at my feet with a thump.
I spun around as bright light exploded in my eyes. I blinked slowly, waiting for my eyes to adjust.
Once they adjusted to the light, I blinked into the faces of Adira, two men I recognized as her vampire deputies, Jeff, Cameron—Marcus’s deputies—and the chief himself.
Oh, goodie.