“What if Marnie cursed us?” Casey asked as she settled on the bed. She’d handed me her me her tablet, and I scrolled through the Find Cupcake! Page and The Cupcake Search Party site. There was no mention of the Dairy Barn anywhere.
“That’s not what she does. She said her goal wasn’t to hurt anyone.” I gave Casey the tablet back. “So far, she’s been the easiest person we’ve dealt with.”
“Think about it, Addie. Ever since we left her shop, we’ve come face to face with protesters, Roy questioned our methods, let alone our entire reason for being here, someone tried to kill us, and somehow, we’re on the hook for that.” She waved her arms and pressed her lips together. “What if she’s mad that we left before she had a chance to read Persephone? She said she was interested in learning more about why you could communicate with her. Maybe she thinks we didn’t hold up our end of the deal.”
“We did hold up our end of the deal. We booked appointments, and we paid for them. And we didn’t even get the service.” I sighed. The visit to Marnie’s shop seemed like it happened days instead of hours ago. “Maybe she’s the one that we need to tell what’s happened since we’ve seen her.”
“Right, at our appointment ten days from now. I’m not sure we can handle ten more days of Rappaport.” Casey drummed her fingers on her thigh. “What do we do now?”
“Order food, and come up with a rock-solid plan for tomorrow. Something that the residents of this town can’t blow holes through.”
“Or bullets.” Casey swiped her screen. “What are you in the mood for? Are we eating our feelings tonight?”
I laughed. “Absolutely.”
We perused the menu of a burger place willing to deliver and placed our order, including salmon for Persephone.
My phone buzzed. Henry. Ready to chat?
“Do you mind if I have my video chat with Henry?”
“Absolutely not,” Casey said. “Maybe he can make sense of our day.”
Sure. Casey’s here, if you don’t mind her joining us.
Of course not.
Henry was a sight for sore eyes when he appeared on the screen. Casey and I waved, and he did the same.
“He’s so adorable,” Casey said softly.
Even if he didn’t hear her, he wouldn’t miss the pink in my cheeks. “It’s been a day here.”
“Didn’t want to say anything, but you both look exhausted,” he said. “What happened?”
His eyes widened as we recounted the day for him. It was kind of fun to do it with Casey, because she remembered things differently than I did.
“Did any of these events connect to the ransom notes?” he asked.
“Haven’t had a chance to put two and two together yet. We’re certainly not winning popularity contests here, which makes me think either Rosamund’s right when she says people here are out to get her, or they don’t want us to find Cupcake.”
“Roy, the guy who owns this motor inn, has appointed himself the head of the search party.” Casey groaned. “He’s also the mayor, and the type of guy who never thinks he’s wrong about anything.”
“Hmm.” Henry furrowed his brow. “They don’t seem to like outsiders.”
“Which is ridiculous for a town that relies on tourism to survive. The main strip has a really cool retro vibe, but I’m not sure that’s enough for someone to spend more than a weekend here. Rosamund’s not exactly open to change either, but she shook things up by making Cupcake famous.”
“So they want people to come, but they don’t want them to stay,” Henry clarified. “I’m thinking whoever took Cupcake might have a bigger axe to grind.”
“I think you’re right.” Casey bounced beside me. “They underestimated how much people outside the town love Cupcake, and now they’re mad that so many people are here, because there’s something bigger underfoot.”
“But what?” I didn’t think either of them were too far off. “And how deep should we dig? We were hired to find Cupcake, not to settle some small-town score.”
“Could Roy and the police officer be working together to cover something up?” Henry asked.
Casey and I looked at each other. Goosebumps blossomed on my arms, and I gasped when Persephone jumped onto the bed. She stopped mid-step, picking up on my hesitation, and I made kissing noises so she knew she was welcome.
“Roy was tending bar when we went to the Dairy Barn,” I said.
“He didn’t have to be the one to pull the trigger to be the one to make sure it happened.” It was nice to get Henry’s perspective, since he had a clear head. “Who else have you talked to?”
“The tarot card reader, who’s interested in talking to me about my connection with Persephone for the paranormal community. Persephone got spooked in her shop, and we left before her reading.”
“Do you think someone took Cupcake in hopes of drawing you and Persephone to the town?”
“Maybe we should be looking to see if Roy and our officer friend have a beef with Marnie,” Casey added. “If somehow she’s the one with power in Rappaport and they’re trying to take it from her.”
“But if the target is Persephone and me, that means Rosamund could be in on the fix.”
“It kinda makes sense. She didn’t tell anyone Cupcake was gone, and no one was looking for him. If that was my pet missing, I’d be banging on every door, hoping to find him,” Casey said.
I ran my hands over my face. These twists were enough to make me dizzy. My head hurt. “What would you do next if you were us?”
Henry took a moment to think about it. “Circle back to Rosamund. Press her about the people you’ve come in contact with. Otherwise, stick to your original plan. I’ll do some research on my end too. See what I can find about the town.”
“Thank you.”
“And don’t let these people bully you into doubting your instincts, Addie. You and Persephone are two for two solving crimes so far. You know what to do.”
I smiled at the screen. “You have no idea how much I needed to hear that.”
“It’s the truth. You’ve got this.”
Casey and I jumped at the knock on the door, but it was just the delivery guy. We said goodnight to Henry, and dove into our food.
“It was so nice to talk to someone normal today,” Casey said as she munched on a fried pickle. We decided to split an order of them.
“Henry’s been pretty clutch in all of my investigations. He knows a little something about everything.”
Casey waggled her eyebrows. “Maybe he should come on of these trips with you.”
“We have to survive this one first. And maybe go on a second date once I get home.”
“But he’s sticking around. A lot of guys would’ve gotten frustrated by now and given up. But Henry’s here for the long haul. I can feel it.”
“I like that idea.”
We polished off the rest of our burgers in silence. The day replayed in my head, and it was clear someone did not want us to find Cupcake.
But why?
“Someone either has it out for Rosamund, or for us.” I closed my container and slid it back into the paper bag. Persephone had finished her salmon too. “That’s where we should focus. The question is why?”
“I’m still thinking about Marnie,” Casey dabbed her mouth with a napkin. “Can you ask Persephone if she felt any of the same energy from The Raven Moon at the pool, or the Dairy Barn, or the police station?”
“Oh, that’s a good question.” I ran my hand over Persephone’s back. “What did you feel at the other places?”
Usually I asked her to compare scents. But something had freaked her out during Marnie’s reading.
“It didn’t feel like we were wanted there,” Persephone said.
“Did it feel that way with Marnie?”
Persephone blinked a few times. “It felt like she wanted us there too much.”
“Like a trap?”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“Like she was trying to lure us somewhere we didn’t want to go?”
“Yes,” she said right away.
I relayed the conversation to Casey. “I’m not sure if Marnie has Cupcake, but maybe she’s more than just curious about my connection to Persephone.”
“That would make sense,” Casey said. “Persephone’s helped us so much at the shelter. I’ve been thinking about our readings, too. At first, I thought the readings were spot on. But did she just tell us what we wanted to hear to get us to trust her?”
“Possibly.” I leaned back on my pillow, comforted by the weight of Persephone on my chest. “Someone is lying to us. When we figure out who, then we’ll find Cupcake.”