Juniper pulled up near the WitchRoast Café, waiting for the last bit of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” to end before she killed the engine and got out. A cool gust of wind slipped past the edges of her coat, making her shiver, and she tucked her hands into the pockets as she stepped up onto the sidewalk.
The cafe was tucked between the Dusty Buns Bakery and the flower shop. The only thing that was missing on this little stretch of street was a bookstore to complete the cozy aesthetic. They’d make a killing during the fall and winter months, that was for sure. People liked somewhere warm and cozy to read after they’d picked up something warm to eat. Buy a book, get some rolls, spend a few hours at the coffee shop eating your spoils while getting lost in whatever words you’d chosen that day. It would be perfect.
Leaves crunched beneath her boots as she walked to her destination, and that wonderful fall smell teased her nose before she stepped inside the cafe and was greeted with the aromas of warm pastries and glorious coffee.
Quincy nodded to her when he saw her as he finished taking a customer’s order then held up a finger, indicating he’d get hers going in just a second.
Juniper went to her usual table near the windows and waited for Quincy to finish up with the few other people in the cafe before getting to her. As she waited, she rubbed the naked spot on her pinky finger and glanced around, looking for Halen.
“Here ya go. One extra-large, extra-strong black coffee.”
Juniper looked up as Quincy slid into the empty chair across from her. “Do you know why someone would want me dead, Quince?”
Quincy, bless him, didn’t bat an eyelash at her question. “June, honey, why anyone would want to rid the world of your zest for life is beyond me.”
A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “You know the poison you cured the Duck Man of was meant for me, don’t you?”
It was Quincy’s turn to frown. “I didn’t. I’m sorry, June. Any clue who might have done it?”
She shook her head. “Been trying to figure it out, though. Not a lot to go on. There’s not exactly a string of clues lying around. We just know there was poison—pretty potent poison to have offed the detective as fast as it did too. So somebody around here has to have solid knowledge of poisons.”
“It wasn’t me, Juniper,” Quincy said, holding her gaze. “And the coven here is more interested in healing people than hurting them. If they intended harm, I would know.”
“You know them that well, do you?”
“The oath they swore was a spell, binding their very souls unto death. If they break it, their ability to do magic is stripped from them, and all knowledge of us or our abilities is wiped from their memories. Essentially, they end up forever trying to remember something important only to never know what it was. Their names are also stricken from the coven’s records, and they are banished.”
Juniper’s eyes widened a little more with each thing he listed. “Wow. Yeah, okay, you know them pretty well.”
Quincy nodded then motioned to her hand, where she was still fiddling with her finger. “Where’s your ring?”
“I’d like to know that as well,” Juniper said. “I haven’t seen it since the night of the poisoning. I was wearing it then. It fell into my cup of coffee, which the detective ingested and died from. I was wondering if the poison could have been in the ring.”
Quincy was already shaking his head before Juniper had even finished speaking. “Halen wouldn’t do that. She might be on the New Age side of things, but she just wants to help people. If she gave you the ring, it was for a reason. Why you can’t find it now, I don’t know. Besides, that ring was a protection ring, and anyway, how could enough poison to kill someone be in a small ring?”
He had a point.
“How do you know the ring was a protection ring?”
“I saw the stone. Black tourmaline. It’s for protection. And I might be reaching here, but if it fell into your coffee before Detective Mallard drank it, it probably mitigated some of the poison.”
“The man was deader than a doornail, Quince. You saw him.”
“I did,” he said, smiling at her wording. “But it could have been worse. And anyway, the ring did protect you, apparently, since it caused you to not drink the poison.”
He had made some good points. Juniper took a drink of her coffee, sighing appreciatively at the taste as she made a mental note to find out what type of poison Desmond had ingested and how much of it one would need to kill someone.
“Hang in there, Juni girl. Somebody will figure out who tried to get rid of you. I just hope it’s either you or the detective who finds out first because if it was one of us, there’s no guarantee justice won’t be taken out of their hide, if you know what I mean.”
Juniper’s chest filled with warmth at the thought of her friends caring about her so deeply. Smiling at Quincy, she leaned forward and patted his hand. “I appreciate the devotion, Quince, but please don’t hurt someone on my account.”
“We won’t hurt ’em too bad, June. Just enough that they learn their lesson.” Quincy nodded toward the big window that overlooked Main Street. “If you want to catch Halen, there she is right out there.”
Juniper whirled around just in time to catch a glimpse of the dark-haired girl sauntering past the window.
“Gotta go!” She jumped up, threw some money onto the table, and ran for the door.
By the time Juniper got outside, Halen was half a block away, and she was walking fast.
“Hey, Halen! Wait up!”
Juniper expected her to run. That was no problem; she was pretty good at chasing people down. But Halen didn’t run. Instead, she turned and waited for Juniper to jog over to her.
“I hear the ring worked.” Halen directed her gaze at Juniper’s hand, her eyes registering surprise upon noticing her fingers were bare. “But where is it?”
Juniper looked down, half expecting the ring to appear. It didn’t. “Never mind that. The ring wasn’t for protection. It poisoned someone!”
Halen crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t know what you mean. You’re unharmed.”
“I am, but Detective Mallard wasn’t. Tell me the truth: What was in the ring?”
“I told you before. It’s a protection stone.”
“Then why was full of poison?”
“Why do you keep saying that? It was a black tourmaline,” Halen said as if that settled it.
“Well, I don’t care what kind of stone it was. That ring fell into my coffee and almost killed the Detective. Well, actually, it did kill him, but he came back.”
Halen looked confused.
“Never mind. My point is that the ring had something on it or in it that made my coffee lethal.”
“If it was your coffee that was lethal, then how did the detective get harmed?”
“The ring fell into my coffee, and he fished it out. Then, when I said I wouldn’t drink it because he’d had his fingers in it, he drank it.” Juniper realized how silly that sounded.
“Aha! See, the ring did protect you. It fell into the cup to keep you from drinking that coffee.” She pressed her lips together. “Maybe I need to give Detective Mallard a ring too.”
Juniper wasn’t about to just believe Halen. Naturally, the woman wouldn’t admit to poisoning her. But if she had done it, then why was she standing here as innocent as could be? “I don’t know whether I believe you. That ring could have been a poison ring, and maybe it was just good luck on my part that Mallard was the one to drink the poison.”
“What’s a poison ring?”
Juniper studied the other woman and concluded that she seemed to really not know what a poison ring was. “It’s a ring with a little compartment that you can put something in, like poison, and then covertly open it up over a drink. Your victim will never know who did it.”
“That’s just silly. How would I know the ring was going to open at the right time?”
She had a point.
“I’ve already told you, the ring was for protection. It didn’t have any compartment.” Her gaze flicked to Juniper’s hand again. “But I’d say if you’ve lost that ring, then you should find it, because without it, you might be unprotected. You still know a lot of secrets about Crescent Cove, and maybe some people want to make sure those secrets don’t get out.”