The Estate Murder: A Cozy Mystery (The Witch Mysteries) (3 page)

            
 
When she arrived at The Twisted Claw the next morning, she was glad Sandra had had the foresight to give her a key before they left. Cassidy was sorry to see that the black cat masks were indeed the very same that were currently on sale for five dollars at the front of the store. She wondered if she would see Sandra that day, or if she had been detained by the police overnight. She imagined, after having heard the Chief talk yesterday, that they didn’t have enough to hold her.

              Sure enough, Sandra entered the store about fifteen minutes after Cassidy had made her first chai latte of the day. “A large coffee please, cream and sugar” Sandra said, briskly.

              “Sure thing, how are you doing?” Cassidy asked.

              “As well as can be imagined after losing someone who was like a dear uncle to me and having the police insinuate that I did it. For money of all things! I may never strike it rich in this town, but I stay comfortable without any money off the estate. That is all trusted to keep the building standing and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She shuddered slightly.

              “But who would want to steal those things. Are they worth money?”

              “As vintage items, maybe, but to who? No one here could risk owning them now that the cops are looking for a murder. No one outside of our little town know who Claire Fontaine is. They would get a small amount on their own though, I imagine.”

              “Not enough to be worth risking jail to steal them though?” Cassidy asked, wondering if Sandra had heard about the supposed apparition of her dead aunt the night before.

              Just then, the bell jingled at the front door and a tall, thin man in all back entered followed by a young girl of maybe 15 or 16. She, too, was wearing all black with kohl black eyes. Her hair was an assortment of colors, black, blonde, and a streak of pink here or there. The girl went straight to the display of candles and incense and ignored the others.

              “Remy,” Sandra said, “What do you want?”

              “Just my last paycheck,” he said, sneering a little as he did so. He instantly reminded Cassidy of a snake. It wasn’t just that she knew he had quit without notice the day before, but also that he was simply tall, thin, and moved with a graceful air.

              “Fine, I can pay you in cash if you’ll sign a receipt.” Sandra headed back to her office to grab her receipt book and the money.

              “So, she already replaced me, huh?” he said, looking over Cassidy in a rather unflattering manner.

              “Yeah, as luck would have it I was here when you called yesterday.” Cassidy’s eyes flickered over to the young girl who had come in with him. She was now thumbing through the pages of a book. “Do you need any help?” she called out to the girl who just shook her head, no.

              “That’s my daughter, Lissa. She probably knows the shop better than you do.” Remy said, his disdain showing clearly on his face. Cassidy wondered for a moment why he was being hateful. He had been the one to quit, after all. Cassidy just stepped in after there was an opening. Sandra came back out of her office then, saving Cassidy from having to think of a comeback.

              “Here you go, Remy, sign here.” Sandra pushed the ledger towards him.

              “Sandra, listen, I was really sorry to hear about Sherwood.”  Cassidy thought, perhaps uncharitably, that Remy must have a heart.

              “Thank you, I will miss him terribly. He was the only family I had left.”

              “Remy, did you have a key to the mansion?” Cassidy asked without thinking. He opened his mouth, but didn’t have time to answer.

              At that moment, a loud crash reverberated through the store. Cassidy looked up to see that Lissa had managed to knock down the entire display case of Halloween masks. She was holding one of them in her hands; a black one with whiskers and ears.

              “Nice,” Remy said, no doubt not intending to help clean up the mess. “Lissa, I have one of those at home, let’s get out of here before you knock anything else over.”

              Remy and Lissa left without so much as a good bye or thanks for everything. Cassidy groaned and went to clean up the display while Sandra served coffee to the guests who had just entered. The rest of the day was uneventful or the most part. Thomas did visit, but since Cassidy didn’t know what to think of what Kairi had repeated last night, she kept her distance and made no promise to see him again.

              When she went home that night, it was already dark. She stepped inside and locked the door behind her. After hanging up her coat and opening Kairi’s cage door, she decided to make herself a cup of tea to relax her from the long day. After cleaning up the masks, the store and coffee shop had both been bombarded. And she still didn’t know what to do about Thomas.

              As she poured the hot water from the teapot into her mug, she glanced up and out the window of her kitchen. Since it was mostly light in the kitchen and dark outside, she couldn’t see much, which is why it surprised her to see the glowing figure of Claire Fontaine walking across her back yard. She gasped and dropped her mug at her feet, splashing hot water onto her toes. She shrieked at the stinging pain, but forced herself to look out the window once more. She had to make sure that Claire was not coming anywhere closer to her house.

              She saw nothing. No glowing form, no blackened form. She even tried turning off the light in her kitchen to get a better view of outside. It was to no avail. She finally convinced herself that she was going crazy and went to bed.

Chapter 6:

            
 
“Good morning, Cas.” Wylie said as he pushed her favorite drink across the table toward her.

              “Thanks Wylie. I am so glad you had time to catch up with me.” Wylie and Cassidy had known each other since grade school. When Cassidy’s parents decided to move, they had hatched a plan to try to convince Wylie’s mom to let her move in with them. It didn’t work, of course, but when Cassidy moved back to town a few years later, their friendship picked up where it had left off, with maybe a bit of non-platonic confusion thrown into the mix.

              “I’ve missed you, Claire. I’m so glad you came back, but I feel like you are just as far away with our grown up jobs and stuff.”

              Sometimes, Claire wondered if Wylie had feelings for her, but she always pushed the thought aside. It annoyed her how two people couldn’t simply be friends without all of the confusing hormones getting in the way. Still, she reflected, Wylie did have a certain boyish charm. He had dark blonde, shaggy hair and blue eyes. He was slight, but still taller than Cassidy. The best part about him, though, was that Cassidy knew she could always count on him to be there for her. Right now, she leaned forward and whispered to him.

              “You didn’t tell the department that I already knew Martin was dead.” She said, plainly.

              “No, I knew you didn’t do it, so I thought there was no harm in failing to mention I had seen you earlier.” He said, his eyes shining.

              “Thank you, sincerely from the bottom of my heart, thank you. I owe you one.”

              “I am pretty sure you owe me like ten. I just keep saving the day.” He said this with a pompous look on his face, much like one a cartoon superman would make. Cassidy giggled a bit.

              “So I wanted to talk to you about Martin. Who are the suspects?”

              “Well, the department has looked at Sandra, of course, but we really don’t have many others. At least not that I know of.” He shrugged. “I don’t know everything though.”

              “Okay, so here’s what I have. I don’t think Sandra did it. But say she did. The artifacts aren’t worth much outside of this town, and insurance isn’t going to give her any money for it. Anything she got would have to go straight into the trust, right?” Cassidy was leaning forward.

              “I suppose that sounds about right.” Wylie answered.

              “The next guess, and believe me, I know this sounds crazy, but my next guess is Claire Fontaine.” Cassidy said the name quietly so as to not alarm anyone else currently in the café.

              “Claire Fontaine has been dead for years, Cas.” Wylie said. Apparently his loyalty did have its limits.

              “True, but Wy, she was a witch. You saw her book. It has to be a book of shadows. The black dress? And everyone in town knew it. That’s why it even made it into our local history books. What if she came back?” Cassidy was getting a little too excited now. Even though she had convinced herself otherwise the night before, she would rather believe that a ghost had been in her back yard than that her new boss was capable of murder.

              “Cas,” Wylie said, his voice trailing off, but his tone indicating that she sounded a little crazy.

              “Okay, I know. How about Remy?”

              “Remy Caldwell? Why?” Wylie made a face to indicate that he didn’t much care for Remy either, but it still seemed unlikely that he committed the robbery slash murder.

              “Well, mostly because I just don’t like him. But he does have access to the house. I just don’t know what his motive would be.” Cassidy bit her lower lip, trying to think of some reason Remy might rob the mansion. Her eyes lit up, “Plus he admitted to having one of those cat masks like the one found at the scene!”

              “I still think you’re reaching,”

              “Okay, I have one last suggestion.” Cassidy took a deep breath. “Thomas Caine”

              “The developer? Yeah I don’t like him much either, but I can’t imagine what he’d have to gain by breaking in up there and taking a few old things.”

              “Well, he wants the estate to build a hotel and stuff on.” Cassidy said. “He’s been bugging Sandra to sell for a long time, now. And he was talking on the phone by Kairi and said something about the ‘old man’ being ‘out of the way’,” She held up her hands to make finger quotes at this, so Wylie knew what she meant.

              “Wow, you might be onto something. Is Sandra willing to sell now?”

              “I don’t know, but without having to worry about what Martin will do might make her more willing. “

              “How do you know all this? And how did he meet Kairi?” Wylie asked.

              “Well, I kind of had a date with him. He just asked me to show him around town.”

              “Ha! He thinks he’s getting a date and here you are trying to pin him for murder. Sweet, Cas, real sweet.”

              “Oh don’t make fun of me. I didn’t have most of those facts until halfway through the night.”

              “I might bring that up to the chief. I am sure he knows already, but it can’t hurt. Now, this is depressing, tell me what else is going on.” Wylie leaned back in his chair, and the conversation continued like this for a while. For Cassidy, no one was as easy to talk to as Wylie.

            
 
Cassidy was set to open the store the next day, which was Saturday. She let herself in and started her tea, then flipped the open sign over. She didn’t expect to see anyone too soon, so she was surprised when a group of teenagers, three girls, two boys, walked in, the noise that usually accompanies a group like that followed.

              “What can I get for you?” Cassidy asked, noting that one of them had black, blonde, and pink in her hair. “Lissa, is it?” She smiled warmly. She felt like Remy had been a little hard on her the other day. The mask thing was just an accident, Cassidy hoped.

              “Just a coffee,” Lissa answered. Cassidy got busy making everyone’s orders. As she did so, she overheard one of the girls mention the name Fontaine, and her ears perked up.

              “I hear they are trying to pin it on the lady who owns this place.” The girl in the red shirt said.

              “Well it serves her right, she’s got to be a witch too, I mean look at this place.” The boy in blue followed.

              The banter went on like this for a while, but Cassidy noticed that Lissa was quiet throughout the whole conversation. Cassidy also noticed that Lissa had a stack of books with her, one of which was bound in light brown leather. ‘I wonder…” she thought. She decided to bide her time for the moment, waiting until she might be able to get Lissa alone. She got her chance when Sandra came in. All of the other kids in the group left, but Lissa had stayed behind, still sipping her coffee. She looked glad to not be surrounded by the energy of her peers.

              “Hey, can I talk to you?” Cassidy asked, her voice gentle, like she’d speak to a scared animal.

              “I should probably stay with my friends.” Lissa said, her voice surprisingly strong for one who had kept so quiet while surrounded by her peers.

              “It will just be a minute.” Cassidy said as she signaled to Sandra that she was taking her break and led Lissa to the two overstuffed chairs in the center of the room. She shooed the resident cat, Miska, off of one of the chairs before sitting down. Once they had settled, she started asking questions.

              “Do you know anything about what happened to Mr. Martin?” Cassidy asked first. Lissa’s eyes widened, but she shook her head, no. Cassidy continued. “Well, I didn’t think you would know, except for a few things. Do you want to hear them?”

              Lissa started turning pale, but she was glued to her seat, and did not attempt to move for the time being.

              “Okay, first, the means. You could have stolen the key from your father, so getting in would be easy. I bet he had the security code written down too. That, or you were already in the room when the alarm was first set?” She paused, waiting for some sort of movement from Lissa. When she got none, she continued talking.

              “Well then, I also know that your dad has a mask just like the black one that was found at the mansion. Unfortunately, since those are sold here, right now I could just as easily be accusing Ms. Shaw with the same evidence.”

              “But then a girl or woman with blonde hair has been seen wandering around town in the missing dress. I know your hair is not entirely blonde, but there is enough blonde in it and a light enough shade to pull off the appearance of a full blonde when covered with a veil. Ms. Shaw has black hair, so she could only have pulled that trick off with a wig. The only reason I don’t believe that is because she is quite a bit taller than the person I saw walking through town.”

              “So, Lissa, all that leaves is motive. I hardly think you just stole the dress so you could wear it and not tell anyone about it?” this time Cassidy stopped talking altogether and just waited. She took a moment to pat Miska on the head while she waited.

              The tactic seemed to work well, because Lissa started singing like a canary.

              “Ok, I did it. I snuck in. The old man was supposed to be asleep. I didn’t do anything to him other than show up with a mask on so, just in case he did see me, he wouldn’t know who I was.”  Tear started streaming down her face. “When he fell, I didn’t know he had died, honest. I just grabbed the stuff as quick as I could then got out. I knew the alarm would trigger and help would be there for him soon. I didn’t know he’d died!”

              Cassidy waited while Lissa tried to calm herself before asking the next question.

              “I understand how you did it, but why? Other than a neat dress, what did you have to gain?”

              “They dared me. I couldn’t not do it or they wouldn’t want to talk to me anymore.”

              “Those kids that just left dared you?”

              Lissa nodded. “They dared me to steal the dress and the book and walk down Main Street wearing them. When I walked down Main Street, I didn’t know Mr. Martin had died. I am easily manipulated, not stupid,” She tried to smirk but it seemed more like a grimace through her kohl streaked face.

              “Okay,” Cassidy said, “One more and then we’ll go to the police station together to turn yourself in. Why were you in my back yard in that dress?”

              “Well, I heard you asking my dad all those questions about if he had the key. I wanted to get your suspicions off of him. He has enough trouble. I thought if I could look scary enough you’d think it was really Claire, and you’d back off.”

              “Well, thank you for your honesty. I am not ashamed to say you had me really scared. I almost did believe Claire Fontaine was back from the dead. But how did you glow?”

              “I took the liquid out of a glow stick and covered the dress in it. I hope it didn’t hurt it. I’ll put it back. You can’t even see the glow stick residue in the daylight.”

              Together, Cassidy and Lissa went to the police station.