“Why is she here?” I said, opening the door. “Coincidence or conspiracy?”
“If she wanted to see you, she could have just visited Whimsy and spent some of Oscar’s ill-gotten gains.”
I walked up behind her, heels clicking loudly enough to make the other two customers look up. Tavi, however, was so focused she didn’t notice till I was standing over her. I didn’t intend to spy but the shape of the image on the page grabbed my eye. That, and her name etched in assertive ballpoint pen at the top.
Tavi Knight had an original Mr. Crossword puzzle, just like me. And she was already filling it in. In pen. She wasn’t as low on confidence as I thought.
Noticing my shadow cross the page, she flipped it quickly and looked up. “Oh, Janelle. Thank goodness it’s just you.”
“You are in the program,” I said, sliding into the seat opposite without waiting for an invitation.
She held a finger to her lips. “Not officially. Oscar was stridently opposed to witch school, although Ruthann was persistent. You know I have a soft spot for Norris, so he agreed to meet me here on the sly. Left in a hurry just a few minutes ago.”
Mr. Bixby laughed in my head. “Smelled us coming, first.”
“Tavi, I’m so glad you’re in the class. You totally deserve to be in training.” I covered my mouth. “That didn’t come out right.”
“It came out exactly right. I’m excited to be included and it’s all thanks to you.” She grabbed my right hand with her left hand and squeezed. I was wearing gloves but still got hit with a flood of Tavi’s thoughts from her rings. Despite patching things up with Oscar, it looked like it hadn’t been easy at home. They were arguing more. He was trying even harder to keep her safe and it came off as controlling. It was controlling. But Tavi, now free to explore her magical abilities, was eager to get out in the world and do more than shop.
“We’re all learning together,” I said. “It’s exciting and a little daunting. With all due respect to Norris, I expected more than a crossword puzzle.”
“An easy one at that. At least for me. Norris and I both enjoy word games.” She set her other hand on the flipped page and smiled. “There will be a trick to this one, mark my words. Pun intended.”
“Good one.” Smiling, I slipped my hand out of her grip. I’d unintentionally “marked” her words already. Her whole puzzle had etched itself in my mind and I felt bad about it. I was happy being a voyeur when it was required for safety but drive-by mental snapshots felt shoddy. That’s why I’d avoided touching people, and especially their gems, for decades. There was enough clutter in my own mind without adding stuff that didn’t belong to me. “Haven’t even looked at mine. I’m not one for sitting still. Rather be doing.”
“That’s an understatement,” Bixby said.
I warned him to stop stating anything and closed our inside line. With Oscar’s wife, I liked to pay close attention. He had stopped his open warfare against me, but as long as I knew his secret about their deadbeat son, I would never be safe.
“That I know,” Tavi said. “And what is it that you’re doing tonight? I figured you’d be staying out of the fray after what happened earlier.” She leaned closer and whispered, “At the library. Oscar said you were there when it all went down.”
I nodded. “Unfortunately. I thought I saw a stray dog in there and you know how I am. Had to check it out.”
“A dog? Why would a stray dog be in the library?”
“No idea. But once I see it, I can’t unsee it. So I went inside and started checking the aisles. Didn’t find a dog, but I did find Angus MacDuff.”
Shushing me, she stared around the café. “Careful, Janelle. The walls have ears, and this is a very big deal in our community. That man was not well-liked.”
“I thought Oscar was a friend.”
Tavi shook her head. “Not for a long time. The—uh—deceased had become difficult.”
“I can see that. I met him by accident in the mayor’s office when his daughter was getting married. That’s when he— Well, went away for a couple of weeks. I can’t imagine why he was back so soon, let alone in the public library.”
She took my hand again and this time I welcomed it. “Oscar thinks he was…” She searched for a word. “Deployed. It happens.”
The neon magical police insignia appeared in her mind. I suspected the officers were often in plainclothes, however. Moving among us completely incognito. Marking our words.
“Why would they do that? I thought the goal of all policing was to keep us safe.”
Her lips pressed together but I picked up a word from her mind. Corruption. “I guess their notion of safety can differ from ours sometimes.”
“Can they be bought?”
She tried to pull her hand away but I held on. “There are rumors. I don’t know that definitively.”
It was definitive enough for me. “If they did deploy the individual in question, what would be the goal?”
“Power.” The word slipped easily from her lips. “It’s always about power in this town.”
I stared at her from close range as we both leaned forward. “Being new again to Wyldwood, what does that look like?”
“I don’t know.” She didn’t know, but she had suspicions and they appeared in images. Oscar and his cronies playing golf. Meetings in darkened bars I didn’t recognize. Scheming over something, perhaps.
The next image made me gasp.
It was the mayor’s office. Ruthann’s desk and paisley sofa were gone, replaced by lean, modern furniture.
That’s what Minerva was worried about. Someone wanted to storm the castle and banish the queen. And, as I’d feared, Angus had been weaponized to help accomplish that goal.
Tavi jerked her hand away, harder this time. I hadn’t realized my grip had tightened.
Forcing past my barricade, Mr. Bixby pointed out the obvious. “Scaring her won’t keep the information flowing.”
“Sorry, Tavi. Sorry,” I said. “I’m not myself after what happened today.”
This time she patted my sleeve lightly. “Don’t fret. This will get sorted out quickly enough. It always does.”
