I shuddered. “No, I’ve never felt anything like that before and hope I never do again. It was awful.”
“That’s the problem with dark magic. It takes a strong constitution to survive the impact, but you did it. Just like Liberty. You Brightons come from strong stock. An impressive line.”
My chest got a little tight. “Why are you being so nice to me? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I mean, we’re strolling around a crime scene that still reeks of roadkill and you’re a potential suspect, but otherwise, it’s all good.”
“Bixby. I know you. You’re only nice if something is very wrong and you don’t want me to panic.”
“It’s less about the panic than the unfortunate side effect,” he said.
My breath seeped out slowly. “Ah, I get it. You don’t want me to give us away with a hiccup.”
There was a long pause. Too long. “You mean another hiccup.”
My head swiveled. “What? Where?”
“Janelle, use your nose if your eyes aren’t working. There’s a veritable jungle growing out of Red’s coat pockets. They’re sagging a little, so I imagine these are the errant blooms you fired off earlier. Never a bad time for a love letter, it seems. Not even during a murder investigation.”
“Can you go back to being nice? Now that I know the reason, I endorse your new strategy for soothing the hyperactive diaphragm.”
“To a point,” he said. “But look sharp. Because someone is looking sharp at you. That dog’s blue eye is creepy. I hope it turns brown when she crosses. A dog’s eyes aren’t meant to be that color.”
Scanning, I found Skye sitting at the end of the Home and Family Management section, where I knew the cookbooks were filed. It was probably a nice break from the drama of the occult section. “Keats looks just like her.”
“I rest my case. He’s a good sleuth but the blue eye is a fault of nature.”
I took the next aisle to avoid walking through Skye and met her at the far end of cookery. I could say with certainty that I’d never visited that section. It was a subject that didn’t interest me in youth and luckily meals were included in hospitality. Maybe I’d think differently now that I had access to a kitchen, but I doubted it.
Kneeling, I looked the dog straight in the eye. Well, the brown one. At close range, the blue eye really was a little eerie. The observation made Bixby chuckle.
“Obviously she can see through your disguise, but don’t talk to her out loud,” he reminded me silently. “Red will hear.”
“Gotta trust the magic, then. If she’s here to cross, she’ll know.” I reached out and she ducked away from my hand. The dog wasn’t in the mood for affection.
Skye’s voice in my head was an agitated jumble of words. It fit with her sheepdog nature, but Harold was a herder, too, and had little to say.
“Hairball’s been Liberty’s familiar for decades. He’s had time to chill out and balance her.”
“Skye,” I said, mentally. “You need to slow down for me. I know today’s been overwhelming but can you tell me about it?”
The story that followed was erratic, even frantic. She had witnessed Angus dying but apparently no one had been present at the time.
“Whammo,” she said, with a puffing sound. “He tried to leave with that book and then blammo. Head melted. And then yours melted, but not as much.”
“You really saw no one else?”
“Lots of people, but not there. I like that aisle because it’s quiet. No kids running through me.”
“Someone hexed that book,” I said. “But it must have been before you arrived. Do you know how long you’ve been here?”
“Forever and always. But maybe it only feels that way.”
“It does,” Bixby said. “I concur.”
She turned her blue eye in the direction of Mr. Bixby’s voice and cocked her head. “You’re pretty.”
There was a long silence from my dog and then a reluctant, “Thank you. You’re not wrong but ‘handsome’ would be better.”
“Excuse me?” I said. “Have we finally found a ghost dog you actually like?”
I couldn’t see him shake it off but I felt it, like a vibration. “Hardly. She hasn’t offered a single valuable piece of information.”
“On the contrary. Invisibility doesn’t faze her, which confirms no one was with Angus when he was killed. That supports the hex theory.”
“But not the who, what, when, where, why or how.” His tone was exasperated. “That’s a lot of unanswered questions. Maybe the clues are in your crossword puzzle.”
Standing, I followed Skye to the occult section and walked inside. It wasn’t easy to go back but I focused on my breathing. “Someone must have checked the book out. Let’s see if they left any residue. And then we’ll need to take a look at the library logs.”
“Sure, let’s see if you can hack into their system.” His sarcastic voice faded as he moved to the end of the row. “Computers are already gone. And in other bad news…”
“Uh-oh.” He didn’t need to say more. My diaphragm did the talking for him.
I froze and signaled for Skye to do the same. Instead of obeying, she fled and I couldn’t really blame her. She’d be better off herding books elsewhere during this encounter.
The footsteps on the carpet weren’t audible but I felt them coming my way.
Thud, thud, thud and then…
