This time, Clint’s voice came from much closer. Crap.
I pointed into the bin and cut off the spell. The dust fell, most of it hitting the trash can liner. Stepping forward, I shook the can a bit to get the dust to settle. “Sure,” I said. “I’d be happy to put in the order for you.”
Walking out of the stacks, I nearly stepped right into Clint. I jumped and swallowed a scream. He furrowed his brow at the trash can. “I thought you were dusting?”
“There was a lot of dust on one of those shelves.” I laughed nervously and changed the subject. “Show me the ordering system?”
He looked skeptical but turned toward the front counter with the laptop in his hands. He must’ve brought it out of his office before scaring me to death.
A few minutes after I sat down and started browsing the options, Clint got bored and left me to it. Good.
I was anything but bored and had to make myself stop browsing and shopping before I spent all of the bookstore’s money. “Okay, Clint I made a big order, but I’m going to buy several of these as soon as you get them in,” I called. “And it’s time for me to go!”
He sauntered out of his office with a smile on his face. “So, you’re into these occult books, huh?”
“Yeah.” I nodded, hoping to look innocent. “They’re great research for my novels.”
With my bag on my shoulder, I started toward the door, but as soon as I looked at the glass, I stopped. “I forgot about all this rain,” I said with a sigh. “I love rain, but enough is enough.”
It’d been pouring off and on for the last several days. I was so over it.
Clint chuckled. “Here.” He handed me my umbrella, which I’d almost forgotten. “Have fun swimming home!”
“It would be a lot more fun if it wasn’t so cold.” I waved and opened the umbrella, needing it even though my car was only like ten feet away.
As soon as I shook it off and managed to shut my car door, I sighed. The act of closing it and shaking it off had me nearly as dang wet as I would’ve been if I’d just rushed to the car without the stupid thing.
Shivering, I cranked up the heat just as my phone blared the ringtone that Olivia had set for her contact when I wasn’t paying attention. Witchy Woman blared from the device and it had me cracking up. So forever now, when Olivia called, it was with that song, plus a picture I’d sneakily taken of her when she wasn’t looking. She’d been picking something out of her teeth.
She’d also set my home phone line to ring on my cell as Monster Mash, which with the menagerie at my place, I’d also left that one on there. It fit our lives at the moment.
“What’s up, frand?” I answered.
“Another death,” she replied in a hushed tone and my heart sank. “And Sam said if we hurry, we can check out the scene so you can do your thing.”
“No way,” I replied, also whispering. “I mean, yes, to doing my thing. No way in that I can’t believe there’s been another death.” I paused, then asked, “Why am I whispering?”
“I don’t know,” she hissed, then laughed although it didn’t sound as happy as her normal laugh did. “I don’t know why I am either!”
“Okay, where is it? Who was it? I just left the bookstore.” I didn’t pull out until she told me where I should go.
“I don’t know this person,” she said. “It was at her house on Beaver Drive.”
I snickered. “I love that street name.”
“Me too.” She chuckled along with me. “Beaver.”
“Okay, okay. What was the person’s name?” I asked. We were too giggly when there’d been a murder.
“Um, Lorelai Fontinell.”
My heart sank to my feet while sadness churned in the pit of my soul. “No,” I began whispering again. “She’s a member of the coven.”
“You’re joking.”
“I’m not.”
With a heavy heart, I put the phone on speaker and the car in reverse. “Are you on your way?”
“Almost there,” she replied.
“I’ll meet you there.” I hung up and swiped tears away as I headed to the other side of town.
Lorelai had been so nice to me at the Coven meeting. She’d made me want to consider joining. She also had information about Mariam’s so-called accident. Something or someone was causing them. But why and how?
I pulled up behind Olivia’s 4-Runner and brushed the tears from my cheeks. I was getting sick and damn tired of finding dead witches.
Olivia jumped out of her car and hurried to open my car door. “Come on and leave the umbrella.”
“Why?” I asked as I burrowed my face into my jacket to avoid the freezing rain.
“You’ll see.”
Uh oh. I didn’t like the sound of that. Or the look of horror and disgust that briefly flashed across Olivia’s face.
Sam stood in the front doorway. Luckily for us, Lorelai’s house had a nice, deep porch to shield us from the rain. He put one hand on my arm and one on Olivia’s. “Brace yourselves,” he said. “It’s bad.”
I sucked in a deep breath and closed my eyes, opening them when I felt Sam move out of the way.
Olivia gasped and I wanted to, but the shock was too much. It hurt my heart.
Gore and gross things were quickly becoming a way of life, considering I was a necromancer.
“Is anyone here?” I whispered.
“No,” Sam said. “The coroner just left. We’re alone for now but he’ll be back in an hour for the body.” He arched an eyebrow. “It took some fancy talk for him to leave without her.”
“Did you find anything on her?” I asked.
He nodded and checked his notes. “Yep. A coin.”
The same one that was left on Miriam and Larry, I bet.
I walked carefully around the body of what might have become my friend. “Can you remove the umbrella yet?” I asked as I stared down at what I could see of Lorelai.
A small, black umbrella covered most of her. Squatting down, I looked underneath to see if what I suspected was what happened.
Yep.
The pointy end of the umbrella protruded from Lorelai’s eye.
Damn it.
I tried not to breathe. Not sure why because she didn’t stink yet. One would think that as a necromancer, I’d be used to seeing the dead.
I was not. I’d avoided it at all costs until a few months ago.
“I guess,” Sam said. “We’re ruling it an accident, so there won’t be much in the way of forensics.”
I glanced up at him. “The coin is a link to Miriam’s ‘accident’.” I used air quotes to make my point.
He shrugged. “If that truly is the case then it is a supernatural cause of death that the humans don’t need to know about. So it’s ruled accidental, for now.
I nodded. That made sense, sort of. For now. “Okay. Remove it.”
He put on gloves and reached for the handle. It came out of her eye socket with a sickening squelch sound.
Olivia gasped and covered her face, then turned her back.
“Time of death?” I asked.
“Sometime yesterday between noon and two,” he said.