~

 

What wasn’t wonderful was a lack of sleep. If I looked how I felt then – yuck. It tasted like I’d been sucking on a dead squirrel all night, like I’d tied one on and got good and drunk, again – yuck.

Still, some nice peppermint and a little soda on my toothbrush made my mouth nice and fresh, but there wasn’t a lot that could be done for the way my body was dragging around those fifty-pound weights behind it. If my baking was off, then I blamed Gran.

I sat on a stool behind the shop counter and had almost fallen off my perch a few times like a wounded bird as I nodded off sitting upright. Every time my sister was there, not to save me, but to gleefully squeal in my ear like a stuck pig and scare the bejesus out of me.

Speaking of stuck pigs, she’d better watch her step.

I was half dozing with my chin in the palm of my hand and my elbow against the counter when she nudged me in the ribs, and I almost face planted the countertop.

“I will zap you so hard your wee ones will feel it,” I hissed, glaring at her as if she was Satan personified, or I was, and then she flicked a nod towards the door.

I rounded on whoever dared to come in to disturb me from slumber – Jack eyed me back like I’d just sprouted snakes for hair, and if his eyebrows had reached up any further on his forehead then they would have gotten lost in his hairline.

“Loose lips turn witches into crispy critters,” she whispered, and I swatted her away.

“Jack,” I had to be polite as I was technically working. When the door opened behind him again, and Ross stepped into the bistro my heart filled with joy. “And Ross!”

I grinned at my cringing sister. Payback was a bitch, or was that just me? Either way, it made me happy.  

“Bite me,” she whispered.

“Werewolf…” I chuckled back and then turned my attention to the newcomers. “Still looking for magic, Jack?” I asked as the sex-god approached the counter and I slid off the stool because it was easier than actually putting any effort into it.

“Going to point me in the right direction?” It was an offhand comment on his part, but I already had it covered.

I reached under the counter and retrieved one of Eileen’s tomes that looked as if someone had put every bit of knowledge in the universe into those pages, and I dropped it on the counter. It made a satisfying thud that shook the wood and everything on the long top.

“Some light reading…” I said.

“Because what else does a guy have to do when he’s in bed,” Moira offered with glee, and I would have zapped her a good one if we were alone.

Jack looked from the book to Moira and then to me. He was fidgeting on his feet as if he’d just been handed proof of alien life.

“I’m told it’s very interesting reading,” I assured him. Then I reached down for my backup and slapped that down on top of it. “Or you could just go with Harry Potter, a personal favorite in my family.”

Moira sniggered, but Ross wasn’t so kind. He tossed his head back and cracked up. Jack looked like I’d slapped him with that kipper – that poor fish did seem to get around lately – it had multiple victims of its wet and slimy embrace.

“Fine, find your mirth, have your laugh, but someone around here believes in magic enough to leave their mark at the scene of a murder, and the victims house,” Jack said and then suddenly looked as if he’d said too much, as we all stared at him. He sort of took on a nice beetroot hue to his cheeks and was a little green around the gills.

“So, murder it was then,” Ross announced, not telling Moira or me anything that we didn’t already know.

I shot her a sideways warning glare, and she did the same to me. Speaking out of turn wouldn’t help anyone, not Jack, not us, and certainly not Earnest Croon.

“I’d be obliged if you kept that to yourself,” Jack said, looking gutted that he’d not taken his own advice.

“Kept what?” I asked, laying on the innocence the way that Skinny Mary laid on her makeup – thick and over the top.

“I didn’t hear anything,” Moira shrugged.

“I’ve got muggy ears, should really visit the doctor at some point,” Ross said.

“Why don’t you get a pencil and push it through from one side to the other?” Moira said, and Ross raised an eyebrow and knew that the punchline was on its way. “We all know there’s nothing in between.”

“Good one,” Ross groaned. “Now why don’t you climb up the ladder so you can reach the counter and hand me a coffee and a plate of your sister’s cookies, shrimp?”

“Small is good,” Moira bit back; she was touchy about her height, and well he knew it.

“Not when you can’t reach the sink without help,” Ross shot back.

“One cup of arsenic and one plate of rat cookies coming up!” Moira snapped.

“Sounds about right,” Ross offered back with glee. The man was seriously dicing with a world of hurt. “I’ll be at my table.”

“I’ll just drag it out into the middle of the road for you,” she hissed.

“Well, we can eat together,” Ross tossed back over his shoulder as he stalked towards his table and huffed as he dropped his backside down in the chair and folded his arms – pouting.

I’m sure my eyeballs rolled back in my head, but as I couldn’t see them…

Jack was chuckling and trying not to show it.

“Welcome to insanity,” I groaned.

“I’d say it’s the inbreeding on a small isle, but I don’t want to suffer your wrath.” Jack grinned, the grin of a man who didn’t have a clue who he was dealing with.

I could have cursed him with boils, but his face was just too handsome to mess with a masterpiece. I thrust the books towards him, and he needed top reflexes to stop them ending up on his toes – I’m not sure if I was rooting for that or not, but unfortunately, I was never going to find out because those reflexes kicked in and he saved himself the pain.

“Thank you,” Jack said, unsure if I’d meant to do him harm or not – me too. “I think.”

“Welcome, now did you want arsenic in your coffee?” I asked, as sweetly as I could.

“Sounds good, but no.” He collected Eileen’s tome and dropped the other book back on the counter. “I have some reading to do.”

“Don’t hurt yourself,” I said, and that I did mean.

I didn’t want Jack Mackie anywhere near this case. I certainly didn’t want him going anywhere near the Point, but how was I supposed to tell him that without waving a red rag in front of that bull?

“Actually, coffee sounds good,” he said on an afterthought, moving to one of the tables and placing the book down.

I have to admit I felt somewhat relieved. At least, here, under my watchful eye, he wasn’t out there messing with things he didn’t understand, and things that I didn’t yet understand, weren’t messing with him.

 

~

 

Jack snatched up his mobile from beside the coffee cup on the table and eyed the caller. The man sure could drink coffee; I’d had to wonder where he put it all, sort of like Ross with his food, but with less spillage.

About thirty seconds into the call; he pushed up to his feet as if he just remembered that he had somewhere important to be, and then he froze in place and stared at me like he didn’t want to share, but was being made to do it.

I literally felt the blood drain from the top of my head downward and every fine hair on my body stood to attention. I knew it was something bad; I just didn’t really want to know what.

It was one of those moments in life where you wanted time to stop, and you were safe in the realms of blissful ignorance. Who didn’t like those moments?

Who wanted to be told that something bad had happened?

I thought first of Eileen, then my mother and father, Moira was with me, so it wasn’t her, but then there was the niggling thought in the back of my mind that started to fester like an untreated boil, and I knew, just knew that something had happened with Gran.

She was, after all, the one who was going out on her visits to the other clan witches today.

In that moment of time; I hated myself for not going with her. Family was more important than some stupid shop, feeding Ross, and fetching Jack buckets of coffee.

I’d let her walk into the unknown on her own and now … now what?

My heart was playing ping pong between hitting my ribs and getting lodged in my throat as Jack cut off his call and started towards me. My hands and feet felt numb, and I was sure that someone had their hands around my throat cutting off the air.

I wanted to speak – I might even have tried, doing a goldfish impression without words, and pain pricked the back of my eyeballs as tears gathered.

I did not want to hear it. Whatever it was I wanted to stay blissfully, eternally stupidly, ignorant of all things Gran.

“You’re Gran’s run into a spot of bother,” Jack said, and hallelujah, no offense to Christians or anyone’s God, but she wasn’t dead, and I dragged in a breath.

“Stupid man,” I spat out, and his eyebrows tried to high five each other. “I thought you were going to say someone died!” I hissed.

“Someone did,” Jack said, and that slammed a lead weight in my chest again.

“Who?” Moira gasped, coming late to the conversation, but speaking for me when I couldn’t.

“I can’t tell you that…” Jack berated her with just a look for asking.

“It’s an island, it’ll be all over before you get to your car,” she snapped back.

“That might be true, but still…”

“Pig-headed outlander,” Moira muttered loud enough for him to hear.

“What about Gran?” I croaked like I had one of my Gran’s toads lodged in the back of my throat.

“She discovered the body,” Jack said. “Or did the deed…” he muttered, “at this point, all avenues are open to us.”

“Well, you’d better close that one down pretty bloody quickly you…” I bit down on a list of words I’d like to offer him.

“Outlander?” he asked, raising his eyebrows at me.

The nerve of the man!

“Accuse my Gran of nefarious deeds would you?” I hissed, and without giving it another thought – I zapped him! Right there in my shop – right there in front of Ross – in front of himself – not that I could have done it if he hadn’t of been standing there, but the point was … he saw me do it.

This was no sideways, slight of hand, now you see it, oh no you don’t, magic. This was me lifting my hands and – pow – Moira squealed in surprise, Jack looked like I’d just pulled off my mask and revealed I was really Tom Cruise in some movie, and Ross – well, he had confirmed right there and then what he already knew.  

Ross jumped to his feet and yelled, “Ha!” and Mora groaned, as I stood there, half-mortified and wanting to desperately dig a hole and crawl into it, and half unrepentant, as I tipped my chin up in defiance.

“Well, what’s he going to do, arrest me for magic? Those days are long in the past.” I shot a look at Moira, and she looked unconvinced.

“Let’s hope,” she shot back.

“So, it’s true,” Jack said as if he’d just discovered the Holy Grail.

“So sue me,” I muttered. I had no idea where this revelation would lead my family or me, but, it was done. “I need to see Gran.” I bit out, and forced my legs to move, skirting the counter and offering Jack the evil eye.

The man actually snatched his head back and eyed me like I was about to explode. Ha! That might just make him hold his tongue a little more.