Pandora approached the group of cats silently. “He’s acting very suspicious,” Tigger whispered. “What’s he doing?”

Inkspot narrowed his gaze on the human clawing through the dirt with his hands. “Obviously trying to find another ingredient for the spell.”

“Well.” Otis snorted. “Must not be buried very deep if he doesn’t have a shovel.”

As if hearing their hushed conversation, Nathan stopped digging and glared over his shoulder in their direction. All five cats hunched back into the shadows. Pandora’s mind raced. Had he heard them? No, it was impossible. Unless a feline chose to reveal themselves to a human and formed a telepathic connection with them, their quiet murmurs would only sound like whispers of wind to humans.

“This one is different. I am sure he is up to something,” Kelley said.

Nathan straightened slightly, brushing his hands against the legs of his jeans. Then his gaze locked on Kelley, and he strode toward them, his expression furious.

Panic surged through Pandora.

Inkspot hissed loudly, baring his teeth. “Attack!”

The cats charged Nathan, claws sharp as they leapt onto his legs and arms. Nathan stopped in his tracks, yelping as he was scratched and bitten. “Wait! Hold on!”

Pandora, who’d dug her claws into Nathan’s thigh, noticed the hands he held up in surrender in front of her. No scratches. Kelley had said the killer had cut themselves on the glass container of the first ingredient. A sinking feeling bubbled up inside her. This might very well be a mistake.

“Please stop!” Nathan pleaded. “You’ll ruin everything.”

Inkspot leaned back from where he was hanging off Nathan’s arm and stared into the man’s eyes. “Are you speaking to us?” he said telepathically.

“Yes,” Nathan said, his tone low. “Do you see anyone else around?”

“But we’re cats.” Otis slowly retracted his claws from Nathan’s ankle. “No one talks to cats.”

Nathan exhaled slowly then crouched down to allow the rest of the felines to climb off of him. “Some of us do.”

All the cats exchanged a look then convened off to the side of the clearing to discuss the situation.

“How is this possible?” Pandora asked.

“I’ve heard stories of a rare lineage descended from Hester Warren who can actually speak to cats,” Tigger said. “It is rumored Hester spoke to her cat, Obsidian. Maybe Nathan is one of them.”

“If that’s the case, then why is he trying to dig up the ingredients?” Inkspot asked, his words laced with suspicion. “Makes no sense to me.”

“He doesn’t have any scratches.” Kelley sniffed in Nathan’s direction. “I cannot make out his blood type, but whoever dug up the first ingredient was cut. I am sure of it.”

Otis narrowed his eyes in Nathan’s direction. “Then there are two perpetrators. This one is most dangerous.”

“I can hear you, you know,” Nathan said.

“Tell us why you killed Albert Schumer and where you hid the letter,” Inkspot demanded.

“Listen, I swear I’m not Albert’s killer,” Nathan said, walking over to join them. “I know about the letter, though. My grandmother told me about the list a long time ago. Our family is sworn to protect it. So, when Desmond mentioned Albert finding an old, undelivered letter from Hester Warren, I suspected that’s what it was. But I give you my magical oath that I did not kill Albert Schumer. I did, however, follow him that day that he went to the post office to make sure he made it there safely to mail the letter. Turns out I was too late. He was already dead when I arrived, and the letter was gone.”

“Why should we believe you?” Hope asked.

Nathan frowned. “I… well… I’ m not sure.” He paused for a minute then rolled up his sleeves. “Look, you said whoever has been digging the ingredients up was cut. I don’t have any cuts.”

The cats craned their necks forward. It was true, not a scratch on him.

They exchanged a glance, their eyes luminescent slits in the darkening twilight.

“If he is working with someone else, then the other person could have dug up the first ingredient,” Otis said. “Pandora’s human was told Nathan was seen fleeing the scene of the crime.”

Nathan frowned. ‘What? Oh no! I can explain.”

“Can you also explain why you were arguing with Felicity Bates outside the bookstore? Perhaps you are working with her,” Pandora said. They already knew Felicity didn’t have the letter, though. And if she didn’t have it and wasn’t the one who dug up the ingredient in the glass container, then she couldn’t be the one working with Nathan.

“I’m not working with Felicity Bates.” Nathan sounded disgusted. “She’s descended from the evil side. Oh, sure, I pretend to get along with her, but that’s only to keep an eye on her.”

Hope cocked her head to study Nathan. Pandora could see her skepticism was diminishing. She was starting to believe Nathan, and so was Pandora. “You did say they were arguing, Pandora. He may be telling the truth.”

Nathan nodded eagerly. Encouraged that someone believed him, he rushed on with his explanation. “Of course she knew the letter had surfaced. She tried to bribe me into getting it for her, but until Desmond mentioned Albert having it, I had no idea how to find the letter.”

“So Desmond knew the importance of the letter?” Pandora asked. Could it have been Desmond all along? He had an alibi for the murder, but if he was working with someone else…

“He said he thought the envelope contained a valuable stamp. He even tried to sell it to Barney Delaney, but Barney turned him down.” Nathan looked off into the distance. “In fact, Barney wouldn’t buy anything from Desmond, so I pretended like I wanted to work with him, selling stamps and post office memorabilia, so he would hand over the letter. But by that time, it was too late. Albert had already noticed the letter had never been delivered and was determined to bring it to the post office.”

“And that’s why you followed him,” Inkspot said.

“Yes. To make sure the letter got mailed, like I said. The recipient, my great-aunt, is long gone, but my family still lives in the house, so I just needed to make sure the letter got delivered, and it would be safe.”

“Then you must have seen the killer,” Sasha pointed out.

Nathan’s face fell. “No, unfortunately, I stayed far behind Albert because I didn’t want him to see me following. I knew he was going to the post office, so I waited about ten minutes. But when I got there, Albert was dead, and the letter and the killer were both gone.”

Pandora’s whiskers twitched. “But how is that possible? You would have seen the car at least.”

“You’d think, but I didn’t see any car.”

“The killer must have been on foot,” Tigger said. “He or she escaped through the dense shrubbery at the edge of the parking lot onto the side street.”

Sasha nodded. “They could have parked on any of the side streets.”

Inkspot trotted over to the place where Nathan had been digging and sniffed at the disturbed earth. “Nothing magic was buried here. Why were you digging?”

“And why use your hands?” Kelley added.

Nathan looked down at his dirty hands. “It’s the weirdest thing. Someone broke into my toolshed and stole my shovel, so I have nothing to dig with. I assume whoever it is is trying to frame me.”

“But what made you come here to this spot?” Inkspot persisted.

“I’ve narrowed down the list of people who could be interested in the letter to two. I’ve been following them around. I want to protect the letter, and now that I think I’m being framed, I need to make sure the killer is apprehended. I followed one of my suspects here and thought she might have been digging up one of the relics. She didn’t walk away with anything, though, so I hoped she’d dug in the wrong place, and I thought I’d try to recover the ingredient myself.”

Inkspot’s eyes narrowed. “She?”

“Felicity Bates. From what you said earlier, it sounds like you suspect her too.”

Inkspot’s tail twitched. “We did, but it can’t be her. We’ve determined she does not have the letter or the first ingredient.”

“You have? But…” Nathan frowned. “Oh dear… Yes, now it makes perfect sense.”

“It does?” Otis asked.

“Yes, it couldn’t be Felicity, so it must be my other suspect.”

“And who is that?” Inkspot asked.

“Why it could only be one person,” Nathan said. “The antique shop owner, Barney Delaney.”

The hairs on Pandora’s spine stood on end as her blood chilled. The last thing she had seen as she trotted away from the bookstore was Barney leaving the note for Willa. If Barney was the killer and he knew Willa had been asking around, then she could be in grave danger!