Poison and Paint Read online

  Sophia hovered inside the doorway, the phone pressed to her ear. Lemon helped Sophia block the door. Even though she didn’t want to think she was at yet a third murder, Sophia was way too familiar with that part of things. By the time the ambulance’s flashing lights appeared outside, Amy struggled to keep doing the chest compressions. Tyler stared at Nikki’s still form with a stricken look on his face.

  The EMTs took Nikki to the hospital, but one remained behind to control the scene until the police could show up. “No one can leave until they’ve given their statement to the police.”

  “What?” Sophia asked. “This wasn’t natural?”

  People around her murmured in agreement when Tyler turned to Sophia.

  “You did this!” Tyler stalked toward Sophia.

  “What?!” Sophia backed away.

  “You killed her,” Tyler said.

  “Me? I called 911.” Sophia took another step back and hit the wall. How could anyone think she did this?

  “You hated her for what she did to you in high school.” He poked his finger into her chest.

  “So I avoided her for over a decade.” Sophia stared into Tyler’s wild eyes. “I didn’t kill her when I accidentally booked a class at her shop.”

  “You killed her!” Tyler repeated, sobbing.

  “No!” Sophia covered her face, backing away from Tyler.

  A dark haired man pulled Tyler away from Sophia.

  “Buddy, calm down,” the guy said. “Tell the cops why she would have done it.”

  Sophia hid behind Lemon and Amy, as far away from Tyler as possible.

  “Tyler’s just mad they won’t let him go in the ambulance,” Lemon tried to soothe her. Sophia kept her distance from her angry ex while they waited for someone from the police department to arrive and take their testimonies.

  Even though Ben had the night off, Sophia wished he’d get the case. So when Detective Jaeger’s shiny round head re-appeared at the front door, Sophia groaned. “Of course it’s him.”

  Jaeger glared at Sophia before barking orders at the remaining EMT and storming through the swinging double doors into the back.

  “What’s your deal with that guy?” Amy asked.

  “He’s awful.”

  “He’s not Detective Gorgeous, you mean?”

  “He investigated my mom’s murder.” Sophia touched the half painted cupcake in front of her, the acrylic paint already tacky. Sophia closed her eyes for a moment, thinking of Mama and how she’d looked so broken on that cold metal table in the morgue when Sophia came to identify her. “He acted like I killed her.”

  “When your mom just died?” Amy shook her head. “I’m sorry.”

  Sophia sniffled, trying to push away the memory.

  “You saw the look he gave me. If looks could kill, there’d have been two murders tonight.”

  “And he called us ‘furries,’” Amy whispered.

  “What are we going to do?” Lemon asked. “He didn’t treat me any better than you when your mama died. Except I had a shop full of customers when it happened. Thank goodness for Mrs. Pulido and Bob.”

  “It’s not like any of us wanted to murder Nikki. I barely knew her, and you two hadn’t seen her since high school, right?”

  “After I came home, I avoided them. I turned the other way in the grocery store a few times.” Sophia sob-laughed.

  “I’m sure I’ve bumped into them a couple times but didn’t say a word to either of them in years,” Lemon said.

  “We’ll tell Detective Jaeger that and see what he has to say,” Amy said.

  Soon, two more police cars pulled up. Officer Sanchez emerged from one and nodded to Sophia. It seemed like the friendly officer kept responding to crime scenes that Sophia found herself at, but the town’s police force was small. A young male police officer emerged from the other car, blond and tall. Sophia hadn’t met him before and he didn’t bother introducing himself.

  While the two police officers took everyone’s names, Jaeger started by interviewing Pam and Shannon together. He almost smiled at them as he called them into his improvised area in the studio’s back room. Weird for him. As far as she knew, Jaeger hated everyone. Did he know them somehow?

  “I don’t get why he’s even doing this. None of us went in there when she…” Sophia let the thought trail off. The hospital might still save Nikki. “Even Tyler accused me of murdering her. But no one was with her. She went into that bathroom on her own.”

  Sophia took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.

  When Pam and Shannon emerged from the back room, Officer Sanchez whispered to Sophia, “You’re next.”

  “We’ll go with,” Lemon said. “I’m not leaving you alone with him.”

  Amy grabbed Sophia’s arm, but Sanchez frowned. “Sorry. Just Sophia. I’ll try and stay to offer moral support if you like.”

  “That would be good,” Sophia stood. “He hates me.”

  Sanchez led Sophia back through the swinging doors to the utilitarian back room. Her heart pounded in her throat. She clenched her fists, ready to be accused of murdering Nikki, even though she hadn’t seen Nikki in years. Even Jaeger couldn’t believe Sophia had come here just to murder someone she hadn’t seen in well over a decade. Could he? And how did he think she did it? She hadn’t touched Nikki.

  In the middle of the room, Jaeger stood beside the desk Sophia had found the bathroom key in. He waved Sophia into the lone chair. “I thought I told you to stay out of my sight after that unfortunate business with Ginger.”

  Sophia wilted. “I didn’t have anything to do with this.”

  Sanchez put a hand on Sophia’s shoulder.

  “What are you doing?” He arched an eyebrow at Sanchez. “No need to dilly dally. Go, prepare the next witness.”

  “But, sir,” Officer Sanchez said, her voice shaking.

  “Out.” Jaeger turned back to Sophia. “Now tell me the truth. You killed her for some silly spat, didn’t you?”

  Sophia sunk deeper into the chair. “No, sir.”

  He kept staring at her, his blue eyes piercing into her. As if he could see more than there was.

  “Why would I? How could I?”

  One side of Jaeger’s mouth quirked up. “A kitchen witch can do a lot of damage.”

  Sophia blinked.

  He knew she was a therian and a kitchen witch. How?

  Sophia tried to keep her voice steady when she asked, “What are you talking about?”

  Jaeger slid his reading glasses up his nose, then looked Sophia up and down. “I know what you are. A witch and a furry.”

  Sophia choked, wishing she had a better answer for him. “What are you talking about?”

  “Don’t play dumb with me.” His voice felt like ice pouring over Sophia. “You killed her.”

  “Why would I hurt someone I haven’t seen in years?”

  “Because you lost control of your powers.” He pulled the glasses off.

  Sophia wanted to pretend still, she wanted to ask what powers. But he knew things about her that he shouldn’t. “Let’s say I have these powers you keep talking about. Why would I kill Nikki?”

  “The woman stole Tyler from you, flounced around with him, making kissy faces. Her lipstick was all over him. Seeing her with him made you angry, and you lost control.”

  No, no, no. That wasn’t what happened. She’d never let her magic out. Even worse, she kept her magic secret. “How—how do you—”

  “We keep tabs on you. A thing like you never should have existed.”

  Sophia pushed further away from the desk. She wanted to leave, but how did he know about her? Why would he or anyone keep tabs on her? “Who is this we?”

  He smiled, wrinkles cutting deep furrows into his cheeks. This was an expression he didn’t wear often. “Your parents never should have dated.”

  “Who kept tabs on me? And what do you know about my parents? And what’s any of that got to do with Nikki?”

  “I know all about Ginger and Todd
.” Jaeger ignored Sophia’s other questions. He looked down his hooked nose at Sophia. “She had no business going after that furry. I suppose she thought it was all fun and games because of the curse. But, you…you should never have been born.”

  Who told him what she was? Who told him about her parents?

  Ben worked with Jaeger. He could have told him, but even if Jaeger hadn’t shown him his true colors, Ben knew how Sophia felt about Jaeger.

  “You are an abomination.”

  Sophia clenched her fists. “I’m just me.”

  “I’ll arrest you if I can find any kind of evidence just to get an abomination like you off of the streets.”

  Sophia pulled herself tall, finding a reserve of strength and anger in her. “I am not some abomination. I’m just me.”

  “Please.” Jaeger rolled his eyes. “A witch therian mix. You are so dangerous. That anger made your magic get out of control and it spilled into her wine, didn’t it?”

  Sophia scooted back in the chair. Her magic was getting stronger, and yeah, the honesty leaked out. But this was ridiculous. Even though she had done magic without food to save her life, it left her exhausted and aching. That had been emotion magic—the kind of magic that usually spilled out—and very deliberate.

  She couldn’t kill someone without meaning to. She would never kill someone. “I’d never kill anyone. Never.”

  He laughed at her. “You have no idea.”

  “Where do you”—stick to the lie, Sophia reminded herself—“Where did you get this crazy idea?”

  “A lot of people know about your magic. Your mother claimed your magic was weak.”

  Sophia frowned. That made no sense. Her mother had always kept their magic secret.

  “Now it’s dripping off you. Cascading off you. What did she do, bind you?”

  Sophia rushed toward the door. If he saw her magic, he had the Sight. Was he a witch like her?

  Despite what he said, her mother wouldn’t have bound her, would she?

  Sophia shoved open the door from the back room.

  Mama was controlling.

  No. She wouldn’t have tied up Sophia’s magic, would she?

  But she had given up on teaching Sophia to control her honesty magic. One day, Mama told Sophia that the world needed more honesty.

  Was Jaeger right? Had her mother bound her powers?

  It would explain why her powers started growing after her mother’s death.

  If her mother had bound her powers, why? Was Sophia as dangerous as Detective Jaeger believed? Had that forced her mother to bind her?

  Sophia pulled her friends into a hug. She whispered, “He knows things about me that he shouldn’t. He accused me of killing Nikki with my magic.”

  Lemon pulled away from her, her body stiff. Things were better between them, but they hadn’t settled after Lemon had found out about Sophia being a witch.

  “Lemon don’t.” Sophia touched Lemon’s arm. “Not now. I didn’t. I couldn’t even if I wanted to, and I sure didn’t want to kill her.”

  “You looked madder than a wet hen when she was calling your ex ‘lover boy.’”

  “Whatever. If I lost control of my magic, if such a crazy thing were even possible, don’t you think that was when I would have killed her? Not when I felt sorry for her for having to deal with that jerk.”

  Officer Sanchez approached the three of them, looking embarrassed. “I don’t know what he said to you, Sophia, but—”

  “Not your fault.” Sophia tried not to sniffle, even though she could feel the wet snot in her nose. “He talked about my mother’s murder, and he views me as a suspect in that and tonight.”

  “Oh, no.” Sanchez bit her lip. “He can be difficult.”

  “That’s one way to put it,” Sophia said.

  “I hate to tell you this, but Lemon, you’re up.” Sanchez gestured towards the back room.

  “I’ll give him a what-for.” Lemon clenched her fists.

  “Lemon, don’t.” Sophia whimpered. “He wants to arrest me, no matter who did it.”

  “You might want to call Schmidt out,” Sanchez said. “Even though this is that cretin’s case. Your boyfriend is the same—”

  “He’s not my boyfriend.”

  “Whatever you call him. He’s the same rank as Jaeger. So, he can help you. Or you can file a formal complaint for harassment, but he's above my pay-grade” Sanchez shrugged. “He closes cases, but there’s a reason he’s never made it past detective. But they don’t seem to want to bust him down or fire him, either.”

  “I don’t need Detective Schmidt to rescue me. I’ll just stay out of Jaeger’s hair and that will be that.”

  Amy snickered. “That should be easy.”

  Sophia raised an eyebrow.

  “He’s bald,” Amy said. “He doesn’t have any hair to keep out of.”

  “Baldy. Keep out of baldy’s hair.” Even Officer Sanchez cracked a grin.

  Sophia laughed too. It became easier to breathe and pretty soon she was laughing so hard tears streaked her face.

  A few minutes later, Lemon stormed out of the hallway, her back rigid. Her fists clenched.

  “What happened, Lem?” Amy asked.

  “That turd just called me…” Lemon’s southern drawl overpowered her speech. “He just called me Dinah.”

  Sanchez frowned. “If he did something overtly racist, file a complaint.”

  “You bet I’m going to file a complaint. He’s lucky I didn’t clock him right there. But he’s a cop. Ain’t nobody got business calling me Dinah.”

  Sanchez touched Lemon’s shoulder. “I don’t know why he hasn’t been fired already, but we will do what we can to get him out of the force. Believe me, I hate working with him.”

  “He’s old school but effective,” Officer Clark said. “Even if he—”

  “Can it, Mike,” Sanchez said. “He used a racial epithet while questioning a witness. We can back these ladies up.”

  “They’re all suspects,” Officer Clark insisted.

  “This might not even be a murder.” Sanchez frowned. “The force is just so keyed up about the recent murders they sent us out to deal with all kinds of things that aren’t crimes.”

  “A healthy woman in her late twenties doesn’t just drop dead,” Clark said.

  “Early thirties.” Sophia corrected, though it was closer to mid-thirties.

  “We don’t know that she was healthy,” Sanchez said, interrupting Officer Clark.

  “She’s too young to fall down dead without something causing it.”

  “Agree to disagree. My time would be much better spent without harassing upstanding members of the community.” Sanchez turned to Sophia and her friends. “You’ve been questioned. We know where to find you. You’re free to go.”

  “Thank you.” Sophia and the girls gathered up their things and headed out the door.

  “I hate to admit it, but I had too much wine to drive anywhere yet,” Lemon said. “I mean…”

  “Yeah.” Amy jingled her keys inside her purse. “We had plenty of time to sober up, but now…”

  “Let’s walk to Mama Ginger,” Sophia said. “We can sober up there.”

  “We’d better be quick. It’s colder than a—” Lemon glanced at Sophia, a smile on her lips. “Witch’s—”

  “Don’t you dare,” Sophia said, teasing.

  Sophia led the way to Mama Ginger’s, this time her fear and anger insulating her from the cold.

  “Do you think Officer Sanchez is right?” Amy asked as they walked.

  “What?” Sophia stopped and turned to her.

  “That this wasn’t a murder?”

  “I sure hope so. I mean, I don’t want anyone to have been murdered. And I want Jaeger off my case. That creep.” Sophia shuddered.

  “She did act weird after Jaeger interviewed her,” Amy said. “So it had to be a heart attack or something.”

  “You’re right. Some kind of health problem could have caused that. Her heart, or
I don’t know an allergic reaction,” Lemon said.

  Sophia waved her hands as she spoke. “She could have been allergic to something in the wine. Like nuts—lots of people are allergic to nuts. Or…something.”

  Lemon tugged her sweater tighter. “Tyler should tell the cops anything he knows about her allergies, then.”

  By the time they reached Mama Ginger’s, they were all feeling better and almost convinced that no foul play had been involved.

  Almost.

  Maybe Detective Jaeger was just blowing smoke about wanting to arrest her. She couldn’t believe her mom had told him that Sophia was a witch and a therian. A kitchen witch at that. She needed to look into Jaeger. And he’d been so friendly to the two wealthy business owners. Was it because they were business owners or his same age, or was there something more going on?

  Sophia was going to find out.

  4

  It was dark the next morning when Sophia got to work, on time and without feeling like someone was hammering on her skull. It was the first time she’d seen a body without having a hangover the next morning. Maybe the death not being a murder had something to do with that. Either way, she hoped she didn’t see any bodies for a long time.

  Mama Ginger’s was trashed from drunk baking comfort cookies. Flour dusted the counters, the floor, and mysteriously one wall of the kitchen. Chocolate chips smooshed under her feet into the thick rubber mat, but she started at the top as Mama had taught her years ago. She raced through the kitchen, tidying up, wiping down the highest surfaces, then the counters, and hoping to get everything put together before the morning rush.

  The extra cleaning put her a few minutes behind, but nothing too bad. The dry heat of the oven warmed her arms as she slid the last tray of muffins into the oven, when cold air blasted in from the back door.

  Courtney stood in the open doorway. Her daughter, Emerald, followed behind her. Emerald shared her mother’s dark hair and slim build, but her eyes were puffy from crying.

  “I hope you don’t mind. Em came with me today.” Courtney smiled in Sophia’s direction, then her face fell as she took in the mess on the floor. Sophia hadn’t bothered sweeping yet. That would be a pain at closing, but it was what it was.

  “The more the merrier.” Sophia hoped more people would keep her mind off Nikki’s death.