Poison and Paint Page 5

  “Not to mention all those little trails twisting between the bike path and the river and the levy.” How was she supposed to find him with an area as broad as all that?

  Minnie made a noise between a growl and a whine.

  “Sorry, Minnie. I know I said park. No park. I’d never find him, even if he’s at work.”

  Minnie harrumphed and laid her head down on the floor.

  “I doubt he’s working the day after his girlfriend died, anyway.”

  She’d gotten the poor girls’ hopes up. With two hands, she hefted the big, red wobble Kong from the corner where it had gotten stuck the last time that she filled it up.

  “I could use his phone number or an address,” she mused as she unscrewed the heavy base from the hollow top.

  In the kitchen, she set both halves on the counter and pulled out the book that took up the whole junk drawer. It was worth a shot. Despite skimming several pages of R’s and S’s, she couldn’t find Nikki Russell or Tyler Sanders.

  Another dead end.

  Although, as she hefted the heavy book in her hand, she realized she had another book that might help. A book that her mom’s friend Doris said might actually want to help. One that might have a magic way to find Tyler.

  Minnie harrumphed at her.

  “I’m going. I’m going.” Sophia scooped a whole bowl of kibble into the top half. The directions said to fill the bottom and then screw on the top. That was not enough to keep her girls occupied for long. She screwed the base back on and set it on the floor.

  Minnie pushed the toy with her nose, making pleased little yip noises. The toy bobbed back up and Daisy followed Minnie, eating the kibble that spilled out.

  Sophia smiled, until a thought of the spell book wiped the smile away. She’d locked the book away again. It was dangerous.

  Mama always said so. But so was an oven, and you couldn’t make cookies without one.

  Minnie nosed the Kong into Sophia’s feet, making her stumble. So, she kicked it across the kitchen. While Daisy zoomed up all the kibble scattered on the floor, Sophia hurried down the hall before the dogs could trip her up again.

  What had Mama been thinking, leaving her untrained like this? Sophia was coming into powers she didn’t know how to use while trying to stay out of a murder investigation.

  Minnie’s nose pressed into Sophia’s leg. Excited growls came from the living room. Sophia had no doubt Daisy would join Minnie as soon as she finished the scattered kibble.

  The sun, shining from Sophia’s room, bathed Mama’s door. Putting the book in the ornate chest was the only time Sophia had entered Mama’s room since the funeral.

  Behind her, a high-pitched whine and a shredding sound came from Sophia’s room. Anxious, she turned towards the sound to find Minnie rolling on the bed, digging her paws into the sheets, snuffling, and vocalizing.

  Sophia bit back a laugh. At least someone was having fun.

  She had a couple lawyer friends now, that might help if Jaeger arrested her, but it wasn’t like she could afford their rates. Knowing her luck, the court-appointed lawyer would be Jaeger’s friend.

  No. She wasn’t getting arrested. She would talk to Tyler and find out what he and Nikki had been arguing about. That would lead her to the killer. Since Jaeger wanted to pin it on Sophia no matter what, maybe he had killed her.

  After that, then Sophia could figure out why Detective Jaeger had it out for her. As in, how he knew about her magic and how he knew that therians and witches existed.

  She needed the book. How else would she find Tyler?

  Thick curtains kept the room dark, save for the line of light shining through the open doorway.

  The bed was so neat, she could bounce a quarter off the blankets. A stack of novels on the nightstand was the only hint this room had been lived in.

  Sophia tiptoed to the ornate wooden chest at the foot of the bed, leaving a trail of footprints in the dust. Mama would demand she sweep the room if she ever saw the dust.

  Sophia had added a lock, with the password set to DANGR to remind herself that messing with the book was a bad idea. But prison would be worse than anything the book could throw at her, wouldn’t it?

  As soon as Sophia unlocked the chest, the book flew up, trying to escape. Sophia caught it with both hands and wrestled it to her chest.

  Minnie and Daisy’s barks echoed from the doorway. Daisy must have finished the scattered kibble. That girl was all about the treats. Neither dog dared enter Mama’s room.

  Sophia had known the book had a mind of its own, but she’d never seen it move before. Then again, Mama had never locked the chest. The book didn’t like being imprisoned any more than she would.

  Would it listen to her?

  “I’m sorry I locked you up.”

  The book pulsed against her chest. Anger radiated off it.

  “Mama taught me you were dangerous. I was just trying to be careful.”

  An overwhelming urge to listen to Lemon and let go of Mama’s things filled her. She should sell the house and move into town. The spell book would come with her, but she’d let go of the rest.

  That wasn’t her. That was the book communicating with her.

  “I don’t need your advice today. I need to learn magic she never taught me.”

  The book stopped fighting her. She could almost hear it snort and swore it would have said something bad about Mama not teaching her, if it had a mouth. But it remained still as she carried it to the coffee table.

  She set it down, fully expecting it to levitate again or fly around or something, but it just sat there like a normal book.

  Minnie and Daisy circled to the far side of the coffee table, staring at the book with the whites of their eyes showing. Daisy’s lip curled back.

  “Shoo.” Sophia mimed throwing a treat in the opposite direction, like a dog trainer had tried to teach her once. It didn’t work. Minnie pawed the coffee table, then jumped back.

  This was the best she was going to get. They had a right to be wary of the book. She certainly was.

  Nervous, Sophia traced the ornate gold B embossed on the cover. She said aloud, “I'm in a bit of trouble and I need to find someone. Can you help me?”

  Sophia swallowed down her nerves and lifted her hand.

  The book flung open with a thud. The pages fluttered, stopping on a page filled with old fashioned script she recognized from her great-grandmother’s journal: Scrying. Sophia read the page. Even though there was no cooking, the page read like a recipe, listing ingredients—calling them requirements and steps.

  “Thank you,” Sophia whispered. She needed a map and Mama’s old crystal necklace.

  Before looking for the necklace, Sophia stood and clapped her hands once. As enthusiastically as she could, she said, “Crate! Crate!”

  Minnie and Daisy pawed at the table one more time.

  The book slammed itself shut.

  The dogs’ ears plastered themselves back, but Sophia repeated her command and headed toward her bedroom where the girls’ crate was. She didn’t use it often, but this was one of the few commands they seemed to like. They raced ahead of her, waiting inside by the time she got to her room. She latched the door and gave them each a treat before heading back into Mama’s room for the necklace.

  Sophia found the crystal among Mama’s other necklaces hanging on a pegboard inside the vanity.

  If only Sophia was half as organized as Mama, life would be so much easier. Then again, that still wouldn’t have saved her from being investigated for murder, and knowing where her things were hadn’t kept Mama from dying in a carjacking, and it hadn’t helped Mama pass on her knowledge to Sophia. One day, she had given up, as if she had decided that Sophia would never control the honesty magic leaking out.

  Thinking about Mama wasn’t helping anyone. She needed to focus on the book, and she had just the stuff for that.

  She put a teapot on the stove and, tea ball in hand, headed out the front door to harvest the fresh herbs for h
er focus tea and clear her mind.

  Next door, Mrs. Hernandez was pruning her rosebushes.

  “Got a lot of gardening to do?” Sophia asked as she kneeled by the small patch of mint, allowing her magic to flow down her arms. The soft prickle spread from her heart, down her arms and through her hands into the sprig of mint as she picked it. Focus. Determination.

  “I do.” Mrs. Hernandez didn’t look up from her pruning. “After the rose bushes, some blackberries planted themselves in the back. And then there are these big white flowers growing all down the side yard. I don’t know what to do with those. They look like they’ve got thorns.”

  “Thorns?” Sophia plucked a handful of leaves, the sharp, sweet smell filling her nose. She added them to her tea ball.

  “Yes. Pretty things, but between them and the blackberries, I can’t get through to my lemon tree.”

  “That sounds like you could use some help.” Sophia stood and dusted off her knees. Mrs. Hernandez was far from young. “I’ll be running around today, but I can help tomorrow or the next day.”

  Mrs. Hernandez laughed. “It’s okay, dear. My weed whacker should take care of it.”

  They exchanged a few more pleasantries while Sophia harvested a sprig of rosemary and ginkgo leaves from the tree and grabbed the map from her glove box.

  Inside, the pot started whistling as she crossed the living room. She pulled a random mug from the dishes Jenga beside the sink and, holding her breath, waited for the whole pile to topple. When no dishes fell, she fastened the chain around the handle. After pouring the water, she shoved the clutter from the kitchen table onto the hutch, and spread the map on the newly cleared surface. She read and reread the book’s instructions on scrying while she sipped her tea.

  When the tea was gone, she said in a conversational tone, “Book, I’m trusting you. I’m trusting that this will work.” She licked her lips. “Thank you for helping me.”

  She reached into herself for her magic. The tea threatened to come back up, burning her throat. She swallowed, forcing it and her nerves down, as she pulled the necklace out of her pocket.

  With no food to prepare in front of her, her magic hid. She tried again, imagining that instead of a thin gold chain of a necklace, it was the thick chain that held the tea ball. Her magic still refused to respond.

  Sophia licked her lips. This had to work. Her magic needed to show up to the party. What if…

  That was stupid, but what other choice did she have? She unhooked the chain from the handle of her mug. Then she put the carabiner style hook through the golden loop that held the crystal. “Sorry, Mama. I’ve got to do things my way.” Not taking any chances, she held the dripping tea ball in her palm and magic tingled down her arm. She directed it further down the chain and into the crystal. She wasn’t sure, but it seemed to work. Cold chain touched her magic, the crystal warm and thrumming with wisps of her mother brushing against her awareness.

  “Please keep helping, book.” She steadied her arm on the book, then set about teaching the crystal. “Crystal, I know you and Mama probably had your own system worked out, but for me, a clockwise circle can show me where someone or something is.” She swung the tea ball-crystal chain just a hair for it to spin in a clockwise direction.

  “If you can’t find it or it’s not on the map I have, then widdershins.” She spun the crystal in the opposite, creating a tight circle.

  Then she tested it. “Magic, please show me where I am. The crystal spun in a wide, slow circle that covered the whole map. It gathered speed, forming a tighter and tighter circle, until it hovered right over her house in a circle smaller than a chocolate chip.

  It was working!

  “Thank you, crystal.” She swallowed. “Now that we know how to work together, I’m looking for Tyler.”

  She pictured him as he had been the night before. Shaggy hair, smelling musty from the pot, and shocked at the death of his girlfriend.

  As the magic tingled through her, the crystal began spinning. It twirled faster and faster, tighter and tighter, centering on a spot in River Bend Park.

  Sophia grinned. She was never losing her keys again.

  6

  The second Sophia cracked her door, Minnie and Daisy shoved onto her lap, pushing on the door. She barely caught their leashes as they escaped into the parking lot.

  “Hold on, girls.” Sophia slipped the leash handles over her wrist and leaned across to grab her backpack from the floor of the passenger side. Miles of trails meant that even though she’d seen where Tyler was, she could always find a closer spot. Plus, who knew when he would leave or move onto another section of the river?

  “Leave it!” Sophia jerked on the leash and the girls stilled.

  At the far end of the lot, a flock of turkeys congregated near the big yellow gate that kept cars off the parkway. Someone had attached what looked like a lost dog notice onto the gate.

  On the driver’s seat, Sophia spread out the map she’d printed off of the park and pulled her tea-ball-plus-crystal from the small pocket of the backpack. Hopefully, if anyone saw her, they’d notice the map and not the crystal in her hand. She imagined the tea brewing and jiggled the chain up and down. Her magic responded.

  “All right, crystal,” she whispered. “Please, use my magic to show me where Tyler is now.”

  The crystal swirled above the paper, zeroing in on an area she didn’t remember. Though that wasn’t that hard. She hadn’t been out here in years. She’d loved the river when she was in school, but now running the shop took all her time and energy.

  When the leash jerked in a new direction and an angry squawk drew her attention, she turned towards the dogs.

  Minnie jumped up and down, barking. Daisy lunged forward.

  One tom marched toward them, squawking as he went. He held his wings wide and stomped towards them.

  Dumb enough and mean enough to eat rattle snakes, the turkeys blocked the gate between the parking lot and the trails.

  Sophia hoped they’d be smart enough to consider Sophia and her girls a threat. She shoved the tea ball and map into the backpack, slammed the car door, then sprinted towards the angry turkey.

  Minnie jumped as she ran, so high she could have jumped over Sophia if she wanted, though she’d never put that particular skill to use.

  Daisy tugged on the leash, her ears pointed at the angry tom like a spear thrown in his direction.

  The bird remained on a collision course with Daisy. It wouldn’t let the dogs get it, would it? Even a turkey couldn’t be that stupid.

  Sophia yelled an inarticulate growl, letting her own spirit fox manifest. Her inner self wanted to catch the turkey and shake it, just like the two dogs in front of her.

  She gained a burst of speed.

  Daisy snapped and jerked forward.

  The tom flapped into the air.

  Daisy caught a single feather.

  Something warm and wet hit Sophia’s back.

  The tom landed on a tree branch far above Sophia’s head and gobbled at them. The other turkeys squawked, gobbled, and fled the gate, leaving a clear path for Sophia and the girls to cross. Well, mostly clear. Large patches of what looked like melted chocolate, but wasn’t, dotted their path.

  Getting pooped on by a turkey. What an auspicious way to begin her hike to find a murder suspect.

  Sophia crossed the bike trail and followed a dirt path through the trees. The sun shone through the trees, dappled shade covering the path.

  Scrying sure was useful. She hoped it wasn’t one of the dangerous things Mama had warned her about because it felt good to be using her magic to do more than change people’s emotions. It felt right.

  And her powers—the moods evoked by her food seemed stronger somehow. Easier to summon and control. She just hoped Jaeger was wrong about Mama binding her powers. She hoped it was because she was maturing into her powers.

  Beneath her feet, the hard packed earth turned to sand, and the trees opened into a wide flat area with raised
edges on either side.

  Even though the air had been cool in the shade, with the sun shining down on her, sweat trickled down Sophia’s back and collected in her underwire. She tied her sweatshirt around her waist.

  Three logs sat in an open-sided rectangle facing the trail. With no human footprints in the sandy ground and a dry place to sit, this was as good a place to stop and recheck where Tyler was on the map.

  Sophia stumbled on a large river rock half buried in the ground as she approached the logs.

  Nose to the ground, Daisy tugged her leash towards a large hole in the embankment about twenty feet behind the log Sophia sat on.

  Sophia shortened the leash, forcing the girls to stay right in front of her.

  Daisy tugged toward the burrow but, with the leash short, couldn’t do too much.

  Thank goodness Minnie didn’t even seem to notice. She just laid down by Sophia’s feet.

  Based on the size, finding out what lived in the burrow would be a bad idea. If she were lucky, it would be a big rabbit. If she weren’t…

  On her log, Sophia pulled the map out of the cargo pocket on her old khakis and turned sideways.

  Rushing so Minnie and Daisy didn’t worry the burrow’s owner, she again asked the tea-ball crystal and trusted her magic to show her where to go. She barely felt silly now.

  Since Tyler hadn’t moved at all, he must be sitting and thinking, or getting high. What trails did she need to take to get—

  Minnie’s growl interrupted her thoughts. Minnie’s ears pricked forwards, toward the embankment, opposite the burrow. Daisy stopped tugging and turned toward whatever had spooked Minnie.

  Sophia scanned along the trees and bushes.

  A coyote stalked down from the top of the embankment. Its teeth bared, fur raised on its scruff.

  Sophia bolted to the north end of the meadow. Leashes taut, Minnie and Daisy pulled her on. They didn’t want to mess with the coyote either.

  The path forked. To the left a steep hill, but to the right the paved bike path. On the map, Tyler had been far from the bike path.

  The girls dragged her up the hill. Winded, she slowed at the top, but kept on moving away from the coyote.