Shear Magic, page 6
part #5 of Silver Hollow Series
The juice bar was packed. He remembered what Luigi had told him earlier about the daily special and supposed that had something to do with it. He was glad the pizza shop was doing well, along with the juice bar. And if he could just relax, he might be able to enjoy this break. The girls still each had about a half hour left on their lunch breaks. Considering his salon was still closed for inspection by the police, Gray had all the time in the world. The idea didn’t sit as well with him. He did his best not to glance across the square to where the yellow crime scene tape across the entrance to Shear Magic fluttered in the breeze.
“Interesting is one way to put it,” Gray said, focusing on the case to distract himself. “The more I hear about Eric Naill, the more I think Luigi was right in saying the South Side witches are involved somehow, and this has something to do with the scandal Luigi mentioned. Especially since Beth ran into Bobby Knight, who was leaving Eric’s office angry. It has to be a witch or a wizard who killed Eric. That’s the only way I can figure someone got into my shop for the shears.”
Raine set her plant on the table before her. “If it was a witch or wizard, that leaves Tim Stevens out.”
Ember nodded. “But remember, whatever Beth said is suspect. She has memory issues and is under the influence of goddess-knows-what.”
“Plus she lied to us,” Issy said.
“How do you know that?” Ember asked.
“She said that Eric told her he wouldn’t take her case because he didn’t investigate insurance cases, but Tim Stevens hired him to look into his mother’s insurance.”
Raine frowned. “That’s right. Do you think she lied about her reason for being angry to cover up the real reason because the real reason gives her a stronger motive?”
“Maybe.” Issy sipped her drink. “Eric refusing to take her case doesn’t seem enough to kill for, but with Beth’s unstable state of mind, it might be. But if the argument was about something else, something important enough to kill over, she might lie to throw us off.”
“Maybe she wasn’t the one who lied,” Raine said. “Eric might have lied to her about not taking insurance cases because he didn’t want to get involved in her case.”
“Who could blame him?” Issy asked.
“No one,” Raine agreed.
“Maybe that real reason has something to do with the South Side witches and what happened back in the day with Bobby Knight,” Gray said.
“But what did happen back in the day?” Issy asked.
Gray shrugged. “I have no idea. Luigi said it all got dropped when Charlie Stevens died.”
“So Charlie Stevens was involved?” Raine asked.
“How?” Issy asked.
“Good question.” Gray sipped the orange Creamsicle-flavored juice drink in front of him. “The way Beth was talking, she and Bobby Knight had something going on. Maybe there was some problem with Charlie and Bobby over Beth.”
Ember took the cover off her juice and squinted into the empty cup as if simply looking in there and wishing would fill it up again. “You mean like a love triangle or something?”
“Maybe.”
“Who would kill Eric over an old love triangle?” Issy asked.
“I know it seems dumb now, but remember, back then, people were more straightlaced.” Gray pointed out.
“Seriously?” Raine scrunched up her face. “It was only about thirty years ago, not the Middle Ages. Though I suppose if it was frowned upon to get romantically involved with the South Side and there was a love triangle with a married man going on that could have caused a scandal.”
“And Eric might have discovered that and threatened both Beth and Bobby to make it public now,” Gray said.
“Still seems kind of drastic to me,” Issy said. “There must be more to it.”
“Maybe there is another element — like if Bobby Knight is already on the outs with the Wizard Council, another mark against him could get his powers stripped,” Raine suggested.
“Is he on the outs?” Issy asked.
“I have no idea. Just speculating as to why Bobby or Beth would be threatened if Eric discovered this old dirt on them.”
“Beth isn’t in her right mind. She might feel threatened by things that the rest of us think are nothing.” Ember screwed up her lips. “And if Beth lied about the insurance claim as the reason she argued with Eric, she might also have lied about seeing Bobby Knight.”
“You mean to frame him? I don’t know about that. She didn’t seem with it enough to be able to come up with a clever lie or plan to frame Bobby,” Gray said.
“Yeah, she can barely hold a conversation. Not too much planning going on in that brain. She kept mentioning the ‘old days,’ and she said she saw Martin at the barbershop. What was that about?” Raine asked.
“Barbershop? We don’t have a barbershop,” Issy said.
It was true, there was no barbershop in town now, but Gray’s cousins didn’t know there had been one years ago.
“Used to be one where my shop is now,” Gray offered. “So it makes sense she saw Martin there. Luigi mentioned to me earlier that Martin Ellsworth is heading up the investigation into Eric’s death for the local Wizard Council, and he has his eye on Beth because she’s been acting so erratically. He could have been following her that night, and she confused the present with the past.”
“Ugh. That’s even worse.” Raine sighed, her frown deepening as she stroked a petunia petal. “If he’s poking around your salon, then he’s looking for evidence against you, Gray.”
“True.” He swallowed around the lump of anxiety that had returned to clog his throat. “But there’s nothing I can do about that at present. My best bet is to keep looking for the real murderer. I’m innocent. I know that, so that means having Martin Ellsworth and Owen and anyone else who thinks they can solve this case sniffing around my salon to get this solved, then more power to them.”
“We need to figure out what this scandal is about and what it has to do with Bobby Knight. If Eric was digging into something that Bobby didn’t want dug up, he could be a suspect,” Issy said.
“And let’s not rule out Beth,” Raine added. “The scandal had something to do with Charlie Stevens, who owned the barbershop. Beth mentioned something about it in reference to ‘old times.’”
“Yeah, we can’t rule her out. The only one mentioned in reference to the scandal that we can rule out is Charlie Stevens,” Ember said.
“Unless he came back from the grave to kill Eric,” Raine added.
“So who was around back then who might remember what the scandal was about?” Issy asked the group as she sipped her Tahitian Sunrise, a blue concoction laden with assorted tropical fruit juices and garnished with a colorful paper umbrella.
“I’m putting a garden in for Mr. and Mrs. Bryant later today. They’re pretty old. I’ll see if they remember,” Raine said. Sonya and Ken Bryant were elderly witches who had lived in Silver Hollow for what seemed like a hundred years. Maybe it had been one-hundred years given their special abilities to make youth potions. Sonya had her hair done at Shear Magic, and Gray knew her memory was sharp, and she noticed everything that went on in town.
“If anyone would remember, it would be Sonya Bryant. Thanks.” Gray reached over to steal a hunk of pineapple from the skewer that had topped off Raine’s drink and then fed it to Cosmo, who preened and nuzzled Gray’s neck as he perched on the back of Gray’s chair.
Bella danced around Issy’s feet, wanting to be picked up, and Raine continued to talk to the little petunia plant as though the rest of them weren’t there. Gray had asked her earlier why she hadn’t brought her plant familiar, a Venus flytrap named Mortimer, and she said he was at the greenhouse sunning himself and didn’t wish to be disturbed.
“I’m betting Beth and Bobby did know each other, from what she said. Pretty well, too. And her running into him at Eric’s office sounds like too much of a coincidence.”
“Agreed.” Gray sat back and sighed. What he really needed was for Brimstone to get on the ball and arrange the meeting with Starla so he could find out what she knew about her Uncle Bobby’s recent activities.
Bobby Knight ticked a lot of boxes on his list of primary suspects. The fact that Bobby was angry after his meeting with Eric suggested motive, and he was a well-known powerful wizard. Rumor had him doing everything from minor parlor tricks to incredible feats of transfiguration. Hype aside, Gray would bet Bobby would have no problem killing Eric. Now all he had to do was find out what their connection was.
Luigi delivered the pizza they’d ordered to their table. The smells of baked cheese, tomato sauce, and fresh, homemade crust made Gray’s stomach rumble. He’d barely taken a bite of his first slice when Luigi pulled a chair up beside him.
“Hey, Gray. I wanted to warn you again that Martin’s getting antsy.” He glanced around to make sure they had privacy. The rest of the patio crowd had cleared out. “The tribunal is putting pressure on him to find the killer. Owen seems to think you’re suspicious, so Martin thinks it would tie things up nicely if the police went ahead and arrested you.”
“No!” Ember cried, her eyes wide. “They can’t!”
“Unfortunately, they can. Or at least bring him in for questioning.” Luigi sighed and sat back. “The good thing about Owen arresting Gray is that it would fall under the human jurisdiction, so if he’s found guilty, he’ll serve his sentence in human jail. That would also take care of things on the paranormal side, because it would allow the tribunal to put the matter to rest.”
“If he’s found guilty, which he won’t be because he didn’t do it. That’s ridiculous.” Issy swallowed a bite of pizza then wiped her mouth with a paper napkin. “Besides, no paranormal belongs in a human jail cell. I won’t allow it. It’s cruel and inhumane. We need to find out what’s going on with Bobby Knight and his connection to this mess and get Gray’s name cleared as soon as possible.”
“How, though?” Raine asked around a bite of cheese. “It’s not as if we can just take a stroll over to the South Side. Besides, we don’t have any connections there.”
“I do,” Issy said softly, and Gray’s heart skipped. “Well, sort of. Starla Knight, Bobby’s niece. Gray and I talked to her at her jewelry shop during a previous investigation. Maybe we should take another trip back there and ask her.”
“Oh, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Gray pushed his empty plate away, his stomach too knotted to even think about eating. “None of you should even think about talking to anyone on the South Side. This is my problem, and I won’t have any of you punished for it. Understand?” He met the gaze of each cousin, and they nodded. “Good. I have a plan. And maybe we can manipulate Owen into helping us if I can find some evidence against Bobby Knight and have DeeDee or Dex feed it to Owen, and ...” Gray’s speech was severed by the single bleep of a siren behind him. He turned to see Owen’s squad car pulling up to the curb.
“Hey, Gray,” Owen waved. “Got a few minutes to ride with me to the station to answer a few questions?”
Oh crap!
Gray tamped down the panic that rose in his chest. He didn’t want his cousins to think he was frightened, or they might do something drastic. Just act natural. He nodded and pushed up from his chair. Best to get this over with and minimize the damage. People were already starting to stare and whisper and point at him on the patio. As he got into the back of the car, he glanced to the rest of the group at the table and gave them a reassuring nod, but judging by the terrified looks on their faces, it didn’t do much to convince them that everything would be okay.
Gray buckled his seat belt, and they took off for the station, Cosmo’s wings flapping nervously as he perched on the back of the seat.
“I didn’t do this,” Gray said, staring at his hands in his lap. “I swear.”
“I want to believe you,” Owen said, looking particularly colorful today in a rainbow-hued Hawaiian shirt festooned with seagulls and beach balls, its jolly scenes at direct odds with Gray’s current sorry state of affairs. “I do. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least bring you in. You understand, right?”
“Right.”
They arrived at the station a few minutes later and walked inside, past Myra Bell, the receptionist — who gave Gray a somewhat snooty, cold look totally uncalled for considering he’d done her last haircut for free — and headed straight back to an interrogation room, where DeeDee, Dex, and Stan Judge were waiting. DeeDee and Dex smiled when Gray walked in. Stan scowled.
So Stan had come out to Silver Hollow after all. This did not bode well for Gray. Now not only would he have to juggle the paranormal investigation with Martin and the normal investigation with Owen, he’d have to make sure Stan didn’t want to haul him out to Area 59. Gray wasn’t exactly sure what the FBPI did out there — some sort of paranormal testing — but he’d never heard of anyone taken there ever returning.
“Have a seat, buddy,” DeeDee said, indicating the chair next to her. “We just want to clarify a couple of things with you.”
“Yes,” Stan said, his thin, pale face and ill-fitting suit making Gray think more of a mortician than a top agent for the FBPI. “I’d be most interested in hearing about how a pair of 24-karat gold scissors worth more than some people’s homes ended up in the possession of a small-business owner who then used them to kill a private investigator.”
Dex sat forward, the implied eye roll in his frown nearly palpable. “All I want to know is how your scissors ended up in Eric Naill’s back.”
“I don’t know. I wish I did, because it would make this so much easier.” Gray sighed. “Honestly. I saw no evidence anyone broke in, so I have no idea how anyone got my scissors.”
“I do.” Stan gave him a look that would have made a church matron proud. “You took them yourself, stabbed Eric Naill, then went on your merry way.”
“Why would I do that?” Gray snapped back, his patience at an end. “Do give me some credit. If I was going to kill someone, first I’d need to have motive, which I don’t. I barely knew Eric Naill. I had no reason to kill him. Second, why would I use my own precious shears to do him in, then leave them there — along with the body — for anyone to find? Doesn’t make any sense at all.”
“He could’ve startled you when he tried to break in,” Stan sputtered. “Crimes of passion rarely involve logic.”
“Crimes of passion? As I said, I barely knew the guy, and contrary to popular myth, some of us hair stylists are straight. I prefer women. And there was no sign of a break-in, right?” His angry gaze flicked to DeeDee, who nodded. She bit her lip, her eyes sparkling with amusement as she clearly tried to bite back a laugh. “Next question.”
“Who do you think killed the guy?” Owen asked from where he stood, leaning against the wall, arms crossed. “Anybody with a grudge against you who’d like to see you framed for murder?”
“No one I know of.” Gray exhaled slowly. He couldn’t come out and say what his real suspicions were with Stan the Man sitting there and Owen having no idea about the paranormals in the area. So he tried a different route. “I spoke to Beth Wilkins earlier today. She said she saw a man named Bobby Knight coming out of Eric Naill’s office the day she went there to hire him for a case. She said Mr. Knight seemed angry.”
Owen gave a curt nod toward DeeDee, who scribbled down the name, her expression blank. “Okay. I’ll look into him. And where were you the night Eric Naill was killed, Gray?”
“At home. Alone.” He managed to hide his wince, barely.
“Can anyone corroborate that?” Owen asked. “Any witnesses who might have seen you there?”
“Other than my cockatoo Cosmo?” Gray asked, his shoulders slumping. “No.”
Everyone looked at the bird now perched on the back of Gray’s chair. Cosmo bobbed his head up and down as if agreeing with Gray’s statement that he was home all night, but that didn’t seem to convince Stan or Owen.
“How would this Bobby Knight even get your scissors?” Stan asked.
“I have no idea.” Gray couldn’t very well tell him about teleportation. Should he suggest someone could have swiped them during the day unnoticed? Was teleportation the paranormal version of that? But he’d already said that it would be almost impossible for anyone to take his shears. He glanced at DeeDee for help.
“It’s impossible to know how someone got the scissors, but I was hoping we could rule out Gray — and other suspects — another way. Ursula is conducting re-enactments of the murder. You know, trying to figure out how tall the killer might have been based on the angle and penetration of the blade. That might help,” DeeDee offered.
Stan perked up at the mention of the medical examiner. “Ursula Lavoie? Maybe I should go over there and witness these re-enactments.”
“I think that’s a good idea, Stan.” Dex gave DeeDee a raised-brow glance as Stan stood up, nearly dropping his notepad in his haste.
“Yeah, I’ll report back.” Stan breezed out, and they all watched him leave in silence.
“Okay, then.” Owen pushed away from the wall. “I think that’s enough questions for now. Thanks for your time, Gray. We’ll be in touch. Oh, and best you stick around the area until this is all cleared up, eh?”
Chapter 10
Dex dropped him off back in town and, after answering the frantic texts from his cousins wondering if he’d been arrested, Gray walked around the town square, stopping in front of Shear Magic. The shop looked deserted. The crime scene tape still hanging over the entrance gave it a foreboding air. The lights inside were off, and the “closed” sign was on the door, just as he’d left it.
He couldn’t shake the feeling of violation, knowing the police had been in there rooting around in his belongings. He hoped they hadn’t made too much of a mess. He stepped closer and cupped his hands to peer through the front window. Cosmo squawked and pecked at his reflection in the glass.
