Fatal Fog, page 7
“Are you okay?” Esmeralda asked after she had inspected the knife and where Maggie had found it. She was trying to put on a pleasant face for Maggie, but her face was also clouded with concern.
“I will be, it’s just a lot for my first crime,” Maggie said.
“You never know what you’ll find in an alley,” Esmeralda said. “This time, it was the murder weapon. I’m going to bag it up and then we can go home to think through the clues we’ve found.”
Maggie nodded, wondering how she was going to help her mother solve crimes if all of the clues made her feel sick. She watched Esmeralda as she used magic to bag up the knife, Rodney’s switchblade, the notebook, and the envelope of cash. Esmeralda hummed as she did it, like this was just another day’s work. Actually, that was exactly what it was. This was the family business, apparently. This was the work that Maggie would have to learn.
“Can you hold onto these?” Esmeralda asked, interrupting Maggie’s anxious thoughts.
She shoved the evidence bags toward Maggie and then thought better of it, setting them down next to her on the crate. Esmeralda floated off to check the alley one more time while Maggie took a deep breath. She needed to look at the knife if she ever wanted to conquer these fears.
Picking up the plastic bag, she swallowed hard and tried to study it. At first, the only thought running through her mind was ‘blood, blood, that’s someone’s blood, someone killed Rodney with this knife,’ but once that was done, Maggie realized that she was able to look more carefully at the knife.
It was a steak knife with a serrated blade. The handle was cheap, black plastic. It had something written on the handle, but Maggie couldn't make it out at first. She stood up and moved closer to one of the glowing orbs, angling the knife so that she could see better.
At the end of the plastic were two letters. SP. There was only one thing that could mean: Syrup Pot. Or in this world, it was the Slinky Possum. Either way, it was the SP that would have steak knives.
“I found another clue,” Maggie called to her mother.
Esmeralda’s face lit up as she scurried over. Maggie shoved the bag with the knife toward her mother, not wanting to hold it any longer than she had to. Pointing to the handle, she showed her mother the letters.
“SP. It’s the Syrup Pot,” Maggie said.
“It’s the Slinky Possum right now,” Esmeralda said. “And that means that our plans have changed. We are not going home. I think it’s about time we had lunch. You haven’t been to the pub yet and I think it’s time we changed that.”
Before Maggie could stop her, Esmeralda had picked up her cane and was hoofing it across the graveyard park and toward the Slinky Possum. Maggie collected the evidence bags full of murder clues and stuffed them into her pockets as she followed along behind her, trying not to think about the fact that they essentially heading into the place where the murderer got their weapon.
Chapter Ten
Normally, the Syrup Pot looked like a diner that was plucked straight out of the 1950s. It had tile floors and tables scattered around. There was a large counter with barstools, a dessert display by the cash register and a swinging door that lead to the kitchen. It had been revamped a few times, but always to look old fashioned. Maggie found that somewhat comforting.
But the Slinky Possum was a different story. On the outside, it was a stone building with a big wooden door. Inside, it felt like some sort of wayward pub that was in the middle of a forest, a resting place for thieves and thugs. The clientele inside all looked a bit rough, which was mostly because they were all paranormal sorts of creatures.
Heavy wooden tables lined the walls and the bar was now a heavy wooden bar with space behind for Evelyn the pixie to fly around and fill tankards of ale. Where the kitchen was supposed to be was still the kitchen, but it wasn’t walled off. Dan the ogre was trudging around that space, a large leg of some kind of meat roasting over an open fire.
The entire place was dark because of the lack of windows and it smelled like slightly burnt meat and sweat. Maggie started to wrinkle her nose up when her mother leaned over and whispered to her.
“Don’t do that,” she said. “The people here are quite sensitive to facial expressions and the like. Just pretend it smells like roses in here.”
Maggie plastered a smile on her face and glanced at Esmeralda, who recoiled. She grabbed Maggie by the elbow and dragged her back out the wooden door into the street.
“Sweetheart, I know you are trying hard, but you better focus on your face if you don’t want to get beaten up,” Esmeralda said.
“What’s wrong with my face?” Maggie asked.
“The creatures of this town might not recognize that they are paranormal creatures, but they are hypersensitive during this time of the month, especially the ones who come to the tavern,” Esmeralda said. “If they think you are judging them, they may become violent. Now I’m going to go in and when you are ready, you join me.”
Before Maggie could ask her mother exactly what she was supposed to do with her face, Esmeralda disappeared through the thick wooden door. Taking a few deep breaths, Maggie shut her eyes and focused on a neutral, vaguely pleasant expression. It was harder than she thought, especially with the threat of possible violence if her face wasn’t right.
She reached out to open the door, but her hand was shaking so hard that Maggie knew she couldn't trust herself in there. She took another breath, strolling back and forth in front of the Slinky Possum to get the nervous energy out. But every time she thought she had it, her nerves stopped her from opening the door. Maggie wanted to help her mother, but she didn’t want to risk offending someone or getting beaten up.
The door opened and Esmeralda’s face popped around. Noticing Maggie, she came outside and grabbed Maggie by both shoulders, looking her in the face.
“You can do this,” Esmeralda said, knowing exactly what was going on. She rubbed up and down Maggie’s arms a few times, trying to help get the jitters out. “I should have been more helpful, but you are the only one who can conquer this fear. I will be there and I promise that no matter what, neither of us will get beaten up. I was just exaggerating. Now come on, let’s go.”
Esmeralda grabbed Maggie firmly by the wrist and before Maggie could protest, she had been dragged inside the tavern. Every eye in the place seemed to be on her and Maggie felt like melting into the floor, but Esmeralda wouldn’t stand for that. She dragged Maggie to a small open table and plopped her into a chair before taking her place in a chair on the other side.
Maggie stared at the wooden tabletop, too scared to glance around for fear that her face was too happy or judgmental or showed any sign of feeling. Suddenly, Esmeralda’s hand appeared between Maggie’s face and the table, snapping a few times to get her attention. Maggie looked up into her mother’s face.
“Stop acting weird,” Esmeralda said. “Just act like a normal person.”
“But I’m not a normal person,” Maggie hissed. “Apparently I’m a witch.”
“Yes you are, but you are still a human being,” Esmeralda said. “No one is looking at you anymore.”
Maggie gathered her courage and glanced around. Her mother was right. Everyone was going about their business as usual now, messily eating and drinking. Maggie started to wrinkle her nose at the sight of one especially hungry troll whose face was covered with mashed potato but managed to stop herself.
“What are we going to do now?” Maggie asked. “What’s our plan?”
“Once I get Dan’s attention, I’m going to have him and Evelyn come over,” Esmeralda said. “I’d like to ask them about the knife.”
“We don’t have to eat here, do we?” Maggie asked.
“Only if they offer us something,” Esmeralda said with a smile.
Before Maggie could protest, Esmeralda glanced toward the kitchen area where Dan was plodding around. When he looked their way, she put up her hand and waved slightly. Dan looked at the meat over the fire and put up one ogre finger to tell her it was almost done. Esmeralda nodded and sat back in her chair to wait.
Maggie was putting all of her thoughts into her neutral face right now. She was nervous that they would be offered food because right now her stomach was flip-flopping so much that she wasn’t sure she could eat anything, but to turn it down would be rude. She was thinking through all sorts of ‘what-ifs’ in her head, trying to make a plan for each one. Sometimes she thought that helped her anxiety, but right now, it was just presenting her with ridiculous scenarios and making her more nervous than when she first walked into the tavern.
“What do you need?” Dan bellowed, appearing suddenly next to their table.
“Could you also call your dear sister over here?” Esmeralda asked. “I had something I wanted to show both of you.”
Dan turned toward the counter where his tiny pixie sister was somehow managing to carry a tankard of ale that was as big as she was. Once she set it down in front of a goblin, Dan yelled for her.
“Evelyn!”
She turned and gave him a grumpy face that was in direct contrast to her pixie adorableness. Maggie had to wonder how everyone’s paranormal creature was chosen. Dan’s ogre self made sense, but Evelyn as a pixie? That was certainly unexpected.
“What do you want?” the angry pixie hollered back across the pub.
“These ladies want to chat,” Dan said.
Evelyn turned her scowl toward us, weighing back and forth whether she should go with a ‘the customer is always right’ idea and come to talk or go with her usual instinct of doing whatever she wanted to do and ignoring Maggie and Esmeralda. Maggie saw her mother flick one finger under the table in Evelyn’s direction and the pixie was soon flying across the pub.
“What is it?” Evelyn demanded once she was hovering next to the table. “If you haven’t noticed, I have a busy tavern and it ain’t gonna run itself.”
“I know the two of you were at the crime scene this morning, so I thought you might be interested in something Maggie and I found out there,” Esmeralda said.
She turned and nodded at Maggie, who dug the bag with the knife out and laid it on the table. Both the ogre and pixie stared at it hard, trying to figure out what it actually was at first. Evelyn seemed unaffected, but Dan looked like he was about to faint at the sight of blood. Esmeralda gave them a minute before she clarified.
“It’s a knife from the Slinky Possum,” Esmeralda said.
“How do you know that?” Evelyn asked, crossing her arms.
Dan’s eyes widened, looking hard at the knife and then at Evelyn.
“I know that because the handle has SP carved into it,” Esmeralda said.
“And how do you know that doesn’t belong to someone with the initials SP who lives in town?” Evelyn asked.
“That’s a fair question,” Esmeralda said. “I know because it matches all of the other knives that are here in the tavern.”
She held up the steak knife that was sitting in her spot. It was identical to the knife in the bag, except it hadn’t been used as a murder weapon. Dan’s eyes starting flicking around and he started to mumble before Evelyn smacked him upside the back of his head. When he turned to look at his sister, rubbing his head where she had hit him, Evelyn shushed him.
“Someone must have stolen it to use to kill Rodney,” Evelyn said with a shrug. “Things go missing often from the Slinky Possum. I just have to know when to cut my losses. Silverware? Not a big deal.”
Maggie was watching this exchange, the pit of her stomach seeming to grow wider and wider, but not from hunger. Her nerves were on edge as she tried to calmly glance around, wondering if the murderer was having lunch in the tavern right now. Anyone here could have stolen the knife and almost everyone had a reason to want to kill Rodney. What if they overheard this conversation and decided to use their steak knife to kill Maggie and Esmeralda?
Maggie’s mind raced as she tried to assess which patrons would be most likely to be the killer. She didn’t like the look of the troll who was eating alone in the corner. They looked pretty sullen. On the other hand, there was a family of fairies who looked mostly harmless.
“That would have been my first thought if I hadn’t been present right here when Rodney came in yesterday,” Esmeralda said. “I heard quite a few threats being thrown around at him and one of the biggest offenders was Dan.”
Dan’s eyes widened and he put up his hands in front of him as if Esmeralda was going to lunge at him any minute. Evelyn smacked him on the back of the head again, glaring at him as he shuffled sideways to get away from her.
“I’m sure it was not my brother,” Evelyn said. “As I said, we have a busy tavern to run and Rodney was killed this morning, right? Well, I ran out to buy some eggs and my brother stayed here to run the kitchen. He was here the whole time, so he couldn’t be the murderer.”
Maggie looked at Dan again. He was staring at the floor, shuffling his feet around. Evelyn, on the other hand, was confidently hovering next to the table. She was staring at Esmeralda, unwilling to break eye contact until Esmeralda was done with her accusations.
Esmeralda let it wash over her, taking what Evelyn said in stride. Maggie was impressed by how calm and collected her mother was. Maggie was a bundle of nerves and she wasn’t even the one doing the talking.
Glancing over at Dan, he was a bit too close for comfort. Maggie tried to scoot her chair away from him, doing it so slowly that she hoped it was imperceptible. It made sense for Dan to be the murderer. He was big and scary. He looked like someone that Maggie did not want to meet in a dark alley. Rodney had done that and look how that turned out.
“Let me tell you what I know,” Esmeralda said. “Rodney was killed with a knife from the pub here. Yesterday, he was here and had a run-in with multiple people. And he was in the process of trying to take over the tavern. So Evelyn, if you can tell us where you went to buy eggs so we can confirm what you were doing, that just leaves Dan. Who can confirm you were here Dan?”
Dan’s gaze was ripped away from the floor as he snapped his head to attention. He was looking everywhere but at Esmeralda, glancing around the pub as if a patron might suddenly raise their hand in need of something urgent from the kitchen. But everyone was eating quietly, trying to listen in to what was happening.
“Dan, tell them a few of the patrons who were here this morning so that they can confirm you were in the kitchen,” Evelyn said. If she had been standing on the floor instead of hovering, Maggie was sure she would have stamped her foot.
Looking at the floor, Dan started stuttering, trailing off until he was muttering so quietly that no one could understand him. Maggie opened her mouth to say something but felt Esmeralda’s gentle hand on her arm. This was a time to wait it out.
“Spit it out,” Evelyn demanded.
Her face was getting more and more red as her annoyance of the situation grew. First, the witches had come in asking questions and now her big oaf of a brother wasn’t listening to her.
Dan looked up from the floor, tears welling in his eyes and spilling down his bulbous nose and cheeks. Now he looked more pitiful than scary.
“I wasn’t in the kitchen this morning,” Dan said. “When you left for eggs, I left to find Rodney.”
Chapter Eleven
A collective gasp ran through the tavern. Everyone really was listening in, although by now it was hard not to. Evelyn turned in a circle, sending a glare to all of the patrons that immediately made them turn back to their own food. Maggie had to turn her head to look away when Evelyn’s glare was pointed in her direction. She was a pixie who meant business.
“You were supposed to stay in the kitchen,” Evelyn said. “Why would you leave?”
Tears were still rolling down Dan’s face, just enough to create rivers between the bulbous bumps and warts that dotted his face. He stared at the floor, only looking at his sister out of the corner of his eye. Dan was scared of Evelyn and Maggie couldn't blame him.
“It was the perfect time to teach that rat a lesson,” Dan said.
Another gasp filled the room as evidence that everyone was still listening, even if they were all looking at their food.
“Are you admitting to killing Rodney?” Maggie asked, not able to keep her cool like her mother could.
“No, no, no,” Dan said, the color draining from his face. “That’s not what I meant at all.”
“That’s what it sounded like,” came a shout from across the tavern, but Maggie couldn't tell who said it. Thankfully Evelyn couldn’t tell either or there may have been another murder that day.
“What I meant was that I was gonna go rough him up a little so he would give me back the deed to the pub,” Dan said. “It was the perfect time because Evelyn went to get eggs and I knew it would take her a little while to walk through the fog. And all of the customers who were here already had their food and if anyone came in, they could just wait. So I left.”
The pub was so quiet that the sudden clatter of a fork dropped on the floor made everyone jump. The mother fairy quickly picked it up, her cheeks red with embarrassment, and handed it to the fairy child who had dropped it. Everyone’s attention focused back on Dan.
“Did you find Rodney?” Esmeralda asked.
“Sorta, but not really,” Dan said. “I walked to the park, but when I got there, I could hear that Rodney was already talking to someone else. It sounded like he was fighting with someone else about money, which I think is pretty typical. I was gonna wait around for my turn but then I got scared because it was taking so much time and Evelyn would be really mad if I wasn’t there when she got back and since she was already mad at me, I decided I better go back.”
Evelyn was hovering near the table, staring at her brother. The expression on her face seemed to be one of warmth and love which was quickly masked by anger. Maggie could be sure of one thing: Evelyn loved her brother, no matter how much she berated him.
“Did you hear anything that would tell you who was meeting with Rodney?” Esmeralda asked. “You may have been the last one to hear him before he died.”
