A Cauldron of Witch Tricks by Constance Barker

Author:Constance Barker [Barker, Constance]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Constance Barker
Published: 2019-11-15T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Zinnia wandered into the bookstore around the lunch hour. “What’s the matter?”

“I still don’t have a really good suspect.” She told Zinn about the speech.

“That really doesn’t make him any more or any less of a suspect.” Zinnia agreed. “But much more of a creep. What is with these people? Prejudice against magic and Pretes—that’s still discrimination.”

“I’m not voting for him, that’s for sure,” Nann said.

“It’s too bad his wife has such a good alibi. The cops always look at the spouse first,” Zinnia said. “At least, on TV shows they do.”

“We do in real life, too.”

Nann and Zinnia turned to see Deputy Schwenk enter the store. He had a bag of Chinese takeout in his hand. Uh oh.

“Well, I guess it’s just me and Tink for lunch,” Zinnia stood. Before she walked out the door, she shot a smirk over her shoulder.

Nann ignored her, preferring to focus on the take-out. “Chinese food?”

“From your favorite place.” Keith looked out the window and locked the door.

Double uh-oh. Maybe triple. Of course, her favorite Chinese cuisine was the only decent Chinese cuisine around.

“What did I do?” Nann asked.

“To deserve Chinese food?”

“Okay, sure.”

Keith Schwenk unbagged the little cardboard boxes and handed her a plastic fork. “On the sheriff’s say so, I looked into Simmons’ blackmail scheme against you.”

Nann felt a chill current run through her. “There can’t be anything there.”

“That’s what I said, but I did it anyway. Here’s the thing—given the number of hoops your great aunt and uncle had to jump through, the reams of forms the state and feds had to process, at this point, even if the house you live in isn’t really Founder’s House, legally, it is. The IRS agent I talked to said they would’ve looked into the letter, and dismissed the whole thing in less than five minutes.”

“I kinda hoped that. Does that mean I’m not the prime suspect?”

“On the one hand, even if Simmons’ threat wasn’t actionable, you could still have felt threatened. On the other, given all the philandering, adultery, petty crime and not-so-petty crime he threatened other people with, it puts you pretty far down the list. I have to wonder why he bothered with you.”

“Politics.”

Keith raised his brows and forked some fried rice into his mouth. Nann told him about Wozniak’s speech.

“Ah. Some kind of anti-magic platform.”

“That’s insane, right?”

He shrugged. “Around here? Makes perfect sense. Calamity Corners, well, they just kind of let all the weird stuff lie. Port Argent is another story. They’re very uptight about anything paranormal, or supernatural, happening in their town. If Blake was attempting to oust you from Founder’s House, things would look better for him.”

“Even if it was illegal?”

“Sure. Think about all the people he blackmailed. I’m sure they’d be happier if Blake picked a magic person as a target. At the least, it gave Simmons less time to shake down the rest.”

Nann dug into her chow mein. “I should feel relieved?”

“Not exactly.”

She chewed in thought. “Because of the MO.”

Keith eyed her, eating, not speaking. He was trying to make her come to his conclusion.

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