Page 33 of The Accidental Detectives

Eleven

Bad habits can get you killed…

While we waited for Robbie to show up and give us some guidance, because we were lost AF, I decided to take the gifts I’d bought over to Astrid and the kids. I had to do something to keep busy or I was gonna lose my ever-lovin’ mind, worrying about Brenda and the fact that someone had the clangers to come to my house and snatch her.

Tottington had gone all out, decorating the presents with what he called “whimsical items,” like Hot Wheel cars for Owen Jr. and tons of shiny hair clips and ribbons for Lacy, along with beautiful foil paper and more ribbons than Lacy had put in my hair—which was saying something.

We’d hit another dead end with nowhere to go from here. We had two frickin’ suspects, Brenda and Astrid, and that was it. A picture of a guy who looked a lot like Owen—a picture we suspected was cursed—a fingernail, a video of Brenda, and an electrical cord that was probably the murder weapon.

And now Brenda was missing, and we also suspected she’d been kidnapped by a witch. A witch we didn’t have a single clue about. Not who they were, or where to look for her or him, forthat matter…nothin’. Not even a hint. How could we look for an invisible witch?

Shit was not looking bright.

As I pulled up to Astrid’s, I took some comfort in the fact that Robbie was coming to help. Witches had varieties, dark, light, good, bad. We were hoping she could give us an idea about where this witch had come from and where to go from here, because time was ticking away and who knew what could happen to Brenda while we tried to figure this out.

A spike of fear skipped up my spine, thinking about Brenda being kidnapped. She was a gentle soul. That worried the shit out of me. The only solace I could take was the fact that Brenda was a vampire, and she had to at least have strength on her side. I hoped like hell she’d fight back.

Pulling into the driveway, I was happy to see that more lights had been added outside and in the big picture window, a Christmas tree glowed brightly.

That made me smile a little. Maybe the grandparents from Arizona had encouraged Astrid to get it together.

Grabbing all the gift bags, I slammed the door shut and headed toward the front door, ringing the bell as I admired the big Santa, sitting in a chair on the front porch. I dropped the packages by him while I waited for someone to answer.

A well put-together lady answered the door wearing a fun but classy Christmas sweater and creased tan slacks. Her ornament earrings swung at her earlobes, hanging just beneath her chin-length chestnut-colored hair.

She smiled at me warmly. “Hi there,” she said cheerfully. “How can I help you?”

“Nina!” I heard Lacy and Owen Jr. call out. They ran toward me, both wearing little aprons and waving wooden spoons as Bode followed close behind in protective mode.

I squatted on my haunches, giving them each a hug and Bode a scratch on his muzzle. “Little dudes! Are you making cookies for Santa?”

Owen shot his spoon in the air with a superhero stance. “Yes! Do you wanna make some with us?”

I grinned at him, ruffling his hair as Bode nudged my thigh. “I should introduce myself first, don’tcha think?” I held out my hand to the woman I assumed was their grandmother. “I’m Nina Statleon. I met the kids the other day when we were looking for donations for…” What the fuck had we been getting donations for?

“The monkeys!” Lacy shouted, doing her best monkey impression as she danced around. “The monkeys, Gramma!”

“Yes!” I almost shouted, before I looked down at my feet in guilt for being such a liar. “The monkeys. The…er…white-cheeked ones. They’re almost extinct…”

Their grandmother clapped her hands together with a wide grin. “Of course! The kids told us all about you ladies.” She grabbed my hands, giving them a warm squeeze as she leaned into me. “I’m so glad you dropped by. You really turned the kids’ day around. Thank you for that. Won’t you join us inside while we make some cookies?”

“Yay! Cookies! Cookies! Cookies!” Owen yelled.

I laughed. “Somebody’s had some sugar, huh? You’re buzzin’, buddy.”

Lacy grabbed at my hand, tugging me toward the entryway, but I held back, swinging her up into my arms. “Listen, Munchkin, I’ve got some stuff to do to help Santa. You don’t want me to ditch Santa, do you?”

Lacy smiled at me, her toothless grin making me grin, too. She wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me a hard hug, placing a sticky, sugary-sweet kiss on my cheek. “Bye, Nina! Tell Santa I said hello!”

I dropped her back on the floor and she scampered off to finish her cookie making. Then I smiled at Owen. “You, too, big guy. Santa’s gonna need those cookies so he can make all his deliveries.”

Owen wrapped his arms around my waist and hugged me before running off behind Lacy.

Their grandmother beamed at me, standing in the doorway surrounded by the Christmas lights around the door. She gripped my forearm with a warm smile. “I’m Beth, by the way. Astrid’s mother. You made them so happy at such a dark time, I can’t thank you enough. Are you sure you can’t stay? We’d love to have you.”

I smiled at her in gratitude. “I can’t. I have somewhere to be.” Then I leaned into her and whispered, “Santa left some stuff at my house for them.” I pointed to the gift bags I’d set on the chair by the big Santa.

“Oh!” she cooed with obvious delight, her bright eyes so much like Astrid’s. “What a kind gesture. Thank you for thinking of them. We haven’t had much time to do any shopping since we arrived, with the police in and out and Astrid being in such a bad way. You have no idea how much we appreciate this.”

---