Page 55 of Wicching Hour

When neither Gran nor Mom responded, Bracken filled me in. “We had a question for you first. Do you have cameras inside the gallery?”

“No—oh.” I thought about it a moment and then took out my phone, pulling up the app that held all the camera feeds. “I remember telling the security guy that I’d want cameras inside when I opened, but at the time, I was far more concerned with exterior cameras. And then I was trying to get everything ready for opening and forgot to have him come back to install interior ones.”

I clicked through the different views and found five different angles inside the gallery. “But, Mary Beth was with me for a week getting everything ready and clearly she took care of it because I’m looking at the inside of the Sea Wicche right now. Including a camera angled directly on the café.”

“Why would he aim one there?” Mom asked. “Your art is worth far more than muffins and tea.”

“Ordinarily, I’d agree, Sybil,” Bracken said. “In this case, though, that means we have video evidence of the Swan boy poisoning Arwyn’s food.”

Mom blinked and shook her head. “Of course. My mind was elsewhere. Yes, that’s great news.”

Gran studied Mom a moment and then turned to me. “Does the video show him going behind your counter and opening the cases? Sprinkling poison on the food?”

“Checking…” I responded, fast reversing the feed. “And there he is.” I got up and went to Gran, sitting on the tall stone hearth beside her rocker.

Mom and Bracken stood behind Gran to look over her shoulder. I hit play and we watched the crew move out the back door. Milo hung back. Melissa paused at the door and looked back. Milo pointed at the café, and she nodded and walked out. It was all exactly as I’d seen in my vision.

Milo glanced around the gallery again, no doubt checking to make sure he was alone. His hand moved to his pocket as he walked toward the café area. From the vision, I knew he’d asked Melissa if he could get himself tea. As I’d already approved that, Melissa had said yes and went out to where the rest of her workers and the plate of honey cookies were.

Milo went behind the counter, pulled the fetish from his pocket, and unwrapped it. Looking out the back door, he slid open a case and sprinkled something quickly on a few items. Sliding the case closed, he checked the back door again. He looked at what was in his hand, turned to the tea jars, yanked the lid off one, dumped in what poison he had left, and then stuffed the fabric holding the poison back into his pocket before going to the sink and washing his hands. When he was done, he walked through the back door and out of camera shot.

“Can you see what he did when he went out on the deck?” Bracken asked.

“Good call,” I mumbled, pulling my phone back and checking until I found the deck camera and then reversed the feed until I got to the cookie break. I turned the screen around and we all watched him walk out onto the deck, nod at another worker, and pull out his phone. He sent a quick text and then sat on a bench and laughed at a joke.

“Quite the little sociopath, isn’t he?” Bracken mused. “He’s just guaranteed someone’s death, sent a text to his grandmother, letting her know it’s done, and is now enjoying some down time.” He shook his head. “It’s chilling.”

TWENTY-FIVE

Threats in Too Many Directions

“I’ll force a meeting of the Council,” Mom said. “You send me that footage and I’ll play it at the meeting. They’ll be shunned by the wicche families.”

“Sure. That’s good, but why aren’t I pressing charges? I have video evidence and we have the poisoned food.” I turned to Bracken. “Declan has it, doesn’t he?”

He nodded. “Yes. It’s in one of his truck boxes. Given how crafty your raccoon friends are, he worried his dumpster wouldn’t be secure enough.”

“Perfect.” I tapped the screen and called my boyfriend. I got a little charge just thinking of him in those terms. Look at me, with a father and a boyfriend. Who would have ever believed it? Not me, that’s for sure.

“Hey,” he answered.

“Do you still have the poisoned food in your truck box?”

“Thanks for the reminder,” he said. “I completely forgot to get rid of it.”

“No,” I said, “that’s good. I have Milo on video poisoning my food and tea. I’ll call Osso, give him the evidence, but also let him know I want to press charges.”

Declan was quiet a moment. “Yes. Do that. How long have there been cameras inside the gallery?”

I felt my cheeks redden, remembering times things may have gotten out of hand while he was helping me set up the gallery. “It was sometime in the last week, when Mary Beth was here, getting everything whipped into shape.”

He considered. “Okay. We should be fine then. Back to the original question: I have the poisoned pastries and tea tied up in a locked truck box. When you talk with Osso, tell him I can deliver them to him tomorrow, that I’ll be up in the mountains tonight. Unfortunately, he’s not going to be able to get a hold of me, as I’ll be running in my other skin.”

“He’ll understand, and I doubt it’s a big deal as to whether they get the evidence tonight or tomorrow. Okay, drive safely and have a good dinner.”

He chuckled. “It’s probably for the best that I’ll be eating alone. I’ll be protein loading and it won’t be pretty to watch.”

I laughed with him. The man ate a ton, but he was so polite with it, it was easy not to notice that an entire lasagna was gone or that he’d eaten three stacked burgers to my one.

---