Page 52 of It All Started with a Bite

My stomach dropped. “What?!”

“Wow,” Didi muttered. “Your best friend sounds like she should come with a warning label.”

“Luckily, there were no casualties.” Mrs. Owens sighed. “Though the customer did spend a week in the hospital with an interesting rash.”

Didi cleared her throat in the uncomfortable silence. “How about we get down to business? We would like information on the crystal skull that was taken from your shop.”

Mrs. Owens’s face tightened. “Follow me. We’ll talk on the way.”

She confirmed the story she’d told Samuel as she guided us through to the back. She’d found the crystal skull on her doorstep one night ten years ago. It wasn’t until she did some research that she realized it was a cursed artifact of considerable power.

“I knew some members of the Amberford Alliance would salivate at the prospect of getting their hands on the thing, so I decided to hide it in plain sight. I bought a bunch of other crystal skulls that looked identical to it and put them all over my shop.”

No wonder Ellie hadn’t known it was special.

“What’s the Amberford Alliance?” I asked.

Mrs. Owens and Didi gave me a blank look.

“I keep forgetting you’re new to this,” Didi said. “It’s the council of supernatural leaders. They meet once a month at the Chamber of Commerce. Samuel and Victoria are members.”

Bo gulped nervously as we passed shelves crammed with crystals, herbs, and what looked suspiciously like actual shrunken heads. A door markedStaff Onlyopened into a small office.

“I have the security footage from that day, though the quality isn’t great.” Mrs. Owens indicated a computer that looked like it belonged in a museum. “I’ve already put out feelers to my contacts in Amberford. So far, no one has heard of anybody trying to purchase a crystal skull.”

Gavin sat at the desk and brought up the security footage for that day. Didi and I leaned over his shoulder while Bo poked his head under Gavin’s arm.

A grainy video showed Ellie behind the counter, looking bored. A teenager in a hoodie entered the shop.

We watched as he nonchalantly looked around Mystical Moments.

“Samuel mentioned you’d stepped out of the shop to deal with an emergency. What was the emergency?” I asked curiously

“The salon owner next door messaged to tell me my car alarm was going off. I park in a private lot around the corner from here.”

The kid stopped in front of a display cabinet. It had a sign on the glass sayingNot for Sale.

I frowned. “Was your car alarm going off?”

“Yes. Someone had broken into it.”

“Let me guess,” Didi said sourly. “Nothing was missing?”

“Bingo.”

Didi, Gavin, and I exchanged a guarded glance.

Samuel was right. Whoever was behind the missing skull had planned the job meticulously.

The kid pointed at something inside the cabinet.

Ellie frowned slightly and shook her head. The kid said something, his shoulders visibly drooping. He removed a wallet from his jeans and showed Ellie a wad of bills.

My best friend hesitated before reluctantly grabbing a key from behind the counter and going over to the display cabinet.

“Is she normally this gullible?” Didi asked.

“Yes,” Mrs. Owens and I murmured in unison.

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