The Witches Three Cozy Mysteries 4-6

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Brianna and I didn't know what to say to that. Of course, she would want justice for her sister, that wasn't odd. But the way she was looking at the two of us, it was as if she expected us to deliver it for her.

But she didn't know that we were witches. So what exactly was she asking us to do?

"The police are being very thorough," Brianna said, and I could tell by the unusually slow pace of her words that she was choosing them carefully.

"No, they aren't," Coco said. "They've already decided it was Edward, and they aren't asking the right questions to find out who really did it. They're just convincing everyone who isn't sure what they saw exactly that they saw Edward."

"I'm sure that's not true," Brianna said, then fell back half a step when Coco glared up at her with that fire back in her eyes.

"It's absolutely true," Coco said.

"Did they question you and Charlotte?" I asked.

The question seemed to calm her mind, and some of the anger left her as she shook her head. "No. They haven't even found us. They probably will now that we've come out. Charlotte wanted to see her sister."

"Mary needed her," I said, looking past Coco to where the two sisters were still hugging and rocking each other.

"You were deliberately hiding?" Brianna asked. Coco nodded. "Where? In the playroom upstairs?"

"No," Coco said, not surprised that we knew of its existence. "There's another one downstairs."

"Really?" I said. "Why so many hidden places?"

Coco looked for a moment like she didn't want to tell us, and I wasn't going to press, but then she changed her mind. "My mother is actually my father's second wife. He built this house for his first family. He had two sons then. He built the tunnels through the walls and the hidden playrooms and the treehouse in the backyard all for them."

"You have two older brothers? I had no idea," Brianna said.

"Had," Coco said, and her voice went flat.

"I'm so sorry," I said. "You've lost all of your siblings?"

Coco shrugged, but she was blinking again. "My brothers died in the war. I barely remember them. Ivy did, a little, but she didn't really like talking about them."

My heart broke a little for poor Mr. McTavet. Now he'd buried a first wife and three of his children. Maybe that wasn't as unusual in 1927 as it was in modern times, but it was still a tragedy.

"Anyway," Coco said, her emotions back under firm control. "Charlotte and I were in the cubby behind the library fireplace. We were listening to the police officers talking. But after they finished questioning Mary, Charlotte wanted to go see her. I still wanted to listen, but she can be mean if you don't let her have her way." She cast an annoyed glance over her shoulder at her sometime companion. "If you don't believe me about how they're handling this, we can go in there and listen."

"I believe you," I said. "Who are they questioning now?"

"At the moment they're just talking to each other. They've sent people out to find Otto, but apparently, he's not findable."

I looked around the room and realized that indeed Otto was nowhere to be seen.

"Otto was downstairs with us at the time," I said.

"Like it matters," Coco scoffed. "They aren't asking about the fall. They're digging into Edward's past. I told you, they aren't after justice. They just need someone to take the blame. But I want actual justice."

"So do we," I said.

"Then you need to start looking for clues, right?" Coco said, looking imploringly at us both. "I know you solve murders. You did before with Cynthia Thomas. You figured out it was her sister, and you brought her to justice."

"That was different," Brianna said.

"How?" Coco demanded.

Brianna opened and closed her mouth a few times before summoning up the words, "she worked at the school. So. We had to."

"My sister lived next door to your school," Coco said.

"That's different," Brianna said.

"I'm asking you to," Coco said. "As a friend. Please. I know you can help me. I know you're not like other people even though you pretend you are. I know you can do this if you want to. Why don't you want to?"

"We do want to," I said, ignoring Brianna's warning look. "There are rules we have to follow. We can't break them."

"I break rules all the time," Coco said. "I follow the important ones, but most rules are just stupid. Why would you follow stupid rules?"

"These are important ones," I said. "Coco, I promise, we're going to do all we can to make sure the police don't hurt anyone here. Not Edward or you or anyone. But we can't act unless it's clear that's what's about to happen."

"The chief seems like he's a close friend of your father's," Brianna said.

Coco nodded. "They went to school together."

"Don't you think he wants justice too?" Brianna asked.

Coco mulled it over. "Maybe he would in a normal situation, but this isn't normal." She took a deep breath and glanced around to be sure no one was close enough to overhear, then took a step closer before whispering to us. "I was in that library cubby a week ago when he came to see my father. Ivy was still planning to get engaged to Edward then. But the chief had been digging into Edward's past. I guess he thought he was being a good friend. He told my father all about Edward growing up in an orphanage and how he was still close friends with some young gangster who's been… How did he say it? Gaining notoriety?"

"Otto," I guessed.

"Otto Mayer," Coco said. "Apparently he's done all sorts of illegal things. The chief kept going on and on about it. Then I remembered that one time when I ran into Edward on the corner by the shop, he was with a friend he said was named Otto, so I guess it was the same guy. He didn't look like a gangster. Is he even at the party?"

"Yes," I said. "You'd know him now if you saw him. He's not wearing a black tux."

"The guy in the green suit with the purple vest?" Coco said, and something like a grin touched her lips. "He looked interesting. I didn't recognize him from before. Wow."

"They can't pin this on Otto," I said. "He doesn't have motive, and he was standing next to me the entire time."

"They aren't trying to," Coco said, getting impatient. "They are going to ask him all sorts of questions about Edward's childhood so they can make it seem like he's a thug who tried to marry above his station and turned violent when he failed."

"What did your father say that day when the chief told him about Edward and Otto?" Brianna asked.

"He got mad," Coco said. "My father really liked Edward."

"So what happened?" I asked. "Why did Ivy get engaged to Thomas instead?”

Coco shrugged. "They've known each other forever."

"But when did she change her mind?" I asked.

"Just today," Coco said. "They were setting up for the party, and we were all getting dressed when Thomas came to see her. They went into the parlor for a really long time, and when they came out, the whole plan changed. I don't know what he said to change her mind."

"Surely Edward knew before that announcement?" I asked.

Coco shrugged again. "He came early, but I don't know. I was already on hostess duty with Charlotte Taylor."

"Charlotte came over with Mary?" I asked, and Coco nodded. "Did Mary know then?"

Coco bit at her lip. "I don't know."

"She didn't seem to," I said. "When she saw Thomas up on the balcony with Ivy, it seemed to come to her as a complete surprise."

Coco sunk her teeth deeper into her lip. "Ivy talked to Thomas and mother, mother told me about the change but said it was a secret I wasn't to tell anyone."

"Was your mother happy about the change?"

"Yes, definitely," Coco said. "She always liked Thomas better. But father was cross."

"Because he liked Edward?" I guessed.

Coco flinched when she bit her lip this time. Clearly, she was giving it too much of a workout. "I think he liked them both the same," she decided. "But he didn't like how Ivy was handling things."

"Okay, let's go over it again," I said. "Ivy and Thomas in the parlor with your mother. They come out and announce the change in plans. Then who goes where?"

"My father dragged Thomas into his study and Ivy went upstairs with my mother to finish getting ready," Coco said. "But Mary and Charlotte showed up before we were even up the stairs. Mary went with Ivy and my mother to Ivy's room, and I was stuck with surly Charlotte."

"And Edward?" I asked.

"He came later," Coco said. "And Tompkins took him right into the study where my father and Thomas were. I wanted to listen in, but Charlotte didn't want to."

"So you don't know when Mary knew about the change in betrothals," I said, and Coco nodded. "When did Charlotte know? Did you tell her?"

"I mean," Coco said, her cheeks coloring. "I told her the same thing I told you. That there was a big secret, but I couldn't tell her."

"So she heard it the same time we did when your father announced it?" I asked.

"Yes, but why does that matter?" Coco asked. "What does Charlotte care?"

"Her sister," I said, and Coco looked back over her shoulder to where Mary and Charlotte were sitting in chairs now but still holding hands. "Mary was clearly attached to Thomas. And Charlotte knew she was."

"Yes, but, Charlotte didn't even like Thomas," Coco said. "Not that she really likes anyone besides Mary, but in particular she didn't like Thomas."

"Why?" I asked.

"I don't know," Coco said, throwing up her hands. "You should probably just ask her."

"Maybe not now," I said. Mary looked in better spirits now that her sister was with her. "Did you see what happened up on the balcony?"

"No," she said and started blinking again. "The light up there is so bright. We don't usually have that chandelier all lit up like that. Just for parties."

"Mary told us that Edward was in the corridor," I said.

"He was," Coco said. "The whole time, actually. Thomas wanted him to come out and show there were no hard feelings, but Edward wouldn't go. Then we were all supposed to go downstairs to join the party, but it got confusing. Everyone seemed to be moving at once, and then someone knocked me back into the wall, and I nearly fell down. Then I heard my mother screaming."

"You didn't see Ivy fall?" I asked.

"No. It was too bright," Coco said.

"So the only people on the balcony were you and Charlotte, your parents, Thomas and Ivy?" I asked. "With Mary and Edward in the corridor? No servants or anyone else?"

"No," Coco said, but slowly.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I don't know. I couldn't see well, and then I got knocked down," she said.

"By who?" I asked.

"That's just it. I don't know," she said. "When I got back up, everyone else was right where they had been. Except for Ivy."

"So you don't know who bumped into you?"

"More like shoved me down," Coco said. "But no, I don't know who it was. They were strong."

"So maybe not Charlotte or Mary then?" I asked.

Coco shrugged. "Edward and Thomas were too far away. I think maybe someone else ran up the stairs or something. I definitely wouldn't have been able to see anyone rushing up the stairs with the chandelier all lit up."

I exchanged a glance with Brianna. She hadn't been there at that moment, but I was certain if anyone had been running up the stairs just then, someone would have seen it from below.

"It seems like the only way to clear this up is to talk to Edward and Thomas," Brianna said.

"Have they been taken to the library yet?" I asked.

"No. The chief said they'd question them last," Coco said. "He wanted all of the other stories first so he could catch them if they tried to lie."

"They," I said.

"Yes, he said they, but everyone there knew he meant Edward," Coco said darkly.

"Do you know where they are now?" I asked.

Coco shrugged. "Not here or in the library."

"We should search the house," I said. "They must both be upstairs somewhere."

"They'll just stop us again if we try to go upstairs," Brianna said.

"I can go," Coco said. "I'll look around and figure out where they are and then come get you."

"Perfect," I said. Coco turned to head back out the doors she had come in from when to her surprise as much as mine Charlotte bolted up out of her chair to run after her.

"I'm not sure they're on the same page in terms of their friendship," I said as Coco reluctantly let Charlotte tag along on her mission.

Then Sophie left Mary's side to come over to us. "What's going on?" she asked. "What was Coco telling you?"

"Nothing really concrete," I said. "But they're definitely trying to pin this on Edward."

"So what's the plan?" Sophie asked.

She sounded ready to argue if I wanted to do anything drastic. Which part of me really wanted to. But she and Brianna were right. We needed to keep a low profile.

"We should find Otto," I said. "Before the police do."