“Do you know any more about what happened?” Mom glanced in Diana’s direction and lowered her voice. “To Rafe?”
I assured them I had no information. My status as a former police officer led them to believe I had an inside track on such things. Last spring, after shooting a suspect while working as a police officer in Ann Arbor, I had come home to recoup and think about what to do next. I had had very little time for either when Crystal Haven had its first homicide in decades. One murder led to another and by the time the crime was solved, I found myself with a small inherited house and a large inherited bullmastiff. Now that I had my own place, the ladies in the family had taken to semi-stalking me, a side effect I hadn’t considered when I decided to stay in Crystal Haven and leave police work behind.
I described the death of Rafe Godwin to Mom with minimal detail. She walked back to the booth and embraced Diana, both of them welling up and sniffling. In spite of her feelings toward Wiccans in general, mom loved Diana.
Violet and I stood with our arms crossed, shaking our heads.
“Diana, I’m so sorry. That must have been so horrible for you after losing your parents. Now you’ve lost Rafe as well,” Mom said.
“I never liked that Rafe Godwin,” Vi mumbled out of the side of her mouth.
“What are you talking about?” I said. “Everyone liked him. He led a very popular coven in Grand Rapids, did charity work, and was a huge support to Diana and Dylan.”
“No, not everyone.” She shook her head. “The cats don’t trust him. They say he’s not as nice as he seems and they would know. They’re very good judges of character.” Vi nodded once to punctuate.
Slow deep breath. It was my own fault for thinking Vi would have real information about anyone. Her pet psychic abilities were highly exaggerated in my opinion, but she and my mother took it very seriously.
“Okay, well, he’s dead now so the cats don’t have to worry,” I said and turned back to the booth.
“What’s he doing here?” Vi said. I turned to follow her gaze.
Tom Andrews made his way through the crowd. He’d worked at his mother’s booth over the weekend helping to sell her healing herbs and potions. Tom was wearing his police uniform so I assumed he must be working at his day job.
He spotted Diana and Mom and turned in the direction of the booth. At the same time, he tripped over someone’s dragging robe, grabbed a passing woman for support who shrieked and stepped away, which caused the group to scatter around him like an exploding firework. He righted himself and took the last two stumbling steps to Diana’s table and clutched it to keep from falling down. Diana had already rushed to help if he fell and I could still hear the crashes and grunts of the masses as the waves of Tom’s klutziness spread.
As usual, Tom was unaware of the chaos in his wake and struck a pose of calm authority.
“Diana Moonward?” he said.
She cocked her head at him as if maybe he’d sustained a brain injury on his way through the fair.
“You know I am. What’s up, Tom?”
He dropped his officer stance and lowered his voice. “I have to take you in to the station for questioning—I’m really sorry.”
“What! I knew it!” Vi rushed to his side. “I knew Rafe Godwin was murdered!”
Tom turned to Aunt Vi. “How did you . . .”
Diana gasped and the blood drained from her face. Mom squeezed her amulet in her fist and stepped closer to Diana.
“So Vi’s right? He was murdered?” Mom asked.
Tom looked from my aunt to my mother and then shot a pleading glance in my direction.
“I can’t say anything. I just need to ask Diana some questions.”
“Well, we’re going with her!” Vi crossed her arms and stepped between Tom and Diana’s table.
“No, I’ll go with her,” I said. “Diana, text Bethany to come early for her shift and Vi and my mom can cover your table until she gets here.”
Diana fumbled in her pocket for her phone and handed it to me with a shaky hand.
“We can’t do that, Clyde. We don’t know anything about this . . . merchandise.” Mom swept her arm over the table, and shook her head.
“We can do it, Rose. Selling is selling, right? We can always tell the customers to come back in an hour if we can’t answer their questions.” Vi was already rolling up her sleeves and rearranging the table.
“Well, okay. Thanks.” Diana stepped from behind the table and grabbed my hand.
“I’ll drive her and we’ll meet you there, Tom,” I said. “You aren’t arresting her are you?” Diana squeezed my hand, hard.
“No. I’ll explain when we get there.” He glanced at the small gang that had gathered at Diana’s table. “Nothing to see here, folks. Go about your business.” He pushed his way through the throng, which gave him a wide berth, and we followed.
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