Magick and Murder - Chapter 3

The latest unedited chapter of Book 3 in the Millersburg Magick Mysteries series.

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Kirsten scrambled to her feet. Mom and Jo stood side-by-side. Fireballs glowed in their hands. The crowd murmured, their hate and fear evident, but none of them dared to take a step forward.

“You dare to threaten us in front of officers of the law?” Simon sneered.

“You assaulted a citizen of Millersburg.” Police Chief Patricia Hall marched toward the standoff.

She wasn’t alone. Three more officers followed her. In the distance, sirens wailed. The chief must have called the sheriff’s department for backup. She stopped beside Kirsten.

“Are you all right, Ms. Wilson?” Chief Hall eyed her with a bit of worry.

Kirsten rubbed her diaphragm. “I had worse from a Tri-Valley player during last year’s tournament.” It hurt to take more than a shallow breath, but she was pretty sure nothing was broken.

“Would you like to press charges?”

“She’s a child,” one of the women in the crowd said.

“I’m not the one dumb enough to assault a child in front of five law officers,” Chief Hall replied mildly. “Or her mother.”

“She tried to kill us.” Simon jabbed his right index finger in the direction of Mom. Several of his cronies nodded and muttered in agreement.

“If I wanted to kill you, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Mom said calmly.

“I want to file charges,” Jo spat. “Take a look at what these asshats did to my window. One of them threw a stone through my window. They’re damn lucky they didn’t hurt anyone.”

Chief Hall eyed the window and turned back to the crowd. “One of you want to take responsibility, or shall I charge everyone with disorderly conduct?”

“We have a right to defend ourselves,” Simon shouted.

“You don’t have a right to vandalize property and tie up downtown traffic,” Chief Hall said. Someone in the direction of South Mason Street honked their car horn as if to emphasize the police chief’s point.

“You can’t violate our first amendment rights!” Simon shouted. That seemed to be his method for dealing with things when he knew he was losing.

Kirsten counted to twenty before the chief smiled and sweetly said, “If that’s the way you want to play it, Mr. Simon.” She raised her voice. “Officers, every protest participant get a ticket if they don’t get back on the sidewalk in ten seconds. Ten, nine, eight…”

Most of the protestors scrambled back to the sidewalk in front of the courthouse, everyone except for Simon and a couple of others.

“Seven, six, five…” Chief Hall continued. Kirsten held her breath.

“Get on the sidewalk,” Simon said over his shoulder. Even as the last of his followers retreated, he stood toe-to-toe with Mom. “You are going to hell.”

Mom clenched her fists and extinguished the fireballs. “As a member of the press, I also have certain first amendment rights. You’d better remember that.”

Her statement broke Cory’s paralysis at the confrontation. He started snapping more pictures. Kirsten couldn’t blame the guy. The most excitement in town was usually high school games, car accidents, and the occasional fire.

“Two, one.” Chief Hall reached for her handcuffs on her utility belt. “Warren Simon, you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent—”

The rest of what she said was swallowed by a chorus of boos and jeers from the protestors. Sheriffs’ deputies joined the police officers to form a wall between the crowd and the street. Eastbound traffic started to ease down Jackson Street while Chief Hall cuffed Simon.

Jo extinguish her fireballs as well, pivoted on her heel and marched back to her café. However, Mom and Simon continued to glare at each other.

Kirsten grabbed Mom’s arm and tugged on her. “Come on. Let’s get out of the street before Chief Hall has to arrest us, too.”

“Yes, run while you can, witch,” Simon spat.

Mom stepped closer to him. “I’d be very careful about who I threaten if I were you.”

“Rachel, step back,” Chief Hall barked.

“C’mon, Mom.” The last thing Kirsten wanted was to fight publicly with her own mother, but better that than getting into a brawl with the police or the protesters. No one would look good in that situation.

Mom relented, and the two of them retreated to the café. Kirsten glanced over her shoulder. Chief Hall escorted Simon to a squad car, but she stopped and exchanged words with Sheriff Birkheimer.

Inside the coffee shop, Jo took pictures of the damage to her store with her cell phone while Kirsten settled Mom in a chair on the other side of the dining area. Mary hurried back to the cooler and retrieved a bottle of water. She brought it over to Mom who accepted it with a tired smile.

“Thank you, Mary,” Mom murmured. All the tension flowed out of her, but she gripped Kirsten’s hand tightly. “I’m glad you kept your head out there, honey, but you shouldn’t have confronted those idiots.”

“Me confront them?” Kirsten squeezed Mom’s hand. “I seem to recall it was you and Jo tossing threats and fireballs. Besides, I was only trying to get Jo back inside before she did something stupid.”

“Me do something stupid?” Jo lowered her phone. “I didn’t start throwing rocks.”

The bell hanging on the door rang. Everyone jumped. Sheriff Birkheimer appeared poked his head around the edge. “Can I come in, ladies?”

“That depends,” Jo folded her arms over her chest. “What are you planning to do?”

“Now, Jo, you know I’m not your enemy.” He removed his hat and ran his hand over his short brown hair. “I’m here to make sure you guys are all right, and take your statements regarding the broken window.”

He pulled out his notebook and pen from his pocket. For the next half hour, he asked questions of the four people in the coffee shop when the rock crashed through the window. Another deputy came in and took pictures. Jo’s phone rang, and she disappeared back in her office to discuss the damages with her insurance company.

“Why are you really keeping us here, Jimmy?” Mom adopted the same cross-armed, wide feet posture Jo had when he came in. “You, of all people, know a reporter shouldn’t be part of the story, Rachel.” His tone was calm, but there was something in his eyes.

“Warren Simon wants you to file charges against Mom, doesn’t he?” Kirsten said.

“His lawyer has already called the mayor and the county commissioners.” Sheriff Birkheimer was obviously not happy about the situation from the way he fidgeted. “If we file charges against him, it’ll be all over the national news that we didn’t hold a witch to the same standards as a Normal.”

Mom jabbed her left index finger in Kirsten’s direction. “They threatened my daughter!”

“But they didn’t throw a fireball at her.” The sheriff played with the brim of his hat.

“No, they threw a stone through my aunt’s shop window!” The unfairness of the entire situation galled Kirsten, even though she knew how this would end.

“Did any of you get pictures or video of the jerk who threw it?” he asked.

Kirsten sagged. Mom, Mary, and Rose all shook their heads.

“They’ve got video of Mom throwing the fireball, don’t they?” Kirsten hugged herself.

“Yeah.” Sheriff Birkheimer grimaced. “Damn thing’s already been uploaded to the Humanity Now website and getting hits. It doesn’t make you look good, Rachel.”

Mom muttered a two-word phrase Kirsten had never heard her say, but it definitely applied to the protesters. Mary covered her mouth with both hands, her eyes wide.

“Tell Jo I’ll swing by with the incident when I get my coffee in the morning.” The sheriff replaced his hat and nodded to everyone. He and the deputy with the camera left.

“What do we do about the window?” Mary asked.

“We clean up the glass and see if we can get a delivery from the lumberyard in the next hour,” Kirsten said. She head for the back room of the store to fetch the broom, the dustpan, and the huge heavy-duty rubber trash can.

Simon had definitely been trying to goad Jo into doing something stupid. Unfortunately, Mom delivered what the Humanity Now idiots wanted. Now, they knew why, but what on earth did they do to stop the organization form using that blasted video against all supernaturals?