Page 6 of Ogre on Patrol (Monsters, PI #5)
Chapter 6
Thain
B est friends still, huh? After what happened, I was shocked. Although, apologies could go a long way between friends.
Not so long when it came to fiancés.
“I wouldn’t think you two would stay in touch,” I said, sounding Ellie out.
“Why wouldn’t we? Just because of...” She growled. “I told myself I was not going to talk about that , and I’m sticking to that vow.”
Very well. Maybe they were able to put it behind them. I sure hadn’t. It hurt to think she’d made a choice, and it wasn’t me.
Ellie crossed her arms on her chest, tapping out a beat on her sleeve. The move made Crouton look at her before tossing me a look of betrayal from where he still snuggled on her lap.
Smart dog. If only I could snuggle there too.
“Ophelia has no reason to be involved in whatever this is.” Ellie’s chin tilted up. “A best friend would never do anything like that.”
“That’s one way of seeing it,” I said with care. “You know her better than me. But if we’re being thorough in this investigation, nobody’s automatically off the list.”
Her nostrils flared, the stubborn set of her jaw sparking heat inside me. It wasn’t anger but something hotter, something I didn’t want to name. “Ophelia wouldn’t hurt me or my business.”
“Uh-huh.” My hand paused over my phone’s screen as I glanced up. “And if it turns out she’s involved?”
“Not possible,” she snapped, her fingers tightening on her sleeves. “Maybe you need to spend less time accusing innocent people and help me come up with those who actually would be involved.”
“Ellie.” The warning in my voice was subtle, as subtle as an ogre could make it. “I’m here to help, alright? But if you don’t give me every name to consider, every angle to check out, I won’t have much to work with.”
She huffed, brushing a stray strand of hair from her forehead. “Fine. Put her down.” She watched me like the couch might eat me whole if she wished hard enough, while I studiously typed and refused to rise to her bait.
Silence settled between us like the aftermath of a fight that wasn’t over. I shut my phone off, leaning back on the couch. I should leave. There was nothing else for me here.
But something held me back.
“So.” I gestured at Crouton curling deeper into Ellie’s lap. “I’m guessing if I leave and take my dog with me, there’s going to be trouble.”
Her lips pressed flat enough they might disappear entirely. “Let me know when you’re done joking around so I can pretend to laugh.” She rose and handed Crouton to me.
Notification I should leave, then, right?
I rose and nodded. “I’ll come by tomorrow?” It was getting dark, and it had started to rain again. “I’d like to look around some more.”
“Sure.”
She walked me to the back door, and after giving her one long look, I left, driving my truck to my small house I bought after she and I broke up.
It was a long night.
The next day, I drove to her place, finding her putting away her breakfast dishes when I arrived.
“I’ll go look around,” I said, and she nodded, closing the door in my face. Well, not slamming it or anything. It was warm enough outside to draw out mosquitoes, and I was sure she was trying to avoid bites.
That’s what I told myself as I looked around her property and studied the woods behind the greenhouses where I saw no movement. Though it was raining still, and that made it harder to see.
I didn’t find anything new or gain any information from touch and returned to her house, knocking on the kitchen door. Inside, she urged me to sit in her living room, and we went through our sparse clues and suspect list, not coming up with any new conclusions.
“Maybe this is it,” I said. “Whoever did this will leave you alone.”
“I hope so. I called my insurance company. They said they’d send someone out within the next few days. They also said you’re welcome to touch but don’t mess up the site.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” I waved to Crouton, who’d taken his favorite spot on her lap again. “I should probably visit with you a little longer. Give him a chance to snuggle with?—”
“I don’t think I want you?—”
Someone knocked on her front door, yanking us away from whatever we were about to say. Whatever I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear her say.
Ellie lifted Crouton to her chest like he was a wiggling stuffed animal and slid off the chair, striding toward the front entrance on the opposite side of the room.
The door creaked open before she could reach it, and in swept Nana Bea, the formidable head of the Landish family. Mystic Harbor’s unofficial queen of witches. Glamorous and sharp-eyed, she still wore her auburn hair swept up in an intricate arrangement that screamed don’t mess with me, or else. She breezed into the room, noting me sitting on the couch with a faint wrinkle of her nose.
“What,” Nana Bea asked, holding up a newspaper in front of Ellie's face like a weapon, “is the meaning of this?”
“Oh, he was just leaving.” Ellie shot me a wild-eyed look. “Weren't you?”
I stood. “Actually, I was?—”
“I wasn't speaking of him , though we'll get to that in due time,” Bea said with a huff. She shook the newspaper. “I meant this. This!”
“Let me see.” Ellie lowered Crouton to the floor, and he sat, looking up at her forlornly. She took the newspaper from her grandmother and spread it out at eye level, frowning at the front page. “Local Theater Renames Annual Play ‘Muffin Madness’ Amidst Baking Controversy.”
I joined them, studying the front page. A cartoon muffin, complete with a goofy smile, pranced across the page partway through the article.
“What does this have to do with anything?” Ellie asked.
Nana Bea rolled her eyes. “I cannot believe you don't see how shocking this is.” She tutted. “First, they host a bake sale, and now they're changing their entire schedule for a baked good? This town is losing its priorities. We need to get to the bottom of this muffin mess and soon.”
Ellie skimmed through the article. “You can’t be serious. I've got an actual crime to solve, and you’re worried about muffins?”
“What crime?” Bea snapped.
“One that Thain's working on right now. I planned to tell you once you were home.”
“Which I am,” Bea said with a huff.
Ellie explained about her greenhouse, plus someone knocking over the shelving unit in her propagation room.
“Bad luck?” Nana Bea asked.
“The table? Sure. Then someone broke all the windows in my small greenhouse and slammed through the ordrids.”
“Ah.” Bea’s eyes widened. “I was hoping you’d give me one of the pink ones. I had the perfect spot where I wanted to place it.”
“They’re all dead. It'll take me months to start new ones from seed, and I wouldn’t be able to do that until the glass is replaced. With the daylight getting shorter, I'll have to wait until spring. I've lost an entire year.”
“You need to handle this,” her grandmother told me sternly.
“I'm on it already.”
She gave me a pert nod. “Despite my dismay about the muffin madness, that isn't my biggest concern. Page two, if you please. We need to come up with a plan to diffuse this and fast.” She smoothed her hands down her burnished orange coat, plucking off a piece of a fallen leaf and tucking it into her pocket.
Ellie flipped through the newspaper and paused, reading, her eyes widening with each line. Shock filled her face, followed by a shimmer of tears in her eyes. I clenched my fists, ready to kill whoever had made her feel this way.
The paper slipped from her grip, fluttering to the floor. Crouton trotted forward to sniff it, releasing a low growl.
I reached down and picked it up, glaring at the headline, Local Horticulturist Under Fire for Illegal Plant Harvesting .
“That’s ridiculous,” I snarled, scanning the details. The article painted Ellie as some kind of botanical bandit, digging protected plants from the local nature reserve. I didn’t believe a word of it, and neither should anyone else.
Ellie’s breathing hitched, the sound wrenching through my insides.
Her arms dropped to her sides, and her voice was tinged with disbelief. “This could ruin me. Actually, with the ordrids dead, this will ruin me.” Her legs wavered, and she sunk down onto a chair, cupping her face in her palms.
“They’ve got nothing.” My voice came out rough, gravelly in the way only ogres could pull off without scaring those around them. “Your customers know you. They’ll see this for the garbage it is.”
“But if they don’t?” She clutched Crouton close, her defenses cracking for the first time since she’d come to me to help her with this case. “This isn’t a minor scandal. If people think I’m harvesting endangered plants, no one will want to work with me.” Her voice quavered before sharpening into steel. “This has to be connected. Whoever’s behind the damage here must’ve planted this story too. ”
I studied the name in the byline. They'd soon be hearing from me.
Nana Bea stood nearby with her mouth pursed, clearly biting her tongue for Ellie’s sake.
“I’ll track whoever fed this to the press, but I want to go through those plants and the structure itself again.” I was going to handle each piece of glass until I determined who was responsible for this.
Ellie tilted her chin up, her stubbornness returning as quickly as it had vanished. “Then what are you waiting for?”
Good. The witch I knew wasn’t done yet.