Page 55 of Witch and Tell
Beata had been right. Poor Tyrone. He hadn’t deserved this. “What else are they saying?”
“Speculation is that you’re setting Ian up as the murderer. You’re making a big deal about them being from the same town.”
“You’ve got to be joking.” Looking for Ian was what had gotten me into this whole mess. Emotion stormed in my chest like a hurricane, and I teetered on the edge of sobbing. Then, strangely, I burst into laughter. I laughed until my torso ached and tears dampened my cheeks. Roz stared at me without comprehension.
“What’s so funny?” Sam stood in the conservatory’s doorway. My breath stuck in my throat. I’d always found him handsome, but today his early receding hairline and intent gaze pitched even more longing into my heart. Had I told him how much I loved him when I’d had the chance? Did he know the hundred ways I appreciated him: his cooking skills, his focused listening, his gentleness with Nicky, his firm sense of right and wrong?
“I just—Roz thinks….” As quickly as laughter had consumed me, now seeing Sam’s distant expression, I wanted to cry. “Can I help you?”
He lifted a clear zip-top bag with something thin and stained red coiled inside. “I found this in the brush out back, on the slope to the river.”
My heart dropped. I had a hunch I knew exactly what it was and what it meant for me. I squeezed my eyes shut.
“What is it?” Roz asked, saving me the trouble.
“A zip tie, the long type found on construction sites. Almost certainly used to strangle Tyrone Beaudrie.” He lowered his arm. My eyes, now open, followed the bag.
“The murder weapon,” I said. So that was how Beata was going to do it. That’s how she’d make sure I was locked away for good.
“I’m sending it to the lab right now.” Sam’s expression was impossible to read, despite the hours I’d spent gazing at it over the past months. “Josie, by tomorrow morning, I’ll have a search warrant.”
I had to find Tyrone’s murderer, and I had to find him now. I opened my mouth to tell Roz I needed to leave, but she beat me to it.
“You go,” she said. “I’ll take care of the library.”
Roz might have expected me to trudge upstairs to pull a quilt over my head and weep. Instead I made my way for the kitchen door and strode down the hill to town. Sam’s SUV was already gone, the zip tie with him. Every minute counted.
I took a left into the Magnolia Rolling Estates. Breathless, I knocked on Ian’s door.Please let him be home, I prayed.
Lalena, her expression stern, appeared behind the screen. “What do you want?”
For a moment, I was taken aback. Then I remembered my conversation with Roz. “You think I murdered Tyrone Beaudrie and am trying to pin it on Ian.”
“I don’t think you murdered anyone.” She looked at her feet. “You wouldn’t do that. But at the café, they’re saying you’re the prime suspect, and you’re looking for somewhere to cast the blame.”
She looked wary but didn’t close the door. I took that as encouragement. “I’m not trying to pin anything on Ian. Please. I need to see him.”
“Let her in,” Ian said. He’d rolled up behind Lalena.
Lalena reluctantly stepped aside.
“Thank you,” I said. “I need to find out who killed Tyrone. Someone is setting me up for it.”
“Have a seat,” Ian said. “Slow down, and tell us what’s on your mind.”
Lalena remained silent.
I looked at them both, then took the couch. Lalena would come around eventually. “Sam found a zip tie in the bushes, and he thinks it’s what was used to kill Tyrone. It’s at the crime lab by now. The thing is….”
“The thing is what?” Ian prompted.
I hated to say it. “The thing is, I think they’ll find my fingerprints on it. Or something that will incriminate me.” How Beata would pull it off, I didn’t know, but I knew she’d pull it off somehow. Perhaps she’d collected one of my hairs. Or—the cup of coffee she’d made me when she’d given me the sheet with my initials and the glyph. She might have lifted my fingerprints from the mug.
“What makes you so sure?” Lalena asked.
There was no way I could explain it that they would understand. “I’m asking you to believe me.”
Lalena looked at Ian. “Why should I?”