Chapter 3

THREE

I held on to my phone like it was my lifeline. “ What’s wrong?”

Murmurs of conversations and a couple of shouts came through the line, then Key spoke again. “ Can you come to Lincoln Street ? Where the movie is being filmed?”

“ Of course. Are you in danger?”

“ No , but… I need your expertise.”

And there was only one thing I was an expert in. It appeared the rumors about the curse might be true after all. “ I’ll be right there.”

I hung up and met Bosko and Dru’s curious stares. “ Sorry to cut this short, but something came up.” I gave Bosko a bright smile. “ I’m so glad you agreed to support Dru .”

He scowled. “ Look here, lady?—”

“ Thank you so much.” I nudged Dru . “ Right , Dru ?”

She flashed her teeth. “ Sure . Thank you, Arthur . I look forward to you support next PBOA meeting.”

I clapped my hands once. “ Wonderful ! Let’s go.” Tugging at Fluffy’s and Rufus’s leashes, I began walking toward the exit end of the narrow shop. “ I love your sweaters, by the way,” I called over my shoulders with a thumbs up. “ Great stuff, keep it coming.”

Once outside, I filled Dru in about Key’s call before she could complain about my less-than-elegant way of securing Bosko’s approval.

“ What do you think it’s about?” she asked, now a lot more interested than irritated.

“ The curse? Maybe there’s some truth to the rumors.”

“ Or maybe Fairy Cakes gave the crew food poisoning and Key doesn’t want to get blamed.”

While there were potions that could alleviate stomach issues, Key would’ve said that first, so I could detour through the shop to pick some up. I told Dru as much.

She harrumphed. “ Sounds more likely than a curse.”

“ But a lot more boring, right?”

“ I do miss watching you get into messes.” A wistful note had entered her voice.

“ Filling out paperwork is mind-numbing, isn’t it?”

“ You have no idea,” she said gloomily.

When we arrived at Lincoln Street , there were more onlookers gathered across from the crew and the cameras, and a lot of movement was happening on the filming side.

Excitement filled me all over again.

Oh , this was so awesome!

I stood on my tiptoes to see over the small crowd but couldn’t find any famous faces walking among the crew. Maybe they were inside the tent? Or at the makeup trailer? Were Key or Shane allowed to take photos inside the set?

Dru dragged me away, and we went to wait at the end of the sectioned-off street, by the Fairy Circle’s van, where fewer people were milling around since you couldn’t see the action.

A pity, if you ask me.

One single security guy guarded this side of the sidewalk, so we stopped one crossing away, and I sent Key a text. Not a minute later, she, Shane , and a young man darted by the security man and approached us.

I let out a breath of relief at seeing Key whole, unbloodied, and with no apparent need for a magical antidote. She and Shane were still wearing the thin Fairy Circle Cakes windbreakers while the young man was dressed in normal jeans and a gray fleece pullover.

Fluffy pushed forward, barking in happiness at the familiar faces. Rufus stood by my side, eyeing the newcomer with suspicion.

“ Hope , you made it,” Key said, out of breath. She bent down to pat Fluffy but her attention didn’t deviate from me. A tentative smile curved her lips.

“ Of course,” I assured her in a warm tone. “ You know I’m here to help.”

She straightened, serious now. “ Hope , Dru , this is Brett . He’s part of Clawstone Park .” Aka a wolf shifter. She gestured toward us. “ Brett , this is Hope and Dru .”

I waved at the shifter. “ Hello , Brett .”

Dru nodded once.

Brett gave us a pained grimace. “ Hey .”

When nothing else followed, I turned to Key . “ Something ”— I peeked around and lowered my voice—“magical happened?”

The three of them exchanged glances. “ We’re not sure,” Key said. “ It’s a bit complicated.”

“ Does it have something to do with the supposed curse on Olmeda ?”

“ You know about that?” she asked in surprise.

“ Jim told me earlier. Why don’t you tell us what’s going on?”

Brett leaned toward Key , and whispered, “ Are you sure we can trust them?”

“ Standing right here,” I supplied with a helpful lift of my hand.

“ They’re good,” Shane said in his usual curt, no-nonsense voice.

“ Cool , cool,” Brett said, rubbing his hands and shifting from foot to foot. Even if shifters ran hotter than normal humans, it was still pretty chilly. He must be freezing.

“ Let’s move out of the wind?” I gestured toward the nearby alleyway. It would also provide us with some privacy.

As if of a hive mind, everyone shuffled around the corner and grouped into a tight circle, Fluffy panting between my legs, and Rufus attached to my hip, still eyeing Brett suspiciously. His protectiveness filled me with an unexpected wave of warmth—had he decided to protect me until Ian came back?

“ Okay ,” I said, trying not to get teary eyed. “ What’s going on, and why do you need my help?” The sooner we got the problem fixed, the sooner I could ask Key to spill all the movie filming secrets. If they were following the books closely, they had to be about to film Lucy following her main suspect then investigating his shop after hours. There was even a chase when she almost got caught! Very exciting stuff.

“ There’s been some strange things happening with the movie sets and crew,” Key told us. “ Things started to go missing.”

“ You suspect theft?”

“ At first,” Brett said. “ But then there were a couple of ‘accidents.’” He air quoted that last word. “ One of the cranes began malfunctioning out of the blue, and one of the girls got her hands burned.”

“ Sabotage ?” If so, no wonder Key had called me. I was kind of an expert in that field.

“ I thought that,” Brett said. “ Or someone playing pranks. But then yesterday when I was helping test the lights, they went haywire and nobody could figure out why.” He ran a hand through his hair. “ I was there when the crane was malfunctioning too and with the girl. I’ve been getting some funny looks, and I caught Harris —that’s the guy in charge of setting up stuff—asking about me yesterday. I was afraid someone would start to think I’m involved and call the police or the bounty hunters on me. Especially if I’m around any more accidents.”

That didn’t sound good. “ So you called Key to help?”

“ Yeah , Shane told me he and Key could poke around and see what they found. He says Key has some experience doing that.”

I resisted the urge to high-five Key right then and there. Her first bounty-hunter-adjacent case! I was so happy for her, I could burst.

“ And you used Fairy Circle’s catering to get inside?” I asked her. If her career contained genius ideas like that, Key was going to be the bounty hunter to beat.

“ One of Alex’s friends works for them,” she explained. “ He agreed to let us take his shift.”

I grinned. “ He’s still getting paid for it, huh?”

Shane snorted. “ You bet.”

“ Also , well…” Brett swallowed, then lowered his voice. “ I’m kind of in a bad spot with Hutton .” He winced, as if remembering some bad scrape. “ There were some, uh, problems during Halloween with the whole Garreth the Hound thing and I got in some trouble with the pack.”

“ And if he finds out now you’re in trouble at the movie set, you’ll get grounded for life?”

He nodded and hung his head in defeat. The number one rule all paranormals followed, no matter their evil proclivities, was to remain hidden from the normal human world. Hutton wouldn’t like it a bit if one of his shifters came into the spotlight for a crime, especially if said shifter was already in trouble.

“ Don’t worry,” I said encouragingly. “ I’m sure we’ll figure this out.”

He grew hopeful. “ You’ll help?”

“ A good witch always helps, no matter the situation. Tell me why you called me today.”

Brett ran a hand through his hair in obvious distress. “ I was in charge of unloading some of the equipment for today’s shoot, but when I got to one of the trunks, I noticed a funny smell. A bit like blood.”

Ah , dark magic. My eternal enemy.

“ There was something off about the area around the latches too,” he continued. “ I thought it might be some kind of potion, so I made an excuse about the trunk being empty and someone misplacing the equipment so nobody would touch it.”

“ Smart ,” I said with approval. “ It might be dangerous stuff.”

“ It just didn’t seem natural, you know? The blood and the discoloration. But I don’t think whoever is messing with the crew used potions before. Why go from minor stuff to that?”

“ An escalation,” I agreed. “ And you’re a possible scapegoat.”

“ Exactly !”

“ I called you to see if you could check if magic was used on the trunk,” Key said.

Magic traces tended to disappear fast unless the spot had been used for magic repeatedly, but if the potion had been meant to affect someone while the crew set up, it should still be fresh. Seeing if magic was involved would give Key a big hint to whether the saboteur was a paranormal or if she was dealing with your garden variety human culprit.

“ Where’s the trunk?” I asked. Goodness , but this was awesome—a magic mystery while experiencing the magic of making movies!

“ We’ll have to get inside,” Key said.

I passed the dogs’ leashes to Dru . “ You lead, I follow.”