Page 12 of Welcome to Fae Cafe
Cress laid his hands along Whyp’s temples. “I can’t even take a breath anymore without the whole North High Court watching me. How could I do something about this?”
Mor hesitated, but after a moment, he drew over and placed his hands lightly over Cress’s on Whyp’s temples.
Immediately, Cress’s mind filled with a bright picture of a human female with brown-green eyes, dark burgundy hair, and a tattoo peeking from her yellow collar. A book was tucked beneath her arm. A name was scribbled on the back in shiny black ink.
5
Kate Kole and the Present
Kate stared at the calculator blankly, not caring for the first time in a while that only negative numbers stared back after she added up every penny to her name. She sighed and dug her fingers into her hair as she leaned against the café counter. A bowl of chocolate-covered strawberries gave off the aroma of sweet fruit and cocoa beside her face. She inhaled it, trying to muster its potent powers of relaxation. She’d thought maybe stopping at thePasty Fruit Shackand getting a dozen of her favourite treats on her walk home would soothe her racing mind, but it seemed even the whimsical store with candy apples and nutty fudge in the windows didn’t have any magic left for Kate tonight.
The only good thing about being completely alone was that you could burp, sneeze, cough, sing, or talk to yourself when you wanted, where you wanted, with no consequences. Kate began to hum an indie band song she knew at a pitch high enough to make dogs cry. After a painful minute of it, she cleared her throat and got serious.
The café was empty of life, light, and answers. Only the dirty wall sconces gave the storefront any illumination. Kate had meant to restore the fireplace in the corner before the café’s opening day, along with a handful of other tasks still waiting to be done. As it was, this place was still quieter, dirtier, and more run down than an abandoned building.
Her knuckles drummed a slow beat on the counter’s surface. “You’d better save us,” she said to the empty storefront. “Or I’ll seriously be in trouble.”
She wasn’t above begging. She would beg the unpainted walls, the rusty coffee maker in the corner, and the cabinets with crooked doors. She would beg the bugs on the walls if she thought they would listen.
Not that it mattered. Even if the café did well in its first year and paid off Kate’s debts, she wouldn’t be able to bask in the glory of being debt-free if she was in jail for murder.
What if the police found the body? What if they showed up for her tonight and dragged her off to spend the rest of her life behind bars? What would happen to Grandma Lewis if Kate was taken away after everything else the old woman had already been through?
Kate stopped doodling on the budget clipboard when she realized she’d scribbled in deep, cutting strokes:WHY DOESN’T ANYONE REMEMBER?
She stared at it for a few moments. Then she tore off the corner of the paper and crumpled it.
The café bell rattled, and Lily marched in, panting. Spirals of her hair stuck out from her blonde bun. She stopped inside the door and leaned forward with her palms on her knees to catch her breath.
“Did you run here?” Kate asked.
“Are you crazy, Kate?! You can’t trust other cops!” Lily sprang back up and yelled. She left footprints in the dust on the floor as she marched over. “Why didn’t you call me? I had to find out fromOfficer Westbowthat some crazy girl namedKate Kolecame into the station shouting that she killed someone!”
Kate grabbed the sandpaper and started scrubbing at the dried putty on the cabinets. “I forgot my phone. That’s why I didn’t call you,” she said. “And wecantrust cops. Don’t let your pretentious partner make you think otherwise. He’s one of a kind.”
“You’re lucky Westbow didn’t recognize you from the annual fundraiser last year! Why didn’t you ask for me at the station?”
“I did. You weren’t there.”
Lily’s exasperated breath filled the dusty air. She untangled her arms from her police vest and ripped at the buttons of her shirt until she was in only her under-tank. She tossed her uniform on the counter and squatted beside the cupboard Kate was working on until Kate met her eyes. “Unreal,Kate,” she said.
“What was I supposed to do? It was an emergency!” As she said it, Kate stole a glance toward the windows to search for red and blue flashing lights outside.
“Why did Westbow say some medicated university student thought she killed someone today?”
“Because I did.” Kate dropped the sandpaper and stood. “I totally killed someone,” she rasped in a loud whisper. “But I’m pretty sure no one believes me.”
Lily folded her arms, showing the collage of tattoos inked up her muscled forearms. “I believe you. Which is why we need to get moving, because if there’s a body out there somewhere, Kate, we need to find it before anyone else does—”
“There’s not.” Kate drew a glass from the cupboard. She filled it up at the sink and drank, thinking of a tossed book and spilled coffee, thinking of vanished bodies and smiling cashiers. Of Lily’s whole career getting ruined over this.
Lily scratched her jaw. “I’m no detective, but if you really killed someone, there should be a body—”
“It’s gone!” Kate slammed the glass down on the counter so hard, it cracked. She bit her lips together. “Sorry, I know you’re just trying to help. It’s been a weird day and I’m super hangry.”
“No kidding.” Lily took the drill off the counter and dragged over the case of screws like she needed to find something for her hands to do. She paused and chewed on the inside of her cheek. “Are you okay?”
Kate’s eye twitched. She swept the cracked glass into the garbage. “I’m fine. Right now, I just need to eat a thousand pounds of burgers and get some sleep so I can think straight.” She glanced back out the windows at the dark street. The alley looked empty, and the lights were off at the breakfast diner across the road. It didn’t mean a SWAT team wasn’t hiding out there, preparing to storm the storefront.
