Alexandra Sokoloff - Book of Shadows

He looked around him for some sign of the shop. Up ahead was a wooden sign hanging by chains depicting a witch figure hunched over a crystal ball and the lettering: Which Witch? Fog rolled from the doorway onto the sidewalk.

Garrett walked up and through the open door. Mist swirled around his feet from the fog machine set just inside. The shop was dim and the music was Hollywood eerie. Amid the shelves of crystals and ceramic objets, a sharp-faced woman in her early forties sat at a round table, dressed in a gypsyish purple skirt and a black fishnet shawl. She looked up from the table and a flicker of interest crossed her features as she took Garrett in.

“May I help you?” she purred.

“I’m looking for a shop called Book of Shadows.”

The gleam in her eyes dulled. “You want Essex West. This is East. But you don’t want her, believe me.”

“Why is that?” Garrett asked automatically.

She smiled, and there was something predatory in it. “Believe it or not, our profession attracts some unstable people. Best to steer clear of that one.” She paused suggestively. “But if it’s a reading you want, I can do one for you. You won’t be sorry.” The glitter was back in her eyes, an unmistakable invitation.

“Thanks anyway,” he said, and moved out of the shop.

Garrett found his car again and breathed easier as soon as he was off the main drag. Essex West was a few blocks off the downtown center, a quiet residential street. The house at 411 was a two-story Victorian and well maintained. A discreet hand-carved and painted sign on a column of the porch read:

There were lights in the big picture window downstairs and the columns of the porch were crossed with dried cornstalks, which Garrett had seen on many of the lampposts, street signs, and porch pillars while driving into town. Some witch thing, no doubt. Otherwise, the outside of the shop was devoid of the usual flamboyant Halloween paraphernalia, and there was no fog machine. That, at least, was a point in Cabarrus’s favor.

Garrett cruised by the shop and then parked his Explorer half a block down the street so he could approach the house on foot. A small, lit sign in the window said OPEN and so he reached for the knob and walked in.

A tinkling bell announced his presence, and a white cat curled on the counter beside the cash register lifted its head to regard Garrett with green-glass eyes.

Aside from the cat, the shop was empty and very still, but there was—there was no other way to say it—an energy about it. Candles flickered in wrought-iron candelabra, diffusing a subtle and intoxicating fragrance.

It looked to be four downstairs rooms: the one Garrett was in, two book-lined rooms to either side of it, and a back room with its doorway concealed by a deep blue velvet curtain embroidered with glittering stars and planets. Glass jewelry cases displayed hand-wrought ornaments of silver, and gemstones on velvet stands. A wall of shelves behind the counter was lined with herbs and powders in glass jars. Another case held an assortment of card decks, variations of the Tarot; silver wands set with crystals, mysterious lumps in velvet pouches—and gleaming silver daggers. Garrett felt his pulse jump at the sight.

And still no one emerged from the back room. Very trusting, Garrett thought. Or maybe there’s some kind of spell on the place.

Since he was alone, and curious, he stepped into the next room to peruse the shelves.

He took a book out of a shelf at random and looked at the back cover—sure enough, the silver Book of Shadows sticker was on the bottom right corner. Then he gave the room an appraising glance, and stepped to a bookcase labeled “MAGICK” and a shelf labeled “C,” where he quickly located the same books he’d found in Jason Moncrief’s dorm room: Aleister Crowley’s The Book of the Law… The Vision and the Voice… Magick in Theory and Practice…

He heard movement in the main room, and low voices. He turned, walked quietly toward the doorway. He stepped to the side of the door and looked carefully around the door frame.

Tanith stood in front of the silver-starred velvet curtain with a petite young woman, college age at most, dressed in black tank top and jeans, with a punkish blond pageboy, and ear and nose and eyebrow piercings. The gold glitter eye shadow on and under her eyes was marred by streaks of tears… she was still crying as she turned impulsively to Tanith and threw her arms around her, hugging her hard.

Garrett barely heard her whispered, “Thank you.” Tanith took her hand and tucked what looked like a small drawstring bag into her palm.

“Blessed Be,” Tanith said, and stroked her cheek.

The girl took a step back, then walked toward the door shakily. She turned to give Tanith an ambiguous glance before she pushed quickly out the door. Tanith stood with her back to Garrett, watching the girl leave…

Then without turning, she spoke aloud in that velvety voice, “Detective Garrett.”

Garrett felt both a shock and a rush of heat at her words. Tanith Cabarrus turned slowly to face him. She was backlit by the starry lights decorating the store, which emphasized the fall of her dark hair and the tiny tightness of her waist. She was corseted, he thought mindlessly, she must be; he could have spanned her waistline with his hands. The thought and sight did not improve his disposition in the least.

“What a surprise,” Cabarrus said, her eyes on his face and her voice dripping with irony.

“You didn’t see me coming?” he shot back, without thinking. “I thought that was your job.”

He saw the curl of a smile on her mouth. “It’s been a slow day,” she said. “Perhaps it will improve,” she added, and it was all he could do not to shove her against the wall and take her there. Her eyes gleamed at him. “And what can I do for you?” she asked in a sultry drawl, as if she knew exactly what he was thinking.

“Who was that girl?” he demanded.

“A client,” she said, and did not elaborate. They locked eyes, staring at each other in the glimmering dark.

“I had some more questions about the case,” Garrett said evenly. “I’m sorry to drop in unannounced.”

She smiled with bitter amusement at the lie. “What questions would those be? You’ve indicted your man. You’ve closed the case. What more do you want?”

Garrett answered patiently. “All an indictment means is that we have probable cause for a trial. I’m still building the case.”

“But your mind is made up,” she challenged him.

He hesitated. “I have questions.”

She looked at him sharply, then something changed in her face and she smiled at him, but he noticed it didn’t reach her eyes.

“Will you have some tea, then?”

His face must have betrayed him because she glanced toward the racks of herbs and added with exaggerated innocence, “Nothing exotic. Just Earl Grey, if you like.”

She turned and stepped through the silver-studded curtain at the back of the room. Garrett stood still in the doorway, then crossed the polished wood floor and moved through the curtain, feeling velvet brush against his face. He found himself in a small, dark-painted room lit only by standing candelabra. Two ornate, high-backed Victorian chairs were set on opposite sides of a round table; a deck of Tarot cards lay in the center of the table. He smelled incense and patchouli.

Cabarrus crossed to the table and folded the cards into a dark piece of silk, then set them on a shelf. She turned to a hot plate on a narrow table and removed a teapot, from which she poured amber liquid into two cups. She brought the cups to the table and set them down before she sat, with that perfectly straight back, and indicated the opposite chair.