Chapter One Hundred - Where’s the Mistletoe When You Need It?

With my pulse like a jackhammer in my ears, I bolted upright in bed.

I knew where Studmuffin was. Now I just had to rescue him.

I scrambled for my phone in the dark, juggling it a few times before my hands grasped it, and dialed Detective Palmer first since he had access to the jail cells in the police station. Straight to voice mail, probably because it was nope o’clock, even for him.

Who else would be up at this hour and willing to help? Travis. Of course Travis.

My heart skidded sideways with glee because I already knew he would pick up. And when he did and I told him we could get into serious trouble for what we were about to do, the first words out of his mouth were, “What time?”

Those words, his voice, were music to my ears.

“Now,” I choked out. “Meet me at Eleventh Chocolate.”

Before I left, I stuffed my pockets with supplies and some of Dad’s leftover cookies, because you just never know. Then, once I retrieved my broom from Bernadette, I said, “Open sesame” and put it inside the ether in case I needed it.

As soon as we both arrived at Eleventh Chocolate, I flung myself out of Bernadette and skated over the snow toward him at full speed. Then I pinched his nose, and when nothing purple happened, I threw my arms around him and squeezed, breathing in his calm and leather and peaches scent.

“He’s in the police station, Travis,” I said, “but this won’t be easy.”

He chuckled, snowflakes collecting on his long lashes. “Name one thing worthwhile that’s easy.”

Somehow, I smiled at that. “Wise words.”

“I have nothing but time to improve my wisdom. Just make sure you’re around to hear it for the next…oh, seventy-five years or so?”

“Will do.” I loosened my hold on him enough to look him in the eyes. “Thank you.”

Before I could change my mind, I leaned up and kissed him. He kissed me right back, and almost everything about this moment felt perfect. I just needed one furry thing to make it purrfect.

When we broke away from each other, Travis stumbled back, his eyes glazed and his mouth hanging open. Then he shouted, “Yeeeeee-hawwwww!”

“Shh, Travis, no.”

“I think I got it out of my system. Let’s go get my bestie,” he blurted, his words a mile a minute. “No, wait. Yeeee—”

Laughing, I covered his mouth with my hand. “Stop. Save it for later.”

“-ll –ere –e more kss-g la-er?” he asked, his voice muffled.

I translated that to mean, “Will there be more kissing later?” and then answered, “It depends on how this rescue goes.”

He took my hand from over his mouth, grasped it firmly in his, and marched us down the snowy sidewalk in the direction of the police station. “Then what are we waiting for? I’ve got my Studmuffin-approved boots on. What could go wrong?”

“A lot. Everything. But if he’s really in there, I won’t be walking out of there without him.”

“Just tell anyone who gets in your way what my dad used to tell me: never corner something meaner than you. And you have the right to be extra mean if someone from the police department stole your cat.”

I peered at him closely through the falling snow. “Marcus Black told you that advice?”

He nodded. “Stealing the business out from under your dad was bad, obviously, but there were good parts about him too. Like Gran’s influence on him.”

“Like yours too,” I said, nudging him. “You’re a good part about him too.”

“Mm, debatable, but yeah. Maybe.” He grinned, the devious kind that was my favorite. “He also told me to never squat with my spurs on.” He tapped his temple. “I never have, and I never will, thanks to him.”

I chuckled. “Well, for your sake, I’m glad.”

We rounded the final corner, nearing the station.

“What’s our plan here other than not getting cornered and not wearing spurs?” I asked.

“I go in and gauge how much flirting will be required to distract whoever’s at the front desk. You use that distraction to find Studmuffin.”

“Easy-peasy.” I grinned up at him. “It’s like we’ve been training for this our whole lives.”

He grinned back, his shoulder brushing mine as we closed in on the police station. “Our whole lives and most of my dead life. Let’s go make some magic happen, shall we?”

He swept open the door while I held back, waiting.

“Why, it’s Joanie, as I don’t live or breathe,” Travis announced loudly as he entered.

“Uh, what?” Joanie, the pretty blonde officer at the front desk, asked.

“What’s happening? How’ve you been? Is that a new perfume you’re wearing because wow… It’s…wow.”

Okay, probably because I’d heard Travis flirt with me countless times, I could now tell when his flirting was genuine and when it wasn’t…and this was so not. I barely held back a snort as I dropped to all fours and crawled into the station.

“Thanks,” Joanie said. “Are you just here to compliment me on my perfume, or did you need something at four thirty in the morning during a blizzard in the middle of summer?”

Travis chuckled. “I’m so glad you asked…”

I was a little bummed I didn’t get to hear his made-up reason, but I was already darting past the front desk and down the hall toward the evidence room. This part of the police station was familiar since I’d been here so many times, but from here, I had no idea where to go. Thankfully, the building appeared empty, so if I tried every door, maybe no one would notice.

I swung right, facing a long hall of doors on the left and empty desks on the right. Between the doors hung photos and newspaper articles about Belle’s Cove’s finest. Briefly, I glanced at them while I tried the doors. All locked with a key. Too bad Travis hadn’t given me lock-picking lessons.

One particular photo stood out though. It was a magazine article of an officer I didn’t know wearing a leather braided chain. It was the exact same chain Parker Lee had been clutching when I found his dead body, only this guy’s had a silver coin clasped to it. I couldn’t make out the details of the coin though, but it sort of looked like a quarter. Was this officer involved in all of this somehow?

I snapped a quick photo and sent it to Travis with a whispered voice-to-text: Ever seen this on any other officer?

While I waited for him to answer me back, I studied the photo and article a little closer. At the bottom, in teeny-tiny print that shimmied all over the page before I could pin the letters down, it read Belle’s Cove Police Magazine.

Of course! CE Magazine, like the print I saw on my second ransom note. I could already tell I was getting closer to finding my favorite familiar.

I crept farther down the hallway. At the very end of the hall stood another door, this one with a keypad similar to the evidence room’s.

OCTOPUS, I typed in. Pretty sure I’d never forget that password.

Except it didn’t work. The red light on the keypad blinked. Either that had been the password just for the evidence room, or it had been changed since the last time I’d used it.

What else? What else could it be? This time I didn’t have a time-traveling Other Me to help me out.

Joanie’s muttered voice rose as if she were standing and coming this way.

Oh no. Think, Victoria, think.

My phone chimed with a text from Travis. Yeah, the one Cass gave me at Parker’s shop. It’s not a quarter for bail money. Joanie’s wearing one too.

Joanie?! Had she summoned the Ring of Everlasting Night from my pocket? Had she stolen something from Detective Palmer to make the Perfect Disguise potion so someone who looked like the detective could try to steal the ring from the evidence room? Had she catnapped Studmuffin too? I already knew she didn’t like him based on our past visits here.

She wasn’t my first priority though. I’d deal with her in a minute.

Does it say anything? I voice-to-texted him back.

Footsteps beat toward me in a steady rhythm, unlike my heart. I had to hurry.

I blinked at the keypad’s letters, all of them dancing over each other to form a puzzle I desperately needed to solve. And quickly.

“What does it mean?” Travis shouted from the direction of the front desk.

At the same time, my phone chimed with another text from him. It was a picture of the coin Cass found at Parker’s shop, the one she’d given Travis for safekeeping. Random letters ringed the coin: YJIDBCY RZ YVIXZ.

“What?” Joanie asked from much too close.

“Your necklace,” he said, trotting closer. “What does it mean?”

“It’s just a necklace.” A note of suspicion coated her voice. “Why do you ask?”

The letters’ tips on the coin necklace had arrows that pointed right or left. This was the Coven of the Keeping Hand’s code! But I didn’t have time to crack two codes at once. I needed to figure out the one to the keypad first.

Joanie’s footsteps came closer.

Unless these codes had the same answer? I focused on the two middle letters, R and Z. Both had arrows pointing left. My fingers shaking, I pulled up the alphabet on my phone and started counting twenty-one letters to the left, all of which refused to stop dancing.

“Don’t you want to see my magic trick?” Travis asked.

“I told you,” Joanie said with a chuckle, much too close. “I have to do my rounds first.”

WE. R and Z were code for “we.” But I was out of time to do the rest. I crouched lower and wiped the sweat from my brow. One of the empty desks hid me, but if Joanie turned the corner…

WE. What phrase did I know with “we” in the middle? And then I knew it.

TONIGHT, I tapped out on the keypad.

“But it’s a once-in-a-lifetime magic trick that expires in the next five seconds,” Travis explained. “It’s now or never.”

She laughed, her footsteps drawing even closer. “Later, okay?”

WE, I continued on the keypad.

I had seconds, if that, before she saw me.

DANCE, I typed out.

Somehow, miraculously, the light on the keypad turned green.

I flashed out my hand, caught the door’s lever, and turned it, not daring to open it just yet because I couldn’t. Not with Joanie this close to me. I needed a distraction. I had a possible one but had no idea if it would work on anyone other than me. Time to find out.

“Light, lighter, lightest,” I said, my shaky voice barely a whisper. “Her arms are now featherweight. High, higher, highest. Her body and spirit shall now levitate.”

Magic flooded through me and flowed outward toward her.

“Aaaaah,” she screeched. “Travis, what are you doing? I said magic tricks come later, not now.”

“Oops. Sorry, um, it just slipped out.” His footsteps pounded toward us. “Uh, better face this way so I can figure out how to get you down.”

Yes, fantastic idea. I dared a peek over the desk and found Officer Joanie bobbing around in midair. Behind her, Travis caught my eye and winked. With Joanie’s back facing both of us as she tried to turn to face him, he dangled a ring of keys in the air at me.

The keys to the jail cells? This guy was such a keeper.

I grinned and held up my hand to catch the keyring. He tossed it underhanded, and I easily snatched it out of the air.

Now was my chance. I bolted through the door as fast and as silently as I could.