Faerie Dust Dead (The Luna Devere Series Book 2) (15 page)

“After I left town, I went to
Chicago and from there I went to Texas and got a job as a foreman on a dude
ranch. Now I own the ranch and several more like them. It’s good to see you,”
he said.

She studied him a moment and
then said, “Somebody is trying to scare the wits out of Luna. Devin, her
fiancé, is due back within a few days, and thank goodness for that, but in the
meantime, somebody has been parading around as a guy name Calis. We began to
think it was you since you used to be an actor,” Annie remarked.

He laughed out loud. “The only
acting I get to do now is when we put on a show at the ranch. Other than that,
I have no time for it. I’d worked in a small theatre group in Chicago until I
realized I wasn’t star material, and would likely starve to death if I didn’t
find a suitable job.”

He pulled his wallet from his
pocket and showed us pictures of the ranch and his family. As he flipped the
wallet closed, I glimpsed his driver’s license. It claimed he was Carlos
Moreland. Relieved that he was who he said, reality struck and I was back to
the same problem I’d had before he arrived.
Who was Calis?
And who was
the almost human faerie who’d wandered through the Junction like she owned it?
What were they up to? And could I believe anything Calis and Arianna said?

I sighed, slugged down a cup of
tea and poured another like I would a shot of whiskey.

While Annie urged Carlos to
talk more and more about his life, I realized she was fishing. She’d egged him
on until he finally stopped talking and turned to me.

“Tell me, have you been talking
to the faeries and pixies? They’re wily, you know.”

Warily, I studied him and
slowly nodded. “You see them, too?”

“Hell, yeah. Ever since I was a
kid. Ari does, too, though I think her split personality has more to do with
her relationship with the fae than her sense of reality does. Somewhere along
the line, Arianna’s schizophrenia took over.” He appeared momentarily sad, and
then said, “It was difficult to see her as her true self one moment and then
someone altogether different, the next. I knew I had to leave town to make a
life for myself and regretted leaving her behind, but frankly, other than the
doctors, there wasn’t much anyone could do for her. She was manic.”

“She behaves a bit oddly,
though she is a marvelous artist,” I said. “Molten glass is her medium and
Arianna produces the loveliest window decorations and glass ornaments I’ve ever
seen. Lately, she’s been a bit off, which is quite concerning.”

“I’ve yet to stop in and see
her, which I’ll do tomorrow. Tonight, I need to get some rest and will be at
the farm. Here’s the phone number I can be reached at, call if you have any
questions, Luna .” Carlos glanced around the shop and then asked, “This is your
business, then?”

“Mine, and mine alone. Dilly
and Annie help me out along with a part-timer, who comes in everyday.”

Carlos grinned, rose from his
chair, and placed the hat on his head as he bid us good-bye.

The instant the door closed,
Dilly was at the table, her eyes wide and her nose twitching as if she had news
she couldn’t wait to share.

“By golly, he’s changed a bit.
So much for that Calis fella being Carlos, huh?”

I gave her a slanted glance and
then said, “Let’s finish up for tonight, shall we?”

With a snort, Annie went on with
the chores she’d left hanging, leaving Dilly to follow suit. While they prepped
the Junction for the next day, I heard Dilly ramble on and on. Whether it
concerned Carlos, or Calis, or anything else in particular, I couldn’t tell,
but I had enough on my mind without thinking of what came out of her mouth.

When they shut the door, I was
finally alone. I stood staring out the window while scratching the cat’s ears
and murmuring niceties to him as he balanced his fat butt on the window sill.
Purring like an idling boat motor, he turned his head to the front lot.
Together, we watched Annie and Dilly drive away. They hadn’t quite reached the
road when Stephanie’s car cruised to a stop, turned into the lot, and parked at
the front steps.
Would the flow of people ever stop?
I muttered as much
to Riddles and went to greet her.

Unable to read her facial
expression, I stared into her eyes hoping for a glimpse of what went on behind
them. No luck there.

“Hey, Stephanie, come on in. I
was getting ready to pack up the last of the cupcakes for the nursing home,
would you like to take some to the station?”

“No, thanks, Luna. Would you
sit down? We need to talk,” she said in a serious tone.

“O-okay,” I stammered and
plopped into the closest chair available.

When she sat across from me,
Stephanie said, “There’s been an incident.”

I nodded, and waited with bated
breath.
What the hell had happened now?

“We found Arianna on the ground
just in from the edge of the woods that are between here and her place.”
Stephanie pulled her cell phone from her pocket and swiftly brought up a photo
that she showed me. “Arianna was covered with sticky, sparkling, web-like
material. Do you have any idea what it is?”

I let out my breath and hauled
in another as I asked, “I-is she, um, uh, unconscious?”

“No, she’s not. I’m sorry to
tell you this, Luna, but Ari’s dead. Do you know anything about that?”

I glanced from Stephanie to my
shaking hands and back again. Then I took her phone and enlarged the photo by
pushing two fingers across the screen. When the image became clear, I studied
it, moving it around the small screen a tad to get a better look. Done with
inspecting Arianna draped in a web of faerie dust, I pushed the phone away.

“You’ll think I’m crazy, but
I’ll be honest and tell you what this is.” I took a deep breath and blurted out
that Arianna had been killed by faerie dust.

“You’re kidding, right?”
Stephanie asked with a look of disbelief.

Somberly, I assured her, “Not
at all.” While she mulled over the information, and realized I wasn’t joking,
Stephanie sat quietly with her hands folded atop the table.

“What else do you know about
Arianna?” she asked.

Hoping she’d believe me, I told
her of Calis, the faerie witch-woman who’d strode through the Junction like a
queen, all that had happened of late to me on the wooded path, and then I summed
up my visits with Arianna.

Her eyes went wide, and she
gasped aloud when I mentioned Carlos Moreland’s visit.

“That can’t be, Luna. We
received a call from the Texas authorities. We were told Carlos Moreland is
dead, that he died in a sky diving accident a year ago. Someone is
impersonating him, and we’ll look into that. You said he’s at the farm?”
Stephanie had picked up her phone and was on the line with the police station
while I nodded. It didn’t take her long to tell the officer to dispatch a car
to the Moreland farm, and take the man into custody on grounds that he was
posing as Carlos Moreland. Satisfied with the answer she received from the
officer, she ended the call.

“What else can you tell me?”
she asked evenly, while she stared at me.

With a shoulder shrug, I said
it depended on what she wanted to know.

“Who is this Calis fellow?”

I said, “I haven’t a clue. He’s
mysterious, afraid of my cat, and shows up whenever he pleases. I admit I’ve
never felt threatened by him. Calis is a weird sort, but I think he’s fairly
harmless.”

Stephanie nodded. “Are you
certain?”

“Fairly… At least, I’m not
fearful when he’s around. I’m baffled, and curious, but not scared. He says
things that wouldn’t make sense to people who don’t see fae folks, but to me,
he’s sensible.” I sighed, leaned back and raised my hands in the air and let
them flop back on the table. I said, “I can’t explain it, but that’s how it
is.” I went on to recall the first meeting Calis and I had with Arianna. “Calis
was angry at Ari’s treatment of the faeries and made no bones about letting her
know. She was frightened of him, and nervous, too.”

“What did this Moreland character
say to you about Ari?”

“He said she was a
schizophrenic. He also said he’d stop by to see her tomorrow.” I leaned forward
and said, “If you had been gone from town for years, and returned suddenly,
wouldn’t you go see the person who’d been your best friend throughout your
childhood? It struck me as odd that he hadn’t seen her right away, but I
thought maybe he had jet lag or something.
And, why come here?
He’s
never met me, I wasn’t around when Moreland lived here. Do you think this is a
con of sorts? He didn’t strike me as a con artist, but then, that’s the point
of being a con artist, the mark isn’t intended to know, right?”

I rubbed my forehead, then my
temples. A fierce headache was on the rise, and close on its heels was a
walloping case of trepidation. With a heartfelt sigh, I said, “I’ll miss
Arianna. She was a bit off-kilter, but a nice person and a fabulous artisan.”

As she rose from her chair,
Stephanie nodded and said she’d be in touch. At the door, she glanced over her
shoulder and said, “If we aren’t able to get our hands on this Moreland
character, make sure you don’t let him in while you’re alone, Luna. He could be
dangerous and that’s the last thing you need right now.”

Agreeing with her, I locked up
as she went down the steps and slid behind the driver’s seat of her cruiser. I
heaved another sigh, took some aspirin and poured a cup of tea, which I drank
outside on the rear porch.

The cool breeze fluttered my
hair, cooled my skin, and refreshed my spirits. Arianna Gentile was dead. Why?
Who would be so cruel? I set the cup and saucer aside, walked to the perimeter
of the woods and spoke softly.

“Sweet faeries, come to me.”

Nothing, no flutter of wings,
not a whisper from them.

I repeated the invite once
more, a bit louder this time, and waited patiently.

Seconds later, the blue faerie
swept forward, her almond eyes sad. I held my palm up, but she didn’t land. Instead,
she fluttered in front of my face.

“The news, you have heard,
human?” she sang.

“Yes, and I’m upset by it.
Arianna didn’t deserve to die.”

The faerie assured me, “Despair
not, happier, she is. Do it, we did not.”

“I thought not. Why would you?”
I said.

“A friend, she was. Death by a
stranger, hers was.”

When I would have asked which
stranger, the faerie flicked her glance to the left and then the right, and
whizzed away. Just then, Calis came into view.

“You’ve heard, then?” he asked
flatly.

“I have. How long were you
listening to me and the faerie?”

“A second or two. She doesn’t
know who killed Arianna, but I do,” Calis remarked. “The killer will pay dearly
for it, as well.”

A pixie stepped around the
bush, rocked back and forth on his heels, and said, “Indeed.”

His back stiff, Calis turned
toward the pixie and stared. He glanced at me and then asked the pixie, “What
would you know about this, pixie?”

“Saw it happen, I did,” he
replied.

To leave them together wasn’t
an option I would normally have considered, yet I knew if I didn’t give the
pixie a gift, I’d never find out who killed Ari. I wasn’t willing to believe
anything Calis said at the moment. Chilled, I stuffed my hands into my pockets
and touched upon a small bit of ribbon that I’d tucked in earlier, instead of
tossing it in the trash basket. I pulled it forth and offered it to the pixie.

He smiled, nodded, and caught
it mid-air when I tossed it to him. “Speak again soon, we will,” he said to me.
His gaze flicked toward Calis. He snorted and then disappeared as quickly as
he’d appeared.

Helplessness crawled over me
while I gawked at the spot the pixie had held. His cryptic words echoed in my
head, and I turned my attention to Calis.

Angered, I snapped, “I think
I’ve had enough of this entire drama. You’re all out of control, and I’m sick
of it. Either tell me who killed Arianna, and why, or get off my land and out
of my life.”

Before I fainted, I saw the
ogre step from the grove of trees and reach for Calis.

The next words to enter my
consciousness were, “Wake up, Luna. You must wake up.”

Chapter 12

A distant voice accompanied a shake to my
shoulder that was repeated again and again, only harder each time, until I
slowly opened my eyes. He leaned over me with an expression of relief mingled
with something else. What it was, I couldn’t tell.

“Calis, what are you doing?” I asked
as I brushed his hands away.

“Get a glass of water, hurry.”
The words echoed in my head as I came around. Calis stood over me, Dilly
hovered nearby, and Annie rushed forward with a glass. Water slopped down the
side of my neck, splashed my face, and I quickly brushed the moisture away and
sat up.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I
looked around, saw their worried faces, and then realized I was on the ground.

“You fainted,” Calis said as he
forced the water glass into my hand. “Drink this, you’ll feel better.”

Anger, vied for space while my
confusion took front and center.
What was going on? Had I truly lost my
mind?
Why had I passed out?

“I passed out?” I asked.

Nods were followed by nervous
glances that passed between the three of my caretakers.

In a quiet tone, Annie said,
“You were speaking with Calis before you dropped like a stone.” She gave Calis
a cool look and helped me to my feet.

To bide time, I brushed specks
of dirt from my clothes and then gave each of them a serious look. My patience
was at an end, and I didn’t know what to think, believe, or trust any longer.
Heaven help me – I held on to the thought that Devin would make everything
better when he got home. I muttered to myself more than anyone else, “Wait
‘till Devin gets back.”