Page 62 of Eye on the Ball

I shuddered. “Definitely not. It was pretty amazing, though.”

“Since you’ve been so involved in this, I wanted to tell you that Reynolds called me. His Sheriff Lawless just arrested Probie in connection with Ace.”

Jack frowned. “I don’t see Probie as any criminal mastermind. And arrested him for what? Kidnapping? Magic?”

“Attempted murder.”

“What? Why would he blame Probie?” I asked.

“They found evidence at his apartment that he knew Ace was embezzling from the family business and, especially, stealing from Probie’s share. Ace planned to cut Probie out pretty much entirely, it looks like.”

“That’s definitely a motive,” Jack said. “But why magical stasis? Why on the Dead End softball field?”

“No idea on the stasis. But the theory about the softball field is Probie was trying to pin it on Brenda.”

“None of this makes sense,” I said slowly.

Andy shrugged. “If Probie made a plan, it would be a messed-up plan like this. He’s definitely not a chess master kind of guy.”

“What about Celine, though? The witch?”

“She had an alibi for the time Ace would have disappeared. She was giving a talk in Jacksonville. Hundreds of people saw her there, and she was out drinking with friends half the night and checked out of the hotel in the morning. No way she could have done this.”

“Too bad,” I said. “That would have been easy.”

“Yeah. Weird thing, though. When Susan asked her about the missing trophy, Celine was very offended. Said her grandmother helped fabricate the thing with the two old dudes. Said she never would have interfered with the game or the trophy.”

I shrugged. “Nobody wants to mess with the game, really. As we all know, it has been a tradition for thirty years. That’s why this is all so odd.”

“Deputy,” Lorraine called out, holding up a bag.

“Okay, that’s our food. I’m going to get going.” Andy paused, a puzzled expression on his face. “I’ve never met anybody before Lizzie who liked to eat hamburgers almost rare.”

“I love raw tuna,” I piped up, brain whirling about hownotto let on that Lizzie liked raw meat because she was practically a wolf shifter.

Andy winced. “I only like tuna fully cooked, mixed in mayo, and stuffed in a sandwich, the way tuna should be eaten.”

“To each his own,” Jack drawled. “I like tuna fresh out of the ocean.”

The deputy laughed and went to get his food. When he walked out the door, he stopped to hold it open for Tina, who walked in and looked around shyly.

“Here we go,” I said, smiling and waving at her. “Try not to scare my employee.”

Jack pretended to look injured. “Who, me? I’m a sweetheart.”

Sure enough, she lit up when she saw he was with me.

“Jack!”

Oh, right. She’d helped with the house painting.

“Hi, Tina. We’re so glad you could make it.” I scooted over so she could take the seat next to me. Now that I’d already seen her death once, I’d never see it again.

We learned a lot about Tina during that lunch. Like, she loved fried chicken and apple pie. Really, really loved it. I watched in bemused wonder as she and Jack polished off two slices of pie each.

Also, she told us about her classes and the paper she was writing on the causes and impacts of the Salem witch trials.

“Really?” I was intrigued. “Are there witches in your family tree?”