Spells and Scones by Bailey Cates

another case I’m working, too. One where you
weren’t
on-site when it happened.”
    â€œIt’s not like I try to find dead bodies, Quinn. What’s the other case?”
    He sighed. “Katie, honestly. Over time I’ve learnedthat when you’re mixed up in one of my cases, as much as I dislike a civilian sticking her nose into things, I’m probably going to clear it. But that doesn’t mean you need to know details about all the homicides in Savannah.”
    â€œWell, gosh. I was just wondering.”
    A few seconds of silence. “Sorry. I’m just tired. The other death is pretty cut-and-dried, clear motive and opportunity. Still takes a while to dot my i’s and cross my t’s.”
    â€œPulling an all-nighter is no fun.” And Quinn, vital and suave as he appeared, was no youngster, either. He also insisted on working alone ever since his erstwhile partner, Franklin Taite, had gone out of the picture. “So . . . why are you calling? Are you dotting i’s and crossing t’s on the Dr. Dana case, too?” Meaning: Had he already arrested Angie?
    Mungo leaned forward as if trying to hear Quinn on the other end of the line.
    â€œI wish,” he said. “We have our suspect, though, so I hope to be able to wrap up things soon—and without your help. I called to let you know that your aunt was right about the cyanide.”
    I sank onto the desk chair. “Ugh.” I hadn’t necessarily liked Dr. Dana, or how she treated people, but she sure hadn’t deserved to die like that.
    But would Angie Kissel agree? I wondered whether she still believed in the Rule of Three from the Wiccan Rede since she no longer considered herself a witch. The Rule basically held that anything you do comes back to you threefold—good or bad. I thought of it as the Golden Rule on steroids.
    â€œNot that cyanide is readily available,” Quinn went on. “It’s pretty hard for the average Joe to access anymore. Highly regulated.”
    â€œSo there’s no chance it was an accident.”
    â€œZero. It had to be deliberate. There were no traces of poison in either of the water bottles we confiscated, nor in the full, unopened one provided by the sister.”
    â€œReally?” I had been thinking all along that someone had dosed one or the other of them. Then I remembered the other alternative. “What about the food items from the Honeybee?”
    â€œNot there, either. That’s the other reason I called.”
    Kind of buried the lede, didn’t you?
    Still, I took a deep, relieved breath. “Thank heavens for that. So how . . . ?”
    â€œThat cup of sweet tea. Did you see her take it to the back of the store with her?”
    I shook my head, then realized he couldn’t see me. “There was a lot going on right then. I didn’t notice.”
    â€œThe empty was on the floor, and the lab confirms traces of cyanide. The medical examiner will let me know more about stomach contents later today.”
    Eww.
    He said, “But she had to have drunk it after she went to sign the extra books. So the drink was either dosed with the poison before she went in the back, and she hadn’t sampled it yet, or someone came in and put the cyanide in the drink after she was already back there.”
    â€œYou said there’s a suspect. But really there must be plenty of suspects. I mean, lots of people disliked Dr. Dana,” I said.
    â€œYet only Ms. Kissel made it her business to try to ruin Ms. Dobbs,” he said. “It wasn’t the first time she’d confronted the victim in public. The sister, Phoebe Miller, called the precinct when Kissel showed up last night.”
    Thinking back, I had seen her talking on her cell right about then. “She called the cops on Angie?”
    In the pause that followed I realized I’d made it sound like Angie and I were best buddies.
    â€œThere