Thorn was getting out of his cruiser when we pulled into one of the spaces outside of my shop. He reached back into the car and took out two coffees from the Brew Station.
He put them on top of his car and then helped me get out of my Mom’s. “For you,” he said and handed me a coffee. “I figured you didn’t have a chance to have much coffee.”
“I haven’t had any,” I said and drank about half of it in two gulps. “You are a god among men, Thorn Wilson.”
He actually blushed. “It’s just coffee,” he said. “I’m sorry about all of this. We’ll get what we need from you, and then you can go home.”
“I’m not going to just leave my shop like this,” I said.
I hadn’t been inside yet, but I could see that someone had smashed the front door in. At least they hadn’t taken out the windows. It would have sucked to have had the shop survive the tornado only to have all the glass broken by a thief. I’d had it all replaced with some sort of safety glass after the last burglary, but I was sure it could still be broken. Especially with all my protective wards weakened.
“No one was killed, right?” I asked Thorn as we walked up to the shop. “No dead bodies?”
“Thankfully, no,” he said. “That would have been a heck of a way to welcome me back to work. Unfortunately, we’re going to need an inventory of what’s missing, though.”
“Reggie has already started on that,” Jeremy said as we went inside.
“Be careful of the glass,” I told my mom. “You and Laney can hang out in the office. Would that be okay?”
“She could go upstairs too,” Reggie said. She was standing by a set of shelves with a clipboard in her hand counting candles. “But not before I get to give that baby a kiss.”
My mom took Laney over to Reggie. She gave the baby a kiss on the forehead and pinched on of her pink cheeks gently. Laney cooed and latched her little hand around Reggie’s finger.
“So strong,” Reggie said.
After a couple of minutes of Reggie fawning over Laney, my mom took the baby to the back. Reggie spread her arms wide. “Now, come over here so I can give the mama a kiss too,” she said.
I laughed, but I walked over and let her pull me into a tight hug. It would have been painful if my innards were still tender, but since they weren’t, a Reggie hug was nearly the best thing in the world. Of course, she kissed my head and pinched my cheek too. It made me laugh hard.
“Okay, ladies,” Jeremy said gravely. “Now, there’s been a burglary, so we’ll need to get the serious business out of the way. All right?”
“Oh, chill out,” Reggie said and stuck her tongue out. “Fine,” she said when he threw her a look. “I’ll keep taking inventory.”
“Kinsley, can you look around the shop and let me know if you see anything strange?” Thorn said. “We’ve got someone from the state police coming to dust for prints on and around the cash register. We’ll have them dust anywhere you see anything out of the ordinary too, but I’m not sure if it will do any good.”
“There are so many people in and out of the store every day,” I said.
“Exactly, but we’re going to try,” he confirmed.
“Have you found anything missing?” I asked as I began walking around.
“Nothing yet,” Reggie said. “It definitely wasn’t a smash and grab. It’s like they broke in to steal something specific, but I haven’t figure out what yet.”
“You said you were going to dust the cash register for prints. Did they steal the money?” I asked.
“The cash register doesn’t look like it was even touched,” Jeremy said.
“We keep the money in the safe anyway,” Reggie added.
“They didn’t even try to get into the cash register?” I asked.
“Doesn’t look that way,” Thorn said. “But we’re going to dust it for prints. Maybe they just didn’t try very hard.”
“That seems strange,” I said. “That they would bust the glass on the front door but not even try to pry the register open. Unless they weren’t here for money.”
“Or unless they looked around and saw the safe,” Jeremy added. “Maybe they knew there was no point in trying the register.”
“If whoever it was had shopped here before, there’s no telling what they knew,” I said.
“You think it might have been a customer?” Reggie asked.
“It’s always a possibility,” I said. “Or someone desperate for something.”
As I spoke the words, I noticed that a display of spell bags was knocked over. Could a witch have broken in to steal supplies? Were times so desperate that they would rob me if they couldn’t pay?
Why would anyone do that, though? I would have helped anyone who needed it. And taking a chance of angering my family Coven was a dumb move.
Or, it had been stupid at one time…
What could we really do now? Two horrible possibilities sprung to mind. The first was that without my Coven’s awesome powers, witches would begin to get out of line. The other was that, in our weakened state, someone would decide to try and get revenge.
For what, I didn’t know. We’d upset a lot of people throughout our history.
I crouched down to look at the spell bags, but I moved too quickly and had to put a knee on the floor to keep from keeling over completely. Thorn almost magically appeared at my side.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I answered. “Please don’t fuss over me.”
“I just…” he started to say, but I cut him off.
“Well, if you’re going to hover, could you hand me that basket?” I said and pointed to
