"Willow's Missing Tail" 16

Martha had left the house very early with Willow. They walked the ten blocks to Main Street together but when they approached the Heaven’s Brew café, at exactly ten o’clock, Willow slunk off into the tall grass across from the establishment and Martha stepped inside.

Avery was seated at a table in the back and he stood up when Martha approached the table. "Thank you for meeting me here…alone,” he said looking past her with a genuine smile of relief.

“Why couldn’t I bring Perfidia? You know she has questions for you.”

Avery grimaced. “I’m sure she does, but Daphne is at her house isn’t she?”

“Your birds see all.” Martha shrugged.

“They do, and Daphne needs to remain uninformed of this meeting. Hopefully, Perfidia will keep her unaware. And I needed to warn you.”

“Warn me, of what?”

“Daphne isn’t to be trusted Martha. Sure, she can act faithful and apologetic but believe me, she isn’t. Don’t trust her; if you do you’ll regret it…I do,” he mumbled the last with a derisive snort and sat down.

Martha’s brow rose in a skeptical arch. “But I should trust you?” she asked, not hiding her doubt in that as she sat down.

Avery’s brows lifted in surprise. “Of course you can Martha.”

“Can I? Then why didn’t you tell us you knew of Thistle’s existence before Daphne took her? Can you deny you had found the cat?”

“I…that…uh,” he stammered and began to adjust his perfectly in place jacket giving the task an unnecessary amount of attention.

His flustered fidgeting only added fuel to Martha’s suspicions. “You knew Perfidia was working on a camouflage potion because you were still spying on us after the summer solstice festival ended; weren’t you?”

Avery shifted uncomfortable in the chair but instead of answering, he deflected her question with a suggestion. “Let me order you some coffee.”

Martha knew if for the delay tactic it was but answered sweetly, “Thank you but I’d prefer tea; they have an excellent raspberry-lemon blend here.”

“Okay, tea it is,” Avery said with a smile then stood up and walked to the counter to place the order.

Martha looked out the small window by the table and saw the black tail waving above the tall grass. Willow was there, zoned into their conversation, if she needed her.

 

Avery returned with her tea and a dark, brew coffee for himself. Martha thanked him and allowed him a moment to enjoy a sip of his coffee before continuing the derailed conversation.

“So tell me Avery, why were you still spying on us?”

Avery took another long, sip of coffee before meeting her eyes. He gave her his best debonair smile and shrugged. “It’s a habit.”

“Habit…? I think you need to explain that.”

“My birds are creatures of habit and they’d established a daily route between your place and Perfidia’s while keeping tabs on you for those havocs. After the havoc ended, they continued to fly the same pattern and, out of habit, continued to gather Intel on both of you. It was just a routine day for them to bring it back to me.”

“Even if that were true Avery, it wouldn’t explain why you wrote it all down in a file, in a curious amount of detail.”

Avery’s brows drew together in a worry line. “You’ve seen your file?”

“I have and more worrisome for you, so has Perfidia.”

“I see.”

“Do you? Because I can’t say I do. I don’t see why you continued to investigate us and why you neglected to tell us about it after Willow was taken?”

“Yes, I see your point…but in defense, I guess I do things out of habit too. When information is given to me I make note of it. I keep files on all of my previous cases not just you and Perfidia. It’s helpful to have information if I’m asked to havoc the same person, to be prepared.”

“It’s not being prepared Avery, it’s spying. That’s not acceptable.”

“I suppose it would seem unacceptable to-”

“Those being spied on…?” Martha completed his sentence, giving him a righteous glare.

Avery sighed. “I was going to say someone not in the business but you’re right and I’m sorry.”

Martha frowned. “Sorry isn’t enough Avery. Your continued record keeping meant Daphne was able to learn a lot more than she should have about us. You’re the reason all of this trouble entered our lives. Now I have to contend with a power struggle between Thistle and Willow, not to mention the problem with keeping my meadow secret and then there’s Perfidia’s ransacked store; she will want her day with you on that score. And all of this was because Daphne found those files, and wants to get to you!”

“Exactly Martha; she cares little about her actions or their consequences. She’s the culprit here. Don't you see how devious she is? She’s why I’ve had to move my location yet again."

Martha gave him an unconvinced smirk. “Avery, you haven’t cared much about consequences either.”

“What do you mean? I’m always cautious.”

“Are you? If that were true, my meadow wouldn’t have been used by you without my permission. I wouldn't have had to build stronger protections and lock up all possible entry points. You enter it and gave Daphne a reason to do the same. And that leaves me with a few questions.”

“Ask whatever you need to know.”

“Okay, why didn’t you tell me about Thistle? Tell me you had the cat in your possession and had the knowledge she was Willow’s sibling? And you knew about the twin-conflict on familiars didn’t you?”

“Yes I knew and I should have told you when I discovered her; I should have warned you about Thistle. I knew the siblings shouldn’t meet but I didn’t know Thistle could grant Daphne access to your meadow: if I’d known that, I would have warned you immediately.”

“But Avery, it wasn’t Daphne it was you who accessed my meadow through Thistle’s ability first; it was you who gave Daphne access to it.”

Avery’s eyes widened because she was right but at the time he hadn’t thought his moving into the meadow would be a problem; he only saw it as a solution. “Martha, I never thought to lead Daphne to it. I didn’t think she could find me there. You have my word on that.”

Martha’s expression remained cynical but she did concede it possible he thought it safe. “Maybe you didn’t foresee the outcome but I’m still not sure I can trust your word Avery.”

“Why not? Other than the havocs I was paid to do as my job, I’ve been honest with you.” Martha’s look of disbelief caused him to elaborate. “I have Martha; I’ve been as open as I can be but I'll admit, the nature of my job does require some cloaking.”

“Cloaking? You’ve kept important information from us even as you asked us for help. You continued to spy on us after that cloaking job had ended. How is any of that being honest?”

Avery’s calm expression slipped a little and his eyes took on a defensive look. “I’ve already apologized for my oversight. How was I to known Daphne would find my office and slip past my protections to steal my files?”

“The files you shouldn’t have kept?”

“Again, it is my practice to keep case files; I didn’t single you out.”

“Well, if I’m weighing the truth of your story here then I have to tell you, Daphne told us a conflicting one and frankly, I don’t know which one of you is the better liar. So I’m not sure which of you is telling us the truth.”

Avery’s eyes burned with indignation. “I’m telling you the truth Martha. What story did Daphne tell you?”

Martha sipped her tea and studied his earnest expression, unable to determine if he was being truthful. That was odd; she was usually good at sniffing out deception.

“First, why don’t you tell me everything from the beginning, about you and Daphne?”

 

Avery didn’t want to re-hash or re-live that period of humiliation but if it would help Martha trust him, he would.

“Two years ago, I was in Honolulu. I was hired by a research group to do a study. Having my connection to the aviary world, they’d asked me to research a sighting of a black-footed albatross in the area. I was there to find it and record its activity. I had confirmed the location the albatross had been seen in with a group of native birds and set up my camera near the specific spot on the beach, hoping to record it. While I was setting up the camera, Daphne walked into view of my lens and…I noticed her; she was hard not to notice. Anyway, the next day I went back to see what had been recorded and I noticed her on the beach again. She’d placed a blanket on the sand directly in front of the camera’s position and was sunbathing.”

“And I imagine she was hard to ignore?” Martha teased, earning a sour look from Avery.

“Yes,” he grumbled, “but I walked over intending to tell her how she was deterring the bird’s activity, deterring my project, by sunbathing there. Only I ended up asking her to dinner instead. She accepted my invitation and that’s where it began.”

“Sounds simple enough.”

“No, it was never simple with Daphne. Even at that first dinner, she questioned me a great deal about my work. On hindsight, I can see she was more interested in what I did then who I was. I should have seen the clues, recognized her motive and left her alone, but the male ego can be blind.”

 “Are you saying she was tracking you from the start for her own business plan?”

“I can’t prove it. I can only point to the way the relationship ended and her final devious act.”

“Did Daphne talk about her own business plan?”

“When I mentioned my special brand of delivery service she became very interested in the details of it. But it wasn’t until our third date that she told me she’d had a similar plan in the works. I didn’t think much about it until I returned home from that trip and she contacted me to say she’d found a house to rent near mine and she was hoping we could combine our businesses. I was flattered but I shouldn’t have been; she was setting me up. She didn’t want a partnership; she wanted it all.”

Martha sipped her tea and mulled over the story, so different from the one Daphne had told them. “I admit you tell a believable tale Avery, but Daphne told us a very different one.”

Avery chuckled darkly. “I’m not surprised you believed her; she’s an adept liar.”

 “Maybe she is, but she said you stole her business plan and you left her stranded.”

Avery chuckled without mirth. “I’m sure she’d spin it that way but I promise you Martha, I didn’t. She’s the one who suggested we work together and I was willing to work with her, partner with her. It was Daphne who had ulterior motives all along. Once the business changed to a partnership and it was running smoothly, she attempted to steal the entire business away from me. I still don’t understand how I didn’t see it coming.”

“What happened?”

“After we become successful, successful beyond both our dreams, she began to make excuses, canceling dinner dates and backing out on client meetings and began to spend more time out of the office too. One day, I was setting up a contract for a client and I called the bank to secure the funds I’d need to provide the service the client requested. My personal banker answered my call and told me Daphne was already at the bank and she’d just closed out one of the smaller, expense accounts we used for essential office supplies. I told him I didn’t know anything about that transaction and asked him to look further into what she was doing there. I learned she was attempting to close out all of our joint accounts. I quickly went online and beat her to the end game, moving the funds into a holding account in my name only and ruining her plan to bankrupt me. Then, in a flash of Max’s magic, I moved the entire building into seclusion. That was over a year ago and a half ago and I hadn’t seen or heard from her until now.”

Martha scrutinized him, looking for a flaw in his earnest expression.

“I have to say, both of your stories sound plausible; I still don’t know which one of you to believe.”

“Martha, my story is true. Daphne is only pretending to be honest with you; you can’t trust her.”

“I’ll consider what you’ve told me Avery and I’ll keep an open mind.”

“Thank you but you still need to watch your step; she’s not to be trusted.”

“I’ll watch my step…with both of you.”

Avery gave her an exasperated look. “If you feel you must.”

“I do, but maybe you should confront Daphne; get to the truth of this game with her.”

“Confront her? Why, so she can usurp my business? No. I appreciate your opinion Martha but it’s not a practical one.  I never want to see her again,” he growled the last words and stood up, “I’ve done all I can to warn you. Now it’s up to you to be careful.” He tipped his non existent hat to her and walked out of the café.

 

Too late Martha realized she hadn’t asked him for his new location; he hadn’t offered it to her either. She knew she wouldn’t get another chance to speak with him, not with Daphne nearby but thankfully, she did have another option. She nodded to her companion outside and set the furry, black tail in motion.

 

Willow slunk out from the tall grass in time to see the havoc maker leave the café; there was no Max cat in sight to deter her so, pun intended, she tailed him to his new location.