Chapter 4: Roses, Lies, and Voodoo Dolls

“Hemp rope from a Louisiana voodoo shop. Soaked in olive oil for forty-nine days. Use this and it won’t mess with your karma.”

“Not interested,” she stroked her chin, thinking. “Doesn’t really solve my problem.”

I regretted it, too.

Right, Marlene doesn’t care about karma. I should’ve said it wouldn’t affect her son’s luck.

I tried again, “How about this—if you buy it, I’ll give you a special price.”

“How much?”

“Three ninety-nine.”

“Good man, I’ll see you tomorrow.” She patted my shoulder and left.

Damn, I should’ve said thirty-nine.

Just as I was kicking myself, the shop phone rang. It was the police.

“Is this Finn Harper, owner of Mystic Haven?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“You came to the police station the day before yesterday? How did you know there was a murder last Friday?”

My heart nearly leapt out of my chest. “Someone really died?”

“Answer my question first.”

I had to explain what Marlene told me.

The other end was silent for a while, then asked, “Why did she tell you?”

That stumped me. “Because she came for a reading.”

“Got it.”

The caller introduced himself as Detective Adam Young, lead on the murder case.

Amy Sun’s death had caused a stir, but during the investigation, the police found something odd.

Turns out, before Amy Sun died, she’d reported a missing person—her classmate, Candace Huang.

So the clique leader Marlene mentioned? Candace.

After killing and dumping the body on Friday, the leader’s family didn’t notice, but Amy Sun did. But Amy wasn’t even an adult, so when she went to the police, no one paid attention.

“Alright, I’ll come to your shop tomorrow, we’ll talk in person.”

Before hanging up, Adam added, “Keep it quiet that the police are looking for you. I know you’re in touch with Marlene, and she’s also a suspect—don’t tip her off.”

“Okay, officer.”

So the next day, I opened for business like usual.

I thought he’d call first, but I didn’t expect the police to be so direct.

So when the police car screeched to a stop outside, Marlene happened to be in my shop.

“What a coincidence.” Adam Young pushed open the glass door and walked in.

“Detective Young? What are you doing here?” Marlene was surprised. I was sweating bullets.

“Mystic Haven is famous. I came to ask the fortune teller for advice too.”

“Even the police believe in this stuff?” She shot me a suspicious look.

“Spirituality is a field of study,” Adam smiled. “You go first, I’ll wait my turn.”

Marlene didn’t say anything.

“What, is it inconvenient with me here?”

“Not really…” She shook her head. “Let’s start, Finn.”

I glanced at Adam out of the corner of my eye—he was by the shelves, fiddling with the trinkets I’d bought wholesale online.

“…Alright,” I took a deep breath and led Marlene into the back room. “What do you want to know today?”

“Still the location.”

She wanted to know the dumping spot again?

“Whose location?”

“Not a person, an object,” she shook her head. “That electric cord—help me figure out where to bury it.”

Marlene’s words hit me like a bomb.

Seeing I didn’t respond, she went on, “Forgot? We talked yesterday. You told me to bury it on a hill. I have a big flowerpot at home, usually for roses—couldn’t I just bury it in the pot? Plant flowers on top, no one would ever find it…”

Damn it, Marlene, are you trying to get me arrested? Adam could be listening in right now!

“What do you want, really?” I lowered my voice.

She shrugged.

I had to explain patiently, “I wasn’t the one who called the police.”

That’s the truth—this time, Adam found me.

“I know,” she patted my shoulder. “I know you’re not that dumb. After all, we’re accomplices.”

“Wait,” I pushed her hand off my shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“You taught me yesterday how to destroy the weapon—already forgot?”

My face darkened.

Marlene seemed very satisfied with my reaction, like she’d just scored a point in a game only she understood.

She packed up her things, tossed down two twenty-dollar bills, and left.

Marlene is nuts.

She’s using the nonsense I spouted yesterday as leverage, trying to drag me down with her. This woman is seriously off her rocker.

So as soon as she left, I called the police.

“Detective Young, this has nothing to do with me. She just keeps messing with me—I can’t take it anymore.”

Adam stared at me for a long time.

“So she came to you several times and told you in detail how she killed?”

“Yeah! Isn’t it obvious she’s just messing with me?”

“She wasn’t playing with you,” Adam shook his head. “Amy Sun was strangled with electric cord. We didn’t find the cord at the scene. But why would Marlene tell you all this?”

Adam had already asked me that on the phone yesterday.

I really didn’t know.

Suddenly, I realized something: “Detective Young, with such an honest murderer like Marlene, shouldn’t the case be solved already?”

“If she were honest, would I still be coming to you?”

Adam said that because of Tyler, he’d met Marlene several times. She never said a word, never gave any clues, barely communicated at all. But in my shop? Whole different person.

I thought back. Yeah, Marlene—this small-town woman—was strange. She was neither just small-town nor just a woman.

Why did she come to me?

Talking to me cost money. Marlene not only paid, but confessed everything about the murder. A normal person would’ve just gone to the police, right?

I’m a normal person, so I called the police.

But that’s just it.

She wasn’t threatening me to keep quiet. She didn’t even care if I kept her secret.

Not long after Adam left, it started pouring outside.

I was distracted, not in the mood to work, so I packed up to go home.

After turning off the lights and locking up, I looked up and saw a kid standing in the rain. Her face was pale as a ghost, like a little chick just pulled from the river.

“Braided girl?” I quickly pulled her under my umbrella.

She just cried, tears and rain mixing together. “He came to kill me… I’m going to die…”

Braided girl’s full name is Natalie Chen.

She said both her parents were working late at the local plant that night, and she was home alone. While doing homework, she kept feeling like someone was outside her window. She hid a mirror in her palm, hoping to catch a glimpse.

“Who was it?” I asked, though I already guessed.

“Tyler Foster.”

As expected.

This time, Natalie didn’t wait for me to ask. She poured out the whole story like beads slipping off a string.

Basically, leader Candace Huang and big sister Amy Sun both bullied Tyler before they died, and Natalie saw it all.

“Candace was usually nice, but last Friday she was extra mean—she even pulled a knife.” Natalie was shaking as she cried.

That night, Candace disappeared.

Amy Sun couldn’t find her sidekick and came to ask Natalie, since she was on duty that Friday and stayed the latest. Natalie was too scared to hide it. Amy then dragged her to Tyler’s house, demanding they hand over the person or else.

The next day, Amy was dead too.

It all started to make sense. This serial murder case wasn’t complicated. Tyler couldn’t take the long-term bullying and killed in revenge—first Candace, then Amy, who was a witness. It was logical.

It was Marlene who made things complicated. She wanted to take the blame for her son.

I asked Natalie, “Why didn’t you tell the teacher you were being bullied?”

She shook her head. “Amy was clever. She liked to poke needles under your fingernails—it hurts but doesn’t leave marks. The teacher wouldn’t care.”

“You got bullied too?”

“Yeah. Last week it was Tyler, this week it’s me, next week it’s Maddie Wu. Every Friday, they keep one person after school.”

“Do your parents know?”

“No, I don’t want them to know.” Natalie picked at her hands. “They both work at Amy’s parents’ factory.”

Her hair was still dripping, the two braids neatly resting on her shoulders.

But the hair ties were those yellow rubber bands from the seafood section at Walmart, the kind used to bundle crab legs.

I felt a pang of sadness.

“Don’t cry,” I said. “I’ll take you to the police station.”

“Will you charge me?” She looked at me, pitiful.

“Ask again and I will.”

While I accompanied Natalie to give her statement at the police station, I got a text from Marlene.

[Tomorrow, same time as always, last reading. Remember to save time for me.]

[Why the last time?] I typed back.

[No more money.] She replied quick as ever.

I wanted to laugh, but couldn’t. After hesitating, I showed the text to Adam. He perked up, saying the police would act tomorrow and asked me to cooperate.

I agreed.

By the time I got back from the station, it was late. I took a hot shower and lay in bed listening to the rain, unable to sleep.

Tomorrow would probably be the last time I’d see Marlene. She wasn’t the killer, but she knew and didn’t report, and she muddied the truth—she’d probably go to jail.

I rolled over, trying to sleep. But the more I tried, the clearer my mind got.

Thinking back to today’s conversation, I suddenly sat up.

I’d always thought Marlene told me so much because of my profession. She didn’t trust me, she trusted fate.

But did she really believe in fate?

When she met Adam today, Marlene asked, “Do you police also believe in superstitions?”

That was strange.

A woman who supposedly believes in fate enough to confess all the details of her crime—would she call her own beliefs superstitions?

Suddenly, it hit me: Marlene kept coming to provoke me, telling me crime details, dragging me in as an accomplice—not to threaten me to keep quiet, nor because she thought I’d keep her secret.

She was forcing me to call the police.

What Marlene told me might all be true. The cord used to strangle someone could really be in her hands, and she really planned to bury it in her flowerpot. From the first time she stepped into Mystic Haven, she’d planned to take the blame for her son.

But the question is, as the only unnecessary person in this story, why did Marlene choose me? If she wanted to turn herself in, she could’ve just gone to the police—why go through all this to make me report her?

There had to be a reason.

The next day, the police came early.

They set up a pinhole camera in the back room, so they could monitor our conversation in real time without coming in.

Adam gave me a tiny earpiece. “Don’t be nervous. Just talk like usual. Do what you always do.”

Worried the earpiece would be too obvious, he found a beanie for me to wear. I sat in my seat, letting them fuss over me.

“Detective Young, Marlene just left her house.” Someone called over the walkie-talkie.

“Copy.” Adam patted my shoulder and left the room.

I don’t know how long I waited before the back room door opened again. It was Marlene, wearing her rose-colored clothes.

“Changed your look?” She eyed my hat. “Pretty ugly, but it suits you.”

I didn’t bother arguing, just handed her two napkins. “Wipe your boots.”

Weird thing—she runs a grocery store, not a farm, so why’s she always so muddy?

“What are we doing today?”

“No reading today. Let’s just talk.”

With all these police waiting, and at the last minute she didn’t want a reading. I glanced at her and tried, “Want me to check your son’s fortune?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know his birth date.”

That was a lie—she knows her own but not her son’s?

“Alright,” I sighed. “Let’s just talk.”

“I really want to thank you, Finn. I’ll never forget what you did for me.”

I looked at Marlene. She looked at me.

“What did I do?”

“Helped us kill Amy Sun.”

My stomach dropped. I laughed, annoyed. “I had no grudge with her. Why would I kill her?”

“You had a grudge with her mother. Two months ago, her mom lost her purse in your shop, gave you a black eye, and tried to run you out of town—that’s what you told me, right?”

I stopped laughing, because it was true.

“Their family did a lot of bad things—both the mother and the daughter. Killed is killed, no need to feel guilty.”

“No need to feel guilty.”

“Come on, you’re doing this on purpose, right? That beating was two months ago. Why would I kill Amy Sun now?”

“Because I promised to take the blame for you. If the police really found out, I’d go to jail for you, and you’d help me take care of my son…”

“Wait,” I interrupted, “Amy Sun’s case was a sexual assault and murder. How are you going to take the blame for me?”

Marlene didn’t answer.

“What’s with you today?” After a long time, she finally managed, “You didn’t really assault her, you just used a broom, right?”

I stared at Marlene, speechless.

Suddenly, the door chime rang, and then the back room door slammed open. I was tackled to the ground by a bunch of cops.

“Don’t move! Stay put!”

Looking at Marlene, she looked even more panicked than me. Adam waved for them to take her to the squad car.

“Detective Young… you don’t really believe her, do you?”

“Not yet,” Adam crouched down, took off my hat and earpiece. “But you need to come to the station. We need your DNA.”

“Mine? Why?”

“We think you might be involved in this case.”

“Wait, isn’t the killer Tyler Foster? What’s this got to do with me?”

“I never said the killer was Tyler.”

Adam raised the bag he’d been carrying since he came in. Now I could see what was inside.

It was a doll.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“A voodoo doll. Something from my shop. When did you take it?”

“This isn’t from your shop. It was found at the home of the missing girl, Candace Huang. So tell me—how are you connected to her?”