Episode 42: Dropped Ice Cream and Spilled Secrets

Crystal Crawford
Apr 19
7 min read

Updated: Apr 21

Cover image for Aubrey Lance, S.S. (Supernatural Sleuth) -- Season 1, Episode 42: Dropped Ice Cream & Spilled Secrets — Aubrey Lance, S.S. (Supernatural Sleuth) -- Season 1, Episode 42: Dropped Ice Cream & Spilled Secrets

Devin looked up. “Oh! One sec.” He ran to the dispenser on the counter to grab napkins.

I stepped back outside.

“Here he comes,” Lockley said. “We may only have a minute.”

The door flung open, and Devin hurried out with a handful of napkins. “Is this enough?” He shoved them at me. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, thanks,” I said, taking them. “I’m fine. Just a mess!” I forced a smile. My mind was racing—what could I say to test his reactions?

“Okay. Sorry about your ice cream,” he said, and turned to head inside.

“Wait, Devin!” I called out.

He turned back, looking confused. “Yeah?”

“About Chloe—thank you for asking about her. It seems like a lot of people have just already started to move on and forget, you know?”

He gave me a sad smile. “You’re welcome.”

“If you hear anything that might help us find her, like any rumors or anyone mentioning why she might have run off that night, will you let me know?” I asked.

His eyes met mine. “Yes, of course. People are in and out all the time, but she usually only came in with you. If I hear anything, though, I’ll go right to the police.”

“The police think she ran away,” I said. “I doubt they’ll help.”

This was way off-track for poking at the magic issue, but I couldn’t let that one go.

Devin’s brow furrowed. “Oh. Does that mean you’re the only one still looking for her?”

I shrugged. “Just us and her mom.”

His face dropped. “Well, that’s… that’s not right.”

“Kind of like a water mage using fire magic, huh?” Collin interjected.

Not smooth, Collin. But it was effective.

Devin’s gaze snapped to Collin. “What?”

For a second, my heart skipped… but his reaction looked more confused than concerned or defensive.

Collin shrugged. “Just a saying.”

Devin laughed. “Alright.” He turned to me. “Sorry, but I gotta get back in before my manager catches me off duty. She likes to show up unannounced and surprise us. You got enough napkins?”

I looked down at the melting ice cream splattered all over the sidewalk—and me. “No amount of napkins will fix this, but thanks anyway.”

Devin smiled. “Anytime.” He turned to go back in. “I really do hope Chloe’s okay. If you hear anything about her, would you stop by and let me know? I’m here most weekday afternoons.”

“Sure,” I said.

“Thanks.” He headed back inside.

Lockley, Collin, and I walked past the end of the building and around its edge into the mouth of a narrow little alley where the emergency exit was, out of sight of the front window.

“What do we do now?” I asked, but before I’d even finished the question, three hawks were landing on the sidewalk.

A moment later, Tory, Jillian, and Meredith were standing in front of us.

“No deception detected,” Jillian said, then shrugged. “From what we could see and hear from out here, I’d agree with Collin’s conclusion that this guy had a thing for your friend. We couldn’t see his face well, but even from outside we could hear the shift in his voice when he talked about her. He seemed concerned and interested, but not anxious. Nothing that indicated guilt.”

“The magic, though… we’re not sure,” Tory said.

“What do you mean you’re not sure?” I asked.

“There were no markers of alarm when Collin clumsily shouted out that random thing about fire magic,” Tory said. “The guy just looked confused.”

“It’s possible he has a different sort of magic that he didn’t mentally connect with what you said,” Meredith offered, “but it’s rare for an elemental bloodline not to produce elemental magic, and you literally mentioned fire magic with zero reaction from him. It’s just as possible that he didn’t react because he has no magic and had no idea what you were talking about.” She glanced at Collin. “Either way, I’m pretty sure he thinks you’re weird, now.”

Collin turned to face her and shrugged. “I probably am.”

“So this is just another dead end?” My frustration was climbing. I could feel the knots forming in my shoulders. “Why does none of this make sense? If he doesn’t have fire magic, wouldn’t he at least know it was in his family line? If so, he would’ve reacted, right? Are you sure you read him correctly? Could you have missed something?”

“You didn’t know there was magic in your family,” Jillian muttered.

I stared at her… but I had to admit she had a point.

“Of course, it’s always possible we missed something,” Tory said, “but even if he does have fire magic, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s involved. It doesn’t explain what happened to Chloe.”

“Uh… it might explain that, though,” Collin said, pointing at the ProScoop building behind us.

A column of flame was shooting up out of the roof of ProScoop… and rapidly spreading.

All of us took off running for the front door, and by the time we got there, my parents and Trenchcoat Man were running up to meet us.

The two girls we’d seen go into the shop had already fled out, and a crowd was gathering on the opposite sidewalk.

“Everyone okay?” my dad asked.

We all nodded.

“Did anyone call 9-1-1?” I asked.

“Already on it,” Trenchcoat Man said. “Fire department is on the way.”

“Is anyone still in there?” my dad yelled to the customers who’d run out.

The two girls looked at each other in panic. “There was an employee,” they yelled across the street. “He told us to get outside, but we thought he was right behind us!”

My eyes widened. “Devin.” I lunged for the door, but Trenchcoat Man beat me there. “You stay here. It’s not safe.” He reached up to clap, then seemed to realize there were too many people watching. He yanked at the door instead.

It didn’t budge.

That may have been for the best… I was pretty sure you weren’t supposed to open a door on a burning building. Or be standing right in front of it, like we were…

“It’s locked,” Trenchcoat Man said. “Why would he have locked it?”

“Wait!” Lockley yelled from the mouth of the alley. “There he is! He came out the emergency door!”

I breathed a sigh of relief and ran around the building.

Devin propped the emergency door open with a rock, then beelined straight for me.

“I’m sorry,” he said with a look of anguish. “He told me if I told anyone I saw her here, they’d kill her.”

My heart lurched. “What? Who?”

He shoved something into my hand. “Go. This store still uses an old, closed-circuit camera system. I’ll make sure the fire destroys the videos. You were never here today.”

He flicked a little flame up in his palm, then turned and ran back inside.

“Devin, wait!” I yelled, but the emergency door had already slammed shut.

“We need to help him,” I said, running for the door.

“It doesn’t open from this side,” Jillian said. “That’s why he propped it with a rock.”

“But he’s—”

“Fire magic, remember?” Collin said. “He made sure to show us that. I’m sure he’s fine.”

“Oh. Right,” I said.

He was fine, right?

A car sped up and whipped into one of the parallel parking spots across the street. A man jumped out, looking panicked. “My store!” he yelled, running toward it. “Is anyone still inside?”

“That’s the manager,” Trenchcoat Man murmured to the rest of us.

We ran toward the front, but just as we reached the front sidewalk, the door burst open and Devin rushed out, bent over and coughing.

The manager rushed toward him. “Are you okay? Is there anyone still in there?”

Sirens sounded in the distance.

Devin shook his head. “No, I checked the bathrooms myself. All clear.” He burst into another round of coughing.

“Thank goodness.” The manager led Devin to the other side of the street, then looked up in horror at his still-burning building. “My store…”

The sirens got louder as a fire truck turned onto the street.

Devin’s eyes locked on mine from across the street, only for a moment, then he turned to answer something his manager had asked and I could hear him coughing again.

I looked down at the crumpled paper he’d shoved into my hand, then unfolded it.

“What’s it say?” Collin asked from beside me.

“I’m… not sure.” There was only one word on the page. “Vorcos,” I read aloud.

Trenchcoat Man’s gaze flicked to me. “Did you say Vorcos?”

The cheer hawks near him turned their attention to me, too.

I held out the paper to show them. “What does it mean?”

Trenchcoat Man opened his mouth to answer, then glanced at the street, where more first responders were arriving. “We should go,” he said, looking at the group of us. “If you drove, head back to your cars and leave the moment the street clears. We’ll meet you at the Lances’ once everyone is there.”

He clapped, and he and the cheer hawks vanished.

I turned to my dad. “Is he always like that?”

Dad smiled. “Most of the time.” His smile faded. “Lockley’s car looks like it’s not blocked in. You good to head for home?”

“Yeah,” I said, “if Lockley is.”

Lockley nodded. “Yep. Let’s get out of here.”

Mom pulled me into a hug. “We’re one block over. We’ll be right behind you. See you at home.”

“Okay. See you at home.”

Mom and Dad hurried the opposite direction, while Lockley, Collin, and I skirted across the street and away from the chaos, to Lockley’s parked car. The firefighters were already hard at work and seemed to have contained the fire in record time, but the damage to ProScoop’s roof was substantial, and the inside looked worse… though from what I could see through the front window, the damage was only in one section of the kitchen. Still, I was pretty sure it would be awhile before the shop reopened.

When we passed the crowd across from ProScoop, Devin was nowhere in sight.

“Huh. Where’d he go?” I wondered out loud.

Lockley glanced at me. “Devin? Maybe he’s getting checked by the paramedics.”

“Something tells me he doesn’t need to,” Collin said.

We reached Lockley’s car, and she turned back to take one last look at the ruined ice cream shop. “What do you think that was all about?” she asked, turning to me. “Who’s Vorcos?”

I glanced down at the paper I was still clutching. “I have no idea.”

***