Hexes and Holly: A Paranormal Cozy Mystery Holiday Anthology

by Tegan Maher

  Penny and I continued to sip our tea and nibble cookies while Jim hurried to a bookshelf in the living room and pulled down an album. “Here we go; this one’s from four years back, before they did the construction.”

  He flipped pages. I ate another cookie and finished my tea all while he leafed through page after page of family photos, reminiscing as he went. “This was little Katie’s first day of kindergarten. I walked her to school that day, along with my daughter. One of the best days of my life! And here’s my daughter holding Katie’s little brother, Brian. He’s four now, and…”

  It was a whole half an hour later when we finally reached the Christmas section of the album. I caught sight of the family photo in front of the Christmas tree right away. I leaned down closer to the glossy image, squinting against the glare from a light above. But it was no use, the gargoyles were not in the shot. The curtains were pulled.

  “Jim,” Penny said seriously, “do you think any of your old photos in front of the tree were taken with the curtains open?”

  Jim scratched his head. “I really have no idea,” he said. “We’d better look through them all, hm?” He grinned. “Let me go get the other ones. This will be fun!”

  Soon there was a towering stack of photo albums on the countertop. Jim, Penny, and I each flipped through one at a time. As the stack shortened, so did the pile of cookies on the plate in the middle of the counter.

  I was leafing through an album filled with pictures of Jim’s granddaughter, Katie, during her first season of T-ball at the Hillcrest Town Park, when I heard Penny say, “Got it! A picture of the family in front of the tree, with curtains open! There are the gargoyles across the street.”

  I felt disappointed as I squinted at the picture, in which the view through the window was grainy and blurry. “I see words there, but I can’t make out what they say,” I murmured.

  Penny looked to Jim. “Is it okay if we borrow this picture?” she asked.

  “I don’t see why not,” Jim said. “Are you going to try to decipher the words with a magnifying glass?”

  “Something like that,” Penny said. I got the feeling she was referring to magic, which I thought was pretty smart. With a spell, maybe we could improve the visibility of the photograph so that we could read the words.

  “I don’t see what those engraved words have to do with the kidnapped penguin,” Jim said.

  “It’s just a hunch we’re following up on,” Penny explained.

  I grinned at Jim. “This is why Penny’s such a good PI, you know. She has great instincts, and she always follows them.”

  I didn’t mention the fact that I usually had pretty stellar instincts of my own, and that they got stronger and stronger the more magic I learned, because I didn’t want to brag. But the truth was, I really did have good intuition -- and I was getting a strong hit when it came to the gargoyles. Something was going on with them. Something mysterious. Now, Penny and I just had to figure out what.

  4

  Half an hour later, we were in Penny’s kitchen. The photograph was on the counter before us. Skili, my familiar who had joined us during our walk from Jim’s to Penny’s, was on my shoulder. “Why is this photo important?” she asked me telepathically.

  “We don’t know yet,” I told her. “It’s a lead in the case, but it might not go anywhere. Then we’d be back to square one.”

  Penny had a glazed look in her eye, and I could tell she was listening to a telepathic message from her own familiar, Turkey, who was perched on the countertop, hunched over Penny’s laptop and pawing at the keyboard. Now that we were in his home, he had his reading glasses on.

  After a moment, Penny spoke. “Turkey says that the bank was designed in 1891 by one of the town’s leading architects at the time, a guy named James Leeman. The style is called Richardson Romanesque, known for its use of rough-cut sandstone and elaborate archways.”

  She tuned in to Turkey for another few moments. “He says the gargoyles were added at a later date. He read about it in the paper a few years ago, when the bank celebrated an anniversary, and he just found the article. It says that the gargoyles were donated to the Nugget Bank in 1962 by a few women in town, after several other Nugget Banks in Southwest Colorado were robbed.”

  “A couple women…” I said thoughtfully as I tucked my left foot up against my right knee, so I was in a yogic tree pose of sorts. “Could that be the witch coven that used to function in town?”

  When Penny and I first started studying magic, along with a few other women in the community, it was because we’d inherited a magical book from the last remaining witch in Hillcrest when she passed away. We’d learned that she used to practice her craft with a whole group of magicals, but they’d died one by one and the coven had become defunct.

  “That could be,” Penny said. “If witches donated the gargoyles, isn’t it possible that they’re enchanted?”

  “Definitely,” I said. With magic, anything and everything was possible.

  “Let’s try to see what the engraved words say,” Penny suggested. She looked down at the photograph. “Any ideas, Mar?”

  I recalled a Perfect Vision spell that I’d used recently, and tried it out. It worked like a charm. The image of Jim and his family in front of the tree and window became a little bit wobbly, and then very crisp and high-definition. I focused my intention on seeing through the window in the photo, and magically the image changed as if I was zooming in on that portion of the picture. Soon, the whole photo was simply of the view through the window. The gargoyles were visible, as well as the stone bases that they were positioned on.

  Words, carved into the bases, were visible thanks to dark gray shadows that settled into the crevices of each carved letter.

  We are here to protect,

  Here to serve.

  Invisible as we may be

  (The untrained eye,

  Cannot see)

  Guard we do

  And guard we must.

  In us put your

  Faith and trust.

  If this bank should be robbed,

  Down from these stoops we shall fly!

  Yet again we say,

  Invisible, to the untrained eye.

  “Whoa…” Penny said.

  “Totally cool,” I said, in the same hushed and awed tone. “This poem is saying the gargoyles really are enchanted, isn’t it? The untrained eye would be someone who doesn’t know magic.”

  “That’s what I was thinking, too,” Penny said. She turned to Turkey, and then nodded. “And Turkey agrees. He says this is a spell, carved into stone right out in the open.”

  “But everyone probably thought it was just nonsense,” I said.

  “Well, I bet a bank robber wouldn’t think it was nonsense,” Penny said. “The rhyme says that if the bank is robbed, the enchanted gargoyles will fly down from above! Can you imagine how shocking that would be? One minute you’re going to rob a bank, and then next minute some kind of monster is winging down from two stories above, intent on stopping you.”

  “That would for sure be shocking,” I said.

  I let my leg fall so I was no longer in tree pose, and leaned on the countertop, gazing at the words in the photo. “Do you think that when they flew down to stop a bank robber, they’d be invisible?”

  “To the untrained eye,” Penny said. “Yeah. I mean, that’s what the rhyme says, anyway.” She gestured to the words. “But to a person like you and me, who’s been trained in magic, then they would probably be visible.”

  “Wild,” I said. We settled into silence for a moment, each thinking our own thoughts.

  Then, at the same time, we spoke.

  “I wonder if the gargoyles had anything to do with Polly’s disappearance,” I said.

  At exactly the same time, Penny said, “So I guess we’re going to have to pretend to break into the bank.”

  “What?” I said. I turned to her. “Break into the bank?”

  She nodded and grinned. “Pretend to, at lea
st. We’ve got to get those gargoyles to come to life so that we can question them.”

  I felt my eyes widen. “You mean, dress up like bank robbers and actually go act like we’re going to smash the door in or something?”

  “Bingo!” she said.

  I grinned, too. “Okay,” I said. “I’m in!”

  Penny laughed. “This is why we make a great team, you know,” she said.

  Skili, on my shoulder, stirred, “This is foolish,” she said.

  “Can you think of a better approach?” I asked her.

  She hesitated, and I felt a slight tickling sensation along my neck as she adjusted her wings. “No,” she admitted after a moment. “In truth, I cannot. But be careful, child.”

  Penny spoke up. “Turkey says that we’d better warn the police about what we’re up to. He says that if we stage a robbery, it could get called in as the real deal, and that wouldn’t be good for anyone involved. I guess I could call Chris.”

  The police captain in our town, Chris Wagner, used to date Penny. They’re still friends to this day. I waited as she dialed his number.

  Before he picked up, she held the phone away from her mouth and said to me, “This is going down later tonight, right?”

  I nodded. “After dark, at least,” I said.

  She pulled the phone back toward her lips and said, “Oh, hey, Chris? Do you have a sec? ...yeah… you too…. Um… Marley and I have something to run by you…. No, we’re not getting into trouble… just planning an, um, activity for tonight.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself. Penny and I went to high school with Chris, and he knows us both pretty well. He’s used to the kinds of shenanigans we can get up to, but this one was even more bizarre than usual.

  “Okay,” Penny said. “I’ll just put it right out there. We’re going to pretend to break into the Nugget Bank tonight, maybe sometime around ten…. Yep…. Well, it has to do with an investigation…. That’s classified…. Hey, we’re not going to actually break in, just pretend…. I can’t tell you that… mm hm… okay. Thanks a lot.”

  When she got off the phone, she cracked up laughing.

  “How did that go?” I asked.

  She rolled her eyes and did a pretty accurate Chris impression. “Is that really necessary, Penny?”

  She laughed. “I told him yes, of course. At least I didn’t bring up our suspicion that the gargoyles come to life. He’d have really lost his cool.” She giggled some more and then said. “At least we warned him. He said he’s going to be out on patrol with Ted McDougal tonight, and if they get a call about a possible bank robbery, they’re going to keep our planned hijinks in mind. He didn’t sound happy about it, but what can you do?”

  “We could not pretend to break into the bank,” I said. “That’s one possible alternative. Not a fun one, but…”

  “Not fun at all,” Penny said. “Plus, then we’d never know if the gargoyles can really come to life. And we might never figure out if they swooped down and kidnapped Polly.” She furrowed her brow. “I know that the signs keep pointing toward those two monstrous, stone, winged creatures as the perps, but really -- what’s in it for them? Why could have possibly impelled them to take poor old Polly?”

  “Maybe they were bored up there and wanted a new friend,” I said.

  “An ice-skating friend!” Penny said with a laugh.

  “A pretty penguin friend,” I said.

  “Or maybe they have something against Monique,” Penny said, “and they wanted to sabotage her success with the decorations.”

  “What could they possibly have against Monique?” I asked.

  Penny shrugged. “We’re going to have to ask them.” She glanced down at the time on her phone. “Now, it’s almost two. We have about eight hours to kill before our fake bank robbery. Like Bess said, a real tragedy has occurred this holiday season.”

  “Polly’s disappearance,” I said. “It’s sad… but, really? Tragedy?” I couldn’t remember if Bess had actually used that word. It seemed a bit overdramatic, to me.

  Penny shook her head solemnly, and then reached for her messenger bag. “No, Mar, the tragedy that Bess mentioned has to do with you, and me, and our severe lack of cookie baking so far this season. I propose that we rectify the situation today. Immediately. Well, after a sandwich. I’m starving.” She pulled the vintage cookie recipe book from her bag and set it with a thud onto the counter.

  Turkey reached out a paw and flipped it open. I could hear him purr as he started turning the pages.

  I smiled. Though we’d been munching on cookies all day, the idea of baking up some more struck me as brilliant. “Let’s get to work!” I said, rolling up my sleeves.

  The rest of the afternoon and evening passed in a blur of baking bliss. We made Linzer tarts shaped like little angels and filled with raspberry jam, red velvet spritzes with a hint of cocoa and topped with white sprinkles like a dusting of snow, and cinnamon sugar crackle cookies that were melt-in-your mouth delicious. The whole time, we listened to classic Christmas songs and sang along with our best Bing Crosby voices. I danced a good bit, too.

  Around six, we each ate some real food just so we didn’t crash from all the sugar.

  It was 9:30 when we finally got around to dressing for our fake bank heist. “Should we bring the gargoyles cookies?” Penny asked.

  “What, as a bribe or something?” I asked. The thought hadn’t occurred to me. “Do gargoyles even like cookies?”

  “Everyone likes cookies,” Penny said. “What’s not to like? But then again, we might not look like true bank robbers if we’re carrying a platter of fresh-baked cookies with us.”

  “We could put them in your bag,” I suggested. I knew my friend would wear her messenger bag. She wore that thing everywhere.

  Penny snapped her fingers. “Good thinking,” she said.

  I saw Turkey roll his eyes.

  I got the impression that he didn’t think we were doing a good job of preparing for the evening’s activities. In a way, he was correct. We were being a little bit silly about the whole thing -- but that was what Penny and I were best at, being silly. Even when it came to semi-serious stuff, like breaking into banks. Well, pretending to break into banks, anyway.

  “Should we wear masks?” Penny asked.

  “Definitely,” I said. “The enchanted gargoyles won’t take us seriously if we’re maskless. How about we cut holes into hats? You have some knit beanies, right? That could work.”

  I was imagining a black knit beanie, but it turned out that Penny only had pink and lavender. She gave the lavender one to me. I cut two holes for my eyes, and then tried it on. It was nice and cozy, but it smushed my nose and I didn’t like breathing into the wool.

  I rolled the brim up again and wore the hat on my head. I’d pull it down when we got to the bank. When I turned to see how Penny’s mask was coming along, I saw that she’d cut out eyes, along with a little triangle nose -- and she was now snipping out a circle for a mouth.

  “Are you making a bank-robbery mask or a jack-o-lantern?” I asked her.

  “Oops. I think I got carried away,” she said. She stopped cutting and then pulled the hat over her head. She yanked the brim down to her chin. “How does it look?” she asked.

  I erupted with a belly laugh. I just couldn’t help it. Maybe it was all the dancing and singing we’d just done that made me feel so giddy, or maybe I was experiencing a sugar high. Or maybe, just maybe, I was nervous about what we were about to do.

  I gave Penny a thumbs up. “I think we’re ready,” I said.

  But were we? I knew it was dangerous to pretend to rob a bank. So much could go wrong. But what was really in the pit of my stomach, acting like a fountain’s bubbler and making me laugh like a giddy child, was the idea of those two gargoyles coming to life and swooping down onto the sidewalk.

  If they really were magical sculptures, what would they do to Penny and me once they came to life?

  I knew that I was about to find
out.

  It was even colder outside than it had been that afternoon, now that the sun had gone down. It was still snowing, too. Big, fat, chunky flakes of white drifted down from the inky black void above, like a wintry confetti.

  I drove down to the bank in my van, and we decided to park a block away and approach by foot. I thought it might look more robber-ish, but what did I know? Not much about bank robbing, except for what I’d seen in movies.

  Penny had grabbed a baseball bat from her hall closet before we left her house. Turkey had absolutely vetoed her idea of bringing her gun, and I was secretly glad about that. I didn’t like it when my friend packed heat. She wasn’t known as a great marksman.

  She held the bat down at her side. She wore her messenger bag, and a big, puffy blue coat. I had on my colorful hooded sweatshirt, vest, knee-high moccasins, teal leggings, and a pair of fingerless gloves. I wasn’t sure that either of us looked the part of a robber, but then again, we hadn't put our costumes on yet, either.

  When we were two buildings down from the bank, I paused and pulled my “mask” from my pocket. I sensed Skili’s presence in the sky above. She was flying in slow circles, ready to dive down if Penny and I needed rescuing. Turkey was tucked into Penny’s messenger bag, with his head hidden. I supposed that maybe if the gargoyles were super aggressive, there was a chance Turkey would join in the battle -- but I doubted it. It was more likely that he’d stay out of sight, possibly working some magic from within the safe and warm internal compartments of the bag.

  I took a deep breath and pulled the lavender beanie down over my face so that I was peering out through the two cut holes.

  “Here we go!” I said nervously to Penny, who was pulling her hat down over her face, too.

  “Let’s go meet some gargoyles!” she said.

  With that, we both took off down the empty snow-covered sidewalk at a jog, heading for the bank.

  Penny turned and spoke to me loudly. “Let’s take all the cash, first!” she said.