Yuletide Blend

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Yuletide Blend Page 10

by Kennedy Layne


  If this old biddy didn’t rate those feathered pea brains above felines, I would have said we were kindred spirits.

  The sound of an engine cut through the neighborhood, and we all ended up waving at Wilma as she ever-so-slowly drove past Mrs. Salisbury’s residence on the way to Elsie’s house two doors down.

  Whoever it was down at the DMV who gave that woman a license at her age should be fired.

  “So, you’re saying that you actually saw the raccoon in your garbage can?” I asked, trying not to sound defeated. If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have made the trip back through the neighborhood. “You should put the lid on tighter, Mrs. Salisbury. That will keep those sneaky bandits away from the scraps.”

  “Are you suggesting that I don’t know how to handle my own garbage cans, missy?” Mrs. Salisbury shook her finger in my direction in disappointment. “I even put a brick on top to make sure those grubby bandits couldn’t make a mess in my driveway. The wind must have blown it over.”

  I’m not sure that broom-swinging biddy could even pick up a rock, let alone a brick. A broom, on the other hand, weighs in the negatives when she gets that air underneath the bristles.

  I had to wonder if Leo didn’t have a valid point with the whole brick thing. Mrs. Salisbury couldn’t be over a hundred pounds soaking wet. It was highly unlikely that she’d be able to hoist a brick on top of a garbage can.

  Another vehicle was passing by, and this time it was none other than Karen Finley. I almost slipped as I quickly stepped off the sidewalk, the road not even remotely as clear as Mrs. Salisbury’s sidewalk. I used the hood of my car to keep me upright, but Karen wasn’t as slow of a driver as Wilma. Before I could even lift my hand to indicated that I’d like to talk to her, she barreled right on past me.

  Mrs. Salisbury could be heard muttering quite the vocabulary for such an elderly woman, slamming the door shut and complaining about the youngins of today’s generation. I didn’t hesitate, hastily instructing Leo to get into the car. My leather gloves made it a little more difficult to start the engine quickly, but I managed to get my baby going right as Karen took a right turn at the next block.

  Are you seriously going to participate in one of those car chases you always see on those television shows? You know that those always end up in some sort of crash, right? I might have to skip this part of the investigation.

  “Leo,” I called out in warning, sighing in relief when he materialized in the front seat. “You know very well that we’re not going to be involved in a car chase. I just want to see where Karen is going. Don’t you find it odd that she hasn’t waved to a single person today? It’s like she’s on some type of mission, and it could very well involve Randy.”

  I still vote to have your mother go through the rancid brown piles of brownies over at the reindeer pen.

  I braked at the stop sign, searching for Karen’s vehicle. I couldn’t see it anywhere, but I waited until I was able to pull onto the street to make sure she wasn’t ahead of me. Nope. She was nowhere to be found.

  “She had to have pulled into someone’s driveway,” I insisted, slowing down so that I could check everyone’s house. “People don’t just disappear.”

  I could feel the weight of Leo’s stare on me, judging my assessment.

  “Okay. You can disappear, but regular humans can’t do that, Leo.”

  My phone chimed an incoming message, so I pulled up next to the curb and brought the car to a stop. I scanned the next few houses, but couldn’t find a driveway where Karen had parked her husband’s vehicle in.

  “It’s Liam,” I muttered, pressing his message to read his text. The implication of his words was not what I was expecting. This couldn’t be right, could it? “Um, Leo?”

  I heard your thoughts, but I’m going to assume that they got scrambled when you almost slipped back at the broom-swinging biddy’s house. Did I miss you hitting your head on the hood of the car or something?

  Leo used both paws to look out the front windshield when we heard muffled screams of terror. Sure enough, Bob Abbott was running across the street as fast as his heavy boots would allow, the caribou whistle bouncing against his chest as eight reindeer followed close behind in what I appeared to be a high-speed chase.

  Well, that’s not something you see every day in Paramour Bay. I hope he didn’t use any deer attractant…that could turn out bad for everyone involved!

  Chapter Eleven

  It took close to three hours for Barry Mina to round up the eight reindeer and put them back inside the pen in town square. The hardest part of the whole process had been separating the reindeer from their new friend Bob. He and Otis hadn’t counted on the caribou call igniting a fire underneath the eight reindeer, who either thought that Randy was calling out to them from somewhere deep in one of the neighborhoods or a female reindeer was roaming around in heat. Either way, a proper jail break and chase had ensued as a result of Bob’s game call.

  “I heard that there was a stampede through town today,” Heidi said with a chuckle over the phone, still with my mother up in Windsor. Technically, they were just getting on the highway to return home. “I would have loved to have seen that! Beetle immediately called your mother to make sure that she wasn’t in harm’s way. Isn’t that the cutest thing ever?”

  Leo began hacking dramatically on a fictitious hairball from his spot in the display window of the tea shop, not finding Heidi’s observation cute in the least. On the bright side, he’d finally gotten his afternoon nap and wasn’t quite so irritable. I’d spent some time researching Barry Mina more thoroughly, as well as using one of the checks that Karen wrote for Otis’ arthritis blend to do a locator spell. Somehow, some way, and by the time I’d gotten around to casting the spell…Karen had made it back home. I’d been about to put my jacket back on, minus the snow pants, and head on over there.

  “Beetle is always a gentleman,” I replied, glancing over my shoulder. He was currently ringing up a customer, who was talking about all the excitement that had taken place today. “So, what did you find out while you staked out Aunt Rowena’s place?”

  “Other than she must have had some type of warding spell around her house, nothing.”

  I took a step closer to the display window, grateful that I no longer had on the snow pants. The warmth of the store had been quite welcoming, and I’d even poured myself a cup of fresh coffee from the carafe. Beetle had done an excellent job in maintaining the sampling tables.

  My BFF does an excellent job at almost everything, Raven. Did you see my afternoon treat? It was in the form of a gingerbread man with a beard that was laced with catnip.

  Honestly, I’m pretty sure that Leo was envisioning dancing gingerbread men right this minute. That treat of his had been awfully large.

  “A warding spell?” I asked, looking up from Leo’s relaxed position in the window to see the mayor walk out of the police station. The interview that was set to take place with one of the local news stations was slated for five o’clock in front of Santa’s workshop. Town square was becoming quite crowded with residents wanting to be on the news in the background. My plan was to drive over to Karen’ house, make sure that she didn’t have Randy stashed away in the garage somewhere, and then make it back for the mayor’s interview. “You mean, Aunt Rowena knew you were there?”

  Ohhhh, do tell. Did the Mistress of the Dark and the Wicked Witch of Windsor get into an all-out witch fight? I want details. This has got to be good. Spare me nothing.

  “Yep,” Heidi quipped, sounding better than I would have thought after having a run-in with my great aunt. “She even invited us inside to have a cup of tea with her. Your mother declined and then drove us off to park on another street.”

  “Please tell me that my mother didn’t have you creeping around people’s yards,” I pleaded softly, holding the phone closer to my mouth so that no one could overhear me. “Did anyone see you?”

  Please tell me that someone turned your mother into a frog. My year would certain
ly end on a high note in spite of my stalemate with Skippy.

  “Just some woman with red hair who came across as if she were from some old Hollywood movie.”

  I cringed when I realized that Heidi was talking about Angelica, one of the witches on the council. The most cunning, now that I think about it.

  “Her name is Angelica,” I replied, probably not telling Heidi something she hadn’t already discovered after such an encounter. “She’s not one we should be messing with, Heidi. She’s as shrewd as they come.”

  Now that I’ve put more thought into it, allowing your mother to take Heidi up to Windsor probably wasn’t the best of ideas. Ask her to put down the visor and look into the mirror. Does she see any whiskers on her face?

  “Well, your mother didn’t have any trouble going toe to toe with her.” Heidi must have moved the phone to speak with my mother, though her words came across as muffled. I couldn’t make anything out other than Heidi saying something was fine and that I shouldn’t be upset. That was debatable. I could only assume that Mom was trying to downplay whatever she’d said to the Angelica, which set me on edge. “Anyway, there’s nothing to worry about. Rowena came outside, got into a rather heated argument with Angelica, and gave me the opportunity to look around the property. No Randy.”

  A quick glance down at Leo showed that one of his whiskers had begun twitching upon coming to the same conclusion that I’d just come to after Heidi’s announcement. There was no mistaking the exclamation of exasperation by my mother, who not so surprisingly snagged the phone out of Heidi’s hand.

  “Raven, dear, it wasn’t quite like it sounds,” my mother attempted to reassure me. As a matter of fact, she’d done the opposite. My anxiety level peaked at the thought of Heidi being in danger when we really hadn’t had any time to prepare her for such a perilous situation. “Heidi was within my line of sight the entire time. It became apparent that Angelica had been visiting one of the neighbors for the sole purpose of keeping an eye on Aunt Rowena. We inadvertently helped her cause, in a roundabout way, by exposing Angelica’s perch.”

  Come to think of it, the frog spell could have a time delay on it. What coven would want a yard full of frogs all croaking complaints in unison?

  I could see where Aunt Rowena might be a tad bit grateful for Mom’s inadvertent snooping to reveal such an underhanded move, not that it shouldn’t be expected with that particular coven. There was no denying that our family was dysfunctional or that the two factions needed to figure out something out before innocent bystanders got hurt or noticed something that they shouldn’t.

  “Mom, you promised that you were just going to drive by Aunt Rowena’s house to make sure there were no hoofprints or some type of trailer that could be hiding Randy,” I pressed her in irritation, reminding her of our previous conversation. I really should have taken this call in the back room, but I hadn’t counted on these types of details. “You can’t put Heidi in their sights like that. She’s exposed.”

  “By the time Aunt Rowena got through with Angelica, neither one of them cared much about what we were doing there. We quietly left, though I do suspect you’ll be receiving a call from Aunt Rowena. Simply explain that we thought she might have broken her promise and that we were checking her out,” my mother said, making it seem like such an easy task. “I’ll give you back to Heidi. We should be back in time for dinner.”

  If my beloved Heidi wasn’t with the Mistress of the Dark, I’d have you tell your mother to take her time.

  Before Heidi could hop back on the phone, I caught a glimpse of red. Sure enough, Santa Claus was walking past Monty’s hardware store. I disconnected the line and quickly wove my way through the displays of tea, china, and tables to the back room where I’d left my jacket. I called out to Beetle that he should close up shop around five o’clock and was out the door before I could hear his reply.

  If your mission is to speak with the jolly man in the red suit, you’re out of luck.

  I came to an abrupt halt at the intersection, scanning the sidewalk across the street. There wasn’t a Santa Claus in sight.

  “Raven, dear, you really should watch where you’re going,” Cora Barnes complained after I’d almost run into her. The woman was dressed to the nines with a winter coat that cost more than my entire wardrobe. She had on a set of forest green leather gloves that I’d seen in the Coach catalog. They no doubt felt like butter, along with a cashmere scarf that was kept in place with at least a three-carat diamond pin in the shape of a fanciful snowflake. “And for your own sake, put your jacket on before you catch your death in this cold.”

  I’d only gotten one arm into the padded material thus far. I’d been so focused on locating Santa Claus that I was most likely coming across as scatterbrained, standing in the middle of the sidewalk half-dressed.

  Don’t feel bad, Raven. An important thought popped into my head earlier before I enjoyed my afternoon edible. I’m pretty sure what I had to say was crucial to our mystery, but it vanished the moment I relaxed. Technically, everything I say is important, but this one had to do with the four-legged escapee…I think.

  “Did you see Santa Claus pass by, Mrs. Barnes?” I asked, taking the time to finish putting on my jacket. I scanned town square, but there was no sign of St. Nicholas. “I was hoping to talk to him about Randy.”

  Cora regarded me with wariness, but that wasn’t unusual. She thought my family was quite eccentric, with the exception of my mother. The two had decided to make amicable amends, but that was pretty much for the sake of appearances. Deep down the two women couldn’t stand one another.

  “Why on earth would the man hired to play Santa Claus know something about the missing reindeer? Really dear, you’re just not thinking this through, are you?” Cora was carrying the kind of purse that had the short handles, but she made sure that the designer’s gold logo was front and center hanging from its bright gold chain. I suddenly realized that she was dressed this way because she wanted to be caught on camera in the background of the mayor’s interview. “Desmond and I are doing what we can to help with the search, of course. He’s lucky he wasn’t hurt earlier today when the other eight reindeer practically stampeded down River Bay. They could have killed someone.”

  There it is again. It’s on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t quite spit it out. Maybe I need to go back and eat another edible. The premium organic catnip that my BFF splurges on has health benefits, you know. It expands my mind and enhances my karma.

  “Santa Claus was in town square when Randy went missing last night,” I said, hoping that my excuse came across as plausible. “He was standing next to me, and he said something that came across as somewhat odd. I just wanted to have another word with him.”

  “Well, the mayor is getting ready to address his constituents. The interview was moved up to five o’clock from seven o’clock.” Cora gestured toward the crowd, who all wanted a minute of fame on the local television. “He’s invited me to speak on behalf of the combined search party effort, so I believe it would be best if I were there by his side when the interview commences.”

  Hey, do you think your mother’s nemesis has the key to the city? It wouldn’t surprise me if she was trying to melt it down for its gold value. She’s power hungry, she’s got her manicured fingernails into everyone’s business, and she’s the kind of person who would know the secrets of this town…such as where Skippy and his band of ninja squirrels hibernate during the winter.

  I put on my cap that I’d dug out of my coat pocket as my gaze followed Cora to the intersection. Her head was held high and her regal stride was capturing attention of the local journalist and her cameraman, but I highly doubt she would know where the local squirrels hibernated in the winter.

  That’s it! See? I told you that my edibles have health benefits.

  “What’s it?” I asked distractedly, covering my lower face with my scarf before reaching into my other pocket for my gloves. The leather on my gloves was a lot lower quality than what Cora�
��s had been made out of, and now I was wondering if they contained any leather at all. Most of all, I was left marveling at St. Nicholas’ ability to just vanish into a crowd unnoticed. “How does Santa Claus just disappear like that, Leo? I mean, he’s wearing quite a lot of red, for crying out loud. I should still be able to catch sight of him in that crowd.”

  Are you not in the least bit curious as to what slipped my mind earlier?

  Leo’s memory blips happened so often that I’d gotten quite used to them. I turned to find that he was nowhere in sight, which was for the best. Since talking to Santa Claus was out of the question, I’d take advantage of Karen being at home if Leo’s revelation didn’t have us going in another direction altogether.

  “I’m very curious, especially if it helps us locate the missing reindeer.”

  If the other eight antlered brutes heard the caribou whistle and busted out of their pen, wouldn’t they do the same if they could hear their missing pal calling out?

  “Leo, you’re a genius,” I whispered in excitement, reaching for the keys in my coat pocket. They weren’t there. I must have left them in the back room of the tea shop. “It struck me as odd that Karen didn’t pull into the garage. You know how Otis is about his car. What if she was the one to lure Randy away from his pen? The only logical place to put him until she could figure out how to return him after learning the truth about their circumstances would be the garage.”

  Seeing as you just called me a genius and we have to go back inside the tea shop, I believe that’s grounds for another edible before we go breaking and entering into someone’s garage. After all, one wrong added with another wrong makes a right, right? Or is that wrong? It’s like adding negative numbers, or maybe I’m thinking of something entirely different. Either way, I get another edible.

  Chapter Twelve

 

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