All the Wicked Ways

by E. M. Moore

  Mrs. Paladino stuck her head through the dressing room door. A giggle came from the other side, and then, voice muffled, though I could still clearly hear the disdain I recognized, she asked, “Does she seriously wear purple in her hair like that?”

  “Maddie? Are you almost done?” Mel asked, impatient now.

  Two things hit me at once then. Mel couldn’t see or hear Mrs. Paladino. Why was that? Mel was a more powerful witch than I was. And two, sadly, Mrs. Paladino would never change. “I’ll be right out,” I called.

  My sister’s step retreated, and suddenly, Mrs. Paladino’s full form was in front of me again. Her facial features were screwed up in a mask of surprised horror. “Her hair?”

  “Yes, she wears her hair like that. What’s the big deal? I’ll have you know she owns her own shop.”

  “Let me guess, it’s a witch store.”

  “What else would it be? We do live in Salem.”

  Because arguing with ghosts wasn’t really my style, I decided to stick with what would get her out of my hair, and for good. She’d only been dropped into my life for a couple minutes, but I couldn’t wait to get her out. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and scrolled until I found Jackson’s number. What was I going to tell him? I got a tip that Mr. Paladino was dead in the Danvers’ walk-in freezer?

  Oh my goddess. How lame was that?

  He knew I’d saved us by having the gun backfire in John Williams’ hand. He knew about Mel’s spelled bracelet, and the spell we did that night to keep Mel and I safe from Rich, but I didn’t know how he would take me calling up and nonchalantly telling him that a ghost told me where a dead body was.

  Mrs. Paladino piped up from the other side of the stall. “Are you going to call someone or not?”

  Nothing like being heckled from the otherside. “I am. I’m just deciding on what to say. It’s not every day a ghost pops in and tells you about her dead husband.”

  “If it’s you or your sister calling, people should be used to this already? You two were always…outsiders.”

  Once again, I was amazed that some of the population who lived in a city that the majority of town made their living hyping up the idea of witches and the paranormal wasn’t more accepting. Anger scorched inside me. “Do you want my help or not?”

  Mrs. Paladino took a step backward nearly disappearing into the stall next to mine. She sealed her lips together as if to tell me I wouldn’t be hearing another peep from her. I nodded, then glanced down at Jackson’s name again. It was a lot easier to call him now than it was even a month ago, but not with this kind of information.

  Taking a deep breath, I pushed the green phone icon next to his name and my cell started to dial. Pulling the phone to my ear, I waited until I heard his voice on the other end. “Detective Ward.”

  “Hey, it’s me, Maddie.” My voice sounded strangled even to my own ears.

  “Well, yeah. Kind of figured that. Did you know these new contraptions tell you the name of whoever is calling?”

  I laughed nervously. Yeah, funny. “So…how’s work going?”

  There was a pause on the other end of the line. Mrs. Paladino crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. Her lips moved like she was mumbling something, but I didn’t hear what she said.

  “I’m just, you know, at work. Something you…?”

  I really did not want to go through with this. As soon as I told him I knew that Victor Paladino was dead in the freezer of the Danvers Hotel, Jackson would know just how much of a freak I really was.

  My temples throbbed so I took another deep breath. Maybe he’d been found in the time Mrs. Paladino had come to see me. Maybe they already knew… “Anything weird going on there lately?” I asked half-heartedly, only delaying the inevitable. Perhaps the Band-Aid approach would’ve been better.

  “Anything weird…?” His voice turned in an instant. Suspicion sliced through the heavy air. “Why? Is there something going on again, Maddie?”

  Something going on? Of course, there was something going on. I was Maddie Styles, a witch. Something I would never be able to escape from. “I don’t know. I just…”

  The sound of Jackson’s door slamming against his filing cabinet interrupted my awkward attempt at broaching the subject with him. I immediately stiffened as a sure voice rang out. Unfortunately, in that instant, Jackson’s hand must have moved over the microphone and I couldn’t hear a thing. Ugh. That detective and all his attempts at keeping private things secret from me. I listened anyway and even though it may have been a figment of my imagination, I was pretty sure I heard the word body.

  Relief washed over me. If someone had found Victor Paladino, I could keep my mouth shut about what I knew. As stupid as it was, I crossed my fingers behind my back. “Something wrong, Jackson?”

  “Hold on, Mads.” The line muffled again. From the corner of the room, Mrs. Paladino asked me what was going on, but I didn’t know how to answer. Then, Jackson returned to the line. “I’ve got to go.”

  “Is everything okay? What is it?” I asked, hoping to sound innocent enough.

  “Someone at the Danvers found a dead body in the freezer.”

  Sweet, sweet relief. Such an odd reaction for being told that a body had been found, but I couldn’t help it. I was out of the woods for now. At least as far as Mrs. Paladino was concerned. I closed my eyes and then opened them again, expecting her to be gone. No such luck.

  Dread replaced the relief in my veins. If she wasn’t gone, something else was going on. Something…worse. If she’d only returned to have someone find her husband’s body, there was no reason why she wouldn’t have vanished as soon as that happened, even mid-sentence with me.

  “Someone’s found him,” I mumbled, realizing she was still in the dark.

  A sense of peace settled over her and she closed her unforgiving eyes. After a few moments, she opened them again and was just as shocked to find that I was still in front of her as much as I was. “Well, crap.”

  My thoughts, exactly.

  Chapter 3

  “I’ll be back.”

  Not giving me time to answer, the ghost of Mrs. Paladino poofed out of thin air. Well, that was going to get annoying real quick. And, why? Why did she have to come back?

  It was just me again in the stall, everything exactly like it was before she’d shown herself. I pushed my feet into my shoes, grabbed my purse, and walked out. Mrs. Ward and my sister sat on opposite sides of the bench waiting for me, their bodies turned away from eachother. With Mrs. Ward there, I couldn’t say anything to Mel. I’d love to know why I could see the teacher who tortured us in high school and she couldn’t though.

  Mrs. Ward stood as soon as she saw me. “Your sister wants to go to the Danvers for drinks. Apparently, she likes red and I only have white.”

  Now we’d resorted to calling out my sister. Interesting. I didn’t want to know what happened while I was in the changing room. But in other news, this was bad. There was currently a dead body at the Danvers. “There? You sure?”

  Mel stood, too, giving Mrs. Ward her own tired look. “Where else are we going to go?”

  I shrugged, not wanting it to seem like anything was amiss. Nope, nothing wrong here. As soon as we got to the Danvers there wouldn’t be cop cars, flashing lights, and most likely, an ambulance. Or even a hearse.

  Another dead body in Salem. At least this one wasn’t a murder.

  Sure enough, as we pulled up to the Danvers, the whole scene was exactly as I played out in my head. The red, blue, and white flashing lights, the wail of the sirens, and even Jackson, standing there with his yellow notepad talking to a guy in a white apron and hairnet.

  Mrs. Paladino was there, too, just on the other side of the gurney. She hovered over the black body bag, staring down at the lifelike form underneath. From this distance, I could tell she had tears in her eyes. That was weird, I hadn’t realized ghosts could cry. She, and Jackson, saw me at the same exact time. Jackson looked around then and saw his moth
er. His shoulders slumped forward as soon as he caught sight of her even though he continued to talk with the kitchen worker.

  Once Mrs. Paladino saw me, however, she strode right over. I vaguely heard Mrs. Ward saying, “My goodness. What’s going on now?”

  My sister’s feet were frozen in place, no doubt she was taken back to a few weeks ago when she lost her two friends.

  I could be strong for those two even if I had to interact with the teacher who hated me in high school. “There’s something wrong,” Mrs. Paladino said.

  No kidding, I wanted to say. Of course, there was something wrong. Her husband was dead. Instead, I inclined my head toward my friends, telling her without telling her that I couldn’t really talk right now.

  Mrs. Paladino glanced at Mrs. Ward and Mel and then back at me. “He’s not up there yet,” she said, almost whispering as if she was worried they would hear her too. She lifted her eyes to the sky. “I don’t see him. He’s not here, but he’s definitely not up there either.”

  “Meaning?” I whispered, not wanting to draw attention to myself. Though, my sister was the closest to me, and it would take a lot to bring her out of her funk right now.

  “He was a good man. He should’ve went directly up there, but he didn’t and that can only mean one thing. He’s not at rest. Something bad happened to him. I think he’s been murdered. No, I know he’s been murdered. It was that little tramp of his, I know it. You have to help him.”

  I pulled my hands through my hair and sighed. Another murder? No, I refused to believe it. Mrs. Paladino was wrong. “Look harder,” I said through clenched teeth.

  “You don’t think I know what my husband looks like?”

  “What’s wrong?” Mrs. Ward asked. I jumped about a foot in the air, way too preoccupied with the conversation I was having with the dead person. I shook my head, but Mrs. Ward pat me on the shoulder anyway. “I know, I know. Too many dead bodies. I wonder who it is.”

  “Tell her,” Mrs. Paladino urged. “Tell them what happened to my Victor. Tell them now.”

  I sealed my lips shut. Mrs. Paladino had been away from the real world for too long. Nothing good could come from someone starting to scream ‘murder’. “It’s so sad,” I agreed. I’d stared at the body bag for so long thinking about what Mrs. Paladino said about him not being up there that I hadn’t realized Jackson had walked up to our little group. I was scared to ask him, but I needed to know. “Another murder?”

  “What are you talking about?” Jackson asked. His eyes narrowed in on me. “It wasn’t a murder, Maddie. It’s Victor Paladino. He had a heart attack in the freezer.”

  I wanted to believe him. I really did. “No signs of foul play?”

  “None whatsoever.”

  “The freezer?” Mel asked, barely letting Jackson answer my question. She turned to me with a concerned expression. “Why was he in the freezer?”

  Jackson shrugged. “That’s one thing we’re trying to figure out. It doesn’t make sense. It was clear he had a heart attack though. No evidence of anything sinister, I promise.” He regarded me, his eyebrows bunched together with worry.

  I’d have to hope Mrs. Paladino was wrong then. Maybe she just needed to look harder. Maybe he was avoiding her, not wanting to feel her wrath so quickly after his own traumatic death. It was true Victor had started dating someone younger recently—his ‘little tramp’ Mrs. Paladino referred to her as. I wouldn’t want my angry, jealous late wife to be the first face I saw on the otherside after that either.

  While Mrs. Ward and Mel couldn’t take their eyes off the gurney, Jackson kept his hard, detective gaze on me. He looked at me so long, I was compelled to say something. I shrugged. “I guess I just thought with everything else that’s happened, history would repeat itself again.” Lie, but not wrong. It wasn’t a far-fetched response by any means.

  His eyes turned down, laced with worry. Then, he nodded. “He was an old man. That’s all.”

  Mrs. Paladino popped into view right in front of Jackson. “That’s a lie,” she seethed. Her finger was up and wagging in his face. It was too bad he couldn’t see her at all. Her anger was wasted on him. Through her misty body, I could only see a vague outline of him and he was still looking at me, completely oblivious to what was going on right in front of him. Mrs. Paladino took a step back. “I know who this is. This is Jackson Ward. How on this Earth did he make it to detective? Salem has just gone to the dogs after I left. You’re the director of the library and Jackson Ward is a detective? It’s no wonder my Victor’s been murdered.”

  Yeah, because me being a part of library administration and Jackson solving crimes means Salem is doomed.

  I stared into the space that held Mrs. Paladino, glaring at her. Jackson noticed my intense inspection and followed my gaze. Whereas my eyes were all over the science teacher from hell, Jackson saw nothing. He was most likely worried for my sanity right now.

  “Don’t worry, Mads. Victor Paladino’s death won’t affect the fundraiser tomorrow night. The show will go on.”

  He meant it as a joke. He was well aware of my thoughts on the stupid fundraiser, and my insecurities. It fell flat, though. As we all stared at the body bag that was just now being lifted into the ambulance, no one dared laugh. Least of all me, who still watched Mrs. Paladino as she demanded Jackson do something. Her voice kept getting higher and higher as if somehow he might be able to hear the dead. At one point, she was actually screaming.

  Even though it landed on his ordinary deaf ears, I heard every single word. She thought Hannah Sparks did it. She repeated it over and over again. Because there were people around, there was nothing I could do but speculate why she thought that. Hannah was Victor’s much younger girlfriend. When I found out about them, I took great joy in thinking Mrs. Paladino wouldn’t be happy about their relationship. But to accuse her of murder, whether anyone but me could hear her or not, that was a lot, even from an evil science teacher. Maybe all these accusations were a manifestation of Mrs. Paladino’s hurt at being replaced by a much younger woman. Ghosts didn’t know everything, did they? Maybe he did just have a heart attack in the freezer. Of course, that didn’t explain away why he was in the freezer in the first place. Or why Mrs. Paladino was still here after her husband’s body was discovered.

  Mrs. Paladino stopped her one-sided argument and stood off to the side of our little group, her face as helpless as any of the living standing nearby. I felt bad for her…alright, almost bad for her. I could never forgive her for the torture she put me through in high school, but to find out your loved one was dead, I knew what that felt like.

  Guilt washed over me. I knew what Derek died of. The unknown, the mystery, whether unfounded or not, would’ve killed me. With a quick shake of my head, I asked Jackson if he was sure he died of a heart attack.

  His eyes turned sad as he still watched the scene in front of us. “Nothing to suggest otherwise at this time.” When he looked at me, he dropped the cop speak and rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s sad, yes, but this isn’t a suspicious death. People die from natural causes every day, especially older people. I know it hasn’t been our experience over the last month or so, but natural deaths are more common in Salem than unnatural ones. We inspected the body, we can find nothing that suggests Mr. Paladino died from anything other than natural causes.”

  His gaze searched mine as I nodded. I looked at Mrs. Paladino, hoping she’d heard his reassuring words. She did, she just didn’t believe him. Her head shook as she looked after the retreating ambulance, her face as hard as stone.

  I still couldn’t shake one thought though, Why was she here? Why was she still here if Mr. Paladino’s death was natural?

  Jackson cleared his throat. “Well, I have to get back to work. See you ladies later?”

  After Jackson left, Mel turned to the group. “I suddenly don’t feel like drinking anymore.”

  “Me either,” Mrs. Ward said, watching her son as he talked to the other officers. “Perhaps it’s best if
we just go home.”

  “Of course,” I said. “Another night. Most likely I’ll need to drink more tomorrow after the auction.”

  Mrs. Ward ignored me as she usually did when she thought I was making ridiculous statements about myself. She pulled me into a hug. “See you tomorrow. Get some beauty rest. We want to rake in the big bucks for the library’s new elevator.”

  Mel and I waved after Mrs. Ward, then watched as she got into her car and drove off. I got into the passenger seat of Mel’s car and laid my head back against the headrest, my mind a jumbled mess. Mel got in too, started the car, and pulled out of the parking spot. At this point, I couldn’t see Mrs. Paladino and I hoped she’d stay at the Danvers so I could think in private tonight.

  “Theoretical question,” I said, turning my head toward my sister.

  “I’m all ears.”

  I’d been doing this to Mel a lot lately as I tried to get back into my Wiccan roots. After years of trying to forget about my witchy side, I was a little rusty. Hopefully this questions wouldn’t set off any alarms in Mel’s head. “Say, for instance, two people can see ghosts. What if a ghost shows up and only one of these two people who can see ghosts, sees them. What does that mean?”

  She looked to me questioningly. “Ghosts can show themselves to different people for different reasons. I suppose if the other person can’t see the ghost, it’s because the other person can’t help them.”

  I nibbled over my bottom lip. If that were true, why was I the one to help Mrs. Paladino? Surely Mel would’ve been a much better witch to choose.

  “Is there…?”

  “No,” I said quickly. I didn’t want Mel to get involved in this. Not after what she had to go through before. “Nothing’s going on. Just merely curious.”

  Mel played her fingers over the steering wheel. “Poor, Mr. Paladino. He was always a nice man. His wife though…”

  I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. If she only knew Mrs. Paladino’s attitude carried over into her afterlife too. My goodness. This witch stuff came with a whole bunch of different complications. Not only did I have to worry about real world stuff like the auction tomorrow, but my old science teacher was back to haunt me and I didn’t know for how long.