A Winter Tail of Woe

by Addison Moore

  Fern is struggling. I think Morgan mentioned that. I bet she wants Mabel to give her band a shout-out during the taping of the show. The final show.

  I feel so sorry for her, I might give her a shout-out during the final show myself.

  A roaring noise comes from my right, and I glance over to find that predator in wolf’s clothing all but devouring my feisty sibling.

  “Hey, knock it off,” I say, thumping the brute over the head with my purse, but it only seems to spur him on. Macy gags and yelps as her limbs begin to flail. “I said knock it off!” I grab a glass from the counter and knock him over the neck with it, but the hairy beast doesn’t relent. A horrific sound emits from him as if he were howling and ripping at the seams all at the very same time, and I gasp.

  I think that’s Macy he’s ripping at the seams!

  “Georgie.” I snatch the purse off her shoulder and pluck Thor out as if I knew my way around a trigger or two.

  Without giving it a thought, I fire off three shots right into the back of the surly furball who dares to attack my sister so brazenly.

  The creature arches his back and lets out an injured roar. But I don’t stick around to assess the situation. I pluck Macy by the wrist and shout for Juni and Georgie to collect our things and follow us to the exit.

  The entire establishment breaks out into viral screams as dishes and desserts go flying. I snatch my mother off the dance floor, and soon we’re back out in the icy cold terrain.

  Macy smacks me on the arm. “What the heck did you do that for? I was having the time of my life!”

  “What?” I wave Thor in the air. “Are you nuts? That man was making a meal out of you!”

  “I waited all night for that wily wolf to put me on his dinner plate. This is the last time I’m barhopping with you. Georgie is right. You really are Buzzkill Bizzy! Or worse, Rubber Bullet Bizzy!”

  A snorting sound comes from behind, and we turn to find that tall, pale creature suckling off my mother’s neck.

  I point Thor at his back and fire off three more shots, and dear God, I hope I didn’t just kill my mother in the process.

  The would-be vampire bucks and howls before staggering a few feet and falling face-first into the snow.

  Both Juni and Georgie belt out a whoop of approval as I run over to my mother.

  “Mom, are you all right?” I grab her by the shoulders and give her a rattle in hopes to shake that dazed look right off her face.

  “I’m fine. Let’s get out of here before they throw us all in the pokey.”

  “I can’t leave him there,” I say as we turn around and a puff of smoke plumes from the spot he was once lying in—and out of nowhere a large bat flies off into the night sky.

  The five of us let out a cry of terror.

  The door to the establishment opens a crack and out trots a sleek silver dog of some sort, looking ever so angry as he turns our way and growls.

  Juni pulls Georgie over and uses her as a human shield. “Why does that dog look as if he wants to eat us?” she howls.

  Mom pulls Macy over as a human shield herself. “That’s no dog. That’s a wolf!”

  The five of us belt out another sharp scream and jump into my car before I take off down the road.

  “Hey, my car is that way.” Macy points in the opposite direction.

  “Don’t worry,” I tell her. “We’re not going home just yet.”

  “Where are we headed, Toots?” Georgie asks while reloading Thor with another round of bullets, and my God, if they don’t look silver in this dull light.

  Mom huffs, “I know where we’re going. Bizzy is going to off all of the relatives of that undead creature that dared take a bite out of my neck. We’ll go door-to-door. Word is, they sleep upside down in the closet.”

  “I’m not going on a door-to-door shooting spree,” I say as that haunted red barn appears on the horizon. “I’m doing a little breaking and entering.”

  Who’s the buzzkill now?

  I’m fishing for evidence, and something tells me I’ll find more than that letter on Mabel Buttonwood’s desk.

  And with my luck, I just might find a ghost, too.

  Chapter 14

  The Haunted Book Barn looks just that—haunted.

  It’s the dead of night and not a streetlamp winks in this distal end of Glimmerspell. I park around back, and the five of us head out into the night as the snow glows an electric shade of blue.

  “Get back in the car,” I hiss at the four of them. “I can handle this alone.”

  “You can’t get in there without me, Biz.” Georgie smacks her lips, and I can’t help but note that her eyes are glowing an eerie lavender. A part of me thinks Georgie is a paranormal wonder herself. Or worse yet, maybe this haunted town is transforming us all into paranormal wonders.

  Great. As if prying into people’s private musings wasn’t bad enough, I’m going to grow a beard and howl at the moon while Jasper does his best to pump me full of silver bullets.

  Juni hugs herself as she shivers. “And where Mama goes, I go. There might be a foxy specter in there just waiting to frighten my pants off. It’s no fair Mama gets all the fun.”

  Mom huffs, “Well, I’m not staying in the car alone.”

  “What about me?” Macy balks. “I’m not invisible, you know.”

  Mom shoots her a look. “No, but you’re the equivalent of catnip to werewolves, and I don’t want to end up at the bottom of some beast’s stomach either.”

  “All right, fine.” I lead the charge to the back door, and Georgie finagles the lock until we’re all inside the drafty barn where it’s only a smidge warmer than it was outside. Only a few florescent lights are on around the periphery of the bookstore, and it gives off the spooky feeling you get when you’re in a department store around closing time and the management is trying to give you the boot.

  “Ooh.” Macy wiggles her fingers as she takes in the shop with a gleam of delight. “I’m going to the spicy book section. Nothing’s better than reading something indecent while committing a first-class felony.”

  “This is hardly a first-class felony,” I say. “It’s not, is it?”

  “Don’t look at me,” Mom says, taking off. “Your brother is the lawyer in the family. Who, by the way, we’ll be needing sooner than later. I’m off to see if they have another book in that cat mystery series I started. I’m hooked, I tell you.”

  Juni grunts as she cranes her neck, “I’ll go clean out the baked goods. I’m practically doing them a favor. And lucky for me, I didn’t eat a stitch of dinner.” She takes off and Georgie steps in close.

  “Don’t worry, Biz. I won’t abandon you like the others. Let’s raid her office and fill our pockets with those fancy doggy biscuits Sherlock has been raving about.”

  “It’s true, he hasn’t forgotten them. But that’s not why we’re here.” I slink in the direction of Mabel’s desk and quickly take a seat behind it. I turn on the flashlight on my phone and rifle through the mail while Georgie finds a bin full of those treats she was looking for.

  That letter from Liberty Inheritance Disputes is no longer in the pile, and there’s nothing else but a few bills and some junk mail. I click into the computer sitting on her desk and it lights up like a Christmas tree. My fingers fly over the keyboard as I do my best to scan it for any billing software, but there doesn’t look to be any.

  Something Morgan said to me the night we met comes back to me. She mentioned that Mabel ran the shop while she did the baking. She said Mabel did all the managerial stuff by hand. I wonder if that meant the vendor accounts and the accounting?

  I pull open drawer after drawer until I come upon a large spiral bound hardback journal with the current year marked on the front. I open it up, and each month is accounted for right down to the dollar. I take pictures of the last solid year and note a huge uptick in sales starting as far back as November. It continued right on up until three weeks ago. Huh.

  A thump to my right jars me to attentio
n, and I look over to see Georgie munching down on as many of those doggie biscuits as she can stuff into her pie hole.

  “Are you insane?” I hiss. “Those are not for human consumption.”

  “Are you kidding? These taste better than those snowballs Emmie has been peddling. I’m taking a few back to the inn so that Emmie can try them out and replicate them.”

  “Sounds like a solid plan,” I whisper, putting back the accounting register where I found it. “We need to get the others and leave before we end up eating prison biscuits, and I bet they’re nowhere near as delicious.”

  “You’re so right.” Georgie shoves her fingers into her mouth and belts out a sharp whistle. The sound of footfalls running in this direction echoes through the cavernous room, and yet a glimmer of light near a darkened corridor to my right catches my eye. A face appears, pale, lavender glowing eyes, long dark hair…

  A scream gets locked in my throat before I’m tackled from behind by my sister and ushered right out the door. No sooner do we make it back into the snowy parking lot than a truck pulls up with its headlights blinding us.

  The door opens and a tall, vexingly good-looking, otherworldly creature steps out.

  Jasper Wilder flashes his badge. “All of you should be under arrest. Make a run for it, and I’ll pretend I didn’t see a thing.”

  “Don’t worry, Bizzy,” Mom says, snatching the keys from me. “I’ll drive the girls back. You can catch a ride home with your husband—who is far too kind to this motley crew.”

  The four of them take off like bats in flight.

  Jasper blows out a breath as his silver eyes glow in the night.

  “When I heard there were shots fired in Glimmerspell, I suspected I knew where they came from. Imagine my surprise when the manager at Fae Gardens—a woman with wings, told me that it was a cute brunette who discharged the weapon. And then I asked myself how would my wife top off her night after shooting up a nice place like that? With a break-in,” he flat lines.

  “You’re not the lead detective down in Seaview for nothing. I’d put in for a raise if I were you.”

  “I would, but I’m about to undertake another interrogation.”

  “Don’t worry, Detective. I’m more than willing to talk. And once we’re through with the chitchat, I might even read you a chapter or two of our new favorite book.”

  We head back to Cider Cove and I tell Jasper everything from the spooky beginning to the ghostly end. And something tells me, we haven’t even crested the surface of this entire ordeal.

  The cottage is warm and toasty as a fresh fire rages in the fireplace thanks to Jasper’s quick handiwork.

  Fish is curled in my lap as Jasper and I comb over those screenshots I took of the accounting register from the Haunted Book Barn.

  Acorn gives a soft bark. Mabel was very careful with money, Bizzy. Morgan always let me know her sister was a tightwad when it came to the bookstore. I think tightwad means thrifty.

  I translate to Jasper and he shakes his head.

  “I think you’re right, Acorn,” he says. “But, it could have been a dig at her sister, too. Maybe they didn’t get along more than they did. And then, there are those rumored psychiatric issues.”

  “True. But whatever their relationship was, they were in the black all last year,” I point out.

  By how much? Fish yowls. The inn is eking by, but that hasn’t stopped you from feeling as if you’re sinking.

  “Good point,” I say, giving her a quick stroke on the back. “Fish just brought up the fact that they could have had their heads just above water. Maybe the stress of having to hold it all together was too much for them? I mean, up until last year they had their father as a safety net.”

  Sherlock lets out a sharp bark. Just like you had Quinn.

  I blow out a breath. “Sherlock is right. Just like I had Quinn. But there just seems to be a piece of the puzzle missing.”

  “I did a little digging myself this afternoon.” Jasper’s chest expands as he says it. “And I think I have that missing piece. I found out that the attorneys at Liberty are in bed with a real estate firm. I made a few calls and discovered that someone was trying to get the Haunted Book Barn listed. They wouldn’t tell me who without a warrant, but they did say that whoever it was went as far as getting an appraisal to see what the property value was worth.”

  “Oh wow.” I give a few quick blinks. “Maybe Mabel was trying to sell it from under Morgan? Or maybe the reverse? I’m betting they weren’t in agreement on the fate of that bookstore. Jasper, you don’t think Morgan would poison her sister, do you?”

  He blows out a breath. “I don’t know. The liquid that was left in the water bottle was extremely toxic. But virtually tasteless. Whoever did this knew what they were doing. And we reviewed the footage from the day. Fern, Hollis, and Colt each handled that water bottle at some point that afternoon. The plant used to poison Mabel is one that’s indigenous to South America. Way back when, the Native Americans grew the stuff, too. On occasion they used it to poison their arrows.” He pulls out his phone and shows me a picture of a heart-shaped leafy vine.

  “That looks vaguely familiar, but I don’t know why. Probably because I haven’t seen a plant in months no thanks to the weather.”

  Fish pats her paw over my chest. Neither have I, sister. Have they run out of catnip? Or now that you’re married to this one, are you, as Acorn would say—a tightwad?

  “You’re hilarious.” I kiss her on the furry forehead. “I’ll find some catnip for you.” I snuggle in close to Jasper. “How about a little catnip for you, too? Say, a suspect roundup?”

  “You know how to talk dirty to me. Who’s on first?”

  “I don’t know. Colt, maybe? He certainly had a reason to want to stop Morgan. He was committing a crime that could lead to some serious time. Forgeries and wire fraud are no joke.”

  “It’s a clear motive. What about Fern?”

  “She wanted to hit it big, and I think she really believed that Morgan’s show could push her over the edge as far as fame went. And she might have been right. I mean, my mother and Georgie are in the middle of a sales boom because of that ridiculous spot they were a part of. And so is Macy.”

  “So is Camila.” He shakes his head. “She’s been raving about the fact she gets to eat pizza and put on her face—whatever that means—while churning the rumor mill.”

  “Honestly? I think she’s found her calling.”

  “No doubt.”

  “And then there’s Hollis,” I say, giving Fish a quick scratch behind her ears. “I guess she was running the production of Morgan’s show for free to get herself established, and once she started charging, Morgan wanted to send her packing.”

  Jasper nuzzles his face in my hair a moment. “That’s a motive. Maybe a weak one. But then, I’ve seen people killed for lesser offenses.”

  Sherlock barks. Like the fact they went back to the magical bookstore and didn’t seem to remember to pick up any of those tasty biscuits for their favorite pooches?

  Acorn whines. How I miss those tasty biscuits. Mabel always gave me a few extra on the side when Morgan wasn’t looking. Morgan didn’t want me to overeat.

  “Morgan sounds like a good mama,” I say, reaching over and giving Acorn a gentle pat to her curly-haired ear. “Acorn, is there anything else you remember Morgan saying about Mabel? Or do you remember any of their final arguments?”

  Acorn lets out a vocalizing bark. They argued about cooking the morning that Morgan asked Mabel to take over for her.

  “The morning you got into some chocolate muffins and she needed to take you to the vet?” I ask before I briefly translate for Jasper.

  Acorn gives a sharp bark. I didn’t get into any muffins even if at first Morgan said that I did. The only reason we went to the vet was to pick up some of my flea medicine and then we left.

  I inch back as I look to Jasper. “Acorn says he didn’t get into any muffins that morning like Morgan had said. The only reas
on they went to the vet was to pick up his flea medicine.”

  Jasper glances to the corner of the room. “Then why in the world would she ask Mabel to do the show for her?”

  “Morgan said something about Mabel wanting to do the switch one day anyway to get her feet wet before she did her own show, something based around cosmetics. But you’re right. She made it sound a lot more urgent. I wonder what she was up to?” I look to the sweet furry pup before me. “Acorn, you have to remember what happened next. Where did Morgan take you after the vet?”

  A short-lived howl emits from the sweet pooch. We went to a busy place. I think she called it Medicine. She left me in the car while she ran into a building. And when she came back, she said, ‘He’ll never bother us again.’

  I translate the message to Jasper, and all night we contemplate what Morgan could have meant.

  “Medicine?” My eyes widen. “Edison?” I ask and Jasper nods.

  “I bet that’s it.”

  Those around Morgan have their fair share of secrets, but Morgan Buttonwood seems to have them beat by a mile.

  Oh, Morgan, Morgan, what have you done?

  Chapter 15

  Friday rolls around faster than a cat on a mouse, and the Country Cottage Café is right back to being the hub for Hollis Carrington’s production crew. There are lights, cameras, and far too many bodies.

  Emmie has whipped up a giant platter of those snowball cookies that Mabel made the first time around, and Morgan has let us know that we’re going to make the very same cookies in her sister’s honor.

  Morgan has her dark hair combed back into a bun, those wire-rimmed glasses on, and a pale pink blouse buttoned up to her neck. But there’s a hint of malice in her lavender eyes as she stares me down, and that should be a dead giveaway as to her true identity to anyone who truly knew her.