Creature Magic (Tabby Kitten Mystery Series Book 2)

by Constance Barker

  “Please don’t tell me you’re insinuating that Eleanor would do something in retaliation,” Granny commented in utmost disbelief. She shook her head firmly. “No. I won’t allow that. She’s a good friend of mine. She would never do such a thing.”

  “I’m sorry, Freya,” Blaine replied earnestly, sending her a sympathetic look. “But we have to investigate any possible leads. Since she was a direct competitor to Marcel, we’re going to have to look into her and make sure she didn’t have anything to do with his murder. If she’s innocent, then nothing will happen. In the meantime, we have to check anyway.”

  “You won’t find anything,” Granny huffed out, crossing her arms over her chest. “There’s no way that she could have killed him. Over an award? No.”

  While Granny continued to deny the mere thought of her friend committing a crime, Blaine decided to drop the topic. He didn’t want to agitate her further. However, he was serious when he said that the police would be investigating Eleanor DeWitt. Regardless of how they felt about it, it was necessary.

  Just as Thea was going to interject into their conversation and lighten the mood, Blaine received a phone call. He frowned, realizing that it was a call from the police station.

  “Hello?” he said, placing the phone next to his ear.

  He sat quietly, taking in all of the information the person on the other side of the line was giving him. Eventually, he nodded.

  “Understood. I’ll head over right now.”

  Pocketing the phone, he looked apologetic as his gaze flicked from Thea to Granny.

  “The station just called. They’re calling me back to work.”

  “It’s all right, Blaine, don’t worry about it,” Thea replied, waving it off. “Thank you for the food!”

  “Of course,” he said hastily, pushing in his chair and bowing his head respectfully to Granny as he left. “I hope you two have a good day.”

  With that, Blaine hurried out the front door to return to work. While Thea fondly watched him leave, she could tell that Granny was still troubled by the mention of her friend in this murder case. Thea didn’t know much about Eleanor DeWitt personally, but Granny seemed to hold her in high regard.

  “You shouldn’t worry too much about the case, Granny,” Thea commented softly to break the tension in the room. “Blaine is just doing his job.”

  “Hmph,” she responded, taking the seat that Blaine left behind. “I still don’t like it.”

  While Thea continued to try and put Granny’s mind at ease, Sybil hopped onto the table to poke around at the food. Her tiny nose twitched as she sniffed at the varieties of cream cheese. Seeing that Thea was preoccupied, she even lapped at the spread on top of the bagel, satisfied by the taste.

  Chapter 4

  It took a bit of time to finally settle Granny’s nerves over breakfast. Thea could see that her efforts were working. Somewhat.

  “I promise you, Granny,” Thea said through a mouthful of bagel. She placed a hand over her lips in an attempt to stop the crumbs from falling. “Blaine is going to find whoever killed Marcel. He’s a great detective. He won’t let the killer get away with this.”

  “Fine, fine… I shouldn’t get too angry at the kid. He’s just doing his job,” Granny rationalized, which made Thea smile.

  “See? You’re getting it. You have nothing to worry about. I’m sure your friend will be fine.”

  As they finished up the rest of their breakfast, Thea offered to drive Granny to Witt’s End. With so much talk about Eleanor, Thea figured it would do her well to check up on her friend. Just as she expected, Granny enthusiastically accepted that opportunity.

  When they made it to the diner, Granny hurried to engulf her friend in a hug. While Granny was working herself up over the case, it didn’t seem like Eleanor paid it too much attention. In fact, she seemed indifferent. Did she even know what was going on?

  “Eleanor! How have you been?” Granny exclaimed as they parted from the embrace. “How’s the restaurant going?”

  “Busy and thriving, per usual,” Eleanor replied with a short laugh. “I always love it when Ardensville has festivals. They always attract more customers to my business. I appreciate the mayor for organizing this event for us all.”

  “Yes, Tiegen was excited to get the ball rolling on this one,” Granny replied. “I hope you haven’t been too worried about the rise in competition, El. You should know that you’re in a league of your own.”

  “Oh, Freya, you’re so kind,” the woman said. “But I can see why you mention that. Is it because of that fellow running Cuisine Maline?”

  Exchanging a quick look with Thea, Granny nodded. “How do you feel about him?”

  She responded with an unimpressed roll of the eyes. Leaning over to clean up some scraps of trash that a customer left behind at a nearby table, she sighed.

  “You already know how I feel about that man. He’s lousy. I still can’t believe he managed to beat me this year. I don’t think his restaurant is better than mine, not even by a hair!”

  “I agree, but what can you do with these organizations? They try to change up the criteria every year just so they can shake you off their tails,” Granny retorted. “It didn’t work for three decades. You should be proud that it took them that long to dethrone you.”

  Eleanor shook her head. “It doesn’t help that Marcel is such an egomaniac. Bragging about all of his achievements and letting everyone know that his establishment was named Best Restaurant this year. I don’t think he actually cares about his customers.”

  “Does he not?” Granny asked, raising her eyebrows.

  “Of course he doesn’t! I mean, just look at how he overcharges those poor people on those tiny, bite-sized portions! It should be criminal to get away with something like that.”

  “Did you hear about what happened last night during the festival?” Thea piped up, which caught Eleanor’s attention. “I think everybody in the town's talking about it.”

  Within a few seconds, she managed to pick up on what Thea was referring to. She rested one of her hands on her hips.

  “Ah, it’s about that murder, isn’t it? It was the only thing most of my customers kept talking about this morning. It’s a horrible thing. The Harvest Festival is supposed to be a special time. We shouldn’t have to worry about stuff like… that.”

  “Did you know that Marcel Faust was the victim?” Thea asked, in an attempt to gauge her reaction.

  Immediately, Eleanor’s face turned to stone. For a moment, she didn’t know how to respond. She shook her head, her wide eyes fixed on Thea.

  “I-I didn’t hear about Marcel being the victim. I just heard that someone was killed, but I would have never imagined…” she trailed off, eyes glazing over as she processed the information. “That’s horrible.”

  Turning around, she called out to one of her friends who was seated near the edge of the diner. She got up quickly, once she realized Eleanor was beckoning her over with a wave of the hand.

  “Fred! Can you believe it? Did you hear? Marcel was the one who got killed last night!” she explained.

  Fred’s reaction was as stunned as Eleanor’s.

  “Wait, what? How is that possible?” she stammered out, looking to Granny. “Freya, is this true?”

  Winifred Carter was a part-time business owner and close friend of Eleanor. She spent most of her free time in Witt’s End. While some people might think calling her Fred was strange, most knew it was short for Winifred.

  “A detective from the police station confirmed it to us this morning,” Granny informed them.

  Thea looked to Eleanor. “Do you have an alibi? I’m not accusing you of anything, but it would be helpful to know where you were last night when the murder happened.’

  “I was spending the evening with Freya and Fred!” Eleanor exclaimed, placing a hand over her chest, as if to calm her restless heart. “The two of them were with me the entire time!”

  Fred and Granny nodded fervently, corroborating h
er story. However, Granny raised up a finger as she remembered some more details.

  “Eleanor was with us, but she did leave for a while to get us some funnel cake,” Granny admitted.

  The woman scoffed. “Oh, c’mon. It wasn’t that long.”

  “I think you took half an hour, El,” Fred whispered, but it was loud enough for Thea to catch.

  “Hold on... why are you asking me all of this?” Eleanor asked, directed towards Thea. “You… you don’t think I actually killed that man, do you?”

  “Eleanor!” Fred hissed. “Don’t say something like that!”

  “No one is blaming you for anything,” Granny reassured her. “You did nothing wrong! She’s just asking to make sure.”

  That explanation did nothing to convince Eleanor otherwise. Her expression was fearful. She wrung her hands together as Fred placed a few reassuring pats on her shoulder.

  On the other hand, the situation made Thea concerned. Although Granny was adamant that Eleanor was not capable of being Marcel’s killer, she couldn’t be too sure.

  However, she bit her tongue and clenched her jaw. She wasn’t going to pry into this matter. At least, not in front of those three.

  Chapter 5

  “Hey, Jesse, can you do me a favor?” Thea asked him over the phone as she approached a certain bookshop. “Can you head over and open A Stitch in Time? I’ll be dropping by soon.”

  “Of course, Thea!” he replied with that familiar cheerfulness in his tone. “I’ll see you later then. I’ll head over to the shop right now.”

  “Thanks so much. See you, Jesse.”

  The phone call ended just as Thea made it to the front door of A Novel Idea. She entered the quiet shop carefully. Bookstores always made her extra mindful of the noises she made. Sometimes, she didn’t even like how her shoes would squeak against the flooring in such a still environment.

  However, all of those thoughts went out the window when she saw Pippa sitting at the counter with her nose in a book. She often read to pass time, but when she looked up and locked eyes with Thea, she didn’t mind tossing the book to the side.

  “Thea!” Pippa called out, waving her over. “You didn’t tell me that you were coming by today! Are you up to something? Do we need to go somewhere?”

  “No, we don’t need to go anywhere,” Thea replied, amused by her friend’s excitement towards leaping into a new adventure without hesitation. “I wanted to ask you if you knew anything about the guy who was just killed, Marcel Faust. I don’t know much about him, other than the fact that he used to own Cuisine Maline.”

  Going to Pippa for this sort of information was a long shot, she knew that. However, her best friend had a talent for engaging in gossip. Thea figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

  She just needed to find someone who could provide some more insight on the type of person Marcel was. Although she wanted to go off what Eleanor provided, she acknowledged that the woman was biased.

  Narrowing her eyes, Pippa rested her chin on her hand. “I’ve kinda been up to something… I don’t know if I should tell….”

  “Pippa.”

  “All right, all right, sheesh,” she joked, straightening herself in her seat. “During my lunch breaks, I’ve been shifting into my fox form to go to the festival grounds. A bunch of police officers are still there and they’re not letting anybody in or out of the area, so I figured that shifting would be my best option to snoop.”

  “And have you found anything yet?” Thea asked as she leaned on the counter. “Any little detail about Marcel can help.”

  “Well, I haven’t really found out anything about Marcel in particular. The cops don’t really talk about personal details like that, at least not openly. They were talking about their dinners, sports, what kind of sneakers they planned on buying next…” Pippa rambled. Realizing that she was getting off track, she shook her head and snapped out of it. “But I heard nothing about him specifically. They were talking about the potential motives of the case though.”

  “Really?” Thea raised her brows. “Like what? What were they saying?”

  Pippa took a brief glance around, checking to make sure that there were no strangers in the vicinity that could overhear their conversation. When she made sure the coast was clear, she leaned in closer towards Thea.

  “They think it’s about the Best Restaurant title. Y’know, the competition between Marcel and Cuisine Maline and Witt’s End? That one.”

  “Granny is friends with the owner of Witt’s End. She’s a woman named Eleanor,” Thea commented in a low voice. “Granny keeps saying that she doesn’t think she would be capable of killing Marcel over a rivalry like that, but I’m not so sure.”

  At that, Pippa grimaced. “Yikes. I’m not sure, either. After I heard what the cops were talking about, I thought it was about that award, too. I mean, it just makes sense. A vengeful diner owner retaliating after losing the award she’s won for the past thirty years. It seems possible.”

  “Yeah, but Granny says otherwise,” Thea countered. “Besides, she was with Eleanor while the Harvest Festival was going on. Fred--that’s Winifred, I mean, the woman who owns Witt’s End with Eleanor--was also with them.”

  Realizing that Eleanor didn’t seem to be that strong of a suspect just yet, Pippa paused and considered their options. Eventually, her eyes lit up as she was struck with an idea.

  “Hold on. I think I’ve heard a bit of gossip about Marcel recently. He was a bit of a womanizer,” Pippa explained.

  Thea scowled. “Geez. Are you serious?”

  “Yep,” she replied with a nod. “Apparently, he was pretty loose with the women in his life. I wouldn’t be surprised if he managed to anger the wrong one. Kinda weird for a half-demon to have that much success in their romantic life, but who am I to judge?”

  “A half-demon?” Thea repeated, furrowing her eyebrows. “How do you know that?”

  “At the crime scene, some cops were weirded out at the fact that Marcel had some small horns sticking out of his forehead. They didn’t think much of it and chalked it up as some skin disorder, but I knew better.”

  “Huh…” Thea mumbled. “That is weird.”

  “Right? But anyway, I think Marcel had some ex-girlfriend that had it out for him. I’m guessing they ended badly. A month ago in his restaurant, the girl stormed in and caused a whole scene in his kitchen,” Pippa said, trying her best to recollect the details. However, she paused and scrunched up her face in thought. “I can’t remember her name though. Someone mentioned it once or twice. Celia, maybe? Or Susan…?”

  Pippa shook her head, hoping to find that information out some other time.

  “I’ll figure that out later. The point is that he had some angry women after him. Maybe one of them was responsible for his death.”

  “I hope you’re right, Pippa,” Thea replied. “I don’t want to imagine how disappointed Granny would be if her friend did end up killing Marcel.”

  Pippa sent her an apologetic look. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, then.”

  Nodding slightly, Thea agreed with her. Pippa turned around in her seat to glance at the grandfather clock stationed near the counter.

  “Shouldn’t you be going to work right now?” Pippa asked, shooing her out of the shop. “Go on, Thea! A Stitch in Time isn’t going to run itself. I’ll tell you anything else I manage to find out!”

  “Your lunch break is soon. Are you going to shift and go searching for gossip like you usually do?” Thea quipped as she made her way towards the exit.

  Pippa laughed, crossing her arms. “Hey, I don’t always look for gossip. Sometimes, the gossip just comes to me. It lands in my lap.”

  “I’m sure,” Thea said with a smile.

  Chapter 6

  Once she stepped into A Stitch in Time, Thea caught a glimpse of Jesse moving some inventory near the back of the store. Hearing the jingle of the door, he looked up. He quickly sent her a wave.

  “Finally you made it,” he joked, setti
ng down the box he was carrying on the counter top. “Didn’t think you’d show up.”

  “Oh, hush, I didn’t even take that long,” Thea threw back at him, smiling as she made her way around the counter. “I went to visit Pippa.”

  “Really?” Jesse asked, both of his eyebrows shooting upwards. “What did you two talk about?”

  She found it amusing that his eyes seemed to twinkle at even the slightest mention of Pippa. He must have been oblivious to it, but Thea could see through him like looking glass.

  “We talked about the murder case and the victim, Marcel Faust. I’ve been trying to learn more about him to try and pinpoint a suspect, but I haven’t had that much luck so far,” she explained, leaning both of her arms on the counter. “How about you, Jesse? Do you know anything about him?”

  “Who, Marcel?” he repeated. When Thea nodded, he scratched the side of his neck in thought. “I don’t know anything concrete, to be honest. All I know are a bunch of rumors about him that people like to spread. Some people said that he was a player.”

  “That’s what Pippa mentioned.”

  He smiled. “Then I don’t know much more than she does. But honestly, Thea, you shouldn’t be stressing too much about this whole thing.”

  “I know that, but I can’t help but wonder who the killer could be. Granny was throwing a fit because one of her close friends was named as a suspect to the case, so I’ve been doing my best to put her nerves at ease in the meantime.”

  “Sheesh, that must be difficult for you,” Jesse sympathized. “You know, there were a lot of tourists in town for the Harvest Festival. What if the killer is someone who isn’t even from Ardensville? Maybe one of them managed to kill Marcel.”

  “Do you really think so?” Thea questioned, mulling over the possibility.

  He responded with a small shrug. “Sure. Remember those people we saw walking around with robes? They kinda freaked me out. They were humming or chanting something when they passed by us. It was too quiet to hear, but they were definitely mumbling to themselves.”