Pumpkins and Potions

by Tegan Maher

  “So no big fall out, just two sisters who were very different?” I offered.

  Peaches nodded, then grew morose. “I mean, I loved her. She was my sister. I’d never do… I’d never want to hurt her.”

  “And you don’t know enough to comment on her relationship with Ezra?” I pushed.

  “No, sorry,” she said.

  “Alright then,” I said, then an idea came to me. “One last thing. If you two weren’t close, how come you’re all here together tonight?”

  The question seemed to stump Peaches, who glanced down at her hands, splayed in her lap. “It’s not like we hated each other. We did see each other, just not very often. Ezra was super keen to come and see this house - apparently it’s like famous or something? So I figured I’d got time for a famous haunted house too.”

  I nodded, and wondered whether Peaches realised the clue she’d just revealed.

  9

  George’s kitchen was filled with the scent of hot dogs cooking. He always served a mountain of them piled high so that hungry visitors could grab a couple and a bun. He guarded the recipe for his homemade ketchup fiercely. The whole thing was making me focus more attention on the food than the job at hand - finding Apple’s killer.

  “How do you manage being around all of these smells and not being able to eat?” I asked. Sage shrugged and pulled a face.

  “At first, it was a real killer. The hunger pains were so bad I swore I was starving. Now it’s not so bad. Why, you fancying some of those dogs?”

  “Sure am,” I admitted. There was something special about coming out from the cold and being greeted by some good, simple food.

  “What did you think to Peaches?” Sage asked. Clearly, food didn’t take up as much of her attention as it did mine. “She wasn’t much use really, was she?”

  “Oh, I think she was pretty helpful,” I said with a smile.

  “You know something!” Sage exclaimed with a giggle.

  “Maybe,” I said. “It’s too early to say how important it is, but I have an idea.”

  “Ooh! I love it when you work it all out, sis. We’ll have plenty of time to get home and prepare for our own trick or treaters!”

  I laughed at Sage’s priorities. “Yes, hopefully.”

  A noise came from outside and I walked across to the hallway window. Outside, a line weaved down the street. It seemed like all of Mystic Springs had come out to George’s haunted house. That probably wasn’t far from the truth. I groaned. George would hate keeping people waiting.

  “You have to admit, our town sure does do Halloween properly,” Sage’s voice came from behind me.

  I looked past the line and saw what she meant. Houses were lit with lights, people were in elaborate fancy dress, and even the dogs being walked were in costumes that transformed them into spiders or lions. The effect was pretty amazing, I had to admit.

  “Oh, there’s that one house in darkness,” I murmured. The house stood out because it was surrounded by decorated houses and yet stood in complete darkness.

  “Maybe it’s empty,” Sage suggested. She clearly hadn’t seen the little dog at the window earlier like I had.

  “Well, it is now,” George’s voice came from behind us. He frowned. “Sorry, I know I should be in the kitchen, my friends, but I heard a commotion and wanted to check you gals were safe.”

  “Oh, sure, it’s just us chatting. We were admiring the line for your house, George, and then just admiring the town in general.”

  “It’s the reason I’ll never move house,” George said. He beamed with pride, as if he took Mystic Springs’ commitment to Halloween very personally.

  “So that house down there is empty?” I asked. “That’s weird, I hadn’t heard of anyone leaving.”

  George glanced around and lowered his voice. “The house is Apple’s. Was hers. So it’ll be empty now, I guess.”

  “Oh,” I raised an eyebrow. Something about knowing where the young woman had lived made her death seem even more real. I couldn’t focus on that now, though, I had to remain detached so I could see things clearly. I thought back to the darkness of her home. “Had she just moved in or something?”

  George shook his head. “Nope.”

  “Well, George, leave us to it here. We’re getting closer and we know you’re in a rush to open the house and let the crowds in.”

  His face opened into such an innocent, childlike smile that I found myself imitating him without realising. He shuffled off to the kitchen and after a second or two, the house was filled with the sound of eerie music.

  I raced into the kitchen.

  George winced and tapped away at a remote control until the music was quieter. “Too loud? Sorry, sorry! I just want the crowd to know we’re still open for business!”

  “Keep it quiet,” I ordered. “There’s a dead woman upstairs George, let’s show her some respect.”

  “Okey-dokey!” George said, although his cheeks had flushed a bright red at the telling off.

  “You never wanted to marry, George?” Sage asked. I side-eyed her.

  “Ooh, no! Not me! I have my one love in life,” he said, and with that he picked up a new pumpkin carving tool and stared at it as if it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. “Ooh, Connie? I’ll be getting that other tool back, won’t I?”

  “I’m not sure about that,” I said.

  His constant smile dropped and a vein began to pulse at the side of his head. “It’s just, well, it ruins the whole thing if the set’s not complete.”

  10

  “Let’s talk to Ezra again,” Sage suggested.

  “Really?” I asked. “You have an idea?”

  She winked at me and floated off back in the direction of his temporary hideout. We arrived in the room just in time to see the back of him, half-way out the window.

  “Excuse me! What are you doing?” I shouted. The window sash lost its rig and plummeted down, impaling Ezra. His shouts told us nothing other than his ego was injured.

  “Get me out of here! What is this? Is this a…?”

  “A booby trap, I believe,” I said with a grin. George really had thought of everything. “You do know only guilty people try to escape, right?”

  “I’m not guilty!” He protested. “And I wasn’t trying to escape!?”

  “No?”

  “I wanted some fresh air,” Ezra said, but his voice wasn’t certain enough to convince any of us. “It’s creepy in here.”

  “I thought you loved Halloween,” I thought back to what Peaches had told us.

  “So did I,” he said with a wry smile. “Being trapped in this freakshow isn’t my idea of fun.”

  “Being stabbed with a pumpkin carver probably wasn’t your girlfriend’s idea of fun, either,” I said.

  He glared at me and I wondered if my words were a little too crass. “She wasn’t my girlfriend.”

  “You’re young,” Sage said, and I tried to resist the temptation to roll my eyes. She was meant to be interrogating the suspect, not flirting with him! “You’re still playing the field, right?”

  “Well, yeah,” he said.

  Sage floated across to him, then turned to look at me.

  “Why don’t you go and get Peaches in here, Con?”

  I furrowed my brow. Whatever she was up to, I decided to pretend as if we were on the same page. “Sure thing.”

  I retraced my steps back to the room we’d left Peaches in. She looked up as soon as I entered, but her eyelids were heavy and I got the distinct feeling she’d been using the down time to catch up on sleep.

  “Come with me,” I said. She stood and followed me without saying a word. I remembered how frantic I had been when I heard that Sage had died. I hadn’t always seen eye to eye with my sister, but she was my lifelong friend and I couldn’t believe she’d gone. Well, the joke was on me since she really wasn’t gone. But I couldn’t imagine being as cool and calm as Peaches was. It was suspicious in a way, but in another way it wasn’t. If Peaches really
was so uninterested in her sister, would she have been able to find the passion needed to kill her? I couldn’t quite work the woman out.

  “You must be in shock,” I said.

  “I must be,” she agreed with a lopsided smile, then returned to silence.

  I was pleased when we returned to Sage and Ezra. Sage had moved closer to Ezra, so close she was practically sat on his lap. I felt my cheeks flame. Had she really sent me to fetch Peaches just to give her a chance to sidle up to one of our murder suspects? She noticed us return to the room and flashed us a smile.

  “Peaches, hey,” she said in her most drawn out, lazy tones. That voice of hers always made me think of a cat, spread out on a bed on a summer’s morning, yawning and stretching and delighting in the carefree life.

  “It’s P,” the woman by my side snapped. Her name was the only thing I’d heard her seem to care about. So, she did have emotions. “Should you be speaking to him alone? Why should anyone trust what you say happened when it was just the two of you?”

  Ah, I thought. Her silence with me was the result of having watched one too many TV shows. She knew her rights. Those ones were always trouble.

  “Oh, me and Ez? We’ve barely chatted about the case. We’ve been talking about… us… and turns out we have a lot in common,” Sage gushed. I narrowed my eyes in her direction but she turned her gaze back to Ezra, who at least had the decency to blush.

  “Is that right, Ez?” Peaches asked, a heavy dose of sarcasm on the nickname that I guess she’d never heard her sister use.

  “There was one thing you could help clear up, though,” Sage said. Peaches glowered. “Ezra here is all about playing the field and not settling down, and I for one don’t blame him.”

  Sage raised her hand and offered it to Ezra, who watched it for a moment then obediently raised his own and attempted to high-five. His hand, of course, went straight through Sage’s and his jaw flew open.

  Peaches watched, arms folded, lips pursed.

  “So, yeah, help me out. Ezra’s the man about town. I guess I’m just curious. Who was your sister engaged to, P For Peaches?”

  Peaches’ eyes narrowed and she peeled her eyes from Sage, to Ezra, who was still examining his hand as if there might be a trace of Sage’s ghostliness left over on his skin.

  “She was engaged to him,” Peaches muttered.

  “I’m sorry, engaged to who?” Sage asked. I tried not to smirk. She really had dialled up the annoying for this showdown.

  “Apple and Ezra are engaged. Were engaged,” Peaches admitted.

  “Now, that’s funny!” Sage exclaimed. “Isn’t that funny, Connie? Both of them have been lying to us! What a coincidence! And you know, guys, in our experience. The liars have something to hide.”

  “That’s true,” I joined in. “That really is true. So, what are you hiding?”

  Ezra shifted in his seat a little but Peaches remained still as a statue. Maybe she hoped we wouldn’t be able to see her if she was still enough.

  Finally, I saw her slim neck tremor as she swallowed.

  “Fine,” she said in resignation. She unfolded her arms and instead clasped them in front of her stomach. “Ezra and I… we… we’re having an affair.”

  11

  “Woah!” Ezra was up out of his seat, springing to life. He placed his hands out in front of his body, as if to defend himself from Peaches’ words. “Don’t say that, P!”

  “You’re not having an affair?” I asked with a smile.

  “No!” Ezra exclaimed.

  “Yes,” Peaches said at the same time. Her own voice was dull and resigned.

  “It’s not an affair, man,” Ezra whined, and I realised that his concerns weren’t that Peaches was lying but that yet another woman’s romantic interest in him was too serious for his liking. “We hung out a bit.”

  “How dare you!” Peaches snapped. “My sister was a total bore but I wouldn’t betray her like this to, erm, hang out a bit! You told me you had feelings for me.”

  “Nah, man, not like that. You’re twisting my words. Man, it’s like, we had some fun, y’know?”

  Peaches rolled her eyes and then glared in his direction, although she didn’t quite make eye contact. She shuffled a little on the balls of her feet.

  “You imagined that the two of you would be able to be together if Apple was out of the way,” I suggested.

  Peaches let out a strangled cry and tears fell onto her cheeks in big, fat globs of emotion. “It’s awful to admit, but yes. When I saw her body, I thought Ezra and I could move on with our lives.”

  “And we will, babe,” Ezra said. “We can still kick it together.”

  “She doesn’t want to kick it, you fool,” Sage said. The earlier warmth had vanished from her voice. “She thought you were serious about her.”

  “But, how?”

  “Probably because of all of the times you told her exactly that,” Sage said. “Let’s face it, we’ve all known a man like you, Ezra. We know your tricks.”

  “Did you kill your sister, Peaches?”

  She was so sullen she didn’t even correct me for getting her name wrong.

  Finally, she turned to me and gave me a cold glare. “No, I did not kill my sister. And thank God I didn’t. I can’t believe I was stupid enough to believe a word he said!”

  “Ezra? Did you kill her? Maybe because of those wedding nerves?”

  “Nah, man,” he said, and gave a shrug of his shoulders. “I don’t want to boast or nothing but I’ve been engaged a few times now. I can get out of a wedding without killing no-one.”

  “Without killing anyone,” I muttered under my breath. If it wasn’t bad enough for him to be a love rat, he also had awful grammar.

  “Peaches, what was your sister’s thing with Halloween? She doesn’t decorate her house, she wasn’t in fancy dress, but here she is at a haunted house.”

  “She didn’t want to come,” Ezra said. “I wanted to come, not her. She never liked Halloween. She’d sit in the back of the house and ignore any trick or treaters. You see? We weren’t compatible.”

  Sage shook her head. “Then you tell her that and end things. You don’t start hanging out with her sister too.”

  I felt myself stand tall. I was proud of my sister, defending a dead woman’s honour like that. Way to go, Sage.

  “I didn’t even think she’d be here,” Peaches admitted. “I guessed that Ezra would because he’d talked about how much he wanted to see this place. I thought we’d be alone here.”

  “And she’d be sat at home with all the lights off!” Ezra said, with a guffaw. All three of us women glared at him, but as we did, everything fit into place for me.

  “I know who did it,” I said with a firm nod. “Let’s go in the kitchen and break the news to George.”

  12

  Before we’d all got to our feet, we heard the howl of pain, and I sprinted ahead into the kitchen. George lay at the side of his counter, his clothes smeared with blood.

  He winced as he attempted to move towards me.

  “Oh no, George, don’t move! What happened?” I exclaimed. I went to his side and tried to see where the blood was coming from without touching him. There was no obvious wound but without getting his clothes off, I couldn’t do any more. We’d have to call an ambulance.

  “He came back! The killer! He was right here!” George exclaimed. He stared at me, his eyes wide. “I had to defend you all!”

  “You saw him? Who was it?”

  George considered the question and, as he did so, his frantic breathing returned to a normal pace. I furrowed my brow and, with his attention distracted, allowed myself to place a fingertip in a pool of blood that had collected in the crook of his arm.

  “They had a mask on,” he said.

  “Ah, that’s unhelpful,” I said. “How did they get in?”

  “Back door,” George said. “I’d left it open to allow some air in.”

  I glanced at the door. It wasn’t open now. “And you
managed to close it?”

  “No, he closed it when he left.”

  “Very good of him,” Sage remarked.

  Ezra had gone over to the door and, before I could tell him not to, had attempted to lock the bolt before realising it was already locked. He frowned at it and then looked out of the window into the darkness of the back lawn.

  “I don’t see anyone,” he said.

  “They’ll be long gone!” George exclaimed.

  “Well, we better get you an ambulance,” I said. I rose to my feet slowly and glanced at the red end of my finger. I took a deep breath and then brought my finger towards my face, then popped it into my mouth.

  “Eww, Connie!” Sage shouted.

  The metal tang of blood didn’t come, but instead there was a sweet taste that confirmed my suspicions. “I thought so. George here has taken a bath in his famous ketchup.”

  “But, why…” Peaches muttered.

  “George Mansley, you couldn’t stand that Apple hated Halloween so much. You work so hard on this one event of the year, and Apple ruins it for you with her house all dark down the road.”

  “It’s true!” He snapped. He dragged himself up from the floor as if he really had been injured, although I suspected the only thing hurting him were his joints after lying uncomfortably on the hard floor. “I tried talking to her, many times. I even offered to decorate for her! I even suggested she just bill me for the extra electric charge! That woman wouldn’t even consider it!”

  “She hated Halloween,” Peaches said.

  “You’re darn tootin’, she did!” George agreed. “I told her if she decorated out front and sat out back like she normally did, she wouldn’t even notice any difference. There was no compromise with her!”

  “You killed her, George. Was it so new folks will move in and decorate?” I asked.