That Old Witch!: The Coffee Coven's Cozy Capers: Book 1

by M. Z. Andrews

  “So if he doesn’t have to work, then why are we even here?” asked Loni as she straightened her back, holding the broomstick with one hand. She put a finger to the bridge of her glasses and pushed them up her nose.

  “We’re here because he told us he has to work tonight. That means he probably told his girlfriend he has to work tonight too. I think we need to find out where he’s really going,” said Char.

  “What if he’s going to kill someone else?” asked Phyllis.

  Loni threw both of her hands up in the air. “Damnit, girls! This is why I need my gun back!”

  Gwyn’s heart jumped up in her chest. “Two hands on the stick, Loni. You’re carrying my mother, you know.”

  Loni looked over her shoulder at Hazel. “Don’t I know it. She’s been wiping her nose on the back of my dress the whole time.”

  Hazel’s saggy eyes widened. “I can’t help it! The wind whipping in my face is making my eyes water up and my nose run. I feel like a damn faucet!”

  “We happen to be witches, Lon,” said Char. “We don’t need guns. We have magic. Hello?”

  Phyllis rolled her eyes. “The woman is like a glow stick. I want to snap her and then shake the hell out of her until the light comes on.”

  “Phyllis!” breathed Gwyn. “Don’t be rude!”

  “What? The old lady gets to say whatever she wants. I’m an old lady too. Granted, she’s got more wrinkles than I do, but why don’t I get to say whatever’s on my mind?”

  Gwyn sucked in a breath. “You know that little voice deep inside your head that keeps you from saying things you shouldn’t?”

  Phyllis nodded.

  “Yeah, my mother doesn’t have that. You do. Be nice.”

  “It’s alright, Gwyn, I can take it from her. You know why? Because I know I can kick her ass whenever I want to,” said Loni with a nod.

  Phyllis puffed air out her nose. “I’d like to see that, Hodges.”

  “Keep talking and maybe you’ll get your chance!”

  Phyllis flicked a finger in Loni’s direction, and a little green burst of electricity zapped out and knocked Loni’s black witch’s hat off her head.

  “Oh, nice, Habernackle. You lost my hat!”

  “You shouldn’t have worn that stupid hat anyway,” said Phyllis. “We all told you not to.”

  “Can you girls please shut up? We aren’t invisible, you know,” said Char with a sigh.

  Gwyn kneaded one temple with her fingertips. “I really don’t like the word shut up, Char.”

  Char’s mouth dropped open. “Phyllis, Loni, and Hazel all have mouths like sailors and you don’t want me to say shut up? Are you kidding me right now?”

  “It’s really cold up here,” said Phyllis, rubbing her shoulders.

  “Then maybe you should go down there and get my hat,” said Loni.

  “I’m not gonna go get your hat, Hodges.”

  Loni crossed her arms across her chest and looked away. “Fine. Then you owe me a new hat.”

  “I’m not getting you a new hat either,” said Phyllis. “The hat was dumb.”

  “You really do have a bad attitude tonight, Phyllis,” said Gwyn.

  Char nodded in agreement. “Yeah, what crawled up your shorts?”

  “Nothing!” insisted Phyllis. “She just gets on my nerves sometimes. And it’s cold out here, and I really don’t want to be on a broomstick with my fat ass right now. Why couldn’t we just have staked his place out in the car? Cars have heaters, you know.”

  “I thought this would be more fun,” said Char. “Besides, I knew for sure he wouldn’t see us this way.”

  “So are we just gonna sit here all night and stare at his house?” asked Gwyn. “Because Phyllis is right about the fact that it’s cold up here. I didn’t wear a thick enough sweater.” She looked at Hazel. “Mom, are you too cold? I don’t want you to catch a chill. You know Ellie Wallace has pneumonia. It could be going around. I wouldn’t want you to get it.”

  Hazel waved a hand at her daughter. “You worry too much, Gwynnie. Tonight’s about cutting loose and having a little fun. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.” Hazel tapped Loni on the arm. “This is boring. Let’s fly down there and get your hat.”

  Loni sighed. “Alright. If Habernackle’s not going to get it for me, I guess we’ll have to.”

  “Well, be careful. Two hands on the stick,” Gwyn reminded her.

  Loni steered their stick around to face the other direction and pointed it towards the ground. “Toodeloo!” she shouted into the wind as they flew away.

  Gwyn looked at Char and then down at the ground. Her mother was right about one thing. This stakeout thing was boring. Gwyn should have brought a book and a glass of wine to keep her company while they waited. “Maybe Ruben just lied to us about going out at all. Maybe he was actually home last night.”

  “Or maybe he was out killing Maggie Sutton,” suggested Phyllis. She leaned forward on her stick and put her palm under her chin. “Haze was right. This is boring. Maybe we should just go.”

  Suddenly, Char smacked both Phyllis and Gwyn on the arms. “Girls. Girls! Look, he’s coming out of his house!”

  Gwyn stared down at the tiny little house. She couldn’t see the door opening, but she could see Ruben Moreno heading down the front steps. “He’s going to his car!”

  “This is getting good,” said Phyllis.

  “I thought you said it was boring,” said Char with a smile.

  Phyllis smiled back. “Well, now I said it’s getting good. I can’t change my mind?”

  “Oh, look, he’s heading south. Come on,” said Char, forgetting about her conversation with Phyllis.

  “Well, we can’t leave until Mom and Loni come back,” said Gwyn, looking behind her and down at the ground.

  “If we lose him, we’ll have to do this whole thing again tomorrow,” sighed Char.

  “And it’s not like they won’t know where to go afterwards,” said Phyllis. “We know we have to meet back at Kat’s because our cars are there.”

  Gwyn sighed. She didn’t like the idea of leaving her mother in Loni’s care any longer than necessary. “Maybe I should just wait here for them,” she suggested.

  Char rolled her eyes. “Then you’ll be lost. What difference does it make, Gwyn? They’ll find us. Come on. He’s leaving. I don’t want to lose him.”

  Char and Phyllis took off, leaving Gwyn hanging alone in the night sky. Suddenly she realized that if Char and Phyllis got too far ahead of her, she’d never find them again, and it occurred to her that perhaps Loni and her mother wouldn’t be able to find her in the dark anyway. “Ugh, wait for me, girls, I’m coming!”

  They followed Ruben’s dark grey sports car down the block. He took a right, making all the women glance at each other knowingly. All the bars were downtown and would have required a left-hand turn. Taking a right-hand turn only wound him further into residential developments. Ruben’s car zigzagged through neighborhoods as if he were indeed trying to assess whether or not he was being followed.

  “Look at that,” Char pointed out. “He’s weaving through town.”

  Phyllis nodded. “That’s not suspicious or anything.”

  “He’s trying not to be followed is what he’s doing,” said Char.

  “Girls, I’m nervous. What if he really is going to go kill another woman?” asked Gwyn.

  Phyllis’s eyebrows dipped down into a V and her mouth straightened into a straight line. “Then we pounce.”

  “Before he can kill them. Right?” asked Gwyn worriedly.

  Phyllis rolled her eyes. “Of course before he can kill them. Do you really think we’d let him kill another woman on our watch?”

  “Okay,” said Gwyn with a small, timid voice. Her well-manicured fingers went to her lips. She wasn’t much of a nail-biter, but now all she wanted to do was rip off each and every nail off her fingers. What if Ruben tried to attack some poor woman. How would they handle it? What if he tried to hurt one of them? How would sh
e handle it? Gwyn’s stomach churned anxiously. Suddenly the fun evening had taken a much more sinister tone, and she wished she hadn’t signed up for the night broomstick flying group activity.

  Sensing her ambivalence as they slowly trailed Ruben, Char reached over and put a hand on Gwyn’s arm. “It’ll be alright, Gwynnie. Nothing bad is going to happen. Okay?”

  Gwyn nodded. “Okay,” she said with a nod. She could only hope that Char was right.

  Phyllis, who had taken the lead as Gwyn and Char had slowed down, pointed up ahead at a pair of red taillights glowing in the dark. “Girls, he’s stopping up ahead,” she said. “Hurry up!”

  Char zoomed past Phyllis and then past Gwyn. “We need to get lower. We can’t see faces from this high up.” She lowered the tip of her stick and slowly began to descend towards the ground. Phyllis and Gwyn followed closely behind until finally the three of them hovered behind a tree in front of a light grey house with quaint pink shutters.

  “Whose house is this?” Gwyn whispered to Char.

  Char shrugged. “It used to be Rick Voorman’s place, but he moved to Dallas last spring. I think it’s a rental now.”

  “Shhh,” hissed Phyllis. “He got out of the car!”

  Indeed he had. Ruben went around to his trunk, messing around inside it for a while. Finally, he grabbed a dark duffle bag and slung it over his shoulder.

  Gwyn’s heart went wild. What if there was a gun in the bag? Or a knife? Or any number of other things that were intended to harm whoever lived in the house?

  Char touched both women’s shoulders. “Girls! What if that piece of material we found came from the strap on that bag? We have to get closer.”

  “If we get any closer, we’ll be flying up his ass,” said Phyllis. “I think at that point he’ll realize he’s being followed. Don’t you?”

  “Oh my gosh, he’s knocking on the door. What do we do?” asked Gwyn as she ripped the polished fingernail off her index finger.

  “Shh, the door’s opening, the door’s opening,” said Char, patting Phyllis and Gwyn’s arms excitedly.

  “Who is it?” asked Phyllis as the door slowly creaked open.

  Char sucked in her breath as a face became visible. “Oh my God, I know her!”

  32

  Phyllis and Gwyn peered around the tree to get a look at the woman opening the door. She was extremely petite, standing no more than five feet tall. Her straight golden-blond hair fell to the middle of her back, and she wore a black silk robe that hung to her knees.

  “You know her?” asked Phyllis incredulously.

  Char nodded. “That’s Ida Washington’s granddaughter.”

  “Who’s Ida Washington?” asked Phyllis, making a face.

  “She goes to our church. You know, that super tiny woman who sits in the front row and sings really loud and off-key?” asked Char.

  Phyllis nodded.

  “Well, that girl”—she pointed at the young woman who had answered the door—“is Elizabeth, Ida’s granddaughter. She moved to Aspen Falls about a year ago. She works part-time for the gift shop downtown and part-time at the gas station.”

  “Does Ida live with Elizabeth?” asked Gwyn.

  “Ida lives across the street from the church. So if this is Elizabeth’s house, then no, they don’t live together.”

  “Maybe Ida’s visiting Elizabeth,” suggested Gwyn nervously. What if Ruben was plotting to kill Ida at her granddaughter’s house?

  They watched as the young woman stepped out on her doorstep while talking animatedly with Ruben.

  “It kinda seems like she knows him,” said Phyllis, peering out the tree.

  And then, out of nowhere, the woman stepped up on her tiptoes and threw her arms around Ruben’s neck to plant the kiss to end all kisses on him. All jaws dropped. When the kiss was over, she took him by the hand and led him inside her house.

  “Oh my gosh! She’s his girlfriend!” breathed Gwyn.

  Phyllis lifted her brows. “Well, I gotta say, I didn’t see that one coming.”

  “Me either,” said Char, shaking her head.

  “What if he’s really going to go in there and murder her?” asked Gwyn. “We don’t know.”

  Phyllis chuckled. “I don’t think murder is what he has in mind,” said Phyllis. “But, just because he’s got a woman on the side doesn’t mean he didn’t murder Kat and Maggie. In fact, I think it makes him even more of a suspect. It proves he’s as shady as we thought he was. We need to find out where he really was last night.”

  “And just exactly how do we do that?” asked Gwyn.

  Char lowered herself until her feet touched the grass. She dismounted her broomstick, leaned it against the trunk of the tree in the woman’s yard and then looked up at the women. “There’s only one way to find out. Ask!”

  “Charlotte Bailey,” said Gwyn, sucking her breath and scrambling to get her feet on the ground. “You can’t just go up to the house and ask the woman.”

  But all that was left was Charlotte’s broad backside as she strutted towards the house.

  “Char!” hissed Phyllis.

  Gwyn switched fingernails in her mouth. “Should we go with her?”

  “Ugh,” groaned Phyllis. “Why does she have to be in such an almighty hurry! This could jeopardize the entire operation.”

  “We can’t let her go alone,” said Gwyn. “What if Ruben pulls out a gun on her or something?”

  Phyllis rolled her eyes, grabbed Gwyn by the arm, and dragged her towards Char, who had already knocked on the front door. By the time it opened, Phyllis and Gwyn stood right behind Char. Gwyn’s heart pounded in her chest anxiously.

  The small blonde woman answered the door, with Ruben nowhere to be seen. “Hello, may I help you?” She looked at the three awkwardly dressed women curiously, the black makeup smeared on their faces likely doing nothing to assure her of their sanity.

  Char smiled sweetly at her. “Good evening, sweetheart. We’re friends of your grandmother, Ida Washington.”

  The woman’s smile faded immediately, and a hand went to her heart. “Oh my God, is Gamgam alright?”

  Char’s smile faded too as she reached a hand out to touch the woman’s arm. “Oh, Elizabeth, yes, your grandmother is fine. I’m so sorry to scare you!”

  Elizabeth let out a heavy sigh and covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh, wow. That freaked me out! With that other woman being found murdered in her garden, I was concerned that maybe there was a serial killer on the loose or something, and maybe something happened to Gamgam. I’m so sorry to freak out on you!”

  “Oh, not at all,” sighed Gwyn. “It was our fault for not being clear from the beginning.”

  The woman cleared her throat and worked to regain her composure. “I’m sorry. Now what is this about?”

  Char looked at her curiously. “You heard about Maggie Sutton’s death?”

  Elizabeth nodded her head. “Of course! Everyone in town has heard. It was all over the front page of the newspaper this morning!”

  “Wow, word travels fast,” said Char.

  Elizabeth nodded. “I’ve been worried about it all day, to be honest.”

  “They haven’t found who killed her, then, I assume?” asked Phyllis, eying the woman curiously.

  The tiny blonde woman shrugged. “I haven’t heard. But I did warn Gamgam to keep her doors locked at all times until this gets resolved.”

  “You should keep your doors locked as well,” said Gwyn.

  Elizabeth smiled brightly. “Aren’t you sweet? Don’t worry, I am!”

  “We couldn’t help but notice a man going into your house a few minutes ago,” said Phyllis carefully. “That’s actually the reason why we’re knocking. We were on a little, umm, walk, and we saw a strange man pull up and go into your house.”

  Char nodded. “We just wanted to make sure that you’re alright.”

  She looked uncomfortable then. “Oh, you saw him pull up?”

  All the women nodded as the woman continu
ed to look uncomfortable. Gwyn had to assume it was because their relationship was supposed to be kept private.

  Elizabeth cleared her throat again. “Ruben’s just a friend of mine. No need to worry.”

  “Ruben Moreno?” asked Phyllis, feigning surprise. “That was Ruben Moreno? It was so far away we couldn’t see who it was.”

  “Oh,” she said, shifting on her feet. “Yes. It was Ruben Moreno.”

  “Funny, we ran into Ruben today on his route,” said Char.

  “Oh, did you?” Elizabeth glanced back towards the house.

  “Yeah, he mentioned he had to work tonight, though,” said Char.

  Elizabeth peered back into the house again and then stepped out onto her porch and closed the door behind her. “You ladies look sweet. Can I possibly ask you to keep a secret?”

  “Oh, of course, dear! We’re the best secret keepers in all of Aspen Falls,” said Char, camouflaging her lie behind a brilliant white smile.

  The woman seemed to relax visibly. “Well, here’s the thing. He doesn’t actually have a job at a bar. It’s just what he’s been telling his wife.” She sighed heavily as if she were preparing to let out a burdensome secret. “Ruben and I are actually seeing each other. Maybe you already figured that part out. I don’t know. I know it’s wrong.”

  Char nodded. “You know he has a wife?”

  Elizabeth ran a hand through her blond hair. “Yes. I know. He wasn’t married when we met, though. You have to understand. They were only dating when he first started coming into the gas station where I work.”

  “Ahh,” said Phyllis with a knowing nod.

  “We became friends over time. Before he got married, they weren’t together for a time, and that’s when we started dating. But then he got back together with her, and she pushed him into eloping. He rushed into it, and now he regrets it, but he doesn’t know how to end things with her.”

  “So when he said he was working last night…” began Gwyn.

  The woman finished her sentence as she nodded, pointing at herself. “He was here, with me. He’s been pretending to have that bar job for a while now.”

  Gwyn’s eyes widened as a lightbulb went off in her head. “Do you know if he told anyone else that?”