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

by M. Z. Andrews

  Loni shook her head and pushed her arms out wide on either side of her to stretch. Then she folded them in front of her and cracked her knuckles, rolling her head on her neck at the same time. “Girls, I’ve got this. Just stand back.”

  “Wait!” Phyllis rushed back and grabbed the spell book off the table. Quickly she put it inside the cage next to Hazel’s legs and shut the cage door. “Okay. Go.”

  Loni took a deep breath, furrowed her eyebrows and then shoved her palms towards the cage. A steady flow of electrical energy surrounded the cage, gradually lifting it off the floor.

  “Good job, Loni!” said Char. She darted ahead of Loni and opened the door, peering out into the basement. “The coast is clear.”

  The women watched with hearts pounding anxiously as Loni hefted Hazel telekinetically up the stairs to the kitchen. Gwyn held her breath the whole way, praying that Benny wouldn’t return.

  At the top of the stairs, she finally let out the breath she’d been holding, thankful that at least they’d gotten Hazel as far as the upstairs. Maybe now if Benny returned, they’d have a better chance of fending him off.

  Loni gently set the cage down at the top of the stairs and exhaled. “She’s heavier than she looks,” she whispered, leaning on the railing as she gathered her breath.

  Please, Loni, just a little bit further, Gwyn begged silently, too scared to speak her plea out loud. But Loni still had to maneuver the cage around the table and the chairs, all the while knowing that Benny could show up at any minute.

  Finally, Loni gathered her strength and levitated the cage once again. But instead of going around the table, she just lifted her over it. Phyllis quietly cracked the back door open and held it open wide enough for Loni to transport the cage outside. Char followed next. Just as Gwyn got to the threshold, she thought she heard a familiar voice carry into the kitchen from the living room. She paused for a brief moment.

  Char waved her on from the outside. “Come on, Gwynnie!” she hissed. “Hurry!”

  But Gwyn was sure she recognized the voice, though it was on the other side of the house, and she couldn’t quite make out what was being said. “I wonder who rang the doorbell,” she whispered back.

  Char frowned at her. “Are you kidding? We don’t have time for that! We have to get out of here before Benny comes back!”

  Gwyn nodded. Char was right. Her main priority was getting her mother to safety. She closed the kitchen door behind her and never looked back.

  Sergeant Bradshaw pulled his truck into the driveway of the beige ranch house on the corner of Eighth and Eucalyptus and shut off the engine. While it seemed completely farfetched to him that Benny Hamilton had had anything to do with the deaths of Margaret Sutton and Katherine Lynde or the disappearance of Hazel Prescott, he did know one thing. It concerned him that Gwyn and her friends were all running around town playing detective when there was an actual murderer on the loose. Someone could get hurt, and he felt it was his duty to make sure that that didn’t happen.

  He looked out his window. The trees shading the driveway were all greened up, and the tulips in front of Benny’s house had just gotten some color on them. A pair of squirrels darted across the top of the privacy fence next door, and birds chirped overhead. The cozy residential neighborhood seemed quiet, and there appeared to be no action going on at Benny’s house. He was glad that he’d beaten the women there. Then he’d have a chance to chat with Benny before they came and prepare him for the accusations that were to come.

  He got out of his truck, walked up the front steps, and rang the bell. While he waited, he looked around. Surely the women would arrive any minute, and he’d get his chance to apologize to Gwyn if he’d offended her in any way and insist on helping in the search for her mother.

  The front door opened.

  Sergeant Bradshaw turned around to face Benny. “Hey, Benny, how ya doin’?” asked Sergeant Bradshaw, extending a hand.

  Benny Hamilton looked at the sergeant curiously and then awkwardly accepted the handshake. “Hey, Sarge. What are you doing here?” he asked, looking outside the door in both directions.

  “Oh, listen. I wanted to talk to you about something,” said Sergeant Bradshaw. When he saw his old coffee club pal standing in front of him, he almost felt silly for driving all the way over to see him. This was Benny. Not some murderer. But he was sure that Benny would get a good chuckle out of the whole thing.

  The muscles in Benny’s face tightened slightly. “Oh? You’ve got my number, Sarge. You could have called.”

  Sergeant Bradshaw rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. Yeah, he probably could have called, but then he wouldn’t have been able to bump into Gwyn Prescott and apologize. “Oh, sure. But I had the time. It’s just…listen, do you have a second to talk? Am I interrupting anything?”

  Benny looked backwards into the house. He cleared his throat. “Uh. I only have a minute. I’m actually developing some photographs in the basement right now. I—uh, can only let them sit in the solution for a few minutes before they’ll go bad. What’s up?”

  Sergeant Bradshaw nodded. “Right, right. Well, I won’t keep you.” He didn’t quite know how to tell him that four women were on their way over to accuse him of two homicides and an abduction. He cleared his throat. He’d make a joke out of it, lighten the situation.

  “I just wanted to let you know that I’m on to you.”

  “On to me?” Benny’s brows dipped.

  Sergeant Bradshaw kept his straight face even longer than he thought he’d be able to. “Yeah. I know what you did.”

  Benny swallowed hard. “What I did? You—uh—know what I did?” Benny rubbed his glistening brow with the heel of his hand. “I’m not followin’ ya, Sarge.”

  Sergeant Bradshaw pointed at him then. “With the little old lady. Where’s she at?”

  “The little old lady?” asked Benny, reaching around to his back. “I still don’t—uh…” He paused. “You wanna come in, Sarge?”

  Sergeant Bradshaw nodded. Benny sure was looking awfully uncomfortable. He seemed to have a better sense of humor at coffee. But then again, he’d left before he’d finished his first cup. Maybe this was a caffeine deficiency problem. “Sure. I can stay for a minute. You sure your pictures will be alright? I’d hate for them to get ruined.”

  Benny nodded and shut the door behind Sergeant Bradshaw. “Oh, yeah. The pictures will be fine. No worries.” He took a step back and looked at Sergeant Bradshaw curiously. “Now what’s this about a little old lady?”

  “You know, Hazel Prescott. One of those gals that have coffee at Linda’s?”

  Benny swallowed again. “Uh-huh.”

  One last poke and then he’d deliver the punch line. “You got her tied up in your basement, don’t you?” said Sergeant Bradshaw with a half-smile.

  Benny didn’t look amused.

  Maybe it was time to drop the humor and just come out with it. Sergeant Bradshaw backed up to lean against the door, when suddenly, Benny pulled a gun from behind his back and pointed it right at Sergeant Bradshaw.

  “What do you know about it?” asked Benny.

  Sergeant Bradshaw looked down the barrel of the gun, and the smile that had just begun to form as he prepared to release the punch line evaporated. “Hey—uh, Ben. What’s this about?”

  Benny scowled at him. “Really? It didn’t occur to you that coming down here unarmed to confront me might result in a gun in your face? I think you’ve been out of the military a little too long, Sarge. Might be time to brush up on your interrogation skills a little. Don’t you think?”

  “My interrogation skills? Ben, I was joking! Gwyn and her friends came to the coffee shop with this crazy notion that you’d kidnapped Hazel.” Sergeant thought about it for a second. Benny Hamilton was holding a gun to his face and sweating profusely. He let out a heavy sigh. “But I guess it wasn’t a crazy notion, was it?”

  Benny smiled wickedly at him and tilted the gun sideways. “Not so crazy, no.”

&nb
sp; “Oh, Benny!” sighed Sergeant Bradshaw, hanging his head. “Did you kill those women too?”

  Benny’s cheeks pinched into his eyes as he grimaced. “I’ve told you on quite a few instances. There are way too many witches in this town. I’m tired of it.”

  Sergeant Bradshaw couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “So you just decided to kill them all off one by one?”

  “Well, that hadn’t exactly been the plan,” admitted Benny. “Katherine was simply a piece of investigative journalism gone awry. I’d been scouting that big storm for years! I knew it had to be a witch causing it, and I’d finally narrowed it down to either Kat Lynde or Mabel Anderson, but I got lucky. That night I got my hands on a pretty exciting piece of magic.”

  “Piece of magic?”

  Benny wagged the business end of the gun towards Sergeant Bradshaw, encouraging him away from the door and further into the living room. “I found a spellbook. And inside was the perfect spell. With it, I can take away the powers of all the witches in Aspen Falls! Then we’ll all be on a level playing field.”

  “Ohhkay. Benny, I hate to break it to you, but you don’t have magical powers.”

  “Well, duh,” said Benny, rolling his eyes mockingly. “I tried it by myself, just in case. The book said the spell had to be done at midnight in a central location. So after the Falls Festival, I attempted the spell there, and of course, because I don’t have magic, it didn’t work.”

  “That was the night you killed Margaret?”

  Benny nodded. “That one was her own fault. She was out walking around and saw me chanting. If she would have just gone on about her business, she’d still be alive today. But, no. She had to stop and ask me what I was doing.”

  “Well, you didn’t have to kill her for being nosey!”

  “I didn’t kill her for being nosey! I killed her because once she realized I was chanting from a spellbook, she got suspicious and asked if I was a wizard. She knew I wasn’t, and she pointed out that only a paranormal could make a spell in a spellbook work. I told her she needed to do the spell for me and she refused. That was why I killed Margaret Sutton. Not to mention the fact that I got a big scoop out of the deal, since I was the first reporter on the scene.”

  “So why did you take Hazel?”

  “Simple. Once Margaret pointed out the obvious, that I couldn’t do the spell because I wasn’t paranormal, I realized I needed my very own witch to cast the spell for me. I saw Hazel this morning heading to the ladies’ room at Habernackle’s. I ran her out the back door, stuffed her in my trunk, and came back inside until the coast was clear to leave. The unfortunate part is that lady’s got a mouth on her! She would not shut up! Even with a gag in her mouth, she wouldn’t shut up. I had to manually shut her up!”

  Sergeant Bradshaw felt the blood drain from his face. “Oh, Benny—you didn’t!”

  “Kill her?” asked Benny, taking a seat on the edge of his armchair with the gun still aimed at Sergeant Bradshaw. “Oh, no. I wouldn’t do that. She hasn’t served her purpose yet! I’ll get what I need out of her and then I’ll kill her.”

  Sergeant Bradshaw took a step towards him menacingly. He held a hand out towards Benny. “I’m sorry, Benny. I can’t let you kill Hazel.”

  Benny laughed manically as he put the gun in Sergeant Bradshaw’s face. “Oh, and you think you’re going to stop me? You think I would have confessed all of that to you if I thought you were going to be around to repeat it? Sorry, Sarge. I enjoy our talks over coffee. You’re an intelligent and insightful guy, but you know my secret. I can’t keep you around any longer.” He grabbed him by the arm and shoved him towards the kitchen. “Now. I’d rather not get a bloodstain on the carpet. It’s only two years old, and my mother would roll over in her grave if I killed someone up here. So, if you don’t mind heading right this way, I think we’ll do both you and Hazel in the basement.”

  Sergeant Bradshaw dropped his head. He couldn’t believe he’d come all the way out here to help Gwyn and her friends and now he was the one needing help. “You don’t have to do this, Benny. I can walk out of here and not say a word to anyone.”

  Benny laughed. “Yeah, riiight. Like I believe that one.” He pressed the gun harder into Bradshaw’s back. “Keep it movin’, Sarge. It looks like the day’s killing to-do list just got a little longer.”

  42

  Outside, Loni put the cage with Hazel inside next to Gwyn’s car. Hazel hadn’t stirred the entire time they’d moved her. Gwyn couldn’t help but worry that Benny had done something to her. Had he drugged her? Or maybe he’d hit her across the head the way that he’d hit Margaret and Kat!

  “Girls, we’ve got to get her out of the cage so we can examine her and see what Benny did!” cried Gwyn anxiously.

  Char looked at the cage’s construction. “It doesn’t come apart.”

  “We’ll just have to lift her out,” said Phyllis, reaching inside and grabbing Hazel’s legs. “Loni, levitate Haze inside the cage, and I’ll pull her out.”

  Loni nodded. “Good plan,” she agreed and did just as Phyllis had suggested. Together the two of them maneuvered Hazel’s limp body outside the cage.

  “Put her in the backseat of the car,” said Char, rushing to open the doors.

  Loni moved Hazel to the car, where the women were finally able to examine her.

  “She’s got a head trauma. He hit her, alright.”

  “Mom!” breathed Gwyn.

  Char touched Gwyn’s arms. “Keep it together, Gwynnie. It’s not that bad. She’s still alive, and I have full confidence I can heal her. It’s just going to take a little bit of time. But I don’t want you to worry. We got to her in time!”

  Gwyn sighed with relief. Those were just the words she needed to hear. “Oh, thank you, Char!” She looked back at the house. “Girls—just before we left, I heard a familiar voice in there. I think we need to go see who rang the doorbell before we leave.”

  Char nodded. “I’ll stay with Haze and start working on her. You girls go check it out.”

  “Come on, girls,” said Gwyn, leading Loni and Phyllis back towards Benny’s yard. Carefully, they crept to the front of the house.

  Phyllis sucked in her breath when she saw the truck parked in Benny’s driveway. “It’s Sergeant Bradshaw’s truck!” she gasped.

  Gwyn’s eyes widened. That was the voice she’d heard! “Harrison’s here?” she asked, putting a hand to her heart.

  “It looks like it!” said Phyllis.

  “Who’s Harrison?” asked Loni.

  “He has coffee at Habernackle’s every morning. We think he’s sweet on Gwyn,” explained Phyllis.

  Loni’s eyebrows lifted, widening her already big eyes behind her glasses. “Ohhh,” she sang. “Gwynnie has a boy toy?”

  Gwyn swatted at Loni playfully. “He’s not my boy toy,” she hissed. “He’s just a nice man I danced with at the Falls Festival. I’d hate for him to get hurt because we told him about our suspicions!” Then she smiled. “He believed me after all!”

  Phyllis nodded. “Indeed he did. And now, he’s inside with that lunatic.”

  “Oh, girls, what if Harrison’s in trouble? We can’t just leave him behind! What if Benny kills him too?”

  Phyllis groaned. “Damn men. Always getting themselves into trouble.”

  “They are?” asked Gwyn with one lifted brow.

  “Oh, is it just the men I date?” asked Phyllis with a hand pressed to her chest.

  Gwyn shrugged. “Must be.”

  “So are we going to help the guy, or what?” asked Loni, looking around as she pulled her blond wig further down onto her head and adjusted her scarf. “This wig is itchier than my trigger finger!”

  “Settle down, Lons. We’ll be outta here in two shakes,” snapped Phyllis. “Let’s go back in through the kitchen. Hopefully Benace the Menace still has the sarge in the living room and we can sneak up on him.”

  The women ducked beneath the house windows and retreated to the backyard where Phyllis
slowly cracked the door open and peered inside. She waved them forward. “Coast is clear,” she whispered.

  The three women crept inside, and just as they were about to head to the living room, they heard footsteps and voices coming their way.

  “You don’t have to do this, Benny. I can walk out of here and not say a word to anyone.”

  “Yeah, riiight. Like I believe that one,” said Benny. “Keep it movin’, Sarge. It looks like the day’s killing to-do list just got a little longer.”

  The women didn’t have time to hide before Sergeant Bradshaw appeared in the doorway, followed by Benny a split second later. Sergeant Bradshaw’s eyes widened as he saw Gwyn, Phyllis, and Loni standing in the kitchen.

  “Gwyn!” he breathed.

  “What the…?” said Benny, taking the gun off Sergeant Bradshaw for a split second.

  But he wasn’t fast enough. Gwyn, Loni, and Phyllis all held their palms up to Benny and unleashed a stream of glowing neon energy towards him. It wrapped around him, forcing his arms to hug himself and the gun to fall to the floor. Sergeant Bradshaw acted quickly, snatching up the gun and holding it on Benny.

  He smiled at the women as they held the stream of energy tightly around Benny. “Girls, what a pleasure.”

  “We got here in the nick of time, eh, Sarge?” asked Phyllis.

  “I’d say. Benny was planning to add me to his short list. Gwyn, I’m afraid you’re right. Benny does have your mother,” said Sergeant Bradshaw. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. He’s got her in the basement.”

  Gwyn smiled at him. “Way ahead of you. Mom’s in the car with a head wound, but Char’s tending to her. We came back to save you.”

  “To save me?” he asked, pointing at himself. “I came here to save you, but it looks like you really do have things covered.”

  She winked at him. They sure did have things covered. She glanced back at her friends and smiled. “We always do.”

  Detective Whitman finished up his conversation with his officers and then turned to the five women in the kitchen.