I used my hand to wipe off the muck and mess that was plastered on the back window. Using the hard bottom of Madame Torres to break a hole in the glass window on the back door, so I could slip my hand in and unlock the door, caused the entire glass to crash into tiny little pieces.
“That was easy.” I unlocked the door, opened it, and stepped over the bulk of the mess with little crackles of glass breaking under my shoes.
“Izzy?” I asked in a husky whisper. “Izzy?”
The glow I had seen from the window was getting brighter as I approached. There were two crystal balls next to each other, one trying to outshine the other. I took Madame Torres from under my arm and sat her on the counter next to them so I could hold each one to get a better look at them.
“Oh no!” Madame Torres threw her head back. Her eyes bulged from her sockets, blood-shot veins ran rampant through her eyeballs. She glowed green. Electricity shot between Madame Torres and the other two globes, connecting them into a triangle.
“I wanted you to know that a new sheriff has been hired and will be announced at June Heal’s first village meeting as the newly elected president.” One of the globes showed Izzy talking to someone.
Izzy, where are you? I bent down to get a better look. She looked healthy.
The other globe lit up.
“I think I would like to stay on. Especially since those new animals have surfaced.” Gandolf stood with his hand planted on his holster.
“We really do appreciate all of your work, but there has already been a new hire from a village in the west.” Izzy turned and it showed her leaving the police station.
The globes played like a movie or as though they were having a conversation and Madame Torres controlled the remote.
Izzy appeared in what seemed to be a new conversation.
“Since Colton is here, it’s time for you to leave.” Izzy stood next to Gandolf’s desk.
“I’m going to help him figure out the solutions to the animals and Alexelrod’s murder.” Gandolf didn’t budge.
“No, you are leaving now.” Izzy tugged on his arm. Gandolf jerked, sending Izzy to the ground.
“I told you that I wasn’t leaving until the murder is solved.” He stood over her with his fist shaking in the air. “You won’t tell June Heal anything. Do you understand?”
“There is no way Whispering Falls’s budget will work out with two sheriff’s salaries.” Izzy put her arms in the air to shield herself from him. “I said you are leaving!”
“And I told you I wasn’t.” Gandolf raised back his hand in the air and sent it flying down, hitting Izzy in the face knocking her out cold.
I watched in horror as the ball showed Gandolf in the middle of all sorts of animals. I leaned in. My eyes squinted. I blinked. I blinked harder.
All of the animals that were strays were standing around Gandolf as he gave them a speech.
“I’m going to free your souls!” He stood like a proud soldier leading a battle. “Whispering Falls is an open community. They are weak and have a new Village President coming into office. We will take over and make it a Dark-Sider community! You will be free from the bondage!”
The animals stomped and brayed, throwing their heads in the air with the good news.
The globe acted as though it had changed a channel.
“Is he inside A Charming Cure?” I gasped, bringing my hand to my mouth. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Gandolf had broken into my shop. He was the one who took the potion and the book. Suddenly it showed him breaking into Glorybee and feeding the strays the potion.
No wonder they were acting crazy. They took the power potion and couldn’t handle it since their bad souls were stuck in the animals and going nuts on poor Petunia.
Petunia. I prayed she was okay, but I had to find out where Gandolf was keeping Izzy.
“Let me go!” Izzy screamed. She looked like she was bound at the feet and her hands were tied behind her back. Gandolf was holding her somewhere, but where?
The next scene showed Gandolf hovered over a woman I didn’t recognize. She was stuffing darts with something.
“Poison,” Shock and awe ran through me.
“I’m working as fast as I can.” The woman sobbed. Gandolf was holding his gun to her side, jabbing it deeper and deeper. She flinched but kept working on the darts.
I tried to get a better look at her, but I didn’t recognize her.
I grabbed Madame Torres and threw her under my arm, breaking the connection.
“I’ve seen enough.” I rushed out of the back door and didn’t worry about who saw me.
“Gandolf, you think I’m weak,” I said through gritted teeth. “I’ll show you weak shortly!”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The streets were dark, but I was sure my anger was shining strong as I stomped my way down to the police station. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I did know that Izzy was somewhere in there. My gut told me so.
The police station door was open as always and I marched right on in. There wasn’t a light on and Gandolf wasn’t at his desk.
Walking lightly, just in case he was in the building with Izzy and the other woman, I made my way over to his desk. I knew the station well since I had spent a lot of time there with Oscar.
Right on top of the stack of files was Gandolf’s application file. I opened it and used Madame Torres as my flashlight.
“Turn the page,” Madame Torres coaxed me. “Hurry, June. I don’t have a good feeling.”
“Now you tell me.” I flipped the page and saw an arrest sheet where Gandolf had been stripped of his spiritual powers for killing another spiritualist officer. The statement said that Gandolf claimed he did it out of self-defense but the jury found him guilty.
I ran my finger down the page to see what his punishment was. It said that he not only had been stripped of his duties, but he also had been sentenced to life in prison. A mortal prison.
Right under the punishment there was a big red stamp that said “Wanted.” Gandolf was on the run and he was planning on taking over Whispering Falls with the “Mysteries and Magical Spells” book – and he was nearing his goal.
“What do I do?” I asked Madame Torres.
“You should have asked that question before now.” Gandolf stood behind me.
I grimaced when I felt the barrel of a gun jab in my ribs.
“Come on. Just leave Whispering Falls and I won’t tell anyone anything.” I was weak. Being brave was overrated. “I swear!”
“I don’t think so.” Gandolf let out a roar of evil laughter. The deeper he laughed, the deeper the gun went into my skin. “Walk.”
Without a word, I walked forward into the back of the station where the Sheriff’s apartment was. Oscar had lived there for a short time, so I was a little familiar with it.
Izzy and the other woman were bound and gagged to the right of the door. Izzy’s eyes were deep set with fear. She dropped her head when she saw it was me. Disappointment replaced the fright. Instantly, I knew she had been holding out hope that I would figure out what was going on.
“Now I’m going to have to kill all three of you.” Gandolf’s lip curled on one side. He plucked a cigar from his front pocket and used a lighter to light it.
“What are you, some mob boss?” He looked like he belonged in a movie as he puffed smoke rings in the air.
“Darling, you have no idea what I’m capable of.” He winked and motioned for me to sit next to Izzy.
You don’t know what I’m capable of. I glared at him, trying to figure out what I was capable of. He grabbed a rope.
“So if you are going to kill us, why? Why did you kill Alexelrod? What did he ever do to you?” I at least wanted to know the reasons if I was going to die, and try to stall him until something, anything came into my head.
“He was all gung ho for Ophelia Biblio to come to town when I told him about her.” He moved the cigar to the other side. He took a puff and blew smoke rings in the air. “
You see,” he pointed at the woman. “Ophelia was never going to leave Colton. And I needed her to make my power potion to release the souls of my friends who had all been banned to live a life of silence as animals.”
“You brought the animals here.” I wanted to confirm what I had seen in the globes at Mystic Lights.
“Yes. I sent them here after I found out Izzy was looking for an interim sheriff.” He spoke with the cigar stuck between his front teeth. “Only she didn’t know that I had sent Colton a little message about the position. That way Ophelia would come here and they would bring his mother.” He pointed to the woman again.
“You are Colton’s mom?” Everything was becoming very clear. “You needed his mom, because she is a Curist, to make you the potion. Then when she made the transition for them, you were planning on taking Whispering Falls over and making it an evil Dark-Sider community?”
“I underestimated you, June Heal.” He tapped his temple. “But you didn’t figure it out in time. We are one step away from the final cure. Thanks to your little tip about the book.” He nodded over to the coffee table where the “Mysteries and Magical Spells” book lay.
Madame Torres’s glow from the other room was so intense, Gandolf raised his hands to shield the brightness, dropping the rope.
I grabbed before it landed on the ground and started wrapping it around his ankles. Izzy shoved her bound feet forward and knocked Gandolf on his butt. He flailed his arms trying to get free.
“Hold it right there!” Oscar’s voice rang out along with the sound of a shot.
Silence took over, colliding with the smoke of the bullet and the smell of gunpowder.
I must be dead. There was no other way I could have heard Oscar’s voice.
“Don’t move!”
I opened my eyes. Colton and Oscar were standing there, legs apart, arms stretched out and guns pointed at Gandolf.
Gandolf had stopped flailing when Oscar shot his gun into the air. I was relieved to see that I wasn’t dead and that he truly was there.
“Are they okay?” Ophelia ran in and rushed over to Colton’s mom. She threw her arms around her before she took the gag out of her mouth.
“I’m fine. Help Izzy,” his mom nodded toward us. I sat there in shock.
“I will.” I jumped to my feet and reached over to take Izzy’s gag off and then untied her hands from behind her back.
“Thank you June.” Izzy rotated her wrists a few times before she leaned over and untied her feet. “If it weren’t for you, Alise and I would probably be dead.”
“Yes, thank you.” Alise, Colton’s mom, held her hands to her heart. “I didn’t want to hurt the community. Colton and Ophelia were so looking forward to moving here.”
“So you two are a couple?” Oscar questioned as he handcuffed Gandolf.
“We are.” Ophelia hugged Colton, but Colton moved away so he could help Oscar hoist Gandolf to his feet. “But we understand that there can’t be two spiritualists in a relationship with separate businesses. Is that right?”
“So,” Oscar held Gandolf’s cuffs with one hand and gestured between all of us. “This spiritualist thing is real?”
Chapter Thirty
It didn’t seem like it was only two weeks ago that the entire fate of Whispering Falls was on the verge of being non-existent, or the fact that Oscar Park didn’t know the real me, but fourteen days can seem like a long time when everything was falling into place – well, almost everything.
“I told you that you needed to find a new man.” Madame Torres was still going on and on about the Make-Me-A-Match profile she had made unbeknownst to me. Even from the bottom of my bag she was still loud. “It worked for her.”
“Just ignore her,” I told Ophelia as I blew Madame Torres off while I was waiting for the book club to start.
I had reserved a spot in Ever After Books that was set up for such clubs. I loved how Ophelia complemented the room with big fluffy white couches that had snuggly covers on them to curl up with while everyone got the opportunity to discuss the book. She even had coffee and tea from The Gathering Grove and pastries from Wicked Good.
It was our very first book club meeting and I hated to admit that I never once opened or read “Gone With The Ghost”. After all, I had spent all of my free time telling Oscar about our past and his. Besides, I was here mostly for the company and meeting up with friends.
After he rescued us from that terrible Dark-Sider, Gandolf, Izzy said that there were special instances where people can know about us. Since he did save our hinnies, Oscar was definitely considered a special circumstance.
“Don’t you wish she had an off button?” Ophelia twirled her finger around and pointed to my bag.
“Sometimes.” I winked and patted my bag. “I have to say that she was a big help in solving Alexelrod’s murder. I was convinced that you and Colton had something to do with it that night. I was even going to go tell Gandolf, but you know how that turned out, and here we are.”
“Yes, here we are.” Colton walked up behind us holding a fresh cup of coffee from The Gathering Grove. He wrapped Ophelia in his arms and kissed her on the head. She glowed…literally.
I had to admit that Colton looked devilishly handsome in his new Whispering Falls Sherriff uniform, but not as good as Oscar did.
“What about the amendment to the laws?” Ophelia questioned. “In particular, the one where spiritualist shop owners can’t be in a relationship and have two businesses?”
“That’s a good question.” I had been working with Izzy on how we can update the old spiritual laws. Although the laws were good, sometimes the laws have to grow with the community, and our laws hadn’t been changed or tweaked in over one hundred years. “Aunt Helena is very good in the law department, so we’ll have a meeting with her, then we will bring it to a village vote.”
There was excitement, not only with Colton and Ophelia, but also with Gerald and Petunia and whoever else had a relationship in Whispering Falls. They way I looked at it, if the shop owners were happy, it would show in their stores, and that would bring more business to Whispering Falls.
“How are you and Oscar?” Colton asked.
He had gotten to know Oscar a little better after they took Gandolf into custody. They had even hung out for drinks one night in Locust Grove. Oscar was curious about our gifts and he probably felt more comfortable talking to a man about it.
“We’re fine.” I smiled. It would take Oscar time to truly understand what all took place over the last few months. “What about you two love birds?”
Madame Torres was right. Make-Me-A-Match got it right when they paired Colton and Ophelia.
“We are great, right honey?” Ophelia turned to face Colton and gave him a peck on the cheek.
“Good afternoon.” Eloise strolled in with Petunia following closely behind her.
“Good afternoon.” I reached over and tugged on Petunia’s sleeve. A chipmunk ran out of the neck of her shirt and nestled right in the crook of her neck. Petunia picked the little brown fury creature up and stuck it in her hair. There were a few shakes and wiggles of the messy updo before the critter settled in. “Have things settled down? How are things?”
“Great!” Petunia clasped her hands together. “Ever since the whole Gandolf thing, and you giving me a power potion reversal for the animals,” she gestured toward Alise, Colton’s mom. “They have been shipped back to the community out west and are no longer my problem.”
Even though the animals were bad souls, I still couldn’t believe that Gandolf had meticulously plotted the entire plan. Thank goodness, he was gone forever.
“Tell me, have you talked with Oscar any more about tonight?” Eloise asked with a little hope in her voice.
Since I had been given the all clear to tell Oscar about his past, I also told him that his past included Eloise. He was shocked and elated to find out that he had an aunt still living and loved that she did have pictures to prove it, but sad that he didn’t remember her.
Eloise didn’t care if he remembered her or not. She only wanted to love him. With a little bit of coaxing, Eloise invited us over for dinner and he agreed to it.
“We will be there by six.”
“Oh!” Eloise threw her hands in the air and wrapped them around me, giving me a big bear hug. “I can’t stay. I have to rush home and get things ready. I was sure he wouldn’t agree to it.”
Petunia and I stood with our mouths open, as Eloise didn’t waste any time getting the heck out of Ever After Books and pushing everyone out of her way in the process.
“It looks like it’s just you and me kid.” Petunia laughed and plopped down on the one of the couches.
The other members of the book club couldn’t make it because they were still working in their shops. Luckily, I still had Faith on the payroll and she was able to keep the paper going and also keep my customers happy.
“Why don’t we wait until we can meet at my cottage some night?” It was hard for me to give up any night because I wanted to continue to work with Oscar to regain his memory.
He still had no recollection of us being in love, and I didn’t tell him all of that. I figured that I’d let nature take its course. If he falls in love with me it will be even better, because there would be no magic involved…well, no real magic.
“That sounds like a great idea.” Petunia stood back up and clasped her hands in front of her. “I have a lot of baths to give today and hair brushing if you would like to help?” She stretched out her hands.
“Of course I would.” I accepted her offer in helping me up.
Even though Oscar didn’t remember us, or our time here in Whispering Falls, it was okay. I had the best of both worlds. I had my dearest friends in the world and a best friend in him.
For Eloise’s sake, I did wish that he had some memory of her.
Chapter Thirty-One
There was no reason to get fancy or even dolled up for Oscar. He still looked at me as a best friend. Wearing my red dress and flat sandals would be perfect for a night at Eloise’s. After all, it wasn’t about me.
A Charming Spell (Magical Cures Mystery Series) Page 13