Paws and Effect (Mystic Notch 4 4)

by Leighann Dobbs

  Too bad she hadn’t learned much at the police station. She didn’t even get a look at what was in that darn box. Pandora padded around the bookstore, anxiously glancing in all the corners, hoping that Obsidian would appear to give her more information.

  After a while, Willa became concerned about Pandora's strange behavior, and when she threatened a trip to the vet, Pandora settled into her comfy cat bed, arranging herself so as to get the most out of the slanting afternoon sun. She was almost asleep when the bell over the door jingled and the scent of lilacs and scones that Pandora associated with Willa’s best friend, Pepper St. Onge, came wafting into the store.

  Pepper owned a teashop down the street and often came in the afternoons with coffee or tea when business for both of them was slow. The two women liked to catch up over refreshments.

  Pandora typically paid them no mind … unless Pepper brought coffee because cream usually accompanied it, and if there was one thing Pandora loved, it was cream.

  Pepper was dressed in a breezy, lilac skirt and lime green shirt with lace on the edges. She perched herself carefully on the edge of the purple micro-suede sofa that Willa had installed at the front of the bookstore for readers to lounge around on while they sampled the books.

  Pandora watched through one slitted eye as Pepper slid the silver tray she’d brought down on the coffee table and starting unloading its freight— flowered cups, saucers, a pot, napkins, a dainty plate of scones.

  The bitter smell of coffee hit Pandora’s nose and her eyes came to rest on the silver creamer still on the tray. Suddenly she was very interested in joining the two humans as they snacked and gossiped. She rousted herself from her cat bed, stretched out her front legs and hopped down from the window.

  “Hattie was in my shop buying some burdock root tea and she mentioned something about the goings-on at the groundbreaking ceremony this morning.” Pepper expertly wrangled a waist-length strand of red hair back into the chignon at the nape of her neck and then poured dark coffee into two dainty, flowered cups. “What was up with that?”

  “Rebecca plunged her golden shovel into the ground and almost ruined some antique box that was buried there,” Willa said.

  “A buried box? You mean like a treasure chest?”

  “No, I don’t think it had treasure in it.” Willa sat down, accepted the coffee cup from Pepper and picked through the pile of scones until she found her favorite raspberry white chocolate flavor.

  “What was in it? Hattie didn’t say, but she said there was some kind of fight going on over it.”

  “Yes, there was. A few of the people in attendance seemed to think it belong to them. I didn’t see what was in it, but the box looked all fancy.”

  The two women were ignoring Pandora. She walked by the edge of the coffee table, flicking her tail up over the top so that they would notice her. Didn’t they know she was in need of some cream?

  Willa pushed her tail away. “Shoo, Pandora. We don’t want cat hair in our coffee.”

  Shoo? Pandora did not shoo. Instead, she jumped up on the chair where Willa sat and head butted her coffee cup, causing some of the liquid to splash out on Willa’s gray tee-shirt.

  “Geez, Pandora, I don’t know what is with you today. Lucky thing I’m not wearing any good clothes.” Willa put down her cup and unceremoniously placed Pandora on the floor.

  Pandora’s golden-green eyes locked on Pepper's emerald ones. She tried to telegraph a message to her.

  Put cream in saucer.

  “Why? What’s with Pandora?” Pepper’s hand hovered over the creamer.

  Pandora stared at her intently, her entire being focused on transmitting the message for Pepper to grab the creamer and pour some into a saucer.

  “Somehow she got out today and Striker found her down at the police station.” Willa blew out a breath, pushing the unruly copper curls away from her forehead. “Sometimes I don’t know what I’m going to do with her.”

  “She always was adventurous.” Pepper looked down at Pandora, and Pandora took the opportunity to intensify beaming her message.

  Pour the cream into the saucer and place it on the floor.

  Pepper frowned at her hands. Her cup was in her right hand poised halfway to her lips. The saucer rested in her left. Pandora watched with rapt attention as Pepper placed the cup on the coffee table and reached for the creamer.

  Yes! Victory flooded through Pandora as Pepper poured a little bit of cream into the well in the middle of the saucer and put it on the floor. It seemed Pepper was not as dumb as she looked.

  Pandora went to work on the saucer, first sniffing it as if she suspected foul play, then hunkering down and sticking the very tip of her tongue in daintily. Forcing herself to go slowly—she had to keep up appearances and no cat wanted to appear too eager, even when it came to cream—she started lapping the thick liquid. It was like heaven. Ambrosia of the gods. She almost forgot to pay attention to the humans’ conversation, which she would not have had the slightest interest in if they had not mentioned the curious box.

  “Anyway, Gus has it at the police station because Elizabeth, Oscar and Rebecca were fighting over it. She said she would treat it like a found item and they would have to prove their ownership,” Willa was saying.

  Pepper’s brow creased. “Why did they each think it belonged to them?”

  “Elizabeth thought it should go to the Historical Society. Oscar said it was part of the Danforth family heritage.”

  “What about Rebecca? What would the mayor want with the box?”

  “She said it belonged to the town because the town owns that land. They took it from Hester Warren back when she was burned as a witch.”

  Pepper picked up her cup and leaned back on the sofa, her top teeth worrying her bottom lip. “That’s right. That land used to belong to Hester Warren. Doesn’t it seem odd the town has owned it all this time and never done anything with it?”

  “It does seem odd and it also seems odd that the one spot we chose to do the groundbreaking yielded this fancy box.”

  “Very odd.” Pepper took a sip of coffee. “What was in it?”

  “That’s the thing, I never got to see that. And Striker never even looked! I asked Gus, but she was vague … you know how she can be.”

  “What did the box look like?”

  “It was silver. I think it might have been sterling because it was very ornate with embossing around the edges and some sort of reptile in the middle.”

  Pepper leaned forward. “A reptile? Could it have been a newt?”

  Willa nodded. “I suppose. Why? Do you know something about it?”

  “Not really. It’s just that Grandma St. Onge used to tell me this old family story. You know, the St. Onges have been in Mystic Notch for centuries, right?”

  “Who hasn't?” Willa asked. Most of the town proudly boasted of their ancestral ties to Mystic Notch.

  “Pretty much everyone, I guess. The St. Onges go back well past the 1600s. And my mother’s side, too. So do the Posts. Riley Post married Bedelia Phipps in the late 1600s and started a whole other side of the family, including the Devons from whom Rebecca's father comes. Grandma St. Onge is the one I got all my herbal knowledge from. She was quite well known for it back in the day,” Pepper said proudly.

  Willa raised a skeptical eyebrow. Pepper fancied that her herbal teas had special properties. She claimed the right tea could have magical effects, not only on healing people but on other aspects of their lives, too. Willa wasn’t sold on that, but Pandora knew that herbs did have special properties and she’d seen Pepper’s tea work magic quite a few times.

  “So what was the story?” Willa tapped her finger on the rim of her coffee cup.

  “Oh, right. Well, she always made it sound like it was some kind of old family lore handed down over the generations. She said her grandma told it to her. But I kind of thought it was just a made-up story, like a fairy tale. The funny thing is she always mentioned a fancy silver box with a newt on it.”
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  Willa shrugged. “Maybe that part was true. Your ancestors might have mixed real stuff with fiction to pass down a good story. One of the ancestral St. Onges might have known Hester and seen the box.”

  “They did know Hester. The town was small back then, so everyone knew everyone else,” Pepper said. “Anyway, according to the story, the box is supposed to be some sort of sacred box that holds a vial of celestrium lily extract.” Pepper looked at Willa very seriously over the rim of her cup. “According to St. Onge lore, the silvery blue liquid glows like moonlight and is very potent stuff.”

  Willa’s brows tugged together. “That does sound like a fairy tale. I didn’t see what was in the box. I guess it could have been a vial in there.”

  Pepper laughed. “Well, I doubt there is celestrium lily extract in it. In the world of herbs and energy, celestrium lily extract is supposedly very potent. It can amplify the potency of energy, healing stones and herbs to dangerous levels.”

  “What? That’s just a mythical thing right? Like an old wives’ tale? I mean, I know you believe herbs and stones have energy, but if there really was such an extract, I’m sure you would be using it to pump up the volume on your tea.”

  Pepper shrugged. “Maybe. I doubt I would use it. It’s too powerful. Anyway, the celestrium lily has been extinct for centuries. Grandma said there was no extract left.”

  “Right. It doesn’t exist.”

  “But that doesn’t mean it never did exist.”

  “Okay, I’ll give you that, but that doesn’t mean it’s in the silver box we dug up.”

  Pepper’s face turned grim. “I sure hope it wasn’t in that box. Because a powerful extract like that could cause a lot of trouble if it fell into the wrong hands.”

  6

  Pepper’s words echoed in Pandora's head. “… a powerful extract like that could cause a lot of trouble if it fell into the wrong hands.”

  The last drop of cream soured in her mouth as she turned away from the saucer. She knew Willa was taking Pepper's story with a grain of salt, but combined with the cloaked ghost, who Pandora now realized was Hester Warren, and what Obsidian had told her, Pandora was taking it a lot more seriously.

  But whose hands were 'the wrong hands'? And was the extract even in the box?

  She glanced around the store for any sign of the ghost cat. Willa always said human ghosts never came around when you wanted them to, and apparently it was the same for ghost cats. Pandora would have to figure it out on her own. Which was really no problem. She was smart.

  While Otis and the Mystic Notch cats were spending time trying to persuade their humans to take action, Pandora would prove to them that her more modern ways were far superior. She would figure out who the bad guys were on her own.

  But where to start? Pandora glanced up at Willa's computer. According to Willa, there were three parties who wanted the box. Oscar Danforth, Elizabeth Post and Rebecca Devon-Smyth. All Pandora needed to do was figure out which one had a motive to want to use the powerful extract. The computer was a good place to start, plus she could use the energy boost that being near the electronic device usually gave her.

  Pandora knew how to surf the Internet without raising Willa's suspicions. She waited until Willa was busy stocking the shelves with new books. She couldn't see the computer from most of the aisles, so Pandora had free rein when Willa was out of sight. When Willa came back to the front or was fiddling on shelves within sight of the computer on the front counter, Pandora had to stop and pretend she was just sitting on the keyboard.

  It was not the most efficient way to do research but Pandora couldn't let on that her seemingly random paw taps on the keys actually had meaning behind them.

  Her efforts were rewarded. She discovered that the cloaked ghost was indeed Hester Warren and she'd had a cat named Obsidian. Hester was burned as a witch. There was no mention of the cat after that and Pandora felt glad the cat was not burned with her.

  It was no surprise that Elizabeth Post and Rebecca Devon-Smyth had Mystic Notch family ties dating back to the 1600s. Most Mystic Notch residents' lineage went back even before that to when the town was settled. Willa's family went back that far, too. Willa had never traced it herself, but Pandora knew.

  Perhaps the most surprising thing was discovered when Pandora looked into Oscar Danforth's lineage. It appeared one of his ancestors, Miles Danforth, was a town official in 1656 and he was the one who had accused Hester Warren of witchcraft.

  Was he after the silver box? It was too much of a coincidence. Pandora's whiskers twitched. She was on to something.

  Hester had known the box was important. She'd probably buried it to keep it out of the hands of the wrong people. Clearly, Miles Danforth was one of those people. Obsidian had guarded the box for as long as he could, but a cat can only live for so long … even if they do have nine lives. Obsidian was gone, the box unearthed and now it was up to the cats of Mystic Notch to continue protecting what was inside it.

  This new information was critical, but what should she do with it? Pandora considered going it alone. Could she do something to stop Danforth on her own? She wanted to show the other cats, especially Otis, that her new methods worked, but there was too much at stake for her to take action based on her own ego. She would need more help so it was best to talk to the other cats and then come up with a plan of action based on this new evidence.

  Pandora hunkered down on the keyboard and stared at the screen while she considered her options. The keyboard was warm and the energy radiated into her body, making her stronger. She closed her eyes just for a second …

  “What are you doing? I hope you didn't inadvertently hit some buttons and send the email to Striker like you did last time.” Willa was looming over her, a stern look on her face. Had she fallen asleep?

  Pandora tried not to snicker. She'd sent that email on purpose when Willa and Striker were in one of their 'off-again' phases. It had been a bit awkward with Willa denying sending it and thinking Striker was making it up in order to see her, and Striker thinking it was weird Willa wouldn't admit to sending it, but the email had worked and the two of them had kissed and made up. Pandora puffed her fur up proudly. If only Willa knew the lengths Pandora went to for her human's happiness.

  But instead of praising her, Willa scooped her off the keyboard and dumped her on the floor.

  “Stay away from the computer.” Willa frowned at the screen, which still displayed the article about Danforth's ancestor. “I didn't leave this up. It worries me sometimes what you do on here. I wouldn't put it past you to inadvertently order something expensive.” Willa glanced at Pandora out of the corner of her eye.

  Pandora considered that. She hadn't thought about ordering something online. Maybe she could put in an order of some of her favorite catnip while Willa wasn't looking.

  She wouldn't be ordering anything today, though. Disappointment washed over her as she watched Willa close down the computer. She'd had a slight hope that Willa might have caught on to what was going on with the box when she'd seen the article about Miles Danforth. It would be a lot easier if Willa figured out the real truth about Danforth, but, as Pandora already knew, humans didn't catch on that easily. She couldn't depend on Willa or any other human to protect what was in the box.

  Pandora slunk over to her cat bed in the window. Now, more than ever, she needed to take action. It all made perfect sense. Danforth was trying to carry on the work of his ancestor. No wonder he was claiming the box was his. He wanted to get his hands on it for his own evil doing.

  Even though the box was secure in Gus' office at the police station, Pandora felt that something needed to be done about him right away. She needed to talk to the other cats. But she didn't want to wait until Willa moseyed on home and went to sleep. She wanted to talk to them right away. Unfortunately, Willa had already taken the trash out, so Pandora wouldn't be able to sneak out the back door.

  It was almost closing time and Pandora knew of one way that she could get to El
speth's house and visit with the cats in the barn without having to wait until later that night.

  She crouched down in her bed, narrowed her eyes and focused her entire being on telegraphing one thought to Willa.

  Visit Elspeth.

  7

  “You know, I think I should visit Elspeth tonight,” Willa said one hour later as she and Pandora trotted out to the Jeep. “I like to check in on her every couple of days and I haven’t been in few. What do you say we go on over before supper?”

  “Meow.” Pandora nodded her head vigorously. Her intense hour of thought-beaming had finally worked! Maybe there was hope for Willa after all.

  Pandora curled in a ball and tucked her face under her tail for the short ride to the old, white Victorian home that Willa had inherited from her grandmother. Elspeth lived a couple of streets over, but there was a path through the woods—the same path Pandora had taken the night before—that Willa took when she went to visit. Willa always let Pandora come along with her and, while Willa and Elspeth sat in the kitchen chatting, Pandora usually took the opportunity to meet with the Mystic Notch cats in Elspeth’s barn.

  This night was no different. She trotted alongside obediently as Willa navigated the short path that ended at Elspeth’s side yard. The old woman sat in a rocking chair on her porch as if she was expecting them. Pandora followed Willa up the steps of the mint green and pink gingerbread style house to the wide, wrap-around porch, deftly avoiding the thorny branches of the thick rose vines that grew all along the railing. The vines were lush with pink roses, releasing their perfumed scent into the air.

  Tigger, the orange tomcat that guarded Elspeth religiously, was sitting beside her in the rocking chair. Pandora exchanged greetings with him while the two women exchanged their own greetings.

  Elspeth bent down and scratched Pandora behind the ears, right where she liked it the most. “And how are you Pandora?”

  Pandora rewarded her with a loud purr which made Elspeth laugh. “I guess she’s doing okay.”