The Perfect Ten Boxed Set

by Dianna Love

  “I open my shop tomorrow,” I read Darla’s words aloud. Fun, I was opening tomorrow too. “I’m a little nervous about some of the measurements being inaccurate. Otto said that it was good, but I still have doubt in my mind. I tell Otto all the time how I wished I had his instincts, his spiritual gift. But if I can’t, I hope our sweet little June does.”

  Darla had doubt? Doubtful was one word I would never use to describe her. She always seemed so confident.

  Chapter Ten

  “Turn over, turn over,” was all I could remember shouting out in my sleep just as I saw the hands slowly peel away from the neck. The head tilted to the side and as if it had one final push, the eyes popped opened, staring at me. They shone with fear.

  It was Ann.

  My heart nearly leapt out of my chest. It woke me up. Blinking several times, I remembered where I was. Whispering Falls, and smack dab in the middle of a murder. Oh yeah, and how could I almost forget that I’m a spiritualist?

  “Mr. Prince Charming?” I called out but he wasn’t anywhere to be found. He must’ve found some sort of escape route out of the house, just like he did in Locust Grove. Darla’s journal was lying next to me. I must’ve fallen asleep reading it. “Eloise,” I whispered.

  She was going to have to go to the back of my mind until I told Oscar about my nightmare. A little too late, but still it was strange for my nightmares to be changing so much.

  I grabbed my cell and dialed him.

  “How did you sleep?” There was concern in his voice.

  “Good, until the body turned over.” I pushed the button on the coffee pot and then looked out the window over the kitchen sink.

  The house sat on top the hill giving a great view of all the visitors that were already walking around.

  Bella was right. The lush green grass that covered the ground surrounding the shops was vibrant. It looked like carpet.

  “What do you mean body?” Oscar asked with caution.

  “My nightmare was different. It wasn’t the same one.” Out the window, in the distance, I could see a little white fur ball galloping toward the house, and it looked like there was something in his mouth. “The hands let go and the body turned over. It was Ann.”

  “Don’t tell me any more until you get an attorney.” He pleaded.

  “An attorney?” Why in the world. . .oh, no. My throat hit the bottom of my stomach. “Are you saying there aren’t any other suspects? Only me?”

  “I’m just saying that no one else had any issues with Ann that I can find. You and she had a public fight.” Oscar was to the point.

  “Fine.” I wasn’t going to argue with him. I knew I didn’t do it. Just because everyone around here had all sorts of psychic abilities, I’m sure they were still human and had fights. I did feel a little tension between Chandra and Ann, as well as Izzy and Ann. Hell, Ann had tried to sue Chandra. And what about the statement that Izzy said the first time I went to Mystic Lights about the fact that Ann couldn’t hold down a job and it was her responsibility. Why was Ann her responsibility?

  There was only one way to find out.

  Madame Torres.

  It was at least worth exploring. I was determined to figure out everyone’s relationship and how they were connected to Ann. If I were a betting woman, I’d say Madame Torres could tell me a thing or two.

  “June.” Oscar stopped me before I hung up. “Don’t go around putting your nose where it doesn’t belong. You need to let the experts do that. Something will turn up.”

  He knew me too well. But not well enough to know that I wasn’t going to listen to him.

  Mewl, mewl. Mr. Prince Charming dropped something near my foot. I hung the phone up and bent down to pick it up.

  “You are a thief.” The dog charm was cute with the two small diamonds for eyes. “You are making us look really bad. It’s not enough that they think I killed Ann and you go off and steal a charm.”

  What was it with this cat? I shook my head. There was no time to waste. I had to get my hands on that crystal ball, plus it was opening day for A Dose of Darla.

  After I got ready, I grabbed a couple Ding Dongs, thinking this could be a stressful day and walked toward Main Street.

  I glanced over at Mystic Lights. No thanks to Mr. Prince Charming, Madame Torres was going to have to wait. I had to get this charm back to Bella.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Good morning.” Bella greet us when we walked in. Her store was so crowded. The customers were trying on all sorts of jewelry. “How did you sleep?”

  “Um. . .you know, new place and all.” I shrugged. Did she really think I slept well? A little thing called murder was on my mind. Plus I didn’t want to give any details of my nightmare, even though I had to wonder if she could read my mind. I took the dog charm out of my pocket and laid it on the counter. “I’m afraid Mr. Prince Charming stole this from you.”

  “He didn’t steal it. I gave it to him and told him to take it to you.” She handed the lady next to me a bracelet with turquoise stones instead of the jade stones.

  “I think I like the jade better.” The woman pushed the turquoise bracelet back towards Bella.

  “No, you will be much happier with turquoise. I promise.” Bella’s eyes twinkled. She picked up the bracelet and put it on the woman.

  The woman gasped in delight. She smiled at Bella. “I think you are right.”

  Bella took the woman’s payment, and she left as happy as could be.

  “How did you do that?” I asked in amazement. “How did you know she’d like the turquoise one better?”

  “It’s in her stars.” Bella smiled, leaned over and whispered, “I’m the astrologer of the village. You know horoscope and crystal reader.”

  “Ahh.” I nodded. Whispering Falls definitely had a lot of secrets for me to explore. “Back to the charm. You told him to bring it to me?”

  “Yes.” She picked up a cleaning cloth and cleaned the jade bracelet before replacing back in the jewelry case. “I wanted you to have it. Dog charms help prevent evil spirits from attacking the living. Especially a spiritualist. And I have a feeling someone evil is out to get you.”

  First off, that didn’t make me feel good at all, even though I’d been ignoring my intuition that something evil was lurking. Secondly, Bella’s words weren’t much different than what Madame Torres said.

  “Out to get me?” I felt a little like Patience repeating Constance. “And what do my stars say?”

  She was a supposed spiritualist, she should be able to tell me my future or if someone was out to get me.

  “Rules of the village, no spiritualist can read for another spiritualist. You must figure your own path.” She floated her hands around in the air.

  I planted my elbows on the case and put my chin in my hands. “I want my future to be normal like two days ago. That is what I want.”

  “That might not be in your cards.” She smiled before she went on to the next customer. She pointed over my shoulder, out the door. “I think you have a line at the door of your shop.”

  She was right. A Dose of Darla had customers. Mr. Prince Charming and I hurried out and down the street. There was money to be made.

  I slipped into the back door to get familiar with the shop before I opened it up to the crowd outside.

  With a deep inhale, I unlocked the door. . .into my new life.

  The line of customers was a steady stream. Between answering questions and making up quick remedies, I cleaned all the nook and crannies. Anything and everything that had Darla’s handwriting on it, I tucked into a small box that I had found behind the counter.

  Nothing seemed to bother Mr. Prince Charming. He found a nice comfy spot on the well worn cushion on a chair behind the counter to sleep on.

  It was reassuring that I was able to answer questions and mix up all sorts of remedies without consulting Darla’s notebook as I had done in years past. It was all coming naturally to me. Maybe I did have a knack for this spiritual stuff.

>   From the back room, I grabbed of couple of ingredients and threw them in a mixing bowl. I could mix and create while I answered questions.

  “Can I help you?” I asked the tall, dark man that had been waiting patiently in the corner of the store as I mixed the remedy to treat hemorrhoids for a waiting customer.

  “I’ll wait until you are done.” He gestured toward my hemorrhoid customer.

  I let the ingredients mix, and added an extra spoonful of witch hazel. I picked out the prettiest bottle to put the remedy in. If my customer had to have such an awful sickness, at least she could enjoy the pretty bottle. Unlike the aluminum tubes you get from a doctor.

  The hour-glass bottle had the loveliest green flowers glued all over it. But the elegant flower glass cork was the added elegant touch.

  “Beautiful,” the woman gasped, gingerly taking the bottle from me.

  “Follow these directions to a tee, and you will never have an issue again.” I assured her giving her a piece of paper that I had scribbled the directions on.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, touching my hand. “I don’t know what it is about this town, but I always leave feeling so good inside.”

  “Village,” I corrected her. “We are a village that cares.”

  The mysterious gentleman stepped aside to make room for her to leave, and then stepped forward. He glanced around the room before laying a brown package on the counter.

  “I’m sorry you waited so long. What is that?” I asked.

  He stared at me.

  I closed my eyes hoping some type of homeopathic cure would come to me like it had all day long.

  Nothing.

  I didn’t know what happened. I wondered if my spiritual abilities had been zapped.

  “What is it?” I looked into his deep, dark eyes for an answer.

  Why did I get the gift of knowing homeopathic cures instead of something cool like the ability to read one’s mind?

  “It’s the sweet grass that you asked for.” He unrolled the brown wrapping revealing the long stems, some brown, some green. “I didn’t come all this way to be shafted. We grow a crop for you every year. And when the winds blow telling us you need sweet grass, I bring it.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry. I’m new around here. And this whole spiritualist thing is really something I just found out about.” I picked up a strand and smelled it. Nothing sweet about it. “And who did you say ordered it?”

  “The wind.” He crossed his arms in front of him.

  The wind? Right. I grinned. So the wind had a soul and he could read it? Geez. Now I’d heard it all.

  I looked over his shoulders. There was another line forming down the street and he was holding it up.

  “I have just what you need.” I went to the back and quickly began to mix up bushmaster snake remedy that has a wide range of uses. And not knowing if this guy was crazy, I knew it would help get the chemicals in his mind back to normal.

  “June?” Izzy called out from the front. “Do you need some help?”

  I walked up to the front and Izzy was talking to the gentleman.

  “It’ll be just a moment.” I put my finger up. “Business is good today.”

  Izzy leaned back and gestured to the line of customers. “Business is good every day. I see that the sweet grass is here for the smudging ceremony.” She patted the tall man on the back.

  “Yes.” He nodded and put his hand out. “I’m waiting on payment.”

  “I. . .”I stammered, looking back and forth between them. “I’m a bit confused. Smudging? I thought he was crazy.”

  Izzy threw her long blond head back and laughed so loud it made Mr. Prince Charming wake up from his nap. He stretched and arched his back in the air before he ran out the door.

  The tall man also threw his head back, his long black hair falling behind his shoulder, exposing several feathers that were braided into it. Instantly I knew he was Native American and delivering herbs for this smudging thing, whatever that was.

  “I’m so sorry.” I took a couple hundred dollars out of the register and handed it to him. He was obviously the contact for the village on all things we need from the Native American village.

  This was a plus. There were many times I needed something for a remedy in Locust Grove and couldn’t get it because no one sold it. If I wanted it, I was going to have to find a Native American to give it to me. Now I had that contact.

  He grabbed the money, put it in his pocket and left.

  “I’m so sorry. I had no idea,” I apologized to Izzy. She took this village very seriously.

  “No problem.” She looked around. “I’m glad you have put your gifts to work today, and not wasted them at the flea market.”

  “Izzy?” I stopped her before she left. I looked around the store and made sure no one was around us. “I’d like to buy that snow globe from you.”

  Her eyes shot through me. “We can talk about that later.” Her words were quick and sharp.

  “There was one in particular. . .” I was going to tell her about Madame Torres, but she cut me off.

  “Have a wonderful day.” She turned on her heeled pointy-toed, laced-up black boots, the A-frame skirt twirled, and she walked out.

  I was going to get my hands on Madame Torres with or without Izzy’s permission, but I had to focus on this smudging ceremony.

  I could see the top of Chandra’s turban weaving in and out of the crowd.

  “I wanted to pop in with a quick hello while I had a person in the mud bath.” She chuckled, and then shivered. “A woman came in for a manicure. Of course I read her palm without her knowing, and talked her into a mud bath. She’s going to need a lot more pampering with the stress she’s going to have in her life.” She tapped her long blue nails on the cash register. “Looks like business has been good.”

  “I can’t complain.” Truth be told, I couldn’t wait to see how much I had sold today. I was sure I had made more today than I had made last year at the flea market.

  I was glad to see Chandra. It gave me an opportunity to ask her a few questions about Ann while the customers picked up the retail bottles and read the homeopathic ingredients that was going to cure them.

  “You could tell by my palm that I didn’t kill Ann, right?” I was talking about how she had looked at my hand yesterday after I had passed out.

  “Oh, dear,” she giggled, “it’s not my place to judge. According to Petunia, Ann hasn’t come back. And we all know what that means.”

  I assumed she was talking about the whole good soul, bad soul thing. And I didn’t even understand all of that.

  “You and Ann got along, right?” I leaned over the counter a bit more, pulled my hair behind my shoulder so I could hear her. “Even after she tried to sue you?”

  “No one got along with Ann.” She tapped her temple. “Gerald did. Once I caught him in here looking through the honey homeopathic cures. Did he ask you about honey cures?”

  I wished Chandra would stay on the subject, but she was flighty and always nervous. By her constant laughter, I could tell talking about Ann had made her uncomfortable. Plus she never answered my question about her relationship with Ann.

  “I must go. Many customers need their nails done.” She smiled. “And a few little life questions answered for them without asking is a nice touch to keep them coming back.”

  I waved goodbye and helped the next customer.

  I wondered if everyone in the village gave their customers little tid-bits about their life using their spiritual gifts. Bella did it with the bracelet and Chandra practiced on her customers. No wonder people came back to Whispering Falls.

  I pulled a Ding Dong out from behind the counter and savored every single morsel while recalling what Chandra had said about honey.

  Why didn’t Gerald get fresh honey from Petunia? Why would he break into A Dose of Darla? A light bulb went off in my head. Didn’t Petunia say that Ann was allergic to honey?

  Hmm. . .only one way to find out. Patience Karima. I
had to get her alone, away from Constance.

  After all the customers were gone, I restocked the shelves exactly the way Darla always had, I had one thing and one thing only on my mind. Patience Karima and that autopsy report.

  I locked the wooded door behind us, and Mr. Prince Charming and I proceeded to walk down Main Street. Some of the shops were still open. Glorybee Pet Store had a shop full of customers. I’d imagine that store was the last one closed every day. Who couldn’t resist a look at some great animals that cohabit, not to mention the live tree?

  I popped my head in to say hello.

  Petunia was sitting on the grass floor while the animals and customers milled about. I waved when she looked up. She waved back. There was a bird sitting on her shoulder. A few days ago I would’ve thought it was strange, now it seemed normal. My new normal.

  “Yoo hoo.”

  I looked up and Bella stood on the sidewalk, in front of her shop, waving her hands in the air. “I’ve got your bracelet.”

  I had completely forgotten that I had left my bracelet there this morning so she could put the new dog charm on. At this point, I was going to take all the luck I could get. I hurried down to get it from her.

  “That was fast.” My eyes lit up watching her clasp the charm bracelet on my arm. It reminded me of the little turtle charm, and how much I longed to have it back.

  Which reminded me of Ann, and the possibility that she was killed by honey. But why would Gerald want her dead?

  “Thank you.” I admired the bracelet, and then glanced down the street towards Two Sisters and a Funeral.

  The Karima sisters were scurrying down the street.

  Gerald came out of The Gathering Grove, and locked the door behind him. He tapped his top hat on his head. He was off to somewhere fast. He didn’t even notice us across the street.

  “Hello,” A whisper grazed my ear.

  “Hello,” I chirped and turned to see who greeted me. No one but Bella was around me.

  “Where is everyone going?” They all seemed to be heading in the same direction.