by Tonya Kappes
“Forever,” I whispered as I stood on the edge of the forest and Whispering Falls. I closed my eyes and concentrated on a disguise. “I wish to be disguised so I can go to Kenny’s funeral and not be recognized.”
When I opened my eyes, I was standing at the bottom of the steps of Two Sisters and A Funeral, covered in head-to-toe pink. Even my bag had been turned pink. Everything, all the way down to hot pink eye shadow and blush. I looked like someone had taken me to the Pepto Bismal factory and dipped me into the vat.
“A Fairy?” I murmured. I had no idea how these powers worked, and I liked them, but I’m far from a pink fairy girl. “Fine.” I waved the wand in the air and ran up the steps, stopping shy of the door. “Excuse me.” I looked behind me and realized I had seen my image in the funeral home’s doors and thought someone was behind me.
I rotated from left to right and took a good look.
Hiss, hiss. Mr. Prince Charming was very vocal about his distaste of the wings and tiara.
“And you think I like it?” I scowled. “You stay here.”
What good would my fairy disguise be if Mr. Prince Charming tagged along? Cautiously, I opened the door. The foyer and steps were packed. All sorts of spiritualists were there, including some of Kenny’s tribesmen, or at least they looked like and dressed like him.
No one paid any attention to me as I stood there.
“There is no way she’s going to show up here.” A familiar voice walked up in line behind me.
Fluttering my wings, I slightly turned around to see who Petunia was talking to. I recognized her voice and I wondered who she was talking about.
“I heard she was put on house arrest.” Faith stood next to Petunia with Raven on the other side.
“I haven’t heard anything from the winds.” Faith’s eyes grew big and she lowered her voice, “But I wouldn’t put it past her to have killed him. She was probably mad he wasn’t doing his spiritual job right.”
Petunia’s hazel eyes blinked rapidly, followed by an open stare. I watched her closely. After all, she was still on my list of suspects.
Great, the two of them together were bashing me when both of them are mad at me. I refrained from turning around and giving them a piece of my mind. My heart pounded in the confines of my pink tutu as my mind raced. One of them had to be the killer. Each of them threatened me on the day of Kenny’s death.
I had to get to Oscar and give him all the information I had, even if he didn’t have spiritual powers, he was still my best friend.
“Do they know anything about the break-in at your bakery?” Petunia was baiting Raven.
Raven was tight-lipped and she shook her head no. Why wasn’t she standing up for me? She was mad at Kenny too for not making his deliveries on time.
“Probably June.” Faith held her chin up with her nostrils flaring. “She was always bugging Raven to make her some.”
Liar! My wings were flapping so hard, I thought they were going to lift me off the ground. It took everything I had in me not to use the pink wand and turn her into a wretched toad. Why was Faith doing this? Slowly I turned around.
The three of them turned to the front, coming face-to-face with me.
“I love your wings.” Faith smiled, scrunching her nose. “Pink is my favorite color,” she squealed and drew her shoulders up toward her ears.
I waved my wand in the air, making sure I didn’t open my mouth. None of them recognized me. Raven stared, sending a cold chill to the tips of my Fairy wings. For a brief moment, our eyes locked. I looked away, just in case she did see something in my soul.
“Why couldn’t we have cool fairy wings?” Faith had Fairy envy. I could feel her onyx eyes giving my wings the once-over. I made sure to do a little extra flutter with each step as the line moved forward.
“Stop staring.” Raven told Faith, and then turned her attention to Petunia. “Has the ostrich returned?”
“Not a feather. I wish someone would take that talking bird.” She crossed her arms. “It talks so much I have a hard time hearing myself think.”
“Again…June.” Faith said. I wasn’t sure, but I think there was some pleasure in her voice as she accused me of everything. “I heard she wanted one of those feathers for some sort of spell. And I told Officer Gandalf all of this. She thinks she’s invincible, being the village president and all, but she has another thing coming to her. She’s not invincible. She got caught this time.”
“Who is Officer Gandalf?” Raven’s nose scrunched up.
“I have no idea.” Faith shrugged. “He was in the Tea Shoppe and said he was here to help in the investigations, so I told him what I knew.”
She told that nosey officer? Turning away, I covered my mouth. I couldn’t believe she was pinning all of this on me. What happened to loyalty? I just saved her life a few months ago. Did she suddenly forget about that?
I lifted my wand in the air. I was going to give her a little jolt, but out of the corner of my eye I could see Mac and Gandalf, the new sheriff, in a heated discussion. Mac’s face had turned all sorts of shades as he pushed his chest out in protest to whatever it was Gandalf was saying.
Faith wasn’t worth a real accident being pinned on me, so I eased my way over to the corner where Mac and Gandolf stood in line so I could hear whatever they were saying for myself. I had a sneaky suspicion the heated argument was about my case.
“Mac, you know as well as I do all the evidence points to your client.” Gandalf placed his hand on his baton and stood firm.
“Like what?” Mac pushed his glasses up on his nose. He might come to Gandalf’s chest, but he was a mighty little man. “Just because a cupcake was named after her doesn’t mean she broke into Wicked Good. Just because she tried to help her friend catch a runaway animal doesn’t mean she took the animal, and the search of her property proved it. Just because she needed new smudging ingredients for the ceremony and she needed to get in touch with Kenny doesn’t mean she killed him.”
“Her hand is dipped into every single piece of the pie.” Gandalf huffed.
“There is no council that will convict her based on the evidence you think you have.” Mac shot back.
Mac was doing a fine job standing up for me. I admit we had our differences when he was my neighbor when I lived in Locust Grove. Little did I know he was actually living there by order of Izzy to keep watch over Darla and me after we moved away from Whispering Falls when my father died.
“I’m going to make sure they do.” Gandolf tugged on his sagging pants, pulling them up. “I have some eye witnesses that say she was at odds with all sorts of community members. I’ve seen where being named village president and having that power can go to their heads. This just might be the case.”
Hrumph. Mac cleared his throat and moved ahead with the line.
Don’t believe him Mac. That darn Faith.
I continued to walk around to see if I heard anything that would give me a clue, but everyone was as tight-lipped as Kenny was up front in that coffin.
The Karimas did a good job on him. He was head-to-toe in original Native American dress.
I fluttered by, bowing my head in respect and took a seat in the back of the large room where the service was being held. It was the only seat available and there was still a line out the door.
Everyone was there paying their respects. Izzy was up front in the far right corner, which seemed to be where the Karimas had seated the family. I wasn’t sure, but it looked like Kenny was married. Her face was barely visible under her black veil, but her long brown hair fell braided down her back. A young man seated next to her looked exactly like a younger version of Kenny.
My heart broke for them.
“I really like your wings.” A breath hit the back of my neck. “Yes, I like them.”
Startled, I jumped around to find Patience Karima reaching her fat little finger out to touch my fluttering gems.
“Very sparkly.” She reached farther and her eyes twinkled. “Very sparkly.”
>
Before she could touch me, I got up and walked to the standing-room-only crowd, leaving a very disappointed looked on her face. I knew she meant no harm; she never did, but who likes their space invaded? Or their wings touched?
Between the ceremonial music and chants, the service was long and my legs were getting sweaty from standing in these tights. I excused myself and moved out into the hallway. I wanted to be sure I stayed until the end of the service and make it down for the reception. People tend to talk more freely when they are eating, and not to mention I’m starving since I didn’t get to eat a pastry at Eloise’s tea that was a bust.
After a few minutes of gathering my thoughts, I was about to return when someone slipped out the side door. The profile caught the corner of my eye.
“What the. . .” I watched the person carefully shut the door behind them before I rushed over to take a peek. The long trench coat and large dark sunglasses would have been a great cover-up if Adeline had worn a wig to go with it. Her short blonde hair was a dead giveaway though.
I ducked back into the door when she turned around to get one last look at the funeral home from the bottom of the steps. I peeled back the curtains from the window to get a better look and make sure it was Adeline. It was confirmed when she took off her glasses and wiped her eyes.
“Returning to the scene of the crime are you?” I whispered and drummed my fingers together.
Why? I wondered as I watched her run down the street. What would be her reasoning to kill Kenny?
My pink bag glowed a hot pink. Looking around, I made sure no one was out in the hallway before I started to check all the closed doors to see if any were unlocked. I couldn’t trust Madame Torres to be quiet and I couldn’t risk being caught by anyone from the community. Especially dressed as a fairy.
The second door I tried was unlocked. Without making a sound, I closed the door behind me and didn’t worry with flipping on a light. I didn’t want to see any dead people, or even know what was in the room. Everything I saw Patience doing the other day gave me the heebie-jeebies.
Madame Torres appeared. She wasn’t in her usual colors of reds, purples, and greens.
“Did you do this in honor of me?” I asked about her appearance in all pink.
“Shhh….” She held a finger to her hot pink lips, and her eyes bulged, filling the entire glass ball. Madame Torres let a firework display burst out before the ball went black.
“You wanted me to see fireworks?” I didn’t understand this at all.
“Shhhh!” And then Adeline appeared as she had a couple of days ago at the shop.
“I knew you’d know what to do. I swear you are way better than my doctor.” Madame Torres replayed the words Adeline had spoken.
“You really should go to your doctor.” I encouraged her. “I’m not a doctor. I just know how to put herbs together.”
It was surreal to watch myself having a conversation from a few days ago. I had forgotten that Adeline wanted Belur’s bottle and really didn’t like what I had to say.
“What was that?” I asked Madame Torres when something Adeline was doing struck me funny.
The scene rewound like a tape and Madame Torres played it back in slow motion. During the conversation, I had walked around trying to figure out why I couldn’t read Adeline, but Adeline was mocking me behind my back when I told her she didn’t need a remedy.
“Madame Torres,” I gasped, “Do you think she was seeking revenge because I wouldn’t give her a remedy the other day?”
The ball went black, just like the room.
“Madame Torres?” There was noise coming from out in the hallway. I didn’t know whether Madame Torres shut off because someone might see her glow from under the door, or if I was right and Adeline was seeking revenge.
“Ouch!” I thrust my fists to my side and Teletransported by accident, ending up in Eloise’s garden next to the aloe.
“What happened?” Eloise came rushing over wearing her gardening gloves and hat. “What is that?” She pointed toward my ankle. “Where are your shoes?”
I looked down and noticed I was back in my old clothes and there was blood dripping from what looked like a claw scratch.
“June,” Eloise eyes turned dark. “Where have you been?”
I shook my head and held my ankle in pain.
“I’ve only ever seen this one other time.” Eloise picked a stem off the aloe plant. “It was when another villager got a hex put on them.”
Madame Torres glowed from my bag. I raked it toward me and pulled her out.
“You have got some really bad ju-ju following you around.” The plump girl eyed me up and down. “Which means someone has put a bad hex on you.”
Madame Torres reminded me of what the girl told me at Hidden Hall.
“When did you go to Hidden Hall?” Eloise dabbed the aloe on my scrape. “Have you encountered any unknown Dark-Sider along the way?”
As if my intuition light flipped on, Adeline popped into my head.
Was Adeline a spiritualist? A Dark-Sider? An evil Dark-Sider?
Chapter Twenty-one
The more I thought about my relationship with Adeline, the more I believed my intuition was telling me something.
It could be true. She might be a spiritualist. I had no clue I was a spiritualist until I moved to Locust Grove.
“Do you think you are going to be okay?” Eloise asked.
After she had doctored up whatever evil spirit had tried to do to me, I rested on the couch with a nice cup of tea left over from the ruined tea meeting with the Marys.
“I’ll be fine.” I worried about Eloise. I knew she was hurting about Oscar. He would never know he had an Aunt in Whispering Falls since he denounced his gift. “Are you?”
“You know.” She picked at her short red hair. Her emerald eyes filled with tears. “I lived without him for over twenty years. As long as I see him through you, I’m going to be okay.” She clasped her hands and changed the subject. “Any breakthroughs? Have you heard from Mac?”
“No.” I fluffed up the pillow behind me and leaned back. “But while I was at the funeral home, Faith and Petunia were having a field day accusing me of all of the crimes.”
“Why would they do that? They are your friends.” Eloise slipped into the kitchen before returning with the steaming teapot to refill my cup.
“Some friends they are.” I blew on the hot liquid before I took a sip. I did need to talk to Mac. I wasn’t getting any closer to solving the crime. I guess I was going to have to tell him what I knew and about their threatening me.
“Did you tell Oscar?” She had a faraway look in her eyes.
“No, but that’s a good idea.” I bit my lip. “So, do you think I could slip out of here without the Marys finding out?”
“The Marys.” Her jaw clenched. “I’ll take care of the Marys. You have to do what you have to do.”
“You can take care of the Marys?” I laughed. “They can’t take care of themselves.”
After gathering a few things, like Belur and Madame Torres, I made a trek through the woods to get the Green Machine.
Keep me safe. I felt my wrist for my charm bracelet. I hadn’t seen Mr. Prince Charming since the funeral and I needed all the protection I could get. Wrinkling my brow, I had forgotten that I hadn’t gotten my bracelet back from Bella. She was going to give it to me the night of the ceremony, but then, Kenny happened.
“Fine,” I pictured my bracelet sitting on the counter in Bella’s Baubles and thrust my fist to the side. “Nice.”
I smiled, standing in the middle of the shop. No one was there, but a sound from the back told me I wouldn’t be alone for long. Reaching out, I picked up my bracelet exactly where I had envisioned it. I turned to face the windows and looked across the street at Wicked Good.
Faith was putting an armload of Wicked Good boxes in the cupcake car before she jumped in and zoomed off.
The sound of footsteps made me rush to think about the front seat of
the Green Machine. In no time, I was in the driver’s seat with the car in neutral as it rolled down the hill before I turned over the engine to make my way out of town.
The bracelet jingled even more with the purple pendent dangling a little lower than the rest of the charms as I gripped and re-gripped the steering wheel.
Oscar’s cop car was in his driveway so I pulled in. If what Faith said about Officer Gandolf telling people he was here to assist in the investigations, and he didn’t tell them Oscar was put in sorcerer school, then Oscar could slip into Whispering Falls and ask a few questions.