by Tonya Kappes
“I think she met a guy, because she is doing all sorts of strange deliveries at night.” She looked up, tears flooding down her cheeks. “I don’t care if she dates a mortal; what I care about is that she hasn’t made it to any of the other stops.”
Oh, no! Did the potion I made for Adeline not work and did she make it to the Piggly Wiggly and catch George in Faith’s arms?
“Don’t worry.” I wanted to grab her, but I was sure that the Marys might have an eye on me. “I’ll help.”
She nodded before she ran back down the hill toward Whispering Falls.
I did want to help. But how was I going to get out from under the Marys’ prying eyes?
From the edge of the woods, there was a good view of my cottage and the Green Machine.
Mewl, mewl. Mr. Prince Charming did his figure eights around my ankles, letting me know I had to do what I had to do and he was going to protect me.
“You’re right.” I looked down. The glow from my bag reminded me that I had to see who needed me. Opening the bag, Madame Torres was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed with a not-so-nice grin on her face. I pulled her out.
“It’s about time.” She glared; her purple eye shadow matched her cheeks, but not her bright red lips. “You want me to inform you about things, but you ignore me. Which is it, June?”
“I don’t have time to argue with you.” I held her up, a stern look on my face. “What is going on?”
The inside of the ball swirled and twirled like a hurricane. There was anger brewing deep within the ball. The waves crashed up against the glass. I held her at arm’s length in fear the ball was going to burst, the maddening water was thrashing so hard against the glass.
Suddenly the waters calmed and the waves parted.
“Faith?” I pulled Madame Torres closer. Faith was bound and gagged. Her beautiful blonde hair looked dull and her electric onyx eyes were dark and scared. I squinted to see if I could see anything else in the globe. A clue to where she was.
A pair of feet in beige flip-flops stood next to her, but I couldn’t see the rest of the person. The tile reminded me of Adeline’s office at the Piggly Wiggly.
Beige flip-flops?
Hiss, hiss. Mr. Prince Charming batted the air.
“Adeline has her!” I threw Madame Torres in the bag and thrust my hands to the side. I didn’t care if the Mary’s knew I was gone or not. I had to save Faith from a scorned Adeline.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I stood on the side of the Piggly Wiggly. I made sure I didn’t teletransport inside in case someone saw me. The cupcake car was gone, but Adeline’s was there. I hoped I wasn’t too late.
The Piggly Wiggly was busy. Customers were in every aisle. I headed over to produce. Maybe George was there and I could use him for backup.
There he was, stacking the Gala apples in a perfect pyramid.
“Hi, George,” I spoke quietly. “I’m not sure if you remember me. . .”
“Yea,” He smiled. I could see how Faith and Adeline fell in love with his playboy looks. He was handsome and his smile was to die for. Not like Oscar, but pretty close. “You’re June from that little shop.”
“Yes.” I looked around to make sure there weren’t any customers present. “I’m looking for Adeline.”
“I haven’t seen her.” He cut the lid of the last box of apples and started to stack those. “She said she wasn’t feeling good and for me to take care of the all the deliveries.”
“Did you call her about an hour or so ago telling her there was a delivery problem?” I questioned. I had to see if he knew what was going on.
Out of the corner of my eye, the hitman was coming through the front sliding doors.
“Okay, there is no time for this.” I grabbed George by the arm and shielded myself from the hitman seeing me. He was obviously there because Adeline had called him about a tied-up Faith Mortimer.
What was he going to do? Off her here? Or take her tied-up and off her somewhere else?
“What are you doing?” George jerked away. “Maybe you need to take a few of your own herbs from that wacky shop that Adeline believes in so much.”
Whacky shop? Okay, I’d let that one slide until after we saved Faith and Adeline was in the loony bin or jail where she deserved to be.
“Maybe so, but I think Adeline knows about your affair with Faith from the Wicked Good Bakery in Whispering Falls.” I rushed the words out of my mouth as his face dropped.
“You know about that?” There was an ‘oh crap’ cheater look on his face. There was panic in his voice. “Adeline knows?”
“Not only does she know, but I believe she has Faith tied up and about to have her hitman kill her and possibly you.” My legs felt wobbly as I told him about Adeline’s crazy rant. “I think she is responsible for the death of Kenny. . .” I knew he didn’t know who Kenny was. “He was a supplier of mine for my wacky shop. You see, Adeline would do anything to keep you from never leaving her.”
“You mean Kenny who is yea tall and Indian?” He held his hand over his head.
“Yea! You know him?” I turned George a little to the left as the hitman walked down another aisle. He was looking around and I could only assume he was looking for Adeline.
“He’s the one who sold us the Ding Dongs.” He talked fast. “As a matter of fact, Adeline was so mad when he told her they were discontinuing the line. She went crazy on him, right here in the store.”
I gasped, panting in terror. She did kill Kenny. She did break into Wicked Good. She did plan to frame me for all the crimes, but it wasn’t too late to save Faith.
If she did kill Faith, everyone would think that I did it. After all, Faith and I did have words and I skipped out of the forest like the Mary’s told me not to.
“Kenny is dead,” I whispered and turned him again when I saw the hitman go down a different aisle. “ And I’m afraid Adeline is going to kill Faith.”
“What?” George spat, shaking his head. “You are crazy.”
“Just help me find Adeline in the store.” I pointed out to the parking lot. “Her car is here. Go look if you don’t believe me, and she has a hitman. I came face-to-face with him at her house this afternoon after I followed her from Kenny’s funeral.”
“She went to Kenny’s funeral?” George was getting more and more confused the faster I talked.
“George!” I grabbed him, losing sight of the hitman. “I will explain all of this after we find Faith and Adeline. It’s urgent.”
“Fine.” He grabbed my arm and tugged me along to the back of the store where Adeline’s office was.
“Ouch,” I shrugged. “That hurt.”
“Well, you need to be pinched back into reality.” He opened the office door and shoved me in.
“George, stop!” I screamed, not realizing he threw me into the midst of Adeline and Faith. Only Faith wasn’t the only one tied up. So was Adeline.
Instantly my intuition took a blow to my gut.
My mouth dropped. I gasped, “George? You are the killer?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“But, but.” I stammered, looking dumbfounded between Faith, Adeline, and George, who had the box cutter held out in his hand.
“But, but, but.” He mimicked me as he waved the knife in the air. “But nothing, you wack job. Did you really think you could use your mumbo jumbo to cure a love gone sour?”
I glanced over at Faith. She looked more scared than a ten-year-old kid seeing their first horror movie. Adeline glared at George. Her mouth was stuffed with panty hose that I was sure, or hoped George got out of the hygiene aisle.
The open and empty box of June’s Gems from Wicked Good was on the desk.
“It seems like you enjoyed my namesake.” I pointed toward the box.
“Shut up! If it weren’t for Kenny coming in here and telling us that they weren’t going to manufacture Ding Dongs, we wouldn’t be in this mess.” George pulled a spool of string from his back pocket. It looked like the string used to
put asparagus stalks together. “But I knew there was an alternative, the June’s Gems Adeline got from your stupid shop.”
It was hard for me to concentrate on his words when he was dissing my shop and my spiritual gift. He eased closer with the thread taut between his outstretched hands.
“Wait.” I put my hand up. “How did you know Kenny was going to be in Whispering Falls?”
“I knew he had your territory and I waited.” His eyes narrowed as an evil grin crossed his lips. “He had to show up somewhere, sometime. So I confronted him about the Ding Dongs. I didn’t spend all this time with little-miss-priss to be the veggie boy all my life. Ding Dongs were the money line of this place. It was because of him we were losing profits.”
“Oh, Adeline. I’m so sorry.” I put my hand on my gut. If only I would’ve listened to my intuition a little more, rather than thinking she was some crazy lovesick girl that would do anything to keep her man. I recalled seeing the symbol of money when she was at the shop, but completely dismissed it.
“But there was no apparent signs of struggle with Kenny.” I remember Petunia mentioning something about a blow to Kenny’s head was what killed him.
“There wasn’t a struggle.” George’s eyes conveyed the fury within him. “When he turned his back on me, I shoved him as hard as I could, it was just like in the movies.”
George acted out the way Kenny flung forward with his arms above his head. He even had the look of death on his face, just like I pictured Kenny had.
“It was great. He didn’t see me coming, just like I didn’t see how his little idea of stopping the snacks was going to affect my life.” He snapped back into reality and pulled the string tight. “Now it’s time to do something with you three!”
“What did Faith have to do with this?” I stalled for more time. I couldn’t even wrap my head around the situation, and didn’t know what to do.
“Sweet, sweet, innocent Faith.” He licked his lips as if she was as tasty as a June’s Gem. “She was going to be the substitute for Kenny. Since I was already in that crappy little town of yours, I decided to go in there and steal the recipe.”
Faith looked down as he talked about her. A tear dripped off her chin and into her lap.
“Isn’t that right, baby?” George’s lips thinned as he hit her foot with his to get her to look at him, but she continued to look down. “Anyway, there wasn’t a recipe in the whole damn shop, so I took every last June’s Gem that was there.”
George walked closer, putting the string closer and closer to my neck.
Damn! If I had long hair, he’d have to cut through that, instead of a direct shot with nothing in the way.
“What about Adeline?” I continued to ask questions as I tried to listen to my intuition.
“After I got the recipe for June’s Gems, I was going to marry Adeline,” he sighed, “only to lose her in a tragic accident on our honeymoon. But now I have this! I don’t need her or you!”
He pulled papers that were folded in half out of his back pocket.
“Adeline was kind enough to think I wouldn’t kill her if she went ahead and signed ownership of the Piggly Wiggly to me.” His eyes clawed at me like talons. “But she was so wrong. All three of you are going to die.”
Faith let out a little squeak, but Adeline had passed out. Her head hung to the side.
“What the hell?” George went over and pushed her arm with his foot. She fell over. “Shit. I didn’t have to kill her. She did it herself.” He cackled like the devil.
He was wrong. The potion had taken effect and she was out like a light. At least she wasn’t going to have to watch our fate unfold.
“Now it’s time to take care of you.” George reached out. I thrust my hands and went straight into aisle five, landing on the hitman.
“You!” The shaggy man shoved me off. “You have been snooping around a little too much.”
Instantly, my gut told me he knew the whole situation and feared he was working for George, not Adeline like I had originally thought.
“I…” I jumped to my feet with my bag still flung over my shoulder. Why on earth did I not teletransport to another place? I ran out of aisle five and across the produce section.
“You better stop right now if you know what is good for you!” The hitman’s feet were thunderous behind me.
I stopped shy of the sliding front doors as George stood with his arms across his chest.
“Don’t worry everyone.” George swung the knife my way. “We have a shoplifter here. I’ll just take her back to the office.”
“Stop! Police! Drop the knife or I will shoot and it will hurt you worse than a little cut!” Oscar had his gun outstretched with one hand and a plastic salad container in the other.
George did exactly what he said.
“Kick it to me.” Oscar ordered him. When George kicked it, Oscar put the salad down but kept the gun pointed at George. “June, pick up the knife.”
I did what I was told, completely forgetting about the hitman. I handed the knife to Oscar.
“Put your hands up in the air and then place them behind your head.” Oscar’s voice echoed throughout the store. There was dead silence as George did what he was told.
Even at a time like this, Oscar was hot. Instantly my stomach felt better.
Faith? Adeline?
“Oscar, he has Faith and Adeline tied up in the office.” I watched as Oscar put George in cuffs and then called for backup. “There is a hitman that works for him. He could be back there.”
“June!” Faith screamed as she pushed past the hitman who was carrying Adeline. “You saved us!”
She threw her hands around my neck, and then around Oscars.
“Thank you so much, Oscar! You are a life saver!” She squeezed Oscar.
“I’m sorry, do I know you?” Oscar dazed at her.
“Oscar Park, are you okay?” Faith put her hand up to Oscar’s forehead.
I stepped in-between them. Faith didn’t know Oscar had denounced his spiritual gift and now was not the time to tell her.
“He is in his element. Shh,” I whispered trying to get her to hush.
“Oh.” Her eyes lifted. She leaned over with her hand next to her mouth. “This is exciting.”
It was exciting to see Oscar in his element. And it was great to see Locust Grove’s backup haul George off to the jail. I was pleased to hear the hitman was really a private investigator Adeline had hired to tail George.
All was well with the world...so far.
Chapter Twenty-Six
There was nothing better than the feeling of getting back to work…well, having Oscar back would top it, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Once you denounce your spiritual side, it’s gone forever.
At least that was all the research I had found when I got my Village President role back after the Order of Elders, otherwise known as the Marys, gave the okay after reviewing all the evidence proving I didn’t kill Kenny.
I was lucky that Oscar was at the Piggly Wiggly that afternoon getting a salad for dinner. And I was relieved to realize Adeline had worked with Kenny for years, as did her father before her. She said she recognized him on the steps of my shop that night and felt like she needed to come to his funeral, and she recognized Faith at the funeral.
Adeline said Faith was hanging around the produce section a little too much and she hired the private investigator to keep an eye on her. He was the one who called the day I was at her house to tell her he had pictures of Faith and George kissing outside the Piggly Wiggly by the cupcake car.
She darted out the door, but the P.I. had told her to stay put because he knew she was upset. That’s when he came to her house and found me putting the spell around her house.
Meow, meow. Mr. Prince Charming sat on the counter of A Charming Cure and batted at my charm bracelet as it dangled in the air as I brushed the potion bottles with the duster.
“Yes, I’m glad it’s over.” I put the duster down and walked over to
the windows to pull the shades open.
The direct sunlight darted in the front windows. The shop came to life. All the bottles sparkled and gleamed. I couldn’t help but look over at Glorybee. That was the only crime that hadn’t been solved.
The ostrich was still missing, and we still didn’t know where the animals had even come from. I hadn’t seen Petunia since Kenny’s murder had been solved, but I had a feeling she still believed I had something to do with that bird-napping.