Ugh. Fluff was the most objectionable of cats. He’d tried to harm the Mystic Notch cats many times and had almost succeeded in killing Pandora and Hope, the chimera cat that was magically powerful. If there was a side of good and a side of evil in Mystic Notch, Fluff was definitely on the side of evil, and so was his human, Felicity.
Where Fluff had tried to harm Pandora, Felicity had tried to harm Willa. Felicity fancied herself to be some sort of witch. With her long red hair and flowing dresses, she looked the part. Pandora didn’t think she was very good at it, though, especially right now. She was walking a bit slowly, hunched over as she shuffled along. Her outfit was a little bland, with a dull-brown skirt and tan shirt. She did have a pair of nice Jimmy Choo sandals on. Maybe they hurt her feet and that was why she was shuffling. They didn’t really go with the dress, but who was Pandora to judge.
Fluff trotted along a few steps in front of his mistress, his long white fur ruffling in the breeze. He swished his fluffy tail in the hair like a duster.
He turned and looked in Pandora’s direction. She steeled herself for a telepathic battle of wills, but his gaze skipped right past her. Was he looking at the top shelf? Did he know about the key?
Pandora’s worries increased. If Fluff was after the key, she really needed to get her act together and make sure she could deliver it to safe hands before Felicity or Fluff got ahold of it.
But how? She had to tell the Mystic cats about it, of course. They would just reinforce that she needed to get the key. And she’d probably have to listen to a bunch of criticism about how lacking she was in the ability to communicate with her human. Communicating with Willa wasn’t as easy as it had been with Anna, and the Mystic cats had been disappointed in Pandora’s lack of progress in that area. The cats had a point though—if she were able to communicate, she could simply get Willa to give the key to Elspeth. But she’d tried so hard, and Willa seemed immune to cat telepathy. She’d had better luck getting through to Striker, but even then, she was only able to suggest simple things. There was no way she’d be able to communicate the importance of the key.
But luck might be on her side. The key had been well hidden in the book, and it was possible no one knew about it. If those with bad intent suspected that one of the relics had surfaced, they might think it was the book. Hadn’t Willa said she had a waiting list for it? No doubt Felicity was on that list.
Hopefully the interested party would come for the book and not figure out the magical key hidden inside was no longer there. That might buy her some time.
Pandora cast another glance down the street. Good, Fluff and Felicity had walked on past and were a block down. She could rest now. She curled up in her cat bed, satisfied that the key was safe in its box for now. She’d have to pay attention though—if anyone came into the shop asking for it, she would have to act quickly.
Chapter Three
“I shouldn’t even let you come with me.” I gave Pandora my sternest look. Given what she’d done to the old recipe book and the mess I’d found when I’d returned from my picnic with Striker, the cat was not in my good graces. But I didn’t have the heart to forbid her from heading through the path in the woods to Elspeth’s as was our usual routine. I knew how much she loved hanging around with the gaggle of cats Elspeth had in her barn.
I kind of liked the company. The woods could be a little scary at night, and I felt safer with Pandora by my side.
We started off down the path. It was still daylight, and squirrels rustled in the dry leaves on the forest floor. The low sun slanted through the woods, giving that golden glow that only happens just before sunset.
Elspeth was going out of town, and I wanted to drop off the basket of strawberry scones and special tea that Pepper had made for her before she left. I also wanted to check on her as I often did, since the elderly woman had been like a second grandmother to me. Elspeth and my own grandmother had been best friends their whole lives, thus the shortcut path through the woods between their houses. I’d traveled this path many times with my grandmother and Pandora, but now it was just the two of us. I glanced down at the cat, wondering if she missed my grandmother as much as I did. Probably. But I bet Pandora never trashed the bookstore when my grandmother had been in charge.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but you need to stop wrecking the bookstore,” I said.
“Meow!” Pandora didn’t sound the least bit apologetic.
“No excuses either.” I glanced down to see her attention was on a bird that had flown from a branch to the ground. “Maybe you need more exercise.”
“Mew.” She looked up at me, and I couldn’t be sure, but I thought her reply might have been a bit sarcastic.
“Maybe I should stop giving you treats.”
Hiss!
She didn’t like that idea. “You’ve always been a good cat, so I’m going to overlook your behavior this time.”
We came to the end of the path. Elspeth’s mint-green Victorian with its pink gingerbread trim and roses twining along the porch railings came into view. Pandora gave me a short meow and trotted off toward the barn, leaving me to walk up to the porch and knock on Elspeth’s door on my own.
In Elspeth’s barn, the sun slanted in through the windows, leaving squares of golden light on the rough wood.
The barn was almost two hundred years old and still smelled of horses and hay. The floorboards creaked when humans stepped on them, but these days the barn was mostly inhabited by cats.
At first glance, one might think the ragtag gang of cats that Elspeth kept in her barn were strays, but they weren’t. They were a magical breed of cat, tasked with keeping the balance of good and evil in Mystic Notch. Pandora was proud to be among their ranks.
As she entered, several cats stopped washing themselves and meowed a greeting.
Sasha, the Siamese, trotted over from where she’d been seated in front of the stainless steel food bowls, her sky-blue eyes brimming with curiosity.
Tigger, the striped cat who usually kept sentry on Elspeth’s porch, stretched and trotted to join them.
Otis, the calico, looked down upon them from his perch in the loft. Being a male calico was rare, and Otis knew it, which was why he always acted so superior. But Pandora knew that deep down inside, he was really an old softie.
Inkspot, their leader, uncurled from his position in the corner and stretched, his jet-black fur sleek in the shadows. His wise green eyes assessed her.
“I sense there is a disturbance. Has another relic been found?” Inkspot’s deep baritone filled the barn.
“A key was found hidden in an old recipe book in the bookstore,” Pandora said.
“And where is it now?”
“Well… that’s where there is a bit of a problem.”
Several other cats had joined their circle. Snowball, with her long white fur; Hope, with her half-orange, half-black face; Kelley, the Maine Coon.
“Problem?” Sasha asked.
Pandora swallowed hard. Everyone was looking at her. “My human has hidden it out of reach.”
“Hidden? Why?” Inkspot’s eyes practically glowed. “Does she know that it’s magical?”
“No.” Pandora told them how it had fallen out of the recipe book and how she’d been caught trying to hide it under her tail. “Willa thought one of the customers might have dropped it, and she wanted to hold it for safekeeping.”
“We need to get that key.” Inkspot’s tone was kind but firm.
Pandora looked down. “I know. I have a plan.” Well, sort of a plan. Hopefully no one would ask for details.
Otis leapt down from the loft and trotted into the circle. “If you could only communicate with your human, you could simply ask her for it.”
Pandora’s fur bristled, and she resisted the urge to hiss at him. Leave it to Otis to act so condescending. She bit back a sarcastic reply, remembering that there was a time when Otis had risked his own life to save hers. She knew his bark was worse than his bite.
&
nbsp; “I know, but she seems unwilling to receive my telepathic messages.”
“Are you sure the problem is on her end?” Hope tilted her head. She was a chimera and looked like someone had taken two cats and mashed them together. Half of her face was black with a blue eye and the other half orange with a green eye. It looked unusual at any time, but even more so with her head tilted.
Pandora stared at her. She’d never considered that the communication problem wasn’t on Willa’s end. Willa was smart enough with regular things, but she was a little slow on the uptake with the magical properties of Mystic Notch. And since Pandora had been able to communicate with Willa’s grandmother Anna perfectly, she’d just assumed the problem was with Willa. But what if it wasn’t?
“What do you mean?” Pandora asked.
“Well, I know that you had good communication with her predecessor,” Hope said.
“I did indeed.” Pandora’s heart squeezed at the thought of Anna. She’d loved her very much. Of course, she loved Willa, too, but Anna had been “the one.”
“And you are still attached to your prior human?”
“Yes. Well, Anna is gone, but I will never forget her.”
“Then have you considered that maybe your love for Anna is what’s holding you back? Maybe you are afraid that communicating with Willa won’t be as satisfying or that in some way it diminishes what you had with Anna.”
“I hadn’t really thought about that.” Could that be true?
Hope shrugged. “Might be something to consider.”
Otis swished his tail. “This psychoanalysis is all very touchy-feely, but you need to get the key however you can.”
“I tried the usual methods of knocking the box off the shelf,” Pandora said. “Didn’t work. It’s too high on the shelf. But I’m going to keep my eye on it, of course. If Willa tries to give it to anyone, I’ll get it somehow.”
“This does not bode well. Keys usually open something.” Hope looked concerned.
“You mean it could be a device to unlock a portal?” Sasha asked.
“I hope not, but we must keep it in mind.”
Otis shook his head. “No one in their right mind would open a portal. It’s dangerous.”
“Unless you have the instructions,” Hope pointed out.
All the cats nodded. There had been instructions, but the cats had protected them by burying them in a place where they were safe from humans. At least, they thought they would be safe.
“We’d better make sure the instructions are still where we buried them in Gladys Primble’s yard,” Inkspot said. “Otis, are you still in communication with Euphoria?”
Euphoria was Gladys Primble’s cat, a gorgeous Selkirk Rex with unusual curly hair. Pandora thought that Otis might have had something going on with her at one time, but she hadn’t seen her around lately. Perhaps it was only a passing infatuation.
Otis nodded. “I am. She hasn’t mentioned a breach.”
“Good. Then you will be in charge of making sure the instructions remain intact.” Inkspot scanned the group. “The rest of us must remain vigilant.”
“You said the key was in the book?” Sasha asked. “Then maybe we need to be wary of the person who comes for the book. They might not know it no longer holds the key.”
Inkspot washed behind his ear. “That may be a lucky break. Perhaps we can resolve this problem by dealing with the one who seeks the book.”
Otis nodded. “Head it off at the pass, so to speak?”
“Yes.” Inkspot turned to Pandora. “It’s of the utmost importance that you watch for this person. And please try to retrieve the key. If there was ever a time to step up your efforts to communicate with Willa, it would be now.”
Chapter Four
The next morning, I parked my Jeep in the town lot, and Pandora and I trotted down to open Last Chance Books. Pandora had seemed a little down after we’d gotten back from Elspeth’s the previous night. Maybe I’d been too hard on her after coming back from my dinner with Striker and finding the shop in shambles. I’d try to be nicer to her today.
The regulars were waiting at the door with coffees. I’d “inherited” the four senior citizens along with the bookstore. They’d been gathering first thing in the morning at Last Chance Books with my grandmother for decades, and the tradition continued after I inherited it.
One of the regulars, Bing Thorndike, held a tray with coffee for all of us. The prospect of a coffee had me quickening my pace.
“Good morning, Willa,” Hattie Deering said. She and her twin sister, Cordelia, were dressed in summery outfits. Hattie wore a flowered peach top and yellow polyester pants, and Cordelia wore a flowered yellow top and peach polyester pants. The two had been dressing in coordinating outfits ever since they were toddlers, and it always amused me to see what they were wearing.
“Morning! Hope you are all well today.”
They stepped aside so I could open the door, and Josiah bent down to pet Pandora. He was pretty spry for an eighty-year-old, but I supposed that being the town mail carrier had kept him in good shape.
I pushed the door open, and we all went in. Pandora trotted straight to her cat bed in the window, and the others settled on the sofa and chairs I kept for readers to use if they wanted to settle in with a book.
“Here’s your coffee, Willa.” Bing handed me a cup, and I flipped the plastic lid. His blue eyes sparkled with life, as usual. Bing was always happy and kindly and had a magical quality about him. Not surprising, since he’d been a magician his entire life.
“Your hair looks nice, both of you,” I told Hattie and Cordelia. The two women spent an inordinate amount of time at the local hair salon, The Cut & Curl. I thought it was mostly for the gossip, but today they were sporting newly updated hairstyles, and the color looked to be a brighter white than usual.
Cordelia patted the side of her hair. “Thank you. Myra outdid herself.”
“Makes you look years younger,” Josiah said. “Both of you.”
Hattie waved her hand. “Oh, go on. A new hairstyle is always so refreshing. Too bad Myra couldn’t make Felicity Bates look younger.”
“Or act nicer,” Cordelia added.
My gut churned at the mention of my nemesis, but I was curious. “Why? What’s up with Felicity?”
“Well, you didn’t hear it from me, but she looks a bit ragged.” Hattie sipped her coffee.
“And that disagreement she had with Sarah Delaney was rather outrageous,” Cordelia said.
Bing leaned forward. I hadn’t realized he was so interested in town gossip. “Disagreement?”
“They were getting their nails done and were seated beside each other. Sarah was so mad she slammed down her hand, and nail tips went everywhere.”
I looked self-consciously at my own chipped, unpolished nails. Maybe it was time I scheduled a manicure. Perhaps after my eye doctor appointment.
“It was a terrible row, but I’m not sure what it was about,” Hattie said.
Cordelia pressed her lips together. “My memory is a little fuzzy, but I believe it had something to do with pumpkin bread.”
“Pumpkin bread?” Josiah looked confused.
Cordelia nodded. “Yes, they were arguing about what spices to use. Very weird.”
I glanced over at the old recipe book that still sat on the counter. Coincidence? I wondered. Felicity’s name was on that list. All the more reason to make sure someone else on the list got the book. I made a mental note to call Mary Ashford as soon as the regulars left.
“And it wasn’t just them,” Hattie piped in. “Josie Martin egged them on.”
“Probably trying to get a story for the paper. I hear that she is running out of things to write about,” Cordelia said.
Josie Martin worked for the Mystic Notch Gazette. I wasn’t surprised she might be looking for stories. Not much happened in our small town.
“They did a big article on A Good Yarn last month.” Hattie’s expression registered disapproval. “I thought
they might be trying to capitalize on the big brouhaha with Jack McDougal’s murder.”
Jack had been the proprietor of Jack’s Cards, a store that sold collectible trading cards. Mrs. Quimby, the proprietor of A Good Yarn, the yarn shop across the street from Jack’s, had been briefly involved in the case.
“I wouldn’t put it past her,” Josiah said. “But I play chess with Ed Granger, and he did mention something about the Gazette doing pieces on local shops. I guess that’s what papers do when there isn’t much interesting news.”
“Maybe they’ll do one on the bookstore,” Bing said to Willa.
“Maybe.” The store did well, and I didn’t really need a write-up, but I supposed it couldn’t hurt. As long as Franklin and Robert didn’t decide to add some interest to the article by playing one of their pranks.
“Well, I have to get going to the Elks lodge.” Bing stood and stretched, and the others followed, stopping to deposit their cups in the trash.
“You haven’t noticed anything unusual lately, have you, Willa?” Bing’s question caught me off guard. He’d asked me that before, and I always thought it was kind of weird.
I glanced over at Pandora. She had ruined a book and trashed the store. She’d never done that before. “Pandora has been acting a bit funny.”
Everyone frowned and looked over at the cat, who was fast asleep in her bed.
“I hope she’s not under the weather,” Hattie said.
“Maybe you should take her to the vet,” Cordelia added.
“She does need a checkup. But other than that, nothing unusual has happened. Why do you ask?” I looked up at Bing, who simply shrugged.
“Oh, no reason. Just wanted to make sure things were back to normal after Jack’s murder.”
They filed out of the shop. It was nice of Bing to check, and I was glad things were back to normal. Or were they?
A visit to the veterinarian!
Pandora’s fur bristled at the thought. She’d been lying in half slumber, listening to the conversation with one eye slitted open, watching the box that held the key.
Claw And Order (Mystic Notch Cozy Mystery Series Book 8) Page 2