Claw And Order (Mystic Notch Cozy Mystery Series Book 8)

by Leighann Dobbs

  She was not amused by the suggestion that she needed to see the veterinarian. She hated going there. She was grateful that the doctor had saved her life the time the bookcase fell on her, but still. She disliked needles and how they stuck that thermometer in places where nothing should be stuck. She’d better be on her best behavior so that Willa would stop entertaining any thoughts of taking her to the vet.

  But now, she needed to try to communicate with her human.

  Pandora stood and made a show of stretching.

  “Ah, feeling better?” Willa petted her, concern brimming in her amber eyes.

  “Meow.” Pandora purred.

  “Good.”

  Pandora focused her attention on her human, trying to telepath one thought.

  Get the box.

  “Hm. Now, what was I going to do?” Willa turned, slowly surveying the room, her gaze stopping at the shelf.

  Yes! Move the box closer, Pandora telepathed.

  “I was going to move something,” Willa said.

  Yes! Yes! The box, the box, the box!

  Willa snapped her fingers. “The clock! Yes. Hm. Now, where did I want to move that?”

  She headed toward the clock on the wall next to the shelf and lifted it off, then turned and surveyed the room.

  Darn! Maybe something simpler would be better. Pandora’s gaze fell on the coffee cup.

  Sip coffee.

  Willa hung the clock on the wall behind the sofa and stood back. “Perfect! Looks much better there.”

  She turned and walked back behind the counter, hesitating as she passed her coffee cup.

  Pandora held her breath as Willa reached out for the cup.

  “This is probably cold.” She took the cup to the small kitchenette in the back, and Pandora could hear her tossing the liquid down the sink.

  Did that count? Willa had thought about drinking the coffee, right?

  Pandora wasn’t sure. She sighed and sat back in the bed, glaring up at the box. How in the world was she going to get that key?

  The door opened, and Willa’s best friend, Pepper St. Onge, bounced in. Her long red hair was piled high atop her head, and she held a quilted bag that she carried her tea supplies in. Pepper owned a shop in town called The Tea Shoppe and was always making some sort of herbal tea concoction.

  Pepper thought her tea had magical powers, but Pandora had only ever seen those concoctions backfire. Hopefully, the tea she had in her bag now wasn’t charmed with anything, or there could be unpredictable consequences for Willa.

  Willa came out from the back. “Hey, Pepper.”

  “Hey, yourself.” Pepper pointed to her bag. “Do you have time for a break? I brought some tea and scones, and I have a favor to ask.”

  Pepper pulled a mason jar out of her bag. Golden liquid swirled inside. “I’m trying a new tea with special properties.”

  Pepper sounded enthusiastic, but Pandora thought she sensed Willa doing a mental eye roll. Willa had been the victim of Pepper’s tea-with-special-properties before.

  Willa held her hands up in front of her. “I’m not up for any special tea right now.”

  “It’s not for you. It needs to steep in sunshine for three days, and your window faces south. I don’t have any good windows for it in my shop, and besides, I’m going away to an herbal convention.”

  “A convention? That sounds fun.”

  Pepper rolled her eyes. “Hardly. A bunch of would-be herbalists trying to one-up each other. Lots of drama.” Pepper handed the jar of tea to Willa.

  Willa glanced at the window. “I’ll just put this in the corner away from the cat bed. Pandora won’t mind sharing, will you?”

  Pandora wasn’t sure. It looked like it wouldn’t take up too much space, so she supposed she could make do.

  Willa placed the jar on the window. Apparently, she wasn’t going to wait for an answer.

  “What does the tea do?” Willa asked as they got settled in the chairs. Pepper unpacked her bag. Green tea, strawberry scones, and—yum—milk. She hoped it was full fat and not that two-percent crap.

  Pandora trotted over and rubbed against Pepper’s leg.

  Pepper was too excited about her tea to pay attention to Pandora like she usually did. She leaned forward, her green eyes bright, as she talked to Willa. “This is my best one yet. It removes emotional blockers that are getting in people’s way. It’s very important.”

  Pandora watched as Pepper poured a splash of milk into her tea and willed her to put some in a saucer for Pandora like she usually did.

  Willa made a face. “Blockers? What do you mean?”

  Who cares! Pandora wanted a saucer of milk. Didn’t Pepper realize that?

  “You know, like if you have some hang-up that keeps you from moving forward. For example, let’s say you wanted to get closer to Striker, but the emotional baggage from your old divorce was holding you back from committing. That sort of thing.”

  “Is that what you think is going on with me?” Willa sounded incredulous.

  Pandora stood on her hind legs to see whether Pepper had put the saucer of milk on the table and perhaps forgotten to move it to the floor for Pandora. Nope.

  “No. That was just an example.” Pepper sat back and sipped. “Why, is it?”

  “No. I don’t have any emotional baggage blocking me. Things are going fine with Striker.” Willa took a scone from the dainty china plate. “I think Pandora is looking for her saucer of milk.”

  Finally! If it were anything else, Pandora might have had a glimmer of hope that her telepathy with Willa was improving, but she knew there was no need to read her mind when it came to giving her a saucer of milk.

  Chapter Five

  Try as I might to not think about it, my gaze kept straying to the tea Pepper had put in the window. Was it some kind of hint? I rarely thought of my ex-husband. It had been years. And I didn’t think I had any emotional baggage that was holding me back from Striker. Maybe Pepper simply did want a sunny window, and mine fit the bill. That’s why Pandora liked it so much.

  “I think I’m reading too much into this tea,” I said.

  “Meumphhh.” Pandora gave a half meow, half purr, which I took as agreement.

  “You think so too? Good. I should get back to putting these books away.”

  Turning from the cat, a thought nagged at me. The key! I’d put it in the box and should try to find the owner. Should I make a flyer? Maybe just ask people? Or wait for someone to claim it?

  I was trying to decide when the door opened, and Mary Ashford entered. She was the first name on the list for unique recipe books, and I’d called her after Pepper left.

  “Hi, Willa. Do you have the book?” Mary was younger than me, probably mid-thirties. She was tall, with shoulder-length jet-black hair and eager dark eyes. She looked like she really wanted the book. Good. I was happy to sell it to her and avoid having to call Felicity Bates.

  “Right here.” I pushed the book, which was still on the counter, toward her.

  “It’s gorgeous.” She ran her hands over the cover then opened it. I looked on as she paged through the recipes, squinting, which reminded me about the eye appointment I’d booked.

  “It’s in very good condition,” I said. Especially considering it was knocked on the floor.

  “How old do you think it is?” Mary looked up at me.

  “Not as old as it looks. The cover and paper are made to look old, I think. But the typing seems more modern.”

  She frowned at me as if she didn’t understand. I was sure I was right. My eyes weren’t that bad.

  “Some of the recipes look old, though,” I said.

  “Okay, great. I’ll take it. I’m putting together a series of antique recipes for my cooking blog.”

  “These should fit the bill.” I rang her up, and she left the shop, clutching the bag with the book inside as if it were the most precious thing on earth.

  “Mew!” Pandora had hopped on the counter while Mary was looking at the book and ha
d been watching us intently. Now she was staring at me. Maybe she needed a treat.

  I fished some of her favorite salmon nuggets out of a drawer, and she gobbled them up just as Striker came in. He was dressed in his brown sheriff uniform, and filled it out quite nicely, I might add.

  My heart smiled at the sight of him, but my eyes couldn’t keep from sliding over to the tea.

  “Hey.” He came over and kissed me on the forehead.

  “Hi!” Did I sound over-exuberant? Darn it, that tea was making me act weird.

  “Meow.” Pandora raced over to Striker and rubbed against his ankles. He bent down to pet her.

  “How are my favorite girls today?” he asked, mostly to Pandora.

  “Great. Had a visit from Pepper already and sold a book from that estate sale I went to this weekend. How about you?”

  “It’s quiet today, and I was just dropping off some paperwork to Gus, so I figured I’d swing in.”

  It felt good that Striker always stopped in when he was in town. Even though he was the sheriff of the neighboring county, he and Gus often consulted on cases since staffing was low in our small part of the world. Now that he was here, it didn’t seem like he thought anything was lacking or that I had some baggage that was stopping me from moving forward in our relationship. Pepper had psyched me out with that tea, and I was reading things into it that weren’t there.

  “Anyway, I gotta run, but I wanted to stop in and see if you wanted me to bring anything for dinner tonight.”

  Striker knew me too well and knew that I would only have crackers and cottage cheese in my kitchen.

  “Pizza?” It was our favorite.

  “You got it. I better get a move on.” He gave me a brief kiss on the lips. Brief but exciting, nonetheless.

  I watched him leave, wondering whether there really was something off with our relationship or if it was all my imagination brought on by Pepper’s tea.

  Pandora licked a few small crumbs from the salmon treat off her whiskers as she thought about Mary Ashford buying the book. Was Mary the person who wanted the relic to destroy Mystic Notch? Pandora hadn’t felt a malicious vibe from her, but many of her foes were adept at hiding their true intentions.

  Mary had said she wanted old recipes for her cooking blog. Perhaps that was her only interest in the book. If that were the case, someone else out there was going to be pretty upset that Mary had that cookbook.

  Still, she couldn’t rule out that Mary was the person who wanted the key. She needed to alert the cats right away. If Willa left the shop today, she’d make a sneaky visit to the barn. Pandora had an escape route that Willa was unaware of, and if she timed it right, she could make her visit and get back before Willa even suspected she was gone. She’d been smart enough to periodically take catnaps in strange places so that Willa would simply assume she was tucked away in one of her corners if she came back and Pandora wasn’t in her cat bed in the window.

  If Willa didn’t leave, she could always sneak out tonight when Willa and Striker were focused on their pizza.

  Either way, she had a long wait, so she settled into her cat bed and was in a deep sleep when she was rudely awakened by someone shouting.

  “You had no right to sell that! I had dibs!”

  The screeching voice belonged to Danielle Norden. She was standing on the opposite side of the counter from Willa, her fists clenched at her sides. Her face was red with anger.

  “I’m sorry, Danielle, but Mary was on the list ahead of you because she asked first.” Willa remained calm. Pandora had to give her credit. If anyone spoke to Pandora like that, she’d arch her back and give them the full power of her hiss. Of course, Willa couldn’t exactly do that.

  Danielle’s beady eyes narrowed. “Let me see the list.”

  Willa looked around on the counter. “I think I threw it out after Mary picked up the book. No need for it. How did you even know I had an old-looking cookbook?”

  “Hattie mentioned it at the Cut & Curl.”

  “Well, I’m sorry, but Mary really did ask for it first.”

  Danielle crossed her arms over her chest. “You expect me to believe that? Well, I certainly will never shop here again!”

  She spun around and stormed off.

  “Jeez, what is wrong with her? That was a tad bit of an overreaction, don’t you think?” Willa turned to Pandora.

  Pandora didn’t think so, but of course Willa couldn’t understand her reply no matter how hard she worked to get the message across.

  If Danielle wanted the book because of its magical contents, then her reaction to finding out Mary had it didn’t seem out of place. But was that the reason? And did Mary want it for its magical powers, or did she just want an old cookbook?

  Pandora didn’t know the answer, but one thing was clear. If Mary or Danielle knew about the magic, they apparently didn’t realize that the key was no longer in the book.

  Pandora glanced at the box with the key. At least it was safe and sound.

  “I guess I’ll put these away. I have an eye doctor appointment tomorrow, so I want to finish stocking the books before we leave.” Willa picked up a pile of books and disappeared into the shelves.

  Pandora curled up in her bed beside Pepper’s tea, which was now turning an ominous murky brown. A sense of foreboding settled in. If only she could tell Willa about the key. At least two people were after the book, and she couldn’t help but feel that things were going to heat up.

  If only Robert and Franklin would appear. Maybe Pandora could have them pass the message to Willa. But they were nowhere to be seen.

  Pandora sighed and tucked her nose under her tail. At least she could tell the cats of these new developments. Hopefully, they would come up with a plan.

  Chapter Six

  Striker arrived with the pizza that night right on time. It was green pepper and onion, one of my favorites. He got some plates from the cabinet while I spooled paper towels off the roll on the counter. He went into the small bathroom off the kitchen to wash his hands.

  “The bathrooms are so small in this place. Good thing it’s only you.”

  Was that some kind of hint? “They are? I guess they weren’t into big bathrooms back in Victorian times. Since it was only Gram here, it didn’t matter.”

  “Yeah. Perfect for one, but if you had another person here, it might be hard to keep all your stuff like toothbrushes and all the things girls have on the sink.”

  Okay, that was definitely a hint. And he had a point. The bathrooms were small, and I wouldn’t mind more space for myself. I made a mental note to talk to Steve Wheeler about what could be done to expand the bathrooms. Maybe he could even rip out the smaller bedroom upstairs and make it an en suite bath for the master.

  But in the meantime, should I offer to clear off some space on the small surface of the sink? Maybe even get a toothbrush holder so that he could keep his here? Mine was taking up a lot of space just lying there on the sink in the upstairs bathroom.

  Striker picked up the plates, napkins, and pizza box and gestured toward the living room where we usually lounged in front of the TV on pizza night. “You want to eat in there?”

  “Of course.”

  We got settled on the couch and were just digging in to the first slice when Pandora appeared out of nowhere and jumped onto the coffee table.

  “She does love her pizza.” Striker broke off a tiny bit of crust and fed it to her.

  “Meow!” She stared at us as if trying to tell us something.

  “I think she wants more pizza, but I don’t want to feed her too much. I’m not sure it’s good for them.”

  Pandora flopped onto her side on the table and stared at the pizza. If a cat could look exasperated, she was doing a good job.

  I munched my slice, feeling guilty, and watched as she snaked her silvery paw out to touch the crystal paperweight that Elspeth had given me when I moved in.

  Pandora had always had an attraction to the thing, and it was no wonder. Even though i
t was just plain glass, it displayed the most gorgeous rainbow of colors, and the upside-down reflections of the room almost looked like scenes sometimes. I had to confess, there were a few times when I thought I’d seen something more in there, but I doubted that was possible. Even if I was starting to believe there might be more to Mystic Notch than met the eye, it was a little far-fetched to think there was magic in my paperweight.

  “How was your day?” Striker’s question pulled my attention from the paperweight, which had had a mesmerizing effect on me.

  “Pretty good. I sold that old cookbook to Mary Ashford, and then Danielle Norden came in looking for it and had a meltdown.”

  Striker’s left brow quirked up. “Over a cookbook?”

  “Yeah.” I snorted. “Can you believe that?”

  “Mew!” Pandora sounded outraged, too, but maybe that was because she wanted another bite of pizza.

  She pushed the paperweight precariously close to the edge of the table.

  “Careful with that. That was a gift from Elspeth, and I don’t want to break it.” I pushed it back into the middle.

  Pandora stared at me with those golden-green eyes as if she wanted to sass me back. She pushed the paperweight toward me.

  “Okay, enough. I’ll give you another little bite of crust, but no sauce. It’s too salty.” I pinched off a tiny bit, and she gobbled it up. I turned my attention back to the problem with Striker. How should I go about offering him a toothbrush spot? Was it too presumptuous? If Pepper had brought that tea over as a hint for me because she knew something I didn’t, then it probably wasn’t.

  “What about you? Did you have a good day?” I asked him. “I appreciate you coming all the way from Dixford Pass.” Striker lived about thirty minutes away, and it was nice that he always came to my place for my convenience.

  “It’s no problem. My place is too small. My day was uneventful. Just doing paperwork, and I had to drop some lab results off for Gus, so I was in town anyway.” Striker picked up another slice. “Plus, you have better pizza here.”