Willa’s left brow ticked up as she sipped the coffee. “Seriously? Is this how it’s going to be? You bossing me around? I think I liked it better when all that came out of your mouth were annoying meows.”
Annoying meows? Pandora always thought her meows were sweet and endearing. “Just this once, but after that, we’ll take turns bossing each other around if you want. Remember how I mentioned that the cats are here to protect Mystic Notch from evil-doers?”
“Yeah.” Willa still looked a little skeptical.
“You can do something to help us right now. That recipe book you got wasn’t a recipe book.”
Willa’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t say? I thought it was kind of unusual, and there was so much interest.”
“Yeah, and there’s a reason for it. Come on, I’ll show you.” Pandora trotted out of the back room to the front, skidding to a stop and almost being trampled by Willa when she saw what was sniffing around near the sofa. Fluff on his pink leash, and on the other end of that leash, Felicity Bates.
“Hello, Willa. Did I hear you talking to someone?” Felicity was seated on the sofa as if she’d been lounging there all day. She raised her left brow and leaned over as if to see if someone would follow Willa out of the back room. Felicity had dark circles under her eyes, and her hair was a mess. Pandora hoped it wasn’t because she was up all night trying to locate the key.
Willa stood there for a few seconds just staring at Felicity, who stared back with a smug smile on her face.
Fluff arched his back, puffed out his long white fur, and hissed.
Pandora did the same.
“Uhhh… I was just talking to myself.” Willa glanced at Pandora uneasily. “Have you been here long?”
“Just a few minutes. This sofa is always so inviting. When I didn’t see you in the shop, I figured I’d take a seat.” Felicity stood, smoothed out the folds of her long white skirt, and tossed a lock of witchy red hair behind her shoulder.
Pandora glanced at the bells over the door. Had they been so engrossed in their conversation that they hadn’t heard them ring? Had Felicity heard what she and Willa were talking about? She wouldn’t put it past her to eavesdrop.
Pandora glared at Fluff while Willa went behind the counter. He looked as smug as his owner, as if they knew something Pandora and Willa didn’t. Ha! The joke was on them if they were looking for the key. Pandora gave Fluff a sly smile and then turned abruptly, showing him her back end as she trotted behind the counter with her tail held high.
“So, what brings you here? I’m sure this isn’t a social call.” Willa crossed her arms over her chest as Felicity approached the counter with a book.
“I’d like to buy this book on smoothies. I also heard you have a very interesting cookbook here, and I’m in the mood to improve on my culinary skills.”
Pandora snorted. Ha! She was a day late and a dollar short.
Willa shot Pandora a warning glance. Oops. Had she meowed that out loud? Luckily, the lines of communication between Felicity and Pandora were nonexistent. Unfortunately, the lines of communication between Fluff and Pandora were functioning just fine.
“Don’t talk to my mistress that way,” Fluff hissed in his presumptuous, snotty voice.
“I’ll talk any way I see fit,” Pandora replied.
Willa gave her a confused look. Willa probably couldn’t hear Fluff and wondered why Pandora had randomly blurted that out. Pandora envied Willa. She wished that she couldn’t hear Fluff either.
“Is it an old leather book that looks like it belongs in a moldy castle with type-font that gets a little blurry?” Willa asked.
Felicity looked excited. “Yes!”
“Sorry, someone already bought that.”
Felicity scowled. “What do you mean someone bought it? Who?”
“Mary Ashford picked it up about an hour ago.” Willa gave Felicity a sorry-not-sorry look.
Felicity looked steamed. “You sold it to someone else? But I put my name on the list!”
Interesting choice of words. Pandora wondered why Willa would even add Felicity’s name to the list. What if Felicity was speaking literally? She did claim to be a witch. Could she have used a writing charm or something to add her name?
If Felicity was looking for the cookbook, that meant she was looking for the key. Pandora glanced up at the shelf. Thankfully the box was still there.
But if Felicity was looking, then Pandora needed to get Willa on this right away. She couldn’t wait for Felicity to leave.
“I’m sorry, Mary’s name was first on the list, so I called her first, and she was interested, so I sold it to her.”
Felicity narrowed her eyes at Willa. “Fine, then I’ll just take this one.” She slapped the book on the counter, and Willa rang her up. When Willa was done, she grabbed the bag and stormed out of the store, tugging Fluff behind her. Fluff turned to give Pandora one last hiss as the door closed in his face.
“The joke’s on you. The key wasn’t even in that book!” Pandora meowed, but not loud enough for them to hear. No sense in tipping them off to the fact that Willa had the key.
Pandora didn’t waste any time. She turned to Willa. “This is of the utmost importance. I think Felicity was looking for a key. I was trying to tell you about it when we were interrupted. The key is very important. It was in the binding of that cookbook. It’s magical, and you're gonna have to trust me on this, but if it falls into the wrong hands, you’re not going to like what happens to Mystic Notch.”
Willa looked skeptical, but then she seemed to give it careful consideration. Truth be told, Willa was a little slow on the uptake. The evidence that there was magic in Mystic Notch was all over the place, and Pepper had been trying to get her on board with it for a long time. Willa herself had seen evidence but didn’t believe her own eyes. Hopefully, that was about to change. When you can see ghosts and talk to cats, how can you deny the existence of magic?
“Well, Felicity would certainly be the wrong hands, but where is the key, and what can I do about it?”
“Remember the key you found when you caught me with the recipe book on the floor?”
“Yes! Of course. You knew the key was in there? That’s why you knocked the book over?”
“Well, not exactly. Actually, Franklin and Robert were fighting over it, and the key fell out. I was just trying to rescue it. But I did know it was magical.”
“Wait, what do Franklin and Robert have to do with this?”
“Nothing, as far as I know. They were fighting over who might have recipes named after them or some such thing. You know how they are.”
“That explains why you’ve been staring at that shelf.” Willa walked over to the shelf where the box was. “What were you going to do with it?”
“I was going to take it to the cats to see that it got to Elspeth, and now that you know how important it is, I could use your help with that.”
“Of course.”
Relief washed over Pandora as Willa stretched to retrieve the box from the top shelf. She turned around, placing it on the counter, and Pandora jumped up to get a look inside. Pandora held her breath, her tail swishing back and forth eagerly as Willa undid the latch and—
The door to the shop burst open, the bells ringing wildly as if a tornado had burst into the room. It wasn’t an actual tornado, but it was pretty close. Willa’s sister, Gus, the county sheriff, stormed toward the counter, fury in her amber eyes. She wasn’t a big person, but with her blond hair in a tight bun, her hat atop her head, and the look on her face, she seemed pretty big.
She slapped something on the counter and glared at Willa.
“Okay, Willa.” Gus tapped the card she put on the counter. “Explain why Mystic Notch’s latest murder victim had a meeting with you shortly before her death.”
Chapter Nine
My gaze flicked from the box to my sister. I couldn’t open it in front of her. She didn’t understand about magic.
This was all a bit much to take. First,
I find out that I can have a conversation with my cat, then she tells me there’s a magical key in a box on my shelf that could harm the town, and now my sister is accusing me of being involved in a murder.
Gus was standing in front of me, brows raised, hands on hips, demanding an answer. I knew she wasn’t really accusing me, and I couldn’t blame her for storming in. When it came to investigations, I did get a little overzealous sometimes, and we’d had a few run-ins before. It wouldn’t be accurate to say we didn’t get along. Aside from murder investigations, we got along just great.
I glanced down at the card to see the familiar open book logo and the gold-embossed Last Chance Books lettering. Scribbled in pen was yesterday’s date.
“Did you say someone was dead?” Willa felt terrible that someone had died. “Who?”
“Mary Ashford.”
“Meow!” Pandora practically fell off the counter. I couldn’t blame her. It didn’t take someone who could speak cat to know that her meow translated to “Oh crap!” I felt the same way. The key had been in the recipe book, Mary had purchased the recipe book, and now Mary was dead.
“Oh, no. Mary did come here. She bought a recipe book.” I picked up the card. “She came in yesterday. She’d been on a list in case an old recipe book came in, and I had called her.”
Gus narrowed her eyes. “Did she seem nervous? Did you notice anything amiss? Anyone following her?”
It was just like Gus to interrogate me as if I were a suspect. I was used to it though, so the interrogation didn’t faze me. The fact that Mary was dead, however, did. Pandora, too, if the way she was staring at the box was any indication.
“What was in the book?” Gus asked.
“Just recipes. Do you think something about the book is related to her death?”
Gus narrowed her eyes at me again. “Now, don’t go getting any ideas about investigating. The book probably isn’t related. No one kills over a book, right?”
“Right.” If she only knew.
“But somehow you always seem to be in the center of things.”
“Not this time,” I lied. If Mary was killed because of the book, then I was indeed in the center of things. I could point her in the right direction, though, and maybe if the killer was the person after the key as Pandora said, Gus could arrest them and put them in jail where they couldn’t do any harm. “There is one thing, though.”
“What?”
“Danielle Norden and Felicity Bates were both pretty upset that I sold the book to Mary.”
Gus frowned. “Was it valuable?”
“No, I only charged twenty dollars.”
Gus snorted. “You book people are real drama queens. Imagine Danielle and Felicity being mad over a twenty-dollar book. If you hear anything—and I know what a busybody you are, so I figure you probably will—let me know.”
She grabbed the business card and left.
“This does not bode well.” Pandora said after the door closed and we were alone. “We need to get that key to Elspeth ASAP.”
“You can say that again. I’ll put it in the zipper pocket of my purse and run it right over.” I opened the lid of the box, and we both looked inside.
My stomach plummeted. The box was empty.
Chapter Ten
Pandora almost coughed up a hairball at the sight of the empty box. “Where is it? Did you move it?”
“No, I didn’t move it.” Willa’s voice had a sarcastic tinge.
“What? It’s not that outrageous of a question. It’s only you and me here, and I certainly couldn’t reach it up there. If I could, the key would already be safe with Elspeth. You’re the only one that can reach it.”
“Not the only one.”
They both glanced toward the couch where Felicity had been only moments ago.
“You don’t think that she could have taken it, do you? She was on the couch,” Willa said. “We were only in the back room for a few minutes. I don’t think she would have had time to get behind the counter, grab the box, take the key, and then plop onto the couch. How would she even know where the key was?”
Pandora trotted over to the couch and started sniffing around. It smelled like mothballs and mildew. How odd. She followed it to the counter, but there it faded away. “Maybe she used witchcraft.”
“Maybe. But then why did she stay? Why ask about the recipe book and buy a book on smoothies, of all things?”
Pandora hopped back onto the counter and peered in the box again as if the key might magically appear. It didn’t.
“It has to be Felicity. She’s witchy enough to want to return to the scene of the crime and rub it in our faces.” Willa picked up the box and turned it upside down and shook. Still no key, just a piece of black plastic.
Pandora batted at it with her paw. “This is not good. Not good at all.” She punctuated the last word by drawing her paw back and batting the plastic off the counter.
“Maybe she had her evil cat jump up and get it.” Pandora looked at the shelf. “Though I’m not sure that’s possible without knocking things over.”
“Felicity didn’t act like she knew about the key, but I wouldn’t put it past her to put on an act. She did seem a little off.” Willa tapped her top lip with her finger. “There were other people that were interested too. Like Danielle. And she seemed very upset that I had sold the book to Mary.”
Good point. Pandora reminded herself not to get tunnel vision about Felicity and Fluff. “And didn’t you say Sarah Delaney was lurking around when you got back from your optometrist appointment?” Pandora glanced outside as if expecting to see the menacing antique dealer lurking on the sidewalk. “She’s kind of shady, and we know she knows about magic.”
“We do?”
“Yeah, it’s obvious, don’t you think?”
“She does dress like a witch.”
“Let’s not forget that the culprit might not be someone who looks like a witch. Most people actually try to hide the fact that they are magic, especially if they are up to no good,” Pandora said.
“Good point. Let’s approach this like an investigation. Back at my old job…” Willa launched into a diatribe on the proper steps to take in order to conduct an investigation.
Pandora started cleaning behind her ears. Willa used to be a crime journalist years ago, and she could get a little long-winded when she started going over what steps she saw fit to take during an investigation. Usually, she was just talking out loud to herself, and no matter how many complaining meows Pandora made, she did not stop. This time, Pandora supposed she could tell her to stop, but she didn’t want to be rude. Best to just focus on her daily grooming and let Willa get it out.
“So, let’s figure out who had opportunity.” Willa got the broom out, presumably to sweep up the plastic Pandora had batted off the counter. “I put the key in the box two days ago. Since then, we’ve had several customers, but I don’t think any of them have been behind the counter.”
“Sarah Delaney was near, but I don’t think she came in. I would have noticed,” Pandora said. At least, she hoped she would have, but what if Sarah put a sleep spell on her or something?
“Felicity was here. Josie was here taking photographs, but we were watching her the whole time.”
Pandora’s tail twitched. Maybe Willa had been watching her the whole time, but Pandora had been sleeping. Still, what would Josie want with the key, and how would she even know it was there? How would any of them? Pandora didn’t know who was a witch and who wasn’t. There were plenty of magical people in Mystic Notch who hid their true identities, so no one could be ruled out.
“And Gus.” Pandora snorted. They both knew Gus was the most non-magical person in the Notch.
Willa laughed as she bent down with the dustpan. “Then there’s Mary and Danielle. Danielle was mad about the book and knew Mary had it. If one of them thought the key was in the book, they would have discovered that it wasn’t, and where is the most logical place for them to look?”
“Here.
”
“Is the key so important that someone would kill for it?” Willa dumped the contents of the dustpan into the trash.
“It is.” Pandora’s spirits sank even more. Did a villain have the key? And what would they use it for? Did it really open a portal that could unleash horrible creatures and dark magic?
“Let’s look on the bright side. Maybe Gus will figure out who killed Mary, and that will solve our problem. That person will be put in jail and won’t be able to do anything with the key,” Willa said.
“I wish it were that easy. Unfortunately, I have a sneaking suspicion that several people are looking for the key,” Pandora said. “If only we had surveillance in the shop, we could see who came in.”
“I think it’s a good thing that the crime rate is so low it’s not warranted.” Willa tapped the box with her fingernail and scanned the shop. “But we might have something just as good.”
Pandora cocked her head at her human.
“Robert and Franklin. If they were hanging around, they might have seen something.”
“Good idea!” Maybe teaming up with Willa wasn’t going to be so bad. Pandora looked around, her eyes searching for a whisper of ghostly vapor, her nose sniffing for a hint of ectoplasmic goo, her ears straining to hear a ghostly wail. Nothing. “Too bad they don’t always appear when you want them to.”
“No, but I know how to summon them.” Willa took off toward the historical section of the store. Pandora jumped down from the counter and trotted after her.
Willa went straight for a biography of Franklin Pierce and pulled it out of the stacks. It was an old tome, almost four inches thick and a little dusty on the top.
“This is the thickest Franklin Pierce biography I have,” she yelled into the store, making Pandora jump and wish she could cover her ears. “I hope I don’t drop it!”
Willa held the book in the palm of her hand, tilting her hand toward the floor. The book started to slide.
Whoosh!
Pandora heard the ghostly sound and felt the chill just before Franklin Pierce appeared wearing a topcoat and tails, his hand outstretched below the book as if to catch it before it fell to the floor.
Claw And Order (Mystic Notch Cozy Mystery Series Book 8) Page 5