by Tegan Maher
Murder in the Mountains
Witches of Keyhole Lake
Tegan Maher
Magical Words Publishing
Contents
Witches of Keyhole Lake
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Author’s Note
The Haunted Pendant
Connect With Me!
Other Series by Tegan Maher
Witches of Keyhole Lake
MURDER IN THE MOUNTAINS
by Tegan Maher
© 2021 Tegan Maher
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This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or institutions is entirely coincidental.
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1
“You missed a drip.” Erol, former owner and current resident ghost of my shop, swooped around the antique vanity I was varnishing. He pointed a critical finger at a spot where the gloss had run.
“Thanks,” I replied, swiping my brush up the wood to smooth it. I stepped back and examined it. Since we were both perfectionists, I was confident that it was done but did one final walk-around just to make sure. I’d created the piece from an old desk and mirror I’d picked up at two separate auctions and had been working on it for a week. Satisfied, I dropped my brush in a can of turpentine and peeled off my gloves.
“You should make a nice profit off that,” he said, hovering beside me with his arms crossed over his purple polo shirt. “Ya done good, pig.”
The reference to Babe made me smile since it was a movie we both loved.
“Thanks. I’m happy with it.” I pulled my phone from my back pocket and snapped pics of it from all angles, careful not to catch myself taking the pic in the mirror. I wasn’t shy, but I wasn’t exactly looking my best, either.
“I’ll put it on the website now,” I said, flipping through the pics to make sure they did the vanity justice. The overhead light shone off the cherry finish, catching the round spots on the edges and curved feet. Since the top of the desk had been scarred beyond redemption, I’d covered it with a thin piece of white marble shot through with gray. The result was classy and functional.
Erol cocked a brow. “You think that’s a good idea? You don’t exactly have a lot of time to deal with selling such a large piece right now. Vacation, then bachelorette party, then wedding, all in the next week.”
He was right, and the same mental exhaustion that had been plaguing me for a month settled back in. Empathetic being that he was, he noticed.
“I’m so sorry, sugar. I didn’t mean to steal your Zen. I just don’t want to see you pile more on your plate. You don’t need the money right now, so why don’t you hold off?”
I sighed. I wasn’t exactly an overachiever, but I did like to check things off my list. However, at this point, there wasn’t any room left to even squeeze it in at the bottom of the page.
Curving my mouth into a smile, I winked at Erol. “No, don’t apologize. Thanks for saving me from myself.” I had to admit, I felt a little lighter as soon as I shoved it to the back burner.
He winked back. “That’s what I’m here for. One of us has to keep you sane.”
That made me laugh, mostly because he was right.
Erol drew his brows down as I picked the bucket with my brush in it up and carried it to the sink. “You really are pushin' yourself too hard. I know you’ve got twenty things holding spot one on your priority list right now, but after the wedding, you’re gonna take some real time off, got it?”
I plunked the can down on my worktable in the back and glanced sideways at him as I turned the water on to wash my hands. “I’m taking three days off starting in about an hour. What do you call that?”
His translucent form shimmered as he rolled his honey-brown eyes. “I call that you going somewhere else to think about all the things you still have to do for the wedding. You know you’re not going to be able to clear your head like you need to.”
“Yeah, I know, but it’s either now or wait another month. Hunter has his conference in Atlanta next week, then Harry and his crew are using the cabin for two weeks after that.”
As much as I wanted to swear my heart was gonna be into the mini getaway, he had a point. Hunter, my amazing fiancé, had jumped on it when one of our neighbors, Harry Reed, had offered his mountain cabin to us after Hunter helped him in the hay field. Hunter knew I was about to lose my mind, so he’d insisted we take a few days while we could.
“What do you have left to do for the wedding? Maybe I can help.” Erol was a planner and a list maker. Unlike me, though, he actually accomplished things when he wrote them down. Between helping me stay organized and managing the decorations and designs, he’d been a life saver.
I thought for a second as I cleaned up. “Not much. The dresses are ready, the venues are set, Coralee’s doin’ hair and nails Friday, and Fancy’s is reserved for the bachelorette party.”
“What about the preacher? You confirmed with him? And the photographer? What about the caterer?”
Worry lines furrowed his brow. It was tough for him to take a backseat because this sort of thing was his bit. As a ghost, though, there was only so much he could do.
I smiled at him as I put the broom away. “Preacher Dan’s all set, and I called and confirmed Kelly Ann’s gonna be there to take the pictures and Grits and Grinders will be at Marybeth’s to set up the food at noon. We’re all set.”
“What about the cake?” He was practically wringing his hands.
“It’ll be there at noon, too.” I felt a little guilty for not making it myself, but when I’d suggested it, Anna Mae had put her foot down because she knew I was already stretched thin. Deep down, I was okay with it, though. Nobody could make a cake taste better than I could, but I wasn’t so great with the decorating end of things.
“Then get your tail feathers out of here.” He swept toward me making shooing motions, one side of his mouth curled into a smile. “And don’t stumble over any bodies or Bigfoots while you’re up there. Just relax, and enjoy that hunky man of yours!”
I laughed as I headed to the kitchen attached to the back of my shop. When Erol had owned it, it had been a restaurant, so rather than remodeling it, I’d kept it. I was, after all, a baker as well as a furniture maker. Baking was, in fact, my first love and the way my magic shined best.
I swatted at him, smiling but being
careful not to pass my hand through him. “Fine, I’m going, but I have to get these pastries out of the oven. My hair appointment is in just a few minutes, anyway. I still have an hour before Hunter gets off, and I don’t want her to have to cut my hair in addition to styling it Saturday.”
He nodded, drifting through the wall that divided the front room from the kitchen as I passed through the swinging door. “Good call. You know she’s gonna be a basket case, plus she has to get herself all dolled up, too. I’ll go with you to make sure everything’s all set.”
He paused and pressed his lips together. “She’s not gonna try to give you big ole hair with a bunch of back combin’ held together with two quarts of Aqua Net, is she? We’re shooting for elegance here, not some sorta Ms. Alabama 1983 beauty contest.”
I arched a brow at him as I pulled a batch of blueberry and mixed berry turnovers out of the oven. “I’m not gonna tell her you said that. I’m sure she’s got somethin’ beautiful planned.”
He huffed a sigh. “I know it’s a delicate situation, Noelle, but you need to make sure. Ask her what she’s plannin’ to do.”
To be fair, I’d been a little worried about that, too. She did take getting as much height as possible in her own hairdo as a personal challenge. Though I loved her and thought she was beautiful, Erol was right: her look wasn’t what Anna Mae probably wanted preserved for time immemorial in her wedding photos.
I transferred the pastries onto a cooling rack and shut the oven off. “Maybe I’ll just tell her Anna Mae wants updos. It’s hotter than Satan’s pepper patch out, so that would probably be the most comfortable way to go anyway.”
Giving the kitchen a final pass to make sure I wasn’t going to burn the place down, I slipped out the front door and locked it behind me. Given the Clip N Curl was right next door to my shop, it was okay that my appointment started in four minutes. Well, okay with Coralee, anyway. Belle, Coralee’s predecessor who still hung around even though she’d been dead for over a decade, wasn’t so lenient.
I already had one ghost nagging me; I didn’t need two.
2
“You’re late, young lady,” she barked as I pushed through the door. Her beehive hairdo barely wobbled as she swooped toward me, arms across her chest.
“I still have four minutes!” I replied. “I know the rule is that anything beyond fifteen minutes early is late, but I— “
“No buts.” She gave me the same look a mother gives a kid who’s talking in church, and even though I was a grown woman, I mumbled an apology. Sassing her wouldn’t do any good, and I had known the rule in advance.
Coralee waved her off as she swept up the hair from the person before me. “Pay her no mind, sweetie. She’s got a bee in her bonnet and is just takin’ it out on you.”
She motioned with her eyes to a little old lady dressed in a sunflower dress sitting at Alyse’s manicure table, and I smiled. Millie sat there glaring in Belle’s direction. The two had been frenemies since high school, and though Millie couldn’t see Belle, she could hear her.
“It’s a wonder you got any customers comin’ in here at all, the way you talk to payin’ folk, you old battle axe. Why, poor Coralee and Alyse have to be twice as nice to make up for you.”
Her faded blue eyes—which happened to match her puff of cotton-candy hair—glittered as she glared around the store. “You come on in here Noelle. You’re a site for sore eyes. How ya been?”
“Good, Ms. Millie. That’s a pretty dress you’re wearin’. Very summery.”
“Thank you, sugar. You all set for the weddin’?”
Coralee motioned for me to climb up in her stylist’s chair. “Yes, ma’am. Just finalized everything this morning. Only thing left to do is get our hair and nails done, and we’re doin’ that Saturday morning.”
Her eyes took on a faraway look. “That reminds me of when me and my bridesmaids came into this very same shop to get ours done. It was a wonderful day.”
“It was a pain in the backside, is what it was. Everybody was half tanked on gin and tonics.” Belle growled, but for once, her tone toward Millie was much friendlier than her words.
Millie flapped her free hand. “You had just as good a time that day as the rest of us.” She raised a feathery white brow. “And you’re the one who was servin’ up the gin, if my memory serves.”
Belle’s lips curved into a half-smile. “Course I was. No way was I dealin’ with you fluff heads sober, and it woulda been rude to drink in front of the lot of ya.”
Though she had no way to know it, Millie’s papery lips turned up in a smile that matched Belle’s. “I do gotta give you one thing though, you old goat. You done us up right. That was back afore there was fancy fake nails and all the doodads and gadgets that make your straight hair curly or your curly hair straight. It was a good thing I had an evenin’ wedding, cuz it took you most all day, but boy was them some fancy hairdos. My Gerald cried when he saw me at the altar, you made me such a vision.”
“I did, didn’t I? That was one of my prouder days as a hairdresser. Course it helped that you picked out them pretty peach dresses for your bridesmaids, and your dress was gorgeous. That long train with all the beadwork. Your mama outdone herself when she made that.”
Millie’s eyes watered up a little. “She did. Took her the better part of a month to do it. Arthritis was already settin’ in on her hands, but she wouldn’t hear of me buyin’ one from the store. My oldest girl got married in that, and so did my granddaughter.”
Belle nodded and was so present she was barely translucent. “That’s cuz it was timeless. Not like these froufrou things today. Coralee got a weddin’ magazine in the other day, and I swear, some of them dresses were awful. One looked like one of them bushes you see trimmed into three balls, and a couple others were so short you could just about see the model’s religion.”
Millie shook her head. “Fashion’s gone to pot, though it ain’t no wonder. Women today go to the Walmart in their pajamas. Half the time, I don’t even think they brush their hair, let alone style it. Nobody’s keepin’ an eye on fashion like we used to. You can’t even buy a good hat anymore.”
I was so caught up in seeing the two women getting along for the first time ever that I’d forgotten all about Anna Mae’s wedding until somebody cleared their throat. Erol had floated through the wall that separated my shop from Coralee’s and shot me a pointed look.
I took a deep breath as Coralee swung the cape around my neck, trying to decide the best way to approach it without making her think I didn’t trust her.
Before I could say anything, Coralee spoke up. “You oughtta let me give you bangs. They’d go great with the hairdos I’m thinkin’ about for the wedding.”
“About that,” I said as she leaned me back and put my head over the sink. “What are you thinkin’ about doing? And that’s a hard no on the bangs. Last time I did that, it took forever for them to grow out, and I had to deal with a frizzy poof that I couldn’t even get back into a ponytail.”
She turned the sprayer on, and I sighed as the warm water washed over my scalp and she massaged the shampoo in. There’s nothing better than somebody else washing your hair, and she even included a massage that made me want to go to sleep.
She spoke a little louder so I could hear over the water. “Well, Anna Mae’s hair’s short, so I was thinkin’ about a sleek do for her, and since the rest of us have long hair, I looked through some magazines and found a couple good ones. I’ll show ‘em to ya when we’re done here.”
“You thinkin’ about braids or an updo?” I asked, glancing at Erol as he hovered just in sight in my peripheral vision.
She wrapped a towel around my head and moved my chair upright. “I considered it, but we all have such good hair, I was thinkin’ about leavin’ ours down and maybe just pullin’ the front back and makin’ a nice poof on top with the rest of it built out nice and full. Your hair’s so curly and long, I could get a ton of body in it. I’ve been dyin’ to do it for years.”
I closed my eyes, my worst nightmares coming true.
“I think Anna Mae was thinkin’ about updos,” Erol said, glaring at me. “I might have some ideas.”
Belle slammed her fists on her ample hips and scowled at him. “And you think you know better than Coralee how to do hair?”
Erol realized his error and backpedaled so fast I was afraid he was gonna trip over his own tongue. He held out his hands. “No, no. I’d never say that. I’m just sayin’ I was lookin’ at some magazines and saw some fancy updos. They’re intricate, but Coralee’s one of the few I know who could pull them off.”
Coralee grinned at him as she pulled the comb through my hair. “I think I could manage about anything you put in front of me. You show me those pics, and I guarantee I can, and you may be right. It’s hot, which is why I was thinkin’ about updos to begin with.”
I released a breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding. Erol was good—I had to give him that. He’d managed to bring her around to his way of thinking by appealing to her competitive side and stroking her ego at the same time. She was excellent at what she did, and even if she’d run wild with the big hair, we would have looked fantastic.
Wincing as she caught a tangle with her comb, I was glad I wouldn’t have to sit through all the teasing and spraying.
“I’m sorry, Noelle,” she said, cringing along with me. “I’m doin’ my best not to yank you bald.”