“Sometimes she looks like an angry troll to me,” Greer whispered from over by the coffee maker.
“I heard that,” Charlie called, not looking up.
“You were supposed to,” said Greer.
In her article, Charlie had written that an anonymous tip had come into the police station about a car at the bottom of Babbling Brook Lake. Detective Cutter wasn’t going to reveal his sources, and neither Charlie nor I wanted to be associated with the finding of the car. Charlie just wanted credit for the story. “It’ll be enough if Mary Caldwell finally gets some peace,” she said.
My grandmother had told me again and again, “You must stay out of the headlines at all costs, do you understand?” I was giving myself a pat on the back for listening to her.
On my second case as the Witch of Mintwood, I was managing.
Barely.
Once breakfast was over and the dishes were safely cleaned up (a Charlie House Rule), we were on our way for the day.
Another article had been featured in the Mintwood Gazette about the ribbon-cutting ceremony, this time from a historical perspective. A ribbon-cutting ceremony had taken place once a year for the last two hundred years in the gracious and graceful town of Mintwood. The competition was a very big deal and a very big part of a year-long calendar of celebrations. The placement of the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Main Street was of the utmost importance, and the decision couldn’t be more consequential, said the article.
It was very important that all residents come together and support the store owners who were trying to spruce up their buildings. Littering on Main Street would not be tolerated, and fines would be doubled.
The newspaper even printed a montage of earlier ribbon-cutting ceremonies so that readers could see what the old window displays looked like. It soon became clear to me that the competition hadn’t been fierce until maybe about twenty years ago. Before that the window displays were practical – shop owners trying to sell their wares. After that the displays became more elaborate each year. One year, someone had even set off fireworks. The article hastened to add that it was not encouraging a repetition of that spectacle.
“I had no idea this was such a big deal,” I muttered. Poor Liam, it suddenly felt like he was shooting for the moon. Without a broom, how was he ever going to reach it?
“Is it supposed to lean like that?” Charlie wondered as we walked out of the house together.
“What?” I glanced around to see where Charlie was looking. Turned out she was talking about the front porch.
I knew the porch was preparing to follow the rest of the house and topple over, but I did feel like it was leaning more than usual this morning. The floor and ceiling were tipped at a jaunty angle, like a hat not on quite straight, except that the look was far better on a hat than a porch.
I shook my head and shrugged, and Charlie nodded sympathetically. Looking to change the subject, she found something I had been wondering about myself.
“How does your witch jurisdiction work?” Charlie asked.
“What do you mean?” I said.
“Kayla’s from Caedmon, but her ghost is in Mintwood,” Charlie explained. “You aren’t obligated to help a person who isn’t in Mintwood, but a ghost at the Babbling Brook Lake . . .”
“Right, I guess,” I shrugged. “No one else was doing it.”
The next logical step in my investigation was to visit the Caedmon Town Office. If I thought one of Kayla’s co-workers had been involved in her disappearance, I needed to find out all I could about them, and also about what information Kayla might have stumbled across that could have gotten her forced off of the road and into a watery grave.
After that we’d head to Liam’s for an update on the window display. I hoped that Greer or Charlie had come up with some ideas to help our friend, because I had nothing.
I drove all the way to the Caedmon Town Office only to find that it was closed, and that I’d have to return the next day. Frustrated, I got back in my Beetle. Mintwood’s town office was open every weekday, so there.
One thing was clear. After everything else on my agenda for the day was finished, I had to go and have a conversation with Kayla that night. After all the ruckus about her car, and her sister showing up, I owed her that much. Besides, as my grandmother liked to say, ghosts had just as much gossip to offer as the living . . . thank you, Grandmother.
After a long evening of helping Liam plan the window display, with work breaks spent dejectedly and surreptitiously watching the progress of the other shop windows from behind a closed curtain, I was ready to head back to the farmhouse. But first I had to go back to the lake and talk to Kayla.
This time, the barn was dark. It wasn’t until I arrived and saw the lights off that I realized I was a little sad to know that Jasper wasn’t there. Had I been looking forward to seeing him? Where could he possibly have to be on a night like tonight anyway? I didn’t want to think about it. Obsessing was a better idea.
Kayla had been stuck at the lake for nearly twenty-five years without help or much company. I soon learned that she could recite the events that had happened throughout that time in minute detail.
She told me excitedly about some of her observations. “The families around here are all very solid,” she said. “Very little turnover – which I admit can get boring – except for the Howe Mansion, of course.” She pointed over her shoulder at a bleak-looking mansion far down the lake.
“What about it?” I asked. I had been out of Mintwood for a while, and my grandmother rarely spoke about the lakeside families.
“No family has ever lived there for longer than two years since I’ve been here,” said Kayla. “The place is empty right now, in fact. I think they’re having a hard time selling it at this point.”
I was finding that I enjoyed talking to this particular ghost, especially when she told me the history of the barn Jasper now owned.
Twenty-five years ago it was already falling down, Kayla explained, and she had been saddened by the neglect of such a beautiful structure. Her sentiments were so much like my own, they made me smile.
“The barn was the last holdout on the lake, still owned by an old farmer when all the other houses were expensive and new. He wanted to retire, so he sold it to the Grates, who walked through a couple of times but otherwise never came around. It’s only been since the Wolfs bought it that things have really picked up. I wish I had popcorn to eat while I watched the excitement.”
“They’re working that hard?” I said.
“Oh, yes, and the guy in charge? The one you talked to the other night? He’s so cute,” said Kayla with a little shimmy.
I felt something remarkably like jealousy rise in my chest, except that it couldn’t be. First, I was NOT the jealous type, and second, Kayla was a ghost, and anyone with eyes could appreciate what a fine specimen of a man Jasper Wolf was.
Oh, yeah, and despite my lack of a sustained, clear cut, or even existent dating history, I knew I would never be jealous. Not even the tiniest bit.
Recently, Kayla had seen Morris and Morton zipping around the barn. She knew them well enough to greet with a quick hello, but she had grown terribly shy of other ghosts. She never went to the Babbling Brook Barn Ghost Parties. Her excuse was always that she was too busy, she explained; then she would hide in the reeds around the lake instead of going to the party. “I suppose if I’d gone I would have heard about you sooner,” she mused.
“Probably my grandmother,” I said. “She was the Witch of Mintwood until recently.”
“Thanks for talking to my sister,” Kayla said, tears in her eyes. “I really appreciate it. I can’t tell you how much it means to me to know that she cares so much.”
“She misses you,” I said. “She was always sure that something happened to you, and that you hadn’t just run away. She didn’t think you had any interest in Vegas, for one thing.”
Kayla snorted. “Right, I mean really. Vegas is not where I would have gone,” she said laug
hing, “but then she was also right in thinking that I had everything I wanted in Caedmon.”
She paused thoughtfully, as if she were working something through in her mind, then asked, “Have you discovered anything else?”
“Not at the moment, but I’m going to speak with Mrs. Luke,” I said. “It sounds like she knew a lot about the goings-on in Caedmon.”
Kayla rolled her eyes, but nodded. “She sure did, and that makes sense. I suppose she still works at the town office?”
“She does,” I said. Kayla didn’t seem surprised at Mrs. Luke’s dedication.
“One more thing,” I said. “Your sister said you told her you’d found some irregularities at the town office before you passed away. Can you remember anything about that?”
Kayla bit her lip and tried to think. “I remember something about that, but I can’t think what. Oh, yes, there was something!”
“Yes?” I prompted.
“Well, I didn’t know exactly what it was, except that there was money missing from one of the town accounts. I didn’t know much beyond that. I mentioned it to someone, but now I can’t remember who. I really didn’t think it mattered much at the time.” Then Kayla gasped. “You don’t think that’s what I was killed for, do you? It wasn’t so much money. I would’ve left it alone if I’d known that the consequence would be this. Who at the town office would hurt me!” Kayla threw up her arms to take in the lake and the surrounding houses.
As a matter of fact, I thought there was a very good chance that’s what she’d been killed for. But apparently I was going to have to figure out the details for myself.
After our talk, I hurried home. It was nearly dinnertime, and I was famished. With any luck Greer was cooking tonight.
I hadn’t even reached the farmhouse and was just turning down my driveway when I saw the six ghosts lining the road, all just standing there glaring at me. I didn’t recognize any of them.
Usually, I’d slow down in such a situation. But this time I didn’t have Paws with me, and I was hungry, and since they weren’t at the house, I just kept driving.
One of them shook his fist at me as I went past. I wondered, not for the first time: couldn’t ghosts communicate like adults? Though I was bit curious, I felt sure I’d eventually find out what they wanted. More pressing by far at the moment was to find out what was for dinner.
Chapter Eleven
“What do you think happened to Kayla Caldwell?” said Greer.
The three of us were sitting around the breakfast table the next morning. It was a rare day when we were all up at the same time and before Charlie went to work. Normally Greer wouldn’t be awake at such an early hour, but she had to go to work early today to clean the bar. Shockingly enough, she wasn’t happy about it, and her mood wasn’t improved by Charlie commenting, “Oh, so you can clean the bar, but you can’t clean house?”
“Why would I clean the house when you do it so well?” said Greer, eyeing Charlie over the newspaper.
“I don’t do it so well that you shouldn’t do it,” said Charlie.
“On the contrary, you do it so exceptionally well that I don’t think anyone can ever compete,” said Greer. She quickly lifted the newspaper so Charlie wouldn’t see her smiling smugly.
“We know what happened to her, but now we just have to figure out who,” I said, trying to drag the subject back to the Kayla mystery.
“Don’t you think the who would be easier if we knew the why?” said Charlie.
“Yes, I think if we knew the why we’d know the who,” I said. “I’m just not sure how to figure out the why. That’s why I’m going to the Caedmon town office today, and hopefully Mrs. Luke will be helpful,” I said.
“What if she had something to do with it?” said Charlie.
“She clearly knew something,” I said, “because Mary said she came and took the boxes away. Maybe after all this time she’ll be willing to talk.”
“You think that if I wait long enough, Greer will be willing to clean?” said Charlie hopefully.
“You might be waiting a really long time,” I said.
The busy pace continued as the week went on. My time was taken up with helping out at the costume shop and my frantic efforts to solve the mystery of Kayla’s crash. Soon enough, it was time to make another trip to the Caedmon town office.
I stopped to check on Vertigo on the way. The dog was just as lively as ever and very happy to see me. We went on a short walk, but this time I kept him on a leash. There might still be strange noises in the woods, and I didn’t have time for that right now. If Vertigo were to get lost and I had to go searching for him, all my other projects would have to take a back burner. I couldn’t afford the time.
After my pet sitting stop I got back in the Beetle and headed for Caedmon.
The drive didn’t take very long, and soon I found myself outside the town office. The building looked much like Mintwood’s – brick with white trim and gold letters – only the Caedmon sign was newer and more imposing. The town was far wealthier than Mintwood, and it showed in the smoothly paved roads and spacious houses set on nicely manicured lawns.
There were a couple of other cars in the parking lot, and I was relieved to see that the office was open today. I went inside and smiled at the receptionist. “Good morning,” I said.
She smiled back, “Good morning. What can I help you with?”
“Is Mrs. Luke here?”
The pretty young woman’s face puckered in the slightest frown, as if she couldn’t fathom why I should be asking. “Are you a friend of hers?”
“I just wanted to talk to her,” I said.
She glanced over her shoulder and told me to wait a minute, then hopped out of her chair and disappeared. I waited for several minutes until a woman with white hair and spectacles, wearing an old cardigan and a dress that brushed her ankles, came out of the back room. “How can I help you?”
“Yes, I was wondering if I might talk with you about Kayla Caldwell,” I said.
Mrs. Luke’s pleasant demeanor evaporated. “Is this because of the attention that car in the lake got? What makes you think I know anything? I don’t have anything to say.”
“I actually told her sister I’d look into it for her,” I said.
“What’s there to look into? Now if you wouldn’t mind, I have to get back to work.”
And with that, Mrs. Luke spun around and walked away at a surprisingly fast clip.
Frustrated by Caedmon again, I went away and tried to think of what to do next. Our last encounter with Kayla at the lake had reminded me of something that had been bothering me since Charlie had moved in, and I thought I had come up with a way to deal with it. But I had to talk to Paws about it first, and that would be like climbing over a cliff and falling down it. If I survived, I might have found a solution to the problem.
Scraping up my bravery, I went out to the porch, where the cat was curled up on his box. After I had gazed at him for a minute or two, he opened one eye just a slit and looked me. “Yes?”
“Imperious little monster,” one of the tea ladies yelled.
“Don’t be rude,” I yelled back.
Paws, accustomed to the disdain of the tea ladies, continued to eye me. He knew I wanted something, and that made me even more nervous.
I cleared my throat. “You can come along with me on investigations because I wear the green necklace and you have a corresponding green collar, right?”
“Right,” said Paws.
“Does my grandmother have other jewelry that would let Greer and Charlie see ghosts when they’re wearing it?” I asked.
I wasn’t exactly asking for the same thing the necklace gave Paws. Paws could go as he pleased, at least for short periods, but he could stay indefinitely if he was with me. My friends could also see him as long as he and I were together and wearing our matching jewelry.
Yup, my life had come to that. I was the crazy-ghost-cat lady who matched her accessories to her pet’s.
Paw
s opened the other eye now, and I felt certain that if cats could frown, he’d be frowning at me.
“That’s a very serious request. I have a lot of questions about what you’re trying to accomplish, and the first question is, why do you want them to see ghosts in the first place?” he said.
“They help me with my investigations,” I said.
“I also help you with your investigations,” he said.
“And you have a necklace,” I said. “The four of us are a team.”
“Civilians aren’t supposed to be able to see us,” he said. “It’s a little different since they live here and can see the ghosts in the yard, but even that’s technically against the rules. Now you want them to be able to see any old ghost whenever they feel like it. It’s a lot to ask.”
“Why? What’s so wrong with it?” I said.
“Many things could be wrong with it. You haven’t delved into spells yet, for example.” He glared at me as if to ask when exactly I thought that was going to happen. I didn’t know, so I answered his silent look with one of my own.
“You’re being stubborn. Even if they can see ghosts, they still can’t do what you can do,” Paws continued.
“Could they talk to them?” I asked.
“Theoretically, but ghosts have to be open to it. My guess is that they would be, but you never know until you’re in the situation. It might overwhelm the ghost to have so many humans carping at them. They’re used to one Witch of Mintwood,” said Paws.
“But there are other witches,” I said. I zipped my jacket all the way up to my chin and tried to stop shivering. The night had suddenly turned colder.
Paws didn’t say anything for a long time.
“Why would my grandmother have jewelry that could allow civilians to see ghosts if she didn’t want anyone to use it?” I said.
“You’d have to ask her,” he said. “I would never speculate.”
“Are you saying she had the jewelry or not?” I said.
I had already made up my mind. I was willing to take the risk of my friends seeing ghosts. How bad could the consequences be? Besides, if my friends were always going to be with me when I was talking to ghosts around town, they needed to see what I saw and hear what I heard. Charlie was an investigative reporter, and she really could be helpful with cases. We were talking about people’s lives, after all. Mary Caldwell wanted to know what happened to her sister, and Kayla wanted to leave the lake. These were important issues, and I knew Charlie and Greer had their hearts in the right place.
Witch Some Win Some (Witch of Mintwood Book 2) Page 7