by Tonya Kappes
I walked around the side and noticed the lanterns that hung from the trees were still lit. It was strange since it was daylight. Still, I followed the lanterns to the gravel pathway where I could hear the drowsy daisy flowers humming along with the chilly wind. Along the path leading to Eloise’s garden were beautiful flowers planted on both sides with pops of vibrant purple, green, red, orange, and yellow flowers. Wisteria vines provided a canopy leading to Eloise’s exquisite garden. Rows and rows of herbs were neatly planted and proportioned perfectly with small wooden signs naming the herbs.
Mandrake flowers, rose petals, moonflower, mandrake root, seaweed, shrinking violet, dream dust, fairy dust, magic peanut, lucky clover, steal rose, and Spooky shroom were just a few she had planted.
“Eloise?” I called when I made it to the end of the mandrake root row and saw the top of her head.
“June!” She popped up. There was some dirt smeared on her cheeks and nose. “I’ve got to get these shrinking violet bulbs pulled up before it snows even more.” She stood up with a small purplish ball with dangling roots in her hand. She tossed it into a bucket, and then brushed her hands off on the apron tied around her waist. “What do I owe the pleasure?”
“It’s probably not as much of a pleasure as I’d wish.” I tried to smile, but the edges of my lips just weren’t going to cooperate.
“Oh, dear.” She came closer. “That doesn’t sound so good. Is my nephew okay?”
“Perfect.” Now that did make me smile. “I guess you haven’t heard that a member of the traveling carnival for the winter bazaar has been found dead.”
“Oh my. That is awful.” She gestured toward the gazebo at the edge of the garden. I followed behind her. “I had no idea there was a carnival joining the bazaar. A death sure does put a damper on things.”
“Damper?” I wish it were just a damper. “I’m the number one suspect and under village arrest.”
“Suspect?” she questioned. Her back was to me as she stood next to the table under the gazebo. The table held two three-tiered stands. Each plate had a different pastry on them.
I reached around her and picked out one that looked like a pumpkin spice cupcake. I glanced over at Eloise. Her eyes were staring and blank, her fingers fiddled with each other.
“I saw you doing an extra cleanse in front of Magical Moments?” I took a bite of the cupcake. “I mean.” I took another bite and mumbled, “Madame Torres keeps showing me a train. The last time and only time I was on a train was when Arabella Paxton moved to town and her father, Gerald, was trying to marry Petunia, only he was still married to Ezmeralda, who happened to put a spell. . .”
“I remember.” Eloise stopped me and put her hand in the air.
“So you knew something was going on with Arabella and you didn’t tell me?” I asked and casually poured myself a cup of hot tea.
“I had no idea you were involved.” She eased herself into the chair. Her face was blank. “My incense does its thing. I’m chained to it. Not the other way around.”
“Well, you can tell me now.” I sat across from her in the other café chair.
“I had this interaction with a yellow ball during the Two Sisters and a Funeral cleanse. The wind carried the ball to Magical Moments. It was a sign.” She drummed her fingers on the table. “I had no inkling of a clue A Charming Cure or you were in need of a cleanse.”
Raven, the yellow ball, Paul Levy… all definitely had a connection.
The train.
I gulped. The train was the connection between the two worlds of good and evil. Evil would win if I didn’t take matters into my own hands.
“I’m in need of more than a cleanse.” I wished it were that easy. My intuition told me I was going to have to get to the root of the issue before I could even begin to have another suspect. “Did the wind tell you anything else?”
Eloise might believe the wind sent the little yellow ball, when I knew it was the ghost boy. Was he just playing with Eloise? Why would he still be bothering her after I had made it clear the night of my wedding for him to stay away from her.
“All I do is listen to the wind. I don’t try to read into the spiritualist part because of the pesky law.” Eloise had always played by the spiritual rules and still living on the edge of the woods proved it. “And now I wished I’d put a little more into the process since you are. . .” She teared.
I reached over and placed my hand on top of hers. Her fingers stopped drumming. Her emerald eyes slid up to mine.
“I bet Oscar is fit to be tied with me.” Eloise withdrew her hand from underneath mine and wrung them together.
“Oscar doesn’t know.” I bit my lip and took a drink of my tea, staring into the cup to avoid any type of eye contact with her.
“June Heal!” Eloise’s voice escalated, forcing me to look up at her. “You are his wife. I understood when things got a little hairy and you kept things from him before you said I do, but not now.”
“He can’t know that I’m taking things into my own hands,” I protested. “In fact, the lawyer for Paul Levy is making me go back to intuition class. Can you believe that?” I asked and sat back in my chair.
“Did you say Paul Levy?” The look of fear struck deep in Eloise’s eyes.
“I did,” I confirmed. My intuition didn’t need to tell me that Eloise had heard of Mr. Levy before. Her reaction told me. “Do you know him?” I asked and sat straight up.
“In a former life.” She gulped. Tears sat on the edge of her eyes. “Did you say he is. . .gone?”
“Gone?” I asked wondering if she didn’t hear I had said murdered. Dead.
“As in no longer living?” Her words came out as though each one was a little bee and stung her lips as it passed.
I simply nodded my head. The pain of my simple nod stabbed her. She curled her body over the table and rested her head on the edge. Softly, her shoulders moved up and down, a small whimper escaped her.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, though I did not know what I was sorry for. As far as Paul Levy was concerned, I was angry with him for coming into the shop and letting me believe he was a mortal by not identifying himself. “How did you know him?”
I figured it was better for her to talk about it instead of keeping her sadness bottled up.
“We were once engaged.”
“Engaged?” I asked, stunned. “But I thought. . .”
“You thought I lived here all my life. In the woods. Alone.” Her eyes softened. The edges dipped down. “You only know me from what you remember as a child and from what I’ve told you about Darla. But I did have a life before.” Her words faded.
“The Parks?” It was like I could see it. “You didn’t live here until Oscar was orphaned and sent to live with Jordan?”
Oscar’s parents were murdered and he was sent to live with his uncle Jordan in Locust Grove, but this was before my father had been killed. Oscar and Jordan lived in Locust Grove before Darla and I moved there.
“You had a life but you moved here to be near Oscar.” I knew my words were right. They came out of me like a fountain.
“Yes. Paul didn’t want to leave Azarcabam and the comforts of the Dark-Sider life. He didn’t want to be an outsider of Whispering Falls.” Images of the two of them together formed in my mind. “I didn’t blame him. What would he have done? Sat around here and tended my herb garden?”
“The train.” My mind reeled with the images of Madame Torres. “I think the answers I’m seeking are in Azarcabam.”
“You can’t go there,” Eloise voice boomed across the table, shaking it as though the earth quaked below us. “There has been such unrest since the last time you went. And I can only assume Paul left and joined the traveling carnival to get away.”
“Didn’t he know you were here?” I asked a simple question.
“Probably not.” She stared down again. “I never told him goodbye. When we discussed taking in Oscar, it was just too much for him. He said he needed time and I understood tha
t. It’s hard for a man to take in someone else’s child, but I thought he’d come around. Only I didn’t want him to be forced to make the decision. So I took the train here and kept my distance. The rest is history.”
“He did seem very interested in our wedding photo.” I was beginning to remember what Paul and I had talked about. When Oscar and Colton had asked me about my conversation with Paul, I didn’t think something like him noticing my wedding photo was a big deal. Turned out, it seemed like more of a big deal than I imagined. “The one with me, Oscar, Aunt Helena and you.”
“Did he say anything?” she asked. Hope sat in her words.
“He just asked if you and Aunt Helena were our mothers. I told him you were the aunts.” I smacked my hand on the table. “But he did ask where your husbands were.”
“What did you say?” she asked as if we were teenagers sitting on the bed exchanging boy stories.
“I sorta said that the two of you were set in your ways and he laughed.” I looked up at her. “Paul Levy was a very handsome man.”
“Yes, he was.” Eloise looked down. “I have a feeling there is more to why he was here than meets the eye if what you say about money and stress was true.”
“You think someone saw him come into my shop or maybe someone in my shop was a spiritualist and knew I had made a potion for him?”
“And they had something against him and took the opportunity to frame you for it.” She made a lot of sense. “But what was Paul into that would cause someone to want him dead?”
“That is the million dollar question.” I sat back in the café chair and brought the teacup up to my lips. I knew Petunia Shrubwood held some of those answers. After all, it was she who insisted the carnival came to the winter bazaar.
Chapter Fourteen
There were so many people I needed to see. Petunia, Patience, and Raven were at the top. Narrowing down who was my first stop was a toss up since each of them seemed equally important.
But. . .I glanced down the hill over Whispering Falls. Dusk was quickly coming up on the village. My eyes slid toward Two Sisters and a Funeral, instantly I knew I had to get the Magical Cures Book.
“The ghost boy has been here a couple of months,” I said to Mr. Prince Charming as though he was going to open his mouth and answer me back. I let my mind wander. “Strange things have happening since he’s been here and that little yellow ball that he likes to play with keeps showing up in my nightmares and around my familiars.” I ran my hand down my bag. “I can kill two birds with one stone.” I smiled, knowing the two were connected. “Figuring out how to get the boy to the other side has to be connected with why Paul Levy was here. Plus if I get him to the other side, Patience will return to her normal self, making Constance happy.”
Mr. Prince Charming did his signature figure eights around my ankles, letting me know I was on to something. It was like a puzzle. I knew I had most of the pieces, but how they fit together was an all-together different story.
The back door to A Charming Cure was unlocked and I had to slip in and get the Magical Cures Book if I was going to try to get to the root of Patience Karima’s little ghost problem.
The little boy had shown up right before All Hallows Eve, long before Paul Levy came along. If I could find something out about the little ghost boy, I might have a clue as to why Paul was murdered.
The door opened into the back storage room that I used for storage and a little sitting room. Sometimes potions took longer than expected and I had a little sofa and refrigerator in there in case I had to stay later in the evening. I had stuck the Magical Cures Book under the couch one night when I was working on a new arthritis homeopathic cure.
Darla had always kept the journal next to her in the shed outside of our house in Locust Grove when she made her homeopathic cures. It wasn’t until I had come to live in Whispering Falls did I realize the old tattered leather-bound book was actually the Magical Cures Book. Darla had written in the creases and around the pages and since she wasn’t a spiritualist, the cures didn’t talk to her like they did to me. She was keen enough to know that I would eventually need the journal for my future.
Mewl. Mr. Prince Charming appeared out of nowhere, nearly causing me to jump out of my own soul.
“You freaked me out,” I whispered and shook my finger at him. I flipped the light on and walked over to the door. Faith was still in the shop. It sounded like she was cleaning up and refilling the shelves. It was closing time and I had limited time.
I rushed back over to the couch and bent down. Sticking my hand under, I felt around until I felt the leather-bound journal. I pulled it out, immediately put it in my bag and took Madame Torres out when she glowed.
I sat on the floor cross-legged and put her in front of me. I waved my hand over her and she appeared. The globe filled with purple smoke and yellow lines like static coursed through it.
Images of the brass bell charm Mr. Prince Charming had given me rocked back and forth in a rapid movement.
“Choooochoooooo,” Madame Torres’s ball chimed and the insides began to churn in irritation. “They seek you to finish out their evil! Turn to the water.”
I watched in horror as the globe turned to dark blue waves, the bell gonging in the depths, a train coming right toward the angry sea that was alive in Madame Torres. The waves crashed against the globe. The storage room lights busted. Sparks flew. The train exploded inside of Madame Torres, the sea and waves calmed. The bell was still ringing slowing to a staccato back and forth.
The Magical Cures Book flew open. The pages were flipping so fast my bangs fluttered across my forehead. I steadied myself by placing my hands on the floor and waited for the flood of wind to pass. In an instance, everything fell silent and calm.
The book was open to a page that read in scrolling calligraphy, The Demons of Crimson. I placed my elbows on my knees and bent over the book.
This was how it worked. The book had a magical element I had discovered once I took possession as a spiritualist. When I needed a special ingredient or potion, I could count on the book to open to the right page. If a mortal outside of the spiritual world would pick up the Magical Cures Book, it would just look like a journal with Darla’s handwriting. I read aloud, “The Demons of Crimson will keep you or a loved one protected. The earthly possession is required in order for the protection to take place. Words from the tongue are not the cord to the protection, rather be thee must have a physical attraction that will bind until the earthly possession is complete.”
Madame Torres’s insides twisted and turned in a fit of rage. The unsettled waves crashed and careened up against the glass ball. Train tracks appeared deep within the water as the lights of the train glowed bright, extending out of the ball and flooding the room. The sound of the train’s horn echoed so loud I placed my hands over my ears and watched in horror as the train crashed at the edge of the ball into what looked like another big wave. Everything fell silent. Deafeningly silent. Darkness enveloped me. The sound of my breathing thundered in my ears. Even Mr. Prince Charming sat as still as a rock. Neither of us knew what had just happened or what that even meant.
“What on earth?” Faith stood at the door into the shop. The lights illuminated her silhouette. “June? Is that you?”
“It is.” I grabbed Madame Torres and stuck her back in the bag. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“Really?” She flipped the light on and it flickered a moment. “You need new bulbs.”
“I need a lot of stuff.” I laughed. I ran my hand down my bag. “And I hope you keep this little incident between the two of us.”
“Of course.” She hurried over and put her arms around me. She gave me a big hug. “I do have to tell you something that I found very interesting today. It might help you.”
“What?” I asked.
“Petunia came in here.” Her eyes grew. “She was looking for a mojo bag for protection for babies.”
“For Orin?” I asked and wondered why Petunia wo
uld need one.
“She said something about evil lurking. I asked her if it had to do with you and she wouldn’t answer. And when I asked her if she wanted me to get you to make a special bag just for Orin she adamantly said no that she came in because she knew you weren’t here.” Faith’s words went into my brain and stayed there.
I knew I had to analyze every word. But I knew the truth. Petunia was mad because I had Orin strapped on me when I came upon the dead Paul Levy. Not to mention Petunia had some very valuable information she was keeping to herself.
“I just found it odd that she needed a mojo bag for him.” Faith turned when the bells over the front door clinked. “Oh,” she put her hand out. “I better go lock the door.”
I stood quiet, rubbing my hand down my bag. When my hand hovered over the Magical Cures Book, it warmed to the touch.
I crept over to the door into the shop and looked out the crack. It was Raven. She had two pink-and green-striped Wicked Good Bakery bags in her hand. The two sisters whispered between them. Raven’s eyes looked at the storage room door. Faith must have told her I was there.
Raven’s high-heeled black pointy boots clicked and she started walking toward the door. Her eyes tight with tension and a determined look on her face. I stepped away from the door, letting her come in.
“June.” Raven took a deep breath, trying to relax. “I’ve been trying to get in touch with you all day.”
“Please tell me you have a June’s Gem in one of those.” I really needed my tasty treat to help sooth my stress level.
“I have one, but it isn’t good.” Raven looked at me with an intense but secret expression. She handed me one of the bags filled with a handful of June’s Gems. The other bag she kept clutched to her chest.
“Tell me.” I begged to know. “I remember you trying to stop me yesterday, but I had baby Orin and he was so fussy. I just wanted to get him back to his mother.”
Raven looked at Faith. Faith nodded. Raven opened the bag and pulled out a lump of beige dough. She slapped it on the coffee table in front of the couch and bent down. Her hands kneaded the dough. It looked exactly the same as Mr. Prince Charming when he sits on my lap and kneads my leg.