“My date,” I admitted. I didn’t know why I was being honest with him. It was like I couldn’t help it.
“You mean your brother?” he asked, straining to hold back his laughter.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm myself before I made a scene or killed him. I leaned a little more to killing him. “Yes, my brother. Have you seen him?”
His eyes scanned the crowd before stopping at the dance floor. “He’s right there,” he said, pointing in Christopher’s direction.
“Thank you,” I said, starting to walk to the dance floor before something stopped me right in my tracks. Christopher and Helen were dancing together.
“Is he doing the chicken?” Daniel asked, a smile spreading across his face.
“I’m just glad he’s not physically a chicken,” I muttered under my breath.
“What’s that?” Daniela asked, looking over at me.
“I said it was pretty rude of him not to tell me he’d arrived,” I answered.
“Imagine that,” Daniel said smiling. “A guy coming to a party full of eligible women whose first instinct isn’t to check on his sister?” He shook his head. “What is the world coming to?”
I looked up at him. “You’re enjoying this too much.”
“I think I’m enjoying it just the right amount, thank you very much,” he said. “Don’t be too mad at your brother. I saw him earlier, and I was supposed to tell you where he was. Helen wanted to attend this lovely ball with Christopher, but he told her that he was already taking you. I attended college with her brother, so I met her a few times. She knew I worked with you. So she asked me for a favor. She wanted me to be your date and Christopher to be hers. So, here I am. You’re welcome,” he said, smiling at me and running his hands through his hair.
“I didn’t say thank you,” I answered, anger and a bit of excitement running through me.
“Well not yet,” he smiled. “But the night is still young.”
I huffed. “Christopher would have never agreed to that without asking me.”
“I hate to break it to you, Suzie Q, but you don’t know your brother the way you think you do,” he said, grabbing my hand and pulling me to the dance floor.
“What’s with the name? Do you really have that much trouble with Malady?” I told him, trying to fight my way out of his grip, but it was to no avail.
“I like Suzie Q. I’ll just stick with Suzie Q,” he said, shooting me a wink.
We started to sway back and forth to the slow song billowing from the speakers. Daniel mouthed the words of the song to as I scowled at him. He knew how to aggravate me I had to give him that.
“Why do you always have a sour expression on your face?” he asked, dipping me.
I wanted to tell him it was my resting witch face, but I knew he wouldn’t get it. It was a witch thing.
“It’s only there when I’m around you,” I told him dryly, causing him to laugh.
“Impossible. Everyone is happier when I’m around. It’s a proven fact,” Daniel said, inflating his own ego.
I had never met a person more infatuated with himself than Daniel Price was. Well, with the possible exception of Abigail. It was like the guy couldn’t pass by a mirror, a window, or even a lake without checking out his reflection in it. I mean, he did look good, but the fact that he knew it meant it wasn’t as appealing as it otherwise could be.
It was irritating. So, because I’m basically a child with little to no impulse control when it came to this man, I said, “You are so irritating.”
He opened his mouth to talk, but was interrupted by an ear piercing scream. Turning around, I saw Helen Matthews on her knees crying her eyes out. That wasn’t the reaction girls usually had when they went on a date with Christopher. At least not until the second one.
“What did Christopher do to her?” Aunt Tilly asked, appearing out nowhere with Earl at her side.
“No clue,” I said, continuing to watch the grief-stricken girl. “Though I can’t imagine he’s done anything. He’s not that type of guy.”
I felt a weird shudder of energy run through me, like magic was being released or something.
“He’s dead!” she screamed.
“He’s certainly not that type of guy,” I answered, taking in the content of the woman’s screams.
I shivered, like ice was running through my veins. Then a horrible thought entered my mind. What if she was talking about Christopher?
“Who?” Abigail asked, running to her side just as panicked as me. She must have seen Christopher dancing with the woman too.
I ran over to them, my heart in my throat.
Helen didn’t answer.
“Who, Helen?!” Abigail asked again, placing her arms on Helen’s shoulders, turning her forcefully, and shaking them.
I was just about to panic when I saw an equally shaken Christopher round the corner. Abigail got up and ran to our brother. “Oh, thank goodness. I thought she was talking about you,” she said, colliding with Christopher’s and crying on his shoulder.
“I’m fine, sis,” he said, patting her back as he consoled her.
I took a huge breath of relief.
Christopher was alive and kicking, so I had no clue who she was talking about. Walking to her, I knelt down beside her. “Helen, who’s dead?” I asked, placing my finger under her chin and pushing her face up.
“My brother,” she said, her voice containing every bit of the agony, desperation, and horror that had been in my heart just seconds before.
I had never met her brother. I didn’t even know she had a brother. Still, I felt a jolt of power when he died, which led me to believe that magic- or at least- something close to magic played a part in this.
“Bobby is dead?” Daniel asked. He was beside, all the playfulness drained from his tone, and all the color vanished from his face.
I had no clue what was going on, but there was one thing I was sure of, and that was that the crime rate in Cat’s Cradle was rapidly growing.
So much for being a small peaceful mountain town in Tennessee.
4
Instead of the fireworks that were planned to go off during the ball the glow of police cars and ambulances lit up the soiree. It was shaping up to be quite the odd night in Cat’s Cradle.
“Who was he here with?” I asked an inconsolable Helen.
She mumbled something incoherent. “Listen, Helen, I know you’re going through a rough time right now. Finding your brother dead will do that to you, but if you don’t stop blubbering and talk to Malady, she won’t be able to hear you,” Abigail said, checking her black nail polish.
Helen narrowed her eyes at Abigail. “Why should I talk to Malady? Isn’t this a job for the police?” she asked, pulling Daniel’s probably very expensive pocket square and blowing her nose into it.
Daniel was too torn up about his friend’s death to care.
“Have you met the police from around here, honey? Dale is dumb as a pile of bricks,” she said, getting an angry look from Agnes, “What? You know it’s true.”
It was true, but she didn’t have to say it.
“Cade, please get her out of here,” Sadie said, rubbing Helen’s back.
“That might be a good idea. Abigail, Babe, let’s go,” Cade said, wrapping his arms around her shoulders.
“Whatever, this ball never really got rolling anyway,” she said, rolling her eyes and letting Cade lead her to his car.
That was an example of classic Abigail. A guy had just been found dead, and she found a way to make it all about her. She was the least compassionate person in the world, but only when it had it had nothing to do with her family. And she only cared about us sometimes.
“I’m sorry about her. Ignore everything she said, we do,” Grandma Misty told Helen.
“Who was he here with?” I asked her again.
“He came here alone because he came to Cat’s Cradle to visit me and his wife couldn’t get off from work,” she said, sniffling.
&nbs
p; Bobby Matthew’s wasn’t from Cat’s Cradle, so it didn’t make any sense to me why anyone from Cat’s Cradle would want to kill him. The only connection he had to my kooky hometown was his sister. As far as I knew she had made friends with mostly everyone rather quickly. She was a sweet girl, so everyone liked her.
“Do you have any idea of who could have possibly done this?” Daniel asked, blinking away the tears welling up in his eyes.
It was nice to see that deep down buried under his ego he really did have a heart and sometimes cried just like the rest of us.
“No,” she said, burying her face in her hands.
“We’re going to find out what happened and get justice for your brother,” I told her, giving her a hug.
“Thank you. I have to call my sister-in-law,” she said, getting up and leaving.
I watched her until she was completely out of sight. After what happened the last time there was a murder, I would have probably looked at her as my main suspect, but she was way too heartbroken to have killed him.
“Christopher, can we talk privately for a moment?” I asked my much-shaken baby brother.
“Um, yeah, sure. Let’s go over there,” he said, pointing to an empty table.
Linking my arm through his, I let him lead me to the table. “I’ll make this quick because I know your hour is almost up and you’ll have to fly away,” I told him, sitting down.
“Oh, you got jokes, huh? When did you get funny?” he asked, chuckling.
Where had he been? I was the funniest member of the Norwood family. I mean at least to myself. I always laughed at my own jokes.
“I’ve always been funny. Get with the program, Big Bird. Now, let’s get serious for a second. How did Helen find him?”
“The music was giving her a headache, so she wanted to go for a walk. We made halfway through that light up garden thingy you girls set up. When we saw Bobby slouched against a bench. It looked like he was sleeping, but I knew he wasn’t. Helen thought she could wake him up, so she shook him. When she realized he was dead, she panicked,” he said, staring off into space.
“Did she mention anything about her brother tonight?” I asked, fishing for any information I could get. Because at that point I had nothing but a dead body.
“Just that she this was the first time she had seen Bobby in a year. She was really excited about him being here. Hey, as much as I love chatting with you I’ve got to go,” he said, holding up his hands showing me that feathers were appearing.
“Fly, Birdie, fly,” I told him.
“I really don’t like you right now,” he said, as he got up from his seat and ran around the corner.
Daniel spotted me and started walking my way. He wasn’t wearing his usual smirk, no, instead his mouth was pressed into a thin line. “I can’t- I just can’t believe this,” he said, taking the seat that Christopher was sitting on before he started turning into a bird. He ran his hands through his hair and shook his head.
“I would believe anything,” I told him, shaking my head.
If he only knew.
“He was a good guy,” he said after being silent for a few minutes. He was hurting, that much was evident in his eyes.
I didn’t know what to say to him to help. I wasn’t good at the whole comforting thing, so I just decided to attempt to make a joke. “This looks like another job for Suzie Q and Atlanta,” I told him, nudging his arm.
He gave me a weak smile in return. “I’m going to head home. I’ll see you tomorrow morning at work,” he said, getting up and offering me a wave.
“See ya,” I replied, returning the wave.
“Don’t miss me too much,” he said, showing that his fire was gone it was just not as bright as usual.
Rolling my eyes, I watched him disappear.
“Hey, sis, you ready to head home?” Sadie called from across the dance floor.
“Yeah, let’s go,” I replied, getting up and taking off my heels.
Swinging my heels in my hand, I walked to Grandma Misty’s car and got in. The Under the Stars Charity Ball’s attendance tripled from the previous year, but not in the way we hoped. All of the police officers and paramedics made guest appearances, and we even got a special visit from the coroner. Mr. Landry was a very nice man, but he wasn’t someone you wanted to see at a party because when he showed up something had usually gone terribly wrong.
The annual charity ball had been ruined because finding a dead body at a party really did put a damper on things.
I just wanted to go to sleep and dream about happy things. Was that too much to ask?
5
Sitting at my desk, I sipped on my fourth cup of coffee. The caffeine wasn’t working because I kept nodding off. “Hey, Suzie Q, look alive,” Daniel said, drumming his fingers on my desk.
“Leave me alone,” I practically growled.
“Well, aren’t you just a vibrant ray of sunshine? Why are you in such a great mood this morning?” he asked sarcastically.
My mood when he was around was always the same. He should have been used to my sour expression and dislike for him, but he wasn’t.
“Not enough sleep,” I told him, leaning my rolling desk chair as back as far as I could without falling.
“Why didn’t you get enough sleep? Were you up all night thinking about how handsome a certain guy looked at the charity ball?” he asked, tugging his tie.
The emotional version of Daniel that I had met the night before had been replaced with the good ole Daniel price I had grown to despise.
“Oh, I was thinking about a guy alright, but it was the one without the pulse,” I told him, smiling lazily at him.
“You’re a cruel woman, Suzie Q,” he said, walking out of my office.
I contemplated faking sick, so I could go home, but then I remembered all that was waiting for me at home was Abigail complaining about something, Sadie being perfect, Agnes watching a Hallmark movie, and Earl being Earl. Staying at the office didn’t sound like such a bad idea after that.
“Hey, are you busy?” a voice asked instantly pepping me up, or maybe it was the truckload of caffeine I had taken in finally kicked in, I wasn’t really sure. I knew that voice. Looking up from my desk, I saw Mason standing in the doorway.
“No, no, not at all. Come in,” I told him, standing up from my chair and awkwardly gesturing at the chair in front of my desk like I was one of those girls on the cheesy game shows that show off the prizes no one really wants to win.
He smiled at me before taking the seat. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
He raised his eyebrows up and gave me a weird look. “Why would you think something is wrong because I came to see you?” he asked.
“Because no one ever comes to a lawyer’s office unless they have too. Kind of like visiting the DMV or a cemetery,” I told him, being totally serious.
Mason started laughing. “I just wanted to check on you. I didn’t get a chance to see you at the charity ball last night because of all of the craziness,” he said, taking off his dirty baseball cap and turning it backward.
When he wore his hat like that in high school I always thought it looked silly, he knew I hated it. “You look ridiculous,” I told him, rolling my eyes.
“Malady, I wanted to know if you wanted to go out w-,” Mason started, and I could practically hear his heart beating out his chest.
My own heart pounded in response, as if matching his. Though, where I assumed his was beating in pure excitement, my exhilaration was tinged with a bit of dread.
If he asked me out, I would be inclined to accept. Of course, that would mean my curse might have a chance to kick into high gear.
“Suzie Q, we just a call from the coroner. He has something he wants us to see,” Daniel said, sticking his head in my office and scowling at Mason.
Jumping up from my desk, I grabbed my stuff. “Can we talk later?” I asked Mason, giving him am ‘I’m sorry’ smile.
“Yeah, we’ll talk later,” Mason said, getting up and g
iving me an awkward hug.
Daniel watched Mason walk out of the room. “I don’t like him,” he said, scrunching up his nose.
“Why?” I asked, pushing him out of my office and shutting the door.
“Because he always looks like he needs a bath,” he said with a disgusted expression.
I couldn’t begin to fathom why Daniel didn’t like Mason. I mean it was impossible not to like Mason. He was down to earth and very kind. “He was dirty because he works at the mill and he is a very hard worker. No fancy suits and shiny shoes for him,” I told him, patting him on his shoulder as we made our way to his car.
“That’s because he can’t afford those luxuries,” he said, climbing in his foreign car.
“Whatever you say, Carrie Bradshaw. Let’s go,” I told him, getting in the car and clicking my seatbelt in place.
Chuckling, he sped out of the parking lot. Any other man would have hated to have been called Carrie Bradshaw, but not Daniel Price. Nope, I think he took it as a compliment. In fact, I know he did because that stupid smile never left his face on our way to the coroner’s office.
“It wasn’t a compliment,” I said as we pulled into the parking lot and got out.
“Never said it was,” he answered, but he was still smiling.
“Then you should stop acting like it is,” I said, shaking my head.
“Free country, Suzie Q. I can act any way I please.” He laughed hard. “Though, if I remember that show correctly, she was a very stylish character. That’s all I’m saying.”
“You’re impossible,” I muttered, irritated as I walked fast to pass him.
Mr. Landry was standing outside when we pulled up. “Did he say why he wanted to see us?” I asked.
“No, he only said it was important,” he said, putting the car in park.
Getting out of the car, I power walked to Mr. Landry. “Good morning, Mr. Landry, how are you?” I asked, shaking his hand and then I remembered that his hands had probably been on a dead body only moments before our handshake.
Cursed on the Second Date Page 4