Watching Earl, it dawned on me that Agnes as right. Something was definitely going on with Aunt Tilly and her heart, but the one thing that didn’t make any sense as I had no clue who would want Aunt Tilly to fall in love with Earl or why?
“Something’s going on. We’ll figure it out. But drop it because Aunt Tilly is coming our way,” I told her, pretending to focus on digging.
“Girls, I need to call a family meeting. Will you join us in the house?” she asked with a serious expression.
I secretly hoped that she was telling us that she had decided to part ways with Earl and then he left we would pull out all the stops for a party. I’m talking balloons and a cake. The whole nine yards.
“I wonder what this is about,” Agnes said as we walked up the steps and entered the house.
“Well, use your imagination because with our family it could be anything,” I whispered as we made our way into the living room and sat on the couch.
Looking around the room, I saw that Grandma Misty looked as worried as us. Same went for Sadie and Abigail.
“You are probably all wondering why I called this meeting and the reason why I did is that Earl and I have some very important news we want to share with you. Do you want to tell him, Honey? Or would you like me to?” she asked Earl, laying her head on his shoulder.
“You tell them, Sweetheart,” Earl said, kissing the tip of her nose.
“No, you tell them,” she said, giggling like a fifteen-year-old on her first date.
“You tell them,” he replied, wrapping his arms around her waist. A pang of something like envy ran through me. Aunt Tilly had always been the person I looked up to. She had been single, like I was destined to be single. Seeing her with someone made me happy for her (sort of), but it also made me realize just how alone I was going to be.
I could hear Grandma Misty grinding her teeth, so I looked over at her and saw that she was about to blow. “I don’t care who tells us, but please spit it out!” Grandma Misty yelled, causing to Earl and Aunt Tilly to look at her like she was crazy.
“We were getting to it, Misty. You don’t have to yell. Earl and I decided to get married in two weeks! I’m finally going to be Tilly Reeks,” she said, clapping her hands and jumping up and down.
Grandma Misty slowly got up from her chair and exited the room. Abigail and Agnes followed her without even looking in Aunt Tilly’s direction. Sadie walked over and hugged our Aunt. “If you’re happy then I’m happy for you. Congrats,” she said, giving Aunt Tilly a hug once again proving just how perfect she was.
I, on the other hand, couldn’t tell her I was happy for her, not knowing what I did about her groom to be. I was going to have to tell her what I knew, but I had to wait until I had proof that Earl was the one who offed Bobby. I couldn’t afford for her to send him back where he came from because I needed him in Cat’s Cradle.
“Malady, you haven’t uttered a word, aren’t you happy for me?” Aunt Tilly asked, her eyes full of hope.
She wanted the whole family to accept Earl, and I felt really bad for her, but it was hard for me to accept Earl after I found out about his shady business deal with Bobby Matthews. Heck, it would have been hard for me to accept Earl getting engaged to my Aunt Tilly after such a short period.
“We’ll talk later, Aunt Tilly,” I told her, patting her on the back as I walked by her.
Hearing mumbled voices coming from the kitchen, I followed them and saw all of my family minus Christopher huddled up and talking.
“Make room for me in this circle of disappointment or I will get happy. And you won’t like me when I get happy,” I told them, trying to make the vibe of the room a little less harsh.
It didn’t work.
They all looked over their shoulders and glared at me. “Now, is not the time for jokes, Malady Norwood. Now, come here and help us think,” Grandma Misty said, waving me over.
Walking their way, I joined the circle and waited for Grandma Misty to begin a chant that conjured up a tornado that sucked Earl up in it and carried him away without touching anything else. But, I quickly found out that wasn’t what we were doing. We were plotting to sabotage Aunt Tilly’s impending wedding to her Earl.
The Norwood’s were infamous for their magic, spunky behavior, and magic, but what we should have been known for was our horrible taste in men.
Seriously, it was really bad.
16
Grandma Misty’s door to her office was adorned with a big red do not disturb sign for the second day in a row. She was in absolutely no mood to be messed with.
Our family breakfast before we left for consisted of Aunt Tilly and Earl trying to ask Grandma Misty questions and her grunting at them in response. Eventually, they got the clue and tried talking to the twins and got basically the same response. After seeing their reactions, they didn’t bother with talking to Sadie and me.
“What’s going on with Misty? I haven’t seen her in two days because she’s been barricaded in her office,” Daniel said, sitting down in the chair in front of my desk and propping his feet up on my desk.
I thought about ignoring him, but I knew that wouldn’t have worked. He was persistent if anything. I had to give him that much.
“Family drama,” I said, trying to be short and sweet, but coming off more like clipped and sour.
My tone would have offended anyone else, but not Daniel. He didn’t get offended. Well, unless you talked about his hair negatively. He once told me that styling it was like an art and that perfection took time. I knew that was a lie because it only took my sister fifteen minutes tops to get ready.
“Elaborate on the family issues, please. I think I should be considered family by now. Spill.”
“Fine, I’ll tell you, but just so you know I’m only telling you so you’ll shut up and you are not considered family. We are colleagues. We are definitely not family. You know Earl, right?”
“Yeah, he’s your other Aunts instant fiancé right?”
“Yep, that’s him,” I said, popping the P. “Well, Aunt Tilly and her instant fiancé have decided they are going to get married in two weeks.”
“Wow, those two really move fast. Engaged after two weeks and getting married not long after. Now, I’m not an expert on relationships, but things usually move at a much slower pace than that, right?” he asked.
He was right. Relationships moved at a snail’s pace compared to Aunt Tilly and Earl’s relationship.
“Why don’t you just tell her his name isn’t really Earl, it’s Andrew and he may or may not be a murderer? I mean that would make anyone want to pull the plug on a relationship. Killing people is sort of a deal breaker and if it isn’t it should be,” Daniel said, giving me a serious expression.
“I can’t tell her just yet. I have to prove that Earl killed Bobby before I accuse him in front of Aunt Tilly. If I do that and it turns out that he is innocent, she would never forgive me for messing up her relationship. And besides I need him to stay close, like under the same roof close, so I’m going to play dumb,” I told him, getting up from my desk to make my way to the file room.
I didn’t have anything to file or anything to look for, but I just decided to pretend like I did, so I could escape Daniel. It didn’t work, but I should have known it wasn’t going to work.
“What if he snaps and kills your whole family one night while you’re all sleeping? I bet you’ll regret not telling your Aunt then, won’t you?”
If he tried that, he’d find himself on the business end of a protection spell I’d put on my family last night. One hair on their head gets ruffled by that guy, and he’s a bullfrog for the rest of his miserable life. Of course, I couldn’t tell that to Daniel.
Daniel putting that in my head made me dislike him even more.
“Can you go bother someone else?” I asked, pulling open a random file cabinet and searched through it.
“No, can do, Suzie Q. What are you looking for?”
“A file for one of our clients.�
�
He gave me a look that had ‘Duh’ written all over it. “That much is obvious. What client? I might have it on my desk.”
“Um, the client is Fred Scooby,” I told him, cringing on the inside. I had just thrown two characters from Scooby together and created a fake client. I hoped he didn’t notice.
“Well, for starters Fred Scooby would be in the ‘S’ cabinet, not the ‘C’ cabinet. Fred Scooby is a nice guy.”
Was there actually a man named Fred Scooby in Cat’s Cradle and I didn’t know about? “He is?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, he’s a cool dude. He’s got this really colorful van, wears these awesome ascots, and I think he’s getting Married to Daphne Velma,” he said, smiling at me and letting me know that he knew I was lying.
“I made him up because I wanted to get away from you,” I admitted completely guilt free.
“I know. You’re feelings for me make it hard for you to be around me. I get it, I’m amazing and pretty handsome if I say so myself. Go get your stuff and meet me by the car because we have to go talk to Helen, remember?” he said, looking at his reflection in super shiny file cabinet handle.
“It’s definitely not that. I just really don’t like you as a person,” I told him, patting him on the shoulder as I passed by him to grab my things.
Half of me thought he was right about my feelings for him and the other half of me wanted to knock the half that agreed with him over the head and tape its mouth shut.
17
Helen Matthew’s was still in shock over her brother’s untimely death. Since she had moved to Cat’s Cradle, I had never seen her in anything but a dress or a skirt and flouncy top, but she was sitting in front of me in sweatpants and a big t-shirt from the previous year’s pickle off.
“Have you found out anything about my brother’s murder?” she asked, her voice cracking on the word murder.
“We have three suspects. Oliva, his ex-business partner Andrew, and a mystery girl we’re still trying to get information on,” Daniel said, tapping his dress shoe clad foot against the hardwood floor.
Helen’s face contorted with confusion. “So, you have a suspect with no name? And why would you think Oliva would kill Bobby? She loved him,” she said, getting defensive.
She was right, a suspect with no name and no physical description wasn’t very much help.
“Your brother was cheating on Oliva with Pearl, the owner of Cherry on top,” I told her, pushing my mouth into a crooked line.
“The one on Main Street?” she asked.
“That’s the one, and he was also cheating on both Oliva and Pearl with the mystery girl on our suspect list.”
Daniel was staying pretty quiet and letting me do all the talking. I knew that was odd, so I looked over to ask him if he was okay, but he was gone.
“Where did he go?” I asked Oliva, pointing at the chair that Daniel had previously occupied.
“He walked to the door about five minutes ago.”
Getting up, I walked to the door and swung it open, but Daniel wasn’t anywhere in sight. His car was there, but he wasn’t.
I never saw him leave. I hoped talking to Bobby’ sister wasn’t too emotionally overwhelming for him. Walking down the steps, I heard Daniel’s voice and another familiar voice too. Taking a closer look, I saw Cole Blackwater’s car parked behind Daniels and the two men were having a very heated conversation.
“I just need to see her, it’s important,” Cole said, trying to get past Daniel to no avail. I just hoped he didn’t go all witch on him because that would have been hard to explain.
“We’re working, whichever twin you are. Listen, I saw the way you were looking at Suzie Q the other day, and I just want to let you know that you tow are never going to happen. Ever,” Daniel said, puffing out his chest.
His voice also got deeper for some reason. Must have been a guy thing.
“Who is Suzie Q? If she’s your grandmother, I didn’t mean to look at her. I stare off into space sometimes,” Cole said, causing me to laugh at him thinking Suzie Q was Daniel’s grandmother.
It did sound like the name of the old lady who greets you at the grocery store and knits sweaters for her cats while watching old black and white movies.
“Suzie Q is Malady, and I don’t like you looking at her the way you were.”
“You call her Suzie Q? No wonder she hates you,” Cole said barely containing his laughter.
“It an inside joke and she doesn’t hate me. Well, sometimes she does, but not all the time.”
That was correct. Though I wouldn’t have admitted it, my feelings for Daniel Price were akin to a ride on a seesaw. One word from him was likely to either send my side of the thing up or push it right back down.
“I don’t like her like that. I just need to talk to her about something very important,” Cole said, looking past Daniel and spotting me. “Malady! I need to talk to you about last night’s episode of Ghost Whisperer,” he said, winking at me when Daniel whipped his head around to see me.
“Recapping a TV show is this important to you? Man, that makes you even stranger and Ghost Whisperer is never new, Blackwater.”
“We’re streaming the whole series and having TV club instead of book club,” Cole said, walking my way.
He was lying, but I had to admit that he was quick on his feet and really helpful in solving a murder. “Daniel, can you go inside with Helen and let me speak with Cole? It will be quick,” I told him, pointing to Helen’s house behind me.
He didn’t look happy about it, but he eventually nodded his head in agreement and went inside of the house. He made sure to slam the door in the process. “What’s up, Cole? Is everything okay? Has Abigail tried to burn down your house or something like that?” I asked as my mind filled up with things crazy brokenhearted girls do.
He let out a small nervous laugh before shaking his head no. “No, it’s not about Abigail, but do you really think she would do something like that?” he asked with wide, terrified eyes.
The real answer was yes, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. No need to make him worry. “Of course not, Cole. I was just kidding. Now, what’s so important you had to drive all the way to Cat’s Cradle?” I asked, taking a seat on the steps of Helen’s house.
“Bobby visited me this morning while I was trying to take a shower. He wouldn’t leave no matter how much I asked him, let me tell you that guy has no boundaries. Anyway, while I was shampooing my hair he told me that the mystery girl has a connection to someone very close to the Norwood family.”
The mystery girl was somehow connected to my family, now that was something I wasn’t expecting to hear. “Did he tell you anything else?” I asked, hoping for another hint, so that figuring out Bobby’ murder would be a little easier.
“Not much else. He really just talked about how loved he was the rest of the time. I don’t like him, and I don’t believe in murder, but I can see why someone would want to kill him. He’s very unlikable.”
The Blackwater twins were like my secret weapon, and I was very thankful for them. “Thanks, Cole. If you get another visit from our victim, let me know. You’re the best,” I said, standing up to hug him.
“I know,” he said, hugging me before waving and running to his car.
I watched as he hopped inside and drove away. He wasn’t gone but a second when Daniel joined me on the porch. “How did Ghost Whisperer club go?” he asked, scoffing.
“It went very well. We just love us some Ghost Whisperer,” I said with over-exaggerated excitement.
“Right, well, I’m glad it went well. How about we get going?” he asked, walking to his car and jumping in before I even had a chance to answer.
“Always a gentleman,” I said, under my breath heading to the car.
Daniel’s latest temper tantrum wasn’t my main concern at the moment. No, it was trying to figure out who the mystery girl suspect was and what connection she had with my family.
18
“Thank you
so much for planning a lovely night out for us,” Aunt Tilly beamed, standing at the front door hand in hand with Earl.
They were dressed to the nines. Well, Aunt Tilly was, but Earl had taken a much overdue shower, so that had to count for something. I planned them a much needed night out complete with dinner reservations at the only fancy steakhouse in town and movie tickets to some sappy romantic comedy that had just released.
“We appreciate it very much,” Earl thanked me, coming in for a hug that I tried my hardest to dodge, but I failed miserably.
He squeezed me so tight I thought he was going to break me in half. “Earl, I can’t breathe,” I said, trying to break free of his grip. I was beginning to get dizzy.
Eventually, he let go, and I could breathe again. Ten minutes later they were out the door and on their way to the fabulous night I had planned for them.
“Why on earth did you plan a night for Tilly and Earl? We don’t support them remember?” Grandma Misty asked, reminding me of the mean girls in middle school who think if they don’t like someone then no one should.
I didn’t support Aunt Tilly marrying Earl, but only because he might have been a murder and because things moved way too quickly in their relationship. It was odd, especially for Aunt Tilly. Oh, and his last name was Reeks.
The last one wasn’t that big of a deal, but Reeks was a horrible last name.
“Yes, I remember, but I sent them on date night because I needed to talk to all of you without them here. I’m just waiting on a few more people to arrive for our meeting,” I told them, leaning against the wall beside the front door.
“Who exactly are you expecting?” Abigail asked, with a knowing look in her eyes.
She wasn’t going to be happy.
“Um, Christopher, Cade, and Cole,” I told her nonchalantly. She gave me a look that, if looks could kill, would have made me drop dead.
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