The Book Of Ill Deeds_A Paranormal Cozy Mystery

by Phaedra Weldon

  SEVEN

  Mr. Willmington agreed to meet up with me and David at the Castle Inn Lounge in an hour. We finished dinner and afterward David and I cleaned up the dishes. I have to say, I amazed myself at how calm I was around David, knowing he was a bloodsucker. Yeah I’d watched vampire movies and read vampire books, but they’d gotten it all wrong, just as they always got witches wrong too.

  The temperature outside dropped when the sun went down. I grabbed a heavier coat but David seemed fine in his suit jacket and jeans. He looked good in it. I guess that was one thing they got right. Vampires are sexy gorgeous.

  And this one was a doctor!

  David drove to the Castle Inn where we ran inside, me because I was cold and David because he kept up with me. The lounge was a part of the Inn and one of the few places in Castle Falls that served alcohol and had live entertainment. Not tonight though.

  A few patrons dotted the chairs, drinking and eating, laughing and talking. The bartender nodded to us as we walked in and a man waved at us from the back.

  When he stood I got a good look at him. He was shorter than me by a foot. Balding, with a thick handle-bar mustache and the lingering aroma of pungent aftershave. He gave my hand a tight, vigorous handshake, then repeated the action with David’s hand before gesturing to his table.

  A waiter appeared and took our drink order. I wanted a virgin daiquiri and David ordered a Coke, straight up.

  “Okay, look,” Charles wiped his mouth with a cloth napkin and set it to the side. He had a plate of half-eaten chicken wings in front of him. “Mavis called and let me know youse was looking for me.”

  “I’m glad you cleared up how you knew I was asking questions,” I said. “You and Mavis are friends?”

  He winced. “I think that’s a discussion for another time. So for right now, you two need to stop asking so many questions.”

  “Questions about what?” David said as the waiter brought our drinks.

  My daiquiri was sweet and coconutty and wonderful. David didn’t touch his Coke.

  Charles finished off his drink. From the smell, I’d say it was Bourbon. “About that book. The one Manchester was looking for.”

  David and I glanced at each other. I leaned into the table. “Mr. Willmington—”

  “Call me Charles.”

  “Charles, we weren’t asking about the book. We only asked Mavis if she knew you. See,” I reached into my bag and pulled out his card. “We got this from the guy at the front desk of the library.”

  Charles looked at his card and his shoulders slumped. “So the front desk guy still had it? Aw nuts. I wanted him to give it to the Head Librarian. She’s the one I needed to talk to. You know, she was right there when I and Manchester had words. Stood right outside the door and watched, but never broke us up. And when Manchester left, she disappeared. Of course, I didn’t know she was the one I needed to talk to.”

  I felt something nagging at me again. Which meant there was something important here. I just couldn’t figure out which part. “Let me get this straight. You argued with Hardin Manchester in front of the library, the day before he died.”

  “Yeah.”

  “What about?” David asked.

  “It was really weird,” Charles sat back. “See, I’d met Manchester before that day. He showed up at my shop in Raleigh about a month ago. He was looking for this ridiculous book. Something about a tome—”

  “The Tome of Castamundos,” David filled in.

  “Yeah,” Charles pointed at him. “That one. That book wasn’t even on my radar and I deal in rare finds, you know. Wasn’t in my own personal database. I thought he was making it up, I mean, with a title like that? So he left. Wasn’t long after that, maybe a week or so, I get another customer asking about the same book. I told them what I knew and that was that. I come here, cause I had this trip planned a while you see, and I’m heading to the library because I wanted to check to see if they had any rare books they didn’t know about.” He smacked his hand on the table. “Right there, coming out of the building was Hardin Manchester. He didn’t recognize me at first so I reminded him. And I felt obligated to let him know there was someone else asking about the same book.

  “The guy went nuts on me, right there in front of the library. Got all up in my face, wanted to know what they said and who they were. Wanted a description of who it was.”

  “Did you give it to him?” I found myself on the edge of my seat listening to this guy.

  “Nope. It was all done in emails. So I didn’t know who he or she was. That just made him madder. So he wanted the email address.”

  “Did you give it to him?” David asked.

  “Yeah,” he reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a tiny notepad like the detectives always use in the movies or TV series. He snagged a pencil from his pocket and wrote it down before he tore off the paper and put it on the table.

  Cerysera.

  That was a strange name. The first five letters spelled the Celtic word for love. I looked back at Charles. “I’m guessing Mr. Manchester still wasn’t happy?”

  “No. He told me not to talk to anyone else about the book. Threatened something terrible would happen to me. So when I got to my hotel room that night, I told—” he stopped. “I made sure to make notes of it all. You know, so’s I wouldn’t forget it. Cause you know if you write something down you’re less likely to forget it.”

  “Yeah,” but I’d caught the slip. He told someone what happened when he got back to his hotel room. And I wonder why Mavis’ name popped into my head. I could have pushed him further, but I figured if he and Mavis had something going on, it was none of my business.

  And oh dear if Mama D ever found out. She’d be all over Mavis like odor on a dog poopy.

  “Did this mysterious Cerysera person give you any hint as to why they were looking for it?” David asked.

  I focused on my Daiquiri and drank it quickly. I figured once we got what we needed we’d be heading back to Mama D’s. But I drank the frozen goody too fast.

  Och. Brain Freeze.

  I pinched the bridge of my nose.

  “I hate it when that happens,” Charles pointed at me and my obvious distress before he refocused on David. “They didn’t say. Just said they were looking for it. They had a buyer who would pay over six figures for it.”

  I forgot about my brain-freeze.

  Six figures?!

  For a book?

  Maybe I should pay more attention to Mama D’s massive book collection in the living room. Or all those books in the attic! Wow.

  We thanked Charles for his time and he paid for our drinks. Said he’d use his expense account. David drove us back to Mama D’s and walked me to the door.

  “Well,” he said as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “This has been a pretty…odd day.”

  “I think it’s been a full day,” I said and clasped my hands in front of me, clutching my bag. “I just got here this morning, and already I have my granny home, I’m in the middle of a strange mystery and I met a vampire.”

  He smiled at me. “Let’s just keep the vampire thing between us? I know about this town—about the undercurrent of unconventional conventionals. And though most people are more accepting of vampires these days, they’re not so much with vampires who blend in more easily. They like us having all those bits of kryptonite.”

  “I will. But I’m sure you still have kryptonite. Just not like it used to be.” I knitted my brows together. “How do the other vampires like it? I mean, the ones who still have all the kryptonite parts intact?”

  “Oh,” David took in a deep breath and then released it. “Let’s just say we don’t always get along. I try to avoid any…entanglements with the Old Guard.”

  “Old Guard,” Ookay. I smirked at him. “Well, I’m happy my first vampire is part of the new guard.”

  “Thanks,” He smiled at me and then he looked really awkward as he turned, then looked back at me. My voice caught in my throat as he abrupt
ly moved in close and kissed me. It was a chaste, sweet kiss, with his lips pressing mine. He pulled back and ducked his head before ran back to his car.

  I smiled as he sped off. As I stepped into Mama D’s house, my fingers lightly touched the kiss he’d left behind.

  A loud banging woke me. Lights flashed the window of my room. Red, white, blue…and it wasn’t the Fourth of July. I heard voices downstairs and quickly slipped my robe on. My white bunny slippers were by the door.

  And sitting in front of the door was Max.

  “Have you been in here all night?”

  “Meerw.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes.” I put on the slippers then opened my door. Max dashed past me and down the stairs.

  The voices became louder and clearer. I recognized Mama D’s voice and then a man’s voice. I paused at the bottom of the steps. Was that the Sheriff?

  “Look I’m sorry, Mrs. Donahue, but I need to talk to her too.”

  Her? I put my hand on my chin. Was he talking about me?

  Burt glided down the hall and crash landed on my shoulder, but mostly in my hair. I helped right him and he looked up at me from my hands. “He wants to talk to you. What’d you do?”

  “Me?” I whispered. “I didn’t do anything. But maybe I should get dressed before I go down there.”

  “I think that’s a plan. I’ll keep an eye on Mama.” He took off and headed back through the doorway into the living room.

  I tiptoed back up the steps and got dressed as quickly as I could as the voices got louder. I figured the Sheriff had moved from the door to the bottom of the stairs.

  “Ginger! This is Sheriff Danvers. I need you to come down here!”

  I grabbed my purse and looked at my phone. There were three messages from David and one from Charles Willmington.

  Why would Willmington be calling me?

  “Ginger!”

  Och. I slipped the phone into my bag and stepped outside the door. I could see down the steps from where my door was upstairs and Sheriff Danvers was staring up at me. “What is it?”

  “I need you to come down here.”

  I came down the steps and moved to stand by Mama D, who looked ready to zap the Sheriff into next week. “What’s going on?”

  “Did you meet with a man named Charles Willmington tonight at the Castle Falls Inn lounge?”

  I blinked at him. How did he—? I mean, there weren’t that many people there. And no one I knew. “Yeah. David and I met with him after he called me.”

  “David?”

  “David Flanagan.”

  Sheriff Danvers put his hand on his face in frustration. “You mean you dragged the new doctor into this?”

  “Into what?” I put my hands on my hips. “Sheriff—” I glanced at the Felix the Cat clock in the kitchen. “You come barging in here at six in the morning demanding to see me and you haven’t said why.”

  “Ginger, Charles Willmington—”

  “Is dead,” Mama D finished. “And this trigger happy blow-hard thinks you had something to do with it.”

  I grabbed the stair rail. “Wait…I just talked to him.”

  “We know,” Sheriff Danvers said.

  “How did he die?”

  “I don’t think we should talk about that until you answer some questions.”

  “That means he doesn’t know,” Mama D said. “You called Doc Flanagan yet?”

  Sheriff Danvers pivoted on his shiny black shoes and glared down at my granny. “I can’t now because he’s a suspect too.”

  “Too?” My momentary shock dissipated pretty fast. “You’re thinking I had something to do with it?”

  “You were the last person to see him.” Sheriff Danvers looked back up at me where I stood half-way down the stairs.

  Now it was my turn to cross my arms over my chest. “Sheriff, David and I chatted with him at eight o’clock last night. We left at eight forty. And I have been here all night, and it’s now six o’clock. Do you really think I’m the last person he saw?”

  “Well, I don’t know—”

  “You don’t even know how he died,” Mama D said as she held her hands in the air in frustration. “Billy, you got a lot of nerve coming into my house and accusing my granddaughter, just days after accusing me of murdering another man.”

  “Mama D,” Danvers pointed in the direction of the shop. “There’s a dead man across the street from your house. The other man died inside your shop. It’s looking a bit suspicious, don’t you think?”

  “Wait—” I came down to the last step and put my bag on the end of the railing. “Willmington’s body is across the street?” I ran under Danvers’ arms and headed out the door of the shop. The lights from two cruisers almost blinded me. Deputy Perrin was there as well. And at that moment, a very familiar mint green Impala as it stopped, spewing gravel to the side. David got out, wearing jeans, a sweatshirt, a long coat and sneakers, carrying a black bag in his hand.

  “Wait just a minute,” Sheriff Danvers came out of the shop with his hand raised. “I need you to step back, Doc.”

  “Step back?” he said as he looked from me, to the area across the street with the yellow tape around it, and back to the Sheriff. “I got a call there was a victim over here.” And then he looked at me again and I thought I saw relief on his face.

  “Yeah, I had Mrs. Rosepurse call you. But that was before I knew you were with Ginger when she talked to Charles Willmington last night.”

  David frowned. “What has that got to do with this body—” His eyes widened. “You mean the body is Charles Willmington? But we just talked to him.”

  “So I heard,” Sheriff Danvers said. “All right. Perrin, just keep things in order here. Ginger, I need you and the Doc to come with me to the station.”

  “But Sheriff,” David began.

  “No buts. Let’s go.”

  I didn’t protest as Mama D handed me my bag. “Happens all the time. Fool always gets the wrong people. Pick up some potatoes on the way home.”

  EIGHT

  At the station, in Sheriff Danvers office, David and I retold the events from yesterday. All of it.

  “So let me get this straight,” Sheriff pointed at David. “You took her to see Manchester’s car.”

  “Yes.”

  “And you found a library card with Manchester’s name on it.”

  “Yes.”

  Sheriff Danvers look at me. “So you both went to the library where Mildred Thumper had her little confrontation.”

  I frowned. “Yeah, but how did you know that?”

  “Do you know how many times that woman sends me emails with her complaints about everyone in this town?” Sheriff Danvers looked harried. “Never mind. It’s a lot. She was the first person to tell me you two were paling around yesterday. So, you talked to the Librarian, Miss…” he snapped his fingers.

  “Cassandra Walker,” I said. “And she said Hardin Manchester had come in looking for a book called the Tome of Castamundus—”

  “Bad title,” the Sheriff said.

  “Agreed. She told him she knew nothing about it and it wasn’t in the Library. But he insisted it was and accused her of hiding it from him after filling out a library card.”

  “That’s weird.”

  David spoke up. “We learned that Manchester had bumped into Willmington outside and they argued. Then Willmington gave the guy at the front desk his business card.”

  “Which we got and then found another one at Magpies & Muffins. It was stapled on the board by the coat tree.”

  Sheriff Danvers frowned. “So you called him and set up a meeting to talk to him about Manchester?”

  “No,” I shook my head. “He called me.”

  “Willmington called you…” Sheriff Danvers sighed. “And?”

  I told him everything I could think of from our conversation with Willmington. David put in a few details here and there. When I was finished, I put my hand on my thighs. “So, that’s it. That’s all we know.”

&n
bsp; “Write down that email name,” Sheriff Danvers handed me his cop notebook and pen. I noticed he had the same pen Willmington had had. It was a library pen. “They give a bunch of these away recently?” I wrote the name and handed it to him. “I was gonna look up the email address. Maybe try to identify its IP or something.”

  “You,” Danvers put the notebook back into his uniform jacket pocket. “Will do no such thing. Stay out of it, Ginger. Better yet, go back to California where it’s safer.”

  “I…can’t,” I said with a frown. “I let my lease lapse. I’m here for a while.”

  “Really?” David smiled at me.

  “Oh great,” Sheriff pushed back from the table. “Then just…do whatever it is you and your granny do and let the police do the police business. Doc, I will allow you to examine the body but you can’t participate this time. It’ll have to be all Dr. Helena.”

  “Who’s Dr. Helena?” I asked.

  “She’s the Chief Medical Examiner over at Will Martin General.” David smiled. “I’m just a general practitioner,” he put his hand on his chest. “But I have worked in the M.E.’S office before.”

  “Oh.” I looked at David. “You have Dr. Horner’s old office and patients.”

  “Yes. And I took over his assistant duties at the Coroner’s office.” He looked at Danvers. “How long will it take getting Maggie on it?”

  “Not sure. Mrs. Rosepurse?”

  Maggie. He and this Dr. Helena were on a first name basis? I didn’t like the fact that…well, I didn’t like that. Which seemed a bit ridiculous because I barely knew David. Did Dr. Helena know David was a vampire?

  Mrs. Rosepurse appeared in Danvers’ door instantly, proving my suspicion she’d been listening in outside the door. “I’m on it,” she said and pulled out her cell phone.

  I leaned forward and whispered, “You know she’s going to share everything we just said with her gossip biddies.”

  “I’m counting on it,” Sheriff Danvers said.

  Making a face, I asked, “Who found him?”

  “Paperboy. Scared the crap out of him,” Sheriff Danvers said. He stood and put his hands on his hips. “And I mean it, Ginger. Don’t do what your sister always does.”