A Witch on Mintwood Mountain (Witch of Mintwood Book 4)

by Addison Creek

  “Definitely record turnout,” said Charlie. “Maybe I should do a story.”

  I couldn’t help it when my eyes slid to the Mintwood Gift Shop. Everything looked the same as usual.

  “They’re open for business,” said Greer quietly.

  “It’s just like nothing happened at all,” affirmed Charlie.

  Liam waved to us from where he stood on the lawn; he was talking to Jimmy News himself. The young candidate was decked out in buttons and ill-fitting gray dress pants. There was a greasy mark on the fabric from his bicycle chain.

  “Lemmi! Great to see you!” Liam had been talking, but Jimmy News interrupted him and brushed right past him when he saw us walking in their direction.

  “Hey Jimmy, how’s campaigning?” I said.

  “The townspeople are awesome. I’m so glad I’ve gotten to enjoy such elevated dialogue with everyone. It’s truly inspiring. After I’m elected I’ll do my best to get to the bottom of the ghost disaster.”

  I thought disaster was a little strong, but there was no point in telling him it wasn’t really ghosts.

  “How are you?” he asked me.

  “I’m good,” I said.

  “We should go vote,” said Greer, saving me.

  “Of course you should,” said Jimmy enthusiastically. “Do you want a vote for Jimmy sticker?”

  “No, we’re girls. We don’t want to mess up our blouses,” Greer said, never mind that she herself was wearing a torn t-shirt. She took me firmly by the arm and propelled me toward the line; as we went, we waved goodbye to Liam, who was standing there in bemusement. Charlie trotted along behind us.

  “What are the odds he gets elected?” Greer asked through gritted teeth.

  “Slim to none,” said Charlie.

  Mayor Clabberd was standing at the entrance to the town hall, smiling and shaking hands with everyone who stopped to chat with him. We didn’t stop, and he didn’t acknowledge us in any way. I guess my top secret mission was truly just that, top secret. But the mayor looked more relaxed than I had seen him for a good long while.

  Maybe Charlie’s article had helped.

  That night we paid a celebratory visit to Greer at the bar. I was reluctant to go, but my friends convinced me that I had to get out of the house and have some fun. Deacon had asked all of us to meet him there for food and catching up.

  Everyone in town was overjoyed that the election was over, and all that was left was the tallying of the votes. Tomorrow we would know. In the meantime, I wanted to celebrate the fact that I had solved the Missing Hiker Mystery, while simultaneously learning something very important about myself: never again was I going to go nighttime hiking.

  Deacon, Jasper, and Liam were already at the bar when we got there. The three of them were sitting at a table, not at the bar, laughing uproariously. They all had heaping piles of food on their plates, and I had the distinct impression that Greer had told the chef to give them extra big helpings. There were just too many of us to fit at the crowded bar, which was fine with me.

  Deacon, Jasper, and Liam stood up as Charlie and I approached.

  “Greer has her break soon and she’s going to come say hi,” said Deacon, beaming.

  “Awesome,” said Charlie. “I’m starving.”

  In the jumble of chair shifting as we all greeted each other, I ended up between Liam and Jasper. On instinct, I locked my arms to my sides, a blush already rising up my cheeks.

  Couldn’t I just act normally in Jasper’s presence?

  Apparently not.

  Charlie had just finished deciding to order a chicken Caesar salad when Greer plopped down in a chair next to Deacon.

  “I’m exhausted,” she said. “Keeping people in line takes a lot of energy.”

  Deacon reached out and started to rub her shoulders, and Greer, despite loathing PDA, let him.

  She really must be tired, is what I concluded from that.

  “You’re doing great,” he said, smiling at her.

  “Everyone’s so excited the election is over, they all decided to come here to celebrate,” said Greer, shaking her head. “Not that I mind. I get so bored when the place is empty.”

  “How does everyone think it turned out?” Charlie asked curiously.

  “Is this for a story?” Greer asked.

  “Of course,” said Charlie.

  “Fine, just don’t quote me. Everyone thinks the mayor won, but they’re all saying it quietly. Turns out Mrs. Michell has a source inside the town hall who doesn’t think Jimmy News is going to get that many votes.”

  “Does Mrs. Michell now come to the bar with Mr. Michell?” Liam asked. “That would be something.”

  “Mrs. Michell realized that there are advantages to having her husband not come home one night a week. She’s apparently started a book club and made an excellent cheese plate for the occasion.”

  “Smart woman,” said Liam.

  “Now Mr. Michell gets to be polite to me at the bar once a week,” Greer smirked.

  “He better be polite to you,” said Deacon warningly.

  Neither Jasper nor I had joined in the chit-chat yet. I desperately wanted to know how he had voted, but I was afraid to ask.

  “Any more midnight jaunts?” he whispered to me while the others talked.

  My breath caught. Eventually I brought myself to say, “So what if there were?”

  A smile touched his lips. “I’d just hate to think I made an impression on you,” he said, his voice still low. He was staring straight ahead. Neither of us was looking at the other, but he was the only thing in the whole bar that I was aware of.

  “How would you have done that?” I demanded, my voice just as low.

  “By wanting you to stop putting yourself in danger,” he said.

  “Oh, no, you certainly didn’t make an impression on me there,” I said, tossing my head. “I can take care of myself.”

  “I know that,” he said.

  “You do?” My voice was louder than I had meant it to be, but Liam and Deacon had started an argument about whether cheddar or American cheese was better on a burger, and nothing else mattered to them at the moment.

  “Of course,” he said. “You’re a capable woman. I know that. So are your friends, but just because you’re capable doesn’t mean I’m not going to worry about you. In fact, I’m going to worry about you more, because you’re going to be out there in the world standing up for yourself and taking risks.”

  “I’d hardly call Mintwood the whole world,” I muttered.

  “It’s our world,” he said, “and it’s plenty dangerous, or so it appears.”

  He had me there. I had now solved an impressive four ghost mysteries (but who was counting?), and all of them had involved deaths.

  “But we agreed you had no place to lecture me about the risks I take,” I shot back.

  “What if I wanted a place?” he asked softly. For the first time since I’d sat down and greeted him he turned those bright green eyes on me. I literally melted on my chair, then dripped into a soggy puddle on the floor. Yes, his look was that intense.

  “Um,” was all I managed to say, knowing that my face had turned a bright red.

  “Think about it,” he said quietly.

  Sure, when I can think again I’ll think about it, I told myself. At the moment I was just going to enjoy sitting next to Jasper Wolf while I tried not to notice my heart thumping wildly.

  The six of us spent the rest of the night laughing and chatting as the bar continued to overflow with revelers. Never had I seen so many people happy to have voted in an election.

  “I’d be shocked if the mayor doesn’t win in a landslide,” said Charlie.

  “It’ll be good to find out,” said Liam. “Speaking of, did you ever find out who was stealing from Mr. Franklin?”

  Charlie’s face instantly clouded.

  “I plan on finding out soon,” she said. “It has to have been someone swift and very capable not to have gotten caught by this time.”


  “Yeah, they’re clearly something special to have avoided detection for this long,” said Liam thoughtfully. “It’s a mystery.”

  I enjoyed the whole night. I never completely forgot about my grandmother, but being with my best friends was a great distraction. I did forget about the Missing Hiker Mystery after a while. Another case would come along soon enough, but I wasn’t going to worry about it until it happened.

  Tomorrow we would find out who won the election. I had already solved the ghost mystery, and I wondered what another day would bring. In a town like Mintwood, you never really knew.

  Epilogue

  The next morning, Greer and I woke up all excited to find out who had won the election. Strangely enough, there was no paper waiting for us in the driveway. For some unfathomable reason, it hadn’t been delivered.

  “Charlie said she’d meet us at the Daily Brew, so let’s have breakfast there,” said Greer. “We deserve it.”

  I couldn’t have agreed more.

  Mintwood was eerily quiet as we drove downtown. There were only a few people on the streets, and they were walking alone with their heads down, avoiding eye contact. Something big had happened, and everyone was in shock.

  We found Charlie at the Daily Brew and sat down to talk. She was furious.

  “First of all, they have a report on what happened at Farmer Franklin’s barn,” she said. “It was an accident. Someone was irresponsible with some fireplace ashes, and they blew into the barn and it caught fire. Insurance is going to cover the cost, so Farmer Franklin is actually excited that it happened! He’s going to have a beautiful new barn, and now he doesn’t believe ghosts had anything to do with it!”

  “I’m glad they got to the bottom of it,” said Greer, “and especially glad it wasn’t arson. I couldn’t figure out why anyone would destroy a perfectly beautiful old barn like that intentionally.”

  “They didn’t,” Charlie huffed.

  “What else is bothering you?” I asked. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Charlie had more on her mind than just the news about the fire.

  “Tell me who was taking Farmer Franklin’s tools,” she said. “I’m in danger of losing the story to Hansen Gregory, and I won’t have it. If you don’t tell me now, I’ll assume it’s ghosts and go on record with that theory.”

  I nodded to Greer, who fished the crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket and slid it across the table to Charlie.

  Charlie took it and read the name. For the briefest of moments her face was blank, then she burst out laughing.

  But before she could say a word, a commotion outside distracted us all. Everyone in the café rushed to the window, so we rushed along with them.

  “Mayor Clabberd is giving a victory march and everyone in town is joining in,” someone called out.

  People started to stream out of the coffee shop, and we went with the flow of the crowd. As we left, Charlie threw the little note in the trash and I watched it flutter as it fell.

  The piece of paper read, “Humphrey.”

  The End

  ~

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  By Addison Creek

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