Witch Pie: A Witch Squad Holiday Special (A Witch Squad Cozy Mystery Book 4)

by M. Z. Andrews

  I looked at Alba. “What’s his full name, Alba?”

  Alba looked up at Detective Whitman and cleared her throat. I thought her eyes looked a bit glossy too, but I couldn’t be sure. “Umm, Anthony Roberto Sanchez,” she replied hoarsely.

  “Can you give me a physical description?”

  “He’s 6’4” about 230 pounds. He’s Hispanic and got dark brown hair and brown eyes. He’s twenty-four years old. He drives a 2008 Ford Focus, red, four-door,” she said quietly.

  The fact that Alba wasn’t her usual take-charge-self, concerned me, but I knew it was too early to go getting freaked out.

  “When is the last time you heard from him?” Detective Whitman looked at Alba.

  “On the day I flew out here, in September. We haven’t really been in contact,” Alba admitted.

  “Do you know the last time he was in contact with anyone in New Jersey?”

  Alba nodded. “My mom said it was the day after Halloween. He left to come and see me. They thought he was here already. He works for the family business. Mom said he had four weeks of vacation he’d saved up and he was going to stay with me through Thanksgiving and then come home. Mom said the family didn’t want me to be alone on Thanksgiving,” Alba said quietly.

  The girls and I looked at her as her voice shifted from quiet to broken at the end. I was sure her eyes were glossy now. I put a hand around her waist and leaned my head on her shoulder. “We’ll find him, Alba, don’t worry.”

  Alba blinked several times in quick succession to break up the dampness in her eyes and then nodded. “I know we will.”

  “I’ll need his license plate number and his cell phone number,” Detective Whitman said and slid a piece of paper across the desk to Alba.

  She quickly wrote down the numbers, passing the paper back to Detective Whitman.

  “I’m really sorry you’re going through this, Alba. You girls have had a tough school year. But don’t worry. We’ll find your husband. I’ll make some calls. I’ll be in touch when I have any information.”

  “Thank you, Detective Whitman,” Holly said quietly.

  The five of us walked out of the Aspen Falls Police Station with our heads hanging low and fear heavy in our hearts.

  We got as far as Sweets’ car, parked just down the street, when Detective Whitman came barreling back out of the police station.

  “Girls!” he hollered excitedly. “Wait!”

  The five of us turned around at the same time to see him jogging down the sidewalk in his khaki sports coat and denim jeans.

  “We have his car,” he said, only slightly winded from the short jog.

  “What?” Alba asked with surprise.

  “We have his car. When you left, I gave Officer Vargas the details on the car so he could run the plates and he remembered it.”

  “He saw the car?” I asked astounded.

  “No, he didn’t physically see the car,” he explained. “Another one of our officers had it impounded. Vargas just remembered them talking about it.”

  “Are you sure it’s the same car?” Alba asked. “I’m sure there are a lot of red Ford Focus’ around.”

  “We could run down to the impound lot and check it out?” Detective Whitman suggested.

  Sweets clapped her hands together. “We will follow you, Detective! Lead the way.”

  4

  There really wasn’t much to the Aspen Falls impound lot. I think I was expecting like a junk yard with acres upon acres of abandoned vehicles. Instead, there were four cars and a beat up pickup truck in a little chain-link fenced in area two blocks away from the police station.

  “This is it?” Jax asked as we approached the lot by foot.

  “This is it,” Detective Whitman said. Pulling a set of keys out of his pocket, he unlocked the gate and swung it open. “Recognize the car, Alba?”

  Alba inched towards the solitary red vehicle in the lot, parked between two other vehicles. Sure enough, it had New Jersey license plates and a NY Giants bumper sticker on the rear bumper.

  “It’s Tony’s,” she said without taking her eyes off of the car. “I don’t understand. If his car made it to town, where is he?”

  Detective Whitman shrugged one shoulder. “I have no idea. We’ll have to piece all of that together, but don’t worry. We will. His car is here, that’s a good sign. He made it this far. We’ll take a peek inside the car and see if we can find any clues.”

  Alba nodded.

  “The keys were inside the car when the officers found it,” Detective Whitman revealed. He pulled a pair of rubber gloves out of his jacket pocket and wiggling his fingers, he pulled them on, then pulled out a set of tagged keys. “I’ll unlock it and see if anything immediately jumps out at us, but absolutely no touching. Got it?” he asked, pointing at Alba seriously.

  “Yeah, got it,” Alba grunted unhappily.

  Alba and Detective Whitman walked around to the driver’s side door, and immediately Alba sucked in her breath.

  “What?” Jax gasped.

  Alba pointed at the windshield and the nose of the car. “The windshield is busted, and the front end is smashed!”

  Jax and I wedged ourselves between the pickup truck and the passenger side of Tony’s car to see what Alba and Detective Whitman were seeing. The windshield on the driver’s side had an enormous amount of spider webbing, and the entire hood of the car had been crumpled.

  “Oh my gosh!” Jax cried. “I hope Tony’s alright!”

  My eyes met Alba’s. I could clearly see the fear in them, as she furrowed her eyebrows and peered into the car. It looked like Tony’s head had struck the window inside.

  Detective Whitman unlocked the door and opened it. Alba peered inside. Almost immediately a tear rolled down her cheek. She turned around to strut back towards the rear of the car. “I can’t do this,” she said flatly.

  “What is it? What did you see?” I shouted across the hood of the car.

  Detective Whitman looked inside the car. He sighed and shook his head sadly when he saw what Alba had just seen.

  “What? What is it?” Jax asked impatiently. “Tell us!”

  I scooted myself back down towards the passenger’s side window and peered inside, cupping my eyes to fight the glare on the glass. There on the passenger’s side floor was a bouquet of dried, crunchy flowers wrapped in cellophane.

  My heart fell for Alba. Tony – her unromantic, bad communicator husband – had driven five and a half hours to surprise his wife with a bouquet of flowers and to make sure that she wasn’t alone on Thanksgiving. And now he was missing with a presumed injury.

  “Alba,” I said, as I walked towards her. She had her back to us, with her arms crossed across her chest and one hand covering her eyes.

  When I got close enough, she held a hand back to stop me. “I need a minute. Please?”

  I nodded and retreated. Together, Jax, Holly, Sweets, and I stood together in a solemn huddle – unsure of what to say or to do to make it all better.

  Suddenly, Holly spun around to look at Detective Whitman who was investigating the car. “Detective?” she called out.

  He pulled his head out of the car. “Yeah?”

  “Can – can I touch the car? Just the outside? Maybe I’ll see something?” Holly suggested, offering up her psychic abilities.

  Detective Whitman considered her request for a moment. “You just need to touch the outside of the car?”

  Holly shrugged. “I don’t know, honestly. I haven’t had much luck summoning my visions. They usually just happen randomly, but if I can help. If I can try, I have to help Alba find Tony.”

  He nodded and pointed towards the back end of the car. “I guess it won’t hurt. Try touching it. See if it sparks anything.”

  “Sweets,” I said quietly. “Help me catch her if she falls?”

  Sweets nodded, and the two of us got behind Holly. Her visions tended to put her in a catatonic state until it passed. If it was going to work, she’d likely fall over. We pre
pared ourselves to catch her.

  “We’re ready, Holly,” I said.

  Holly nodded, closed her eyes, and placed one hand on the back of Tony’s car. She stood like that, breathing normally, for fifteen seconds before opening her eyes. Sadly she shook her head at us.

  My heart dropped. Sweets and I hung our heads.

  Alba, who had turned around to see if it would work, turned away again.

  “Detective. Maybe I need to sit in the car – touch what he touched, sit where he sat, you know? Can I try? I’ll just touch the steering wheel, nothing else, I promise.”

  Detective Whitman winced. “I really don’t want to see you hurting our chances of finding DNA evidence if there was any kind of foul play at work here.”

  “But if my visions work, it could potentially tell us more than DNA evidence ever would,” Holly argued.

  Detective Whitman bobbled his head on his shoulders a bit and then finally relented. “Ok,” he sighed. “Just you. Just once. If it doesn’t work, we’re not going to go spreading any more of your prints around this vehicle, understand? Last chance.”

  Holly held up a flattened palm. “Promise.” She walked past him, between the two vehicles and squeezed into the driver’s seat. “Here I go,” she said before putting both of her hands on the steering wheel and closing her eyes.

  It didn’t even take a second, after grasping the wheel, before a vision transported Holly’s mind to another place. Her arms tensed, her body shifted back against the seat, and her head lolled back on her shoulders.

  “It worked!” Detective Whitman cried out. “She’s out. Is she going to be ok?”

  I looked at Sweets. “You have any snacks on you?”

  Sweets pulled a candy bar out of her pocket. “I came prepared,” she said with a smile. Holly’s visions often made her weak – we’d learned that a glass of juice or a piece of chocolate often times helped her feel better upon waking up.

  The vision must have been a short one. Holly woke up only several long seconds later.

  “She’s awake already!” Jax hollered. “Hurry, Sweets, hand me the candy bar.”

  Sweets tossed the bar to Jax.

  “Here, Holly, take a bite,” Jax offered to Holly.

  Holly looked up at Jax as if she’d just woken up from a long nap and was disoriented. “Was I out long?” Holly asked, breathlessly.

  “No, it was only a few seconds. Are you ok?” Jax asked her. “I have something here for you to eat.”

  Holly shook her head. “I’m ok, actually. A little light-headed, but I feel better than I usually do. Maybe my tolerance is getting stronger.”

  “Are you strong enough to tell us what you saw?” I asked her.

  “I saw Tony!” she exclaimed. “He was alive. He had a bandage on his head, and he was awake. He was sitting in a chair.”

  Alba flew towards Holly in the car. “You’re sure? Tony was alive?”

  Holly nodded vigorously, giddy to get to share such wonderful news. “Yes! I’m sure. He was alive. He was just sitting in a chair, like he was staring into space or watching TV or something.”

  “You couldn’t see what he was looking at?” Alba asked.

  “No, I could only see him. It was like he was in a living room somewhere. A house.”

  “Whose house?” Sweets asked.

  Holly slowly got out of the car.

  “Whoa,” Detective Whitman said as Holly’s legs almost gave out underneath her. “Maybe it’s too soon to get up.”

  Holly shook her head. “I feel ok. My legs just feel a little weak. They’ll get stronger. I don’t know whose house it was. The chair was kind of a mustard yellow color, and the wall behind him was dark colored. Brown. Like wood paneling. But he was alive, Alba!”

  “Woohoo!” I hollered from behind the car. The excitement over Tony not being dead made my heart jump. I raced towards Alba and launched myself at her. “Tony’s alive, Alba! Now, all we have to do is go find him!”

  Alba looked at me. Her face was brighter than it had been, but I could still see the worry lines on her forehead. “But I don’t know where we start?”

  “Well, I’m going to go back to the office and see what my officers know about that car. Where it was found and if they had any information on whom it belonged to,” said Detective Whitman.

  “And you and I can start following up on the leads we have,” I told Alba. “He had a bandage on. He was probably taken to the Aspen Falls Medical Center. There are also the flowers in the front seat. I’ve seen that wrapper before. Hugh brought me flowers wrapped in the same stuff. They had to be local. We’ll call Hugh and see where he got the flowers, and then we’ll go see if the florist remembers seeing Tony. Maybe that can help us piece this puzzle together.”

  Alba shook her head. “What I don’t understand is, if he was hurt, why wouldn’t he call me?”

  “Maybe his phone broke,” Jax suggested.

  Alba shot Jax a look. “They have phones all over the place. If he wanted to use a phone, someone would have let him use their phone.”

  Jax’s mouth formed a circle as she looked down at her feet. “Oh.”

  “But we’re going to figure this out. He’s safe and sound somewhere, so don’t worry. Ok?” I said.

  Alba nodded. “Yeah, ok.”

  “Ok, well, it’s getting late. I’m sure the florist is closed by now. Let’s go back to the Institute and grab dinner – this has been a lot to handle, and you need to eat something. We’ll look for Tony first thing in the morning,” I said. “Come on girls, let’s get Alba home.”

  5

  The next morning at breakfast long faces filled the table. Detective Whitman’s call the night before to tell us that he’d checked with the morgue and discovered that there hadn’t been any recent John Doe’s that matched Tony’s description, had done little to set our minds at ease. He’d given us another piece of bad news, Tony’s car, which had been discovered abandoned on the side of the road, still contained Tony’s wallet and cell phone in the center console of the car and all of his luggage was still in the trunk.

  Alba picked at her breakfast half-heartedly. “Ugh, I’m just sick to my stomach,” she finally said, throwing her fork down into her biscuits and gravy. “I can’t eat!”

  I nodded and looked at my Batman watch. “It’s almost 9, Alba. The florist will open soon – we’ll go there first and get that out of the way – then we’ll go to the hospital and see if he was ever seen there.”

  She threw her head down onto her hands on the table. “I barely slept last night,” she complained. “I just kept wondering if he’s alive and ok, why hasn’t he called me? Do you think maybe he decided that he doesn’t want to be with me anymore?”

  Sweets shook her head vigorously. “You can’t think like that. Maybe he just forgot your number. I know I don’t know my own phone number without looking it up on my phone!”

  “Sweets. Tony could figure out my phone number, even if he forgot it. He just doesn’t want to see me,” Alba said sadly.

  “Ugh,” I groaned. “Quit thinking negative! Tony is fine. We just need to find him.”

  Holly looked around the table as it grew silent. “We need to talk about something else. Tony is alive. I saw him, and this doom and gloom is depressing!”

  Sweets raised her hand. “Ooh. Can we talk about the pie contest I’m entering? Because I actually need your help.”

  “Seriously Sweets? You want to talk about pie at a time like this?” I asked her.

  She shrugged. “What? Holly said we should change the subject. Pie is as harmless as it gets!”

  “Fine,” I growled. “What do you need help with?”

  “Well, I called my mom last night to get the recipe for the Witch Pie that my grandmother used to make. And my mom said that the reason we haven’t had it since grandma passed was because she took the recipe to the grave with her! Mom doesn’t have it.”

  Holly shifted in her seat. “Well, that’s unfortunate. Are you just going to u
se a different recipe?”

  Sweets’ eyes widened. “Are you kidding?” she scoffed. “Hardly. I need that recipe. It’s the only way I’ll get that internship next semester. Here’s what I’m thinking. If there’s any way we could get a hold of my grandma, I could just get the recipe from her.”

  Jax spit out the milk she’d just taken a sip of. “Sweets! Your grandma is dead!”

  Sweets nodded and looked directly at me. “Well, that’s where Mercy comes in.”

  I held up two hands in defense. “No, no. I can see ghosts. I can talk to ghosts, but I can’t summon ghosts.”

  “Have you ever tried?” she asked, scooching closer to me in her chair.

  I scooted further away from her. “Hello? Personal encroachment,” I said, stiff-arming her.

  “Sorry, she said. I just really need to talk to my grandma. Can’t we try and figure out how to summon her?”

  I rolled my eyes and pulled off a piece of my croissant and stuffed it in my mouth.

  “We can ask my mom how to summon ghosts,” Jax volunteered brightly.

  I waved a hand out in front of me. “Oh no! I’m not asking Sorceress Stone. Not after everything that went down on Halloween. The woman tried to kill my mother!”

  Jax threw her napkin down on her plate. “Oh, pshaw. She didn’t try to kill Aunt Linda, she was only trying to scare her out of Aspen Falls, and she apologized for that. Forgive and forget?”

  I threw my head back and laughed. “Ha! Hardly! I’ll be keeping one eye on Sorceress Stone from now on. She’s going to have to prove she’s changed before I trust her again. I wouldn’t even keep going to this school if it wasn’t for the court order and the fact that this is one of the only witch schools in the country.”

  “Well, we can ask your mom,” Sweets suggested. “She knows a lot of stuff about being a witch. And she can see ghosts too, right?”

  I let out a big puff of air and rolled my head back on my shoulders. “Yeah, she’s a medium too. I guess we can ask her.”

  Sweets pushed her tray forward and jumped out of her chair. “Yay! Can we go right now?”