A Cauldron of Hot Coffee: Enchanted Enclave Mysteries Books 1-3

by Samantha Silver

  “Did you test the coffee?”

  “We sent it out for testing, but the results aren’t back yet. Chief Jones only put a rush on the toxicology report for Leonard’s body. I’m sure in a day or two when we get that report back it’ll show there was no poison in the coffee itself.”

  “Yeah,” I said with a nod.

  “I’m serious, though. I’m glad you’re alright, but I wish you’d come to me. If you ever have any more issues with people in town, please do come and see me.”

  “Ok, thanks,” I said.

  “Now, I’m sure I’ll need to speak with you a few more times in the coming days, but for now I think you’d probably like to be getting home.”

  “I would,” I replied. Detective Andrews spoke with Leanne for a few minutes, and I sat on the stoop with Cleo, absent-mindedly stroking her fur while I waited, until finally Leanne made her way back to me and held out a hand to help me up.

  “Want to head home?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Good. Aunt Debbie made beef stew for dinner.”

  “That sounds like exactly the sort of meal I need right now.”

  “Only if it’s topped with salmon,” Cleo chimed in. The three of us began walking up the lane back toward the road.

  “Thanks for saving my life,” I said to Leanne.

  “Hey, what is family for?”

  “How did you know to come?”

  “When you didn’t tell me what you were doing, I got worried. Then, I called Aunt Debbie and asked if you came home, and she said no. I thought maybe you were in trouble, so I came to investigate.”

  “But...” I started. “You barely even know me.”

  Leanne laughed. “Don’t be silly. I might not know you, but you’re family. Of course I’m going to do everything I can to help you. That’s what family does.”

  Maybe it was just the emotion of the day, but tears welled up in my eyes. I tried to blink them away, but they fell to my cheeks instead. I couldn’t believe Leanne had come to my rescue just because we were genetically related.

  It had always been just me and Dad. I had never known a bigger family than that. And yet, I knew Dad would have done the same thing. He would have had my back, the same way that Leanne did.

  “Are you alright?” Leanne asked, realizing I was crying, and I nodded.

  “Yeah. I’m just a bit overwhelmed. You’re amazing. All of you are amazing.”

  Leanne wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “Just because we didn’t know you for the last twenty-something years doesn’t mean you’re not family. You’re one of us now. I want you to know that.”

  I smiled through my tears and leaned my head against Leanne’s shoulder as we walked toward her Toyota parked along the road.

  I had been so used to doing things alone, and just with Dad my entire life. And yet, as Leanne had just shown me by saving my life, maybe it was time for me to spread my wings a little bit and accept my new family. My magical family.

  It was time for me to open up my heart a little bit more.

  We drove straight to Aunt Debbie’s house, where Kaillie practically sprinted to the car when she saw us.

  “Are you guys ok? We heard the police were called to Roman Steele’s property. Is that blood on your arm?”

  “Yeah, it is. Roman Steele shot Eliza.”

  “I’m ok though, it was just a flesh wound,” I said. “And a real flesh wound, not like the knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”

  Kaillie laughed. “I love that movie. You’re sure you’re alright, though?”

  Before I had a chance to reply in the affirmative, Aunt Lucy came over. “Someone got shot and I wasn’t there to see it? What happened? Did anyone die?”

  “No one died, Aunt Lucy,” Leanne said. “Roman Steele is getting arrested for killing his brother and trying to kill Eliza, though.”

  “Well, luckily for all of us, Deb has just put dinner on the table, so we can annoy her by talking about murder over stew.”

  My stomach began to rumble and I realized that since the only thing I’d eaten all day was three quarters of a slice of cake, I was absolutely ravenous. I supposed being hunted down by a raving madman would do that to a person.

  “Stew and murder talk sounds great,” I said with a laugh, letting the others walk me back into the house.

  Aunt Debbie’s eyes immediately flew to the gauze wrapped around my arm when I walked into the kitchen. “There’s bound to be some magic we can do to fix that,” she said, but I shook my head.

  “It’s fine, thanks. Although, it does sting a bit, so if you have something for pain I’d happily take that.”

  “Of course I do, dear,” Aunt Debbie said, rushing to a closet and pulling out another magical first-aid kit. She grabbed a vial filled with a bright orange fluid that looked remarkably like orange juice, and placed it carefully in my hands, wrapping my fingers around it. “Take one tablespoon every six hours. It will get rid of your pain immediately. And if you’re still having problems, come to me and I can make you something stronger.”

  “You never offered me anything stronger when I was in pain,” Leanne complained, and Aunt Debbie shot her a look.

  “Thankfully, you’ve never been shot before.”

  “Yeah, well, that doesn’t mean I don’t deserve the magical morphine,” Leanne retorted.

  “It does too,” Kaillie said, her hands on her hips. “That would be considered misuse of magical potions.”

  “I’ve also been shot,” Aunt Lucy declared, and the look Aunt Debbie gave her was scathing.

  “Lucy, stop setting a bad example for the girls. You can make your own potions if you want them.”

  “Oh yeah, I can,” Aunt Lucy replied with a grin, brightening significantly. “I forgot about that.”

  I laughed as I made my way to the table, a giant crock-pot full of stew flying inches away from my face and landing with a screech that moved the tablecloth a couple of inches just in front of my plate.

  The aroma of beef, vegetables and thyme rose to my nostrils and I immediately began salivating, staring at the stew like it was the first time I was going to eat in weeks.

  “You get to serve yourself first,” Leanne said to me, motioning for me to have at it. “When you solve a murder and help get a killer off the streets, you get first dibs on dinner.”

  “Is that the rule now, is it?” Aunt Debbie said with a smile as she handed me the ladle. I didn’t need any more encouragement than that and began to scoop out the stew as Aunt Debbie put a hand softly on my shoulder. “I’m very glad you’re ok, Eliza.”

  “Thanks,” I told her. “Me too.”

  As the others all settled themselves around the table for dinner, I looked around. Every single one of these people had accepted me into their homes and into their lives, and I couldn’t be more grateful. It had just been me and Dad for all of those years, but now that Dad was gone, I had found family I didn’t even know existed.

  I couldn’t wait to see what the future was going to bring.

  Book 2: Whole Latte Magic: Eliza is settling nicely into her new life on Enchanted Enclave. That is, until she and Leanne come across a woman who's been stabbed. Attempted murders have a way of shaking things up a bit.

  Leanne feels guilty about how they came across the victim, however, and Eliza isn't about to let her go around solving a stabbing on her own. With Kaillie joining in, the cousins start their own investigation, but it turns out there's more to the victim's life than they initially thought.

  With the help of some new friends from Western Woods, Eliza and her cousins quickly hone in on a few suspects. But the stakes are higher than they realize when an attempt is made on their lives as well. Will they be able to solve the case before the attempted murderer is finally successful?

  Click or tap here to read Whole Latte Magic now.

  Whole Latte Magic

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

&n
bsp; Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 1

  I was fairly certain I was going to die.

  “I can’t do this,” I groaned to my cousin Leanne next to me. Every muscle in my body felt like it was about to shut down. There was nothing I wanted more than to curl up into a little ball on the ground and weep until everything stopped hurting.

  “You can, you’re almost there,” Leanne said to me with a wink. Even though she was in the same position as I was, there was nothing similar about the two of us. Leanne was lithe and flexible, looking like she wasn’t doing anything more difficult than sitting on the ground reading a book.

  Meanwhile I looked like a sweaty bagel.

  “And from here we’re going to go back into downward dog,” Janice said in her relaxing voice from the front of the room.”

  “Oh, thank God,” I muttered to myself. I never in a million years thought I was going to say that; just half an hour earlier I had gone into downward dog and thought I was never going to get out of it.

  “See? You made it,” Leanne whispered to me.

  That might have been true, but at what cost? My left arm was now trembling uncontrollably, sweat fell from my forehead onto the mat below, and I didn’t know my quads could hurt this much. I probably would have welcomed amputation if it was offered to me right about now.

  “Now, move your knees to the mat, and we’re going to go deep into child’s pose,” Janice said, her voice soft but powerful, echoing through the space of the yoga studio. I looked up and copied Janice, moving my butt back onto my ankles and laying my forehead down on the mat, arms outstretched.

  Now this was the sort of thing I thought yoga was going to be. Lying on a mat, stretched out, not working every muscle in my body to death.

  I could lie here like this all day. In fact, I figured there was a good chance I was going to have to. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure I was going to be able to get up from this position.

  “Keep breathing everyone. Big, deep breaths. As you exhale, let the stress from the day flow out of you with your breath. Relax your muscles. Relax your body.”

  I was so relaxed right now I was ready to bite somebody. I wasn’t sure my body was physically capable of relaxing anymore.

  “And we’ll finish off with an ‘ohm’,” Janice said. The whole room was filled with the low sound of people doing an ‘ohm’ sound together, the volume slowly rising before fading away once more.

  Personally, my sound was more like an “arrrrgghghhhhhhhh” but hey, baby steps.

  Then, it was over. The other women – and two men – in the room began curling up their yoga mats, drinking water, and happily going on their merry way, looking like models right out of a fitness ad.

  I, on the other hand, keeled over onto my side, panting and groaning like a hippo that had just given birth.

  “See? You survived. Wasn’t it fun?” Leanne asked next to me.

  “If masochism is something you’re into, sure,” I replied. “Please just leave me here. I don’t think I can make it to the car.”

  Leanne laughed, bent down with surprising ease and handed me her water bottle.

  “Come on. Drink some water, you’ll feel better.”

  “Is there morphine in it?” I asked, taking the bottle and helping myself to a large swig.

  “There isn’t. Don’t you think you’re overreacting just a little bit?”

  “No. How was this so easy for you?”

  “Because it’s not apparently the first time in my entire life that I’ve exercised.”

  I glared at my cousin. “Hey, I had to do P.E. when I was in school.”

  “Right. I bet you were the girl who pretended to get her period so she didn’t have to.”

  I had no comeback to that; it was completely true.

  “That’s because if this is how exercise feels, I want none of it.”

  “Trust me, it gets easier.”

  “I’m going to have to trust you; I have no intention of finding out on my own.”

  “Wrong,” Leanne said. “After seeing you struggle, you are absolutely joining me for the afternoon easy relaxation session in a few days.”

  “There was nothing easy or relaxing about the last hour. Did you accidentally take me to the advanced, murder-your-muscles session instead?”

  “I most definitely did not,” Leanne replied. “But we can work our way up to that. You don’t have any muscles right now.”

  “The searing pain every inch of my body is feeling disagrees.”

  “Alright, well, you’re going to have to struggle through it and get up, otherwise the people coming in for the next class are going to see you lying here like a beached whale.”

  I shot Leanne a look. “A sexy beached whale,” she added quickly.

  “Fine, help me up,” I begged, and Leanne grabbed my hands and dragged me up to my feet.

  I picked my mat up off the ground and rolled it up as Janice made her way over, smiling.

  “What did you think of your first session?”

  “It was great,” I lied. Janice was a very nice person and absolutely loved the practice of yoga. I didn’t want to break her heart by letting her know I’d rather stab myself than to attend a second class.

  “Fantastic,” Janice said, beaming at me, putting her hands together, and bowing. “I hope to see you again. Namaste.”

  “I’m going to nama-stay away from this place in the future,” I muttered as she left, and Leanne laughed.

  “Oh don’t be such a baby. Take a few days to recover, and then we’ll come back here again Friday after work.”

  “I’m moving back in with your mom. She never made me do any exercise.”

  “She’s way less fun than Kaillie and I are, though.”

  “I don’t know; if this is what you consider fun, I’m going to have to disagree.”

  “Come on. Kaillie’s going to be waiting for us, and dinner’s going to be cold if we’re late. She said she’s making shepherd’s pie.”

  If anything was going to make me move right now, it was the promise of food.

  The two of us made our way down to Leanne’s car, parked on Main Street here in Enchanted Enclave. I’d recently moved in with Leanne and Kaillie, which I did have to admit was a lot of fun. Kaillie was teaching me all sorts of spells, and I was starting to get used to this idea of having magic in my life.

  Whereas Aunt Debbie, Kaillie’s mom, was all about structured learning and a sort of home-schooling environment, Kaillie and Leanne were much more hands-on. It also helped that Leanne didn’t have any magical powers of her own, and so was essentially living vicariously through my discovery of my own powers.

  “Hey, Eliza, see if you can turn this bread into toast through magic,” Kaillie would tell me in the morning.

  Leanne’s methods were more… hands on.

  “Quick, catch,” Leanne would call out in the morning, throwing a plate towards me. The first time it happened, I let out a squeal and ducked – have I mentioned that I’m not the most athletic person in the world – and the plate hit the wall behind me and shattered. “Well, I guess you’re just going to have to use magic to fix it.”

  I’d laugh and cast the fixing spell – one of the first ones I’d learned – and move on with life.

  It was a lot of fun, and as I slipped into the passenger seat, I reflected on the fact that I really felt, for the first time in my life, like I had a nice, big, h
appy family.

  It would have been better with Dad here to enjoy it with me, but for me, this was very much a case of a door closing and a window opening in its stead. Things weren’t better or worse than when Dad was around, they were just different. And I was enjoying every minute of it.

  Leanne was driving back home, where Kaillie was baking up a mean shepherd’s pie, when I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. It was a person, walking down the street. No, stumbling down the street would have been a more accurate description. It was dark out, with no streetlights around, and I barely saw them.

  “Look out,” I said to Leanne motioning in that direction. There were a lot of people here who didn’t seem to understand that dark clothing combined with a lack of lights made them practically invisible. Someone must have had a few too many drinks at the bar that night.

  “Thanks,” Leanne said, slowing down as she moved towards the shape. Suddenly, right as Leanne’s car came close to the person, they jumped directly in front of us.

  “What the-?” Leanne shouted as she swerved hard, tires squealing to avoid the person. The thud on the side of the car told me that no, she hadn’t.

  “Oh my God! Oh my God, I just hit someone,” Leanne said, slamming on the brakes. “What do I do? What do I do?”

  “Stop the car and let’s see if they’re ok,” I said, unclipping my seatbelt and throwing open the passenger door. I rushed out to see the prone figure lying on the ground. They weren’t moving at all.