A Sprinkle of Magic (A Sugarcomb Lake Cozy Mystery Book 4)

by Alaine Allister

  “Can you please just help me?” Clarissa begged.

  “Even I don’t use that particular spell, and I’ve been casting spells a lot longer than you have,” Matilda said. Then she sighed again. This time it was a sigh of defeat. “Okay, here’s what I know: the truth serum can only be used once every moon cycle.”

  “What? Why?”

  “That’s just how it works. If you try to use the truth serum more often than that, it won’t be effective. And whatever you do, only ask one question!” Matilda cautioned.

  “I can only ask one question? That seems kind of silly. Why can’t I ask a bunch of questions?”

  “Why can’t you stop asking a bunch of questions?” Matilda shot back. “You asked me to help you, so I’m telling you what I know. Now quit arguing with me and listen!

  “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay. But Clarissa, it’s very, very important you only ask one question.”

  “Can you at least tell me why?” Clarissa pressed. She hated all the arbitrary rules her aunt imposed on her. Worse yet, Matilda was rarely very clear about why Clarissa had to follow specific rules. It could be pretty infuriating sometimes!

  “If you ask too many questions you will probably wind up sick,” Matilda explained. “You can’t be too greedy or self-serving with magic. It’s available to enhance and enrich your life, but you can’t expect it to do all the heavy lifting for you.”

  “Huh?”

  “Use magic sparingly – especially while you’re still just learning,” Matilda advised. “If you overindulge, you’ll feel ill. You might catch a cold or start running a fever. Heck, one time when I got too carried away with my spells, I had a horrible case of the runs!”

  “Too much information,” Clarissa grimaced.

  “I’m just saying, be careful. A little magic is a great thing! But a lot of magic…well, that can be dangerous. Some witches have suffered terrible consequences as a result of being too reckless with their magic. Err on the side of caution.”

  “Okay,” Clarissa said uncertainly.

  “Think of magic as food,” Matilda suggested. “If you eat too much, you’ll suffer.”

  “Well I know all about that,” Clarissa replied with a smirk, her belly still feeling bloated. “Moderation isn’t exactly my thing. If I treat magic the way I treat food, I will overindulge for sure!” she joked.

  “Clarissa, I’m serious!” Matilda reiterated. “Be careful!”

  “Okay. I have to go now. Have a good night!”

  When Clarissa returned the living room, the cat was perched atop Parker’s head.

  “What on earth?!” she exclaimed, equal parts amused and horrified.

  “The cat just got up there and…didn’t want to get down,” he explained, bewildered.

  “Cat, you get down from there right now!” Clarissa ordered in a scolding tone.

  The cat, of course, ignored her.

  “It’s okay,” Parker insisted. “It isn’t hurting anything.”

  “Yes, but we have to go for our drive,” Clarissa reminded him.

  She rushed over and clapped her hands until the cat begrudgingly got down from the top of Parker’s head. The feisty feline hissed, clearly upset at being disturbed. It jumped down onto the floor and then glowered up at Clarissa. If looks could kill, she just might be a dead woman.

  But she didn’t have time to deal with the cat’s attitude.

  “Let’s go!” she told Parker, practically running to the door.

  “Wow, you must really like going for drives,” he remarked as he caught up with her.

  “Um, something like that,” Clarissa replied, averting her eyes.

  Parker didn’t know it, but they weren’t going on a date. They were embarking on a mission!

  Chapter 10

  Parker and Clarissa went on on a leisurely evening drive through Sugarcomb Lake. Well, at least Parker thought it was leisurely. While he was contentedly gazing around at the quiet downtown area, Clarissa was peering around purposefully.

  “Pull over!” she suddenly gasped with urgency in her voice.

  Parker slammed on the brakes.

  “What is it?! What’s wrong?!” he demanded in alarm.

  “I want to go in there,” Clarissa said, pointing to the local bar.

  “Wait a second. You nearly made me have a car accident just because you want to go to the bar?” Parker asked, looking equal parts annoyed and amused. “Clarissa, that’s bizarre even for you. And that’s saying a lot.”

  “Sorry,” she said sheepishly. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just really need to go in there!”

  Parker raised an eyebrow. “Since when do you hang out at the bar?” he asked. Clarissa wasn’t a bar star. In fact, she was much more likely to spend her evenings at home curled up in front of the TV with a plate of delicious snacks.

  “Okay, okay, I wasn’t exactly honest with you,” Clarissa sighed. “This isn’t a date.”

  “It isn’t?”

  “I mean, it is!” she corrected herself quickly. “But it isn’t just a date. Al Moreno had a son. His name is Vinnie and he’s here in town. He’s inside the bar, actually. At least I think he is. I think that’s his motorcycle,” she said, pointing to the sole motorcycle in the parking lot.

  Parker was quickly putting two and two together. “You wanted to go for a drive because you were hoping to spot the motorcycle,” he said.

  “Yes,” she admitted sheepishly. “And also to spend time with you!” she added lamely.

  “Ha, save it,” Parker told her. “That’s…actually kind of genius, what you did. So what now?” he asked, jumping onboard. “Do we go inside and talk to the guy? Is he a witness or a suspect or what? What’s the deal? You need to tell me what’s going on!”

  “Yes, I want to go talk to Vinnie,” Clarissa confirmed. “I don’t know yet if he’s a suspect, but he’s definitely a person of interest. He and his father were estranged and Vinnie seems to have a bad temper. So he could be a suspect. I’m not sure yet. I need to talk to him.”

  “So what are you planning to do?” Parker teased. “Ask him point-blank if he killed his father?”

  Clarissa averted her eyes. Technically that was exactly what she planned to do. She couldn’t tell Parker, of course. But her plan was to slip Vinnie the truth serum and then flat out ask him if he had killed Al. It wasn’t exactly a subtle approach, but she was convinced it would work.

  Either she would be able to rule out one suspect or she’d have her guy!

  She was so excited to put her plan into action that she was practically bouncing up and down!

  “So what does this Vinnie guy look like?” Parker asked as they walked into the bar.

  Clarissa looked around. She spotted him almost immediately. It was easy, considering it was a small space and most of the people in there were locals she recognized. “That’s Vinnie over there!” she whispered, pointing to a lone man who was hunched over the bar.

  “Great,” Parker said, taking her hand. “Let’s go.”

  “Wait!” she exclaimed.

  He let go of her hand and looked at her. “What is it? I thought we were in a hurry?”

  “I uh…I have to use the ladies’ room,” she blurted out. “You go talk to Vinnie, okay? Make small talk until I get back. Whatever you do, make sure he doesn’t leave the bar! I’ll be back in a moment!” she promised.

  Parker was giving her an odd look, but he knew better than to question her. That man had the patience of a saint. He put up with her quirky and at times downright strange behavior without complaint. Clarissa was pretty sure she wanted to marry him someday.

  As Parker made his way over to the bar, Clarissa made a beeline for the ladies’ room.

  Nature wasn’t actually calling. She simply hadn’t had a chance to mix up the truth serum yet. Thankfully, the ingredients were all pretty standard. She had been able to stealthily toss everything she needed into her gigantic, suitcase-sized handbag before leaving the house.

&
nbsp; It wasn’t an ideal situation.

  Clarissa would have much preferred to whip up her concoction in the comfort of her own home. But Parker had been there. That had thrown a wrench into things. Had she started mixing up a potion in front of him, he would have started asking questions.

  “Never mind,” Clarissa whispered to herself as she approached the ladies’ room. “This works.”

  Once in the washroom, she plunked her massive handbag down on the counter next to the sink. She pulled out her items one by one. There were a number of canisters from her spice rack as well as a few other odds and ends.

  “Oh no!” she gasped in horror. “Did I forget the book of potions at home?!”

  She rummaged around inside her overloaded, gigantic handbag frantically. Her plan had been so brilliant, so perfect…if her own forgetfulness thwarted it, she would be very upset!

  “Aha!” Clarissa exclaimed, locating the book her aunt had gifted her at the very bottom of the huge bag. She pulled it out triumphantly, confident now that her plan would go off without a hitch. Quickly, she set to work measuring her ingredients.

  Suddenly the door to the ladies’ room opened.

  In strutted none other than Kimberly Tucker.

  Back in high school, Kimberly had been a stereotypical Mean Girl. She had been a cheerleader and had dated the star player of the football team. She had also strutted around with a huge sense of entitlement, as if she expected the rest of the world to bow down to her. She had been popular, pretty and rather cruel.

  As an adult, Kimberly was a hairdresser. In fact, she worked with Clarissa’s old friend Amy – much to Amy’s displeasure. These days, Kimberly pranced around in skin tight clothes and sky high stilettos. Her hair was dyed black with blue streaks, her makeup was overdone and she had a permanent sneer on her face.

  It was clear that Kimberly still thought she was better than everyone else.

  Needless to say, Clarissa was never thrilled to run into her old high school acquaintance. But this was an especially inconvenient time! Couldn’t she just mix up her potion in peace? Turning her back, Clarissa kept her head down and hoped Kimberly would ignore her.

  Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

  “Clarissa Spencer? Is that you?” Kimberly demanded.

  Darn it.

  Smiling with gritted teeth, Clarissa turned around. “Hi Kimmy,” she replied.

  “It’s Kimberly,” the overdone, underdressed woman shot back. “I haven’t gone by Kimmy since high school! Get with it!” She scrutinized Clarissa from head to toe. “You look terrible,” she said bluntly. “No wonder you’re here.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Well you’re obviously here trying to pick up a man,” Kimberly shrugged. “I knew that reporter guy you were dating wouldn’t stick around for long. He was way too good looking for you,” she said matter-of-factly.

  Clarissa was seething.

  Back when Kimberly had first met Parker, she had tried to steal him away. When that hadn’t worked, she had resorted to hurling thinly-veiled insults at Clarissa at every opportunity. Well, maybe “thinly-veiled” was giving Kimberly too much credit. Her insults were pretty blatant!

  “As a matter of fact,” Clarissa said, “Parker and I are still dating. In fact, he’s here with me.”

  Kimberly looked so envious she may as well have turned green. Her mouth opened and closed a few times as she struggled to come up with something rude to say. Finally she settled on, “I guess he mustn’t be such a great catch after all if he’s with you!”

  “Good luck finding a man,” Clarissa said sweetly. “That is why you’re here, isn’t it?”

  The look on Kimberly’s face was pretty satisfying. First she stared at Clarissa with her mouth hanging open. Then her eyes narrowed and she turned about twelve shades of red. She was practically fuming.

  “You are such a witch!” Kimberly hissed.

  Well, maybe she had said something slightly different than that. But that was what it had sounded like. And the accusation was rather fitting considering Clarissa was in the middle of mixing up a potion!

  “Thank you,” Clarissa smiled. She refused to let the rude woman get under her skin.

  Giving a loud “harrumph,” Kimberly turned on her heel and stormed into one of the bathroom stalls. She slammed the door so hard that everything rattled and shook. It seemed throwing childish tantrums when she didn’t get her way was kind of Kimberly’s thing.

  Clarissa paid the raging woman no attention. Instead, she hurried to finish assembling her potion. Her goal was to be out of the ladies’ room before Kimberly emerged from the stall. The last thing she wanted was to have to face that nasty diva again!

  “All done,” Clarissa smiled to herself a moment later. The truth serum was in a small plastic canister. All she had to do was sprinkle a bit of it into Vinnie’s drink and ask him a question. He would be powerless to lie.

  Clarissa rushed to gather up her things…and there were a lot of things! It was fortunate that the bathroom counter was so wide, because somehow a whole pile of random items had accumulated there. Yikes!

  When it came to handbags, Clarissa wholeheartedly believed that bigger was better. She had always felt that way, even before she had discovered she was a witch. What was the point of carrying around a teensy, tiny little clutch that barely held anything? Giant handbags were simply more practical.

  The larger the handbag, the more stuff you could cram in it!

  Sure, it did get kind of heavy sometimes…but it was well worth the back strain. Clarissa had lost count of the number of times her rumbling stomach had been silenced by the candy bars she always kept stashed away in the depths of her handbags.

  It was especially handy to have various tiny vials of potions on hand. So far Clarissa had only dabbled in magic. It wasn’t a huge part of her everyday life – yet. But being able to cast spells on the go was wonderful. It was incredibly convenient to be able to, for example, turn the clock back when she spilled the sugar down at the coffee shop.

  “All done,” Clarissa murmured to herself, sounding pleased.

  She was eager to go administer the truth serum to Vinnie.

  She was nearly out the door when Kimberly called out to her.

  “Clarissa? Are you still out there?” Kimberly’s voice didn’t even sound like her own. It was dripping with sugar – and so very, very phony. “Um, there’s no toilet paper in here, Clarissa. Can you hand me some from the next stall? Please?”

  Maybe it was evil, but after the way Kimberly had spoken to her, Clarissa had no desire to help her out. So she held her head high and walked out of the bathroom. Was it terribly immature to pretend to have not heard Kimberly’s request? Definitely! Was it satisfying? You bet!

  Chapter 11

  Clarissa was relieved to see that Vinnie was still seated at the bar. He was slouched over on his stool with a drink in his hand. Parker sat to his immediate right, casually sipping a soft drink. The two men appeared to be deep in conversation.

  When Clarissa walked up, Parker glanced over at her. Their eyes met and they exchanged a look. She was pretty sure she knew what he was trying to tell her. He was saying “let me handle this” – so she did.

  Like Clarissa, Parker was a journalist. They shared a passion for telling stories. They both loved investigating, interviewing and reporting. It was the very thing that had initially pitted them against each other as professional rivals. It was also what had ultimately brought them together.

  But now Parker was set to take over his father’s media empire.

  While it sounded great on the surface, Clarissa knew it wasn’t what her boyfriend wanted. These days he was mostly confined to the office where he spent long hours pushing paper and doing management type things. He was exhausted, bored and overworked.

  Though he had never admitted it out loud, she suspected that Parker missed investigating leads.

  Clarissa decided to let her boyfriend have this one. If he wanted to intervi
ew Vinnie, so be it.

  Not wanting to interrupt, Clarissa decided to simply sit at the bar and listen in. Clarissa took a seat on the stool to Vinnie’s left. He glanced over at her briefly, but she pretended not to notice. In fact, she went out of her way to ignore the two men.

  She picked up her handbag and rifled around. To a casual observer, it probably looked as though she was in search of a tube of lipstick or her cell phone. What she was really doing was waiting for an opportunity to use the truth serum she had stowed away inside her bag!

  “So my old man dies and my good-for-nothing sister doesn’t even tell me,” Vinnie ranted, obviously inebriated. “No phone call. No text. Nothing! Can you believe it? I had to hear about it second hand from my aunt.”

  “That’s a shame,” Parker said sympathetically.

  He glanced over at Clarissa.

  She caught his eye and motioned for him to keep talking.

  “Do you have a sister?” Vinnie asked Parker.

  “I do,” he confirmed.

  “Would your sister keep something like that from you?” Vinnie demanded.

  “No, I don’t think she would.”

  “See?” Vinnie nodded. “My family is all kinds of messed up. I don’t suppose you’re estranged from your father, either. You probably have a perfect family,” he predicted, seeming equal parts sad and envious.

  “No family is perfect,” Parker said quietly. “You have to take the good with the bad. I have a great sister, but my father isn’t so easy to get along with.” He thought for a moment. Then, apparently wanting to lift Vinnie’s spirits, he said, “I take it your aunt is okay, though?”

  “Yeah, she’s alright,” Vinnie shrugged. “She left me a voicemail telling me she was sorry to hear about my father. I didn’t return her call. I’m not sure I will…I don’t really know what to say to her. To tell you the truth, I was surprised she called me.”

  “Why?”

  “I haven’t spoken to anyone in the family in a really long time,” he admitted. “We didn’t exactly part ways on good terms. My father and I never saw eye to eye, and my sister was always his favorite. The last time I saw my dad, I punched him out.”