Bobby Sparks Witch Detective: Pet Shop Puzzle ( A Paranormal Cozy Mystery)

by Stacey Fields

  “The ‘bitch’?”

  “Yes! It makes perfect sense! He’s having an affair with Tammy.”

  “How can you be sure it’s her?”

  “I recognized her hair, loose curls that reached to her shoulders” Bobby started.

  “Now who’s super aware of someone’s physical attributes?” Don asked.

  “No time for that,” Bobby said, throwing her hands in the air. “It makes sense. Why is he still sleeping at his apartment? Why isn’t he sleeping over at his girlfriend’s house? Because she’s a vampire! She doesn’t sleep! Not to mention that she works late at the diner. She goes in at three, right? And stays until sunrise? That explains why he wasn’t home last night when we went by his place. It was only midnight. He was still out here with her. But, I’m willing to bet if we walked past there at four in the morning, that TV would be off.”

  “So, he’s having an affair, and decides to kill his wife because of it?”

  “Don’t you see?” Bobby asked, her head spinning as connections were being made at the speed of light.

  “I see that you have a point,” he said, “but I don’t know if your case is very strong.”

  “Call Archer,” Bobby demanded. “Tell him to get down here with backup as soon as possible. And, don’t forget to tell him to release Laura.”

  “Your boss isn’t going to be happy about that.”

  “But he’s going to be very happy to hear what I have to say.”

  Chapter 31: Back in Pinecreek

  It had been two months since Bobby left Pinecreek. Her departure was abrupt. When her bosses found out about her decision to go against their wishes and continue the investigation despite the fact that everyone seemed to think it was done, they weren’t very happy. Right as Archer was slapping the cuffs on Barry and Tammy, her phone rang in her pocket. She had to return to Witch Council Headquarters—immediately.

  Thankfully, she was able to convince them that she was correct. She outlined the evidence, recounted her experience, and swayed them back into her favor. Still, she had to be punished. She broke the rules. There was protocol in place for situations like the one she found herself in.

  She was put on a two-week suspension. When she returned to work, she was assigned a new case, then another, then another. Her life-long dream was coming true. She was on her way to becoming one of the most success Paranormal Private Investigators in the entire realm, closing cases in record time and always meticulously by the book.

  But then, she got the notice. Barry and Tammy were going before a jury in a preliminary hearing and she was called to testify. It had taken a lot of effort to push all memories of Pinecreek from her mind, and the moment she saw the address on the envelope, they all came flooding back.

  The truth was, they were good memories. That’s precisely why she needed to forget them. She broke the rules; she stepped outside of her comfort zone; and the worst part was—she enjoyed it.

  More than anything, she enjoyed her time with Don. She missed their back and forth banter, the mischievous smile he gave her perhaps a little too frequently, and the playful relationship they had developed.

  She hadn’t spoken to him since she left Pinecreek. He hadn’t tried to call her, and she hadn’t tried to call him. She wasn’t upset about it. But, she was nervous about seeing him again.

  As she stepped through the portal and was once again swept into the alternate world, she felt a rush of nerves and excitement, not unlike she felt the first time.

  Don was waiting for her, a take-out box from Daisy’s in his hand. “I thought you might be hungry from the trip,” he said as he handed it to her.

  "Oh, yes, the five-second portal jump really works up an appetite," she replied sarcastically. She took the box from his hands and opened it. Looking at the contents, she snapped the lid closed quickly and shoved it back into his chest. "No! I'm not eating that!"

  He threw his head back and laughed, turning to walk towards his desk. “I got you a traditional,” he said, motioning for her to join him.

  She walked across the room, careful not to look at him too closely. She wanted to read his feelings, but at that point, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Had he missed her? She was afraid to know the answer.

  Slumping down in the chair across from him, she grabbed the container and popped it open. “Have you prepared what you’re going to say?” she asked.

  “I figured I’d let you do most of the talking,” he replied. “You did most of the work.”

  “That’s not true. Someone had to show me how to get around.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” he said rolling his eyes. “So, what are you going to say?”

  “I figured I’d use the same speech I gave to my bosses,” she said with a shrug. “You know, start at the beginning with our first real lead—that Holly had become angry and was fighting with everyone constantly.”

  "Good place to start," Don said with a nod. He bit into his sandwich as he waited for her to continue.

  “That led us to Laura, initially. But, more questions arose when we found out that Holly borrowed money from the mayor’s son.”

  Don grunted at the mention of Zip.

  “Rumors of Holly’s strange behavior continued to flood in. She was going to Daisy’s late at night. Initially, we thought it was only to meet with her black market dealer.”

  Don grunted again.

  "But, it turns out she was going there to spy on her husband's lover Tammy, the waitress. We had left Laura behind after interviewing her the first time because there was no clear motive for her wanting to take down Holly, even if they were business competitors. But, the same morning that we called Tammy to have her come in for questioning, things suddenly started to point to Ms. Enchanting again."

  “They were pretty crafty in how they planned all that out,” Don said, his mouth full from the sandwich.

  “They were,” Bobby agreed. “Tammy and Barry, were probably already together in their part-time home when she got the call, and they started to devise a plan—a simple, yet genius plan. While Tammy came in to give her statement, Barry staged the break-in at his home. He knew that Holly had a spell cast on the place, and the only person who could get past it was the same person that they hoped to frame—Laura. He ran into a problem, however, when he couldn’t get the items into Laura’s home. He was forced to stash them in her unopened, unprotected pet shop. He didn’t have any problem picking the lock, being that it was a temporary, unsophisticated lock, anyways.”

  “Tammy just had to drop the subtle hint that Laura was following Holly to the diner, to once again put her on our radar,” Don cut in. “All the while, Barry was running through the woods rolling around in muck and dirt at the marsh to ensure that he had the stench of grief.”

  “But,” Bobby continued, “we can’t forget that before he went to the marsh, he attempted to stage his apartment to look like that of a distraught widower, throwing pillows around the family room to make it look as if he couldn’t even bare to sleep in his own bed. He had to continue to play the part of the perfect husband. He knew we would most likely believe him, too, because Holly didn’t tell her friends or family about his infidelity out of embarrassment. After years of fighting to be with him, finally, she had everyone’s approval. And what does he do? He turns around and cheats on her.”

  “He met Tammy through Lucas, the delivery boy that worked for his parent’s shop,” Don added. “Lucas’s girlfriend Carol was good friends with Tammy. That’s why neither of them expressed great remorse at Holly’s death. And, the reason they were so eager to point us in the direction of Zip, in turn focusing the investigation on Holly’s secret life, not Barry’s.”

  "But, Holly knew about Barry's secret life and it slowly ate away at her. She spent months agonizing over her situation, until finally, an idea came to her mind. She had to get rid of Tammy," Bobby said. "She knew that dragon's tooth would do the trick, and because of her dealings with Reggi before, she knew exactly where to get it. Problem
was, she needed the money. Thankfully, Zip was guilt ridden enough about his involvement in deceiving her during high school that he handed it over without question."

  “She made the potion…” Don started.

  “But Barry knew she was up to something,” Bobby finished.

  “So, he found himself faced with a choice—his wife or his lover.”

  “He chose his lover, sneaking into Holly’s lab while she was out with friends,” Bobby said.

  “He took the potion and poured it into the milk. He knew that Holly always had her coffee first thing in the morning.”

  "Which is why he told us there was no milk the first day we stopped by. And again the second time,” Bobby added. "He couldn't serve us poison."

  “Too bad we found it in the garbage on our third visit,” Don said with a laugh, “traces of the potion still in it and everything. Fortunately for us, he was too busy celebrating with his mistress and framing Laura Enchanting to take out his trash.”

  “Wow,” Archer’s voice came from behind her. “That was really good. Is that how you’re going to present it at court?”

  Bobby turned and smiled up at him. “We hadn’t discussed it,” she said. “We were just recapping.”

  “Well, it was very convincing,” Archer said with a smile.

  “Thank you,” Don said, clearing his throat the way he so often did when Bobby gave his Deputy her full attention.

  “Bobby,” Archer said quickly as she turned to face Don again. “Can I speak to you for a moment?”

  “Alone?” she and Don asked in unison.

  “Yes,” Archer said, wringing his hands in front of himself nervously.

  “Sure,” she said, pushing herself up and smiling at Don over her shoulder as she followed Archer to the other side of the station. “What is it, Archer?”

  “I was just thinking that, well,” he stuttered. “Now that we’re not working together anymore, I was wondering if you’d like to… maybe…”

  “Oh, Archer,” Bobby said, reaching out and grabbing his wrist. “That’s so sweet of you. Really, it is. But, I really think that…”

  He lowered his eyes to the floor and shuffled his feet. “I get it.”

  “It’s not you, really,” Bobby said quickly. “If you had asked me two months ago, I probably would have said yes. It’s just, things are different now. I don’t know how or why, but they are.”

  Archer lifted his gaze and looked past her, back to where Don was sitting. “He’s a good guy,” he said softly.

  Bobby glanced back at Don. She caught him looking in their direction, right before he grabbed a stack of papers on his desk and attempted to look busy. She laughed and turned back to the extremely handsome, charming man standing in front of her. “He is,” she said with a smile. “I should get back to work.”

  “The hearing starts in twenty,” Don said when she reached his desk. “We should head out.”

  “After you,” she said, motioning for him to lead the way.

  Walking through the streets of Pinecreek again was refreshing in a sense. It felt the same, but different at the same time. It still had the impression of being comfortably quaint, but the perfect plastic fake feel was gone.

  Don had addressed the issue of the rigged elections. Poster boards were pinned into yards, proclaiming the house’s allegiance to one candidate for Mayor or the other.

  People that passed them recognized her and said their “hello’s” as they passed. She smiled politely in return. She enjoyed the feeling of being known. It was something she never imagined herself wanting or missing before. She had always had big dreams of big cities a big job and a big house. But, something about Pinecreek had shifted those dreams, just slightly.

  As they walked up the steps to the courthouse, Don stopped suddenly. He spun around to face her. “Did he ask you out?” he blurted.

  “What?” Bobby asked, playing dumb. “Who?”

  “Did he?”

  “He did,” Bobby replied with a smile.

  “What did you say?”

  “That’s a little personal, isn’t it?”

  "You're right, it is. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked." His words poured out quickly.

  “I’ve never seen you so flustered, Don,” Bobby said, a tone of amusement in her voice. “It’s kind of cute.”

  His cheeks flushed red as he turned around to walk into the building. She reached out and grabbed his wrist, forcing him to turn back to face her again.

  “I said ‘no’,” she said quietly.

  “Really?” his eyes went wide and a sly smile appeared on his lips. “Why? I thought you were all crazy for him.”

  “I was,” Bobby replied with a shrug, “but, I’m not anymore.”

  “Oh, really? And what brought about that change?”

  “That is none of your business,” Bobby replied sharply but playfully.

  “It might be,” Don said quickly.

  “Why is that?”

  “Because I might be considering asking you out myself one day,” he replied bluntly.

  Her heart skipped a beat and a shiver of nervous excitement ran down her spine. “Well,” she said, trying to remain calm, “one day you’ll have to try that and see what happens.”

  And with that, they walked together into the courthouse. The trial went off without a hitch. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that the information outlined by the prosecution was correct. At the end, as she watched the bailiff slap the cuffs on Tammy and Barry, Bobby felt a sense of pride wash over her. Her first case was a success. And while her time in Pinecreek was officially over, she knew, somewhere deep down inside, that the magically picturesque town wasn't completely done with her yet.

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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