Flo’s voice sounded different than the day she’d welcomed me to town or offered me tea at the diner, yet I would have recognized the slight remnant of her Southern accent anywhere. She must have moved here from the south at some point in her life, not that it mattered right this minute. I was about to die, because I hadn’t practiced any magic.
So am I! As if a flip had switched, Leo had remembered his ability to appear and disappear at will. Oh, wait. I can leave. I’ll go get help. Stall her as long as you can.
“You’re right. I’m not doing business with Cora anymore, although I didn’t realize that you were drinking Nan’s special tea, as well,” I said as casually as possible. There was no way for Flo to know that I had this newfound ability to sense auras, nor could she realize that I’d figured everything out. I needed to play along as if I was clueless to give Leo or my mother a chance to get help. “You said yourself that Cora isn’t the nicest woman, but maybe you and I can come to some sort of mutually beneficial arrangement.”
Flo regarded me carefully as she tried to gauge if I was being sincere. I slowly walked over to the counter, feigning the need to write her order down on a piece of paper. If I could reach the cash register, then my mother’s phone should be in plain sight.
“Stop.”
I did my best to give Flo an inquisitive glance as to why she would want me to impede my progress, though I had made it to the front of the small counter. My expression wasn’t going to be enough to get her to believe me, so I plucked the feathered pen out of its holder.
“Is there a problem? I’m certain you and I can come to an agreement, as long as I can leave Cora out of this. I really don’t want to be working with someone who dislikes my family as much as she seems to loathe us.”
“Where is your mother?” Flo asked hesitantly, her gaze darting toward the ivory-colored fairies. “I saw her handing out candy to the children earlier. Where has she gotten off to?”
“Mom drove back to my house,” I replied with ease, though it was becoming harder and harder to keep up this pretense. “As you can imagine, it was a long day for her. And the sheriff wanted the alley she’d parked in front of cleared before midnight.”
I tensed when Flo looked out the display window, but I was relatively sure that she couldn’t see far enough down the street in the darkness to tell whether or not my mother’s car was still parked in front of the alley’s access ramp.
“I’m tired myself,” I replied, feigning a large yawn while covering my mouth with the back of my hand. “You know, we can always talk about this tomorrow.”
“Why were you talking with the sheriff tonight?”
And this was where things were going to start unfolding, because it was more than evident that guilt over killing an innocent man had gotten to Flo. Yes, I might have been talking to Liam about who I believed had murdered Jacob Blackleach, but I’d been way off base.
Everything fell into place now that I looked back on this week’s events.
When I’d first met Flo at the diner, she’d mentioned that Cora had been aging right along with the rest of them. At the time, it had seemed like such a harmless comment, but she had been testing the ground. Then when Candy and Dee had been talking about the murder, Candy had revealed that Detective Swanson had been around town showing Jacob Blackleach’s picture and that Flo had been the only one to recognize him while everyone else couldn’t pick him out of the crowd.
Connecting Flo to Cora’s group of women had been the icing on the missing element.
Well, my newfound ability to sense auras had technically been the decisive element, but I suppose I’d have to categorize my power as the determining factor—because right now my chest was burning with the realization that I needed to get away from this woman. And right now. The heat in my left palm was back, giving me a strange sensation.
“Did you know that Liam gave my mother a parking ticket?” I asked, managing to take another step back so that my hip was lined up with the side of the counter. Sure enough, I could literally see my mother’s phone next to the cash register. “I couldn’t believe it, either. I was trying to talk him into ripping up the ticket, but he sure is a stickler for the law.”
Crash!
Both Flo and myself whipped our heads to the side in alarm, especially when I could hear my mother muttering a few choice words at Leo. I thought he’d gone in search of Liam, but he must have forgotten his destination. I chanced a glance toward Flo, whose expression had gone from startled to angry in a matter of seconds.
Oh, this wasn’t good. Not at all.
“Look at that,” I said in a forced upbeat tone, quickly swiping my mother’s phone off the counter. “My mother must have come back to the shop to help me close up. Wasn’t that sweet of her?”
“You know, don’t you?”
Another round of déjà vu visited me in the span of a day. Hadn’t my mother said those same exact words earlier this morning?
“I don’t know what you’re accusing me of,” I swiftly denied as panic blossomed throughout my body. My fight or flight instinct took over. I have to admit, flight was winning by a mile. “Oh, wait. You’re talking about your order. Of course, I know how to make the tea blend. Can’t you tell?”
I tilted my face, hoping that the lighting in the shop shone just right on my skin. I’d found a new wrinkle or two around my eyes this morning, but wasn’t that expected at the age of thirty?
Flo hastily backtracked to where the light switch was located near the front door. The shop descended into darkness. Well, not total darkness. The streetlights from the sidewalk illuminated the main area, and my sight adjusted accordingly. It appeared that my attempt at stalling her had petered out.
I tried really hard not to take offense that she didn’t believe I’d used Nan’s aging potion.
“You know very well that it was me who killed Jacob Blackleach.”
Had Flo just admitted to being a murderer?
It would have helped had I been able to see Flo’s expression clearly, but that obviously wasn’t going to happen.
Dial 911! Your mother is working on something to stop her from killing us.
“All you had to do was go and get Liam,” I muttered harshly, taking a step back as Flo’s silhouette came closer. “You still have time. Go!”
“Who are you talking to?” Flo asked, though she sounded as flustered as I did. “Don’t you move! I need to explain to you why I had to kill that man. I didn’t have a choice!”
Is she serious?
“Leo, go now!” I couldn’t believe he was still here when I was about to fight for my life. One step back and another to the right put the counter and cash register between me and the killer. “Flo, let’s go talk to Liam. You can tell him what happened in detail. I’m sure you acted in self-defense.”
Self-defense? Did you see her beady little eyes? I’m pretty sure the murder was intentional.
“Who’s Leo?” Flo was now close enough to touch the cash register, but far enough that I could still maneuver to the left or right without her catching me. I just had to decide which way to run. “Raven, dear, you need to understand that the man was going to steal all the orders. That’s why he was here. I saw him enter the tea shop and had to do something before he got away with everything.”
“See? It sounds like self-defense to me,” I encouraged her, pressing the home button on my mother’s phone. “Are you kidding me?”
Let me guess. Passcode?
“I’m not kidding you,” Flo replied imploringly to my philosophical question regarding my mom’s habit of changing passwords every week. She was slightly paranoid, and now that I’d been let in on the family secret, I totally understood why. “He was going to steal your grandmother’s tea blends. I couldn’t let him do that. You need them. We need them. I cannot get any more wrinkles, don’t you understand? I finally got Albert to notice me, and I wasn’t about to let some stranger come in here and take away the only thing that truly works for me.”
&
nbsp; “Flo, you don’t need to look younger to have a man notice you.”
Good advice. Have you seen Albert? His wrinkles are deeper than the Atlantic Ocean.
“Hush it,” I muttered, wishing he’d stop putting in his two cents. “Flo, you took a man’s life. You didn’t just stop a burglary.”
“A bad man who was going to steal from your grandmother,” Flo stated, her entire attitude changing in a blink of an eye. She took a step forward, indicating she was about to come around the counter. I instinctively responded to her movement in kind. “I can’t let you ruin everything. If you won’t make that magical blend Rosemary was able to do, then I’ll have to do it myself.”
She just threatened you.
“Did you just threaten my daughter?”
Oh, boy. This is going to be good.
The flash bang that came out of nowhere garnered a scream that was louder than the time Liam had knocked on my car door window. Leo hadn’t given me enough warning, so I instinctively ducked down and covered my head with my arms, hoping whatever had happened didn’t kill me.
Would you look at that? Your mother still has the same old pizzazz.
The tea shop was suddenly flooded with light, courtesy of my mother. She was standing by the light switch with a very satisfied smile on her face. As a matter of fact, the only time I remembered an expression like that was when a boy crashed his bike into a tree after he’d called me a name that I couldn’t repeat and—
“You made Randy Clark crash his bike into a tree back in seventh grade!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Regina denied emphatically, nodding toward the floor where the smoke was gradually dissipating from the air. I peered over the counter to find that Flo had fallen to the floor in a heap and appeared to be sleeping peacefully. “Now this…well, this was definitely my doing. You can thank me for saving your life later, after you’ve packed your bags and we’re both on our way out of this miserable little town.”
And to think a sliver of pride had slipped in underneath my loathing.
Leo’s lip lifted to show his broken fang in disgust toward Regina.
“Mom, I’m not leaving…even after all of this.” I slowly edged my way around the counter, wondering what kind of spell my mother had cast to get Flo to sleep this deeply. I have to admit, I was really impressed with Mom’s abilities, considering that she’d left this life behind. “What is your password? I need to call—”
Look at that. It’s like the good sheriff somehow knew you needed him.
Sure enough, Liam was standing at the glass door with his brown eyes focused solely on Flo, who was still lying in a heap on the ground. I figured that absolute shock was traveling through his system at the scene in front of him, but his NYPD training must have been darn good.
He didn’t bat an eye.
Flo must have flipped the deadbolt on the door, so my mother sighed audibly as she flicked her wrist and let Liam come into the shop.
“Raven, what happened?” Liam asked, rushing to Flo’s side while pulling his cell phone out of the front pocket of his shirt. “Did Flo have a heart attack? Was she sick? Did she faint?”
“Yes,” I exclaimed, grabbing onto the last excuse he offered. Liam would never understand this bizarre world I’d stepped into long before I’d ever realized it. He needed protection, and it was my responsibility to ensure that the underworld of witchcraft didn’t invade Paramour Bay. “Flo fainted, right after I told her I was calling 911 to let you know that she confessed to murdering Jacob Blackleach.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Heidi, thank you so much. You have no idea how much I needed this.”
This was five fresh ground pounds of my favorite cinnamon flavored coffee from the best café in New York City. Well, at least I thought so. I bent the tabs on the top of the white bag before opening it and inhaling the delicious aroma that literally made me salivate.
How had I gone two weeks without this delectable beverage?
Tea could never replace my chosen brew, and it made me think that maybe I could include specialty coffees on the shelves of my shop. That way, I could infuse the beans with the same spells combined with the tea leaves.
I waited to hear some sarcastic reply from Leo, but he was unusually quiet today. It was hard not to look around my kitchen for the orange and black ruffian that I’d come to rely on more than I would have thought possible.
“I saw Ted walking into town,” Heidi said, taking a seat on one of the stools at the counter. She was dressed casually in jeans with her blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail. I’d seen her glancing around the house a time or two, most likely looking for the furball she’d sworn she saw that last time she was here. I truly hoped she didn’t bring it up, because I didn’t doubt for a second she’d recognize my lies. “Does he not drive? I’ve got to tell you, I’ve been worried sick about you being all alone this far out here with him. I mean, we don’t know a thing about that guy.”
I took my time pouring the grounds into the generic coffee maker I’d stuffed into the trunk of my vehicle the day I’d moved to Paramour Bay. It hadn’t crossed my mind that having such a device in a tea shop might not be the best business decision, but my new home was now my sanctuary.
I could indulge my habit.
I could have all the coffee I wanted, though I still couldn’t convince Ted to have a cup. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I’d ever seen Ted eat or drink anything in the weeks we’d known each other.
“Ted likes to walk into town to visit Mindy,” I explained, wiggling my eyebrows and doing my best to get Heidi talking about Patrick. The two of them had apparently hit a rough patch. He had a tendency to pick his teeth with anything he could find…including one of her business cards. I choked back a gag as I hit the brew button. “Was that Patrick who called earlier?”
Heidi had arrived into town last night with an overnight bag in hand. We’d enjoyed a bottle of wine while I did my best to steer the conversation toward her love life and away from anything to do with me.
Remember, I was a really bad liar.
It had worked for the most part, but I ended up having to go into more detail regarding Flo Akers and her obsession with looking younger than her sixty-one years. There had been no need for Liam or the state police detective who he’d called in to make the arrest to know the entire truth.
Flo had awakened without ever really knowing how she’d fainted to begin with, and began spouting off to anyone who would listen that she’d done the town a favor by ridding it of an evil man who was going to steal Nan’s herbal remedies from everyone.
Detective Swanson’s case had been wrapped up with a red bow, and Liam had graciously given me and my mother all the credit in uncovering the identity of the murderer.
All’s well that ends well, right?
At least, that’s what I kept telling myself.
“No, it was your mother who called,” Heidi replied, picking a grape off the stems I’d set in a fruit bowl on the counter. She was watching me a little too carefully, so I turned and opened the cabinet where Nan had kept her cups. There were two travel mugs, both of them decorated with little steaming teacups, but they would easily hide the evidence of coffee. “She called me when you didn’t answer your cell phone. Wanted me to remind you that she’s coming to visit on Wednesday. I’ve got to say I’m surprised Regina’s had such a change of heart regarding you staying in this cute little town.”
“Oh, you know my mother,” I countered with a dismissive wave of my hand as my heart warmed at the thought that she was slowly becoming okay with my decision to stay in Paramour Bay. “She’s like a tornado. Picks a fight here, and it ends with something entirely different over there. Honestly, I think it’s great that she reconnected with some of her old high school friends.”
“You mean that Cora Barnes?” Heidi scrunched her nose in distaste. “Regina told me all about that woman. Are you still holding out on making her that tea?”
My moth
er and I had come to an agreement to tell Heidi as much of the truth as possible—and that included the herbal remedies my Nan had been selling on the side. It did explain a lot, and it went a long way in including Heidi in on a piece of my life that encompassed a part of who I was.
“Absolutely.” Now that I think about it, there was something else I could be truthful about regarding this new life I was living. “Did I tell you about the stray cat that showed up?”
Don’t you dare.
It took all of my might not to smile at Leo’s voice in my head. The little stinker had been here all along.
“Stray cat?” Heidi spun around on her stool, looking in every nook and cranny of the kitchen and living room. “I love kittens! How old? Wait. I didn’t see a kitty in the house last night when we were drinking wine.”
“Maybe that’s because we were drinking wine,” I said with a laugh, wondering if I could coax Leo into showing himself. “And this handsome fellow comes and goes as he pleases. He has a bit of an attitude, but I think that’s because of all the hardships he’s faced in his life.”
Attitude? Hardships?
“Did I mention handsome? You’ll just have to look past all of his battle scars.”
I was getting really good at answering other people, all the while addressing Leo. Granted, he could hear my thoughts—which was downright creepy—but I couldn’t force myself to engage in conversation with him in that manner.
“Oh, that poor thing.” Heidi began to blow kisses and murmur sweet nothings to entice the cat out from hiding. “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty. Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.”
I hate you.
Leo finally emerged from around the coffee table, eliciting a gasp of surprise from Heidi. She had a bad habit of being brutally honest, but that didn’t mean she lacked a heart of gold.
Leo had been strutting his stuff, sashaying his crooked tail back and forth. It was as if he’d been born into royalty, and he was showing the world for all to see. In this moment, he was the Persian leopard he’d always fantasized about in his dreams.
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