“Did you see what’s happening in the salon?” Charlie asked.
“No,” the three of us chorused. She tsk-ed.
“They brought a bunch of police and forensic people. I bet they’re going to be in there for a long time,” she said.
“I wonder if they’re going to try and get the body out of the wall,” said Greer.
“It’s pretty well stuck in there,” said Liam.
“They’re going to have to remove it eventually,” said Greer.
“Yeah, but not before they gather all the evidence and take a lot of pictures and samples and stuff,” said Charlie.
“You sound like you know,” said Greer.
“I’m a seasoned reporter,” huffed Charlie. “Of course I know.”
“I wonder when they’re going to come talk to us,” I said, glancing nervously at the door as if Detective Cutter would come marching in at any moment.
“I think Detective Cutter has had enough of us for one day,” said Liam, a grin lighting up his features.
“What we need to do is to find out when someone was last in that set of rooms,” Charlie mused.
All four of us stopped to think. Liam was tapping his hand against his mouth when his eyes brightened. “I know someone we could ask.”
Charlie’s eyes brightened.
“Follow me,” said Liam.
Without another word he shooed us out the door and locked it carefully behind us.
We decided to take the Beetle and leave Charlie’s car where it was, since she would obviously be coming back to see what she could find out from the police. As we walked away from the crowded scene I saw the mayor and Detective Cutter emerge from the salon and gaze at us intently. For a moment I thought they were going to follow us, but they simply watched for a moment, then headed back inside.
“Where are we going?” Charlie asked Liam once we were in the car.
“To talk to my mom,” said Liam, crowding into the back seat with Greer. “She knows everything that’s gone on in this town over the years. She’s lived here her whole life, after all.”
I thought that was a good idea. If Harriet had been here we could’ve asked her, too. Since she wasn’t, we were on our own.
Chapter Seven
Gerry ushered us into her small living room in a whirl of purple, her eyes skating over me and my friends. She trusted us enough to know that we wouldn’t tell Liam she was a witch, but she was still nervous. “I heard the news. How awful,” she said, waving her hand at the sofa so the four of us would sit. “I just made some tea.”
“We’d love some,” said Liam. He could see that his mother was distressed, even if he didn’t totally understand why.
“Tell me everything,” said Gerry, sitting in her own chair by the unlit fireplace. “The Mintwood Mirror has a dead body in it? Who could possibly have gone in there and died?”
“It’s a skeleton, and it was walled up out of sight,” I said. “It must have happened a long time ago.”
Gerry’s face tightened. “That’s why it was never discovered, I suppose.”
“We were just hoping you could tell us a bit about that storefront,” said Charlie, pulling out her pad of paper.
Gerry blew air through her lips and thought for a couple of minutes. While he waited, Liam helped himself to the plate of cookies she had set out.
“Let me see, it used to be a barbershop back when I was young. The owner of the shop passed away, just from old age,” she was quick to clarify, “when I was a senior in high school. I think that’s the last time the shop was used.”
“Why did it stay empty all these years, though?” Liam asked.
Gerry shrugged. “I think the family of the barbershop owner, the Horticules, left it empty for a long time. Then as time passed and families shifted and scattered, the place fell into disrepair, and no one wanted to rent it after that. Even Keith at Mintwood Mucking wanted a newer space. Why the owner of the building didn’t repair it once the Horticules stopped renting I have no idea.”
Gerry frowned as if she was trying to remember something, but when she didn’t continue Charlie asked more questions.
“Do you know who owns those buildings now?” she asked.
Gerry gave a short laugh. “No one knows. As teenagers we used to enjoy trying to guess, but when the person was never revealed, after a while we lost interest. Probably some overseas corporation at this point.”
I didn’t like that idea at all. Mintwood should stay in the hands of the locals as far as I was concerned.
“After the barbershop closed, did anyone use the space? Maybe his family or something? Did all his equipment stay there?” Charlie wondered.
Gerry pondered again. “You know, now that you mention it, the equipment didn’t stay there very long. Mr. Horticule had a couple of employees, and they bought his family out of his supplies and set up a shop in Pennwood. The Horticules were fighting amongst themselves, so keeping the space as a barbershop was out of the question.”
“Except that now it’s a hair salon,” said Liam with a roll of his eye.
“True,” said his mother.
“And what happened after that? About when did all of this happen?” I asked.
“Right around my graduation from high school,” said Gerry. “We had a party outdoors on Main Street, and I remember those windows being dark. Sometimes we’d walk past and look in after stopping at the ice cream parlor, and the place was always spotless. I’ll never understand why anyone let it fall into such disrepair.”
“They probably couldn’t agree on what to use it for, and eventually they stopped caring,” I said.
“Mr. Horticule’s niece still lives in town, but that’s not her name,” said Gerry.
“Who is it?” Charlie asked eagerly.
“Ivy,” said Gerry. “She would be able to tell you more.”
My eyebrows shot up and my roommates and I glanced at each other. Then Charlie looked at me and asked, “When is she coming back?”
“She came back yesterday,” I said. I had been taking care of the three Ivy cats for the winter, and I was relieved that their owner was back. Two of the cats were sweet, but the third had some weird notions about people and life in general. Specifically, that he wanted to spend all his time up a tree where it was safe. I never felt like I was quite doing my job, because he never came near me.
“We’ll have to pay her a visit,” Charlie murmured. She examined her notes for a few seconds while Gerry took a sip of her tea.
“Around the time of graduation, do you remember anything strange happening?” Charlie persisted.
Gerry shook her head. “We were all very happy. Our families were happy. The town was thriving. My friends . . .” She stopped short and her eyes went wide. Suddenly, she was looking at a different time.
“What?” Charlie asked, knowing that Liam’s mother had just understood something important.
Gerry pursed her lips.
“Mom?” Liam asked.
Finally his mother looked at all of us. She was shocked, but by what I had no idea.
“Mom?” Liam tried again. “What is it? What did you realize?”
“Nothing, nothing at all,” she said with a forced smile. “Sorry, just remembering when I was a kid on my way to college.”
None of us said anything. We all knew she was lying, but we had no idea what to do about it.
We didn’t stay much longer. In other circumstances Charlie would have pressed a witness, but she wasn’t going to interrogate her friend’s mother. Besides, Gerry was a witch, and there was a chance we’d need to speak with her without Liam around in order to get her to open up.
As we were leaving Gerry said, “Just out of curiosity, was the skeleton male or female?”
“I heard a rumor that said it was female,” said Charlie before anyone else could reply.
I quickly turned around to watch Gerry’s face.
Her eyes went wide and she swallowed hard. That wasn’t what she had wanted t
o hear.
“Why?” Charlie asked, though Liam glared at her for it.
“Like I said, just curious,” said Gerry with forced cheer.
“I’ll meet you three at the car,” said Liam, dismissing us. We were only too happy to go.
Liam stood on the front step talking to his mother for a couple of minutes. Mostly he talked and she shook her head.
“What do you think she knows that she isn’t saying?” Charlie wondered.
“I don’t know, but she was clearly lying,” said Greer.
“Do you think it has something to do with the fact that she’s a witch?” I said.
“Almost certainly, but I’m not sure she would have told the truth even without that,” said Charlie. “Something happened when she graduated and she just remembered it now. Or at least, she just connected it with the skeleton in the wall.”
“Could the thing that happened have been a woman going missing?” Greer wondered.
“It’s entirely possible,” I said grimly.
I wondered if that woman’s name was Jackie.
Chapter Eight
It was late afternoon by the time we dropped Liam off at the Twinkle. There was still one police car outside the Mintwood Mirror, but the other two and most of the crowd had dispersed.
Charlie went back to work with a front page story to write, while I went into the convenience store on Main Street and picked up a bottle of hair dye. I wasn’t sure I was going to use it, but I wanted to bring it home just in case. Maybe the green color would fade when I took a shower, though there was no way it was going to be unnoticeable by evening.
Finally Greer and I headed over to Cesar’s. My friend stayed in the car while I checked on the dog, as per Mr. John’s wishes. Then we headed home to get ready for the evening.
Greer had plans to meet up with Deacon that night, and as she left the house she said she’d see me later. I thought that was unlikely, since I was usually asleep by the time she came home from an evening with Deacon. We had been so preoccupied with the events of the day that we had barely discussed our plans for the weekend, or the guys we were seeing. Truth to tell, I was relieved. I didn’t want to tell anyone about seeing Jasper in case I jinxed it.
Charlie wasn’t home yet, so once Greer left I was there by myself getting ready.
“Keep it casual,” I reminded myself. “Don’t do anything crazy. That’ll just spook him.”
Before I left I needed to fill Paws in on Jackie Morris, and I was also wondering how quickly Detective Cutter could get an ID on the skeleton. I hadn’t had any chance to tell Charlie about the ghost, but I knew that as soon as she heard about Jackie she’d want to ask her some questions.
“What’s the big to-do in town?” Paws demanded when I stepped outside.
He didn’t say anything about my outfit, so I pouted a little. Then I relented and told him, “A skeleton was found in the wall of the Mintwood Mirror, the new hair salon,” I explained.
“Serves a hair place right. No one likes them. We should all keep our fur,” said Paws, puffing out his sparkling coat.
“I met the ghost,” I said.
“That’s nice,” said Paws. “Does Charlie know?”
“I filled her in briefly,” I explained.
“Oh, I suppose,” Paws drawled, looking the picture of disinterest.
“I thought you wanted a mystery,” I said. “There’s been a dead body in the wall of a downtown Mintwood Shop for decades. That’s a pretty big deal.”
“If you say so,” said Paws, still with that same bored tone.
“All right, we’ll take Tank,” I said.
“I knew you’d turn on me,” said Paws.
“What’s the matter with you?” I demanded. He was sitting on his crate, but something was amiss. Usually when he sat there, one of his eyes kept skating over to watch the birds, but tonight he was doing none of that. He was listless. Something was wrong.
“Nothing is the matter with me,” he said sadly.
“Um, okay,” I said.
“Just go on without me,” he cried.
“Cats are such drama queens, huh?” said Mrs. Goodkeep, sidling up to the porch. Usually Paws would take issue with such a statement, because someone else had dared to speak in his presence, but this time he didn’t argue.
“I guess,” I said. “Do you know what his problem is?”
“Where do I begin?” she asked.
“We’re all going to investigate this,” I informed Paws. “You don’t get out of a mystery just because you feel like it. I’m the Witch of Mintwood and I’m duty bound to tell you what to do.”
“Sure, sounds good,” said Paws.
He had just agreed with me. Something was really wrong.
“I have to go,” I said to Mrs. Goodkeep, because she was the only one left who was listening. “We can talk more about this tomorrow.”
“Can’t wait,” said Mrs. Goodkeep sarcastically.
“Do all witches of towns have to put up with so much nonsense from their ghosts?” I wondered.
“Just the lucky ones,” said Mrs. Goodkeep.
She looked me up and down. “Where are you going all fancy?”
I glanced down. I had tried not to dress up too much. Just enough was the ticket.
“I’m going to have dinner with Jasper,” I said, feeling a blush coming on.
“You have a date!” Mrs. Goodkeep burst out. “Oh, darling, that’s wonderful! You aren’t going to end up a spinster forever as we’ve all feared! Bless your heart, I can’t believe someone is willing to date you, though!”
I glared at the old ghost.
“Thanks ever so much. That really instills a level of confidence I can’t begin to express,” I muttered.
“You’re so welcome, dear,” she said with a big smile. “You should really do something about your hair, though. I suppose you did what you could, but green is not your color.”
I had put my hair in a tightly coiled bun and tried to liven it up with a jeweled hair clip. My efforts had only kind of worked.
“I’m going to get out of here before anyone says anything else nice to me,” I said.
“Not a big risk from me, but see you later,” said Paws dejectedly.
I hurried to the Beetle. My stomach was in knots and my spine was tingling. What if Jasper forgot about our date? What if I showed up at the barn and it was dark?
As I drove to the Babbling Brook Barn, I tried to think about important stuff like the Mintwood Mirror murder. Jackie Morris had been about eighteen years old when she died, but she couldn’t remember exactly when it had happened. In theory it could have been any time since the barbershop closed, but her age would surely tell us roughly when it had happened. Her body had been stuffed in the wall and plastered over by someone who knew how to plaster, but that wasn’t very hard to do; a lot of people in places like Mintwood were jacks of all trades, even if masters of none.
We needed to look up Jackie Morris, but that was going to have to wait until Saturday morning, and even then I’d have to be careful. Detective Cutter hadn’t announced the name of the deceased yet, so my knowing it would definitely raise red flags. Luckily, she’d been killed before I was born, so I couldn’t really be a suspect.
That was about as far as I got in the thinking about the murder, because I was much busier worrying about Jasper Wolf.
The starry sky was sparkling and twinkling overhead as I drove. I loved the clear nights and the bright sky out here in the countryside, and despite the fact that I had moved away from Mintwood for a while after high school, there really was no replacement for its beauty. The gentle sloping landscape made for a rolling and windy road, but I loved that too. I had a different view of the trees and the sky around every bend. In the distance, Mintwood Mountain looked out over her little town, watching.
I got out of the Beetle at the Babbling Brook. There were other cars there too, but I didn’t really look at them.
All I cared about was that Jasper’s tr
uck was there, which meant that he hadn’t stood me up.
Nervously, I lifted my hand to my hair, hoping that the bun hid most of the green strands.
The bright lights shining out from the barn windows cast a warm glow onto the pavement of the parking lot. The moon reflected brightly in the lake on the other side.
But my enjoyment of the scene was interrupted by a realization that hit me like a ton of bricks.
I should have brought something to contribute to dinner!
I need to show off my hosting skills to find a husband!
Wine! Cheese! Wine and cheese! Anything!
Oh, stop it!
How could I have been so foolish? I felt my face warm and forced myself to walk away from my car.
At this rate I was going to be late even without leaving again to go find an offering for my host.
Just as I was lifting my hand to knock, a voice stopped me.
“Hey, I figured you’d be here, but we didn’t have a chance to talk about it.”
I froze.
The voice was very familiar.
The sick feeling I’d had in my stomach intensified.
“Hi, Charlie,” I said, turning around. My plump blond friend was standing behind me, smiling brightly. She was very pretty at the worst of times, and even prettier when she smiled. Given that it was a Friday night, she was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved black tee.
“How’s it going? You’re right on time too?” she persisted.
“On time?” I said with confusion.
“For the dinner Jasper arranged?” Charlie raised her eyebrows.
Had Jasper invited both of us to dinner? What kind of a girl does he think I am?
“Greer said she and Deacon were running a little late, but they’ll be here. I guess Liam is bringing Gerry, because she’s been upset since we visited her.”
Huh?
Charlie saw the confusion on my face and said, “I know we didn’t get a chance to talk about it, but I figured Jasper had mentioned that we were coming.”
Not the kind of girl you go on a date with, apparently that’s me. Disappointment formed a large ball in the pit of my stomach and I fought not to show it.
Witch Raising Situation (Witch of Mintwood Book 5) Page 5