by Tonya Kappes
Abruptly she stopped and looked at Patch as if she were waiting for his answer. He looked at her. The electricity between them had iced. He slid his eyes back to me and shook his head.
Tish dropped the glass of Diet Coke on Hazel’s carpet.
“Good gravy!” Hazel jumped up. “Y’all get on out of my house!” She jutted her finger toward the door. “You’ve caused enough problems around here!”
“But.” I wanted to ask Hazel what she meant by that. “I just want to ask you a question,” I stammered as she pushed on my back to shove me out the door.
Patch and Tish didn’t need to be told again. They both hurried out and took off in the directions of their respective houses.
“I’m done here. Goodbye.” With one good shove, Hazel pushed me right on out of her house. I had to give it to the old broad. She was small and mighty.
“Crap.” I stood on the porch and the cold whipping wind informed me that I’d forgotten my cloak inside Hazel’s house.
“You forgot this!” I turned when I heard Hazel’s voice, only to be smacked in the face with my cloak and the sound of the slamming door.
Chapter Nineteen
“I’m telling you that Patch and Tish had spent an intimate night together. She’s so mad at him.” Oscar was on the other end of the phone. “Hazel had invited me in for tea and I was just going to poke around and ask some questions. She said the night of Patty’s death, Tish and Patch got into a lover’s quarrel.”
I gave him a quick run down of the day’s activities and how my intuition went nuts.
“No one knew Patch had a brother. Don’t you think that’s strange that the neighbors had no idea?” The pieces of the puzzle were right in front of me and I couldn’t fit them together. I was never any good at puzzles.
“I interviewed Tish and Hazel. Hazel’s son and grandchild had come to see her that night, so her alibi checked out and Tish was at the pumpkin patch and then put Jo to bed before she took a phone call from her mom. I checked the phone records and with her mom.” Oscar was so good at his job. He was always a step ahead of me.
“Then we are back to square one. But I need you to check on Broussert.” I’d almost forgotten to tell him about Broussert and his wife. “Petunia had told me that in the deal with Broussert’s, he was now trying to own one of the shops for rent money. He said that his wife came to Crazy Crafty Chick a couple days ago and she wants it, but you said that you checked out his whereabouts and he was on vacation with his family. Did that include his wife?” I asked. “Who told you that he was on vacation with his family?”
“They said it was his wife.” Oscar’s voice drifted off.
“Who?” I asked.
“I’ll check it out.” His tone held determination.
“Plus I’m not sure it was one of us that killed Patty. Faith said that the wind has been sketchy.” I hesitated because I knew he didn’t like getting other spiritualists involved and in this conversation I’d already told him what Petunia had said and not Faith, both he’d have to question on his own. “She said that the wind told her the voodoo was amateurish. No one in our community does voodoo. Though, it could’ve been someone from the outside, but you said the stab job was an amateur and the voodoo doll was an amateur…” I stopped when I realized I was just babbling at that point.
The silence on the other end of the phone was enough to tell me that he would definitely be checking deeper into what I had said.
“I’m really hoping to get some answers from Alise tomorrow,” I said.
“I think you can get good answers from Ophelia, but I’ll see what you come up with before I go see her. After you are back and you don’t have some answers, I’m going to have to go see her and I’m going to have to arrest Colton for the murder.” I could feel the tension in his voice through the phone. “There were prints on the wand that belong to Colton.”
“But you said the wand was fake. Why would he have fake wands?” I asked.
“He said that he had gotten them for the window display at Ever After Books and someone must’ve stolen them. And I also went to see Patch,” he said.
“He told me that I was asking him the same questions as my husband.” I laughed.
“When did you see him?” Oscar asked.
“He helped Tish carry me to the couch.” I pulled my lips together and inwardly groaned, putting the Green Machine in park in front of the cottage.
“June,” the warning tone in Oscar’s voice wasn’t pleasant. “What’s going on?”
I put my hand on my stomach. Was I pregnant? Panic spread throughout my body.
“You know,” I brushed it off. I pushed my bangs out of my eyes and let my hand linger over my phone. Was I? I felt queasy. “I pass out when stressed and after I saw Tish standing there with a knife, I passed out.”
“June,” his tension turned to worry. “This is why you need to leave the investigation to me.”
“No. I’m fine. I’ll get a message from Ophelia when I get back from Ohio.” I looked down at my bracelet and fiddled with the leaf charm. Things were definitely about to change.
“I was going to stay in Locust Grove tonight, but if you need me, I’ll come home,” he suggested.
“No. I’m fine.” Mr. Prince Charming jumped on the seat and looked out the passenger window. “I’m home and it’s late. I’m sure Faith has closed up shop and she’s coming in the morning. I think I’ll go spend the night with Eloise since we are leaving early.”
“That’s a good idea.” Even though I couldn’t see it, I knew he was smiling.
Oscar loved how close Eloise and I were. Plus, I wanted to pick her brain about the blended marriage like Darla’s and my dad’s because I still felt haunted by the fact Tish wanted to have a relationship with Patch, even though he’d told her he couldn’t. I wondered how long he’d be able to keep the electric currents between them at bay because it didn’t take a spiritualist to see they both cared deeply for each other. It made me wonder how Violet would feel about it.
Oscar and I said goodbye and I headed on in the house. Mr. Prince Charming rushed back to the bedroom and headed straight for the closet. He knew exactly where my tapestry overnight bag was and he loved going to see Eloise.
I pulled Madame Torres out of the bottom of my bag and set her on the bedside table. Slowly I ran my hand in a circular motion over her glass globe.
“Don’t even think about talking to me for a century,” Madame Torres said in a feisty voice.
“A century? I could be dead by then.”
“Good,” Madame Torres’s face floated around the globe. She looked guilty being so mean to me. “Are you pregnant? Because if you are, I’m retiring.”
“Why would you say that?” I asked.
“Those wretched people talked about it. Hazel told them that you and Oscar couldn’t keep your hands off of each other at the pumpkin farm. It made me mad, so I appeared to the little girl and tried to scare her. She just smiled at me and continued to shake me.” Madame Torres’s insides swirled in an angry cycle.
I left her alone because when she was angry; the best thing to do was to let her be.
I pulled out my tapestry bag with the leather handles. It was the prettiest bag. I packed a pair of jeans and a heavy sweater, as I wasn’t sure what the weather was in Ohio. I was going to ask Madame Torres but that was out of the question. She wasn’t going to give me any information right now.
My phone app said it was about the same temp so the few items I packed were perfect and I’d be sure to take my cloak.
The sun had set and the moon seemed bent on hurrying from one dark cloud to another, making me scurry along the woods even faster than normal. The empty autumn tree branches cracked as the howl of the wind took all the silence away. I continued to keep my eyes on Mr. Prince Charming’s tail as it wagged in the air and the fireflies dotted my path.
In the distance, the lanterns hanging from the trees that dotted the gravel path alongside Eloise’s house that led ar
ound to her garden were visible.
“Thank you.” I called to the teenagers as they buzzed their way back through the woods and Whispering Falls. “Tell Petunia thank you!”
They darted off and within seconds they were gone.
“Oh I love this time of the year.” My heart nearly leapt right out of my chest as I looked over the rows and rows of orange, yellow, red, greens, and deep purple flowers that were all part of Eloise’s herb garden.
Her herbs were different from KJ’s Happy Herb. Her herbs helped with the cleansing she needed to do as well as her ability to see things in the future.
“I’ve been expecting you,” Eloise called from the garden. “I had to snatch these little buggers before they closed up at midnight.” She had a handful of Slippery Sleets in her hand. “You have to cut them between ten p.m. and midnight only on a full moon with the grey cloud salute.”
She referred to the moon that’d made it difficult for me to see.
“Let me cut a few more because I want to take them with me tomorrow.” She pointed her snipping scissors toward the gazebo that glistened with the twinkling lights there were wrapped around the spindles. “I have a bedtime snack.”
I took a quick walk around the garden and stopped next to the dream dust and magic peanuts where there was an abundant amount of Fairy Dust. It would be so awesome if Jo Ellen was a fairy for the All Hallows’ Eve celebration and I gave her some real Fairy Dust that would leave a little trail behind her.
“Can I take a bottle of Fairy Dust with me and give it to a little girl in the new agri-hood?” I asked Eloise.
“You know it won’t call fairies,” she trilled back.
“Just for an effect, not magic.” I called and ran my hand across Lucky Clover, but not without making a silent plea to give me luck on helping Oscar solve this crime.
The gazebo was one of my favorite places to sit and enjoy any time of the day. She had a small café table in the middle. Tonight there were four chairs. Sometimes there were more, depending on how many people she’d invited over.
“Who’s coming by?” I asked.
“I’m here.” Ophelia stepped out of the shadow of the grey cloud just as the moon hopped to the next cloud. “I. . .I wasn’t sure where to come because I’d caught Oscar in the driveway across the street from your house in Locust Grove.”
“That’s where he grew up. He’s staying in Locust Grove tonight because he has to work there tonight since he’s spending all his days with Colton at the station.” There were so many things I wanted to say to her. I took my bag off my shoulder and hung it on the back of the chair. “Have you stopped by to see him?”
“No.” If she hadn’t shaken her head, I would’ve had to read her lips, her voice was so faint. “I’m ashamed. I know he didn’t kill Patty but I have to find out who did first before I can make things right with him. It won’t do any good if both of us are in jail.”
“Oscar said he’s okay. He did say his fingerprints were all over the wands that were stuck in Patty.” I pulled the chair out and looked over the array of goodies Eloise had placed on the three-tiered tower in the middle of the table.
The lemon tart was calling my name, or at least my stomach. I put my hand up to my belly. There was a flutter. Was it a flutter of nerves? Or was it a baby?
“Are you okay?” Ophelia asked and sat down on one of the café chairs.
“I’m fine. Long day.” I waved her comment off and put the whole baby thing in the back of my head. I filled the rest of my plate with some fruit and didn’t even look at the June’s Gems. “Who else is coming?”
“I don’t think anyone.” She shrugged and slumped down. “How was craft night?”
“It was so cool.” I gushed on and on. “Leah is so fun. She’s a country girl who just loves life. Violet was there as well and I’m not sure but I think she and a mortal who is living next door to Patch Potter are vying for his attention.”
“Really? A mortal and a spiritualist. Who will he pick?” That made her eyes light up. “That’s so exciting.”
“I am having a lot of fun with the new shops. But when I look over at your shop, it’s sad and bare. To think it was full of life last All Hallows’ Eve celebration.” Last year she had a fun reading corner for children along with a costume contest. It was a magical time that I was afraid wasn’t going to happen this year.
“June,” Ophelia jumped up. The chair smacked down on the gazebo. “The wands. Did you say the wands had Colton’s fingerprints on them?”
“Yes. They weren’t real. They were fake children’s wands.” I stood up and stared at her.
“I had gotten wands for the window display for a magical book theme for the All Hallows’ Eve celebration. Colton was in charge of hanging them from the ceiling at all different levels the day Patty was murdered. We were having an argument in the back of the shop about the display because he wanted me to do a princess and the frog theme and when we went back to the front of the shop, the wands were gone. I accused Colton of hiding them.” She looked out to the garden.
Eloise’s voice and another voice were chatting away. The clouds parted and the moon beamed on the two women like a spot light.
“Alise,” Ophelia backed up, knocking into the table, sending my chair to the ground and all the stuff in my bag tumbling out. “What are you doing here?”
Chapter Twenty
“Oh, do you think I was honestly going to sit idly by as you let my son rot in jail for something he didn’t do?” Alise swept up the steps and came nose-to-nose with Ophelia.
“Okay, now.” I wedged myself between them, bending down to pick up the contents of my bag from the floor of the gazebo.
Ophelia bent down next to me.
“What is she doing here?” she whispered in my ear as she helped me pick up the items.
“I don’t know.” I held my purse open for her to put my things back in. “I didn’t even know you were coming.”
I stood up and tugged off my cloak. I was suddenly getting hot.
“Alise.” I gave her a hug and turned her away from seeing Ophelia. “It’s so good to see you. I can tell you’ve been using the lotion on your dark spots.” I brought her hand up to view and was happy to see it’d been working just fine.
“I do love it. And when Eloise sent a message with the pigeons that the two of you were coming to see me, I sent a note back to Colton.” Her brows cocked. “Only to receive a note late today that he’s in jail for the murder of Patty Potter.” She tilted her head to the side, past me and shot Ophelia a death stare.
“I didn’t forsake him.” Ophelia busted past me and charged at Alise. “You always thought it was me.”
“No. I told you years ago when you were the flirty little school girl that if you broke my son’s heart, you’d have hell to pay. Well,” Alise’s shoulders straightened. “Hell is here.”
“Alise,” Eloise drew her arms into the air. Thunder clattered overhead. “We will not have discord in my home.”
Alise and Ophelia didn’t move.
“I invited each of you here so June and I don’t have to travel all around.” Eloise raked her fingers at the edges of her short red hair. “We will have dark tea along with dark treats.”
“I will not.” Alise drew back.
“You know.” Ophelia dropped her head.
“Only because I too am a Dark-Sider.” Eloise drew a sobbing Ophelia in her arms and enclosed her in her green velvet cloak.
Alise’s eyes held a dark reserve that I couldn’t place.
“We are an integrated community thanks to June’s vision when she moved here. She was almost taken down by a Dark-Sider but was adult and mature enough to understand that the spiritual community was a dying breed and we are better together than apart.” Eloise’s words were strangely veiled.
“Do you mean to tell me that Colton doesn’t know you are a Dark-Sider? I mean, I just found out from you, but Colton?” I didn’t understand why she wouldn’t have told him. Then it
struck me. “Because you are prejudiced.” I pointed to Alise and addressed Ophelia again, “And you knew we were an integrated community so you opened your shop here.”
My intuition told me I was right. Forget the healthy eating in case I was pregnant. I grabbed a June’s Gem and took a big bite.
“And,” I continued as the chocolaty treat soothed my soul. “Patty and Patch Potter are also Dark-Siders, hence the pumpkin farm and living on the edge of the development. He knew that you were a Dark-Sider. That’s what the two of you were discussing in the woods the night he died.”
“Yes,” Ophelia stepped out of Eloise’s safe haven. Her eyes clouded with haziness. “But I didn’t kill him and neither did Colton.”
“You’re right about that. And that’s the only thing you are right about.” Alise’s bitter voice cut right through the chill in the air.
I held my hand up for Alise to stop talking.
“Patty gave us a hard time after I started to date Colton. He knew that Colton’s family had protested the Order of Elders convention when they were starting to vote on the integration of villages. I love Colton and Patty knew they wouldn’t accept me in their lives if they knew. I had been talking Colton into moving away as soon as we graduated.”
“You mean manipulated?” Alise asked in a fierce tone. Eloise put a gentle hand on Alise’s arm.
“Go on,” I encouraged Ophelia.
“Then upon graduation, we immediately left without telling anyone. Patty had threatened to tell the Lances and I got Colton out of there before Patty could tell him. Colton came here with me under false pretenses.” Ophelia’s voice cracked. “Patch and Patty came to the bookstore the other day to drop off the flyers for the pumpkin farm and that’s when Patty found me. He’d given up looking for me, but since he felt I ruined his life because our parents had planned on us marrying, he told me he was going to tell Colton everything. That was when I told Colton it was over between us. He didn’t understand why and I have to believe he figured it out the night he saw Patty at the pumpkin patch and lost his mind. Now Patty is dead and Colton is the number one suspect.”