Charmed to Death (A Farmer's Market Witch Mystery Series Book 1)

by Constance Barker

  Inside the house, I opened the note and read.

  STAY AWAY FROM LARSON HALL’S DEATH. THE REASONS FOR HIS MURDER GO DEEPER THAN YOU CAN EVER IMAGINE. IF YOU KEEP INVESTIGATING, BAD THINGS MIGHT HAPPEN TO YOU. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.

  I stared at the note and trembled. Someone knew about my efforts to solve the murder, that someone was not happy about it. But who? Who wanted me off the case? I fixed myself a cup of coffee and studied the note. Ordinary paper, childlike printing, black ink, nothing special about the note at all.

  Fingerprints?

  Mine would be on the paper, but might the police find someone else’s prints? I didn’t recognize the print or anything about the words. It was a crude warning, but from whom?

  George?

  Jefferson?

  Vera?

  Unknown but angry husband?

  I couldn’t figure it out. Since it was too early to start phoning people, I sent texts. I needed help, good minds that might see more than I did.

  “I don’t get it,” Percy said and sipped his coffee. “Why would someone try to warn you off? They must think you’re closer to a solution than you are.”

  Percy, Millie and I occupied a booth at the Sunrise Café. They had answered my texts and agreed to meet me. On the table in front of us was the note.

  “Percy is right,” Millie said. “Someone thinks you’re on to them, or about to be on to them. So, they’re trying to scare you.”

  “They’re doing a pretty good job,” I said. “Although, I’m about as angry as I am scared.”

  “Let’s talk about the person who left the note,” Percy said. “You said you didn’t recognize him or her, but did you notice anything that might help us identify them?”

  “Not really,” I said. “The person ran away, but at a speed almost anyone could manage. And in the semi-dark, there weren’t any colors or clothes to help.”

  “So, they’re anonymous,” Millie said. “Just like the note. I don’t see a way of figuring out who they are.”

  “Not with all the possible suspects,” Percy said. “The only sure bet is that the person who left the note is also the killer.”

  “Or a friend of the killer, perhaps a spouse or friend.”

  “You’re right,” Percy said. “It might have been someone who knows the killer. That makes sense.”

  “Or a prankster,” I said. “You know, someone who gets a thrill from scaring people. I wonder if anyone else received an unwanted note.”

  At that moment, Jason entered. He stood by the door and looked a moment, before he marched back to our booth. Percy scooted over, so Jason could sit, but Jason didn’t bother. He stood and frowned down at us.

  “Is that the note?” Jason asked.

  “It is,” I said.

  “May I read it?”

  “Sure, go ahead.”

  Jason picked up the note by the corner, careful not to add his prints to what was already on the paper. Reading the message took but a few seconds. “All right,” he said. “Tell me what happened.”

  I retold how I woke, noticed someone around my SUV, and went out to investigate. The note was waiting for me. I emphasized that it was mostly dark, and that I didn’t get a good look at the person as he or she ran away. Jason laid the note on the table and listened. When I was finished, he nodded and looked at the three of us.

  “I’ll take the note,” Jason said and pulled a plastic bag from his back pocket. “Do you mind putting it in the bag, Elle? I’m assuming your prints are already on the note.”

  “They are,” I said, as I inserted the note into the bag.

  “I’ll process this,” Jason said, “as it’s a clear threat. But that’s as far as this goes. None of you is to pursue this any further. I warned Elle, and I’ll warn everyone that you should stay out of this. Someone who’s killed once might have little compunction to stop killing. If he or she feels threatened, they might strike again. So, keep your heads up and be alert and stop trying to solve this case. Understood?”

  I nodded, along with Percy and Millie. We all watched as Jason marched away. I wasn’t convinced that he wanted us to stop for our own good. Maybe, he was just trying to make sure we didn’t get any credit. Civilians weren’t supposed to do better than law enforcement.

  “That was almost rude,” Millie said. “He could have thanked us for the note. We didn’t have to give it to him.”

  “He certainly could have a better bedside manner,” Percy said. “He certainly didn’t convince me we should stop looking into Larson’s death.”

  “He has a point,” I said. “We might be in danger. But to try to hide from danger is wrong. It simply makes us more vulnerable. To make ourselves safe, we have to discover the killer. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”

  “I agree,” Millie said. “You hide from a bully, and the bully gets bolder. What’s next, a message painted on your car?”

  “We agree, then,” I said. “We’re not about to stop looking. We’re not going to invite trouble, but we are going to protect ourselves by solving the murder.”

  I looked at my friends, and they nodded in agreement. We were not about to let Jason make us stationary bulls-eyes.

  “All right,” I said. “We have a few more minutes before we have to be at the market. Who is most likely to have left the note?”

  “Jefferson,” Percy said.

  “George,” Millie said.

  “Vera,” I added.

  We laughed. We had no consensus. That was not unusual.

  The morning was a bit cooler and not as glorious as the day before. Still, the market drew a nice crowd. The yellow crime tape had its own special lure. I was having a good sales morning, when Vera walked up to my booth.

  “Hello, Vera,” I said.

  “Can we talk?” she asked.

  CHAPTER 19

  “Sure, Vera,” I said. “What’s on your mind?”

  “I miss Larson,” Vera said. “Does that make sense? It does to me, in a way. We were together for a long time, and, while he had affairs, he would always come home and talk to me. You know, talk. House, pickles, the news of the day. I miss that. I don’t have anyone to talk to, not like that. Although, it wasn’t like that at the end.”

  “No? What was it like at the end?”

  “It was the amulet, amulet morning, noon, and night. It was all he could think about. You know how when you were in high school, and you got infatuated by some boy. You didn’t think of anything else. Always wondering what he might be doing, who he might be with. It was like that for Larson. He was infatuated with the amulet. It was crazy.”

  “Wait, how did he find out about the amulet? He wasn’t always that way, was he?”

  “No, no, happened by chance. During our...troubles, he decided to move out. Half of me wanted him to go, the other half wanted him to stay. I suppose it’s that way for most people. Anyway, he was in the attic, looking for an old set of golf clubs or something, when he came upon a trunk left by his grandmother. What possessed him to open the trunk is beyond me. But inside, he found some old photos and a high school yearbook and a diary.”

  Vera gave me a look that was both sad and happy at the same time, an odd look.

  “His grandmother’s diary?” I asked.

  “Yes, her diary, and Larson started reading it. Again, I don’t know why.”

  “Did you read it?”

  “No, no, I didn’t. Well, I read a bit of it, but that came later. Anyway, Larson spent the afternoon reading the diary. I had to go up there and grab him for dinner. Over beef stew, he told me about the diary. It seemed his grandmother had written about some sort of dark magic. No one seemed to know who was using the magic, but the rumor was several people had been killed in ritualistic sacrifice. His grandmother hadn’t participated, and she was too frightened to name the person using the magic. The whole town was scared. And then, everything went quiet.”

  “That’s odd,” I said. “You would expect the magic and deaths to continue.”

/>   “Exactly. But, according to Larson, the magic was hidden, put away someplace. No one knew where. His grandmother had visited someone who seemed to know a bit about the magic, and that person possessed an amulet. Larson’s grandmother had been struck by the amulet. It struck her as particularly beautiful. And she offered to buy it, but the owner wouldn’t give it up. So, Larson wanted that amulet. He dumped me and went on a crusade. I think he might have even given up sleeping around.”

  I thought a moment, remembering that Vera had had photos of an amulet. Was it the same one Larson wanted so badly?

  “I read some of the diary,” Vera continued. “I went to the pickle factory to talk to Larson, and he was out. So, I waited in his office. The diary was on his desk, so I opened it to the page he had bookmarked. It was a drawing of an amulet, his grandmother’s drawing. I was stunned, since the drawing was of something engraved on the amulet. I wasn’t familiar with the symbol, but I couldn’t stop staring at it, as if it was special somehow.”

  “You remember the engraving?” I asked.

  “I think so. Do you have something I can draw on?”

  I handed her my notepad and a pencil. She stared a moment, before she started to draw.

  “This is what I remember. But I saw her drawing only once and not for a long time. Larson came back and jerked the diary from my hands. He told me to keep my hands off it. I never saw the diary again. I have no idea if it still exists.”

  She finished the drawing and handed it to me.

  “That’s it,” Vera said. “Well, I think it’s close.”

  I looked at the drawing, and my heart grew cold. I knew what the symbol was. Not even Vera’s crude drawing could be mistaken. At least, I was pretty sure about that. I didn’t tell her, because I didn’t want her to worry. And I had to make sure. The last thing I wanted to do was give Vera bad information.

  “What do you think it means?” Vera asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said truthfully. “May I keep the drawing?”

  “Sure, I did it for you. Do you think Larson found that amulet? And if he did, was it connected to some kind of cult or something? You always read about dark cults that grab unsuspecting people and sacrifice them.”

  “I’m pretty sure there aren’t that many cults out there that practice ritualistic sacrifice, at least, not with humans. Animals are another story.”

  Vera talked for a few more minutes before I became busy with some customers. When I looked up, she was gone. I wondered if Vera had any idea about the amulet. I wondered if it was the one in the photo. I wondered about a lot of things. Against my better judgment, I called Jason. I felt he needed to know about the dark magic and sacrifices. If Larson was a sacrifice instead of a murder, Jason would gain a whole new set of suspects.

  “Elle,” Jason said over the phone, “I appreciate the information, but I don’t think it amounts to anything. I don’t deal in rumors, and I certainly don’t believe there’s some sort of black-magic cult. People are going crazy with conspiracy rumors and plots. As far as I’m concerned, Larson’s death was the outcome of his philandering. Men who sleep with the wives of other men are apt to meet untimely deaths. Again, thanks, but I’m looking in another direction. And don’t drive yourself crazy with this amulet stuff. It’s nothing.”

  I didn’t have time to argue, so I said I understood and killed the call. Was Jason being short-sighted? I didn’t know, and I tried not to think about for the rest of the day.

  At home, I fixed dinner and entered the day’s business in my computer accounting system. I was about to go to my workshop and create some charms, when the phone rang.

  “Hello, Jason,” I said. “Did I do something wrong?”

  CHAPTER 20

  “Do you know Brad Price?” Jason asked.

  “Of course,” I said. “He has a booth next to mine. Sells the best jerky in the state. Why?”

  “I got a call saying someone had broken into Larson Hall’s bachelor apartment.”

  “Larson had an apartment?”

  “Yeah, I guess he liked to entertain there. Anyway, when I get there, Brad Price is coming out. I ask him about it, and he said he was best friends with Larson. In fact, Larson had given Price a key.”

  “Why was he there?”

  “He said he was looking for a will, something that would detail funeral arrangements. Price said he felt personally responsible for the funeral of his best friend. I told him the body hadn’t been released, and he said he was trying to get ahead of the curve.”

  “That sounds like Brad,” I said. “He’s meticulous. He would be the one to see to all the details. But I never knew he was close to Larson. That doesn’t seem to fit either of them.”

  “Exactly, but I had no reason to doubt him and certainly no reason to hold him. After he left, I entered the apartment, and it was a wreck. Someone had ransacked the place.”

  “Brad?”

  “I don’t know. Possibly, probably maybe. But, someone had been pretty thorough, which tells me that he was looking for something important. That’s another question. What did Larson have that would cause someone to rip up his apartment.”

  “I don’t know. Vera might know. Although, I’m not sure Larson would share that kind of information.”

  “Well, if you think of something call me. I don’t feel good about this, not good at all. I’d like to know if whatever it is was found. That would give me a solid lead on the killer.”

  “I’ll let you know,” I said.

  Jason hung up, and I was suddenly at sea. He had warned me off the case over and over, and now, he wanted to know if I learned anything? That made me wonder just what kind of person he was. He would use me only when it fit his plan? That didn’t sit well with me. I wasn’t going to stop investigating. But I might not include Jason in the results. In a way, I was beginning to consider the murder a contest between Jason and me. Who would solve it first? In a way, I wanted it to be me. I went to bed and examined the suspects in my mind. I hadn’t come up with the killer by the time sleep took me.

  The next day was overcast and threatening rain. The market was open, as the forecast wasn’t all that bad. I was there with my booth of charms. The yellow crime tape down the way fluttered in the wind. I was beginning to think it should come down. All the murder groupies in the area had already passed by. The tape was probably doing as much harm as good. I hadn’t been open long before Percy arrived.

  “What do you think?” Percy asked. “Rain?”

  “Probably,” I answered. “Perhaps storms. You know how Spring is. All we need is some kind of front, and we’ll have a lightning show.”

  “That’s the truth. And what about our murder? Any new leads?”

  “One,” I said. “You know Brad Price, right?”

  “The Sphynx? Sure, he said ten words last week. I counted.”

  I laughed. “He’s not that bad, but he did go through Larson’s bachelor apartment yesterday.”

  “You’re joking. Brad? He’s the proverbial church mouse. Why would he do that?”

  “I don’t know, but here’s what Jason said.”

  I told Percy about my phone conversation with Jason, how he found the apartment ransacked. He had no idea if anyone had found what they were looking for, and that mattered. If the treasure was taken, then the mystery might be winding down. If the treasure was still available, then danger was probably still lurking around the corner.

  “That’s weird,” Percy said. “We need to find out what Larson had that was so valuable.”

  At that moment, Vera wandered up, and she looked the worse for tears and sorrow. I felt sorry for her, even as she launched into a description of her morning. I got the feeling that Vera considered me her new best friend, and I deserved to be told everything. Percy didn’t leave. He settled into the background, and I knew he heard every word. I would probably read half of Vera’s lament in his next blog. Percy was like that. I didn’t mind—unless he used names.

  From out of the crowd cam
e Tabitha, and she had a huge smile plastered on her face. That smile was enough to creep me out. Tabitha wasn’t known for her friendliness. I had learned that about her in grade school.

  “Vera, darling,” Tabitha said. “How are you doing?”

  Tabitha hugged Vera, and for a moment, I thought Vera was going to be physically sick. Tabitha could do that to people. Hugging Tabitha was like hugging an ice sculpture.

  “I...I’m fine,” Vera said. “And you?”

  “Oh, I’m as fine as frog hair, and that’s damn fine.” Tabitha laughed, as if she had made a great joke.

  “That’s good to hear,” Vera said. “But I need to be going.”

  “Oh, stay,” Tabitha said. “I wanted to ask you a question. I heard it through the grapevine that Larson was looking for a particular piece of jewelry, an amulet, I think. Did he ever find it?”

  Vera studied Tabitha a moment, and I knew Vera didn’t exactly trust the dark witch.

  “How did you hear about that?” Vera asked.

  “Oh, I have a friend in the antique business. We were discussing the murder, and my friend said Larson came to the shop one day, looking for an amulet, a special amulet. My friend wasn’t able to help Larson, who seemed especially keen to find the piece.”

  “I don’t think Larson ever found the amulet,” Vera said. “I know he looked, all around the area. But it eluded him.”

  “Pity,” Tabitha said. “Amulets are of special interest to me. I would love to see the one he was looking for. Oh well, such is life. Elle, how is the charm business? I take it you’re doing well?”

  “I am, Tabitha, thanks for asking. This has been a good opening for the market.”