spies and spells 01 - spies and spells

by Kappes, Tonya

  “Dan is a retired Army officer. He was stationed in Iraq for the war. Drea worked for Tawny Fawn to get extra money for them and their children while Dan was away. Dan was hurt in the line of duty and forced to be retired. He had enough years in but he was a lifer in the military. When he came home, Drea continued to make money for Mystic Couture, making her the highest paid consultant for the beauty empire year after year. Their children are grown and out of the house,” Vinnie read as I followed along on the screen. “There is no criminal background on either of them.”

  “I didn’t think there would be.” Drea and Dan were as American as you could get, obviously I couldn’t say that for the rest of the group. “I need to see how the interworking of the international side of Mystic Couture works in order to put Mick and SKUL behind me.”

  “That will make two of us happy to get rid of him.” Vinnie’s voice spoke matter-of-factly. I couldn’t help but find a little humor. “Speaking of the pain in my bumper.”

  I turned around in the seat and looked at the FedEx truck behind me. Mick was driving and disguised, ready to follow me wherever I was going.

  “Do me a favor and get me a list of all the people who were at the Mystic Couture party. Maybe one of them has a record or something sketchy in their past.” I didn’t know if it was a good way to get a lead or not, but that was how a lot of crime TV shows I watched did it.

  “If Agent Jasper was such a good agent, he’d already done that.” Vinnie took a left off of Brownsboro Road, heading toward Crescent Hill.

  “I’m sure SKUL and Mick are doing all they can.” I took notice of the cute neighborhood. I rarely left the boundaries of my own neighborhood.

  Drea and Dan’s yellow clapboard bungalow-style home was positioned on a hill with a concrete walkway up to the southern style front porch. The lush green landscape had little color, but the yellow home made the yard pop, making it very charming.

  The front door had a screen door and country blue colored shabby chic shutters on each side giving it a down home welcomed country feel. Of course there were two white rockers on the wooden porch.

  The door swung open. The welcoming wreath batted the door a couple times. Drea smacked her hand over top of it to make it stop.

  “I’m so glad you are a little early.” She took a step back to leave me room to walk in.

  If I didn’t hear her voice, I’d have sworn it wasn’t her. Thank God for the magic of Mystic Couture.

  “I’ve got to still get my face on.” She rushed up the steps that were built right inside of the foyer as soon as you walked in. “I’ll be right back. With the step-by-step Mystic Couture Kit, I’m able to get my face on within minutes. You can go in the family room.”

  I had seen the kits and all the other accessories Mystic Couture had in their product line but with the swipe of a few fingers, I didn’t have to worry about trying to learn how to put on a face.

  I tried not to be too nosy as I waited in the family room but my eyes didn’t get the memo. I sat down on the cream leather loveseat that was positioned near the fireplace. The walls were painted a country white and the room was accented with red. There were two red leather chairs that looked like I would sink down if I sat in one.

  The two oriental rugs had all different hues of red threads and looked to be very expensive. It wasn’t like Tawny’s home. When you walked in her mansion, you could tell everything in her home was expensive. In the Phipot’s home, things were practical and some pieces looked expensive.

  I would have figured her and Dan as the extravagant type, especially since she was the top Platinum member and making all the money she said she was making, but they didn’t.

  The family room opened up into a dining room where the wood floor was covered with an oriental rug matching the two in the family room. Her dark wood stained table was set as though she was about to throw a dinner party. This wasn’t unusual. Most southerners kept a set table for unexpected company. Her bungalow didn’t have built in stained glass like the homes at historic Old Louisville, so she had hung one in front of the large window.

  I found myself in the kitchen. It wasn’t as large as I had pictured Drea cooking in. The country white continued on the cabinets and matched the walls. She didn’t have the stainless steel appliances but nice black ones. The cabinets didn’t go all the way to the ceiling, leaving just enough space for back lighting above them making the kitchen very cozy. Drea definitely embraced the cozy side.

  I continued my nosy journey and popped into the office. There were boxes piled to the ceiling, each with a packaging sticker and Drea Philpot printed in Sharpie marker on the side. The floor to ceiling built-in shelf behind the desk was filled with Mystic Couture products, photos of Drea and Dan at Mystic Couture events, and trophies from all the awards Drea had received. The photo with Drea and Dan smiling caught my attention. They were holding the plaque that was hanging on the wall.

  I walked closer to read the plaque. They had received The Spirit of Crescent Hills award where they were recognized for their involvement in the community.

  The fully stocked liquor cabinet and bar sent my witchy senses on high alert. There were two cocktail glasses with a little drop of Maker’s Mark stained on the bottom. Like I said, I could smell out the fine bourbon anywhere without using my witch skills.

  I heard her footsteps upstairs and rushed back into the family room. Being caught snooping around wasn’t a good sign of a SKUL employee. Not that I was a spy or anything, but they were relying on me to get details about the international sales.

  “Ready?” she asked with rosy cheeks, the new Jockey Red lipstick stained on her lips, and the gold shimmery eye shadow smeared on her eyelids. She looked in the mirror behind the loveseat and ran her fingers through her hair, and then along her lips. She smacked them together. “There.”

  “You look great.” I wondered why she spent so much time dressing up and putting on all that makeup. I was lucky to get a swipe of lip gloss on.

  “You should always dress the part.” She snapped. “That was one thing I will miss about Tawny.” She did that whole sign of the cross thing again while looking up in the air and whispering some sort of prayer. “God rest her soul. I sure do hope they figure out what happened to her.”

  “Me too.”

  “Or who happened to her.” She gestured me to follow her to the office.

  “Who happened to her?” I asked trying to dig some information out of her.

  “I’ve been thinking about what you said the other day.” She did the ole finger across the neck move I had done when she was at the diner.

  “Oh, that.” I brushed it off, hoping she’d let it go. “I told you I have no idea how she died. I mean when I found her she was just,” I paused, cringing inside.

  “You found her?” Drea threw her perfectly manicured hand over her mouth. Her brown nail color had to be from the latest Mystic Couture nail collection. “You were in her bedroom? No one was ever allowed in her bedroom.”

  “No. I mean.” I stopped talking, my mouth twitched, and I sucked in a deep breath. No magic. No magic. I did some fast talking. “I went in to use the bathroom because I just couldn’t do the port-a-potty thing she had going next to the tent, and I just sort of nosed around.”

  “You didn’t,” Drea gasped. The unwritten number one rule of being a true southern belle was if you snooped, you didn’t breathe a word of it. I had just broken the number one rule. “Do tell.” She drew closer, tilting her head to the side, her bob flung along. She brought her hands up to her ears and clipped on the biggest diamond earring to her earlobe. Then doing the same thing to the other side.

  “There really isn’t much to tell.” I played it off as best as I could. “It was gorgeous but when I saw the police in the bathroom, I tiptoed my way over to take a look and there she was. I didn’t have time to look around after that. They ushered me out so fast, it was all a blur.” I was pretty pleased with my lie and how I didn’t use magic to erase her mind or cover
up my boo-boo.

  “Still,” Drea continued with her “idea” of what happened to Tawny Fawn. “I told you she and Tessa didn’t get along. In fact, the other night was the first time I had seen Tessa since she was a little girl.” Drea’s head shot side to side in a sassy kind of way. “Then Tawny ends up dead. Not a coincidence to me. Not to mention Tessa is now taking over?” Her brows cocked in a curious sort of way.

  “Who said Tessa was taking over?” I asked acting as though I didn’t already know this, but I wanted to see what some of the inside people knew, like Drea.

  “I had to pick up some of my supplies to send to my international clients, which they box for you making it so much easier for you to get the stuff where it needs to go.” She muttered a couple words under her breath and got back on track. “Anyway, the asshole at the warehouse was complaining to the receptionist in the office about how Tessa was a real ball buster, a stickler for rules. And she was going to keep her office at the main warehouse down there on the docks.”

  “Didn’t Tawny have her office there?” I recalled the red and black office and didn’t remember seeing an office with Tawny’s name on it. How on earth did I miss that? I made a mental note to ask Mick about why Tawny didn’t have her nose there when she clearly had her finger on the pulse everywhere else.

  “Not that I was eavesdropping.” Drea took another look in the mirror, shaking her bob to fluff it a little. After she used her hands to fluff it more, she tucked each side behind her ear. She must’ve been happy with her appearance because she gestured, again, for me to follow her to the office. “I mean, we all can go in there anytime since we technically work there too. So I’m not spreading gossip.”

  “I know you would never do that.” I said. I could see her now. I bet her ears were as perky as a dog’s when the dinner bell rang. “Did anyone else say anything?”

  “Not a word.” There was an amused look on her face. “Lips were tight as the skin of a full tick.”

  “That tight, huh?”

  “Indeed.” She grabbed one of the boxes that was stacked sky high. “Grab one and hurry. We are going to be late if we don’t get on Gene Snyder Parkway and fast.”

  She was right. The Parkway back toward the airport would be bumper to bumper in the five o’clock traffic.

  “I thought you said y’all didn’t drink?” I asked a perfectly good question, pointing to the liquor cabinet.

  “We might not drink the hard stuff, but it’s only good manners to have liquor for our friends who do.” She stuck her head out from around the box. Her eyes narrowed, brows furrowed. “Dan and some of the guys had come over to discuss the future of Mystic Couture. Not like they could do anything about it.”

  “The guys?” I asked.

  “Most of the husbands with wives in the Platinum club have been able to retire like Dan. Since Tawny died, everyone has been so upset about the state of Mystic Couture. No one can run it like Tawny. Not even Tessa.”

  “I don’t think these are going to fit in my car.” When I had told her I would drive, I didn’t realize there was so much.

  “No problem.” She waved my concern off. “I have plenty of space in my car. Besides, I have the pass in there too.”

  “Pass?” I asked.

  “Since I have a lot of mailings, I have a pass at one of the side security gates at the airport to drive on through.”

  We went through a door in the kitchen leading out to her attached garage where her fancy Mercedes SUV was parked. She lifted her foot in the air under the back bumper and the trunk door lifted like magic.

  “I told Dan we didn’t need this fancy car, but he insisted since I was always carrying boxes to stick in.” She giggled.

  “I thought Dan did a lot of the mailings,” I only mentioned what she had told me at the Mystic Couture party.

  “Like I said, he and the other husbands are together again today, trying to figure out the future of their life.” She giggled again and walked back into the kitchen and through the house to get more boxes.

  One by one we loaded the boxes in her car in silence. My head wasn’t silent. I continued to go over her conversation from the Mystic Couture party and the conversation we just had. Dan and the other husbands of the Platinum Club seemed to be awfully involved. I get the fact they were able to retire, but they were all pretty young. If they had to go back to work, they should be young enough to do that. It wasn’t like Dan and Drea lived extravagantly. They had nice things, but nothing like Tawny Fawn. Still, something was off.

  The traffic on the Parkway was busy, but moving. It wasn’t jam packed yet, but soon it would be. Just like Drea had said, there was no red tape to drive through the security gate at the airport and pull straight up to the FedEx terminal.

  “Ma’am.” A man with a FedEx hat walked up to the car. “Can I help you get those boxes into the facility and get you out of here?”

  “No thank you.” She slammed the car door and I followed her lead. She swiped her foot under the back bumper and the door lifted.

  “They look awfully heavy.” The man wouldn’t give up, knocking me aside.

  I was about to threaten to report him to his manager, but he took off his hat.

  Mick.

  There was some sort of calming feeling covering my body like a warm blanket seeing him there. If there was some sort of international drug ring this would be where it all happened.

  “Good evening.” Drea’s chipper voice greeted the man at the counter.

  “Coming down to the wire aren’t we, Mrs. Philpot?” The man behind the counter was white, with thinning brown hair. He wore blue pants and a grey cardigan sweater with the FedEx logo on the upper left side.

  “But I made it,” pride was in her voice. She winked at him. “This is Maggie Park. I wanted to introduce you because she is the newest Platinum member at Mystic Couture.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I held my hand out for him to shake.

  He took it gently and we moved them up and down. There wasn’t any sort of alarm making my senses go off. He tried to pull away but I held an even tighter grip trying to get a bad feeling from him. Nothing.

  I was getting nothing but good vibes from him. He jerked away from me and rubbed his hands together before he took the package from Drea.

  “I wondered if you’d be in since that woman who owns your company passed.”

  “Business as usual.” Drea didn’t skip a beat. She took the package out of my hands and set it on the table, waiting for him to check in the package she had carried in. “It’s a shame, but life doesn’t stop just because she passed. Bless her soul.”

  There she went again with that whole business of the sign of the cross. I rolled my eyes and walked back to her car where Mick was still waiting.

  “I don’t think the guy in there knows anything,” I said grabbing another box. “He doesn’t seem fishy or suspicious.”

  “What do you think he’s going to do? Introduce himself as a member of an international drug smuggling ring?” Mick also took a package.

  “You better put that down before she comes back here and gives you a good cussing.” I laughed.

  He didn’t listen; he snuck the package into his waiting Caprice.

  “Thanks, Maggie!” he called out when he threw the package in his car. “You are doing great undercover work.”

  “Wait.” I put the package back in Drea’s SUV and walked over to him. “Where are you going with that?”

  “All I needed for you to do was distract her so I could get one of the packages in question and take it back to SKUL so we can get it analyzed.” He slammed the door and threw the car in drive, taking off without looking back.

  I shook my head, realizing there was no true undercover work SKUL wanted me to do. They wanted me to be a distraction while they did all the work. I wanted to do more. After all, my family was in danger of being discovered and I had to make sure they weren’t. And if that meant I had to do my own digging, or magic, I was going to.

&
nbsp; “Say,” the man stopped weighing and putting stickers on one of the packages and looked at Drea. “How is Dan doing?”

  “He’s fine,” she said with trepidation. “He’s keeping himself busy with the guys right now doing God knows what, but it keeps him out of my hair.”

  “I saw him the other day at the coffee shop on Fifth and he looked good.” He went back to the package. “It makes me happy to see him doing better.”

  “Some days are better than others.” Drea sighed.

  They continued idle chitchat between them and I continued to be the workhorse by bringing the packages from the car to the counter. There was nothing unusual about the transaction.

  “It looks like there were three packages returned.” He gave her the receipt.

  “Three?” Her face drew in disappointment. “Just send those over to the hanger.”

  He agreed, they said their goodbyes and we were back in the car.

  “That was simple.” I kept an eye out for any other type of suspicious demeanor but nothing. If Drea was part of an international drug ring, I’d be surprised. “Can I ask what is wrong with Dan? I mean, the guy back there made me think something was wrong.”

  “Dan is in remission from cancer and it’s been a rough road.” She gripped the wheel, her knuckles whitened. “I try not to dwell on it. I don’t know what I’d do if Mystic Couture went under.”

  Suddenly she started to cry uncontrollably. She pulled over on the side of the road before we got back on the Freeway toward her house.

  “I’m so sorry.” I gulped. “I had no idea or I wouldn’t have asked.”

  I waved my hand over my clutch making a travel pack of Kleenex appear inside. I took it out and handed them to Drea.

  “No, no.” She tried to smile through her pain and took the Kleenex pack. “You didn’t know. Damn Tawny,” she muttered through her tears.

  “Excuse me?” I asked.

  “I don’t know what we will do if Mystic Couture goes under. I just can’t believe she died. I mean.” She tried to compose herself. She straightened her shoulders and pulled down the visor. She took a good look at herself. She laughed. “Mystic Couture mascara is supposed to waterproof, but just look.” She pointed to the black lava flow down her face.