The Witching on the Wall: A Cozy Mystery (The Witchy Women of Coven Grove Book 1)

by Constance Barker

  Bailey stared at the folded slip of paper. “Have you taken it to Sheriff Larson?”

  “Of course we did,” Avery said. “We took it to him first thing. He said to leave it to the department.”

  “Well, maybe we should,” Bailey said around a mouthful of sandwich. “It’s their jurisdiction. We don’t have jurisdiction.”

  “There’s such a thing as citizen’s arrest,” Piper supplied. “I read about it. Oregon state law has provisions for civilian investigation and even arrests with appropriate evidence, of course. It’s been on the books for ages, from back when this was all frontier.”

  They were really serious about this. Bailey put her sandwich back down again, and took the list. She unfolded it. “This is… a long list.”

  “Well, we figured you could help us narrow it down,” Avery said, excited to be investigating a murder.

  “From everyone in town?” Bailey wondered. It was a very long list.

  Piper shrugged. “We got carried away, maybe.”

  Bailey opened one of the books she’d collected and took back the pen she’d used as a temporary book mark, and started picking down the list and circling names she thought were worth considering.

  Avery tugged the book toward him and looked it over. “Wow. Thinking about making another go at translating the writing in the Caves? That takes me back…”

  “Let me see,” Piper said. She looked through the section Bailey had bookmarked, lips pursed with interest.

  Bailey finished her assessment of the list. Circled on it now were Trevor, Gloria, Poppy, ‘crewmen’—Piper and Avery didn’t know any of the AVT crewman's names, of course—and at the bottom, written in, Bailey herself.

  Avery’s eyebrows creased. “Are you a suspect?”

  “I found the body,” she said. “The person who finds the body is always a suspect. How do you know I didn’t kill Martha myself and call it in to keep from being suspected.”

  “Why would anyone kill someone and then call the police?” Piper asked, incredulous. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Exactly. And neither of you thought to put my name on the list because you’re biased in my favor—not because you were thinking it through rationally.”

  Avery and Piper shared a look, and then stared at Bailey.

  “Did you kill Martha?” Avery asked carefully.

  Bailey rolled her eyes. “Of course not—that’s not the point. The point is, we know everyone in town. Everyone knows everyone here, it makes it hard to be objective. It’s not as easy as just pointing people out and following ‘clues’. This isn’t a Poirot story, and we’re not the police.”

  “We can still help,” Piper said sullenly. She winced suddenly and put her hand to her round belly. “James agrees, I think. That, or he’s cranky, one or the other.” She breathed through it.

  “She’s right,” Avery said. “And maybe baby James, too. We should be doing something. The whole town should be banding together over this.”

  “Over what?” A pleasant voice called from the doorway, slightly ajar as Chloe poked her head through. She entered the rest of the way, carrying a small box that no doubt had something delicious inside. “Hi, kids,” she said, smiling broadly, “what are you all talking about?” She glanced at the books on the table, and frowned. “The Caves?”

  “We were just gossiping, Chloe,” I said. “Piper and Avery think—”

  Avery shot me a warning look.

  “—that I should focus on something… distracting and academic to try and get over finding Martha,” I finished.

  The whispers got a little louder, but not more numerous. They were suspicious, I thought, nattering on about… about Chloe? Don’t trust her, they seemed to say, don’t trust anyone, everyone’s a suspect, she came in at a convenient time, didn’t she? Bailey had to squeeze her eyes closed and rub her temples.

  “Everything okay?” Chloe asked.

  “Just a headache,” Bailey muttered. She shook two more aspirin from a bottle that was almost gone—she’d picked it up the same day she’d found Martha—and swallowed them down without water. Funny how easy that got with practice.

  Chloe nodded slowly. “Sorry I haven’t been by,” she said. “But I was thinking about you. I brought you a cupcake. Actually, a couple. I made one yesterday but… didn’t see you so, I figured I’d bring them to you.”

  In fact, Chloe had never visited Bailey here before—or anywhere else, for that matter. It seemed more than a little odd, but Bailey was mostly just thankful for a distraction from Avery and Piper’s crusade.

  “How did you know she’d be at the library?” Avery asked, feigning casual disinterest in the answer.

  “Because Bailey retreats to the library when she’d stressed,” Chloe said slowly, confused at the question. “Everyone knows that.”

  Piper shrugged, and nodded and then peeked in the box Chloe sat down on the table between the three of them.

  “Thanks, Chloe,” Bailey said. A cupcake didn’t quite seem to appeal at the moment, but maybe it would later.

  “So,” Chloe said. “How are you getting along?”

  “That’s the question of the day,” Bailey groaned. “I’m okay, really—that’s for all of you. Bailey Robinson will be fine.”

  “Good,” Chloe said. “That’s good. What all did you see in there? If you don’t mind my asking.”

  “It was all in the paper,” Bailey sighed.

  “I saw. But, nothing you left out?”

  The three of them tried to act as casual as they could. Avery and Piper busied themselves with the cupcakes. The ones that were for Bailey were obvious—they were the most decorated

  “I don’t think so,” Bailey answered. Or, she thought she did. It was getting hard to hear anything over those whispers.

  “Any odd smells?” Chloe asked. “Sulfur, or… herbs, anything like that?”

  Bailey caught the sharp eye Avery gave her and shook her head. “No. Nothing like that.”

  Chloe nodded slowly, seemingly thinking about something. Her eyes settled on Avery, and she sighed. It seemed strange—not like Chloe at all to seem so… irritated? Maybe nervous?

  “Well, I’m glad you’re doing okay,” she said to Bailey. “Ave, Piper; I’ll see you two around. The three of you come by the bakery later on—get this girl out of the library and into the sun sometime, it’ll do her good.” She winked at Bailey and they all exchanged pleasant, if tight, goodbyes.

  When Chloe was gone, Avery leaned in and whispered loud enough that anyone outside the door probably could have heard him anyway. “Oh my God Chloe Minds totally killed Martha!”

  “What?” Bailey said. “No, don’t be… that’s ridiculous. Why on earth would Chloe have killed Martha?”

  “Well I don’t know, Bee, but you can’t tell me that wasn’t suspicious as heck!” He glanced over his shoulder like she might come back any minute. “She wanted to know what you smelled? Why would she ask for a detail like that unless she had some idea of what happened? Maybe she was trying to see if you remembered some key piece of evidence or something; the thing that would implicate her. We should totally follow her, see if she’s up to anything suspicious.”

  “He does have a point,” Piper mused. Suspecting Chloe of murder hadn’t kept her from enjoying a peanut-butter cupcake, though. She licked frosting off her lower lip.

  “You two… it just can’t possibly be Chloe.”

  “Are you sure you aren’t just biased?” Avery asked. He tapped the list. “You had a good point. We have to be objective about this.”

  Bailey struggled to ignore the whispers. They were receding again, but slowly. Honestly, she wasn’t sure she could even be rational right now. But she took Avery’s point and tried to set aside any feelings she had about anyone. It took some convincing, but ultimately she was able to admit to herself that the whole visit had been unusual.

  “Alright,” she said finally. “If I’m being entirely objective… then, yes. It was odd. Good grief, I
don’t know if I could deal with that…” But she penned Chloe’s name at the bottom of the list, right under her own, and circled it. “The bakery isn’t far. Maybe she walked. If we go quickly, we should be able to keep an eye on her.”

  The three of them scampered out of the chairs—well, Avery helped Piper up, anyway, but he scampered for the both of them—and the trio peeked out the door before they went out into town, hot on the trail of their first real suspect in the murder of Martha Tells.

  Bailey sighed to herself as they attempted the pursuit. This is all going end very badly, she thought through the growing storm of voices in her head. I just know it.

  Chapter 8

  They did manage to keep an eye on Chloe. She had walked to the Library, of course—there was no reason to drive such a short distance—but rather than rub her hands with obviously sinister glee or duck into any non-existent dark alleys or some secret lair like Bailey thought her friends possibly expected, she merely walked back to Grovey Goodies and, presumably, went back to work. She did have a job, after all.

  Avery wasn’t convinced. He rubbed his bare chin as though there should have been a goatee there for him to scratch ponderously. “What if all three of them were in on it?” He wondered out loud.

  “That’s a leap,” Piper sighed. Between their first uneventful tailing, the midday heat, and her unborn child, her energy had pretty much waned at this point. Still, she was trying to maintain some enthusiasm. “I could bring the minivan, and we could stake her out.”

  Bailey groaned, and shook her head. “She knows what your minivan looks like, Piper.”

  “Well we could borrow her mother-in-law’s car,” Avery suggested brightly. You’d think he was planning a surprise party instead of a stake out of a beloved neighbor. “She never drives it, right?”

  “I am absolutely not asking Gavin’s mother for her car, Ave.” That line of inquiry was neatly nipped in the bud. Avery put his hands up in surrender in the face of Piper’s instantly darkened mood. He made a mental note...don't poke a pregnant gal when she's hot, tired and cranky.

  “Maybe we should just call it quits for now,” Bailey said. “Chloe’s going to be there until they close like she always is. What’s the point of hanging around outside the bakery when she can’t leave.”

  “Why couldn’t she leave?” Avery asked. “She came to the library.”

  “And I’ll admit that was suspicious,” Bailey agreed. “But she’s not going to be running around town making herself look more like a suspect, now is she?”

  He shrugged, tilted his head to think about it and then sighed, slumping a little. “You’re probably right. So what next, then?”

  Bailey looked from Piper to Avery and back. They were both looking at her for an answer. “How am I supposed to know? We keep our eyes peeled, I guess.”

  “They make this look a lot more interesting on Law and Order,” Piper commented.

  “And CSI,” Avery added. “We need forensic evidence or something to throw science at until we get an answer.”

  Bailey was sure he was mostly joking, but she couldn’t bring herself to laugh. That whispering was getting worse and worse the longer she was out of the library. She very much wanted to go back.

  But, the truth of the matter was that Chloe had been acting suspiciously. As much as it pained her to imagine that the woman might have done something so awful… how much did she really know about Chloe Minds? Almost nothing. The same went for Aria and Frances. Those three women were well known in the community in general—they donated to bakes sales, had shown up for city council meetings, and were known to have an open door policy all around for anyone who needed an ear to pull.

  But in all that, Bailey couldn’t honestly say she knew who any of them really were. They didn’t seem to have family in town, none of them were married, and come to think of it, Bailey wasn’t even sure where they lived.

  As involved as the women of the Grovey Goodies bakery were with Coven Grove… they might as well have been strangers. There was something so odd about that. Who knew what other secrets they might be hiding?

  “You two should go home,” Bailey said finally. “Piper, you need to get off your feet. And Avery… you’re probably better off researching Martha’s past, anyway. Plus I think you’re going to burn up in this sun. Would hate to see that snow white skin of yours get a little color.” She winked at him.

  Avery feigned scandal, and checked his pale arms for signs of any such thing. He shrugged, and squinted at the afternoon light. “Well… you make a strong argument for being back indoors,” he said. “I’ll see what I can find on Martha. Maybe talk to that Gloria woman she came here with.”

  “Just be careful,” Piper said. “Gloria’s a suspect, don’t forget.”

  “Well she can’t just go on a murder spree and nobody notice,” Avery argued. “Plus, you both know I have a special way with the ladies.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, and Piper and Bailey both giggled at him.

  “Sure you wouldn’t be better off interviewing Trevor?” Bailey suggested.

  Avery pressed his hand to his chest, wounded. “That man is too handsome to kill anybody. I won’t believe it. Still… good point. I might talk to both of them...they probably picked up different things.”

  “Well, Bailey’s right about me getting off my feet,” Piper said. “You two call me if you find anything out. My feet are killing me. I might drop back by the library though. Gavin’s mother is a mean old hag to me, but she never gets tired of Riley at least. I intend to enjoy my break.” She glanced at her belly. “Such as it is, anyway.”

  Bailey made an effort not to glance at Avery. The bitterness in Piper’s voice wasn’t new, but it was getting worse and worse over time. She didn’t like them to pry, though, so they didn’t. For now.

  “I’ll see you both later then,” Bailey said. They traded hugs and kisses on cheeks and Avery walked with Piper back toward the library, their first amateur sleuthing attempt sorely unsuccessful.

  “…locked my keys in my car…”

  “…could be cheatin’ on me with that floozy Candice…”

  “…if Thomas would even notice if I…”

  “…so pretty I could just…”

  Bailey pressed her hands to her head and tried to focus on her breathing. It was all so loud. Why was it happening? She wished her Dad were with her. Suddenly she wanted to tell him everything that was on her mind, all of her worries. He claimed not to know anything about her mother, but maybe he at least knew how they could check hospital records, maybe find some instance of a crazy lady having a psychotic break.

  That would make sense, wouldn’t it? That her mother had gone off the deep end, and Bailey had been given up because she wasn’t fit to take care of an infant? Coven Grove didn’t have a psychiatric facility like an asylum, but there was one further inland—Lakeview Heights, maybe an hour and a half east. What if all this time her mother had been there? Crazy ran in families, after all, sometimes.

  The worst of it, though, was a much darker kind of fear. A secret, nagging worry in the back of her mind that had been festering since just a few hours after she found Martha, when the crowds had gathered.

  What if… what if she’d been right to put herself on the suspect list? What if she really was losing her mind, and had blacked out and…

  She shook her head, and squeezed her eyes tight against the sudden welling of tears that burned her eyes. It couldn’t be. She couldn’t have done something like that, surely, no matter what was going on inside her brain.

  Bailey realized she was standing on the sidewalk, still, about to start bawling her eyes out. She rubbed them, and looked around her. She wanted to be alone.

  Despite the terrible thing that had happened there, she found herself walking back toward the Caves. Underneath the dread she felt at going back there, though, was that same familiar tug; the promise of solitude, and calm, and a little bit of peace. Plus, the last time she’d started hearing the voices and go
ne there, they’d quieted a little bit.

  Just now, she needed that, desperately.

  It was a long walk, but it helped to calm Bailey down so she didn’t mind. She checked the Tour office when she got there, but it was still locked, no sign of Poppy. That was worrying, but with everything else going on, and Bailey’s world started to feel like it was coming apart at the seams—inside and out—and she couldn’t muster up the will to ruminate on it.

  The police tape was gone from the entrance of the caves. Martha had been removed, of course, and taken to the coroner’s office. They’d had to call in an out-of-towner. Coven Grove no longer had a resident coroner because death around here was categorically natural in some way, and very rarely unexpected.

  She wandered cautiously into the entrance to the caves, but dared not walk much further than the first one. The voices had grown distant the closer she got to them, and when she was deep into the first wide cavern they finally quieted all together. Blessed relief.

  Bailey lowered herself to the cool cave floor, and leaned back against one of the unadorned walls not roped off with the fancy red velvet ropes that only looked like actual velvet—they were cheap, like everything else Poppy bothered to put any money into. She leaned her head back against the stone, and listened to the distant crash of waves funneling up through the caves at high tide.

  She might have drifted off. She wasn’t entirely sure, but when she opened her eyes seemingly a moment later, the light at the entrance of the Caves was much dimmer, almost dark. She must have dozed off, then, it looked like it might be getting on into the evening.

  Though she didn’t really feel like she’d napped at all, Bailey stood and brushed the back of her jeans off and decided she should probably head home. Ryan would be worried about her, especially now. She was a little surprised he hadn’t already come looking for her.