Son of a Witch: A Witch Squad Cozy Mystery #2

by M. Z. Andrews

  My mom’s face, which had lit up at the sight of my brother, scrunched up into a dumping ground of tears. She reached her arms out in front of her, “Oh, son! Come over here and give your mother a hug!”

  Reign’s eyes smiled before his mouth did, but when they caught up to each other, it just about made ME cry. He stood up and threw his arms around my mother’s shoulders. The minute I heard her choking back a happy sob, my tears broke out too.

  “Uh-hum,” Detective Whitman cleared his throat.

  “Oh, sorry. I know you’ve got a lot going on. Detective Whitman, this is my mother, Linda Habernackle. Mom, this is Detective Whitman.”

  Mom wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt and looked at Detective Whitman with interest. “Well hello,” she said as she patted at her cheeks. “It’s so nice to meet you.”

  Detective Whitman stood up and straightened his khaki sports coat. Then he leaned forward and shook her hand. “Nice to meet you as well. Your daughter has been very helpful on the last two of our murder investigations.”

  “I’m so glad to hear that,” Mom said without taking her eyes off of the detective.

  “And mom, you know the girls,” I said and pointed at the rest of the Witch Squad.

  “Jax and I have formally met,” she began. That’s all it took and Jax launched herself at my mother.

  “Hi Mom!” she cooed excitedly.

  “Hi Jax, good to see you too,” she said with a little laugh as she looked down at the elf hugging her middle. “Now I’ve only met Alba, Holly, and Sweets through Sneaks. Hello ladies, I’m Mercy’s mom, Linda,” she said with a little wave at the rest of the girls.

  “And this is Elena,” I said and gestured towards the blonde girl sitting quietly next to Detective Whitman. “She is Harper Bradshaw’s sister, Harper is the girl that passed away recently.”

  “Oh, Elena, I’m so very sorry for your loss,” my mom said quietly as Jax disengaged herself from my mother’s waist.

  “Thank you,” she said softly.

  “And who is this little guy?” Mom asked, petting the top of Chesney’s head.

  “Oh, this is Chesney, he’s mine. He’s new,” I said excitedly.

  “I see. You think you have room for a puppy in your dorm room?” Mom asked skeptically.

  “Mom! You can’t come to college and start in on me. Can’t you just let me be happy that you’re here for five minutes before getting on my nerves?”

  Mom held up her hands in defeat. “Fine, fine. Your business. I’ll stay out of it. So, what’s going on here today?”

  “Wait, how did you know we were here?” I asked her with narrowed eyes.

  Mom shifted her weight onto one leg and put her hand on her hip. “Mercy. You know I’ve got strong powers of intuition. I could just feel where you were.”

  “Yeah right Mom, how did you know?”

  She shrugged. “Eh, I was pulling into town and just happened to see you and the girls crossing the street. Jax’s witch hat was a dead giveaway. I flipped a u-turn and came back.”

  “Figures,” I said with a little laugh.

  “So, what’s going on?” she asked.

  Holly stood up. “I’ll tell you what’s going on. I had a vision. I saw who killed Harper.”

  “Alright, out with it,” Detective Whitman prompted.

  “Jimmy Spencer,” Holly said with gusto.

  Detective Whitman looked around at all of our faces. “Really? You’re gonna pin it on the dead guy?”

  Mom’s eyes opened wide. “There’s another dead person?”

  “The owner. Jimmy Spencer. Your son and daughter just found him last night. He was dead behind the counter,” Detective Whitman told my mother.

  “That’s terrible!” she said as a hand fluttered to her mouth.

  “And now we’re pinning Harper’s murder on him?” he asked.

  “I know, positively, Jimmy did it,” Holly asserted. “I saw him in my vision. I was holding one of his shot glasses and I saw him pouring the poison into Harper’s drink and I saw him give it to her. I also saw him drug Reign.”

  Reign’s face lit up. “So that’s why I don’t remember what happened, I was drugged.”

  “Did anything show up in your vision about how Jimmy ended up dead?” he asked us.

  Alba and I looked at each other. “No, we don’t know how Jimmy died. We were going to go talk to Harper about that and see if she could help us.”

  Detective Whitman stood up. “Ok, I have a lot to do to follow up with this. I’ll do some digging. If Harper remembers anything, give me a call.” He headed towards the door. “Lock up when you leave, please. And Linda, it was really nice meeting you.”

  My mom gave him a coy smile. “It was nice meeting you as well.”

  “Mom, the girls and I have some work to do also. Reign, can you watch Mom for me while we go do a little more digging?”

  “Watch Mom? I need a babysitter all of a sudden?” Mom looked at me like I was crazy.

  “Fine. Mom, will you watch Reign for the rest of the afternoon? And Chesney, can you guys watch him too?” I asked and handed him to Reign.

  Reign’s dark eyes shone happily. “I’d be happy to take Linda and Chesney for the day.”

  “Linda? Son, I told you, I’d love for you to call me Mom.”

  Reign’s face lit up again, and after hearing his story about his less than stellar childhood, his sheepish smile tugged at my heartstrings. “Of course, Mom.”

  { Chapter Eighteen}

  With the Witch Squad and Elena in tow, we made our way up the stairs to check on Harper. Elena had asked to be able to talk to her sister again and after discovering that Jimmy was dead, I knew we needed to see if Harper had seen or heard anything that might help in figuring out how that happened.

  “Harper?” I called as we came in the small room. The hardwood floors creaked as we all shuffled about. I pulled back the closet doors to find Harper’s ghost huddled on the floor as usual. When the light flooded her sanctuary, she looked up me.

  “Harper, are you alright?” I asked her.

  She nodded. “This place has been a madhouse of activity lately. What happened?”

  “Jimmy Spencer is dead,” I told her.

  Alba and Sweets took a seat around the little table in front of the window while Jax and Holly tossed themselves onto the bed. Only Elena looked uneasy in the situation.

  “Jimmy Spencer? He was the bartender?” Harper asked.

  “Yes.”

  “You brought Elena with you I see. I’m still not speaking to her,” Harper told me.

  I turned to Elena. “Harper said she’s still not speaking to you.”

  “But I want her to know how sorry I am about me and Vaughn,” Elena cried as tears began to slide down her cheeks easily.

  “I don’t want to hear anymore apologies,” Harper said and crossed her arms across her chest.

  “There’s something you need to know Harper,” I began uneasily. “We know who killed you.”

  Harper’s head snapped back to look up at me. “Was it my sister?”

  I gave her a gentle little smile and shook my head. “No, it wasn’t Elena. And it wasn’t Vaughn.”

  “Then it was your brother?” Harper asked in surprise. “Wow, I’m shocked, I really didn’t think it was going to be him.”

  “No, thankfully it wasn’t my brother. It was Jimmy.”

  “The guy that just died? Why would he have wanted to kill me?”

  “That’s what we’re trying to figure out. We have no idea. The only thing we know is that Jimmy Spencer was having financial troubles. This building was recently put into foreclosure.”

  “What’s foreclosure?” Harper asked.

  “He must not be making the payments on it. Foreclosure means the bank is trying to take it away from him to settle his debts with them,” I explained to her.

  “So you think he killed me for money?” she asked me incredulously.

  Elena’s eyes widened when she he
ard about his money problems. “The Bed & Brew is in foreclosure? I had no idea!”

  “I don’t know if he killed you for money,” I told Harper.

  “My parents are worth a fortune,” she admitted.

  I turned to the girls. “Harper asked if we think Jimmy killed her for money. She said her parents are worth a fortune.”

  Elena shook her head. “But how would he get any of their money by killing her?”

  “Maybe he was only going to drug her enough to abduct her,” Jax suggested. “And then he would hold her for ransom.”

  “That seems kind of unlikely,” I said. “Wouldn’t it be too obvious? I mean if the cops started digging around and found out that Jimmy was broke and losing the bar, wouldn’t they immediately suspect him?”

  “Maybe someone offered to pay Jimmy to kill Harper,” Holly suggested.

  “But the only person that knew I was coming to town was Elena,” Harper told me.

  I repeated Harper’s rebuttal to the girls.

  Elena visibly winced and Alba caught it. “What aren’t you telling us, Elena?” she asked.

  Elena looked uncomfortable. “Well, I guess I did tell one other person that Harper was coming to town.”

  My jaw dropped as I turned to look at her squarely. “You told us that you didn’t tell anyone.”

  “Well, I didn’t think that this person mattered. There’s no way he would hurt Harper. Not in a million years.”

  “Who?” Sweets asked as we all hung in the air anxiously.

  Elena pinched her cheeks up into her eyes nervously. “My dad?”

  “Dad knew I was coming?” Harper asked, jumping off the floor. She marched right up in front of her sister’s face. “You told Dad I was coming? I told you not to tell anyone! So much for confiding in my sister! You know, you’re the worst sister ever! First, you sleep with my boyfriend and then, you tell Dad I was coming to town when I specifically asked you not to,” Harper ranted at Elena.

  I shot Elena a nervous little look. “Harper’s not very happy with you.”

  “Yeah, I figured she wouldn’t be. She wanted to surprise him,” she admitted to me. Then she looked down at her hands. “I’m really sorry Harp. It was an accident. I was over at the house, borrowing some money because I bounced a check and they were going to shut off my lights and Dad asked me if I’d heard from you lately and, well, it just slipped. I swear. I didn’t mean to.”

  Harper crossed her arms across her chest again and harrumphed with her back towards Elena.

  “She’s taking a minute,” I whispered to Elena.

  “So let’s think this out,” Alba said calmly. “Harper came to town. Jimmy needed money. Harper’s parents have money. Harper’s dad knew she was coming to town. There are so many pieces of that puzzle missing. It just doesn’t make sense. I mean, did Jimmy even know your dad?”

  Elena shook her head. “I’ve literally never heard my dad talk about Jimmy Spencer.”

  Harper spun around. “Wait! Jimmy does know my dad! The night I was killed, Jimmy mentioned that Daddy and his friends have been coming to the Bed & Brew for coffee every morning. He said he’s known Daddy for years!”

  “Harper says that Jimmy and Sergeant Bradshaw did know each other. She said that the Sergeant had coffee with the guys here every morning,” I repeated.

  Elena looked surprised. “I didn’t know that. I knew he had coffee with his friends in the mornings, but I guess I never even thought to ask where they had it at.”

  “Ok, so Harper came to town. Jimmy needed money. Sergeant Bradshaw has money and knew Harper was coming to town and he knew Jimmy,” Alba recited, adding that last piece to the puzzle.

  “Did Jimmy think that if he killed Harper he could extort money from my father in some way?” Elena asked, puzzled.

  “Maybe he was planning to harm you too if the Sergeant didn’t pay up?” I suggested.

  Elena shrugged. “You’d think Daddy would have been keeping a closer eye on me since Harper’s murder then. He’s been grieving so much, I don’t even think he’s even given me a second thought!”

  “And you don’t think your father would have hurt your sister?” I asked her.

  Elena shook her head emphatically. “Absolutely not! Daddy thought Harper hung the moon. There’s no way he would hurt her.”

  “Besides, that would have taken a lot of planning. Elena and Harper’s father would have had to know where Harper was staying, gotten in contact with Jimmy in advance and worked out some kind of deal. Did Harper make reservations at Jimmy’s?” Holly asked.

  I looked at Harper, she looked relieved. “No, we didn’t make reservations.”

  “She didn’t make reservations,” I repeated to the girls. Then I caught sight of Elena. She was gnawing at her bottom lip ferociously. “What is it, Elena?”

  “Nothing,” she chirped.

  “What does she know?” I asked Harper.

  Harper’s eyes widened. “I just remembered. We stayed at Jimmy’s because Elena suggested it.”

  I swiveled around to look at Elena. “You suggested that Harper and Vaughn stay at Jimmy’s? Did you know Jimmy?”

  “Wait, what?” Alba asked. “It was Elena’s idea for Harper to stay here?”

  “That’s what Harper says.”

  All eyes were on Elena. “I don’t know Jimmy at all,” she assured us. Then she sighed a heavily. “My dad suggested Harper stay at Jimmy’s.”

  “WHAT?!” I asked, shocked.

  “When I accidentally mentioned to Dad that Harper was coming to town, he asked me when. I told him and I said they’d probably be rolling into town late that night because they were driving in from Connecticut. He suggested it would be easier on them both if Harper and her boyfriend stayed somewhere that night and came to the house in the morning. He said there was a little bed and breakfast type place downtown that he knew of. Jimmy’s Bed & Brew. I relayed that to Harper.”

  “This just keeps getting more and more interesting,” Sweets said as she readjusted herself in her chair.

  “Most definitely!” I agreed. “So what do we do with this information? Harper’s father could have had something to do with this.”

  Harper wrung her hands. “There’s no way Daddy would do this to me. Just no way. I thought he loved me!”

  “We don’t know anything for sure yet, Harper, relax,” I said to her. My heart went out to her. She was probably better off believing that her sister had done this to her than her own father! “Harper’s upset. She doesn’t want to believe that her father did this.”

  Elena wrung her hands just as Harper did. “I don’t believe it either. Daddy would never hurt either of us.”

  “Well, there’s really only one way to find out,” said Alba knowingly.

  “We’ve got to go talk to Sergeant Bradshaw,” I agreed.

  Sweets looked surprised. “Like he’s really just going to tell us that he did it?”

  “Maybe he’ll need a little convincing!” I said to Sweets. “Looks like your potion making might come in handy today, Sweets. Are you up for it?”

  { Chapter Nineteen}

  Jax, Holly, Sweets, Alba and I parked Sweets’ car outside of the Bradshaw house. Even though Elena hadn’t wanted to, we’d convinced her to invite Sergeant and Mrs. Bradshaw out for lunch to make sure that they were out of the house so we could do a little nosing around. As it turned out Sergeant Bradshaw had some last-minute funeral arrangements to iron out and would be tied up until later in the day, but Louise Bradshaw had been available for lunch.

  “Where did Elena say they hide their spare key?” I asked as the five of us approached the sprawling brick ranch style house in an established neighborhood in Aspen Falls.

  “Under the flower pot on the patio,” said Jax.

  When we got to the front of the house a little dog inside began yipping like crazy. “Shhh,” I hissed at the dog.

  “Like he understands what that means?” Holly whispered back.

  “He might.”<
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  “Which flower pot?” Alba asked, looking around the patio. A wide assortment of potted plants covered the patio.

  “I have no idea, I guess we check them all,” I said with frustration.

  Each of us began hurriedly looking underneath the pots for a key. “Someone is going to see us,” Jax whispered nervously.

  “There’s no key here,” Holly said. “We’ve checked them all.”

  “Maybe she meant the patio in the back of the house,” Sweets suggested.

  “Oh, that’s probably what she meant,” I agreed. “Let’s run around back.”

  Both sides of the house had a tall wooden fence enclosing the backyard. The right side of the house had a hinged wooden gate which seemed to be locked from the inside, and the fence was too tall to jump over.

  “Give me a boost,” I suggested.

  “The neighbors are going to call the police,” Jax hissed at me.

  “Then hurry up,” I said to her.

  Alba rolled her at eyes at us. “Hello? We’re witches?” she growled at us. “Ugh. Watch out.”

  We all stepped back as Alba bounced around on the balls of her feet lightly. She rolled her head around on her shoulders as her arms hung loosely by her sides. She looked like a boxer loosening up for a fight. Then, just like that, she stopped bouncing and focused on the door. She closed her eyes as her arms raised out straight in front of her. Slowly, she flattened her palms so that they were perpendicular to the door and when she had enough energy built up in her body, she unleashed a bolt of blue and green electric energy towards the wooden gate. It made an intense crackling noise as it struck the wooden door and blasted it off of its hinges and into the backyard.

  With our mouths hanging open, we all peered through the break in the fence. The wooden door lay splintered 40 feet away in the backyard and the fence itself was shredded where the hinge had been pulled out by the screws.

  “Well that was a bit of overkill, now don’t ya think?” I asked Alba testily. “I offered to scale the fence!”

  Jax looked around. “I’m sure the neighbors heard that one! Now they’re definitely going to call the police. We better hurry.”