Love Hexed

by Sara Bourgeois

  Love Hexed

  by

  Sara Bourgeois

  One

  The fully restored 1979 Cadillac Eldorado pulled up in front of the Train Wreck Diner at dawn. The way the breaking sunlight caught the glassy black paint gave the car an otherworldly appearance. It almost looked like the car had pulled straight out of a dream and into the town square.

  A tall, dark-skinned man stepped out of the car and cocked his black fedora to the side. His blue velvet suit was tailored to perfection, and if it weren’t for the fact that the man looked as if he’d arrived in Winterfield over three decades too late, you’d have assumed he was there to do some important business.

  The moment his cane touched the ground, the silver tip called thunder from the sky. Lighting cracked, and a downpour drenched Winterfield with fat raindrops that fell in sheets. This made the man smile.

  He walked toward the diner entrance and didn’t get a drop of water on his clothes or hat. The rain seemed to bend its will to him as he walked confidently between the drops.

  A skull was painted on his face in thick, white makeup, but you could only see it if you were about to die. It didn’t matter if it was by the man’s hand, and the traveler had taken many lives, or if it was just your time. When death was almost upon you, you could see the brilliantly white skull painted on his umber skin.

  The man walked into the diner as if he owned the place and took a booth next to a window without waiting to be seated. He removed his hat and set it gently on the bench next to him.

  Linda brought him a menu, but she didn’t talk to this stranger. There was a huge smile on her face when she started across the diner to greet him, but the look he gave her chilled Linda to her core.

  “I’ll come check on you in a moment.” She practically whispered as she handed him the plastic covered menu.

  “Thank you, Ma’am.” He responded in a tone that almost sounded like a snake hissing.

  Linda walked away quickly. She’d only recently gotten out of jail, and the last thing she wanted was more trouble. This man sitting at a table pouring over the diner’s menu looked, smelled, and talked like trouble.

  She went into the kitchen and watched the man through the pass-through window. Maurice, the new cook, stood behind her flipping eggs and pancakes on the grill.

  “Whatcha doin, dollface?” He asked with a big, hearty belly laugh.

  Maurice was a charmer for sure. He really liked Linda too. A big part of her liked him as well. They were alike in all the right ways, but after Leonard’s death, she was a bit gun shy around men. Linda didn’t even know why Mattie had killed Leonard. Ben told her it was because Lexi wanted him murdered.

  But why?

  Mattie’s insane ramblings had revealed nothing about Lexi’s motives for killing Leonard or attacking Nick. The fact that they were both cooks was a clue, but it was fruitless so far.

  Ben and Luke had searched Alex Frost’s house after he left town with Lexi. What they’d found was evidence of a longstanding affair between the Chief of Police and Lexi. There were also yearbooks that showed the two were high school sweethearts.

  What Ben pieced together, which may or may not have been entirely accurate, was that they were young and in love at one time. And for some reason, Lexi decided to put Brynhildr under a spell that made her appear to be an older man with whom Lexi was married for years. Brynhildr had been mayor of the town even before that took place, but the spell Lexi cast made everyone forget that their mayor was once a Valkyrie.

  It made Linda shiver to think that the entire town could be put under a spell so powerful. It had all been a part of Lexi’s plot to bring dark magic back into the world. A conspiracy she probably hadn’t given up on yet, and now she had a vampire at her side to do her bidding. It made Linda sad to think about the once handsome and rugged Alex Frost as a twisted, evil monster.

  Alex was probably supposed to wait for Lexi to carry out her plan and then the two of them would have married, but Alex didn’t wait for her. He’d married Jaqueline. Linda wondered if his secret love for another woman was part of what drove Jaqueline insane.

  “Ma’am, I’m ready to order.”

  The man in blue velvet called out to her across the diner, and the sound of his voice brought her out of her thoughts. She hurried over to him to get his order. The faster she got the order, and he ate it, the quicker he would be out of there.

  Something about this man told Linda that Winterfield would be better off when it was in the man’s rearview mirror. She pulled her notepad and pen out of her apron and flashed him the most genuine smile she could manage, but Linda could feel that the man saw right through her. He knew that she wanted him gone, and it amused him greatly.

  “What can I get for you, honey?” Linda had considered calling him “sir” instead of her usual “honey,” but he would have sensed her trying too hard to be deferent. It was better if she just pretended as if everything was fine.

  “I’ll have eggs benedict with a side of waffle fries. I’d also like a glass of grapefruit juice and a coffee black.” He said with a wicked grin.

  Linda almost protested, but she held her tongue. “Sure, sweetie. That’ll be right up.”

  Eggs Benedict wasn’t on the menu, but Linda was sure Maurice could wing it. Waffle fries weren’t available until lunch time, but she could tell the man was testing her. He wanted her to object so he would have a reason to get angry. Her gut told her to just give him what he wanted and let him go on his way.

  “Hey, Maurice, I’ve got a special order for you. Think you can handle it?” She teased the cook once she was back in the kitchen.

  “We don’t do special orders, doll.” He said with a chuckle.

  “We do today,” Linda responded.

  Maurice took a look at the man and decided to leave it at that. Usually, he’d go out and give someone like that the what for, but he could feel what Linda felt. The nasty, almost demonic, energy flowing off the smiling man in the blue velvet suit reached the kitchen and made the hair on the back of Maurice’s necks stand up.

  “I gotchu, Sweetcakes.” He said trying to lighten the mood and reassure Linda.

  He made the order his number one priority, and Linda took the man his breakfast within minutes. While she waited for the cook, she brewed a fresh pot of coffee. Linda didn’t give the man any reason to complain.

  “Can I get you anything else, sugar.” She asked sweetly.

  “Just the check, Ma’am. I’m going to be on my way as soon as I finish my breakfast.”

  Linda went back behind the counter and quickly wrote up his breakfast check. She took it back out to his table with urgency and thanked him for coming.

  The bell over the diner door clinked twice in quick succession, so Linda had two new tables to wait on as soon as she’d dropped off the man’s check. By the time she was done running their drinks and taking their orders to the kitchen, the man was gone. He’d cleaned his plate and left cash on the table.

  Linda went over to bus the table and cash out his check. She found that he’d left her a ten-dollar tip. It was very generous, but for some reason, it felt wrong to take it. That money would have tied her to him somehow. So, she picked it up and dropped it in the children’s charity donation box up at the front register.

  She looked up just in time to see his Eldorado pulling away from the curb and breathed a sigh of relief. It was a comfort that would turn out to be short-lived.

  Two

  Belladonna and Sterling sat on stools at the kitchen island. Bella sipped from a steaming mug of coffee with cream as Sterling gave her ears a bath with her paw. She was due in at work soon, but her coffee was the perfect temperature. So, she sat and sipped it slowly.

  Spring appeared to have broken early in Wi
nterfield, and it was the perfect day for a walk. Bella wasn’t sure if the warm weather would hold, so it was important to take advantage of the beautiful days while she could.

  The air outside was much warmer than Bella expected, and it felt humid too. She felt a deja vu come on and stopped on the sidewalk in her tracks. The feeling she’d experienced a moment ago, she remembered it.

  Belladonna bit her lip and thought hard. It took her a minute, but she evoked an image in her mind. It was the French Quarter in New Orleans. She’d been there a couple of times on vacation, and for some reason, right then the air in Winterfield felt just like the Big Easy.

  She had no idea what was going on, but it brought a smile to her face. Bella started walking again, and she hummed zydeco music the rest of the way to the salon.

  Francine was already there setting up for the first appointment of the day when Belladonna arrived. Bella turned the sign to “open” and went to the back to get her apron.

  She tied the apron behind her back and slid her hands over the front to smooth it down over her clothes. Bella was surprised to feel that there was something inside of one of the large pockets.

  Bella put her hand inside the pocket and pulled out a small weathered voodoo doll. She turned the amulet over in her hand. Was it a gift? Was it a warning? Voodoo dolls weren’t used in religious practice as much as people believed. They were just a point of fascination for people on the outside of true Voodoo.

  That didn’t help Belladonna decipher whether she should be concerned about finding the doll in her pocket, and it didn’t tell her how whoever put it there got into the salon to plant it.

  Bella slipped the doll back into her apron when she heard the bell over the salon door. It was time for her first appointment, and she’d have to investigate the finding later.

  She’d been nervous about business since the snake incident. People had moved on since it happened, but she was cautious since she didn’t want to lose any customers. So far, they’d all given her another chance.

  The morning went by quickly. Belladonna had a few back to back appointments, and Francine stayed busy sweeping and washing hair. Once lunch time rolled around Belladonna was starving. She checked her schedule and saw that there wasn’t another appointment for an hour and a half.

  Right when she was about to go out the door, thunder crashed. Belladonna remembered hearing a thunderstorm roll through that morning while she got ready for work, but she hadn’t expected it to rain again.

  “I was going to go to the diner, but maybe I’ll just get a sandwich from the bakery,” Belladonna said when the fat drops started to fall from the sky.

  “They have sandwiches at the bakery?” Francine asked with piqued interest.

  “Oh yeah. She just started serving them. Carly makes the bread fresh really early in the morning, and then they put them together right before the bakery opens. Let’s see…” Belladonna bit her lip in thought. “There’s turkey, ham, roast beef, Italian, and liverwurst.”

  “Liverwurst?” Francine raised an eyebrow at that.

  “Apparently, a few of the gnomes around town really like it,” Belladonna said. “Do you want a sandwich?”

  “Anything but liverwurst.”

  Belladonna slipped on the jacket she kept in the back of the salon for emergencies or when she forgot her other one at home. She prepared herself for the sprint down to the bakery.

  By the time Bella opened the door to the salon, the downpour had become intense. Despite the heavy rain and thunder, there was an unusual smell in the air. She could pick up the scent of baking pastries and chicory coffee even through the sheets of blinding rain.

  Bella ran towards the bakery as the big drops of water slapped her face. Even though it was barely spring, this rainstorm felt almost tropical. She pulled the door to Big Buns Bakery opened and practically lept inside.

  “Oh my, Belladonna what are you doing out in this storm?” Jessie said as she hurried across the room to help Bella with her coat.

  “Hungry. That’s the only excuse I’ve got.” She said with a laugh.

  The scent of buttery pastry and chicory coffee was intense inside the bakery. Belladonna looked around, and a few people were seated at tables drinking from steaming mugs of fresh coffee and munching on beignets.

  “You made beignets and chicory coffee today,” Belladonna said.

  She was up at the counter by then, and there were three baskets of the pastries in the case. They were sprinkled generously with powdered sugar and smelled heavenly.

  “I’m not sure why, ” Jessie said with a shrug. “I woke up this morning and wanted to make them. There are muffulettas in the sandwich case too.” She said and pointed toward the case.

  “I haven’t had one of those in forever.”

  There were only a few left even though it hadn’t been traditional lunch time for very long. Belladonna grabbed two out of the case and walked back up to the counter. She also got two coffees and an order of beignets to share with Francine.

  Belladonna considered mentioning the voodoo doll to Jessie, but just as she was about to speak up, the door to the bakery opened and several wet patrons flooded in. Before they descended on the sandwich case, Bella grabbed one more muffuletta and headed back to the counter.

  “Maybe if the rain lets up Ben will want to come join me for lunch.” She said and paid Jessie for the additional sandwich.

  Once Bella got back to the salon, she called Ben. Unfortunately, with the new police station opening soon, he couldn’t get away for lunch.

  “Could you stick it in the fridge for me, Sweetie. I’ll come by after work and eat it for dinner.” Ben said with a tinge of disappointment in his voice.

  He’d been having to work a lot more hours recently. Construction on the brand-new police precinct was complete, and he was in charge of getting their small police force moved into the new building.

  With Alex Frost gone, there was an opening for police chief. Technically Luke was the senior officer, but he wanted no part of being in charge. Luke enjoyed being a police officer, but he didn’t want to be anybody’s boss.

  That left Ben. With a little bit of paperwork and the blessing of the Mayor, Detective Ben became Chief Carmichael. His first order of business was to offer Luke a promotion to detective, but Officer Terry turned that down as well.

  “Dude, I just want to be a cop. Officer Cornwall seems enthusiastic, a bit annoying, and I’m sure she’d be perfect for the job.” He said with a smile.

  “I can hear you,” Lucy said from behind her computer.

  “She is enthusiastic, and she graduated top of her class from the Academy.” Ben pretended like he couldn’t hear Lucy.

  “Seriously you two. I can totally hear you.”

  “I know. We’re just messing with you.” Ben said with a laugh. “But seriously, do you want the job or not?” He did his best imitation of her when he said the word seriously.

  “I guess.” She replied after a long fake sigh. “I mean, I’m kinda offended that I’m your second choice, but what can I do?” Lucy smiled and raised one eyebrow. “Is there a raise involved?”

  “Sure, but it’s just a small one the first year. We’ll talk again after that.” Ben chuckled. “I’ll email you the paperwork. Try and have it back to me as soon as possible.”

  Ben’s stomach growled loudly, and he looked at the clock. It had been over an hour since Belladonna had called him, so he was fairly sure she’d already eaten and gotten back to work.

  He thought he could be stoic and work through lunch, but it felt like his belly was eating itself. It became apparent to the new Chief that he was going to need to get his hands on a meal.

  “Hey guys, I’m going to run to the diner. I’ll make it quick. Do either of you want anything?” Ben asked.

  “Murielle made my lunch,” Luke said.

  “I brought one of those disgusting microwave diet meals so I would worship you like a king if you brought me back a chocolate shake,” Lucy responde
d.

  “You’re going to make a fantastic butt kisser.” Luke teased.

  “Shut it mutt.”

  “Okay, okay you two. Don’t make me separate you.” Ben laughed despite himself. “Yes, Lucy, I can bring you back a shake.”

  On the drive over to the diner, Ben couldn’t help but notice that his car’s radio was on the fritz. He couldn’t get any station except the local jazz station out of New Salem. They were having a zydeco marathon, and Ben didn’t really mind. Still, he made a mental note to get the radio looked at by the local mechanic.

  Ben walked into the diner, and he could immediately feel a change in the atmosphere. Something heavy hung in the air, and it made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. It was as if something had left a dark stain on the diner’s atmosphere.

  He walked up to the counter where Linda met him with a semi-frown on her face. She got out her pad and stood across from him.

  “You look troubled,” Ben said to her.

  “Someone troubling was in here early this morning,” Linda replied. “I can’t shake the way he made me feel. It’s maddening.”

  “Some local? Did someone threaten you?” Ben asked protectively.

  “No, he didn’t threaten me. It’s just the vibe he put off, and the man definitely wasn’t local.”

  “Hmm. I’ll definitely look into it. We don’t want strangers around here causing trouble.” He said and gave her a wink before putting in his order.

  As Ben walked back to his car to go back to work, he saw the black Cadillac turn down the street that led into Belladonna’s neighborhood. He looked at his watch and figured he had a few minutes before Lucy’s milkshake completely melted, so he decided to follow.

  Ben rushed across the street to his car and caught up with the Eldorado while still maintaining some distance. He hung back while the man drove into the Winterfield Cemetery and parked his car.

  It didn’t appear that the man noticed Ben’s car, but he could watch the man from his vantage point. He switched off the ignition and quietly got out of his vehicle all while the stranger did the same thing.

  Three

  Reverend Midnight stepped out of his Cadillac and straightened his suit jacket. It was best to be respectful when you were dealing with the dead, and the Reverend intended to have a whole lot of dealings with Winterfield’s dead.