Witch Way to Mintwood (Witch of Mintwood Book 1)

by Addison Creek

  From outside I heard what sounded like my cat say, “Up the stairs, up the stairs, avoid the stupid animal, up the stairs,” and then Paws burst into the room.

  “She’s here,” he said breathlessly, “so I . . . “

  “Came up the stairs,” Greer finished for him.

  From the darkness Gracie said, “‘Who’s here?’”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Charlie and Greer, stay with Gracie, Paws, come with me,” I said. I suddenly had a very clear idea who had killed McCoy.

  “Did you know she was coming?” I said, as Paws and I raced down the stairs.

  “I had a hunch, ghosts are stubborn,” said Paws. “We can leave our locations for short periods of time. It makes sense that she would use that ability now.”

  “You don’t say,” I muttered.

  “Human ghosts are stubborn, that is. Cat ghosts are perfect. Real cats, on the other paw . . .” said Paws. But I didn’t hear the end of that thought, because just then he stopped to hiss at Lily. Luckily, he also chose to make sure Lily didn’t know that he was there, lest the poor thing be scared half to death.

  “Come on,” I said, “we have no time to waste. Do you have any idea where she is?”

  “Fuse box?” Paws offered.

  “Great,” I said, and skidded to a halt. “Where are those?”

  “You sound like your grandmother. Why am I not surprised the farmhouse is falling down?” With that gibe, Paws dashed off and I followed.

  True to form, Mrs. Goodkeep was standing in the back yard. We’d found the fuse box with all the lights turned off and decided to leave it that way, because Mrs. Goodkeep would be easier to spot in the dark.

  “How’d you know it was me?” she asked when we got outside.

  She was standing quietly, looking up at the second floor windows and no doubt trying to decide which one was mostly likely to be hiding Gracie.

  “Easy,” I pointed to Paws, “you both have a cat allergy.”

  “That’s smart,” said Mrs. Goodkeep, “but how did that help you?”

  I explained to her that Gracie had gone into hiding, and that I’d figured that out because there had been no ransom note. Plus, I had a reliable source who had seen her at the bank. She had been trying to hide something there, and the Pier Pearl made the most sense. After that the rest of the story fell into place.

  “Why did you threaten Gracie?” I said.

  “I threaten anyone who tries to take the pearl away,” hissed Mrs. Goodkeep. “Her mother had the decadency to just forget the thing existed. They thought it was ugly, but they never would have sold it. Gracie, on the other hand, wanted to sell it and use the money for herself. What a little monster! And to think she was my own flesh and blood! I couldn’t let her do that.”

  “Why did you involve me?” I said.

  “If you were involved, it would look legitimate. You might be a newbie as the Witch of Mintwood, but I didn’t think you were entirely stupid. I’m still trying to make a final decision on that, though.”

  “Charming,” I said, “you’re just charming. I can see where Gracie gets her personality from.”

  “That girl wanted to sell my pearl, and you tried to keep her from me tonight. Selfish! That’s what she is and always was,” huffed Mrs. Goodkeep.

  “Who killed McCoy?” I asked.

  Mrs. Goodkeep clammed up immediately.

  “Because the way I see it,” I said, “you had him killed, for the same reason you were going after Gracie. You thought he wanted your pearl. Never mind that he couldn’t have cared less about it. He just wanted to have nice dinners once a month. But you couldn’t see past your own greed, so you whispered in someone’s ear and had him killed, and they stole the pearl to make it look like that was the motive. But then they got cold feet and returned the pearl.”

  “They never got cold feet,” said Mrs. Goodkeep. Then she looked stricken and said, “The plan all along was to return the pearl.”

  “Didn’t mean to tell me that, did you?” I asked.

  Mrs. Goodkeep tried to regain her composure, but it was a lost cause.

  “That makes sense,” said Paws. “I know who did it. Don’t worry, we ghosts have a way of dealing with our own.” Mrs. Goodkeep’s eyes went wide and she started to back away as Paws stalked forward. I had no idea what he was about to do.

  “Paws . . . “ I said with concern.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll be back in no time,” he said. Then he jumped forward as Mrs. Goodkeep squawked, and both he and Mrs. Goodkeep vanished.

  Stunned, I stood there for several seconds until I realized I had to go back inside so my friends and Gracie wouldn’t start to worry. I still wasn’t sure who Mrs. Goodkeep had convinced to kill Mr. McCoy, but maybe we could figure it out together.

  When I got back to Gracie’s makeshift hideout, another part of the mystery was cleared up. I met my friends’ concerned expressions with a smile.

  Coming into the room, I suddenly realized who had left the note on my door. Gracie’s temporary hiding place smelled like roses.

  I didn’t feel the need to keep an eye on Gracie now that Paws was dealing with Mrs. Goodkeep, but just to be safe I asked her if she wanted to come back to the farmhouse with us for the night.

  “Are you sure the danger has passed?” she asked anxiously. I told her I was.

  “Then I’ll stay here. I kind of like it. Poor Lily. She keeps trying to cuddle, and I can’t because of my allergy,” she said.

  “Lily tries to cuddle you?” Did the cat have her claws out while she did it? I couldn’t imagine that cat being affectionate.

  “She’s a dear,” said Gracie. “Just the most adorable little thing.”

  Clearly Gracie and I were not experiencing the same cat.

  After we left Gracie, we headed home. I was worrying about Paws and so were my friends, but I was glad to have found Gracie Coswell.

  “She’s going to do an exclusive interview with me,” said Charlie with delight. “She already agreed to it! We’re going to sit down after she’s had a day to process everything, and she’s going to tell the real story of the pearl. Her cousin is going to get a visit from Detective Cutter right after Gracie calls him, and I’m going to be a hero at the newspaper!”

  Then she turned to me, beaming. “This is a great night. We should solve cases more often!”

  “Glad you said that,” I said, “because tomorrow night there’s one more we can work on.”

  Both my friends looked at me.

  “You know who’s been robbing people?” Greer gasped. “You are good at your job!”

  I grinned. “Thanks, I’m settling in pretty well. And yes, I do have a pretty good idea, and I think tomorrow they’re going to hit The Daily Brew.”

  Paws wasn’t there when we got home, but we all agreed he’d be fine, and if he wasn’t we’d send Mr. Bone to look for him in the morning. Still, we weren’t entirely alone. There was company waiting for us.

  Deacon was sitting on the steps when we drove in.

  “No way,” said Greer, freaking out. “I wasn’t ready to make any decisions about him! His mother told me he missed me, but I hadn’t decided I believed her yet! What is he doing here?”

  “Pretty sure he misses you,” said Charlie, “and for the record, having someone think you’re the person who makes them timeless is the biggest compliment in the world.” Charlie hurried out of the Beetle, and I was pretty sure it was because she didn’t want us to see her crying.

  Greer gave me a stricken look. “I’m not ready to decide anything about him,” she whispered.

  “Maybe he doesn’t want you to yet,” I said, “but Greer, at some point you’re going to have to make these decisions. You might as well let one of your oldest friends help you with some of them.”

  “You want to help me? I accept,” said Greer.

  I chuckled. “I’m talking about Deacon and you know it.”

  “Oh, him, is he around?” said Greer, her eyes lase
r-focused on him.

  “He’s standing over there,” I said in bemusement.

  Deacon had stood up when we’d driven in, and he said a friendly hello to Charlie as she dashed past him. Now it was my turn. He was in a fancy suit, his hair in perfect dirty blond waves.

  “Hey,” I said, “Greer’s cowering in the car, but don’t hold it against her. She’s had a long day.”

  “I’m sorry my mother just showed up like that,” he said, looking worried. Poor lamb. The mechanisms of women were so beyond him. “I told her she shouldn’t have done it. She refused to tell me what it was about, so I thought I’d better come and apologize to Greer on her behalf. I told my mom I don’t want Greer to hate me.”

  I saw the pain in his eyes, and right there I knew what his mother had known in that moment, that he didn’t think he could live without Greer. Maybe his mother wasn’t so terrifying after all . . .

  Ha, just kidding. She definitely was. I gave his arm a squeeze and went inside.

  I spent an hour in my room, then crept downstairs and went to the window. Greer and Deacon were sitting on the porch, close together but not touching. I managed to stay up another twenty minutes before falling asleep on top of my fuzzy covers.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I woke up in the middle of the night and went downstairs. It was difficult to sleep for worrying, even with Gracie safe and sound. I had a feeling Paws would be there, and indeed he was, sitting on his box, looking into the house. I waved and went to open the window, pulling my old bathrobe tighter around my neck.

  “You okay?” I asked, and he nodded. “Oh, yes, she couldn’t have hurt me if she tried.”

  “Did she try?” I said.

  “No, she didn’t. She knew she was defeated,” said Paws.

  “What did the ghosts do?”

  “It’s a little something called Poof,” said Paws. “We make ghosts evaporate and go away for a while. That’s the best we can do, but the more of us who agree to help make it happen, the longer it can happen for.”

  “Did you make her go away for a long time?” I asked.

  “Yes, almost as long as Hank,” said Paws.

  Ah, Hank. “Was he the one who killed Mr. McCoy?” I asked, and Paws nodded.

  “That makes sense,” I whispered. “Did Mr. McCoy or Hank have any family?”

  “Unfortunately, Mr. McCoy did not,” said Paws, “but he was there when Hank was Poofed, and I do believe he derived great satisfaction from the action. He also agreed to take Funnel to the cemetery keeper’s shed, where there is always a light on. I think the two of them will get along well. As for Hank, his family was the Coswells, and he was so clouded by that fact that he thought he was protecting them, protecting the Coswell name and legacy.”

  “Mr. McCoy told Hank he’d never intended to steal? And that’s also how Hank knew to bring Mr. McCoy to me?” I said.

  “Hank didn’t really want to do that, but he knew that if he didn’t, he’d look suspicious. Mrs. Goodkeep promised that she’d never intended that anyone should die. She said not even the Pier Pearl was worth that.”

  You never know how ridiculously happy you’ll be to see someone until you do. The next morning I went to my grandmother’s grave. She wasn’t there, and I didn’t know why. I had only gone once before, reluctantly, but now I wanted to tell her about solving my first case as the Witch of Mintwood.

  She was buried in a plot on a far corner of her, now my, extensive property.

  I had planted as many flowers around her grave as possible and dragged in pieces of fallen wood from the forest that I thought she’d like. I brought some of her trinkets out and set them up around her grave. When I came out that morning, I brought her some tea.

  “Hey, Even,” I said, “I miss you. I wanted to tell you about my first case.”

  I spent a while sunk down there in the grass, wishing she’d come. I was in the middle of the bit about Hank taking his “loyalty” all the way to murder when there was the sound of a car. I looked up quickly, brushing the tears from my wet cheeks.

  The car was fancy and black, with tinted windows. It came up the drive and paused about fifty yards from the grave. We could see each other clearly, except that the car had a chauffeur, and I had no clue as to the identity of the person being driven. Slowly, I stood up. The car waited only a second, during which the driver appeared to be speaking, and then the car turned slowly around and drove away. I started after it, but stopped after just a few steps.

  I glanced down at my grandmother’s grave and saw flowers there that I hadn’t brought. All of her friends from the town liked to come out here whenever they had the chance, bringing little tidbits and gifts. Greer had said she’d visited, so I hadn’t thought anything of the tokens of love I’d seen, but now I wondered. Who had left that especially fancy bouquet? Was it the person who had just driven up, then driven away?

  Slowly, I got to my feet. Jasper had asked me to meet him at The Daily Brew, a convenient location given that I had robbers to expose. But I wanted to shower and put on my favorite sweater before I went. I had let my appearance go a bit in the direction of ponytails and no makeup while I looked everywhere for information on Gracie. I wanted to look nice today, even though I’d inevitably get teased by Greer.

  “Charlie’s going to meet us at the Brew,” she said when I got home.

  “Okay,” I said, carefully making tea.

  “Okay?” she asked, her eyes slitted. “What are you hiding?”

  “Jasper’s meeting me there,” I said.

  “No he isn’t,” said Greer.

  “What do you mean?”

  “He’s meeting us,” she said, winking. “Let’s go.”

  “Not so fast, missy! You haven’t told me what happened with Deacon.”

  “I will on the way,” she said, twirling a little.

  Once we were in the car and I had waved goodbye to Paws, who was only a faded outline on the porch, I said, “So spill. I’ve waited all day and you KNOW how nosy I am.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t just have Mr. Bone listen in on the conversation and report back to you.”

  I bit my lip. “I would never invade your privacy like that.”

  “Sure you would,” said Greer. She looked pretty in a black sweater and tight-fitting jeans. Her hair was cascading down her shoulders and she’d put makeup on.

  On the way to the cafe we talked about other things, like the house falling down and the car shutting down. We didn’t discuss either mystery. Greer wasn’t nosy like I was nosy, and she was willing to wait until we were all together.

  In the mid-afternoon of a bright sunny day, both Main Street and the coffee shop were packed with people who were out enjoying the weather and doing a spot of shopping. Downtown Mintwood was even more crowded than usual, because some foolish person had started a rumor that Gracie Coswell was around, and everyone in the entire town wanted to get a glimpse of the prom queen who was no longer missing.

  Mrs. Barnett, the proprietor at The Daily Brew, was busily spinning and turning this way and that, serving one customer a couple of croissants while she got tea ready for the next two patrons. She was clearly in her element when there was chaos. Charlie had planned to meet us there, because she had some work to finish before she could relax for the day. She was writing her last article on the Gracie Coswell affair and she wanted to make sure it was a great one.

  We were just looking for a place to sit when we saw Liam waving frantically from the corner. He had commandeered a large table and was sitting next to it all by himself.

  “Is Charlie or anyone else coming?” he said when we joined him.

  “Yes, Jasper and Charlie are both meeting us here,” I said.

  Liam arched one eyebrow at me. “Jasper’s a dish.”

  “Very dishy,” said Greer.

  They both looked at me as if they were waiting for me to confirm what they’d said. I didn’t want to be the odd person out, but I didn’t want to answer, either, so I just
let out a low growl.

  “It’s a real wonder you’re single,” said Liam.

  “I’ve always blamed my hair,” I said. “It’s definitely not my sparkling personality.”

  “Oh, no, certainly not! Who would blame that?” said Liam, looking bemused.

  I wasn’t sure how long I could hide the fact that I thought Jasper was still ridiculously hot . . . hide it from myself, not from everyone else. All of my friends clearly already knew.

  “Hi there,” said Jasper, showing up just in time to short-circuit the topic of his hotness. When he sat down at the end of the table and smiled, my body started to tingle. “Have you ordered yet?” he asked.

  “Not yet,” said Greer. “We were too busy watching the Gracie Coswell Parade.”

  “They’re having a parade in honor of her return?” said Liam, sounding confused.

  Just then Charlie stomped up. “The nerve of that girl is really amazing. She’s walking down the street with a group of people around her as if she’s someone important. She isn’t, but she thinks she is, and now she thinks it more than ever because her face has been plastered on the front page for the past week. It’s ridiculous. I barely got in here for having to wade through the crowd of people out to see her.” Charlie plopped into one of the chairs and looked downright exhausted.

  “Good to see you, too,” said Greer.

  “I have to tell you, I think we’ve all improved since high school, but not her,” Charlie continued, ignoring her roommate. “She has gone downhill.” Charlie lifted her hand high in the air and brought it zooming down below the table like an airplane.

  “That’s a high hill,” said Jasper, trying not to laugh.

  “Far from improving, she has actually fallen a long way since high school,” said Charlie, repeating herself. “I need coffee.”

  Without waiting to see if the rest of us had ordered, she got up and wandered over to read the menu board. Liam had already ordered, but the rest of us followed Charlie. Once we were safely back in our chairs, Jasper asked Liam how his hunt for the shop thieves was going. “Abysmally, horribly, I’m right down there with Gracie’s current personality,” said Liam. “Other shop owners are very concerned as well. We’d all like to see the person caught.”