I was mesmerized. My mother rarely talked about my father, and I knew that the topic was painful for her. It was painful for my brother and me as well, so we all mostly avoided it.
“He was so sure about everything. I could never figure out how he managed to be so sure. It gave me a confidence. Later in life I realized that I should have the confidence in myself,” my mom added.
Before she could break her train of thought I said, “I had no idea this was your book.”
“Oh, yes. My old mother desperately wanted me to marry a warlock. It was her most closely held wish. She made no secret of it. She was so happy when I married your father. She imagined endless years of enchantment together. This was my sixteenth birthday present. She told me to read it cover to cover so I could understand exactly what the rules were when the time came. I did in fact follow all the rules. Much to your father’s amusement. After date three he was looking for a fourth date. He was making casual suggestions and I was so offended!
“I made it perfectly clear that our family had to be involved for a date four. He was downright shocked. He tried to tell me that his mother wasn’t exactly easy to deal with. I told him that I was sure she’d be fine. Boy oh boy, was I wrong about that,” my mother chuckled.
“I actually can’t imagine anything worse than finding somebody I like and then finding out that he has Cookie for a mother,” I said with a smile.
“Do you know anything about Grant’s family?” she asked.
“I know that they died. He’s all on his own,” I said. “We don’t have to worry about his mother. I wish we did, though. I would have liked to meet his mother.”
“He must have some distant family. You should find out. I’m sure they’ll want to be involved if your relationship progresses further,” she said.
“Does that mean he can come to dinner?” I asked.
My mother sat back, pulled open her desk drawer, and started to rummage inside. After a few moments of mayhem she pulled out a note card. The paper looked very fine. “I’ll write him an invitation this afternoon and leave it in his mailbox. I’m sure we can find a time for him to come to dinner soon. It might be best to wait until Dorian Dudley is gone. On the other hand, why wait?” she asked. “Your father utterly refused to wait on starting our life together.”
“Were you two happy?” I asked.
“So happy,” said my mom. “Now, get going. I have to get back to work.”
I pushed myself out of my chair and had just made it to the door when my mother’s voice stopped me, “Jane? I’m very happy for you, you know. You don’t need a warlock to complete you, but they sure are a lot of fun.”
I felt like I was floating. As I walked down the hall it felt as if nothing could ever go wrong again. A couple of ghosts floated past me and gave me a strange look. Jezebel was one of them, and she chortled at seeing me nearly walk into a wall.
I laughed at myself and kept going. My mother had approved of my dating Grant! She was going to invite him to dinner! It hadn’t even been that difficult. Just because she hadn’t seen it coming didn’t mean she’d say no. In fact, she had reminisced about my dad. She had acted happy.
I was just reaching the foyer when I heard someone yelling for me. The voice was Lark’s and she sounded frantic. Looking panicked, she came racing down the stairs just as I was walking into the large entry hall.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw that the door to the library was now open, and the library was empty. Whatever had taken place between my grandmother and the police chief, it was over now.
“Where have you been?” Lark demanded. Her red hair was frizzing out of control and she was out of breath.
Before I had a chance to answer she kept going. “We have a problem. We have a big huge serious problem.”
Chapter Sixteen
“What’s happened?” I demanded. Images of more scarecrows transformed into murder victims popped into my head. Flinching, I pushed them away.
Before Lark could answer, Pep rushed in. “What’s the tearing hurry?” she demanded. Following behind her at a more leisurely pace was Dorian, who had apparently been in the gift shop talking to her. I frowned at him but quickly turned my attention back to my cousins.
“What’s happened is that Cookie has been arrested!” cried Lark.
“Finally,” said Pep. “I mean, that’s terrible. What did she do?”
Lark glanced nervously at Dorian. For a large man whose family was a notorious gang of criminals, so far Dorian had been remarkably placid.
“Chief Gray thinks she killed the Deadly brothers. He thinks she was fighting with them about decorations or something,” said Lark. “He just took her out to the car.”
Lark was worried about Dorian’s reaction, as was I. He had come here to find out what had happened to his family, and if a Garbo turned out to be the killer, we’d be in big trouble. But there was no time to worry about that right now. Cookie might be crazy, but she hadn’t killed the Deadlys.
I rushed to the front door and flung it open, only to be met with a vision of Cookie standing by a police car with her hands handcuffed behind her back. She appeared to be arguing with Chief Gray.
We rushed out, with only Dorian hanging back.
“I will not sit in the back! It’s bumpy!” Cookie cried. “If I had known being arrested would be this difficult . . .” She trailed off.
The chief was distracted by our arrival. “Ladies, you really don’t want to be here for this,” said Chief Gray.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “You can’t possibly think Cookie killed two young men. What evidence do you have?” I demanded.
“Exactly. Look how old and infirm she is!” Lark joined in.
Cookie usually walked with a cane, but now she decided to be perverse and danced a little jig. “I’m not infirm! Look at this!”
I thought Lark was going to melt.
“See, she’s more than physically capable,” said the chief. “Maybe she had help. I can’t really get into our evidence with you just yet.” He didn’t sound entirely confident or comfortable, either in what he was doing or what he was saying. But he was apparently bent on doing it.
“Where are you taking her?” I asked.
My mind was racing. What was Cookie doing? She hadn’t killed the Deadly brothers. It really wasn’t her style. She would never ruin a good decoration just to commit murder. (Yes, now that you mention it, it did worry me a little bit that I could think like her.)
“Shimmerfield Jail. You can visit her after we’ve processed her. Maybe we can get this all cleared up quickly, although I wouldn’t hold my breath,” said the chief, shooting a frustrated glance in Cookie’s direction.
“I’m not sitting in the back,” Cookie insisted. Then she turned to us and said, “Now girls, I want you to divide my possessions up evenly between you. Lark, you get the books, and Pep, you get the glassware. You’re the only granddaughter I trust not to break everything. I’m ready to go now,” she ended, turning back to the chief.
He looked at her with shock. “Who’s running this operation, anyway?” he said.
“Good question.” She walked around to the passenger side front seat.
“I’m sorry about this, ladies. I really am,” he said as he went to let her in.
As they were driving away, Meg, Audrey, and Mom came running out the door. I had been so absorbed in Cookie’s drama that I hadn’t seen him leave, but apparently Dorian had gone to get them. Even Rose came scampering out to the driveway.
Mom looked downright upset. “What could that woman possibly be thinking?” my mom demanded. “She didn’t kill those guys.”
“Of course she didn’t,” I said. “I have no idea what she’s thinking.”
“What was the evidence against her?” Dorian asked.
“The chief wouldn’t say,” said Pep.
“And you just let her go?” Audrey asked.
She was wearing an apron with food stains on it, and her hands still held carrot
s waiting to be chopped.
“What were we supposed to do?” I demanded.
“Lie down in front of the car,” offered Rose. “She’s your grandmother.”
“Cookie doesn’t do anything she doesn’t want to do,” said Lark. “No, I wasn’t going to lie down in front of a police car. I like this shirt. Let’s get inside.”
Meg looked like she was ready to cry. “This is my favorite time of year! I spend so much time on decorations and on trying to have a great season, and this is what happens. Cookie goes and murders two visitors.”
My mom’s eyes flicked to Dorian. “Cookie didn’t kill the Deadly brothers.”
“She might as well have!” Tears were welling out of Meg’s eyes. She was clearly oblivious to the fact that the Garbos didn’t want to be on bad terms with the Deadlys, and that Dorian was standing right there.
“Come on, Mom, let’s get you a cup of tea,” offered Lark.
“Let’s leave her to rot in jail. I don’t want any of you going to visit her!” Meg gasped. Then she let her daughters lead her away.
I, of course, was most definitely going to visit Cookie, no matter what Meg said or did. I was also going to pay a second visit, that one to the Root of All Evil, who just happened to have a house right down the street from the jail.
In the meantime, my head was spinning. I needed more information, and there was only one way I was going to get it. I grabbed Dorian’s arm, an action that surprised both of us. “Come with me,” I told him, and I marched him to Lark’s Ice Cream Parlor.
With Lark tending to her mother, the shop was empty. Dorian let me tow him along, more curious than anything else.
Once we were seated I said, as sternly as I could, “Sorry to bring you here, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to tell me what’s going on.”
He raised dark eyebrows at me. “What’s going on?”
“You know more about your brothers’ work than you’ve let on. We have to solve this case. You need to tell me. Before you refuse, let me assure you that I’m not looking into what your family does. I don’t care. Unless you kill someone on the mansion’s lawn I doubt I’ll ever care. But your brothers are different. They came here. DO you know why?” I said.
Dorian sighed. “I know some of what they were up to. My father tasked me with keeping an eye on those wayward idiots months ago. They never did listen. We all thought it was a phase, though. We never thought they’d do something serious enough to get themselves killed. At least not before we could stop it. They really made someone mad, and they paid for it.”
I blinked with surprise. “Your father intentionally gave your brothers a long leash?”
“Sure. He’s still running the family, and he thought they’d do some stupid stuff and then find their way. They were both bright. He thought they might learn something eventually. He’s devastated now at how wrong he was,” said Dorian.
“So you’ve been keeping an eye on them. What have they been doing?” I demanded.
Dorian quirked his face at me. He clearly wasn’t used to being talked to like this. Well, too bad.
“Very well,” he said. “I’m only telling you this because we both know perfectly well that Cookie didn’t kill anyone. At least not my brothers.”
I nodded in agreement. Whatever Cookie was up to, it wasn’t confessing to murder.
So Dorian began his story. “My brothers had unfortunately gone rogue a while back. They decided they were going to set up a rival business in the black opal trade. A common enough trade, but they didn’t have the startup cash. I imagine they were coming to Shimmerfield to talk to real criminals and find out how they could go into business for themselves. Shimmerfield is something of a criminal hub, you may have noticed.”
I thought about Down Below and the Root and nodded my head again. There was no point in arguing. He was right.
“And?” I asked.
Dorian shrugged. “That’s all I know. They were looking to start a business trading in black opals. Who they were looking to do business with I have no idea,” he said.
“Is there anyone in Shimmerfield who trades in black opals already?” I asked, not quite believing that he had no idea at all.
Dorian smiled thinly. “Certainly. Clover.”
Before I could react to that bit of news, there was an interruption. Joel stuck his head in and said, “Oh, there you are. Your father’s on the line.”
Dorian glanced back at me. “That really is all I know. I can’t see how that information gets us any closer to the killer unless my brothers tried to steal something,” he said.
“We’ll have to talk with Clover,” I said.
He nodded. “I already planned to.”
“Make sure I’m there,” I insisted. Dorian didn’t respond. He just walked out.
After a while, I got up slowly and followed him out of the shop.
First I wandered into the kitchen to get an apple to snack on. An idea was forming in my mind, something I could have asked Lark and Pep to join me in. But on second thought I decided it was something I could do alone.
The mansion was so huge that I didn’t spend any time at all in a lot of it. One of the places I never ventured was the armory; I had no use for weapons. When I read history at all, the history of war was far from my favorite. That didn’t change the fact that we had an armory at Haunted Bluff with a lot of war relics stashed away inside it. Mirrorz used to polish and take care of them. Now that job belonged to Mr. Blacksmith.
There was a lot of stuff in the armory that a thief might like to steal, from priceless shields to full suits of armor to goblets and cups made of solid gold.
There was also a black opal necklace. Cookie had told me its history, but I couldn’t remember the details. But I knew it was an important artifact, and precious. Perhaps to more people than just the Garbos.
I made my way over to where the necklace sat behind a glass case enchanted with many protections. I stared at the jewels. Lizzie had once asked Cookie if she could wear the necklace to a dance. Cookie had said she could wear it anywhere she liked if she first spent a year cleaning out the ghost barn daily. Needless to say, the necklace was never going to be worn.
The Deadly brothers hadn’t made it up to this room of Haunted Bluff Mansion, but might they have tried? What about Clover? Dorian had said that Clover traded in black opals. I hadn’t known that, but if it were true, Clover might also be interested in this room. Did the trader know that there were opals here?
This all felt terribly simple, but was it? Clover had killed the brothers because of their desire to get involved in the black opal trade? Had one conversation cleared all that up?
Dorian had told me the information, but he hadn’t acted as if he thought Clover was guilty. In fact, he had been remarkably calm about anything that might have sounded like an accusation. There was more going on than met the eye, and I was determined to get to the bottom of it.
Chapter Seventeen
After a quick lunch, I decided to go out and talk to the ghosts and say hello to the skeletons, then head into Shimmerfield. Cookie had made her one allowed phone call seven times already. She wanted me to visit. I almost considered not going, just to annoy her. But I couldn’t do that.
Lark and Pep caught up with me as I headed out the door to go to the stables.
“How’s Aunt Meg?” I asked.
“She’s hanging in there,” said Lark. “She calmed down a lot after she drank tea and ate something. I think she’s just stressed because the haunted house is closed. She actually went so far as to say if Cookie stayed in jail, maybe the haunted house could reopen. We’re getting awfully close to the holidays, after all.”
“Oh, that,” I grumbled.
“Kip asked if he should cut his haunt hunting short today, but Mom said no. She wants them out there finding more supernaturals in case the haunted house can open. Besides, you’re going to see Cookie, and that should clear a lot of this mess up,” said Lark.
“Because t
alking to Cookie always provides clarity,” Pep muttered.
Lark and Pep decided to come with me to visit the supernaturals. When we got outside we found Jezebel floating alongside another ghost named Tricker, who had owned and operated a bank before he died. He was very fond of soda and did not like celebrating.
“Hey, Jezebel,” I said as we walked up to the ghosts.
“There you are! I was wondering when you’d come around. It’s been so boring here for the past few days,” said the ghost.
“You wish the haunted house were open?” I asked.
“Oh, yes. This time of year is always so much fun. All that scaring to do,” Jezebel grinned.
“What made you think we’d come around?” Lark asked.
“You had murders. They probably happened when only the supernaturals were out and about. I’ve been waiting to talk to you about them,” she said.
“Because you have news?” I asked sharply. Suddenly I wished I had come sooner.
“Doesn’t amount to much,” rumbled Tricker.
“Not me, but he does,” said Jezebel, pointing to the old ghost next to her. He just looked grumpy.
“I didn’t want to make a big deal of it, you know. I don’t go around drawing attention to myself,” he said. “All this craziness that goes on in this town, give me a good vault and some bank notes anyway.”
Lark blinked in confusion but recovered quickly. “I guess for those who aren’t used to it, Shimmerfield can be a bit much.”
“Dorian doesn’t have any trouble,” said Pep.
Lark glared at her sister. “Dorian is a warlock and six feet a million. He’s different.”
Pep shrugged.
“What did you want to tell us? Was it about the murders?” I asked Tricker.
“No, it definitely wasn’t about that. I don’t know anything about those. I just know that the night of the murders I saw those two men who were killed arguing with someone,” he said.
Silence followed this statement.
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