“Is everything okay?” Liana asked.
“Lock your door tonight, okay?” Clarissa said.
“I always do,” Liana replied. “Are you sure you’re alright?” she tried again.
“There’s a murderer on the loose in Sugarcomb Lake,” Clarissa reminded her. “I’m positive the wrong person has been arrested. So be on high alert until the real killer is caught, okay? Lock your door tonight and don’t open it for anyone.”
Liana looked from Clarissa to the pepper spray and back again. “You’re not going to do anything dangerous, are you?” she asked anxiously. “Don’t let your investigation take priority over your safety.”
“I’ll be careful,” Clarissa assured her. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight. And good luck with whatever you’re doing!”
“Thanks.”
After Liana was gone, Clarissa locked the door. Then she walked over to the couch on leaden legs. As excited as she was to confront Adam Burke, she was also really nervous. She hoped she wasn’t about to do something monumentally stupid.
Chapter 17
“This is totally, completely, monumentally stupid,” Clarissa grumbled the next morning as she prepared for her appointment with Adam Burke. She felt like a massive idiot, and the cat’s judgmental staring wasn’t helping matters any.
She was standing at her rarely-used stove whipping up a potion she had found in the book her aunt had given her. It was supposedly a protection serum that, when consumed, would prevent bodily harm for thirty seconds.
In theory, one could be slapped, punched or even shot during those thirty seconds and walk away unscathed. It sounded too good to be true. But it also sounded like exactly what Clarissa needed to feel brave during her confrontation with a killer. With any luck, just knowing she had the potion on her would help soothe her frazzled nerves.
If Clarissa was being totally honest with herself, she was all kinds of nervous about confronting Adam. She had therefore decided she needed to take every precaution possible. So there she was, stirring up something awful.
As per the instructions, she had thrown the half dozen strange, smelly ingredients in a saucepan. Then she had turned the burner onto low heat. After a few minutes, the concoction had begun to warm up – and that was when Clarissa had begun to have regrets.
Her entire house stunk like perfume-marinated rotting fish.
“This can’t be right…can it?” Clarissa asked the cat.
The four-legged terror abruptly turned around and left the room, likely to go claw at the curtains or shed on the couch. Apparently the contents of the saucepan were too stinky to endure. And the worst part was Clarissa was expected to consume the nauseating concoction! How would she even manage to keep that vile brew down?
In desperation, she found the phone number her aunt had left with her.
Matilda answered on the third ring.
“I figured you’d be calling one of these days,” the black sheep of the Spencer family chuckled. “Have you been enjoying your newfound powers?”
“I…guess?” Clarissa replied uncertainly. “I’ve been experimenting with a few of the potions in that book you gave me. I’m actually working on one right now. It’s that protection one from page nine,” she began. It still felt bizarre to discuss magic so casually, as if one was talking about the weather or what to make for lunch.
“Ah yes, that one,” Matilda said knowingly. “What about it?”
“It’s just…it really, really stinks,” Clarissa admitted. “I’m wondering if I messed up.”
Matilda laughed airily. “I remember the first time I made that potion,” she recalled. “It’s vile, isn’t it? The good news is that if it smells unbearable, I’m pretty sure you’ve done it right. But of course, the best way to confirm that is to do a test.”
“Do a test?” Clarissa repeated doubtfully. “You mean like, drink it?”
“Yes.”
Clarissa looked over at the saucepan on the stove with trepidation. “Does it taste as bad as it smells?” she asked her aunt, fearing she already knew the answer.
“Worse!” Matilda chirped brightly. “But you’ll learn soon enough that sometimes that’s simply the price you have to pay. After you’ve dabbled with The Magic for a while, you will come to understand that certain spells come with consequences.”
Clarissa swallowed hard. “Consequences?” she asked nervously.
“Yep – as best I can tell, the universe has a warped sense of humor,” Matilda explained cheerfully. “I think the powers that be like to look down on us and chuckle at the lengths we go to for magic. But don’t worry: the most likely consequence of the protection serum is that you’ll bring it back up.”
“Lovely.”
“Try not to,” her aunt advised. “You need to keep the brew down for it to be effective.” Matilda trailed off for a moment, seemingly distracted. Then she said, “I hate to cut this conversation short but I’m actually about to go teach a workshop.”
“Is it a workshop on witchcraft?” Clarissa asked curiously as she tried to imagine the sort of crowd that might bring out. She immediately had a mental image of a roomful of eccentrics just like Nora the town weirdo. The prospect was rather intriguing.
“No, silly,” Matilda laughed. “I’m a history instructor at Green City College. Clearly we have a lot of catching up to do, don’t we? Why don’t you come into the city one night next week and I’ll cook you dinner.”
“You’re not going to serve me protection potion, are you?” Clarissa joked.
“Not unless you need protection!” Matilda replied. “Everything is okay, isn’t it?”
“Yes, I’ve just been dabbling with a few recipes lately,” Clarissa fibbed. It was a half-truth.
“Promise you won’t rely too much on the potions yet, okay? You’re still a novice,” Matilda cautioned. “Don’t drink the protection potion and then go jumping off a building or anything just to see what happens. Mistakes happen! Practice makes perfect.”
“Okay, I promise not to jump off any buildings – until I’ve practiced more,” Clarissa vowed with a snicker. She couldn’t imagine ever wilfully jumping off a building. She didn’t even like climbing onto the second rung of her stepladder to change burned out lightbulbs!
“Gotta go, call you soon, bye!” Matilda blurted out quickly.
“Bye,” Clarissa said to the dial tone ringing in her ear.
The cat wandered back into the room and looked up at her curiously.
“What, you came in here to watch me drink the potion?” Clarissa asked accusingly.
If she didn’t know better, she’d swear the cat was smirking at her.
Clarissa grabbed a spoon out of the silverware drawer and approached the bubbling brew on the stove cautiously. Dipped the spoon in, swirled it around a few times and then took a deep, reluctant breath.
As the cat looked on with great interest, Clarissa raised the spoonful of pure grossness to her lips. She blew on the putrid brownish-gray guck until it cooled. Then she opened her mouth wide…and gagged as the rancid fumes invaded her nostrils.
“This is crazy,” Clarissa declared, dropping the spoon back into the saucepan.
The cat looked disappointed.
“I’ll take it along with me,” Clarissa decided. She retrieved a coffee thermos from the cupboard and carefully poured the potion into it. She grimaced before screwing the lid on. “I’m probably going to have to throw this thermos out, aren’t I?”
“Meow,” the cat yowled. It was sitting in front of the door now, scratching at the wooden frame.
“Hey, stop!” Clarissa scolded her furry roommate. “That’s what your scratching post is for!”
When it had become apparent that the cat wasn’t leaving, Clarissa had scrounged up every spare penny she could find. Then she had purchased the essentials: a litterbox, a scratching post and a few cat toys. She had even sacrificed buying a few packages of cookies in order to make the ungrateful critter as comfortable as poss
ible.
No good deed went unpunished.
The litterbox was rarely used. The good news was that it didn’t require cleaning very often. The bad – and disgusting – news was that the cat preferred to leave “presents” for Clarissa outside in the garden. Apparently the cat considered the flowerbed to be one giant litterbox.
The scratching post had never been used. Instead, the cat had taken to scratching up various pieces of furniture. Clarissa hated to sound paranoid, but she very much suspected the cat was doing that to assert its authority over her. Stupid psychopathic felines…
Like the scratching post, the cat toys had basically been ignored. The cat had, however, enjoyed the packaging they had come in. Apparently there was nothing more exciting in the world than brown paper bags and empty boxes.
Clarissa had decided to consider that a partial victory on her part.
She would take what she could get.
The cat scratched at the door even more insistently.
“Oh no, I’m going to be late!” Clarissa gasped suddenly.
There wasn’t even time to brew up a magical potion of some sort to grant her extra time.
She grabbed her keys, purse and the thermos of protection serum. Then she raced out the door and hopped into her car. She would have to drive very aggressively to make it all the way to Green City in time for her appointment. Whoops!
“What good is being a witch if I don’t even get to fly around on a broom?” Clarissa grumbled under her breath, mostly joking. “Isn’t that a thing?” she wondered as she tried to recall everything Saturday morning cartoons had taught her about witches. She still had no idea how much of that was fact and how much was fiction.
She glanced at the house as she was backing out of the driveway and saw the cat in the window staring at her. She waved. It knocked over a potted plant in response. It didn’t seem surprised by the dirt that had spilled everywhere, so the move had probably been deliberate. What a brat.
The drive to Green City seemed to fly by. It probably didn’t hurt that Clarissa tended to have a very heavy foot when it came to her gas pedal. Thankfully, she managed to make it to the city without getting pulled over for speeding.
As she sat in the parking lot outside Black & Burke Investors, Clarissa felt her anxiety build. She stared up at the office building with a knot in her stomach. She had no idea what was going to happen. She felt like a sheep about to walk into the lion’s den. She hoped she wasn’t about to be slaughtered!
“It’s show time,” Clarissa said with determination. Then she got out of her car and prepared to confront Adam Burke face-to-face about the crimes he had committed.
Chapter 18
“Oh no, you brought a whole thermos this time,” Adam joked when he laid eyes on Clarissa’s coffee thermos. “I guess I should clear all the important papers off my desk, huh?”
“I won’t spill this time,” Clarissa assured him. She noticed he didn’t seem thrilled to see her. But it was difficult to say if it was because she made him nervous or because she had dumped coffee everywhere the last time she had been in.
“Come in. Sit down,” Adam said. “I’ll just shut the door and we can get started.”
As she heard the click of the office door shutting, Clarissa gulped. Moments earlier, she had felt somewhat reassured that the waiting area was rather full. With several clients – also known as potential witnesses – around, she felt Adam would be less likely to respond to her confrontation with violence.
But now she was alone with him in his office. She didn’t particularly want the office door shut.
Then again, this was a conversation they needed to have in private.
“What can I do for you?” Adam asked, taking a seat across the desk from Clarissa.
She took a deep breath and folded her hands around her thermos full of protection potion. She didn’t answer right away. Instead, she focused on calming her frayed nerves. She rehearsed what she was going to say in her head. Then she looked him square in the eye.
“I know what you did,” she told him matter-of-factly, sounding far braver than she actually felt.
“Beg your pardon?”
“I know what you did to Jed Black,” she stated, watching him carefully to gauge his reaction.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Adam said in a strained voice. “I was under the impression you were here to discuss investments. If you’re not, I’m going to have to ask you to leave. I have an office full of clients waiting for me, as I’m sure you saw.”
He stood up abruptly and opened up the office door.
Clarissa bravely fought her urge to run out of there.
Instead, she blurted out, “I know about the blackmail, Adam.”
Adam immediately slammed the office door shut.
Clarissa jumped but held her ground. She unscrewed the cap on her coffee thermos just in case.
Adam didn’t say a word. He walked around to his side of the desk and sat down heavily, as though his legs could no longer support his body. He slumped forward, looking tired and beaten down. His head dropped into his hands.
Releasing her death grip on the thermos, Clarissa seized the opportunity that had presented itself. “You were blackmailing Jed to pay off your gambling debts, weren’t you?” she asked quietly. “I know, Adam. I know about all of it.”
Adam’s shoulders slumped but he said nothing. His head remained buried in his hands.
“Is your gambling problem the reason your wife left you, Adam? You were never home – you stayed late at work every night playing online poker. You were in financial trouble and when you found out your married business partner was secretly wining and dining the secretary, you saw dollar signs.”
“Everything fell apart,” Adam groaned, his words so muffled by his hands that he was nearly incoherent. “Jed was supposed to pay and that would be that. It was supposed to be simple. One little payment and all my problems would have been solved.”
“But he never made that payment, did he?” Clarissa prompted.
She was hoping Adam would talk, because she had yet to figure out what had happened with that. Adam had never received his money, and yet he had never gone public with evidence of Jed’s affair. It didn’t make sense.
“He was going to pay up,” Adam replied, his head still down. “Jed was obsessed with public image. He didn’t want a reputation as cheating husband, so he agreed to pay in exchange for my silence. I knew he would. I went to his cabin that night to pick up my check.”
“And what happened then?” Clarissa asked eagerly, her heart pounding in her chest.
Adam hesitated and then shook his head.
“You know what I think happened? I think things got out of control that night. Jed had his gun out, one thing led to another and he ended up getting shot. Can I give you some advice, Adam? If I were in your position, I would seriously consider turning myself in.”
Adam raised his head at that. “You think I killed Jed?” he asked incredulously.
“Are you telling me you didn’t?” Clarissa demanded, disappointed that he wasn’t confessing.
“Of course I didn’t!” Adam exclaimed impassionedly. “Yeah okay, I gamble and lie and fine, I guess I was trying to extort my long-time business partner. I don’t always make the most admirable choices, alright? But I am not a murderer!” he huffed in indignation.
“So who killed Jed then, if it wasn’t you?” Clarissa asked him point blank. She was hoping to watch him squirm. With any luck, maybe he would fold under pressure and confess everything. She stared him down, hoping for exactly that.
Suddenly Adam’s office door burst open, making them both jump. Parker Tweed stood there looking as though he was ready to bust out a karate move. Then he saw that Clarissa and Adam were both seated and there was probably no need for violence. He lowered his arms.
“What are you doing here?!” Clarissa hissed, stunned and dismayed by the interruption.
“You two need to leave,” Ada
m informed them both sternly, seeming to come back to his senses. “If you don’t get out of my office right this instant I’m going to call the police.” His face was pale and he looked distraught, but his tone said that he wasn’t one to be pushed around.
Reluctantly, Clarissa and Parker allowed themselves to be ushered out.
“What on earth were you doing?!” Clarissa demanded as they got onto the elevator.
“Your friend Liana called me,” he shrugged. “She thought you might be in trouble.”
“Wait…Liana called you?”
“Yeah, she said you were acting strangely last night. I told her you always act strangely.”
“Ha-ha, very funny,” Clarissa said dryly.
“Liana was concerned. She said you’ve been investigating Jed Black’s murder and was afraid you were getting in over your head. She knew from talking to you that I was familiar with the case, so she asked me to check up on you.”
“I can’t believe she’d do that,” Clarissa muttered.
“She just wanted me to keep you safe,” Parker shrugged.
“I don’t need you to keep me safe!” Clarissa shot back.
She was still feeling awfully embarrassed after thinking their non-date was a date, and that embarrassment seemed to present itself as anger. But the rational part of her brain was quietly reminding her that like it not, Parker had tried to do a nice thing for her. She decided it wasn’t fair to snap at him.
“I can take care of myself,” Clarissa rephrased, this time using a calmer tone of voice.
“I don’t doubt that,” Parker grinned. “Half the time I feel like I need protection from you. You’re completely terrifying, you know that? If looks could kill, I’d have been a dead man a long time ago. In fact, I think you’re trying to kill me right now, aren’t you?”
“Sorry,” Clarissa sighed, making a conscious effort to quit scowling. “It’s just that you interrupted something really important. I know you meant well, but your timing couldn’t possibly have been any worse!”
A Taste of Magic (A Sugarcomb Lake Cozy Mystery Book 1) Page 16