“Sometimes it’s jealousy,” said Charlie
“About money,” said Anna.
Charlie lapsed into silence. “Do you have any specific family members in mind?”
Ann shrugged. “Any of them probably. I mean, not my mom. She loved Isabel, but the rest of them . . . Okay, maybe not Aunt Katie either.”
Charlie pulled out her trusty notebook and started scribbling some of the stuff that Anna was telling her.
“Okay, that still leaves a lot of family members,” said Charlie.
“Of course it does. I’m not going to do your work for you.” Anna rolled her eyes.
Once the girl had left I said, “Do you think she really believes one of her own family killed her grandmother?”
“Not to be too dramatic about it, but definitely,” said Charlie.
We were just heading for the door when Mrs. Barnett offered us another pearl of wisdom.
“Oh, I heard something else strange. I don’t mind telling you because it’s not about Mintwood,” Mrs. Barnett called out.
Charlie and I turned around again.
“I heard that a girl ran away one town over. Hazelwood. She heard something terrifying in the woods and took off. But some people think that’s just talk, and that she really just wants to get away from her family,” said Mrs. Barnett.
We thanked Mrs. Barnett and left. As we walked, I wonder: Could they be talking about Scarlett? She didn’t strike me as the type to run away. Still, neither of the two most likely options for Scarlett, that she had run away on her own or that Ellie the dark witch of Puddlewood had kidnapped her, was a pleasant one for Sicily’s granddaughter.
“If she’s lost in the woods, shouldn’t we be out looking for her?” Charlie wondered.
“She knew those woods as well as anyone, according to her grandmother. I can’t see how she’d be lost,” I said.
Charlie nodded.
“So you suspect foul play?”
“I can’t think of what else might have happened to her,” I said. “She’s been missing for days, and she wasn’t the sort to just leave her witch responsibilities.”
“But why would Ellie attack her?” said Charlie.
“That’s a good question,” I said.
We were drawing closer and closer to the time when I’d have to visit Ellie and ask her that very question in person.
I was dreading it.
That night the three of us were just sitting down to dinner when Charlie leaned forward and frowned.
“Who is that?” she said, peering into the darkness of the back yard.
At first I thought she was kidding, but then I saw what she was looking at and gasped. Sicily was marching around the corner of the house, her face very angry.
“That’s a witch,” I said.
“I knew we were behind on that séance,” Charlie moaned.
Greer had come home from Deacon’s in the afternoon and made us chicken and bean tacos. They were one of my favorite meals, because Greer just put a bunch of ingredients in different bowls and let us pick what we wanted to eat. My tacos were filled with sour cream and broccoli. As far as cruciferous vegetables went, broccoli was tops in my book.
I darted for the back door, my friends following closely behind.
“Scarlett ran off, did she? That’s the gossip,” Sicily yelled angrily when she spotted me.
Mrs. Goodkeep, hanging around in the back yard with several furs draped over her shoulders, turned to stare wide-eyed at the intruder.
“Don’t look at me like that, ghost,” said Sicily, noticing the look.
Mrs. Goodkeep hastened to make herself scarce.
“Got yourself into a bit of trouble, I see,” she said as she skidded past me.
“And you all always want me to work faster,” I muttered. “Now you see what I’m up against.”
But Mrs. Goodkeep didn’t hear me; she was already gone.
“Would you like to come in for tea?” Charlie asked over my shoulder.
“Blond one. Reporter, right? Knows about witchcraft when she shouldn’t?” Sicily was very angry.
“I’m the Witch of Mintwood and I’ll tell whoever I please about my witch powers,” I huffed.
Three pairs of eyes turned to stare at me.
“Way to stand up for yourself,” said Greer.
“Nicely done,” said Charlie.
Even the senior witch looked impressed.
“Great, now that that’s settled why don’t you come in and I’ll fix you some tea,” I said.
Sicily came in and peered around the kitchen.
“It’s been ages since I’ve been here. I can see you didn’t want to bother with any updates.”
I glanced around in surprise. It made sense that Sicily had been here before. It just hadn’t ever occurred to me.
“I like what my grandmother did with the place. Now that she’s gone it reminds me of her,” I told the witch.
Sicily nodded and accepted a cup of tea from Greer.
“Shall we join Paws on the front porch?” I suggested. If we were going to discuss the case, all my sidekicks might as well be there.
Sicily nodded, although she didn’t look thrilled about it. Only Charlie was ever thrilled about Paws.
“Ah, so you found the intruder . . . and then gave her tea,” said Paws when we came outside. He didn’t approve, but when did he ever?
“She’s come to talk about the case,” I said.
“Did she murder Isabel Gray?” said Paws.
“The other case,” I said.
“If I were to murder someone, I would never get caught.” Sicily gave Paws a warning look.
For once the cat took the hint and lapsed into silence.
“Do you think my granddaughter ran away?” she asked once we were seated.
“No, I don’t. There’s no evidence of that. What motive could she possibly have to run?” I said.
“I don’t know. If I knew what had happened to her I wouldn’t be entrusting something so important to you lot.”
“There was one strange thing last night,” I said.
I told Sicily about the doll out by the lake, and to my utter amazement she discounted it as nothing.
“Dolls don’t mean anything in the witchy world. Surely it was just a coincidence,” she said.
“But it looked just like the pictures I’ve seen of Scarlett,” I argued. “It must mean something.”
“Well, it might be a joke by one of the other witches, but it’s definitely not Ellie’s style. Besides, which lake did you say this was?” Sicily asked.
I told her again.
“That’s witch hunter territory. No way Ellie would risk that sort of trouble just to put a doll somewhere.”
She took a long sip of tea.
Chapter Twenty-One
Rain lashed the windows as we all huddled inside. Sicily had left not long after we finished our conversation about Scarlett, and the summer storm had come on without warning.
“If she didn’t run away from home, never to return, and if Ellie didn’t take her prisoner, what do you think happened?” Greer asked.
“I’ve been trying to figure that out. I have an idea, but I’m not sure how to test it,” I said.
“You have an idea you want to test?” Paws asked. “Where can I find shelter?”
“What’s your idea?” Charlie asked, snapping to attention. She’d been staring at her chore flow chart. Not enough was crossed off for that week, and she was fretting about it.
“I hope it doesn’t involve going out in this weather,” said the cat. He took one look at my face and had his answer.
Ten minutes later we had reconvened in the kitchen.
“So what do you think happened to Scarlett?” Greer asked.
We were now fully dressed in rain gear. I even had rain boots on.
“I think Ellie got her,” said Charlie, who was dressed in a bright pink rain slicker. Her luminous eyes peered out of her round red face with delight. She had j
ust finished eating a cupcake.
“I’m going to take a cupcake for the road,” I said. Greer had made carrot cake cupcakes and I had already had two. What was one more?
“If Ellie got her, why hasn’t she brought it to the attention of the other witches? Like, asked for ransom?” Greer asked. We had discussed Ellie throughout Scarlett’s disappearance, but the idea of her being involved had never totally fit.
“I still don’t think Ellie took her prisoner,” I said, glancing outside. I had become more and more nervous about the farmhouse. It was only a matter of time until the dark ghosts attacked again.
Mr. Bone had said that we had to have a séance, and we still hadn’t managed to have one because I didn’t have the help of the other witches. I felt like I was running out of time to protect my home; I had to find Scarlett to get the support I needed.
“She must have been kidnapped. If Ellie kidnapped her, do you think she’s now a prisoner at Puddlewood?” Charlie continued.
“I’m not sure, but I intend to find out tonight,” I said.
“So let’s get going,” said Greer.
We were just about to leave when the phone rang. It was the landline so it usually worked well enough, although sometimes not in storms. Charlie ran to answer it.
“What?” Charlie yelled into the receiver. She then did this weird thing where she held it right up pressed to her earlobe and then about a foot away and then close again and then far.
“I can’t hear you very well,” she yelled into the receiver. Greer and I winced.
“That girl has a set of pipes on her,” said Paws.
“It was probably the cupcakes,” said Greer. She looked amused.
“You wish,” said Paws.
“It was Jasper, but I couldn’t hear what he said very clearly,” said Charlie. “The only thing I know for sure was that he was at the Babbling Brook Barn with Hansen.”
“Then let’s make that our first stop,” I said.
“Where are we going to stop after that?” Greer asked.
“We’re going back to the trail where Scarlett went missing,” I said.
“Oh, good. You want to get lost in the woods during an epic storm,” groaned Charlie. “At night.”
“No, I want to find Scarlett,” I said.
Despite the fact that the three of us raced to the Beetle as fast as we could, we were soaked when we got there. I had brought towels and a bag full of spare supplies, but even so there were a couple of awkward minutes of trying to dry off before we were seated and ready to go. In the end I just gave up and put a towel over my seat.
“I hate the rain,” said Paws.
“You can’t even get wet anymore,” said Greer.
Paws subsided.
Babbling Brook Barn looked cheery when we arrived, its lights glowing through the rain. As we got out of the car I caught a glimpse of the lake, with the rain looking like a million tiny pinpricks on the water. I found myself smiling. Jasper’s truck was there, and that meant I was about to see him.
I glanced around for any sign of Jasper’s grandfather and was relieved that there was no vehicle that might have been his.
We made a run for it. Paws decided he was going to stay in the car. In his opinion, he hadn’t done anything wrong and therefore under no circumstances should he have to run through the rain at night.
As a matter of fact, as we reached the door it did swing open as if by magic.
I saw a laughing Jasper as we raced past him and tumbled into the warmth of the barn. The door swung shut behind us and with it the sound of the rain faded.
“You’re getting the place positively soaked,” said Jasper.
But he was ready for us. He held out some towels that we exchanged for our wet ones, also handing him our rain gear as a reward for his kindness.
“We had to come,” said Charlie. A dollop of water dripped off the end of her nose.
“Haven’t you ever heard of an umbrella?” asked Hansen, emerging from some other part of the barn.
“What’s that?” Greer joked.
“Don’t worry about it. You can’t possibly have found it useful on a day like today,” said Hansen, a twinkle in his eye.
“I hate umbrellas,” I said.
“I’ll remind myself not to get you one for Christmas,” said Jasper.
“Are we giving each other Christmas gifts?” I asked curiously. My mind went back to the miniature glass barn he’d recently given me.
“Of course,” said Jasper. “You’re my girlfriend.”
“Yeah, of course, Lemmi,” Greer teased me.
“We’ve got a fire going,” said Jasper, leading us to the massive hearth.
“Want some hot tea?” Hansen offered.
“If by tea you mean coffee, then yes,” said Charlie.
“I’ll get right on it,” said Hansen.
Once we were all settled in with our warm drinks, Charlie asked Jasper to explain what he had been saying on the phone. But it was Hansen who started to talk.
“I found something very strange in the archives,” he said. “It was my grandmother who directed me there. She remembered the sale of a certain house. There had been a bidding war over it, because it was on the water and it was so beautiful.
“Dana and Isabel’s father won the bidding war. My grandmother was surprised to hear that Isabel owned the house now and Dana didn’t. She thought Dana might be bitter about that. Normally I wouldn’t bring my grandmother’s theories to you. She always has ideas about my investigations, and usually they’re just her imaginings, but this one made a lot of sense.”
“I didn’t know your grandmother was from Mintwood,” said Greer.
“Born and raised. Married away and says she always regretted it. Mind, she only said that in front of my grandfather,” said Hansen.
We all laughed.
“Lemmi and I talked to Dana, and she didn’t seem upset about her sister owning the house,” said Charlie.
“Was there any explanation as to why Isabel inherited the house?” Jasper asked.
We shook our heads.
“I’ve wondered the same thing,” I said, “but I didn’t think it was a big deal. Now that you mention it, though, I wonder even more.”
“I think it might be connected,” agreed Hansen. “I think Dana wanted to own the house. I don’t know what happened, but something happened so that it went to Isabel and not Dana.”
“Now if we could just find proof, it might be a good motive for murder,” said Charlie.
We talked about it for a while longer. Isabel had said she wouldn’t be surprised if one of her family members had tried to kill her. She hadn’t mentioned her sister directly, but since she wasn’t sure who had done it, her sister was probably as good a candidate as any. And this was the first concrete motive we’d uncovered.
Ghosts died and lost their short term memories, but not usually their long. What had happened with the house had happened so long ago, you’d have thought Isabel would remember. We’d just have to add it to the list of things we had to ask her the next time we went to Greer’s bar. Meanwhile we had to keep quiet about the ghost Isabel lest we give that secret away to Jasper and Hansen.
“What are you doing here, anyway?” Charlie asked Hansen.
Both the guys were taken aback.
“It’s our weekly poker night,” said Jasper.
“I was already in town and I decided to stay here instead of driving back in the rain. Penny’s safely tucked in at my house, so I didn’t have anything to worry about,” said Hansen.
Charlie bristled.
“You play poker once a week?” I asked incredulously.
“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to tell you,” said Jasper. “I don’t have a gambling problem or anything.”
“He’s still marriage material is what he’s trying to say,” Charlie muttered.
“What was that?” Jasper leaned an ear toward Charlie.
“Nothing,” said Charlie, examining the ceiling.
The lights flickered and all of us looked around. “Don’t worry. I have a generator in case the power goes out,” said Jasper.
“Means he can still play cards,” said Hansen.
“We play by candlelight if we have to,” said Jasper.
“We’d better get going anyway,” I sighed. We still had a lot to do before the night was over.
Jasper gave me a strange look. “You don’t have to leave because of poker. It’s not for a little bit yet,” he said, looking at his watch.
“That’s okay. We should really get going,” said Charlie. “With this new information, I want to start looking at Dana Gray as soon as possible.”
“Sure thing,” said Hansen.
The guys were both looking at us skeptically, neither of them bothering to hide the fact that they didn’t believe we were going straight home.
Given that we weren’t, I couldn’t really blame them.
“Get home safely. Whenever you head home.” There was a note of warning in Jasper’s voice.
“Don’t worry, we will. Will I see you tomorrow?” I asked him.
“Want to do a picnic on the lake sometime soon?” he asked.
I really liked the sound of that and told him so.
The three of us got back into our rain jackets and made a run to the Beetle. If anything, the rain was coming down even harder than it had been before; I was sure the guys were laughing at us. As we drove out, Deacon was driving in. He honked and waved and flashed his headlights.
“You’d think he could just do one of those things and not all three,” Greer sighed.
“You have an exuberant boyfriend,” Charlie said.
Charlie was positively bouncing, but it wasn’t about Deacon. Hansen might have broken the case wide open, and she couldn’t wait for our next round of questioning.
“So when can you tell us what happened to Scarlett?” Greer asked.
“If my theory proves true, I’ll tell you soon,” I said.
This whole case had been fishy all along. Sicily’s granddaughter had gone missing, but she wasn’t the kind of girl to do that. Ellie might have been involved, yes, but Ellie was usually more dramatic. Lately, she had been awfully quiet in general.
All of that worried me. There was no better motivation to have a séance than to have a silent dark witch living next door. Hurry up with that incense, that’s how I felt about it.
Witch of Mintwood Mysteries 7-9 Page 36