“Paws, is that Tank?” I asked. Through the trees I could see a streaking bunny. I hadn’t known he could move so fast.
“Who can really tell with rabbits? I think they all look the same,” said the cat, sounding terribly bored.
“Paws!” I yelled. “Is that Tank?”
Greer must have heard my voice on the wind, because she turned around to look at me and waved me forward. I spared one quick glare for the ghost cat before I took off running.
Tank was going as fast as I’d ever seen a rabbit go. Behind him was a dark shimmering form. If I hadn’t been panting so hard, my breath would have caught in my throat. Dark ghosts were chasing after the bunny.
I had only gotten a few steps when I realized I’d forgotten something.
Just as I spun around I saw Paws bringing that something along with him. Great effort had to be taken on the part of a ghost to move an object like my wand.
“How are you doing that?” I asked him.
“We have a connection due to all the spells you’ve performed,” he said. “It likes me.”
“Thanks,” I said. I grabbed the wand from him and kept going. We weren’t far away from my friends and the other ghosts now, but we were far enough.
Tank was trying desperately to reach the safety of the field. The only trouble was that I didn’t know what kind of safety it provided.
Mr. Bone was loping toward him, but as usual he wasn’t moving very fast. He wasn’t going to make it in time to help his friend.
As I watched, Tank tripped. He managed to tumble forward, and then forward again, to land on his feet, but the dark ghosts had seen their opportunity and surged ahead.
Wendell wasn’t one of them. It didn’t surprise me that he’d sent others to do something apparently trivial like chase a rabbit through the woods. He was probably holed up with Ellie in Puddlewood, plotting the overthrow of Mintwood or something equally obnoxious.
“Tank!” I yelled.
I pulled up my wand and tried desperately to think of a spell.
Tank got back on his feet and took three more hops, but the dark ghosts had caught up with him.
Everyone yelled as they started to envelop him.
He had time for one more hop.
Finally a burst of bright stars shot through the forest around the ghosts. All of a sudden a sparkly net, small as it was, closed around Tank. He kept hopping, and the dark ghosts couldn’t reach him. Try as they might, they couldn’t break through the net, they just kept crashing up against it and bouncing off with a light covering of sparkles all over their noses afterward.
Tank was suddenly fine. The dark ghosts stopped, confused. A couple of stars went to harass them. They swatted at them as if they were flies.
“Come on, Tank!” Mr. Bone yelled gleefully. In another instant the usually serious ghost was likely to be jumping up and down.
I slowed my pace.
We were safe.
For now.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The next night was the night of the séance. I was dragging after what had happened with Jasper, but I had decided that my wallowing would be hidden until after our company left.
In the meantime, we had been so busy discussing Jasper that Charlie hadn’t said much about her stake-out.
Or maybe she was being intentionally vague.
Greer, Charlie, and I were in the living room drinking tea. Greer had refused to give me alcohol, though I had been sorely tempted to down some wine.
“What happened with you last night?” Greer asked Charlie, choosing the direct approach.
Charlie grimaced and fiddled with the little paper end of her teabag.
“You’re being uncharacteristically unforthcoming,” remarked Greer.
“Yeah, tell us what happened. It might help,” I said.
Charlie glanced at me and then quickly looked away. I frowned.
“Jasper wasn’t there, was he?” Suddenly the bottom dropped out of my stomach and I felt tingly all over.
Charlie shook her head. “No, I didn’t see him. I am also an observer of walks, and I don’t believe I saw anyone who walked like him, either.”
Greer shook her head. “Glad you can confirm that.”
Charlie nodded soberly.
“So why all the secrecy?” I asked.
“We still don’t know what the meeting is about. All I know is that I saw Tyler Spin going in,” she said.
I swallowed hard.
“I need more time,” said Charlie. “This isn’t turning out to be as simple as I expected. Miss Violetta thinks we’ve made great progress. She says we can go back next month,” said Charlie.
Greer cleared her throat. “Maybe its a chess club with glow-in-the-dark boards.”
“Pretty sure there’s no point in speculating. Let’s just see if we can find out more next time,” I said quietly.
Even though I was staring off into space, I could see my friends exchange glances.
After that the conversation turned to the campground murder, and we updated each other on Cushman.
In short, my friends were trying to distract me from what had happened with Jasper. Charlie looked settled and determined to change the subject. Only one crisis at a time.
“I just don’t see why Cushman felt like he had to drown Burke,” said Charlie.
“He said as he was arrested that it was a spur of the moment thing. The canoe tipped and he just didn’t try to save him,” said Greer.
“I don’t think I believe that,” said Charlie.
“How do you think Gracie feels knowing that she stumbled on a skeleton?” Greer wondered.
“Now that she's not sitting in the woods, she’s probably milking the story for all it’s worth. I picture her retreating to a spa for a month to ‘recuperate,’” said Charlie.
“Did you ever hear why the life jacket was at Norris’s?” I asked.
Charlie shook her head. “I didn’t want to bring it up. I figured Norris was stealing life jackets, and asking about it would only clue him in to the fact that we’d been snooping in his stuff.”
“That seems as likely as anything,” said Greer. “And I don’t suppose it matters much, given that Cushman has been revealed as the killer.”
“What did Hansen write about the case?” I asked. When I’d come to breakfast that morning I’d glanced at the front page of the Caedmon Chronicle, but that’s about as far as I’d gotten.
“I thought his piece was good. He made Detective Smith sound like a hero,” said Greer.
“His writing is always informative,” I agreed.
Charlie made a face. She clearly wasn’t pleased with all of the Hansen complimenting.
“He’s getting a lot of attention for being such a good reporter,” she said. “He’s doing a special series on murders in the county, and he’s probably going to dig up some old, unsolved cases for that one. He asked if I wanted to be involved in writing the series.”
“What did you say?” I asked.
“I said definitely. I told him I’d be happy to and that I couldn’t wait,” Charlie said.
“Then what?” Greer leaned forward. She seemed to be hoping that this was finally the moment when Charlie would understand everything.
“It was pretty simple. He invited me over for dinner to discuss the series. He said his house was on a pretty quiet street in Caedmon. I might have been a bit rude at that point, I’m not sure,” Charlie bit her lower lip.
“How were you rude?” I asked.
“I may or may not have expressed my surprise that he owned his own house,” said Charlie.
“Good. Those Caedmon reporters just can’t get it together. I’m not surprised that he wouldn’t own his own place. Lowlife,” said Greer, her eyes glittering with amusement.
Charlie covered her face with her hands. “I don’t know what came over me! I feel bad about it! He was nice when I said it to him. He explained that he had saved up a lot of money doing odd jobs when he was young. He had a base
ball scholarship to college and then his parents helped with textbooks. He’s still paying the house off, but he owns it. I had the funny feeling that his financial situation was better than he wanted to let on,” said Charlie.
“Gutter dweller,” said Greer, still cackling at Charlie’s mistake.
“It wasn’t that bad,” Charlie shot back, rolling her eyes at Greer’s teasing. “Anyway, I told him I’d be happy to go over there.”
“Cool. You two are going to work together now,” said Greer.
“No, definitely not anything like that,” said Charlie.
“What would you call writing a story together after researching a story together?” I asked.
“A temporary truce,” she said.
“It’s two against one. I’m pretty sure we’re right,” said Greer.
“Let’s ask Paws,” said Charlie.
She called out to the ghost cat on the porch and asked if he’d been eavesdropping. His response was, “Are you kidding me? I would never do such a thing! I’d have to side with Lemmi and Greer on this one. As much as it pains me.”
We were just getting into an argument when I heard a car drive up. Headlights flashed through the living room, and for a split second I allowed myself to hope that Jasper had come back, even though I knew he hadn’t. I leveraged myself up off the well-worn couch and hurried to the door.
As I had expected, it was Scarlett and Josephine, and they had arrived with Sicily in tow. Josephine was behind the wheel, and Scarlett was sitting in the back seat with her nose pressed against the glass. She grinned widely when she saw me, but Sicily’s expression was far sterner.
“Witch garb is seriously awesome,” said Greer as the visitors got out of the car. Josephine was wearing a red, sheer cape that sparkled. She had on black tights, a black dress, and a black hat. Scarlett was in her usual red cape.
Just as I was about to head out to the porch to greet them, someone else got out of the back of the car.
At first I couldn’t believe my eyes.
No, it wasn’t Jasper.
But if there was anyone else in the world I wanted to see, it was the person I was now gazing at down my driveway.
Aunt Harriet had come back!
As our eyes met, she smiled brightly. For my part, I couldn’t get down the stairs fast enough. I basically tripped over my own feet.
As Harriet wrapped her arms around me, Greer and Charlie came running as well. The other witches were kind enough to wait as we celebrated our reunion with laughs, hugs, and maybe even a few tears.
“I missed you!” I said into my aunt’s shoulder.
She pulled back just enough to get a look at me. What she saw made her smile falter a bit. She must have taken in the bags under my eyes and my stringy hair.
“It’s so good to see you! I missed you too! It took me too long to come back,” she reassured me.
“We picked up a straggler on the way,” said Scarlett with a smile.
We spent a few minutes standing outside and catching up, the point of the visit temporarily forgotten.
“Oh, I almost forgot. There was a letter for you in the mailbox,” said Harriet. She smiled and handed over a plain envelope.
Sure enough, my name was printed on the back of it. My heart sank when I recognized the handwriting. Jasper had left me a note.
I tore it open, my mouth dry and my hands shaking. Jasper had written:
“I’m going away for a while. I’m really sorry, but I can’t explain where. My grandfather has made some things clear to me. We talked. and I don’t believe I have a choice. Just know that I’m not leaving you. I don’t care what he or anyone else says, that isn’t what this is about. It never was and it never will be. Don’t come looking for me. You won’t find me. When I can return I will, but I can honestly say that I don’t know what that will look like. Again, I am so very sorry. Be safe and take care of yourself.
PS. Do you have a ghost cat?
PPS. I love you.
I burst into tears. Everyone surrounded me to offer comfort.
“His grandfather must have been tracking him. He knew when he got into danger,” said Sicily.
“Does this have something to do with the fact that they’re Witch Hunters?” I asked.
“Witch Hunters . . . hunt witches, including dark witches. Never fear, I’m sure it’ll all work out,” said Sicily.
“It’s also sweet of him to mention me in his goodbye letter,” said Paws.
“Calling it that is a little dramatic,” I told him.
Even as I argued, I knew he wasn’t entirely wrong. Something had happened to Jasper, and I’d been too preoccupied with everything else to really notice. He’d come to my place to say something, but he hadn’t been able to do it, and I had just assumed that we had more time.
Now our time had run out. It was time to get to work, and it was time to get my boyfriend back. I wasn’t going to let this go without a fight.
Charlie and Greer both came over and gave me a hug. Everyone else looked at me sympathetically. In a way this letter was a good thing. It brought me a little more peace and a little more strength.
This was far from over.
Until I could see Jasper again, I would just have to wait.
While I did, I had some witchy work to do.
The End
~
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By Addison Creek
Witch of Mintwood Mysteries
Witch Way to Mintwood
Witch Some Win Some
Spell by Midnight
A Witch on Mintwood Mountain
Witch Raising Situation
Witch Way Round
Witch Wish Way
White Witch Wonder
Muddled Mintwood Murderer
Witch of Mintwood Mysteries 1-3
Witch of Mintwood Mysteries 4-6
Witch of Mintwood Mysteries 7-9
The Jane Garbo Mysteries
Spooky Business
Spooky Spells
Spooky Spider
Jane Garbo Mysteries 1-3
Witch of Mintwood Mysteries 7-9 Page 57