by Erin Johnson
Eclairs, Scares & Haunted Home Repairs
A Cozy Witch Mystery
Erin Johnson
For Hannah and Neill.
You made the dedication,
which is even better than the newsletter.
I’d also like to acknowledge CrowCrimes.com for the top notch information on all things crow/raven.
Contents
1. Home Improvement
2. Over the Threshold
3. The Spiral Staircase
4. The Top of the Tower
5. The Council
6. We’re in!
7. Yakitori
8. The Train
9. Ghost Story
10. Threats
11. Business Hours
12. The Petition
13. The Oishi Bakery
14. Escalation Station
15. The Twins
16. The Good Morning Diner
17. Emi
18. Abandoned
19. Rally
20. A View to Die For
21. Rotting
22. Raven Rules
23. Drawing Conclusions
24. Chief Abe
25. Scones
26. Clearing the Way
27. What Lies Beneath
28. The Locket
29. Stakeout
30. The Affair
31. The Great Typhoon
32. Mai
33. A New Deal
34. New Friends
35. Haunted
36. Into the Woods
37. The Witch’s Hut
38. Madame Shi
39. Bird Bribes
40. The Séance
41. Tarot
42. Calling All Spirits
43. Parlor Tricks
44. The Attic
45. Cursed
46. Buried
47. A New Start
48. Not So Secret
49. Too Good to be True
50. A Gift
51. Someone Call the Necromancer
52. A Summoning
53. The Ghost
54. The Train Wreck
55. An Eye for an Eye
56. A Kind Unkindness
57. Progress
58. Moving On
59. Sure
60. Preparations
61. Love
62. Something Blue
63. Wedding Crashers
64. A Reunion
65. Bon Voyage
66. Homeward Bound
A note from the author
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About the Author
1
Home Improvement
“All right, gang.” Hank threw an arm around my shoulders and beamed. “Ready to do some home improvement?”
We stood on the stone-paved street and looked up at what was to become our new home. It’d been a couple of weeks since the council had gifted it to us, and all the permits to start renovations had finally come through.
I grinned up at Hank. His thick, dark hair played about his blue eyes in the early morning breeze. And it’d been about two weeks since he’d asked me to marry him. I snuggled closer against his side.
Iggy, my magical flame, burned inside the lantern dangling from my hand. “Want me to burn it to the ground and we can just start over?”
Reluctantly my eyes slid back to the rotting specter of a house in front of us. The fog that rolled over the bramble-covered lawn from the cemetery in back wasn’t doing it any favors. I held Iggy up and gave him a slight nod. My thoughts exactly.
Hank scoffed and swept an arm toward the dilapidated building. “You’re joking, right? It’s charming.”
Annie snorted.
Hank shifted on his feet. “Can’t you imagine it?” He looked down the line to his right at Yann, Annie, Sam, Wiley, and Maple. Rhonda and Francis, the night owls, were still sleeping—in fact, they’d just barely stumbled home as we were finishing up our breakfast with Jiji, Misaki, and Fumi at their guesthouse.
We’d left Cat behind today so he could play with his new bestie, Jiji’s cat, Rini. I frowned. Bestie, or pet? The weird little cat/bat/hypno toad monster often frolicked around and napped with Rini. But I’d also seen Cat giving her commands with hand signals and odd grunts that she obeyed by sitting, staying, or following him. I shuddered. Cat was so creepy.
I sighed. But not as creepy as our new project… er, home. I felt Hank’s gaze on me and looked up at him. His eyes held a question.
I thought quickly… what had he asked?
“Oh!” I nodded and hiked my brows high. “Oh, yeah. No… I can totally imagine it.” I frowned. “What are we imagining, exactly?”
He chuckled, a deep sound. “See the tower on the corner?”
I nodded. It rose from the wraparound porch, three stories up, with a capped dome on top and bay windows on each level.
Annie folded her arms. “The tower with the holes in the roof and the boarded-up, broken windows?”
“Imagine the possibilities.” Hank lifted his chin as he gazed at it. “New windows, fixed roof…, maybe a weathervane on top?”
Maple laced her hands together under her chin. “A mermaid one?”
Hank grinned. “Sure. We’ll build window seats inside for reading….”
Annie let out a wistful sigh. “Or napping in the sun.”
My boyfriend nodded. “We’ll repair the porch and paint it white and hang a swing.”
Yann’s brown eyes twinkled under his bushy red brows. “I could build dat.”
“Yes! Yann’s a skilled carpenter, Sam’s got an amazing eye for design….” Hank threw an arm toward our shifter friend.
Sam’s milky eyes darted up at the compliment, and a deep flush spread over his cheeks.
Hank looked at Maple. “You get a chance to design your dream kitchen.”
“Our own kitchen again…, a clean one.” Maple and Jiji sharing a kitchen had been a real odd-couple situation. Her eyes lit up and she rubbed her slender hands together. “I do have a few ideas….”
Wiley scoffed. “A few? It’s all she’ll talk about lately.” He mimed her chatting with one hand, the other arm looped around her back. She jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow, and he laughed, then planted a kiss on the top of her head.
Maple and I wore matching linen work smocks over our jeans. She had on a black tee with the short sleeves rolled and her blonde hair wrapped around her head in a milkmaid braid. I was sporting my usual big bun on the top of my head and had tied my deep blue muscle tank in a knot at the waist. Ready to get my hands dirty! The breeze blew my bangs away from my face.
Hank turned to my flame. “And your dream fireplace. We can add some brick ovens in the kitchen if you like?”
I grinned. I loved that he’d thought of Iggy.
My flame sniffed at the two crumbling chimney stacks that rose from the many-peaked roof. “They’re probably full of bird nests and spiders.” But I noticed the way his eyes widened as he gazed at them. “Those must be pretty big fireplaces.”
I nudged Hank with my shoulder and he dipped his head to whisper against my ear. “I think Iggy’s starting to warm to me.” He pulled away and lifted a thick brow. “Get it? Warm?”
I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t entirely hold back a chuckle… and a groan. “Yes. I get it.”
Hank bounced on his toes.
I shook my head and looked back at the Victorian-style house. It had probably been grand at some point and was completely different from the style of the other buildings in Kusuri. It stood far back on a huge lot. Maybe with the black, thorny brambles gone, it’d be a pleasant front yard. I frowned. Though I wasn’t sure how we’d redeem the back.
Since the house stood at the end of the same street as Jiji’s guesthouse, we walked by on our way to town nearly every day. I’d never ventured too near the cemetery for the pretty obvious reason that it creeped me out.
But besides grave markers, I had spotted an off-putting pile of tiny stone figures stacked like snowmen. So many of them that the pile rose twenty feet in the air. Many wore tiny red capes and hats and gave me the eerie feeling that they were watching the house from the shadows.
I’d mentioned it to Jiji a couple of days ago, and she’d rocked on her cushion and laughed. “Ah, don’t be afraid, that’s just jizo!” Apparently, they were tiny protective spirits that watched over travelers (good for us!) and children.
“They’re made of crumbled gravestones. That cemetery is very old,” she explained. “Almost no one knows anyone buried there anymore, so the pieces that fall off are made into jizo who watch over those buried there.” She’d patted my hand. “They appease the restless souls of the dead, so trust me, you want the jizo there.”
My stomach sank even now as I thought of the conversation and imagined my new neighbors, the “restless dead” wandering around behind my new house, kept in line only by a mountain of tiny stone snowmen.
Annie cleared her throat, a twinkle in her eyes. “So, fearless leader, where do we start?”
2
Over the Threshold
Hank grinned. “I was thinking that today we’d just survey the house and grounds and make a list of everything that needs to get done. Then make a plan from there.” He looked around. “Sound all right to everyone?”
I let out a breath. We’d just look around. I could probably handle that.
We all started across the lawn, fog swirling around our ankles. Though it was June, the evenings and mornings were still chilly up here in the mountains. Goose bumps prickled my arms, and Hank glanced over as I shuddered. He hugged me to his side and rubbed my shoulder to warm me up.
Dead vines crunched under our feet as we made our way toward the house. Yesterday, Hank and Wiley had used their magic to burn a path through the brambles that had overtaken the entire lot.
As the sun’s pale light hit the tall, dense trees that surrounded the property, the black ravens that always seemed to be circling overhead awoke. Dark shapes hopped from branch to branch, their harsh calls breaking the early morning hush.
We stopped at the steps to the front porch. “Careful—don’t step on that second one,” Hank warned.
Wiley leapt up to the porch and turned. He held Maple’s hands and helped her up beside him. He pointed at the hole in the step. “We know because I went through it yesterday.”
Ouch.
“You okay?” Maple’s eyes widened.
Wiley frowned. “Am I okay? Psh.” He puffed up his chest. “I’m a big, strong man.” A grin slid across his face. “So I was fine once Jiji patched my leg up—good as new today. The cut’s already faded to a scar.”
Maple planted her hands on her hips. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
He kissed her head. “Because I knew you’d just get worried.”
She frowned. “Well, tell me next time.”
Hank cleared his throat and a quill and scroll appeared, magically hovering beside his head. “First on the list—fix porch steps,” he dictated. The feathered pen scribbled his words on the parchment in blue ink.
We all followed onto the porch, our feet leaving prints in the deep dirt that covered the creaky boards. Broken glass littered the ground below the carriage lamps that hung askew on each side of the front door. The door’s paint, a faded brown-gray like the rest of the house, peeled away in long strips, and boards covered what had once been a window.
Hank fished around in his chinos pocket and withdrew a big iron key. He slid it into the hole and grunted as he finally forced the lock to turn. He sighed. “Fix the front door lock.” The quill beside his head scribbled away. Hank, with a grin, turned the knob and pushed the door open. In one swift movement, he swept me into his arms. “It’s tradition.”
I grinned. “We’re not married yet.”
Wiley put a hand to his chest and pretended to look scandalized. “Living in sin?”
I flashed my eyes at him over Hank’s shoulder. “Shh. The house might hear.” The teenagers with boyfriends were always the first to die in horror movies.
“Did you pick a date yet, dears?” Annie asked.
I looked over Hank’s shoulder at her. “Not yet. We want to get the house done first.”
As Hank carried me over the threshold, he turned his head and kissed me. I melted into him, forgetting all my worries in the safety of his arms. At least for a moment.
The floorboards creaked as though about to buckle, and the house let out a deep groan that seemed to emanate from behind the walls. I pulled back from Hank’s kiss and froze, my eyes wide.
“Might be time to go on a diet, Imogen!” Iggy cackled.
3
The Spiral Staircase
Hank set me down and we walked hand in hand through the front entryway. An antique dresser with a clouded mirror stood to our right, the drawers half open. I scrunched my nose as a cloud of moths fluttered across our path.
“What’s that smell?”
“Whoever smelled it….” Iggy chirped.
I rolled my eyes at him. “Are you five?”
Wiley and Maple stepped in behind us. Wiley turned his head and coughed into the crook of his elbow. “Ugh.”
Annie followed beside Sam. “Smells like wet socks in here.”
Yann clomped inside behind them. “Dat ees mold.”
My eyes widened and I clamped my free hand over my nose and mouth. I turned to Yann, then Hank. “Isn’t that dangerous?”
Annie pulled her wand from her overalls pocket, her normal headband replaced with a kerchief to keep her gray hair out of her face. She waved it through the air and white dust masks dropped into our hands. “Wear these for now. We’ll have to see what kind of mold it is.”
Hank, his eyes tight, muttered, “Find and fix mold problem.” The quill beside his head scribbled away.
Iggy’s heat flared against my leg. “Off to great a start.”
His fire felt good, actually. Goose bumps prickled my arms at the drop in temperature inside the house. It felt chillier inside than out.
We all fixed our masks over our faces and moved past the staircase, through the front parlor on our left. Boards covered the dirty windows, and I had to hold Iggy’s lantern aloft to see.
Annie, Yann, and Wiley lit their wands. Dark wallpaper peeled from one wall, while chunks of fallen plaster revealed boards of wood behind another. Hank added the walls and windows to the growing “to fix” list.
We stirred up clouds of years-old dust as we moved next to the dining room, in a similar state of disrepair to the parlor, and then to the kitchen in the back. We stood in silence for several moments, taking it in.
Maple cocked her head, wincing behind her mask. “It’s a nice size….”
That was about the only thing that could be said for it. Brown stains marred what had, I guessed, at one time been a white farmhouse sink. Half the cupboards had no doors; the rest hung at odd angles, barely holding on by their hinges. Hank stepped toward the walk-in fireplace and the rusted-over cauldron inside, his hand around mine. I shrieked and tried to claw my way back into his arms as cockroaches the size of my thumb scuttled across the floor and disappeared under the filthy stove.
I shuddered. “I hate cockroaches.”
Iggy sniffed. “Get Cat in here. I bet he loves them.”
Wiley tilted his head to the side. “It’s not a bad idea. He’s a good little hunter. Brings us grasshoppers and bird heads on the daily.”
I gasped and made a face at Maple.
She shrugged. “I know it’s gross, but… it’s kind of sweet, also. He’s bringing us presents.”
I shook my head as I imagined him chomping down on the crunchy bugs. My stomach turned.
I gave Hank’s hand a squeeze. “You go on in there.” I eyed the stove where the cockroaches had scuttled off to. “I don’t want to risk one touching my feet.”
His eyes twinkled, the only part of his face visible behind the mask. “You’re wearing boots.”
I nodded. “Exactly. I like these boots. And I’d have to burn them.”
He chuckled.
“Yeah. Me, too.” Maple grabbed my hand. “We’ll check out the upstairs.”
Wiley winked. “I go where she goes.”
We’d started back towards the dining room when Hank called, “Imogen?” I stopped and turned. “Be careful, okay?” He glanced up at the tall, water-stained ceiling. “The floors up there might not be sound or…. I don’t know, just be careful.”
Aw, he was worried about me. “I will.”
Annie, Sam, Yann, and Hank moved further into the kitchen as Wiley, Maple, Iggy, and I wound our way through the dim, dingy rooms back to the staircase by the front door. I thought of the porch steps as I climbed up behind Maple and Wiley, careful not to step in the center of the treads. I hovered my hand over the balustrade, but decided against using it, as it was covered in a good half-inch layer of dirt and grime.