“So it’s a scam then?” said Cassy, though she was still unsure.
“I checked and it’s all legal. There were no cases filed against them. Truthfully there’s nothing at all negative about them online unless you count the stores closing.”
Cassy pulled back from the screen and rubbed her eyes. She’d been squinting at the bright light for too long and trace images floated in front of her. She had a natural eyewash somewhere that she could use; one of the benefits of working in a store like the Spicery.
“There’s nothing linking the Sisters to anything bad, but what about the others?” asked Cassy.
“What others?”
“You mentioned that they were franchises—this Amanda Beal and the rest of them. The business would be in their name.”
Immediately Patty returned to the laptop and started inputting keystrokes. “I hadn’t thought to follow up on that,” she said. Her eyes darted across the screen as more pages of search results wheeled past.
Cassy left her in-house computer geek (aka anyone younger than Cassy) to continue mining the Internet for more details. She had some investigating of her own to do, though it was a little more hands on.
“Dot,” hollered Cassy, only to find that she was standing right beside her.
“Yes?”
“I’m going to need your help with a little something.”
Chapter Four
Cassy hadn’t noticed before that some of the little vials she’d bought from that place didn’t contain water but tiny pills. One of them sat in the palm of her hand and she had to fight the urge to pop it in her mouth. It did look like candy after all and the list of ingredients on the label said 100% sugar, but she couldn’t be sure. Was this the exact ‘remedy’ that Leena had taken and that caused her to die? It looked innocent enough, but then again, so did Dot, but Cassy knew better.
“What’s your secret?” she whispered.
“Are we going to taste test these then?” asked Dot as she unscrewed the top off one small bottle. Before she could put it to her lips Cassy had to knock it from her hand. The bottle dropped to the floor, its contents making a puddle.
“There might be a lot more to what’s in here than simple alternative medicines,” said Cassy, relieved. It wouldn’t have been the first time that she’d saved Dot’s life.
“If that were true,” Dot began as she stooped to clean up the spill, “Don’t you think there’d be a lot more casualties?”
She had to think about it for a second but begrudgingly she had to concede that Dot had a point. Had the products been lethal, there would have been a lot more fatalities than the two they knew of, which could only mean one thing.
“This is being targeted,” said Cassy. She looked down at her haul of ‘medicines’ and realized that they might all be exactly what they said they were. From the very start, Cassy had tried to figure out why the Sisters would want to kill their customers. Perhaps it was something as simple as a mutual psychopathic tendency with no rhyme or reason. They could go from town to town setting up shop, get their thrills, and then move on. But it had to be more precise than that or they’d be discovered. If all their products were laced with whatever it was that had taken out both Leena and June, then the game would be up as soon as it had begun. But—and there was always a ‘but’—what if there was a method to their madness? There had to be something that linked a middle-aged beautician who had been married to a successful engineer for over twenty years and a seventeen-year-old girl who liked to go out partying with her friends, besides a shared love of alt-meds and mystical mumbo jumbo, of course.
“So what are we doing?” asked Dot who had been patient all this time.
“I don’t have access to the same kind of instruments as Dr. Bloom at the coroner’s office but what we have in the Spicery will have to do for now.”
“Another one of your science experiments?”
“You betcha.”
Just about everything you needed in life could be sourced from natural ingredients and those that couldn’t probably weren’t that essential anyway. This usefulness in all things provided by Mother Nature extended into the realm of chemistry and in this case, detection. This wasn’t the first time that Cassy had used her intimate knowledge of the hundreds of different herbs and extracts that she stocked in the Spicery to assist her in a little investigation.
Now she used that potent knowledge to rigorously test the contents of each of the vials. She started with the pills, which she crushed into a fine powder and mixed with a little water. Then she added a little reagent, which predictably came up negative. The pills were nothing more than sugar.
Similar results were found for every one of the remaining ‘cures’ across a variety of potential indicators. Though the scope of her little chemistry lab was limited, the results were conclusive. There was nothing untoward about anything that had come from Hocus Pocus.
“How do you target something like poisoning?” mused Cassandra.
“You make sure that the person drinks it. You watch them do it,” offered Dot. “That’s how I’d do it.”
Dot was right. It had to be that simple.
“What do you mean that’s how you’d do it?”
“I’m purely speculating,” said Dot. “If I was a murderer, that’s what I would do. I’m not saying I am, but if—and I stress if—I was, then I’d have to watch the person drink the poison so I knew it had actually happened. No point leaving it to chance.”
So much astute insight was a rare thing from Dot so Cassy had to take it while she could. And there was some truth to it. If indeed the victims had been poisoned, the one responsible had to be sure that the deed had been done. There was too much of a chance of failure, one of the drawbacks of using poison. A chance spill, the wrong drink picked up, too small a dose taken—any number of scenarios could lead to a poisoner’s failure.
“We need a common element,” announced Cassy.
Dot rolled her eyes. “More experiments?”
“Don’t worry, I don’t need your help anymore. I’m just curious to see what links Leena and June. There has to be something.” If only she could find that one thing, Cassy knew that she would have the beginning of a case, and then she might see the end of Hocus Pocus.
“I’ve got her!” Both Dot and Cassy jumped out of their skins as Patty appeared behind them in a whirlwind of giddy bounces. “I got her and I know where she lives.”
Patty was holding her laptop, which she now twisted so that the others could see.
“Just what are you talking about?” asked Dot as she fanned herself. The look of shock still clung to her face. “And never sneak up on me like that again.
Cassy leaned in closer to the screen. “That’s not too far from here.”
“What’s not too far from here? And who are we talking about?” Dot was growing impatient. It didn’t take much, and she hated being left in the dark.
“Amanda Beal,” said Patty with pride. “I tracked her down.”
Cassy grinned from ear to ear. “Who wants to go on a road trip?”
Longville was just on the other side of the forest, beyond the Lodge and just a short trip down the Interstate. Though judging by how much Patty had brought with her on the journey, you might have thought that she, Dot and Cassy were going on a whistle stop tour of the entire North American continent.
“Did you really need this?” asked Dot, brandishing a mirror the size and shape of a dinner plate.
“I’ve got to look good, don’t I?”
“Take it as a compliment, but at your age you don’t need to try,” said Dot, tossing the superfluous mirror onto the back seat of her car. Cassy was at the wheel and was trying her best to stay focused despite the almost constant chatter. Dot had driven for the first hour before deciding it was then Cassy’s turn at the wheel. She’d now been in control of the car for two hours. “When you get as old as us,” said Dot, indicating herself and Cassy, “Then you can start worrying if you look good enough. Until
then, you don’t need the entire contents of a department store with you every time you leave the house.”
“Just wait up there a second,” protested Cassy. “We’re not in the same age bracket, you and I. We tick different boxes on the census form.”
“Oh, you know what I mean. Once you hit ‘a certain age’ things change,” continued Dot. She positioned herself in her seat to look back at Patty once more. “Don’t worry about what comes naturally to a young girl like you. It’s a waste of time. Believe me. If a man doesn’t want you because of how you look in the morning then he doesn’t deserve you.”
“First of all,” interjected Cassy, “Certain age? Just how old do you think I am and why are we talking about men? She’s dragging all that stuff along with her to impress us.”
“I am not,” said Patty as she adjusted her tightly woven braids.
“So it is men. Are you expecting to find a man on our little trip? May I remind you that we’re going to track down the once owner of a Hocus Pocus franchise that closed down inexplicably. We’re clue hunting, ladies.”
“Why would I need to impress you guys anyway?” asked Patty. Both Cassy and Dot shrugged. “This is all for me. It makes me feel good. I have back-up clothes, toiletries, shoes, pumps.”
“Pumps?”
“Pumps. I’ve got my makeup, cleanser, low carb snacks, and spring water. Then in this bag…”
Patty continued for some time, oblivious to whether she was even being listened to. It was getting late and the sky was darkening slowly. Cassy hoped that they’d arrive before it became too late to be socially acceptable to make a surprise visit, if it ever was. According to Patty’s research, Amanda Beal lived alone in a small apartment above a shop in the heart of Newton.
If there was anyone who had the inside scoop on Hocus Pocus, it would be her.
After several wrong turns and suggestions from the GPS that just made things more confusing, they eventually arrived at the correct address.
“This is it, girls,” said Cassy, leaning out of the car window. The place was oddly familiar, although Cassy had never been to Longville before. Then it came to her all of a sudden. This was basically the same place she lived in back in Havenholm. She wouldn’t be surprised if the shop they parked the car in front of was some kind of magic shop.
“Spicery,” Cassy found herself saying out loud.
“What’s that, Hon?” inquired Dot.
“Nothing, you guys stay here. I won’t be long.” Before either of them could protest, Cassy got out and headed to the passage at the back of the shop that would lead her to the apartment above.
She hadn’t called ahead and had to hope that not only would Mrs. Beal be home, but that she would not be bothered by someone showing up on her doorstep asking questions. Fearing the worst, which included having the door slammed in her face, no answer at all, or possibly be shouted at all the way back to the car, Cassy knocked on the door.
As it happened, she was greeted with a kind face framed by long dark hair with streaks of white at the temples.
“Mrs. Beal?”
“Who wants to know?”
Cassy apologized for her unheralded arrival and managed to talk her way in. “I was given your name by a friend of mine,” she said, making up untruths on the spot. “They said you could help me with alternative medicines and traditional remedies. I have a shop in Havenholm and I’m looking to expand.”
At the mention of Cassy’s hometown, Beal, who introduced herself as Mandy, raised an eyebrow. “Havenholm, huh? I knew a few folks from there.”
Cassy was led into the apartment, which was small, much like her own. There was a tang of something unpleasant in the air and Cassy wasn’t shocked to see several cats milling around the place. It was bad enough having the single cat as she did, even if he was impeccably behaved. Though cats have their own interpretation of impeccable behavior.
“Hey, pussums,” said Cassy as she hoisted one of the felines off the floor. It looked at her with customary disdain before dropping nimbly to the floor where it cleaned itself without moving from her path.
“Oh, don’t mind them,” said Mandy as she prepared tea for the both of them. A woman after my own heart, thought Cassy as she received the cup; a strong brew with just the right amount of milk.
They talked briefly about the business of setting up a shop like the Spicery, as if this was her plan and she just needed advice. Cassy was careful to never mention the shop by name. Soon though, Cassy steered the conversation towards the competition and to Hocus Pocus.
At the mention of the name, Mandy’s hitherto jolly demeanor soured.
“Is that why you’re here? You want to get into bed with them?” The words were not so much spoken as spat out.
“Well I hear they have a background in this area, the three sisters that is.” Cassy sipped her tea.
“Pah!” exclaimed Mandy. “They’re not sisters, just shrewd entrepreneurs. And by that, I mean underhanded, vicious and without any ethics at all.”
Not sisters? For some reason this was the biggest revelation to Cassy. She’d simply assumed that the three women at Hocus Pocus were related, a triumvirate of weird sisters pedaling their wares. She realized then that she too had bought into the fantasy of the store. Why had she made that assumption at all? All Cassy could think of now was that grinning cauldron mocking her.
“You know it’s all just water, right?”
Cassy had only caught the last part of something longer Mandy had been saying. She smiled and had tried to work out what she’d been told.
“All water?”
“The homeopathic stuff they sell; it’s just water. The pills too; just sugar.”
Cassy grinned. “Well, of course. It’s an open secret really, isn’t it? It’s not like they’re regulated products.”
“No, you’re not listening,” insisted Mandy. “They literally fill up the little bottles from the tap in the back of the shop. They aren’t part of a larger supply chain and they don’t source their products from trusted suppliers. It’s exactly what you get at home.”
Before Cassy said anything else she had to gauge how far Mandy was invested in the ‘alt-medicine’ world. Did she really believe that there was something to all of it? Far too often she saw people who had started out caring for the real-world applications of traditional remedies be suckered in by snake oil.
“How do you know this?” asked Cassy. She wasn’t about to reveal just how much she already knew about Mandy and the not-sisters.
“We opened a store together. Big deal at the time. I’d always wanted to have a little place of my own, sell herbs, spices; that sort of thing, you know? Traditional medicines. I even studied with a Cherokee Medicine Man. Taught me a lot of interesting things. But I was a sucker. Couldn’t tell an honest person from the real deal. That’s how I got in with Circe and the others. When I found out they were just playing their customers for fools, I couldn’t do it any longer and I packed the whole thing in. Told them to beat it and they did! They cleared the shared company bank account, sold off all the stock, shut down the premises and were gone like that.” To emphasize the point, Mandy snapped her fingers.
In her back pocket, Cassy’s phone buzzed. Without looking, she nimbly silenced the caller. It was probably Dot demanding to know why she was taking so long.
“So I’m out of that game now. I can’t commit enough of my energy to it anymore,” continued Mandy. “I used to have a passion but some people—some people just take advantage of you.” She was not even close to tears, but Cassy could see that emotion was getting the best of Mandy.
“So what do you do now?” she asked swiftly to spare the woman.
“I still dabble, you know. I don’t have the heart to open another store but I do keep myself busy.” Without prompting, Mandy searched a small desk and retrieved a stack of pamphlets. Cassy took one and perused its contents. The name of the business it advertised was familiar to her, ‘Really Bealy Supplies.’ It was the kind o
f overly cute name that normally put Cassy off, although she had bought some things from them for the store. Inside, it had a long list of available products. Just the essentials and base ingredients for many of the things that Cassy provided in the Spicery. Just the basics like Wormwood, essential oils, and a comprehensive list of reagents. This wasn’t really aimed at her but more mainstream stores like Hocus Pocus.
“Do you supply the sisters?”
Mandy let out a sigh. “I don’t think they know that I’m behind this,” she said, waving the pamphlet, “and I’ve no shame in selling to them. Their money’s as good as any. Besides, if I know they’re getting things from me then I know they’re selling quality and not fleecing their customers.”
I wouldn’t be so sure about that, thought Cassy. She held on to the Really Bealy leaflet, just in case.
Cassy made her excuses, not wanting to impose anymore. Mandy apologized and they arranged to meet up again some time soon to continue the conversation. Cassy felt a genuine connection to the woman, possibly (and Cassy hated to admit this) she saw something of herself in the woman.
“You should come to Havenholm,” said Cassy as she was leaving. “I think you’d like it.”
Mandy shook her head. “We don’t go to Havenholm,” she said. “It’s out of bounds for me.”
And that was that. No further explanation was given, though it was clear to Cassy that certain not-sisters were the reason.
As Cassy approached the car, she saw that Patty was sitting on the hood, furiously typing on her phone. She leaned back and immediately Cassy’s phone buzzed in her pocket.
“Is that you texting me?” she asked.
Dot, who was still in the car, poked her head out. “Cass, did you get the message?”
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