When Thea touched her elbow, the woman pulled away immediately. She panted heavily, placing her hand over her chest as she tried to calm down.
“W-What are you... Did you see that? Did you see what happened there?” the worker asked Thea, pointing into the haunted house. “That girl wasn’t breathing! She collapsed out of nowhere and people are saying she died!”
“Who? What girl?” Thea asked, but the woman shook her head and waved her off. She wasn’t going to get anymore answers out of her, unfortunately.
Soon enough, multiple police cars arrived at the scene. Their sirens were blaring and the flashing red and blue lights overtook the area. Pippa and Jesse huddled together as they watched the officers hurry in, pushing past the frightened guests. The paramedics appeared soon afterwards, unloading a stretcher and making their way through the crowd.
Just as Thea wanted to follow after the police officers, she felt someone grab at her elbow. She turned around to see Blaine. He was solemn as he stared down at her.
“What’s going on in there? Do you know?” Thea asked. “Someone just said that a girl collapsed and she might be dead.”
“I know. We got the call a couple minutes ago and came as soon as we could,” he replied. “We’ll handle everything, don’t worry. For now, you shouldn’t stick around. Things are about to get messy.”
Thea knitted her eyebrows together in confusion. “Messy how?”
“Once the press finds out what happened, they’re going to circle this area like vultures,” Blaine said, taking her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. “You should get out of here for now. You don’t want to get caught up in that whole mess.”
“Will you tell me what happened later?”
“I’ll stop by in the morning and tell you everything. I promise,” he replied. “Go home and be safe, Thea. I’ll talk to you as soon as I can.”
Chapter 4
When Blaine arrived at Thea and Granny’s house the next morning, he was greeted by a pleasant surprise. Upon entering the front door, he was immediately struck by the warm scents of cinnamon, cardamom, and, most importantly, fresh butter.
“You lucked out,” Thea said to Blaine as she led him toward the kitchen. “Granny’s cinnamon rolls are the best you’ll ever have, but she doesn’t make them very often. She must like you.” Thea smiled and winked cheekily at Blaine.
“Wow, I’m honored,” he replied. “I hope she didn’t go to a lot of trouble just for me.”
“Oh, it’s no trouble,” Granny interjected from within the kitchen. Blaine and Thea made their way inside.
Every conceivable surface in the kitchen was lightly coated in flour, and flecks of cream cheese icing could be found on every counter and cupboard. Granny stood at the counter and gently sliced through a roll of fresh dough with a long piece of string.
“It looks like you’ve been hard at work,” Blaine said as he sat down at the kitchen table.
“Yes, it might be hard work, but making food for the people you care about is worth it,” Granny replied without looking up from her work. A timer went off somewhere amidst the mess, which made Granny drop the string and reach for a pair of oven mitts.
“Looks like the first batch is ready,” Thea said to Blaine as she handed him a cup of coffee. She sat down next to him with her own steaming mug.
“You know that’s not true!” Granny huffed. She turned to Blaine to explain, “They have to cool before I can put the icing on. The cardamom and cream cheese icing is what brings the whole cinnamon roll together.”
Thea grinned at Granny’s devotion to the perfect morning pastry as she sipped her coffee.
“She’s right, you know,” Sybil finally spoke up. She was standing on one of the counters and greedily licking up any bits of frosting she could find.
Thea set her mug down and turned to face Blaine. “So,” she started, “what happened at the haunted house?”
Blaine’s smile melted from his face and he took a long swig from his coffee. “Someone died,” he said solemnly.
Granny immediately stopped her work. “Oh, that’s awful. Who was it?”
“A woman by the name of Maisie Connelly.”
“What happened?” Thea asked.
“Not quite sure yet,” Blaine replied and gulped down more coffee. “So far, it seems like she might’ve had a heart problem. Maybe she just got too scared.”
Thea raised her eyebrows and said, “Do you really believe that? Scared to death?”
“Not really, to be honest, but it’s all we have so far.”
“Maybe I can help, then. I met a ghost last night that-” Before Thea could finish her thought, Granny interrupted.
“You met a ghost last night and didn’t tell me?”
“Sorry, Granny! Everything happened so fast, and I was exhausted once I got home.”
Blaine interjected before Granny could keep talking. “What about this ghost, Thea? Why do you think it’s connected?”
“The ghost, Julie, died at the same time and place last year. According to her, she was surprised by a ‘monster’ in some sort of demon-themed room. This monster spoke some weird words and the floor started glowing.”
“Sounds like magic to me,” Sybil said while she licked frosting remnants from her paws.
“That’s what I was thinking, too,” Thea said and nodded to Sybil.
“Hmm, they definitely sound like they could be related,” Blaine responded. “I’ll take a look into Julie’s case and see what I can find once I get to the station.” Blaine turned his wrist to look at his watch and immediately shot up from his chair.
“Time to go?” Thea asked calmly.
“Yeah,” Blaine replied before chugging the remainder of his coffee. “Granny, I’ll have to take a raincheck on a cinnamon roll.”
Granny smiled and handed him a container with two enormous cinnamon rolls overloaded with icing. “I figured you’d have to get going soon, so I packed these up for you.” She smiled and handed them over to Blaine.
Blaine took the package and smiled back before making a gesture as if tipping a hat. “Thank you, ma’am.” He leaned down and gave Thea a kiss before rushing out to his car. For just a moment, Thea imagined what it would be like to see Blaine off to work every morning.
ONCE BLAINE ARRIVED at the station and dropped off his things, he was immediately whisked away for security duty downtown. He’d have to research Julie’s case later.
Downtown wasn’t far from the station; Blaine made it to his destination in under five minutes. There, he parked on the street and made his way toward the front of the old downtown bank.
Back in the day, the bank had been one of the many architectural highlights of Ardensville. It had been built long before city planners and corporations began choosing function over form; instead of being a large gray box like its modern counterparts, the old downtown bank was a lavish art-deco masterpiece. Somehow, hidden behind years of neglect and a lack of funding, the old building’s personality managed to shine through.
That was precisely why Blaine was there. Protesters gathered in front of the bank, with signs calling for its restoration rather than complete demolition. There wasn’t any obvious threat of danger, but the police were keeping an eye on the spot to keep the protesters from entering the building and hurting themselves.
Blaine meandered around the bank’s perimeter for a couple of hours, watching as some more protesters arrived with food for their brothers-in-arms. Just then, Blaine remembered he had yet to eat anything that day and wished he had brought his cinnamon rolls with him.
“At least,” he thought to himself, “it’s almost time for my replacement to show up.” As if on cue, another officer arrived and stepped in for Blaine. He rushed back to the station, his stomach grumbling along the way.
Chapter 5
Meanwhile, Thea worked her way through the enormous cinnamon roll that Granny placed before her. She ate slowly and deliberately, savoring every bite without letting the richness of the cr
eam cheese deter her.
“These turned out great, as always,” Thea said between bites. She sipped from her freshly-refilled coffee to cleanse her palate.
“Did you expect anything less?” Sybil asked from her fluffy bed on the floor without even opening an eye. Having licked up every last bit of frosting from the kitchen’s various surfaces, her stomach was full and her heart was happy.
“She’s right, you know,” Granny replied with a grin. She had a towel slung over one shoulder, its work now done. The kitchen, which minutes before had looked like a full-service bakery had blown up inside of it, was spotless once more. Between Granny’s magic and elbow-grease, the mess met its maker.
Thea laughed and took another bite. “I think I’ll have to wrap the rest of this up for later.” She looked to the clock hanging on the wall and continued, “I need to get going to the store soon.” Thea began picking up her dishes to take into the kitchen but was waylaid by Granny, who grabbed both in one quick motion.
“Don’t worry about it, sweetie. I’ll clean up; you go get ready for work.”
“Thanks, Granny.” Thea pecked her on the cheek and quickly walked upstairs to her room and began picking out clothes for the day. While she was getting dressed, Thea’s phone began buzzing on her nightstand. It was Jesse.
“Hey, Jesse,” she answered. “What’s up?”
“Hey, Thea,” Jesse replied in a chipper tone.
“Well don’t you sound happy,” Thea joked. “Have you been talking with Pippa recently?” She could practically hear Jesse blushing through the phone.
“Actually, yeah, that’s why I called. Pippa told me she got more information on last night’s victim. I figured you could go talk to her and I’ll watch over the store for the morning.”
“You sure? I’d hate for you to be all alone. With Halloween coming up, there’s no telling how crazy it might get.”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” said Jesse. “I’m positive any craziness will happen later in the day, so we can suffer together.”
Thea laughed. “Alright, you’ve got it. I’ll go talk to Pippa and see what she knows.”
“Sounds good, see you later.” The two hung up and Thea finished getting dressed. She ran downstairs and into the kitchen to say goodbye to Granny and Sybil before heading out.
DING-DONG RANG THE synthesized bell attached to the front door of A Novel Idea as Thea went inside. No one was in sight and the store was quiet other than the dull hum of electronic music over the speaker system. That didn’t mean, though, that the store was empty; employees and customers alike might be hidden away in the store’s nooks and crannies with a book.
“Hello?” Thea called out as she approached the front counter. Pippa emerged from the back room with a cart overloaded with books ready to be shelved.
“Hi, Thea!” Pippa cheerily greeted. “I’m guessing Jesse talked to you?”
“That’s right, he said you had some information about what happened last night.”
“I sure do!” Pippa was clearly just as giddy from speaking with Jesse as he had been. “I’ve got to go put these away, but we can talk while I work.” Pippa checked the list of titles that accompanied the cart of books and began pushing it to her desired location—the mystery section.
Thea followed and stopped when Pippa did. “Is this a good place to talk?” Thea asked and looked around nervously. While talking about the case was perfectly legal, the last thing she wanted was for some busybody to start any rumors.
“Oh, yeah,” Pippa replied and began moving some Agatha Christie novels on a nearby shelf to make room for the new stock. “I think there’s only, like, two people in right now? And they’re both on the other side of the store.”
Thea relaxed. “Alright. Can I help with anything?”
“Sure. Can you hold these to the side while I stock? I’ll probably have to adjust where things are a little bit.” Pippa held out a couple of books from the shelf she was working on, and Thea took them. These were both copies of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep.
“Alright,” Pippa said, “so I heard that the woman who died, Maisie Connelly, is—err, was—dating Francis Oppel.”
“The guy from Cuisine Maline?” Thea asked. She’d had her own run-in with Francis when he was a suspect in the murder of his former boss, Marcel Faust. Francis came out of the incident relatively unscathed and now was successfully running the restaurant his boss opened before his untimely demise.
“That’s the one. I guess he and Maisie had some huge arguments recently. You know, the kind with shouting and name-calling and all that.”
“Hmm, that’s interesting,” Thea replied and furrowed her brow. Pippa held out her hands to take the Chandlers back from Thea and stuffed them in their proper place.“Any idea what the argument was about?” asked Thea.
“Nothing,” Pippa replied a bit sullenly.
“That’s no problem. Just knowing he could be involved is a big help. It might be nothing, but at least it’s a start. I’ll have to stop by Cuisine Maline later to see if he can explain.”
“Good idea. Maybe he can tell you what they were fighting about.”
“And if it was something worth killing Maisie over.”
Pippa and Thea kept moving and stocking books while they speculated about Francis and Maisie’s argument. They walked around to various parts of the store, stopping wherever Pippa’s list dictated.
Once the cart was empty, the pair said their goodbyes, and Thea left to head over to Cuisine Maline.
Chapter 6
Walking into the Maline Cuisine, Thea wasn’t surprised to see the restaurant bustling with action. It was lunch hour, after all. A couple servers almost bumped into each other as they passed by, narrowly saving the dishes they were carrying. The clatter of plates and utensils reverberated loudly throughout the space.
A breathless waitress soon appeared in front of her, clutching a menu to her chest. After she wiped at her forehead with the back of her hand, she sent Thea a wide smile.
“My apologies for the slight wait,” she said. “Would you like a table? Or do you have a reservation already? If you do, we will be able to serve you right away!”
Thea’s eyes drifted towards the front desk, where a small picture frame was positioned behind a stack of folders. Leaning closer, she realized that the girl in the picture was Maisie. The waitress followed her line of sight and let out a noise as she motioned towards the image.
“I guess you’ve heard the news,” she remarked quietly, pressing her lips into a thin line.
“Yeah... Why do you guys have a picture of her?”
“She used to work part-time here. I didn’t talk with her much, but she seemed alright,” the waitress replied.
Thea raised a brow, interest peaked by that sliver of information. The only thing she knew was that Maisie had a relationship with Francis, she didn’t know she also worked there. She met the waitress’ gaze once more, who seemed eager to lead her to a table.
“Do you think it’s possible that I talk with the head chef? Francis. He and I sort of know each other already,” Thea said, making a gesture with her hand. “We’ve, uh... lived through some interesting times together, y’know?”
The waitress’ eyes widened. “Really? If you already know him, then I don’t see why not, Here, I’ll take you to his office.”
Mumbling a thank you, Thea followed the girl as they navigated their way through the narrow passageways towards Francis’ office. As she observed her surroundings, she realized that the space hadn’t changed much since the last time she was there. The decorations and the furniture were all the same. A flood of memories surged back to her as she recalled the circumstances that brought her to meet Francis the first time around.
The man in question suddenly hurried into the office, wiping his hands on a rag. He wasn’t fazed by Thea’s appearance in the slightest. Instead, he shoved the rag into one of his pockets and leaned on the wall.
“Thea,” he greeted, sending her a
brief nod. “How are you? It’s been a while.”
“It really has,” she agreed. “Your restaurant is as busy as ever.”
“Yeah, well...” Francis shrugged quickly, picking at his fingers. “It usually is at this time, anyway.”
Although he hesitated before speaking, he eventually forced out the words he wanted to say. Thea watched his reaction carefully, wondering whether his jitteriness was due to his hectic work environment or another reason entirely.
“I don’t have too much time to talk,” he admitted, jutting his thumb towards the dining area. He was brusque and straight to the point. “Was there anything you needed? Did you want to eat anything? One of my servers can assist you with that if you’d like.”
He swallowed thickly as he cracked his knuckles, avoiding Thea’s gaze for the time being. She couldn’t understand why he was acting that way. Nerves or grief? She wasn’t able to tell.
“No, I didn’t come here to eat,” Thea informed him, ignoring the way the wrinkles on his face deepened with her response. “I wanted to talk to you a bit about what happened between you and Maisie. I heard that the two of you had a relationship or something. I wanted to learn more about it.”
Francis let out an exasperated sigh. “Not this again.”
“What do you mean?”
“I already talked about this with the police this morning,” he whispered out, clenching his jaw. “I don’t want to repeat myself again.”
“Well, I’m not asking you to repeat anything,” Thea said. “I just want to know the nature of your relationship with Maisie, that’s all.”
“Look. We broke up. That’s really all there is to it,” Francis explained, crossing his arms over his chest. “And I’m sorry, but I don't want to talk about this anymore. It’s...” He shook his head. “It’s not the time or place, okay? I’m not in the mood.”
Ghoulish Magic (Tabby Kitten Mystery Book 5) Page 2