Wedding Bells And Magic Spells Box Set

by A. R. Winters

  “Poison!?” shouted a good number of the crowd, while others started immediately talking amongst themselves before she could even finish. A few of them, apparently confused, tossed their current fudge samples onto the floor.

  “HEY!” shouted an incredibly loud voice. I turned, startled, and then was even more startled when I realized that unladylike holler had come from my mother. “Let her finish!”

  When the crowd had quieted down some, Lara took a deep breath, swallowed, and then continued.

  “I put just a little bit of poison into her fudge, to make her customers sick like she did to me. I know that’s wrong, but I wasn’t thinking straight. She ruined everything for me and I wanted to do the same thing to her. But something went wrong. She… she must have eaten too much of it. She must have eaten boxes and boxes worth of fudge for it to have killed her.”

  “Hello?” said Walnut Wanda. “Hello? Can I say something?”

  Enjoying all the revelations, the crowd turned to her. I was intrigued by this turn of events too. What did Walnut Wanda want?

  “I think I know what happened. Sandra, at the end, became a fudge addict.” She had to pause while the crowd went ooh yet again. “She came to me for help. She was completely addicted to her own fudge and she was gaining weight fast. We were going to start her on a program this week, that was the plan. But we didn’t. Because she was… dead.”

  Everyone gasped again. Idly, I began to wonder just how many times you could gasp in a day. Surely if you heard enough revelations, the effects of the latter ones would wear off, and you’d just end up yawning instead. In fact, looking around, some faces in the crowd were yawning.

  “Okay, anyone else?” said Jack Bowers loudly in his most serious policeman voice. He was now standing right next to Lara and obviously intended to arrest her as soon the revelations stopped coming.

  “Ooh, me again!” said Sarah.

  Obligingly, the crowd turned to her again.

  “I just want to say how happy I am! Thank you everyone for coming! What a wonderful launch for my new fudge business! Hurray!”

  Not sure what the correct response was, I began to clap. For the first couple of claps, I was alone, but the crowd joined in after a moment. Soon we were all clapping, and a few people even started cheering.

  While they were thus distracted, I pulled the door open again to let in some air. With Jack now aware of who the murderer was, there was no danger of her escaping as I’d initially worried.

  “Took your time,” said Mom.

  “What?”

  “You took your time clearing my name. Do try to be a bit quicker next time. It was awful. I was stuck all alone in a five-star hotel in San Francisco while you poodled about.”

  I glared at her.

  “A five-star hotel?”

  She nodded. “What? You don’t think Donovan would put me up anywhere less, would you?”

  “Donovan knew where you were? But he…” I quit trying to make sense of it and just shook my head. “Unbelievable, Mom. Unbelievable.”

  “It is a nice dress, isn’t it?” she said with a happy smile before sauntering off toward her beau, the mayor, who was grinning like a Cheshire cat who found a whole truckload of cream.

  “Aria? Have you got a moment?”

  It was Jack and Lara, who was by his side in handcuffs, a rather miserable look on her face.

  “Of course,” I said, but not without some worry. I was expecting some kind of dressing down; after all, I hadn’t exactly followed the standard procedure for apprehending a murderer. But I’d been worried about her escaping, and it had worked, hadn’t it?

  He squeezed my arm. “Well done. We were about to arrest your mother. In fact, they’ve already put a case together and contacted a prosecutor. I tried to delay it, but after we found the poison and the book about poisoning people… I hope you understand.”

  “Of course I do. If I’d been in your shoes, I’m sure I would have done the same.”

  I left it open for him to say the same about what I had done. He didn’t.

  “Right. I’ll call you tomorrow. About that drink?”

  “Ahem.” Lara gave a fake cough. “I am still here, you know.”

  I ignored her and smiled at Jack. “Looking forward to it.”

  “I’ll be off now. Things to do,” he said, nodding his head at Lara.

  I laughed. “Me too. The shop’s going to be a mess when I get rid of all these people.”

  “Take care, Aria.”

  With a final squeeze of my arm, which lingered a second longer than it needed to, Jack led Lara outside to a police car that was already waiting.

  Afterward, people began to slowly drift out of the shop, most of them chatting in twos or threes about what had gone on. I hoped a few of them would remember that this was actually a bridal store, and might even think of me when they or their friends and relatives got engaged. Then some good might come out of the whole messy affair.

  So the crowd began to dissipate, the murder was solved, and all the mysteries had been resolved.

  Except for one, that is.

  Chapter 25

  The next morning, I had my shop almost back in working order. Sarah and I had stayed up late the night before cleaning everything up and I only had some vacuuming left to do. Outside, we’d nearly filled the dumpster with all the detritus that had been left behind.

  “You know,” said Sarah when I’d finally switched the vacuum cleaner off and we could hear each other again, “I’m not sure I really enjoyed my career as a fudge dealer.”

  “No?”

  She shook her head. “It was a bit too constricting, you know? Everyone was calling me Sarah the Fudge Princess. There was so much pressure to make sure it tasted good, and that’s without even getting into the whole business side of it all.”

  “Err, right. You do remember that it was me that cooked the fudge, right?”

  Sarah tilted her head at me. “Aria, we all played our roles, and as the owner of the fudge company, it was really all my responsibility when it came down to it. What you’ve got to understand is that when you’re the boss, you take all the responsibility for both the successes and the failures. And there weren’t any failures. You were a good little worker.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “You’re welcome,” she said serenely, oblivious to the heavy dose of sarcasm with which I’d laced my last comment. “No, I don’t think the fudge business is for me.”

  “So back to the world of scrapbooking for you?”

  “Scrapbooking? Oh, goodness no. Jewelry making, that’s where it’s at. Harnessing the secret power of crystals and gemstones and crafting them into beautiful necklaces and bracelets, rings and anklets, tiaras and—”

  “Fudge!” shrieked Kiwi from up on his bookcase.

  He had been most put out that I hadn’t invited him to the grand fudge party the day before, but that many people all in one room would have upset him and he would have caused a scene. He hadn’t missed out though; I’d left him upstairs with a quarter of a pound all to himself.

  “No more fudge!” said Sarah and I in unison.

  Kiwi screeched loudly.

  “Cheese puffs!” he demanded.

  Sarah already had a bag prepared, and tossed it up to him. He snatched it out of the air and using his beak and talons tore it open before it could hit the top of the bookcase.

  “But the jewelry making will only be a hobby, right? You’re not leaving me, are you?”

  Sarah smiled. “You couldn’t survive without me, Aria. Yesterday definitely proved that. No, the jewelry making will just be a hobby. I’ll gift my creations to those who need them.”

  “How admirable,” I said with a smile. I was glad she wasn’t really thinking of setting up a business. For one thing, I knew I’d end up doing half of the administrative work for her—and the other half probably wouldn’t get done at all.

  Ding!

  “Mom!” I said with a grin.

  I was looki
ng forward to seeing her for once. Mainly because I was insatiably curious and I needed to be filled in on the bits I didn’t quite understand.

  She was looking as good as ever, possibly even better than she had before the murder. Her facelift didn’t look quite so tight, and her Botoxed face actually seemed to be capable of expressions I hadn’t seen on her in years. And she’d obviously used her trip to San Francisco to ‘invest’ in a few new items for her wardrobe. She was wearing a stylish, slender coat jacket that she wouldn’t have fit into a week before, and had on a blue scarf that looked like cashmere.

  “Hello, girls. Coffee please, Sarah.”

  Sarah frowned. “I’m sorry. We don’t have any coffee.”

  Mom lowered her chin and raised her eyebrows while she stared at Sarah. She didn’t say a word. She didn’t need to.

  “I’ll pop out and get some.” Sarah was already on her way to the door. “I’ll be back before you can say ‘fudge!’”

  When she was gone, Mom and I sat down.

  “What happened to you, Mom? How’d you reverse the spell? Was it Hazel?”

  She clasped her hands on her lap and gave me a tight-lipped smile. I knew she was considering not telling me anything, so she could lord it over me and bribe me into doing favors for her in return. She considered it—and rejected it. I had, after all, cleared her name.

  “As you know, when I cast that spell on Sandra, it backfired and turned me into… what I was last week.” She visibly suppressed a shudder at the memory of those harrowing times.

  “Was Sandra a witch?”

  “Nope.”

  “Then why? What happened?”

  “As it turns out, Sandra wasn’t a witch, but she was under magical protection. Someone cast some serious spells of protection on her to prevent her from coming to harm.”

  I snorted before I could stop myself.

  Mom laughed too. “Well, it protected her from magical attack anyway. I’m not sure there’s any spell that will protect you from drinking a gallon of poison-laced fudge.”

  “And so when you cast your spell on her, it just bounced back and affected you.”

  Mom nodded. “It was my own fault, I suppose. Because I knew Sandra wasn’t a witch, I hadn’t bothered to protect myself at all.” She sighed. “Still, live and learn. I shan’t make that mistake again.”

  “And you went to Hazel Crane to help you reverse it?”

  “In a way.” Mom paused. “Actually, she came to me, and we struck a deal.”

  “Yes, she mentioned something about a deal. It sounded really rather ominous. But you’ve paid her back now?”

  “Err, I’ve paid her back, yes.” From the way she was speaking, I knew there was something going unsaid.

  BZZZ.

  My phone began to ring. I glanced at the screen and it said UNKNOWN NUMBER so I silenced the call.

  “Hazel said something about me owing her too. And something about my father.”

  “Did she? I wouldn’t know anything about that.” She suddenly took a serious interest in staring down at some of the dangling ends on her scarf.

  “Mom…”

  “Okay, okay, you owe her too. That was part of the deal. You and I would both owe her. But you’ll be glad to know I’ve paid her back in full.”

  “For you.” When Mom nodded at me, I had to confirm what she meant. “Not me?”

  “Well, that’s between you and her.”

  I shook my head. She was unbelievable. “What did you have to give her?”

  “You went into my workshop. You know.”

  I thought back to when I’d been there two days previously.

  “You gave her all of your implements? Your wands, even your crystal ball?”

  Mom shook her head. “Oh no, some of that I took with me to the hotel. I just had to give her a few knickknacks.”

  Mom was obviously understating what she’d paid Hazel. I knew there was no way that help from that dark witch would have come at a cut-rate price. She no doubt had several thousand dollars’ worth of new magical implements to play with thanks to Mom.

  “And that’s all?”

  “And I did a spell for her, which I’m sure you know about.”

  “The scrapbooks!”

  Mom nodded again.

  “But why? Hazel doesn’t strike me as the hobbyist type. And taking other people’s scrapbooks defeats the whole point.”

  “Don’t be stupid, Aria,” said Mom, shaking her head. “She only wanted one scrapbook. The problem was I didn’t have a good way to just draw one to me. So I had to summon them all. It was a very draining series of spells, let me tell you.”

  BZZZZ.

  I quickly canceled the call again when I saw it was, again, from an unknown number.

  Ding!

  Sarah came in toting a little cardboard carrier with three cups of coffee in it. But more interesting was the look on her face. It was a look that said…

  “Aria! You’ll never guess what happened!”

  I glanced at Mom and she nodded her head toward Sarah in a listen to her gesture.

  “I don’t suppose I will. Go on, then.”

  “Hazel Crane bought Sandra’s house! And it’s going to be rezoned and she’s going to open a—”

  “Fudge shop?” I said, interrupting. That would explain Hazel’s desire to get her hands on the scrapbook—she needed Sandra’s recipes.

  “Fudge!” screeched Kiwi.

  Mom looked up at him with a sigh.

  “Have you still got that thing? Goodness, Aria.”

  BZZZ.

  Exasperated, I pressed the answer call button.

  “WHAT!?” I demanded.

  “Is that Aria Whitmore?” said a voice with a foreign accent that I couldn’t immediately place.

  “Yes?”

  Mom looked at me with something akin to panic on her face. She started shaking her head at me.

  “I think you were expecting to hear from me?”

  Australian. That was the accent—Australian for sure.

  “Who is this?”

  Mom was shaking her head quite emphatically now.

  “It’s your father, Aria.”

  Oh, fudge.

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  Bonus Sneak Peak: Innocent in Las Vegas

  Chapter One

  Despite the bags under her eyes and the ankle monitor, Sophia Becker looked gorgeous.

  “Tiffany!” She flashed a phony smile and embraced me in a warm hug. Her voice contained trace amounts of anxiety and relief, and her blue eyes couldn’t disguise her stress. “I’m so glad you came!”

  I shrugged nonchalantly. I didn’t want her to get her hopes up, or to think our relationship had changed. “I was told it wouldn’t hurt to listen.”

  “Well, thank you for coming.”

  I walked into the mansion behind her, my low-heeled sandals making a clicking noise against the white marble floor. Her place smelled expensive, like a Vanilla-Bergamot scented candle, and was so clean and tidy that I wondered just how many staff she employed.

  When we reached the far side of the living
room, Sophia slid gracefully into a wooden chair, and crossed her long, tan legs. She was wearing a short black miniskirt and a designer tank top, and her ankle monitor flashed silently. “Did Richard fill you in?”

  I shook my head no. “He told me you were looking for a PI, but I didn’t get any details.” I perched gingerly on an antique armchair worth more than my entire month’s salary. In my casual Bermuda shorts and t-shirt, I felt a little out of place in this glamorous room. “But I don’t really see what a PI can do for you at this stage.”

  Sophia flipped her long blond hair from one side of her face to the other, and her elegant diamond drop earrings shimmered in the light. She gave me a pained look. “I’m innocent. Don’t you believe that?”

  “That’s what they all say. And even if you are, it’s hard to argue against the evidence.”

  “It was planted.”

  I sighed. “Sophia, they found the gun in your nightstand. Literally. A. Smoking. Gun.”

  She stared at me for a second through narrowed eyes, and then she leaned back in her chair and relaxed. “Do you think I’m stupid?”

  I shook my head. I didn’t even have to think about that one. Sophia was anything but stupid.

  She was beautiful, friendly and witty—and she’d put those qualities to good use by becoming a stripper. She was also ruthless and ambitious, and that was probably how she managed to make Ethan Becker, owner of the Riverbelle Casino, fall in love with her.

  Thanks to Ethan’s wealth, Sophia’s stripping days had been put behind her as soon as they got engaged, and the wedding was exclusive and ostentatious. Judging from the massive rocks she wore, and the Lake Las Vegas mansion I was sitting in right now, Sophia’s marital life had been one great big fairy tale.

  Until three months ago, when her husband was murdered.

  “Then why,” she said, “does everyone think I’m dumb enough to wipe down a murder weapon and put it back in my nightstand?”

  “Maybe you didn’t think anyone would look?” Sophia looked at me cynically and I went on, “Someone would have to break in to plant the gun in your bedroom. You never reported a break-in.”