Pumpkin Blend (A Paramour Bay Cozy Paranormal Mystery Book 14)

by Kennedy Layne

  “My goodness,” I mumbled in disbelief, immediately reaching forward and removing the eyepatch. “What on earth happened to you now?”

  I’d rather not say.

  “Leo, I trip over my own feet on a daily basis.” I managed to adjust the eyepatch back over his head so that the black fabric covered his right eye instead of his left. “There’s nothing you can say that I probably haven’t already done myself.”

  Fine. If you must know, I decided to do some detective work to find out how my previous perfect mate might have escaped the house without the old geezer being any the wiser. How was I to know that fuddy-duddy and I had something in common. He’s clearly preparing for the squirrelpocalypse from the amount of canned food he has stacked up next to the basement window.

  I bit my lip so that Leo wouldn’t see me smiling, because I could just imagine the commotion that he’d made from toppling an entire supply of canned goods onto the floor.

  “Did you find out anything?” I managed to ask without my voice cracking in laughter.

  No, but that strand of feline black hair didn’t just show up at the crime scene.

  “You were with Aphrodite earlier yesterday,” I reminded him, sitting back to get a better look at his eyepatch. “Maybe you had some of her fur on you, and it fell off while you were standing near the crushed acorns.”

  Leo’s whiskers twitched in irritation as he thought through my version of events. I highly doubted that the crushed acorns and a strand of black hair or fur had anything to do with the missing prized pumpkin.

  Go back to me being right. You can tell me why while I enjoy some of my blueberry-filled catnip edibles. I need a boost in my mental antioxidants. My edge is starting to fade. I’m pretty sure those cans of refried beans knocked something loose.

  “I was just thinking that we might be looking at the case all wrong,” I said as I pulled out the drawer and collected the baggie of treats. “We’re trying to figure out who took the pumpkin, but maybe we should be looking at why he or she took the pumpkin in the first place.”

  I’m still not hearing how I was right, Raven. You’re a horrible storyteller.

  “Well, you mentioned numerous times that the veil between us and the afterlife is relatively thin this time of year,” I pointed out as I sealed up the baggie after giving Leo a small pile of treats. “We all know what pumpkins were originally used for, so it makes sense that someone would want the jack-o-lantern for some form of protection.”

  Leo had been in mid-chew when he paused, giving me that perplexed look of his.

  “Are you having a memory blip?” I asked with a knowing smile.

  Why would you think that? I know exactly what you’re talking about. Those jack-o-lanterns were used for…you know. I mean, there’s no reason to rehash history. Unless you want to, of course. In which case, I wouldn’t be against hearing your version of the well-known fact.

  I couldn’t help but laugh at the way Leo had completely turned the conversation around, but I wouldn’t leave him hanging.

  “Pumpkins were carved into jack-o-lanterns to ward off evil spirits that roamed the earth. It is said that these spirits are not permitted to cross back through the veil. They are meant to have a one-way ticket up, down, or sideways to wherever their destination was meant to be,” I explained, having done a lot of research last night while Heidi and I perused the family grimoire. “Anyway, the scary faces that were usually carved into the pumpkins and lit up by candles were meant to frighten away any wandering evil spirits looking for a place to dwell. It’s technically the same reason that you chose to wear a costume this year.”

  So, whoever has knowledge of this historical fact is the criminal mastermind behind the theft of the town’s prized pumpkin. Got it.

  “Leo, a lot of people know about the history of carving pumpkins,” I responded wryly, storing the premium organic catnip treats back in the drawer. “We can’t go arresting almost everyone in town.”

  Why not? One of them is obviously the thief. Give me two minutes with each of them, and I’ll be able to break them, Raven. Trust me. We can use enhanced interrogation techniques like the CIA uses in those black sites they have. Let me at ’em!

  “That’s not how we do things, Leo.” I finally caught sight of Ted walking our way. “What I’m trying to say is that if we can figure out why the thief wanted the largest jack-o-lantern from the local pumpkin patch, then we can help him or her with the problem and return the jack-o-lantern to its rightful spot in our town square.”

  It’s sounds an awful lot to me that you’re adding yet another mystery onto our already busy All Hallows’ Eve schedule. These blueberry-filled edibles are producing more mental antioxidants. You can’t fool me, Raven.

  “I’m not trying to pull one over on you, Leo.” I hopped off the stool, excited to hear what Ted had to say about his visit with Agnus. “It is still the same old mystery that we began with yesterday. We’re just taking a different tact.”

  I don’t think your addition and subtraction skills are up to par, Raven.

  “Hi, Ted,” I greeted once he’d entered the teashop. “What did Agnus have to say about the missing pumpkin?”

  “Ms. Agnus had a lot of pumpkins on her front porch.”

  “Well, it is Halloween,” I reminded him, prodding the subject a bit more with my follow up question. “Did you ask her if she knew about the town’s missing jack-o-lantern from the festival?”

  “Yes.”

  Oy vey! This conversation is more painful than when I had my teeth cleaning.

  “What did she have to say, Ted?” I asked, completely ignoring Leo. He couldn’t even remember his teeth cleaning, because Dr. Jameson had made sure that Leo had been put under during the procedure. “I’ll be more specific. Does Agnus know who took the town’s prized pumpkin?”

  “Ms. Agnus didn’t mention that.”

  “Did you ask her?”

  “Yes, as I recall.”

  “Let’s start over,” I suggested, trying a different route to obtain the answers we sought. “You went to Agnus’ house, and you saw that she’d set out a lot of jack-o-lanterns on her porch.”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you happen to see one that weighed one hundred and eighty-three pounds?”

  “No.”

  “Can you repeat the sentence that Agnus said to you when you asked about the large pumpkin from the festival?”

  “Everyone should have a pumpkin on their front porch.”

  I thought over what we’d learned, and we were still technically at square one. Agnus would fully believe in having a carved pumpkin or two on one’s stoop during this time of year, because she understood more than most that the origin of the jack-o-lantern wasn’t just an urban legend.

  “I appreciate you checking in with Agnus, Ted.” I was a bit disappointed that we hadn’t learned more, but Agnus was quite elderly. She basically kept to herself, although I would love a chance to sit down with her one of these days. She was definitely an untapped resource of supernatural knowledge. “Did you see Justine while you were there?”

  “Yes,” Ted replied with a lopsided smile.

  Now that you’ve succeeded in giving me a headache, I’m going to take my afternoon nap. I’ve done some experiments, and I think napping after eating my blueberry-filled edibles helps my body create all those mental antioxidants.

  “I have plans with my Justine later this evening.”

  “What are you two doing tonight?” I asked, walking back around the check-out counter to grab my keys. “The booths at the festival open up around six o’clock tonight. I know that everyone is hoping that Liam is able to find the person responsible and bring the pumpkin back for this evening’s festivities.”

  “We are carving pumpkins to guard the cottage.”

  My heart warmed at the fact that Ted wanted to protect us. He was so kind and caring, which was why I was surprised when the palm of my hand began to tingle with warmth.

  I realized that the m
agical reaction had nothing to do with him, and everything to do with the topic we were discussing.

  Or you’re defective. It’s one of the two, but I’d be inclined to go with my theory.

  Leo had already made his way over to the comfy cat bed in the display window. I’d splurged on a new one after he’d mentioned that his bed had lost most of its fluff last month. After he’d decided that he also needed one at the cottage, I’d had to place another order. We were still waiting for it, and he liked to remind me of that every night…even though he slept at the foot of the bed next to my feet.

  You don’t eat the blueberry-filled edibles, Raven. You don’t have the mental antioxidants like I do, but I’ve got your back.

  “I really appreciate you taking the time to guard the cottage, Ted.” I made my way across the teashop to join him by the door. “Would you like to join Heidi and me for lunch?”

  “No, thank you.”

  Ted turned sharply on his shiny black dress shoes before opening the glass door for me. I stepped out with a grateful smile, figuring Leo could get his nap while Heidi and I got some sustenance until we were able to fill up on those funnel cakes that we missed out on last night.

  “I am going to pick out pumpkins.”

  “How are you going to…”

  I had been going to ask Ted if he planned to walk to the local pumpkin patch, because that would have been quite a hike. Rye’s sudden appearance as he pulled his truck to the curb answered my question.

  “Hop on in, Ted.” Rye waved at me, taking time to glance across the street at the police station. “Any update from Liam on the pumpkin?”

  “No, but he’s out at the pumpkin patch, so you’ll be able to ask him yourself,” I said as I locked up the teashop. I’d already flipped the closed sign over as I walked outside. “Would you tell him that I’m over at the diner with Heidi?”

  “Sure,” Rye agreed as he waited for Ted to hop into the passenger seat. “I’m heading over there to pick up some small pumpkins and gourds for Gertie. She wants to put them out on the front porch as decorations.”

  “Did you manage to get the dancing skeletons to work?” I asked, walking closer so that we didn’t need to talk so loudly.

  Gertie always went all out for the holiday, loving that the kids enjoyed her annual display. The family of skeletons that she had owned for many years danced in sync to music, and it was Rye who always managed to get them up and running without a hitch. Only he’d run into a problem this year when the medium-sized skeleton wouldn’t raise her hand in time with the beat.

  “Yeah. It turned out that the wire in her arm had somehow snapped.” Rye looked over at Ted to make sure that he was settled in the seat. “You ready to go, big guy?”

  “I am,” Ted replied, looking a bit awkward as the top of his head skimmed the top of the cab.

  “You two have fun.”

  I stepped back and returned Rye’s wave as he pulled onto River Bay, the main thoroughfare of town. There wasn’t much traffic right now, but there would be come this evening when the festival once again commenced with the food booths and games. I would usually park in front of the teashop on those days that the town had light tourist traffic, but I’d parked around back in the alley this morning.

  The half an hour that I usually took for lunch passed by quick, so I didn’t waste time crossing the street to the diner. Heidi had promised that she would save us a booth and order my standard bowl of chili. From her last text, she still hadn’t discovered any spells in the family grimoire.

  The moment I entered the diner, I realized that the mystery was about to deepen.

  “…heard it from Eileen.”

  “…entire row of pumpkins just vanished!”

  The random bits of conversation that I was overhearing already told me what the contents of the text message that just chimed on my phone was about to reveal. I’d pulled my cell out of my pocket by the time I’d reached the corner booth that Heidi had confiscated for us.

  Sure enough, Liam was giving me a heads up that other pumpkins had gone missing from the local pumpkin patch.

  “Did you hear?” Heidi managed to mumble around a roll that was lathered in butter. I tried not to let my jealousy get the best of me, because that roll was adding a pound to my hips by just looking at it. “Eileen picked up her lunch to take back to the station and shared all the details, but I guess Liam just radioed in that more pumpkins have gone missing from the pumpkin patch.”

  “Liam just texted me,” I said with a frown, pulling the glass of water that she’d ordered for me closer to my side of the table. “Virgil and Beau now aren’t sure when the prized pumpkin was taken out of the bed of their truck, but there is definitely a crime spree going on out at their pumpkin patch. Liam is taking statements from part-time employees now, but I highly doubt they’ll know anything.”

  “Unless it was an inside job.”

  “True, but I’m sensing that there’s something more going on here than meets the eye, Heidi,” I said cautiously, glad that she’d chosen a booth near the window.

  I could spot Leo taking his afternoon nap, all four feet up in the air. How he could sleep with that eyepatch on was beyond me, but something was telling him that wearing it made him safe.

  I trusted his basic instincts, awry as they may go at times.

  “Heidi, how do you feel about a stakeout?”

  I’m pretty sure that I caught sight of Leo falling out of his cat bed and off the display window. The back of his pirate vest was the last thing I saw before he disappeared out of sight.

  Chapter Six

  This is an incredibly bad idea.

  The only thing bad about a stakeout near the local pumpkin patch was the fact that there wasn’t a bathroom handy.

  You would be wrong once again. I was with Heidi when she saw that Pumpkinhead movie. This isn’t going to end well for any of us, Raven.

  “Would you hand me the bag of pretzels?” Heidi asked in between her sips of coffee. If she kept eating and drinking the way she’d been doing for the last hour, she was going to be in desperate need of that bathroom. “Wait. No, hand me the chocolate bar that I threw in with the other stakeout supplies instead.”

  Liam wasn’t too happy that Heidi, Leo, and I had decided to stakeout the local pumpkin patch. As a matter of fact, he’d been so exasperated at my determination to catch the thief in progress that he was currently positioned somewhere deep inside the sizable field of pumpkins.

  Just for the record, I didn’t decide to participate in any of this nonsense. I would much prefer to be at home, belly up in front of the fireplace while thinking through this mystery in a logical manner. I mean, why were there crushed acorns at the scene? Why was my former perfect mate’s hair left behind, and what does she have to do with the squirrelpocalypse? Too many questions, and I’m losing all my mental antioxidants the longer we sit here breathing in pumpkin fertilizer. How could you forget my blueberry-filled treats at the teashop? Some cat owner you are. You really suck at it, Raven.

  I ignored Leo as I handed Heidi the chocolate bar that she had requested, unable to stop myself from munching on the remnants of my dry pretzel stick that Heidi had thrown into our so-called stakeout bag.

  Heidi had basically thought of everything. She’d brought chocolate, chips, pretzels, various candies filled with sugar, and even beef jerky. We had a thermos of coffee, a thermos of hot apple cider, and numerous bottles of water.

  This is why my beloved soulmate has taken over the number one spot from my former perfect mate. This is Prepper 101, which is much needed preparation in the squirrelpocalypse.

  We’d brought Heidi’s car due to the heated seats, though we currently had the engine off so that the suspect wouldn’t hear anything unusual when he or she went to steal another pumpkin this evening. Leo was lying on the console in between us, his head on a swivel every time that we heard an owl or there was a gust of the cold, coastal breeze.

  We’d actually parked on the path that V
irgil or Beau would take their four-wheeler when checking on their crop of pumpkins. Our position gave us the ability to see the entrance of the pumpkin patch, as well as the back end of the property. We were using the side mirrors on the car to watch for any unusual activity behind us.

  The temperature had dropped significantly, so Heidi and I were both bundled in what was usually reserved for our winter outerwear. We had on thermal underwear, just in case we needed to go traipsing through the pumpkin patch. Hats, scarves, and gloves were currently in our laps since the heated seats had done such a good job on the way here.

  “Has it really only been five minutes?” Heidi asked around the crinkling of paper as she opened her chocolate bar. “Just how sure was Virgil and Beau that a couple more of their pumpkins went over the last few nights?”

  “Well, neither Virgil nor Beau were completely sure about the missing pumpkins until the large jack-o-lantern was taken from the bed of their truck.” I unscrewed the cap to the coffee. “It’s hard to keep track of the pumpkins this time of year. They pick the ripest pumpkins and set them along the fence line for their customers to pick through. Virgil thought that Beau was choosing pumpkins from the middle of the pumpkin patch, and Beau thought that Virgil was the one doing it. After talking with Liam earlier today, they realized that someone else was actually taking the pumpkins straight out of the patch.”

  You’re giving me a headache with all these scenarios of yours. Oh, wait. No, you’re not. I have a headache all because you forgot my blueberry-filled catnip treats. Did I mention that you suck as a cat owner lately?

  “Leo, you ate some of the catnip treats that we had in the cupboard before we left home,” I reminded him, carefully pouring the coffee into one of the to-go cups that Heidi had taken from the teashop. “You’ll make it until we get home.”

  Something moved right outside of Heidi’s door. I caught the scream in my throat, but I wasn’t able to stop the hot coffee from splashing all over my hat and gloves that were in my lap.