Evelyn smiled. "Here I'm famous, there you are. But of course most people there are afraid of you, so you won't have problems with paparazzi and stalkers."
As if on cue, a woman pretending to look for the bathroom entered the private tea room.
Evelyn waved her way, and the woman immediately left. Had Evelyn given her a Jedi-mind-trick-like push of magic or was the snobbish wave enough?
Jason entered and gave Evelyn her coffee. Part of me wished he'd gotten me something to drink. I could really have gone for a Diet Coke, but I decided it was best that we just get to the case.
"So you mentioned something about hiring us," I said.
"They're the best," Jason said. "They figured out who killed my fiancé, Adam."
"So I heard," Evelyn said. "You can excuse us now."
Jason made a face at her rudeness. I gave him an apologetic smile, and he left again.
"Like I said, this is a private matter, so if you can be discreet, that would be great," Evelyn said.
Her snotty tone didn't make me want to do her any favors.
"We're always discreet," Didi said, "but if we're not allowed to bring in Jason to help with the legwork, it might limit what we can do for you if we decide to take your case."
I really liked the part where Didi implied that we wouldn't take the case. That really shook Evelyn. She'd gotten a little too comfortable in the last couple of minutes.
"Of course," Evelyn said, her voice a little more contrite.
Didi and I took our seats across from Evelyn, and she took a sip of her coffee.
"So what's the nature of the case?" Didi asked.
Evelyn looked up at the entrance to the private tea room, and I turned to see that Jason had come back into the room.
"Didi, you have a visitor," he said. "It's a man from your work."
"Can you ask him if he can wait?" Didi asked. "I won't be long."
I looked over to Evelyn to make sure she wasn't being a snob, but it was difficult to tell.
"Can I tell him how long you'll be?"
"She already spoke to you, you can go now," Evelyn said, giving her a snotty wave like she'd done for the other woman. It was definitely a push.
Jason put his hands on his hips. "I'll go when I go," he said.
Evelyn's expression changed from confidently smug to confused. Her spell didn't work on Jason. I wondered why it didn't, but I was glad.
"Of course," Evelyn said, her voice entirely more contrite. "My apologies."
Jason tilted his head as if to say 'that's a little better', but his expression remained less enthused than it was when he first met her.
"I'll be about fifteen minutes," Didi said.
Jason turned and left, passing Mom on the way in.
Evelyn stood. "Diwata, it's wonderful to finally meet you."
It was weird that Evelyn called Mom by her formal first name. Everyone called Mom Psychic Di, or just Di.
"You can sit down," Mom said. "How's your Auntie Trixie?"
"She's doing great. She sends her regards, of course. You know that the incident with the motorboat was a misunderstanding," Evelyn said.
I wondered what incident Evelyn was talking about, but Mom changed the subject. "Jason said that you have the case."
"Yes," Evelyn said, her voice eager. "I was just about to discuss it with your daughters. It's somewhat of a delicate matter." Evelyn's expression turned embarrassed. "It seems as if the Book of Spells that I had in my possession has been stolen. And I need it to be retrieved very discreetly. Please tell no one, especially no one in the Other World."
"Where was it stolen?" Mom asked.
"From my Beverly Hills home," Evelyn said.
"Was it stolen by a leprechaun, a demon, a witch, or someone else?" Mom asked.
Evelyn shook her head. "No one magical. I have them on my security systems. Not a trace of magic. Just a regular sort of," she paused, "What do they call those ones with the make up?" Evelyn asked.
"Clowns?" Didi suggested.
"No, not clowns. They're into dark music, and people think that I'm sort of like them, but I'm not. They're sort of morose," Evelyn said.
"Goths?" I asked.
"Yes, goths stole my spell book, and I need you to steal it back. But the catch is, I don't want the authorities involved. I don't want anyone in Hollywood to know that I have anything to do with witchcraft; it would totally destroy my career. I have a reputation to uphold as a mortal, and I just can't afford to lose it. Especially with something like magic. I have a wholesome image," Evelyn said.
"Right," Mom said.
Evelyn smiled. I got the vibe that Evelyn didn't realize she had a gothic appearance.
"So how long ago was the book stolen?" Didi asked.
"I didn't realize it was missing until last night, but the tape shows they came late Sunday, early Monday morning."
Didi continued to gather all the relevant information, and then talk turned to the fees.
Didi looked to me. I guessed that was my cue, and if this was my job, I intended to do it well.
"We'll need a retainer. Our standard retainer is ten thousand dollars. We charge four hundred dollars an hour, plus expenses. We'll give you an update half way through to see if the case will go over. At that point, you can decide if we should wrap it up by the twenty-fifth hour mark, or if you'd like to retain us for another week."
I impressed myself with my off-the-cuff negotiations. The truth was we'd only taken a $10,000 retainer on our first investigation, and we gave most of that money back to Jason, despite the fact that he protested. I figured we should charge more from Evelyn. After all, we were the only kind of people who could take this case, and I wasn't sure if I liked her. There was an extra charge for that.
"That's fine. Do you take a credit card or is this a magical transfer?"
"Credit card," Mom said. "I think it's best that we keep this in the mortal realm for discretionary purposes."
"I should've thought of that," Evelyn said.
Evelyn handed me her platinum credit card, and I whipped out my phone with a little slider thing that I'd gotten ages ago for selling secondhand stuff at flea markets. While I ran through the transaction, Evelyn went into her shopping bag and pulled out the two boxes of wands.
"I hope you don't mind," Evelyn said to Mom, "but I took the liberty of helping your daughters pick out wands. Imagine my surprise to find they were interested in wand-craft."
I looked up from my phone to see Mom's less-than-impressed expression.
"It's more of a novelty than a serious interest," Mom said. "You have to understand that my girls were raised as mortals because of my trial."
"Of course," Evelyn said, her voice solemn.
I'd started to piece together the story of Mom's trial from bits and pieces of conversation. It had something to do with her voluntarily having her magic bound after meeting our father.
She'd only regained her powers after he died. That was when she opened this tea shop. Although Didi and I didn't know Mom was a witch until four months ago, when we turned thirty-five. Mom had never talked about it, and there never seemed to be a good time to ask her about it. Obviously, it was a well-known trial. As was ours, apparently.
I finished running Evelyn's credit card and handed it back to her. Conversation had dwindled after she brought out the wands.
"Well, I guess I'll be going," Evelyn said.
"If you could send us a copy of your security footage, and we'll need your contact details," Didi said.
"Of course, I'll send it now. Is there enough memory in your phone?" Evelyn asked, pointing to Didi's cell phone, which she'd set on the tea table.
Mom waved her hand. "Of course there is."
"How silly of me to ask," Evelyn said, waving her hand as well. It took me a moment to realize that the two of them were doing magic. Mom had increased the memory on Didi's phone.
"We also need to visit the house. When would be a good time?" Didi asked.
"You
can go any time. I'll be in London doing a press junket for my new movie. I'm flying out tonight for the week. Feel free to let yourself in and call if you need me for anything."
Evelyn slipped on her sunglasses, got up, and left.
Mom sighed. "She's a snob and a kiss-up like her aunt." Then she stared at the boxes, shaking her head. "Wands."
"It was Joy's idea," Didi said.
"Mom, I needed something,"
"And why was that something a wand?" Mom asked. "Those things are dangerous, and for amateurs."
"It seems like Evelyn and all of her family use wands," I said.
"And you can see how Evelyn turned out," Mom said.
"Should we have not taken the case?" Didi asked.
I sensed that my sister was looking for a reason to get rid of it. She never wanted to do anything but those boring trademark cases.
"No, she's not so ridiculous that you can't take her money. But I know for a fact that that motorboat incident had nothing to do with it being an accident. Her aunt was just jealous," Mom said, and got up and left.
I took my wand out of the box and felt the surge of electricity.
"It feels so good in my hand," I said, waving it around. "I just wish I knew how it worked."
Didi opened her box and picked up her wand. Another gleam of sparkling light shot out of it. "I don't feel anything, but it does look pretty cool." Didi waved her wand around. It looked like a sparkler on Fourth of July. I found myself a little jealous.
"Why does yours do that?" I asked.
Didi shrugged. "Hocus-pocus bogus, bogus."
"Very funny," I said.
"Oh my God!" Didi said, her eyes wide and her hand cupping her mouth.
"What?" I asked. My nose itched so I scratched a little bit, and felt a bump.
"I'm so sorry, pal," Didi said.
"What are you talking about?"
Didi rummaged in her giant, nearly-luggage-sized purse and pulled out a compact mirror. Batman's utility belt had nothing on my sister's purse.
I reached to grab the mirror, and I noticed there were warts on my hands. Actually, I pushed on one, and realized it wasn't a wart. It was definitively a pimple.
I didn't even need the mirror. "Did you just put a spell on me to give me zits?"
"I couldn't have. All I did was wave this and said--"
I pointed at her with my wand to get her to stop. "I know what you said. You said hocus-pocus bogus, bogus."
And then I saw the pimples all over my sister's face.
"Oh no!" I said.
"You did that on purpose," she said.
"Hey!" Jason said, entering the tea room. His mouth dropped open. "What happened to you guys?"
"Didi did it," I said.
"No, it was your idea to get these stupid wands that did it," Didi said.
I didn't have anything to say about that.
"Well, undo it," Jason said. "It's gross."
"We don't know how," Didi said.
"Undo," I said, shaking my wand at my sister.
"Did it work?" Didi asked.
I looked closer at her face. "It just looks like it popped a few."
"Oh, it smells when they pop," Jason said, shaking his head and putting his hand over his nose. "That guy from your work is here to see you."
"I can't see anybody now," Didi said. "Get rid of them."
"Are you sure?" Jason asked.
Didi nodded.
Jason turned and started to leave and said, "He's pretty cute."
"Wait," Didi said.
Jason stopped and turned around.
"What does he look like?"
"You know, the one that kind of looks like Clark Kent," Jason said.
"Thomas?" Didi asked.
"That's it. And I don't think he's here to talk about work."
Rats! I was kind of rooting for Didi and Thomas to get together. She liked him, but she didn't approve of the fact that he worked for her old boss, who Didi believed was a crook.
It was obvious Didi wanted to see him, too, but who would see their crush during the world's worst magical breakout?
I put my wand in the box.
"Maybe you could put on a little of that cover-up foundation we bought online," I said.
"Please don't let him see me," Didi said. It almost looked like she was going to cry.
"What do I tell him?"
"Anything but the truth," Didi said, which wasn't like her at all.
I felt as horrible as I looked, which was super bad.
Ticket to Ride
Didi and I sat in the living room of The Cove, waiting for Mom.
"Stop popping them," Didi said.
"I'm not doing it on purpose," I said. "It's just sometimes there's an itch."
"Don't scratch it," she said. "I can't take the smell."
"Even with those blemishes, your beauty still shines through," Fred said.
Hearing Fred's meow, Didi reached over to pet him.
"That's okay," Fred said, hopping from the sofa to the floor before Didi could touch him. "I don't need to be petted right now."
"He said--"
"You don't need to tell me. He doesn't want me to pet him, because he doesn't want to be touched by my pimply hands."
"Maybe we can reverse it ourselves," I said.
"I'm not touching that thing," Didi said, pointing to her wand on the coffee table.
Mom entered the living room, walking straight through the wall.
"Jason said you guys needed me right away," she said, and then stopped when she looked at our faces. "What did you do?"
"It was Didi," I said.
"It was those stupid wands," my sister protested.
"That's going to be a problem," Mom said.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"It's not always easy to reverse magic," Mom said. "You can make it worse."
"What could be worse than this?" Didi asked.
"Don't tempt magic," I scolded. "With our luck, we could turn into pimply green toads."
"This is why I didn't want you guys to get this kind of stuff," Mom said.
"Mom, if you trained us more, these kind of things wouldn't happen. At least we were actually able to do some magic with the wands. We haven't exactly been successful at all with our regular skills."
"Your sister can spot lies, and you can see death," Mom said. "You don't need a wand for that, and those are pretty powerful skills."
"Mom," Didi said, waving to her blemishes. "Make this go away."
"What did you say to make this happen?" Mom asked.
"Hocus-pocus bogus, bogus," Didi said.
Mom laughed. "Oh! Your wand understands Visayan."
Visayan is the local language where Mom's from in the Philippines.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Bugas bugas is probably what it thought you said. Bugas is the Visayan word for pimple. That's amazing." Mom reached over to one of the boxes on the coffee table. "These little things might be fun."
Mom took the wand out of the box. The entire stick glowed, and yellow, red, and blue confetti-like sparks shot from the end of it.
"I can feel a little surge of electricity when I touch it," Mom said as she waved the wand. It made almost a lightsaber-like sound as she did it.
No wonder people were afraid of us. Mom was one powerful witch.
Mom pointed it at the coffee table. It disappeared. Mom laughed. "I don't need it for this," she said, "but it does take a lot less energy. Sort of like one of those people movers at the airport that lazy people use."
I didn't have the heart to say that I used those all the time. Mom pointed at the empty space where the coffee table once had been, and it reappeared.
"Whose pimples were made with this wand?" Mom asked.
It took me a moment to figure out what she wanted to know, and I could tell from the light color of the wand Mom was holding that it was the one Didi had used to give me a face full of zits.
"Didi used that one on me,
" I said.
"Then you'll be the guinea pig," Mom said.
Didi smiled.
I didn't quite like the sound of the idea of being a guinea pig, but I really wanted to get these itchy blemishes off of me. Mom pointed the wand at me, but it didn't feel like anything happened.
Didi put her hand over her mouth and pointed at me.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Nothing," Mom said, shaking her head. I wasn't sure whether or not to believe her, but then she pointed at me again.
My skin didn't feel itchy, but I looked down and realized I had fur all over my hands. "Mom!"
Fred trotted back into the living room and looked at me. "You look good. Definitely an improvement."
"You would think that, you little furball," I said.
Mom pointed at me again, and the fur on my hand was gone. I felt my face and there was no fur there either. I ran my hands along my forehead and cheeks and didn't feel any blemishes on my face either. "Did it work?"
Didi leaned forward and squinted at me, and then she turned to Mom. "Do me now."
Within a few minutes, the two of us were back to what I considered to be normal. Actually, I think my skin was better than ever.
"So what did you figure out about the case?" Mom asked.
I looked over to my sister, and she looked back at me.
"Nothing yet," I said.
"It's been two hours. What have you been doing?" Mom asked.
"Feeling sad," I said.
"More like feeling mad," Didi said, glaring at me.
"It all worked out, and even Mom likes the wands," I said.
Mom put the wand back into the box. "It's a toy. It's sort of like how fun it would be to ride a bike with training wheels, but ultimately you'll only go slower."
"Well, it just goes to show you that we need training wheels. Not everybody just hopped on a bike and started riding around the world."
Mom seemed to weigh the options, and let the issue go for now.
"What happened with the motorboat?" Didi asked, changing the subject.
Mom waved off the question. "It was when I first came here to California, just a few months before I met your father. There was a picnic for all of the West Coast witches. I decided to meet up with everyone. That was when I first realized that they were a little intimidated, let's say, by our line of magic. You've got to realize that it was a different time then."
Potions Eleven: A Paranormal Witch Cozy (Fair Witch Sisters Mysteries Book 2) Page 3