“Not again,” Hazel said with a sigh.
* * *
“We all know that means having to pull up stakes,” Lori said. “It turns out Istvan is a really nasty piece of work.”
“Oh, Trixi knew that,” Fae said, stroking Trixi who was lying on her lap, taking in the proceedings with her ears peaked. “So was he the sneaky one who rummaged through my room?”
Lori nodded. “Yes.. He admitted that when he came to the shop earlier today. He’s under the impression we have the Halo mushroom, and insists we hand it over to him, else he’ll tell everyone we’re witches.”
“But we have nothing of the sort!” Hazel exclaimed. “Doesn’t he know that?”
Lori shrugged. “He thinks because we’re witches, we have a use for it. He also knows we have the potion workshop in the backroom at the Wholesome, so he’s simply putting two and two together.”
“Why don’t we simply stop being witches,” Rosie suggested. “That would be the simplest solution. Anyway, witches are totally out of fashion now.”
“If only it were that simple, child,” Hazel said. “This is our destiny, for better or worse. And it’s made it possible for us to help other people and gotten us out of tight spots sometimes. Flat tires, vicious dogs, and obstinate bank managers have all been fixed with a spell or a potion. I don’t have to remind you of that.”
“It’s also how we make money,” the ever-practical Jasmine said.
Rosie wasn’t letting up. “Nothing’s impossible. All of us can find other means of making a living. We don’t have to use superpowers if we don’t want to.” She threw her hands up and rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I’ve never liked this cloak and dagger stuff.”
“She sounds like a frustrated teenager,” Lori thought.
“Have some respect, young lady,” Hazel said.
“We could sell the businesses to other witches and health experts and live off the residuals,” Jasmine said. “Or sell everything and move to Florida with the money.”
Lori listened helplessly as the conversation deteriorated into a pointless argument about the pros and cons of being witches. This was not doing anyone any good at all. Perhaps going to Matt wasn’t such a bad idea. He would have come up with a plan straight away.
“Stop this nonsense!” Everyone stopped talking and looked at Fae, who up to now had been quiet. She looked annoyed and furious. “Witches have as much right to be here in this town as everyone else! I’m not going anywhere, and I’m not afraid of some two-bit academic with a bone to pick.” She stamped her walking stick so hard that everyone winced.
“That’s easy for you to say. What do you suggest we do, Mother?” Hazel asked, not expecting much of a coherent answer.
“Gran will fight fire with fire,” Jasmine said with a giggle. “Can I help you mix a potion that’ll fix Istvan for good, Granny?”
“Exactly. Thank you, Jasmine.” Fae nodded in her direction.
“Wait.” Rosie looked at Lori. “Why don’t you go to the police? Surely there’s enough evidence now that Istvan is a shady character. Have you told them Istvan isn’t registered at the convention?
Lori shook her head. ”I tried, but Chief Lambert isn’t interested in listening to me.“
Fae snorted. ”I thought so.“
”Matt’s even less in their good graces,“ Lori added. ”They simply don’t trust us.“
”I could go try speak to him,“ Jasmine suggested. ”I’ll take Rosie with me, no doubt Ray will listen to her.“
Lori looked at her cousin with a smile. ”Thanks, Jas. But that’s too risky. There simply isn’t any hard evidence tying Istvan to the murders, which is what is required here. Allegations we can’t back up with solid evidence will just make things worse. Perhaps the way to go is to solve this thing the witch way.“ She looked at everyone around the table. ”Any suggestions?“
”Okay, let’s look at this logically,“ Rosie said and held her palms in the air. ”The simplest way is to get Istvan to somehow own up to his wrongdoings. That’ll solve everything, nice and simple.“
“I have the answer to this,” Fae said and held up a bony finger. ”Truth cookies.“
Puzzled, everyone looked at Fae. “What are truth cookies, Granny?” Jasmine asked.
”We get him to eat a truth cookie, and he’ll spill the beans. The whole caboodle.“ Fae sat back, clearly very satisfied with herself.
”Mother, everyone knows that the recipe for truth cookies has long been lost. Nobody has seen that recipe in decades. How will we make them without a recipe?“ Hazel asked.
”Yeah, I thought truth cookies were more like a legend,“ Rosie said. raising her eyebrows.
”It’s always been there, in the Whitewood spell books,“ Fae said.
”And the spell books have been missing for two generations.“ Hazel sounded frustrated with her mother.
Fae shook her head and gave a little laugh. ”No, they’re not. They’re just well-hidden from prying eyes.“
”You hid them from your own family?“ Hazel said, sounding hurt. ”So where are they?“
Fae pointed to the bookcase behind Hazel. ”Right there.“ The twins were up in a flash, going through the books on the shelves.
”I’ve gone over this shelf a thousand times, and I’ve never seen a spell book,“ Jasmine said, tracing the book titles with her finger. ”I see Agatha Christie mysteries, old National Geographic magazines, a history of the Inquisition…”
“Second from the right, top shelf, that’s the one with the truth cookie recipe in,” Fae said, peering at the bookcase. “You can’t miss it.” Rosie went to fetch the kitchen ladder, positioned it in front of the shelving, and climbed the steps to the top. She reached up and plucked an Agatha Christie mystery with a faded cover from the shelf and opened it. The inside was cut out to hold a smaller, much older book with a heavy leather binding. Her eyes grew wide as she lifted the bound volume out. “This is it!” Rosie exclaimed and clumsily removed the spell book from its container. She licked her forefinger and paged thought the book, then frowned. “But it’s all written in some weird writing. How will we recognize the recipe?“
”Bring it over here, child. Spell books are not for the uninitiated,“ Fae said, clearly concerned that Rosie might not be handling the book with the necessary respect. Rosie gave the book to Fae. Mumbling to herself, Fae gently turned the delicate pages. ”Might have been page twenty-four…. or was it one hundred and twenty-four… “
She looked up. ”Is there another volume there?“ As the twins searched the shelves for the second spell book, a thought struck Lori.
”I hate to be a spoilsport, but what if Istvan isn’t the killer? What if he’s is just a common thief, or a guy with a grudge? We may hear all sorts of confessions from him but still not know who killed Justus and Dr. Pearce.“
”We’ll feed cookies to the whole lot,“ Fae growled. Someone will own up.” After much searching, Rosie found the second spell book in another Agatha Christie novel and handed it to Fae.
Again, Fae slowly paged through the yellowed, cracking pages until her face lit up. “Here it is!” she exclaimed, holding up the book for everyone to see. Soon the entire family was huddled around her, studying the recipe page. It was adorned with scribbled notes, drawings, and strange, hard to pronounce spells. Jasmine took out her phone to take a picture of the page, but Fae slammed the book shut. “No photos!” she hissed. “This is secret knowledge!”
“Mother, you old devil.” Hazel smiled. “We may have to scrounge around, but I think we should be able to gather all the ingredients.”
“Most of them are in my suitcase, which I hope you’ve not thrown away, Hazel, or have you?” She looked accusingly at Hazel.
Hazel smiled with relief. ”Not yet, thank goodness. “I never thought we’d ever be needing that old stuff again.”
“We’ll have to move quickly,” Lori said as everyone reassembled around the dining room table with cups of tea Hazel had brought in from the kitc
hen. “Tomorrow is the last day of the convention. How will we get everyone to nibble a truth cookie?” She thought for a moment. “Give it to them at tea time?” She shook her head. “Nope, bad idea. We need some sort of get-together where we will have an excuse to be present.”
“We could have a truth cookie party,” Rosie said and giggled. “Like, play truth and dare. We invite all the suspects, let them eat cookies, and sit back and listen.“
”Not a bad idea,“ Lori said, nodding slowly. “But it’ll look funny if we organize it, and besides, Chief Lambert won’t come if we don’t make it a respectable social event. And he must be there to arrest the culprit when the truth comes out.”
“A mayoral farewell function is what we need,” Jasmine said. “And I’ve got him right under my thumb at the moment because I’ve been putting in so much overtime,“ she said. ”Everyone we want there won’t be able to refuse such an invitation.“
Lori warmed to the idea and smiled. ”All right then, agreed. We’ll offer to have it here at the house, in the back garden. That’s ideal in case anything goes wrong.“ She thought about what she’d just said for a moment. ”Granny, is there any sort of antidote for the truth cookie potion in case someone shows adverse effects?“
Fae shook her head. ”None that I know of. You either tell the truth, or you die.“ She giggled at her own pun.
”Will you tell Matt about this?“ Hazel asked Lori. ”He could help compile a list of cookie candidates that need to be invited.“
Lori shook her head. ”No. Frankly, I don’t trust him. He may well be in on this whole thing.“ Hazel shook her head but said nothing.
Fae was mirthfully laughing by herself. ”Hoo boy, are we going to hear some interesting confessions! Maybe we should invite old Fred Baker over, it’s high time he opened up about his shenanigans when we were young!“
”Gran, this is serious,“ Lori said firmly. “We’re out to catch a killer, not put on cheap entertainment.” The family spent another few hours working out the logistics for the following night’s event. Hazel and Fae would bake the cookies while Lori drew up an invitation list and the girls brought the mayor on board. By the end of the evening, Rosie’s laptop battery was dead and her power cord missing, Fae was fast asleep in her chair, and the rest of them were bleary-eyed but happy that they had a workable plan. Lori gathered up the empty coffee cups and took them to the kitchen. She knew this was a last-ditch attempt, but it was all they could do. When everyone had retired, Lori lay on her bed thinking the truth cookie idea over. She had a nagging doubt about it but didn’t see any other viable plan. A lot could go horribly wrong. The whole thing could be a non-starter if the truth cookie recipe didn’t work. What if it had unforeseen side effects? She shivered. For a moment she wished she had Matt’s cool and clear head here to help her figure things out, to tell her she was doing the right thing. By tomorrow this time it’ll all be over, for better or worse.
Chapter Fourteen
Lori was still in bed the next morning when Matt phoned her. For a moment, she thought about ignoring his call, but then answered.
“Hello, stranger,” Matt said. “Want to have breakfast at the inn a little later?”
Lori hesitated, but then said yes. It was pointless trying to avoid Matt.
She arrived early at the inn’s restaurant, hoping to read through the details of the evening’s event before Matt arrived. The restaurant was already full of convention delegates having breakfast. Her eye fell on Steve, Gillian’s husband, sitting by himself.
He caught her eye and pointed to the chair opposite his. “Care to join me?” he asked as she approached. “Gillian is busy with some convention stuff, so I’m on my own.” Steve was a handsome man, graying at the temples with alert eyes and a disarming smile, and she found it hard to say no to his invitation.
“You must be glad the convention is almost over,” Steve said as they waited for breakfast to arrive. “Have the police arrested anyone in connection with the murders yet?”
Lori felt comfortable in his company. “I’m just happy that the convention ran smoothly and successfully.” Smiling, Steve watched as she gushed about what it had done to put Fennelmoore on the map and bring in much-needed traffic and revenue.
“Pity then about the murders, wouldn’t you say?” Steve pressed her.
“Yes, very much. I wish the police would hurry up and arrest someone so we could clear the air.”
“Don’t they have any leads at all?” Steve asked, sounding surprised.
“If they have, they’re not saying,” Lori said. After all, that was the truth.
“And you, who do you think did it?” Steve asked.
Lori smiled at him. “Are you a private eye or something, asking all these questions? From what I heard there’s a lot of competition among the academics here, but more than that, I don’t know.” Best not to talk too much about the details, Lori decided.
“Oh, by the way, I had a text message from the mayor’s office early this morning, inviting Gillian and me to a farewell function,” Steve said. “Seems like it’s being held at Whitewood Manor, so no doubt I’ll see you there?”
Lori sent a silent thank you to Jasmine and Rosie. They certainly wasted no time in getting things ready for the truth cookie party that night. Steve excused himself and got up. “Sorry to have to abandon you,” he said, “but I have a few last-minute things to do before we leave tomorrow.”
After Steve left, Lori sat alone feeling a bit self-conscious among the crowd of convention delegates. To relieve her awkwardness, she took out her phone and turned it on. A message immediately flashed on the screen.
“I received an invite to a party tonight at your house. Trust you’ll have something for me :)"
She didn’t recognize the number the message came from, but it was perfectly clear that it was from Istvan. She wondered how he got her number. But then, if cloak and dagger stuff was his game, he probably had no problem in finding it. Things like phone numbers are hard to hide in the Internet age.
She thought about it for a moment, and then typed in a reply.
“Yes.”
Hopefully that was enough to ensure he didn’t miss the mayoral function. She waited a few minutes, but no reply appeared on her phone. Finally, she deleted the messages and shut down her phone as two convention delegates approached her and thanked her profusely. They raved about Hazel’s cooking, the helpful twins at the registration desk, and the field trip.
“I’m delighted that you enjoyed it,” Lori said, basking in their praise. It made her happy to see her efforts were appreciated.
Her new-found fans had just left when Matt appeared and sat down opposite her, looking discouraged.
“You have a little dark cloud hanging above your head, looking like it’s about to rain out,” Lori said. “Looks like you have more bad news for me?"
“This town’s cops are something else. I went to the police station to find out about the progress in Justus’ murder case, but I only got stonewalled. I got absolutely nowhere in trying to find answers. In fact, I was more or less thrown out of the building for being a nuisance.”
Lori listened to him, nodding and trying to look sympathetic. As Matt continued, she felt more and more guilty about not being candid with him. He’d done nothing wrong, so why was she treating him this way? She was simply finding it hard to trust anyone at the moment. She couldn’t distinguish between the good guys and the bad guys anymore. It wasn’t fair to Matt, she admitted, but kept silent.
“I’m sure they’re on top of things,” she said, staring into her coffee. Matt pulled out a file from his briefcase, and for a few minutes they updated each other on conference arrangements. The day’s program was in place, and the closing speech was scheduled for lunchtime the following day.
“I see there’s a mayoral farewell at your house this evening,” Matt said. “What’s that about?”
“Oh, it’s just a small affair he asked us to organize to say thanks to everyone,” L
ori said, keeping it vague. “I hope you got your invite?”
Matt didn’t answer, looking hurt. “You could have told me about this in advance, you know. I thought we were co-organizers.”
Lori blushed with embarrassment. Maybe she should have done this differently. She knew Matt would have been supportive and made things a lot easier.
“Sorry. It’s just, it came through at the last minute.” She still couldn’t look Matt in the eye. Suddenly she felt like she couldn’t be in his company any longer. She got up. “I’ll see you later at the farewell tonight,” she said, trying to sound as pleasant as she could.
“Sit down Lori.” Please.“ Lori sank back into her chair. Matt shook his head. ”I don’t understand you. We started out as a first-rate team and organized a winning convention. I thought we got along great.“ He threw his hands up in the air. ”And then you withdraw. I told you how I feel, but now I feel like a fool. What’s going on?“
“I’m not going to cry again,” Lori thought and fought back the tears. She gave Matt a pleading look. ”Just come tonight, please, and I promise we can talk then, and I’ll explain everything." She got up to leave. Matt folded his arms and nodded glumly as Lori walked away. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Istvan sitting at a table with three other academics. He smiled at Lori, pointing to his watch.
After making sure that everything was in order at the convention, Lori began walking home to start preparations for the evening’s event. She hadn’t walked far when Mayor Riley, accompanied by Jasmine, spotted her from across the street and waved. Lori wasn’t in the mood for listening to the mayor’s crazy chatter, but felt obligated to. After all, Jasmine had convinced him to pay for the farewell party. So she crossed the street and walked up to the pair.
The Mushroom Mystery Page 12