With one quick spell, Meg was able to open the cupboard, crack open a can of wet cat food, and set it down on the kitchen floor for Penelope without leaving the comfort of her warm bed.
“Breakfast is served,” Meg said.
“It’s about time. What took you so long?” Penelope joked.
“Will you just go eat already so I can get back to sleep?”
“Meg, it was a joke.”
“You should get some new material. That joke wore out its welcome the first time you woke me up at this crazy hour,” Meg insisted.
“I’d hammer out some better jokes, but that would require cutting into my cat nap time, and you know how important sleep is,” Penelope cracked.
Meg stared her talking cat down, not amused.
Penelope then scooted out into the kitchen to chow down on breakfast.
With Penelope gone, Meg was about to plop back in bed and cast a sleep spell on herself, putting her in a near-instant and deep slumber, but she saw a peculiar light shining outside that caught her eye.
As she focused closer, she realized the light was coming from inside Walter Newman’s garage. How odd? Had he forgotten to turn out the light when he left the garage last night? Or, worse, was he still inside the garage? It was crazy to think of him pulling an all-nighter tinkering with his car. Then again, it would be equally bizarre of him to wake up at five-thirty in the morning to work on a vintage automobile.
Something wasn’t right about this situation. She felt it in her gut. It was a sinking feeling, one that couldn’t be shrugged off. Instead, it just got bigger and stronger. Her instincts were telling her to go check out the situation. If she discovered Walter had neglected to turn off the garage light, she could return home and sleep soundly.
But, if something was amiss, as she expected, she’d thank herself for checking.
***
Meg headed over to the garage, where she was met by another odd sight. As she approached, she saw the side door to the garage was cracked open slightly. There was no way Walter would have left the garage and forgotten to close the door behind him, especially with his vintage car right inside.
This had bad news written all over it. That awful feeling in her gut was impossible to ignore now. She bared down, hoping for the best while preparing for the worst.
“Hello,” she called out.
Just as she feared, she received no response. Before heading in, she decided to give it one more go.
“Mr. Newman,” she continued.
Once again, she got no answer. Hesitation would do her no good now. It was time for action. Meg took a deep breath, then pushed the door open, and headed inside the garage.
She only made it a couple of steps inside the garage before she stopped dead in her tracks. It took all the energy she had to keep her jaw from scraping the floor as she spotted Walter Newman in front of the open hood of his vintage car, hunched over the engine looking lifeless.
“Walter. Oh, no,” she said.
She immediately rushed over to him, hoping that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. It was worse. Upon closer inspection, she saw a huge, bloody gash at the back of his head. Fittingly, there was a blood-stained automotive wrench on the ground beside his feet.
The optimist in her wanted to believe there was a shot, however slim, that he might still be alive. That faint glimmer of hope immediately evaporated when she turned him over to check his pulse. He was stiff as a board, and his eyes were as lifeless as could be. There was no doubt about it now. Walter Newman was dead.
Even more, this had the look of a murder. Although, Meg couldn’t get into that right now. There were too many other things to process. The first of which was the shock of it all. She had just talked to Walter last night, and now he was gone forever. Just like that. It was painfully unfair.
Meg’s heart sank as she tried to process this awful news. Forget her cat waking her up early for food, this was the rudest awakening of all.
Chapter Three
After finding the body, Meg immediately called the police. She knew it would take between fifteen minutes and half an hour before the authorities arrived on the scene. That gave her some time to indulge her growing curiosity regarding Walter’s death.
Her natural, puzzle-solving nature was buzzing as she looked over the scene. That wasn’t exactly surprising, given the fact that her neighbor’s death was far from natural. This had foul play written all over it. With a killer afoot, Meg couldn’t help but want to be the one to trip them up. Not just because she wanted justice to be served, but because she was taking this personally.
This was her neighbor. And, sure he’d made some pretty major mistakes in the past, but that didn’t mean he deserved to die, no less in such a violent manner. Meg found herself of two minds suddenly. Part of her was still trying to work through the shock of seeing her neighbor, a man she’d just talked to the night before, now lifeless before her. At the same time, she felt frustrated as she thought back over the night before. Walter was visibly bothered when he talked to Meg last night. She knew something was really troubling him. Yet, she had decided not to force the issue. Perhaps, she should have. Who knows what might be different? Maybe then she’d have a lead that would give her a jump on this case. Then again, perhaps Walter would have remained tight-lipped.
Either way, it didn’t matter now. The past was set in stone. It was the present that needed her now, and if she was going to help with this case, she had to get to work. Time was especially pressing, knowing the police were on their way. Given that, she tried to brush her feelings to the side for now and focus on the scene.
There was a particular spell that would come in especially handy right now. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then cast a spell that gave her supervision. A moment later, the spell took effect, giving her the opportunity to make a sweep of the crime scene without any interruption. She hoped that the killer had haphazardly left some kind of clue behind, no matter how small, that would give her the break she was looking for.
As Meg gave the garage and driveway a thorough visual examination, she unfortunately wasn’t able to turn up anything new. What a bummer. Even with the spell, she found herself back to square one. All she really knew was that Walter’s death appeared to be from a blow to the back of his head with an automotive wrench.
She winced as she visualized it. What a horrible way to go. Other than that, the only remarkable part of the crime scene was the fact that the bloody wrench was right on the ground next to Walter’s body. That part was curious. Who killed a man, and then left the murder weapon lying around? No doubt the killer wiped the fingerprints off, or was wearing gloves, but Meg figured a smart criminal would have disposed of the wrench elsewhere.
Other than that, it was hard not to be discouraged by her lack of findings. She kept looking a little longer, with no luck. A few minutes later, her boyfriend, Detective Connor Smith, arrived on the scene with the rest of the police force in tow. The forensics team immediately began to look at the crime scene while a group of deputies taped off the area. Connor turned his focus elsewhere.
***
Connor immediately rushed over to Meg, with concern all over his face.
“Are you ok?” Connor asked.
“Of course not. Walter’s dead,” Meg replied.
Connor clearly had something else on his mind. “I meant, you’re not hurt or anything, are you?”
She calmed his fears. “No. The killer was already gone when I got here.”
“By the way, why were you here, especially at this hour?”
“Trust me, if it was up to me, I’d still be asleep. Penelope’s stomach had other ideas.”
“That’s unfortunate,” he said.
Meg sighed. “Not as unfortunate as this.”
Connor looked over the scene. “Yeah. This is pretty grim. So, what happened then?”
“When I got up to feed Penelope, I noticed that the light was on over here, and thought it was very odd.”
&nb
sp; Connor looked over the scene. “It turns out you were right. At the same time, you’re lucky the killer wasn’t still here. You could have been hurt.”
“Uh oh. You’re not going to try to lecture me, are you?”
“I’m just saying, I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
Meg could see the worry in his eyes. She knew she was lucky to have someone care so deeply about her and wanted to make sure that didn’t go unmentioned. “Thank you.”
“Of course. Now, as for this case, did you see anyone around or notice anything suspicious when you got here?”
She shook her head. “No, it was dead quiet over here.” Meg stopped herself, wanting to take back her last sentence. “Sorry, that was a poor choice of words.”
“It’s ok. This is a stressful time.” Connor took a deep breath as he looked over the scene again. “All right, well, my team can take it from here.”
Actually, Meg had other plans. She’d already made up her mind that she was investigating this case. The only hiccup was trying to tell the detective that without getting into a spat.
Meg and Connor had been together long enough that Connor already knew what she was thinking. She didn’t even have the chance to get the words out. He could just tell by the look on her face what she wanted to do.
“You’re thinking about investigating this case, aren’t you?” he asked.
So much for working her way up to the conversation. She’d been dropped right in the thick of it. Meg fully expected her boyfriend to have his usual aversion to seeing the love of his life spending a substantial amount of time around a group of murder suspects.
“Are you going to waste your time trying to talk me out of it?” Meg replied.
Instead of arguing with her, just the opposite happened.
Connor shook his head. “No.”
What a refreshing answer. One that she was surprised to hear. She almost couldn’t believe it. “No?”
He didn’t change his tune. “You’ve been a great help to the department in the past. Given the fact that Walter was your next door neighbor who spoke to you a good deal, I’ll bet you’ll have some very useful insights into this case.”
Meg wished he’d stop right there. She was quite happy this portion of the conversation ended on a compliment.
Connor had more on his mind. “Besides, you’re stubborn beyond belief, and it’s too early to be arguing with you.”
“I didn’t know there was a good time of day to argue,” she cracked.
“Who knew your sense of sarcasm was wide awake at this hour?” he replied.
“Trust me, I’m just as surprised as you are. I think it’s the only part of me that’s completely awake.”
“By the way, before we get started, there’s just one more thing,” he said.
Meg thought the conversation had gone too smoothly. She was a firm believer that when things seemed too good to be true, they probably were.
“I knew there was something,” she said.
“It’s just a little thing.”
“What is it?”
He looked at the outfit she was wearing. More specifically, the pair of pajamas she had on.
“Before we start investigating this case, you might want to change into some regular clothes.”
Meg had been so caught up with the crime scene that she’d forgotten she was still in her sleepwear.
“Point taken,” she replied.
Chapter Four
It turned out Meg needed to do more than just make an outfit change if she was going to investigate this case. There was a very important phone call she had to make. One she wasn’t looking forward to in the least.
The problem was, this was a work day for her. She was scheduled to put in an eight-hour shift at the family’s donut shop that began in forty-five minutes. It would be impossible for her to find her neighbor’s killer from behind the counter of Enchanted Donuts. At the same time, she also couldn’t shirk her donut duties. She needed to find a replacement to cover her shift.
That’s where the trouble began. Meg knew there was only one person she could get to fill in for her, the very person she’d have the hardest time convincing to take an early morning shift, her mother. Yet, somehow, she had to get her mom to step in.
That was easier said than done. Meg’s mother, Beth Walton, was notorious for getting up on the grumpy side of the bed. To Beth, the day didn’t even begin until ten o’clock. Anything earlier than that was insufferable. That did not go over well in a customer service-heavy position like running a donut shop. That’s why it was no surprise that Meg got stuck with all the earning morning shifts. Normally, she didn’t mind, except, on a day like this.
Begrudgingly, Meg called her mother. Unfortunately, the first call rang four times, then went to voice mail. This was just as she suspected. Her mom almost always picked up on the first ring. So for her to not answer at all meant that she was probably dead asleep. Leaving a message wouldn’t do any good in that case.
Meg tried again. This time, the call made it to a third ring before she heard the sound of her mother grunting on the other end of the line. Apparently, it was too early in the morning to even express her frustration in actual words.
Meg tried to sound as apologetic as possible. It ended up coming out as awkward stammering. “Um, mom, hi.”
“Meg? You know better than to wake me up when I’m getting my beauty rest. How would you like to be woken up before the crack of dawn?” Beth replied.
Beth didn’t even realize how ironic that statement was. Thanks to her talking cat, Meg knew exactly what it was like being mercilessly pulled from the joyful comfort of slumber. It turned out a full night of sleep was a luxury pet owners could not afford. Of course, Meg wasn’t going to point that out to her mother.
Beth was already cranky enough. There was nothing worse than a temperamental witch. She had a serious case of grogginess to shake off. A joke would only serve to make her more grumpy right now. Besides, this was no laughing matter.
“I understand that, mom. It’s just really important,” Meg said.
Beth countered, grumblier than ever. “It had better be an emergency. I was having a wonderful dream about Detective Danger and me.”
Meg watched Detective Danger on TV for the solid mystery writing and to try and figure out who the killer was in each episode. Her mother only cared about the hunky actor in the lead role. When Meg turned her mother on to the show, this wasn’t what she had in mind. Nor did she ever express any interest in her mother’s dream life.
Meg deflected. “I’d love to let you get back to that, but I need a favor.”
Beth groaned. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“Probably not, but I really need you to do this for me.”
“I’ll be happy to do whatever you want; once I finish getting my rest.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”
Beth had an understandably sour reaction. “Oh, no. Please tell me you don’t want me to cover your shift this morning. Anything but that.”
“Actually, that’s exactly what I need you to do.”
“What’s the matter, did you have another late night with Connor?”
“No.”
“Then what is it? Do you want to sleep in or something?”
The time for delaying was over. Meg had been tiptoeing around, trying to come at this issue delicately. Not only was it not her usual style, but it also wasn't working. She just decided to come out with the shocking news. “Mom, there’s been another murder, and I need to find out who the killer is.”
Suddenly, her mother was wide awake. Beth’s mood turned on a dime. She went from being wildly annoyed to a deeply concerned parent in the span of a second. There was a saying that Beth repeated a lot when Meg was growing up—a mother never stops worrying. Those words had never been truer. Beth’s greatest frustration was that she’d always taught her daughter to run from trouble. Instead, Meg had a habit of throwing herself into
the fray.
Meg could hear the concern in her mother’s voice.
“There’s been another murder?” Beth replied.
“Not just any. Walter Newman,” Meg said.
Beth took a deep breath. “This is unbelievable.”
Unfortunately, this was hardly the first time Meg had a conversation like this with her mother. Each of the previous times, it went the same. Being a protective parent, Beth urged her daughter to leave the investigation to the professionals. Meg argued that with her intuition and her witch powers, she could do more than the police to solve the case. Finally, after a lengthy back and forth, her mother would reluctantly relent. Ultimately, even though her mom finally gave in, it was always such a big emotional ordeal. Meg wasn’t looking forward to going through this all again.
Meg tried to head her mom off at the pass. “I know what you’re going to say, but I need to do this.”
With all the surprises Meg had faced that morning, she didn’t expect the biggest one to come from her mother. Yet, it did.
“Ok,” Beth replied.
Meg waited for the “but.” It never came. That was it, just a simple “ok.”
At first, Meg almost didn’t know what to say. Did she even hear that right? Was her mother not putting up a fight this time? If so, that was incredibly refreshing. Still, Meg had to be sure.
“So, you’re ok with this?”
“I wouldn’t say I’m ok with it, but I understand what you’re doing and why you feel you have to do it. More importantly, I’m not going to try to stop you.”
Meg was happy to hear it. That made for one less thing to worry about. “Thanks, mom.”
“You’re welcome,” Beth said.
Meg could hear how hard it was for her mom to keep from putting up some serious opposition. Beth had to exercise all the restraint she had.
Witch Cozy Mystery Nine Book Set Page 34