Muffins, Magic, and Murder

by Jessica Lancaster

  “Aw, that would be kind,” she said.

  I shivered off the pained anger that had crawled beneath my skin from Caroline, adjusting the necklace as it released a small beat of energy.

  CHAPTER 16

  The next person on my list was Ellyn, I knew her, but not as well as I should’ve, her husband was good friends with my ex-husband. She had two children, one who was almost twelve and another who was only eight.

  Ellyn lived on the second tier of housing, they had a garden at least for her children to play in. This was where I was destined to live if I hadn’t already decided I wanted to be on the fringe of the village where the foghorn of boats wouldn’t wake me up in the morning.

  Again, I straightened myself out before knocking on her orange door. I waited, double checking the time on my watch, she’d have to be home soon, her children had finished school over and hour ago. I knocked again.

  “I’m coming,” she called. “Who is it?” The door opened and she took one look at me and I saw thought of slamming the door shut flicker passed her eyes.

  Ellyn was a taller woman with blonde hair sitting on her shoulders. She had bright blue eyes and perfectly rosy cheeks with the style of a 1950’s housewife.

  “Just me,” I said. “I heard you were seeing Marissa.”

  “Oh,” she sighed, resting against the frame of the door. “I was, did she leave me anything?”

  I shook my head. I had no idea if she had, but it was likely given everything in her home was dying, she could create very little. “I’m just here out of curiosity, really.”

  “Well come in, I’m getting five minutes peace while the boys are out on the back,” she said, wiping a hand across her forehead and smiling.

  “I brought some cake over, Victoria or chocolate,” I said.

  “I shouldn’t really, I don’t let the boys have refined sugars.”

  Ellyn led me through the hallway to the kitchen of her home. The window looked out onto the small patch of land at the back where her two boys and husband played football.

  “I won’t tell them,” I said, pressing a finger to my lips. “Take both.” I handed the bag over. “My treat to you.” I looked around, noticing there were a lot of different herbs and empty glasses laying around, the type I knew Marissa would’ve used.

  “That’s awfully kind,” she said. “Reminds me of Marissa, she was always giving. I can’t believe she’s gone.” I watched her mind drift off as her eyes fixed on the corner of my shoulder. “I don’t know what we’re going to do now.” She blinked, opening her eyes to tears.

  “If you don’t mind me asking, what is it she was helping you with?”

  Ellyn sighed, the clear sign she wasn’t coping and she was busy looking for a way to ease her own pain. “Michael has an attention problem, something the doctor doesn’t see, and he’s only been here a week, but even before that Marissa came by with this tincture, a couple drops in his morning milk and he’s a different person.”

  “She was here?” It didn’t quite surprise me. I knew Marissa was always out there helping people, that’s just who she was.

  “Not the night she died.”

  I nodded, looking around her kitchen at the herbs on her counter, although one of them didn’t seem quite like the rest. It was familiar, and not in the way I’d find oregano or basil. “Are you getting ready to cook?”

  “Oh, this,” she glanced to the side. “No, no, this is going in the bin.” She grabbed a plastic bag and emptied the greenery into it.

  “Ah, okay. Well, I can’t promise I can help, but you know Tana, she works in the nursery school, she might have something.”

  Her face lit up. “You think?”

  “She’s a dab hand at that sort of stuff.”

  It didn’t seem like Ellyn could’ve killed Marissa, she relied on her too much, unless she was putting her prices up, which was unlike Marissa.

  “Any help is great,” she said.

  I pulled my handbag up on my shoulder. “When was the last time you went to Marissa’s house?” I asked.

  “I’ve never been,” she said. “I have those two little buggerlugs to watch all the time.” She cracked a smile. “She would always come down to mine because she knew how busy I was.”

  “That’s great,” I said. “She didn’t by any chance give you anything other than what you’d ask for, perhaps a piece of paper?”

  She shook her head. “Nothing. She once told me about gink—gin—”

  “Ginkgo?”

  Snapping her fingers in a-ha. “That’s it. She said it was good for the concentration. I mean, we didn’t want to be reliant on her forever.”

  “Mother Nature always provides,” I said. “I do wish you the best, but I must go.” Already feeling like I was wasting my time. It was unlikely Ellyn had anything to do with it, she was exhausted, someone like that who couldn’t find the time to leave the house in the afternoon couldn’t have orchestrated the murder of a witch.

  Ellyn gave me a hug before I left, and there it was, the wave of tears she was holding back by a large dam. It was an intense crushing pressure all over her, just a single touch revealed as much.

  I had more information now, apparently everything had been dying and depleting of its energy. I knew Noelia was headed to her mother’s house to take the police tape down, but I had to know if there was more to it.

  Before driving back to Marissa’s house, I grabbed my book of shadows from the backroom of the café and told Ralph and Abi to lock up an hour early. It was unlikely I’d find myself going back, I had a lot to go over. I drove slowly into the driveway of Marissa’s house, finding Noelia sat on her motorcycle staring at it. She didn’t turn to look at me, even though my loud car engine clearly alerted her to the fact I was there.

  I stayed inside for a moment. It was strange being here during the day, the last time I recalled it had been dark and silent with nothing more than the courage of finding answers coursing through me.

  “Noelia?” I said, climbing out of the car. She continued staring forward, an audible sniffle made me pause in place. I locked the car and stood still beside it. “Have you been inside yet?”

  She shook her head from behind, raising a hand to wipe her face. “No.”

  I wanted to comfort her, but I didn’t want her to think I was going in for some contact so I could read her. It was the struggle sometimes, when people knew your gifts, they’d always doubt your intentions.

  “Should I come in with you?”

  “Why?”

  “I have reason to believe it’s not safe inside.”

  She turned. Her eyes raw from where she’d been crying. “What do you mean?” She wiped her puffy cheeks with the back of her hand. “What do you mean?”

  “Before your mother died, apparently the herbs were dying and the crystals were being drained, she didn’t tell any of us, well, she didn’t tell me and we were the best of friends.”

  “Who did she tell?”

  “One of the women she was seeing,” I said, shutting my eyes slightly. “Maybe she thought she could deal with whatever this was on her own.”

  “Perhaps she’s more like me than I thought.” Noelia smirked. “Fire element.”

  “Of course, she’s your mother.”

  We stayed outside the house for a moment. Empty and drained.

  “Did you find Laurie?” she asked, rubbing a hand at the shaved side of her head.

  “She found me,” I said. “But she knew nothing. The poor cat had been through a lot, chased out of the house, she doesn’t know who was here that night.”

  “Chased?” she smiled. “Laurie would never let anyone chase her.” She collected the tears at her eyes with a finger. “Unless it was a man, god she hates men.”

  “Did you know your mother was seeing a married man?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “For what it’s worth, I knew, but he was never in the house, I mean, you knew my mother, you know Laurie.”

  True, I knew her enough to know she
wouldn’t let a man in her house, in fact, I believed they’d been spelled to keep them out, since breaking up with her husband she vowed off men and wouldn’t let another cross the threshold.

  “Is the spell still in place?” I asked.

  Noelia shrugged, pressing her lips into a scowl. “I can’t feel it.”

  “Me either.” It was what gave the house a feeling of emptiness, ghostly almost.

  “You think someone could’ve done that?”

  “Would’ve taken some real strong person to pull it down.”

  “Or it was drained.”

  Goosebumps bubbled up my arms, across my chest, and in the crevices of my collar. I shuddered. “That’s not beyond the realm of reality,” I said. “If her crystals were being drained, perhaps it was someone who needed the energy so much they’d drained the spells she’d already cast.”

  “I’ve never heard another witch being able to do that,” Noelia said.

  “I’m not talking about a witch.” The words were bloated in my throat. “This is a dark being, this is someone with one foot in the physical world and another in darkness. This is a demon.”

  She shook her head. “No, no, that wouldn’t be possible, if there was, I’d have felt it, we’d all have felt it, demons don’t show up out of nowhere.” She pulled her backpack around to the front of her chest. “And there are pages missing from her book.”

  “You know what they were?”

  “I thought you might.”

  Noelia gnashed her teeth together. “Whatever it was, someone went through a lot of trouble to get them.”

  “Your mother had a lot of spells, and a lot of things that she never told anyone about. If she’d shared them with us, we’d have some idea why they were after it, and especially why they went after your mother.”

  “Well you’ve been going around poisoning people with truth serum, you should know.”

  “Not on humans,” I said. A twang ached in my stomach from knowing earlier today I’d dosed the doctor. “It could be anyone, I asked a few people, they were all in contact with your mother.”

  “It had to be someone close.”

  Humming, I tapped my foot in the gravel, staring out at the empty house. “But your mother was a very accepting woman, it could’ve been a complete stranger in need and she would’ve helped them.”

  She swung her leg over the bike and stretched out her legs. “I don’t know if I can go inside.”

  “You’ll have to eventually.” I hugged my handbag against my chest. “Want me to come in with you?”

  “No.” Her response was instant.

  “Okay, if you find something, please tell someone.”

  She nodded, clenching the house keys in her hand. “I’ll eventually go in, but I’m not making any promises I won’t just throw everything out.”

  From what I remembered there wasn’t much left inside the house anyway, other than furniture, everything else had been taken.

  CHAPTER 17

  That evening after feeding the cats and eating dinner, I sat in the conservatory with a notepad and pen. I had a lot going through my head and I needed to note them all down, without notes I’d be lost filling in the other women with information.

  In the centre of the paper I wrote Marissa and circled it once. I drew several lines from the circle and added other names, Ellyn, Noelia, Caroline, Bridget, Nick. It was all up on the air. I wrote notes off each person’s name.

  Ellyn was struggling with her children, but she was truly pained over Marissa’s death. A poisoning would’ve had to have been thought out. Noelia had the means to drain the power from the house, and it would make sense as to why she had the strength, but there was pain in her eyes. Caroline’s entire life situation was messy, but pregnancy could make you do crazy things, usually in the heat of the moment, not something planned like poisoning. Bridget was the odd one, she was seeing Marissa for help with understanding a different religion, yet she’d always appeared very hateful of it, but it still didn’t make sense as to why everything was dying. And Nick, I’d written him off, I crossed his name out, but still wrote a note about him. He was her secret relationship, and even though Marissa had her wards up and Laurie hated men, it was still in the realms of truth.

  “Laurie,” I called out.

  The ginger cat strolled in moments later. “I was napping.”

  “Do you remember ever seeing a man in the house?”

  She hissed. “No.”

  “Are you sure? This important.”

  “No man ever came into the house.”

  That was all I needed.

  I looked back at the sheet of paper. For all I knew it was a group effort or none of them at all. I didn’t want to believe it could’ve been anyone of them. I knew accidental poisoning wasn’t unheard of, but everything about this seemed intentional.

  I was sure the other witches would have their theories, and we needed to get this solved quickly. There was only so long a witch’s body would keep before she needed to be sent off.

  Rain poured heavily overnight and all morning. I threw myself into the kitchen at work for the largest part, baking a storm and whipping vats of buttercream frosting. Cold days, especially when it was raining where always the days when people would come to the café and gorge themselves on cake.

  The rain carried on into the afternoon when the other witches arrived, bounding off into the backroom where I’d activated a lapis lazuli for heat, it was surprisingly one of the warmer crystals, especially great insight and truth. The women were huddled around it when I approached them with a tray of teas and coffee.

  “Afternoon,” I said with a beaming smile on my face.

  “Chipper?” Allegra chuckled. “Take it you found something last night?”

  I hummed. “I created a little diagram.” I grabbed my notepad from the bottom of my handbag. “These are all the suspects and my thoughts.”

  Eva grabbed it, pondering over everything I’d written before passing it over to another one of the witches.

  “As I told you already, Marissa was poisoned,” I said. “So, with that in mind, who do we think has the most opportunity to poison her?”

  “Any of them,” Allegra said.

  “I really don’t think this is such a good idea,” Tana said in a breathless voice. “What if we’re doing more damage than good? I mean, Hodge is doing his job, if he knows it’s poison, I’m sure he can find out on his own.”

  I shook my head. “They killed one of us, and he’s already said he’s looking to one of us, I doubt he’s out here to arrest any of those women on that list.”

  “She’s right,” Eva said. “Hodge doesn’t want to arrest one of them, he’d sooner take one of us and label it with the words cult and killing, those are the types of crimes that can make a career.”

  “I hate to think he’d do something like that, but I know it’s not beyond him,” Allegra said. “Least of all if it is a demon, he can’t explain that in a report, can he?” She pulled a cup of coffee into her grasp, warming her hands already wrapped in fingerless gloves.

  “Nobody has that much evil in them,” Tana whimpered. “I keep thinking about the note.”

  “If we’re thinking about people this could be, should we make a checklist?” I asked. “Like, someone who could poison someone? I mean, I don’t mean to sound like this is coming from a bad place, but they do say that poisoning is a woman’s crime; calculated, no blood or knives.”

  Eva scoffed. “I know if I was there when it was happening I’d have happily grabbed the closest object, sharp or blunt.”

  “Poisoning is often thought out,” Allegra said. “But we don’t know what type of poison we’re even looking for, it could’ve been a number of different poisons.”

  I gasped. “Bridget did mention belladonna, you don’t think she could’ve poisoned her with that?”

  “You’re just mentioning that now?” Eva asked, her eyes opening wider.

  “It was a remark, I thought nothing of it.”<
br />
  “Rosie’s working at the doctor’s office, right?” Allegra asked. “Ask her to steal the records and find out.”

  “I can’t ask her to do that,” I said. “It’s her job, but maybe if one of you go in, she could let you have a look at the files.”

  “I’ll do it,” Eva said. “I’m free all afternoon.”

  “Great, I’ll send her a text,” I said. I hated the thought of asking Rosie to do something like that, although I’m sure she would’ve done it anyway, mainly out of curiosity. “I’ll be surprised if they even have a file though, with the investigation going on.”

  Allegra hummed. “Right, they probably have everything to do with Marissa at the station.”

  “I’ll see how far I can get with the doctor first,” Eva said, winking.

  It only made me a little uncomfortable, especially since he’d asked me out on a date. None of the other women knew that, it was just before I almost sent him off to his deathbed from a little serum. I glanced to the serum in its new place on the shelving unit, a reminder of what had almost happened.

  “That’s it settled then,” I said. “We need more information before we can do anything. Or nothing, but the more I think about it, the odder it becomes.”

  “I’ll head to the police station,” Allegra said.

  Tana shook her head. “I’m staying way out of this.”

  “I’m staying here, I have a lot of baking to do.” I sipped on a cup of black coffee. “And I’m expecting a visit from Caroline, I spent the night scouring my book but there’s nothing in there I could give her in good conscience it would help.”

  “I believe Marissa was giving her amazonite to protect her,” Tana said. “Well, to calm her and also something for her to sleep with under her pillow.”

  “What else aren’t you telling us?” I asked. “Marissa seemed to tell you everything.”

  She huffed through her nose and stomped a foot lightly. “It’s not like that at all, Marissa knew I could read her, so she would tell me anything she felt she might be keeping a secret.”