A Wedding to Die For- Wedding Bells and Magic Spells Page 11

  “I shouldn’t do this...” I whispered to myself.

  I sprinkled more Wolfsbane into the cauldron. Immediately, an outpouring of smoke and energy burst forth.

  The Book of Shadows had recommended that the more of the herb you added, the more energy would be produced... but if you put in too much? Then you’d crack open the whole spirit world, enabling every dead thing within a hundred miles to soar into your body and mind.

  Needless to say, that was something which did not have a pretty outcome—though it might add a stylish red stain to the walls.

  I sprinkled in just a little more of the dark witch’s regent. By my calculations, I was now at about the limit. Any more and we’d be done for.

  I let the smoke filter across the room. It seemed to be drawn to the ghost, the smoke flying into its open mouth and disappearing.

  “Who are you? Why are you here? What happened to Fletcher?” I asked urgently.

  The spirit seemed to stand taller, and pointed at the floor again. I stared at it. It raised its eyebrows and pointed up to the ceiling again.

  “I don’t understand!” I said.

  There was a loud thump from outside the room. It sounded like a door swinging back against a wall and hitting it. The spirit pointed again, and then vanished.

  I blinked as if there was something wrong with my eyes.

  Nope.

  It was gone.

  But someone else had arrived.

  Kiwi gave a nervous chitter and I bit my bottom lip.

  Whoever had opened the door upstairs was now descending into the basement, one footstep after the other.

  “Hello!” cried a voice. “Who’s there?”

  “Oh no,” said Kiwi in my ear.

  I couldn’t have agreed with the sentiment more.

  While the spiritual danger had passed, trouble from the physical world was just beginning.

  Chapter 16

  “I say again, who’s there!?” said the deep voice, dripping with firm authority. “This is the police. I am armed. If someone is down there, you better answer me. Now.”

  “Umm, hello!” I said. “Sorry! We’re not causing any harm!”

  I was panicking twice over.

  Not only had we let ourselves into the house illegally, worse than that, the spirit had disappeared but the spell was still in full effect.

  “Don’t move!”

  “Sorry,” I said as I turned to face the voice, a sheepish look on my face. Oh no. It was Jack!

  He took a step toward me.

  “Stop!” I shouted. “Don’t cross the line!”

  He had a hand on the holster to his gun as he glanced quickly down at the floor to see the salt circle, before returning his gaze to me.

  “Aria, you’ve got to stop with this mumbo-jumbo,” he said, shaking his head.

  “Please, just don’t cross that line. I’ll end it quickly. Promise.”

  He raised his eyebrows at me and gave me a look. “Please, put the knife down.”

  “Knife! Knife!” shrieked Kiwi. I knew he wanted to expand on the topic, and say something like I told you it was a knife, not an athame!

  “I can’t, not until I uncast the circle. One minute!” I said.

  Before he could respond, I started walking around the circle, hurriedly scattering the salt and chanting words of thanks to my ancestors for their protection, and to close the link to the spirit world that had been created. I trusted he wouldn’t shoot me in the meantime.

  I tried to keep the motions to a minimum as I waved the athame around in a complete circuit. With some last words of thanks, I pushed my palms together in a final gesture, athame pressed between them, before kneeling down and reverentially placing it on the floor.

  “Okay, you can come in now,” I said.

  “Gee, thanks for the permission,” said Jack.

  He stepped toward me and offered me a hand. I took it, and he gave me a firm grip as I rose to my feet again, leaving my athame on the floor.

  We looked at each other. I put on my best face of contrition while he looked on with something between confusion and disappointment.

  “Sorry,” I said, again.

  “Now, do you want to tell me what in heaven’s name you’re doing trespassing in Davenport’s house?”

  His eyes bore into mine.

  Then, a flash of surprise rolled over his face as he realized he was still holding my hand. He released it immediately. I would have grinned if the circumstances had been different.

  With my hands now by my sides, I tried to think of a good way to explain what I’d been doing, something that wouldn’t be too at odds with his rather narrow-minded, magic-less worldview.

  “Well?” he pressed.

  Nope. Couldn’t think of anything except pure, unadulterated truth.

  “I came down here to communicate with Fletcher directly. I wanted to ask him who killed him. I cast a spell to summon his spirit so that we could speak. I needed to come here, because this is where he was murdered.”

  “Right,” he said. “And how did that work out?”

  “Ummm,” I faltered.

  “Well?”

  I sighed and looked down at my shoes. “I summoned a spirit, but it wasn’t Fletcher. It was someone else.”

  “Right. I see. And did this other ghost tell you anything?”

  I shook my head. “No, he just pointed at the ceiling and the floor.”

  “I didn’t see anything,” said the detective.

  “It disappeared just when you started coming down the stairs!”

  “Of course. I guess I’m just unlucky, eh?”

  “Lucky!” screeched Kiwi.

  Jack laughed at the parrot, and the tension was broken. “Let’s get out of this basement.”

  I picked up my athame by the blade, and dropped it point first into my cauldron. The charcoal and herbs had burned through now, and all that was left was a lingering wisp of smoke, the soot-black nail, and the heady aroma of the burnt plants. “After you,” said Jack.

  I walked up the steps, cauldron swinging from its chain by my side.

  At the top of the stairs, I turned to wait for Jack.

  “How did you get here?” he asked. “By car?”

  “Yes, I parked up on the road. The gate was locked.”

  “Yeah, it was locked. Do you know why?”

  “Umm. To stop people coming in?”

  He nodded. “Come on, I’ll take you up the driveway to your vehicle.”

  We walked out of the house together, Kiwi unusually quiet.

  Jack’s patrol car was parked right in front of the house. He must have arrived after us and unlocked the gate.

  I stood awkwardly by the side of the car, not sure whether I was supposed to get in the back or the front. I had a brief vision of getting in the back, and then Mrs. Honeywell seeing me and having her suspicions that I was a killer confirmed.

  Jack stopped by my side, looked at me, looked at the car, and grinned.

  “You can ride in the front,” he said, fixing me with a look. “This time.”

  I nodded, understanding the implication. But if I catch you here again, you’ll be riding in the back.

  I got in and he drove us slowly up the rutted driveway, the car bouncing up and down. Although it was covered in gravel, it had not been maintained the last few years and a variety of holes and ridges had opened up and developed, making little hills and valleys around which the gravel lay.

  The gate was open now, and when we got to the end of the drive I pointed out where my car was. Jack must have approached from the other direction, and not seen it, parked under the trees.

  He parked the patrol car next to mine and we both exited his vehicle.

  “Hold on. Don’t go yet,” he said.

  Kiwi nuzzled against my head as we watched Jack walk over to the large gates of the house and pull them shut before locking them with a key he produced from his pocket.

  They rang loudly as they shut with a clang, the sound sta
rtling some birds that fluttered into the air above our heads. Jack walked over to me.

  “Aria,” he said, “you can’t come here again. This is private property, and a crime scene. Legally, you were trespassing. If you’d been a stranger, I would have arrested you down there and we’d be on our way to the station right now.”

  I nodded contritely. “I’m sorry. It’s just that people are blaming me for his death. Word’s getting around that I’m a suspect and I’m even losing customers at the shop.”

  “Really?” he said, surprised. “You’re not a suspect.”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “Doesn’t matter. If people think I’m a suspect, that’s enough. That’s why I’m here—that’s why I want to find out who killed him.”

  He shook his head sadly and then reached out to squeeze my upper arm.

  “I’m sorry you’re mixed up in this, but I have to ask you to stop, Aria. You can’t be coming to this house doing your... magic… and trying to solve the crime. That’s our job.”

  “I get it,” I said.

  And of course I could understand his point of view. He had a job to do, too. But that didn’t make things any better for me.

  “And it’s not just that you’re trespassing, Aria. This is where a murder happened, and as you so clearly know, that murderer is still on the loose. He could be here,” he said, raising his eyebrows and nodding back toward the gate and the house beyond.

  I shuddered. I hadn’t considered that the murderer might return to the scene of the crime. He might even have been watching us.

  “This was a serious crime. As you know, we don’t exactly get many murders around here. I’ve got enough on my plate working this case, without having to worry about your safety too,” he said.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled again.

  He was still squeezing my arm and he stepped in closer to me. “I care about you, you know.”

  Our eyes locked together. He cares about me. He’s looking into my eyes. Is he going to...

  He shook his head like a cat after a drop of water falls on it, then cleared his throat. “Head on home now, Aria,” he said, his voice suddenly much louder. He released my arm.

  My heart was aflutter as I turned toward my car.

  The moment was gone, for now.

  Would it be back?

  Chapter 17

  I was sipping lavender tea to calm myself before my next appointment with Nina. Kiwi was perched up on top of the bookshelf looking on. He’d only heard my previous appointments with the couple from a distance, but this time he didn’t want to ‘miss any of the action,’ as he annoyingly put it.

  At precisely eleven o’clock, the door swung open and, for once, it wasn’t a violent shove to send the whole thing flying. The bell above the door tinkled gently, like it was designed to do, and I greeted my customer with a warm smile like I was supposed to do.

  “Good morning!” I said warmly.

  “Could be, could be,” said Nina thoughtfully before following it up with, “Hello,” as she realized it was a greeting rather than a question.

  I had decided to try and put the Fletcher murder aside and focus on my business. People would forget about it soon enough, and luckily I hadn’t lost any customers other than Priscilla. No, I’d let the police do their job, and I’d do mine.

  “Is the dress in?” asked Nina excitedly.

  “I have something here which I think you’ll like very much,” I answered evasively.

  Her eyes glimmered with excitement. “Rick said you’ve got something very expensive for me.”

  “For small town folks like us, it certainly is!” I answered honestly, but again hiding the real truth of the matter.

  I took Nina by the arm and led her over to the side of the room, where I had the lone dress hanging from the wall to show it off to best effect.

  Hanging right in front of the dress was the doctored price tag, so that Nina could clearly see “$7,800” rather than the real price of eighteen hundred.

  Nina beamed with joy. “Ooh, that’s more like it! Look at the material. You can just tell it’s quality,” she said, fingering the dress.

  “It is a stunning dress. It just needs one thing to make it perfect,” I teased.

  “Oh?” asked Nina, a hint of a frown beginning to cross her face.

  “You inside it!” I laughed, and Nina soon giggled along with me.

  “Pretty lady!” screeched Kiwi from up high.

  “Oh!” said Nina, turning to face him with a gasp. “A parrot!”

  I nodded. “Yep. Do you mind? I can send him in the back if you like.”

  Kiwi glared at me.

  “Oh, no,” said Nina. “It’s wonderful. I love animals. How much do you want for it?”

  “Oh, he’s not for sale,” I said with a smile.

  “How about three hundred?”

  “No. He’s really not for sale,” I said again, the smile on my face now kept there by force of will.

  “Five hundred...?”

  “Not for any price in the world,” I said firmly, beginning to get exasperated. “Why don’t you try this wonderful dress on and see where we are?”

  She stared at Kiwi a moment longer, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

  “Well, if you’re sure,” she said, as if I might regret not selling Kiwi to her. “I’ll have Rick get me one as a wedding present though. Then perhaps they can play together!”

  I laughed politely.

  “No!” shrieked Kiwi.

  Nina looked up and cocked her head at him. “Does he... understand?”

  “He just spouts out any old rubbish,” I said, giving Kiwi a sly smile.

  “No!” he shrieked again.

  “Can’t shut him up sometimes.”

  Kiwi glared down at me while I led Nina away to fit her into the dress.

  A few minutes later, we had her in front of the mirror.

  “It seems a little loose,” she said.

  It actually did, which was odd since it was the exact same dress that had fit her nigh perfectly the week before.

  “Have you lost weight?” I asked.

  She grinned at me. “Yep! I’ve been on the lettuce diet.”

  “Oh? What’s that?”

  “It’s crazy simple. You skip breakfast, then for lunch and dinner you have lettuce wraps.”

  “Ooh, what’s in them?” I asked, intrigued. While I didn’t exactly need to lose weight it wouldn’t hurt either.

  She gave me a strange look. “In the wraps?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, lettuce,” she said with a laugh. “You take a large outer lettuce leaf, and then inside you stuff a lettuce heart, and then wrap it all up together! If you’re feeling naughty, you can sprinkle a little salt on it too!”

  “Isn’t that a little... boring?”

  “Boring is better than being a boar,” she said and clapped her hands together, delighted at her joke. “That’s B-O-A-R,” she spelled for me like I was a simpleton.

  Boar or bore, I pondered.

  “Wonderfully clever,” I said. “Now, let me get the adjustments calculated and we’ll get the dress altered to perfection for you. It’ll just take a day or two.”

  “Fantastic. Oh, and it wasn’t just the lettuce. We’ve also been doing a lot of walking.”

  “There’s some wonderful hiking spots around here,” I said in agreement.

  "Hiking?" she said with a somewhat bemused look.

  "Well what kind of walking have you been doing then?"

  She stifled a laugh, stopping herself from laughing out loud at the country bumpkin who considered hiking to be the kind of pursuit a lady should involve herself in—at least that's what it felt like.

  "We've been looking at properties," she said, "for our new life here."

  "Ah, I see. Are you still interested in the old Davenport place?"

  She snapped her head back at me. "Yes! More than anything!"

  I nodded. "It is a lovely old place."

  "Lovely?" she sa
id. "It's not just lovely—it's my dream. I'm sure you couldn't understand, being from here and all, but it's always been my dream to live on the California coast. I just love the salty ocean air, the fog, the mild climate..." her voice trailed off wistfully.

  "I enjoy living here," I said. "Even though I'm from here, I still appreciate it."

  "But you could never really appreciate it, like I can, since you came from here originally. I think you have to be an outsider to really see it with fresh eyes, you know?"

  I nodded as if in understanding, but I was not enjoying being told that I could not appreciate where I was from. The very idea that Nina Bellamy knew more than me about appreciating the world was borderline offensive.

  "I do hope Rick gets that house for me. I'll be so... so annoyed if we don't get it."

  "Oh?" I said, sticking another couple of pins into the dress.

  "I gave up so much to be here, to get that house." Nina's voice had risen a notch and she sounded surprisingly annoyed about the whole state of affairs.

  "What did you give up?"

  "Opportunity! You know, Ariel, I—"

  "Aria," I corrected.

  She tilted her head and gave me an inquisitive look, as if to indicate that I should really double-check that my name was Aria and not Ariel.

  "Right, Aria. I gave up so much. You may not believe it, but I actually," she said, lowering her voice to an almost-whisper, "wasn't always so well off. I came from a poor family. There was no way out for me. None. Apart from finding the right man..."

  "And Rick gave you a... way out?"

  She nodded. "At least, I thought he did. But now I'm not so sure."

  "Oh?" I said as I turned to jot down some measurements on my notepad.

  "Between you and me, he's actually been losing money recently. Something about investments not working out. I'm worried I made a terrible mistake, Arie—Aria. Maybe I should have married a property developer instead. Ow!"

  The final ow was kind of my fault. Okay, definitely my fault.

  I accidentally jabbed her with a pin when she admitted that she was having second thoughts about her future husband. It crossed my mind that perhaps I should try and brew up that love potion after all—maybe even two of them! I couldn’t afford to lose this client.