“How so?” I asked.
“If Hayview had sold all those years ago, more development would have come to Mintwood. Maybe new business and new blood around here. When a place stands empty, none of that happens. If the buyer had been successful all those years ago, the Wolf Corporation wouldn’t be buying it now.”
“They tried to buy it before, right?” I confirmed.
“Dylan Wolf has tried to buy pretty much everything. I can’t believe he cared too much about whether he ended up being successful,” he said.
I frowned. I wasn’t sure that was entirely true. Wolf, Sr., did not like to lose. I glanced at Charlie. For the first time a terrible theory had entered my head. What if Mr. Wolf was a suspect in a murder?
Chapter Ten
I was so preoccupied with that theory that I didn’t pay much attention to the rest of the interview. It wasn’t until we left that I noticed a woman who appeared to be in her fifties looking at us curiously from a doorway. When I glanced at her, she quickly looked away and went back into her office.
Unfortunately for sneaky people everywhere, Charlie didn’t miss a trick. She had seen the woman as well.
My reporter friend quickly turned around and made a beeline for her. “Hi there. I’m Charlie Silver. I’m a reporter,” said Charlie, sticking out her hand.
Mr. Oakley had the most grand office. This one was definitely second.
“Vertigo,” she said, returning Charlie’s handshake. “Were you here to purchase a home?”
“Definitely not. I can’t imagine being a master of my own destiny like that. I was actually investigating Mr. Earle’s murder,” said Charlie.
“Was he murdered?” Ms. Vertigo asked. I couldn’t quite pin down the expression on her face. It wasn’t exactly surprise, nor was it sadness. It might have been easiest to describe it as a mild distaste, as if she smelled something funny.
“That’s the working assumption,” said Charlie. “You two worked together, right?”
“We did. I had been here six months when he was hired on as our third employee. The business nearly went under when he disappeared. It was all Mr. Oakley could do to keep it afloat.”
“It must be nice still being here all these years later,” said Greer.
Ms. Vertigo raised her eyebrows. Greer coughed. “Forgive me. My name is Greer.”
“Pleasure. If you don’t mind, I have to get going. The three of you are more than welcome to walk me to my car.” She turned on her heel and grabbed a bag out of her office and closed the door behind her. As we walked, I introduced myself as well. Ms. Vertigo could barely be bothered to acknowledge the information.
“Do you remember anything about the time around when Mr. Earle disappeared? Did he have any enemies?” Charlie asked.
Ms. Vertigo nodded to the receptionist, who nodded back. She let the three of us get to the door before she turned on her heel again and went back to the receptionist, who whispered something in her ear. Ms. Vertigo’s eyes flicked to Greer. I could just see thoughts of money pouring out of her.
When she returned to us at the door she was considerably more pleasant. “What was it you asked me?”
Charlie repeated the questions as we headed out into the sunshine. Ms. Vertigo pondered her answers for a beat or two, then said, “He certainly didn’t have any enemies that I knew about. There aren’t enough people around here to have enemies. I didn’t always think his business practices were the best, but his customers were happy. That was the most important thing. He never stabbed them in the back. As to anything being strange around the time he disappeared, I have to confess I had a lot on my plate right about then. I had just moved back home to take care of my parents and I had a ten-year-old car. I didn’t really have time to worry about anybody else’s drama.”
She kept walking at a fast clip, as if she thought she could just race ahead and leave us behind without being overtly rude.
Feeling like a lot of her statements were loaded, I started trying to untangle them in my mind, while Charlie kept up the questioning.
“You’ve come a long way since he disappeared,” said Charlie.
“I’ve worked very hard. I didn’t really have a choice. Like I said, my parents needed to be taken care of,” said Ms. Vertigo.
“How are they both doing now?” Greer asked.
“They both lived into their nineties and passed away peacefully,” Ms. Vertigo said with a smile.
When we reached her car, she opened the driver’s side door and flung her bag in. Miraculously, when she turned around she happened to have a business card in one manicured hand. Of course she handed it to Greer. “I know your family has a lot of property, but should you ever be looking for anything of your own, please give me a call. Really, don’t hesitate.” She flashed a smile the brilliance of which would have made a diamond jealous.
Greer told her that she’d keep her in mind, but I didn’t think my friend would be buying a house any time soon. Ms. Vertigo was right. The Dices already owned a lot of property, and if that weren’t enough, Greer was dating an entrepreneurial property developer. Deacon would most likely be able to find them something should Greer ever move in with him.
I pushed the small pang in my stomach away. Greer’s moving out of the farmhouse was inevitable, but it made me sad to think about it. I wouldn’t want her to go when the time came. Only Paws would be happy about something like that.
I watched the real estate agent drive away. The Lexus was hers.
“She seemed all right,” said Charlie. “She’s been in this business for a long time. It’s interesting that nobody thinks anyone held any grudges against Mr. Earle.”
“She was all right, but she got a lot nicer when she found out my family was rich,” said Greer.
“That must happen a lot,” said Charlie.
“It does,” confirmed Greer.
“I feel like I have the best of both worlds,” said Charlie. “Everyone is nice to you, so they’re more likely to answer questions from a reporter you know. I can still be a reporter, while taking advantage of your connections. It’s a win-win!”
“I don’t see how that’s a win for me,” said Greer as we walked back to the Beetle.
“Other than the fact that I’m not mad at you, I guess you’re right,” said Charlie with a grin.
Chapter Eleven
On our way home, Greer and I stopped in to see Cesar. I hadn’t taken him out for long that morning, so I took thought he needed another chance.
Mr. John’s property was comfortable and beautiful. He spent a lot of time and effort on his garden, and it showed.
“What did you make of Jasper’s sister?” Greer asked as we walked the dog around the property.
“She was nice enough. I liked her. I had a feeling she had heard about me,” I said.
“Of course. You’re his girlfriend. She has most definitely heard of you,” said Greer, confirming my worst fear.
“Do you think she’s heard we’re on a break?” I asked.
“If I’m being entirely honest, I think she had definitely heard something. She was being very tactful when she was talking to us. So was he,” said Greer. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it or read too much into it until you know more.”
I really hated it when good advice was so hard to follow.
“I think it’s all going to work out in the end. In fact, I’m nearly sure of it,” said Greer.
Hansen came over for dinner again that night. I had a feeling that after Charlie had called him when she was so upset the night before, he had insisted. In any event, I was happy to see him.
“It was more difficult to figure out what to bring for dinner. I didn’t want to be bringing dessert every time. I thought about wine, but I figured Greer had a lock on wine choices since she works at a bar,” he said. “Besides, I know Charlie is working around the clock on this case. I didn’t want to distract her with alcohol.”
“Very thoughtful of you. What you really mean is that if you broug
ht wine over here she would think you were trying to distract her from writing a better story,” I said with a smile.
“Exactly,” he said. His eyes were sparkling as he held out the delicious bowl of salad. I grinned back and took it, and he followed me into the kitchen.
Charlie was still in her room, while Greer had finished cooking and gone upstairs for a few minutes. Hansen and I were just sitting down when Charlie came out of her room.
“Hey, how are you?” Hansen said, standing up again. His eyes flashed with concern to see the bags under Charlie’s eyes.
“Have you found out anything else?” she asked.
“About which?” he asked.
“Either and both,” said Charlie.
“No and yes,” he said. “This fresh murder is certainly capturing headlines, so much so that it has pushed the husband’s murder off the front page. Here I was thinking that the discovery of a skeleton at Hayview was going to dominate the news for days. But anyhow, the police are thinking that the wife was murdered too. Whoever did it tried to make it look like an accident, but the police know she didn’t slip. The way her head hit proves it,” he said.
The four of us had a pleasant dinner. Afterward Charlie and Hansen decided to compare notes on the two investigations. Unsurprisingly, Hansen had friends at the Applewood police station to give him the scoop.
“Play softball with them?” I asked him.
“Of course. And I always let them get a hit or two,” he grinned. Charlie just rolled her eyes.
When Greer and I headed out to the porch, I waved to Paws and he hopped off his crate to come join us. The early spring evening was so freezing cold that we had both put coats on. Even bundled up we found the chill biting.
“I like it when he comes to dinner,” said Greer.
I had found some old cat treats in the kitchen, but they were all dried out, so I’d brought some cheese and milk instead. I hoped the stray cat would be lapping it up, so to speak.
“Am I expected to come with you tonight?” Paws asked.
“That depends. Can you behave?” I asked.
“Am I expected to behave?” he sounded appalled.
“You’re expected to be nice to this cat instead of scaring him away like I know you want to do,” I said.
“That’s ridiculous. I would never scare the cat away. I would convince other ghosts to scare the cat away,” he explained.
“Sounds about right to me,” I said.
“So do I have to come?”
“Yes, definitely. We might be doing some investigating for this murder case. I’d like you there,” I said.
Hansen came out just then and waved goodbye without saying a word. Charlie was nowhere to be seen.
I headed back inside with Greer and found Charlie still getting ready in her room. She had already sent off another story about the murder at the Hayview development. The story would appear in tomorrow’s paper.
Unfortunately for the Gazette, the editor wasn’t happy with her reporters. Lena thought the Chronicle was scooping every story the Gazette tried to publish, mostly because of Toil Temper’s recent barn-burning articles. Everyone in the area was excited about the new reporter on the scene, and no one wanted to read much else at the moment. Charlie had resolved to ask Hansen about him the next time she saw him, but she’d lost her nerve. Those of us who lived at the little white farmhouse agreed that Hansen should watch out.
As usual when we were going snooping, my friends wore all black clothing. Charlie had already stuffed her blonde locks into a black knit hat. On top of that, both Charlie and Greer were dressed in black jeans and black sweaters. Greer had an abundance of black boots to choose from, while Charlie had black sneakers that had started out with white designs on them, which Charlie had colored in with black marker. These two were serious. Seriously ridiculous.
“You realize the four of us are going over to the abandoned house, and you’re the only one not dressed in black. Even Paws has black fur,” said Charlie.
I just shrugged.
We headed outside and down the creaky old porch steps. In the distance I could see the sparkling protective fence the other witches had helped me place around the property. No dark witches or ghosts would be getting to the house now.
The dark witches were a constant reminder that danger was nearby. Even though I was busy with duties that belonged to the Witch of Mintwood, I never forgot that Ellie was out there, or that she wanted to take over my position. She was slowly turning ghosts against me, and I knew it was only a matter of time before she and I had a confrontation.
Ellie had formed her own town at the base of the mountain, calling it Puddlewood, so she wasn’t exactly in my hair just yet. But the ghosts who lived at my farmhouse were urging me to fight back harder against her encroachment. Mr. Bone, Karen, and the rest of the gang wanted me to take stronger action to protect myself and Mintwood.
Now that the other witches had come into my life to help me, I didn’t feel so alone in that fight. But we still hadn’t made any headway in stopping Ellie, let alone driving her out of the county, or better yet the state.
“Earth to Lemmi. Where’d you go?” Greer asked.
We had made it down the driveway and were standing next to my mailbox. As usual, there were no cars coming down our road. Across from us was the abandoned Portrait House, looking about as creepy in the dead of night as you would imagine. The overgrown driveway led around a slight curve into nothing but deeper darkness.
“Keep your eyes out for any yellow cat eyes. Especially you, Paws, you’re at the right height to spot another cat,” I said.
“You didn’t answer her question,” Charlie pointed out.
“I was just thinking about dark witches,” I said.
“A nice, cheerful topic to be dwelling on right before we go into a dark, abandoned house,” muttered Charlie.
Before we headed into the house, I set some cheese out on the porch. If the cat was nearby, he would hopefully smell it and come to investigate.
The front door of the old house was locked, but one of the little window panes was broken, so it was easy enough for me to stick my hand through the opening and twist the lock.
Once that was accomplished, we headed inside. We edged into the doorways of a couple of rooms and swept our flashlights around, only to find that the house was entirely empty.
“Do you think the last tenants removed everything, or was some of it stolen?” Greer asked.
“I don’t think anybody would steal anything around here. I bet the last tenants took it all with them,” said Charlie.
There wasn’t much of a moon, so the place was even darker than it might have been. The lack of any furniture made it easy to confirm that every room was empty of cats, as well as of everything else. A cat—or any other animal—would have been easy to spot in the dusty corners.
“Maybe he’s upstairs,” suggested Greer.
“It’s nighttime. He’s probably out hunting,” said Charlie.
Having stepped carefully up the stairs, we spread out into the second floor. There were three rooms of equal size and a smaller room with built-in shelves. Not even a cat would get away with hiding there.
“This house is big. I can’t believe it’s abandoned,” said Greer. “And no cat anywhere.”
“It’s a nice house. At least it used to be. Maybe one of your developer friends would want it,” said Charlie.
“Yeah, that could be true,” said Greer.
“Let’s go wait near the front of the house,” I whispered. “We should have a good view of the cheese from there.”
The front room on the second floor looked like it had once been a bedroom. It was as empty of furniture and debris as all the others, so we simply squatted down near the window and settled in to wait. After a few minutes Greer disappeared and came back with a folding chair.
“I found it in the closet. There wasn’t much else in there,” she said. She set the folding chair down and sat on it, while Charlie a
nd I sat on the floor near her.
Greer was the only one who could really see out the window, so she kept an eye out while we discussed the recent murders in low voices. Well, one recent murder and one older one.
“I can’t believe someone killed the woman just as I was on my way over there. It’s too awful to comprehend,” said Charlie. Her eyes were still haunted.
“How could they have known you were going to talk to her?” I asked.
“That’s what I can’t figure out. It isn’t as if I told anyone I was going to see her,” she said.
“Tomorrow we should go back to her house. The police probably won’t let us in, but we could talk to the neighbors,” I said.
“Yes. I was thinking about that too,” said Charlie. “We have to do something. I hope her little dog’s okay.”
“I can’t believe anybody would own a little dog,” said Paws, trotting into the room after exploring the rest of the house.
“Any sign of a cat?” I asked.
“None,” said Paws.
“We should probably check in with Hansen, too,” I said. “He might be getting information that we don’t have.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. His sources aren’t always the best,” Charlie sniffed.
Greer and I exchanged looks. After all this time, Charlie still refused to compliment Hansen or even to tolerate one of us doing it.
“I think I see something,” said Greer, shifting forward to peer out the window. It was a very dark night, and I was impressed that her eyes had adjusted enough to see movement on the ground. The cheese was white and shining just a bit in the gloom.
“Is it a cat?” I whispered. I was scared to even move in case the cat sensed me and ran away.
“I think so. Looks scraggly,” said Greer.
“We should abandon all hope and leave,” Paws offered.
“We should not. We are very close to catching this thing. Helen will be relieved when we do,” I said. The postmistress had an eye for animals, and she couldn’t stand to see one suffer. That’s probably why she had about eight cats of her own.
Miraculous Mintwood Magic Page 8
