Cupcakes, Crystals, and Chaos

by Jessica Lancaster

  A sense of immediate dread filled me as she spoke, she’d been to see my son days before getting to me, I didn’t want her filling his head with all this information, at least not after I’d told him all the impossibilities. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to call this number,” I said, I walked around the counter to use the landline. “But if you have information from the police, please tell us.” It wasn’t until I started punching the numbers in that I realised it wasn’t a telephone number at all.

  “I do, actually,” my mother replied. “The police have no clue, they have your doctor friend helping, but from what I’ve seen of him, he’s only a GP, and I don’t know what good he’ll be in identifying the source of death.”

  I placed the phone on the receiver, swivelling the card in my hand in search of the phone number. “So, what did you find?”

  “My ring,” she said, presenting her hand in the air, showing off the elegant ring. “I miss this one the most. The ring I mean, not the man.”

  “Beautiful,” Tana said. “You need any help, Gwen?”

  “I need to find a phone number, a place called Holden and Son Private Detectives.”

  Tana rounded out her mouth into an O-shape, oohing. “You have a Yellow Pages in the back I think, I’ll have a look.” She scooted off into the backroom.

  My mother sat at one of the tables. “Aren’t you going to ask how I am? I spent the night in a jail cell.”

  “Yes, mother. How’re you feeling?”

  “I’ve been better,” she replied. “I still need to go home and shower, put some clean clothes on, and check in with Julian, I bet he’s lost all the way out there without me to keep him company.” She placed a hand to her chest. “I can only imagine the distress, pulling out his feathers.” She drilled her fingernails against the table. “You know, some cake would go a long way to helping me feel better.”

  With my eyes glued to the card, I gestured to the display case of baked goods. “Help yourself.”

  My mother never passed the opportunity as she glanced through the case and snapped her fingers, zapping cakes on a plate.

  “There was no number,” Tana said rushing into the café from the backroom. “But I had a look on the internet and found a number for the company.” She pushed a piece of paper across the counter. “I didn’t find a lot about them. They’re a private company.”

  “Victor was a rich man, of course he used a private detective agency,” my mother said.

  “Even though you said earlier he could’ve traced you using magic.” My eyes rolled to the back of my head trying to keep a clear narrative in mind.

  “I was connecting dots, dear.”

  “Are you going to call it?” Tana asked, clenching her stomach. “I don’t think I want to be here when you find out, and what if we find out more than we need to know about him?”

  My mother scoffed, taking a seat at a table. “Hardly, anything you need to know about the man, I know it already.” She pointed to herself. “Married to the man for what, four-five years, I’m an expert.”

  “Okay, okay,” I said, hushing them both my hands. “Let me call the number then.”

  I dialled the number Tana gave. For a moment there was nothing but a dead tone buzzing, it was followed by three bleeps until finally an automated message. “Thank you for contacting Holden and Son Private Detectives, do you have your reference number to hand?”

  I nodded my head and turned the card in my hand. “Yes. It’s 7364289.” The dialup tone came once again.

  “Good afternoon, Mr. Hodge, is everything okay?” a soft female voice spoke. “Firstly,” she chuckled, “can I verify your account with you, please?”

  I slammed the phone. “Bless the Goddess.”

  “What?” Tana spoke meekly from the far corner of the café.

  “How was it?”

  “It wasn’t for Victor at all,” I said, chewing the inside of my lip. “It was for Detective Hodge.” Saying it aloud the words sank in my stomach.

  CHAPTER 7

  Nothing made much sense, no matter which direction it was spun, and like I did when something happened where I didn’t have any answers and found myself frustrated, I threw myself into the baking studio.

  Rosie had already joined me, just in time to watch as I creamed sugar and butter together with a fork. She’d been filled in on everything going on and it needed no further introduction.

  “I can’t believe he’d accept outside help,” Rosie said, tucking her hair inside a net. “I mean, I know he’s not that great, but to think he’s actually gone out of his way to hire someone else to do his work for him.” She laughed.

  I wasn’t too keen on laughter or laughing at this instance. “But he’s coming for the coven witches,” I said, letting the fork rest inside the bowl. I relaxed onto a stool and closed my eyes briefly. “You don’t think the person on the other end told him to target us do you?”

  Rosie took over the bowl. “I don’t think so, I know Doctor Raymond has been vocal about the witches having no part in it, and he’s examining the body,” she said. “I went in earlier to see him, and Caroline asked how you were as well, it’s a shame you’ve had to close the café.”

  “It’s a shame someone threw a rock and smashed the window.”

  “So why are we baking?” she asked.

  I glanced at her as I hung my head. “Because I needed some thinking space,” I said.

  Allegra stomped into the kitchen. “Nothing,” she said, slapping the picture on the work surface. “Nobody has seen him. It doesn’t make any sense!”

  Eva followed her. “Like he was never here.”

  And finally, Noelia. “Zilch.”

  Soon the baking studio was a full house alongside my mother and Tana; people bringing in their mess of human bacteria.

  “Out,” I called. “Everyone, out.”

  We gathered again inside the café, I sat them down with fresh cups of tea and warm chocolate cake with whipped cream.

  “Okay,” I said, commanding attention. “Not sure if you heard, but I found a business card for a private detective company, apparently Detective Hodge has been using them. I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

  Allegra guffawed. “He’s what?”

  “Private detective,” my mother reiterated. “You know, a business that tries to find out information on something or someone.”

  “Yes, I know what they are.”

  “We’re not in the business of disbelief,” my mother said. “Just believe what we’re told the first time around, shall we?” She forked a piece of cake into her mouth, mopping up the cream.

  “Mother, we’re also not here to start arguments,” I said. “But understand, you’re at the centre of all of this.”

  She stood, gulping at the cake in her throat. “At the centre?”

  “You are, aren’t you?” I asked.

  She stomped a foot. “I might be, but that’s no reason to blame me.”

  “Oh, mother.” And before I could say anymore she was gone. “Well, that’s her when she doesn’t get her own way.”

  Rosie burst out laughing. “That’s quite the party trick,” she said. “Why don’t we see you doing that?”

  “My mother abusing her abilities,” I said. “She doesn’t have a coven and she definitely doesn’t follow any rules, but—”

  “But?” Rosie asked.

  “But it takes a lot out of a person,” Eva added. “I can only imagine Celine sleeps on a bed of crystals to keep her energy reserves.”

  “Or the crystal on that ring,” Allegra chuckled.

  Of course, her collection of wedding and engagement rings weren’t ordinary, they had many uses to them, including energy stores to use freely without consequence of her personal energy. “That makes sense,” I said. “She came back with the ring they found, not to mention she’s kept every other wedding ring.”

  “Is this where you ask me to refuse her offer to buy my mother’s house?” Noelia asked with apprehension.

&
nbsp; “Oh Goddess, no,” I said with a smile. “She won’t stick around for long anyway.” I knew my mother well enough to know she was flighty, she wouldn’t want to stick around for too long especially in my small village on the coast of Cornwall.

  “I’ll put some feelers out with other witches in Cornwall, perhaps further up the coast,” Allegra said. “But I have a bad feeling about this.”

  Tana clenched her stomach. “You have a bad feeling? Someone is dead. Maybe tha—”

  “Ladies,” I said, cutting her off, ending further bickering. “Does anyone here actually believe my mother killed him?”

  Eva raised a hand slightly, wavering in the air. “I’d never say she couldn’t, she’s got some punch to her power.”

  We all felt her abilities, she gave off an incredibly powerful pulsating force and held a deep purple aura, matched alongside with her choice colour of clothing. The other women seemed to hum in agreement with Eva, but the woman in question was my mother, and I knew she was a great many things, but a killer, I would bet my life she had nothing to do with this.

  “Alternatively,” Allegra began with a smile on her face. “Bridget is always a little odd.”

  Rosie chuckled and waved a hand at the comment. “Not quite, at the church yesterday, her father was talking to Doctor Raymond about her, apparently she hasn’t left the chapel or the family home.”

  It was easy to target Bridget, she was a little odd, and she didn’t exactly stay out of trouble. She was also extremely religious and even took a small interest in witchcraft when Noelia’s mother, Marissa, was still alive, although the mystery behind what they did and spoke about was still unknown.

  A connection clicked. “It could be, for all we know. Bridget spoke with Marissa, perhaps Victor’s death was some grand showing, black magic comes in all forms,” I said, followed by a gasp.

  Noelia squeaked. “I still don’t get how someone could shove a crystal down a throat without magic or brute strength.”

  “The doctor is keeping all the info on this top secret,” Rosie said. “Or I would’ve swiped his file.”

  I grinned. “I can work on Oscar,” I said. “So, we have two possibilities, a witch or a giant muscular man.”

  “But we all agree he was killed in Cowan Bay?” Allegra asked, raising a hand.

  I raised my hand. “Yes.”

  Crunch. Crash. A thick rock pierced through another window.

  Eva jumped from her chair and ran to the window. “Those little—”

  My fingers clutched to the pendant around my neck. “Oh Goddess, what’s happening?” I approached the mess of shattered glass now scattered across a table beside the window. “Why would anyone do this?”

  Eva pulled her head back into the café. “Didn’t even see who it was, could’ve been anyone, but my money is on some teenage tearaway.”

  The small village I was living in was turning its back on me, I knew this, in every fibre of my being I could feel them pull away from the café. Granted, I wasn’t open for business right now, and they couldn’t exactly show their support. If I was into conspiracies, which I wasn’t, my money would be on another business trying to get ahead.

  Brinng. The telephone on the counter rang. Brinng. My feet carried me in a jump toward it as I leaned over the counter. “Hello?”

  “Mum?” my son replied.

  “Oh, Joseph, are you okay?”

  He sighed. “Yes, I just saw a video online, the window of the café was smashed?”

  “Hmm. I didn’t want to worry you, love.”

  I could hear him sigh louder. “What happened?”

  “We’re fine,” I replied. “And anyway, you didn’t tell me your grandmother came to visit you.”

  He snickered. “She asked me not to tell you, but she told me you knew she was visiting.”

  “I did, but she’s been filling you head with all types of nonsense.”

  “No, she hasn’t,” he continued. “She actually gave me some useful things.”

  “As long as she’s not telling you lies,” I said, knowing well enough what my mother was capable of, especially if there was something she wanted, she knew how to get it.

  “But everything is okay?”

  “Yes, we’re doing fine.”

  “Okay, good. Right, gotta go, class is about to start. Love you, talk later.”

  “Love you,” I replied as he hung up.

  I turned slowly to see the other women staring at me, waiting for my response. My face hot and flushed red. I missed him, he was a few hours away, but he was all the way out in the big city on his own.

  “Joseph?” Allegra asked.

  “Yes,” I squeaked.

  “Oh, how’s he doing?” Rosie asked.

  I sank into a seat close by. “Apparently there’s a video of the window being smashed.”

  “But it just happened,” Eva said.

  “I think he meant the first time, I didn’t tell him about the second, I didn’t have the heart to tell him what was going on.”

  Rosie wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “Best he doesn’t worry,” she said. “I mean, he’s having the time of his life.”

  I didn’t know anything about it, I never went to university, my schooling was all about learning the craft of tarot reading and improving my abilities, there was little in the means of academics. I mean, as a witch, you study, but not to the extent of tested with written exams. “I’m sure.”

  It wasn’t long after that the women left me alone to phone around about window repairs. Doctor Raymond arrived, the second smashed window in less than a week, word quickly travelled, and my suspicion over how much work the Doctor was doing grew with it.

  “Aren’t you working?” I asked, as he stood in my silence for a moment.

  I glanced up from the counter to see him smile. “I heard about the window.”

  “Of course,” I said, nestling my fingers into a cloth on the counter. “Who doesn’t know?”

  He flashed his pearly white teeth. “I actually came over to ask you out for dinner.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes, tonight. We should go for dinner.”

  “I’m not too sure, at least not with this plague hanging over me.”

  He approached the counter and rested a hand on mine, a nervous whoosh bubbled through me from him. “That’s why I’m asking you, a change of pace.”

  It was too late for that, I felt worse for wear, not up to the task of being out in public on a date, at least not with someone who wants me out of the village still running around smashing windows. I didn’t have enemies, at least not in the usual sense, but I did have people in my life that weren’t quite approving of the life I lived.

  “What do you say?” he asked. “We can go into Belsy if that helps.”

  It didn’t. It would’ve been a hassle. “Maybe once this has all blown over, but—”

  “Fine,” he said, his fingers twitching around the back of my hand. “I’ll make us something.” He smiled. “Salmon?”

  My eyes widened at the thought. “Perfect.”

  “Tonight then.”

  “I’ll agree to that,” I said. “Would you like me to bring anything over?”

  He laughed softly, stroking the back of my hand. “Just yourself.”

  I wasn’t too sure if the warming in my stomach came from the transference of his feelings or my first date nerves. I pulled my hand away from the counter and collected a towel, clenched in a fist of tension.

  “Well I best get back to the practice, I said I was out on an emergency call.”

  “What time?” I asked.

  “Seven P.M.”

  CHAPTER 8

  Back home, my mother’s parrot flew around the living room, taunting August to chase him. On my brief glance inside the room, I watched August crash face first into the arm of a chair as Julian fluttered around and perched high on shelves and picture frames on the wall.

  “Mother?” I called out, walking into the kitchen with my book of shadows
in my arm and my handbag hung on my elbow.

  “Yes?” she replied, standing beside me with a finger click. “You girls finished demonising me?”

  “Demonising?” I laughed, planting my book firm on the counter. “Oh, Goddess, you love the drama don’t you.”

  “Well, you all think I have something to do with it, don’t you?”

  I turned and held out my hands. “Give me,” I said, taking hers. “I know it wasn’t you.” The familial bond of truth and trust.

  She exhaled and squeeze me a little. “I knew there was a reason I kept you around.”

  Pulling my hands from hers. “You’ve not visited in years.”

  “I did wonder why you looked older, haven’t you been using the youth spells I gave you all those years ago?” she asked, pushing the skin on her forehead. “Talking of which, I could definitely use one of those right about now.” She placed her hand on my book.

  Slapping her hand away, my mother’s intentions were unravelling. “Except, you’re not,” I replied. “Is that what you’re here for?”

  “No, of course not, I came because you were in need, and I’m a mother that gives when her daughter needs.”

  I unloaded my bag on the counter beside my book. “I’d like to grow older with grace, anyway, and you know those self-serving spells aren’t good for you, if anything they pull at your power faster.”

  My mother dug inside her lilac chiffon blouse and fished out a pendant. “This keeps me topped up,” she said.

  The crystal hung on a chain. It glittered and pulsed. I saw it once before, revealed after her scarf came free the night of her arrest. “What is it?”

  “Expensive,” she said, dropping it behind her blouse once again. “Rare, and some would say powerful.”

  I had my suspicions. “Is this how you’re able to flit around without any consequence.”

  “Flit around,” she laughed.

  “Yes, teleporting yourself to and thro.”

  “Oh, that.” She waved a hand at me. “Possibly.”

  I watched as the clock on the wall clicked over 5 P.M. “Oh, I have a dinner date this evening,” I said, raising a smile from my mother. “You’ll have to eat alone.”