Cold as a Witch's Toffee

by Sara Bourgeois

  “Alex,” I said his name like it was an incantation that could protect me.

  “It’s still upstairs. Let’s get it before it flees again. I don’t want to chase this thing all night.”

  Upstairs we found a black, upside-down pentagram painted on the floor. There were sigils painted in the open space, but I could tell they weren’t like the ones in the house meant for protection. These emanated something vile instead.

  “Just as I suspected,” Alex said.

  “What? What’s this mean?”

  “This demon didn’t slip out of hell on its own. It was summoned,” he said. “At least now I know it’s not you.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “Glad you know it’s not me. What do we do?”

  “You hand me the water and step back,” he said.

  “Cast a circle around us,” Voodoo said. “Use your mind to do it the way we taught you.”

  While Alex was murmuring an incantation I couldn’t understand and splashing the blessed water on the pentagram, I closed my eyes. I envisioned a circle of pure white light around the three of us.

  A screeching sound filled the house, and then there was total silence. I opened my eyes and saw that the weird cross thing in Alex’s hand was smoking a little.

  “Got it,” he said with a proud smile.

  Chapter Fifteen

  When it was over, Alex walked Voodoo and me home. We stood on the front porch looking at each other for a moment.

  “Thank you for that,” I said.

  “You’re not horrified?” he asked with one brow cocked up.

  “I’m not going to say it was fun, but it was pleasant to do some good for the world,” I said. “That’s what we did, right?”

  “Yes, and you protected me too. It’s not always easy dealing with such dark things, but I felt your light.”

  “We make a good team,” I said.

  I felt drawn to him in a way I hadn’t before. We’d bonded over capturing a demon, and it really made me examine the way Alex treated me versus Rowan.

  My breath caught in my throat as Alex leaned toward me. My lips tingled with anticipation, but at the last second, his entire body stiffened.

  “I’m not going to kiss you on the same day as Rowan.” His voice almost sounded like a growl.

  “I think it’s after midnight,” I said softly.

  Alex ran his thumb over my lips. “I’ll save this for a more appropriate time. Good night, Allegra.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  After Alex left, Voodoo and I went inside to go to bed. I’d been right. Not only was it after midnight, but it was long after midnight.

  I didn’t wake up until late morning, and I found Voodoo snoozing on the bed next to me. “Wake up, lazy bones, we’ve slept in enough. We need to go to work,” I said.

  “Five more minutes,” he said and rolled over.

  “No, we need to get up and go in. Just because we own the place doesn’t mean we can be total slackers.”

  “Too late for that,” Voodoo said and sat up.

  “Hey, we were out late dispatching evil. I think that means we’re not slackers as long as we go into work. Or was that all a dream?”

  “Nope, it was real. You followed Alex, a supernatural hunter, into a house infested with a demon and we helped cleanse the world of it at great personal peril.”

  “It was cool, huh?” I asked.

  “Totally.”

  Breakfast was basically brunch at that point. I had scrambled eggs and toast, and Voodoo just had scrambled eggs. He went outside to sniff around in the yard while I showered and got dressed.

  On the way out, I found a small package and card on the front porch. The card said:

  Witching Wall – protection from darkness. Let me know if you ever need anything from my garden. Love, Mrs. Miller.

  Inside the package was a little vial of amber liquid with a few sprigs of herbs and a berry of some sort. There was a thin black cord wrapped around the neck of the vial and a small pentagram, upright for good, tied on with the string.

  I slipped the vial into my purse and put the package and card back in the house. “I’m going to need to go see her,” I said to Voodoo. “I feel bad for not visiting with her more.”

  “You haven’t been in town long,” Voodoo said. “Besides, Mrs. Miller is a busy woman. She has a thriving potion business, thanks to her garden.”

  “I never really see people coming or going,” I said.

  “You’re not home much, and she’s discreet,” Voodoo said. “I think she sells a lot of it over the internet too.”

  “On the dark web?” I asked.

  “Etsy.”

  We went into work, and things were pretty quiet. It was lunchtime, and while we had a few people that would stop in and have ice cream for lunch, most people had a meal.

  I did some paperwork for a while, and then Lyn came back to show me a few more things while there was still a lull.

  Midafternoon, I was still in the shop. Previously, I’d be gone by that time, but I’d come in so late that I felt like I needed to stay longer.

  It started to get busy, so Lyn went up front to help the part-timers. I didn’t have anything to do, so I went up to and helped scoop ice cream. We were starting to get a line, so I hoped that the girls appreciated me being there. At the very least, I didn’t want to be in the way.

  We got most of the orders done, and at the end of the line was Anton. At first, I thought I was busted. He somehow knew I’d been in the law office and he’d come into the shop to confront me.

  That didn’t make much sense, though. If he knew Voodoo and I had broken in, then he probably would have called Bethany.

  “Good afternoon, Anton. How can I help you?”

  “Well, normally, I wouldn’t eat ice cream in the afternoon,” he said, and I believed him. Anton looked pretty fit. “I came in here to talk to you, but I think I’m going to have to get something.”

  “You can always tell me why you came in to talk to me while you peruse our selection.”

  “No need for that,” he said with a smile. “I’m going to have Rockin’ Roadie. Two scoops with marshmallow topping.”

  “Hey, it’s good to treat yourself,” I said and started scooping his ice cream.

  “Now for the bad news,” he said as his smile melted.

  “Uh oh.”

  “It’s nothing to fret over too much, but I think there might have been something wrong with the paperwork for your inheritance,” he said.

  “Oh, no. You think maybe I didn’t inherit the store or something?”

  “I don’t think it’s anything like that, so please don’t panic. There are just some irregularities in the paperwork. I want to start looking into it for you, but I need you to retain me for the case. Of course, you are free to hire an outside attorney.”

  “No, that’s okay. You’re already familiar with the case, so I’ll sign,” I said.

  It might have been a good idea to ask around or at least talk to another lawyer as far as my options, but I panicked a little. The idea of losing the store or my uncle’s home seemed horrible to me.

  I handed Anton his ice cream, and we went out to an empty table. He presented me with the form and a pen.

  “I’ll be glad when this is all over,” he said as I signed.

  “You mean my case?”

  “I just mean in general. Lukas made a mess of a lot of things, and now that he’s gone, I’m the only one left to clean up after him. It’s a far more daunting task than I expected.”

  “That’s unfortunate,” I said and handed him the agreement.

  “My next stop is the mayor’s office. He screwed up big time on a real estate thing, and I just don’t know how it’s going to play out. If the man had lived any longer, he probably would have found a way to get himself disbarred and thrown in prison.” He sighed. “But, I’ve said too much,”

  “I’m sorry that you’re having to go through all that,” I said.

  “I think this i
ce cream is just what I needed,” he said and took another bite.

  “I’ll leave you to enjoy it then.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  I got Voodoo and we headed out for the day. An afternoon walk seemed in order, so we made our way to the cemetery. No one was around, so I sat down on the bench and tried to clear my head.

  “You seem stressed,” Voodoo said.

  “Yeah, I’m worried about the shop. Anton came in and said that there might have been a problem with my inheritance. He said he’d have to look into it further before he knew what was going on.”

  “I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Leo wanted you to have that shop, and there’s nothing in the world to prove he didn’t. Whatever it is, I’m sure it will get cleared up.”

  “While he was there, he let it slip that Lukas had done something horrible in regard to a real estate deal with the mayor. I can’t help but think that perhaps that might have been motive for her to kill him. If it was bad enough. But he’s got the files on him, so how can I find out what’s going on with that?”

  “Well, that’s easy. The mayor’s secretary is the busiest of busybodies. She’s a world class gossip. The mayor would totally fire her if her father wasn’t some big-shot attorney up in Chicago.”

  “Voodoo, you’re a genius.”

  “I know.”

  The mayor’s office was in a building on the other side of the town square. It was in an area I hadn’t been to yet, so Voodoo led the way.

  The building was larger than I expected and at the same time smaller. I either expected it to be a large gray government building, or a small storefront like most of the other businesses in Knox Hills. It was neither. Though it did have the gray stone façade down pat.

  The mayor’s office was located in a two-story building that took up about half a block on its own. The other half was occupied by a nearly empty parking lot that could hold a great deal more cars than I imagined ever necessary.

  When you walked through the double entry doors, you were greeted by a large stone staircase that led up to an open second floor. There were a few doors on the first floor, but none of them were marked. If you had business inside, I suppose you had to already know where to go.

  Near the top of the stairs on the second floor sat a desk, and at that desk was a woman wearing a plunging red top that revealed a great deal more of her ample cleavage than was appropriate for an office setting. Her hair was swept up into an updo, and behind her even redder lips, she popped and chewed a blob of baby pink bubble gum.

  Voodoo gave me a subtle nod in her direction. She was the mayor’s secretary who I’d come to see. A silver nameplate perched on the edge of her desk read, Melanie.

  “Hello,” she chirped happily when I walked over to her. “How can I help you?”

  I was surprised she didn’t have her own office, but then again, there was no one else around. The open area of the second floor was cavernous and surrounded by windows. It was a beautiful building that seemed to swallow Melanie whole as she acted as both secretary and receptionist.

  “I was curious about something, and the word around town is that you’re someone who has answers,”

  I wasn’t sure how to start the conversation since I’d just walked into her work and wanted to gossip about her boss and a dead man. Just coming out with it seemed like the sanest course of action. It was obvious to me that Melanie and I had little in common, so there was no sense in trying to strike up a rapport first. If she was as big of a gossip as Voodoo had said, I knew she’d dish with little encouragement.

  “About the mayor?” Hunger flared in her eyes.

  Melanie was ready to dish big time about her boss. My guess was that the disdain ran both ways between the two of them. I briefly wondered why Melanie even kept the job, but it had to pay well. There didn’t look to be much work involved either. Especially if Saffron didn’t entrust her secretary with anything important.

  “Yes. You see, Lukas Roth died in my store, and I’ve heard a rumor that he might have upset the mayor over a business deal. Maybe there was bad blood between the two of them.”

  “Oh honey, it was the baddest of blood,” Melanie said. “It finally got to the point where the mayor flat out hated Lukas. I mean, there were a lot of women in town that hated Lukas, but Saffron had extra reasons.”

  “Really?” I leaned in like she was telling the most fascinating story ever. It was a really interesting story, but I wasn’t as excited over gossip as Melanie was. I needed her to think that, though, so she’d keep talking. It felt a little manipulative, but I reasoned it was for the greater good.

  “She really wanted Lukas Roth’s house, and he pretended to sell it to her twice,” Melanie said.

  “Pretended to sell it to her?”

  “Yeah, he’d negotiate a deal, send it over for her to sign, and then once Saffron would sign the contract, he’d back out of the deal before he signed.”

  “Yeah, that’s pretty nasty,” I said.

  “Plus, he hit on her all of the time, and to tell you the truth, I don’t think she minded.”

  Melanie looked like she could go on gossiping forever, but I was afraid that the mayor would show up and I’d end up having to explain what I was doing there. I needed to make my exit.

  “Is the restroom on the first floor?” I asked, hoping that it was.

  “That one is staff only and requires a key. Only the people in the offices downstairs have it. There’s one right down that hallway,” she said and pointed to a sign that said restroom about a hundred feet down the hall.

  “Thank you,” I said before heading toward it.

  I didn’t really need to go, but it would have seemed strange to ask where the restroom was and then not use it. I figured I’d just go in and wash my hands. In a couple of minutes, I’d go back out and make an excuse as to why I had to go.

  While I did just that, when I started to exit the restroom, I saw Anton standing at Melanie’s desk. She was smiling like her life depended on it, and he handed her a stack of papers.

  “This is the dismissal of the lawsuit Lukas had against Roger. Roger asked me to leave anything dealing with the case here instead of coming into his shop. I forgot to leave it earlier,” Anton said.

  “And here I thought you’d just missed me already,” Melanie purred.

  “Does that mean you will have dinner with me this weekend?”

  “It’s still under consideration. Why don’t you call me tomorrow and I’ll let you know for sure?” Melanie said. “Any ideas where we might go?”

  “Anywhere you want. I’m just ready for this week to be over so we can kick back and relax. I’ve got a lot of stress dealing with Lukas’s messes. It won’t be long now before I won’t have to do it anymore, though. Lukas can’t exactly make any more messes, can he?”

  “No, he can’t,” Melanie said. “But I’m sure you’ll have other stresses I can help you with.”

  “I’ll call you tomorrow then?”

  “You’d better,” she said and smacked her gum loudly. “Hey, any idea what you’re going to call the law firm now that it’s finally all yours?”

  “We can discuss that over dinner,” he said over his shoulder as he descended the stairs.

  Chapter Eighteen

  When Anton was gone, I walked back over to Melanie’s desk. “I’ve got to get going, but thanks for chatting.”

  “I don’t suppose it matters much anymore, so I might as well tell you.” Melanie looked like the cat that caught the canary. “Saffron didn’t just hate Lukas because of the real estate deal. Most people don’t know this, but they were having an affair. Roger just thinks that Lukas was always hitting on Saffron, but she reciprocated big time. That’s what made her hate him the most. He was dangling that house over her head at the same time he was dangling… other things. If you know what I mean.”

  “I think I do,” I said.

  “Anyway, the only other person who knows about it is Kandice Watson, Lukas’s ex. She caug
ht them smashing their faces together one night. Roger thinks that Lukas kissed his wife and she pushed him away, but that’s not what Kandice saw. The only reason she never blew the roof off the whole thing was that Lukas somehow managed to sweet talk her out of it.”

  “That’s absolutely scandalous,” I said. “I wish I didn’t have to go. Maybe we can catch up and swap stories another time?”

  “Sure,” she said with another Cheshire Cat smile. “Anything you need to know, I probably know.”

  As soon as we were back outside, I asked Voodoo what Kandice Watson did for a living. “She wasn’t still married to Lukas, so she works, right?”

  “Yeah, her new husband isn’t a lawyer,” Voodoo said. “Kandice owns Clip Magic down at the square. She opened the business with her divorce settlement, and she does hair and nails. Oh, and there’s a tanning bed.”

  “I think I might need to get my ends trimmed,” I said. “Maybe a deep conditioning treatment.”

  “Sure,” Voodoo said. “Follow me.”

  Kandice gave me the stink-eye when I walked into the shop, but she didn’t tell me to leave. “I’ll be right with you,” she said and went back to cutting her current client’s hair.

  I sat down in one of the chairs in the waiting area, and Voodoo curled up at my feet. About ten minutes later, Kandice was done with the haircut. She rang the client out at the front desk, and then turned her attention to me.

  “How can I help you?”

  “I was actually hoping to get a trim and a deep conditioning treatment,” I said as I stood up and joined her at the desk. “Is it all right that Voodoo is here? I can take him home and come back.”

  “No reason,” she said almost reluctantly. “He’s not hurting anything. Follow me.” She beckoned me over to a chair two down from the one she’d been using before. “I charge the same for a trim as I do for a full cut.”

  “That’s fine,” I said.

  “I’ve got two options as far as deep conditioning. One requires a dryer and one doesn’t. I prefer that one that uses heat, it’s much deeper. Your hair is already in good shape, so it will give you that glossy magazine-ready look.”