Spooky Magic (Tabby Kitten Mystery Book 4)

by Constance Barker

  Spooky Magic

  by

  Constance Barker

  &

  Corrine Winters

  Copyright © 2020 Constance Barker

  All rights reserved.

  Similarities to real people, places or events are purely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Thanks for Reading

  Catalog of Books

  Chapter 1

  “When is this parade gonna start?” Granny grumbled, adjusting the wool scarf around her neck. “My legs are getting tired from standing here and doing nothing.”

  “Oh, c’mon, Granny,” Thea said, wrapping an arm around her and rubbing her shoulders as a way to build up some heat. “It isn’t that bad being out here.”

  “I think the floats are going to come by soon.” Pippa piped up happily as she scrolled through her social media, searching for updates on the parade. “At least, I hope so.”

  Jesse rubbed his hands together before shoving them in his pockets, the chill of the autumn wind numbing them almost completely. “I hope so, too. I can’t really feel my ears anymore.”

  “That happens to you too?” Pippa asked him. She giggled lightly. “I can’t feel my nose either.”

  Thea Beal and her loved ones stood along the sidewalks of Ardensville, alongside hundreds of other citizens. Standing in the cold as a bone chilling wind cut daggers into their skin wasn’t an ideal situation to be in, but they thought it was worth it. After all, the Homecoming parade only happened once every year. It was an event to celebrate with the whole family.

  “It would be a shame if they postponed it again,” Granny commented, leaning into Thea’s warmth. “They already postponed it once because of that boy’s murder investigation, which was the right decision. Who wants to celebrate anything knowing that a young man’s life was just taken away?”

  Thea hummed, nodding in agreement. “They only planned to go ahead with the parade after the investigation was closed and today is the date they decided to have it. I doubt they canceled again. They would have notified everyone by now.”

  Granny let out a small discontented noise, crossing her arms over her chest. “I hope they didn’t cancel it. That means I spent most of my time in this cold for nothing.”

  “Cheer up, Granny. Look at how happy everyone is.” Thea said, motioning to the crowds of people around them.

  The streets were buzzing with excitement. Everyone was bundled up in heavy layers of clothing to protect from the mid-October cold. However, the freezing temperature outside wasn’t enough to cease the overwhelming smiles and laughter that took over the scene. Thea hadn’t felt this type of excitement since the Harvest Festival. The event happened only a few weeks ago, but since their lives had gotten hectic over time, she felt as if years had passed since then.

  Feeling a nudge at her arm, Thea glanced at Granny before following her line of sight. Across the street stood Max and Mira, holding each other’s hands as they waited for the parade to start. The sight evoked a smile from Thea, who laughed quietly to herself. Soon enough, she called over Pippa and Jesse so that they could observe the young couple as well.

  “Aww,” Pippa cooed, clasping her hands together. “They look adorable together. I’m so happy for them.”

  “I’m glad that they were finally able to be with each other,” Jesse said with a small smile. “They deserve that happiness. Especially Max. He probably suffered a lot over what happened.”

  “Mira told me that he never stops smiling when he’s around her,” Pippa remarked, linking her arm with Jesse’s. His eyes widened. “Don’t you think that’s cute?”

  Jesse turned a faint shade of pink, amusing Thea and Granny. He nodded. “O-Of course. It’s great. I-I’m happy for the two of them.”

  Pippa snuggled into Jesse’s jacket sleeve. “Me too.”

  Her actions were enough to make Jesse’s entire face redden. He couldn’t even feel the cold air anymore. Granny and Thea exchanged knowing looks before laughing to themselves. Mira and Max’s relationship was well underway, and by the looks of it, so was Jesse and Pippa’s. Thea couldn’t be happier.

  Suddenly, the block erupted with abrupt cheers and boisterous excitement. Up ahead, the first float finally rounded the corner. It descended the street to the crowd’s delight. Applause and clamor wafted throughout the scene as people began snapping photos and recording videos with their phones. Thea craned her neck over the crowd, letting out an amazed breath as the float passed directly in front of them.

  She was glad the event finally happened. By the looks of it, the participants spent a lot of time and effort designing their floats. Everything proved worthwhile in the end.

  Just as Thea was about to start taking photos with her phone as well, an unexpected tap on her shoulder jolted her upright. Turning around, she saw Blaine dressed up in his work attire. She furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at him up and down, wondering why he was in uniform while a parade was going on. She wasn’t expecting him to work that day in the first place.

  “Blaine?” she asked him, removing her arm from around Granny and facing him directly. “What’s going on? Weren’t you going to watch the parade with us?”

  He sighed, scratching the back of his neck. “I’m sorry, Thea, but my plans suddenly changed because of work...” he trailed off, taking a brief look around their surroundings. He didn’t want to disclose too much information around so many people. “Can I talk with you about this in private?”

  Thea threw a glance over her shoulder towards Granny, Pippa, and Jesse. The three of them were chatting amongst themselves, preoccupied with the parade and the floats. She didn’t think they would mind her absence that much. She accepted Blaine’s offer and followed him as he led her to a less populated area of the street, away from the festivities.

  “Did something bad happen?” Thea asked nervously, searching Blaine’s expression for anything that would give away his emotions.

  He swallowed down the knot in his throat, meeting Thea’s gaze directly. “Yeah. It’s pretty bad, actually. I would have told you through text that I wasn’t going to be able to be with you guys, but things got so crazy at the station I wasn’t able to.”

  “...What happened?” Her heart hammered against her chest as Blaine’s face turned to stone.

  “We found a body on one of the floats in the warehouse storage this
morning,” he explained.

  Thea gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. An uneasiness settled in her chest. On such a special day, how did something like this happen?

  “Who was it?” she whispered out weakly, grimacing as the possibilities of who the victim could be ran through her mind. “Please don’t tell me it was a student.”

  “We were able to identify the body already. It was last year’s Homecoming queen,” Blaine said quietly, just as unnerved by the events as Thea. “Rhianna Stewart.”

  Chapter 2

  Thea’s mouth went dry as she searched for the right words. A deep feeling of sadness soon came over her as the gravity of the situation settled in her chest. Another murder in such a short period of time. She wouldn’t be surprised if this sparked some sort of restlessness in the townspeople.

  Although she didn’t know the girl personally, Thea assumed that she was well-liked if she was named Homecoming queen the year prior. This was leaving a bitter taste in her mouth, even with the few details Blaine provided her.

  “How was the state of the body?” she asked warily, unsure if she wanted to know the extent of what happened. Considering the parade was still going on, she was worried that knowing too much would ruin her mood.

  Blaine shook his head. “I don’t know too much about what happened just yet. I wasn’t the one who saw the body, it was one of my officers. He told me it appeared like a head injury. He didn’t say much else because he has to file a report detailing what happened before more details can come out.”

  “That’s understandable,” Thea replied. Her stomach was churning. “Does Aunt Tiegan know about what happened?”

  “Of course. The police notified her a few minutes before the parade started and they talked about canceling the whole thing,” he explained, checking his watch frequently. He didn’t have too much time to spare. “Your Aunt didn’t want to ruin the day for everyone and instead just told them to pull the float that the body was found on and continue with the event.”

  Thea clenched her jaw, staring at the floats that were descending down the street as they spoke. To say she was unsettled would be an understatement.

  “I have to get back to the department soon,” Blaine informed her, brushing out the wrinkles in his clothing and wiping the exhaustion from his eyes. “I know that this was a sorry excuse of a visit from me, but I’m glad I was able to see and talk to you a bit.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Blaine. I know that you’re busy,” she replied, sending him a warm smile that he appreciated greatly.

  “I’ll keep you updated, okay?” he reassured her, leaning in to give her a quick kiss. “We’re thinking that it was an accident, but we’re pulling the security footage to make sure. I’ll be free tomorrow evening for our date, I promise.”

  “The homecoming game, right?” she called out to him as he hurried off.

  He nodded, waving at her as he departed. “I’ll try and text you if I have free time.”

  With a tight smile, she watched as he turned a corner and disappeared from her line of sight. Once she was alone, she exhaled deeply. Placing a hand over her chest, she could feel how hard her heart was beating in her chest. She needed to tell someone. Otherwise, she felt like she was going to go crazy.

  Snaking her way through the crowd, she managed to return to the spot where she left Pippa, Jesse, and Granny. Without much of an explanation, Thea asked them to follow her to a less crowded area. Even though they were reluctant, since they were enjoying the parade, they followed after her all the same.

  “What’s going on, Thea? You look pale,” Granny said, placing the back of her hand on Thea’s cheek and forehead. “Are you coming down with a cold or something? When we get home, I’ll make you some tea.”

  “I-I’m fine, Granny, I promise. I’m just...” she stumbled on her words as she ran a frustrated hand through her hair. “I just talked to Blaine and he told me that the police found a body on one of the floats before the parade started.”

  Pippa gasped loudly while Jesse gaped at the news. Granny stiffened.

  “It was last year’s Homecoming queen, Rhianna Stewart,” Thea continued, which made Pippa even more jittery. Jesse placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, hoping that it would somewhat calm her down.

  “Rhianna?” Pippa repeated, shaking her head at the news. “She was pretty popular around town. A lot of people would talk about her, and apparently...” she leaned in closer, dropping her voice down to a whisper. “People thought that she was a siren.”

  “Hmm,” Granny said, tapping a finger on her jaw as she thought about the implications of Rhianna being a siren. “That would make the girl very alluring, especially to the male population of this town.”

  “That would have caused problems, huh?” Thea asked, to which Granny nodded solemnly.

  “Of course. It would have caused passionate infatuation in the men and intense jealousy in the women,” Granny explained. She huffed out a breath. “The green-eyed monster of envy. I’m sure that must have created a lot of issues for the girl.”

  “A siren...?” Jesse muttered out, scrunching up his face in confusion. “Doesn’t that mean she needed to sing in order to lure men in or something?”

  Granny waved that off. “That’s just an old wives’ tale. Sirens don’t have to do much to attract people to them. The inherent magic that they possessed was more than enough.”

  After a few more minutes of worried discussion, and as the parade neared to a close, they decided to head off in their own ways. Granny returned home while Pippa hurried off towards A Novel Idea to begin her shift. Meanwhile, Thea and Jesse walked in silence towards A Stitch in Time. The both of them were still trying to make sense of the entire situation.

  Without a word, Thea stepped forward and unlocked the front door of the shop. She opened it and allowed Jesse to walk through first before following in after him. The shop was a lot warmer than the cold world outside. Although it was supposed to feel comforting, Thea didn’t feel good at all. The pit in her stomach still remained.

  “You’re thinking what I’m thinking, right?” Jesse eventually asked, breaking the tense silence between them. “About the girl who was just killed?”

  Thea nodded slowly. “Blaine told me that they’re thinking it was an accident, but... I’m not so sure anymore.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed, leaning on the counter. “I don’t think this was an accident at all.”

  Even though she desperately wanted to believe otherwise, she couldn’t ignore the feeling in her chest that kept telling her to trust her intuition. Rhianna’s death was suspicious and she knew that the possibility that this was all an accident was slim to none.

  Chapter 3

  The sound of her foot tapping against the floor was the only noise within the barren shop. There was nobody in A Stitch in Time, aside from Thea, Jesse, and Sybil. She considered that bittersweet. With no work, she didn’t have to bustle around the shop all day. On the other hand, it was getting a little lonely.

  The parade was done and over with, which explained the dip in activities and creative endeavors across the town. The floats and banners were done, and with the amount of fresh-faced college students from Ardensville college who promoted their sororities and fraternities during the event, Thea wasn’t surprised that most people decided to take a temporary break from arts and crafts altogether.

  Eventually, the boredom got to her. She was itching to do something productive and she knew that it wasn’t going to be within her shop, unfortunately.

  “Jesse,” she called out, straightening herself off the counter. “Can you watch the shop for a little bit? I want to go and check something out. Maybe get a little fresh air while I’m at it.”

  “Are you sure that’s all you’re trying to do?” Jesse asked in a playful tone, raising a curious brow. He smiled. “I know that look in your eyes, Thea Beal. I’ve seen it before.”

  She countered with a grin of her own, lifting up her hands in mock surrender. �
��Hey, I promise that I’ll behave. I’m just going out for a walk.” Taking a quick look around her shop, she sighed. “I don’t know. It feels a little lifeless here. I just need to take some time to clear my head.”

  “Uh-huh,” he replied as he restocked the painting supplies near the other side of the shop. He tossed a glance over his shoulder in her direction. “Well, wherever you choose to wander off to, be safe.”

  “Of course.”

  “And take Sybil with you,” he said, motioning towards the sleepy kitten curled up in the shadows of the shop corner. “If you’re heading off to investigate a murder, I’m sure she’ll be a great help to your cause.”

  “You’re so smart,” Thea remarked, making her way over to scoop up a tired Sybil in her arms. She sent Jesse an appreciative nod of the head. “What would I do without you?”

  Rolling his eyes, he let out a short chuckle. “I don’t know how you’ve managed to get so far in life without me.”

  At that, she let out a laugh of her own.

  “Whatever. I’m going out for my walk and I’ll maybe get us some lunch on the way back. I won’t get into too much trouble while I’m gone,” she said, sending Jesse a wink.

  Unconvinced, he let out an amused noise as he watched her leave.

  To be fair, Thea was being honest when she said she only wanted to take a walk through Ardensville. However, as she watched the general movement of the people lingering amongst the sidewalks, she found herself following the crowd. Eventually, she ended up near the local high school, where crowds of visitors were leaving gifts and flowers behind.

  News spread quickly about Rhianna’s death, that wasn’t surprising. Thea didn’t expect this level of affectionate out-pour from the community, however. Pippa wasn’t exaggerating when she mentioned how popular the girl was.

  “Do you see all of this, Sybil?” Thea whispered to the familiar she cradled in her hands. “Rhianna obviously had an impact on a lot of people.”

  “I’ll say,” the kitten replied, slightly scratching the side of her paws into Thea’s skin so she could be let down. “Look at all those flowers and pictures over there. People are heartbroken over this girl.”