Hidden Secrets: Blackmoore Sisters Cozy Mystery Series Book 9

by Leighann Dobbs

  Morgan produced a wry smile. Yeah, now probably would not really be the time. But she couldn’t say that, so she kept silent.

  “I think you guys are right, but… hey!” Jolene snatched the phone and moved her fingers over the display, zooming out and then in again but on a different area. “Check this out. Look at this hat.”

  They all bent over to look at the phone again.

  “It’s a navy-and-white-striped hat.” Fiona stepped back and looked at them.

  Morgan stared at the phone. She didn’t remember seeing a hat when she’d gone to Clementine’s alone, but she supposed she might not have noticed because they hadn’t seen the hat in Rose’s crystal ball yet. Or maybe the police had taken it as evidence?

  “That’s just like the one in Rose’s crystal ball,” Fiona said.

  “But it’s not lying in the snow like we saw in the crystal ball, and Rose said the hat had nothing to do with Clementine’s murder,” Morgan said.

  Jolene pursed her lips. “I thought she acted a little cagey about that.”

  Celeste nodded. “Besides, that’s what she said, but what if she was lying? What if Rose knows more about this than she let on?”

  Fiona grabbed her coat off the hook. “Then I say we need to make another visit to Rose Degarmo to find out exactly what she does know.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Rose didn’t look happy when she opened the door. “You girls again?”

  Jolene brushed past her into the house. “Yeah, it’s us again. Maybe if we’d gotten what we came for the first time, we wouldn’t be back.”

  Rose shut the door and crossed her arms over her chest. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Jolene turned to face her. “I think you know.”

  Rose’s gaze scanned the girls, lingering for a few beats longer on Morgan. Morgan’s gut clenched. Would Rose tell her sisters that she’d come back once before? Morgan had tried to dissuade them from coming, partly because she didn’t want any chance of Rose spilling her secret but also because she didn’t really think Rose had anything to do with Clementine’s murder. Rose had proven she was trustworthy. She’d tried to help Morgan with her problem. She wasn’t some nefarious killer or accomplice trying to hide things from them. Was she? But since she couldn’t tell her sisters too much about the reason she felt Rose was trustworthy, her efforts had been in vain.

  Morgan held her breath, waiting for Rose to tell her sisters about her solo visit, but she didn’t. She simply shook her head and started toward the purple velvet room with the crystal balls and tarot cards. The smell of incense hung in the air. “Come on in, I suppose. I’m actually not surprised to see you. I figured you girls would be back. I know you haven’t figured out who killed Clementine yet.”

  “Right. And that’s no thanks to you,” Fiona said.

  “What do you mean? I don’t know anything about Clementine’s death. I told you that before.” She gestured toward the crystal ball sitting on the table, and it glowed pink for a second. “I did my best to show you what came up in the crystal ball.”

  Jolene’s eyes narrowed. “Not everything.”

  Rose looked genuinely confused. “What are you talking about? I showed you everything.”

  “Maybe you showed us everything, but you might’ve tried to mislead us. In fact, maybe that was on purpose,” Celeste said. “You and Clementine were rivals, and I heard there was bad blood between you.”

  Rose rolled her eyes. “We’ve been over this. Yes, she said some stuff about me. Didn’t believe in my abilities. She wasn’t the first and won’t be the last. But if I killed everyone who talked trash about me, there’d be a trail of bodies.” Then she frowned. “What do you mean I held stuff back?”

  Fiona gestured toward the crystal ball. “The blue hat. We saw it in there, but you said it had nothing to do with Clementine’s death.”

  “You mean the navy-and-white-striped one that we saw in the snow?” Rose went over to the crystal ball and ran her hands over the top. The image of the hat came up.

  “Yes, that hat.” Celeste pointed at it.

  Rose laughed. “That’s got nothing to do with Clementine. That’s got to do with me. That hat belongs to a dumb paranormal kid who came by wanting information.” She huffed. “Stupid kids these days think they can get something for nothing. Think everything is owed to them. Think it’s easy to dig up a centuries-old treasure.”

  Jolene and Celeste exchanged a glance. Morgan’s gut clenched even tighter. The hat belonged to the paranormals who were digging up the treasure? Could this get any worse? Morgan glanced at the crystal ball again, wishing for another image of Benedict, preferably one of him hitting Clementine over the head in her kitchen. But the ball had gone dark.

  “You mean paranormals came here about a treasure?” Fiona asked.

  Rose nodded. “Yeah. They’re not the brightest stars in the universe either. Wanted me to conjure up the location of some old treasure down at the beach.”

  “And did you?” Celeste asked.

  Rose snorted. “You think I’m stupid? First of all, my gifts don’t work that way. I can’t just conjure up the location of a treasure, and second of all, I’ve talked to Captain Brown’s ghost. He’s nasty, and I don’t want him haunting me because I gave up the location of his treasure. Not that I know where it is.”

  “So, what happened when they came here?” Jolene asked.

  Rose gestured toward the crystal ball. “It started off nice and friendly. They pretended they wanted readings. But they didn’t fool me. I sensed they had something on their minds. When I finally got it out of them, they demanded I show them where the treasure was.”

  “But you didn’t?”

  “Nope. Like I said, I don’t know where it is and don’t want to know. They got pretty mad about it. Made some idle threats, especially that one with the stupid striped hat. I wanted to yank that thing off his head, but I ended up getting out my broomstick and chasing them off.”

  “They ran away afraid of a broomstick?”

  Rose nodded. “Yep. Told you they weren’t too bright. Course I might’ve put a few sparks on the stick and told them it was going to magically castrate them.”

  Morgan’s sisters glanced at each other. She wasn’t sure if they believed Rose’s story. Did she want them to? Why would Rose lie about the hat? She’d have no reason, but this didn’t bode well for her. The last thing she wanted was for her sisters to go off on a hunt for these paranormals, even if they weren’t very bright.

  “And then what did they do?” Fiona asked.

  “How would I know? Maybe ran home to their mommies. Their paranormal powers were amateur at best. I guess they must not practice them often enough.” Rose slid her eyes over to Morgan, and Morgan’s heart leapt into her throat.

  Celeste put her hands on her hips and gazed down at the crystal ball. “I bet they went to Clementine after they came here. That’s why the hat was in the crystal ball.”

  Rose made a face. “Why would they go there? Clementine is a healer not a visionary. Besides, the ball showed the hat in the snow. Could be anywhere.”

  “Yeah, but if they are as stupid as you say, they probably don’t know the difference,” Celeste said.

  Rose’s brows shot up. “Huh, you have a point.” She glanced at the crystal ball. “Maybe that vision did have something to do with Clementine.”

  “And if they were getting desperate to find that treasure, maybe they got a little angrier at Clementine’s than they did here,” Jolene added.

  “But there was no sign of a struggle at Clementine’s,” Morgan said. That seemed to indicate it wasn’t angry paranormals, didn’t it?

  “True. Maybe they picked up after or something. But it’s worth checking out. Because if they were getting desperate and they went to Clementine’s and Clementine didn’t tell them where the treasure was, well then…” Jolene held her hands up and shrugged. “Maybe they got angry enough to knock her over the head and kill her.”

&nb
sp; “But the hat wasn’t found in the snow. It was in her kitchen,” Morgan pointed out.

  Rose glanced at the crystal ball then back at Morgan. “In her kitchen?”

  Jolene nodded. “We saw it in a photo of the crime scene. Why would the crystal ball show it in the snow?”

  Rose shook her head. “No idea on that one. But if you say it was in her kitchen, then I guess that proves those boys were in her house.”

  Jolene glanced around at her sisters. Morgan didn’t like the glint in her eye indicating that Jolene’s next step would be to confront these paranormals and see if they had killed Clementine.

  “Okay. Thanks for seeing us.” Jolene nodded at Rose and headed toward the door with the rest of them following.

  Morgan took up the rear, shooting Rose a slight nod of thanks on her way out. Rose hadn’t told on her to her sisters, and for that she was grateful. She made a mental note to make an herbal concoction for Rose as a gift later on. When she joined her sisters on the street, they were excited, and Morgan’s spirits fell even more.

  “We need to find these paranormals now and question them.” Fiona whipped open the passenger door of Jolene’s SUV and jumped in.

  “I agree.” Jolene jumped in the driver’s seat. “But let’s not be hasty. First we need to get home and assemble some things just in case a fight breaks out.”

  “You think we can trust her?” Celeste looked back at Rose’s house from where she’d slid into the back seat next to Morgan.

  “Probably.” Fiona turned to look at Morgan. “What do you think?”

  “Yep, I think we can definitely trust her,” Morgan said. At least she knew she could trust Rose to keep her secret about her intuition. About other things, she wasn’t so sure, but she was too busy trying to think of a way to get her sisters to delay the confrontation to think more about it. If only Alma would come through with something concrete.

  “Good.” Jolene pulled away from the curb. “Now if we can figure out where those paranormals are staying, it probably won’t be hard to get the truth out of them.”

  “Especially if they are rank amateurs like Rose implied,” Celeste added.

  “Should be easy peasy with our combined skills.” Jolene thrust her fist out, and the four of them did a four-way fist bump while Morgan tried to hide her feelings of trepidation behind a wide smile that she prayed didn’t look as fake as it felt.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  By the time the sisters got home, Johanna was just taking a pot roast out of the oven. They filled her in while they helped her with the rest of the meal and put out place settings at the breakfast bar.

  “We better get a move on,” Jolene said once the last of the dishes were in the dishwasher. “I want to get a confession out of these guys before Sheriff White finds more trumped-up evidence against Morgan.”

  “Don’t forget to use your new stones,” Johanna called after Fiona as she rushed from the room.

  Morgan watched her mother absently while she desperately tried to figure out how to delay her sisters. For a woman who had once been held captive by an evil paranormal, Johanna was acting awfully calm, sitting at the breakfast bar, dunking a teabag into a mug of steaming water.

  Johanna caught her look and smiled. “I don’t think you girls have anything to worry about. If these paranormals aren’t particularly skilled, as Rose suggested, then it should be easy. You girls have really been honing and practicing your skills. You’re all so much stronger than even a year ago. I don’t think too many could defeat you.”

  Morgan cringed inwardly. Honing and practicing? Maybe her sisters had been, but her loss of her gifts seemed to indicate that she hadn’t been doing it nearly as much as she should have.

  Maybe she should try to get a meditation session in before her sisters insisted she head off to battle. Come to think of it, that would serve two purposes. It might help her intuition come back, and it would also delay them. Hopefully long enough for Alma to remember something suspicious about Benedict. Because more and more now, Morgan had the feeling that the killer was not the paranormals but someone very human. And very deadly.

  Jolene and Celeste were in the front parlor. The room, which was not often used, was furnished with Blackmoore family antiques including carved rosewood furniture and brass and glass lighting and completed with drippy crystals, stained-glass windows, and gilt-framed paintings of long-dead ancestors. It had a certain old-world ambiance, and Jolene claimed the energy in the room always helped her replenish her gifts.

  Jolene was standing in the middle of the room, shoving a blue drusy geode into a big tote bag.

  “This is azurite. It has truthfulness energy. We might be able to aim it at the paranormals and get the truth out of them,” Jolene said.

  Geodes were known for exuding high energy. Morgan knew from experience that one had to be careful when facing the open end that had all the crystals. She unconsciously clutched at the amulet around her neck. Fiona had fashioned them for her sisters from obsidian because that helped intercept the energy and bounce it back at the perpetrator. Hopefully Morgan wouldn’t end up in front of the geode herself, or she’d have to make quick use of the amulet before she ended up spilling the truth about her lack of gifts to her sisters.

  “And I’m going to use some azurite to cast a truthfulness spell on them.” Celeste tossed a few blue rocks into the air and caught them. “Speaking of which, I better get to the library. I need to meditate to clear my head so that I’m at the top of my game tonight.”

  “Good idea,” Morgan said. “I need a refresher meditation too. And besides, my intuition tells me we don’t want to confront them until later, when the moon is out.”

  Jolene stopped what she was doing and looked at Morgan. “Oh really? Okay, then that’s what we should do. We’re always saying we need to trust your intuition more. We’ll wait until later tonight.”

  Wracked with guilt over the lie about her intuition, Morgan climbed the stairs to her room. She really was going to meditate, but her main reason was to delay the confrontation with the paranormals.

  She wanted to buy time for Alma. She was hoping that if she stalled long enough, Alma would contact her with some proof about Benedict. If Benedict was the killer, there was no sense in getting into a fight with these paranormals. Even though by all accounts it seemed like her sisters could whip their butts without her, a confrontation might reveal to them that she was no longer in control of her gifts.

  While it appeared that her mother and her sisters were oblivious to the fact that her intuition had failed her, Belladonna, with her knowing looks and judgmental meows, wasn’t quite so oblivious. Much to Morgan’s dismay, the cat followed her up and would not be dissuaded from coming into the room. Oh well, maybe Morgan could use her to test out whether or not her intuition was returning.

  Under the cat’s watchful eye, Morgan settled cross-legged into the middle of her bed. Her hand brushed the moonstone that was in her pocket. She’d worn all indigo. She was prepared for nurturing her gifts as she closed her eyes and slowed her breathing.

  Hmm… now what to focus on? Oh, right, Belladonna. She would focus her mind on predicting what Belladonna would do next. That sort of prediction was the part of her intuition that helped the most when confronting enemy paranormals: being able to sense their next move so they could take evasive measures.

  Not that Belladonna was the enemy. Though from the cat’s constant, annoying furtive glances, Morgan was starting to think of her as the enemy.

  Breathe. Clear your mind. In. Out. Suddenly Morgan got a funny feeling deep in her chest. In her mind’s eye, she saw an image of Belladonna sitting on one of the shelves on the left side of the built-in bookcases that flanked the fireplace.

  “Meow.”

  Morgan’s eyes flew open, searching the left side of the fireplace. Darn! No cat.

  “MEOW!”

  Her eyes tracked to the sound. Belladonna was lying on one of the shelves on the right side, her tail dangling over
the edge, lazily swishing back and forth. Just like Morgan had seen in her mind’s eye except on the wrong side. Did that mean her gifts were partially coming back?

  Ding!

  Morgan reached for her phone, her heart leaping when she saw it was a text from Alma.

  I remembered something about the day Clementine died. Please come right away.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  M organ had raced out of the house using the excuse that she wanted to retrieve an herbal concoction that helped heighten her gifts at Sticks and Stones. The sisters were surprised, wondering why she’d never used that before. Morgan had lied once again, telling them it was something new that she was working on. Since they’d planned the confrontation for after the moon came up, she had about an hour.

  She pulled into Alma’s driveway with a heavy heart and the hope that tonight would be the last time she’d have to lie to her sisters. She didn’t bother to hide her truck down the street. She didn’t have time. And besides, so what if Alma recognized it now? She clearly had some evidence against Benedict.

  Alma seemed nervous and grim. She let Morgan in and made sure to lock the doors behind her. Was she afraid Benedict might come along and discover she was giving Morgan evidence against him?

  “You said you remembered something?” Morgan prompted as Alma led her back to the kitchen. Morgan didn’t want to push. She knew how hard it was for people to admit that a loved one had committed an unspeakable act. The last thing she wanted was for Alma to clam up. Best to let her tell it in her own time.

  Alma wrung her hands, the amethyst bracelet jangling. “Oh, it’s all so awful.” She glanced out the window toward Clementine’s house.

  Maybe if Morgan helped her along a bit. “Did you remember something about Benedict that afternoon at the bake sale? The afternoon Clementine was killed?”