Brooms and Brains (A Hocus Pocus Cozy Witch Mystery Series Book 5)

by Constance Barker

  Brooms and Brains

  by

  Constance Barker

  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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  Chapter 1

  Jody Stillwell was just coming to the end of her weekly shopping trip. Just because she was the owner of a well-beloved diner didn’t mean she couldn’t shop for herself as well. She was just going to check out, drop her personal groceries at home, and head straight over to her place of work. Just as she began to place her items, she felt a presence standing behind her. Tammy Thorton stood, tall and intimidating, even without saying a word.

  “Hey, Jody~” Tammy’s voice was sweet like honey, but had a bitter aftertaste to it, like vinegar. “Does my sweet Tommy still work at your diner?”

  An odd question out of the blue, Jody thought, as she felt Tammy would already know the answer to that question. But she didn’t want to upset her with assumptions.

  “Tommy? Well, of course, he does, he’s been-” Jody started, finally stammering her response before Tammy stepped closer to her menacingly. She slammed her hand on the countertop where Jody’s food was, causing a bit of a stir with the few other people present in the area.

  Heads began to turn in Jody and Tammy’s direction. Jody wasn’t quite sure as to what she should be doing, eyes darting around as she felt her nerves begin to rise. “Don’t you forget that Tommy is my man. He’s mine, and you better not be trying to steal him from me!” Tammy’s voice rose quickly and her face was flushed with rage.

  Jody began to stammer, the combination of eyes on her back and accusations in her face were the perfect mix for white-hot embarrassment, “Tammy!! I-I would never! ...Tommy is my employee. I am his boss, I'm not going to... to-”

  Jody found her thoughts breaking apart in front of Tammy’s stern gaze, With a quick sigh, Jody mustered out a complete sentence, “Look, Tammy, I promise I’m not any more than Tommy’s boss, and I meant it. Why don’t you come over to the diner, get something to eat? Maybe talk with Tommy, too?”

  Tammy scowled loudly, but nonetheless, stopped her barking and walked off in a huff. Leaving Jody confused, shaking, and embarrassed, especially as so many others had witnessed this public display.

  In the diner kitchen, Jody, still somewhat shaken up from her confrontation with Tammy, decided to find her way to talk with Tommy. Tommy Rainford was the cook for Jody’s diner, as she was friends with his mother, Nettie, and asked for Jody to give him a chance. A chance well paid off in her opinion, as Tommy was a wonderful addition to her diner family. Always sweet, kind, and one heck of a cook.

  Tommy was mortified when Jody told him of what Tammy had done. “Oh my gosh!! I’m so so very sorry about all that! That you even had to be in that position because of-”

  “Don’t you even apologize!” Jody countered, holding up a hand. “I was more confused than anything. I just figured I’d let you know.”

  Tommy, though still a bit upset at the news, nodded, adding, “Well...thank you for telling me. And I am sorry- Oh. Last time today, I promise.” He took a moment to compose himself and get his mind back into his work.

  “I- uh, I brought a little gift for the kitchen!” Tommy said, turning behind himself to look beside the counter where he stood. “Just a little something from back home.” He presented Jody with a large crate full of fresh-looking parsnips.

  “Tommy! What are these?” Jody exclaimed, raising the cover, a smile spreading across her face. “My family’s got this huge garden,“ Tommy explained. “We’re always growing too many parsnips than we know what to do with, so I brought some over to cook here.” He offered the box for Jody to inspect.

  “I love it, and I won’t get in the way of you showing off exactly what you can do with those parsnips, let me leave you to it.”Jody waved a quick goodbye as she made her way from the kitchen into the front of the building where the rest of the diner sat bustling with customers.

  Later in the day, much to most everyone’s surprise, none other than Tammy herself came walking through the diner’s doors. At first, Jody was unsure of how to react, especially considering their earlier skirmish. But that didn’t seem to be on Tammy’s current agenda.

  Instead, before Jody could greet Tammy, Tommy appeared from back in the kitchen. Jody tried not to listen in on their conversation, as well as most of the diner. It wasn’t her business what her employees were up to, but given the present company, she certainly had every right to at least be concerned. Eventually, they split ways from their conversation, with Tammy settling into a seat against the wall, and Tommy scurrying back into the kitchen.

  Jody wanted to comment, but she couldn’t figure out exactly what to say. And looking in on Tommy, he was just busily working away on his dishes. She was going to ask if he was okay, but a reminder of her earlier conversation came back to play in her mind.

  Whatever problems Tammy and Tommy had, talking to Tommy about it wouldn’t be helping at all. In fact, it would most probably make things worse.

  Just as Jody’s mind began to re-focus on her work, Tommy came walking out of the kitchen with a dish that not only looked good but smelled amazing as well. He placed the plate in front of Tammy and once again scurried back into the kitchen without so much as a word.

  In front of Tammy, there sat a plate consisting of honey-glazed parsnips. Maybe this was something Tammy enjoyed having Tommy cook for her? Either way, she ate it up and was on her way out of the diner without another word to “her man” or anyone else.

  As it turns out this would be the last time that anyone in the town of Brightborough would see Tammy alive. She was reported dead only two hours later.

  Chapter 2

  It was a bright, sunny day, and Celestial Meadows was in a wonderful mood. The young witch fluttered about her Herbal Heaven shop, singing to herself as she prepared lotions for her many customers. The shop would open for the day in an hour, so Celestial had to hurry.

  She reflected with satisfaction on the last case she had solved. The suspect, Jolene, was safely behind bars thanks to Celestial and her friends. Detective Nikoli was even starting to think that Celestial could become a real cop someday if she wanted to. Celestial giggled at the thought, and hoped that there wouldn’t be any more murders in town to solve for a long time.

  One mystery that Celestial had not been able to solve had been a cute little ball of fur that had shown up in front of Celestial’s store one day.

  He had been wrapped up in a blanket and as soon as Celestial laid eyes on him, she knew that they would be fast friends.

  Jinxy had taken to following Celestial around wherever he could go. In short order, he had become fast friends with Athena.

  That morning, Celestial was hastily putting together the inventory order sheet for items she was running low on. Helping her were the erstwhile twin ghosts, Stella and Bella.

  “Celestial, you need some lavender petals,” Stella called out, floating among the back shelves.

  “I thought a batch had just come in last week,” Celestial mused.

  “It did,
but we love to smell them and you can never have too many,” Bella, her sister replied.

  “I guess, okay,” Celestial conceded.

  “Also do you think you could order one of those posters of Justin Beiber?” Bella asked. “The one without his shirt?”

  “Isn’t he a little too young for you, Bella?” Celestial frowned. “From another era even.”

  “I’m living my best life, Celestial,” Bella countered. “I’ll have you know in my time I had men like him eating out of the palm of my hand.”

  Just then, a beautiful butterfly flew into the shop. Before Celestial could issue a kind greeting, the butterfly transformed in midair into a gorgeous woman with long, dark hair and worry marring her soft features. “Celestial, have you heard the news?” Tamara asked woefully as she landed delicately on the ground.

  “Don’t I get a hello anymore? What kind of best friend are you?” Celestial teased, pausing her lotion spell to meet Tamara in the middle of the room. “What’s happened now?”

  The other’s face grew grave. “Tammy died last night.”

  Shock registered on the young witch’s face. “I heard she had gone to the hospital with food poisoning last night. That’s horrible, did they say for sure it was the food poisoning that killed her?”

  Tamara shook her head, her deep almond eyes narrowing. “The doctors say they’re not sure what caused her death. You of all people should know that food poisoning in this town isn’t caused by expired produce.”

  “Do you think someone poisoned her?” Celestial’s shoulders dropped at the thought that she had another murder to solve so soon. Yet, she felt as if she had been called for duty, and she wouldn’t ever refuse. “What do we know so far?”

  Tamara watched her friend sit atop the sales counter and whip out a pad and paper. “Didn’t you always tell me not to sit on the counters?”

  Celestial rolled her eyes. “It’s different when the owner of the shop does it. Now, where did Tammy eat last night?”

  “Before she died, she mentioned she ate at Jody’s diner.” Tamara reported, and Celestial scribbled the information down.

  Celestial put the tip of the pen in her mouth as she thought hard. “Well that makes sense, she’s been with Tommy for a while now and he’s the cook.”

  As Celestial and Tamara worked together to pin down all the relevant facts, their good friend Dakota apparated into the middle of the room and landed with a clatter in Celestial’s sink.

  The two rushed to the back of the room, struggling to help Dakota pull his moppy head of hair out of the drain pipe. “There you go.” Celestial wiped her hands on her apron after freeing her friend and pat him on the back.

  “At least there’s less damage than the last time you burst in here and broke an entire shelf.” Tamara teased.

  Dakota blushed as he thanked his friends for the help. “I’m getting better at apparation spells, maybe next time I’ll get it right.”

  “My shelves are rooting for you.” Celestial smiled. “I suppose you came to tell me about Tammy as well, huh.”

  “Tamara beat me to it I guess.” Dakota began to play with the large vat of lotions Celestial had been making earlier. “Smells great, as always. Almost good enough to eat.”

  “Speaking of which, do you know anything about the alleged food poisoning?” Tamara asked.

  “Well, nobody else who ate at Jody’s got sick that day, so it was definitely targeted.” Dakota shook his head. “Where’s that notebook you usually have Celestial? You may want to write some of this down.”

  Celestial rolled her eyes playfully and hurried back to the counter. “Here it is. Now what else should we record?”

  Dakota cleared his throat. “It’s important to note in that little notebook that Tammy rarely came to Jody’s diner. She had a pretty public feud going with Jody, even yesterday before she died the two were seen arguing over Tommy.”

  The news struck a nerve with Celestial. “Are you saying Jody had a thing for Tommy?”

  “Quite the opposite. Jody was stressing the fact that she’s Tommy’s boss and nothing more. She was the one who invited Tammy to the diner,” Dakota added.

  It was all very suspicious to Celestial. “You can’t be suspecting her, Jody would never hurt a fly. She’s one of sweetest witches I’ve ever met.”

  Tamara and Dakota looked at each other then shrugged. “All signs point to her.” They said in unison.

  Celestial shook her head. “No, we don’t know everything yet. You both have solved a case or two with me, there has to be more to it.”

  “Maybe this one is just an open and shut mystery.” Dakota shrugged.

  “Absolutely not. We have to see what Nikoli and his people think about it. They’re bound to know something we don’t,” Celestial admitted.

  Tamara frowned. “Well, you’ve solved a case or two as well so you should know more than anyone that you can’t always trust the sweet and quiet ones.”

  “I guess.” Celestial gave in with a groan. “Is there anything else that we should note about the case?”

  The other two shook their heads, so Celestial put the notepad away and continued mixing the vat of lotions. “We can spitball ideas for a bit longer, but I have to finish this lotion up. It’s about opening time for the shop.”

  Celestial’s shoulders were tense now, and the bright light from outside irritated her eyes. Though she was always happy to help the police department and defend a good witch like Jody, the prospect of another long and stressful case worried her.

  “Hey, maybe you should mix one of your famous stress relief lotions and keep it for yourself,” Tamara offered, moving next to her friend to give her a hug.

  With a sigh, Celestial retrieved a small bottle and began her usual spell. “That’s a wonderful idea. I’m gonna need it.”

  Chapter 3

  Celestial had just opened the store when she heard a thud inside her ingredients cupboard. Her heart paused a beat before she walked over and slowly turned the handle. She peered inside to see Dakota’s cheeky face smiling up at her.

  “Well this is a first,” she said lightly.

  “I was aiming for just outside this cupboard so technically, I was only about twelve inches off,” he said with a hint of pride.

  “Hello friends,” Stella called out as she and Bella materialized into the room. “We used our supernatural smelling power to smell a mystery and came right on over.”

  “Do you guys really have super smell?” Dakota asked, eyes wide.

  “No, but you’ll be amazed what we’ve been able to convince people we can do,” Bella said.

  Celestial helped Dakota to his feet and led him into the shop where Tamara was sniffing something in a brown bottle. She was about to greet her friend when she heard a buzz by her right ear. It was Athena.

  “Good morning my friends,” Celestial said with a smile. “Would anyone like some tea?”

  “What the heck is this?” asked Tamara, ignoring the question.

  Celestial peered at the bottle. “It’s a tincture for the eradication of foot fungus.”

  “Eeww, gross.” Tamara replaced the lid and followed Celestial to the kitchen.

  They took their tea onto the shop floor.

  Athena addressed the group, “So what do we all think about the whole Tammy situation?”

  “She’s brown bread,” offered Dakota with a lip curl, “about to become worm food. That’s not a ‘situation’ , it's a finale.”

  Celestial and Tamara let out a laugh.

  Tamara folded her arms. “Let’s look at the facts of the case,” she began. “Tammy Thornton is dead because she was either poisoned or she had an allergic reaction to something.” She unfolded her arms and began striding purposefully around the floor. “So, if we’re talking poison, our two main suspects would have to be her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Tommy the chef, or the owner of the diner, Jody Stillwell.”

  Before she could continue, she was interrupted by the jangle of the door openi
ng and in walked Jody Stillwell.

  Everyone in the room glanced at each other in surprise before looking towards Jody. Stella and Bella managed to meld into the shadows.

  Celestial gathered herself. “Good morning Jody, how are you?”

  Jody’s usual placid manner had been replaced by a look of panic. “Hi Celestial, I wanted to talk to you,” she said looking at the others and offering a tense smile. “It’s horrible, just horrible . . .”

  Celestial guided Jody to a stool next to the counter so she could sit and then offered her some tea.

  “No tea, thank you. I could probably do with something stronger but I don’t really drink.”

  Jody’s shoulders dropped and she took a breath.

  Celestial took both of her hands in hers and looked directly at her. “We heard about Tammy.”

  “Oh my life, everyone thinks I poisoned her don’t they?”

  There was a chorus of ‘no, of course not’ and ‘don’t be silly’ from everyone.

  Jody took a handkerchief from her purse and blew her nose. “I didn’t kill her. I admit I didn’t like her; she was a mean bully but I wouldn’t wish her dead,” she sniffed.

  Celestial squeezed her hand. “Just because she ate her last meal at your diner doesn’t mean her death has anything to do with your food.”

  “You know me, Celestial. You know that I would never in a million years ever do anything like this.” She sniffed again. “I rescue animals, I wouldn’t poison one!”

  There was a furtive glance around the room at her last statement.

  “We believe you, Jody,” said Celestial, “but do you have any idea who could have poisoned her if it was poison of course?”

  “No . . . I mean Tommy cooked the food but nobody I know would do such a thing.”

  “What about the food?” asked Celestial. “Where did it come from? Who are your suppliers?”

  Jody blew her nose again and shook her head. “I don’t think any of our suppliers would do anything; why would they? Although now I think about it, the back door is always unlocked or open. Anyone can walk into the kitchen.”