A Witch for Sleuth (A Modern Cozy Mystery with the Witches of Springsville)

by Dani Corlee

  "Oh God," said the guard, looking into the room from behind the deputy. "What happened here? Mr. Whitmore is going to kill me!”

  The deputy turned and stared at him angrily, then continued to look around.

  The mess was apparently made by someone who was looking for something.

  "Don't touch anything, I’m warning you," the deputy said, blocking the entrance with his arm.

  He took his phone out of his pocket and quickly entered a number. "This is Randy. Please send a forensic team to the factory of Mrs. Stone. I'm already here."

  "It was Mr. Hopkins, right? " Mabel whispered to Randy. Then turning to the guard she asked. "Does Mr. Whitmore smoke cigars?”

  "Good heavens, no! Indeed, when he sees the mess and smells this, it’s going to be bad. Mr. Whitmore has always followed in the footsteps of Mrs. Stone and is a very, shall we say, strict. He accepts neither failures nor mistakes. Something like this will set him off, and he’ll take it out on me!"

  "What do you have to do with it? You’re hardly here 24 hours a day to monitor the entry?"

  "Of course not, there are two of us who share it, but at night there is nobody. He will say for sure that we forgot to lock some entrance or set the alarm."

  "There’s an alarm?"

  The man turned pale. "Yes, but ... actually I'm afraid in recent days, with the passing of the lady, in fact, there may have been some forgetfulness." Then he turned to the room, with his hand on his forehead, and began to complain again. "What a mess, what a mess! Now who’s going to tell him?"

  "You don't do anything. We’ll notify him." Randy responded and then gave a quick glance at the office.

  There was nothing strange in the room, except for the fact that it was completely messed up, but something didn’t make sense. He looked at the file cabinet with open drawers and various folders thrown on the floor. Then the bookshelves, with some titles and catalogs upside down on the desk. A computer, a penholder. An agenda and various scattered sheets of paper. A big notebook and some post-its.

  Hearing a noise behind him, he turned around frowning. "Don't touch anything!” He said to the guard, who had started to pick up papers from the floor. "Please, get out. We have to take fingerprints and check everything. In fact, in a few minutes my colleagues will arrive, and it’s better to have somebody at the entrance to receive them and show them the way. So, you should return immediately to your post."

  "What’s this? He said to himself, dropping to the floor. With a pen taken from his pocket, he moved something and stared.

  “What?” Mabel asked as she didn't understand.

  "This," he said, motioning with his pen. Mabel crouched down next to him and saw what he had shown. It was a small blue object, like a scale.

  She stayed open mouthed staring and said. “A fingernail...”

  “Right. At least we know that there was a woman here.”

  "And I also know who." Mabel got up and breathed deeply.

  Always crouching, Randy looked up at her. "Perhaps you could also tell me."

  "It's Pam’s, my cousin."

  "Then she was here with Mr. Hopkins?” Randy asked. "Interesting...”

  "No. I believe instead that Pam was here together with Prom. They go everywhere together. And I doubt they came with Hopkins. Knowing them it’s is more likely they followed him and then they ransacked the place to see what he was looking for."

  "Yes, it seems plausible," said Randy taking the nail with his handkerchief and putting it in a small plastic bag. Looking then at Mabel’s inquisitive expression, he said with a wink: "Tools of the trade! I’m always ready with these in my pocket." Then, after a brief pause he resumed. "Well, now we have to wait for the team and their detection. Let's recap. Both Hopkins and your cousin Pamela have been here. In what order we don’t know, but we can assume that Pamela came with her twin. It may be that they followed Mr. Hopkins but it may well be that they came on their own. What is certain is that if he came before, he left an unmistakable smell and those who came after will have realized that he’d been here. Could it be that...” He left the sentence in the air and looked at Mabel.

  "Oh, no! I can't believe it. I know what you're thinking. The twins, having realized that he’d been here approached him, perhaps with blackmail?"

  Randy nodded. "It’s possible. And since when they confronted him he got angry, things degenerated, and they killed him. But the poison implies premeditation and so the fight must have taken place earlier in the day of the killing. It can’t be." He said putting a hand on the back of his neck and scratched while he thought.

  "Maybe Mr. Hopkins had discovered something that concerned them and they had to take him out." she mumbled.

  Randy stared at her.

  "I'm just saying!" She exclaimed. "I don’t really think them capable of such a thing. They are quite strange, and I confess that I don't like them at all, but I don't think they could kill someone."

  There was a sound of footsteps on the stairs and they both turned. The forensic team had arrived. Randy gave them the bag with the fingernail and left them to their work.

  "Here for now we can’t do anything." He said turning to Mabel. "Maybe it's time for us to check the office that your aunt had in her house."

  CHAPTER 7

  Kendra ran to meet Mabel and Randy as soon as she saw them arrive at Villa Enchantment and embraced her cousin. "Good morning," she then said to the deputy, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. As he approached the butler, who also arrived to welcome them, she whispered. "What are you doing with him? Didn't he want to put you in jail? What's going on?"

  "No, in fact, he is helping me to clear my name. He is letting me follow the investigation with him to try to get to a solution faster. And the Sheriff instead has been targeting me. Have you read the local newspapers? They’re all after me." Mabel covered her face with her hands. It's terrible! This negative publicity will ruin my name and my career!"

  Kendra gave her an unhappy look. "Don't worry. The editor of one of the newspapers is my friend, and as soon as we know the truth we’ll find a way to have it appear prominently in the news." She patted her head, smiling.

  “Thank you. Now we'd like to look in our aunt’s office."

  "Of course. I hope the deputy will not get scared," Kendra said with a grimace.

  "Why should he be scared?"

  "Haven’t you been in our aunt's office lately?"

  Mabel stopped to think for a few seconds. "Mm... in fact it’s been a long time since I’ve been in there. It was an ordinary office, as far as I can remember. A desk, a bookcase, a few other pieces of furniture. A lot of paper, as in any office. What's wrong with it?"

  "It was an ordinary office. It was! If I’d known you had to get in, I would have tried to pick it up. Well, let’s play the card of the eccentric old one... Now beside the computer there is one of her many crystal balls. In addition to books and catalogs with copies of orders, emails, presentations, recipes, and brochures, there are books of magic and bowls with magic mixtures.”

  Mabel's eyes widened. "Oh, no! Now, what are we going to do?"

  "I told you. Let’s play the old eccentric’s card. We can have some of that stuff disappear with magic, but I wouldn't want to touch anything important for the investigation. Let's just hope he doesn’t intend to see the room in the tower too. There we just couldn't really justify the contents. With all the old tomes, the spirit stills, and..."

  "...the flying broomstick!" Continued Mabel. "You know how strange is our aunt's broomstick. It will hear voices and will be sure to come and pry. How can we justify a broom that moves by itself?" Mabel chuckled but seemed worried.

  "Oh God ... If I come up too, I’ll try to hold it with a spell." Kendra made gestures in the air, imitating herself in the act of making magic.

  "Good luck! There is no spell that will work with that. No one has brooms like that at home. It's too much like... a witch!"

  "I know, but in her time it was useful to have it
. It was a gift from her parents when she finished her studies."

  "What a mess ..." Mabel seemed quite worried. "If he wants to climb up to the tower, let’s tell him that we don't have a key. Unless he’s already talked with Godfrey."

  "The room was left to the Magic Club. Shouldn’t they be present at any eventual search?"

  "Perhaps. I don't know how it works. Let's just hope he wants merely to see the office and does not wish to see the other rooms and that the flying broom doesn’t cause problems."

  That's when Randy turned. "What are you whispering about? Mabel, come on, Mr. Banks will take us to the office."

  They climbed the wide stairs with Godfrey leading the way while Randy admired various paintings hanging on the walls, and they arrived at what had been the office. The room was large and airy. The aunt liked having plenty of light, despite the rumor that has witches always hidden in dark caverns.

  On the far side, there was a bay consisting of a large window at the foot of which was a bench covered with a large pillow. Alongside there was a small armchair with a floor lamp, a sign that even during work, Mrs. Stone liked to relax with something to read.

  The desk was large and tidy as was the bookshelf and the cabinet in front. All the furniture was made of walnut, classic but clean, without being heavy. Overall the room was cozy and intimate.

  "What a beautiful paperweight!" Randy said noticing the crystal ball. When he put out his hand to touch it, it seemed to light up, emitting flashes of bright colors. "Damn!" He exclaimed, stepping back surprised. "It's a plasma globe, right?" He concluded.

  "Mm ... yes, sweet, don’t you think?" Mabel said and gestured to Kendra for some relief.

  "It's pretty strange here." He continued noting containers of herbs and colored liquids that were placed between current catalogs and ancient books with worn leather covers.

  He took a bottle of green liquid and shook it. "Slowly!" screamed Kendra and Mabel almost in unison. He looked at them surprised putting back the bottle, thankfully not noticing that the liquid was becoming transparent and that something small and dark was swimming inside. Then he looked carefully at the photos hung on a wall. "Is this you?" He asked Mabel.

  "Yes, me, my aunt, mother, and father. I must have been 5 or 6 years old." She sighed looking at her parents. "And here's Kendra with our aunt," she said, pointing to a photograph beside it. "Here we two are dressed for Halloween. Aunt Glenda gave us the witch’s costumes." She turned to look at Kendra, and the two laughed amused. "And these are some drawings we made when we were little."

  "And that, what was it!" Randy slapped his forehead. "What an idiot."

  "What’s the matter?" asked Mabel, not understanding.

  "There was something amiss in the office of Whitmore, and I didn't know what. All that mess had me.... confused. Now I know what. It was completely impersonal. There wasn’t one photo, or drawing, nothing of what you typically find in any office. For people who spend most of their day there, it’s okay to put something personal, even if just a box of candy or headache pills."

  He walked to the desk of Mrs. Stone and picked up some little colored rocks that were close to the penholder. "See what I mean?" He said showing them to Mabel.

  She nodded. She couldn't tell him that those were the legendary dragon stones and not a mere reminder of a day at the beach. "What’s next?" She asked instead.

  "I’ll look at her email to see if I can find any addressed to Hopkins. Can you search her papers?"

  "Yes, although I'm not sure what to look for." The deputy sat at the desk, and Mabel remained standing for a few seconds looking at the bookshelf.

  She could see herself as a child, alongside her aunt who was passing out pencils and paper, pretending she was her employer and that she needed to dictate a letter. She liked to play in this room. She remembered the agendas that her aunt kept. Perhaps between some notes and appointments and other things, a phone call to make or a letter to write, she had also left some notes about Mr. Hopkins.

  "Do you know the password?"

  "No, try Abracadabra."

  "Abracadabra?" Randy turned to look at Mabel, incredulous.

  She shrugged and repeated, "try!"

  "No, it doesn’t work." He replied after a second. "Neither lowercase nor uppercase, or any other combination."

  "And then try open sesame."

  "Are you kidding me?" Randy continued while typing and looking at her amazed. "I’m in."

  Mabel smiled. "My aunt had a weird sense of humor." She winked at Kendra, who was holding a broom firmly in her hand as she cautiously approached the door. With a nod of understanding, she said, "I'm going down, but I'll be right back."

  "Sure," replied Randy casually, then noticing that she held a broom with both hands and that she was moving it in the air as if it were fighting with her, he looked amazed and turned to Mabel with a questioning look.

  Mabel shrugged while Kendra ran away, then she began to open the doors of the cabinet and the drawers of the desk looking for files when she remembered something.

  "At the reading of the will, the lawyer read that our aunt left Mr. Hopkins a book about management, saying that maybe he could learn to love it. It seemed to insinuate that he hadn’t wanted to bother with it. Maybe she had taken on other people to replace him when she realized that he would not have been of help. So at least we can understand when they ended the relationship. Do you remember the name of the people in administration?"

  "Wait, they’re coming to me: they are Percy Whitmore, Miss Rose what’s-her-name and Mrs. Ramirez."

  "I know that this office was practically a replica of the one at the factory. Particularly in recent years, my aunt didn’t feel like going out, and she’d have a copy of the most important papers sent. I should be able to find a record of the employees. She turned back to the bookshelf and opened the bottom doors checking the contents. "Ok. Here are the files of the personnel. Let's see." She knelt on the floor and began to pull them out one by one. "This is five years ago, and all three of the names already appear. Let's see this one of ten years ago. Mm... the same thing except that instead of Rose Martin, Jennifer Evans is mentioned. This one from twenty years ago. Look, here are Evans and Ramirez but they are the only ones employed in administration." After browsing through a more recent file, Mabel said, "The hiring of Mr. Whitmore and the break with Hopkins took place between thirteen and eighteen years ago. I’ll check the files to be sure of the date."

  "Wait," said Randy, who had been searching the computer. "I did a search of the name Hopkins in your aunt’s emails. By the way, the email password is Abracadabra." He said in disbelief as she shrugged her shoulders. "In any case, there is an email from fifteen years ago where your aunt says she can no longer go on in that way, that the terms of the agreement were different because it was up to him to deal with all the administration, and he shouldn’t spend all his time traveling the states to make contact with suppliers and distributors. She understood his desire to travel but that the position he had agreed to was very different and that either he return immediately and begin managing the company, or she would be forced to hire a someone to take his place, and at that point, as it is written, there is no longer any reason to continue with our agreement."

  "So do you think she took back the shares of the company that Hopkins had?”

  "I don't know. Show me the email that comes after. Mm... There’s no mention of a split, and actually I find no evidence that they ever made an agreement of dissolution. Rather your aunt says she already has someone in mind who will help her, an accountant whom she trusts completely. It says neither why nor where she met him. But have you ever seen this Percy Whitmore?"

  "Frankly, no. I don't think he’s ever been here when I was here. And I don't know where my aunt met him or why she trusted him so much. Oh! Look here! How strange ..." Mabel frowned and with her finger followed the writing on a big notebook.

  "What is it?" Randy asked not understanding.

  "Here's ano
ther file. I thought it was another one of the employees, and instead it’s an inventory of my uncle’s things. Dated shortly after their divorce it ends by saying that everything was carefully packed and delivered directly by Godfrey to my uncle who checked it and took everything."

  "Well, that seems right."

  "No, I mean, yes. The fact is that at the reading of the will my uncle kept repeating to the lawyer that he had the right to come here to pick up his stuff. When the attorney told him he could not and to make a list of his things and that he would see what he could do, my uncle hesitated, saying that he had to come here and see for himself because there were so many things that he couldn’t remember them all. And he insisted a lot, even getting angry. It’s possible that my aunt, who was so meticulous, had forgotten not just something but many things?"