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

by Dani Corlee

  His eyes on the road, Randy nodded. "So let's try to remember. If we want to be charged with murder, we should try to do it in November when you don't have too much work. Agree?"

  Mabel chuckled, but she realized from Randy’s face that despite the wisecrack, he was seriously concerned. "What are you thinking about?" She asked him.

  "From now on we have to be very careful. Whoever tried to kill us once, will surely try again. Evidently we are getting dangerously close to the solution. But next time we may not be so lucky."

  "Do you really think they will try again?"

  "Think about it. They attempted to kill us two blocks from the police station. They were willing to risk being caught to get rid of us. It seems clear that they will try to finish the job in one way or another."

  "I understand. I’ll call Kendra to tell her that we're coming."

  "Good idea. Find out if Banks is at home. I also want to talk with him again. But now tell me about your cousin. Is she trustworthy?”

  Mabel gave him a look of shock. "You don't think that she’s the killer?" She answered, her voice higher than she wanted. "She had no interest in the company. She received a tidy sum of money and half the house in which she already lives. Even before the bequest she didn’t need to work, so money isn’t an issue."

  "You know, I’m no longer very sure that the company has anything to do with the crime. For me, there is some other reason."

  "Here we are finally." Mabel got out of the car quickly, waving to Kendra, who was waiting for them, at the front door.

  "Come in, it is starting to rain!"

  Mabel ran inside shivering. "Brrrrr," she said, rubbing her freezing hands.

  "Come and sit here, Godfrey has prepared something warm to drink."

  Kendra preceded them into the main living room, where a nice fire crackled in the fireplace.

  "Someone tried to kill us!" Exclaimed Mabel, unable to contain himself.

  "What?" Kendra turned white, and she brought her hands to her face. "Are you kidding me?"

  "No," Randy intruded, looking serious at Mabel to make her understand that it was inappropriate. "But we were able to handle it. For now. We came to the conclusion that we should check all the photographs of your aunt from past years.” He tore the envelope from his coat pocket that Hayes had sent and showed it to Kendra.

  "Have you ever seen this man?"

  Kendra was already cuddled up on the soft carpet in front of the fireplace. "Let me see," she said, taking hold of the photo. Then she got up and went to the window in order to get better light.

  "I don't know. It seems to me yes but I don't know where. Wait. There are photo albums here," she said, hurrying to a small cabinet with doors on the other wall of the large room. She opened it, looked inside and said. "Here they are. These should be from about those years." She took several big albums to them.

  The butler arrived with a large tray of tea, hot chocolate, and more sweets than one could eat in a week.

  They sat at the table and served themselves but couldn’t wait to begin flipping through the albums.

  "There is nothing here," Kendra said.

  "Here neither." echoed Randy.

  "Here there are several photos missing. See?" Mabel showed them, indicating pages with blank spaces. "We are back where we started; I’d say," She added, completely demoralized.

  “Let’s get to the point. Mr. Hopkins is killed. Who had an interest in his death? If it were true that he owned 50% of the company, it would be reasonable to suspect Mabel."

  She turned to look at him frowning, and seeing her like that he smiled.

  "But we know for sure that she didn't do it," He stated looking at her. "But as pure conjecture let’s say that Mr. Hopkins really did own half the company, even though the attorney so far has found no evidence of this. If he died who would inherit? Probably Mr. Hopkins feared for his safety, and that is why he sent that photo to Mabel."

  Randy took a bite of pastry and continued. "The twins. What reason did they have to kill Mr. Hopkins? It would seem contrary to everything, and yet both they and Mr. Hopkins ransacked the offices of the company. At least it appears like that but I still have to get the results of the nail examination."

  "The nail?" Kendra shuddered, grimacing.

  "The former husband," Randy continued. “Acted kind of strange, insisting he still had to pick up his things that remained here after the divorce. But we know that Mrs. Stone had everything sent to him, drawing up a list that he agreed to and signed off on.

  The son seems completely out of the picture, not only out of the will and the murder but in general of anything concerning his father. And yet he behaved strangely and made it clear that his father had something to do with Mr. Hopkins. Unfortunately, Mr. White doesn't seem to want to talk.

  The couple Jarvis. It seems unlikely that they are involved. Their interests in the will are not such to justify murder and anyway I don't think the death of Mr. Hopkins would be of any benefit to them unless we’ve missed something. But Mr. Jarvis is the person, more than any other, who had access to the poison. And at the same time it would have been idiotic to use it to commit murder.

  Godfrey Banks."

  "No, forget about him!" Kendra sighed and looked at Mabel. Then she continued. "He has taken care of our aunt since before we were born. And also of us, every time we were here. He has always taken care of everything, and I have to say that, without him, Villa Enchantment would not have been the same. What our aunt left him is more than he expected. Why spoil everything you already have?"

  Randy nodded. "Yes, actually I don't find any motive, but in this case too, maybe we're missing something. And anyway he has an alibi for that evening.

  Then there’s you, Kendra."

  "Oh, great! Now even me?" Kendra said raising her hands to the sky and letting them fall back on the table with a thud.

  "The police must investigate every possibility," Mabel said, making a face.

  "Exactly." echoed Randy.

  "Well, why would I kill him?" She resumed with a saucy expression.

  "For fear he would get the company away from Mabel. Otherwise, you might be able to convince her to give you the management of the enterprise and maybe with time to sell it to you at a low price. Having other people involved could affect your plans."

  "Ridiculous." Kendra declared. I'm not interested in the company, and I have no intention of taking on trouble like that. If Mabel wants my help, I will give it to her, more than anything else, to ensure that what our aunt built with so much effort is not lost. But frankly business is not my thing, and my work keeps me busy enough already.

  "I didn't know you worked. What do you do?"

  "I'm a photographer, and my photos are selling quite well. My job allows me to live very well. Not to mention the fact that if need be, I can always count on my parents and now even on what Aunt Glenda left me. So you see I would not need to kill Mr. Hopkins, whom, moreover, I didn’t know at all."

  "Perfect! Randy exclaimed with a smile. "One less." And he drew a line in his notebook.

  "Percy Whitmore is left," said Mabel.

  Randy thought about the question. "Let's see. His office was ransacked, a sign that he has some information that concerned both Mr. Hopkins and presumably the twins. What we don't know is if he is aware of having something that Mr. Hopkins and the twins wanted. I'm more inclined to believe that the three were looking for something that favored them in the will, probably something that would allow them to appeal it. In this case, Mr. Whitmore is no more suspicious than any other employee."

  "So we're back where we started?" Mabel asked frowning. "Let me see that picture again," she then said. She examined it for a few seconds. Then she closed her eyes.

  "What are you doing?" Randy looked at her baffled.

  "I’m trying to fix the image in my brain to see if anything comes to mind. Kendra, you remember that game we used to play as girls?"

  "Which one? We played a lot!"

&nb
sp; Mabel exhaled. Just squinted at her slightly, trying to make her understand that they couldn’t speak freely in front of Randy. "You know, the one where looking at the comics we attempted to imagine how that character would be in old age?"

  Kendra's look brightened. "Yes, I remember! The spell of Dorian Gray!"

  Randy shook himself from his thoughts. "A spell?"

  "No!" Mabel sought to remedy the situation by giving a dirty look to Kendra, who reacted by raising her palms and leaning back on her chair. Are you crazy? She said in her mind. You know that certain words are taboo!

  "It was a game that we played when we were small," She said to Randy. "Who would have guessed that one day it would come in handy?" She stood up and went around the long table to sit beside Kendra. She put the picture in front of them and took one of her hands. "Are you ready?" She asked. Do you remember how to do it? She continued mentally.

  Kendra nodded.

  "What are you doing?" Randy intruded.

  "Shhhh ..." Mabel ordered and like Kendra started to stare at the photos. After a few moments, She turned white. "Oh my goodness," she said without looking up.

  Kendra looked at her. "I've seen him sometimes here at home when he came to see our aunt, but I don't know who he is. Do you know who it is?"

  Mabel nodded and raised her eyes to Randy, who looked at her uncomprehending.

  CHAPTER 13

  "Now I understand, but I don't know what it means," Mabel said in one breath.

  "Will you kindly explain?" Randy looked impatiently at the two cousins.

  "I know who was the witness at the wedding." She broke in and looked first at Randy and then Kendra.

  "So? Don't leave us in suspense." Kendra pleaded.

  "It's Percy Whitmore."

  “What?” And why would the accountant have had to be the witness to the groom?” Randy scowled.

  "At that time he was not Aunt Glenda’s accountant. The company didn’t even exist. Apparently my aunt knew him before hiring him." She raised her eyes to Randy looking at him open mouthed while things began to clear in her mind. "I think that Whitmore is George White’s brother!"

  Randy ran his hands through his hair, pushing it back. "He changed his name. Why?”

  "Ah, this I do not know." She gave him a mischievous smile. "You’re the policeman. You tell me why."

  Randy got up and began striding across the room. "We just have to look for any information about him and then interrogate both him and White. I believe the murder will soon be solved.” He concluded with a decided frown.

  "Wait, let’s try searching on the internet." With a snap of her fingers, Kendra made a computer appear in front of her.

  Randy turned at the noise. "Where did that machine come from?" He asked with a bewildered expression.

  Kendra’s complexion turned a little red. She appealed to Mabel, who returned the look with a frown, and stuttering she said, "I had put ... I had put it under the table."

  "Under the table? But why?"

  "Well, who cares where she keeps the computer." Mabel cut in. "What's the name of Uncle George’s brother? Ah, yes, Paul White. Look it up."

  "Right away? Kendra typed the name into the search bar and within seconds the machine produced an incredible amount of pages.

  Randy moved behind her leaning on her chair and bending toward the screen. "But this seems to be a musician."

  "Many of the references in those pages will have the same name," Mabel said.

  "Wait, what was the exact name?" Randy took his notebook and quickly flipped through it.

  "You're right. X ... XA and something."

  "Oh yes, Xavier. Paul Xavier White."

  "Ok, look for this name, Kendra." Mabel sat beside her cousin, checking the search results. "These don't seem to have any hits. Try on page 2."

  "Wait. Try Paul X. White." Randy suggested.

  "Okay, wait ..."

  "Bingo! "Oh my God!"

  "Let me see?" Mabel leaned over for a better look. On top of the results, there were 6 old photographs of Percy Whitmore, aka Paul White, four of which were mug shots and in the other two he was hardly anything special.

  "I find it incredible. A little man so... insignificant!"

  They opened the first link. It was an article more than twenty years old from a small town in another state where it told of the capture of a "dangerous criminal" guilty of armed robbery of various banks and jewelers as well as embezzlement.

  Another article recounted how the man was able to falsify documents in order to be illegally in possession of different properties. The scam had been uncovered, and the man arrested, leading to the discovery that he was also guilty of numerous robberies and also suspected, although not proven, that he was the assassin in a double murder. On a curious note, it was reported that he had scars on his hands from old burns which had obliterated his fingerprints.

  The other articles were more or less of the same things, shortly after his capture, where it was explained that during the transfer from one prison to another the thug had managed to escape. After that, there was no news.

  "Understand... anything but a shy and insecure man." Randy looked at Mabel, stunned.

  "Great, now Randy, all you have to do is arrest him."

  Randy chuckled, pensively. "Hold on. It's not that simple. We need proof to arrest him. How do we know it's really Whitmore? We can’t say that we got there through a game for little girls."

  Kendra stifled a snicker. Some game for little girls she said mentally to Mabel. If I turn him into a mouse will he understand what we are?

  Stop it! This is no time for jokes. Remanded Mabel, who, always in her head, continued. Let me listen to what he says.

  "We know he is a criminal, and we know he’s dangerous. According to those reports, he killed once and managed to escape. He probably also killed Mr. Hopkins, who must have discovered who he really was and threatened to tell. He’s probably the one who tried to kill us."

  Randy slammed his fist on the table making her wince.

  "Damn it," he said. We have to make sure to nail him, but I don't know how. How can I prove that he’s the one?"

  "Of course if you can, for sure you’ll get a promotion and prestige. A nice slap in the face for that loudmouthed sheriff!"

  Randy couldn’t hold back a smile but then immediately frowned. "I need to think." I have to concentrate on how to do it. Mabel, I think it would be better if you stay here for a few days. I don't want you to be alone; it's too dangerous. On the other hand, here you are with Kendra and Banks and in the small house the Jarvis couple. Of course, neither Banks nor Jarvis can be considered bodyguards due to their age, but at least you're not alone."

  "So then I put their lives at risk!"

  "I fear that already Kendra is in danger. Whitmore, indeed, Paul X. White does not seem to be a fool and knows that as soon as you know who he really is, you are going to tell Kendra. I’ll call for a patrol to come here and stand watch for the night. Tomorrow we’ll see how the situation develops. For now I would say that you shouldn’t move."

  Mabel shook her head. "I have to go back to the shop. I have appointments."

  "Look I'm not kidding. And I'm not just asking. I'm telling you."

  "Alright! You bully." She exclaimed trying to laugh to lighten the mood, but Randy didn't seem willing to fool around.

  "You could endanger many lives if Paul White attempts to kill you while you are with others, perhaps clients for example."

  Mabel sighed. "I understand, I understand. I'll call to cancel the appointments." She picked up the phone which rang surprising everyone.

  "What a scare!" She said. Then she frowned. It's the lawyer. What does he want? She said looking at Randy, who shrugged his shoulders.

  CHAPTER 14

  "You’re crazy! You can't go on like this." George got out of the car slamming the door. He looked around. In the late afternoon, the parking lot of the town's largest supermarket was virtually empty and only two or three people o
n the other side of the lot, loading their trunks with shopping they had done, turned toward him upon hearing his agitated voice.

  George White shuddered and zipped up his jacket. He lit a cigarette and leaning against the car, he gave a grim look around again.

  Percy Whitmore, aka Paul X. White, was motionless, his hands still on the wheel. He got out slowly and approached his brother.

  "You have to stay calm, he said. I have everything under control."

  "What under control? Instead, it seems to me that the situation has gotten out of hand. I told you not to act in haste, but not you! You couldn't wait. Why did you need to kill Hopkins? You could have bought him."