Then, Cat ruined it.
“Alice and Chase, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” she shouted from her spot a few feet away.
Chase and I tore apart as I turned to glare at her. “Do you mind?” I asked, and Cat laughed.
“Sorry. Please, feel free to go back to eating each other’s face, don’t mind me just sitting over here injured.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m definitely regretting coming to help you now.”
Cat grinned. “Admit it, you’d miss me.”
Chapter 21
The next day I was sitting in the bookshop, trying to relax a little bit. I’d spent the rest of the day yesterday giving Chase an official statement, then riding with Cat in the ambulance to the clinic, where she was diagnosed with a mild concussion and sent home with strict instructions that I was sure she wasn’t obeying at all.
I got a call from Chase that morning: Peter admitted to everything. He made a deal with the district attorney to serve twenty-five years concurrently for Sally and Sapphire Sam’s murders, as long as he told them where the body was. Chase was there now; Peter had dumped it in the woods somewhere just outside of town, hoping it wouldn’t be found for a long time.
Archibald had disappeared after finishing The Lord of the Rings, presumably having made his way back to England to try and hunt down J. R. R. Tolkien’s ghost to get answers. I figured he’d be back eventually, but with Aunt Francine keeping an eye on Cat at the cupcake shop and promising to tell me if she looked like she needed medical attention again, it meant I was here alone today, with only Muffin, who was happily snoring away on the bean bag chair, for company.
When the bell above the door rang, I sat up. I wasn’t too surprised to have customers anymore, the store was starting to get a little bit of a following, thanks to my selection of newer books that were available. I was starting to think that soon the shop might actually be profitable!
But when I looked up, it wasn’t a customer, it was Peaches, holding the weekly local paper which had just come out today.
“Have you seen it?” she asked with a smile on her face.
“No? What is it?” I asked, reaching for it. Peaches never came into Sapphire Village anymore if she could help it, so I knew it must have been important, whatever it was.
I looked at the front page, which featured a picture of Denise Williams, arm in arm with Ernest Forsyth, the weird and frankly creepy guy in charge of the company trying to start a redevelopment of Sapphire Village.
More Than Just Buddies: Forsyth Funding Williams Election Campaign the headline read, and I raised my eyebrows at Peaches.
“You said you were tired of all the lies being spread around during this election.”
“I was, but then Frank pointed out that he’d rather win honestly.”
“And this is honest.”
“Seriously?”
Peaches nodded. “I have a friend down in Portland that I met when I was in art school, she’s pretty good with computers. I told her what was going on, and a few days later she sent me the information. I actually didn’t even ask her to do it.”
“And you sent it to the paper?”
Peaches nodded. “It had to be done. I mean, I might not spend a lot of time here anymore, but Sapphire Village used to be my home, and I still consider it home. I hope I’ll be able to spend half my time here again soon, and I care what happens to this place. If Denise becomes Mayor, it’s going to get worse.”
I smiled as I opened the paper to the main article. It was all there, in black and white: transfers from Ernest Forsyth’s personal account to one of Denise’s, as well as a land title transfer for a property in Sapphire Village from Ernest to Denise for the cost of one dollar. She was as crooked as the Columbia River, and all the proof was right here. I looked up at Peaches.
“So that’s got to be it for her, right?”
“You’d think so,” Peaches replied. “After all, even the people who don’t even read the paper are going to hear about this. It’s Sapphire Village. The whole town is going to know about this in about half an hour.”
Just then I looked up to see Denise storming down the street, a copy of the paper clutched in her hand. She was fuming, I could practically see the smoke coming from her ears. I had a feeling she was going down to the industrial area a little ways south of town where the Sapphire Village Weekly offices were.
As she passed by the shop, Denise looked inside and saw Peaches and I. I waved and offered her a smile, and she glared at us and continued on while Peaches and I laughed from inside the shop.
“Well, at least she got her just desserts,” I said. “That’ll teach her not to spread lies about Frank all over town.”
“No, it won’t,” Peaches replied. “But at least it should, hopefully, stop her from being elected anytime soon.”
“Amen to that,” I replied.
“I have to get back to Brixton Road,” Peaches replied. “Can you walk me back to Cat’s shop so I can use her portal?”
“Of course,” I replied, my heart going out to my cousin. “I hope we manage to figure out how to defeat The Others once and for all soon.”
“Grandma Cee has been putting feelers out. She thinks you might have taken out a good portion of them.”
“But they’ll be coming back soon,” I said quietly. Peaches nodded.
“That’s what she thinks.”
“When they do, we’ll be ready,” I said with more confidence than I felt. “We can’t live in fear of them anymore. We have to fight.”
“You sound like Cat,” Peaches said with a smile. “I mean that in a good way.”
I laughed. “Cat’s a lot braver than I am.”
“In some ways, maybe. Not in all of them. Anyway, I’ll see you. Come say hi next time you’re in Brixton Road.”
With that, Peaches gave me a wave and sprung up the three steps that led to Cat’s Cupcakes. As I turned and made my way back to the bookshop, I knew Peaches was right. The Others were coming, and this time, they weren’t going to be caught unawares.
I might have solved another murder in Sapphire Village–two murders, really–but I knew things were definitely not going to settle down anytime soon.
Also by Samantha Silver
First of all, I wanted to thank you for reading my book. I well and truly hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I loved writing it.
If you enjoyed Death Quixote I’d really appreciate it if you could take a moment and leave a review for the book on Amazon, to help other readers find the book as well.
You can also sign up to my newsletter to receive an email every time I release a new book. To sign up for my newsletter, click here now.
Want to read more of Alice’s adventures? The fifth book in the Magical Bookshop Mystery series, is scheduled for release in mid-2018.
Other Magical Bookshop Mysteries
Alice in Murderland (Magical Bookshop Mystery #1)
Murder on the Oregon Express (Magical Bookshop Mystery #2)
The Very Killer Caterpillar (Magical Bookshop Mystery #3)
Willow Bay Witches Mysteries
The Purr-fect Crime (Willow Bay Witches #1)
Barking up the Wrong Tree (Willow Bay Witches #2)
Just Horsing Around (Willow Bay Witches #3)
Lipstick on a Pig (Willow Bay Witches #4)
A Grizzly Discovery (Willow Bay Witches #5)
Sleeping with the Fishes (Willow Bay Witches #6)
Cassie Coburn Mysteries
Poison in Paddington (Cassie Coburn Mystery #1)
Bombing in Belgravia (Cassie Coburn Mystery #2)
Whacked in Whitechapel (Cassie Coburn Mystery #3)
Strangled in Soho (Cassie Coburn Mystery #4)
Ruby Bay Mysteries
Death Down Under (Ruby Bay Mystery #1)
Arson in Australia (Ruby Bay Mystery #2)
The Killer Kangaroo (Ruby Bay Mystery #3)
Moonlight Cove Mysteries
Witching Aint’s Easy (Mo
onlight Cove Mystery #1)
Witching for the Best (Moonlight Cove Mystery #2)
About the Author
Samantha Silver lives in British Columbia, Canada, along with her husband and a little old doggie named Terra. She loves animals, skiing and of course, writing cozy mysteries.
You can connect with Samantha online here:
Facebook
Email
Death Quixote (A Paranormal Cozy Mystery) (Magical Bookshop Mystery Book 4) Page 13
