by Linnea West
“Ah yes, I’d sort of forgotten about that,” Ned said. “That was a totally unrelated matter. Linda had sold me a shoddily made cauldron and refused to refund my money when the handle broke. I put that conversation aside and moved on to teaching this class.”
“And have you tried your potion yet?” Esmeralda asked.
“Of course not,” Ned said. “I don’t want to waste my luck here.”
Esmeralda nodded and stared at him for a moment longer than was normal. Maggie couldn’t quite tell what her mother was thinking about, but she wished she knew. Turning toward the next table, Esmeralda pointed at Mariah and Ann.
“Did either of you do anything with Linda today?”
“No ma’am,” Ann said. “In fact, Mariah didn’t even say hi to her when we came into the store tonight.”
Mariah glared at Ann like she was about to throw a punch. Ann cowered on her stool, leaning so far to one side that she almost fell off of. Apparently Mariah didn’t mind being rude as long as no one called her out on it.
“Nancy? What about you?” Esmeralda asked.
Nancy’s beady little eyes were dripping tears. She was still sobbing, although she had managed to climb on top of her stool where she currently sat staring at Linda’s body and nervously picking at a large wart on her cheek. After she took a moment to compose herself, Nancy spoke.
“First of all, I’d just like to say that I’m not sure why you are questioning us,” Nancy said. She crossed one leg over the other as she waggled her finger in the air. “Linda had a bum ticker and we’ll probably never know why it chose tonight to bite the dust.”
Taking a tissue out of her pocket, she blew her nose with a loud honk. Somehow, tiny Nancy made the loudest, phlegmiest nose blow that Maggie had ever heard. It was so disgusting that Maggie almost forgot what they were doing. Her thoughts started to wander away from the matter at hand. She was too preoccupied with wondering how she sounded when she blew her nose in public. Had she ever made a noise as gross as that? Would anyone tell her if she sounded that gross? Her mother’s voice pulled her back into the present.
“Is that so?” Esmeralda said. She tapped her chin with her pointer finger before she spoke again. “What a nasty time for her heart to go. Perhaps her potion was a bad luck potion.”
“Now wait a minute,” Ned said, stepping forward.
His face was growing red underneath his long, white beard. He started to stammer out what sounded like it would turn into a long-winded defense of his good luck potion, but Esmeralda put one hand up in the air.
“I’m sure it had nothing to do with your recipe or teaching ability,” Esmeralda said.
Ned nodded once, hard enough that his pointy wizard hat slid down to bump into his half-moon glasses. He pushed it back up onto his head and walked around the front table, plopping back down on top of his stool.
“Now what about you, Abby?” Esmeralda asked. “I sensed a little tension between you and Linda earlier.”
“Who didn’t have tension with Linda,” Abby scoffed. “That’s the real question. She was a hard woman to get along with. Ask Nancy. They were best friends and they squabbled every week.”
“That’s true, but I resent your remark,” Nancy said. She stuck her nose up into the air as though her relationship with the deceased was no one’s business but her own, even though Linda was still lying dead as a doornail on the floor next to her.
“I asked about your relationship with Linda,” Esmeralda pointed out.
“Sure, we didn’t exactly get along,” Abby said. She seemed nervous, talking a little faster than she usually did. “We weren’t even work friends. We could have been, but she wouldn’t listen to my ideas. It was getting ridiculous. I said months ago we should have held classes like this, but instead she insisted that she knew best. She was driving the business into the ground and Lou Brank was about to show up and shut us down.”
“So you had to shut her down first,” Nancy said, standing up off of her stool with a gasp as though she had solved a puzzle that didn’t need to be solved. She stuck her wrinkled pointer finger toward Abby, who bared her fangs and hissed at the old crone.
“You said yourself that the old bag had heart problems,” Abby said.
Esmeralda floated forward and stood between the two women. She took a deep breath, spurring everyone in the room to take a deep breath with her. Everyone but Mariah, who stared off into the distance and pouted.
“I’m just trying to get everyone’s story straight,” Esmeralda said. “When we call the police to come, we want to make sure we can tell them the story clearly and concisely. I don’t know about all of you, but I’d like to get home before it’s too late. The simpler we can make things for them, the better.”
Everyone nodded in agreement. Grimwood Valley had two police officers and they were horrendous at their job. Not only could they not perform simple tasks, but they also didn’t realize just how totally off base they actually were so if people weren’t careful, a police investigation over a simple crime could stretch into a month-long event.
Esmeralda slowly turned and looked each person in the eye as she went. Maggie’s stomach churned like she was about to throw up. She had actually been having a little bit of fun before this had happened. How come the one time she allowed herself to actually let go of her anxiety, the dying problem had to show up? As her mother’s gaze landed on her, Maggie saw them flick toward Linda’s body. Sliding off of her stool, Maggie walked over to kneel down next to Linda’s body.
She had the uncomfortable feeling that her mother was trying to thrust her into a leadership position. A lump appeared in her throat, feeling like it was wedged hard in there. It was bad enough that Maggie’s anxiety stopped her from doing normal things in the normal world, but then she had fallen into this paranormal fog world, found out that she was a witch, and been told she had to step things up and basically take charge of the entire town for a few days each month. It made her skin crawl and for a moment, Maggie’s eyes bugged out and she had to force them to focus again which was a real treat considering the only thing they could really focus on was the dead body of an old hag.
Maggie glanced up at her mother. Esmeralda shot her a small smile that Maggie could tell was a bit forced. She wanted Maggie to notice something and she wanted her to do it now. Shutting her eyes for just a moment, Maggie took a deep breath. She needed to stop worrying and push past the fear.
When she opened her eyes, the problem that Esmeralda wanted her to see was glaringly obvious. In fact, it was so obvious that Maggie wondered how she hadn’t seen it when she first walked over. But by the rate it was multiplying, perhaps there had only been a few just a minute ago.
Maggie stood up and cleared her throat. Everyone’s attention shifted to her. Maggie made the mistake of glancing toward Mariah, who was openly sneering at her. It was just like trying to give a report in high school. Maggie tried to make her voice as steady as possible when she spoke.
“Linda is covered in purple bumps,” she said.
Immediately, the crowd started to yell and shriek. Mariah did most of the shrieking as she jumped up on top of her chair, trying to get away from the purple bumps.
“I think what Maggie is getting at is that it was not Linda’s heart that caused her death,” Esmeralda said. “It’s quite obvious that she was poisoned.”
Chapter Four
As Esmeralda’s words sank in, the room grew eerily quiet. Nancy was in such shock that instead of sitting on her stool, she completely missed and ended up sitting down hard on the floor. Abby popped a piece of gum in her mouth and started loudly chewing on it. Ned had opened up his book of potions and seemed to be doing a close study of the good luck potion page as though perhaps he could discover the misstep. Mariah was crouched on the top of her stool, swaying back and forth. It was all Maggie could do to not pull up some of her magical power to send the banshee toppling to the floor.
“We will eventually call the police but for now, I need to
speak with my daughter,” Esmeralda said. “In a moment, we will come back and if anyone thinks of anything, please let us know at that time.”
She was putting on her all-important witch investigator voice which made Maggie feel even more tense about the situation. Of course, she figured that they would be doing an investigation, but until that very minute, Maggie had felt very removed from the situation. Now, she was being dragged to the backroom by her mother to discuss Linda’s death.
Once the door was shut behind them, Maggie couldn’t help but breathe out a deep sigh and sink down to the floor. This was only her second month on the job and she already hated being the witch link between the two worlds of Grimwood Valley. She was trying very hard to not think about how she would have to do it for the rest of her life.
She looked around the room. It was a typical storage room, except instead of cardboard boxes, they were surrounded by stacks and stacks of cauldrons. Most of them were old or rusty, but a few seemed to be okay. Maggie wondered if Ned had been sold one of these ones by mistake.
“Did you notice it?” Esmeralda asked. Her hazel eyes were glinting, even in the dim light of the storage room.
“Of course I did,” Maggie said as she wrung her hands. “I announced to everyone about the bumps.”
Esmeralda’s shoulders slumped just enough to tell Maggie that not only was that the wrong answer, but that she had really been hoping that her daughter would have noticed whatever it was that Maggie missed.
“And I’m glad you got the opportunity to tell everyone about a very important part of this case, but it was not what I was referring to,” Esmeralda said, putting her hand on Maggie’s shoulder to comfort her. “I meant her life glow. You told me you were starting to see them. Could you see Linda’s?”
Esmeralda had a magical ability to see how much life a person had left inside of them. She called it a life glow because it was like each person had a halo of light around them. The stronger it glowed, the longer they had to live. But the death problem was causing people with strong life glows to die mysteriously. That was why it was such a problem.
Maggie could feel her cheeks start to burn. Her ability to see the life glow was just starting, so it kind of stuttered. Sometimes she could see it and sometimes she couldn’t, but it didn’t occur to her to keep tabs on it. As with the rest of her magical powers, she mostly tried to ignore it until she couldn’t anymore.
“It’s alright if you didn’t take notice,” Esmeralda said. Her voice was soothing and calm. It was trying to pull Maggie back before she jumped off the edge into the well of anxiety that lived inside of her, probably right next to the well of magical ability.
“Well I saw that her life glow was strong when we first came in,” Maggie said. “It looked really odd because she is, I mean was, a hag during the fog. But I sort of didn’t think about it until you said that just now.”
It took all of Maggie’s self-control not to slap herself upside the head. She couldn’t believe that she had missed something so obvious. It was even something that would be helpful in the case. She stared at the floor, trying to push back the tears that were threatening to form. Suddenly, her mother snapped her fingers so loudly that Maggie jumped.
“Snap out of it,” Esmeralda said. “We don’t have time for self-pity. Everyone makes mistakes, especially when they are first learning. This is only your second fog. Of course you don’t have everything down pat right now. But the important thing is that judging by her previously strong life glow, we can add Linda’s death to the death problem.”
As she spoke, Esmeralda rubbed Maggie’s arm, the same way she always had when Maggie was upset as a child. It was comforting, even if Maggie did feel a little silly for needing her mommy to help her feel better. She tried not to let her mind wander over to the other worry in her mind, which was that she was way too old to be unemployed and living with her mother. Before she had found out she was a witch last month, that had been the top worry in her mind. Now there were many more things that overshadowed that. A thought suddenly crossed her mind.
“Hey wait, if we are both shut back here, won’t everyone just leave?” Maggie asked, thinking back to Mariah’s previous attempt to charge out the front door.
“They might try, but I put Ned in charge of keeping everyone here,” Esmeralda said with a laugh. “Plus I put that enchantment on the place so no one can actually leave until we lift it. Even Dan the Ogre couldn’t remove those wooden boards. And even if they could, I cast another spell around everything.”
Maggie laughed. In her mind, she imagined Mariah trying to leave, but being bounced back into the store by a great, big, invisible bubble that surrounded the place. The thought of the snooty banshee being thrown back onto her bottom cheered her right up.
“But we need to get down to business,” Esmeralda said. She pulled her hand away from Maggie’s arm, signaling that they were now partners in solving crime. “What are the facts of the case?”
“Linda was obviously poisoned tonight during the potion making class,” Maggie said.
“Yes, now who could have done it?” Esmeralda asked.
The older witch started pacing, her walking stick thumping a steady rhythm on the concrete floor as she went back and forth between the stacks of old cauldrons. She knew the answer to her own question, so obviously Esmeralda was trying to test Maggie.
Maggie bit her lip as she thought about everyone in the class. Right away she knew that she could rule out Mariah and Ann because they had no motive or opportunity. It was a bit of a relief that she wouldn't have to interrogate Mariah. Then her mind flashed back to when they had first entered the store that evening.
“Ned!” Maggie said. “He and Linda were having an argument when we first came in and he was so mad that he didn’t want to teach any more classes. If they really were planning on making money off of these series of classes, Ned leaving would really pull the plug on that plan.”
Esmeralda stopped and leaned on her cane, a smile slowly spreading across her face. Maggie never liked it when she did that because it meant that she was formulating a plan and usually that meant Maggie wouldn’t like whatever the plan was. Esmeralda had a way of forcing Maggie outside of her comfort zone in the nicest ways possible.
“Precisely what I was thinking,” she said. “Although, there is one more reason I thought of Ned as the first suspect.”
Maggie felt like there was something there, but she just couldn’t put her finger on it. She stared at the floor, willing it to come to her, but nothing bubbled to the surface.
“He started Linda’s potion for her,” Esmeralda said.
“You’re right!” Maggie said. “He gave her some of his potion and then he didn’t drink his. Maybe because he knew that there was poison in it. I can’t believe that I didn’t think of that.”
“I think we need to focus on Ned,” Esmeralda said.
“Do you really think Ned would poison someone?” Maggie asked.
Ned was normally a calm, patient man both in the normal world and during the paranormal fog. He was a lifelong bachelor who ran a bookstore, for goodness sake. The thought of him poisoning someone for selling him a defective cauldron seemed unthinkable.
“I know that it seems totally out of his character, but think of last month,” Esmeralda said. “The death problem doesn’t occur because some shady serial killer decides to off another victim. It seems to follow anger and zero in on someone, no matter how the killer’s temperament might normally be.”
Maggie took a deep breath. She hated this. She hated solving murders, even though this was technically only the second murder she had ever had to solve. No matter how many she would go on to solve, Maggie was sure she would always hate it.
“At least we pretty much know who did it then,” Maggie said. “Let’s wrap this up and go home. This night has already been pushing my limits.”
Esmeralda nodded at her and Maggie started to move back toward the door to the shop. She normally didn’t like to
enter places first, but she needed to get home soon. Maggie felt like her insides were vibrating too fast, like everything in her stomach was being shaken up by her anxiety and if she wasn’t careful, it would make it’s exit out of her mouth soon. Maggie didn’t like being around people in public and the only thing that she could think of that would make it worse would be vomiting in front of everyone, especially Mariah. She grabbed the door handle, but before she could open the door, her mother called out to her.
“Wait,” Esmeralda said, her voice more strained than Maggie was used to hearing it. “Do you have your fern earrings on tonight?”
Maggie brushed her hair aside to showcase the fern shaped earring that her mother had presented her for her birthday last month. She could feel them lightly tapping against her neck as she wiggled her head back and forth to showcase them.
“Oh thank goodness,” Esmeralda said, breathing out a loud exhale. “I had forgotten to remind you to put them on before we left the house tonight and now that this has happened, I needed to make sure that you were safe.”
With her hand on the door, Maggie stopped and stared at her mother. Esmeralda kept alluding to the fact that something about these earrings was meant to protect her, but so far, she had not gone any further in her explanation. Noticing Maggie’s confused expression, Esmeralda leaned on her walking stick and stared at her for a moment before explaining herself.
“We are the Ferndale witches for a reason,” Esmeralda said. “Ferns are our power symbol. As long as we are wearing or in possession of something with our power symbol, it helps create a barrier to keep us safe.”
“Wait, are you saying that as long as I wear these earrings, nothing bad can happen to me?” Maggie asked. She highly doubted that extended to things like puking in public and it obviously didn’t do anything to stop mean girls from picking on her. Hopefully personal, bodily safety would be enough.
