Mist Murder

by Linnea West

  “Not exactly,” Esmeralda said. “You can still be hurt both by magic and brute force, but the protection spell that the ferns provide should be enough to soften the blows.”

  Maggie opened her mouth to ask what in the world that meant, but Esmeralda put her hand up. It was a gentle way for the older witch to tell the younger witch to just wait.

  “Way back when our witch family formed, we were asked to pick a protection symbol,” Esmeralda said. “Our ancestors picked ferns. They are a beautiful plant, but they are different from other plants. They hide in plain sight. Ferns don’t have seeds or flowers like other plants. They come from spores instead. It makes them just different enough from the other plants to make them stand out.”

  “Kind of like us,” Maggie said, her voice so soft that it was almost a whisper. She had never thought much about ferns before, although now that she was thinking about them, she realized that their house was filled with ferns. Esmeralda loved plants of all sorts, but Maggie was realizing that most of their botanical elements were indeed fern-based.

  “Exactly like us,” Esmeralda said. “We look like the other humans in town, but we aren’t like them. We are different and we are special.”

  Maggie tried to take in all of the information that had been thrown at her in the past fifteen minutes, but it overloading her brain so much that she was afraid that it would fry. Ned, the kindly bookseller may be a poisoning murderer, Linda had been a part of a potion making class that turned into a murderfest, and now she was being compared to a fern, which wouldn’t be so bad except that her mother had been talking about spores and that word made her shiver in disgust.

  She needed to get through the next bit of time so that she could get home and decompress, even though she knew that she would have to spend the next two days still in the fog. Maggie stepped back toward the door and pulled it open, holding it for her mother to pass through first.

  Esmeralda approached her, a mischievous glint in her eye. Instead of passing through the doorway and taking the lead, she grabbed the edge of the door and motioned for Maggie to go first. Maggie started to shake her head no, but her mother gave her a little shove.

  “You’ll need to go first, actually,” Esmeralda said. “You’re going to practice taking the lead in the investigation.”

  Maggie opened her mouth to protest, but the older witch gave her one more small shove and she found herself back in the potion making room. This was starting to become more and more like her nightmare.

  Chapter Five

  Maggie stood just inside the door that her mother had unceremoniously shoved her through. It took a minute to get her bearings, but when she did she realized that she was gaping at everyone like a dumb fish. She snapped her mouth shut and tried to swallow the saliva that was pooling in her mouth before it started dribbling down her chin.

  The entire room was staring at her, all of their eyes drilling holes into her. Maggie’s breathing started to get faster and more shallow before she had to force herself to take deep breaths. She wasn’t sure if passing out would be a better or worse alternative at this point.

  “So, like, did you guys figure anything out in that nasty storeroom or what?”

  Maggie’s eyes snapped to where Mariah was perched on her stool. The banshee’s arms were crossed over her body and her glare probably could have roasted a marshmallow. If Mariah had been annoyed before, she was downright livid now.

  “You’re just mad because you tried to leave and couldn’t,” Abby said. She smirked at Maggie and Esmeralda as she spoke. “She tried to leave out one of those windows and some sort of protection bubble bounced her back into the room. Then she was dumb enough to try it again like maybe she would get different results, but she just ended up flat on her back.”

  Abby burst out in laughter as the other people in the room tittered quietly. Even Esmeralda behind her was laughing a bit. Maggie started to snicker before Mariah’s glare made her blood run ice cold. Mariah and Ann were the only ones not laughing, although Ann looked like she was about to choke on the laughter that she was holding back.

  The room quieted, but everyone was still staring at Maggie. She felt like her feet were nailed to the floor, like maybe she had some sort of spell on her that wouldn’t let her actually move or do anything. That might be preferable because then she wouldn’t feel like such an idiot. Her heart was pounding so loud that she could hear it like a drumbeat in her head. Maggie swallowed down the spit that kept collecting in her mouth. She was so nervous that she kept forgetting to do that.

  “Lead the way to the front of the room,” Esmeralda said, hissing a whisper into her ear.

  Maggie gulped so loudly that she was sure everyone could hear her. She tried her hardest to make her face a mask of pleasant coolness. She didn’t want to look happy, but she also needed to not look absolutely terrified. It must not have been succeeding though, judging by the curious looks on everyone’s faces.

  Slowly, she walked to the front of the room with Esmeralda following close behind. Maggie tried not to make eye contact with anyone, especially not Mariah. It felt awkward as she tried to look around a little without catching anyone’s eye, but she didn’t want to just stare at the front of the room and she also didn’t want to exchange any sort of knowing glance with anyone as she went. What’s a girl to do? Apparently, Maggie’s solution was to overthink the entire situation.

  Once they reached the front of the room, Maggie realized that she didn’t know what to do. Should she say that they had a suspect? Or ask questions of everyone? Ned was perched on his stool like a mountaintop guru, legs crossed underneath him with his big white beard trailing down on top of his lap. He had dragged his stool off to the side like he wasn’t sure where else to go. He had been leading the class after all, so his spot was at the front. But Ned didn’t want to be the center of attention anymore. Maggie tried not to let on that he was their number one suspect. He still didn’t seem like a killer to Maggie even though everything seemed to fit.

  “Are you going to talk at some point or do we have to learn to mind read?”

  Maggie snapped back to attention to see Mariah smirking at her. It was obvious that the beautiful banshee was thoroughly enjoying Maggie’s humiliation. Ann sat next to her, looking halfway amused. Maggie had seen that look enough times to know that poor Ann didn’t really think Mariah was all that funny, but if she looked like she didn’t approve of Mariah’s sense of humor, she would be ripped to shreds by her so-called best friend. Maggie couldn’t help but feel a little bad for the vampire sidekick.

  Suddenly, a small shove from behind made her stumble a step forward. Looking back, Esmeralda gave her a small smile that was meant to be both an apology and a bit of encouragement. Maggie had only been the supposed leader of this investigation for less than five minutes and she was already screwing up. Clearing her throat, she looked around the room once more, scanning quickly for any clue that would tell her what to say.

  “Thank you all for being here today,” Maggie said before realizing how stupid she sounded. While the potion making class was pretty fun, it was a certainty that none of them were thankful to have been present for a death. “I mean, thanks for sticking around after poor Linda passed away.”

  “I am only here because I physically couldn’t leave,” Mariah said.

  Maggie ignored her and tried to charge forward with her speech. The butterflies in her stomach seemed to be flapping double-time. Her heart was pounding triple time and Maggie had to steady her breathing before she passed out from nerves.

  “After conferring with my mother, we have come to the conclusion that Linda was poisoned,” Maggie said. “The presence of the hives on her skin is a pretty good indication that someone put poison in her potion.”

  “Yeah, but who?” asked Nancy. She was still sitting the closest to Linda’s body, although she had dragged her stool as far around the edge of the table as she could. Nancy seemed to want to stay close to her dearly departed frenemy while also not wan
ting to be too close to a dead body.

  Maggie’s mouth suddenly went dry. First, she had been forgetting to swallow her saliva and now it had all disappeared, making her mouth feel like a desert. Perhaps her mother had a spell to help lessen the effects of anxiety although if Esmeralda did have something like that, Maggie assumed she would have already clued Maggie into it.

  As her mind spun in pathetic circles, a thought occurred to her. Sure, Ned was their main suspect, but most of the people in the room were sort of like suspects. What if they were wrong about Ned being the main one? What if some super sneaky suspect was framing him? Maggie frantically looked around for a bottle of water, but the only thing she saw that was drinkable were bottles and bottles of good luck potion and there was no way she was going anywhere near that, even the one she personally made.

  “Are you alright?”

  Esmeralda appeared next to her side, whispering in her ear as she flashed a smile to the rest of the potion making class. She put her hand on Maggie’s shoulder and the small amount of pressure helped ground Maggie just enough to where she could form a few words.

  “I need water,” Maggie croaked out. “And I don’t know what I’m doing at all.”

  Esmeralda waved one hand and a bottle of water appeared. She handed it to Maggie and squeezed her daughter’s shoulder with the other hand.

  “I can help with one of those things,” she said. “But only experience can help with the other. And the only way to get experience is to do this. You’ll be fine. Take a drink of water, take a deep breath, and just ask a few questions.”

  Maggie nodded and took her mother’s advice. Glancing past the front table where Mariah was sitting, most of the other members of the potion making class were looking concerned. That was a much better reaction than judgmental looks. In fact, it was so much better that it even spurred Maggie on a bit.

  “I’m sorry folks, I just had a bit of dry mouth,” Maggie said with a nervous giggle. “Now, I’d like to ask a few questions before we let you fine folks go home for the night. First of all, who touched Linda’s potion?”

  The room suddenly grew deathly quiet and not just because there was an actual dead body there. Only the sound of some fidgeting popped up here and there as everyone nervously shifted around. Now that they were going to start getting down to the nitty-gritty, no one wanted to admit to anything or point the blame toward anyone else. Finally, Ned spoke up from beside her.

  “I’m not going to hide anything because everyone knows anyway,” he said. “I gave her part of my potion that I had started so that she could jump in and not have to start from scratch. But I’ve also drunk some of my potion and I didn’t die.”

  “I never saw him drink any of his potion,” Abby said. Every head in the store swiveled around to look at the girl. Her cheeks flushed pink, though not because she seemed embarrassed. In fact, she seemed to revel a bit from the attention. “I’m not saying that he didn’t, I’m just saying that I didn’t see him do it. Did anyone else?”

  Around the room, everyone appeared to think about it before shaking their heads that no, they also hadn’t seen it. It wasn’t looking good for poor Ned.

  “What about Nancy?” Ned said. He was getting a bit flustered, to the point that he had to uncross his legs before he fell off of the stool. “Nancy helped Linda with her potion also. It wasn’t just me.”

  Nancy gasped, putting a hand to her chest as though she couldn’t believe that she was being accused of something so sordid. She looked like an elderly lady who had been cast as the lead heroine in a pantomime.

  “You can’t possibly be accusing me of anything,” Nancy said. “We have been best friends for decades.”

  “You’ve been frenemies for decades,” Abby pointed out. Maggie was starting to see why Linda hadn’t been entirely fond of the young woman. “Linda told me that you two didn’t speak for an entire year once. So much for being best friends.”

  Nancy’s face turned beet red and Maggie was surprised that smoke didn’t start pouring out of her ears. It was enough of an effect that all of her warts turned red also. She stood up and took a step toward Abby before thinking better of it and grabbing two handfuls of her own gray hair instead. Pulling the hair out toward the side, Nancy screamed with her mouth shut, which was quite the effect. When she let go of her hair, it stood straight out, giving the effect that some sort of bomb had exploded inside of her and blasted the hair away.

  “How dare you!” Nancy yelled, waggling a finger at the girl. “We may fight, but only because we are as close as sisters.”

  She let out a loud sob as she slithered off of her chair and onto the floor. Maggie stayed glued to her spot, not sure what to do, but her mother dashed back to kneel down next to Nancy. Putting her arm around the crone, Esmeralda started whispering, quietly enough that no one could hear. Maggie wasn’t sure what else she was supposed to do. The only question she had asked so far had devolved into this.

  “In case anyone cares, Abby also did not get along with Linda,” Mariah said.

  She turned around to glare at the girl, who narrowed her eyes right back. Unlike Maggie, Abby was not intimidated by the banshee.

  “You’re right, we didn’t get along,” Abby said. She stood up and gestured around. Her answer sounded scripted, almost like she had just been waiting for someone to call her out. “But I didn’t kill her. Working at this stupid store pays my bills. Why would I do anything to the person who runs it?”

  “Maybe because now that she is out of the picture, you’ll be the one to run the store?” Mariah said.

  Abby’s face turned white as she realized what Mariah was saying. Mariah was right, of course, but just the look on Abby’s face made Maggie think that she hadn’t considered that possibility until that very moment.

  “That’s a good point, but Abby never made any part of Linda’s potion,” Maggie pointed out. “She may have hated Linda, but she didn’t have the opportunity to poison her.”

  “Exactly,” Abby said. Her voice was soft and cracked a bit as she spoke. Mariah’s words had shaken her. Maybe the banshee did effect her just like she did Maggie.

  Maggie looked around at everyone. There were plenty of other questions that could be asked, but at this point, Maggie just wanted to wrap everything up. Abby looked like she was about ready to throw up and Esmeralda was still talking softly to Nancy, trying to bring her back around from the dark place she was in. Everyone else looked shell-shocked. Perhaps any more questions could wait until the next day.

  “I’m not sure I have anything else to ask tonight,” Maggie said. “I suppose most of you can leave.”

  “I hope you aren’t letting Ned leave,” Mariah said.

  Everyone turned to look at Mariah. She stood up off of her stool, seeming almost larger than life. It was almost like she was drawing more power from somewhere. Perhaps she was even sucking it out of Maggie’s soul. It seemed likely that the banshee would use some sort of hidden power to vacuum suck out Maggie’s limited supply of confidence.

  “What do you mean?” Ann asked.

  Ned’s face looked horrified. His half-moon glasses had slipped so far down his nose that Maggie was worried they would fall right off the end. She briefly wondered if she should help him out by pushing them back up herself, but that thought was interrupted. Mariah walked slowly to the front of the room until she was standing next to Maggie.

  The air felt electric suddenly. Maggie wasn’t sure what Mariah was planning to do, but she already knew that she didn’t like it.

  Chapter Six

  At first, Mariah stood next to Maggie. The banshee was a few inches taller than Maggie, but it felt like much more. Maggie’s confidence level made her feel small already, so adding her tall-as-a-model enemy to the mix did nothing to help.

  Mariah stood with her hands on her waist, one hip jutted out confidently. Her long dark hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall. She glanced at Maggie, one eyebrow cocked up. Maggie could tell that she was trying to s
ize her up and see if Maggie would tell her off.

  Maggie’s eyes darted to where her mother was still sitting on the floor with Nancy. Esmeralda looked calm, although that was normal. Maggie wasn’t sure her mother ever got very rattled. The death problem that was flaring up recently was the closest Esmeralda came to being outwardly anxious about anything.

  For now, the older witch was still half cradling Nancy on the floor. She was staring directly at Maggie as though she was trying to send her a message. Last month, Maggie had asked if Esmeralda could read minds, but her mother had said that wasn’t something they were able to do. It would sure come in handy right about now when Esmeralda was obviously trying to send her some sort of subliminal message.

  But it was too late. As Maggie stood squinting at her mother, Mariah cleared her throat.

  “Ahem, now it is my turn to have my say,” she said. “I’m sure that we all know who did it and why. We all heard that argument that Linda and Ned were having before class started. Ned was super upset and obviously he was the one who poisoned her. He is the one who knows how to make potions. He was the one who was mad at her. And I don’t think it is right that we are all stuck here while this bozo tries to lead an investigation.”

  Maggie’s stomach churned as Mariah hitched a thumb in her direction, indicating that she was the bozo. So much for gaining some confidence and honing her skills as a lead investigator. Her eyes darted around the room as she tried to figure out what to do before Maggie realized that she probably looked like even more of a bozo by doing that.

  “We are putting it to a vote,” Mariah said. “All in favor of the witches taking Ned into custody and letting the rest of us go home, raise your hand.”

  Mariah thrust her hand in the air, followed quickly by Ann. Abby grudgingly put her hand up, not because she didn’t want to go home but because she obviously didn’t like that Mariah had taken charge and come up with the idea. Even Nancy eventually put her hand up in the air. Only Maggie, Esmeralda, and Ned didn’t raise their hands. They were outvoted, but Maggie wasn’t even sure this was supposed to be a democracy.