by Linnea West
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Ned said. “None of these ingredients can be used to murder someone. They are all harmless, even when mixed together.”
Maggie could feel that her mother was about to explode. Esmeralda was typically cool under pressure, but Ned knew just how to unwittingly push all of her buttons. She knew she had to jump in before things escalated even further.
“Then what would have killed Linda?” Maggie asked. “Are you saying that the potion wasn’t poisoned?”
Ned stroked his long beard a few times. He took off his pointy hat and scratched his head. The whole time, he looked like he was thoughtfully considering what Maggie had asked. Esmeralda grumbled quietly next to her and this time it was Maggie’s turn to shoot her a look.
“Wait a minute,” Maggie said. She had an idea that she hoped would give them a little more information. “Mom, do you have some of the potion from before we dissected it? Maybe Ned could take a look at it?”
Esmeralda’s eyes lit up as she reached into her shawl and produced a plastic baggie with a few drops of the potion in one of the corners. Handing it to Ned, he held the bag up to the light and looked at the liquid.
“Interesting,” he said. “There seems to be something in this potion that somehow didn’t transfer into the potion as a whole. I can see a very small swirl of a lavender color, but nothing in these jars would produce that.”
“What does that mean?” Maggie asked.
“I’m not exactly sure,” Ned said. “But that right there would be your poison.”
Chapter Fourteen
Back at the Cauldron Shop, Maggie and Esmeralda were scouring the surface of the table where they had dissected the potion. Their first thought had been that perhaps they really had made a mistake. Maybe, just maybe, there had been a small amount of something that they had missed. They looked over every inch of the table in case they missed a few drops, but the table was clear. Even after crawling around on the floor for a while, Maggie didn’t find anything that had been missed.
Esmeralda conjured up two armchairs. After spending so much time perched on that uncomfortable wooden stool at Ned’s store, the last thing the witches wanted was to sit on another hard wooden stool. The dark purple velvet armchairs that Esmeralda conjured into being were plush and inviting. Maggie sank down into hers, wanting nothing more than to take a nap which she knew she wouldn’t ever get to have.
“Now we have a mystery on our hands,” Esmeralda said. “I don’t like it one bit. Something is going on that is so fishy to me. Obviously this is part of the death problem here in Grimwood Valley.”
“So the potion itself has poison in it but when we take it apart, the poison disappears,” Maggie said. She was trying to talk everything out not because it helped solve anything, but just to make sure that she understood. Magic was still so foreign to her and she was never quite sure what to believe or not believe. “How does that work? Can magic do that?”
Esmeralda shifted in her chair. She propped her elbow on the arm of the chair and rested her chin in it, settling herself into the stereotypical thinking pose. With one point of her finger, a teapot and two teacups appeared on a little table in front of them. Esmeralda reached forward and poured them each a cup of tea before answering Maggie.
“It could do that, at least it is possible,” Esmeralda said. “But the troubling thing is that the only two in town who should be capable of doing that are you and I. And I don’t think I’m jumping to conclusions to rule the two of us out as suspects.”
“I agree that we aren’t suspects, although I don’t agree that I am capable of doing that sort of magic,” Maggie said.
She picked up her teacup and blew on the surface of her tea, trying to cool it down so that she wouldn’t burn her mouth. Her mother looked at her over the edge of her own teacup.
“You know, at some point you will have to realize the extent of your powers,” Esmeralda said. “You are a very powerful witch and I am pretty sure that the only thing holding you back is you.”
Maggie opened her mouth to argue but stopped short when the door to the Cauldron Shop opened. Turning to see who was coming in, Maggie felt like she’d had a bucket of cold water thrown on her. Mariah walked in from the fog and immediately scowled at the witches in their armchairs.
“What are you two doing here?” Mariah asked. “My father owns this place and he won’t be happy to know that the two of you were trespassing.”
“We aren’t trespassing when this is a crime scene and we are investigating,” Esmeralda said.
“I didn’t know that investigating required a pot of tea,” Mariah sneered.
She put one hand on her jutted out hip, tossing her long dark hair over one shoulder. Mariah always seemed like she was posing for some sort of photoshoot or acting toward an unseen camera. Maggie wondered what life would be like to always think people were there just to see you. In Maggie’s world, people were there just to judge her and laugh at her. Or at least, that is what it always felt like.
“If you’d like a cup of tea, I can certainly make you one,” Esmeralda said, unshaken by Mariah’s presence.
With one point of her finger, a third armchair and teacup appeared. Esmeralda filled the cup with steaming tea and then gestured toward the chair. Mariah stared for a moment before slowly walking over and sitting down. She narrowed her eyes at them, scrutinizing them the whole time.
Maggie could feel her wooden fern earrings brushing her neck as she moved. Her mother had told her that they would help keep her safe. She wasn’t sure how they would help in this sort of situation, but she tried to focus on drawing any power out of them that she could. It didn’t seem to work, but Maggie decided to pretend that it had.
A few minutes passed by as Mariah and Esmeralda casually sipped on their tea while Maggie over-analyzed the situation and pretended to be drinking her tea as well. A million thoughts were running through her head and she couldn’t slow them down enough to figure out what she should do. She couldn’t tell if her mother was trying to make her take over again or if Esmeralda thought everyone just needed time to decompress. So Maggie sat in silence, holding her hot mug of tea and trying to shove down her heart as it seemed to beat rapidly in her throat.
“So Mariah, what brings you to the Cauldron Shop today?” Esmeralda finally asked.
“I don’t need to have a reason to be here,” Mariah said with a sneer. “I own this place.”
“Your father owns this place, dear,” Esmeralda said.
Somehow Esmeralda managed to say that without sounding totally mean. Maggie wasn’t sure if it was because Esmeralda was starting to trend toward the senior citizen part of life, but Mariah let that comment totally slide when Maggie knew for a fact she would have metaphorically ripped Maggie’s throat out for saying the exact same thing.
“Well, either way, I can come here whenever I want,” Mariah said. “I was actually coming to see if Ned had left a spellbook here, by chance. He’s real stingy with letting me use them and I figured that in all of the hubbub, maybe he had left one here that I could borrow for a little while before I gave it back to him.”
“You were going to steal a potential piece of evidence from a crime scene,” Maggie said.
Mariah’s head snapped her way as flames threatened to shoot out of her eyes. She set her teacup down on the table with a sharp clink before she pointed at Maggie.
“Aren’t we just an upstanding goody two-shoes?” Mariah said, mocking Maggie. “Well, we can’t all have magic that lets us do whatever we want and gives us a high position on the social ladder of Grimwood Valley even though we haven’t earned it. It must be nice to be born into a family like this. You get that cushy job where you work three days a month and you get to learn magic along with it. We can’t all have that. Some of us worked to get where we are and some of us have to try our hardest to learn magic.”
Esmeralda set her teacup down firmly, but somehow also silently. She folded her hands in her lap and stared at
the banshee, her hazel eyes intense. Maggie kept trying to swallow the lump in her throat, but it was not going down. In fact, it somehow felt like it was getting bigger. The bigger it seemed, the harder it was to swallow and the more panicked Maggie started to feel.
“Life must be very hard for you, Mariah, being stuck as you are,” Esmeralda said. “You are sort of stuck in place here in Grimwood Valley. You are stuck at the top of the social ladder because you were also born there, not because you earned it. You are also stuck in your father’s shadow. It must be hard knowing that you will probably never be as successful as he is. Sure, he will hand you everything that he can once he is done with it, but that isn’t real success.”
Mariah’s eyes grew wide and for once, Maggie thought that she actually looked a little bit embarrassed. Maggie didn’t want to cheer on anyone for being humiliated because she knew how terrible that felt. But this was the first time that Mariah seemed to be showing that she had feelings and maybe even a little self-awareness. Strangely, Maggie felt just a touch calmer knowing that.
“No, to have real success, you would have to leave Grimwood Valley,” Esmeralda said. “The problem with that is that if you left, you would have to start all over at the bottom and actually do the work. And you might work your tail off and fail. Staying here in Grimwood Valley is much more comfortable. You can pretend to work as hard as you want with that little shop of yours and you also know that you’ll never actually fail. Your father will always be there to prop you up. How comforting that must be.”
Maggie felt like she was frozen in time. Esmeralda’s words had landed exactly like she had meant them to. They were like a knife thrown through the air, stuck in the wall right next to Mariah. It was close enough to throw her off balance without actually hurting her. It had shifted the entire feeling of the room.
Esmeralda poured herself more tea and offered it to both of the girls. Maggie gave a slight nod and Esmeralda filled her cup also, throwing a wink her way. Not knowing what else to do, Maggie picked up her teacup and drank some more tea, realizing too late that it was too hot. Her poor burned mouth and throat would not be happy with her tomorrow. For now, she could hardly feel anything as she waited for Mariah to respond.
Mariah sat frozen in her chair, blinking every once in a while to let them know that she was still conscious. Finally, she stood up and picked up the purse that she had dropped onto the floor next to her. Slinging it over her shoulder, she glanced at Maggie.
“You’re nothing like your mother, you know,” Mariah said. “If you were, I might respect you a little more.”
She turned quickly to look at Esmeralda, pointing one long, bony finger toward the witch. Her fingernails were long and pointy. They were painted red and Maggie had a feeling that it was not a mistake that the banshee’s nails looked like they were covered in blood.
“Esmeralda, I’ve always respected you,” Mariah said. “I know you and my father don’t get along, but you are powerful in a way that he will never be. It’s just a shame that you didn’t get someone worthy to pass the family legacy on to.”
Starting toward the door, Mariah seemed to have gotten her pride back. Maggie took another absentminded sip of her tea before realizing it was still too hot. She spit it quietly back into her cup, thankful that Mariah had her back turned toward her.
Shoving the heavy wooden door open, Mariah stepped outside before turning back to face the witches. Her eyes seemed to twinkle, but not in the magical way that Esmeralda’s sometimes sparkled. They twinkled with something evil, something ominous. It sent a chill down Maggie’s spine.
“You’ll never solve this murder,” Mariah said.
Stepping out into the fog, the statuesque brunette disappeared as she sauntered away. Maggie wanted to dismiss Mariah’s parting words, but something about them seemed to have a hint of truth to it. Did Mariah know something about this case that Esmeralda and Maggie didn’t?
Chapter Fifteen
Before Maggie could ask her mother about their encounter with Mariah, the door opened again. Maggie’s first thought was that Mariah was back to give them another verbal lashing, but Abby stepped in the door instead. Her black-rimmed eyes looked up at the witches in surprise as she slipped out of her long black cloak.
“Oh, I didn’t expect anyone else to be here,” she said. “I figured the shop would be an absolute wreck, so I came in to clean it up.”
“Why don’t you join us for tea?” Esmeralda suggested. She gestured toward the chair that Mariah had vacated.
Abby walked to the chair with no hesitation or question as to why there was an empty chair waiting for her, plopping down onto the springy seat and reaching to pour herself a cup of tea. The girl was dressed all in black, from her black t-shirt and sweatshirt combination that blended together to her black pants. She even wore black boots and a floppy black hat on her head, pulled down low so that it hit her eyebrows. The pastel floral teacup seemed to clash with her but Abby drank out of it comfortably, almost like she was invited to tea parties every day.
“Did you really want to give up your day off to clean up the store?” Esmeralda asked. “It seems like after what happened last night, you might want some time to recover from the shock of it all.”
“It was for sure a shock,” Abby said. “But I sort of figured that if I was able to come in and clean up the shop a little, including getting rid of some of the excess stock that we’ve never been able to sell, that maybe Lou would see that he really should leave the store in my hands.”
“Do you think Lou would really find someone else even though you already work here?” Esmeralda asked.
Abby sighed and used her free hand to twist a lock of hair around her finger. She bit her lip as she seemed to consider how to answer. It made the youthful vampire look even younger than usual.
“Lou thinks I’m just a kid,” Abby finally said. “He doesn’t seem to think that I’d be able to run the shop on my own. In fact, he told me once that he would’ve fired Linda a long time ago if I were older and more capable. I tried to remind him that I’m already an adult, but he didn’t seem to listen to me. Of course, Linda had overheard our conversation and she was not pleased with me.”
“What did she do about it?” Maggie asked before she could stop herself.
Abby sighed and looked around to make sure that they were the only people in the shop. When all she saw were stacks of cauldrons, Abby set her teacup down and leaned forward conspiratorially.
“She couldn’t really do anything about it besides complain and try to make my life miserable,” Abby said. “See, Lou is the one who actually does all of the hiring and firing. Linda was my boss and she ran the store, but she couldn’t do anything about me. Lou kept total control around all business decisions. Linda did what she could to try and make me quit, but as determined as she was, I was twice as determined to stick around and take over from her. I knew the old hag would be gone at some point, although I didn’t think that would be the way she would go.”
Maggie sat back and crossed her legs. Abby might look about as friendly as a bear woken up unexpectedly in the middle of hibernation, but she was actually very friendly. In fact, she was much friendlier than Mariah. Maggie felt like she could breathe now and she sat back to mull over what Abby had said.
“That must have been awful for you,” Esmeralda said. “How dreadful to find a place you enjoy working but have to spend it with someone who didn’t like you.”
“She didn’t just dislike me,” Abby said. “She downright hated me and she did all she could to let me know.”
Maggie followed her mother’s lead and took another sip of her tea. It was finally starting to cool down to a drinkable temperature. Abby didn’t seem put out about being asked to talk about Linda. She seemed willing to talk about their contentious relationship, which surprised Maggie just a bit.
“It must have been hard,” Esmeralda said. “I’m sure you didn’t like her either. It is hard to like someone who doesn’t like you.�
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“Of course I didn’t like her,” Abby said. “If it were up to her, I wouldn’t have a job. I won’t say I hated her, but I certainly didn’t go out of my way to be nice to her. I did what I had to do to keep my job. I figured if I kept my head down and worked for a few years, I’d get to manage this store myself.”
Maggie was surprised to feel a little bit of jealousy inside of herself directed toward Abby. Anxiety had kept Maggie from doing a lot of things in her life. Sure, she had managed a job for a little while, but the stress of it had driven her right back home to her mother. Here was Abby, a young woman who had a plan for her life. Maggie wished she had the same.
A few thoughts bubbled to the surface of Maggie’s mind that she tried to quickly suppress. Mariah had sort of been right about being born into her position in life. But whereas Mariah had been born directly into money, it had taken Maggie thirty years to have her position revealed to her.
And it didn’t feel neat and tidy like she could stop worrying because her future was all laid out for her. If anything, finding out about being a witch and the job she would have to take over from her mother had added more stress and anxiety to her life. Not to mention the fact that Maggie had no female descendant to hand the job over to and her biological clock was ticking loudly for that one reason only.
She was a witch who felt incompetent with her skills, had little job experience, and lived with her mother because she didn’t have a significant other. And now the fate of Grimwood Valley was being left in her incapable hands. The weight of it made Maggie want to sink right down into the floor.
The door to the shop flew open once more, making Maggie jump as she ripped herself out of her personal pity party. This time, Jill walked in the door. In the normal world, her blonde hair would be bundled up on top of her head in a messy bun that tipped precariously back and forth as she moved, but in the paranormal world, Jill looked a little different. The pretty little blonde turned into a werewolf each full moon.
